At the same time, John was standing uneasily in front of the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room.
Ravenclaw had a tower of its own, and just like the other houses, the entrance to the common room also had a special gatekeeper mechanism, a door knocker in the shape of an eagle's head.
Everyone who wanted to open the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room had to answer a question posed by the eagle-head door knocker, and only after answering correctly would the door open.
At the same time, the eagle-head door knocker could also sense your knowledge reserves and would therefore select specially customized questions.
It would not easily let you through just because you were knowledgeable, nor would it deny you entry just because you were ignorant and unlearned.
Does this sound fair?
But reality is not so.
Because the difficulty of the questions given by the eagle-head door knocker was exactly stuck at the limit of your knowledge reserves.
To answer such a question was extremely difficult.
Therefore, it was common to see a group of people anxiously gathered in front of the eagle-head door knocker waiting for a brave soul who could open the door.
John had now encountered such a situation.
He originally wanted to wait here for Lillian to come back to the common room after class, and then go up as Link said, to give her the pendant and confess.
But now more and more people were gathering in front of the Ravenclaw common room entrance. If Lillian came back at this time, would he really have the courage to approach her in front of so many people?
Thinking like this, John's face turned deathly pale from nervousness.
"John? Why aren't you at Quidditch practice? What are you doing here?"
At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind him, scaring John so much that he almost jumped.
He turned his head and saw it was Cedric, only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
"N-No, it's nothing."
John lowered his head and stammered. Just a few days ago, he had a big argument with Cedric over the Hogsmeade open day, and he still hadn't gotten over it.
Cedric, however, wasn't as petty as John. His eyes swept over the ribboned paper box John was tightly holding in his arms, and recalling John's behavior in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class and their previous argument, he immediately understood what was going on.
Cedric nodded and lowered his voice to ask, "You're here to find Lillian? The reason you argued with me before was to buy this gift?"
Upon hearing this, John's eyes widened and he suddenly looked up, then lowered his head again, staying silent.
'That's basically admitting it!'
Cedric thought silently, turned his head to look at the increasingly crowded Ravenclaw common room entrance, and immediately grabbed John and ran downstairs.
"This is definitely not a good place to give something, follow me!"
John originally wanted to break free, but after hearing Cedric say this, he immediately obeyed.
The two ran all the way down the stairs and finally arrived at a small classroom that had long been abandoned.
"You wait here. I'll bring her to you in a bit!"
After throwing out this sentence, Cedric dashed out like a gust of wind.
Only John was left, standing in the classroom cluelessly holding the paper box.
John knew clearly that Cedric was a person who meant what he said. If he said he would bring Lillian over, then he definitely would.
That meant John was about to face the final challenge.
John swallowed hard, and a thin layer of sweat had already appeared on his forehead from nervousness.
To avoid fainting from tension, John had to try hard to recall some other things to divert his attention.
But somehow, all the images in John's mind were of Lillian, and his thoughts returned to the scene when he first met her.
It was in a Defense Against the Dark Arts class last year, when Lockhart was still teaching.
At that time, for some reason, Link had sat in the wrong seat, sitting in the area for Ravenclaws.
And because rumors about Link being the heir of Slytherin were rampant at Hogwarts then, a girl sitting next to Link was so frightened she was almost about to cry. The other Ravenclaws also didn't dare make a sound.
Then John stepped in.
He voluntarily went up and switched seats with that girl.
John swore, at that time, he only saw that Link seemed emotionally unstable and wanted to sit closer to comfort him. He had no intention at all of trying to flirt with a girl.
But ever since then, that Ravenclaw girl named Lillian would occasionally come to watch him practice Quidditch, give him candies and snacks, send him greeting cards and gifts during holidays, and even once included a photo of herself.
That photo... was really beautiful.
This whole string of events made John, who originally only wanted to play Quidditch, feel a ripple in his heart, and that ripple eventually turned into a giant wave.
"If only I hadn't attended that class with Professor Lupin." John said involuntarily.
If things hadn't escalated like this, he believed that at the current pace, he and Lillian definitely could have ended up together.
Unfortunately…
"John! What are you spacing out for!"
Cedric's voice suddenly rang out, and John jumped in shock again. But this time, not only did the trembling not weaken, it actually got even stronger.
Because he found that Lillian had already been brought into the classroom by Cedric and Cho Chang without him noticing, and she was now standing less than two meters in front of him.
"Then we'll leave the room to you two now!"
Cho Chang playfully blinked, then smiled and closed the wooden door with Cedric.
Clack!
The classroom once again fell into silence.
John felt like his heartbeat was so loud the person across from him could hear it.
Lillian also quietly clutched the hem of her robe tightly.
The two stood facing each other like this, heads down, not saying a word.
After quite a while, John finally took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, took a step forward, and with a gesture that almost resembled a bow, held out the now almost sweat-drenched paper box with both hands.
"F-For, for... for you!"
John's sudden approach made Lillian instinctively take a few steps back, but after realizing what was going on, she still stepped forward and accepted the paper box.
She pulled off the ribbon and opened the box, and the moment she saw the twisted figure-eight shaped pendant, her eyes lit up.
"This is…"
Lillian murmured as she lifted the pendant in front of her with her right hand.
"This is a magical potion pendant! The liquid inside is a concentrated extract of champagne rose. Its, its meaning is… I-I only love you, and only you…" John said.
He had originally wanted to imitate Link's tone and recite the meaning, but facing the pressure Lillian gave him, he couldn't help but stutter, and the tone of his voice turned into something like a schoolkid being forced by the teacher to read his homework aloud.
This made John's heart beat even faster.
"Ah, concentrated extract of champagne rose, I know that. It's one of the main ingredients for making love potion." Lillian said with a smile at the corners of her mouth, "John, are you… trying to confess to me?"
"Ah! I'm not, uh, I am! No, I'm not…"
John was startled by her words, and immediately flailed his hands trying to explain.
Unfortunately, all his words were vague and incomprehensible.
Thankfully, the courage he had built up from Quidditch saved him.
John took a deep breath and finally shouted out like he did in Defense Against the Dark Arts class that day, "Yes! I like you! Lillian! Please be my girlfriend!"
John's sudden shout startled Lillian so much she nearly dropped the pendant.
But after realizing what had happened, she blushed and quietly nodded her head.
And upon seeing that, a wave of joy instantly surged from John's lower abdomen, leaving his brain completely blank.
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