Next time
Queenie had a wonderful dream.
In her dream, she was a medieval noblewoman, beautiful and captivating, yet possessing a wild spirit. She had a childhood sweetheart, a fiancé of equal social standing, who treated her well, but she was never satisfied; beneath her elegant exterior lay a heart yearning for excitement. One day, a ship anchored in this coastal town. The captain, young, handsome, and witty, quickly became the most sought-after bachelor in the eyes of the young women. Queenie, of course, liked him too, and luckily, he liked her as well. The captain stayed in town for Queenie's sake, and they secretly met, passionately confessing their feelings to each other. However, their happiness was short-lived. Her father demanded that she and her fiancé marry as soon as possible, but how could Queenie obediently comply? She had already witnessed the indomitable giant ships braving storms in the Caribbean Sea; why would she choose a Venetian gondola?
In the end of the dream, they eloped.
Queenie slowly opened her eyes, a smile still playing on her lips. She had somewhat forgotten—dreams are always quickly forgotten—but she felt that she should have become a woman who had conquered the ocean and the man who had conquered the ocean.
She's really amazing.
Queenie chuckled for a moment, then her phone vibrated twice. It was a text message from Harry; she had actually slept until eleven o'clock.
—"Boarding complete, ready to depart."
Queenie chuckled twice as she recalled Harry in her dream, looking dashing in his captain's uniform.
"—Roger that, Captain Potter! Have a safe trip! Contact me as soon as you get a signal, okay?"
--"certainly."
--"Love you."
Ahhh, my boyfriend is so sweet, I love him so much!
"You're so obedient, I love you too~"
Queenie grew happier and happier, so she sat up and leaned against the headboard to text Emily, her phone clicking away in her excitement.
"So you'll be the first to know that I successfully slept with Harry last night! Praise me as much as you like, woman!"
While waiting for a reply, Queenie got out of bed and poured herself a glass of warm water.
—"Wow, not bad! Congratulations!"
"If you want to know the details, come quickly. I want to eat the beef burger from that fast food restaurant at the intersection."
"Honey, I can't go, Winston's about to wake up. Let's meet up another day~ *kiss*"
*Pfft*—Queenie spat out the mouthful of water she had just taken in, soaking the sheets.
Isn't Winston the college student Emily chased for almost half the summer? And they spent the whole night together??
Damn it, I thought she had made great progress, but it turns out that this bold woman Emily just had a one-night stand without saying a word?
Queenie took a deep breath. As the woman who had conquered the ocean and the man who had conquered the ocean, she would never admit defeat. Next time, the very next time they met, she would "win over" Harry!
When Hermione and Ron returned from their first patrol, Harry was hunched over a small table, writing furiously.
"What's wrong, Harry? Haven't you finished your homework? You can copy mine." Ron was always generous to his brother.
Hermione glared at him. "First of all, copying homework is wrong. Secondly, I supervised your homework so you couldn't possibly have missed anything."
"Just kidding, Hermione. Do you know you were so serious just now you almost scared the freshmen to tears?"
They bickered as they tacitly sat down next to Harry, and Ron even handed Hermione a book—the very one she had brought from Black's old house without finishing it.
"They can't just experiment on their classmates; what if something happens—"
"Oh come on, think back, who was it that used a spell to fix Harry's glasses when they first met in first year? Keep in mind that the spell was cast right in Harry's eyes."
"..." Hermione pouted, feeling she really wasn't qualified to lecture others on this point. She turned to Harry, annoyed, "So what are you writing?"
“Hmm, the logbook.” Harry said without looking up.
Ron, biting into the pumpkin pie, asked, "What...what is this?"
"A ship's log is a written document that records the main events of a ship during its voyage and while it is at anchor," Hermione explained professionally.
Ron swallowed the food in his mouth. "Sometimes I feel like you know too much. You're practically a walking library."
Hermione, who had just been sulking, couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth into a smile. "That's because Harry gave himself the identity of a sailor, so I read some related books."
How many books did you actually read during the summer vacation?
"Thirty to forty books?"
"..."
"However, I didn't read every single page."
"..." That's already pretty terrible. Ron continued to ask Harry, "Why did you write this? In case Queenie wants to read it someday?"
Hermione craned her neck to look. "I guess not. It's more like Queenie's Log than a nautical log."
Harry hastily sketched out his itinerary for this "voyage" in his notebook, noting which countries and cities he would pass through, the intervals between them, and the duration of each stop. Amidst this scribbled writing, he meticulously planned when to contact Queenie, how long each contact should last, what food to share with her, how to describe the different scenery, and what local souvenirs to bring her back… Incidentally, he even wrote down the illnesses he might contract on the ship and created names and personas for his colleagues, though so far it seems those colleagues are all Gryffindor students.
"If you could put that same effort into your studies, I wouldn't have to worry about your OWLs exams at all." Hermione would never forget about studying.
Ron, however, was more interested in learning about Harry's "colleagues." "Did you give me a fabricated identity too? What's my persona?"
"Of course, he's my best brother, but I've adapted your election as class leader this year. Your identity is that of a newly promoted third mate."
Where is Hermione?
"Uh, cook? I can't think of any suitable positions on the ship for girls right now..."
Hermione clearly disliked being a cook, and she said firmly, "I can be the ship's doctor."
For the first half of the train journey, they discussed how to make Harry's logbook look perfect. For the second half, all three of them became drowsy—they had gone to bed too late the night before—and when they woke up, they could already see the outline of Hogwarts. Hermione was annoyed that she hadn't fulfilled her duties as a prefect, and her mood was a bit low.
Ron didn't dare to provoke her and kept talking to Neville. To be honest, Neville was practically the only person besides Hermione and the Weasleys who didn't avoid Harry. When Harry saw Dean and Seamus's expressions after getting off the train, he was so angry that he wished he could give his two "colleagues" with the same name some kind of dysentery.
Dinner was even worse. It was as if there was a vacuum within a foot of Harry, or maybe he had some kind of infectious disease. Hermione looked at Harry's angry expression and whispered, "Aren't you going to take a picture? Aren't you going to contact Q?" They had agreed to use Q to refer to Queenie at school to avoid being overheard by anyone with ulterior motives.
Harry immediately composed himself, and he discreetly pulled out his phone from his pocket, only to find that Queenie had already sent him a text message.
"—Dear Harry, I already miss you so much, I wonder where you are. I had Domino's new pizza for dinner, it was delicious! We'll eat it together again when you get back. Love you~"
Harry's expression instantly brightened. He restrained himself from replying to the message—he shouldn't have a signal right now—and turned on the camera to take a picture of the dining table.
Harry looked toward the teachers' table when a high-pitched, unfamiliar female voice interrupted Headmaster Dumbledore's speech. He recognized the woman in pink who had gone to his hearing; she was from the Ministry of Magic and worked for Fudge.
But who cares? Haha, Snape didn't get the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship again. The first happy thing after the start of the semester has happened.
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