cycle

I had to spend more time with Draco, and saying "had to" seemed like a stretch, and as much as I liked being alone, I never felt averse to doing homework and reading with him.However, just like being friends with Hermione means being friends with Harry's trio, I also have to deal with those around Draco from time to time - and honestly, most Slytherins have always been more friendly to me. Polite (because of my father, of course), but hardly pleasant to be with them.

"Hey." I had just crawled into the Gryffindor common room on Saturday night, and Harry poked his head out of the soft high-backed armchair. "Any time?"

"I'm going to change clothes." I saw the three of them sitting in front of the fireplace with Hermione as if they were reading a letter. I thought of what I said about Mr. Crouch in Charms class before, and nodded at him, "Wait a minute .”

Instead of going to Hogsmeade this Saturday, Draco and I practiced Occlumency in the hiding place we accidentally discovered last time we were hiding from Rita Skeeter.To be more precise, it is to help him check the results of the practice - we invented a small game, which is probably to find a small piece of memory we shared when we were young, and he has to try to hide it or modify it into another version, while I Try to distinguish the illusions he created in his brain and find out the real memories.I have to admit that his talent in this area is frighteningly high, and several times I thought I had a winning chance, only to find myself lost in the memory maze he created.

"Unsurprisingly, my mother told me not to inquire about so many grown-ups." Talus pouted, picking up the letter signed by Amelia Blake in his hand, "She wrote two pages and spent A page and a half praising Harry for doing a good job in the Triwizard Tournament... she is worthy of her."

"Where's Percy?" I asked, sitting down. "Has he answered?"

Ron shook his head: "I guess he's been very busy recently. The Daily Prophet reported Mr. Crouch's absence from the Ministry of Magic a few days ago. Even if he wrote back, I guess his tone would not be much better. Maybe he thought We, like the group of reporters, were trying to track down his boss."

"We did try to track down Mr. Crouch." Hermione corrected him, crossing her arms. "So we found nothing?"

Talus laughed lazily and snapped his fingers: "I've known since I was a child that I still have to rely on my father to inquire about things, and he is willing to tell us everything he knows-so I wrote to my father later. a letter."

We got together and carefully read the letter sent by Mr. Black. His letter allowed us to review the story of the mysterious man in his heyday from a perspective other than the library collection, and implemented the iron blood into the cold-blooded Barty Crouch Sir, and the son who was sent into Azkaban by himself.

"So, he has been obsessed with arresting dark wizards after his son's reputation was discredited...Does he think that catching one more dark wizard will win back the support of the public?" Hermione asked, crossing her arms.

"But what does that have to do with him breaking into my dad's office?" I narrowed my eyes. "Does he think my dad has the Dark Mark on his arm? I can testify that, he doesn't."

"No offense, Alice," Tallus said, looking at the flames leaping in the fireplace, "my father mentioned that Snape used to be close to a lot of people who would become Death Eaters when he was at school. "

"What are you implying?" I asked sharply, "My parents have fought against the mysterious person three times, and they fought side by side with your parents!"

"I didn't mean to offend you by saying that," Tallus said impatiently, "I'm just making a guess. Snape and the Slytherin group have had a very good relationship after the war. You can't help it. Rebuttal? Those pure-blood supremacist families who were loyal to You-Know-Who before and later claimed to have been deceived and cast an Imperius Curse must have Crouch's goals in them."

"Lucius Malfoy!" Ron stood up with clenched fists. "He met us at the Quidditch World Cup, remember? He also greeted Neville, after which Neville's wand Lost—it must be the Dark Mark he released, and then Crouch suspected him and wanted to investigate..."

"This turn is really big enough. In order to catch Mr. Malfoy, we went to investigate his son's dean's office." Although I retorted like this, I remembered that on the night of the Quidditch World Cup, the Aurors had indeed been Mr. Malfoy was not found, and his stomach writhed uncomfortably, "Will Malfoy Manor reject the Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Magic?"

"They've never been very welcoming to Aurors," Harry yawned. "My dad was annoyed by their attitude, but they really didn't turn up anything."

"His son died in Azkaban, and he didn't even collect the bones." Hermione looked down at the letter in her hand, "I can't understand... I mean, if he could show his son a little more care, Maybe everything will be different, doesn't he feel guilty?"

"My mother never liked Mr. Crouch very much," I whispered, looking at my nails. "She always found Mr. Crouch's desires too obvious . . . to be inhuman."

"But he didn't get what he longed for." Harry grabbed a handful of the big bag of sweets that Mrs. Black sent along with the letter, and slowly let them slip through his fingers. , and have never stood at the pinnacle of power for a moment."

We were silent for a while.We were still young at that time, and as the first batch of children who grew up in peaceful times after the fall of the mysterious man, we could only try to experience that horrible era in various collections of books and vague memories of adults. Simply dividing wizards into simple black and white, this should be our first attempt to understand the insatiable desires in people's hearts and the madness and paranoia after everything collapses into quicksand, which is separated from good and evil.

"Tch, I think I'd have to watch out for Percy - he's crazy about Crouch," muttered Ron at the end, "if we ever get in his way..."

"Your brother wouldn't abandon his family to dementors," said Hermione sternly, who had always been on a better relationship with Percy. "Don't say that about him."

"Not necessarily, I understand him." Ron shook his head. "He is very ambitious, and he even doesn't hide that his father's lack of self-improvement is holding him back. You all know that."

It was getting late, and Hermione and I said goodnight to the boys and turned to walk up the steps of the girls' dormitory.I didn't fall asleep right away that night. I thought about Mr. Malfoy who disappeared on the night of the Quidditch World Cup, and Mrs. Malfoy who said that her husband had gone home but kept walking around restlessly. Finally, I thought about taking Harry to get Papa's personal medicine cabinet had been rummaged by the time the gills were made - did Mr. Crouch think there might be some dark magic item hidden there?After thinking about it, I always felt that something seemed awkward, but I didn't know where this feeling came from, and finally fell asleep in a daze.

Draco and I continued our Occlumency practice on Sunday, and I came back in the evening to find Hermione and Ron having another big fight.Harry told me they slipped into the Hogwarts kitchens today, where Winky the house-elf, fired by Mr. Crouch, was working.

"You know, Hermione's a big believer in her theory of freeing house-elves," Harry told me as he finished his Potions homework. "The elves kicked us out, Ron thinks Hermione shouldn't have said those things when we were snooping, Hermione said Ron was only thinking about going to the kitchen to get more cakes and biscuits."

"I don't think Ron should be arguing with Hermione right now." He scratched his head with the ink-dripping quill, frowning at the potions homework that was all scribbled and redacted.

"Because Hermione didn't refer to your Potions class homework because of her anger." I glanced at his homework, even if I saw only one page, I concluded that Dad would give him a failing grade, "Talus didn't do it either." over?"

"Don't know," he murmured, blacking out another string of words. "He went to the Owl Shack to write back to Mum and Dad—been too long."

"Not finished." Tallus popped out from behind, "I can but I don't want to write—I thought I could copy yours!"

"Don't copy them all, or my dad will be able to tell at a glance." I hesitated and took out my homework and threw it to them. "Give it back to me tomorrow morning."

"We are good friends now." Tallus shook my hand cordially, and I smelled a sweet scent from him that I should have smelled somewhere.

Greengrass’s new perfume, I only remembered it when I went back to the dormitory and saw the painting on the bedside. I met her when I went to the eighth floor with Draco after lunch, and she handed it to me and asked me about the fragrance. Can it cover up the various medicinal smells left on her body, and worry about whether the scent itself will appear too strong.

Hermione was still angry, so she pulled down her bed curtain and hid in it to read a book. Ginny, who was chatting with other third-year girls, turned around and smiled at me, beckoning me not to disturb her.

The ensuing period of time was obviously ordinary, but it seemed that everyone was having a hard time—Hermione kept receiving letters of threats and harassment from Krum's fans, and one even sprayed out the future. The diluted Babo tuber pus made her miss Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class where we sniffed for gold coins, and she gritted her teeth to make Rita Skeeter pay.I thought Nifflers were cute, but Draco was convinced they wanted to eat his fingers (actually they were just looking for the snake ring he was wearing).There are more and more homework after Easter, which makes many people envy Harry. After all, as a warrior, he doesn't have to take the final exam.

After being informed of the content of the third project, Harry also started to get busy. His task this time was to pass through a maze.It sounds more enjoyable than fire dragons and lake rescue, at least this time you don't have to worry about breathing, but like Hermione said, no one knows what will be in the maze, in case there are more than 20 stuffed in it What should we do with the fire dragon that has been shrunk down, and the thirty or so miniature swamps that we have to swim through?When I went back to the lounge for several days in a row, I saw several of them busy making a long list of self-defense spells and poison spells that might be useful.

That day I climbed into the lounge with a heavy schoolbag on my back. I accidentally didn't see Harry's trio and Hermione summarizing the progress of the day, but saw Longbottom sitting alone in a corner of the lounge in a daze.I didn't finish reviewing my history of magic notes, so I stayed late in the lounge, and he seemed to be sitting there all the time, like a statue.

"Longbottom? Are you okay?" I packed my schoolbag, and now there are only two of us in the lounge.

He seemed to wake up suddenly from his contemplation, and Yuanyuan's face was covered with cold sweat: "Oh, it's nothing, I'm just thinking about...things, thinking about things."

I remembered that I heard Patil and Brown discussing in class in the afternoon, saying that Longbottom suddenly yelled and rolled over while clutching his scar in the divination class, and left before the get out of class was over.

"I saw...the people who tormented my parents." I thought he didn't want to talk, after all, Longbottom was always a little afraid of me because of my father, but when I grabbed my schoolbag and went back to the dormitory, he used a lot of Said softly, "I saw them..."

"Did you see?" I didn't react, and sat on the armchair beside him, "Is that why you didn't feel well in divination class? Did you go to Madam Pomfrey?"

"No." He shook his head, looking upset, "I actually wanted to tell Harry and the others, but Harry never came back—"

"He's preparing for his third project recently." I tilted my head towards him, "If you want to talk to someone, I can do it too, and I can relay it to Hermione... If you are afraid of my face, I can use Cover your face with a pillow."

Longbottom hesitated for a while: "Won't you tell Malfoy?"

I froze for a moment, then replied, "No, I assure you."

He seemed to want to talk to someone too much, he was relieved by my simple verbal assurance, and then in the following time, he told me intermittently about the nightmare about the mysterious man he had in his divination class , went to Professor Dumbledore and heard an argument about Bertha Jorkins being witnessed, and several trials he had accidentally witnessed in the Pensieve.His eyes widened when he spoke of Bellatrix Lestrange, and his hands clenched into fists, only to open them limply after a few seconds. own face.

"It's all over." I was a little at a loss, and could only pick out a few words to comfort him, "The nightmare is just a nightmare, those people have been punished, Barty Crouch's son is dead, and the rest Those people who are in Azkaban are also locked up... It's all over."

"I think I'm a waste." He said with a trembling voice, "My parents, my grandma...they are all because of me...what they saved is nothing, those people said I defeated Mysterious man, but look at me, I'm not even proficient in the most basic transformation, how could I have the power to defeat him... I even suspect that I'm actually a squib... I've been letting everyone down. If Mysterious Man He has really become stronger... I am not afraid to die, but how many people will make meaningless sacrifices for me..."

"It's not like that." I knelt down and opened his hand, looked into his red eyes and said, "You are already amazing, really, my mother disappeared last semester, and she only disappeared for less than half a year." Yue, but I feel like my heart is going to be broken, I don’t dare to think about what I should do if one day she is gone, I don’t even dare to think about it, but you are constantly losing almost since you came into this world... You are not trash, nor a born hero, you are just an ordinary person. You-Know-Who killed so many people and destroyed your home, you are an innocent victim - no one deserves to suffer These pains and expectations."

"You're right, I'm not a bad savior," he murmured, "I'm just a poor student."

"Students who are not doing well temporarily." I corrected him, "I used to be very bad at Transfiguration, do you remember? Professor McGonagall even punished me for detention."

He smiled weakly: "But at least you've never been afraid of Professor Snape."

"Does Professor Dumbledore think your dream is real?" Seeing that he was in a better state, I asked him cautiously, "You saw a mysterious man using Cruciatus on a person...Dumbledore also felt mysterious Are people gradually becoming stronger?"

"I didn't see him, I couldn't see anything clearly, and I didn't know who he was angry with, I just thought he was behind that chair." Neville touched the scar on his forehead, "But, how could he With the wand...he's dead...Professor Dumbledore just said there was a good chance the dream was real, but he wasn't sure either."

"You are safe by Professor Dumbledore's side, and you are safe at Hogwarts." I comforted him, "Professor Dumbledore is the only person the mysterious man is afraid of."

We watched the crackling flames in the fireplace and didn't speak again until Harry and the others returned to the lounge with bruised noses and faces. It seemed that practicing poison spells was not an easy task.Seeing Neville and I were also surprised. In fact, the relationship between them and Neville has always been very good. I think it's just that Harry has too many troubles this semester, and he is overwhelmed by just solving his own affairs.

What really made Hermione determined to find out how Rita Skeeter eavesdropped was the fresh front page of the Daily Prophet the next day.On the front page this time, Rita Skeeter eloquently described how Neville said in the divination class that his scar was hurting and left the classroom in a hurry, and spent a long time saying in an exaggerated tone that he could cavity.

"Contradictory and incomprehensible." Hermione folded the newspaper and said disgustedly, "while guessing that Neville is a dark wizard, while using the interview with Slytherin to say that he is a wimp who knows nothing about magic— She was sorted into Ravenclaw by the Sorting Hat, and I'm really ashamed of her."

"I don't understand, why did she get into trouble with Neville?" Harry's face was very ugly, "We are obviously the ones who conflicted with her."

"She doesn't care about us, we're just a bunch of insignificant kids in her eyes," said Hermione through gritted teeth, "She just wants to attract attention, and what could attract more attention than the Boy Who Lived? I must catch her and make her pay for ruining other people's lives!"

Fortunately, the final exams flooded everyone, even the gloating Slytherins lost the strength to mock Neville after intense review.Draco nonchalantly told me that he hadn't been interviewed by Rita Skeeter, after all he hated that woman who kept writing me as Harry's childhood sweetheart.

"It's easy for you to hide something from me now anyway." I shrugged my shoulders, "As long as you make up your mind, I won't be able to read anything from your mind with Legilimency."

"That's because you don't use Legilimency well." As usual, he disliked that my Legilimency level was not enough to test his Occlumency, "I can only grope forward by myself now... Fortunately, Professor Snape notes."