Feeling the increasingly scorching temperature and dry air around her, to prevent the ground beside the Black Lake from turning into scorched earth, and to keep that part of the Black Lake water near here from turning into boiling water, Amanda raised her wand and waved it mechanically toward the sky.
Accompanying her wand-waving motion, the Charms that Hermione and the others had cast together dissipated into nothingness in the blink of an eye.
"Hermione, you all did very well," Amanda said, tucking her wand back into the pocket of her wizard robe. "As long as you practice more in the future and shorten the casting time as much as possible, that will be enough."
"According to the analysis of the Death Eaters' strength by those Pure-blood families' heads, as long as you are not surrounded by a large group of Death Eaters or Voldemort himself, you are all capable of counter-killing them."
"Okay, we will continue to practice and strive to shorten our casting time."
Hermione took out a tissue to wipe the sweat from her head; the significant depletion of her physical strength and magic left her feeling a bit unsteady.
Harry and Ron, the two boys, simply plopped down onto the ground, continuously wiping the sweat from their foreheads with the sleeves of their wizard robes.
Hermione's hands were trembling, and she didn't even have time to offer them tissues.
Looking at Hermione's unsteady state, Amanda didn't quite understand why she didn't just sit on the ground to rest like Harry and Ron.
If one were to say it was because Hermione wanted to be more elegant, Amanda wouldn't believe it.
Given Hermione's personality, she wouldn't care about such things.
However, since Hermione didn't want to sit down, Amanda took the initiative to walk forward, reached out to support Hermione's arm, and held her steady.
Hermione, supported by Amanda, blushed. "Ugh... in the end, I was still supported by Amanda, wasn't I?"
One reason she hadn't sat on the ground was that she didn't want to appear weak in front of Amanda, or seem like she needed taking care of.
She also hoped she could appear more reliable; of course, it would be even better if she could be relied upon more by Amanda.
As for the other reason... well, it could only be said that deep down, she secretly wanted Amanda to support her, so she could be in close contact with Amanda while simultaneously feeling Amanda's consideration.
The two thoughts collided, which was somewhat contradictory.
Pursing her lips, Hermione blushed and leaned her head on Amanda's shoulder. Since she was already being supported by Amanda, she shouldn't think too much and just enjoy it.
Amanda tilted her head slightly to look at Hermione, who was leaning on her shoulder. Her mechanically cold voice softened slightly. "Are you tired, Hermione?"
"I'm okay."
Hermione smiled and shook her head, signaling to Amanda that she was fine.
"That's good." Amanda nodded with a calm expression and turned to wave her right hand at Harry and Ron.
The two boys were instantly lifted steadily by the Levitation Charm. There was no help for it; Amanda only had two hands, so she could only support Hermione and couldn't support the two of them as well.
"I will take you back to the Gryffindor Common Room to rest."
Amanda said mechanically, then turned and supported Hermione as they walked toward Hogwarts Castle. Behind her, her Levitation Charm continued to support Harry and Ron, helping them follow steadily behind her and Hermione.
Not until she had escorted them back to the Gryffindor Common Room did Amanda turn to look at the two boys.
"You two return to your Dormitory yourselves. I'm taking Hermione back to her Dormitory."
"Okay." × 2
Harry and Ron replied rather weakly, supporting each other as they walked toward their Dormitory.
After watching them leave, Amanda supported Hermione and walked step by step toward her Dormitory. The Little Lions in the Gryffindor Common Room found this scene perfectly normal.
After helping Hermione to her bed, before she could make any move, Amanda had already knelt down first, reached out, and gently took off Hermione's sneakers, even helping her pull off her socks in the process.
Thinking about the sweat she had broken into because of that Charm, and then thinking about how she had been walking all day, Hermione curled her toes in rare embarrassment.
Unfortunately, Amanda did not notice Hermione's embarrassment, nor did she smell any obvious odor in the surroundings.
Standing up expressionlessly, Amanda handed Hermione her pajamas.
"Hermione, lie down for a while, then take a shower and rest on the bed. I will bring dinner for you."
Hermione felt a warmth in her heart and smiled as she took the pajamas from Amanda's hand. "Okay, thank you, Amanda. Sorry for the trouble."
"It's no trouble."
Amanda shook her head without any expression on her face. "Helping you is what I should do."
"Pfft, what kind of saying is that?"
Hermione chuckled. Amanda tilted her head and showed a smile at Hermione, then said goodbye and walked out of the Dormitory.
Watching Amanda walk out of the Dormitory, Hermione raised her hand to her chest. Her heart was beating continuously, expressing her master's difficult-to-calm emotions.
Walking quickly out of the Gryffindor Common Room, Amanda headed straight for the Hogwarts kitchen with a clear goal.
She had tutored more than one Little Badger, so for her, where the kitchen was and how to enter it had long since ceased to be a secret.
After asking for a steak, bread, jam, and cream soup for Hermione in the kitchen, and incidentally ordering two portions for Harry and Ron, Amanda carried the things back to the Gryffindor Common Room.
Raising her hand to knock gently on the door, Amanda's indifferent voice sounded outside. "Harry, Ron, I've brought you dinner."
"Coming, just a moment."
Harry's voice sounded, and then, after a full ten seconds or so, the Dormitory door in front of Amanda was opened.
Looking at Harry's current physical state, Amanda quickly analyzed the state of his muscles, bones, and other body tissues in her mind.
After confirming that he was just physically exhausted and had no other problems, she felt relieved and handed him two of the portions she had brought.
"Dinner for you and Ron. Rest early after eating. In about one to two days, symptoms like muscle soreness will completely disappear."
"Okay, thank you, Amanda. Sorry for the trouble of bringing us dinner."
Harry smiled gratefully and reached out to take the two portions of dinner from Amanda's hands.
"You're welcome."
Shaking her head with a calm expression, Amanda turned, walked down the stairs, turned to the other side, went up the stairs, and arrived at Hermione's Dormitory door. After knocking and getting a response, she opened the door and entered.
Placing the dinner on Hermione's bedside, Amanda's expression softened. "Hermione, eat something, and rest early after you finish."
"Okay," Hermione smiled happily and nodded in agreement. "Have you had dinner?"
She looked at Amanda without blinking, as if she had suddenly remembered something.
"Not yet." Amanda shook her head calmly, speaking the truth.
"Think more about yourself." Hermione sighed helplessly. She had originally wanted to have Amanda feed her, to further close the distance... Now it seemed it was better to let her go eat dinner and fill her own stomach first.
"Go eat something quickly. Harry and the others and I are fine. You've had classes all day and you even taught us magic; you need to rest well too."
"Hmm, then I'll go." Amanda pursed her lips, turned around, and left Hermione's Dormitory.
Watching Amanda's back, Hermione reached out and took the lunch box. After opening it and seeing the combination of staple food, meat, and soup inside, she revealed a sweet smile.
While Hermione, Harry, and Ron completely shook off the negative effects like muscle soreness, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were also about to arrive at Hogwarts.
On this Friday, all the Professors and Prefects were visibly nervous.
After all, it concerned Hogwarts' reputation. Professor McGonagall reminded individual Little Lions about their appearance more than once, and Filch polished all the portraits and armor in Hogwarts until they shone, even making the people in the portraits directly "change into a layer of tender new skin," to the point where they would wince in pain if they accidentally touched it themselves.
Regarding this, Amanda simply gave up thinking about it from the perspective of rationality. After all, if one were to think about it from the perspective of rationality, what Filch actually scraped off should be a layer of paint, not the result of "skin-changing" for the people in the portraits.
One could only say that this was pure magic.
When Friday afternoon truly arrived, all the teachers and students of Hogwarts gathered at the entrance of Hogwarts Castle, wearing their wizard robes neatly, waiting for the arrival of the other two schools.
"I wonder how they will come." Marietta Eckmore stood beside Amanda, tiptoeing and looking forward curiously; however, it was obvious that there was nothing in front of the crowd yet.
"I don't know," Cho Chang shook her head and put her hands into her pockets. "Anyway, it can't be Apparition. No one can Apparate within the grounds of Hogwarts."
"It can't be a portkey either," Hermione held Amanda's arm, pinching the little bit of soft flesh on the inside of her upper arm rhythmically. "There are too many people."
Penelope looked around, and after confirming that everyone from Ravenclaw was dressed neatly without a single issue, she joined the conversation.
"Indeed, portkeys are fine when there are only a few people, but as soon as there are many people."
She shrugged while speaking. "Not to mention whether the portkey itself can carry so many people, just requiring everyone to touch the portkey is difficult."
Listening to the discussion of the four girls beside her, Amanda waited until they had all finished speaking before opening her mouth.
"The method of travel for Durmstrang and Beauxbatons can only be large magical transportation."
She said decisively, "Only large magical transportation can meet their travel needs."
"Considering the Forbidden Forest surrounding Hogwarts, I personally think we can rule out the possibility of ground-based large magical transportation."
Even if it were magical transportation, wanting to safely carry people through the Forbidden Forest, which was dense with trees and full of various magical creatures, would be very difficult, or even arguably impossible.
One must know that the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts has a well-deserved defensive purpose and defensive capability.
"So, for Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, the most likely mode of travel is one: the sky."
Amanda reached out and pointed to the sky, then reached over the crowd to point to the Black Lake not far away. "Two, the Black Lake."
"Hiss..." Hermione frowned, looking suspiciously at the Black Lake over the crowd. "I can understand the sky, but the Black Lake... Are they coming from under the Black Lake? An underground river?"
"There is a very high probability." Amanda nodded without any change on her face. Almost as soon as their words fell, a burst of exclamations rang out among the group of Young Wizards.
"Look at the sky!"
"Is that a carriage?"
"What a huge carriage!"
Amanda listened to the discussion of the surrounding classmates and also looked up at the sky. At this moment, a huge carriage was speeding toward Hogwarts.
As for the horses pulling the carriage, they also appeared extraordinarily large in their eyes.
"It really came from the sky." Penelope clicked her tongue, watching the huge carriage land. Headmaster Dumbledore stepped forward and politely reached out to open the carriage door.
Immediately after, a lady whose figure was comparable to Hagrid's stepped down. Headmaster Dumbledore smiled politely and performed a hand-kissing salute to the lady.
"Welcome to you and your students, Madame Maxime."
"Thank you for your welcome, Headmaster Dumbledore." Madame Maxime also nodded with a smile.
Then she waved to the people behind her, and a line of girls wearing uniform outfits walked out.
"Wow..."
Exclamations in lowered voices rang out among the students of Hogwarts. The students of Beauxbatons were all girls, especially the girl standing at the very front, which made many boys on the Hogwarts side unable to take their eyes off her.
"She is really beautiful." Ron widened his eyes, looking somewhat dazed at the girl standing at the front.
"Yeah." Harry stood beside him, whispering and nodding.
Amanda's gaze quickly swept over Madame Maxime and the girl standing at the front. Half-giant blood and Veela blood—in just an instant, she reached a conclusion.
However, considering that bloodline issues involved personal privacy, and the unpopularity of Giants among humans, Amanda had no intention of telling anyone this news.
Slowly withdrawing her gaze, after a brief exchange of pleasantries, the people from Beauxbatons were invited into Hogwarts Castle by Headmaster Dumbledore.
After just a few minutes, a Young Wizard standing in the front row pointed at the surface of the Black Lake and said loudly.
"The Black Lake, the Black Lake is bubbling."
"So Durmstrang is coming from underwater?"
As soon as the Young Wizards finished speaking, a huge sailing ship rushed out of the Black Lake's surface.
As the sailing ship gradually docked at the shore, the Principal of Durmstrang, Karkaroff, walked out with his students.
"Dumbledore, old friend, it's been a long time."
Karkaroff said as he walked, opening his arms before he had even reached Headmaster Dumbledore.
Headmaster Dumbledore cooperated and hugged him. "Long time no see, Karkaroff."
"Oh, the journey here was really bumpy..."
Watching Headmaster Dumbledore and the Principal of Durmstrang exchanging pleasantries, Amanda squinted her eyes slightly.
The eyes of the Principal of Durmstrang when looking at Headmaster Dumbledore just now contained obsequiousness, awe, and even guilt and fear.
She could understand the first two after analyzing Headmaster Dumbledore's status and symbolic significance in the global Wizarding World.
But the latter two, guilt and fear... what exactly was that for?
Frowning, Amanda began to observe this Principal from Durmstrang more carefully.
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