cycle

Chapter 24 The Owl Shack

I thought that there would be at least a period of calm after the first project ended, after all, the second project will not start until February.But Longbottom and the others had already started trying to order some garlic from Hogsmeade or owls, and they felt that Potter's second project was to pass a screaming female ghost.

There are clues in the golden egg-although the warriors with repeated orders need to solve this puzzle by themselves, this has not dampened the enthusiasm of the students to help, although the night of celebrating Porter's successful completion of the first project and getting high marks, All that was heard was the piercing scream from the golden egg, and the girls spent a lot of time convincing Longbottom that it was illegal to use Cruciatus on warriors.

But soon few people cared about the golden eggs anymore. A week after the first project ended, Professor McGonagall told us calmly in the Transfiguration class on Thursday that this year's Christmas Hogwarts will follow the three The tradition of the Scramble is to hold a Yule Ball, which can be attended by students from the fourth grade and above, and students from the lower grades can also be invited if they wish.

The room was immediately overwhelmed by the giggling girls, and Professor McGonagall had to raise her voice to tell everyone that dress robes were required for the Yule Ball, and that even though it was a holiday relaxation program, she hoped that the Gryffindors Be able to show the excellent demeanor of your own college.

My guinea pig wasn't doing particularly well, and it wasn't until the third try that I didn't have three guinea fowl feathers on its butt, and after reading the summary notes Hermione handed me I looked up and saw quite a few in the classroom People are flirting.Brown turned to cast a glance at Black, but the latter was dueling Weasley with a fake wand with a guinea fowl feather in his mouth.Patil shook her head and pulled Brown over to whisper something in her ear, and Brown showed a hurt expression.There were other girls staring at Potter, and I followed their gazes to see Potter looking at me.

I looked down and remembered the dress robe I received last Christmas, Draco was so smug that I'd be using it soon, I even got a matching brooch for my birthday, see Wake up, he knew about the Triwizard Tournament and the Yule Ball early in the morning, but this is not surprising.

I have two dress robes in my closet and they are both neatly hanging in my small closet right now.One was from Draco, and the other was bought by my mother before school started.I told her I already had one and didn't need to buy a new one, but she insisted on taking me to Diagon Alley to buy another one.

After class, Professor McGonagall stopped Potter, and the girls laughed even more unscrupulously. They ran away in groups almost quickly, and began to discuss topics about dancing partners and dressing.The atmosphere in the castle was even more lively than at the beginning of the Triwizard Tournament, probably because most of the people in the game were just spectators after all, and all students in the fourth grade and above could participate in the dance.Students in the lower grades also began to linger around the students in the higher grades, eager to be invited—after all, no one wants to miss such a grand event that does not know when the next time will be.

Hermione finally had time to continue her research on her house elf rights club, and she became passionate about the cause again.What is puzzling is that Black, who has always been tit for tat with her for this, stopped making any cynicism. He actually reluctantly admitted that the choice should be left to the house elves, and gave Hermione two silver Sickles to join the club.

"Because he saw that among the house-elves there were indeed those who wanted to be free." Hermione explained to me vaguely, "We, um, met some house-elves at Hogwarts under the guidance of Fred and the others. Let's not talk about this, have you ever thought about who you will go to the dance with?"

Saying that I haven’t thought about it is of course a lie in a lie, but I pretended to have a strong interest in the history of magic homework I just finished, and after carefully looking at the ink dots on the parchment for a while, I asked, “What about you?”

"I wasn't invited." Hermione calmly turned a page. "They figured they'd rather find a pretty woman who's pretty vicious than dance with a plain girl."

Her tone didn't sound very good, as if she was going to lose her temper with someone, so I decided not to continue this topic.Every night the girls are excitedly exchanging information, which college so-and-so already has a dance partner, so-and-so rejects so-and-so, and so-and-so agrees to so-and-so's appointment. It seems that the interpersonal relationship in the whole castle has never been so complicated.The girls hold a clearly ranked list in their hands, on which their prey are neatly arranged, one name after another is crossed out, the girl with a partner sighs that she should have a better choice, the girl without a partner Waiting impatiently while inquiring, the courageous ones will take the initiative to intercept the boy they like.

Talus Black is undoubtedly the top candidate on the prey list of many girls, especially after everyone is sure that Digory has invited Ravenclaw's Cho Chang.He is like a dexterous stuffed animal that shuttles freely in the eyes of the girls who are expecting attention. Except for a lazy smile that doesn't care much about anyone, he is stingy with all words, and only shakes his head when facing invitations. .

A few third-grade boys I didn't know came over to invite me before, and I just asked them: "Are you sure? Professor Snape will also attend the Yule Ball." I managed to get them to rescind my invitation thought.

"Hello, can you, can you leave for a while?" I just took out my dad's notebook and was going to look through it, and saw Krum appearing at my table with Hermione and talking to me, his eyes looked at the messy strands. Hermione, with her hair hanging in front of her ears, was frowning and reading a book.

Hermione also looked dazed, but she motioned me to leave and said to me, "This is the Hogwarts library, what can he do? It's fine."

I happened to have a letter I wanted to send to my mother, so I left the library and went to find Vivienne at the owl shack.She seemed to have grown up a bit again, no longer struggling for a while to be submerged in a flock of adult owls before flying out to rub me.

"Vivienne, do you have a dance partner?" I touched its beak with my index finger, it narrowed its eyes and let out a low cooing sound, opened its mouth and bit my finger lightly, then led me The letter flew away.

Outside was the third snowfall of this winter, and I watched it from the small window gradually becoming a tiny black speck in the air, and felt that strange, ever-filling melancholy still growing in my heart, which came from Meg. The fact that the professor announced to us the Yule Ball started to swell in my mind.Every time I opened the closet and saw the light green dress gown, the strange emotion increased a little.

"Hey."

I turned and saw Potter standing in the doorway of the shed, with a lot of snow still on his head.

"Coincidental." I nodded to him, "Are you here to send a letter too?"

"Unfortunately." He seemed a little embarrassed, as if twisting his hands to control himself from arranging his hair, "Uh, I asked someone where you are, and Ginny said that she saw you walking here just now."

He took a deep breath, and I already knew what he was going to ask me.

"Go to the dance with me?" He was speaking almost at the speed of a mantra, almost biting his own tongue.

In the moment just now, I actually thought about diverting his words, such as pretending to be suddenly interested in Quidditch, and asking him why he could face the Hungarian Horntail, thinking that he had never succeeded in class a few days ago The spell——When I faced Harry Potter on this day, I realized that I no longer hated him as much as I did at the beginning. In the past, in retrospect, the intersection between me and him that can be recalled, that really belongs to the two of us, is actually very small.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I said to him. "There's a lot of girls who are good at dancing, and they'd all be willing to be your partner. The opening dance is important, and my dad...uh, ha I really hope you all had a merry Christmas, Leigh."

I feel a little bad that he shouldn't be standing outside the shed.Why doesn't he come in?Even though it’s just the two of us here, he insisted on standing outside the door, letting me watch the snow falling on his messy hair...Why can’t I reject those third-grade boys I don’t know Also half-jokingly rejecting him?I think I'm blushing, not because I'm shy, but because I know I'm lying - Dad wouldn't rush out at the Yule Ball and poison my partner even if he didn't like the way I picked my partner, let alone Mum had written to say that she would do her best to come to Hogwarts on Christmas night.

"Actually, before I came to see you, I thought that if you said something like Professor Snape, I would answer that I could dance with you with a bezoar stuck in my throat - that's what he taught me in the first year, God, I've been able to remember his words for so many years." He said in a tone of artificial lightness, "it's kind of weird when you think about it now, I bet bezoar smells not suitable for a dance, does it?"

I was amused by his words, remembering when we were in the first Potions class, my dad made him hard to embarrass him, he said confidently that he didn't know anything, and Hermione waved her hand beside him, saying that she could answer all the questions. Question, and a group of people, including me, looked blankly at Dad for deducting five points from Gryffindor.Hermione wasn't his friend then, and he wasn't mine.

"It's okay." We looked at each other for a while, I didn't know what to say, it seemed that everything I said made me look like a nasty person who was drenched in a pot of Mibu Mibao juice from beginning to end, hypocritical and disgusting.It was he who said first, "Okay, I'm just—it's okay, you don't have to worry about it."

He disappeared at the door of the owl hut. Hedwig yelled loudly. Seeing that I was watching it, she flapped her wings a few times and turned around to express that she didn't want to talk to me.

I was surprised to find Hermione sitting there staring blankly when I went back to the library to pick up my schoolbag. After all, she sees every second in the library not gaining new knowledge as a terrible waste.But she is obviously absent-minded now, and the quill in her hand is scribbling a little bit on the parchment paper. I looked at the messy patterns on it, and she has probably been in this state for a long time.

The sound of me packing my schoolbag woke her up. She stood up and started stuffing things from her desk into her pockets. After she tried to throw an uncovered bottle of ink directly into her schoolbag, I finally asked her cautiously: " What happened?"

Her face was red, or rather, her face was red all the time.

"You can't tell anyone." She looked around and took several deep breaths.

"Well, I promise." I watched her abnormal behavior worriedly.

"Victor Krum asked me to be his dance partner," Hermione told me slowly, "I, I thought he was making fun of me, but he looks serious... .He seemed to really want me to be his dance partner."

I opened my mouth wide: "I thought he was trying to trouble you—so he actually likes you?"

Hermione's face was red enough to drip blood: "He just thought, uh, it's not liking, it's just..."

"Then did you promise him?" I asked her curiously in a low voice.

Hermione fiddled with the cover of the thick book in her hand: "Well - I mean, he was the only one who invited me, and I don't seem to have any other choice."

She smiled at me, then looked down and wiped her eyes.

When I revisit this period of the past now (recalling this period of the story took much more time than I thought, I thought I could take a few words), I realized that at that time she and I The same, thinking that we are different from those twittering girls, but in fact we still have a list in our hearts, and the list is someone we know well.

Everyone's standard for choosing a partner is gradually lowering as the days go by. Every day, the girls take stock of the new news with relish. If the protagonist is not there, they will happily discuss it loudly. Who invited who and where.I was relieved to hear that Harry and Ron Weasley had invited the Patil sisters, Parvati Patil looked better than I did the opening dance too much, I've seen her practice with Brown in the dorms The appearance of dance steps.

"Come to the dance with me." McLaggen stopped me the other day when I was about to climb into the Gryffindor common room, and he said to me in a very confident tone, "You don't seem to have any other options— I'm not afraid of your father either, although he doesn't seem to like me, he certainly doesn't hate me either."

"Uh..." I was thinking about how to politely reject him. "In fact..."

"Potter and Patil go to the ball, and Malfoy and Greengrass, unless you want to dance with some junior kid not as tall as you - the senior Gryffindor won't invite you, I've told them I want to invite you."

The second half of his words were blurred in my ears, and I couldn't hide my expression.

"Don't you know?" McLaggen's tone sounded very smug, "He didn't tell you who he invited? Then your relationship doesn't seem to be as good as you think—those pure-bloods who claim to be noble The family will expose their hypocrisy in formal occasions, and I am different from them."

"Aren't you the same as those girls, still waiting for Black?" My silence didn't stop him from chattering, "Black——"

"I'm not waiting for anyone," I said quietly to him, "but I don't want to go to the dance with you either."

"Who are you going to go with then?" he pressed aggressively. "I told you, you have no other better—"

"Professor Hagrid's Skret." I crawled into the Gryffindor common room, "I'd rather choose one of them as my dancing partner."

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like