On the first day of the new school year, Lewis got up early, fully energized and ready to embrace the semester ahead.
However, the moment he entered the Great Hall, he discovered that his first breakfast of the school year had already turned into complete chaos.
Countless owls were circling overhead.
The scene was every bit as spectacular as the day he had driven Lockhart out of Hogwarts.
Whenever they found an opening, the owls would drop things from above.
Letters.
Feathers.
And, of course, owl droppings.
Half the tables had already been ruined.
Even worse, a large portion of the mail consisted of bright red Howlers.
Lewis had already experienced the terror of Howlers last year.
As fate would have it, that had also happened during the first breakfast of the school year.
Thanks to them, only a handful of brave souls still remained in the Great Hall, hiding beneath the tables while trying to eat amid the storm of feathers, droppings, and explosive shouting.
Everyone else had retreated into the Entrance Hall.
"What happened here?"
Lewis couldn't help asking.
The moment she saw him, Cho Chang hurried over, eager to share the latest gossip.
"These are all complaint letters from parents."
"About the Dementors searching the Hogwarts Express yesterday."
"This is actually the better situation. Marietta said her mother told her that Minister Fudge's office has practically been buried under Howlers."
The usually graceful girl covered her mouth as she giggled.
Then she handed Lewis a copy of that morning's Daily Prophet.
A quick glance revealed Cornelius Fudge's face on the front page.
Gone was his usual practiced smile.
In its place was a tense, worried expression.
The accompanying article was a masterpiece of political spin.
First, it explained that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban.
Because of that emergency, Fudge had supposedly been forced to deploy Dementors in order to capture him.
The article emphasized how unexpected the escape had been and how difficult Fudge's position was.
Not once did it mention that an inmate escaping Azkaban was itself evidence of Ministry incompetence.
Reading further, Lewis noticed that his own name wasn't mentioned at all.
The article simply praised Hogwarts students for their courageous resistance and claimed that casualties had been minimized.
It was the classic tactic of turning a disaster into a public-relations victory.
Thinking about it carefully, the logic was absurd.
Nobody being hospitalized wasn't an achievement.
It was the bare minimum expectation.
Yet the article described it as though Fudge deserved a Merlin Order for the accomplishment.
And even if there had been credit to assign, it should have gone to the people who had actually driven the Dementors away.
Namely Lewis and the others.
Shameless.
Lewis folded the newspaper with visible irritation.
"Fudge is in serious trouble this time," Marietta said coldly from beside Cho.
"My mother told me he personally approved the Dementors entering Hogwarts."
"He'll be held responsible."
Lewis's thoughts immediately drifted toward Jaina and the others at the Ministry.
Before the school year started, he had already hinted to Jaina that she should firmly oppose the Dementor deployment.
Even if it meant temporarily offending Fudge.
The larger the disaster became, the more political damage Fudge would suffer.
And when that happened, Jaina's opposition would suddenly look extremely wise.
Her influence within the Ministry would rise even further.
Foreknowledge really was useful for political maneuvering.
After all, this wasn't just angering ordinary wizards.
Many pure-blood families and powerful officials had children attending Hogwarts.
The wizarding world had one advantage.
Its population was small.
Whether you were a noble, a bureaucrat, or an ordinary citizen, your children still attended the same school.
This wasn't something Fudge could smooth over easily.
After chatting for a while, Cho hurried off to class.
As Lewis looked around, he spotted Hermione waving enthusiastically at him.
When he walked over, he found her sitting with Harry and Ron.
The three of them were guarding a small pile of breakfast food they had managed to rescue from the owl apocalypse.
Food was a rare commodity this morning.
"What are you talking about?" Lewis asked.
"You finally got here!" Hermione immediately replied.
"Have you eaten yet? Hurry up and eat!"
Without hesitation, she pushed the remaining food on the plate directly toward him.
"Oh? Thanks."
Lewis nodded.
Then he casually grabbed some bacon, eggs, and toast, assembled a massive sandwich, and stuffed it into his mouth.
Harry and Ron immediately protested.
"We're not full yet, Hermione!"
"Seriously, you're way too biased toward Lewis!"
Hermione crossed her arms.
"So what?"
"You two are just a little hungry."
"Lewis hasn't eaten at all."
"But that's way too much food!"
Ron stared at the towering sandwich and swallowed.
That amount could have filled two stomachs.
"Lewis eats more than both of us put together," Hermione replied naturally.
"Normally, this would only get him halfway full."
Watching her prop her chin on one hand while admiring Lewis's enthusiastic eating, Harry couldn't help sighing.
There was no point arguing.
Once a girl had fallen in love, logic stopped working.
Of course she'd prioritize her favorite person.
What could anyone do about it?
He wisely changed the subject.
"We were talking about electives."
"Lewis, do you know what Divination class is like?"
"You've come to the right person."
"I actually considered taking Divination myself once."
Lewis swallowed the last bite of bacon before continuing.
"Then tell us!"
Hermione immediately urged.
Ron looked surprised.
"I thought some people were completely confident in their choices."
"Why ask Lewis?"
Hermione immediately turned red and nearly threw a pen at him.
Lewis stopped her before answering.
"To be honest, I don't really like Divination."
"Professor Trelawney isn't exactly reliable."
"Most of the lessons involve reading tea leaves, staring into crystal balls, and then listening to her predict that you're about to suffer some terrible tragedy."
"She does it every year."
"But every cloud has a silver lining."
"Because of that, the exams are incredibly easy."
"According to older students, you can pass simply by inventing a prophecy."
"If the prophecy predicts something awful happening to you, you might even get top marks."
"So basically it's a filler course."
"It looks nice on your transcript, but isn't especially useful."
"Arithmancy is much more challenging."
"The mathematical formulas can be difficult, especially for students raised in wizarding families."
"How can Hogwarts allow a professor like that to keep teaching?" Hermione complained immediately.
She hated teachers who misled students.
"To be fair," Lewis said, "Divination itself is a field that relies heavily on talent."
"If you don't have the gift, no amount of study will help."
"Most witches and wizards simply aren't gifted in that area."
"Personally, I don't think Divination should even be offered to third-years."
Hermione still looked unhappy.
Seeing that, Lewis offered a compromise.
"If you're interested in practical predictive magic, I can teach you some Divination-school spells privately."
"They're much more reliable than traditional fortune-telling."
"Really?"
Hermione's eyes instantly lit up.
"It's a deal!"
Meanwhile, Ron shook his head.
"I genuinely don't understand why you two get excited about learning extra things that aren't even on exams."
Harry completely agreed.
After hearing Lewis's explanation, he was even more determined to take Divination.
Eventually, Harry and Ron left to search for additional food.
That left only Lewis and Hermione.
Just before they parted ways for class, Lewis suddenly said:
"Hermione, you really should learn some time-management skills from me."
"Oh, sure."
Hermione immediately rolled her eyes.
"No one manages time better than you."
"You somehow become friends with three or four girls at once while simultaneously charming several younger girls."
Clearly, she'd already heard about what happened on the carriage ride yesterday.
Lewis wondered which traitor had spread that information so quickly.
He sighed.
"That's not what I meant."
"I mean that if you want to beat me academically, you need to be realistic."
"You can't take every single class simultaneously."
"For example, Divination, Arithmancy, and Muggle Studies happen at the same time."
"You only need to choose one."
"My recommendation is Arithmancy."
Hermione blinked.
"You figured it out?"
"How did you know I applied for a Time-Turner?"
"I know more than that."
"I know you've already started using it."
She stared at him with admiration sparkling in her eyes.
Lewis pushed up an imaginary pair of glasses.
"Details reveal behavior."
"You somehow knew breakfast would be difficult this morning."
"You've already completed assignments from classes you technically haven't attended yet."
"All I did was apply some simple deduction."
"I see!"
Hermione suddenly understood.
Lewis glanced at the protective amulet hanging around her neck.
"If you're going to use a Time-Turner, make sure you eat more."
"And carry extra food."
"Between breakfast and lunch, you're not attending one class."
"You're attending three."
"The total time you're spending is practically the equivalent of an entire day."
"If you don't prepare, you'll effectively be skipping lunch while studying from morning until evening."
"Trust me, that's miserable."
Hermione immediately realized the problem.
Without another word, she hurried off toward the kitchens just like Harry and Ron had.
The advice was genuinely important.
Without it, she probably would have spent the entire morning starving.
Watching her disappear down the corridor, Lewis smiled knowingly.
The truth was, Hermione had made exactly the same mistake Harry and Ron made on the train.
The reason he knew she was using a Time-Turner wasn't because of brilliant deductions.
It was because she was still wearing the protective amulet he had given her last year.
And hidden inside that amulet was a Transportation Rune personally engraved by Lewis.
He could sense it from a great distance.
At that very moment, he could feel three identical rune signatures.
One was moving toward the kitchens.
Another was inside Gryffindor Tower.
And the third...
Was standing near the entrance to the Great Hall.
For once, the brilliant Hermione Granger had been careless.
On her very first day using a Time-Turner, she'd somehow managed the advanced feat of creating three overlapping versions of herself.
And naturally, complications had followed.
Lewis headed toward the kitchens and soon found three people waiting for house-elves to prepare food.
"Oh?"
Hermione looked surprised.
"Lewis, what are you doing here?"
"Haven't you already eaten?"
"I have," Lewis replied while ordering food from the elves.
"I'm not here because I'm hungry."
"I'm here because a certain little fool forgot to feed herself."
"I've come to fix her mistake."
"A little fool? Her?"
Hermione's eyebrows immediately rose.
"Another girl you've charmed?"
"You're actually preparing food for her personally?"
The jealousy in her voice was impossible to miss.
Lewis nearly laughed.
"Go ahead and repeat that at lunchtime."
"What?"
"You think I won't?"
Hermione crossed her arms indignantly.
"You just wait."
"At noon I'll say exactly the same thing."
"Deal."
"If you're wrong, you're a puppy."
Not far away, Harry and Ron exchanged excited looks.
Listening to the two of them bicker was far more entertaining than breakfast.
Something told them that lunchtime was going to be very interesting indeed.
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