She pursed her lips. "You could actually have asked me about all this directly."
"Without witnessing it firsthand, all I record is empty words. That goes against the original purpose of my travelogue." Edward coughed. "Ahem. All right, Miss Larson, if there's nothing else, I'll be going."
He was just about to turn away when Emily suddenly caught his sleeve. Her words were earnest, her eyes pleading as she bit her lip. "Professor, can you... can you really not help me?"
Edward paused, then thought for a moment before saying, "If you run into specific problems while studying, you can come to me anytime. I'll do my best to help."
She fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled again. "Then could you lend me the textbooks or notebooks you used when you were studying Transfiguration?"
"Well... I really don't have any."
The core of Transfiguration was belief and emotion-at least, that had been the key to Edward mastering it. But what notes could there be on something like that?
"All right. Thank you, Professor."
She bowed, then turned and left.
"Haha!"
Just then, two people squeezed in on either side of Edward. It was the Weasley brothers.
"We saw that, you know. Getting all touchy-feely with a girl from Durmstrang."
"How could you do that to Audrey?"
Edward pulled free of them. "She came to ask me questions as a student. Wouldn't it have been rude to ignore her?"
"A scumbag's excuse!"
"A Sea King's lie!"
"All right, what do you two want?"
They each pulled out a handful of Galleons and handed them over. "Paying you back."
Edward paused, only then remembering what had happened at the Sleight of Hand Shop in Hogsmeade last Saturday. He accepted the money without ceremony and asked, "Where did you two get