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"That's not the point! The point is you drank tea with my saliva in it!" Hermione buried her burning face between her knees, covering her head with her bushy brown hair while screaming internally.
Ah~ Why is he so annoying~
Glenn finally understood why Hermione had such a big reaction, but felt somewhat helpless. "Hermione, since when did you become so stingy?"
"Pfft!" The embarrassed Hermione burst out laughing. Why did everything sound so funny when Glenn said it so seriously?
"It's not about being stingy!" Hermione looked up, her blush not yet faded, trying but failing to keep a straight face. Seeing the hint of helplessness beneath Glenn's calm expression, she suddenly found this pure and simple Glenn quite adorable.
"I won't mind your saliva." Since it wasn't about being stingy, there could only be one truth - Hermione was worried he would mind her saliva.
Her fist clenched.
Hermione's gaze turned dangerous.
"That's not it, you dummy!" Hermione tackled Glenn onto the sofa in embarrassed anger, scratching and biting him in frustration.
Glenn didn't resist, just extending an arm to prevent the squirming girl from accidentally rolling off the sofa, letting her have her way.
After quite a while, Hermione finally exhausted herself and calmed down from her embarrassment. She simply remained lying on top of Glenn to rest.
After smoothing out the wrinkles in their clothes from Hermione's outburst and tidying her frizzed hair, Glenn asked: "So what's the correct answer?"
"Huh? What are you asking about?" Hermione replied weakly. After calming down, she realized she had been quite bold earlier. Now she had tired herself out and was straddling Glenn's waist, lying on top of him. His pleasant, subtle scent filled her nose, making her dizzy from both exhaustion and the fragrance. She couldn't remember what she originally wanted to say.
Not wanting to move, Hermione gave up and simply buried her face in Glenn's shoulder, falling silent.
Noticing Hermione's movement, Glenn adjusted his position to let her lie more comfortably, wrapping his arms around her and whispering: "Then let's not talk about it now. You should rest for a while."
She didn't move or respond, so Glenn took that as agreement.
Then Hermione, pretending to be asleep while breathing in Glenn's pleasant scent, actually fell asleep peacefully.
Well, peaceful if not for the drooling.
After all, sleeping face down makes it very easy to drool, and the young girl had drooled all over Glenn's neck.
Glenn didn't mind. With a thought, he had the Room of Requirement turn off the lights, and quietly lay there recovering the magical energy he had expended earlier making the dueling badges.
...
Three hours, thirteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds into Hermione's light sleep, Glenn felt the girl in his arms gradually stirring awake.
"Did you rest well?" Glenn asked as Hermione woke up.
The young girl's memory returned, and she tried to maintain composure as she sat up from Glenn's body. She might have seemed normal if not for her flushed face and traces of drool at the corner of her mouth.
Catching sight of the wet marks on Glenn's neck from the corner of her eye, Hermione lost her composure. She hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe away her drool, her face red enough to drip blood.
Seeing Hermione whimper and seemingly about to faint, Glenn chose to change the subject.
"What did you discover at Hagrid's?"
Now that's something to wake me up, thought Hermione. Seeing Glenn tactfully provide her an out, she recounted everything about making pork bone soup with Hagrid and accidentally discovering his dragon egg.
After processing Hermione's information, Glenn had a different feeling about it.
"Did Hagrid mention how he got the dragon egg?" Glenn raised his concern. These were unusual times calling for unusual caution.
Dragon eggs were very precious and difficult to obtain. During this period when Voldemort was plotting against items in Hogwarts, the fact that Rubeus Hagrid - owner of Fluffy the three-headed dog guarding the third-floor corridor - could obtain a dragon egg of unknown origin was worth pondering.
It wasn't about distrusting Hagrid. Glenn just felt it necessary to confirm the egg's source. Better safe than sorry - being cautious was always good.
"Hagrid didn't tell me." The young girl shook her head. Hagrid indeed hadn't mentioned it, and she now realized obtaining a dragon egg was much more difficult than imagined.
Glenn immediately made up his mind and stood up to remove his clothes.
"What are you doing?!" Hermione clutched her chest in horror, retreating to the end of the sofa.
Shirtless, Glenn rummaged in his waist pack while seriously answering Hermione, "I've worn these clothes all day, and now part of them are wet from your drool. I'll keep them to wash later. Clothes should be cleaned regularly - Scourgify doesn't completely clean them." As he finished speaking, Glenn finally found clean clothes and took them out.
"..." Hermione's gaze turned dangerous again.
"Get out!"
...
Glenn decided to immediately ask Hagrid about the dragon egg's origins. They walked together toward Hagrid's hut.
"Knock knock knock" Glenn rapped on the wooden door, but there was no response from inside. Hermione said puzzledly: "That's strange. Hagrid usually stays in his hut at this time to prepare for night patrols in the Forbidden Forest. Especially now that he has a dragon egg hidden inside - I can't believe he'd leave his precious dragon egg alone."
Glenn activated his heightened senses to probe inside Hagrid's hut, discovering three people lying stiffly inside.
Hagrid, Harry, and Weasley.
Strangely though, he couldn't detect any sign of a fourth person.
Glenn cast Muffliato to envelop himself and Hermione, telling her what he sensed and warning her to be cautious.
Stepping forward, Glenn rattled the door and found it locked from inside.
Without further hesitation, he had Hermione step aside, then spun and delivered a roundhouse kick that broke open the door.
Glenn kept Hermione behind him, a dagger sliding from his sleeve into his grip as they carefully entered.
Surveying the scene, Harry and Ron lay side by side looking quite peaceful, liquid seeping from their mouths onto the floor. Two bowls with some liquid remaining lay overturned nearby, soaking a large patch of carpet that gave off an odd smell.
Hagrid had collapsed on the sofa, liquid still dripping from his beard. His hands remained in a bowl-holding position, though the bowl itself lay upside down on the floor, similarly soaking the surrounding carpet.
Hermione covered her mouth in horror. It really looked like a murder scene, but... the color and smell of the liquid from the fallen bowls seemed exactly like the radish and pork bone soup she had made with Hagrid?
Glenn walked expressionlessly to the most prominent table in the room, where a pot of now-cold soup sat.
"This appears to be the culprit," Glenn turned and pointed at the pot of soup.
The young girl had clearly realized something, her face turning pale as her legs gave way. Glenn quickly caught her.
"This can't be... this can't be..." the young girl muttered blankly.
Glenn comforted her: "It's alright, they should still be alive, don't worry."
"No, I just can't believe my soup was really that undrinkable." Hermione's hollow voice drifted out.
"..." Glenn unusually had nothing to say, but patted Hermione's shoulder and steadied her. He then walked to the cold soup, picked up a spoon and bowl, and ladled... well, half a spoon... just a tiny bit into the bowl before drinking it expressionlessly.
"The taste is fine, not as unacceptable as you imagine." Glenn turned calmly, leaning on his cane as he addressed Hermione seriously.
Hermione's dull eyes regained their spark. Hearing Glenn say this, she seemed to make some determination and resolutely walked forward, picking up a spoon to ladle herself a bowl.
At that moment, Hermione's small hand was caught by Glenn. She looked at him, but he said nothing, just watching her. Hermione tried to pull away gently but found she couldn't break free.
They stared at each other silently, the scene growing awkward.
...
In the end, under Glenn's prevention, Hermione gave up on tasting the soup she had made with Hagrid. Glenn used Aguamenti to wake up the three collapsed on the floor.
They looked very confused, seemingly unclear about the current situation.
Who am I, where am I, what am I doing, why am I lying on the floor all wet?
"Scourgify." The kind Hermione cast cleaning charms on the three of them, removing the evid... stains.
"Thank you, Hermione, but do you know why Ron and I were lying on the floor?" The kind Harry thanked Hermione, though his questions about these events remained. He could only vaguely remember some details - he and Ron were chatting with Hagrid when they discovered the dragon egg hidden in the fireplace flames, and then... and then... and then they seemed to drink something, and next thing they knew they were here?
Ugh, he couldn't remember. His head was spinning, and why did the back of his head hurt so much?
Ron clearly felt the same way, looking confused as he grimaced and rubbed his head.
"I feel like I have a big bump on the back of my head," he said glumly. Coming to Hagrid's had somehow resulted in mysteriously losing a chunk of memory and hitting his head - what was going on?
"We seemed to drink something that was on the table... hm? Why is it empty?"
Glenn had quickly disposed of the evid... soup before they woke up.
Hearing this, Hermione guiltily turned her head away.
"I don't know."