Outside the castle, a torrential downpour was pouring down, and the monotonous sound of rain throughout the day tortured people's nerves. Yet just a door away, the foyer had fallen into an eerie silence.
Nari's current action was like what Harry had seen on TV before, a baseball pitcher, who kept his throwing motion still, without moving. On Nari's thin face with a lot of loss weight, there was still a look of confusion, as if he had no reaction to what he just did.
"Oh my, damn it! It's so cool!"
With a spark of stars in her eyes from witnessing the chain of events, Ginny looked at Nari below with great interest, muttering to herself in a low voice.
Hearing this, Harry couldn't help but show a strange expression. It was well known that Ron's little sister was extremely idolizing to him, but today, she praised another boy in front of him for the first time. Of course, Harry had to admit that Naughty's instant reaction just now was cool as hell, but,
It's Nari, after all!
After three years of Snape's relentless promotion, Nari's clumsiness was known to everyone in other grades of the other three colleges. But what just happened with his agile, stylish and flawless catch and throw actions?
"Naughty brat!"
While others were still surprised by Nari's amazing performance, Skippy Joule took the first step to respond. It began to lose its temper when it challenged Nari's throw just now!
Skippy Joule took off its bell-shaped hat, which seemed to have an extraordinary space inside, like their physical education classroom. Its hands left afterimages as it continuously pulled out water balloons from the hat, and the foyer was immediately filled with a crackling sound like fireworks.
"Oh, help!"
At this moment, Nari's reaction was normal. He was full of alarm, just like other small wizards who were still in the foyer and didn't escape in time. He desperately avoided Skippy Joule's water balloons.
"Oh—"
Witnessing the cool-as-hell Nari for just a few seconds, Ginny's sparkling stars disappeared. She shrugged her shoulders, and her lips twitched.
"This is the Nari I know."
"Harry..."
The stone railing on the second floor turned out to be Hermione, who looked still serious. She stared at Nari with shining eyes and whispered, "I don't know if you've noticed--"
"Of course."
Harry gave an affirming response.
The marble tiles soaked in water were as smooth as an ice rink. No one else could make effective evasive moves in such an environment. In fact, they couldn't even stand up. Although Nari's movements were no longer stylish, he never fell once from the beginning to the end.
After all, the wet marble tiles were about as slippery as the slime of a poop egg. To avoid any intimate contact with the stinky poop egg slime on their faces and the ground, every young wizard in physical education class tried to avoid falling.
"It's starting to work, isn't it?"
They were fully focused on observing Nari, but a sudden sound behind them made Harry, Ginny, and Ron jump.
"Oh, Professor Blaine, I'm sorry, I didn't notice you!"
Hermione said in a low voice, her face filled with apologies.
Harry tensed up and pulled his body straight, his expression looking a bit awkward.
During this period, Harry had been taking his anger out on Professor Dumbledore and Professor Blaine because his dream of moving out of the Dursleys' had been shattered. In fact, he was full of resentment towards Sirius for breaking his promise.
"I'm here for dinner," said Professor Blaine with a smile, "and how about you lot?"
"We--" Hermione pointed to the door's curtains outside, "We usually finish our evening sports routine before dinner, but the Floo-Floo-Flapjack has blocked the door."
Professor Blaine nodded slightly, shaking his sleeves and gripping the sliding wand lightly. He flicked his wand and the water balloons thrown by Skippy Joule burst into golden flames. The orange-red bow tie on Skippy Joule's nose immediately started to smoke when it was smeared by the flames.
"Who is it!"
Skippy Joule let out a shrill cry, staring around the room with a fierce expression.
"Who is it disturbing Master Skippy Joule from punishing the disobedient young wizards?"
Upon seeing Professor Blaine on the second-floor platform with his arm still raised, Skippy Joule's expression shifted in a blink from unrestrained to polite.
"It's the respected Professor Blaine!" Skippy Joule, with its comical short and stout body, stood up straight, "What orders do you have?"
Skippy Joule's funny expression made Harry burst into laughter.
As everyone knows, the only thing that can make Skippy Joule afraid in Hogwarts is the ghost of Slytherin—Barrow the Blood. Normally, Skippy Joule has been rampaging about, even not too respected by Professor Dumbledore. But since Professor Blaine defeated that pack of werewolves, another person who keeps his word has emerged.
"I don't have any orders, Skippy Joule--" Professor Blaine smiled kindly, "Just please don't make trouble, okay?"
"Obedient!"
Skippy Joule made a peculiar bow and quickly disappeared through the ceiling, out of everyone's sight.
"Well, the problem is solved." Professor Blaine said happily. "I'm going to go down for dinner now. You can do as you please. - Oh, by the way, I'm really hungry. Some things have taken up my energy, and I seem to have forgotten about lunch today."
Saying this, Professor Blaine began to walk down the stairs on his own, but as he reached the middle of the stairs, he suddenly stopped and looked back at Hermione. After a brief pause of thought, he nodded to Hermione and beckoned her.
"This evening has no classes, Miss Granger. If it's convenient for you, I'd like to ask you to come to my office before eight o'clock."
Hermione opened her mouth, but before she could find a reason why Professor Blaine summoned her, she saw him say the same thing to Nari in the foyer.
"And you, Mr. Longbottom, I hope you'll be able to come too."
"Is it some kind of special training?"
Drenched and pale, Nari looked at Hermione who was walking down the stairs, worriedly saying.
"Stop being silly, Nari." Ginny said decisively. "If you need special training, we're all going to be in it together."
The heavy rain didn't stop, and the water of the Black Lake had already overflowed the bank and rushed onto the lawn. The rumbling noise of the water waves beating against the shore made all the young wizards in the castle feel uneasy.
It was 7:50 when Hermione and Nari appeared on the third floor where Professor Blaine's office was located. Here, they met another person—Luna Lovegood.
Luna Lovegood is a second-year wizard, a year below them, but because of Professor Blaine's PE class, she was already quite familiar with a few people from Gryffindor.
"Good evening——"
Luna's necklace, made of beer bottle caps, jingled as she noticed Hermione and Nari from the other side of the corridor first and waved at them.
"Good evening, Luna," Hermione looked over Luna's strange necklace with a passing glance and unconsciously furrowed her delicate brow.
Hermione couldn't understand why Filibus Flitwick would allow Luna to dress up in such an offbeat way. If it were Gryffindor, McGonagall professor would definitely say something.
The most important thing between friends is to keep a sense of decorum. Hermione didn't make any comment about Luna's attire; she just looked slightly puzzled.
"Is it Professor Blaine who sent you here, then? Did he tell you why he called us?"
"He didn't say——"
Luna's silver eyes shimmered with a dazed look, but her tone was unusually sincere,
"I guess he wanted to teach us the spell to drive away mosquitoes."
Hermione and Nari exchanged glances, keeping silent as if in tacit agreement.
"But I think he's wasting his time," Luna made a motion as if to shoo away a moth before pushing open the door, "There's no little trick to dealing with these creatures; we just have to get used to them."
The sudden downpour caused the temperature to drop significantly. The office had a roaring fire with burning red coals in the fireplace.
Professor Blaine was sitting at his desk, his hands propped up against his cheeks, looking at the stack of parchment on his desk with a look of distress.
Hermione was all too familiar with that expression. It was the same look Harry and Ron had whenever they couldn't make their History of Magic essays long enough, or when faced with Trelawney's requirement for a prophecy of their own fates.
"Sit down--"
Professor Blaine threw the quill into the inkwell and gestured to them three.
As Hermione approached the office, she quickly glanced at the chaotic pile of papers on Professor Blaine's desk and noticed that a large piece of parchment drawn like a bird's-eye view of the school was lying there. On the top sheet of another pile, in the upper right corner, there seemed to be a small photo that looked like Mrs. Pomfrey's.
"You must be wondering why I called you three here. Let me get right to the point--"
Professor Blaine waved his wand, and three cups of steaming pumpkin juice appeared in front of them.
Amortentia rubbed the ache in his temple and addressed the three young ones.
"Because of some things, I will be leaving Hogwarts for a while. The exact time I will return is unknown, but while I'm away, I need to ensure that PE class can continue without interruption. So--"
Amortentia spread out his hands,
"I would like to ask you three to serve as the assistant coaches for PE class. What do you think of that?"
(Chapter ends)
