Magnus stood beside Harry and Ron at the entrance hall, watching as the third years and above buzzed with excitement as they waited for their last call before heading out to Hogsmeade.
It was Saturday, and already the week that eligible students got to visit the neighboring village.
"I swear, days like these, I almost want to invent magic to skip a few years," Ron said with a dreamy look in his eyes.
"Well, there is already magic for that. You can always drink the Polyjuice Potion," Magnus offered.
"Yeah, you need to grab a few hairs from Percy," Harry suggested. "Heard he isn't going, he has extra revision."
"No thanks, I'd rather suffer through this than be Percy for a second," Ron swore.
"Right, there they are."
The three of them turned to see the twins, Fred and George, heading their way. They stopped in front of them, beaming.
"It's the last call before we head out. If any of you wants anything from Hogsmeade, now is the time to cough up."
Harry and Ron looked quite excited, though pessimistic at the same time.
"You two know I don't have any galleons," Ron complained.
"Too bad, you didn't think of borrowing any, little bro," George answered, moving to Harry.
"But I'm your brother," Ron complained.
Fred scratched his chin thoughtfully. "He has a point. But so is Percy, you don't see him bothering us."
Ron stared at his brothers beseechingly.
"Percy is free to go, he just doesn't want to."
"Well, Percy wants to top the midterms again. Maybe you should be like your brother," George added, turning to Harry.
"Cough up Harry"
Harry rubbed his neck uncomfortably.
"I forgot to bring any galleons. You guys should have told us earlier."
"Poor planning." George seemed frustrated by the two of them.
He turned to Magnus.
Magnus reached into his pocket and drew out a galleon. He had known the twins' offer would come. Well, he would have asked them himself anyway.
"Bring us something good," he said, handing the galleon to Fred discreetly.
"Now this is what you call business mind. You never disappoint, mate."
He turned to Ron and Harry.
"See, that's how you prepare. Anything specific you two want?"
"Well, I want a few cookies and some Chocolate Frogs. I want to see if I can find Merlin's card this time round."
"Harry?" Fred asked.
"Anything will be good," Harry said. "You didn't have to do that, Magnus. I'll refund you later."
"Don't mention it," Magnus said. "Consider it an investment."
"An investment?" Ron asked. "For what?"
"Oh, future favours, of course," Magnus said. "I'm sure an opportunity will arise soon."
"See, now that's how a businessman thinks. See you later, guys," Fred said.
Then George stopped, looking at the books in Magnus's hand.
"And try not to suffer too much in our absence." He stared suggestively toward the direction where a girl with a mountain of books was approaching.
"Magnus?" Hermione called as she reached them.
"We should head to the library. We don't have much time."
Magnus looked at his two friends, then sighed deeply.
It was Saturday, but he knew he would suffer more than the weekdays combined.
"Good luck, mate," Ron said, as he and Harry headed the opposite way.
Magnus turned to Hermione. "Do you honestly need all of that?" he asked. He only had about three books in his hand compared to the mountain Hermione was carrying.
"Can I help you with some?"
"Thanks." She quickly handed him half of the books.
"Most of them are for you anyway. You asked for all the notes in the subjects you missed during your coma."
"Don't call it that. You make it sound like I was a goner."
She threw him that stubborn look.
"Well, you were critically unconscious..."
Magnus decided to give in.
"Weren't they supposed to be like three or four subjects?" he asked instead.
Hermione nodded. "Well, there were two days plus the hearing."
Magnus gave a deep sigh of frustration.
"Wait, what about you? Don't you have any homework? I mean, if all these books are mine, what about you? You had a hearing too."
She casually tapped the thick book at the top.
"I brought A History of Magic and Pokémon for light reading."
"Light?" Magnus exclaimed, looking at the book. Only Hermione would call that monster light reading.
In truth, Hermione had no reason to head to the library.
Even though she had been part of the entire saga, she had managed to do all her homework, and the only reason she was coming to the library was because Magnus had managed to rope her into explaining a few concepts he had missed over the last three days.
She had readily agreed. After all, she had been planning to spend the day in the library anyway.
Two hours later, Magnus rubbed his eyes, exhausted. Hermione had just finished explaining the basic principles of Transfiguration and some Herbology concepts. Turns out the last week there had not been much of Potions, except an endless mountain of notes.
"This is fucking nuts."
"Magnus!"
Hermione chastised, looking around. "You shouldn't curse."
"Oh, sorry," Magnus said, not sorry in the slightest.
"How could the git give us so much homework?"
"Magnus!" Hermione called again.
"Okay, sorry, he's not a git. Please, Hermione, help me write some Potions notes."
She shook her head defiantly.
"I can't."
"Come on," he pleaded. "This will kill me. Let me do History of Magic while you write the Potions. Please."
"Forget it," Hermione said stubbornly.
"How will you learn if I do it for you?"
Magnus sighed, already exhausted by the thought of the work before him.
"There is nothing to learn. We haven't even covered it yet. Snape just wants us to suffer."
Hermione looked up from her book.
"How is writing notes suffering?"
"Are you serious?" Magnus stared at her. "There couldn't be any worse punishment than this."
She rolled her eyes, and even without speaking, he knew she already had a dozen scenarios worse than that.
"Magnus, it's a proven fact that the brain learns faster when you're both reading and writing. I'm guessing that is why Professor Snape gives us a lot of homework. That way, when he comes to cover the topic, we are already familiar with it."
"Yeah, that's how you'd see it. Snape just wants to give us as much suffering as possible. Why would Snape even want us to succeed? Maybe if you tell him about that research, he will stop giving us extra notes."
"Magnus!"
"Okay, okay, okay."
He was almost resigning to his fate when he found another angle.
"Hear me out, Hermione," he said.
She lifted her head again from where she had buried it inside A History of Magic.
"What now?" she asked, sounding exhausted.
"It's just that," Magnus said, looking solemn, "Dumbledore will probably announce the Pokémon club on Monday, you know? And you know Eevees and your Pichu are our first priority. It's just that I thought the sooner I finish my homework, the faster we can get to discussing the main points and things we need to do before then. Especially about your Pichu."
That got her attention.
She looked half excited, half stubborn.
"Oh, give it here," she said, pulling his Potions notebook toward her.
Of course, she knew what he was doing, but at the same time she could see the point. Or rather, she wanted them to focus more on her Pichu.
"I'm just going to write the notes. You're going to have to do your homework yourself."
"I'll be so grateful for that. Thanks, Hermione, you are a lifesaver."
It was then Harry and Ron appeared.
"There you are," Ron said.
"Oh God... what now?" Hermione said, frustrated again.
But the two of them did not look argumentative at all.
Harry pulled out a letter and gave it to Magnus.
He skimmed through it before sighing and passed it to Hermione.
It was Hagrid inviting the entire group to have tea in his hut. He said in the letter that he had something important to tell them.
"Oh, come on. But I have a mountain of homework," Magnus complained.
"Yeah, mate, but Hagrid has never asked us to come down there so urgently. I think it's something important," Ron explained.
"By God, I've just managed to convince her to write the Potions notes for me."
"I think it's serious," Hermione said. "Hagrid has never asked all of us to visit him at the same time."
"Well, maybe the Pokémon has eaten Fang. Or his foot. Maybe he wants us to help him wrestle it."
She looked panicked for a moment. "Stop it, Ron. Guys, we have to at least find out what's wrong with him."
Magnus knew it had to be serious for Hagrid to call all of them.
"Well, Fred and George are lucky. Who knows, the four of us might actually be leaving his hut heading straight to Madam Pomfrey."
He sighed in frustration as he closed the books.
"You'll still write it for me, right? After we leave Hagrid's place?" Magnus asked hopefully. Hermione didn't bother to answer.
The four of them headed out.
A part of Magnus lit up. Honestly, he would rather face Hagrid's vicious Zweilous than sit there with a mountain of books staring back at him.
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