“If you want your dreams to come true, what do you need to do first?”
“Wake up!”
With Ethan's answer, the door of the common room swung open.
“Where have you been?”
On the way back to the dormitory, Ethan suddenly heard a deep voice behind him, faintly tinged with resentment.
Instantly, Ethan felt goosebumps rise. Who was this?
He had been so focused on getting back to the dormitory that he hadn't paid attention. Besides, at this time of night, no one would be in the common room, would they?
“Senior, don't scare me!”
Ethan breathed a sigh of relief when he turned around and saw who it was.
“Who scared you? I'm right here, can't you see?”
“Tell me, where have you been all night?”
Penelope stood before Ethan with her arms crossed. This whole week, she had felt something was off about him. He was waking up late every morning and looked like he hadn't slept well.
He had clearly said he didn't have trouble sleeping on the first day. This was impossible.
To find out what was going on, she had deliberately come to wait for him tonight. She couldn't exactly go into the boys' dormitory in the middle of the night, otherwise she would have gone in for a look.
“I went for a night run!”
Ethan looked directly into Penelope's eyes, his voice resolute.
“Night run? It's almost three in the morning, you expect me to believe you went for a night run? Don't you think I'm stupid?”
“Come on, you were out on a date with that little witch, right? Senior, maybe I can give you some cover.”
Penelope was so angry that her chest was about to burst, her robes rising and falling with it.
“It’s late, Senior. You should go to bed. Staying up late is the enemy of women.”
Ethan felt a headache coming on. He had been caught.
Except for the first day, he would leave around ten and come back around one or two. Today he thought he could get some rest and wake up later, but he ended up coming back late and got caught.
“Don't make up excuses. Tell me the truth about your midnight escapades. I'm the Head Girl.”
Penelope pointed to the Head Girl badge that was bouncing on her chest.
“I was practicing magic at night.”
Ethan had no choice but to tell the truth. It wasn't a date at midnight, it was a hook-up.
In Hogwarts, the only female students Ethan knew, other than Penelope in front of him, it would be illegal to get involved with anyone else.
“Practicing magic at night?”
Penelope looked at Ethan with a dubious expression.
In Hogwarts, there wasn't a dedicated space for practicing magic. Casting spells was not allowed in the corridors, and while the open space outside the castle could be used, it wasn't necessary, because most magic was silent and could be practiced in the dormitory.
“Yeah, if you want to come, I can take you to the common room tonight at ten.”
There was no need to hide the Room of Requirement. As long as it wasn't made public knowledge, it was fine.
Ethan just used it to practice magic, and besides, it wasn't like you could only open one room.
“Okay, I'll be waiting for you at ten tonight, Junior!”
Penelope gave Ethan a sweet smile and then walked into the passage leading back to the girls' dormitory. She had to go back to catch up on her sleep.
Back in his dormitory, Ethan sighed. Senior just now seemed like a green tea girl!
But there was nothing wrong with being a green tea girl.
Time to sleep, time to sleep. He had a date with the Weasley twins in the afternoon to go to Hogsmeade.
…
Afternoon, two-thirty!
In the dark and narrow passageway, Ethan and his group had been walking for almost an hour. The passageway had changed from stone walls to dirt, and in some places, water was dripping down.
This was a passageway located below the one-eyed witch, and the exit was in the basement of Honeydukes.
“We’re almost there!”
Fred, who was leading the way using the Lumos spell, turned around and reminded Ethan.
Soon, Fred pushed open a cover above the passageway, and Ethan and George followed him, crawling out. As far as the eye could see, it was just a place for storing things.
After using a cleaning charm to clean the dirt off their bodies, Ethan followed the twins and soon found themselves in the shop of Honeydukes, a place they were quite familiar with.
The first thing they were met with was the scent of fudge. The smell was certainly tempting, but Ethan wasn't really in the mood for it. The sweets and candies here were just too sweet for him. The only thing he really enjoyed was the ice cream he had eaten in Diagon Alley the last time.
Entering the front hall where the sweets were sold, Ethan and the others didn’t rush to leave. Fred and George still had to do some shopping.
In addition to the more common toffee, nougat, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Chocolate Frogs, they also bought jelly slugs, a dungbomb, ice mice, toad-shaped mint creams, sour candy sticks that could burn holes in your tongue, exploding bonbons…
The reason they bought so much was not for their own consumption, but for resale. Even third-year and above students who could go to Hogsmeade Village had to be organized by the school and need parental permission. They could only go a few times a year. The goods in Honeydukes were very popular among the younger wizards, and they could sell them without any problem. Of course, they couldn't be too expensive.
In their words, it was fine to not make a fortune, but they could make some pocket money.
Ethan finally understood why the Weasley family, who were basically always short of cash, had money to bet on the Quidditch World Cup. It was actually money they had earned.
Then Ethan followed them to Zonko's Joke Shop. This time, they didn't buy much, just five dungbombs and they left.
According to them, they kept four for themselves. If the Slytherins tried any dirty tricks in the next Quidditch match, they would throw two on their long table and two on the door of their common room.
The other one was promised to the Peeves, the one Ethan had petrified.
Peeves had been petrified for about three days before the spell was lifted. Since Ethan was in a Disillusionment Charm state at the time, Peeves couldn't see him and could only vent his anger on the twins.
To appease Peeves, the twins promised to get him the dungbomb as soon as possible.
After that, Ethan followed the twins to the Three Broomsticks pub and had some Butterbeer. It was more like a drink with no alcohol, it tasted pretty good. Ethan bought some.
Moreover, the owner of the Three Broomsticks pub was a middle-aged widow with a lot of charm. As a result, the pub was quite lively when Ethan and the others arrived, full of middle-aged and elderly wizards.
Then it was the time for the pet shop, The shop owner was a friend of the twins. With their introductions, Ethan bought all the live frog feed in the store, for fifteen Galleons.
He didn't count them specifically, but there must have been over a thousand. They were all put in a super-sized fish tank prepared beforehand in a suitcase that had been extended with the Undetectable Extension Charm.
This Undetectable Extension Charm suitcase was not from Dennis. It was one that Ethan had made later. It was slightly smaller than Ethan's four-person dormitory. He just didn't have much time to expand the space, after all, learning was the priority.
The fish tank was also created with Transfiguration and was enhanced with a strengthening charm, which would last for half a month without any problem.
The last thing was the oil, which was easy. It was sold in the general store, and it was oil for potions.