Chapter 295: Not Learning Well

When Harry was writing furiously in the library, Zhang Qiu came to his side happily and poked his arm.

"Ah, what is this?" Harry took the thing she handed over. It was an exquisitely packaged paper bag with the words "Lightweight Photo Studio" written on it.

"The photos taken today." Zhang Qiu supported the table with both hands, a smile on the corners of her mouth.

Harry opened the envelope. The first thing he saw was a photo of Zhang Qiu wearing sky-blue wizard robes. He nodded secretly; this was quite good-looking.

Then, he browsed through them quickly, one by one. After flipping through them all, he asked with slight confusion: "How come they are all photos of you? Where is Hermione's?"

Zhang Qiu's face suddenly became unpleasant. She said in a very strange tone: "Of course they are in Hermione's own hands. I suggested she send one to Tang Tang Nade."

"Yes, if she sent a photo of you and her, and mentioned this photo studio, it would indeed be a very good warning." Harry thought. "But Hermione might not send a group photo, or might not mention that it was you who took her there. If she didn't say the name of the photo studio, or if Tang Tang Nade is not sensitive to Cassandra's location, then wouldn't all this be a wasted effort?"

"Do you think Tang Tang Nade would completely ignore Cassandra? He had already arranged eyes and ears in that vicinity long ago." Zhang Qiu said angrily. "We just need to enter the door together, and the effect will be achieved. The follow-up is just to make Tang Tang Nade understand that Hermione doesn't know the truth yet."

"Oh right, Tang Tang Nade will inevitably test Hermione to see how much she knows, and find out that you actually haven't told her anything yet. Then he will be relieved while realizing that he must do something positive." Harry analyzed while nodding slowly. "What a clever layout."

Zhang Qiu glared at him, then left a sentence "I'm going back" and left the library directly.

Harry scratched his head. He instinctively felt that he seemed to have done something wrong, or rather, he rarely did anything right in this regard.

"What's the use of me learning this History of Magic." He muttered while writing. "Why doesn't the school teach girls' minds? They really should abolish the History of Magic and replace it with such a much more useful course."

During dinner, Harry talked to Luo En about this matter. Luo En asked in a similarly confused tone: "You mean, you made Zhang Qiu unhappy again?"

"Why do you have to say 'again'?" Harry asked back.

"I don't know, she looks weird this year. I mean, it might not necessarily be you who provoked her, but she often looks unhappy." Luo En scratched his head.

"It might be related to the Zheng-Yi Jiangshengwei Alliance Talisman." Harry refused to admit his mistake. "The power of that spell is too great, and this has had an impact on her. Yes, she said her memory of the spell's effect is blurred; this is one of the impacts."

"If you are chatting about emotional matters, I suggest consulting Ma Erfu's opinion." Neville sat down beside them. "Everyone is saying that he is the one who has made the fastest progress among student couples."

"Seek help from Ma Erfu?" Luo En spat a bone into his plate forcefully. "You are simply committing a crime."

Emotionally, Harry was of course very repulsed by this suggestion, but rationally, he knew that Draco and Pan Xi were indeed doing the best in terms of relationship management, at least for now. Moreover, appropriate vulnerability and seeking help could show Harry's trust in them, which in turn could further strengthen their trust in Harry.

Last time, Harry remembered it was last year when their relationship suddenly became inseparable, and the diary seemed to have played some role in it. If, when discussing emotional problems, they suggested Harry contact the diary again, it could provide a quite good entry point, making it convenient for him to mention the diary again later.

"Neville, look at the good deed you've done," Luo En said with dissatisfaction. "You've disgusted Harry, he can't even eat his meal now!"

"I'm okay." Harry came back to his senses. "Although this suggestion is disgusting, it might really work. I'll ask them tonight."

"Fine, whatever you want." Luo En hummed lightly. "I'm going for extra training tonight. I'm the only keeper now, and I don't want to lose face when playing against Slytherin."

When the team's only keeper was doing extra training with the chasers, the two seekers were in a warm room, sitting on a soft sofa, chatting while drinking tea. Opposite them were the Slytherin team's seeker and the two new beaters he had inserted to fill the vacancy—to supplement, two not-so-smart new beaters.

"How many people want to buy pure gold Finger Phoenixes?" Ma Erfu calculated. "How many ordinary Finger Phoenixes can the profit support?"

"There is no such thing as pure gold; at least Dragon bone powder must be added to it." Lu Na said stubbornly, but everyone didn't take it to heart.

"Since we are Deng Buliduo's Army, this money should be paid by Deng Buliduo." Eve suggested. "Who has the old bee's inheritance now?"

"The old bat has it, saying it's Hogwarts' public property. Forget it, Hogwarts is already rich enough, why do they need so much money." Cui Ge said with dissatisfaction. "Eighty percent he wants to embezzle some."

"Then let's write a joint letter requesting the old bat to allocate funds to us for the construction of Deng Buliduo's Army." Pan Xi proposed. "Does everyone agree?"

"I don't object to you asking the professor for money, but since you are asking for money, shouldn't you show a little respect." Hanna said helplessly. "Professor Snape definitely doesn't want to hear everyone calling him 'old bat'."

"Although it is indeed quite vivid." Ernie added in a low voice.

"Jin Ni, what do you think?" Pan Xi asked politely.

"I think it's okay, but perhaps we can ask for a little more." Harry noticed that Jin Ni was no longer as simple as she used to be. "Besides the Finger Phoenix, I think we can also pay some tuition to Mr. Kleist."

"No need, Kleist receives a full Auror salary, and even has a travel allowance." Harry said. "But I don't object to asking for more money."

"Great," Draco revealed a smile. "Crabbe, Gao Er, what are you doing?"

"Oh... I'm thinking." Gao Er pondered and said. "We just ate two cupcakes, one each."

"But why is there only one paper cup on the table?" Crabbe's tone was a bit uncertain.

Before Draco could get angry, Lu Na very spiritually turned the paper cup on the table into two with a duplication spell, so the two big guys revealed smiles again.

"Let's discuss the amount, what was the cost of the Finger Phoenix?" Eve brought the topic back to the field everyone loved to see, although Harry felt this was a bit unethical.

Kleist had said that he advanced fifty Galleons and made thirty Finger Phoenixes, five of which were pure gold. By logic, even if they wrote a letter to Snape asking for money, the amount should be around fifty Galleons.

However, the children were happily setting up various items. Besides setting the Finger Phoenix at five Galleons each, they also added various things conjured from the Room of Requirement. Buying training dummies cost seven Galleons, buying soft cushions cost twelve Galleons, buying books cost thirty Galleons, hiring Kleist (although they didn't pay tuition at all) cost one hundred and twenty Galleons, and so on.

When the total amount reached over eight hundred, to the point where the children began to worry that Snape wouldn't agree, Draco proposed a concept again: "We make the application for one thousand Galleons, and then take one hundred and fifty Galleons out of it to give to Snape."

"Exactly!" Cui Ge clapped his hands happily. "Arnold's method is so easy to use."

"Arnold taught this too?" Harry asked with dissatisfaction.

"Ah yes, he mainly talks about how society operates in Slytherin." Pan Xi nodded. "Perhaps he wants to teach us that when you want to realize your ambition or grab benefits, there are always more efficient and better methods. Using Dark Magic to launch terrorist attacks is the worst choice."

"This way, we can avoid Slytherin students becoming dark wizards in advance. It's the 'prevention' part of Defense Against the Dark Arts." Draco echoed in a tone of slight helplessness.

Harry sighed lightly. Selfish and incompetent politicians, compared to cold-blooded and cruel dark wizards, he really couldn't say who was more harmful to society.

The children discussed the money matter for a while longer, and even Hanna and Ernie, who were a bit guilty at first, began to join the discussion. In the end, they not only perfected the plan to apply for military funds from Snape for Deng Buliduo's Army, but also proposed to use the funds to organize some activities to build some fame among professors and classmates—this was to further set up other items to continue asking for money. By the way, it was also to further replace the status of the Student Council.

After these things were discussed, they imagined some follow-up activities that might be held, and then the gathering of the day entered the gossip time. Harry originally felt that if he wanted to consult about girls' minds, he could actually say it now. But he noticed Jin Ni and Eve—he didn't know if these two little girls had grown up and abandoned those childish thoughts. So out of caution, he waited until the gathering dispersed, preparing to stay behind to communicate with Pan Xi and Draco privately.

"Harry, what do you want to say?" Draco asked cautiously. "The Death Eaters seem to be looking for something. In the afternoon, Snape asked me about the Chamber of Secrets again. Is it related to your new actions?"

"Perhaps it is," Harry's heart lifted all of a sudden. This meant that Snape was also doubting whether Lucius was playing dumb, or really didn't know about the existence of the diary. "However, this matter doesn't have much to do with us students at school."

"If you are particularly interested, I can tell you about it too." Harry put the emotional problem aside all of a sudden. He couldn't wait to test how much Draco knew about Horcruxes, and what attitude he was prepared to take toward this matter. ===== CHAPTER 296 =====