Chapter 272: Children's Talk and the Forbidden Forest

At Hermione's insistence, Harry and Ron sat down next to her and began to study about the Centaurs.

However, the two couldn't concentrate, always whispering about the match.

Harry thought he should have caught the Snitch earlier; he'd had a chance before.

Ron told him that he was too polite to Cho Chang, and that he was tied up in his first performance.

Then the conversation switched from Quidditch to Cho Chang and the other girls, bringing Ivan into the discussion when Hermione wasn't paying attention.

"Overall, the Ravenclaw Seeker flies very well. She's probably the best of all the girls in the school." Ron hedged with a book and whispered, "But she's still incomparable to you. Besides, her broomsticks are also on totally different levels. The fire arrow is the best, it's a world class broomstick. It's popular even in the professional league."

"Cho Chang is great, I'm not much better than her." Harry said objectively, "If it hadn't been for the fire arrow, I wouldn't have won so easily today."

He smiled a little; the appearance of Cho Chang in sky blue robes popped back into his mind; she was extraordinarily beautiful.

"You're too nice to her because she's a girl." Ron disagreed with Harry. "As Wood said, you've been too much of a gentleman."

"But..." Harry wanted to explain.

"If you don't believe me, ask Ivan; he witnessed the whole thing too," Ron said.

"Let me just say, while Cho Chang is very good, her forte is that she's also very beautiful." Ivan said with a sigh, "Harry, if you're in love with her, you can try asking her out. I heard Luna say that she doesn't have a boyfriend yet."

"I don't have that idea..." Harry tried to explain.

His face was red and he looked hard to convince.

In fact, as Ivan said, he really liked Cho Chang.

To be more precise, he liked her deep down. However, Harry was rather clumsy and inexperienced in this regard, and he was not aware of it.

He was thinking about Cho Chang, and he felt pure excitement and his heartbeat quickened.

As the topic deepened, Harry felt his face getting redder and redder, and not to let Ivan and Ron laugh at him, he quickly changed the subject to Hermione.

"Ivan, how are you getting along with Hermione?" Harry turned his back to Hermione and lowered his voice. "Tell us the truth, have you ever done that?"

"What?!" Ivan looked at him quizzically.

"That's..." Harry hesitated and whispered, "Kissing!"

At his words, Ron spat out the sip of juice he had just taken.

He coughed loudly and got up from the couch. He almost hit the small round table due to his exertion.

Hearing the noise caused by Ron, Hermione looked up.

She narrowed her eyes and looked at them suspiciously, her eyes full of doubt.

"You kissed Hermione?!" Ron said in surprise, looked at Ivan hesitantly, then looked back at Hermione, who was reading a book.

Before Ivan had time to explain, Harry told Ron, "On Christmas Eve, Ivan and Hermione left the Leaky Cauldron alone. About twenty minutes later, Hermione came back with a red face and looking very unusual..."

Harry and Ron looked at Ivan and their eyes were full of curiosity.

"Well, actually, it can't be considered a kiss." Ivan defended himself, "At the time, under the mistletoe in Diagon Alley, though it was just a little touch."

Time seemed to stagnate, his thoughts returned to that night, and his heart beat a little faster.

Harry and Ron looked at Ivan in amazement; his expression was much more lost than theirs.

Harry looked completely stunned. He opened his mouth and didn't know what to say. He just wanted to make a joke. He hadn't expected Ivan to admit it. However, he recovered quickly and was very emotional, and honestly, he was happy for Ivan and Hermione.

Ron was not in shock; he was deeply concerned about this matter and seemed to want to say something.

Without waiting for him to speak, Fred and George came over to toast with butterbeers.

They laughed merrily, annoying Hermione who was annoyed. She raised her head in irritation, shooed them all away and let Harry and Ron join the party so she could catch up and concentrate on reading the remaining four hundred pages of the book she had on hand.

The party went on and on, with no intention of stopping.

"Do you know what we're going to do in a moment?!" Hermione whispered as she curled up on the couch and looked at Sirius. "The Forbidden Forest at night is very dangerous. We should be prepared, not drinking and reveling here..."

Around ten o'clock at night, he suddenly put down his magic book.

He seemed to have made some kind of decision. He walked over and had a few words with Sirius. Ivan saw that Sirius looked very apologetic, as if he was apologizing to Hermione.

A few minutes later, Hermione came walking back with a smirk on her face.

"Get ready to go, Ivan!" whispered Hermione.

Hermione led Ivan out of the common room, and behind them there was a lot of whistling. They weren't the first couple to leave. Everyone had a knowing look on their faces, as if they already knew what Ivan and Hermione were going to do.

Both Ivan and Hermione blushed and tried to pretend they didn't hear the whistles.

"What did you say to Sirius?" asked Ivan curiously.

"Nothing, I just reminded him to pay attention to the weather," In the dark hallway, Hermione told Ivan what she had just told Sirius.

But Ivan kept thinking about what he talked about with Harry and Ron. He looked at Hermione in front of him, and his thoughts drifted away.

Time passed, and around 10:30 p.m. Sirius, Harry, and Ron came out of the common room.

Fred and George seemed to be acting up, the common room was still noisy, and the party showed no signs of ending.

"Let's go to the centaur colony in the Forbidden Forest." Harry said excitedly, not feeling fatigued after all this active day.

"We'd better hurry, let's not let the others realize we're leaving the castle." Sirius was completely back to normal, not looking drunk at all. "I asked Fred and George, and they'll try to keep the party going."

Sirius led them all into the hall, telling them what to pay attention to. They walked through the gates of the old castle, through the dark land. The closer they got to the dark and silent Forbidden Forest, the more tense the atmosphere became, and the more careful they were.

The moon was bright and clear, but there were clouds rising to cover it, causing them to fall into darkness.

It was hard to imagine that a moment ago they were having fun in a well-lit common room, but now they were wandering through the dangerous Forbidden Forest.

Harry and Ron looked increasingly alert, and had no energy to think about the party.

They seemed to realize that venturing into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night was not as simple as they had imagined.