Adelaide brought Hermione back to Dumbledores Old House in Godrics Hollow.
Hiss~
Did I open the door the wrong way?
Adelaide stood frozen in the hallway, seeing a familiar figure lazily lying on the sofa, holding a macaron, with eyes fixed on the cartoons playing on the television screen.
Adelaide thought to herself that this was bad; wasn't Alice supposed to be in Romania?
Why would she be in Dumbledores Old House in Godrics Hollow?
Before Adelaide could react, Alice noticed someone had entered and looked up, meeting the eyes of the newly arrived Adelaide.
Adelaide realized things were about to get troublesome, but it was too late to stop it now.
"Ahhhhh, Adelaide, you're finally back!"
Alice screamed excitedly, no longer even caring about the cartoons that were playing.
Like a happy puppy waiting for its owner to return home, she bounded from the living room to the hallway in an instant, then spread her arms and pounced on Adelaide with lightning speed, giving her a passionate hug.
Adelaide only felt a massive force hit her, and then she was tightly held in Alice's arms.
To her embarrassment, Alice's developing and already sizable chest was pressed right against her face, making it nearly impossible for her to breathe normally.
"Cough, cough... Alice, let go of me quickly!"
Adelaide shouted in a muffled voice while trying to break free from Alice's embrace.
However, Alice was currently immersed in the joy of reuniting with Adelaide and had no intention of letting go; instead, she held Adelaide even tighter.
"No, I missed you so much!"
Alice acted spoiled, completely disregarding Adelaide's feelings.
The two remained in a stalemate for a while; Hermione, who was behind Adelaide, had a face so dark it looked like it could drip water, her expression as black as the bottom of a pot.
She widened her eyes and stared fixedly at Alice not far ahead, recognizing her as the girl who had been following Adelaide in Chinatown.
"Let go of Adelaide quickly! Can't you see she can't breathe?"
Hermione reached out and forcefully pulled at Alice's arms that were tightly pinning Adelaide. With Hermione's help, Adelaide finally managed to break free from Alice's restraint.
She hurriedly took two steps back and gasped for air. She was alive again!
What on earth did Alice grow up eating? They were both twelve, but her strength and figure were just too outrageous!
"Oh, it's you! A Muggle-born like you actually has such good luck to receive a Hogwarts acceptance letter."
Alice also recognized the girl with bushy brown hair and large front teeth as the Muggle who had disrupted things in Chinatown. If it hadn't been for Hermione's sudden appearance at Christmas, ruining her and Adelaide's Chinatown food tour, she might have tasted even more delicious food that day!
Hermione and Alice glared at each other, sparks of anger seemingly flying between their eyes.
Even the surrounding air seemed affected by their emotions, as a faint murderous aura filled the living room of Dumbledores Old House.
Having finally escaped Alice's embrace, Adelaide noticed the atmosphere was off and quickly racked her brain for a way to divert their attention.
She asked Alice, "Alice, why are you here? I remember Professor MacFusty went to Romania to find you just a few days ago."
Alice rolled her eyes helplessly and muttered, "Ugh, don't even mention it! I really don't know what Dumbledore was thinking, sending a greenhorn like Charlie Weasley to Romania with me. Honestly, his dragon-caring skills aren't even as good as mine!"
"And along the way, his mouth was like a machine gun, talking incessantly about Quidditch. He even insisted on teaching me how to control a flying broomstick more skillfully—please, if this young lady wants to fly, I can just turn into a dragon. Why would I need to learn that?"
At this point, Alice frowned and continued to complain, "After my brother arrived, things became even more of a mess. For some reason, my brother seems to have a particular dislike for the red-haired Weasley, staring at him and grumbling all day. He even suspiciously guessed that Dumbledore had some ulterior motives."
"He argued with Charlie Weasley almost every day, while never forgetting to repeatedly warn me to stay away from that redhead, saying he wasn't a good person and so on. Ugh, they both annoyed me to death!"
Like she had finally found an outlet, Alice blathered on in one breath: "I really couldn't stand the two of them acting up, so I took advantage of the night to quietly transform and fly back to the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest to wait for the term to start. As soon as I got back, I was discovered by Headmaster Dumbledore—fortunately, Headmaster Dumbledore is quite reasonable; he arranged for me to stay in his house temporarily."
This... A complex expression appeared on Adelaide's face. She had originally thought Professor MacFusty's health improved so quickly entirely because Dumbledore successfully found a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher as summer approached.
That way, the vicious curse previously placed on Professor MacFusty transferred to Professor Quirrell, and his illness naturally went away.
But now Adelaide felt there was another possibility: Professor MacFusty heard his sister had set off for Romania alone with Charlie, and fearing the 'redhead' would take the chance to'steal the home base,' he used the powerful conviction of 'loving' his sister to stubbornly resist the curse and improve his health just to go to Romania and drive the 'redhead' away.
Now he even had the strength to go toe-to-toe with Charlie Weasley, which showed his health had recovered quite well—regardless, it was a good thing Professor MacFusty regained his health.
What Adelaide didn't expect was that Dumbledore had actually arranged for Alice to stay in the old house as well.
He clearly knew she would bring Hermione back, and seeing Alice's reaction, she also knew Hermione had been accepted by Hogwarts... hiss~
Could that old fellow Dumbledore be wanting to watch the drama unfold?
She had only arranged for Vinda Rosier to write a letter to her Great-Granduncle; Dumbledore couldn't be that petty!
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