In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 380: Hazy smile (2 in 1)

"The Ball?"

Hermione crouched on the ground dealing with the blades of herbs that contained hallucinogenic toxins on their surface wearing her dragon-hide gloves, and heard the question that Assia asked her.

"I don't know what your professor at the Castle had arranged for Christmas Day, but with how that Headmaster of yours is targeting us these days, shouldn't he have banned those of us from the Castle?"

Assia shook her head.

"I don't know, but Professor Greengrass has already announced the Ball and told all of us that the students are going to be spending Christmas break in the Castle this year, so that means that the Ball must still be going on normally, and there's no reason why you would still be turned away."

Hermione didn't show much concern about it.

"If it does, it does, and if it doesn't, it doesn't, and this Ball, even if it does take place, is just to maintain a few things on the show, it won't have any impact on the outcome of the tournament."

"I assume you've gotten the word of it from your side as well." Assia blinked at Hermione, "Did someone ask Hermione to be their date?"

Hermione's face didn't change as she said casually.

"Not really."

"But Hermione is so pretty and sweet, she should be very popular."

"It's probably because we all never thought about that." Hermione said, "Because we've been on the run before, which means we've been running for our lives, so everyone has been thinking about studying and also making ourselves stronger and getting back to the home we were supposed to be in and meeting our families, and there has never been a ball organized at school."

"So what kind of entertainment do you have?" Assia asked curiously.

"Well we had a fishing tournament once and Justin, who is in the same class as me, even caught a mermaid, unfortunately, the weight of that mermaid wasn't eventually counted in his catch, resulting in him not winning the fishing tournament two times in a row."

As if she had thought of something, Assia dropped her head slightly, her white cheeks flushed faintly, and her otherwise normal voice of communication became unmistakably tinny.

"Well, then, if Hermione doesn't have a dance partner by then either, why don't we just..."

Her voice was so small that Hermione, who was concentrating on the herbs, couldn't hear her very well.

"Why not what?"

Eventually, Assia couldn't get the words that she wanted to say out, her head bowed and she looked a little despondent.

"Nothing, I'm just musing about something."

Hermione looked like she wasn't aware of Assia's change in mood as she gathered up those herbs in her hands and cocked her head at something that came to mind.

"I remember reading about it, it seems that at every Yule Ball for the Triwizard Tournament, the chosen champion from each school has to come out as the opening lead dancer, right?"

"Yes, that young lord of the Malfoys has invited the Miss Parkinson's I believe, and that champion of the Lestrange family has recently gotten close to a pureblood lady with the name Selwyn."

Hermione didn't really have much interest in exactly what kind of dance partners those pureblood students would choose, she just had a faintly imperceptible smile on her lips, like she had thought of something interesting.

"Jon's been learning to dance with Professor Rosier lately, I've heard him complain many times about how torturous it is to learn it properly, he doesn't really want to go to any dances at all, but has to learn for the sake of something."

Assia asked, a little puzzled.

"Who is Mr Green's dance partner?"

"He hasn't found a dance partner yet."

"Why hasn't he found one? Is it because there are so many to choose from that he's still hesitant?"

"Contrary to what you think, I guess, he must still be fretting about who exactly he should ask to dance."

Assia was baffled by this, if it were in Hogwarts castle, not to mention having Jon's great feats and fame, there were actually quite a few half-blood girls around her that Assia knew of that were secretly having private intimate relationships with pureblood boys, not necessarily to climb the ladder, but the castle promoted the theory of nobility of blood all day long to the point where quite a few students really believed in it from the bottom of their hearts.

There is a certain admiration for the strong, and the girls at the half-blood house subconsciously think that pureblood boys are better, even if, according to the rules set by their headmaster, they cannot marry each other, but that would still leave a good memory for the future, wouldn't it?

So, according to Assia's understanding, with Jon's current status and reputation on Dumbledore's side, he should have had many girlfriends, even if not one on his right and one on his left, he should still be extremely popular with the opposite sex.

Hermione didn't explain much about this; although both shared the same Hogwarts name, the two sides were completely different in every way possible.

With what Assia had seen in her six years of schooling in the castle, she certainly wouldn't understand exactly how the students in the wagon got along.

Assia didn't spend a lot of time with Hermione at one time, and even though she cherished it, if not craved the relationship she had with Hermione, she knew that if anyone in the castle found out about their relationship, it would surely end in an unbearably miserable fashion.

Once back at the castle, she kept her head down at all times, like a scared rabbit, timidly avoiding everyone and everything around her.

But there were some things that she could not avoid just because she wanted to.

Walking up the stairs, just as Assia was heading back towards her dormitory, a tall-looking boy with curly brown hair suddenly stopped her in her path with a smile on his face.

"Good afternoon, Assia."

At the sound of the boy's voice, Assia's body visibly stiffened, and she tried to open her mouth to stop the intimate gesture of the boy calling out her name directly, but in the end, the words didn't come out.

She didn't respond in any way, still keeping her head down and just being stopped in her path by the boy.

"Hey, I heard that Giraldo guy asked you to be his date, didn't he? But you turned him down, well done Assia, I had someone give him a good beating and a warning this morning, he won't be bothering you again."

The smile on the Flint guy's face became softer and softer as he tried to take Assia's hand as if he was showing off his infatuation persona, but this time she plucked up the courage to dodge it.

"You know, I told you Assia, Floyd was just a marriage arranged for me by my family, I don't actually have any feelings for her at all, the person I really like is you, you charmed me and I couldn't hold myself back from the first moment I saw you."

Assia was terrified, she cowered against the wall and said in a trembling voice.

"School, Mr Headmaster has said that a pureblood and a half-blood cannot be married."

"Of course Mr. Headmaster is right, but love is also great, and it doesn't matter if we don't marry as a nominal couple as long as we truly love each other, does it? Don't worry Assia, I'll make arrangements for you after you graduate from Hogwarts, and you don't have to worry about Floyd, she's a pureblood too but only a new school pureblood after all, I can't help if she's picking on you in school now, but she won't be able to find out about us afterwards."

Flint said in a soft voice but instead of reassuring Assia with such words it even gave her a sick feeling.

It was as if he liked Assia and Assia had to like him, it was not a great love at all, it was just his own vile personal wishful thinking, a wishful thinking that used his position to prevent any refusal.

Assia had no chance whatsoever of refusing, the half-blood class seemed no different from previous lifestyles before Voldemort's rule, but that was only if the vast majority of purebloods were able to maintain their so-called prestigious nobility and pureblood pride and not abuse the power they had.

Once the purebloods tried to tear apart that illusion, the forced half-bloods had little room to resist at all, and it had been very difficult for Assia to keep going on this long.

"Remember, don't say yes to whoever approaches you to be their date, I can't dance with you on the day of the Ball, that would make my classmates around me laugh at me, but after the Ball, we can spend some time together dancing alone in the garden outside the castle, that's when we can bare our hearts to each other and think about the future, don't you think?"

Flint came up to Assia's face with a smile on his face, he sniffed drunkenly at the scent that lingered in the pale golden hair, and then, without further ado, turned and walked towards the ground floor.

Even after he had left, Assia's face had not returned to normal, and she was frozen in place, pale and unsure of how she was going to deal with Flint's "invitation".

Flint's family has a large business in the British magical world, and Assia's parents are both employees of his family's magical company.

As the only heir of the Flint family, it was easy for him to take advantage of Assia.

As Assia froze in place, a movement from the stairs above her head suddenly woke her up, and she looked up to see Floyd's cold, hideous face.

Instantly, chills ran through Assia's body and her entire face had gone white to the point of bloodlessness.

"No. Miss Floyd, I didn't."

Floyd didn't even give her a chance to explain, the look on her face was as if she had already decided that Assia is a dead person, and she immediately turned her head and left the place.

Assia could only dully drop her hand, her back against the wall, she slowly slid down and sat on the top stair, and eventually, all that came to mind was the sound of her sobs muffled in the coldness and darkness.

***

"I always like to stay here."

After dinner was over, Jon invited Hermione to join him for a moment in the driver's seat at the front of the wagon.

"When I first came here to meet Hagrid, there were fields of golden wheat all around us, and before the hooves of the Thestrals could trample on the sheaves, they automatically parted a path as a way for us to pass, and the view was truly unforgettable. At the time I asked Hagrid if there was an end to our journey, but I never thought that after only three years we would already be at the end."

The cold winter wind was cold, but it didn't manage to blow through the enchantment that had been placed on the driver's seat of the wagon, so Jon and Hermione, who sat looking at the snowy landscape, didn't feel the slightest chill.

"No matter how hard it snows, it will always stop one day, right?" Hermione asked softly.

"Of course, not only that but usually after the storm and snow, the world is a better place than it was before."

Jon picked up the teapot that Hagrid had left here and poured both himself and Hermione a cup of moderately warm black tea.

"You've been getting on well with that Assia girl for a while now?"

Hermione clutched her steaming cup of tea, and the red and yellow scarf wrapped around her neck made her face look so delicate.

"I learned from her that in fact, the half-blood students I used to think were also high up in the Castle actually don't have a very good life."

"Because purebloods control absolute power, even if they are not reduced to being slaves, how their lives are really lived depends on the self-consciousness and moral integrity of the pureblood wizards, and it is better to imagine that those clipped winged crows in the Tower of London will surely bless England with long-lasting peace and prosperity than to believe they will have a good life."

Hermione laughed at Jon's analogy and wiggled her little legs as she said.

"So we can go to school here once we've recaptured the castle?"

"Depends on the Professor, I guess we'll have to see exactly what happens then, it won't help if we just retake the Castle, with Britain still in the hands of the Dark Lord."

"Let's hope we haven't graduated from school by that time."

"Of course not, to be honest, I kinda want to have lunch in the Hogwarts Great Hall."

"That starry sky ceiling is beautiful, I have heard."

"You haven't seen it yet?"

"No."

"Well, there's actually a pretty good chance for it this time. Well, there's a Ball at the castle on Christmas Day, as you know. If you want to see the Starry sky ceiling for yourself. That night would be a good time. Of course, I'm also in need of a date, so if you don't mind, we can go and look at the Starry sky ceiling as a partner, and you don't have to do anything more than dance with me at the beginning."

He rambled on and on and Hermione just turned her head and smiled at him once he had spoken.

The white mist rising from her teacup made her smile as hazy as if it were reflected in the lake, it felt like it was somehow out of reach, yet close, like the starry sky above their heads.

She nodded as if after some serious thought, and then gave a thoughtful smile.

"That sounds like a good idea."

----

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