The first snow of 1992 came later than usual.
The day before school resumed, Sherlock and his friends reunited once again at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, greeting each other amid the swirling snowflakes.
After bidding farewell to their families, the four friends boarded the Hogwarts Express just as they had when leaving school half a month earlier. The train's heating fogged up the windows, and the pages of Magical Draughts and Potions in Hermione's hands were flipping at an unnaturally rapid pace.
Ron's gaze was fixed intently on a Chocolate Frog that had rolled under the seat, watching as it crawled along Harry's sneakers in a zigzag pattern.
When they had first boarded the train, Sherlock, Harry, and Ron had all noticed that Hermione wasn't quite herself. She seemed to have had some sort of disagreement with her father. Not only that, but after boarding the train, she remained silent, absorbed in her textbook.
Sherlock had deduced what had happened, but he didn't particularly care. Harry and Ron exchanged glances and wisely decided not to invite trouble.
Unfortunately, when you don't go looking for trouble, trouble often comes looking for you.
When Hermione finished the last page of her book and suddenly snapped it shut:
"Sherlock, you never mentioned you had a brother!"
Her brown hair trembled with each word as if it had been hit with a Boiling Rage Charm.
Hermione was furious about missing the chance to meet Mycroft. She had even refused to speak to Mr. Granger for several days because he was the one who had prevented her from visiting Sherlock's house.
"Hermione, even if Uncle Granger had agreed to let you come over, it wouldn't necessarily have been such a coincidence that you'd meet Sherlock's brother that day—"
Seeing Sherlock's indifferent expression, Harry decided to reason with Hermione. He would have been better off staying quiet, because the moment he spoke, Hermione let out a cold laugh and turned to him:
"You're absolutely right—but why didn't you call me that day? I already told you about this last time!"
Harry: (@_@;)
I should have kept my mouth shut!
Ron watched from the sidelines, secretly amused.
Brother, you already got burned last time—why won't you learn your lesson?
Having five brothers and one sister, he knew all too well that throwing tantrums was a woman's privilege, and being unreasonable was a woman's birthright!
Just as he was enjoying Harry's predicament, Hermione turned her attention to him:
"And you, Ronald! I clearly told you last time—why didn't you remind Harry to call me? Did you think that making him look bad would make you look good?"
Ron: (＞＜)
Are you Hermione Granger or Severus Snape?
Since boarding the train, Sherlock had been using the magical magnifying glass Harry had given him to observe the crack patterns in the ice crystals on the window, as if this argument were merely background noise.
Seeing Sherlock's detached attitude while she had rendered Harry and Ron speechless only made Hermione angrier, so she directed her question straight at him:
"Sherlock, aren't you going to say anything?"
Sherlock put away his magnifying glass and said quietly, "Hermione, you never asked me."
Where Hermione couldn't see, Harry and Ron secretly gave him a thumbs up.
That's our Sherlock!
Although she had been mentally prepared, Hermione hadn't expected Sherlock to kill the conversation with a single sentence.
"Even so, you could have invited me along..." Hermione sounded disappointed. "We are friends, after all."
"I don't consider meeting that fellow to be anything worth celebrating."
"But he is your brother. When he asked Harry and Ron to keep an eye on you, he was genuinely concerned about you—"
"That's just his wishful thinking," Sherlock said, putting away his magnifying glass and leaning back slightly. He pressed his fingertips together under his chin. "Someone who constantly worries his parents should solve his own problems before trying to look after his younger brother."
That was the end of that conversation.
Although Hermione found the antagonism between the brothers somewhat childish, seeing Sherlock's clearly annoyed expression, she could already imagine how terrible Christmas dinner must have been.
Even though she was Sherlock's good friend, this was ultimately a family matter, and she really couldn't say much about it.
With this thought, she glared fiercely at Harry and Ron.
(.＞.)
This has nothing to do with us!
In any case, as long as they didn't mention Mycroft, the four friends' conversation flowed smoothly. Harry even treated everyone to a large variety of magical sweets during the journey.
Except for Ron, the other three collected quite a few more wizard cards. Ron was excluded because he already had nearly five hundred cards. So far, he was only missing Agrippa and Ptolemy—two SSR-level rare cards.
However, he wasn't particularly concerned about it. These two cards were extremely rare even among SSR-level cards, so he had long since given up hope. He'd rather focus his attention on the Chocolate Frogs.
Of course, the one that had rolled under the seat earlier hadn't escaped his clutches either.
By the time they reached Hogwarts, it was completely dark, and the heavy snow over the Scottish Highlands had stopped falling. Since not all students had returned to school yet, the castle wasn't as lively as usual.
The moment they met, the Weasley twins rushed over. After greeting the other three (excluding Ron), they immediately pounced on him:
"Little Ronnie, we haven't seen you for half a month, and your face has gotten a whole size rounder!"
"Looks like the food at the Holmes house is exceptionally good!"
"How heartbreaking—accepting a friend's invitation and abandoning your dear brothers!"
"It's simply the decline of moral values, the corruption of human heart, the coldness of society, utterly unacceptable!"
Caught between the twins, Ron was no match for them. No matter how hard he struggled, it was useless. Eventually, they dragged him away in a wrestling hold.
At the crucial moment, he spotted Percy passing by in the distance and called out desperately to his brother for help.
To his dismay, Percy acted as if he hadn't seen anything and walked straight away.
What a joke! Even though Percy was the twins' older brother, he wouldn't dare provoke them at a time like this.
On Christmas Day, after receiving a special gift from the Weasley family, the twins had teased him, saying the "P" on his sweater didn't stand for Percy, but for Prefect.
Being the rigid person, he was, Percy naturally couldn't let that slide. He had originally intended to teach his two bratty brothers a lesson, but instead ended up getting carried out by them due to his inferior skills.
With such a precedent, he naturally wouldn't go looking for trouble again. In fact, seeing Ron suffer the same fate, he felt secretly pleased: Finally, I'm not the only unlucky one.
Not long after Ron was dragged away by the twins, Seamus, who had arrived early and was feeling bored, pulled Harry away to try out a new wizard chess set.
"Need some fresh air to clear your head?"
When only Sherlock and Hermione remained, she made this suggestion.
Sherlock nodded absently—it would be a good opportunity to think about the evening's plans.
The two walked side by side out of the castle and into the Hogwarts grounds.
Hogwarts was beautiful on a snowy night. Moonlight carved silver-blue pathways across the snow, and in the distance, the fir branches in the Forbidden Forest bent at forty-five-degree angles under the weight of snow, with snowflakes hanging from the branches like they'd been charmed with a Levitation Spell—light and translucent.
The snow was more than three inches deep, and stepping on it produced a satisfying crunching sound that felt oddly relaxing and stress-relieving.
When Hermione saw the two sets of staggered footprints she and Sherlock had left in the snow, her heart stirred.
"By the way, I did some research over the holiday and finally figured out the whole story of that incident."
She stopped walking as she spoke, only to discover that Sherlock seemed not to have heard her and continued walking forward.
Hermione: (｀^´)
"Sherlock, I'm talking to you!"
"Sorry, what did you just say?"
Seeing Sherlock's innocent expression, Hermione took a deep breath and got straight to the point:
"The Philosopher's Stone can turn any metal into pure gold and can also create the Elixir of Life, making anyone who drinks it immortal. The only remaining Philosopher's Stone belongs to the famous alchemist and opera enthusiast Nicolas Flamel. As Dumbledore's partner and friend, asking the professor to help guard the Philosopher's Stone makes perfect sense.
"Quirrell—or rather, Voldemort—released the troll on Halloween to draw everyone's attention so he could get to the room where the Philosopher's Stone was kept. His attack on Harry during the Quidditch match was also likely on Voldemort's orders, because Voldemort fears that Harry will kill him as the prophecy foretells!"
After saying all this in one breath, Hermione looked expectantly at Sherlock.
"Hermione, you truly have a gift for analysis and synthesis."
After hearing Hermione's analysis, Sherlock offered his approval.
"It is a serious mistake to theorize before one has data. People always end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. That's why everyone else found Snape more suspicious than Quirrell—I'm pleased that you were able to extract the key clues from the information and connect them into a logically coherent whole."
"But you had already explained everything when we were at Hagrid's, while it took me until now to figure it out."
Despite receiving Sherlock's recognition, Hermione's voice still sounded somewhat deflated.
"My dear friend, for a first attempt at deduction, you're already three Rons smarter than those goldfish at Scotland Yard. I've repeatedly pointed out to him the difference between seeing and observing, yet to this day, he's only applied it in one situation."
Although she was annoyed that Sherlock was comparing her to Ron, Hermione couldn't help but ask curiously:
"What situation?"
"He never mistakes a Sugar Quill for a regular quill—even though they look remarkably similar."
Hermione: (−_−)
"I'm going to review my lessons. See you tomorrow!"
With that parting shot, Hermione hurried back to the castle.
Through observation, she had reached a definitive conclusion—Sherlock definitely hadn't read the copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People she had given him!
After Hermione left, Sherlock lingered briefly in the grounds before returning to the castle and making his way to the Gryffindor common room.
Harry and Seamus had already played several games of chess. During the holiday, Harry had learned quite a few moves from Ron at Sherlock's house, and now he was using them all against Seamus, causing the latter considerable trouble.
This also made the chess pieces much more obedient than they had been before, much to both Harry's and Seamus's delight. Chess was only fun when played against an opponent of similar skill.
After Seamus left, Sherlock and Harry returned to their dormitory together.
Ron had been thoroughly worn out by the Weasley twins and was already fast asleep in his bed, snoring loudly. Neville's and Dean's beds were still empty—they hadn't returned to school yet.
Without further ado, Sherlock had Harry take out the Invisibility Cloak.
Harry knew exactly what this meant—they were obviously going on a nighttime exploration of Hogwarts.
The prospect made him both nervous and excited. He had the distinct feeling that something inside him was awakening.
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