Chapter 164

Theodore sat on his left side with his legs crossed and started nagging.

"Okay, I know you have a partner, you succeeded." Nietzsche clapped his hands perfunctorily.

But what Theodore said made sense. If he was like others, always starting from the "requirements for a partner", then just based on appearance, he would eliminate a large number of girls and rank everyone.

But to put it bluntly, he was just lucky. Who would have thought that Eloise ran to Madam Pomfrey's infirmary and asked for a bottle of beauty potion because of Theodore's invitation to the ball.

Of course, it might be that Madam Pomfrey couldn't bear to see the witch trying to use a spell to treat acne, which caused the magic accident.

"What are you proud of? Why don't you say that you were actually drunk on the day you invited her?" Hubble rushed out of the dormitory and revealed the truth with contempt, "You were hiding in the dormitory and regretting it at that time..."

Theodore turned his head and grinned at him, indicating that he should not talk nonsense.

But Hubble, his roommate, obviously couldn't stand it anymore. It seemed that he had suffered a lot living in the same dormitory with Theodore.

"A girl became beautiful for me, you are jealous!" Theodore turned his head awkwardly and continued, "But you see, decisions made under tension are not necessarily bad."

But to put it simply, Nietzsche had no idea how to devote himself to it.

Every time he saw something, he could copy it in his head. This was almost an irremovable curse. Growing up with this talent, Nietzsche rarely had some natural actions that he couldn't control himself.

As for taking another step, he was even more at a loss.

"Drink... But this is a good way." Hubble suddenly hit his left palm with his right fist and said along with the words between them.

"But the school doesn't allow alcoholic beverages to students..." Nietzsche suddenly added, "I just don't want to ruin a perfect dance."

He touched the black walnut in his palm. He knew his temper and how much of an obstacle it would cause to the dance that Hermione was looking forward to. Besides, his patronus also had to rely on feelings.

So he thought: Why don't I give it a try?

Although alcohol is prohibited for students, it doesn't mean they can't get it.

"Is there anything here that George and Fred can't get?" Theodore laughed and patted his chest to make a promise, "Don't worry, I will help you get the freshly brewed wine from the Hog's Head Bar."

On Christmas Day, in order to show their style, the professors used magic to make various ice sculptures that would not melt.

When they walked into the hall, it seemed as if they were in a magic school on the Siberian ice field...

In the middle of the hall, there was a huge Christmas tree, covered with ice crystals, and the flames from the candles floating on the mistletoe made the crystal decorations sparkle.

As soon as Nietzsche's head emerged from the basement, a snowball flew over.

"Merry Christmas~"

The Weasley twins were playing snowballs at the door. When they saw him, they ran over with their pockets in their hands, suspicious.

Then Nietzsche felt his pockets sink, and heard Fred say, "No...no need to pay, Hubble and Theodore told us, this wine is our treat, okay?"

After that, George on the other side patted his shoulder vigorously and laughed, "You are so lucky!"

Nietzsche looked at Ginny, Lavender and others who came down from the Gryffindor Tower, but didn't see Hermione.

"Where is she?"

"She's getting ready. Lavender and Parvati aren't the prettiest girls of all ages in Gryffindor right now." Ginny covered her mouth and smiled foolishly.

Harry was about to speak, and just as he raised his hand, he was about to say hello to Nietzsche, but the next second Ginny hooked his arm around him and dragged him into the hall.

"But only for this Christmas." Lavender and Parvati followed Ron and Neville out, and they said gloomily.

There was no news. No matter which Gryffindor Nietzsche asked, he would only get two answers:

Either they didn't know, or they were as mysterious as Weasley.

Sometimes it was like this. The less Nietzsche knew about something, the more curious he would be about something. He had never felt such a strong curiosity about Hermione as he did now - what exactly did she prepare.

This gave him an indescribable feeling.

It was as if a circle of brown, soft fur had grown in my heart...

(Yeah! Dance!)

Chapter 246: First Kiss Under the Mistletoe

(Two-in-one sugar, full sugar)

Brandy, with a little chicken blood, becomes food for dragon cubs, and with a little syrup and lemon juice, it becomes Nietzsche's cocktail for regulating emotions.

He leaned against the door of the auditorium, warming his body with the sweet and sour brandy cocktail, while vaguely glancing at the students dressed up and crowded around him in pairs:

Malfoy also came up from the basement, he was wearing a black swan feather high collar robe, while Pansy was dragging a light red long skirt, hanging tightly on his arm;

Goyle and Crabbe, wearing green dresses, were on their left and right. Obviously, no one looked down on these two moss-covered trolls;

Warrington also came, and their dance partners were some witches from Slytherin, some from Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.

"Who are you waiting for?" A female voice woke Nietzsche up.

It was Daphne, who was also dressed stunningly tonight. The dark purple dress she wore was very suitable for her lonely temperament, like a ghost wandering on the edge of the crowd and liking quietness.

And her dance partner was... her sister Astoria, who was shyly hiding behind Daphne.

Nietzsche turned his head in a daze. Under the fermentation of alcohol, he felt a little stuffy. The part of his brain that controlled "rational thinking" began to become rigid, so his brain made an important decision:

Let go and leave everything to the feeling.

"Wait for my partner..." Nietzsche leaned against the door frame and looked at the two of them, and said slowly, "It seems that you got your Christmas present."

"Yes~" Daphne stood on tiptoe and saw Malfoy's dance partner with difficulty, "Now I can choose my favorite dance partner by myself, I am already very satisfied... She is here!"

Nietzsche's head was suddenly turned to the other side by her, and then he saw the end of the crowd slowly separate.

His sight moved upward from the red carpet. Amid the exclamations and sighs of sorrow, he saw a beautiful figure walking over. On her elegant light red satin skirt, there were a few yellow agave patterns on the sleeves.

The brim of her hat just covered half of her head, elegant and mysterious.

Her hair was not so messy. It became very smooth because of the conditioner provided by other witches. It was slightly curled and naturally scattered behind her head and drooped on her bare shoulders.

Hermione Granger, she was like a phoenix emerging from the embers...

"As the unlucky dance partner of the warrior, come to my side. No one can refuse!" Hermione walked over in small steps and hooked Nietzsche's arm.

He licked the brandy at the corner of his mouth and swallowed. On her slightly protruding chest, there was a diamond-shaped pendant that Nietzsche had never seen before, engraved with several runes.

Not affected by any magic, he naturally exclaimed in intoxication: She is so beautiful.

She turned her head, hooked Nietzsche's arm, and smiled shyly under the snowflakes coming in from the gate.

What kind of smile was that?

It was like the flame lit in the lighthouse at Tower Point in winter; it was also like a white ghost, walking out of his shell, and accompanying him to every corner of the world...

"Warriors, come forward!" Professor McGonagall looked at the people who had gathered and pushed open the heavy oak door.

The hall had also changed. The long tables were removed and replaced with many small round tables with roses. There were twinkling stars in the sky, and the flying 'fireflies' were real fairies, flying around among the rose petals.

He and Hermione, along with the other warriors and their respective dance partners, sat on the big round table of the guest of honor.

It was just that Mr. Crouch was missing from the Christmas ball this time, and the person who took his place was Percy, who had just graduated last year.

"Does it look good?" Hermione puffed out her chest and said with a blushing face, "The professor gave me... an alchemical gadget that can be used to store contract magic."

"It's really unfair." Nietzsche unconsciously got closer and closer to her.

He sniffed and smelled a faint smell of alcohol, but Hermione didn't seem to care. Maybe she thought it was the smell coming from the professors' wine glasses at the guest of honor.

And a little... chocolate?

Hundreds of small round tables were empty. They were all waiting for the elves to serve the dishes. There was only a rich menu in the middle of the golden plates.

Dumbledore started: "Pork chops!"

When everyone saw the food that appeared out of thin air, they suddenly realized and began to imitate the headmaster and ordered meals.

Fleur's dance partner was Roger Davis from Ravenclaw. As Nietzsche expected, she didn't like her dance partner very much, because most of the time, Fleur was talking and Davis was nodding.

The view on the stage was wide, and Nietzsche could notice everyone's little movements...

Professor Snape looked at the stage calmly, one cup after another, some people were immersed in joy with alcohol, while others were anesthetizing themselves, which made Lupin, who was sitting at the staff table, cast a worried look.

Tonight, everyone was very happy, and Nietzsche also saw Sirius was constantly giving Harry a thumbs up, which made Ginny and Harry very embarrassed.

You can't eat too much. After all, the whole process of the dance is to eat while playing. The warriors will open the scene first, and then when others have almost finished eating, they will go up to move around.

Dumbledore stood up, waved his wand, and conjured up many musical instruments: drums, guitars, organs...

"Now, please invite the warriors and their partners to come forward~" The headmaster winked at the two of them.

Then the band "Weird Sisters" appeared on the stage amid the applause of the crowd. They had thick hair and their clothes were deliberately torn. At the same time, the empty area between the guest seats and the students was lit up.

"It's our turn!" Hermione, contrary to her previous reservedness in Belfast, pulled Nietzsche and forced him to leave the unfinished steak.

The lanterns on the other tables were all extinguished, and the only light sources in the entire auditorium were the dance floor and the starry sky on the ceiling.

"It seems that being a warrior is not all bad." Hermione's hand was around Nietzsche's waist, and the other hand was supporting his neck, all the way down, stopping at the center of his back.

As for Nietzsche, he was like a small boat on the lake, swaying around with the oars.

To be honest, he felt something - about the 'love' that Dumbledore talked about, about the meaning of the Patronus Charm... He just looked into the other's chocolate eyes, as if his soul was sucked in.

Nietzsche felt that he had found something, not a lost wand or clothes, but like Salazar Slytherin came from the swamp to the mountains and met Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

It was something that could not be found once it was lost.

If he realized his hope because of fear, then he also realized what Hermione represented because of Hermione - he became so complete because of that part of Hermione.

"I found you." Nietzsche's palms pressed tightly against her skin, and the sad and slow rhythm made his vision begin to blur. He had to squint slightly and sink his head.

Gradually, his forehead touched hers.

Hermione's eyelashes and soul trembled at this moment.

"Do you want to try?" She seemed to understand what the other person was thinking.

Their movements changed: they freed their right hands to hold their wands, intertwined their left arms, and whispered a Patronus spell at the same time.

"Expecto Patronus~"

Silver mist spread in the air...

Nietzsche thought: I am not just an idealist immersed in brilliant fantasy, nor a conspirator who uses things to achieve his goals. I need Hermione, because only she can complete me.

He suddenly remembered Ollivander's evaluation of black walnut:

The nature of black walnut is very strange. Its owner must be a wizard who knows himself very well, but as long as black walnut recognizes it, it will appear to be very talented and loyal in all magic.

In these silver-white mists, Nietzsche could no longer tell which ones were his and which ones were Hermione's.

He could only watch the mist intertwined, and it was not small, it was nine meters high, and it looked like a giant snake in terms of size, and it had three heads.

The sudden appearance of the three-headed snake startled the other warriors and they pulled out their wands.

"Relax, everyone~" Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands happily, "It seems that this ball was a success, and the wizarding world has gained another powerful wizard... Congratulations to Mr. Holmes for making further progress in magic."

Everyone followed suit and clapped their hands. They looked up and waited until the fog cleared, only to find that the three heads of the snake were very ferocious. When they stood up, they almost reached the ceiling.

"This magical animal is..." Madame Maxime waved to the people below.

Hagrid, who was wearing a brown plush suit, shouted: "It's a rune snake! But I've never seen this kind... It's abnormally huge! It's four times the size of an ordinary rune snake."

Karkaroff's goatee tilted, and a mocking expression appeared on his face.

"If I remember correctly, the Rune Snake represents the dark wizards, right?" He leaned over, put his weight on the armrest of the chair, and continued, "The three-headed snake in Burkina Faso has always only communicated with Parseltongue."

Hermione was very unhappy. She turned around at the speed of light with anger.

"But what you don't know is that Burkina Faso is a place sandwiched between the old world and the new world. There are not only Parseltongues on that land, but also a great man."

Karkaroff seemed to have been slapped in the face. He opened his mouth, unable to say a word to refute, and then left the table angrily.

But Nietzsche didn't care about the thoughts of those people in the guest of honor. He looked at the ferocious Rune Snake infatuatedly. The three heads represented the planner, the dreamer, and the critic respectively.

Hermione's palm softened, and she looked down and found that Nietzsche had already grasped it.

"It seems that you don't need to correct your teeth." He looked at the front teeth in the girl's mouth and said with a smile, "Because among the three heads of the rune snake, only the teeth on the far right are poisonous."

The light shines through the never-melting ice crystals and the translucent three-headed snake, presenting a dreamlike romance.

"Really?" Hermione touched her hot face, stepped down from the dance floor, threw a square piece of chocolate into her mouth, and walked out with Nietzsche.

They ignored those people and walked through several winding corridors to the empty eighth floor. Under the window at the end of the corridor, there was a mistletoe wreath bathed in moonlight.

It's amazing...

"I have to admit that part of the patronus is made up of you...I can feel it." Nietzsche breathed in the cool air, and his eyes were gathered in her eyes along with the moonlight.