cycle

In the last few weeks of the summer vacation, I spent the last few weeks at home refurbishing the textbooks I bought, trying to find some potions that I hadn't tried from "Advanced Potion Making".I have to say that the ingredient list in the book is a lot more complicated than the old ones, but after doing the veritaserum antidote, these challenges seem to be dull.Lack of interest, I began to look for content in the book that had obvious redundant steps or better solutions, and ticked them off one by one and wrote notes to pass the time.

It’s finally the day of school, the crowds are crowded, the bright red Hogwarts Express train is ready to go, and people in twos and threes gather together to push the trolleys full of luggage and pet cages. Parents seize the last time to treat themselves A little exhortation to the children of the children - a scene that will not change at any time.I could easily see Neville surrounded by several Aurors, and almost everyone who saw him would turn around and whisper to his companions, but the doubts and fears from last year have been swept away, you see His eyes were shining, after all, the "Daily Prophet" had always said that he was "the savior of the world".

"I have to go back." Mom looked at her watch and hurriedly pressed a kiss on my face, "Have a good semester, Liz, Mom will also try to keep herself safe, don't always worry about me Worry, okay?"

"Okay." I buried my face in her arms and rubbed it. In the past, there would be a faint fragrance of lily perfume on her body, but it is gone now, just like her flowing long hair has long been replaced by With short hair, she simply and neatly discarded everything that was not conducive to fighting.

"Hey, Alice!" Neville waved to me from a distance, and Luna stood behind him wearing another pair of exaggerated glasses and buried herself in the new issue of "The Quibbler" until I approached. The foggy eyes appeared in the lower eyes and nodded at me.Neville looked eager to get rid of the group of girls who were smirking at him in the corridor of the train. They pushed each other and thought they were talking in a low voice, but in fact, if you looked a little closer, you could hear them teasing each other and talking to Neville. strike up a conversation.

"Sometimes I feel that I was in a better state last year - of course I don't miss that old hag Umbridge, but at that time they all regarded me as a slug or air, and they were more comfortable than now." Neville sideways avoided the third The long-haired girl who obviously came here on purpose to pass him by muttered, "Speaking of which, are we still holding a DA rally this year, Alice?"

"It doesn't seem necessary without Umbridge?" I tilted my head, "But this has to be discussed with Harry, after all, he is our leader."

"I love those parties," Luna said quietly. "It's like being with friends—ah, I see Harry Potter, let's ask him."

She pointed to a box crowded by a group of fourth grade girls laughing and laughing at the door, they seemed to be arguing about something.Neville showed a hesitant expression, but Luna had already happily dragged him there by the cuff of his sleeve, unaware that she was being baptized by the strange eyes of many people.

"Go and ask him!"

"What are you afraid of? I just want to share a private room. You can see that there are only him and Black in it."

"Then can I sit with Black later?"

"Let me go!" A girl with big black eyes said confidently, tossing her flowing long hair, "but let's say first, Harry has to sit with me."

She pushed open the door of the carriage, and Luna dragged Neville through the door. The girls pushed their heads out on tiptoe, and interrupted after the brunette had just introduced herself as Romilda Vane. Leaving her behind, he asked in a rare non-trance tone: "Harry, Alice said that you can decide whether we have a DA meeting, so we rushed over to ask you."

She probably felt tired from standing on tiptoe all the time, so she stretched out her hand and pushed Neville away from Wan Ni, and pulled him to sit next to Tallus, looking expectantly at Harry opposite.Talus, who had been looking out the window, moved a little to give them more space, but he didn't mean to greet us.

"Hello." Romilda Vane greeted Luna, who was hugging The Quibbler, in an impolite tone, "I think my friends and I came to ask Harry first." .”

"Oh." Luna spread out the magazine on the table and continued to read, "Then you can ask now."

"Okay, let me introduce again." She curled her lips, but soon regained a confident smile on her face, "Harry, Talus, Neville, this is Romilda, Romilda Vani, We wanted to come over and fight for seats, but—hey, why don't you guys come to our box, where at least all the girls are...normal."

She lowered her voice as if she didn't want anyone to hear, but then took a quick glance at Luna who was wearing big glasses again.Harry forced a dry smile at her: "No thanks, we're more used to being with friends."

The girl pointed at Luna unabashedly: "She counts too?"

"Of course." Neville replied bluntly, "very good friend."

"Oh," said Miss Vanney, looking very surprised, "oh, well."

When she exited, she glanced at me at the door, threw her hair back and straightened her back, and led the group of girls who were still smirking and accusing each other away.

"They don't think I should be sitting here." Luna said in a singing voice, once again showing her ability to lift the pot without opening it.

"Of course you should be sitting here," said Neville immediately. "They didn't fight with us."

"That sounds really nice." Luna smiled immediately, and started humming a song with a weird melody that none of us had ever heard while reading a magazine.

Talus didn't seem to notice what happened in the box at all. In fact, he had been staring blankly at the receding scenery outside the window from just now. His slender fingers tapped unconsciously on the window frame, and his hair It was not tied into a small braid at the back of the head as before, and the loose curly hair was a bit long, hanging loosely, giving the illusion that he had just woken up.I was just about to ask him how he was doing, because the funeral came and went without saying a few words, Harry tugged at my arm and shook his head at me, motioning me not to disturb Talus.

"Still not well?" I whispered to Harry.

"Mom said don't force him to pretend that he's back to normal, as long as it's not too much, let him go." Harry leaned towards me and spoke close to my ear, and I smelled a very obvious feminine scent The smell of eau de toilette.I wrinkled my nose and sniffed carefully, and the smell really came from Harry.

"Uh, my mother was distracted when cleaning the room a few days ago, and used a large bottle of her perfume as a freshener to spread all over the room." Harry also lowered his head and smelled his clothes, "It feels like a fresh clean This magic perfume didn't work either, and I soaked it in water several times...is it uncomfortable?"

"It's okay," I smiled and stopped him from taking off his coat, "I think it smells good."

In the following time we chatted about the results of the OWL exam. Harry was quite proud of getting a "P" in divination. In his words, "I always thought I could only get a T. After all, I misread the examiner. lifeline, and told him you should have died last March."We all laughed so hard that even Tallus couldn't help curling his lips.Neville, by contrast, seemed a little anxious, getting an "E" for his Transfiguration, but he felt it was pure luck ("I didn't really figure out what was going on, my mind just went blank After chanting a few spells casually, the teacup grew legs and started running!”), worrying that I couldn’t keep up with NEWT’s class.

The weather outside the train window was changing from sunny to cloudy. One second, the sun was shining brightly, and the next second, the train might be driven into a cloud of fog, and there were a few rain marks on the window.When the sun outside the window peeked out from behind the clouds again, the topics of the boys turned around and returned to Quidditch, and they began to talk about the Quidditch captain's badge that Harry had just received, and the boys who had finished patrolling the carriage. Ron and Hermione just walked into the car. Ron looked very hungry, and he began to look forward to the dining car in the corridor since he sat down.

"Guess what?" Ron said hello to Neville and Luna, then turned to us and said, "It's weird, Malfoy didn't go on duty, we saw him talking to Slytherin all the time when we were patrolling." A few of his classmates are sitting in a box, and he never let go of this kind of good opportunity to show off his power."

I squinted, but Harry had already asked the question I wanted to ask: "What was he doing in the box?"

"Looks like he's bragging." Ron casually made a rude gesture. "It's not like him not to come out and bully the first years, is it?"

"Maybe he feels that the prefect can't satisfy him anymore," Hermione said. "When I was the leader of the investigation team before, I had the power of the chairman of the Boys Student Union. This gap is quite big."

I was debating whether to bring them up about the possible discovery of something on Draco's left arm in Madam Malkin's robe shop, when Harry said, "I don't think so, although you all say my idea is absurd— —”

The sliding door of the box was pulled open by a third-grade girl, who seemed to be trotting over, panting, handed over three rolls of parchment tied with purple ribbons, and whispered: "I——I'll take it These are for Miss Alice Snape, Ha - Harry Potter and Neville Long - Mr Longbottom."

"Thank you." Neville sat near the door and helped us get all the parchment. The girl blushed with shame, turned around quickly, stumbled and ran out of the box.

"What's this?" Ron asked suspiciously as he watched us take and open the scroll with our respective names written on it.

"Invitation." Harry frowned and turned to look at the scroll in my hand again. It seemed that the content was the same but the name at the beginning was changed.

Alice:

I would be very happy if you could have lunch with me in Box C.

your faithful

Professor HEF Slughorn

"Why is he back again?" Neville looked at the invitation in his hand in bewilderment, "Is it Professor Slughorn who was our third-year substitute teacher?"

"Oh, forgot to tell you." Harry shrugged. "He started teaching us Potions this term."

"What about Professor Snape?" Neville looked at me blankly, then his smile gradually froze, and finally let out a wail between panic and sadness, "No, I thought—"

"Sorry." Ron patted Neville on the shoulder, "We all got here like this, we have to accept the reality."

"It doesn't look like much to say no to." Harry rolled up the invitation and stuffed it in his pocket. "It's got to go, doesn't it?"

"You seem to be looking forward to it." I muttered, reluctantly standing up after him.

"I just thought I could wear the Invisibility Cloak." He took out the Invisibility Cloak from his bag, "This way I can take a closer look at Malfoy on the way to see if I can verify my guess."

But whatever Harry's guesses were, the corridors packed with people waiting for the dining car didn't give him a chance to put the cloak on.People kept turning around to pay attention to Neville, and even opened the box specifically to catch a glimpse of him. Neville was so awkward that he wanted to be submerged in the crowd. I think he should regret that he had grown so much during the summer vacation. Harry also got a lot of finger pointing.

We were not the only ones invited by Professor Slughorn to have lunch in Box C. There were only three seats left in the box near the door, and I saw a person sitting in it who I didn't want to see at a glance— — Cormac McLaggen.

"Mr. Longbottom! Mr. Potter!" Slughorn welcomed the three of us with his big belly tightly wrapped in velvet, and extended his hand to pat me on the shoulder affectionately, "Alice, I My boy! It's so good to see you, so good! Mr. Longbottom come and sit down! I have a lot of questions I want to ask you, but the Daily Prophet can't tell you anything, and you must answer it well Ask me a question!"

Neville looked back at the two of us pitifully. Slughorn's fat body and McLaggen's tall and thick figure occupied most of the row, making him seem to be trying to survive.With three points of guilt and seven points of gratitude, I sat in the seat closest to the door, and then I began to look at the rest of the people in the box, except that I recognized the tall black boy who was the same level as Slytherin. In addition to Zambini, there is another boy who seems to have never met face to face.

"Thank you so much for taking the time to accompany me, old man." After we all sat down, Slughorn looked around the box with a satisfied smile, waved his wand and handed out a napkin to each of us, "Ah, by a group of Surrounded by young people full of vigor and vitality, people will feel that they have regained their youth. You are the future hope of the entire wizarding world. Come, get some bread rolls. I bring my own lunch. I have never been used to the food on the train. , both smell like licorice wands—by the way, you all know each other, don't you?"

"We have introduced you just now, the three of you came too late." Slughorn blamed in a friendly tone, "Brace Zambini is in the same grade as you, Alice must know her, your father students of the college."

There was a moment of subtle embarrassment in the air. Not only did Zambini and I know each other, I almost hit him because he and Parkinson were rude in the third grade. Fortunately, Slughorn didn't force us to say hello, and he continued to point at Michaela Root: "Cormac McLaggen, a year above you."

I nodded wildly after Harry and Neville.

"This is Max Belby." Slughorn leaned over and patted the thin, nervous boy sitting next to Harry, who gave us an unnatural smile.Slughorn, who sat back in the innermost compartment of the carriage, stretched out his hand and hammered his waist, and said, "Hey, the seats on the train are getting harder and harder, even if I add two layers of cushions, I, an old man, can't bear it—" —Don't be so prudish! Have some quail, Belby?"

The meal was wretched, and Slughorn tortured everyone in the room like a hilarious interrogator.People here are basically invited by Slughorn because they are related to some influential bigwig - Max Belby's uncle invented the wolfsbane potion (I heard that his uncle and his father Slughorn obviously became a lot colder to Belby after the bad relationship), Cormac McLaggen's uncle held an important official position in the Ministry of Magic, and he also knew my mother's immediate boss Scrimgeour, Brace Zambini's mother is a famous and beautiful witch, Harry's father is the new Minister of Magic, needless to say Neville, he is a great figure himself, I should be the only Laghorn was invited because of his favorite student.

Neville was the object of Slughorn's most attention during this dinner. He spent half an hour insinuating, trying to ask Neville more about what happened in the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic, and who was killed The "Daily Prophet" is right about the prediction ball.Neville kept his mouth shut and said nothing, just nodded or shook his head occasionally. Fortunately, Slughorn didn't think it was rude, but smiled and praised him for his humility.When the topic was brought up by Slughorn to the dead Mr. Longbottom, Harry and I felt that we should not let him continue to torment Neville, but obviously we lacked a tacit understanding to cooperate with each other. I pretended to be boiled potatoes Choking on the soup, he simply overturned the potato soup—a deliberate act for both of them at the same time, because Zambini was already sneering.

Slughorn, who failed to get any valuable information from Neville, turned to Harry with a little disappointment. He mentioned the interview about the truth about the resurrection of the mysterious man that was reprinted by the Daily Prophet from The Quibbler. But as soon as the topic turned to the Prophecy Ball and the Department of Mysteries, Harry insisted that he and Neville just fought with a group of Death Eaters. The nonsense made up by the group of sensational reporters of the Daily News.The next topic was a little drowsy, and Slughorn began to ramble on about his outstanding students in his teaching career, and talked about his slug club, which was loved by many students.It was not until the train had passed through a long stretch of dense fog that the red glow of sunset came into clear view that Slughorn finally tried to let us go.

"Thank goodness," Neville muttered under his breath. "Hey!"

He was deliberately squeezed by Zambini, Harry and he both raised their heads and glared at Zambini, but Harry seemed to think of something, and raised his eyebrows, which usually means that there was a sudden thought in his mind that he didn't have time to think about. - Sure enough, in the next second, he took out the invisibility cloak and put it on his body, lowering his voice and telling us to see you later.Before Neville and I had time to react, we watched a pair of white sneakers running quickly in the direction Zambini left (he had grown so tall that the cloak couldn't completely cover himself).

It was less than half an hour away from Hogsmeade Station, and Neville and I, who had returned to the box, had almost just taken out our school robes and changed into them when we heard the bell that reminded the students to get off the bus.Harry never came back, and everyone else thought he might have left us wrapped in an invisibility cloak and got off the train. After all, there was a huge crowd of people at the station, and many of the people who kept pushing to say hello to Neville were also eagerly searching for him. The figure, I look forward to him telling the story of confronting the mysterious person head-on in the fourth grade again.The conductor began to close the doors in the gradually darkening sky, and when I saw Draco jumping out of the middle and rear compartment with a particularly happy expression, I began to feel something was wrong.Harry was walking in the direction of the middle and rear compartment before, and he probably wanted to follow Zambini, but Zambini obviously didn't care much—Harry had been vaguely mentioning his love for him in the box before. Draco was skeptical, and it seemed that Hermione and the others didn't take it seriously. Could it be that he wanted to follow Zambini to Draco's box and something happened?

"Alice!" I lifted up my school robe and jumped onto the Hogwarts Express train. Hermione yelled at me from below with wide-eyed eyes: "What are you doing—the train is about to leave for London!"

"See you later!" I hurriedly waved to them and started running in the corridor of the empty carriage. I could only see that the group of Slytherins got off from the back carriage. When the floor under my feet began to tremble slightly, I let go of my voice and shouted: "Harry—Harry? The Invisibility Cloak is coming!"

No sound came back to me except the echo, and all the lights in the car were turned off.While shouting, I wandered around in unoccupied boxes, wasting a lot of time, until I saw the door of a box with the curtain tightly drawn, and when I opened the door and walked in, I was tripped by an invisible object for a moment.

"Harry?" I knelt down and felt the air until I came across a cool fabric, and it looked like he had been petrified - honestly probably the worst look he's ever seen , his face and mouth were covered with semi-dried blood, and his nose was red and swollen, probably from being beaten viciously.He spent ten seconds coughing desperately after I broke the spell, trying to get the blood out of his mouth, but the blood was still dripping from his unhealed nose, down his chin and into his neck.

"Don't move." I held his head with great difficulty, "Heal as before!"

"How do you know I'm still on the train?" There was a jerk on the floor, and I realized the train was about to leave the platform. Harry grabbed my hand and hurried into the aisle to find the nearest train door.

"I guess, because Draco's expression was so happy when he got off the car, there are few things that can make him so happy now, and there is only one possibility related to you." I answered honestly.

Harry muttered something I couldn't catch in annoyance, and repaired his shattered glasses.

"We've got to jump." Harry opened the door, the platform was blurred in a cloud of pearly white steam, but he could clearly feel the train picking up speed. "I count one, two, three—"

He jumped down lightly, and I hesitated as I watched the accelerated and reversed platform.

"Alice!" He spread his arms, "Hurry up!"

I closed my eyes and jumped down resolutely. I thought I would sprain my feet, but Harry caught me—the smell of his perfume was really strong, and the strong smell of blood on his collar couldn't be suppressed.

"Hey, you two." I just let go of Harry's neck in shock, indicating that he can put me down, when another person jumped out of the car a little ahead.I hurriedly took out my wand from the pocket of my robe, the steam began to dissipate as the train went away, and Tonks' gray-brown hair and haggard face appeared under the dim yellow streetlights on the platform. "Alright, I thought I had to go back to London and Apparate again."

A huge silver-white four-legged animal emerged from the tip of her wand, and quickly ran into the night. She stared at the Patronus for a while before turning to us, without a smile on her face: "I have notified the school that we have found you Don't let them worry. I was only on duty at first and found that Harry didn't get out of the car. I didn't expect Alice to get in the car to find--well, it's better not to delay. Put on the invisibility cloak so we can walk."