cycle

"Harry... let him go." Just as I could only hear the sound of the waves slowly and intermittently in the buzzing of my ears, I finally heard other people's voices above my head, and I looked up and saw Bill Luna and Dean, who were wrapped in blankets with Fleur, had already gathered around us, and everyone had shocked expressions on their pale faces.Bill squatted beside Harry, stretched out his hand to support Harry's trembling shoulders, remained silent for a long time, and finally said, "He's dead, let him...leave in peace."

Harry couldn't calm down at this moment, the glasses on his face fell to the ground at some point, I bent down to pick it up, and the height difference between lowering and raising my head made me feel dizzy obviously.I don't think he heard or cared what Bill was saying to him at the moment.

"Where are Hermione and Ron?" Neville looked around and asked in a hoarse voice, "Where did they go?"

"I asked Ron to take her back to the house first." Bill said softly, still patting Harry on the back, and the latter's sobs were gradually drowned out by the sound of the waves due to exhaustion, "She'll be fine, no need Worry."

"Let Bill accompany him." Fleur came over and put her coat on my shoulders, and I realized that I had been shivering in the sea breeze, "I'll take you back to rest first."

"But—" I squeezed my black-rimmed glasses, still looked down at Harry who seemed to be completely isolated from his surroundings, and didn't move.Like Neville, his face swollen by Hermione has begun to return to the familiar look, but at this moment the face is still deformed and distorted by grief, and I want to give him back the glasses - there seems to be a scar on him An invisible barrier separates him from everyone around him.

"You have a fever." Probably because I was too weak, Fu Rong pulled me up without any effort, "Girl, think about it, he can't bear to lose you anymore."

"All of you follow me." She turned around and ordered in a strong tone to the others who were still standing still and weeping, "Leave him some space, it's good for him."

Dean bent down and hugged Griphook, whose face was covered in crystal shards, into the room. Luna walked over to help Neville, who was still clutching his scar, but Neville shook his head and told her that he was fine, so she came over to talk to him. Furong supported me from left to right.All of us dragged our feet slowly towards the shell hut by the sea, turning our heads after every few steps, and the dark shadows under the starlight seemed to have turned into immobile statues.

"He will accept it...although he has to accept it." Fleur sighed, and after entering the room, she took out a bottle of something from the apron hanging at the door, conjured a cup with her magic wand, filled it and stuffed it Put it into my hand, and said to myself in French, "Poor boy, he is still so young, I still remember seeing him for the first time, and sighing that the soil and water in England can produce such a man...Of course , I didn’t meet Bill at that time either.”

"What's the matter with your face!" I just started to lower my head to sip the smoking liquid in the cup, she suddenly let out an exclamation, she squatted down and used her fingers to peel off the long hair in front of my cheek, beautiful Surprise and anger were reflected in the pupils, "On the face? They actually treated you like this—on the face?"

"What's the matter?" Neville, who was panting on the armchair, asked with difficulty, "Alice, were you also injured by the shard of the chandelier?"

"It's okay." I hurriedly used my hair to cover the scar again, feeling that compared with everything that happened just now, this scar is really insignificant.

There was an unbearable silence in the hut, only Fleur kept busy in the kitchen, making the sound of tinkling glass and metal.She kept carrying trays full of various things up and down stairs, handing steaming bowls to us one by one and watching us finish drinking. Every time she passed by the window, she would stop and stare at the two little black people outside. point.

"Hermione is awake." There was a sound of footsteps upstairs, and Ron appeared on the first floor, "I want to stay with Harry, can someone help me go up and look after her?"

"Go." The not-so-spacious living room was crowded with a bunch of people who had just escaped in a mess. Fleur looked a little tired, and she waved to Ron while coiling up her silver hair like a waterfall, "You can do whatever Bill does." Do, give your friend a chance to blow off steam... Most Brits are terrible at comforting people, Bill is an exception."

"I want to go see Hermione." After drinking a whole bowl of potato soup, I feel warm in my body except my brain, and I don't want to sit here and be forced to repeat what just happened , so he tentatively asked Fu Rong, "Is it okay?"

"Oh, okay." Fu Rong was frowning slightly as she fed the bone spirit to the goblin, "That bed can accommodate the two of you, and you can sleep with her for a while."

"She doesn't know yet," Ron reminded me as I carefully put the bowl back on the hanging tray and prepared to go upstairs. Less likely."

I nodded to show that I understood, Ron turned around and handed Neville the wand in his hand, shaking his sleeves with lingering fear: "This wand just ignited my clothes, if I didn't find out quickly-- It doesn't seem to like me very much, you can take it first."

"Alice!" I just knocked on the door and walked into the room when I heard Hermione exclaim in a hoarse voice, "They actually rescued you!"

She was huddled in Fleur's dressing gown, her face covered with healing plaster, and she seemed to try to sit up but fell back onto the pillow.I sat on the head of the bed and forced myself to smile at her.She looked at me with wide-eyed eyes, as if trying to compare me to what I had looked like before—and easily spotted the scars on my face.Tears welled up in her eyes as she reached out and grabbed my wrist.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said through her sobs, "I knew you were there a long... long ago, and that you were suffering... I told Neville not to tell Harry what he saw— —”

"I prayed to Merlin every day at that time, hoping that you could tie Harry to you 24 hours a day with a rope." I interrupted her apology and said from the bottom of my heart, "We all know that you are Do what's right."

Hermione sniffled, looking relieved, and she continued, "You're back too, Ron said he saved Luna and Dean on the way, that's great, we'll find a chance to contact Talus later— —”

My heart was tightened in an instant, and I turned my back subconsciously, not wanting Hermione to see the sudden change on my face. Fortunately, she just woke up and was not as sensitive as usual, so she didn't immediately notice my strangeness.

"There is something outside the window." I stood up abruptly, pulled out my wand, and through the curtains, I could vaguely see a ray of light gradually approaching us.

"Looks like a Patronus, shhh!" Hermione sat up reluctantly, "Is someone sending us news?"

The light-silver raven landed gracefully in front of me—even though I had never met Papa's Patronus, I didn't feel the slightest bit of emotion when it opened its mouth and began to speak in his nonchalant tone. surprise.

"Mother is safe, please don't reply." After the crow finished speaking, it gradually disappeared into the air. It wasn't until Hermione reached out to wipe my tears that I realized that I had just unconsciously burst into tears.The joy of my father rescuing my mother was mixed with the shock of my friend's sudden death. It was as if two hands were tearing my head apart. I felt my face was numb and I didn't know what expression to make.

"Professor Snape's Patronus is a crow?" Hermione showed a puzzled expression, "Then our previous conjecture was completely wrong... We thought he was the same as your Patronus, both foxes."

"Huh?" I'm glad she found a topic of her own, so I don't have to sit here agonizing over how to gently tell her what happened, "What fox?"

"By the way!" Hermione exclaimed, "The sword, the sword of Gryffindor—did you snatch it from Bellatrix?"

"Hmm." I nodded, forcing myself to show my interest in this topic, "Is that the real thing? I heard from that goblin named Griphook before that the one that was transported from Hogwarts to Gringotts The sword is a brilliant fake, how could the real one get into your hands?"

"Before we thought it was your father who gave it to us." Hermione replied after taking a few sips of the hot tea I brought her. Destroy it. At this time, Harry thought that the sword of Gryffindor had been soaked in the venom of the basilisk, but it was impossible to go to Hogwarts to get it. Then one day, we camped and settled down, and Harry said they I saw a silver-white fox Patronus, which led them to get Gryffindor's sword at the bottom of a lake, and then Ron destroyed the Horcrux with the sword. Harry has always believed that the person who conjured up the Patronus is you, But both Neville and I know you've been arrested - so guess Professor Snape did it."

"Horcrux?" I've never heard that word before. "What's that? Is that what Dumbledore asked you to find?"

"Ah," Hermione covered her mouth, "I shouldn't be saying this in front of you."

"I think it doesn't matter now." The warm atmosphere in the cabin that I have no longer known, and the soft pillows and mattresses are making my eyelids begin to sink.This feeling is very strange. My body is exhausted and I can’t wait to fall into a dark and sweet dream in the next second, but there is still an alarm bell screaming in my mind. I opened the curtains, took a deep breath and turned around to continue talking with Hermione. I told her some of my guesses as simply as possible, "I already figured out why Professor Dumbledore would not let me know in the first place. Those things, he should have speculated about the current situation a long time ago-the mysterious man will threaten my father by taking me and my mother away, and will also use me to find out how much you know. Dumbledore succeeded, At least for now, the mysterious people don't know anything about your plan."

There was a knock on the door, and Neville walked in, his face still with an ugly blue color.He glanced at Hermione and then at me. After I shook my head slightly, he said, "Alice, I think your mother has been rescued. Just now I felt the wrath of the mysterious man, and he directly killed her." For a big tall Death Eater who reported to him about a mass breakout in Azkaban."

"Professor Snape has already told us the news with the Patronus." Hermione looked at Neville's expression and said suddenly, "This is rare good news. Why don't you seem happy at all?"

"You just told me about Horcruxes." Seeing Neville turn his face away in a panic, I cleared my throat to divert Hermione's attention, "What the hell is that?"

"An extremely evil device that preserves fragments of one's own soul." Hermione was still observing Neville and I with puzzled eyes, but she also answered my question, "Professor Dumbledore thought through investigation and speculation You-Know-Who uses it to ensure that he never dies—as long as there is a piece of his soul protected by a Horcrux, he can start all over again like this resurrection."

"So you found it," I said with a little relief, "and destroyed it, which means... wait, you just said, 'the first'?"

"Harry and I had the same expression as you at that time." Neville whispered while rubbing his forehead to resist Voldemort's emotions, "When the mysterious man asked Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, he said that he wanted to make a Horcrux. The soul is divided into seven parts."

"The 'weapon' that Harry took from Professor Slughorn before, is this memory?" My mouth opened uncontrollably, this shocking emotion washed away a lot of drowsiness and sadness, "Then It is that you are looking for seven Horcruxes and destroying them, and only the first one has been completed so far—”

"The progress is not that slow, but there is not much progress." Neville shook his head wearily, and found that Hermione had been staring at the tears on his face, so he quickly rubbed his face, "First of all, he should only have six Horcrux, although the seventh piece of soul is only a broken fragment, it is still in his resurrected body-probably the damage to the soul is the reason why he is becoming less and less human; secondly, Professor Dumbledore has destroyed a soul before his death. The ring of the mysterious man's family... His left hand was injured because of the black magic on the ring. He thought that the diary I pierced with the teeth of the basilisk in the second grade was also one of the Horcruxes, and then we destroyed it in a similar way Lockets—three left."

"The ring and the diary?" I repeated slowly, flashing through my mind the things I had forced myself to remember over and over again in the dungeon, and the things I had glimpsed from Voldemort. Chippaqi's cup and Ravenclaw's diadem?"

"How do you know?" Neville stood up suddenly, his thin and contoured face was full of surprise, "You shouldn't know this—"

"Uh, when the mysterious man used Legilimency on me, I peeked at some of his memories—at that time he lost control of his emotions and didn't notice it at all, don't worry." After seeing Hermione covering her mouth, I quickly Comforting her, "But I don't know what they mean when I see them, so it all makes sense, what I see is his Horcrux memories-but that's one less thing, isn't it?"

"Professor Dumbledore believes that the last Horcrux is the big snake named Nagini next to the mysterious man." Hermione added, with an eager expression on her face, "Alice, please recall carefully, Did you see—"

Her question was interrupted by the door opening, and Ron appeared at the door. He also gave me a look with red and swollen eyes, and I shook my head slightly at him again.

"What happened?" Hermione suddenly asked loudly, although such behavior made her quickly bend over and cover her chest, "You are all very strange—so many people have been rescued, Azkaban has been breached, We still kept the sword of Gryffindor, but I'm the only one who is happy! You all have... such crying faces! Ron told me Harry wasn't hurt, but he hasn't been here since I woke up , for God's sake, stop flirting, I've only been tortured, but I'm not that vulnerable—someone tell me what else happened!"

Except for the angry Hermione, the other three people in the room were stunned, you looked at me, and I looked at you.The two boys' mouths opened and closed, making them look like two washed-up fish starving for water.

"Hermione," Hermione's breathing became more and more heavy in the silence, I had no choice but to lower my head and hold her hand. I took several deep breaths but couldn't suppress the soreness rushing into my eyes, "Talus ……he……"

"Talus? Have you heard from him?" Hermione looked confused. "But why—"

"He..." I forced the words out of my mouth, "he died."

"What are you kidding?" The reddish color on Hermione's face due to anger hadn't faded away immediately, she froze for a few seconds, then immediately shook off my hand, her eyes widened and she blinked several times After getting down, he suddenly turned his head to look at Ron at the door, his voice trembling, "What nonsense is Alice talking about?"

"I said try to... be tactful." Ron sighed weakly, walked over quickly and took Hermione's hand hanging in the air, but she shook it off immediately.

"You are joking!" Her voice was as sharp as a kettle of boiling water. Although she kept repeating this sentence, tears gradually formed in her eyes, "You are joking... there is nothing wrong with this." Is not funny……"

"How is this possible?" Hermione wiped away the tears that rolled down her cheeks, and this time she grabbed my wrist herself, like a drowning Muggle grabbing a piece of driftwood, she was helpless Shaking my hand wildly, "We've lost contact with him for a long time, but, he—he hasn't been caught by the Death Eaters, and if he hasn't been caught, it means he's fine, he—"

"Talus should have broken into Malfoy Manor together with Mr. Black, and stayed in the manor for some reason but has not been discovered." I watched Hermione's knuckles so hard that they turned white and answered, the fingernails brought to me The pain is negligible compared to the pain I felt when I said these words, "He... wanted to save me and my mother, so he stayed. Since you just said that Nagini is a Horcrux, maybe... He was also looking for a chance to kill the snake. You were caught in the manor, you were tortured in the foyer, we were locked in a dungeon with nothing to do, he showed up and rescued us, and then at the end... when we Apparated together ..."

I couldn't go on, feeling like I couldn't vomit anything in my throat except the ache and grief that was surging in my chest.

"Bellatrix threw a knife at him... It seems to be the blood-sucking cursed blade passed down from generation to generation by the Greengrass family... and it stabbed him in the chest." Neville looked at the side of the curtain. He said softly, "Harry, he can't accept it for a while--Bill asked us to come back first, he said... Harry should have had a good cry when Mr. and Mrs. Potter died, let him today...for now Forget about other things."

Hermione gradually let go of my wrist, and she fell backwards as if she had lost all her strength. Ron quickly reached out and hugged her, grabbed several pillows and put them on her back.

"It's my fault." Every time she blinked, tears rolled down on the mattress in front of her, dyeing the light-colored fabric into a darker color, "I didn't stop him when he left, I should have stopped him , why the hell did I feel that I should let him do what he wanted... I—he told me it was okay!"

Hermione lowered her head and covered her face: "He said - he also asked me to tell Harry, and said that the next time we meet, he said -"

"Can't you tell her at least after dawn! It's not messy enough!" Fleur's roar came from outside the door, and she drove us out of Hermione's resting room aggressively, just as Bill comforted Harry. He bent down and patted Hermione on the back, "Okay, okay, take a deep breath—come and drink this, don't leave any aftereffects."

"She's so sharp, what can we do?" Ron didn't want to leave the door, and everyone looked extremely tired after a sleepless night.He scratched his head and asked Neville and me, "Did any of you see Harry's glasses? I looked around the road and couldn't find them."

"Oh, here I am." I wiped away the remaining tears on my face, took out the pair of shattered glasses from my pocket, and tapped them with my magic wand, "It's back to normal."

"It's also a wand given by someone else, why is your wand so docile." Ron muttered, he took the glasses I handed him, "It's almost dawn, I have to persuade Harry to come back for something to eat..."

"I'll go." He was right, a faint white light could already be seen on the sea level outside the window, and the dawn seemed to be coming step by step, but for people struggling in this world, The darkness before dawn is so cold, the footsteps of light are so far away, and the exhausted people can't even be sure whether it really still exists in front of them at the moment of falling down.

Some kids who knew Talus Black through "Modern History of Magic" sent me a letter after last month's serialization, saying that although they got the first booklet of this set of memoirs, they knew the beginning of the story. The brilliant boy was destined to die at the age of 17, but when I actually wrote this paragraph, they felt a little regret besides sadness, because I did not give this textbook as they expected. The hero in the book has a romantic exit like an ancient epic, and I can even feel that I wrote it very hastily in the last few paragraphs.

You are right, last month’s serialization until the last day of the deadline, I was still staring at a large piece of empty parchment, and the study room was full of crumpled waste paper.The loss of Talus was a blow to us that was too painful to describe in words. Hermione wrote to me a few days ago, saying that no matter how busy she was, she would be the first time since I started serializing this memoir. It took her three days to convince herself to open the package after she got it, except for the magazine from last month.

Finally, I dug out the first rough draft from the wastebasket and handed it to the owl, and then stared at the snow falling outside the window for a whole afternoon. It was not until my husband came home that I realized that I forgot to do it. Dinner, fortunately, he was very busy during that time, and he didn't have time to care about where I had written the story, otherwise that night, the two of us would probably be sitting in the kitchen together in a daze.

Death has always been hasty and unromantic.It is better to say that all the meanings of death except the word itself are given by the living and serve the living.For the dead themselves, they just ended their life at that moment. The countless possibilities, fantasies, and unrealized wishes of the future all ended at the moment they closed their eyes—even ghosts I don't know if there is really a bright and beautiful shore ahead of the road they didn't go down.

There was also interest in whether the bouquet of blue pansies on the cover of last month's magazine had anything to do with the blue pansies that were required of every guest at Astoria Greengrass' funeral.Astoria Greengrass is known to many people for founding the Rescue Society for Indiscriminate Wizards after the war. The symbol of the Rescue Society is an ordinary blue flower that can be grown in large quantities in Muggle gardens. Pansy, she has never explained the origin and meaning of this symbol to the public.

Most of the wizards who had been helped by her, whether they were pure-blooded or Muggle-born, rushed to the funeral scene from all over the world to bid her a final farewell. A blue pansy, because Astoria said long ago to those who later wanted to thank her for the help she had received: "When I finally die in the ground, please give me a blue pansy." Come and bless me with colorful pansies".

As for the story behind this, after the magazine consulted with the Greengrass family, they have agreed that Miss Nancy Green will write an independent article on the premise of respecting the facts. As far as I know, Miss Green’s interview and The data collection has come to an end, and it is expected to meet with you in another chapter as soon as next month.