"Looks like she really has some nerve." Fred shrugged, "She must have lost her mind, otherwise she wouldn't have done such a thing—just think about it, criticizing Lady Swedding is really criticizing the Scamander family..."
"And the Scamander family has friends all over the Magic World in the UK." George added, "By doing this, she's essentially putting the whole Scamander family in opposition to the Ministry of Magic."
"Since you put it that way..." Hermione pondered for a moment, "I think if Fudge hasn't lost his mind, he would surely reprimand her, assuming Fudge is still a normal person."
Everyone laughed at Hermione's words.
"Oh, dear Hermione." Ron said in a mock-serious tone, "If Fudge were a normal person, he wouldn't be foolish enough to suspect Dumbledore as a threat to his power!"
Hermione grimaced but didn't say anything.
After breakfast, they splashed through the vegetable patch to the Herbology class, their cloaks billowing and fluttering in the wind.
Rain pelted the greenhouse roofs like hail, making it nearly impossible to hear what Professor Sprout was saying.
The afternoon's Magical Creatures class was moved indoors to Professor Scamander's tent, but it wasn't the sort of routine lecture, given that Professor Scamander's tent was quite spacious, large enough to house any Magical Creatures within.
Professor Scamander held a strange-looking Magical Creature and was introducing its habits to everyone, with Hagrid beside him holding its tail, looking comically.
The students below were thinking, they should allow...
At lunch, Angelina told the team that Quidditch training was canceled, and everyone was relieved.
As the season's first Quidditch match—Gryffindor Team versus Slytherin Team—drew near, Harry also began to get busier because Angelina insisted on nearly daily practices.
Umbridge seemed to have vanished during this period, showing no interest in troubling the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, which made Angelina secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
She wished to lead Gryffindor to capture the Quidditch Cup once more in her final year as captain!
Angelina certainly believed in Harry, but the Golden Snitch was elusive, and Harry couldn't pull off miracles every time.
Moreover, what they needed to ensure the most was not being scored against 160-0 before Harry could catch the Golden Snitch, otherwise, even catching it would be too late.
It's not like that has never happened; last year's Quidditch World Cup was just like that, Victor Krum caught the Golden Snitch, but the Ireland Team defeated Victor's Bulgaria Team and claimed victory.
"Victor wrote to me a couple of days ago." Ron said with some excitement, "He even talked about the Quidditch Cup with me, and I told him I've become the official goalkeeper, he even congratulated me in the letter!"
Getting encouragement from an idol is naturally exciting, and Ron is no exception.
Hermione was worried about this, concerned about whether Ron would perform well in the upcoming Quidditch Cup, or if he might be replaced by that Cormac, how upset Ron would be.
Because of this, every time there was Quidditch team training, Hermione would sit nearby watching, and also borrow many books about Quidditch goalkeeping from the library, tirelessly supplementing Ron with small goalie tips every day.
Being lectured isn't pleasant, but it depends on the context of the lecturing.
If Hermione were lecturing on studies, Ron would certainly listen with one ear and let it out the other.
But now that Hermione talked about Quidditch matters, even if being lectured, Ron was quite happy—because Hermione finally agreed to chat with him about Quidditch.
And to return the favor, sometimes Ron would bring up some study-related questions to seek Hermione's help.
Thus, this became a cycle of integrity.
"Mate!" Ron exclaimed while lying on the bed, his mouth shaped like the Nike logo, "Hermione miraculously chatted with me about Quidditch, I never would've dreamed it, a girl like her being interested in Quidditch—if only she had cared about Quidditch back in the first year!"
"Yes, yes." Harry felt as though he had a million flies buzzing in his head, it wasn't enough that Ron kept showing off his affections here daily, the problem was Ron always reiterated the same things.
In another corner of the Gryffindor dormitory, Hermione was speaking on the phone with Annie.
"Annie!" Hermione said happily, "Your advice really worked, Ron has even started asking me about study-related questions lately!"
"Well," Annie said with a smile, "it's not that Weasley doesn't like studying, it's just that you hadn't found a way to make him love learning... of course, I also think there's a serious lack of effective communication between you two, couples..."
"Annie!" Hermione interrupted Annie, blushing, "Ron and I are just friends! Good friends!"
"Yes, yes, friends, good friends." Annie nodded in agreement with Hermione, "But even among good friends, there should be such a mechanism for effective communication, this mechanism, I shall temporarily call it—emotional value."
"Emotional value?" Hermione blinked and asked.
"Let me give you an example, like when you're buying things," Annie thought of a comparison, "the positive emotions you experience interacting with products and services significantly influence your brand loyalty and overall assessment, and interpersonal interactions are quite similar, but the thing is, people aren't goods, and emotional value is reciprocal; we can't just take, we need to give as well—just like you being willing to research Quidditch for Weasley, which is his favorite endeavor... and to reciprocate your emotional value, Weasley chose your most preferred method, which is studying."