cycle

I skipped breakfast with Hermione the next morning and begged her not to tell the boys, especially Harry, about Vivian.Hermione pondered for a while, then said, "I also think it's better for you to tell him yourself."

"I...don't want to tell him for now." I whispered while searching for my other robe in the closet, "Of course he has the right to know that Vivienne is a gift from him...I will tell him Yes, but I want to wait for myself to calm down for a few days."

"Harry won't blame you." Hermione said as if she had seen through what I was thinking, and said as she picked up her schoolbag that contained an unknown number of notebooks. "You're worried about that, aren't you?"

After she patted me on the shoulder and left first, I held up my spare robe, only to remember that it was stained with cobwebs that couldn't be cleaned no matter what-before I lost my temper and dumped my luggage on the ground. The foyer of 12 Grimmauld Place was glued on, and I've been forgetting about it.However, if I don't go out, I will be hungry for Charms and Transfiguration classes, so I hurriedly put on the robe, praying that the white spider webs on it will not be so conspicuous.

I met Filch on the way to breakfast. He dragged his legs in the corridor and cursed the junior students who were running away because they were afraid of being late. lock up.It suddenly occurred to me that Vivienne turned around and flew into the heavy rain after seeing Filch yesterday evening—the scattered feathers on its body and the badly injured claws looked as if they had been killed Who would catch a messenger owl if they had been roughly caught?

"What are you doing?" Filch came over to me with a snort, "What are you trying to do here without going to class?"

"My owl is dead." I said word by word, squinting my eyes to observe the expression on his face, "It was tortured before it died, and someone tried to snatch the letter it sent me. who."

The dewlap on his face twitched a few times, and he opened his mouth to reveal the yellowed teeth: "I think it's its own bad luck."

"Really?" My eyes moved to Mrs. Norris, who was meowing and walking towards him, "I don't think so, I hope the person who did this will pay for it."

"What do you mean?" The veins on his temples throbbed lively, and he hugged Mrs. Norris, "You don't think Hogwarts is the time when you students can do whatever you want? Professor Umbridge I will discipline you well, even if you are the professor's daughter—”

"I didn't say anything," I looked into his fierce eyes indifferently, "what are you panicking about?"

He twitched his lips in a funny way, turned around and shuffled away, continuing to yell at other junior students.

The fifth grade course did not leave much time for the students to immerse themselves in their emotions. After completing a series of tasks in the spell class in a dizzy manner, everyone didn't want to talk, but silently lined up to enter In the classroom of Transfiguration class, Umbridge was sitting in the corner holding her clipboard.The moment I saw her, I thought I could understand Neville's violent temper. I was almost sure that she instructed Filch to monitor the correspondence between the so-called "Ministry of Magic pro-Dumbledore people" and their children. Filch's rude behavior It caused Vivienne's desperate resistance, and it was seriously injured and frightened, and finally it strayed into the range of the Whomping Willow's attack under my pursuit.

I stood there staring at Umbridge for a while, until Hermione poked me and pulled me into the back seat.

"Don't do stupid things." She said softly, "We have a better way...don't waste time now."

Professor McGonagall's cold attitude towards Umbridge undoubtedly made everyone happy, especially when McGonagall asked Umbridge angrily why he interrupted her teaching with artificial coughs over and over again. He smiled happily at the struggling mouse in front of him, and made up his mind to perform well in this class so as to live up to the face McGonagall gave Umbridge, and I was one of them——Neville Professor McGonagall gave Gryffindor five points for making his entire mouse disappear.

When get out of class was over, Harry and the others stayed to eavesdrop on the conversation between Umbridge and McGonagall. I wanted to go back to the dormitory to get Draco's robes, so that I could return them to him in the protection of magical creatures class in the afternoon.However, I looked around in Slytherin and couldn't see where Draco was. I only saw Crabbe and Goyle moving through the crowd like giant balloons with no one holding them.Umbridge was talking to Professor Graplan with a sweet expression. Unlike McGonagall, Professor Graplan didn't show obvious displeasure. She answered all the questions with a brisk tone, gently expressing that she was just Entrusted by Dumbledore to substitute for two weeks, I don't know anything about other things.

"The number of people is not complete." After the class bell remembered, Professor Graplan scanned the crowd with sharp eyes, "Can anyone explain the situation?"

"Professor, Draco has a fever—Professor Sinista asked him to go to the school hospital after the astronomy class in the morning." Parkinson raised his hand and explained.

"Draco Malfoy?" Professor Graplan frowned after flipping through the roster suspended in the air, "I hope he can give me a note signed by Professor Snape in the next class. It’s fifth grade, and every lesson counts—and today we’re continuing our lesson on Bowtruckles.”

The content of today's class is not complicated, you just need to gather around the long shelf table to observe the special actions that Bowtruckles will take when they prey on woodcutters and record them.Umbridge walked between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and asked the students a few things about magical animals from time to time. Harry and the others listened to Umbridge's movements until the get out of class was about to end, and it was written in their notebooks It's all blank.

Umbridge didn't get any information about Hagrid from Professor Graplan, so she asked Goyle who was almost slapped by a Bowtruckle just now: "I heard that some students were injured in this class?"

Goyle grinned stupidly, and Crabbe replied slowly, "Yes, got scratched by a hippogriff - Draco could tell you the details if he was around."

"Don't ask him," Harry said angrily, "That's because Malfoy is too stupid - he didn't listen to what Hagrid taught in class to provoke Buckbeak himself!"

Neville, who was drawing next to me, shook his head and muttered, "Who said I was too impulsive yesterday?"

"I think you may need to come to me for a night of confinement, Mr. Potter." Umbridge slowly turned his head to the Gryffindor side, showing a gentle smile, and brushed in the notebook Something was written on the ground, "Thank you very much, I will go to the child to find out the situation. Professor Graplan, you will receive the results of your investigation within ten days."

"Excellent." Professor Gramplan nodded, and began directing us to guide the Bowtruckles back to their perched branches, as Umbridge turned and walked across the meadow in the direction of the castle.

I wasn't sure if Draco was still in the hospital hospital, but I decided to check it out after class and give him back his robes - if he wasn't there I'd ask Madam Pomfrey for some more Mott Pulling the juice from the rat's tentacles is not a waste of time.

"That's why Rubeus Hagrid likes to show you dangerous monsters in his class, including hippogriffs, blast-tailed snails, Flobber caterpillars, etc." I heard Umbridge's soft voice, "You were seriously injured by the Hippogriff, and it disappeared suddenly when the Ministry of Magic was about to execute it."

"Yes, Professor." I heard Draco's eager voice, and I thought Madam Pomfrey had cured his fever, because he sounded more energetic than usual, "Hagrid is half-giant , if you are interested, you can read Rita Skeeter's report in the first half of the year."

"Interesting." Umbridge's voice of swiping and recording could be clearly heard through the bed curtains of several high school hospitals, "Thank you very much, son. The support expressed by the reporter of the Daily News for me and the minister.”

"My father has always supported Mr. Fudge's various initiatives." I rarely heard Draco speak in such a flattering tone, and both the content and the tone of his words made me feel sick to my stomach.

"Of course the Minister has this in mind. He often said that without the support of your family, many things in the Ministry of Magic would not have gone so smoothly." Umbridge giggled like a little girl, " I want you to help me as your father helped the Minister, Draco."

At that moment, I really hoped that he could reject this twisted woman, but I also knew what his answer would be. He said happily: "At your service, Professor."

I turned around and didn't want to listen to their next conversation, but Umbridge's chuckle got into my ears: "I heard interesting rumors that you have a very close relationship with Professor Snape's daughter, yes Is that so dear?"

After 30 seconds of silence, Draco's voice sounded: "We grew up together."

"Honest boy." Umbridge praised him in a satisfied voice, "That girl trusts you, doesn't she?"

There was a longer silence, I was glad that Madam Pomfrey was not in the hospital hospital at this time, I was hidden behind the heavy curtains and Umbridge could not notice my presence.

"Maybe." Draco replied.

"I think she should trust you very much. I heard that your fever today has something to do with her." Umbridge laughed. "Young man, don't be shy about such things—then answer me again, she and How's the relationship between Potter and Longbottom?"

"They're all Gryffindors." There was no other emotion in Draco's tone.

"That means it's not bad?" said Umbridge. "Would you like to find out where they are for me, my boy? I think they're very restless."

"You are a cute and well-behaved boy." Umbridge said sweetly, "I think your father must have told you that there will be more changes in Hogwarts in the future—what the Ministry of Magic wants Change, those who have helped me by then will get the rewards they deserve, I think you must not be satisfied with just being a prefect."

Before I turned to leave the hospital hospital I heard Draco reply, "Of course, I want to prove myself to my father with something more honorable, Professor."

I'm not surprised he answered that way, or that I knew what Draco Malfoy was like a long time ago.But I still felt a huge disappointment that afternoon, not only for him, but also for myself.I hold tightly the constellation ball picked up by him, it has lost the ability to emerge the star map because of the shattering, and it can only make it an empty glass shell if it is restored to its original state.

"You have Persters' web on your body." An ethereal voice sounded from behind me as I hurried towards the auditorium.

I turned around and saw Luna Lovegood, still wearing the funny carrot earrings from the train, her blond hair pulled up and braided funny on her head, making her Looks like a holiday firecracker that can be set off.

"Excuse me, what did you just say?" I wasn't actually sure she was talking to me because she was looking up at the empty ceiling right now.

"Polsters' web." She smiled, pointing to the cobwebs that I couldn't fully cover with my schoolbag due to my haste.

"Well, it's just a normal spider web," I explained to her, remembering the weird things she said on the train earlier.

"Polsters feed on people's obsessions, and they use webs to mark their prey." She said to herself as if she didn't hear me, "People often mix it with ordinary spider webs. It's a mess, but it has a very obvious feature - unless you let go of what's in your heart, it can't be cleaned up, of course, it will gradually fall off as you let it go, I don't think you need to buy a new robe , it's already starting to fall off."

After she finished speaking, she raised her hands and tiptoed to the other side of the corridor as if she was dancing. The students passing by all looked sideways because of her weird behavior.

"Harry is going to miss tonight's training again because of confinement, and Angelina just came over to throw a tantrum. Everyone else has gone to the Quidditch field." When I arrived at the auditorium, only Hermione was still drinking tomatoes Soup, she said to me after I sat down, "I had an idea today, about Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I don't think we can go on like this, I think—"

"Let's talk about it later?" I saw Astoria Greengrass was about to leave the long table in Slytherin, picked up my schoolbag and stood up, "Uh, let's talk about it in the lounge?"

"Okay." She looked a little disappointed, but shrugged her shoulders to express understanding, "You go to your business first, but if you delay dinner, it will be over—"

"It's okay." I casually wrapped a few pieces of bread in a napkin, "See you later."

It's not easy to get around Greengrass's sister and stop her alone. After turning around the statue of the big-nosed wizard, I found that I lost them. When I was annoyed, Greengrass poked his head out from the other side of the statue : "Is there anything you can do for me, Miss Snape?"

She blinked her beautiful eyes and looked behind me, as if hoping who I was acting with.

"I would like to ask you to pass something on to Draco Malfoy." I pulled out a paper bag from my schoolbag and handed it to her, "May I trouble you, Miss Greengrass?"

"Oh, of course." She took the bag readily, and smoothed the hair from her right ear behind the blue flower hairpin. "Is there anything else?"

"No, thank you." I'm grateful she didn't ask me why I didn't return the items to Draco myself.

"Miss Snape." She hesitated holding the paper bag for a while, then said softly after drawing a small arc on the ground with her toes, "I want to ask...has he mentioned me?"

"Who?" Her last few words were so soft that I couldn't hear her at all. I watched her face turn red like blood, and I shook my head indiscriminately: "No one, I'm talking nonsense——I will pass things on It's for Draco, I have to go back, or my sister will suspect me of running around... Goodbye, Miss Snape!"

In the evening, Hermione and I have been writing the little paper newly assigned by Professor McGonagall. Now that Hermione has mastered the skill of letting the crochet needle suspend itself in mid-air, she no longer has to check why every 5 minutes The wool was tangled up in knots - if Crookshanks hadn't been fighting with it at her legs, she wouldn't have had to bother with them all night.

I found that I couldn't concentrate on my homework. Umbridge's drooping eyelids swayed in my mind from time to time, and then I seemed to hear her speech in the school hospital in the afternoon. A sweet and greasy smile.After misspelling the word "vertebrate" for the third time, I dropped the quill and turned to Hermione: "What did you want to tell me at dinner? You said you had an idea."

"Oh." Hermione interrupted her scribbling, she looked up at the lively Gryffindor lounge - there was a large group of junior students watching curiously around the Weasley twins who had just returned from training Something, she frowned slightly, and then said softly: "There is one... I want to discuss it with them when they come back, I think it's... a very good idea."

I noticed that Hermione's eyes were twinkling, the kind of look she usually only gets when she's talking about the "House-Elf Advocacy Society".I wondered a little, hadn't she been content with freeing Hogwarts house-elves with knitted hats and socks?

Ron and Tallus had returned much later than the other Gryffindor Quidditch players, and Ron looked as if he had just climbed out of a swamp, with mud stuck in the fine lines of his lips.

"We probably practiced too late and he didn't see the goal when he saved the last ball and he hit the post - fell into the mud hole, I have to say luckily there was a hole down there, otherwise he would have died tonight. In the school hospital." Talus explained to us while undoing the braids at the back of his head and shaking the muddy water on his hair.

"So how is he training?" Hermione watched Ron's back as he trudged towards the boys' dormitory. "It's much better than the first one—at least a little bit better?"

"As a friend, of course I have to say that he is much better than the first training session." Tallus got some water and smoothed all the loose hair up, exposing his forehead, "As a member of the Quidditch team... I hope he gets better."

It was midnight when Harry and Neville crawled in through the Fat Lady's portrait hole, and we were the only ones sitting there in the common room, and Ron had already buried his face in the parchment and fell asleep. At this time, he was teasing Crookshanks half asleep.Hermione looked nervously at Harry, then at Neville, and after confirming that the two of them hadn't quarreled on the way back, she breathed a sigh of relief, and took out two small bowls of yellow liquid: "Alice and I I think the back of your hands should be bleeding a lot, and the amount of medicine on the stickers is not enough, so why don’t you just dip your hands in the bowl.”

"Thank you," Neville said gratefully, and sat down in an armchair by the fire.As soon as Harry sat next to me, Crookshanks jumped onto his lap and purred. Harry smiled and scratched the base of the cat's soft, warm ear with his bloodless left hand.

"Are we just going to let this happen?" Tallus watched as Harry's blood mixed with the juice from the tentacles of the Mortra rat, and the bowl of liquid gradually turned orange-red, "Let that woman in Hoag Watts using this type of physical punishment?"

"McGonagall will go mad if she finds out," Ron whispered. "You don't even have to say it, just let her see your wounds—"

"No," said Harry decisively, "I wasn't even going to tell you—"

"You're going to only share this secret with Alice, buddy, it really shouldn't be this kind of secret, at least change it to something more romantic—"

"Well," I felt myself blushing, probably because the armchair was so close to the fireplace, "I just happened to find his scar, or Harry wouldn't have told me."

"You can't tell Professor McGonagall." Neville ended our discussion with a firm tone, "Umbridge is now Hogwarts' senior investigator, and she has the power to issue decrees, in case one day she suddenly passes A decree stating that anyone who has an opinion against her will be immediately expelled from Hogwarts?"

"A horrible and disgusting woman." Talus showed a disgusted expression.

"She's a horrible woman," Hermione said after Tallus, her eyes sparkling again, "you guys sit down a bit, I mentioned to Alice earlier... I think we have to do something about it .”

"Poison her," Ron said solemnly.

"No... I mean, we can't learn anything about Defense Against the Dark Arts in her class at all." Hermione waved the book in her hand, "Just sitting there and reading this This shitty book can't teach us how to protect ourselves, can it?"

"In my lifetime, Hermione will say that a book is a broken book." Tallus laughed lazily, and then sat up straight after being glared at by Hermione, with his hands on his knees obediently listening to her. Next speech.

"But we can't help it." Neville said worriedly, "Dumbledore can't drive her away, and Fudge will guarantee that she will always be the professor of this course."

"Yes, but if we think about it differently." Hermione looked at Harry and then at me, "I was wondering... what if we choose to - do it ourselves?"

"What are you doing?" Harry was a little uncomfortable being watched by Hermione, his hands were still soaked in the juice of Mortella's tentacles and bleeding slowly.

"Well - we learn Defense Against the Dark Arts by ourselves." Hermione seemed to be forcing herself to finish the sentence in one breath, "I know we have a lot of homework to do every day - I know you have missed a lot of homework Ron! But listen to me, we need to be prepared, we know it's not as calm as the Ministry of Magic claims, we know what dangers await us out there - we have to learn how to protect ourselves, and that's more important than doing homework Much more, if we just let ourselves sit in a classroom for a whole year listening to Umbridge's bullshit—"

"You mean find some jinxes in the library and practice them yourself?" I tilted my head, "Like you did for Harry last term?"

"I don't think it's enough." Hermione twirled her fingers around her matted hair, and was already staring at Harry undisguisedly. I think I probably guessed what crazy idea was spinning in her head, "We need a A teacher who can not only tell us what to do, but also correct our mistakes in time."

"Professor Lupine?" Harry shrugged, obviously not getting the hang of things, "but he must be very busy, and the most we can see him is when we go to Hogsmeade, which is only once a term." Several chances."

"She wasn't talking about Lupine," Tallus patted Harry on the shoulder, "I think she was talking about you, buddy."

"What's wrong with me?" Harry asked blankly.

"I'm talking about you two." Hermione let out a deep breath and looked at Harry and me. "Harry, you and Alice can teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts."

I opened my mouth blankly and showed the exact same expression as Harry - I guessed that Hermione wanted to say Harry, but I didn't expect that she included me.

"That's a good idea," Neville quickly agreed.

"What a good idea?" Harry twitched the corner of his mouth, he obviously felt that everyone was making a joke that wasn't funny, "I'm not a teacher, how could it be—"

"Harry, you saved me from You-Know-Who," said Neville, "and we all know how good your Defense Against the Dark Arts is."

"It wasn't me who saved you, it was Mr. Crouch." Harry retorted dryly, "And Hermione scored higher than me in every test."

"Not everything can be measured with points." Hermione said calmly, "You have done so many things, we all know your ability, Harry."

"No, you don't know—"

"You've saved Neville so many times before. Do you still remember that you summoned the Patronus when we saved Buckbeak and met the Dementors the year before last, not to mention that you completed the Triwizard Tournament last year—"

"I didn't do it alone!" Harry almost shouted, "Stop talking about the Triwizard Tournament - I didn't do it alone at all, I'm like a marionette, minibus Tickraoch's puppet - he's secretly manipulating me through those projects, you guys don't know about it, don't blame it on me - stop laughing!"

"But it is true that you summoned the firebolt and the fire dragon to fight from such a long distance, and it is true that you dived to the bottom of the lake alone and rescued Tallus and Gabriel." I gently comforted him, "You did You escaped with Neville from the mysterious man, you got a lot of help, I don't deny this, but you faced a lot of dangers by yourself, I think they are right."

"Shouldn't you be on my side?" Harry's eyes widened. "You heard, Hermione asked you to come with me—"

"I hear you." I realize they're all looking at me now, but what I see in my mind is Vivienne's back flying into the rain, and I take a deep breath, look Harry in the eye and say, "I think ...Give it a try, Hermione's right, we can't do nothing. I know some spells, some are not in the textbook...but I can use them, and if need be, I'm willing to put what I know Teach everyone."

"That's different." Harry whispered, "Ask Neville, it's not about copying out a bunch of spells in class and reciting them to protect yourself... At that time we all just stood there unable to move , see him approaching us - watching others die to protect themselves, the next one should be me, and the next one is my friend, but there is nothing in my mind, I can only watch death approaching you, fear makes you feel Suffocation, everything happens in the blink of an eye - nothing but intuition, no one ever tells us in class what it's like to work with this stuff -"

"So we need you to tell us." I cut him off. "Look, you've started teaching us things that aren't in the books."

Harry looked up at the others, and Hermione nodded: "That's what I mean... We need to know what it feels like to face the mystery—Voldemort, and Neville is also our teacher at this point We learn from each other what we lack, I said you and Alice are teachers because you really know more than us-your dad is the director of the Auror office, Alice will not say Well, she probably knows more spells than all of us combined—”

"How is this possible." I had a fever on my face, "I just know a little more about what my dad wrote in his notes—"

"One point was enough to cut open the Slytherin table in your third year," Hermione concluded patiently. "I haven't forgotten the help you gave us with our spell list last term."

"I trust you two unconditionally." Tallus raised his hands, "Do you need to raise two more feet?"

"I would also like to join." Neville raised his hand and said, "I want to learn from you."

"I don't need to say it." Ron grinned.

"Think about it, okay?" Hermione looked at me and Harry with bright eyes. "I know I'm going to bring up this topic out of the blue...but think about it."

She patted Harry on the shoulder, stood up and walked towards the girls' dormitory, the other three boys also stood up yawning, Neville muttered that he was sleepy and rubbed his scar with his hands.I wanted to follow Hermione back to rest, but Harry reached out and grabbed my wrist with his left hand.

"What's going on?" he asked me in the Gryffindor common room, where the only sounds left were the breathing of the two of us and the crackling of the fire in the fireplace.

"Why do you ask that?" I subconsciously avoided his eyes, and Vivienne made my heart ache again.

"You're not someone who likes to get involved in this kind of thing." His tone was much calmer than before, "So I thought you would oppose Hermione's proposal more strongly than I did, but you didn't."

"I—" I felt that my voice was stuck again, those syllables seemed to grow sharp and angular suddenly, they cut my throat and made me feel a faint smell of blood in my mouth, I forced myself Looking into Harry's eyes, they were now softly reflecting the firelight, awaiting my answer.

"Vivienne," I heard myself whisper.

"Vivienne?" said Harry blankly. "Why are you talking about it all of a sudden?"

"It's... dead, it was beaten to death by the Whomping Willow." I thought I had drained all the tears last night, but at this moment they kept coming out and wet my face, "I don't want to Shirking responsibility - but I'm sure if Umbridge hadn't sent Filch to catch him, he'd be all right. I think, I've been thinking about how to avenge him all day today, and I even thought about Lori Mrs. Norris do something... but then I thought Mrs. Norris was just a cat, though she was a nasty one..."

"I'm sorry." He didn't seem to respond to what I said at all, and sat there silently.I apologized to him in a low voice, "I seem to have been—I didn't take good care of the owl you gave me, I'm sorry."

I thought he was going to yell at me, he has every reason to do it, I never seem to value the gift he gave me, if he loses his temper with me now tell me he will never send me anything again , or he doesn't intend to be friends with me anymore, I will understand very well.

His right hand in the juice clenched into a fist, which made the back of his hand bleed even more: "I knew, something must have happened...but I didn't expect it to be Vivienne, it's still so...it just growing up."

"Umbridge's fault for this, of course," Harry said in a strained voice, "if you were to be held accountable, I could also say it was because I never told you how to calm the Whomping Willow." Leading to Vivienne's death."

"I want to do something...a little bit is fine." I said softly, "You are right, if this hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have agreed to Hermione's proposal, after all, I only know a little bit, but , if the little things I know can change a little bit, now I am willing to teach them to others—even if it increases a little possibility, so that they don't leave me like Vivienne."

"I'm sorry." I said to him again, and he shook his head, looking out of the window of the tower. Through the pane, he could see a sharp moon passing through the thin clouds. It was so peaceful, as if last night's blustery storm was just a nightmare to struggle to wake up from.

"Then tell Hermione, we've all thought about it." He slipped his fingers holding my wrist, and squeezed my cold fingertips tightly with warmth, I looked up and saw a little smile on his face , although it is more exhausted from the bleeding and pain of the wound. "Good night, Alice."