In this world, some people are naturally poor at certain things.
For example:
Some people aren't good at running.
Others struggle with memorization—no matter how hard they try, they can't commit words, sentences, or passages to memory.
A few aren't good at reading aloud. Even after reading a text several times, they still stumble and can't read fluently.
An even smaller number struggle with comprehension. During class, they feel like they understand everything, but come exam time, they realize they know nothing.
Worse still, some simply aren't good at learning at all.
For Hermione, this manifested as excelling in all other subjects while completely falling apart in Flying class—as if she'd become an entirely different person.
Even shortcomings that hadn't shown up in other classes were laid bare in front of Sherlock's eyes.
This made Hermione feel even more embarrassed.
The more she tried to overcome her difficulties, the more flustered she became.
Seeing this situation, Sherlock decided to take matters into his own hands.
After teaching Hermione hands-on for several days, he finally achieved passable results.
He helped Hermione initially overcome her fear of heights.
In truth, everyone has some degree of acrophobia.
It's just that some people experience it mildly while others suffer severely.
Many people think they don't have a fear of heights simply because they haven't reached their threshold altitude yet.
Through analysis and deduction, Sherlock determined that Hermione's acrophobia was a specific phobia that could be resolved with the right treatment.
He took Hermione up on a broomstick, gradually increasing altitude until they reached a height that triggered her terror response, staying there for at least half an hour each time.
Initially, this kind of close contact made Hermione blush somewhat.
But soon, fear overwhelmed all other thoughts.
Particularly after reaching a certain altitude, Hermione would tremble all over, her hands and feet turning ice-cold, breaking into a cold sweat even in the dead of winter, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.
The first few times, she even blacked out and fainted completely.
If Sherlock hadn't noticed something was wrong and caught her in time, she would have fallen headfirst from the broomstick.
After several attempts, even Hermione began to consider giving up.
This is too difficult!
However, seeing that Sherlock didn't seem bothered by this—in fact, he almost seemed to have an attitude of "I'd actually be more relaxed if you gave up"—she gritted her teeth and persevered.
After all, compared to others, Hermione was only willing to have deep conversations with Sherlock.
Nearly two months into the school year, her relationships with her roommates and classmates weren't particularly harmonious.
In fact, Hermione's relationships with her classmates were merely that—classmates, nothing more.
She was aware of this herself.
After all, the same thing had happened when she attended school in the Muggle world.
Most of her classmates thought she was arrogant, liked to show off, and was always lecturing others.
As they say, honest advice is hard to accept.
In this world, except for people with particular preferences, no one likes being constantly lectured by others.
Especially teenagers of this age group.
They won't even listen to their parents and elders, let alone their classmates.
When she arrived at Hogwarts, this situation hadn't changed.
Her classmates all thought Hermione was too focused on school rules and cared too much about house points.
Remember, this was Gryffindor!
Taking the Weasley twins as an example, the little lions never followed rules.
While "reckless troublemakers" might be a stereotype, it certainly reflected some truth.
This had led to several unpleasant conflicts between Hermione and her classmates.
This even included Harry and Ron.
The incident stemmed from Malfoy challenging Harry to a wizard's duel.
Having overheard the conversation, she privately warned the two boys.
Her intentions were good. But the execution was problematic.
"You absolutely cannot wander around the school at night. Think about it—if you're caught, how many points will Gryffindor lose... And you're definitely going to be caught. You're really being selfish!"
Such words were already quite uncomfortable to hear.
What made it worse was what she did next.
She waited by the Fat Lady's portrait at midnight to see if Harry and Ron would actually go night-wandering through the school.
Of course, Harry had listened to Sherlock's advice and didn't go to meet Malfoy.
So, Hermione waited for nothing.
Instead, she encountered round-faced Neville, who had forgotten the password and couldn't get in.
Hermione brought him back to the common room, which could be considered an inadvertent good deed.
The next day, when Harry and Ron learned about this from Neville, they could hardly believe that such a busybody existed in the world.
Naturally, their attitude toward her became even worse.
Especially when Ron was bragging about Malfoy not daring to show up for the duel, he also mentioned what Hermione had done.
This made the first-year Gryffindors even more obviously reject her.
Neville was the exception.
He was still grateful to Hermione for helping him find Trevor on the train and for bringing him back from outside Gryffindor Tower.
In this situation, Hermione naturally felt lonely.
Sherlock was the only person besides Neville who didn't reject her.
He continued to address her as Hermione, just as before, and didn't stop giving her private lessons.
After all, in Sherlock's view, these weren't really problems at all.
Out of curiosity, Hermione also asked Sherlock about this.
His answer greatly surprised her.
"Can't you just ignore them?"
Sherlock was genuinely puzzled by Hermione's confusion. "If you think you're right, why should you care about other people's opinions?"
He himself had been isolated by classmates when attending school in the Muggle world.
This wasn't surprising.
After all, his personality and methods weren't naturally likeable—always pointing out others' mistakes with precision, never considering the appropriate time or place.
But so, what?
Other people's opinions had absolutely no effect on Sherlock.
Some people had actually tried to bully him.
For instance, spilling ink on his homework, stuffing beetles in his pencil case, adding "ingredients" to his breakfast, and so forth.
However, all these actions mysteriously returned to the perpetrators themselves.
Opening their bags to find books stained with ink and a toad inside, or being overwhelmed by salt during meals to the point of questioning their existence.
Some disbelievers, relying on their physical strength, confronted him directly, only to retreat after losing two front teeth.
Hermione greatly envied Sherlock's ability to treat others as if they didn't exist.
She wanted to be like that too, but she simply couldn't manage it!
"If you're truly this troubled, I do have a suggestion."
Seeing Hermione unable to concentrate due to her distress, Sherlock tried to view the problem from her perspective.
"You could stop taking house points so seriously."
"How is that possible?"
Hermione, who had always held herself to honor student standards, immediately protested:
"Professor Snape finds fault and deducts points every day. If we don't follow the school rules as well..."
"Miss Hermione, your brief eleven years—no, wait, twelve years—of life experience isn't sufficient to support an understanding of reality."
Hermione: (ー`´ー)
"Reality is this: either continue being yourself and don't care about others' opinions—after all, you're not a pound note, you can't make everyone like you—or change your thinking and try to fit into the environment."
Although it sounded unpleasant, Hermione understood that Sherlock had the right to say such things.
He was living proof of the former approach.
She had witnessed Sherlock's behavior that could only be called appalling on more than one occasion.
For instance, telling Ron and round-faced Neville to their faces that "you're lowering the entire house's intelligence."
Or telling Seamus that his mere presence was "disrupting his thinking."
And just now, emphasizing that she was twelve years old...
In Hermione's view, these actions were far worse than anything she had done.
She was only upholding school rules, while Sherlock was directly attacking people personally!
Yet Sherlock remained completely indifferent, turning a deaf ear to others' pointing and whispering, remaining true to himself from beginning to end.
Hermione could only admit defeat—when it came to walking the walk, she couldn't compare.
After much consideration, she decided not to follow Sherlock's advice.
She would use her own method to change her situation.
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