cycle

The following September was still busy, and there didn't seem to be much time left for Hermione to carefully consider the plan she proposed that night. For a while, we thought she had forgotten about it.We got used to the life of the fifth grade day by day, even when we walked into Umbridge's classroom and saw her sitting there with a smile on her face, we would just lower our heads and take out the textbooks from our schoolbags, before she could write on the blackboard. What needs to be read today, just open a page of the book in a daze.Harry and Neville's confinement at Umbridge is also over, both of them have nicks of varying shades on the back of their hands, I convinced Harry to try another of my scar removal stickers (he lied , he is very afraid of pain), but the stickers hardly had any effect, but the back of his hand was red and swollen for several days because of the irritation.Ron was still diligently participating in the Quidditch team's training every time. According to Talus, he made a lot of progress every time, and Angelina no longer blamed him in a worried tone.Neville is still studying hard. In the Transfiguration class, we all succeeded in making the mice disappear. Naturally, Hermione has already started to practice the spell to make the kitten disappear. The boys urged her to use Mrs. Norris as an experiment, but she seriously rejected it. .

"I think," said Hermione suddenly, as we sat around a desk in the library in the blustery winds of late September, writing our Potions homework, as Hermione dried the ink marks on the parchment carefully and double-checked the spelling. , "We should think about what we said before."

We looked up at her blankly from the parchment, unable for a moment to remember what she was talking about.Hermione looked at the bookshelves on both sides to make sure that no one was paying attention to our conversation, then lowered her voice and said, "We taught ourselves Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry, and Alice told me that you agreed."

"Oh." Harry lowered his head and was still copying the diagram of the Chinese biting kale. "Yeah, I mean, we're all friends, so if it's just to teach you a few—"

"Uh," Hermione showed a little uneasy expression, "If, I'm just talking about a possibility, if there are other people who want to learn, can you teach them too? We're not setting up some extracurricular mutual aid group, are we? ? We're talking about how to protect ourselves, how to resist You-Know-Who, so why not give others who want to participate?"

I opened my mouth wide, and before expressing my opinion, Harry shook his head: "I admit that what you said makes sense, but I said that I did a lot of things by luck—"

"Be confident in yourself, Harry." Hermione said gently, "No one can deny your excellent performance in Defense Against the Dark Arts. You can do many things that adult wizards can't do at this age. Imperius, summoning the Patronus, Viktor used to always say—”

Ron, who had been looking at Harry before, turned his head suddenly to look at Hermione, so fast that we all heard a "creak" sound from his neck, and he asked, "What did Viktor say?"

Hermione looked at Ron who was rubbing his neck and pursed his lips, and said, "He said he didn't know any magic that Harry knew, and he was almost graduating then."

Ron looked meaningfully at Hermione's blushing cheeks: "Are you still in touch with him? How did you get in touch?"

"It's just an occasional letter." Hermione replied coldly, but I think she was actually quite happy. "I can have a pen pal too—"

"Occasionally?" Ron seemed to be calculating how often Hermione would receive letters from the owl in his head, and said in a suspicious tone, "it doesn't mean he just wants to be your pen pal, does he?"

Hermione shook her head and made up her mind not to continue this topic. She turned to me and Harry: "Can I try it? We are going to Hogsmeade on the first weekend in October, and we will meet everyone who is interested that day." How about meeting to discuss this matter?"

"Yes!" Talus nodded cheerfully. "I'll ask tomorrow who would like to—"

"No, don't ask." Hermione shook her head immediately, "Ron and I can do this."

"Why?" Talus was extremely aggrieved, "I can—"

"I don't want to spend time distinguishing whether those girls who flock to the Dark Arts are interested in Defense Against the Dark Arts or in you." Hermione calmly looked at Talus's slumped face and stated the reason, "We Proceed with caution, Umbridge would be very upset if he found out what we were about to do - which is why I chose to meet off-campus."

On the morning I went to Hogsmeade, I first asked Hermione to leave first with the excuse of a headache, then dally changed my clothes and walked to the Gryffindor common room, thinking that they all had eaten. Went to queue at Filch's after breakfast, and Harry was sitting in an armchair by the fire reading today's Daily Prophet, obviously waiting for me.

"I don't think there will be too many people going." After I told him in a low voice that I seemed to have a cold and didn't want to go to Hogsmeade, he laughed. Wei is a liar who wants to attract attention, don't be afraid, okay?"

He exposed my lie at once, and pointed out what I was worried about, so I could only look at my toes and whisper, "I'm not good at getting along with people I don't know very well. I thought I just needed to teach Hermione a few Only one person agrees."

"I've already told Hermione, she didn't mention you to anyone, let's go and have a look today, if you don't want to teach them, I can teach them by myself." Harry said to me gently.

I had nothing to say, he made light of every excuse I could think of, and then offered a solution that I couldn't find any reason to reject - I found out that Harry Potter might not just be Gran Fendo girl said that there are stars who come and go on the Quidditch field like wind, and the eyes he looked at my expression with a smile at the moment are obviously sure that I will because "I was the one who nodded in the first place, and I can't leave the whole thing to He" chose to go to Hogsmeade with him.

"You know I won't leave things to you to say that." Outdoors, the sun was shining brightly but the wind was blowing gently, I muttered softly, "Don't think I can't see."

"Yeah," said Harry, smiling, "Of course I know you can."

There was already a long queue in front of Filch, and the third-years, who were going to Hogsmeade for the first time, were so excited that they rushed back and forth in the queue and wanted to run out.We were shoved forward and soon came to Filch, saw my Filch chin quivering, nodded curtly at me and Harry and let us go, quietly stepping aside Mrs. Norris, curled up to bask in the sun, came back to him.

"He's really afraid of what you'll do to Mrs. Norris." Harry said with a slight sarcasm as we quickened our pace and tried to catch up with Hermione's party who set off first.

"If I get revenge on that cat, I'll be like him." I've become a lot calmer talking about Vivienne over the past few weeks, but seeing Filch definitely made me a little bit firmer and walked towards Holly. Germond's pace, "I don't bother to be like him, he worries too much."

"I thought you were going to cry in Gryffindor Tower because of your dad, Potter." Draco's voice came drawn out from behind us, Crabbe and Goyle like two slow-moving The gorilla followed behind him, "It's not a glorious thing to be expelled from the Ministry of Magic. If I were you, I would not go outside to accept other people's pointing because of shame."

"Shame?" Harry snorted, "I thought you had no such thing, Malfoy—I never got any special treatment at Hogwarts because of my dad, so my dad was out of work." It doesn't matter to me whether I work from home or wherever I go."

Draco narrowed his eyes and asked coldly, "What do you want to say, Potter?"

"We're in a hurry." I tugged at Harry's sleeve, "Let's go, don't let them wait for the two of us."

Draco didn't follow, he seemed to be waiting for someone.Harry and I walked through the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars. The road leading to the village was sparsely populated. I asked, "Mr. Potter, he—"

"It's expected." Harry stretched out his hand to press his hair that was blown by the wind, and said sincerely, "Of course it was made a big article by the "Daily Prophet..." What does it matter? I know best What kind of person is my father? My father often said that as long as he has the support of his family, he can forget about other things. I guess he is quite happy and can spend some time with his mother, although the Order of the Phoenix must be very busy."

We spent a lot of time turning around and turning into a small road, and Hermione actually chose such a dilapidated bar--I have to say, compared to the perennial crowding of the Three Broomsticks, this bar can only use desolation. Described as dilapidated, it makes people suspect that the items sold here are old products that have expired for at least ten years.We stood at the door and hesitated for a while, and then we pushed the door open, and the strong smell of mutton rushed into our noses immediately. Harry took a few steps forward and saw Talus sitting in the corner before he breathed a sigh of relief. He motioned for me to follow him in.

"Two more bottles of butterbeer, please." Tallus said to the tall, thin old man with a gray beard at the counter. The man looked familiar, and I noticed that Harry also looked at him suspiciously. He waited for a while, until the boss asked in a bad temper who would pay for the four Sickles, then he grabbed some silver coins from his pocket, took out four and put them on the counter.

"Wouldn't it be too weird here?" There were people wrapped up in layers all around, making people lower their voices unconsciously, Harry looked around, "Look at that bandaged man—— His drink is breathing fire!"

"I think this place is safer than the Three Broomsticks." Hermione kept looking out the door nervously, "Although I checked the school rules carefully and asked Professor Frivy—students are allowed to come to the Pig's Head Bar, but he obviously thinks The three broomsticks are better, and I keep reminding me to bring my own cups—the rules and regulations don’t say that we can’t set up extracurricular groups, but it’s best to keep a low profile in the current situation.”

"Do you think he'll sell us some other wine?" Ron asked curiously, "Like Fire Whiskey, I've always wanted to try—"

"You - still - wear - a - prefect - badge," said Hermione savagely.

"I'm kidding," Ron muttered, taking a swig of butterbeer from the dirty mouth of the bottle.

"Who will come to meet us?" Harry unscrewed the bottle of butterbeer in front of him, wiped the rim of the bottle and put it in front of me, unscrewed another bottle and took a few sips.

"Two or three people." Hermione looked at her watch. "It's almost time, and if they haven't lost their way it should be - oh, I think that's about it."

I was almost choked by the flying dust. The door of the bar opened slowly, but a large group of people blocked the sunlight that came in. The people in the bar looked at the door that opened suddenly, as if they had never seen Like so many people.I know a lot of people here, such as Neville, Dean Thomas and the Patil sisters who led the way in, Luna Lovegood who reached out to try to catch the dust, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team. A few members, Ginny walked in front of some Gryffindor boys, and some Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students I only knew by face, but I couldn't remember their names.A tall figure walked in and closed the bar door, and I heard Hermione let out a low growl.

"He didn't come to punish us, did he?" Hermione asked Ron nervously. "We didn't call him here, it's kind of troublesome—"

"I heard you asking about Aibo when you were changing shifts." Cedric Diggory, who was wearing the badge of the President of the Boys' Union, sat down calmly, and Qiu Zhang beside him smiled at us shyly, but she The Ravenclaw girl next to her seemed unhappy, and sat down on the chair with a straight face. "I'm also very interested, so I just wanted to come and have a look-did it bother you?"

"No, of course not." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "I mean, it would be great if you wanted to join."

"So, we still need 26 bottles of butter beer here!" The Weasley twins quickly counted the number of people, and squeezed to the bar (the familiar boss has been looking at us), "Excuse me, can you give me some money? I don't Money buys so much beer—”

"Let me pay." Talus whistled, and many girls realized that he was also here, exchanging surprise glances with each other.

"Um, hello everyone," said Hermione in a thinner than usual voice when everyone had sat down, "I think you all know why you're here..."

Her voice was indistinct in my ears, and I felt that my throat was very dry, as if it was completely clogged with dust, and those who found chairs and sat down basically glanced at us with undisguised eyes. One, I felt my face flushed red, and I almost wanted to stand up and run out the door immediately.

The discussion didn't go very smoothly at the beginning. A Hufflepuff boy stubbornly asked what evidence could prove that the mysterious man had returned. It made people feel that he came here today just to hear Neville and Harry Lee "elaborately woven lies."After Hermione managed to bring the topic back to Defense Against the Dark Arts itself, the boy began to question Harry's modesty again, thinking that "he is just playing tricks, but he doesn't know anything".

"Harry knows many things, of course. I saw him summon the Patronus in the maze of the Triwizard Tournament with my own eyes." Cedric said calmly (the noisy discussion stopped as soon as he opened his mouth) , "Although it's a dementor disguised as a Boggart, it's also very impressive, at least I can't do it."

"He's saved me so many times," Neville said to those around him (in a very firm voice, seemingly unaffected by the previous Hufflepuff boys), "the Basilisk, the Sorcerer's Stone's protective circle - what would happen without him?" Helped me die several times long ago."

"Not to mention that we all saw how he snatched the golden egg from the fire dragon." Tallus's eyes glowed as if talking about his great achievements, "And the bottom of the lake, the maze..."

"Cough." Harry's face and ears were already red, and he clenched his fist and coughed a few times.

"If we're all okay with that, I think we can start talking about where and when we'll meet—"

"Is there anything else we can learn?" a Ravenclaw boy asked, and I noticed he was staring at me. "Like potions or something, I think that would be useful too—"

"No." Harry said bluntly, and several people laughed.

"I can also... help a little, I mean Defense Against the Dark Arts." I whispered a few words out of my throat, "I think the knowledge Professor Snape taught in Potions class is enough."

"I still teach most of them, though," Harry said dryly, looking at the Ravenclaw boy. "If some of them come for other reasons, I think it's best to leave now."

"I think our help is mutual." Hermione smoothed things over, "The number of people actually exceeded my expectations, only Harry and Alice—"

"If it's the part I already know, I can also provide a little help." Cedric nodded, showing a bright smile.

It took a lot of time to discuss the class time. It was not an easy task to avoid the Quidditch team training of the three colleges and some messy clubs. It seemed impossible to fix the time. In the end, Hermione I can only wave my hand impatiently: "We can definitely find a night that suits everyone, but there may also be situations that conflict with the schedule of a few of them-I hope you can also be considerate, after all we are talking about How to protect yourself - how to fight You-Know-Who and Death Eaters."

"Well said!" The Hufflepuff prefect echoed loudly, and then delivered a speech with enthusiasm. Everyone blamed the Ministry of Magic and Umbridge together, and felt that they were getting closer to each other. a lot of.The problem of the class venue mentioned by Ginny was another problem. Everyone talked about the library and empty classrooms, but they were rejected one by one.

"Get out!" The boss suddenly roared violently from outside the bar, "What are you doing sneaking around here!"

The lively discussion came to an abrupt end. Everyone watched as the boss opened the door of the bar cursingly while rubbing his messy gray beard, and then slammed it shut. Shake up.

"Is someone eavesdropping on us?" The Hufflepuff prefect who just spoke immediately showed a look of fear.

"I wouldn't hear anything if there was one," I said calmly. "I've cast an earplug spell before entering the door—in short, other people can't hear what we're talking about."

"Is there such a spell?" He looked at me suspiciously. "I've never heard of it."

"If you haven't heard of it, it doesn't exist?" Ginny asked bluntly. "If you're scared, you can just say so. No one will laugh at you and quit now."

"I--of course I won't quit!" I guessed that the boy wanted to say something rude to Ginny at first, but after staring at Ginny's face for a while, his face flushed inexplicably, and finally only Muttering the next sentence weakly, Ron coughed loudly a few times, reminding the boy not to glue his eyes to his little sister.

"In this way, when we confirm the time and place of the first meeting, we will find a way to send a message to inform everyone." Hermione said, she lowered her head and rummaged in her schoolbag for a while, and found a carefully rolled up Blank parchment and a quill, took a deep breath and said to everyone, "I—I hope that everyone can write down their names. The first is to facilitate the verification when notifying, and the second is...we should agree Don't make it public, so once you sign this paper, you agree not to tell Umbridge and others anything about this matter - who was involved, when and where, etc. Anyone not here today."

The Weasley twins happily took the parchment and signed their names, but several people didn't seem to think it was a good idea, and showed hesitant expressions, evading that they could receive notifications from others.

"We're prefects," the Hufflepuff boy stammered. "If someone else finds out about the list—Umbridge, as you said—there's a possibility—"

"I don't think Miss Granger will throw this list around." Cedric smiled mildly after leaving his cursive signature on the parchment, "And if they do get this list , and I, the student council chairman, should be held accountable first."

When Qiu Zhang heard this sentence, he patted Cedric on the shoulder reproachfully and asked him to knock on the corner of the table three times. He brushed his long hair like a waterfall behind his ears, and wrote his handsome name next to Cedric. signed, and handed the parchment to her companion.The girl with reddish blonde curly hair looked very reluctant, she gave Qiu a blank look before signing, and then Luna happily took the paper and scribbled her name on it (Neville was beside her) Looking worriedly, as if he was afraid that Luna, who had just heatedly discussed the fire elves, would write something strange on the paper), and the last Hufflepuff boy who kept saying unpleasant things——the original name was Zacharias Smith also dawdled to write his name.

Hermione carefully folded the paper and put it in her school bag. I don't know if other people feel the same way as I do. After signing the parchment, there is a feeling that everyone present has a common secret. We've just signed a pact to defend it with an oath.

I later signed my name on many documents, many of which directly determined the ownership of a certain period of my life, such as my work contract in the United States, and even directly changed my name, such as my marriage with my husband Newspaper statement.Compared with these signatures, the signatures of a group of people squeezed on the parchment actually lacked a sense of ritual, and even seemed very hasty. I don't think any of us at that time would have thought that this list would be included in Hogwarts. Honorary Memorial, even occupying an important chapter of "Modern History of Magic".It's only when we look back that we realize that the big turning points in our lives, and in our world, often start in the smallest moments, before we even knew we had lit the first tiny candle. .

After signing, everyone left in twos and threes. The strong sunlight suddenly made people's eyes black when they walked out of the bar. Hermione patted her schoolbag happily: "I think today went well."

"There are a few I don't really like, though," said Ron, drinking his butterbeer, and Tallus nodded frantically beside him.

"I know." Hermione sighed, "but they are interested, and we can't refuse... I think the more people the better, but if Michael Corner isn't dating Ginny, he and his My friends won't come either—"

Ron's ears were red from the last few drops of butterbeer, like carpaccio just cut out, and he looked at me and Hermione angrily: "What's she doing—Ginny? In a relationship?! With who— That Michael Kerner? Who's Michael Kerner? I knew there was a reason those Ravenclaw boys looked so nasty!"

"Yes." Harry agreed without thinking, and Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"But they are indeed interested in learning defensive skills, Ginny said that Michael, after listening to her account of the incident, said that they believed what Harry and Neville said—"

"When did the two of them start talking?" Ron asked savagely, and I thought it would be wise for Ginny to sneak away with her boyfriend early, since Ron now looks like he'd be tempted to give a fuck to any passerby. jinx.

"Ron, you may not have noticed, but it doesn't mean others haven't noticed—your sister has grown up." Tallus shrugged. "Is this something strange?"

"Of course you say that, and you don't have a sister." Ron said angrily, "She's still young! We didn't fall in love at that time either!"

"You didn't fall in love at that time." Hermione corrected him calmly. When we passed the Wenrenju quill shop, she looked at the dazzling array of quills displayed in the window, "Well, I want to go in and buy a new pen .”

"Don't mention Viktor Krum," Harry reminded Ron in a low voice after Ron had opened his mouth, "or you'll regret it."

Ron showed a funny expression of biting his own tongue, and he began to mumble and list Michael Corner's shortcomings in a low voice, completely forgetting that he was asking Michael Corner who was just now.

"Miss Snape?" As I was looking down at a long and gorgeous quill, Astoria Greengrass' surprised voice came from across the shelf, "Are you here to buy a quill too?"

"I'm coming with my friends." As soon as I finished speaking, Talus walked over from the shelf behind him, holding a quill decorated with strange scales, and said, "Hermione, I Think this one is cool—”

He leaned over to look at the one in my hand, and proudly said to me, "This one looks better."

"Hey." A girl's soft voice came from across the shelf, and I looked up to see Astoria fiddling with her hair nervously.

"Oh—it's you!" Tallus tilted his head.

"What a coincidence." Astoria said softly, a blush appeared on her pale face, making her look a lot more alive.

"Yeah." Tallus nodded casually before turning around, "Hermione, look at my quill—"

I smiled at Astoria apologetically, and after seeing her lowered eyelashes showing a disappointed expression, I couldn't help but say to her: "He treats everyone like this, don't be sad."

Hermione on the other end was impatiently explaining to Ron the reason why Ginny hid her relationship with him. She stomped her foot and begged Ron to stop nagging about it. I turned around and found Astor Leah has left.

"I won't explode as soon as I hear about this!" Ron still didn't give up muttering, Tallus persistently sold Hermione that weird quill, and Hermione shook her head and chose another one Ready to pay the bill, Talus puffed up his cheeks and decided to buy the one in his hand. "I always thought Ginny liked Harry, she—"

"She was just a kid—" Harry wanted to interject, but Hermione rolled her eyes and cut them off: "For God's sake, Ron, your sister is happier now than she was when she liked Harry." So much happier when you're at it! Harry's always liked it - he's got a girl of his own, and Ginny doesn't bother about it now - you should be happy!"

Ron was still panting, but couldn't seem to think of anything else to say to Hermione.I slowly took the quill in my hand to pay the bill, pretending that I missed all the conversation just now, although this is self-deception.

"Uh...Ginny liked Harry?" The boys wanted to go to the joke shop again, and Hermione and I wanted to buy some candy from Honeydukes before going back to Hogwarts. Asked Hermione, "You never told me that."

"Why did I tell you?" Hermione turned and looked me in the eyes and said, "It's her business, you don't need to feel sorry for Ginny because Harry likes you, she never thought Blame it on you — human relationships are never fair."

"Just don't act like you don't know that Harry still likes you." She gags me gently, "He's not good at keeping things like this under wraps, even though I've been advising him...but it looks like you're doing well .”

"What nonsense are you talking about?" I muttered looking down at my toes.

"Then just treat me as nonsense." She took my hand kindly, "Let's go, well, there's a new Volcano Chocolate!"