"They're just shopkeepers, what do they know about magical devices!"
Hearing Sherlock mention that the Sneakoscope had been declared fixed, Ron said irritably.
"There are only three people in our dormitory, which one isn't trustworthy?
This thing must be broken or like Bill said, it's just a scam device!"
Hearing Ron's certainty, Sherlock's lips curved into an obvious smile.
He smiled so brilliantly that Ron temporarily forgot his pain. "Sherlock, wh-what are you smiling about?"
"I thought of something happy." Sherlock said as much.
Harry asked curiously, "What happy thing?"
"About Sirius Black."
As he spoke, Sherlock opened his trunk, took out the wool socks Hermione had given him, stuffed the Sneakoscope inside, and tossed both into his trunk.
As the trunk lid slowly closed, the annoying shrieking stopped abruptly, and the dormitory fell instantly quiet.
He looked at his two friends:
"I think... this matter can be resolved faster than imagined."
"What?"
Harry perked up immediately. He leaned forward eagerly and asked impatiently,
"Did you discover new clues today?"
Ron straightened up from his one-footed position, looking intently at Sherlock.
Before this, Sherlock had said he'd need until the next holiday to catch Black.
But now he'd suddenly changed his tune, clearly having made a new discovery today.
This made Ron feel he shouldn't have gone to Hogsmeade, he had a feeling he'd missed something important.
"Quite right."
Sherlock looked at Harry and Ron, giving an affirmative answer, but then immediately pivoted under their expectant gazes:
"However,... my dear friends, forgive me, but I can't tell you yet."
"Again?"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, both shrugging helplessly.
After three years with Sherlock, they'd long grown accustomed to his ways, so they weren't particularly surprised.
Harry went back to sorting candies for his cousin Dudley, while Ron took off his shoes and socks and began picking at his toes.
Then Sherlock turned his gaze to Scabbers, cowering in the corner of Ron's bed.
"He doesn't look well."
The once plump, round little rat was now skin and bones.
Even his fur was falling out in patches, revealing mottled skin.
He looked pitiful, just seeing him made one's heart ache.
"It's definitely too much psychological stress!"
Hearing Sherlock's words, Ron tenderly stroked Scabbers with his toe-picking hand. Scabbers' body jerked sharply.
But Ron didn't notice this detail. His tone was full of indignation:
"If that stupid furball would just leave him alone, he'd be fine."
"Quite right."
Harry nodded.
He knew full well that Crookshanks had tried more than once to sneak into the boys' dormitory.
But telling Ron that would only make his relationship with Hermione worse.
So, at this moment, Harry just agreed with Ron, hoping to slightly calm his anger.
However, neither Harry nor Ron noticed that Sherlock's gaze at Scabbers was becoming increasingly deep.
After that incident, Hermione kept Crookshanks locked in her dormitory.
But she was also somewhat angry about Ron trying to kick him.
Ron was even angrier, because Crookshanks had never given up on trying to eat Scabbers.
Having learned from last time, Harry gave up trying to get Hermione and Ron to talk to each other.
After all, the holidays were coming soon. Ron and he would stay at school, while Sherlock and Hermione would go home for Christmas.
That meant they wouldn't see each other for a full two weeks.
Time was the cure for all problems.
By the time the holidays ended and they returned to school, they should forget about this, right?
Though regarding this particular matter, Harry chose to side with Ron.
Crookshanks' targeting of Scabbers was just too obvious.
Especially this time, he'd practically attacked Ron directly.
Not to mention that morning before the match, he'd repeatedly prevented Crookshanks from sneaking into the boys' dormitory.
What puzzled him, though, was that even though Sherlock knew about this just like he did, whenever he brought it up, Sherlock would just smile without saying anything.
This inevitably made Harry suspect that Sherlock was secretly favoring Hermione.
After all, Hermione's feelings for Sherlock were becoming more and more obvious.
"I must say, you're overthinking this, my dear Harry."
When Sherlock heard Harry's concern, he couldn't help but laugh:
"In my view, love is an emotional thing, and it contradicts what I consider most important: cold, clear thinking.
I will never fall in love, because that would affect my judgment."
Harry: "..."
When his mate had gone that far, what could Harry say?
However, Harry didn't agree with Sherlock's statement.
After all, they were only thirteen years old now, talking about this topic was really too early.
Who could say what the future held?
Never mind what Sherlock said now, maybe in the future there would be more than one girl by his side!
In any case, after going through that previous slump, Harry was once again full of hope for the future.
First, next term, he and Sherlock had confirmed they would learn methods to resist Dementors from Professor Lupin.
Second, for a new broomstick, he already had preliminary purchasing intentions.
Of course, most important was Sherlock's promise.
To catch Sirius Black!
The accomplice in his parents' murder!
As Christmas drew nearer, young wizards preparing to go home began making preparations.
For all students, aside from spring break which included Easter, the period before winter and summer holidays was relatively leisurely.
Sherlock was no exception.
Gemma also seized this opportunity to frequently seek out Sherlock for in-depth discussions.
Just a few days before the holidays, right after Sherlock had parted from Gemma, Harry found him.
"Sherlock, I have something very important to tell you."
"In that case, I won't intrude~"
Gemma elegantly bid farewell to Sherlock and Harry, then gracefully departed.
"Head Gril Gemma really is an anomaly among Slytherins!"
Harry couldn't help but sigh.
"Harry, I've said more than once, people like Gemma are the true Slytherins."
"Right, right, you're correct. But let's talk about this first, shall we?"
Seeing Harry's mysterious expression, Sherlock simply pulled him back to the empty classroom where he and Gemma had just been.
"Sherlock, why aren't you so busy these past few days?"
"I've collected all the clues I need to collect. Now I'm just missing the final piece of the puzzle."
As Sherlock spoke, he cast a locking charm on the door, just like Gemma had.
This spell wasn't complicated as long as you knew the incantation, it was easy to cast.
"Unless Black makes another move during this time, or I obtain the key clue to solve the mystery, continuing to search would be pointless and I don't like to waste effort."
"No wonder you've seemed lackluster these past few days."
Harry had originally planned to tell Sherlock directly, but hearing this, his heart stirred and he suddenly had an interesting idea.
"In that case, I'd like to give you a rather complex test. You won't think I'm being rash, will you?"
"Quite the contrary, Harry."
Hearing Harry's words, Sherlock showed a genuine smile:
"I'm happy to investigate any problem you present. It will help me pass the boring time before the holidays."
Harry's spirits lifted.
"I've often heard you say that it's difficult not to leave traces showing a user's characteristics on any everyday item, and that trained people can easily identify them.
Now I have something newly acquired here. Can you find out about its previous owner's character and habits from it?"
Harry carefully extracted something from inside his cloak and slowly placed it on the desk, then said to Sherlock.
"This is a Christmas present a good friend gave me early."
What Harry placed on the table was a large square piece of parchment that was clearly very worn.
However, the parchment that seemed to have been used was completely blank, with nothing on it.
This contrast immediately caught Sherlock's attention. He picked up the paper and examined it carefully.
He first looked at the surface of the paper, then carefully felt its texture.
The entire observation process was meticulous, first with the naked eye, then with a magnifying glass.
After finishing the standard Muggle observation methods, Sherlock pulled out a bright red eraser from his person.
Harry asked curiously, "What's that?"
"A Revealer. I got it in Diagon Alley."
As Sherlock spoke, he rubbed it twice on the blank parchment, but nothing appeared.
Undeterred, he pondered briefly, then drew his wand and used a Revealing Charm on the parchment.
"Aparecium!"
Still no reaction.
Seeing Sherlock's frustrated expression, Harry could barely keep from laughing.
Because he remembered his own feelings when he first got this thing.
At that time, he'd also thought it was a prank after all, its owner was most skilled at pulling pranks.
Then Sherlock finally gave up further observation and said somewhat helplessly:
"This blank parchment has almost no traceable remnants. No magical traces, not invisible ink, it just looks like an ordinary old blank parchment."
"Hey, mate, it's not just any old parchment, it's..."
Harry stopped abruptly mid-sentence.
He must have been influenced by Hagrid; he'd almost blurted out the answer.
"I know, of course I know. Since you can give it to me, it naturally can't be as simple as it looks.
I think perhaps sophisticated magic has concealed its true purpose—regrettably, I cannot discern its mysteries.
Before entering the magical world, this would have been unimaginable to me."
Hearing Sherlock's words, Harry finally laughed aloud.
This was the first time he'd seen Sherlock stumped.
Though Sherlock was indeed his best friend, thinking about Hermione's cat and Ron's rat incident recently, if he could teach him a lesson about his usual arbitrary behavior, that would be rather amusing.
Seeing Harry so pleased, Sherlock looked at his good friend with a half-smile: "Harry, though it doesn't have many traces, my observation wasn't completely fruitless."
"Really?" Harry rarely questioned Sherlock.
"Let me say what I've found and you can correct me."
"Alright."
Harry looked at Sherlock curiously, wanting to know what he could deduce.
"I think... this parchment was just obtained from the Weasley twins, and they weren't its first owners."
The moment Sherlock spoke these words, Harry froze.
He immediately stood up from his seat, looked at Sherlock, and somewhat incredulously picked up the parchment, examining it carefully just as Sherlock had done.
Unfortunately, he found no traces relating to the Weasley twins on the paper.
"Sherlock... did you really deduce this from the parchment?"
"Not entirely, to be precise. I deduced this result based on my observations of both the parchment and you personally."
"But how could you deduce these facts so accurately: you just said you could barely see anything, yet suddenly what you said matches the facts exactly."
"Ah! This time I can only say it was fortunate. I merely stated some possibilities and didn't expect to be so accurate."
"So, you didn't guess?"
"No. I've told you more than once that I never guess. Because guessing is a very bad habit, it's harmful to logical reasoning."
Sherlock clasped his hands under his chin and leaned back slightly:
"You only find it strange because you don't understand my thought process and haven't noticed the essence hidden beneath the surface."
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