cycle

I looked curiously at this crooked house built up to the height of several floors. Four or five chimneys protruded from the bright red roof illuminated by the morning sun, and two of them were spraying milk leisurely. white smoke.The sign placed obliquely in front of the house reads "The Burrow", and the gate has obviously been carefully cleaned, even the grass roots in the ground have been pulled clean.Two large potted winged bushes danced lazily on either side of the door, even though there was no wind blowing now.A fat brown rooster sneaked out of the fence next to it, and Mrs. Weasley, who was rushed out the next second, grabbed the wings and threw it back to the chicken coop.

"Oh, my dear." Mrs. Weasley is a kind-hearted woman, like a round and solid nut. She took off her apron and put on new clothes, she looked very energetic, she came over to me with a smile Shaking hands, he hesitated while looking at my expressionless dad behind me, then said, "We're glad you'd like to come too, Severus."

Dad nodded slightly, his eyes had already passed Mrs. Weasley's shoulders and began to survey the figures in the room.It is very stupid to bring a large group of people together at this time-this is what he said to his mother until last night, but mother said that weddings are not stupid at any time, especially when it is like this. The act of concluding agreements with people becomes more and more precious.

"Liz should also go to relax, she has been bored in the house since she came home." Mom finally said, "I can only go directly to the ceremony in the evening, so you can take her to meet those friends in advance, Sev, it's for her own good."

Dad muttered something downstairs that I didn't catch clearly, and my mother's voice suddenly raised: "I thought we had reached a consensus on this matter, as long as she likes it!"

In short, on the second day of my adulthood, my reluctant father accompanied me to the Burrow to attend the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour at the request of my mother.Neville was secretly moved here from his uncle's house the other day, so members of the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix had no idea how many protective spells had been cast around the Burrow, and we could only Apparate to a nearby mountain Walk to the top of the mountain.

"It seems that there is no problem at present. I mean, since the mysterious man broke into the Longbottom's house yesterday, it means that he knows nothing about our previous plan, doesn't he?" Mr. Weasley hurried over and lowered his voice Talk to my dad. "They were deluded by James' fake news, thinking we'd wait until Neville was of age before transferring him."

"Potter can still come up with a useful idea once in a while." Dad snorted. "Polyjuice Potion—I brought some more. Mad-Eye's stock has run out last time, right?"

"This is Mr. and Mrs. Delacour." Mrs. Weasley stabbed Mr. Weasley in the ribs vigorously, telling him not to discuss the Order of the Phoenix in front of the guests.The blond-haired Mrs. Delacour looks so charming that she makes the whole crowded and small living room flourish. In contrast, Mr. Delacour, who is a head shorter than his wife, looks like an ordinary middle-aged man. A young man, he came over and shook my father's and me's hands affectionately, looking flushed from being intoxicated with his daughter's happiness.

While Dad was still dryly greeting Mr. Delacour, Mrs. Weasley pulled me aside: "Honey, I know this is a bit too much to ask, but as a parent I really have to ask you— Do you know what they're secretly planning?"

"Who, plan what?" I looked blankly into Mrs. Weasley's brown eyes.

"Harry never mentioned it to you?" Mrs. Weasley's disappointment was so obvious that she tightened her fingers on my arm almost immediately, "Merlin... I thought—at least she would reveal A little for you... Or are you lying to me like them?"

I thought Mrs. Weasley would continue to cross-examine, but the next second, she seemed to have completely forgotten the question just now, and smiled and pulled me to introduce Fleur's sister, Gabriel Dracour Er, I haven't seen her grow a lot in two years, and she is talking to her mother in French quickly, stretching out her hand to gesture at her waist and knees, it seems that there is something wrong with the size of the dress to be worn at the wedding.

"Alice, this way!" As I cautiously walked past a cake floating in mid-air awaiting the final decoration with nuts and decorations, I finally caught sight of a wary look at what appeared to be a window facing the backyard. Ginny, after nervously making sure Mrs. Weasley's attention was fully drawn to Gabriel's bridesmaids dress, mouthed exaggeratedly at me: "They-they-are-hiding-in — chicken — shed — inside!”

When I got into the small shed in the corner of the yard that exuded a strange mixed smell of chicken feathers and perfume, the few people whispering in the corner were startled, and Ron hurriedly grabbed a large handful of feed and sent it to Talus Sprinkled on the head, and pretended to say: "cough cough cough - we are busy working!"

I was completely confused, watching Talus' Clean Up spell accidentally spread to the hen who was leisurely pecking next to it, feathers were flying in the small space in an instant, Hermione quickly pulled out her wand to make amends.After we choked and I finally found an overturned pot and sat down, I asked, "What's going on here?"

"It's not because of my mother." Ron held his chin sadly, "She made up her mind not to give us any chance to stay together to discuss things, and found all kinds of messy things for us to do. We finally It's just sitting together under the cover of Fred and Ginny!"

"So you are really discussing something?" I glanced at Harry who put his hands on my shoulders, and then at Neville who smiled shyly at me, "What are you holding in your hands? "

"Dumbledore's will." Seemingly pleased that my attention had been distracted, Harry pulled a round golden ball from his pocket and placed it in my palm, before its golden wings just started He deftly controlled it in the palm of his hand while waving it, "He left me a golden snitch, Hermione a copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", and Ron a Deluminator."

"In his will, he intended to leave the sword of Gryffindor to me, but this request was rejected by those guys from the Hogwarts school board. Mr. Potter fought for a long time and they still insisted that it was the property of the school. It can't be left to Dumbledore's disposal." Neville took a deep breath, "We were just discussing why he left us these things."

"Then I said that Dumbledore didn't leave me anything because he knew that I liked to lose things." Talus snapped his fingers, "We all think that there must be some cipher text in that story book , but Hermione looked over and over for days and couldn't see anything."

"There must be "The Tales of Beedle the Poet" in the school library." I don't understand why they seem to be at a loss, "When we return to school, we will compare the various versions, and we should be able to find them easily. different."

The expressions of the few of them immediately became weird. Hermione, who was the first to show restlessness, was the first to stand up: "Mrs. Weasley asked me to take a final count of the guest list and seating chart!"

"I'll go with you." Because of his height, Ron bumped into the ceiling when he stood up. "If she finds out that something is wrong in the afternoon, she will definitely kill us."

"I'll help too." Neville hurriedly followed, and finally Tallus patted Harry on the shoulder, left a look that was meaningful or full of sympathy, and left. In the sweltering chicken coop, Harry and I were the only ones left, and a few fat chickens were circling around our feet looking for plump wheat grains.

"It's a nice day today, isn't it?" Harry stretched out his hand to press down the wild black hair on his head. "The sun is shining and it's suitable for a wedding."

"What are you planning?" I asked directly (trying to suppress the desire to fold my arms and the aggressiveness in my tone). "A plan that I don't know about?"

"There's a reason we didn't tell you." Harry licked his lips and thought for a while before speaking: "After all, Snape—your father, telling you is equivalent to telling him, he knows the whole The Order of the Phoenix also knows it, just like the DA back then... adults will definitely think that we are still children and that we have insufficient qualifications. Even if we are all adults, they still think that we should hide behind them and obediently complete all our studies— —”

"You don't plan to finish your studies?" My eyes widened, and I raised my voice unconsciously. "You plan to drop out of Hogwarts—and you haven't told me?"

"Don't be angry, don't be angry, Alice." Harry dragged the broken flower pot he was sitting on and moved closer to me, trying to wrap his arms around my shoulders, "As I said, we are thinking of your father, so I never told—”

"Then I should really thank you for not asking me to look around at King's Cross Station or the Hogwarts Express for where you are going!" I looked into Harry's dark brown eyes, "Then I guess this plan starts from scratch. I didn’t exist in the end, did I? Otherwise, more than a month would have passed, and the letters sent to me didn’t mention a word... What makes you stay here? I think, it’s because You and Neville just came of age yesterday, before that, no matter where you secretly go, as long as the Ministry of Magic is willing, you can find traces on the underage wizards—”

"Alice—"

"—Today is Bill and Fleur's wedding. Mrs. Weasley must be very reluctant to let Ron go with you. Feeling guilty, you decided to delay another day, and you just use this day to explain to me who attended the wedding. , so that even if my father notices it, he won't have much time to stop your actions... You came up with such a thorough plan, right?"

For a while, the small space fell into silence, only Fat Chicken's cuckoo and my panting aggravated by the long series of excited words could be heard.

"Yes." After a long time, Harry replied, "Since Dumbledore's death... Neville and I have been planning this matter. At first we thought he would be taken to live with me, but Dad thought that Voldemort— —Don't shudder, Alice, if we don't even have the courage to call him by his name, how can we possibly kill him--Dad thought he would think the same, so he released a transfer at the Ministry of Magic on the night of Neville's coming of age. The news of his arrival in Godric's Hollow secretly transferred Neville here in advance. The price was that Uncle Neville's house and my house were destroyed, but it was nothing compared to Neville's safety—they rushed Take a moment, yesterday Neville felt Voldemort's panic, and the time left for us is very tight."

"You plan... to kill him?" My voice began to tremble unconsciously.

Harry took a deep breath and held my hand: "Yes, this is what Dumbledore told us. Neville and I must complete it... and it can only be done by Neville and me."

"But you're still going to take Ron, Hermione, and Tallus with you," I said, "otherwise Mrs. Weasley wouldn't be so excited, and since they can help, so can I, just like when I was with you— "

"Alice," Harry sighed, "we're not going to a picnic."

"I'm not a six-year-old drooling kid in a dress!" I raised my voice again, and pointed my finger at the thin scar on his forehead, "When I was controlled by Lestrange I can even beat you all by myself! I have enough ability—”

"That's not what I meant," said Harry hastily, "I never thought you'd hold us back, I was just thinking, these days I've been thinking about what Dumbledore did and told us when he was alive... …why did he keep emphasizing last year that you don't need to know those things?"

I blinked my eyes: "He said at that time... I will understand his arrangement when the time is right."

"I think...he's implying that you don't need to leave the school with us." Harry frowned slightly and looked at my overlapping palms with his and said, "Dumbledore said that eggs can't be placed in the In the same basket - he's always planning for the worst, isn't he?"

I was stunned.

"I have an idea, but it's just a guess, and I can't even tell you now." Having said that, Harry lowered his eyelashes, "I hope I'm wrong. Alice, but according to my guess, you need Stay safe at school. If one day you hear something... Maybe it's the right time as Dumbledore said - he may have left you something at school, and you should be You will understand what we were doing before and what you are going to do."

"What news did you hear?" I unconsciously grabbed his wrist.

"I'll do my best...to keep you from hearing about that." Harry smiled, it seemed odd to be hugging in such a dirty shed with chickens and goblins scurrying underfoot, but when Everything around me seemed to fade away when I buried my face in his shoulder and heard his steady heartbeat. "Otherwise Slughorn will think I'm a liar who broke my promise, and I don't want him to describe me like that to his students in the future."

"That's not funny." I looked up to meet his eyes.

"It's actually not that serious." He stroked the hair on my forehead with his fingers, and said in a very brisk tone, "Hermione has learned how to use the Patronus to send messages, and we will definitely find a room with a fireplace —maybe one day you take a nap in the common room and wake up and see my head through the fire."

"That's so much to look forward to," I read unemotionally, still a little sad, but opting for a gentle response as he bowed his head and kissed me—if they really are after this wedding. We are about to leave home to embark on a journey with an unknown ending, and this may even be the last tender (romantic in a place like a chicken coop) memory between us.

"I'm going to try to keep my dad from our conversation today, I've been practicing Occlumency these days...don't know how it works," I whispered at the end, "but I want you too—all of you , I remember that there are still many places to get help, the Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts... We are fighting against him just like you, you are not fighting alone, okay?"

Before he could answer "Yes", Ginny coughed loudly from outside.I had barely come out of the chicken coop to clean the hay from my hair when Papa and Mad-Eye Moody turned across the orchard.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the huge white tents in the orchard had all been set up, and Ron, Fred and George stood at the door in neat dresses, waiting for the guests who came to the wedding.Hermione and I huddled in Ginny's room to help her check the bridesmaid's attire. Ginny was applying her lip makeup in the mirror while complaining about Fleur's picky and hypocritical deeds these days.

"She always felt that the golden dress didn't match Gabrielle's hair, and she wanted to change it to a bright red one—doesn't it mean that I don't look like a flamingo in a red dress?" Ginny angrily turned the mirror on her back. On the table, let's see if her braided hair is unraveled, "I didn't expect that she would really become my sister-in-law-of course, those words were very touching when Bill was injured."

"She won't live in the Burrow." Hermione frantically sprayed her hair with detangling spray. "I heard from Mrs. Weasley that they're going to move out."

"Naturally, why not let my mother serve her?" Ginny rolled her eyes, "I know I will have many sister-in-laws, but to be honest, I like you better."

Hermione coughed loudly and changed the subject. She changed into a particularly elegant lavender dress today, which made her look quite different.Mrs. Weasley was urging Ginny to meet Gabriel in a hurry, and the two of us continued to sit on Ginny's bed and look at the mirror in order to arrange the wrinkled skirt and crooked eyeliner.

"I was really worried you were mad at me," said Hermione suddenly. "We kept it from you for so long...you didn't know until now."

"It would be a lie not to be angry." I sighed, remembering how Harry told me after lunch that she had even altered the memories of the Grangers for this plan, making them forget that they ever had a daughter, "but than Considering the sacrifices you made... being concealed is really the most insignificant thing."

"Be sure to come back, okay?" Although it's not suitable for hugging after putting on make-up and finishing hair, we hugged each other tightly, and I smelled the refreshing fragrance on her hair and whispered, "Everything will be fine, by the end of the day." We will find a way to restore their memories sometime."

"Yeah, it's hard, but there's definitely a way." Hermione's answer was a little choked up, "You have to be well, Alice, and we'll meet again without incident—there's bound to be that for one day."