Michael thought that if he refused an invitation from a girl, she would feel embarrassed, so he accepted it.
Actually, Michael has always maintained good relationships with many girls, and Padma knows that. But for some reason, this time Padma got very angry and even suggested breaking up after a big argument.
Michael tried to act indifferent, shrugged, and said, "You know, it's normal to argue when you're in a relationship. We just need to calm down."
Vid handed the application form to Filch and nodded with a smile to the caretaker.
"Approved."
After the two of them walked out the door, Vid asked Michael, "How did you feel when you heard Padma say that silly 'Charlie' was cute?"
Michael fell silent, his face slightly serious, and his lips formed a straight line.
"Think about it, Michael," Vid said. "I remember you telling me that you saw Padma in Eris's Magic Mirror... Don't forget what you really want."
Michael buried his head and climbed into the carriage, then saw Vid looking forward and reaching to touch something in the air.
He knew it was a Thestral, but no matter how hard he tried to open his eyes wide, he could only see empty air.
Soon, Neville hurriedly ran up to the carriage, accompanied by Hermione.
"Ah, luckily there's still a carriage left," Neville said with relief. "I forgot today is the Hogsmeade weekend, but thankfully Hermione called me when she left."
"Hermione?" Michael asked curiously, "You didn't go with Harry and Ron?"
Though they didn't get along well initially, after more than two years, Hermione had formed a fixed trio with Harry and Ron. Being classmates in the same house, many conflicts were resolved through daily interactions.
"Don't mention it!" Hermione said angrily, "I don't want to hear Ron's name today!"
Michael looked up at the sky, watching intently, and the others couldn't help but look up too.
"What are you looking at?" Vid asked, puzzled to see the clear sky without even a bird.
"I want to check today's moon phase," Michael said profoundly, "Is today a special day? Everyone seems to be getting irritable."
Neville took it seriously, looked at the sky again, and said earnestly, "But—there's no moon right now!"
Hermione, still with a stern face, couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Then she explained the reason.
This year, Hermione bought a cat as a pet and named it Crookshanks. Despite its appearance not being cute at all, Hermione loved it dearly.
Ever since Scabbers turned into a bald man, Ron avoided creatures like rats.
Last Christmas, Vid gave everyone a Poppet Pet. Ron got a teacup dog, which was about the size of a rat but was cute and obedient, even rolling over and finding things, naturally becoming Ron's beloved treasure.
But yesterday, after class, they returned to find Crookshanks with the teacup dog in its mouth, seemingly ready to bite it.
Ron completely forgot it was a Poppet, rushed to snatch his pet from the cat's mouth, and shouted to keep Crookshanks away.
Hermione, however, chose to defend her cat:
"You scared it, Ron! They're just playing, and Poppets won't be hurt by it!"
One thought the other was overreacting, the other felt the other didn't manage their pet well, and the surrounding students watched their argument but began to laugh.
Everyone else found the matter funny, but the people involved didn't see it that way.
Ron was so angry he didn't speak to Hermione the entire day, and when going to Hogsmeade Village today, he pulled Harry along with several other boys to leave first.
Hermione didn't have the best relationship with most of the girls in Gryffindor; she didn't try to please others, so she intentionally dawdled for a while in the morning, waiting until others left before departing.
Finally, she passed by the common room, only seeing Neville, who thought Hogsmeade weekend was tomorrow.
Like most classmates, Michael found their argument trivial, but at this moment, he was Hermione's friend, naturally siding with her and condemning Ron.
While speaking, Vid suddenly asked, "Is Carrel also going to Hogsmeade? Whose signature is on his application?"
"Carrel?" Hermione thought for a while before saying, "I didn't notice, but he also submitted an application form... Professor McGonagall should know."
"It was Dumbledore," Neville suddenly said sullenly. "I saw it when he passed by me."
"Dumbledore?" Michael asked, puzzled, "Is the headmaster his guardian?"
"I don't know, there must be some reason."
Hermione said casually that she was still angry with Ron.
Vid frowned slightly but said nothing.
——Dumbledore arranged it that way, he surely has his reasons.
Even though Vid didn't understand, he couldn't say it was wrong.
...
"Want to hear your teeth chatter? Then you must try two Ice Mice! And this super bubble gum—I guarantee its bubbles will last at least five days!"
Frum, the owner of Honeydukes, was enthusiastically promoting his products to the students. He noticed a student standing nearby just watching without any intent to purchase and understood something.
He brought out a basket of fragrant milk candies and eagerly distributed them to the students in the shop:
"These are newly made candy samples, different from anything you've tasted before! Have a taste, kids!"
A handful of candies was stuffed into Carrel's hand, who noticed he was given twice as much candy as the others. He looked up to see the owner smiling and nodding at him before turning to distribute samples to the other children.
Carrel touched the small change in his pocket and made up his mind to take out a handful of Knuts: "I want to buy this lollipop."
Actually, when they arrived in the United Kingdom, they had a large sum of operational funds, quite a lot of money in both the Magic World and the Muggle World.
But of course, the money wasn't kept on Carrel, and when those three died or ran away, Carrel was caught and brought back by Dumbledore with only a few Knuts on him.
Dumbledore, according to the standards for school financial aid for poor students, gave Carrel a bag of money. But considering that it's the funds for a semester, Carrel naturally had to spend it sparingly.
"Bloody Lollipop?" said the owner, "It's a rather unusual flavor, usually only vampires like it—are you sure you want to buy it?"
"I want to try it," Carrel insisted.
A few minutes later, Carrel was sucking on the lollipop with a strong bloody flavor, restraining himself from staring at the necks of the nearby classmates, curiously observing the surrounding buildings.
Last time, they hid very close to Hogsmeade but didn't have the opportunity to enter the village, only seeing a small area through the lens of a Flow Mirror.
But today's Hogsmeade was different. It was packed with Hogwarts students, and all the shops displayed their best products to welcome this batch of guests.
As a result, there were many tourists in the village, some were parents particularly coming to visit their children.
Since it was also the eve of Halloween, the street was adorned with Halloween decorations everywhere, giant pumpkins could be seen here and there, and many windows were decorated with pale skeletons.
A ghost disguised itself as a weather doll, swinging gently under the eaves, sometimes emitting sudden screams that startled the nearby students.
There were also some magical bats swirling in teams above the street, the students watched happily, occasionally ducking to avoid the flying bats.
Some bats hung below the eaves like silent wind chimes. Presumably, by nightfall, the Halloween atmosphere here would be even stronger.
Seeing those decorative bats, Carrel smirked sarcastically and lowered his head to crunch on the lollipop.
By accident, he bumped into a passerby.
"Sorry," Carrel apologized casually and didn't pay much attention, intending to bypass the other person and move on.
As they brushed past each other, the other person suddenly said, "Is an apology all?"
The husky voice sounded familiar, tinged with a slight laugh.
Carrel abruptly raised his head to see a man with unusually pale complexion standing before him, smiling at him.
The man had a noticeable tattoo on his face, perhaps because of that, he wore a wide hood to conceal his face.
Carrel immediately showed a delighted expression; he was about to speak when the man held up a finger and softly shook his head.
Carrel closed his mouth and simply followed the man, winding down some paths until they reached a corner of the village.
Here it was very secluded, the houses around were all shaded by trees, and the noise of the commercial street was almost completely inaudible.
As they approached, the door of a house was suddenly opened, and a slightly plump woman in a gray dress with her hair tied up stepped out quickly, looking at Carrel with surprise.
She covered her mouth, tears of joy in her eyes: "Thank goodness... Carrel, you're alive..."
Carrel couldn't hold back any longer, he rushed over to embrace her: "Mom—"
The tattooed man glanced around and ushered them into the house: "We'll talk inside, this place is full of British Wizard spies."
Walking into the house, Carrel excitedly and curiously asked: "Dad, Mom, why are you in Hogsmeade?"