Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapter 58 Hogsmeade Village

Ron and Hermione's fragile friendship, forged by Scabbers, finally shattered before Halloween. Unlike the original story, this time the conflict between them wasn't caused by the missing pet mouse, but rather by their attitudes towards Divination lessons.

"You were the one who told me to find a subject to study hard last year. Now that I've found one, why are you belittling me and this subject?"

“Making up your own and other people’s lives into terrible and miserable tales is not true prophecy. Ask yourself honestly, did you know that Professor Trelawney liked to hear these things, and did you do this to get a high score?”

Ron, who had been exposed by Hermione in the Gryffindor common room, immediately became stammering. He said:

"I...I'm not making this up! You're clearly just jealous because my homework score is higher than yours, that's why you're saying this."

Hermione rolled her eyes so hard they almost flew to the sky.

"If you surpassed me in other subjects, I might actually be jealous. But divination? Hah!"

The number of Gryffindors watching the drama unfold was growing. Whether it was Fred and George, who had taken Divination class, or younger students who didn't yet have the right to choose classes, such as Ginny and Colin, they all put down what they were doing.

"I told you to choose a subject to study hard so that you could help Harry in a crucial moment. Since you think you're learning real skills, then tell me, where is Sirius Black now? And how can we bring him to justice?"

"That's not fair! Even Professor Trelawney doesn't have that ability!"

"Of course she doesn't have that ability! If she did, a third-year student would die in an accident at Hogwarts every year! Think about it, Ronald, would you have believed in this stuff before you took Divination class?"

Ron's face turned bright red. Faced with irrefutable facts and precise logic, ambiguous statements, like false prophecies, become utterly fragile.

"What about arithmetic and divination? Why don't you think there's anything wrong with them?"

"Arithmetic divination calculates the success rate of known events, not the kind of discipline that makes conclusions about the future based on unsubstantiated information! Moreover, Professor Victor made it clear in the first class that there is no 100% probability of anything before it actually happens!"

The two, already caught up in their argument, didn't notice that the third-year students' Divination and Arithmetic classes were scheduled for the same time. If Harry hadn't intervened in time, the rest of the Gryffindor common room would probably have realized something was wrong.

"You two should think about me before you argue. You always make me feel awkward."

Harry, who had been munching on gossip at the men's dormitory stairwell for ages, said:

"I was in the dorm just now, and I thought you guys were arguing about Banban and Crookshan again. But I didn't expect that what you were arguing about was actually quite academic."

Harry's reputation, built up by thwarting Voldemort's plots for two consecutive school years, coupled with the title of Savior, greatly enhanced his image in the eyes of almost all Gryffindor students. Before Ron and Hermione could say anything, the witches of all ages began to whisper among themselves.

"Hey? Who do you think is more handsome, Harry or Cedric?"

“Of course it’s Harry! Cedric Diggory may be very popular among the older girls, but don’t forget who thwarted the mysterious man’s plots time and time again.”

"But Cedric helped last year too, and Dumbledore even gave Hufflepuff points for it. And don't you guys think Cedric has great taste in clothes and knows fashion?"

"Being handsome doesn't put food on the table. How old is Harry? He's still a long way from being legally an adult! In a while, he'll definitely start paying attention to his appearance, and his hair won't be as messy as it is now."

"What? I actually quite like his current hairstyle. But you're right, Harry hasn't fully grown yet. Mainly because he's grown so fast, I would have thought he was an older student if you hadn't told me."

"I bet you guys are looking for young girls, aren't you? Let me remind you, Harry has no shortage of good girls around him!"

"Don't talk nonsense, Aria!"

"Exactly! To be honest, you should stop swooning over Cedric, lest you underperform in Quidditch."

……

Ron and Hermione calmed down considerably upon seeing Harry. After giving each other a final glare, they both made exaggerated gestures like Tom and Jerry from "Tom and Jerry," turning their heads away without saying a word.

Harry wanted to stop their pointless bickering, but firstly, he was Ron and Hermione's friend, not their parent; secondly, this argument, stemming from adolescent emotional instability, had no real solution. Even if Harry tried his best to mediate, they might still find themselves at odds again the next day over some trivial matter.

"Halloween is coming soon, and we can go to Hogsmeade Village this week. You guys told me before where you most wanted to go?"

Harry, who had steered the conversation to Hogsmeade, walked between the two and gave Colin a meaningful look, seemingly unintentionally.

As Harry's number one fanboy, Colin Crevey certainly got it right, and he shouted:

"Wow! Hogsmeade Village! I really want to go there! It's a pity I have to wait until next year. Tell me about what's there!"

His shouts quickly drew the attention of many older students away from Ron and Hermione. They had been to Hogsmeade Village far too many times and had lost all interest in its inhabitants.

Ron scratched the back of his head, quickly forgetting that he was still arguing with "Hermione." After meeting Colin's gaze, the words that came out of his mouth were—"The most anticipated place in Hogsmeade Village."

"There's Honey Duke Candy Shop, Joko's Joke Shop, and Three Broomsticks Bar, where they say the butterbeer and mead are really good..."

After the atmosphere in the Gryffindor common room gradually calmed down, Harry quietly pulled Hermione aside and advised her:

"What just happened? You don't seem like the type to lose your temper. Or are you fixated on Professor Trelawney's class and want to prove her wrong?"

Hermione's eyes seemed to glisten with tears. She glanced around at the students in the room, then looked at Harry and slowly said:

"What Professor Trelawney teaches doesn't matter to me, but when she's grading assignments, she especially likes to give high marks to those who exaggerate or are overly suspicious. Logically, I shouldn't speak ill of my friend, but I really can't accept people writing things just for a grade..."

Hermione paused.

"Writing this will bring you misfortune."

Harry recalled his Divination assignment, which he'd barely passed after predicting the Quidditch match results, and roughly understood what Hermione meant. He comforted her, saying:

"Do you remember Professor McGonagall saying that divination is an unrigorous subject? I remember you strongly agreed with that view back then, so why are you worried about these rumors now?"

Hermione replied:

"Most people only know that you fought Voldemort at school and that you're the boy who survived a great ordeal. But few understand the pain and danger you went through. I'm not asking them to be grateful to you, but where's the respect? Why do you make things up in your homework and curse others just to get a good grade?"

"Huh? No way? I did the Divination assignment with Ron last time, didn't I? I remember we both wrote that I would break through the Slytherin team's encirclement at the last minute, successfully steal the Golden Snitch, and win the match... Oh, he added that I would fall and get injured and spend a month in the infirmary... Oh well, it's nothing, it's just an assignment."

Harry's tolerance didn't put Hermione at ease, and she continued:

"But after he gets such a high score, won't many students from other colleges follow suit? I asked many high-scoring students afterward, and almost all of them mentioned you and that ominous person in their assignments. Is this still called divination? This is clearly cursing others."

"Hey! It's alright! Don't worry, Hermione. A bunch of students don't have the ability to curse others just by talking. If even the nonsense of teenage wizards could work, Voldemort would have already sent fortune tellers and prophets to deal with me."

"But I just can't stand seeing that kind of thing. No one can stand their best friend or family being said those kinds of things, right?"

Hearing this, Harry finally understood Hermione's inner struggle.

"Cough cough."

He coughed twice and said:

“I understand what you mean. Well, how should I put it? Ron definitely doesn’t mean any harm, but… besides being afraid of spiders, he’s also pretty afraid of ghosts. If we go to Hogsmeade Village for a stroll this weekend and then suggest visiting the Shrieking Shack, he’ll most likely just go straight back to his dorm.”

Hermione was bewildered by Harry's half-awake, half-straightforward invitation. She looked incredulous and whispered, "..."

"and then?"

"Then we...we can go over there to relax and forget all the bad things that have happened during this time."

Upon hearing this, Mo Ran in the live stream burst out laughing.

In his past life, he had heard of jerks who chose bars for their first dates and had also seen straight men who took girls to internet cafes to play games. But he never imagined that Harry would think it was a good idea to take Hermione to the Shrieking Shack for an adventure.

Just when Mo Ran thought Hermione would politely decline with a troubled expression, or suggest changing the date location, the little witch standing opposite Harry agreed without hesitation.

"Okay, then after we finish shopping this weekend, we'll head straight to the Screaming Shack."

"it is good."

……

With a new batch of third-year students joining the "battlefield" of Hogsmeade, all the shops once again experienced the fear of being dominated by young people.

The most popular Honeydukes candy store was almost packed with people. If most of the young wizards hadn't had limited pocket money, there probably wouldn't have been anything left for them to buy when Harry and his friends arrived.

"Jelly slugs, creamy almond candies, coconut ice cream (pink), honey toffee, bubbly honey candies, fruit juice milk jelly balls, Super Bubble Gum (which can blow bluebell-colored bubbles that float around the room all day long), and Pepper Boy, Ice Mouse, and Exploding Sandwich Gummy Candy, one box of each... Yes, one box, not one."

Harry's voice attracted many envious glances, and everyone, including the shop assistants, couldn't help but look in the direction where he, Ron, and Hermione were.

"Don't pack it up, hurry up and get it from the basement, they only want one box... Good heavens, they're practically buying up our entire place!"

After finally squeezing out of the candy store with their bags full of stuff, Harry took his friends to browse through the Joko Widodo joke shop.

"Fred, George? Why aren't you in the library preparing for your OWLs exams? What are you doing here?"

Ron was quite surprised to see his brothers, who had promised their mother before school started that they would put away their playfulness and study hard.

“Studying the manufacturing principles of dung bombs can be helpful for learning.”

"That's right, the same principle applies to the nose-biting teacup, which has very sophisticated transmutation magic on it."

The Weasley twins chatted back and forth, completely ignoring Ron's words.