"Add a spoonful of salt, then simmer for thirty minutes." In Hagrid's hut, Hermione read aloud from a ese cookbook, expining the process of making radish and pork bone soup. Wearing an apron, Hagrid hesitated as he looked at several spoons of different sizes before him, then picked up the rgest one. He scooped up a heaping spoonful of salt from the salt tainer, instantly emptying half of it.

  "A spoonful of salt..." he muttered, sprinkling it evenly into the stewing pot before c it with the lid.

  Hermione closed the cookbook cheerfully. "That's it! We just o wait for half an hour, and we'll have delicious radish and pork bone soup!"

  She looked quite excited. This time it had to work out perfectly - she had meticulously followed every step in the recipe when instrug Hagrid, unlike previous attempts where she had tried to add her owive ideas to the inal recipe. Though Glenn had politely rejected her innovations after tasting their previous creations.

  Glenn wasn't with them today as he was busy making prote badges for the Dueling Club.

  In other words, only Hermione and Hagrid would be tasting their "delicacy" this time.

  The thought made her a bit excited - usually, Glenn was the one who tasted their cooking. This would be her first time trying it herself.

  She wasn't hoping for the soup to be delicious, but at least it shouldn't taste terrible, right?

  If it did taste bad, it must be the recipe's fault!

  Hermione jumped onto the sofa, ready to wait for the soup to finish cooking. That's when her eyes caught sight of something in Hagrid's firepce - beh the pot of simmering soup y a rge, bck egg unlike anything she had ever seen before.

  "Hagrid, what kind of egg is that?" Hermione asked frustratedly, clutg her head as she tried to recall any information about su egg, but to no avail.

  "Oh - that's, well, that's a dragon egg," Hagrid said proudly, patting his chest. "It's a Nian Ridgeback, quite rare."

  Hermione's gaze sharpened!

  "Hagrid, you do realize this is a wooden house, and I'm pretty sure keeping dragons is illegal," she said worriedly.

  Hagrid faltered, scratg his head awkwardly, clearly aware of this fact.

  "Well, yes... I know that, but... it's a dragon, Hermione!"

  Hagrid looked at her pleadingly, obviously hoping she wouldn't tell anyone.

  There was no way Hermione would tell on him - after all, Hagrid was her friend, and she would never betray a friend.

  Over the years, influenced by Glenn, Hermione's attitude toward rules had bee less rigid.

  Following the principle of "it's not illegal if you don't get caught," she happily used the Ministry-banned Uable Extension Charm on the amulet Glenn had given her - it was just too ve not to use.

  Besides, she was quite curious to see a dragon herself - this was a rare opportunity.

  "Alright, don't worry, Hagrid. I won't tell anyone. But I tell Glenn? Don't worry, I make him promise to keep the secret too," Hermione promised, seeking Hagrid's approval. After all, Glenn hadn't seen a dragoher, and he would surely be ied.

  "Oh, of course you ," Hagrid agreed without hesitation, trusting that Glenn would keep the secret.

  Though Glenn was a Slytherin, he was Hagrid's friend before being a Slytherin!

  He was a good Slytherin - the S Hat must have made a mistake!

  Just as Hermione and Hagrid were chatting, there was a sudden knock at the door of Hagrid's hut, startling the guilty pair. Hermione jumped up from the sofa, her hair standing on end.

  Someone was knog.

  Hagrid slowly moved to block the firepce, then called out tentatively, "Who is it?"

  "Hagrid, it's us! Harry and Ron!" Two young boys' voices came from outside.

  "Phew." Inside, Hermione and Hagrid both let out sighs of relief.

  Hagrid opehe door, stepping aside to let Harry and Roer.

  "Hermione? What are you doing here?" The boys greeted Hagrid warmly, then expressed surprise at seeing Hermione curled up on the sofa.

  It was quite unusual - why would a bookworm like Hermione be here instead of studying for finals in the library?

  "Oh, Harry and Ron. I'm here discussing cooking with Hagrid. Is something wrong?" Hermione smoothed her messy hair, trying to restore her usual posed, studious demeanor.

  "Ugh, learning to cook with Hagrid?" Ron muttered disapprovingly, clearly recalling some unpleasant experiences. Hermione heard him and raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

  Better leave before her blood pressure rises.

  "Hagrid, I'll head baow. Don't fet to try our radish and pork bone soup. Bye!" Hermione bid farewell to Hagrid, politely o the two boys, ahe hut, heading to the Room of Requirement to find Glenn.

  In the Room of Requirement...

  "Sectumsempra." An invisible cutting curse followed the trajectory of Glenn's wand tip. An invisible barrier suddenly appeared in front of the dummy wearing the dueling badge, defleg the curse's edge and leaving a deep mark on the nearby wall.

  Glenn had casually hese items "dueling badges."

  He put away his wand and stepped forward to remove the dueling badge. Having experien crafting simir items, like the amulet he gave Hermione, he had simplified the protective entments and incorporated them into the badge. It now had basic protective funs that would activate automatically when entering spells, as long as magical power was input before wearing it.

  But it was still quite rudimentary. Not only was its magical ste capacity far less than Hermione's amulet, but the protective meism was also too easily triggered. If it activated with any spell, oppos could simply exhaust its stored magic by repeatedly casting low-level spells, rendering the badge useless.

  Perhaps he should set it to only release the Shield Charm when fag life-threatening dahat would be much more challenging than the current version, Glenn thought calmly.

  Challenging, but only slightly so. The amulet he gave Hermione was tless times more sophisticated than these simple badges, and its internal meisms were stantly being upgraded.

  With Glenn's current crafting experie wouldn't take much effort.

  The door behind him opened on its own. Glenn didn't turn around - after all, the Room of Requirement was now set to "only allow entry to Glenn Hawthorne and Hermione Granger."

  "Glenn, guess what I saw at Hagrid's?" Hermione walked to the sofa, sat down, and stretched her hand tlenn.

  Uanding her gesture, he took out an alchemically-enhahermos from his waist pack, unscrewed the lid, poured some warm tea, and ha to Hermione while saying, "Hagrid."

  Hermione choked on the ued answer, spitting tea bato the thermos lid as she coughed.

  Glely patted her batil she recovered. She wiped her mouth.

  "That was an answer I never expected. Glenn, are you being serious or joking?" Hermione said helplessly, uo tell.

  Looking down at her spoiled tea, she frowned and ha back to Glenn.

  It couldn't be drunk now - better let Glenn pour a fresh cup.

  Glenn naturally took the tea, naturally drank it, naturally poured a fresh cup, and naturally ha back to Hermione.

  "I was joking."

  "?" The young girl was stunned. Glenn's response and as were too shog - her brain short-circuited as she held the cup frozen in pce.

  "Wait, wait, wait, what did you just say? No, what did you just do?!"

  Hermione looked at Glenn in horror, equally shocked by both the fact that Glenn had made a joke and that he had just drunk the tea she had spit out.

  "I said 'I was joking' and drank the tea you spit out. What's wrong?" Glenn asked, fused. Was his joke not funny? Or had he misuood Hermione's iion when she handed him the tea?

  Glenn fell into ption, sitting down beside Hermione while stroking his , sidering all possible meanings behind her as.

  Hermione's fastantly turned red. If this were a manga, steam would be visible rising from her head. Seeing Glenn still seriously p their previous iion made her even more embarrassed.

  "I uand now," Glenn looked up ahe shy girl's eyes. "When you handed me the cup earlier, you wanted me to try it too."

  "That's not it at all!!!!"

  Annou

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