HP solves the mystery

It will be cloudy for the next few days, but luckily it doesn't rain, otherwise the dance practice time will be even shorter.

"Severus, have you read the newspaper? Recently, many bank vaults in London were robbed, and the injured are still in the hospital. The most important thing is that the person who robbed the vaults disappeared inexplicably, and the police couldn't find him..." After dancing practice that day, Penny and the others found a nearby cafe and chatted over desserts.

Severus shook his head slightly. He had been busy with homework and papers these days, and rarely read the Daily Prophet, let alone The Times.

Penny had expected it, so she wasn't surprised and continued.

"Lily has been reading letters sent by owls recently, and she has been running to the city center almost throughout the Christmas vacation..." She suspected that Lily was in love, but that was Lily's private matter, and she couldn't ask more questions, "Are you ready? Have you got your suit for tomorrow?" She changed the subject and told Severus what she had reminded him a few days ago.

The warm cafe was filled with the aroma of desserts, and people were chatting quietly. People came in and out from time to time, causing the wind chimes next to the door to ring continuously and make a pleasant crisp sound.

"Oh, of course." Severus replied, "It's a silver-gray suit." Zhang Mingyuan gave it to him before he bought a house. After all, everyone in the world respects clothes first and then respects others.

"Silver white... that's not bad," Petunia repeated, her eyes staring somewhere through the window, with sadness and worry in them. After a moment, her lips tightened, revealing a slightly strange smile.

"I hope you can have a good time at the dance tomorrow..."

"Of course, these days of practice can't be wasted." Severus smiled slightly, took a sip of coffee, and then his face wrinkled.

Otherwise, the coffee is too bitter and I forgot to put sugar.

Penny giggled, only to stop laughing when someone looked at her accusingly.

The two chatted for a while, made an appointment for tomorrow, and then went home.

The sun rises, the moon sets, and the smoke rises.

Severus pressed the alarm clock that kept beeping, rubbed his hair and sat up from the bed.

He quickly took care of himself, looked at the time on his watch and prepared to go out. He thought again before stepping out of the door, and went back to take the spare wand and electric shock device with him.

The Evans family is a beautiful three-story bungalow. The lawn in the courtyard is neatly taken care of, and the aisles are also clean.

Severus rang the doorbell, and the door opened quickly. The person who opened the door was Petunia with her hair disheveled, wearing a champagne-colored dress dotted with many small pearls.

"Good morning Petunia, should I go for a walk around?" Severus said, girls always put a lot of thought into going out.

Penny shook her head and welcomed him into the house, pouring him a cup of rose tea with milk.

Severus thanked him and took the tea cup. He looked around and found that they seemed to be the only two people in the room. He moved his fingers uncomfortably.

The room was very warm, and there was a bouquet of artificial flowers in a vase on the table. The arrangement of the furniture showed that the lady of the house had put a lot of thought into it.

"Quickly, I've already put on my makeup and just do my hair." After Penny said that, she sat on the sofa opposite and started doing her hair.

Severus then noticed that Petunia's face was fairer than usual, her messy eyebrows were taken care of, she had light eye makeup, and her lips were as red and attractive as candied strawberries.

Severus sighed in his heart, there are no ugly people in the world, only lazy people.

"Why didn't you ask Lily to help?" he asked doubtfully. When he came here before, the first thing he heard was Lily's voice like a lark talking non-stop.

Petunia simply rolled up her long hair and fastened it with a beautiful butterfly hairpin. After picking up the pearl earrings and necklace from the box and putting them on, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Severus strangely.

"Lily finished her meal and went to take the subway with her bag on her back. It seemed she wanted to discuss homework or something with someone." Petunia was already used to Lily leaving early and coming back late, so they would have fewer conflicts, but she still explained. , "She's been like this lately. She can always get back before dark." After saying that, she got up and went to get her shoes. In order to match Severus' height, she bought flat shoes.

Discuss homework? Severus was a little confused. Could it be that he was with Milos who was at the station before?

His doubts could not be answered for the time being, because they had to catch the subway to the city center.

Before heading out, Severus took out his spare wand and cast a Warming Charm and a Thermostatic Charm on her and Petunia.

He was really worried that Penny would catch a cold if she wore a coat outside.

Because this dance was organized by the students themselves, and because it was an adult ceremony dance held in advance, it was not too formal. It started at three o'clock in the afternoon and ended before ten o'clock in the evening.

Severus and the others arrived at the hotel fifteen minutes early, handed in invitations and were invited in. When they arrived at the lobby, they found that many people had already arrived. The attendant took Petunia's coat and put it in the special dressing room.

"Oh, Petunia, I didn't expect you to find a male partner."

As soon as they entered the box, a sharp voice called out to Penny.

The two of them stopped, and Severus looked around and saw that it was a woman wearing a light blue long dress and evening gown, and a beautifully cut shawl of the same color. Her long pale golden hair was spread out from the shawl, and her whole body was warm. Soft and soft.

But there was a sarcastic look on her face at the moment, and she kept talking about her pride at being invited by Jack.

"Haha," Petunia's smile was like cold water. She moved closer to Severus and hugged her arms to show intimacy, "Helen, this is my dance partner." It seemed that she didn't take her ridicule to heart at all.

"I said I don't like Jack, he's not my type." She continued, turning to smile with Severus, "Severus, this is Helen Watson. My classmate. "

"Helen, this is Severus Snape, my male partner." Penny said pointedly, "You have to know, it's really hard to find a male dance partner recently."

Helen's eyes lit up when she looked at the delicate and gentle Severus, but she suppressed her thoughts when she thought about the new boyfriend she had finally won so quickly.

"Hello, Mr. Snape." Helen said with a forced smile, covering her mouth with the fan in her hand.

"Hello, beautiful Miss Watson, it is a pleasure to come to your birthday ball."

Helen Watson's expression softened slightly, but after thinking that Jack had agreed to be her dance partner, she didn't say anything more. After saying hello to Severus, she said, "Have fun in a while" and kicked off. High heels went to find friends.

There were many people watching them silently. After seeing Helen Watson leave like this, some people were eager to get closer.

Petunia snorted softly, took Severus's hand and walked towards the other side. Want to see a joke? impossible!

When the two of them came to the long table where the food was placed, Penny naturally took the plates to put the things on the table, and started eating quickly in small bites.

"Well, is she the one who has troubled you for so long?" Severus looked at the table full of desserts and couldn't start. The main meal hadn't been served yet. He wanted to eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Penny nodded and shook her head, and then spoke quietly after swallowing the food in her mouth.

"Actually, I'm quite grateful to her, otherwise Jack wouldn't know how long he would have to pester me -" She took another bite of the chocolate cake, "You should eat some too, the dance is very protracted, and they will probably be drinking when the dinner comes." We're all drunk," Penny said.

Severus nodded in understanding. Most of the young wizards at Hogwarts were still at an age where they couldn't drink, and those were the only things that small groups in the school ate at gatherings.

Soon all the invitees arrived, Helen Watson said some words on the high platform, and then started dancing.

The atmosphere gradually became lively, the dancing music also changed from soothing to brighter, and the dancers were also looking for partners for the next round.

After Severus and Petunia finished their first dance, they felt a little uneasy, as if something bad was about to happen.

Sure enough, when those young people drank one glass after another of wine and changed from the restraint of British gentlemen to the wild life, there was a loud noise outside the hotel and the box suddenly became quiet.

Then came the panicked shouts of the crowd and the sound of cars colliding, which was getting closer and closer to the hotel, occasionally mixed with several explosions.

"Where is the sound coming from, and what is that thing?" Petunia squinted and pointed at the black spots moving back and forth in the sky in the distance and asked. She came to the balcony with Severus to get some fresh air. Unexpectedly, I saw people running in panic and torn apart buildings.

Severus looked in the direction of her finger, his pupils shrank sharply, and he quickly pulled the person to squat down, using the balcony to cover his body, and carefully observed the movement over there.