Hermione Granger, who had been sent out to replenish the household tissues, skipped through the front door, casually put the two long packs on the floor, and kicked off two shoes, leaving one on its side and the other tipped backward. "Mum, guess who I met on the way home?" she said happily.
Seeing the dirt fall out of the shoes onto the carpet, Mrs. Granger immediately frowned. She pointed at the two unfortunate shoes with an insistent look. "...Hermione?"
"Oh, all right-my dear mother, do you know something?" Hermione sighed, turned around, and put her shoes neatly on the shoe rack, then set the tissues on the cabinet. Only then did she turn back and pout. "You may be beautiful and understanding most of the time, but sometimes you really are a spoilsport-"
"Thank you for the compliment, my darling. Mummies are very good at spoiling their daughters' fun." Smiling, Mrs. Granger patted the sofa, beckoning her daughter over to sit down. "But Mummy hasn't forgotten what her daughter said, either. Let me guess: you met Professor Brian on your way home, didn't you?"
"Wow!" Hermione blinked, climbed onto the sofa, and sat cross-legged. The puzzled look on her flushed little face rather resembled the otter on her beige long-sleeved top. "How did you guess straightaway?"
"Because of the hat on your head. However you look at it, that isn't a style you'd find in an ordinary hat shop. No factory manager would be silly enough to accept such a complicated order."
Mrs. Granger reached out and tried squeezing the lifelike Romanian Longhorn dragon hat on Hermione's head a few times-mainly its two curling golden horns.
The dragon hat's protruding snout suddenly extended, like a toy crocodile mouth whose pulley mechanism had been triggered by pressing a tooth, and