[hp] stay out of it

In order to explain the conversation that Harry and White are about to begin, it is necessary to go back in time to the three days before the start of school and see what information everyone in each corner has.

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In the haste and embarrassment of returning to the Burrow after the Quidditch match, Harry had discussed the appearance of the men in black that night with Ron and Hermione a hundred times, and repeatedly swore that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were also After mixing in, the first three days of the week before school started like this, and by the fourth day, even if they hated that family again, they needed to change the subject a little bit.

The three of them really had nothing to do that day, so they gathered around the dining table before Mrs. Weasley prepared lunch.Ron wanted to talk about Quidditch when he opened his mouth, and Hermione would always bring the topic to "common sense" that only she knew. Harry tried to unravel this vicious circle and find a direction where all three of them could participate in the discussion .

Just thinking about that, Harry immediately remembered the call he received more than half a month ago. Later, because of various incidents, he hadn't found a chance to talk to his companions about that sudden call.

Before Ron and Hermione could once again enter a stage of mutual sarcasm, Harry hurriedly interrupted the trend: "Remember that call you made to me over the summer, Ron?"

Ron was a little confused, so he said sullenly: "Well, well, you are on her side again." Hermione was criticizing Ron for "refusing to learn common sense".And the phone call during the summer vacation caused Harry some trouble because of Ron's yelling.

Harry said, "That's not it, um, I didn't tell you - and then I got another call at home, looking for me."

Seeing that Ron was about to speak, Harry quickly continued, "It wasn't Hermione calling. It was White, the one from Ravenclaw, remember, Hermione mentioned it to us a few times."

Hermione made a puzzled "huh?", wondering why White was calling Harry, who had never had a relationship before.

Ron fell into the memory: "Hermione mentioned everything in the world to us! Who will remember them all-wait a minute, I seem to have such an impression... Is it tall and thin, always ignoring the human one."

Hermione said, "Yeah, that's right, the one who occasionally outperforms me - he's always as good as Harry in Defense Against the Dark Arts. What's he calling you for?"

Harry was used to his exceptionally good Defense Against the Dark Arts being always used as a model.He nodded, and went on: "He told me to take a letter to Alina Hornby at the Ministry..."

Ron interjected, "Wait, that name sounds familiar." He turned and called upstairs, "Mum, do you know Alina Hornby?"

"Of course I know, why are you asking this?" Mrs. Weasley appeared on the stairs, somehow covered in foam, "When your father and I were about to graduate from Hogwarts, Alina enrolled, and Winclaw, bright and hot little girl."

"And do you know where she's working and what she's doing now?" Harry asked, turning sideways.

"Oh, of course," Mrs. Weasley tapped her sleeve with the tip of her wand, blowing away the white bubbles. "She's an Auror. She's always number one in the team, and I'm told the Ministry thinks highly of her." Mrs. Weasley was a little upset when it came to the ministry, probably because Mr. Weasley was always in a position of constant insignificance, not to mention that during this time he was too busy with the remnants of the man who must not be named. .

"White asked you to deliver a letter to an Auror?" Ron looked puzzled, "Where are all their owls, can't they find their way?"

"The Whites don't have owls," Hermione answered the question, "in fact, he's an orphan, and probably lives at the Benelli Hornby's in their yard now, and I saw him leave with the Benelli family on the platform last year." gone."

"Oh, oh, I don't know." Ron looked a little embarrassed.

"I mentioned it," said Hermione, somewhat annoyed. "You always don't listen to me—what were you doing then, wiping Harry's broomstick?"

Apparently Harry was too focused on his broom at the time, because he didn't know that White was an orphan either.The information Hermione threw made him a little jealous, because White could obviously live with his pals, while he had to live with the Dursleys.

"Then he'd have no reason to call Harry," Ron dutifully brought the subject back. "Would an Auror have a telephone in his house without an owl?"

"That's not true," said Harry, struggling to recall the images of spending holidays with the Weasleys, "he was in France - he didn't say much, except that he was put under a strange spell. Got it in France. Apparently that's a bit late for owls at that distance, isn't it? And he couldn't find a house with a box of Floo powder by the fireplace. So he had to go the Muggle way. Just I don't know why he called me, and how he knew Uncle Vernon's home number."

"In France, are you sure?" Hermione's mind was always spinning fast, "Don't tell me he called you on August [-]nd."

"Actually, it was the third of August," said Harry, "the day after Malfoy disappeared from his study at home."

"The newspaper speculates that he was arrested and taken to France," Ron suddenly perked up. "Could it be because White, the top student, can't stand Malfoy's filth..."

"Ron," interrupted Hermione, "use your brains, White asked Harry to send a letter to an Auror, he may be involved."

"But he only asked me to deliver letters to Alina Hornby," Harry mused on the same question in Privet Drive, "and not to the Ministry of Magic."

"Then do you still remember the content of that letter?" Hermione couldn't hold back her curiosity, but hesitated, "I mean, since he asked you to help write it, then he certainly doesn't mind others knowing the content of the letter, yes Bar?"

Ron urged Harry, "Of course, Harry, don't think too much about it - since he asked you to write it, he's not afraid we'll find out - what did he tell Hornby?"

Harry remembered it very clearly, because White told the details of the letter several times back and forth, and the content of the letter was only one sentence back and forth, and Harry studied the letter quickly before sending it: "It should be like this, he will At noon on the [-]th to Victoria Station, and his cat, and if all goes well, will bring three presents from France to Ms. Hornby."

"'Three presents,'" Hermione clung to the number, which seemed to excite her that she could use all her wits to solve a real puzzle (rather than people made it up), "three, As she spoke, she stood up and looked for the place where Ron's house kept old newspapers. "If I remember correctly, the intruders Lucius Malfoy saw were exactly three... yes, absolutely Undoubtedly, exactly three."

"He was being followed by those three Frenchmen!" Hermione slapped the No. [-] newspaper on the coffee table and came to this conclusion.

Ron was dumbfounded at Hermione's arbitrary conclusion: "Hermione, three is a very common number! You can't just connect two things like that - it's like... (Ron looks around the living room and finds an example immediately ) you plus me and Harry are three, does that mean anything? We weren't the ones who kidnapped Malfoy to France - though I'd love to," he added.

Hermione, impatient with Ron's dull thinking, lit the newspaper between her fingers and said, "That's obviously a code word, Ron. Come to think of it, White also said he'd be taking his cat with him."

"You don't mean to say that's Malfoy," said Ron sarcastically, "though he's just as annoying as Crookshanks—I mean, a hundred times better than him." Ron Just in time to remember that Crookshanks wasn't thinking about his pet, but sensitively picking on Peter Pettigrew.

"That's right, that's what I mean." Hermione said tit for tat.

"Aha, then why are we bothering to argue here? Why don't we just ask White himself?" Ron pushed his chair away and walked towards the fireplace, as if he was going to Hornby's for answers.

"Ron, come back," Harry called to him helplessly, "I tried to contact him too, and Luna gave me his address—it should be the address of Hornby's house—but Bellini Hornby Write back to me that White has gone to his house in the Muggle community, he doesn't know the exact location, and will write to me again if he returns."

"So White is missing now." Hermione blinked.

"If 'in your own home' is what you call missing." Ron sat back in his seat.

"Quiet, let me think carefully." Hermione said seriously.

Ron shrugged at Harry, grabbed the number two newspaper and flipped through the pictures in it: "Look how depressed the Malfoy family is... I can't get enough of it!"

Hermione suddenly pushed away the chair, stomped upstairs, and said, "Harry, lend me the photo of your parents."

"Oh, it's still on the cabinet, take it yourself," Harry said, looking back at Ron with "what's she trying to do" eyes.

Hermione returned to her place with the photo album, but she didn't open it. She pressed her hand on the photo album, as if to swear.The whole person was a little restless, as if he had just solved a problem in class, and was afraid of the urgency that others would rush to answer—but in most cases, no one tried to rush to answer, or answer that problem.Just like now, Harry and Ron were still in the dark.

Hermione cleared her throat and said with a little pride: "Let's sort out our thoughts. As we can see (Ron curled his lips), Vincent White has been very withdrawn since he entered school, except for the occasional appearance with his two roommates." Besides, he is a loner most of the time. But he is not shy at all. I talked to him a few times in the library-discussing homework-he is very good at communicating with people. But from the surface From the looks of it, he's really withdrawn."

"Maybe he's just that weird character," Harry said before Ron tried to provoke Hermione with words again.

"Leave this aside," Hermione waved her hand, "Also, I often meet him in the faculty lounge, and he always likes to ask the professors some tricky questions..."

"You must be doing the same thing in the staff room." Ron rolled his eyes, but Hermione smiled, obviously taking it as a compliment.

She went on: "But for some reason last year he suddenly stopped showing up in the break room, he stopped asking questions and the professors stopped asking him to help."

"Maybe he's made an unforgivable mistake?" Ron began to think back. "I don't remember dropping many Ravenclaw gems at once..."

"Then on August [-], White, who has always been low-key, appeared in France with Malfoy—I thought about it, and I couldn't tell who was responsible for whom, after all, Malfoy was abducted for no reason and then returned—and the newspapers His name was never mentioned from the beginning to the end, and he was never seen again..."

"It's just that you haven't seen it." Ron felt a little uncomfortable with Hermione's tone of conspiracy theory.

"Apparently he never made it to the end of that train, and Malfoy, who was traveling with him, did—remember, he said the train came in on the Fourth, and Malfoy was arrested on the Fourth by the Ministry—Auror Studios— —Sent home, the newspaper said that Malfoy was found in a place where Muggles gathered, and he himself could not explain why he was abducted. He only described the appearance of the two people who were not arrested, and even how he appeared in the I can’t tell what’s there.”

"The newspaper said it was because he was under the Amnesiac...but at the same time he remembered the appearance of his kidnappers?" Harry also felt a little strange, "Why don't those people just let him forget them all?"

"Because he wasn't cursed at all?" Ron also narrowed his eyes. "Fred said he must be hiding something, which is contradictory at all."

"He hid the fact that White was there," Hermione said affirmatively, but then was a little uncertain, "But in this way, White saved him...but when we met him at the World Cup, he always Smug - White probably never made it to Victoria Station at all!"

"That's pretty consistent." Ron didn't know whether he accepted Hermione's point of view, or he just wanted to hit Malfoy's rare image. "He's definitely capable of such things as ungrateful—his parents are death eaters." Disciple!"

Mrs. Weasley came over to prepare lunch, and Hermione suddenly suggested, "Let's go to Hornby's and ask if White is back."

"It's always like this." Ron muttered and followed.

"It's almost lunch now, it's not good to go to someone else's house," Mrs. Weasley hesitated when she knew what they were going to do, but then she raised her hand and released the Patronus, then turned around and took a small basket of food from the cabinet Come to Ron, "I said hello to Alina in advance. Also, take this to go, home-made toast, and sandwiches. Anyway, mothers always welcome young students to drop by. "

Mrs. Weasley was right. The sudden arrival of the three of Harry did receive a warm welcome from Alina. However, when they asked about White's whereabouts, although the family responded decently and looked normal, they were skeptical. Harry always felt weird.

When he came back, Ron's hands were still not idle, and he had to carefully hold the gift in return: an exquisite cake.Then Hermione pinpointed why Harry thought they were a little weird: "When they mentioned White, despite their best efforts to hide it, they were a little concerned."

Perhaps because of the enthusiastic praise he received at Hornby's house, Ron was in a better mood. While cutting the cake, he accepted Hermione's train of thought: "So, White is indeed missing now? No one bothered to find him. Him? Anyway, the Hornbys seem to be just sitting around."

"I think I probably know why he's trying so hard to keep a low profile," Hermione lowered her voice, watching out for Mrs. Weasley who was not far away, with a complicated gleam in her eyes, "That's why he and the professors suddenly avoided each other last year." , and why he knew Harry's phone number and chose to let Harry help him."

Both Harry and Ron, tensed by her, looked around to make sure no one (especially the twins) was prying into what seemed to be the answer to the great secret.

Hermione flipped through Harry's photo album, flipped to a random page, turned the album over to Harry and Ron, and pointed a person in the picture with her finger: "I always think the young man looks familiar, but I I never really thought about it…”

"You mean... oh, no... no, you're joking!" Ron stared wide-eyed, and looked carefully at the people in the photo, slowly slumped to one side, and his voice became weak, " Hermione, are you crazy, or am I?"

"None of us are crazy, it's Sirius who is." Hermione pursed her lips tightly.

Looking at the young and handsome Sirius in the photo, Harry still couldn't understand: "Crazy... what?"

"Harry," Hermione looked at him reproachfully, sticking the photo album under Harry's nose, "don't you realize? Black! White! . . . look how much they look alike - the contours of faces , and the mouth..."

Harry froze, unable to accept the news that his godfather might have an unknown son.

Hermione was still whispering anxiously: "He's withdrawn not because he's an orphan, but because he has a father in Azkaban; what happened last year? Sirius escaped from prison! Lupine was suspected of being an insider." , let alone him - the professors must have known it early on... They are more familiar with Sirius than we are when he was a child, maybe they noticed something as soon as White entered - that surname is too obvious - everyone's life last year Threatened, no, thought their lives were threatened, so White was alienated by the professors, understand?"

Harry and Ron shook their heads dully, still digesting the astonishing answer Hermione had solved.Hermione was a little dissatisfied: "I should have found out - Black, White! Such an obvious thing! Harry is always staring at the photo album at home, but I have never found out that Sirius is like who I know..."

Hermione patted the table: "White always thought that his father was a fugitive who murdered without batting an eye... He knew that once he was noticed, the poor life experience hidden by his surname would be exposed immediately, so no matter when Keep a low profile--the Hornbys let him do it!"

"Then he called me..." Harry asked one last question.

"Maybe you are his only relative, although there is no blood relationship," Hermione speculated, "so he has always known your information, and he is the first to think of you in times of crisis."

"You're a master at solving puzzles, Hermione." Ron swallowed hard as he looked at the cheerful Sirius in the photo.

"You can't tell Sirius about this," Hermione had already begun to prepare a countermeasure, "Sirius is too easy to lose control. And there is no evidence after all, it's just speculation."

"I think it's close to ten." Ron flipped through the photo album, found a few other photos with Sirius and observed them carefully, and said with a bitter face.

"Ask White when school starts, and test him." Hermione hooked her fingers, and moved her head closer, "At least he has to make it clear that the two of you haven't met at all, how did he know your home number—— I know you only told Ron and me. If he doesn't come to school at all, we'll tell Dumbledore and let him deal with it..."

"Sirius' Merry Tent," Ron said, squinting his eyes.