"You must be overthinking. If Little Grindelwald really had that kind of relationship with him, the first to be blown up wouldn't be you. The academy has always said he's in love with the doorknocker of Ravenclaw."
Obviously.
Some rumors really won't be late.
"That's too far-fetched. It's even more outlandish than the things made up in the storybook Professor Lockhart asked me to spread." Daphne Greengrass might have once been in the role of spreading rumors.
She now actually has some discernment regarding rumors.
"Who can say for sure... I even heard my dad say that the Black Demon King used to like sleeping with snakes. The thoughts of these wizards are definitely different from us ordinary folks."
Gesha Selwen spoke with a tone of sentiment. As an adult wizard passed by her, she, who always liked to establish a good relationship with professors, instinctively greeted him.
"Hello, Professor Quirrell."
Gesha Selwen even bowed perfectly, yet after raising her head, she still found the gaze of the Professor of Muggle Studies on her quite cold and somewhat chilling down her spine.
"You look good too."
Professor Quirrell's response made Gesha Selwen's scalp feel even more numb.
She could only quickly recall when exactly she might have offended this Professor of Muggle Studies. Before she could open her mouth to ask, Quirrell had already walked into the hall to dine.
"Are we going inside for dinner?"
Daphne Greengrass looked towards the hall, seeing Ian already mingled at Slytherin's long table, chatting with Aurora while eating something.
"Skipping a meal might just count as dieting..." Gesha Selwen also didn't want to approach Slytherin's long table further, and she wasn't keen on eating at other academy's tables either.
"You're right."
Despite Daphne Greengrass's stomach growling in hunger, she decisively headed towards the direction of leaving the hall, followed closely by Gesha Selwen, who looked worried.
"Won't he occupy our long table for the entire holiday during mealtimes?" Gesha Selwen thought it was definitely something that could happen.
Daphne Greengrass shared the same concern.
"If worst comes to worst, we can sneak some herbs to chew on."
She offered a "brilliant" suggestion.
It's only fair to say.
Broke girls might truly be poorer than they mock...
Poorer than many of the students they've mocked—just as these two planned to gnaw on roots to get through the holiday, Ian was feasting at Slytherin's long table.
Of course.
While eating, he would occasionally glance at the ceiling.
"What are you looking at?"
Aurora held back for a long time but couldn't suppress her curiosity.
"I'm looking at my losses."
Ian spoke with a hint of melancholy. Yesterday, he had set up a little Christmas surprise here, not expecting to not only not retrieve the Golden Galleon he hid but not even see a copper Knut.
"So it was you who caused last night's scene..." Aurora immediately gleaned the eye-opening event truth from Ian's words.
"Who took the Golden Galleon?"
Ian was wondering if there was a chance to recover his losses.
"I don't know, and I suppose no one knows. Because during last night's banquet, everyone was scrambling away thinking it was Peeves' mischief."
Aurora touched her forehead, perhaps where she had been hit.
"..."
Ian was silent for a moment.
"Yes, it must have been Peeves' prank. I just happened to see its ill behavior." The little wizard's firm statement carried a strong tone of critique.
"???????"
Now it was Aurora's turn to be silent.
Seeing this, Ian quickly shifted the topic.
"The key you gave me, where is it for? An Austrian mansion? Can I pick the decoration style myself?" He obviously didn't come here just because the student scarcity left a large section of the long table empty but was also quite curious about the key gift Aurora gave him.
"It's not a house key. You can't use it to open any mansion...but you can go over to the Elf Bank in Northern Europe and use it to open my grandfather's hidden bank vault."
"I don't know what's in it, but it's definitely my grandfather's treasure, hidden very covertly. I found the hiding spot using my talent."
Aurora explained unhurriedly.
The expression on Ian's face across from her visibly tightened.
"What? You don't like it? I thought you should really like it... After all, you love Golden Galleons, right?" Aurora tilted her head, somewhat puzzled, looking at Ian.
"No...this thing..."
Ian quickly pulled out the key, having had various guesses about it, even wildly hypothesizing if it could be the key to the Slytherin girls' dormitory door.
However.
The reality was even more alarming than his wildly speculative imagination.
"It has to be you! The brave king!" At that moment, Ian felt like a yellow-haired duck, glancing with slight panic towards the professors' table in the hall. Fortunately, Grindelwald hadn't come for lunch, which allowed the little wizard to breathe a sigh of relief with his nerves still taut.
How should one put it?
It definitely wasn't exaggerating Ian's reaction.
After all.
This was more than just stealing a treasure from Grindelwald?
This was Aurora directly exposing Grindelwald's roots entirely!
〔ps: Today, taking leave, in the next two days, siblings, see me, my limit〕