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Today marked the day students returned from Christmas break.
Carrying a suitcase and a large, long box on her back, Cho walked across the bridge leading to Hogwarts Castle alongside a few friends.
A handsome boy stood waiting, dressed in his Hogwarts uniform with a scarf wrapped around his neck.
His wand emitted a warm white light as he waited quietly.
It was Erwin.
The moment Cho spotted him, she immediately left her friends behind and ran to his side, throwing herself into his arms.
Erwin opened his arms and embraced her, saying softly, "Welcome back, Cho."
"I missed you so much, Erwin."
They hadn't seen each other in just a few days, but Cho had missed him terribly.
She was nearly on the verge of tears.
Hearing the choking sound in Cho's voice, Erwin quickly changed the subject.
"Why do I feel like you've gotten a bit heavier?"
"What!"
At those words, the witch stopped crying immediately and reacted with shock.
It seemed that no matter where they were or what age, women were always concerned about their weight.
"Really, Erwin? Could it be that I've been eating too well these past few days?" Cho fretted.
"It's all my father's fault. He took me back to visit our family, and the food there was so delicious that I couldn't control myself."
Hearing Cho skillfully deflect blame onto her father, Erwin cried out internally. 'Is this the legendary filial piety?'
But he couldn't continue to tease her, or she'd start crying again.
"I was just joking with you, haha," he laughed.
And she pinched him with a glare.
"It's too cold out here. Let's head back to the Great Hall, and you most likely haven't had dinner yet either, right?"
The two walked toward the Great Hall while a group of young wizards behind them looked at Cho with envy.
Hermione, somewhere in the crowd, pursed her lips and silently followed the others forward.
After returning to the Great Hall, Cho ate something simple while continuously telling Erwin about her time away.
"If I have time during summer vacation, I absolutely must go back again," Cho concluded enthusiastically. Then she brought up the gift he gave her.
"Thank you for the gift, Erwin, but this broom is far too expensive. I can't possibly accept it."
Erwin didn't think it was particularly expensive.
He often received Gold Galleons as rewards from his daily check-ins, with a minimum of one hundred.
This broom was merely a matter of a few days' worth of check-ins.
"You can accept it with confidence. I've been helping Snape brew many potions, and he's rewarded me generously. This amount of money is nothing to me." Taking Snape as a convenient excuse to explain the origin of his Galleons, Erwin continued.
"Besides, it already has your name engraved on it. If you don't want it, it won't be easy to deal with that."
Seeing Erwin put it that way, Cho had no choice but to accept it.
However, she was curious about how he'd managed to obtain a Nimbus 2001 half a year before its official release.
Erwin explained Professor Flitwick's connections, and Cho's doubts were finally answered.
****
For the next month, nothing major happened at the academy.
Erwin had been incredibly busy.
In addition to his regular classes, he had to attend Quidditch training, Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Club, and Snape's special tutoring sessions.
If it weren't for his time management skills, he might have been overwhelmed long ago.
Erwin decided that starting next semester, he wouldn't attend Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Club anymore.
After all, at his current level, there were very few things in the club that could still help him.
During the month, there was also a Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
When Cho brought out her Nimbus 2001, all the young wizards were in an uproar.
This was a product that wouldn't be officially released until summer, yet Cho already had one.
But when Slytherin saw the situation turning against them, they prepared to use foul tactics to stop Cho.
Unfortunately for them, they forgot there was a wild Erwin on the field.
Without any hesitation, Erwin made several consecutive strikes and directly knocked multiple Slytherin players off their brooms.
Two of them even suffered broken hands.
After that, the Slytherin team finally became honest and didn't dare foul again.
The substitute players especially flew carefully around Cho.
Under such circumstances, Ravenclaw defeated Slytherin with a score of 280 to 100, securing their second consecutive victory.
As long as they could beat Gryffindor in the next match, this year's Quidditch Cup would belong to Ravenclaw.
Because of Erwin's performance, he also earned the nickname "Cho's Guardian Angel," which left him feeling rather speechless.
But Cho was quite satisfied with this nickname.
Just like that, time passed until one morning in February.
When Erwin and Cho arrived at the Great Hall, they found a group of young wizards crowding around the hourglass point counters.
The Gryffindor students in particular wore especially pained expressions.
"Gryffindor lost 150 points yesterday. Apparently, Potter and his two roommates were caught out after curfew," Marietta shared after seeking out gossip.
She came over to the two of them with the latest news.
"They're so unlucky," Cho remarked without much feeling after hearing it.
But Erwin knew what had really happened.
It should be about Hagrid raising a dragon.
Hermione had asked him several questions about dragons before, so he'd roughly guessed that Hagrid had obtained a dragon and Harry, Hermione, and the others had discovered it.
However, Erwin didn't particularly care.
This point deduction was probably because Malfoy had reported them, and then Professor McGonagall had severely deducted a wave of points.
This was Harry Potter.
If it had been any other young wizard causing such a disaster, it would still be questionable whether they could remain at Hogwarts.
After sighing about it, Erwin lost interest.
It had nothing to do with him anyway.
But he didn't expect that by afternoon, he would still become involved in the matter.
After the afternoon Potions class ended, Erwin followed Snape back to his office as usual.
During this time, Snape had not only taught Erwin potion-making but had also helped him train his combat awareness and ability.
Especially after receiving the [Garden of Eden] spell from Erwin at Christmas, Snape's attitude toward him had improved considerably.
He'd even taught Erwin some of his most treasured combat techniques.
This made Erwin feel the gift had been well worth it.
During this period of training, Snape had to use seventy percent of his strength to defeat Erwin.
This also made Snape curse him as a prodigy.
But today, Snape didn't dismiss Erwin after their sparring practice.
Instead, he assigned him a task.