"Oh, esteemed Professor Digory."
A few days later, on the weekend, on the way to Hogsmeade Village, Fred winked at Cedric and said, "Please allow me to greet you and offer my insignificant respect to you."
George also tried to suppress his laughter and looked at him seriously, "If possible, Professor, could you exempt us from homework?"
Cedric rubbed his forehead in slight frustration.
Although he had long known that these two would mock him, when Cedric saw their playful faces in the hall this morning, he couldn't help but feel a headache.
Because they feared being overheard and reported to Umbridge, they restrained themselves while in the castle, but coincidentally, today was a Hogsmeade weekend.
Once outside the school, the two of them had no reservations and mocked Cedric all the way as if performing in a stage play.
"Shut up, you two!" Cho said irritably, "You don't have to participate at all."
"No, of course, we want to participate!" George said.
"Yeah," Fred nodded, "We're learning Defense Against the Dark Arts ourselves... Let me tell you, this idea of yours is really good, I'm absolutely fed up with that hag Umbridge!"
"No, it's Hermione's idea," Cedric corrected, "and I don't even know if anyone will join."
"You can rest assured about that," Fred said, "last night we already helped you ask around, and just from Gryffindor, there are seventeen people who want to join..."
"That many?" Cedric paused and stopped in his tracks.
"You think that's a lot? It's not at all," Fred shook his head, "It's obvious that everyone, like us, has been dissatisfied with Umbridge for a long time, and now there's such an opportunity to learn real skills, of course, they won't miss it."
"And this is just the first batch," George said, "We mainly think that if there are too many people at the first meeting, it will be too conspicuous. Surely more people will join as time goes on."
"Oh." Cedric rubbed his forehead.
He originally thought ten people from Hufflepuff were already quite a lot, but he hadn't expected Gryffindor to be even more exaggerated.
If you add in Ravenclaw...
He turned to Cho, "Ravenclaw won't have that many people too, right?"
"Didn't I just say?" Cho blinked, "Well, maybe I forgot, but we're not as enthusiastic as Gryffindor students; only a few people are interested in self-studying Defense Against the Dark Arts."
Hearing this, Cedric quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Judging from this, the number shouldn't exceed thirty, which is still within an acceptable range.
If there were any more people, he really wasn't sure he could manage.
They quickly walked through the path and arrived at the entrance of Hogsmeade Village.
Hermione was already waiting for them there in advance.
"What do you say we go over now?" She jogged over and said, "As we discussed before, we're going to the Hog's Head Pub."
"Hey, no need to rush," Fred said, "Isn't the meeting time at ten? We still have an hour."
"I know," Hermione said, "but I think we should prepare in advance, see who's there, and if there are any professors, we should change the location promptly."
"Professors wouldn't go to a place like that," George whispered, "They'd only go to somewhere cleaner and livelier, like the Three Broomsticks."
"Hermione is right," Cedric walked over, "It's good to be cautious, I'll go with you."
"I'll go too," Cho said, "I've never been to the Hog's Head Pub, might as well check it out."
"I'm telling you, there's really nothing to see," Fred said, "We once ended up there by mistake."
"The environment is terrible, can't compare to the Three Broomsticks at all, and its only advantage is that it's less crowded."
"Perhaps it's precisely because the environment there is bad that not many people are willing to go."
...
Although Hermione was skeptical about their so-called "by mistake," she didn't say anything.
"Doesn't matter, I have nothing to do right now anyway," Cedric said, "Are you guys going to Zonko's first?"
"We have no choice, we need some inspiration lately," George said, "Preparing to open a joke shop requires a lot, especially the products must be attractive enough."
"Alright then," Cedric nodded, "We'll see you later."
With that, he, Cho, and Hermione left the main road and headed down a secluded path.
"See you later," Fred waved his hand and ran off to Zonko's Joke Shop nearby with George to look for inspiration.
Kael also didn't go to the Hog's Head Pub but instead went to Gladrags Wizardwear with Conna.
He had noticed a few days ago that his thick robes had become a bit small and needed a new set before winter.
Gladrags Wizardwear was on the latter half of the main road, next to the Shrieking Shack.
By the time the two of them entered the store, students had already arrived.
Two girls from Slytherin, and Kael knew them both.
Daphne Greengrass, and her sister, Astoria.
As they walked into the store, Astoria was looking at some oddly shaped brooches, while Daphne's eyes were glued to a gorgeous dress robe on the shelf.
"It's new,"
The store owner, a witch in her thirties, was introducing the dress robe,
"See those golden patterns? That's real gold thread, the silver parts are Unicorn Tail Hair, and the gems are from Fire Crabs, all rare and intact goods."
"How much is it?" Daphne couldn't help asking.
"Just three hundred Galleons, dear," the shopkeeper beamed, "It's currently my most satisfying creation."
Kael instinctively looked at the dress robe and suddenly felt like laughing, but managed to hold it in.
Daphne frowned a little.
Three hundred Galleons, even for her, was a bit pricey, but looking at the lavish dress robe, she really liked it.
"You should still have quite a bit of pocket money, right?" Daphne looked at her sister and asked.
"Huh?" Astoria snapped back to reality and then took out an exquisite money pouch, "Not much, just a hundred Galleons left."
"That's enough, lend it to me first." Daphne took Astoria's money pouch and said, "I need to try on this dress."
"Of course, no problem," the shopkeeper nodded smilingly, "Please come with me."
Then the two of them walked towards the back of the shop together.
"Carrying a hundred Galleons and not much?" Conna whispered, "They really are wealthy."
Upon hearing this, Kael seemed to think of something and suddenly chuckled.
"What are you laughing at?" Conna asked.
"Nothing, just reminded me of when we first met on the train at the beginning of the school year," Kael said, "You were just like them back then."
"What?" Conna didn't quite understand.
"Don't you remember?" Kael explained, "On the train, you poured a heap of Galleons onto the table, scaring Cedric and me."
"At that moment, both of us felt the same as you do now, thinking wizards from Pure-Blood families are really wealthy."
"That was so long ago." Seeing her embarrassing past being brought up, Conna gave Kael an irritable look.
"Yes, it has been quite a while." Kael said, and then changed the topic, "What do you think of that dress robe?"
"Too flashy," Conna said dismissively, "It looks nice, but there's too much decoration and it looks a bit odd, and it must be uncomfortable to wear."
"But some people do like that style," Conna added, "At last year's Christmas ball, many people wore those fancy dress robes."
"Really?" Kael asked, as he couldn't recall what everyone wore at that ball.
"Of course, and there were quite a few," Conna said, "After the ball, Leticia talked about it all night, I couldn't not listen. And for the next few days, their topic was always those beautiful dress robes."
"Alright."
Although Kael and Conna were speaking quietly, they caught the attention of Astoria nearby.
After all, there were only three people in the store now, so it was hard not to notice, but since the distance was a bit far, she didn't catch what they were saying.
And seemingly afraid of being misunderstood as deliberately eavesdropping, she purposely moved to a more distant spot.
This behavior naturally caught Kael and Conna's attention.
"She really doesn't seem like a Slytherin," Conna said.
"No," Kael said, "It's just that she doesn't seem like the current Slytherins."
...