HP Cronos

This winter is extremely cold.

Karakkusta Blog watched the shabby woman impassively from behind the counter.

Coarse matted hair, sunken cheeks, sallow skin, eyes staring in opposite directions, and—the blogger's eyes moved down—pregnancy.

It is not easy for a witch to toss herself to such a miserable state.

"I'm not a pawn shop or a second-hand store here," the blogger reminded. "If you want to pawn something, please go elsewhere."

"No...I'm not..." the woman muttered, seemingly not very proficient in English, "...this is an ancestral treasure...it belongs to Salazar Slytherin...he said..."

Salazar Slytherin was the only word she could speak fluently.

“Every day people come to me with things they claim to be holy relics, only to turn out to be fakes,” the blogger said impatiently.

If it weren't for the rare cold this winter, so few customers came to the door, he wouldn't be patient and go around with this poor witch.

"Okay, okay, show me your family heirloom," said the blogger.

The woman puts a locket on the table.

Her hands were cracked and rough like old tree bark.

Karakkusta Blog picked up the locket with two fingers in disgust, but his eyes lit up at the green "S" on the lid.He raised the locket and squinted his eyes carefully, not letting go of any corner.Then he tapped the lid with his wand, listening for the sound it made, and cast a few more complicated spells.

The woman watched him uneasily studying that thing.The baby in my belly moved.

He must be hungry.woman thought.She has not eaten for a day and a night.

"Wait, wait, it will be ready soon." The woman said to the child in her heart.

It took a while for the blogger to realize that the customer was still standing in front of him.He pretended to cough a few times, and then slowly said: "Unfortunately, although they are very similar, this is not the real thing."

"Impossible... Impossible..." The woman murmured, grabbing the blogger's sleeve with her withered hands, "This is passed down from my grandpa..."

"Everyone says that." The blogger pulled his sleeve out of her hand in disgust, "Well, I'll keep this thing. Here you are... three Galleons, which is a very fair price for a counterfeit .”

The woman shook her head, reaching for the locket, and the blogger moved it away.

"Five Galleons, no more." The blogger said firmly.

"Can't you have more? Please..." the woman said, "...I have a child...he's about to be born..."

She has no money, no place to stay, and the wand is just a decoration to her.She has nothing but this locket and the child in her stomach.

"Okay, okay." The blogger looked embarrassed, "I'm not a person without sympathy. It's almost Christmas... just treat it as a charity, I will give out ten gold Galleons, take the money, go to Buy a new dress and some food."

Without any explanation, he counted ten Galleons from the counter and stuffed them into the woman's hands.

Ten Galleons, although not enough, was exactly what she needed urgently, and the woman was about to nod.

"I disagree!"

"Who are you?" The blogger glared at the uninvited visitor who suddenly broke into his shop.

"I'll give you twenty Galleons for your locket." The visitor said aggressively to the woman.

The woman hesitated.

"Don't be fooled by her!" Karakkusta Blogger said angrily. "She can't afford that much money."

"Who says I can't take it out?" The visitor took out the purse and shook it, and the gold coins rattled, "You are the one who lied, Slytherin's relic is much more valuable than a Galleon." She stretched out her hand to demand Going to get the locket, the blogger won't let go.

"She's already sold it to me, and she's taking the money!" cried the blogger.

The woman trembled in fright, and all the Galleons fell on the counter.

"Look, she hasn't nodded yet!" The visitor insisted.

"Let me go, little girl, or you'll have something to look at." Bobo threatened.

"I should tell you that," said the visitor.

Karakkusta Blog felt something cold against his chest, he lowered his head, it was a pistol.

"Listen, this thing is better than what you have in your store," said the visitor. "I'll just pull the trigger and you're done. Now let go."

The blogger let go, and the visitor shoved the locket back into the woman's arms.

"I'll buy it for 25 Galleons," the blogger said.

"Then I will offer thirty."

"I'll offer fifty!" The blogger gritted his teeth.

"I will offer 55."

The woman stared blankly at the two of them competing to drive up the price.

"Eighty," the blogger concluded. "That's the bottom line."

The visitor did not raise the price.She just said to the woman, "Come with me, I have news from Tom Riddle."

After the woman left, the blogger was still regretting it.

If he had known that he should have reported a hundred, the Slytherin locket was worth five hundred Galleons.

It's all the fault of that spoiled woman.The blogger is itching.

He still couldn't figure out how that woman made the pregnant woman obediently follow her away with just one word.

But what really made him let go was not the magic item that the woman pressed against his chest, but the coat of arms on her purse.

With his discerning eyes, it was undoubtedly the coat of arms of the Malfoy family, his regular customers, one of the oldest pure-blood families.Most importantly, they are still quite rich today.

But Malfoy had never heard of such a figure.

Maybe some distant relative of them?

On the other side, the visitor took the woman to find a restaurant to sit down.

"You must be hungry. What would you like to eat? Roast chicken? Apple pie? Beef pie?"

The woman wanted to say no, but she was very hungry.The smell of food stimulated her salivary glands.She swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "everything is fine."

So the visitor ordered a table for her.She doesn't know what is good for pregnant women, but vegetables, milk, eggs and starch always need to be supplemented.

Women are hungry for a long time.She devoured the food until it piled up in her throat and she couldn't eat any more.

"You said...you have news about him?" The woman asked cautiously, "What did he say? Did he ask you to come to me? Is it for the sake of the child? For the sake of the child!"

The excitement made her articulate a lot, and her gloomy face was shining with hope at this moment.The visitor couldn't bear to poke the light, but he still had to.

"No, he didn't look for you, he didn't even mention you. He went home and told his family he was bewitched by a witch. No mention of the child."

The light on the woman's face suddenly went out.

"You lied to me!" she roared, with the Gaunt hysterical madness in her face.But that craziness soon leaked like a battered ball.

"If it wasn't for him... who else would come to me? Dad? Brother?"

"Neither." The visitor shook his head. "This matter is very complicated. I will explain it to you later. My name is Nora Gray, and you can call me Nora."

The woman hesitated and said, "Merope... Merope Gunter."

Merope Gunter didn't know why the girl named Nora wanted to help her.

She took her out to eat, bought a bunch of clothes, and booked a hotel for her.

Is it for the locket?But why would she know about her and Tom Riddle?

Merope was puzzled.

For months, she roamed the streets of London.She can no longer use magic.Merlin's favor is as fleeting as Tom Riddle's illusory love for her.

At first she was able to find some work, the dirtiest and tiring kind of work.But as her belly protrudes day by day, fewer and fewer people are willing to hire her.

Who would take in a pregnant witch who was not much better than a Squib?Besides, she is ugly and stupid.

For a while, she could only sleep on the streets.She curled up in the cold corner with her stomach in her arms.At first she wept silently, then she had no tears at all.

After many days, Merope, who was able to sleep in bed again, felt at a loss.

"...why... help me?" she asked again, "who are you?"

"I'm—I'm a Freevy," said Nora. "We're also a Slytherin. But our blood has faded, and my mother was a Parseltongue, but I'm no longer Can speak snake language. I heard that the Gaunt family is our distant relatives..."

"You want... to marry us?" Merope Gaunt only had a strong comprehension in this aspect.This is the education she has received since she was a child.Blood, blood and blood was what Marvolo Gaunt was talking about all day, "With my brother?"

Merope shivered at the thought of Morfin Gaunt and his sallow teeth.

"Of course not." Nora shook her head quickly.

"Could it be..." Merope observed Nora's expression, "With him?" She pointed to her stomach.

If Nora ate something now, it would all be sprayed on Merope's face.

In a sense, she was right.Haven't they been married?

"No!" Nora retorted guiltily, "I don't even know whether he is a man or a woman?"

"It's a boy," Merope said. "I know he's a boy."

If it's an intuition, it's accurate.Yes, a boy who inherited the Gaunt family's Parseltongue, old Tom Riddle's face, and Slytherin talent, and set off a bloodbath in the wizarding world a few years later.

"I want to help you." Nora said earnestly, shaking her hand. "Please believe me, I mean no harm."

Merope stared blankly at their intertwined hands.

The girl's young hands were fair and delicate, while hers were rough and dry.

In fact, Merope is not very old at all, she is only in her early twenties, but she looks as dry as a woman in her thirties whose vitality has been drained by life.

It had been a long time since anyone had shaken her hand.

Why?This thought couldn't stop popping up in Merope's mind, why wasn't she her?If she was like that girl, young, kind, well-born, would...whether...

The author has something to say: Merope appears.

There is no doubt that she also inherited the nervousness of the Gaunt family.

Even my mother has appeared, but I still can't find a reason to let Grindelwald come out for a walk. Maybe he can show up in the episode?But Lao Deng died in the seventh part, and he could only use a knife when he went out for a walk.