Chapter 106: Cho Chang

Ivan quickly looked around him carefully.

The room was filled with chairs and boxes surrounding him, and not far from where he stood, there was a wooden staircase leading to the upper floor. He could hear the voices of several people above him, a bell ringing, and the creak of doors opening and closing.

In the basement, the sweet smell of candy mixed with the pungent odor of blood made Ivan feel nauseous. He cautiously approached a wooden box next to him.

The closer he got, the stronger the smell became!

He was about to open the wooden box when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and a woman shouting, "Honey, here's another bucket of Jelly Slugs. We're about to run out of stock!"

"I know." A man came down the stairs.

Ivan turned around hurriedly and saw a balding middle-aged man walking downstairs.

It was Mr. Ambrosius Flume, the owner of the Honeydukes candy store, he entered the basement and suddenly froze, staring in surprise at Ivan standing in front of him.

"Hello, Mr. Flume," Ivan said quietly.

"So it's you, Ivan, you startled me, I thought there was someone else in our warehouse." Flume sighed and patted him on the chest. "What are you doing with your wand?"

"I smelled a scent of blood..." The wand in Ivan's hand didn't drop.

"Oh, you smelled it already!" Flume said quickly. "I had intended to talk to you about it. I want you to run an ad for our new candy."

"An ad?!" Ivan looked at him quizzically.

Mr. Flume walked over and opened the wooden box next to Ivan and it was full of lollipops.

Ivan was a little embarrassed, the smell of blood he had smelled was from this candy, he hurried to put his wand away, fortunately, there was no one he knew.

"People don't seem to approve of our new product," Mr. Flume frowned and said, "Sometimes I don't understand your taste, young wizards. It was the most requested flavor in our last survey."

Ivan blinked and said, "Are you sure this isn't for vampires?"

"Of course not, I thought this candy would be great!" Mr. Flume continued. "But practically no one bought it. The stock of these bloody lollipops is almost piled up all over the warehouse. I need your help, Ivan. Last time, the propaganda about the Cockroach Lollipops was very effective."

Ivan remembered his first advertisement for Honeydukes last semester. The Cockroach Cucuruchos were stacked in the warehouse and were never purchased. But now, after the ad, there are still some people at the school who say they continued to eat those things to this day.

"I'll help you, Mr. Flume!", Ivan couldn't understand the fact that even though the traditional Honeydukes candies are clearly popular and well received, they have continued to develop these new unorthodox products.

Anyway, when he heard Ivan's words, Mr. Flume was so pleased that he packed up many blood-flavored lollipops and gave them to him.

When Ivan came out of the basement with those almost inedible sweets, he saw the Honeydukes store full of Hogwarts students.

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

Ivan walked among them, trying to find Hermione from shelf to shelf. Suddenly, in the corner of a chocolate-covered shelf, he accidentally bumped into a girl and knocked her candy onto the floor.

"Excuse me!" Ivan lowered his head and picked up his candy. He looked up to see a beautiful girl standing in front of him.

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

"I was too engrossed in choosing the chocolates, are you alright?" The girl smiled at Ivan, "Hi, I'm Cho Chang from Ravenclaw."

Ivan was shocked. He bumped into Cho Chang, and she was really quite beautiful, no wonder Harry, such a hard to move guy, was attracted to her, so he introduced himself, "Oh, hi, I'm Ivan Mason, from..."

"I know you!" exclaimed Cho Chang, then blushed and hastened to explain, "I've heard from Luna that you have a newspaper and I have a subscription for every issue, and I think the articles in it are very useful, and.... In short, you're all the Ravenclaw girls talk about now."

The atmosphere was a bit awkward. Ivan didn't know he was so popular with the girls.

"I've heard about you too, you're the Ravenclaw Seeker!" Ivan had no words to say. In addition to this information, he only remembered that Cho Chang was Cedric Diggory's girlfriend and that, after the latter's death, she had an unsuccessful relationship with Harry.

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

"Do you like Quidditch too?", Cho Chang seemed to be happy to find a common topic with Ivan, "I watched the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Their team is very strong, especially the Seeker, Harry Potter; he's very fast."

"But we still lost to Hufflepuff," Ivan continued. "I heard that in the last few days, you beat them!"

"It was just a fluke. Their Seeker, Cedric, is also very good." Cho paused, "However, the rest of the Hufflepuff team is not on their level. The result would have been in Gryffindor's favor if they hadn't run into the Dementors..."

"Yes!" Ivan nodded, though he didn't really know what he was talking about.

Here he was, having the rare opportunity to meet such a beautiful girl, talking endlessly about Quidditch, which also didn't interest him at all.

"I was almost desperate when we faced so many Dementors. Fortunately, your Patronus gave hope back to all of us," In Cho Chang's mind, the image of the skinny boy facing over a hundred Dementors on his own came up. That scene.... he would never forget.

"Ivan, are you free?" Cho Chang hesitated for a moment before blushing and saying, "We can go to the tea store outside and sit for a while. I want to ask you about using the Patronus Charm, is there a trick to learning it? No matter how hard I try, all I can do is make my wand glow a little."

Indeed, there was a trick to casting the Patronus Charm, and Ivan was also willing to have an in-depth conversation about it with her.

After all, Cho Chang had invited him herself, he'd be too stupid if he didn't understand what was going on.

But then, he saw Hermione, who had just entered Honeydukes and was looking for him with a smile on her face, when she found him talking to Cho Chang, her expression quickly changed to one of wariness.

Choosing between these two beauties was very difficult.

Deep down, Ivan still preferred Hermione. With Cho Chang, it was only her stunning beauty that stunned him.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Ivan looked again at the girl in front of him. Is that really the case?