The Strongest Badger at Hogwarts

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into the night.

Harry and Neville were waiting at the entrance to the Gryffindor girls' dormitory.

Since the invitation given by Professor Slughorn clearly stated that the party was a formal and serious one, both Harry and Neville put on the most formal dresses.

It's a pity that no matter how formal the dress is, it can't change Harry's frizzy character.

Even the tightness of the gown aggravated Harry's restlessness.

While tugging at his collar, he kept pacing around the entrance of the girls' dormitory.

"Hermione, are you done yet?"

Suddenly, he stopped and shouted impatiently towards the entrance.

Unfortunately, he did not receive any reply.

Neville shook his head and said calmly:

"Be patient, Harry, ladies will take longer than us to dress up."

"I understand, but it took her too long! You know what? We've been standing here waiting for more than an hour!" Harry complained, shaking his head, "Of course, it's not Hercules Min's fault, it's Professor Slughorn's fault. I don't understand why he didn't send the invitation to Hermione until the last minute? It's as if he didn't want to invite Hermione in the first place. , but in the end, Hermione was drawn to the same thing again because of making up the numbers!"

Speaking of the latter, Harry's expression has become a little weird.

Because he really thought that was what Slughorn thought.

After all, Professor Slughorn's utilitarianism is obvious to all, and Hermione is not without a prominent background, so it is difficult to get into the other party's eyes.

Hearing this, Neville's original gentle smile suddenly changed, and he stared and said:

"Shut up, Harry! How could you say that to Hermione? How rude!"

"Yes, this is really rude!" Hermione's voice suddenly sounded from behind the two, "Harry, you should learn more manners from Neville!"

The two heard the sound and looked around, only to see Hermione slowly walking out from the entrance of the women's dormitory.

Hermione first gave Neville a soft smile, and then gave Harry a hard look.

Harry pouted and said:

"Let's stop talking nonsense, we're almost late!"

After saying that, Harry quickly walked towards the exit of the lounge without looking back.

Hermione and Neville behind them shook their heads and followed.

The place of the banquet was located in the Potions classroom they had just visited during the day.

The three of them trotted all the way to the destination under the good-natured teasing and envious eyes of the classmates.

Panting heavily, they pushed open the door of the classroom, only to realize that the Potions classroom in front of them had changed drastically.

The alchemy workbench that had been placed densely had all disappeared at this moment.

In its place was a huge table full of delicacies and a tower of small crystal glasses.

The dark red wine flowed in it, reflecting the light from the magic chandelier on the ceiling together with the crystal cups, making the whole classroom shine brightly.

Harry was almost at a loss for words.

Because even Professor Slughorn has repeatedly stated in the previous invitation letter that this is a formal, real, dinner-level gathering.

But in any case, Harry never expected that Slughorn actually transformed the Potions classroom into a small auditorium in such a short period of time.

Of course, the more important point is that there are already many people standing in the auditorium at this moment.

Blaise Zabini, Cormac McLaggen, Ernie McMillan and the rest of the Slytherins and Ravenclaws were almost all there.

This seems to mean that,

They are late.

At the same time, everyone in the classroom also noticed their arrival.

Slughorn came down from the podium. He first greeted Harry and Neville excitedly, and then looked at Hermione with a smile:

"Miss Granger, you are welcome!"

"Thank you for your invitation, Professor Slughorn. It is a great honor."

Hermione gave Slughorn a lady's salute with some twists and said.

"Haha! Don't say that, Miss Granger!" Slughorn laughed heartily, "Your talent has already conquered all of us here, we should be honored! Come on in, Enjoy tonight!"

Slughorn led the three of Harry into the crowd, continued to exchange pleasantries for a while, and then returned to the podium.

Harry keenly noticed that the position was facing the main entrance of the classroom, and the reason why Slughorn stood there seemed to be to welcome the guests as soon as they appeared.

This discovery made Harry a little relieved, at least Slughorn still valued them, and didn't look down on Hermione because of her background.

"Hey! Harry, that's a nice dress."

Ernie squeezed between him and Neville at some point, winked at Harry and said.

Hearing this, Harry instinctively looked down at his dress.

Judging from the shape, this is actually an ordinary classical slim dress.

But compared to the monotonous colors of common dresses, not only is the main body of this dress made of bright red silk, but it is also densely covered with a large number of daisy patterns.

It's just plain fancy.

Harry opened his mouth slightly and was about to say something, but Professor Slughorn, who was waiting on the podium, also heard the movement here, and echoed:

"Indeed, his attire reminds me of some troublemaker I taught!"

"Then I guess," Ernie grinned, "that bastard must be named Blake?"

Ernie and Slughorn burst into laughter when the words were finished.

Slughorn grinned extravagantly.

It was clear that Ernie's cooperation had tickled his itch.

He is really optimistic about Ernie. Although Ernie's talents in potions and other subjects are definitely not outstanding, Ernie's character and emotional intelligence are really too high.

According to his experience, just relying on this point alone, plus Ernie's status as a pure-blood wizard, is enough for Ernie to achieve a fairly good development in the future.

Looking at the two laughing endlessly, Harry shook his head in embarrassment.

He couldn't refute Ernie and Slughorn's good-natured teasing.

Because the dress he was wearing at the moment was indeed prepared for him by Sirius Black.

He had a dozen other similar gowns, all in the gaudy Sirius Black style.

In fact, the suit Harry was wearing right now was already the most low-key of the bunch.

Fortunately, Slughorn didn't intend to embarrass Harry so much that he couldn't get off the stage. After laughing for a while, he continued to look at Neville and said:

"Our little Neville's dress is also quite good. If I remember correctly, this should be worn by your father back then?"

"Yes, Professor Slughorn, this is the dress my father and mother wore when they married, and it has special meaning to me."

Hearing Neville's words, Harry carefully looked at the dress on Neville's body.

I saw that it was an earth-colored suit.

Although it wasn't specially made for Neville, it unexpectedly fit Neville's body, revealing a generous and gentle temperament as a whole, making people feel very comfortable.

"This is very suitable for you!" Slughorn praised, "I seem to see your father in you, the same heroism, the same kindness and elegance. You will definitely become a hero like your father, I firmly believe in that."

Neville nodded excitedly when he heard the words, but Slughorn turned his eyes to Hermione again, as if he wanted to defer the topic of the dress to Hermione.

Then after looking at it for a long time, he finally said nothing.

Because at this moment, Hermione had already smoothed out her hair, but the clothes she was wearing were just an ordinary conch blue long dress.

Some tiny wrinkles can still be seen vaguely on it-this is caused by the lack of transformation-level maintenance after being placed for a long time.

There is really nothing to say about such a dress.

What's more, Hermione's identity is not enough to make Slughorn open his eyes and tell nonsense.

Shaking his head slightly, Slughorn wanted to end the topic directly.

However, not everyone has a high EQ, and not everyone can read words and emotions.

Zabini is clearly such a character.

He had been watching the conversation between Slughorn and Harry from the sidelines at the very beginning.

Seeing Slughorn's expression at this moment, his eyes rolled, and he appeared as if he had thought of something:

"Yo! Look at what our Miss Know-It-All is wearing? Are you wearing your mother's gown? But your mother doesn't seem to have any achievements to praise? After all, aren't you pure Muggle-born? "

Hermione stared and said:

"No, it's not my mother's gown! And Zabini, I warn you, you..."

"Oh yes! I remembered!" Zabini interrupted, "This dress of yours was worn by you at the Triwizard Tournament ball before! I said why does it look so familiar? But you are wearing Wouldn't it be a little rude to attend Professor Slughorn's party in such a cheap old dress?"

As soon as Zabini said this, the rest of the Slytherins behind him all laughed.

Although the other Ravenclaws didn't smile much, they looked at Hermione just like the Slytherins, full of ridicule and disdain.

Generally speaking, things like dresses cannot be worn repeatedly to attend important occasions.

This rule is said to have been passed down from King Louis XIV of France.

Not to mention the fact that he held banquets every day, he also asked his nobles to dress up to attend, and the dresses must not be worn repeatedly.

If someone violates this rule, he will be punished quite severely, for example, cutting his title!

The reason why Louis XIV did this was actually to a large extent to drain the pockets of the nobles.

In this way, after the great nobles have maintained this 'royal dignity' for a long time, there is a high probability that they will not have much money to rebel.

And the little nobles were even worse.

Their financial resources simply cannot last long.

As a result, those who cut the nobles cut the nobles, and those who went bankrupt went bankrupt.

Louis XIV's goal of reducing the vassal was also achieved.

I have to say that although this set of methods seems quite brainless and mentally handicapped, it does have a good effect.

But it was such a move with a strong political purpose, but it was regarded as a treasure by the nobles of the country who yearned for the luxurious life of the Palace of Versailles.

When the king of the country at that time reacted, the nobles under him had already begun to spontaneously implement Louis XIV's dress rules.

Even to this day, the old high-class people in the country, as well as some wizarding families deeply influenced by the Muggle upper-class circle, are still abiding by this unspoken rule.

Within the limits of this rule, wearing the uniform of his "hero father" like Neville is allowed, but like Hermione, it is not allowed.

Hermione obviously knew something about this rule, and her expression was extremely embarrassed at the moment.

He wanted to refute but couldn't say anything, he could only lower his head.

The expressions of Harry, Neville and others were not very good-looking either.

Slughorn frowned deeply.

But at this moment, the door of the classroom was opened again.

"Oh, I hope we're not late, Professor Slughorn."

Link and Emily walked into the classroom arm in arm and said.

"Link? And Emily?"

Slughorn's eyes lit up, and he hurried up to greet him, holding Link's hand in both hands, and said, "Of course it's not too late, it's just in time!"

"That's good, that's good."

Link said with a smile.

The arrival of him and Emily attracted the attention of everyone in the classroom. At this moment, everyone has gathered around him, and Shabini squeezed to the front of the crowd like crazy and said:

"Oh! Merlin! Mr. Foley and Ms. Victoria, the clothes of the two of you are really amazing! These two dresses are very suitable for the two of you, I am almost moved to tears! "

While talking, Sabini also pretended to wipe the corners of his eyes.

As soon as this remark came out, Emily couldn't help chuckling, she was not only benefited but also angry.

The rest of the students around were also a little speechless.

A shameless person like Zabini is really too rare.

It is estimated that this has a direct relationship with Zabini's black widow mother. It can be said that Zabini has the essence of his mother.

But the complaints in their hearts belong to the complaints, but after they reacted, they still echoed Zabini and praised Link and Emily without hesitation.

All of a sudden, all kinds of compliments continued, and the arrival of Link and Emily directly raised the atmosphere of the party to a whole new level.

Facing this kind of scene, both Link and Emily behaved very naturally. They dealt with all kinds of compliments smoothly and freely, with a formulaic soft smile on their faces all the time.

It wasn't until this atmosphere came to an end that he looked at Harry and Neville again and said:

"I saw you gathered together when I first came in, what are you talking about?"

Harry and Ernie wanted to sue a long time ago, but the previous group of sycophants were too enthusiastic, and they didn't even have a chance to speak.

And at this moment, hearing what Link said, Ernie stepped forward without hesitation and said:

"What else could it be? Our Mr. Zabini seems to be very dissatisfied with Hermione's costume. He thinks that her wearing an old dress to the party is a contempt for everyone present, and it even lowers the whole scene of Professor Slughorn. Party style!"

Link looked at Hermione's clothes, with surprise and concern in his eyes.

Hermione didn't feel anything at all.

After all, after living in Hogwarts for so many years, she has long been used to all kinds of attacks against her Muggle blood.

But now that Link was sizing him up like this, a strong feeling of grievance suddenly spewed out from the bottom of his heart.

She only felt a sore nose, and the vision in front of her eyes instantly became extremely hazy due to the surging tears.

Hermione quickly lowered her head and covered her face, but it was too late.

Emotions poured out like a flooded reservoir, and soon turned into tears, soaking her dress.

Seeing this, Link frowned, and instead of looking at Zabini, he immediately looked at Slughorn.

As the host of the party, Slughorn was naturally to blame for such a thing.

Slughorn was also very straightforward, he spread his hands and said:

"I was about to deal with it, and here you are."

Link nodded to express his understanding, and then looked at Zabini.

Facing Link's indifferent gaze, Sabini felt great pressure, and he also felt that something was not right.

I heard Hermione and Link seem to have a good relationship?

But even so, Zabini still had luck in his heart.

You know, his relationship with Link is not bad!

Link even praised his name himself when he was on the Hogwarts Express!

With this relationship, he might not necessarily lose!

Thinking of this, he forced out a flattering smile and said:

"Dear Mr. Foley, I'm telling the truth! It's really rude to wear an old suit to a party or something. I think everyone here thinks the same way."

As soon as this remark came out, the surrounding Slytherins and Ravenclaws all glared at Zabini.

But anyone with normal intelligence can see that Link is very angry now, but Sabini still wants to drag them into the water at this time.

"Oh, really?"

Link said blankly, "Then the dresses that Emily and I wore today were also worn at the year-end dinner last year. Didn't you just boast that you were very happy?"

"what?"

Sabini let out a cry of disbelief.

He really didn't expect Link to come here in old clothes.

It stands to reason that according to the current level of prosperity of the Foley family, Link and Emily would not be able to!

At the same time, Harry, Neville and the others looked at Shabini with a strong look of disdain.

When the same thing happened to Hermione, he tried his best to be black, but when facing Link, he boasted without bottom line.

This is already wrong with people.

How shameless!

Sensing everyone's gaze, Sabini's black face almost turned white.

Link shook his head and gave Slughorn a look.

This is your party, and the decision to make is up to you, the host.

Slughorn clearly sensed the meaning in Link's eyes.

He glanced at Zabini with a dark face, and said coldly:

"My party doesn't welcome shameless people like you who look down on your classmates, get out, I don't want to see you again!"