Chapter 395: Loser's Night Talk

Hermione held a wine glass in one hand, and she kept a distance from McLaggen that was neither close nor far. 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 observe words and colors; he didn't even notice such an obvious truth."

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

"Perhaps, she wanted to try it and give him a chance? Or Hermione wanted to make Luo En angry?" Zhang Qiu said somewhat uncertainly. "I think it's the former, but the divination says it's the latter."

Harry didn't know how to view this problem either. Although Luo En and Hermione both said they didn't care on their lips, he didn't dare to take it 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 anymore, "didn't you say before, that what substitution, what was it?"

"Yes, you opened up your train of thought by saying that." Zhang Qiu nodded. "At the beginning, Hermione liked Tang Tang Nade, and reason told her she shouldn't like Tang Tang Nade, so she chose to date Luo En to perform a correction on her distorted admiration."

"And now, she wants to let go of her feelings for Luo En, so she chose to accept McLaggen's pursuit. Yes, she is just escaping..." Zhang Qiu analyzed logically.

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

"You don't even want to be friends!" Hermione also realized that she seemed to have attracted too much attention. She waved her hand in annoyance and walked away quickly.

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

"I just, I thought," McLaggen stammered to explain, "alright, I think she was probably shy, probably."

"Maybe, maybe not." Slughorn said with some regret. "But 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 language. He felt that this child probably would only further anger Hermione, so he stepped forward and patted McLaggen on the 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 right, I have been training well." McLaggen stretched his neck and looked in the direction Hermione left. "But what's wrong with Hermione? I have to say two more words to her."

"I'll explain it 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. "Are we really going 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 click-clack 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, who Luo En 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.

"Here." She conveyed this short sentence with her mouth shape, while stretching out her hand to greet.

The two of them, one up and one down, were eavesdropping in a very ungraceful posture.

"... I envy you, Hermione."

A voice that Harry felt was quite familiar came through the door. Zhang Qiu whispered: "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 is 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 Luo En, he is 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?"

"Luo En isn't anything good either." Hermione said stiffly. "Just from the fact that he went 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 right in front of you, because of temporary timidity you didn't say it, and when you look back, you find you missed the only opportunity in this life." Hermione's tone seemed very emotional. "Or, influenced too deeply by the secular world, 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 thinking about it, if I were bolder at that time, would the result be different?"

"Maybe."

"I was extremely nervous that day. Actually, I basically hadn't attended any balls, this time too, I didn't have the qualification." Marietta sounded very disappointed. "Qiu said this is Crowley's fault, but I always feel it's not like that. I feel they might not look up to me either."

"Not to that extent, right?"

"I really have this feeling. I will also think whether Luo En 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 shots, 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, etc. You remember, right? Arnold arranged for him to intern at the Minister's office before, he might want to be Minister in the future." Hermione comforted. "And Luo En, he is simply not grown up yet."

"Grown up, what is called growing up?"

"I didn't have the qualification to say this before, but recently I probably understand a little. Growing up is reconciling with yourself. You will start to accept that there are things you can't do, things you can't get. You won't lie 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 lack of ability or unstable emotions, these are 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, and move toward the possible goal. 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 hint of playfulness. Alright, he thought, perhaps she had already understood this truth.

"That is to say, I should... eh? Wait, then what you meant just now is that Luo En hasn't understood these yet? 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, Luo En is always trapped in a kind of lack of confidence, and he still has to try every means to cover it up. Lack of confidence is a problem he has had since the first grade, this bluffing, it seems to have started in the fourth grade."

"What is he not confident about?"

"He lacks love. I've talked about it with Jin Ni; Luo En was never valued at home, which made him a bit insecure 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 this overly free-spirited girl never tried to understand or tolerate him." Hermione had her own interpretation of that story from last year. "Ailina learned to love herself when she was very young, which is exactly what Luo En lacks. This difference between them, when reflected in reality, means he has many emotions that Ailina cannot understand; conversely, it also meant Ailina always found it difficult to empathize with Luo En. 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 the dance partner?" Marietta seemed to have focused on the wrong point.

"Right, I feel that was one of the rare moments when Luo En showed courage. This has to be said about his other shortcoming, he takes Harry more seriously than anything. This might not be counted as a shortcoming, but if you want to date him, you have to tolerate that you are at most second in his heart."

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

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

"Also, in 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 didn't do 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 got up from the chair. "Thank you for chatting with me for so long, I think I should go back to read."

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

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 looked back for the second time, Zhang Qiu pulled Harry and squatted down. "The shoes seem to be exposed." ===== CHAPTER 396 =====