"Thank you for your help, grandma."
Damon followed Augusta out of Dumbledore's office and thanked the old lady again.
"Don't thank me, I should thank you. In the future, you should take Neville to play more often. Can you do it, kid?"
"I will."
"Very good. If you need any help, let Neville write to me, or go to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and find Tom, the manager there.
Although the Longbottom family has declined as one of the sacred 28 families, we have not lost the glory and power of pure blood."
"Thank you for your promise. I remember it. Do you want to go with me to see Neville?"
Damon didn't care about the so-called pure blood and half-blood in the old man's mouth, and only regarded her as a somewhat stern old lady.
"I'm going back directly. Please tell him for me that he did a good job on this matter. I am proud of him."
After that, the iron-blooded old woman left without any pause, as if she had just heard about this from a good professor and immediately set off to Hogwarts.
"Then I'll go back to class."
Damon left with a relaxed mood - although it didn't matter to him whether he was in detention or not, it was just that he would miss out on the fun of bickering with Snape.
He was not naive enough to think that Snape would give him extra lessons during detention. With the old bat's temper, he would probably make him deal with a lot of disgusting potion materials and keep mocking him.
Behind Damon, there was a door.
Dumbledore finally watched Damon's back quietly through the door, extremely focused, with an expression on his face as if he was thinking about something extremely important.
He had a general understanding of the character of this child. In time, he would definitely be a great helper for Harry to fight Voldemort, but he still had to watch him more - to see what choice he would make when facing a crisis?
Dumbledore had seen many people who were usually very courageous, but when faced with life and death, they chose to kneel before Voldemort, exposing their ugly side.
Would Damon be that kind of person?
The next day, the "Duel Prince's Blitz on Malfoy" incident began to ferment, and the situation changed slightly.
More and more students reduced their time in bed and came to the hall early to eat - they were afraid that they would miss some excitement again because of laziness.
The enthusiasm of the little lions ebbed, and they began to come to their senses - they began to feel sorry for their score in the House Cup.
Yes, what Damon did was really cool, but the loss of 150 points also made them lose face - Gryffindor fell from the first place in the House Cup to the fourth place in an instant. Whenever they passed by the scoring office on the first floor, they felt empty in their hearts.
Some strange voices began to spread in the small group.
Their eyes looking at Damon were no longer always full of respect, but gradually became subtle, and a strange atmosphere spread among the first-year students.
Harry and the others obviously sensed this change and secretly worried about Damon, but Damon was still the same. Except for breakfast every day, he could not be seen at other times. On weekends, he completely disappeared and did not even come to eat breakfast.
"I really don't understand. Don't you really care at all?"
Hermione finally couldn't help it and asked Damon in the obscure prying eyes around her.
"What do you care about?"
He was rarely reading the newspaper today. There was a magic notebook and a quill floating beside him. Whenever he had a flash of inspiration, he would write it down with the quill. He was trying the theory he had seen in "Transfiguration Today" before. Recently, he had found some clues and prototypes. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe next month, he will be able to make a breakthrough. All he needs
is a flash of inspiration.
"What do you care about? All Gryffindor students are discussing the points we lost in the House Cup, but you ask me what I care about? Do you know that our current score is at the bottom?
Damon - don't you have - even a little sense of collective honor?"
"Why, Hermione, don't you think my previous approach was wrong?"
"Of course you are right - but, can we change the form? You can even ask Malfoy to duel at midnight, why do you have to do it in public?"
Hermione felt like she must be crazy.
She didn't expect that the words "midnight duel" would come out of her mouth.
At this moment, Ron and Harry were looking at her with their eyes wide open, as if they were meeting her for the first time.
What made Hermione even more crazy was that even after all this, Damon still looked nonchalant and said lightly:
"Because I wanted to do this at the time, and I thought it would be better to do so, that's all."
He drank the last mouthful of noodle soup, stood up and said to Hermione:
"Don't worry, I will earn back the lost 150 points before the end of the semester, and Gryffindor will still be the first in the House Cup."
"But - how to do it?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Why not? Tell me, I can help -"
"By the way, if you haven't found any news about Nicolas Flamel, you might as well take a look at Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card."
Damon left directly after he finished speaking. As for the House Cup, he would naturally win it back after his paper was published.
Damon's movements were so neat that Hermione had just finished the first half of her words when his figure had already walked away, leaving Hermione alone to sulk.
"That's not what I meant at all! Why did he say that?"
Ron and Harry looked at Damon's graceful departure, wanting to laugh but not daring to. They looked at each other and saw the admiration in each other's eyes.
As for Hermione?
Damon's behavior clearly told everyone that he didn't care about other people's opinions. Hermione was obviously on the wrong side of the issue when she questioned him at this time - Harry and Ron never thought that Damon did anything wrong.
Beating Malfoy in public and making him lose face and unable to act recklessly again was far more important than the score in the College Cup, but Hermione seemed unable to understand this.
"Relax, Hermione, at least we know the clues to Nicolas Flamel's information, right?"
Ron did not attack Hermione's position, but comforted her softly.
Hermione looked at him with some surprise, and said frustratedly again:
"I feel that Damon is getting farther and farther away from us. Aren't we friends?
Shouldn't friends help each other?
If he only helps us solve our problems, but we can't help him at all, can we still be considered friends?
I have never seen a friend who hasn't said more than ten words in a month."
"Oh - don't take it too seriously. In fact, it depends on your definition of friend."
Ron comforted Hermione, thinking that you were not like this when you were devoted to the library before, but he didn't say this thought.
While speaking, he secretly winked at Harry.
Harry understood instantly and said:
"Yes, Damon told me that there are many kinds of friends -" Seeing Hermione's eyes cast over, Harry suddenly stuttered a little. In fact, he just thought it made sense at the time, but he had for
gotten the content.
"Anyway - anyway, why don't we go and see what's on the Chocolate Frog card?"
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(End of this chapter)