Mysterious Journey

Chapter 426 Peaceful Days

"Okay, enough thinking, let's find something to eat!"

Touching her rumbling tummy, Eileen's eyes gradually filled with determination, and she nodded vigorously.

The easiest place to fill her stomach right now was, of course, the Hogwarts kitchen, which had practically become her second home.

Even though she'd already embarrassed herself once, Eileen, following the principle of minimizing embarrassment, wanted to make one last attempt to salvage some of her big sister's dignity.

In any case, she wouldn't let Luna guide her back to the Hogwarts kitchen from the Ravenclaw common room again.

Eileen cleared her throat slightly dramatically. After catching Luna's attention, she turned around, walked to the entrance of the Ravenclaw common room, raised her hand, and snapped her fingers elegantly, softly speaking to the empty air.

"Who's on duty today? You can come out now. Take me to the Hogwarts kitchen."

*Snap.* There was a soft popping sound in the air.

The next moment, a house-elf with a brownish-green complexion and a Hogwarts tea towel on its chest appeared before Eileen and Luna, bowed respectfully, and answered in a perfectly standard voice.

"Oui, Chef!"

"The Hogwarts kitchen has completed all the preparatory steps and is ready to start cooking at any time."

After several weeks of training, the house-elves in the Hogwarts kitchen had become increasingly standardized. Their words and actions revealed a demeanor that Eileen was very familiar with – that of a Michelin-starred restaurant chef.

"Very good," Eileen said, narrowing her eyes and nodding in satisfaction. She reached out to Luna behind her, the little ahoge on her head bouncing triumphantly, and said with a smile, "Luna, are you hungry? I'll take you to breakfast."

As for the Ravenclaw's eagle ring puzzle, there was no rush to update it.

As the saying goes, you only truly appreciate what you've lost. Let the little eagles of Ravenclaw experience the softness and comfort of their dormitory beds a little more, and they will value and work harder when facing mathematics courses in the future.



In the following three days, Eileen finally experienced the taste of ordinary school life.

Although her daily schedule was still quite busy compared to other first-year students, it was no longer filled with unpredictable situations. Most things moved smoothly and orderly, like tightly meshed gears.

The review work for *The Quibbler* was not as heavy as Eileen had originally imagined either.

Mr. Lovegood sent a letter on Monday afternoon, stating that a group of elderly, enthusiastic readers who didn't require payment had come to live near his house and could help review and screen the submissions for the new issue. Needless to say, Eileen could guess where those elderly people had migrated from.

Old ginger is spicier. As the first-generation Dark Lord who lived through the wizarding wars and witnessed too many conspiracies and dirty tricks, Gellert Grindelwald was indeed much more thorough than her in speculating about human nature.

If such a group of elite saints who had survived several wizarding wars fought one-on-one, perhaps Voldemort's Death Eaters could gain an advantage based on their youth. But once the number expanded to multiple small-team confrontations, the outcome would mostly be one-sided crushing.

Unsurprisingly, Xenophilius Lovegood had probably guessed the true identities of these foreign old people. However, for him, who had already been tied to the chariot, the truth of these things was no longer so important.

Even if these old grandfathers said that they had grown up reading *The Quibbler* since they were little and now wanted to come and lend a hand, Xenophilius could only nod and agree with a smile. He couldn't run away, couldn't fight them, and couldn't even "call the police," so naturally, they could say whatever they wanted.

With the addition of such a group of experienced and magically skilled people, the work for Eileen and the others at school naturally became much easier.

Apart from taking a few food photos every day, there wasn't much else to worry about.

In this relaxed and peaceful rhythm of school life, Luna Lovegood, as a transfer student, quickly integrated into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and became almost the "house pet" of Gryffindor.

Strictly speaking, Hogwarts was a relatively simple magic school.

For this "Class of '92" little junior who carried a camera and *The Quibbler* every day, shuttling through the Great Hall and the castle, enthusiastically taking photos and creating memories for the students, almost no young wizard could resist those big eyes full of curious sparkle.

Of course, there were occasionally a few clueless guys...

However, before Eileen could even take action, they were usually attacked by the surrounding upperclassmen who stood up for her, which made Eileen, who had always longed to show off her skills, very helpless. Due to the restrictions of the oath on her left hand, her strength could only be brought to bear after being attacked first.

On the other hand, in the eyes of the professors, Luna Lovegood, apart from occasionally spacing out and saying some childish nonsense that no one could understand, could be considered a very excellent student.

Perhaps inheriting her mother Pandora Lovegood's talent in charms, ten-year-old Luna, even in the first-year Ravenclaw class, could be considered one of the most outstanding young witches.

After a few Charms lessons, she had completely caught up with the teaching progress she had previously fallen behind.

Although her grasp of basic knowledge might not be as solid and accurate as Hermione's, Luna had actually slightly surpassed Hermione in terms of her ability to learn spells. In the later Charms classes, Luna was the first to successfully cast Professor Flitwick's spells.

Not only that, but by referencing some of Eileen's casting techniques, Luna, with Professor Flitwick's help, even tried to improve some simple spells, such as omitting one or two syllables or changing the wand movement a little.

This wasn't a particularly earth-shattering technique for upperclassmen. After all, most people could simplify the casting of some common life spells after graduation.

But considering Luna's current age, if it weren't for another more monstrous white-haired dumpling, Luna could probably be considered the most outstanding Charms prodigy at Hogwarts in recent years.

In fact, the professors in every subject had very good evaluations of Luna.

Even temporary substitute teacher Gellert Grindelwald had to admit that Eileen, this lucky little girl, had accidentally picked up another treasure girl, not to mention Professor Flitwick, who was in charge of the Charms class.

You know, just because of Luna's follower choice and accommodation issues, the usually easy-going Head of Ravenclaw House, Professor Flitwick, had already argued with Professor McGonagall several times, and finally even argued in Dumbledore's office.

Although in the end, Luna's wishes were respected, and Hermione Granger of Gryffindor was temporarily assigned to provide one-on-one help and companionship.

But everyone could see that in Professor Flitwick's eyes, Luna Lovegood had already put on the Ravenclaw Raven robes, but was only temporarily sleeping in the common rooms of other houses.

Because of this relationship, the Ravenclaw students naturally and automatically included Luna in their house. Luna would always have a few more fruits in her arms whenever she passed by the Ravenclaw table.

Overall, everything seemed to have returned to calm.

Sensing Luna's silent challenge, Hermione, who had always been competitive, didn't say anything on the surface, but she was secretly working even harder than usual, spending at least an extra hour in the library every day.

Under the influence of this atmosphere, Hannah, Luna, and even Eileen unconsciously became more diligent. In addition to exchanging ideas about *The Quibbler*, they spent more time in fulfilling and meaningful learning, chasing each other and making progress.

Faced with Eileen, who had finally settled down, Albus Dumbledore was finally relieved. Even though he was still eating simple and healthy "sugar-controlled health meals" these days, the old man felt much more relaxed and comfortable.

Sure enough, as long as Eileen didn't cause trouble, Hogwarts was still the peaceful magic school he was familiar with.

And so, time quietly came to September 25, 1991, Wednesday.



"Whew, finally Wednesday again."

Eileen happily cut the grilled sausage on her plate, feeling pretty good.

"Eileen, I won't lose to you this time. I will definitely, definitely make you admit defeat and beg for mercy."

Hermione snorted softly, her eyes flashing with anticipation.

"Admit defeat and beg for mercy? Is there a competition today?" Luna blinked her eyes in confusion.

"Of course, Luna, you can join too."

Eileen glanced at the little moon sitting next to Hermione, smiling mischievously and actively expanding the battle.

"Sigh... I don't think there's anything good about Wednesdays. I'm going to get bullied by you again."

Looking at Hermione and Eileen, who had been arguing since early in the morning, Hannah Abbott sighed helplessly and turned to Luna Lovegood, who looked a little confused, and explained in a low voice.

"The competition is to see who can answer more questions today. I'm still responsible for being the referee, so I won't participate."

For these girls, every Wednesday was undoubtedly the most special day.

Because only on this day were all their classes scheduled together throughout the day, instead of having to stagger classes from time to time and attend classes with the young wizards from the other two houses, as they did on the other days.

After a few weeks of getting acquainted, Eileen, who had been a little reserved in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, had completely relaxed and began to raise her hand boldly to ask questions, or proactively answer the questions that Quirrell asked in class.

It must be said that Umbridge's assessment in the original book was actually somewhat reasonable. Purely from the perspective of teaching quality and attitude, Professor Quirrell, although he deliberately put on a stammer, was quite good overall.

In order to conceal his true purpose as much as possible, Quirinus Quirrell truly acted impartially in the classroom, quietly being a conscientious and hardworking ordinary Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Whether it was the interpretation of the content in the textbook, or the methods of dealing with some common dark magical creatures, Quirrell didn't have too many brilliant teaching activities, but from the perspective of introducing the basics, it could be said to be impeccable.

This was not surprising, not to mention Voldemort's rich and extensive knowledge reserves, Quirinus Quirrell, who graduated from Ravenclaw, was originally a little famous in the wizarding world for his talent, which was why Dumbledore invited him to become a professor at Hogwarts.

In fact, from a time perspective, Professor Quirrell could be considered to have half broken the "Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor" curse of only being able to serve for one year. From the Hogwarts faculty resume, Professor Quirrell had actually joined Hogwarts since the last school year, serving as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

However, at the beginning of 1991, Quirinus Quirrell submitted an application to the school for a year of sabbatical leave, wanting to take some time to accumulate practical experience in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

And when he returned to Hogwarts to continue teaching, everything changed...

Of course, Professor Quirrell's future was not within Eileen's consideration. For Eileen, who prioritized benefits, she only needed to know that the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was the easiest place to earn points by answering questions.

You know, facing a stammering professor, the biggest point-scoring opportunity was actually that you could answer quickly, or proactively help the professor complete the content he hadn't had time to say. After all, it was difficult to distinguish when it was a question and when it was deliberately stalling and waiting for the students to answer, wasn't it?

"But... answering questions doesn't count as points for me..."

After listening to Hannah's explanation, Luna looked at Eileen hesitantly and said softly.

Although she said that, Eileen knew very clearly from Luna Lovegood's equally eager eyes that Luna was indeed quite interested in such an interesting knowledge-questioning competition.

"It's okay, Hannah will be the referee. We won't calculate by adding points, but will judge the victory or defeat by the absolute value of correctly answering the questions. As for the final rewards and punishments, we'll still follow the previous rules, where the winner takes all and can designate the two losers to perform a 'dare' or 'truth' once."

"I have no objections, Dumpling. You will definitely lose this time."

Recalling the last "dare," Hermione's cheeks unconsciously blushed, and she bit her lip and responded.

"Hmm, I'll participate too!" Luna looked at the two of them, thought for a moment, and decisively chose to join. Although she didn't know what the specific "dare" or "truth" meant, it looked very interesting.

It's over, these two little girls are going to be sent to their doom again...

Hannah helplessly patted her forehead, but luckily, as the referee, she only needed to watch the show quietly. What if a miracle happened?

"Cough cough! Cough cough"

Just then, a deliberate cough came from near the girls, interrupting Hannah's thoughts.

Professor Snape had come up behind them at some point, seemingly wanting to say something to them.