cycle

Almost no one is still in the mood for class, a lot of decorations that have never been seen appear in the castle every day, and various gossip claims that Dumbledore ordered the Weird Sisters and bought [-] from Madam Rosmerta. Barrel flavored mead.Every morning the owls fell in front of the girls like heavy snow outside the window, bringing them all kinds of pre-ordered packages full of cosmetics, trinkets and perfumes. The Witch Weekly even made a shopping column with no name. It is unabashedly titled "Teach every witch to shine in the audience".

"I think my nose is going to fail." Hermione complained in a low voice in Potions class, "The smell in the dormitory is too strong, and I can't tell whether the fishy smell in my cauldron is related to the book. As written."

"You can also see the rising steam." I said to her while stirring my cauldron. "The principle of this potion is similar to that of the Living Hell Potion, and the steam also takes a similar shape."

"You still haven't promised anyone?" Hermione asked me with the corner of her mouth. My dad has already waved his wand impatiently and emptied the cauldron of the fifth person-in fact, many teachers have readily accepted that the big guy has no interest in schoolwork and just wants to spend Christmas. Professor Frivy even allowed us to play games in class, but asked the girls not to use magic perfume in his classroom, otherwise he would sneeze one after another, and then have a happy time with Potter in the corner chat.But I really can't imagine how funny it would be for Dad to ask us to play games in Potions class, and he did give us more difficult tasks than usual with a sullen face.

"No." I cleaned the crucible spoon with my wand, and was about to wait for the liquid in the crucible to cool down before putting it into the glass bottle. I looked up and saw Draco turning around and Crabbe Gore said something. "I'm not very interested, and besides, I'm a terrible dancer."

"If you want, I can ask Viktor, his classmate seems to be short of a dance partner." Hermione nervously checked that no one was paying attention to her, and then carefully said in my ear.Ever since Ron Weasley found out from his sister that Hermione seemed to be really invited, he tried almost every way to get that person's name out of our mouths, and both Ginny Weasley and I put Mouth shut tightly, honestly I don't understand if he cared so much about who Hermione's partner was, why didn't he invite her in the first place?

I shook my head at her, now that I couldn't feel that strange emotion swelling inside of me.After I rejected McLaggen's invitation that day, I went back to the dormitory and threw the small portrait that Greenglass had given me and placed by my bedside in the bottom drawer.I was sitting on the bed and looking at the little plant Longbottom gave me that was left on the bed. It had just sprouted a few new shoots, and I felt that my brain had just exploded. There was anger in the eye sockets, but they disappeared quickly, and the place that had been occupied by the strange emotion was now empty.

I was probably really sick, I found myself hating Greengrass all of a sudden, and even had the horrible idea of ​​"leaving her alone in that dark wood when I knew about the Quidditch World Cup".This slimy dank mood freaks me out, but every day I see the back of Draco's head (why can't I stop myself from looking for him in the crowd and not wanting to talk to him?), It just hovered in my mind for a while, making me hate myself even more.

We have a lot of homework, but no one has the heart to do it.The canary biscuits developed by the Weasley twins made the Gryffindor lounge more lively than before the holidays, and from time to time someone was covered in feathers and caused a lot of laughter.Almost all of them had their dance partners, and everyone began to concentrate on how to dress themselves or find a place to practice dance steps as soon as possible. Few people made jokes about Ron Weasley inviting Delacour anymore.

I thought it was a sign of extreme anxiety for Hermione to go back to the dormitory three hours early to prepare, but I didn't expect that the girls' dormitory was already full of girls who started to spread their gowns and robes on the bed and sat aside to make up.Ginny and I pulled down Hermione's bed curtain, and the three of us huddled inside to help Hermione spritz hair smoother—she bought three bottles in one go, but one was empty soon after.

"It's okay, this is not an exam." I comforted Hermione.

"Yeah, stop biting your lip." Ginny showed Hermione a look at the effect of her hair in the mirror. "I think it's great. I'm sure my blind brother will regret it - he'll be dumbfounded."

"Aren't you ready?" Hermione coughed a few times due to the sudden strong smell of perfume outside, and another strand of unsprayed hair fluffed up. I hurried to remedy it, "Ginny, you haven't put on makeup—"

"It's okay." Ginny waved her hand carelessly, "I'll just put my hair up later—if Neville hadn't invited me, I wouldn't be qualified to go, and he thought it was a trouble for me, so I should be grateful to him." yes."

When Hermione changed into her dress robes and looked at us nervously, Ginny clapped her hands: "I bet they won't recognize you at the first sight—Krum can't find anyone more beautiful than you tonight." Dancing partner!"

"I'm going to start the dance." Hermione was almost reciting the dance steps in the tone of reviewing before the exam. If Ginny and I hadn't firmly grasped her hand to prevent her from destroying the results of our two-hour struggle, she would have given her own Hair scratched, "If I jump wrong and step on his foot..."

"It's also a kind of romance." Ginny blinked, "Believe me, he enjoys it."

Hermione blushed.

As night fell, the girls began to check their makeup in the mirror one last time, preparing to wait for their dance partners at the appointed place.I leaned on the bed and listened to the screams of various mirrors reminding me that the eyebrows here are thicker, the lipstick is stained there, and the voices of the girls panicking and rummaging through the cabinets, I found it very interesting.Hermione and Ginny, who had changed clothes, also left the dormitory. I stretched and tried to get the comb to at least comb my hair, but in the end I just tied them loosely in the back of my head.

Every few steps, there will be a bunch of mistletoe on the head, and a small card will fly out of the Christmas wreath hanging in the corridor and fall on the palm of the hand. This seems to be a fun activity prepared by Professor Talilawney When the cards fall into everyone's hands, different patterns will be randomly produced, and they can be exchanged with each other to finally make up a deck of tarot cards.

I looked at the card in my hand, and the moment it touched my fingertips, it turned into a slowly rotating ornate roulette pattern, and the small golden characters emerged at the bottom, with the words "Wheel of Fortune" written thinly.

I heard a whistle, and Blake, wearing a dark dress robe, jumped down the stairs in front of me, and many girls with their partners on their arms looked back at his more impressive face: "No partner ?”

"Where's your partner?" I looked behind him curiously, "Those girls think your partner is going crazy."

"I haven't invited anyone." He fiddled with a pansy on his chest, which I strongly suspect he just pulled out from a pot of green plants, and smiled at me showing his white teeth, "I plan to Invite the third girl you meet who doesn't have a date, whoever she is, whether she's a ghost or a vampire—it's a lot more fun than inviting people in advance."

"Then how many times have I met you?" I looked at the card on his fingertips, the pattern was a vast starry sky, and "star" was written on it.

"The second one." He casually put the card into his pocket. "The first one is a girl with a carrot earring. I don't know her."

"Then I wish you to find the third girl soon." I saw my mother approaching from a distance, holding my father's hand. She looked more glamorous than many young girls, and I didn't want her to know that I didn't plan to participate in this event. Prom, hurry to the direction of the library.

"You are also lucky." Black took off the pansy on his chest and put it in his mouth, and jumped up the steps again.

Liveliness will make other places appear more deserted, and it seems that only my footsteps can be heard in the library.The mistletoe and the Christmas wreath have not been spared here, it seems that there is a soft halo following my shadow all the way, and there are dots of light jumping from the ceiling to the tip of my wand, and then jumping to the floor and disappearing. To the faint sound of music over the auditorium.

"Looks like I'm the only one here to wish you a Merry Christmas." I took out a few homework books and put them on the table, remembering that Christmas Eve used to be when I sat on a chair at Aunt Petunia's house and looked at the sweetness in front of me. I don't think the cakes and puddings are too bad, at least now my pockets are full of my morning Cribbage wizard pretzels.

I stretched out my hand to brush away a few small stars that fell on my parchment, and there was a commotion from the auditorium. It may be that the banquet is over and everyone is getting ready to dance—what kind of dress and robes will Greenglass wear? Raco's hand?That kind of vicious emotion came again, I couldn't help myself to think, is it also giving her a robe and a brooch?

"I thought I'd miss the first dance when I found you."

I looked up and saw Draco in a black velvet tuxedo robe leaning against the bookshelf, holding a card in his hand. There is a drawing of a man in funny clothes, with "The Fool" written on the bottom.

"Looks like I'm lucky-although you're not wearing the clothes I gave you or the brooch I gave you." He held out a hand to me, "I know you're going to lose your temper, but I really don't want to Missed the first dance, how about finishing it first?"

I lowered my head to write neatly on the parchment the title of my Transfiguration thesis, "On the Similarities and Differences of Transfiguration Between Animals and Object Animals," and the quill moved to the second line until the ink from the tip of the pen dripped on the parchment. A round ink dot formed on the parchment, and I didn't even think about what to write in the first sentence.

"Liz—"

"I've told you so many times," I said again, in that thin, throat-crunching voice, "don't call me Liz."

"Where's Greengrass? Shouldn't you take her to dance in the auditorium?" I finally slowly came up with a few words that Professor McGonagall said in class, but transcribing them as they are seems to have become A difficult thing, but I don't want to let go of the quill in my hand, as if this little feather can hide something for me-the anger that almost burst out of my eyes when I listened to McLaggen that night. Started to explode in the bottom of my heart.Draco even looked at my expression with a bit of complacency. I felt that my face was hot, and what I was trying to hide was being torn away jokingly by his eyes. on the table for him to admire.

"Her?" Draco said with a smile, "She's out of my control."

"You're blocking my light, please get out of the way." I clenched the quill in my hand, looked at the parchment in front of me and gritted my teeth, "I don't know what you're talking about, tonight you should With your dance partner."

"I'm with my dance partner right now." He spoke to me in a reassuring tone, still holding out his hand to me, "The first piece is over, and I don't want to miss the second -"

"Don't you want to?" I snapped open his hand and threw the quill in my hand onto the table. A large piece of ink began to flow on the parchment, sinking at a slow speed. I heard my voice already carried Crying, shaking with anger, "If you want to dance with me from the first dance to the last tonight, you should have told me earlier that you wanted me to be your dance partner, not You lost your own dance partner somewhere, and came to find me out of nowhere!"

"Liz—"

"I, said, many, many, many times—don't call me what my mother calls me." I stood up and kicked the chair aside. The high-necked dress robe he was wearing today was really It was easy to catch, I grabbed him by the collar and pushed him on the library shelf, and pressed my wand against his throat, the disgusting smile on his face finally faded away, "Give me the robe, and give me the robe again." I brooch, and then come to see how I look here, this is another Slytherin entertainment you developed, isn't it?"

"I do not have--"

"You didn't?" I felt like my voice was almost screaming. It turned out that the weird emotions that had been gradually swelling in my heart since Professor McGonagall announced the Christmas ball have never disappeared for a moment, and they are now all over my body. Welling out, growing hundreds of thousands of times, "Did I remember it wrong? My memory is wrong? Why do I never remember Draco Malfoy that he invited me? I just remember that I was one by one Say no to those people - and finally I'll get to know from Cormac McLaggen that you've invited your Astoria to the ball! Who fiddled with my memory? Or has someone fiddled with yours? Let me see what went wrong - Legilimency!"

It turns out that entering someone else's memory is such a messy, unpleasant experience.I feel like a drowning person in icy water trying to breathe but there is no air...I am slowly sinking in a cold sea that is not my own.Suddenly the speed of the fall accelerated, as if someone was holding my hand and pulling me down.

"Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think it's not such a good idea." I was standing in the Slytherin lounge, where it seemed hours ago, passing by countless men and women in full dress and robes. Can't even see me, and can even go straight through my body.I saw Greengrass in a light-colored robe, whose hair was tied into a delicate bun with silver threads, and said to Draco, "Are you sure Miss Snape won't be angry? If it were me, I would be mad, really." .”

"I expect her to be furious." Draco answered impatiently as he straightened his cufflinks as he walked down the stairs. "It's none of your business. Do you think you know her better than I do?"

"I'm helping for free." Greenglass folded his arms, "I'm a girl, Draco, and girls understand girls' minds."

A card flew out of the wreath beside it and slowly landed in Draco's hand. He looked down, chuckled, and threw it into an empty armor at hand, which caused the armor to rattle and rattle in protest. : "I'd like to say thank you first, after all I wouldn't have fooled my dad so easily without you, but I know what I'm doing, you should go find someone else who is missing a partner now - I'm sorry for all my reasons People thought you had a date, Astoria."

"It's nothing, otherwise I'd be taken home for Christmas, stuck in my room, on weird drugs." Greenglass said to him before they parted ways. "Merry Christmas, Draco."

Suddenly there was another vortex under my feet, and I was pulled into another Slytherin lounge again. Draco yawned and pulled out a letter from a pile of candy and cake boxes. Greenglass also held a letter in his hand. A letter of the same kind.

"Mr. Malfoy seems to have made up his mind that he doesn't want you to dance with Miss Snape." Greengrass handed her letter to Draco, "Wrote directly, and said that my father also agreed-- I heard that Miss Snape's mother has been transferred to the Department of Magic and Sports, and your father still vents his anger at being investigated by Aurors on her? I wrote to my mother and told her that this is our own business. Like? I don't want to dance with a boy whose mind is full of other girls."

"Actually... I might need you to do me a favor." Draco folded the two letters and said thoughtfully, "I've been thinking... It's a great opportunity."

"I don't understand." Greengrass coughed a few times, "You don't want to dance with Miss Snape? Don't you like her very much?"

In the sudden darkness, the scenes in the chaos became fragmented.I saw myself—it was weird to see another me from an outsider's point of view, I saw myself standing in the snow in Hogsmeade and shouting to Draco, "I'm a Gryffindor too!" He ran away; he saw himself hurried out of the school hospital under Madam Pomfrey's urging; he saw himself sitting in the empty library copying a thick potions book, standing They watched my back silently; saw me walking forward in the forest of the Quidditch World Cup holding Hermione's hand without looking back; saw me turning around again and again, more and more frequently Go and leave with the others.

"I'm scared..." I heard him speak, but I couldn't tell whether it was in his memory or I had returned to reality, and I didn't know whether the blur in front of my eyes was due to my chaotic brain or too much space between me and him. The short distance - I can't see his eyes so close, I can only feel the breath of his words on my face. "Iris, I'm scared...will you turn your back on one day and never look back?"

"I don't accept such things," he whispered, "but I've come to realize that I can't stop you from getting along with those pretentious Gryffindors who think they represent all justice—no matter how I lose my temper , arguing with you, it seems that in the end it will only lead to your relationship getting better and better, and you are getting farther and farther away from me."

I opened my mouth blankly and found myself unable to refute his words.This should not be his memory anymore, I slowly realized, I was standing in the Christmas library, there were gold and silver stars falling from the ceiling and rolling on our hair, I grabbed his neckline His hand has been loosened because of his constant trembling.

The singing of the strange sisters came from the auditorium. I don’t know how many songs this is. The current song is not their original song. It is a very old song. I have heard many versions on the radio, even if it is only vague. The corresponding lyrics can also emerge in the mind of the melody.

"Dear person / If you are going away tomorrow / Please let me break down the hawthorn tree in front of the house / Make a magic wand for you to travel far away."

He held my slightly trembling hand: "I don't care who my dad wants to be my dance partner, of course I can find you and invite you right away, just like we quarreled countless times before, and I finally bowed to you."

"I know you'll say yes if I ask, and I know you'll be the prettiest girl in the hall in the gown I gave you—but that's not enough, Alice, I want you to know that you like me, You feel jealous because I invite people and feel sad because I don't invite you, it's not because we two are goddamn friends who grew up together, it's because you like me. Only you want to understand this, you I won’t be snatched away by those people, I won’t leave me, I have to let you know——I don’t care what means are used to achieve this effect, even if the price is that you don’t want to dance with me today, it doesn’t matter, we There will be many opportunities to dance in the future, this is just a school dance, it's not a big deal."

"Aren't you afraid that I promise others?" I whispered, feeling that the swelling and raging emotions have gradually subsided, they are now soaked in a microsecond of boiling heat, and my face is also slowly burning hot, "If What about the others I promised?"

He laughed: "Then where is the person you promised? Is it those homework?"

I raised my head angrily and wanted to protest that he made fun of me, but his lips pressed against my forehead first, and the cool touch startled me, and for a moment I thought he had entered my memory, spying on me and pressed it to the bottom of my heart A dream that overwhelmed me.

The singing in the auditorium has reached the second verse.

"My dear / If you are going to wander far away tomorrow / Please let me tear a ray of starlight from your eyes / Make a cup of potion for this attraction / You will stay in my heart for a long time. "

"I'm still angry," I muttered. "What you did was too much, and I'm still angry."

"Do you want to dance?" He resumed his usual tone, "Miss Alice Snape, would you like to dance with me?"

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Recommended BGM: "Mermaid" by SKOTT

Isn'titsilly, now that you know?

Someone this slippery, can't let you go.