In a sense, the Farley family was very similar to the Potter family.
Although both were ancient pure-blood families, neither had been included among the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
Even the reasons why the author didn't include them in the Sacred Twenty-Eight families were remarkably similar—many members of both families had expressed positive views about Muggles quite openly.
Similar to this was the Weasley family, who also had very positive views about Muggles, although they were included in the Sacred Twenty-Eight, they were very dissatisfied about being on such a list.
Gemma Farley had grown up in just such a family environment.
Her father, Sebastian Augustus Farley, was a pure-blood wizard who came from Slytherin House.
Her mother, Mrs. Farley, was also a pure-blood witch who graduated from Ravenclaw House.
The couple seemed low-key but actually had wide connections.
When Lucius Malfoy tried to unite other school governors to expel Dumbledore from the school, only to be outmaneuvered by Sherlock and Dumbledore, he had originally planned to use his money power to turn things around.
But it was precisely at that moment that Sebastian decisively intervened, directly crushing all his plans.
Even Draco had no choice but to obediently apologize to Harry and Colin.
Originally reluctant when apologizing, after apologizing to Harry, Malfoy discovered that the feeling was unexpectedly pleasant.
Once he stopped actively causing trouble for Harry, the other party actually didn't bother with him anymore.
Combined with Pansy's initiative, Malfoy became somewhat addicted and unable to extricate himself.
Back to Gemma Farley herself.
After following in her parents' footsteps to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Sorting Hat had hesitated between Slytherin and Ravenclaw for a while, but ultimately sorted her into Slytherin.
Not long after entering Slytherin, Gemma Farley demonstrated her talent in magic, quickly attracting the attention of teachers in all subjects.
Their year could be said to be full of talented people, with three top students appearing simultaneously.
Besides Gemma Farley, there was Percy Weasley from Gryffindor and Penelope Clearwater from Ravenclaw.
By the time these three reached fifth year, all of them were selected as prefects.
In seventh year, Gemma and Percy were respectively made Head Boy and Head Girl.
Penelope had originally been Gemma's strong competitor, but Hogwarts wouldn't let a couple in the throes of romance both serve as Head Boy and Girl simultaneously.
So Gemma Farley won smoothly.
Compared to Percy Weasley, who was also Head Boy, Gemma might be slightly inferior academically, but surpassed him comprehensively in other aspects.
Because of this, when handling many daily affairs, professors including Dumbledore were willing to entrust matters to Gemma rather than to Percy.
For Gemma herself, her life at Hogwarts could only be described as routine, without much novelty.
She had originally only been waiting to graduate and enter the Ministry of Magic, or go further afield to expand the family business in other countries.
However, everything changed in her fifth year.
The famous savior of the wizarding world, the Boy Who Lived, the nemesis of the Dark Lord, Harry Potter, finally reached school age and entered Hogwarts.
This caused a sensation throughout the entire wizarding world.
Although the Farley family wasn't part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, her parents still reminded her to pay attention to the Boy Who Lived, just like many pure-blood families.
This was also consistent with Slytherin's usual style.
Gemma did initially focus her attention on Harry.
But soon, a young boy who was very close to Harry also caught her attention.
Sherlock Holmes, a Muggle-born wizard.
At the Sorting Ceremony, he became another Hatstall, the first since Professor Minerva McGonagall—something that happened once every fifty years.
From that moment on, Gemma began paying attention to this Sherlock.
As a result, she was surprised to discover that in the subsequent school life, the savior Harry Potter, whom she thought would make a stunning debut, did nothing remarkable.
Instead, this Sherlock Holmes first became the Lion King of Gryffindor.
Even the savior and another top student very much like herself, Hermione, were willing to follow by his side as sidekicks.
As time passed, Sherlock led the savior to complete one arduous task after another.
Under these circumstances, Gemma began actively befriending Sherlock, showing him goodwill.
Until now, the two had become true friends.
For Gemma, this last Easter at school was also quite busy.
Her main energy was devoted to the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test (N.E.W.T.), with the rest of her time occupied by daily affairs as Head Girl.
Because of this, she hadn't been able to meet with Sherlock during this time.
But the letterd between her and Sherlock had never been interrupted.
Clearly in the same school, the same castle, yet having to use owl post to communicate gave her a novel, alternative feeling.
Every few days, she would share what she had seen and heard with Sherlock.
She also knew about Sherlock's search for Horcruxes and Professor Slughorn.
Deeply understanding the importance and confidentiality of this matter, she had also provided some help through her family, enriching Sherlock's knowledge base.
But she hadn't expected that Sherlock would ask for her help today to persuade Hermione.
What Sherlock didn't know was that Gemma's understanding of the witch Hermione Granger was no less than Sherlock's own.
Shortly after entering school, Hermione had already made her mark, becoming the subject of discussion among teachers in all subjects.
By the end of first year, she had won the title of scoring champion for the new season and had maintained it until now.
Most importantly, she was Sherlock's first female friend.
This was something Gemma couldn't help but pay attention to.
As Gemma's good friend Penelope had said, this was already Gemma's last year at school.
If she truly took no action, it would be equivalent to voluntarily giving the opportunity to Hermione.
They say age isn't a barrier, and once they left school for society, a three-year age difference between a man and woman truly wasn't a problem at all.
But at school, there were still some issues.
Even Penelope and Percy hadn't revealed their relationship in sixth year, waiting until this final year to make their relationship public.
Moreover, up until now, Gemma still hadn't been able to confirm her feelings for Sherlock.
Their current relationship could be described as more than friends, less than lovers.
The key issue was that Sherlock was odd, with absolutely no concept of romance.
Gemma alone had heard him say more than once that he didn't need love.
This was also what made Gemma most helpless.
However, when she received the letter Watson delivered, Gemma still rushed to the Room of Requirement without stopping.
The reason was simple—she wouldn't refuse Sherlock.
Gemma's heart only had a small bit of conflict; Hermione's conflict was even greater.
In Hermione's view, if Sherlock really wanted to alert Professor McGonagall, at least it could be said he was worried about her.
But telling Gemma Farley about this—what was that supposed to mean?
At this moment, she seemed to hear a voice in her heart urging her to leave immediately.
They had clearly agreed that the Time-Turner was a secret belonging only to the two of them!
How could Sherlock share it with someone else?
And with Gemma, of all people?
Even if he meant well, that still wasn't acceptable...
However, just as she was about to leave, she suddenly realized something was wrong.
Reason and trust in Sherlock made her forcibly suppress the urge to leave.
Although Sherlock was arrogant, rude, stubborn in his behavior, and sometimes infuriating when he spoke.
But as long as he promised someone something, he would definitely do it.
Additionally, although he lacked understanding of people around him, was dismissive of interpersonal relationships, and always gave people a feeling of cold indifference.
But as long as someone was recognized by him as a friend, his sincerity was absolutely impeccable.
Once her intelligent mind took the high ground, Hermione came back to her senses.
At most, Sherlock would tell Gemma that she was exhausted from trying to cope with her courses, leading to poor mental state.
He definitely wouldn't tell Gemma about the Time-Turner.
This was the hero who had saved her more than once!
How could she doubt him?
Also, watching Gemma walking silently in the corridor, deep in Hermione's heart a thought gradually formed.
If she left now, she would surely regret it forever.
So, she took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed her negative emotions, and directly voiced her question—what exactly was going on?
Communication—she still needed to communicate.
Sherlock knew nothing of the two girls' inner turmoil. When Hermione asked, he answered.
"Gemma took all courses starting from third year and obtained twelve certificates in fifth year.
She has extensive experience balancing the relationships between various courses. Last time on the train, you even consulted her for advice.
I felt your condition hasn't been good recently, so I asked her to come help."
Hermione forced a smile, "Miss Farley did give me great inspiration, but... Sherlock, you should know that my situation is different now."
She didn't know how Hogwarts had arranged things, but students from previous years hadn't experienced anything like this when they first encountered elective courses in third year.
Even if there were also overlapping courses, it definitely wasn't as intense as this year.
This year's course arrangement seemed intentionally designed to prevent students from taking all courses.
Of course, like Sherlock and Harry, taking all courses but not attending them and relying on textbooks and self-study was one approach.
But Hermione always believed that authentic instruction directly from professors was the proper way.
Moreover, as Harry had analyzed, her standards for herself were different from others.
As long as she took a final exam, she had to get an "O."
She believed Professor McGonagall must think the same way, otherwise she wouldn't have gone to such lengths to get her the Time-Turner.
This was also why she emphasized that she was different from Gemma.
However, Sherlock shook his head. "No, this is essentially still the same thing."
Hermione was about to say more, but Gemma stopped at that moment, turned to face them and said, "Alright."
As her words fell, a smooth door immediately appeared on the wall opposite the tapestry.
Hermione looked at this door that had appeared out of nowhere, her eyes showing deep shock.
"What... what on earth is this?"
Hermione naturally understood that this suddenly appearing door was connected to Gemma's strange behavior just now.
But there was no record of this in Hogwarts. A History.
Apart from the Chamber of Slytherin, this was the first time she had encountered such a thing.
Furthermore, compared to the door's existence itself, there was something else that made her even more uneasy.
That was that only Sherlock and Gemma knew about this mysterious place.
It seemed that not only did she share a secret with Sherlock, but Gemma did too.
"Let's go in first."
Sherlock curtly cut off her questions and pushed open the door first, walking inside.
Just as Sherlock had deduced, the Room of Requirement's furnishings were the same as when he and Gemma had last come.
It was still a spacious room, warm and quiet, with a stone fire pit in the center still leaping with flames just like last time.
The difference was that there was now one more sofa around the coffee table.
"Come on, Miss Hermione."
Seeing Hermione still standing in place hesitating, Gemma stepped forward, indicating she should go in first.
Hermione looked deeply at Gemma, then followed Sherlock inside.
As soon as she entered, she froze.
The stone fire pit in the center of the room, walls covered with red velvet curtains, bookshelves filled with various books all around, a wine cabinet displaying all kinds of bottles, a large sandalwood desk, three high-backed velvet armchairs facing the fire pit—all these furnishings combined to form a spacious, bright, warm room.
After quite a while, Hermione recovered from her surprise, "Sherlock, where exactly is this?"
"The Room of Requirement."
Sherlock said concisely, "You can only enter when someone truly needs it. The method is to think about what room you need and walk back and forth three times along that corridor."
Hermione suddenly understood, finally comprehending the meaning of Gemma's behavior just now.
She raised her eyebrows. "Miss Farley, you told Sherlock about this too, didn't you?"
"Yes, this was my Christmas gift to Sherlock." Gemma smiled and nodded, then explained in detail how she had discovered the Room of Requirement.
At this moment, Hermione suddenly felt an indescribable, inexplicable feeling.
"Sit."
But before she could sort out her thoughts, Sherlock had already pointed to the sofa, indicating she should sit down first.
"Now we can properly discuss your problem, my dear Hermione."
Hearing Sherlock say this, Hermione's face immediately flushed red.
She remembered the conversation she and Sherlock had just had in the common room not long ago.
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