cycle

(Recommend BGM-Miia "Dynasty")

I found that I couldn't get rid of Draco's hand with my own strength. Just as I was struggling to reach the wand in the right pocket of the robe with my left hand, he turned to me and said, "This is a good opportunity."

"Excuse me, what?" I looked at the four huge hourglasses lined up behind him, which recorded the scores of the various houses.Just this morning, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were neck and neck in the lead. However, as we stayed, gems kept flying upwards, and the number of gems in the lower half of the hourglass became less and less. Only Slater The Green Gems in Lin's Hourglass don't look like they've changed - it looks like Umbridge forgot to give them the perks to add points to.

"Professor Umbridge is a human being, and she's willing to give you another chance - of course, that's why I'm speaking for you." Draco said cheerfully as we waited for the stairs, but I didn't pay much attention Listen, I looked up at that huge chandelier, Filch didn't seem to be able to get rid of all those blighted parasites that Peeves had pranked into the cutouts of the chandelier before, and now they look completely unrecognizable The clumps of dead grass, where the berries had been, were left only with dry stalks, which shattered and obscured the light overhead, and made the shadows under our feet fragmented-this may be Filch these days. The reason why Peeves has been clamoring to expel Peeves from Hogwarts does not seem to be completely impossible, I thought sarcastically in my heart, who knows how many more people can post on the Hogwarts bulletin board What about Zhang's education order?

Draco tapped three times on the door of Umbridge's office, and the former "Senior Ministry of Magic Investigator and Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts" sign has been eagerly replaced by the shiny golden "Hogwarts Headmaster" office," but I remembered Ernie saying out loud in the morning that "the stone monster at the door of the principal's office just ignored her!" and almost laughed out loud when the door opened.

"I brought Alice as you ordered, ma'am." Draco said respectfully.

I've never been to Umbridge's office, I've been brought in here by the fake Moody, I should say, but it's completely changed.Everything is covered with lace covers and tablecloths, even the vases with dried flowers have small lace coasters, and on the decorative plates on the wall are squatting cats with bright bows around their necks—— There was a large wooden sign across the desk where Umbridge was sitting, with the words "Headmaster" written in gold letters on it, and if Ron had been here, I think he would have suggested that Umbridge simply stamped that on his face. Go to "Principal", so she doesn't have to go to such lengths to emphasize her new identity, anyway, she has something that can carve words into people's skin.

Thinking of this, I touched the back of my hand reflexively. Umbridge seemed to be busy writing something on those pink parchments. She was wearing a bright pink robe today, which looked like To blend in with the entire office.I caught sight of an unusually strong iron bolt nailed to the wall behind her, to which three broomsticks were securely chained, and recognized Harry's Firebolt.

"Thank you, Draco." She carefully rolled up the last roll of parchment before saying kindly to Draco, "Without your help, I might not be too busy today to reply to the Minister's letter. "

"Our pleasure." I've never seen Draco smile like that, but the tone of his voice reminded me of the conversation I overheard in the school hospital that day.

"Come on, sit down." She pointed to a chair with a big smile and whispered to me, "I don't think you have any classes this morning, Miss Snape?"

"No." I replied curtly, staggering towards the chair and almost falling to the floor, Draco reached out and grabbed my arm - I guessed he would do it, under his cover I took the small bottle of Veritaserum antidote that I had held in my hand before entering the office and poured it down my throat the moment I lowered my head.A lie is a knife that hurts others - I understood the meaning of this old adage deeply in that moment, and I felt that what I had just swallowed was not liquid, but a thorn sharp enough to slit the entire throat , I felt tears almost welling up from my eyes.

"What's the matter? Didn't you sleep last night, darling?" Umbridge's eyes widened contrivedly, which made her look more like a toad who had seen a fat fly.But judging by the looks on her and Draco's faces they didn't notice what I had just done, and I stuffed the empty glass bottle in my hand deep into the pocket of my robe as I sat down.

Did Dad already foresee this day?I looked inopportunely at the tray Umbridge pushed in front of me thinking that's why he was using the excuse of putting me in detention to make me make the Veritaserum antidote.

"What would you like to drink, eh?" Umbridge asked me with a big smile. "Tea? Coffee? I've got pumpkin juice here. Is Draco still drinking black coffee like he used to?"

"Then I want to drink coffee without milk too." I squinted to see her waving her wand, and a silver long-spouted pot flew over to fill a porcelain teacup with a cat pattern on it, "It's exactly the same as him, everything do not add."

"Girls prefer sweeter things, don't they?" Her voice became menacing and gentle, "Look, you fell down because of your lack of energy, how about adding some milk?"

"She doesn't like the taste of milk much, Professor," Draco interjected.

"Then it's no wonder you don't look very well, milk is a good thing." Umbridge smiled and nodded at Draco, "You two really grew up together, and you know each other very well—— How about two sugar cubes, Miss Snape?"

"Then add milk." I replied with a stinging tone, "I think milk tastes pretty good recently."

Umbridge stood up, picked up the steaming cup of black coffee in front of me, pretended to turn her back to me and added something more than just milk to the cup, and then she walked around quickly with the tea in her hand. Passing the table, stretched out his stubby fingers to press my shoulder: "Come on, drink it while it's hot, dear."

"I still don't understand why I'm here." I took the china cup, hoping I was innocent enough in her eyes, "Did I do something wrong?"

"A lot of unfortunate things happened yesterday." Umbridge returned to his seat and gazed intently at me and the glass in my hand. "I'm sorry that your name is on that list, dear, Della Coe assures me that you, like Miss Eckmore, were deceived by those so-called friends - who knew you, loved you, and said a lot for you - and I must say, I am deeply moved Come on, the coffee doesn't taste good when it's cold!"

I glanced at Draco, lifted the china cup to my lips and took a sip.

"Finish it, very good coffee, Draco is very picky about coffee, isn't he?" Umbridge looked at me with a smile, "Do you want more milk?"

"I don't think so." I drank the scalding liquid in the cup, and my mind began to quickly recall the scene I saw here last year - after Dad poured Veritaserum into the mouth of Barty Crouch Jr. , What is his demeanor and tone in answering questions?If today goes well, I might take this opportunity to convince Umbridge of some nonsense. The question is, what exactly does she want to know?But soon I realized it wasn't that easy, and although I had taken the antidote, the Veritaserum was having some effect on my thoughts, and in my eyes Umbridge's lips were slowly opening and closing, But her voice entered my ears very clearly ahead of time.

"Who are you?" I heard this question, a vague voice in my mind was about to answer without thinking, but a louder voice rang out, it was Dad's voice, reminding me to think again Thinking about it, I suddenly woke up as if being poured with ice water, and heard Draco's panicked voice: "Professor, what did you drink for her?"

"A little bit of something else to get her to tell the truth doesn't do any harm - don't bother us from now on, Draco." I heard Umbridge reply impatiently as she came up to me and raised my head haughtily. Chin, forcing me to look into her eyes, I looked at the ugly cat behind her that kept jumping around on the plate to pretend my eyes were out of focus. "Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you." I half-closed my eyes, vividly imitating Barty Crouch Jr.'s statement without any emotion at that time.

"Tell me who you are," she ordered again. "What were your parents' jobs?"

"I'm Alice Lily Snape," I replied. "My mother, Lily Snape, is currently working in the Sports Department of the Ministry of Magic as an ordinary staff member of the Ministry of Magic; my father, Severus Snape, is currently working in Hogwarts as a Potions teacher."

"Professor—" Draco wanted to interrupt,

"I told you - shut up!" Umbridge reprimanded him, turning to him angrily. "You think Veritaserum is easy to come by?"

I couldn't do anything against Umbridge at this moment, her stubby fingers pinching my jaw, I couldn't see Draco's expression now.

"Apart from that, didn't Dumbledore give them other positions?" She asked me, "Such as some secret organization, Dumbledore used to have a secret organization, didn't your parents participate in it?"

"No," I am glad that she is still pinching my chin, so that she can't feel my heartbeat speeding up because of lying.

"No, or you don't know?" She asked suspiciously, "Your parents have a lot to do with Dumbledore, don't they?"

"Dad doesn't like Dumbledore," I said without hesitation, "because Dumbledore wouldn't give him the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and never told him why. He told Mom that he felt resentful." , telling Mom that Dumbledore didn't care how he felt."

"That is to say, don't your parents and you know where Dumbledore is now?" She seemed to believe what I said, and continued to ask.

"I don't know, and I don't think they know," I replied in that dead tone.

"Look me in the eyes," Umbridge said softly to me. "Are Potter and Longbottom plotting against me?"

I saw my face through her eyes with loose eyelids, and I tried my best to suppress the anger in my heart so that the answer I said didn't bring any emotion: "No."

"So what are they doing?" Umbridge asked eagerly, her fingers so hard that I could feel my neck rattling.

"Neville worried all day about whether he could pass the OWL exam. He couldn't remember so many things—Harry was dejected because he couldn't play Quidditch other than preparing for the exam." She and I looked at each other for a long time, almost because I forgot Blinked and shed tears.It didn't look like it was some good quality Veritaserum, the voice in his head that couldn't wait to tell all the truth had faded away, leaving only a dull, empty ache.

"Well, it looks like you really don't know anything." Umbridge didn't even bother to hide the disappointment in his tone, "But I need to remind you, Miss Snape, that no matter your parents or Dumbledore Is there any involvement, behind me is the entire Ministry of Magic, all of you are under my surveillance, owls, fires, except of course my fire here, all the secret passages Mr. Filch will also pay attention to, as long as I found a little bit of evidence, a little bit of clues..."

Boom!

The office floor shook, Umbridge lurched sideways, I finally freed her fingers, and the jaw didn't even feel like my own.

"What—?" She looked toward the door, and we could all hear people running and screaming a few floors down.

"Send her back to lunch, she'll be fine when the medicine wears off!" Umbridge shouted to Draco, who had been ordered to keep quiet from the beginning, and I realized that I still need to do my best to play a role immersed in In the veritaserum hallucination, people who should not have any perception of their surroundings except for asking questions, so instead of standing up immediately, I watched Umbridge trot out of the office.

"Liz, can you hear me?" Draco walked up to me and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I can hear it." I think I'd better make him think that Veritaserum is effective, so I still reply in the same tone as before, "I don't feel abnormal."

I thought about it for a while, and decided that Veritaserum would not affect a person's ability to move, so I didn't do anything else when he pulled me up. I was worried at first that I was acting like I was under the Imperius Curse, but it seemed that Della Coe probably didn't know what side effects Veritaserum had other than making people tell the truth unconditionally.

As soon as I stepped out of Umbridge's office, I understood that the chaos downstairs had been caused by magical pyrotechnics lit by whomever (although two names flashed through my mind).They have already rushed upstairs along the stairs, there are huge fire dragons made of green and golden sparks, and the corridors passing by are full of gorgeous fiery red air currents, accompanied by huge explosions, and the pink Catherine wheel fireworks that are spinning rapidly On the rising side, flying saucer-shaped flames are fired everywhere. It seems that the rocket that will never burn out drags a long tail of silver stars and rushes straight to the top of the castle. Every ray of light can form a curse word. The stars fell down, as if the whole staircase was covered by a grand meteor shower.

I think there is nothing strange about such a scene for children nowadays. After all, parents almost always buy some Weasleys whoosh-boom fireworks in the courtyard because of the begging of their children. Naturally, every year Both will cause the Ministry of Magic a lot of trouble, but who doesn't love the sight of gorgeous fireworks exploding in the night sky?But in our time, everyone only used Dr. Phillips's holiday crackers, yes, the kind of small firecrackers that turn into rubber ducks or wizard chess when you pull them away. Playing that, so everyone was dumbfounded the first time they saw these rampant, self-exploding fireworks, and stood there dumbfounded watching them turn Hogwarts into a showplace for their own historic debut.

"Alice." I still kept my eyes blank, waiting for the stairs to turn to the platform where I was standing, but suddenly I heard Draco ask me, "Tell me, is the Veritaserum you took still effective?"

"Yes." I lied to him fluently, without any guilt in my heart. If he found out that Veritaserum had no effect on me, then he would definitely tell Umbridge.

"Then... tell me," he approached me on the landing where the fireworks were falling, surrounded by the explosion of firecrackers like landmines, and because the distance was too close, I could hear every word he whispered clearly, "Liz ,Do you still like me?"

The moment he opened his mouth, I thought about many questions he might ask, and thought I found a convincing enough answer to all the questions, about Dumbledore, about Neville, about the mysterious man, about Order of the Phoenix, about the DA, I'm the only one who didn't think this question was just about the two of us.

The stairs are still turning around and leading to different corridors. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw fireworks falling that ignited the mistletoe left on the chandelier, but that lonely burning flame was completely different from the ongoing fireworks in the entire castle. Show is insignificant, and I don't think Filch will have time to wait until they burn out.

"I—" I just opened my mouth, and before he could say the next syllables, he swallowed them.

Until now, I don't know why he chose to kiss me at that time, and I don't know why I didn't push him away at that time. Maybe at that time I thought this kiss could make up for the half dance I owed him.I didn't resist when he pried my lips apart, and I felt a shudder to back away as his fingers slid across my chin, which Umbridge had pinched red before, but I realized I was standing on the banister of the stairs There is no going back.I felt something cold and raw pressed against my face, and then remembered that it must be the shiny new badge he was wearing, as eager as the gold plaques on Umbridge's office door and on his desk to announce them. The symbol of new power, it stood there abruptly, and the suffocation caused by the entanglement of lips and teeth became blurred instead.

"No," after he finally let me go, I looked at him against my forehead, at the quietly burning mistletoe above our heads and the sporadic falling fireworks, suddenly felt that this scene was familiar, and remembered that it was not far away Little stars falling slowly from the ceiling at the Yule Ball.The dust and smoke from the fireworks explosion made my eyes sour, and I looked at his eyelashes so close to me and answered him softly: "I don't love you anymore."

"You lied." He actually showed a trembling smile, "You didn't take the Veritaserum Potion, you poured it out, didn't you?"

"I felt resentful and angry before." At this moment, there was no voice in my head ordering me to speak out what was in my heart, but I looked into his wide-eyed eyes and said, "At that time, I felt that if It would be nice if the mysterious man hadn’t been resurrected, if only he would never be resurrected—we could still be together, I thought at that time, your parents don’t like me, and my mother probably doesn’t like you too much either, Then after we graduate, I will try to convince you, let's go to live in another country...you definitely don't like a foreign country, but I know you like me, you will agree...we can go and see...bring Take a suitcase with an expansion spell, find a place you and I like, and we'll stop there."

"Have you thought about this?" I don't know if it was an illusion caused by my own tears, but I actually felt that his eyes were also red, "Have you thought about this too?"

"I've thought about... more." I said in the muffled sound of firecrackers exploding all around me, "but then I found out that's not the case. It wasn't because the mysterious man was resurrected that we chose a different path. There is no mysterious man There is also Umbridge, without Umbridge there will be other things... We are pursuing different things, we are not the same people, so we choose different paths at every fork in the road ...that's why it's getting farther and farther away."

"So?" he asked viciously. "Just because of these?"

"I never regret the time we had, Draco," I shook my head as another huge rocket seemed to fly up from the gap in the stairs behind me, "I don't think your choice must be wrong either. Yes, my choice must be right, but I believe that I will never regret that I have embarked on this road, no matter what is waiting for me in front of me, I will face it. I also hope-I really wish you , along the road you choose, you can get those things that you... dream of, such as this, a badge that symbolizes more power than the president of the Boys' Student Council."

"Are you forcing me to make a choice?" He grabbed my shoulder, and this time I saw clearly that he was really crying like me.

"We made the choice a long time ago, Draco, I am sure that the future that the path you choose leads to does not allow me to exist, nor do I want to exist in that future." In the falling silver starlight, I reached out my hand to wipe away the tears on his face. I haven’t seen him cry for many years. I was very strange since I was a child. This man’s hands are cold, his embrace is cold, and his heart is also cold. Why can she shed hot tears? "So I think... maybe some dances are destined to be...half, and some people are destined to be...to walk together for a short time. I will not forget that I still owe you favors. Of course, if you insist, I will... Will do that half of the dance sometime, but—”

I heard the chime of the bell interspersed with the explosion of fireworks, it struck twelve times without haste in the chaotic intervals, and at the tenth time the stairs finally turned to our feet, and finally A bunch of burnt mistletoe burned from above the chandelier into ashes that could be twisted into powder. Outside the smoke and dust, some people were laughing, some were running and screaming, and some were panicking. Only we faced each other awkwardly in the smoke and dust. Watching, he didn't stop me when I hurriedly pushed him away and walked down the stairs. I don't know if he heard the last sentence I said.

"—it's just that I don't love you anymore."

-------

Andall Igaveyouisgone

Tumbled like it was done

Thought we'd build adynasty that the haven couldn't shake

Thought we'd build adynasty that nothing ever made

Thought we'd build adynasty forever couldn't breakup

Itallfell

Itallfelldown.