"Yawn... ah..."
"...Mmm, nothing beats sleeping in your own bed. I barely got any rest last night—kept dreaming that Dementors burst into our dormitory to suck away all our happiness. Woke me up in the middle of the night, scared witless..."
Draco rubbed his eyes as he and Glenn emerged from the Slytherin common room together.
"By the way, what time did you get back last night? I woke up around midnight to use the loo, and your bed was still empty. Surely you couldn't have found something to torment in the Forbidden Forest that quickly?"
"I didn't go to the Forbidden Forest," Glenn replied, shaking his head with no intention of elaborating.
Seeing this, Draco tactfully dropped the subject and switched topics.
"Speaking of Dementors... when you encountered them on the train, why were you just lounging there with your eyes closed like you were meditating? Normally, you'd have been in front of Hermione dealing with them before anyone else could blink."
"That's not like you."
"I don't know the Patronus Charm," Glenn answered honestly.
"On that train, the only person who could react quickly enough to drive off Dementors in that manner was Hermione. I trust her abilities, so I didn't intervene."
"Besides, I had other matters to attend to."
"Ohhhhh~" Draco's tone turned insufferably teasing.
"You trust Hermione that much, do you~"
"Yes."
Glenn replied with perfect calm.
"...Fine, fine. Teasing you is no fun at all. But when Ginny was defending Hermione afterward because of your inaction, why didn't you say anything? I had to argue back for you! Don't tell me you'd actually fallen asleep?!"
Draco suddenly fell silent.
"...Wait. You said you had other things to do?"
Since Draco had asked, Glenn saw no reason to hide it. Draco was on his side—aside from his penchant for sarcasm, he was trustworthy enough and wouldn't let anything slip.
So Glenn briefly recounted the series of events from when he'd slipped away from the train onward.
Then Draco went completely silent.
Glenn didn't feel inclined to speak either. The two walked side by side toward the Great Hall.
"..."
"..."
"...Aren't you going to ask why I'm not talking?"
"Why would I ask why you're not talking?"
"Smack!"
Draco's right hand met his face, then slowly slid downward.
"Forget it. Talking to you is exhausting. Go on, go coddle your precious sweetheart. I'm off to eat."
"All right."
Glenn headed straight for the Gryffindor table without a backward glance.
Once again, Draco was struck speechless. Watching Glenn depart, he trudged silently to the Slytherin table and sat down, staring blankly at the surface.
Little Dragon was once again confronted with the vast gulf between people.
He was numb. Truly numb.
Seriously—after Glenn had quietly orchestrated such massive chaos last night, how could he just show up today and attend classes as if nothing had happened?!
To prevent the Dementors from reporting back to the Ministry and causing trouble for Hermione, he'd chosen to slip away from the train undetected, swapping places with a puppet, then single-handedly tailed that entire horde of Dementors to some remote wilderness and annihilated them all by himself?!
There had to be at least a hundred Dementors!
Weren't Dementors supposed to be impossible to kill by any means?!
And if that wasn't enough, this guy had actually thought to release Voldemort's Dark Mark afterward to frame someone else—what kind of brilliant maneuver was that?!
Draco's mind was complete mush, utterly scrambled by Glenn's matter-of-fact narration.
With the abilities Glenn had displayed, even most powerful adult wizards couldn't compare, could they?
"Good lord, will I ever have a chance to reach Glenn's level in this lifetime?"
Draco muttered to himself. He'd always known there was a gap between himself and Glenn, but he'd never imagined it was a chasm of such staggering proportions.
It was genuinely confidence-crushing.
"This... this can't be right... I work hard too, don't I?"
Draco propped his chin in one hand, lost in contemplation.
"Wait a moment?!"
A flash of inspiration struck like lightning across his mind.
He'd realized what differentiated him from Glenn.
"That's it... it must be..."
Draco suddenly straightened, his right fist striking his left palm as he reached his conclusion.
"I don't have a girlfriend!"
His eyes lit up as if he'd discovered the key to everything.
"The books say it too—in magical studies, 'love' is a powerful force... Of course!"
"Apart from that, everything else about me is just like Glenn."
His confidence remained as robust as ever.
"So that's the truth!"
It wasn't.
Hermione watched the distant Draco with speechless exasperation as his emotions fluctuated wildly—one moment brooding deeply, the next beaming with joy. Such theatrical behavior was impossible to ignore.
"...What's wrong with him? Has he been traumatized?"
"I have no idea," Glenn replied with a shake of his head.
"Never mind him. Quick, quick, continue the story—where were you? His interruption made me lose track."
"I was saying that I released my Patronus and began closing the distance with the Dementors," Glenn repeated his earlier words.
After finishing dinner last night, the two had separated because Hermione's friends had dragged her off to their start-of-term party.
The image of Hermione being hauled away was still vivid in his memory.
So Hermione had never had time to hear about what happened after he left the train. Now he could only recount it for her, letting her see if it matched her own theories while satisfying her curiosity.
"...Finally, my Patronus devoured the last fragment, completely erasing all the Dementors. I mimicked Voldemort by casting a firework spell into the sky identical to the Dark Mark, concluding this incident. You know the rest—I returned to Hogwarts and swapped identities with the alchemical puppet."
With that, Glenn took a sip of milk.
"Wow, Glenn, you're incredible!" Hermione cradled her face in her hands, smiling. Hearing how amazing her boyfriend was filled her with genuine joy, and knowing he'd acted this way for her sake made her even happier.
Her heart felt sweet as honey~
"Mm, but you're incredible too—thinking on your feet to redirect the truth of events and pin the credit on that Lupin fellow, then using the students to monitor him while keeping yourself hidden in the shadows."
"That was the correct approach."
"Naturally! Don't you know who this adorable and kind little witch sitting before you is?" Hermione puffed out her chest proudly, her developing figure now quite noticeable.
"Oh? And who might that be?" Glenn played along.
"Since you've asked so earnestly, I shall graciously enlighten you!"
"Before you sits the most gifted young witch currently at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—Hermione Granger! Two-time consecutive year-end first place holder, highest classroom scorer, most frequent hand-raiser, top library borrower, seventh place on the Dueling Club rankings—temporarily—founder and president of the Society for the Study of Friendly Wizardry, or S.S.F.W. (just a random name I gave the study group)..."
Hermione paused, delicately sipped her milk, then looked at Glenn and winked.
"...and Glenn Hawthorne's girlfriend~"
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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