HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 162 Trouble Encounters

Since Mu Yunxi arrived, Harry and Ron have been acting like crazy, spending all their time playing with him outside except during training, leaving Draco and Hermione neglected.

"When will they realize that summer vacation is already halfway over?" Hermione suddenly asked Draco, as she reached out and opened a book with her completed homework next to it.

"It depends on when the headmaster can't resist. They'll probably find out on their own about a week before school starts," Draco replied while writing his Potions homework. "They might also find out when that friend goes back." In short, there's no option for them to suddenly want to do their homework.

After a while, Draco pointed to a question: "Where did you see this? I can't find it." He was only one question away from completing his assignment, and he had almost finished writing the rest of the questions in the next few days.

Hermione took Draco's test paper, flipped to the answer key, and handed it to him. "Here, you probably missed it because you were looking too fast. Make a note of this; it'll be on the test when school starts."

"Hmm, there are quite a few exams this year. I'll drag those two back later; I don't want to have to comfort them after the exams." He closed the exam paper, organized his notes based on his own, and then compared notes with Hermione's. The basic exam content was clear.

Before they went downstairs, Harry and Ron came up, but Gellert followed behind them, holding a cane and glaring menacingly at the two in front of them.

Judging from their appearance, they'd gotten themselves into serious trouble. Draco steeled himself and looked at Gellert, "Excuse me, sir, did they do something wrong?"

"Heh, ask them yourself." Gellert walked to the wall and leaned against it, occasionally tapping his palm with the cane as if he was about to lash out at Harry and Ron.

The two of them walked up to their respective lovers, looking aggrieved, and recounted what had happened, one after the other. In general, this matter had little to do with them, because even if they were incredibly bold, they wouldn't dare hide in Gellert and Dumbledore's bedroom, let alone spy on them.

But since they were loyal to their friends, they went with Mu Yunxi when they saw that she wanted to go. They even stood guard there to keep watch for their new friend, worried that she might be caught by others.

After hearing the whole story, Draco glared at the two of them, took a deep breath, and looked at Gellert in front of him. "I'm sorry, sir, I'll keep them in check. I can assure you they won't cause any more trouble before the summer vacation ends."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "If they cause trouble again, we'll hand them over to Professor Filch after the semester starts."

Upon hearing this solution, Gellert reluctantly nodded. He knew Filch was good at making trouble for people. He then put away the cane in his hand, turned around and left the study to go find Dumbledore to talk about this, and also to ask for a hug.

Seeing the two of them looking stunned, Draco was furious. "Alright, stop pretending. I know you two too well. Get back to your homework." He pulled out all their homework and laid it on the table, then put one of them on each chair.

"For the rest of your vacation, you two will be spending all your time with Hermione and me, except for training. Do you understand?"

"Okay." X2

They were truly behaving themselves now; they didn't want to be punished by Filch with cleaning duties after school started—that would be awful. Harry opened the book Draco had handed him and picked up a quill to write his homework on the parchment.

----------

"Severus, come quick! Harry and Ron are in big trouble!" Emeric burst out laughing as soon as he got Gellert's letter. It was the first time he'd ever seen someone bolder than him, going straight into their room to do something bad without any evidence against them.

"?"

"You read it, I don't have time to read it right now." Severus turned and kissed Emeric, then continued processing the leaves in his hand. This little rascal has been getting more and more demanding lately; he won't do anything without a kiss, unless he gets angry and yells at you.

Having gained the advantage, Emeric immediately began reading, also glancing at Sarafina's letter, combining the two to summarize the entire matter.

As expected, Severus wore a gloating smile, even rewarding Emeric with a kiss, which made him work on the leaves with even more energy.

The person who had benefited was overjoyed. He was very grateful to Harry for the jokes and planned to give him a big gift after school started.

"Alright, that's the end of the jokes for today," Emeric put away the letter in his hand, walked to his workbench and sat down. "Don't forget to eat lunch soon, I'll call you later."

Sunlight streamed into the room, where the two people were engrossed in their own worlds, their heads bowed, the occasional clinking of tools adding a touch of life to the room.

"Beep beep beep."

The alarm clock rang, reminding Emeric that it was lunchtime. He put down his carving knife, turned to the man beside him, and said, "Sifer, it's time to eat. Is there anything you'd like to eat?"

The man didn't even look up, continuing to stir the potion in the cauldron. "Make it spicy if you want, but don't try to fool me with chili oil. I want it with chili." He then looked up at Emeric, "You said it yourself, this week you're making me eat spicy food."

Emeric was charmed by her cuteness. He lowered his head, covered his mouth, and chuckled. Before the man could get angry, he quickly agreed, "Okay, but it can't be too spicy. How about I make some Sichuan-style chicken?"

Severus thought to himself, "I've never heard of this dish before, but judging from Emeric's taste, it certainly won't be bad." But he said aloud, "If it doesn't taste good, I won't eat it."

"Okay~"

He promised Severus he would cook him something delicious and spicy; the man's picky eating was just so endearing. Emeric was happy to indulge Severus's cravings; wasn't that just him being affectionate?

Not long after he went downstairs to cook, Severus took control of the experiment's progress, finished this step, immediately cleaned the table, and then went downstairs to sit down.

Seeing Emeric come out with a plate, he reached out and hooked his arm around the little rascal's collar, leaning in to kiss him. It was something he'd read in a book he'd recently read: fulfilling a partner's need to kiss can strengthen the bond between them.

Although he felt that there was no need for them to push things further, kissing was really comfortable and gave him a feeling of being loved.

"Severus has been kissing more and more lately," Emeric said, gently pecking Severus's lips. "Poor thing, they're all swollen from all my kisses."

"You kissed me after you finished cooking?" Severus retorted with complete self-righteousness, seemingly unaware that he had been the one who had kissed her first.

Emeric released his grip on the back of Severus's neck. "I'll go get it. You wait a bit." He knew, of course, that Severus was shifting the blame; as he always said, what else could this be but a tantrum?