The Chinese girl from Hufflepuff is both timid and brave

“Wizard Times: The long-lost Hogwarts founder’s treasure reappears at the Ministry of Magic Christmas Eve auction!”

Hermione held a thick stack of newspapers in her hands, and together with Harry and Ron, they read through them one by one.

"Here's more! Hogwarts Weekly: Hufflepuff House regains the founder's gold cup, and the Bulstrode family generously donates treasures." Ron shook his head, his tone not without envy, "It's great to be rich."

Harry picked up the Daily Prophet, but saw that it clearly stated: The Ministry of Magic auction was making huge money, and Flamel's "treasure" traps were exposed one after another.

"Is it that exaggerated?" Hermione snatched the newspaper from Harry's hand and flipped through it carefully, her brown eyes full of disbelief. "This article says that the Ministry of Magic has lost the support of pure-blood families because of Minister Bones's various actions, so it has to rely on this dishonorable method... to defraud money, and all of this is secretly instructed by Headmaster Dumbledore."

"Nonsense!" Harry slammed the table and stood up. "This is slander. The headmaster is not that kind of person. The Daily Prophet is exaggerating. Those pure-blood Slytherins must have paid them to write such nonsense!"

"Harry, I understand how you feel, but please calm down." Hermione shook her head. "The statements here are indeed radical and biased, but we should learn from all sides. After all, the Daily Prophet is the newspaper with the largest circulation in the wizarding world. You can't deny it completely."

Harry bit his lip, looking protesting.

"Stop arguing, there are other things." Ron flipped through them. "The Quibbler, The Owl Post, Witch Weekly... and this, um, Give Me Some Veritaserum?"

"I've brought all the newspapers and periodicals I could find, whether they were authoritative or not." Hermione spread her hands, "For the rest, we'll need to search and judge for ourselves."

"Is it really necessary to go to so much trouble? I heard that several Hufflepuffs were there that day. Why don't we just go and ask Zhu?" Ron casually flipped through the "Witch Weekly". "This is my mother's favorite. Hermione, you can also take a look. Because every issue has a large page dedicated to bragging about your boyfriend, Professor Lockhart, hahahahahahaha..."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "No, don't disturb Zhu!"

Harry also said at about the same time: "No, this will cause trouble to her. I can't bother her anymore."

Ron touched his nose and flipped through the things in his hand. "If she doesn't want to ask, then don't ask. But I think if she knew about you, she would definitely not despise you. Here, look, it says here, 'Hufflepuff students are friendly and enthusiastic. They are not only good in character and appearance, but also united and have a strong sense of house identity.' Hey... Hey? Look, there are photos here. This is bamboo, right!"

Harry leaned over in confusion, while Hermione simply snatched the paper from Ron's hand and quickly found the picture.

The picture shows a snapshot of the guests in the back row. The lights from the ceiling of the lobby cast a soft white edge on them. The three people are facing away from the camera. The two black-haired boys on the right side of the picture are whispering to each other, and the blonde girl on the far left is nodding her head, looking drowsy.

There is a line of words under this dynamic picture: Delphine Bulstrode (first from left) and her Hufflepuff classmates.

"The one in the middle must be Senior Takenaka!" Hermione was also a little excited, "What is she talking about with Diggory?"

"How do you know this is Senior Cedric?" Harry asked subconsciously.

"The tall guy with black hair, who else could it be besides him? It must be that pretty boy, hahaha!" Ron laughed, "Besides, who else could be around Zhu who would whisper to her like this without paying any attention to others!"

"What pretty boy?" Hermione frowned in dissatisfaction. "I find that you are really mean to good-looking boys! Did Senior Diggory offend you?"

"Tsk." Ron pouted. "Fred and the others were the first to shout that. Besides, we're going to compete with them in a few weeks. He and Harry are rivals!"

"Come on, according to you, except for the Gryffindor players, all the others are enemies? You are just jealous and you won't admit it!" Hermione raised her voice, "Smart and handsome men are easily attacked by boys like you. People always say that women are jealous, and I think you are no less jealous!"

"Hey, stop arguing, let's continue reading the reports, don't miss a single word." Harry said weakly, "See if there is any report that mentions the monster appearing at the auction. There were so many people that day, if it was really there, there would always be one or two reporters who saw it and recorded it."

Ron threw away the things in his hand with a "snap", very unconvinced: "Harry, look, she is talking nonsense again! She is so neurotic! I will go find Seamus and Dean to help you find it, I will not stay here!"

"You'd better really do something!" Hermione snorted coldly, sat down angrily, picked up a copy of "The Quibbler" and began to flip through it viciously.

Harry felt a headache as he watched Ron leave angrily. He stretched out his hand in vain, then reluctantly withdrew it, half covering his eyes and sighing.

Hermione's brown curly hair exploded with anger, but she quickly got down to work, finding the page of The Quibbler that introduced the auction and reading it carefully.

How lucky he was that after his friends noticed something was wrong and he had to tell them the secret of "hearing monster voices" that had troubled him for most of the semester, he received a response from his two closest friends that "made peace with the past".

After Christmas Eve, he curiously asked Dobby what happened at Malfoy Manor. Although he hated the place because of Draco, his godfather had been paying close attention to the Ministry of Magic and the auction recently, so much so that even on Christmas, he only asked the elf to come and take care of him.

Of course, Harry thought that Dobby's change was Sirius's secret help, and Sun Zhu specifically told him not to let it slip, so that Harry would not know that she was Dobby's real "master" now.

After returning from the auction, Dobby followed Sun Zhu's instructions and returned to Harry. Because of Harry's change in attitude towards him, he became more humble and flattering - although Harry's closeness to him came from helplessness and gradual habit. In order to make Harry happier, he accidentally revealed something.

"Dobby's former master, yes, Dobby said, Mr. Malfoy, he was in a bad mood all night. He didn't buy what he wanted, and was frightened by a big monster."

"Big monster, what monster?" Harry asked casually.

"It seems, it seems to be a snake, Mr. Potter." Dobby said respectfully. He was not sure whether he should mention this to Harry, but after seeing Harry's eyes shining with emerald light, he forgot everything.

"That's right, sir. Mr. Malfoy was frightened by the giant snake that appeared at the auction, Lord..." Dobby suddenly covered his mouth. He was so excited that he almost let Sun Zhu slip.

But Harry didn't notice its subsequent actions at all, instead he was immersed in thoughts and inexplicable excitement. Until the day when he met his friends again after the Christmas holiday, he said:

"Now I have to be honest with you. There is something that has been bothering me for half a semester. I am no longer able to solve it myself, but I don't want to trouble my godfather. So, Ron, Hermione, I need your help!"