Chapter 46

Seeing John appear suddenly, both sides were stunned.

Seeing them silent, John tilted his head in confusion.

"John! You're okay!"

Titus was the first to react, trotting to John's side and looking him up and down.

The others also reacted and gathered around.

"Should I have something wrong with me?"

John asked back strangely.

On the other side, Malfoy saw John appear and curled his lips in boredom.

Unable to continue messing with Ryan and the others, he felt it was pointless and left.

Seeing John appear, no one bothered with them anymore.

It was the first time John had been cared for by so many people, and he felt a bit embarrassed for a moment.

Soon, John also learned from them what had happened.

It turned out that because he had broken into the secret passage, they couldn't find him and had been worried for a long time.

"So John, where exactly did you go?"

"I just followed Big Orange to the Black Lake, and then I just went for a walk over there."

John didn't directly mention the secret passage, but just made up an excuse.

After all, that would be his secret base in the future.

He could just tell Ryan and the others separately later; hmm... he could bring Neville Senior along too.

The others could forget it.

Although he was very grateful that Harry and Ron had also come to look for him, they weren't familiar at all, and they might not get along.

Hermione, as a girl, could also be forgotten; what do girls know about secret bases? That's the romance of us boys.

Hearing John's explanation, the group was speechless.

Clearly, they also guessed they had been played by Malfoy.

But that didn't mean they had wronged Malfoy; this time John was lucky not to run into Malfoy, but next time it would be hard to say.

But it was good that he was okay.

Harry also took this opportunity to formally get to know John.

Of course, Ron did too, but Ron's up-and-down scanning gaze made John feel a bit uncomfortable.

"What! You went into the secret passage behind the Beating Willow?"

Titus shouted in surprise.

"Idiot, keep your voice down!"

John quickly slapped Titus on the back of the head.

Titus immediately covered his mouth and looked around nervously; fortunately, there was no one else nearby.

After parting ways with Hermione and the others, John pulled Titus and the others aside and shared the news about the Beating Willow secret passage with them.

Listening to John's account, their eyes lit up, and they couldn't wait to go see it immediately, but they were stopped by John.

"That secret passage is long as hell. If we want to go over, we have to prepare and bring more stuff."

"And we have to be careful not to be discovered; from now on, that place will be our secret base."

John quickly told them about the layout of the wooden house at the end of the secret passage.

Hearing that there was a small wooden house there with sealed doors and windows, and the only entrance and exit was a secret passage.

It was a heaven-sent secret base, and they all became excited.

They discussed finding an opportunity to go over and take a look together.

It was just that, clearly, this opportunity wouldn't come soon.

Usually, only weekends gave them enough time, but there were also many students wandering around on weekends, making it easy to be discovered.

Times like today's lunch break or evening weren't good either; the time was too rushed.

So they could only find an opportunity when they were free and the school had few people.

Time quickly reached mid-October.

Without realizing it, John had already been at Hogwarts for over a month.

He had also found the rhythm of his life.

Occasionally learning Transfiguration from Professor McGonagall, occasionally learning spell application from Professor Fuliwei, and occasionally being used as manual labor by Professor Snape.

The happiest times were still exploring everywhere with his little friends on weekends.

Last time, they got into an argument with a character in a painting, and John turned around and moved the painting away, intending to let him experience what the Minor Protection Law was.

As a result, the character in the painting could actually go to other paintings to seek help and report them through the world within the paintings.

In the end, they were caught by Hogwarts caretaker Mr. Filch and handed over to Professor Fuliwei for disposal.

Although they were deducted ten points and lectured by Professor Fuliwei, John didn't care.

He also learned about the magical uses of these paintings because of this.

They could completely use two paintings connected by the world within them as special pagers, using the people in the paintings to contact people thousands of miles away.

At Hogwarts, there really is a little surprise every day.

Back to the present.

The autumn wind was crisp and cool, blowing on people, which was very comfortable.

It seemed to be able to blow away the fatigue and worries in one's heart.

John sat by the library window and yawned.

The autumn wind blew into the room, messing up his hair.

"How come you look like you haven't woken up early in the morning? Did you stay up late last night?"

Hermione appeared by John's side with one hand on her hip and a book in the other.

"Please, I'm growing, what's wrong with being a little sleepy."

John looked at Hermione listlessly and waved his hand.

"Is that so? Then I hope you won't still be shorter than me in a few years."

Hermione sat down next to John and chuckled.

"......"

Don't do that kind of thing.

Today, Hermione was wearing a clean, loose white shirt, and she had rolled up her sleeves to reveal a small section of her fair arms.

On her lower body was a black pleated skirt and slender thighs wrapped in black pantyhose.

Her hair was tied into a ponytail, making her look capable and intellectual.

John couldn't help but take a few more looks, which made Hermione's expression look unnatural.

"Cough, alright, don't waste time. Professor McGonagall left us quite a bit of homework."

"Oh~"

Hermione coughed lightly, put down the book in her hand, and straightened her expression.

John had no choice but to look away and perk up.

Recently, they often made appointments to study together in the library.

The reason was that Professor McGonagall asked Hermione to help John more.

However, he wasn't sure if Professor McGonagall actually said that.

Anyway, that's what Hermione said: Don't misunderstand, Professor McGonagall asked me to tutor you more, hmph~ (Tsundere turning her face away).

So they naturally studied together.

And don't say, Hermione taught very meticulously, no worse than Professor McGonagall.

Soon a morning passed, and they finally finished the homework Professor McGonagall left for him.

"Finally finished, time to go eat."

John stretched and said slowly.

Hermione also closed the book and nodded gently: "Yeah, let's go eat."

The two packed up their things, walked out of the library side by side, and headed toward the Great Hall.

After arriving at the Great Hall, John, who originally wanted to return directly to the Eagle House table, was suddenly pulled by the hem of his clothes by Hermione.

"... let's go eat at our place; I happen to need to tell you about a few knowledge points to pay attention to."

Hermione said to him; although John was puzzled, he didn't refuse.

Just like that, he was pulled by Hermione to the Gryffindor long table.

It was the first time for John, who often pulled others to sit at different tables, to sit at a different table to eat himself.

"Hey John."

Neville was the first to see John and greeted him with a smile.

"Hi, Neville Senior."

Seeing Neville, John didn't feel reserved at all and sat directly next to Neville.

Hermione originally wanted to take John to find an empty place to sit, but John sat next to Neville as if he were familiar.

She had no choice but to sit down too.

"Why did you two come over together?"

"Oh, Professor McGonagall asked Hermione Senior to tutor me in Transfiguration, so we went to the library to study together."

John replied directly without thinking.

Neville nodded, showing an understanding expression.

"No wonder I've seen you two together so often lately; so that's why."

Neville looked at Hermione again and said with a smile: "Hermione must be very happy to have someone to study with you."

"Cough, not at all."

Hearing Neville's words, Hermione coughed lightly and brushed it off.

Neville looked at Hermione suspiciously; once, in the Gryffindor common room, he ran into Hermione returning from the library late at night and chatted for a few words.

At that time, Hermione said she was reading in the library with John and also said that having John accompany her to study made her efficiency higher, and she was very happy.

Why didn't she admit it today?

"Didn't you say last time..."

"Ahhh shut up Neville!!"

Hermione guessed what Neville wanted to say and hurriedly interrupted his words.

Seeing this, Neville tactfully closed his mouth.