Chapter 48: Aftermath

Allen slept well in the school hospital; early that morning he received an apology from Lady Pomfrey, confirming the potion he drank yesterday had indeed expired.

Then Lady Pomfrey asked if he had any adverse reactions after drinking that potion; feeling somewhat guilty, Allen made up a couple of lines to brush her off.

Only after confirming Allen was fine did Lady Pomfrey let him leave the school hospital.

Freed, Allen hurried toward the Gryffindor tower; he still remembered his conversation with Harry and Ron the previous night and wanted to continue persuading Ron to apologize to Hermione.

As soon as he returned to the Gryffindor tower's common room, he saw Hermione, Harry, and Ron chatting happily, with Hermione apparently guiding Harry and Ron on their homework.

Allen couldn't believe what he saw and thought his eyes were playing tricks on him...

"Ahem, ahem, ahem..." Allen coughed to draw the trio's attention. "Good morning, all three of you! Can someone explain what's going on? The news I heard yesterday wasn't like this."

"Allen! Are you feeling better?" Harry asked with concern.

"No problems at all!" Allen replied, noticing Ron and Hermione exchange a quick glance.

Then Harry happily recounted what happened the previous night, while Hermione and Ron added details from the side.

Allen initially didn't care, but the more he listened, the more serious he became; by the end, his jaw dropped in astonishment.

He hadn't expected so much to happen while he was asleep; the protagonist trio was already taking shape, and they had even defeated a troll—something even adult wizards might not manage.

Many thoughts flashed through his mind.

Had the gears of fate started turning again? Did the trio form just like this? These three truly are protagonists, blessed with fortune; defeating such a huge troll and emerging unscathed!

If he had accidentally inserted himself into this plot yesterday, he would probably have been flattened by the troll's club! After all, he had no good way to deal with trolls and hadn't even mastered the Levitation Charm. Thinking of this, Allen felt somewhat relieved.

At this thought, he began reconsidering whether to continue learning from Professor Quirrell.

Allen felt very sorry about what happened to Professor Quirrell yesterday; although Professor Quirrell had been unconscious and wouldn't notice, just thinking about facing him in the future made Allen feel somewhat guilty.

This guilt kept growing in his heart, making him consider whether to stop going to Professor Quirrell for lessons in the future.

Allen was very conflicted about this; the one-on-one teaching effect of Professor Quirrell was simply too good, and he was reluctant to give it up.

However, the trio's ordeal the previous day sounded an alarm for Allen, making him quickly abandon the idea of not going to Professor Quirrell for lessons.

He felt his strength was still too weak; only two months into the term, such powerful monsters were already appearing. What would happen later? Compared to the struggles in his heart, his own life was far more important!

"Allen, what are you thinking?" Hermione noticed Allen zoning out and called out to wake him.

"Ah? Nothing! I was thinking about the troll; you three are truly amazing!" Allen said somewhat flustered.

"Thanks to Harry and Ron; I was so scared back then that I just kept crying!" Hermione said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Looking at this beautiful and lovely young girl, Allen felt a surge of shame in his heart: as Hermione's friend, he usually treated her merely as a tool, paying little attention to her life and emotions; especially yesterday, when she cried in the girls' bathroom all afternoon, he was the last to know.

Thinking of this, Allen said to Hermione with some guilt: "Hermione,

I'm sorry! Before, as your only friend at Hogwarts..."

Before he could finish, Hermione interrupted: "Just having you accompany me to the library makes me very happy! And you've helped me a lot with your studies usually!"

"Now all four of us are friends! Two of them are the best first-years in studies, so Hermione and I won't have to worry about homework anymore!" Ron, sensing the awkward atmosphere, stepped in to lighten the mood.

"Yes, now Ron is called Hogwarts' 'Troll Slayer'!" Harry added.

The four burst into laughter.

From then on, the four became good friends; the friendship between eleven-year-old boys comes that fast...

Allen found this very magical; he couldn't figure out why he became a good friend of the trio, finally concluding it was because of his mature and steady demeanor, which makes people feel particularly secure.

The next day, when Harry went to Filch's office to get books, he saw Professor Snape with a leg bitten, which triggered some unpleasant associations.

The four analyzed the troll's appearance that day; Harry and Ron firmly believed Snape released the troll to distract everyone while he stole the thing guarded by the three-headed dog.

However, Allen and Hermione felt this theory was wrong; Allen, relying only on vague memory, remembered Professor Snape should be a positive character, while Hermione simply believed school teachers wouldn't do such a thing.

In the end, neither side could convince the other, so they had to shelve the dispute.

After entering November, the weather became extremely cold. The mountains surrounding the school were gray and covered in ice and snow; the lake was as cold and hard as quenched steel. Every morning, the ground was frosted.

The Quidditch season began.

After several weeks of Quidditch training, Harry finally reached the time to play; on Saturday he would participate in his first match ever, between the Gryffindor team and the Slytherin team.

The fact that Harry was the Gryffindor Seeker leaked out, attracting much mockery.

Time quickly arrived at Saturday morning; early that day, Allen was woken by Quidditch enthusiasts, and even Neville was excited about today's match.

Today, Allen decided not to go to the library; although he wasn't interested in Quidditch, he knew Harry definitely hoped all his friends would watch his match, regardless of whether he made a fool of himself.

So he decided to bring a newly found Ancient Runes book to watch the match.

By eleven o'clock, it seemed the entire school had gathered on the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students even brought binoculars. The seats were practically raised halfway into the air, yet sometimes it was still hard to see the match clearly.

Fortunately, today Allen randomly obtained the eyes of a certain bird, making distant objects exceptionally clear.

Harry's friends had prepared a huge banner for Harry in advance—made from one of Ron's old bed sheets, with "Potter Must Win" written on it; Dean, who was good at painting, also drew a large Gryffindor lion below.

Then, Hermione cast a clever spell, making the paint on the banner shimmer with different colors.

Seeing this, Allen couldn't help recalling his own bed sheet taken by Peeves, which still hadn't been returned.

Allen watched the two teams walking to the center of the pitch; the smallest one among them was Harry.

He couldn't help but start waving the huge banner with his roommates so Harry could see it...

The match began quickly; Allen saw Harry shoot into the sky like an arrow...