Chapter 106 Cho Chang

Evan hastily drew his wand and looked around vigilantly.

The room was filled with chairs and boxes surrounding him, not far from where he stood was a wooden staircase leading upwards. He could hear voices of several people upstairs, a bell ringing, and the creaking of doors opening and closing.

In the basement, the sweet scent of candies mingled with the pungent smell of blood, making Evan feel nauseous. He cautiously approached a wooden crate beside him.

The closer he got, the stronger the smell became!

He was about to open the wooden crate when he heard footsteps descending the stairs and a woman shouting.

"Darling, bring another bucket of Jelly Slugs. We are about to run out of stock!"

"I know." A man descended the stairs.

Evan quickly turned around and saw a bald middle-aged man coming down.

It was Mr. Ambrosius Flume, the owner of the Honeydukes sweet shop. He entered the basement and suddenly froze. He was surprised to see Evan standing before him.

"Hello, Mr. Flume," Evan said softly.

"It's you, Evan, you startled me. I thought there was someone else in our warehouse," Flume sighed and patted his chest. "What are you doing with your wand?"

"I smelled blood..." The wand in Evan's hand did not falter.

"Oh, you've sniffed it out already!" Flume hastily said. "I meant to talk to you about that. I want you to advertise our newly developed candy."

"An advertisement?" Evan looked at him oddly.

Flume approached and opened the wooden crate next to Evan, which was filled with Blood-Flavored Lollipops.

Evan felt a bit embarrassed. The smell of blood he had detected was from this candy. He was quick with his wand. Fortunately, there were no acquaintances there.

"We don't think it's too much for our new bloody lollipop product," Flume frowned and said, "Sometimes I don't understand your taste, young wizards. It was the most requested flavor in our last survey."

"Are you sure this isn't for vampires?"

"Of course not! I thought this candy would be cool!" Flume continued. "But hardly anyone bought it. The stock of these bloody lollipops is almost blocking the entire warehouse. I need your help, Evan. Last time, the advertisement for Cockroach Clusters was very effective."

Evan remembered his first ad for Honeydukes last term. The Cockroach Clusters piled up in the warehouse and were never purchased. But now, after the ad, there are still people at school who claim they are still eating those things to this day.

"I'll help you, Mr. Flume!"

Evan couldn't understand the fact that despite the traditional candies of Honeydukes being clearly popular and well-received, they keep developing these unorthodox new products.

Nevertheless, when Flume heard Evan's words, he was so happy that he packed many Blood-Flavored Lollipops and gave them to him.

When Evan ascended from the basement with those nearly impossible-to-eat lollipops, he saw Honeydukes shop filled with Hogwarts students.

There were so many people he couldn't see where Hermione was.

Evan walked among them, trying to find Hermione from one shelf to another. Suddenly, at the corner of a chocolate-covered shelf, he accidentally bumped into a girl and dropped her sweets to the floor.

"Sorry!" Evan lowered his head and picked up his treats. He looked up just to see a beautiful girl standing in front of him.

The girl had long, shiny dark hair. She wore a Ravenclaw House wizard robe with a smile on her face that exuded a sense of kindness and comfort.

" He was too absorbed in choosing chocolate. Are you alright?" The girl smiled at Evan.

"Hello, I'm Cho Chang from Ravenclaw."

Evan was taken aback. It turned out to be Cho Chang, and she was truly beautiful. No wonder Harry, the guy so hard to impress, was so drawn to her.

"Oh, hi, I'm Evan Mason, from..."

"I know you!" she said, blushing, and hurried to explain. "I've heard from Luna that you have a newspaper, and I have a subscription to every issue. I find it very useful, and... Well, all the Ravenclaw girls are talking about you."

The atmosphere was a bit awkward. Evan had no idea he was so popular among the girls.

"I've heard of you too. You're Ravenclaw's Seeker!" Evan was speechless. Besides that information, he only remembered that Cho Chang was Cedric Diggory's girlfriend. After the boy died, she and Harry had a brief and unsuccessful relationship.

Although his emotional experience is relatively rich, he has to admit that Cho Chang is truly beautiful.

"Do you also like Quidditch?!" Cho seemed happy to have found a common topic with Evan. "I saw the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Your team is very strong, especially the Seeker Harry Potter; he's very fast."

"But we still lost to Hufflepuff," Evan continued. "I heard that you beat them in recent days!"

"It was just by chance. Their Seeker Cedric is also very good." Cho paused. "However, the rest of the Hufflepuff team is not at his level. The score would have been in Gryffindor's favor had you not encountered the Dementors..."

"Yes," nodded Evan, although he actually had no idea what she was talking about.

This was a rare opportunity to connect with such a beautiful girl. There she was, endlessly talking about Quidditch even though he was not interested at all.

"I almost gave up when we faced so many Dementors. Thankfully, your Patronus restored hope to all of us!"

In Cho Chang's mind appeared the image of the slender boy facing over a hundred Dementors alone. That feeling... she would never forget it.

"Evan, are you free?!" She hesitated for a moment and then said, "We can go to the teahouse outside and sit for a while. I want to ask you about the use of the Patronus Charm. Is there any trick to learning it? No matter how hard I try, all I manage to do is make my wand glow a bit."

Indeed, there was a trick to casting the Patronus Charm, and Evan was also willing to have a deep conversation about it with her.

After all, Cho Chang invited him herself, it would be too foolish of him not to understand what was happening.

But he saw Hermione enter Honeydukes and look for him with a smile. When she saw Cho with him, she became very alert.

Choosing between these two beauties was truly difficult.

Deep down, Evan still preferred Hermione. With Cho, it was only her dazzling beauty that impressed him.

He couldn't think of anything else! Or maybe...

Evan looked again at the girl in front of him. Was it really like this?