Chapter 404
John shook his head slightly. Slughorn also had a day when his vision was wrong.
Daphne was so sharp that people ignored the other girl in the Greengrass family.
He whispered to the disappointed Astoria: "Astoria, there is something that I have been thinking about for a long time."
Astoria looked up, confused.
John raised his hand, and starlight gathered on his fingertips, finally condensing into a small box tied with a sky-blue ribbon.
He handed the thing to Astoria and said softly: "Open it so that you can prove that I haven't tampered with it."
Astoria looked at her sister and Daphne nodded at her.
Gently pulling apart the ribbon, she carefully opened the box.
Inside lies a medallion of stars, with the stars on it constantly changing.
Astoria covered her mouth in surprise, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
The badge had a small card with Astoria's name written on it.
John chuckled and said: "I have always been thinking about whether to recruit you into the Star Club. You were too young before. Are you willing to join the Star Club now?"
Astoria bit her lip and turned her head away, trying not to let her tears fall.
She saw her sister Daphne's encouraging eyes and Malfoy's encouraging gesture.
She had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Finally, she waited.
Seeing her excitement, John simply stood up and said casually: "We should go out."
Knowing that this was the best place for Astoria to vent her emotions, Malfoy and Daphne both agreed and left the box.
After the people left, Astoria cried.
She touched her tears randomly with her hands.
She had wanted to join the Star Club long before she walked down the hall surrounded by stars.
But surrounded by excellent people, she became so inconspicuous.
I am not worthy of the Star Club.
This was a conclusion she made for herself very early on. With this idea in mind, she worked hard to become better and wanted to stand with her sister.
But after the stars appeared, people could no longer see the other people beside the stars.
Although she didn't say anything about what happened today, she was still very hurt inside. She wasn't good enough and she didn't even get an invitation.
But now, nothing matters.
What's Slughorn's invitation?
The Star Society proved to her that Astoria Greengrass was no less than anyone.
John's words clearly told her that this was not the comfort given by sadness, but that the plan had been decided before.
There is no back door and no sympathy.
She, like her sister, was the best of people.
She is the shining star that stands side by side with the stars.
…
Chapter 428: Party on the Train
In box C.
In addition to John and the others, there are other students as well.
John had long known what Professor Slughorn's interests were.
Those students who were invited either had a good reputation or had a good life experience.
Malfoy glanced at Harry, who looked a little confused.
What people didn't expect was that Ginny was also there.
In addition to them, there are some people, such as Blaise Zabini, who is a Slytherin student in the same year as John.
There is also Cormac McLagan, whose uncle is a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Magic, similar to Piers.
Seeing John's arrival, Slughorn turned around hard in this space.
The other people in the box made the first move.
"John, Daphne, Draco." Neville greeted John and the others.
Blaise tried to get up hastily, but his knees hit the table.
Cormac also hesitated for a while, then stood up and nodded to John.
"John, it's great to see you, I'm so happy to see you!" Slughorn quickly invited, "I think these two are Miss Greengrass and Mr. Malfoy. I'll save it for you." Good location."
Slughorn made a gesture, and John saw the seat next to the door and was about to sit down.
"No, no, no, come here John." Slughorn was overly enthusiastic and pulled John to sit down next to him.
John still gave him this face.
"Okay, do you all know these people?" Slughorn said.
"John is the best at Hogwarts," before anyone else could say anything, John's fanboy Blaise spoke first, "You don't know how good he is."
Seeing this, Slughorn smiled even more happily, nodded and joked: "I know better than you think. Alex Belby, the Damo who I had the honor to teach, is the inventor of Wolfsbane potion. Very good friends with John.”
"Dharma Alex Belby told me that John Wick was definitely the most gifted student in the past hundred years."
Slughorn was not stingy with his praise, gushing about how great John was.
"Well, that's pleasant," said Slughorn with satisfaction, as if he was satisfied simply by complimenting John. "I brought my own lunch, and I remember the smell of the hay wand from the food truck. The baby is always too heavy."
"A poor old man's digestive system can't handle these things."
He murmured and said to Malfoy, "Some quail, Malfoy?"
Malfoy accepted what looked like half a frozen quail.
"Your father used to be my student, and I visited his museum. It's a great thing, isn't it?" Slughorn was the dean of Slytherin, and Lucius was also his student.
"Of course, my father likes to contribute some insignificant force in the magical world." Hearing this, Malfoy raised his head with a look of pride.
If you ask Malfoy to talk about family matters, you can talk for three days and three nights.
But Slughorn will not neglect other students, these are his future collections.
Slughorn was surprised to talk to Neville for a while about the Longbottoms.
"I don't mean to offend. What happened about the Longbottoms is very shocking. I even think it can be regarded as a miracle. My old friend who works in St. Mungo's once said that it was impossible to cure."
As a Potions Master, Slughorn was curious about the Longbottoms' healing.
Then he talked to Daphne about Mr. Greengrass's recent dealings with politics. Greengrass's property has increased a lot in the past year.
By the end, he focused on Harry.
Asked about the war at the Ministry of Magic.
Harry felt very uncomfortable as he spoke.
Because there were at least six people present at the Ministry of Magic battle.
Four of them were his enemies at the time.
He also knew some secrets that John didn't know, which made Harry feel less guilty when talking about them.
But when the prophecy ball was mentioned, Harry subconsciously looked at Malfoy.
Malfoy smiled very defiantly at this.
This made Harry very angry, and Malfoy smashed the prophecy ball at that time.
Harry's retelling of the incident was a torture, as he was reminded of something he had no power to suppress.
Fortunately, Ginny was there, and her mind worked faster.
The party ended with Slughorn constantly bringing up anecdotes about the outstanding wizards he taught back then, who all joined his Slug Club.
Slughorn didn't realize it until the red sunset appeared.
As the principal, he couldn't let these students get off the bus without their school uniforms and robes.
Everyone left one after another, and Slughorn said goodbye with a smile.
Just after turning around, he found that John was still where he was.
"John?" Slughorn asked with a smile, happy to be alone with John, "Anything else?"
"Professor Slughorn, I have something to ask you."
When he said this, Slughorn remembered a certain letter that scared him so much that he didn't dare to reply, and his smile became a little stiff.
He said: "If it's about taboos..."
"It's somewhat related," John noticed his discomfort and said calmly, "But it's not the same thing."
This relieved Slughorn, who asked John's question.
"You should know the reason why I received the Order of Merlin."
John put his fist on his chin and said calmly: "I have research on the blood curse."
As long as it's not about Horcruxes, Slughorn is willing to give guidance to students.
What's more, this student is the youngest holder of the Order of Merlin.
…
Slughorn was a strange man, you could say he was snobbish because he was always willing to give preferential treatment to smart students.
He would not be harsh or considerate towards less outstanding students.
John doesn't think this is a bad problem.
After all, privilege is the biggest motivation for people to work hard. If everyone is equal, the meaning of hard work will become unclear.
Coming out of Box C, John saw Malfoy.
"Why are you waiting here?" John asked.
Malfoy curled his lips, "Daphne thinks she should go talk to Astoria first."
"Why didn't you say Atto?" John walked over, and Malfoy followed naturally.
"Ahem," he coughed twice. Malfoy felt guilty and said, "That's just an abbreviation. Our relationship is just that of good friends."
John didn't say anything and walked to the car.
He saw Blaise Zabini gossiping about something.
Seeing John, Brace said excitedly: "John, you must not know what that girl did just now."
"She used a beautiful bat spirit spell to knock Zachary Smith away!" Brace said very excitedly, "I love that girl to death, I want to chase her!"
Malfoy said ghostly: "What the hell, you like her? A Gryffindor?"
Perhaps because of John, Blaise, who was originally a pure-blooded person, now changed his mind and liked strong girls.
And Ginny Weasley meets this condition very well, plus she has a very pretty face.
And other people who meet the conditions are not within Blaise's reach.
Blaise might have blushed, but he had dark skin and couldn't tell. He hesitated and asked, "John, do you think I can do it?"
"There's no shame in pursuing the person you like," John chuckled, "Keep it graceful, Blaise."
With confirmation, Brace made up his mind.
Malfoy leaned closer to John and whispered, "I swear Percy will kill him. We all know how much Percy dotes on his sister."
Percy didn't forget to send gifts to his mother and sister during Christmas and during the Cold War at home.
