Chapter 395: Loser

Hermione held a wine glass in one hand, and she kept a distance that was neither close nor far from McLaggen. Clearly, their relationship hadn't made any progress—this was something Harry only noticed after Zhang Qiu's reminder; he had originally thought the two had already gotten together.

"This is too obvious; Hermione doesn't like him at all." Zhang Qiu commented, "I said McLaggen wouldn't know how to read the room; he can't even discover such an obvious truth."

"But, since Hermione doesn't like him, why did she agree to come with McLaggen?" Harry looked at Hermione, whose expression was becoming more and more impatient, with some confusion.

"Perhaps, she wanted to try, give him a chance? Or Hermione wanted to irritate Ron?" Zhang Qiu said with some uncertainty, "I think it's the former, but the divination said it was the latter."

Harry didn't know how to view this problem either. Although Ron and Hermione both said things they didn't care about, he didn't dare to take them seriously.

"I think we can go back to the original train of thought to analyze," Harry turned his body; he decided not to look at this pair of men and women who were torturing each other, "Didn't you say that what-was-it, something substitution?"

"Yes, you opened up the train of thought by saying this." Zhang Qiu nodded, "At the beginning, Hermione liked Donald, and reason told her she shouldn't like Donald, so she chose to date Ron to correct her distorted admiration."

"And now, she wants to let go of her feelings for Ron, so she chose to accept McLaggen's pursuit; yes, she is just escaping..." Zhang Qiu analyzed reasonably.

"I told you!" A sharp voice came. Harry and Zhang Qiu turned their heads back at the same time. What came into view was Hermione pointing at McLaggen, who looked a bit stunned, with one finger.

"You don't even want to be friends!" Hermione also realized that she seemed to have attracted too much attention. She shook her hand angrily and left here quickly.

"What's wrong, child, what's wrong?" Slughorn walked over in a hurry, but Hermione had already left the venue, leaving only McLaggen in place, revealing a helpless expression.

"I just, I thought," McLaggen explained stutteringly, "Alright, I think it's probably because she was shy, probably."

"Maybe, maybe not." Slughorn said with some regret, "But regardless of whether it is or not, I think you need to apologize, otherwise she will continue to be angry with you."

Harry sometimes doubted whether McLaggen could understand human speech. He felt this child probably would only further irritate Hermione, so he stepped forward and patted McLaggen's shoulder, saying in an unquestionable tone: "Don't let these things affect your mood, Cormac; don't forget we are about to start the first game."

"Ah yes, I have been training well." McLaggen stretched his neck and looked toward the direction Hermione left, "But what's wrong with Hermione; I have to say two more words to her."

"I'll explain to her; some things have to be said by girls." Zhang Qiu also intervened, "I'll invite her to watch the game for you."

"Then I'm very grateful to you." McLaggen said with shining eyes.

Ensuring that McLaggen didn't follow foolishly, Harry and Zhang Qiu came to the corridor from the door Hermione went out.

"Where did she go?" Zhang Qiu looked at the empty corridor and said.

"Perhaps back to the dormitory?" Harry said while walking, "Do we really want to find her?"

"Yes, I want to ask clearly about her thoughts." Zhang Qiu sighed, "Too awkward, both of them."

They walked along the corridor toward the distance together. The music and conversation coming from behind, mixed with the tapping of Zhang Qiu's small high heels, Harry suddenly felt there was nothing to worry about—Hermione's emotions were not an important matter at all, and who Ron liked didn't matter either. The only real thing was this one: he was walking with his dance partner; yes, this occupied all his mind.

"Shh!" Zhang Qiu stopped. She looked around, then pressed her ear to the door of a classroom.

"In here." She transmitted this short sentence with her mouth shape, while reaching out to beckon.

The two stood one above the other, eavesdropping in a very ungraceful posture.

"...... I envy you, Hermione."

A voice that Harry felt was quite familiar came through the door. Zhang Qiu explained in a low voice: "It's Marietta."

"What's there to envy? Cormac isn't a gentleman at all; he always feels good about himself, but I look at him like a clown."

"But he's strong, and very handsome. Don't you think so?"

Hermione didn't speak; the room seemed to have gone cold.

"Sigh, of course, compared to Ron, he's still a bit worse." Marietta restarted the topic, "I really don't know why I'm so unlucky; I even bought the dress, but he suddenly didn't agree to bring me—really uncomfortable, but what can I do?"

"Ron isn't anything good either." Hermione said stiffly, "Just from his going back on his word, he isn't worth it."

"Perhaps it can't all be blamed on him; I should have made a move earlier. Actually, there were several opportunities to talk to him last year..."

"Who can say for sure? Life is sometimes so magical; sometimes you feel the fate is close at hand, but because of timidity for a while, you didn't say it out, and only when you look back did you find you missed the only opportunity in this life." Hermione's tone seemed very emotional, "Or, influenced too deeply by secularity, not daring to rebel, but what if you are young and frivolous once?"

"Exactly, last time Qiu introduced me to be Krum's dance partner, I didn't grasp the opportunity either; now I'm afraid he has almost forgotten me. Now that I think about it, if I had been bolder at that time, would the result have been different?"

"Probably."

"I was extremely nervous that day; actually, I basically haven't attended many dance parties, and this time too, I didn't have the qualifications." Marietta sounded very disappointed, "Qiu said this was Crowley's fault, but I always feel it's not like that; I feel they might not look up to me either."

"Not necessarily, right?"

"I really have this feeling; I will also think whether Ron feels I'm not beautiful enough, making him lose face, or Harry didn't like me in the first place, just looking at Qiu's face—sigh! Sometimes I also feel Qiu looks down on me, of course, they are all big figures, it's normal for them to look down on me."

"Perhaps it's not that serious; Harry just cares more about those big pictures, situations, and so on. You remember, right? Arnold arranged him to the Minister's office for an internship before; he might want to be Minister in the future." Hermione comforted, "And Ron, he is simply not grown up yet."

"Grown up, what is called growing up?"

"I didn't have the qualifications to say this before, but recently I probably understand a little bit. Growing up is reconciling with yourself. You will start to accept that you have things you can't do, things you can't get. You won't tell lies to yourself anymore, won't try to cover up some emotions. This seems to make us look stupid, but it doesn't matter. People are imperfect in the first place, whether it's insufficient ability or unstable emotions, these are all normal."

"Of course, the most important thing is," Hermione's tone suddenly became bright again, "after you realize this point, you will still try to do what you can do, go toward the possible goals. Whether in feelings or in studies, I think it should be like this."

Harry looked down at Zhang Qiu; her expression was still flat with a touch of playfulness. Alright, he thought, perhaps she had already understood this truth.

"That is to say, I should... eh? Wait, then your meaning just now is that Ron hasn't understood these? He still thinks he is omnipotent? Or, he is still covering up some kind of emotion?" Marietta asked in surprise.

"You might not have noticed, Ron is always trapped in a kind of lack of confidence, and he still has to rack his brains to cover this up. This lack of confidence is a problem he has had since the first grade, and this bluffing, it seems to have started in the fourth grade."

"What is he not confident about?"

"He lacks love. I've talked about this with Ginny; Ron was never valued at home, which made him feel a bit inferior from a young age. But what's worse is that he went through a rather failed relationship last year. Ailina simply couldn't stand that hot-and-cold personality—of course, it was also because that overly unrestrained girl never tried to understand or tolerate him." Hermione had her own understanding of that story from last year. "Ailina learned to love herself when she was very young, which is exactly what Ron lacks. This difference between them reflects in reality as him having many emotions that Ailina cannot understand; conversely, it also means Ailina always finds it difficult to empathize with Ron. In short, sigh, the cause of this ill-fated relationship has to be blamed on me. Back at Beauxbatons, when I was researching changing dance partners..."

"Is it also starting from dance partners?" Marietta seemed to have focused on the wrong point.

"Yes, I feel that was one of the rare moments Ron showed courage. This has to be said about his other shortcoming: he puts Harry above everything else. This might not count as a shortcoming, but if you want to date him, you have to tolerate yourself being at most second in his heart."

After a period of silence, Marietta asked again: "Then do you think, for the Christmas dance party, do I still have a chance?"

"Don't think about that rotten person; I'll let McLaggen to you." Hermione said with disdain.

"Also, this way Harry can also help me. Although Qiu said he is like a piece of wood in feelings, there is not a single thing outside of feelings that he doesn't handle beautifully." Marietta said with a bit of longing, "I'm looking forward to finding a boyfriend properly this year."

"Don't take it too seriously; I'm just using him as a buffer. I think you should consider your destination after graduation more." A disturbance came from the classroom, as if Hermione was getting up from the chair, "Thank you for chatting with me for so long; I think I should go back to read books too."

"It's me who should thank you; you gave color to a boring night of mine."

The moment the footsteps sounded, Harry had already taken out the Invisibility Cloak. They stood against the wall, watching the two girls leave one after another. First was Marietta wearing an ordinary school uniform, then Hermione wearing a small dress.

"Bad." After Hermione's second look back, Zhang Qiu pulled Harry and squatted down, "The shoes seem to be exposed." ===== CHAPTER 396 =====