Chapter 52: Holiday Plans and Hermione

It had been over a month since Ravenclaw defeated Hufflepuff, and the long-awaited Christmas was approaching for the young wizards.

One mid-December morning, Hogwarts woke up to find everything covered in several feet of snow, with the lake frozen solid.

The Weasley twins received a punishment for enchanting a few snowballs to chase Professor Quirrell around, hitting him behind his tangled turban.

Alaric knew what was wrapped in that turban—a disgusting, ugly face of Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort parasitized poor Professor Quirrell, and his face appeared on the back of Quirrell's bald head.

To conceal this, Quirrell had to wrap his head with a weird turban, and the smell of garlic covered Voldemort's rotten stench. This smell didn't escape Himari's sensitive nose, and from then on, she always kept her distance from Professor Quirrell.

Several owls flew through the snowy sky, delivering mail. Having experienced the harsh weather, they needed care from Hagrid to recover before they could continue their flights.

Everyone couldn't wait for the holidays.

Although the common rooms and hallways of Ravenclaw were warmed by roaring fires, the cold wind in the drafty corridors was bone-chilling. The windows in the classrooms rattled from the biting cold wind.

The worst part was that Professor Snape's classes were held in underground dungeons, and when they exhaled, a cloud of mist formed in front of them. They had to huddle as close as possible to their steaming cauldrons.

Recently, Professor Snape often lost his temper in Potions class, and his low spirits led to numerous mistakes in the students' potion experiments.

"Someone has stolen valuable ingredients from my storeroom," Snape thundered in one Potions class. "I believe the thief is among you. If I find out who it is, I will tie them to the Whomping Willow."

Many students celebrated this. They saw the one who stole from Snape as a true hero, especially the students of Gryffindor, which intensified the conflict between them and Slytherin.

"I feel sorry for those people," Draco Malfoy said during a potions class. "They have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because their families don't want them."

While he spoke, his eyes were fixed on Harry.

Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. However, those who truly understood Malfoy knew that his ironic target was someone else—the person he envied, admired, and considered out of reach.

Alaric, having lived in the warm region in his previous life, didn't experience extremely cold winters. This time, having lived in London for ten years, he had experienced snowy winters.

However, unlike Malfoy's assumption, Alaric didn't plan to spend Christmas at Hogwarts. 

During this holiday, he intended to find a way to go to Russia —oh, at this time, it was still called the Soviet Union— to travel around, make a fortune, convert part of it into Galleons at Gringotts, and use that money to buy experimental materials in Diagon Alley.

As for how he could make money in the Soviet Union?

The answer was simple: On December 25, 1991, a significant historical event occurred in Eastern Europe—the dissolution of the Soviet Union—note it down, it might come up in exams.

Hogwarts' holidays were different from middle schools in the Muggle world. In addition to the summer break, they had about 20 days of vacation for Christmas. The Christmas holiday would start around in mid-December.

However, before the holiday began, Alaric had to deal with a little trouble from Hermione.

Since Hagrid accidentally spilled the beans last time, Hermione had been paying special attention to the name Nicolas Flamel.

 During her free time, she would browse through various history and biographical books in the library, hoping to find some information.

However, despite going through almost a hundred books like "Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century," "Famous Contemporary Wizards," "Major Discoveries in Modern Magic," and "Research on Recent Developments in Wizardry," she found no mention of Nicolas Flamel.

After wasting enough time, she finally gave up and sought help from the "know-it-all" Alaric.

"Hey, Alaric, help me, please," she requested. "I've searched through the entire library, but I couldn't find this name."

"Oh, Nicolas Flamel again," Alaric shook his head helplessly. "Haven't you given up on this yet? You've spent too much time on it."

"Sorry," Hermione said somewhat embarrassed, lowering her head. Then she grabbed Alaric's sleeve and gently shook it. "Please, Alaric, help me. At least you can tell me who Nicolas Flamel is. You must know, right?"

Wow, when did Hermione start acting cute? This was quite strange. Was this the same determined Hermione Granger?

Although he was internally mocking, when the usually strong-willed Hermione put aside her pride and sought Alaric's help with a cute expression, he wavered.

Honestly, faced with the cute face of a girl, her watery eyes, and the pitiful expression, who wouldn't be moved?

At that moment, Alaric shamelessly abandoned his principles and gave Hermione a detailed rundown of Nicolas Flamel's information, as well as his various achievements. Originally, he thought of teasing her a bit, waiting until after the holiday to reveal the truth.

However, his actions immediately earned him a reward.

He suddenly felt a moist and soft sensation on his cheek, accompanied by the sweet and fragrant scent of a young girl.

Unexpectedly, Hermione kissed him.

"No other meaning, consider it a reward." After saying this, Hermione wanted to run away immediately but was easily caught by Alaric.

"You're so bold, actually stealing a kiss from me," Alaric pretended to be angry, wanting to tease her.

"Kiss... kissed, you want to... what to do?" Hermione's little face turned red, and she lowered her head, not daring to look at him.

Alaric chuckled, lifted her chin with his finger, and assumed a debonair demeanor.

"Since you dared to take the initiative to kiss me, then you have to pay the price. I want to return ten times the affection."

After saying that, he eagerly awaited Hermione's reaction.

Unexpectedly, Hermione, instead of resisting, made an unexpected move. She stammered, "You... you want to kiss, then... then kiss me."

After saying that, she closed her eyes, lifted her head, and had a look of facing her doom.

This reaction left Alaric at a loss for what to do.

In theory, considering Hermione's personality, being teased by Alaric like this should make her either furious or too embarrassed to speak. However, now...

Anyway, since she delivered herself to his door, why hesitate?

For a while, in this quiet corner of the library, only the slightly heavy breathing of the two was heard.

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