novelcrest Chapter 347 The Importance of Pet SpayingNeutering
Chapter 347 The Importance of Pet SpayingNeutering
Chapter 347 The Importance of Pet Spaying/Neutering
"How do you manage with so much homework?" Harry couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, it's nothing, just studying hard," Hermione said, looking somewhat tired. Harry noticed that she looked almost as haggard as Professor Lupin.
"Why not reduce the number of courses?" Harry asked as he watched Hermione move her books to find a rune dictionary.
"I can't do it!" Hermione exclaimed indignantly.
"The arithmetic chart looks pretty intimidating," Harry said, picking up a complex numerical chart.
"Oh no, it's wonderful!" Hermione said earnestly. "It's my favorite class! It—"
Before Hermione could finish speaking, a choked scream suddenly came from the stairs of the boys' dormitory. The entire common room fell silent instantly, and everyone stared in disbelief at the stairwell.
Immediately afterward, the sound of hurried footsteps grew closer and closer—Ron suddenly rushed out, dragging a bed sheet in his hand.
"Look!" he roared, heading straight for Hermione's table. "Look!" he bellowed angrily, waving the sheets in front of Hermione.
Ron's roar instantly created a tense atmosphere in the common room.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on those few ginger-yellow cat hairs, and the air seemed to freeze.
"You saw that!" Ron's voice trembled almost violently, a mixture of anger and grief. He glared at Hermione, his face flushed. "It's been caught! It must have been your damn cat's doing!"
Hermione froze, her face turning deathly pale, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Her eyes darted between Ron and the cat fur, trying to find an explanation. "No, no, Ron, I assure you Crookshanks can't be—it's just a cat, it—" "Just a cat?" Ron interrupted her, his voice filled with sarcasm and disappointment. "Then why is it always staring at Scabbers? You never notice—it's always looking for an opportunity!"
Just then, Sofia walked into the common room from the corridor and heard their argument.
She frowned slightly, realizing something was wrong. "What happened?" she asked hurriedly.
"Hermione's cat scratched Scabbers, and Ron is furious," Harry replied, his gaze shifting between the two men, unsure how to handle the situation.
"Are you sure?" Sophia turned to Hermione, trying to ease the tension. "Crooked Mountain isn't that kind of cat; it won't hurt other animals for no reason."
"I...I don't know," Hermione whispered, her voice filled with helplessness, "I just want it to be safe—"
Harry stood to the side, watching the scene nervously, struggling internally to try and offer some words of comfort.
But the current situation seems... nothing I say will help.
Ron had completely lost his composure, and Hermione was overwhelmed with shock and guilt.
Hermione's voice grew low and trembling: "Ron—I really didn't expect that what I thought Crookshanks was just—" "Stop talking!" Ron abruptly waved his hand, interrupting her explanation. "This is no accident at all! You're so protective of your cat, you don't care whether Scabbers lives or dies!"
Hermione's eyes were filled with tears, but she kept her lips tightly pressed together and did not offer any further explanation.
Harry could tell that Hermione's pride had been severely wounded, and Ron's pain made the situation irreparable.
"We—we can find Scabbers," Harry finally interjected, trying to ease the tension, "maybe it's just—" "Don't mention it again, Harry!" Ron's voice was filled with anger and resolve. "Scabbers is dead, Harry, it can't come back!"
He gave Hermione one last glare, then ran up the stairs without looking back, leaving Hermione standing alone in the middle of the common room.
Tears finally streamed down her face.
"Hermione—" Harry said softly, trying to comfort her, but Hermione just shook her head, quickly picked up her books and notes, ran back to the girls' dormitory, and disappeared at the end of the stairs.
“This shouldn’t be happening,” Sophia sighed, walking over to Hermione’s seat and sitting down. “Ron’s reaction was too extreme.”
I will go find him and try to calm him down.
"But he's right, Hermione didn't take Crookshanks' actions seriously enough," Harry sighed.
"Perhaps, but in the heat of anger, no one can see things rationally," Sofia said meaningfully.
Harry stared in the direction Hermione had disappeared, feeling powerless and confused.
The entire common room fell silent briefly, but the awkward and tense atmosphere lingered for a long time.
At this point, no one cared about Harry's firebolt anymore.
Wood, one of the few people who cared about Harry's Firebolt, wasn't there; he was in class.
Hermione has been having a very bad time lately.
In addition to her packed schedule of classes, she also faces pressure from all sides.
The conversation she overheard in the bathroom that night, in particular, made her uneasy.
Hermione knew that when it came to human nature, there would never be a clear, standard answer in a book, like in an academic paper.
Books can offer countless theories and perspectives, but they cannot provide a single, correct answer to the complexity of the human heart.
Every choice, every action, seems to involve countless possibilities and variables.
That's why Hermione felt so confused.
As a person who loves learning, Hermione is used to using logic and knowledge to solve problems and overcome difficulties.
However, the current predicament is clearly not something that a standard learning method can solve.
But how should people, especially someone like Sean Phillips, interpret this?
Sean's face flashed through her mind. What truth lay hidden beneath that seemingly gentle face? How could she possibly read this book, "Sean Phillips," and uncover the "standard answer" hidden deep within?
To put it more simply:
How should she test Professor Phillips?
This is a question she has been pondering recently.
Now, she has one more thing to consider:
Where did Banban go?
"Where did that guy go?"
In the dimly lit office, a tense atmosphere permeated the air. The pearlescent light was faint, and heads cast swaying shadows.
Sirius Black appeared tall, impatient, and his face was full of anger.
He slammed his hand on the armrest of the sofa next to him. If looks could kill, that guy would probably be torn to pieces by now.
Sean sat calmly at his desk, seemingly oblivious to Sirius's anger.
He shrugged slightly, smoothed the scrolls on the table with his hand, and asked in a calm tone, "Who are you referring to, Sirius? In a big place like Hogwarts, many people come and go every day."
"Peter Petitrou, that traitor!" Sirius Black gritted his teeth, his angry voice almost shattering the silence of the room.
He turned to look at Sean, his eyes filled with urgency and longing, like a hunting dog. "Where did he go?"
"Look at you, always in such a hurry."
"I'm not in a hurry!"
1
Sean didn't speak, but it seemed like he said something.
After a moment, Sirius nodded and said dejectedly.
"Okay, I'm in a hurry, but—"
Then, he looked intently at Sean.
Do you know where he is?
"I told you, Sirius, don't rush... let the bullets fly a little longer."
To Harry, Ron and Hermione's friendship seemed to have reached a point of no return.
The two were now filled with resentment and anger towards each other, and he had no idea how they could reconcile.
Ron was furious with Hermione because he felt she had never taken the Crookshanks’ danger of trying to eat Scabbers seriously.
She never really kept a close eye on the cat, always claiming it was innocent, and even suggested that Ron look for Spots under all the boys' beds.
Hermione, equally agitated, vehemently denied Ron's accusations, insisting that Ron had absolutely no evidence to prove that Crookshanks had harmed Scabbers.
She said the few turmeric cat hairs might have been there as early as Christmas, and accused Ron of harboring prejudice against Crookshanks ever since he jumped on Crookshanks' head in the Magical Animals store.
Harry was caught in the middle of the two and felt extremely helpless.
In fact, Harry privately tends to believe that Crookshanks ate Scabbers.
After all, all the signs point to this cat.
When he tried to subtly convey this to Hermione, she instantly turned to him, angrily saying, "Fine, you're on Ron's side then! I knew you'd do this! First Firebolt, now Scabbers, it's all my fault, isn't it? Leave me alone, Harry, I have so much homework to do!"
With that, she led Sophia away from the Gryffindor common room.
Now, even his relationship with Hermione has reached a stalemate.
Meanwhile, Ron was still grieving the loss of Scabbers.
Although Scabbers was just an ordinary mouse in other people's eyes, it was an important companion to Ron.
"Alright, Ron," Fred tried to comfort him, "didn't you always say Scabbers was listless? It's been sickly for a long time, and it's getting old. Maybe it's a good thing it died suddenly. Ah-ming—it probably didn't feel anything."
"Fred!" Ginny interrupted him angrily.
"It does nothing but eat and sleep all day, Ron, you said it yourself," George tried to chime in. "It's never been very energetic to begin with."
"But it did have its glorious moments!" Ron said, his voice trembling with emotion. "Remember that time it bit Goyle?"
Harry?
"Yes, I remember." Harry nodded in response, sensing how much Ron cherished this memory.
Fred couldn't help but laugh. "That might be its most glorious moment! Let the scar on Goyle's finger be its eternal memorial. Alright, Ron, stop sighing about this and go buy a new mouse from Hogsmeade. You're not doing anything by going on like this."
Despite Fred and George's efforts to lighten the mood, Ron's sadness was clearly not going away so easily.
Harry, meanwhile, remains trapped in the argument between his two friends and feels helpless.
There are five days left until the Quidditch match against Slytherin.
Qiu Zhang became increasingly nervous.
She received a fire crossbow from Sean at Christmas, and in the days since, she has been adjusting her condition according to the broom, trying her best to adapt to this powerful broom.
so...:
Her nervousness had nothing to do with the upcoming match.
Cho Chang's tension stemmed from a promise made by Professor Phillips.
Before the last Quidditch match, Shaun promised her that if she could lead Ravenclaw to victory, he would grant her one request.
What should I ask?
In the past few days, she has been thinking alone during training breaks, constantly weighing the pros and cons in her mind.
She considered many possible requests: Should she ask Sean to come with her to Hogsmeade, just the two of them...? Or, could she ask him to create a training plan for her team? Even...
However, the more I thought about it, the less I knew where to start.
She worried that her request might seem childish or make Sean feel awkward.
Every time Cho Chang saw Sean's face during his Muggle Studies class, he felt a pang of unease.
What if...my request is too unreasonable, and Professor Phillips gets angry?
During training, she tried to turn this anxiety into motivation; however, this anxiety followed her every time she trained, preventing her from fully engaging.
"Qiu Zhang, are you alright?" her teammate asked with concern.
"It's nothing, I was just thinking about some things." Qiu Zhang tried to remain calm and forced a smile.
Her teammates looked at her, seemingly sensing her inner turmoil, and said, "If you need any help, just let me know."
Qiu Zhang nodded slightly, secretly grateful.
However, she knew that only she could solve this problem.
As the day of the competition drew closer, Qiu Zhang's heart felt like it was being tightened by ropes, making it difficult for him to relax.
Every night, as she lay in bed, the scenes of the competition, Sean's promise, and the demands she was about to make kept replaying in her mind.
How about... we go see Professor Phillips tomorrow?
Sean stood on the classroom podium, looked around, and his gaze swept across the students' faces.
Before me were third-year Gryffindor and Slytherin students, and the classroom atmosphere was somewhat noisy.
Hermione, Harry, Ron, Sophia, and others were sitting in the front row, staring intently at him. For Sophia, not having taken her father's class while attending Hogwarts had been a regret for the past few years—because, after Sean left Hogwarts, his legend had remained.
Now, her regret has been made up for.
"Today we're going to discuss the importance of pet sterilization," Sean's voice rang out, crisp and clear. He pointed to the title written on the blackboard and continued, "Although we live in a magical world, our attitude towards pets isn't much different from that of the Muggle world. In fact, sterilization can not only reduce the number of stray animals but also prevent some health problems."