Chapter 10.
Little Ginny nodded her head without any hint of shyness, but then, as if she had gotten some realisation, her ears all of a sudden turned red.
"Is something wrong, dear?" Alan, who knew the cause of Ginny's shyness, asked, trying to tease her, but this time she lowered her head completely and looked like she was ready to run back to her room; seeing which, Alan decided to not tease her anymore.
But just as he was about to turn his attention to Arthur and inquire about some certain things, prefect Percy, who had stayed silent for quite a bit now, spoke up again, "Professor, the books you have chosen for the classes are very wise choices, 'Curses and Curse Decryption' and 'Practical Defensive Magic and Its Restraint Against the Dark Magic.' These two books are some of my favorites."
Although Percy was a unique character in the movie, who in a certain time frame thought that only his perspective was right and everyone should follow his lead, Alan also knew that when the time came, Percy immediately came back to his senses; however, still he had to see one of his brothers die in front of his eyes.
Thinking about this, Alan couldn't help but glance at Fred pitifully; among the large group of Weasleys, he was the only one who ended up dying.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Fred misunderstood Alan's pity toward him and felt his professor was asking him to come to his rescue as if he was unwilling to have any kind of communication with the prefect, Percy, about the studying business, and to tell the truth, he felt that only an idiot would break such an atmosphere while bringing up boring study subjects.
So giving Alan a reassuring look, making Alan confused, he turned toward his brother and said, "My dear brother, who is also prefect, this is time to enjoy family dinner, so how about not disturbing Professor Alan with your boring questions?"
"That's right, Exemplary Percy, please allow the professor a moment to take a breath." George followed.
Percy, hearing this, opened his mouth to argue, but at the same time he had noticed Alan looking at Fred just now, so he couldn't help but shut his mouth.
'Did I do something wrong?' He thought trying to understand why Alan was acting like this toward him, because in his own eyes he was a perfect candidate to hold a conversation with; he had his capabilities moreover, he was a prefect and a future head boy's position contender.
Fred and George, seeing their brother shut up, gave Alan a thumbs-up; looking at which, Alan felt quite a bit confused before looking at Percy and replying, "Thank you, Percy, and the books you mentioned are for the students in sixth and seventh grade." And then he looked at Ron and Harry before saying, "So students in lower grades will not need to worry about those books."
Since George and Fred weren't exactly the type of boys who would worry about studying, there was nothing that Alan could say to them.
"That's right." Ron said, "Our textbooks are "Self-Defense Spell Collection" and "Common Spells and Solutions," though we haven't visited Diagon Alley yet, so we don't have the books."
"We've made an agreement with Hermione." Harry, who was silent till now, jumped in to not feel left out.
"Hermione?" Alan asked curiously, hiding the fact that he knew "Miss Know-It-All."
"Ah, she's our friend and also part of Gryffindor house." Ron said, and Harry followed, saying, "She is quite good at studying too."
Percy, who was once again shut down by the change in topic of conversation, said, "Hermione does have good performance in studying, quite different than certain someone." And then in the end he looked at Ron, as if blaming him for jumping in on his chance at striking up a conversation with Professor Alan.
"Is that so? Then I think I would love to meet your friend named Hermione." Alan smiled, blending in, at the same time nodding his head, as the plot here was not any different from the original.
"I think she'll be happy hearing that the new combat professor had shown interest in her." Percy said hurriedly before anyone could intervene, and just as he was about to ask his questions, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's voices came from behind, "Boys, stop chatting and come help your mother."
Alan hearing that looked behind and was just about to stand up to help Mrs. Weasley, but then Mrs. Weasley, waving her wand, said, "No, Alan dear, you can just sit down."
With the help of magic, a large pot of stew, an iron kettle of butterbeer, a plate of fragrant and buttery sausages, and a lot of other appetizing things passed over the heads of Fred and George, who began to make funny faces, making Harry, Ron, and Ginny laugh.
On the other hand, Mr. Weasley poured a glass of butterbeer for everyone, excluding Ginny. Mrs. Weasley seemed to have some objection while looking at Harry and Ron, but she held back and did not say much.
Looking at his wife's face for a moment, Arthur raised the glass in his hand and said, "Alright, let's congratulate Alan on becoming the combat professor at Hogwarts!"
"Cheers!"
The group of people began to gulp down the butterbeer, but George, who seemed to have recalled something, got up and said, "Fred, did you forget about what we had planned?"
"Oh, right, how could we forget that!" Fred also put down his glass and ran upstairs with George.
"Ahem..." Arthur coughed lightly while looking at his son's behavior and said, "Alan, don't mind them; they have been like that from childhood. Come, let's have another drink!" With that, Alan, who was curious about what the twins were planning, once again turned his attention to the beer mug and began to chug it down.