Chapter 46 If You Can Do Better, You Do It

Guided by Sherlock, Hermione began trying to change her situation in her own way.

In every class, she raised her hand and answered questions with an intensity far greater than before, striving hard to earn points.

The effect of this move was quite obvious.

Within a mere month, every professor except Snape had awarded a considerable number of points to Gryffindor.

However.

Even though Hermione single-handedly racked up nearly thirty points this season and was crowned the first-year scoring champion, her standing in Gryffindor remained entirely unchanged.

This was hardly surprising.

Because to a certain extent, everything she was doing was in vain.

In the eyes of her peers, while Hermione Granger was undeniably a brilliant student, she constantly nagged everyone whenever they made a mistake, arbitrarily stopped them from sharing homework, and loved running to the teachers to snitch...

How should one put it?

Everyone knew she was right, but simply no one liked her.

Sherlock could only feel helpless about this.

The advice had already been given, but unfortunately, she refused to take it.

Naturally, others would never appreciate this unilateral sacrifice disguised as doing something for your own good.

What is more, the others didn't need her to do this in the first place—to the little lions of Gryffindor, Hermione's actions were purely meddlesome.

When one is fully focused on something, time tends to fly by especially fast.

Before they knew it, a full two months had passed since the start of term.

The school atmosphere also grew increasingly cheerful.

The first-year new students were about to welcome their very first holiday at school.

Halloween.

Having undergone a long historical evolution, this holiday had long since shed its original religious colors, transforming into a traditional celebration centered around merrymaking.

Halloween actually spans two days.

The Gregorian calendar date of October 31st is known as Halloween.

November 1st is known as All Saints' Day.

Halloween in the colloquial sense refers specifically to October 31st, which was the very day the first-year students were going to hold their celebratory feast.

As for the night of November 1st, it is often referred to as All Hallows' Eve or All Hallows' Day.

Whenever Halloween arrived, children would dress up in all sorts of cute ghosts and goblins, knocking on doors from house to house demanding candy, threatening to make mischief otherwise.

Legend had it that all kinds of spirits would mingle with the crowd on that night, which was why adults often dressed themselves up as demons and monsters as well.

In addition, there were holiday customs such as carving jack-o'-lanterns, playing pranks, and bobbing for apples.

In the Muggle world, Halloween was a major holiday.

Take Yorkshire, for instance, where Sherlock had originally planned to go to school.

The Halloween celebrations there were renowned throughout the whole of Britain.

Initially, Sherlock assumed the magical world did not observe this holiday.

In hindsight, however, that just showed how narrow-minded he had been.

The magical world observed four holidays: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter.

Valentine's Day felt the most out of place among these four, giving one the impression of having sneaked in quietly; at Hogwarts, only the senior students seemed to care for it.

Christmas and Easter granted holidays—which was somewhat awkward, considering the Church had burned quite a large number of witches and wizards back in the day.

On the morning of Halloween, Sherlock woke up to the smell of roasted pumpkins drifting through the corridors.

One could say that from this moment on, the festive atmosphere was fully in place.

The final class before the celebratory feast was Charms, and the young first-year wizards were about to encounter new teaching material—the Levitation Charm.

Everyone was deeply interested in it.

This was because Professor Flitwick used Neville’s toad, Trevor—who always loved abandoning his master to go on solo journeys—to demonstrate, achieving the feat of wingless flight across the classroom under the influence of the Levitation Charm.

However.

The difficulty of the spell quickly shattered their soaring enthusiasm.

Compared to the charms they had learned previously, the Levitation Charm possessed a full eight syllables.

Not only did the pronunciation have to be standard, but the requirements for the wand movement were also extremely high.

It was safe to say the difficulty skyrocketed.

During the practical portion of the charm, as per custom, students practiced in pairs.

Sherlock’s partner was Harry, which made the latter extremely happy.

Because Seamus Finnigan had been constantly trying to catch his attention.

Rather than deal with him, Harry would have much rather been paired with Neville.

It wasn't that Harry looked down on Seamus; it was primarily because Seamus possessed a miraculous gift.

Any spell that was completely harmless in the hands of others would inexplicably cause an explosion the moment Seamus cast it.

This trait had been exceptionally obvious during Transfiguration and Charms classes.

According to Sherlock’s analysis from a scientific perspective, this was likely related to genetics.

Seamus Finnigan was one of the subjects he had deduced while waiting for the train at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters before the term began.

At the time, Sherlock’s analysis of him was: [Newcomer, mother a witch, father an ordinary man working in the demolition industry, who only discovered his wife's identity after marriage.]

After school started, this deduction had also been confirmed.

Therefore, apart from the teachers, only a tiny handful of students like Sherlock were capable of covering for him.

Harry clearly lacked this capability.

As for Neville, who had a look of utter despair while partnered with Seamus, he could only pray for his own good fortune.

Some were joyful while others were miserable.

Harry was glad to have been matched with Sherlock, while Hermione was somewhat depressed that she wasn't paired with him.

Her partner was Ron.

Regarding this matter, Ron was equally reluctant.

He hadn't liked Hermione from the moment he met her.

Although her favorable impression in Ron's eyes had received a boost during the incident where Hermione spoke up righteously for Sherlock and Harry, Hermione's subsequent actions quickly caused Ron's opinion of her to plummet.

This situation reached its peak after Hermione lectured them about not going to duel Malfoy and then showed up late at night to catch them red-handed.

Even though Hermione later tried to change the status quo in her own way, guided by Sherlock, it still had no effect.

During this recent period, aside from Sherlock and Neville, Harry was practically the only one who could manage a few words with Hermione.

And that was purely out of respect for Sherlock.

Moreover, Neville had an introverted and timid personality, meaning the only person who didn't truly push Hermione away was, in fact, Sherlock.

Yet she had failed to be assigned to Sherlock's group—evidently, Professor Flitwick was not someone skilled at observation.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Ron waved his arms like a windmill, shouting and casting the spell.

On one hand, he was channeling his annoyance toward Hermione into his practice; on the other hand, he was hoping to use this method to make the feather feel his determination.

He had heard Harry mention his experience in flying class—that broomsticks could see right through any cowardice in your heart.

You had to be confident!

Yet, as he roared, far from looking confident, he looked much more like he was making a threat.

So it did no good.

Light though it was, the feather was not afraid of threats.

"It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, you need to pronounce the 'g' not just out loud, but long and clear."

Seeing Ron try and fail yet again, Hermione ultimately couldn't hold back and slipped into lecture mode.

"If you're so smart, you do it!"

Ron was already irritated, and upon hearing this, immediately redirected his roaring at Hermione.

Without missing a beat, Hermione waved her wand and pronounced the incantation in a standard London accent.

"Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa!"

The feather very graciously drifted upward, hovering directly above the table.

"Well done!"

Professor Flitwick beamed excitedly. "Everyone look, Miss Granger has succeeded as well! Ten points to Gryffindor—ah, one point to Gryffindor!"

The reason he said "as well" was because Sherlock had already succeeded before Hermione.

This was by no means difficult for him.

Even Harry, paired alongside him, had been encouraged.

After failing continuously a few times, his feather had managed to float successfully.

Consequently, both of them had earned points well before Hermione.

However.

When Sherlock earned points, it naturally won a round of applause.

As for Harry, needless to say, the cheers when he earned points vastly surpassed Sherlock's.

That was the prestige of the magical world's Savior.

Only Hermione.

Received zero notice.