"Secret passage?" A voice came from thin air.
Harry had just discovered the use of the Invisibility Cloak and put it on.
"What secret passage? Do Fred and George know? Where is it?"
The corners of Basil's mouth curled up slightly. "A secret passage even they don't know about. It's on the second floor, in Myrtle's bathroom."
Headless Harry appeared. "The girls' bathroom?"
He took off the cloak, his eyes filled with curiosity and conflict.
After a moment, his innate goodness won out. "It's Christmas today. How about we go another day?"
"Fine." Basil rolled his eyes.
He casually opened another package. It was a reddish-brown book titled Magic Power Theory: Why We Abandoned It.
Harry saw it too.
He laughed. "That has to be Hermione's gift. She's still trying to convince you that the Grand Wizard is just your ancestor's fantasy and not a real existence."
"Yeah." Basil pulled out a note tucked inside the book.
It read: [I think this book will be very useful to you. —Hermione Granger]
"I think I need to go out for a bit."
Hammersmith and Fulham is a borough in West London. It borders the Thames, with Kensington and Chelsea to the east, Brent to the north, and Ealing and Hounslow to the west. Because of its prime location, it historically was a residential area for the upper class. Now, it's home to many middle-class families.
The Grangers, with the father being a dentist, lived in this community.
Although the famous Chelsea Football Club is named after the Chelsea district, their stadium is actually within the Fulham borough.
So, due to proximity and conformity, most families living in this area were Chelsea fans, or at least liked football.
But Hermione didn't like football.
Christmas is also a holiday for visiting relatives and exchanging gifts.
Right now, her house was full of relatives whose names she couldn't fully remember, watching the football match and discussing football topics.
In the past, she could have interrupted by showing off her academic achievements or talking about books she'd read.
But now... pull out her wand and make an apple grow limbs and dance the cha-cha?
That would be a violation of the Statute of Secrecy!
She could only walk out of the house alone, standing under a snow-covered fir tree, gazing into the distance.
Her hand stroked the rough bark. "If I'd known, I wouldn't have come home for Christmas. Basil."
Thud!
The tree shook, and snow cascaded down.
The next second, Hermione's brown hair and clothes were coated in white.
Her eyes narrowed, shooting anger in all directions, looking for the person who kicked the tree.
Then, a "Hi!" came from the left.
Hermione turned her head.
Her anger turned into smoke and vanished into the air.
A blond boy stood leaning against the wall with a smile. He was like a human furnace; as she approached, the snowflakes covering him turned into steam, and a wave of warmth rushed over her frozen red hands.
Although she knew this was a special ability brought by Basil's body—which was impervious to wind and snow and could turn his eyes into golden vertical slits...
For some reason, she felt this warmth came from the inexplicable feeling surging in her heart.
She looked down at her toes and whispered, "Long time no see."
"Long time?" The blond boy counted on his fingers. "One day, two days... it's been four days total. How is that a long time?"
Hermione's cheeks puffed up, her breathing quickened, and her two front teeth made a ffft sound as she exhaled hot air.
She looked up. "You haven't explained the gift yet! Aren't you staying at school? Also, how do you know where I live?"
Under extreme embarrassment, her intelligent brain regained control.
She suddenly remembered she hadn't checked the gifts from the wizarding world she received today.
Combined with Basil coming over now, there was at least a 70% chance he planned to give her the gift in person.
Sure enough, the next second.
Basil pulled a package out of thin air from behind his back.
"Here's the gift." Basil raised an eyebrow.
If he hadn't just spent another 100 Gems to light up Hermione's house and seen that the packages hadn't been touched, he might have been bluffed.
He smirked. "But this is the second gift. You should have received the first one already."
This was a lie! In fact, the so-called first gift was bought on the spot from [Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes] and then placed in Hermione's room. Of course, even so, he maintained the fine tradition of withdrawing funds from the Lestrange family.
If Neville knew, he would probably kneel on the spot and call Basil "Dad" (referring to the four people who tortured Neville's parents into insanity: Barty Crouch Jr., Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband Rodolphus, and his brother Rabastan).
"Huh?" Hermione played dumb. "Really? I don't believe you."
But even so, while taking the gift, she didn't forget to touch Basil's hand.
Ew, cringe!
Basil really wanted to write a short essay and post it online.
Format: Fam, something huge happened! I kindly gave a girl a gift, and this cringe girl turned around and hit on me. Are you okay? Help me, I'm literally dead, so cringe, fam, who gets it...
But the underdeveloped internet of this era, and the usefulness of Hermione's Echo, saved her.
She went ahead and opened the gift.
Inside was a simple, elegant blue cloak.
Her eyes narrowed into slits of joy, but she still complained, "Just a cloak?"
"A Shield Cloak. It has a Shield Charm embedded, which can reflect simple hexes. It's very useful for wizards who can't cast the Shield Charm, or have slow reactions and haven't mastered the technique of injecting mental power into their Magic Field," Basil replied.
Before Basil finished speaking, Hermione had already put the cloak on.
She waved her hand. "Try a hex on me."
Basil cooperated by waving his wand. A green light shot at the cloak, then bounced off onto the fir tree beside them.
A translucent slug popped out where the tree was hit.
"It really works!" Hermione said, almost jumping. "What was the first gift?"
"A very interesting spell." Basil kept her in suspense.
He looked up at the snowy sky with feigned trouble. "By the way, aren't you going to invite me in?"
Hermione's face turned red instantly. "There are other people here... I mean relatives besides my parents who don't know about the wizarding world. How about we go to Diagon Alley? Paddington Station is very close."
In fact, he knew.
He was just teasing Hermione.
Finally, Hermione trotted into the house.
She told her parents that the famous wizarding adventurer Lockhart was attending an event in Diagon Alley.
After being allowed to go alone, she ran back out, her face flushed.
They took the train together and arrived at the Leaky Cauldron.
Basil casually gave Old Tom a useful wand holster as a gift.
Next, they spent the afternoon in Flourish and Blotts (spending two Sickles to read books inside).
Near dinner time, he walked Hermione back to her door.
Of course, he didn't warn Hermione that a tall man and a beautiful woman were secretly peeking from behind the window.
Just as the bell for the Christmas feast rang, he returned to Hogwarts.
Read advance chapter in my Pat****
ilham20
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Hogwarts Might Makes Juctice!!!!