[HP Doujin] 1943

The evening of August 1955, 8 was extremely hot, and the air was stagnant and dull.

Claudia had just had dinner, and the nurse took Estella upstairs to bed in the nursery, and she went out alone into the garden, and tiptoed across a green dome, stretching a bit stiff from sitting. There was a surge of contented joy in my heart.

She met Tony Randall again in Paris about four years ago.By then she had graduated from Beauxbatons, had disowned her mother, was living in a friend's apartment, and working in Paris for a meager salary in a chain of wizarding robes.Tony is a big customer in the store, and he never asks the price of the clothes he likes, and they are all handed over to his assistant for packing.Tony didn't recognize her, but she remembered his pranks well.Once she measured Tony's clothes and deliberately pricked him several times with a needle. He frowned but didn't say anything.Once, Tony asked her to be his companion at a Ministry of Magic evening, and she said yes.She knew that Tony was a playboy, and the women around him changed like a revolving door, so she just wanted to play tricks on him that night.She stole Tony's speech that night from his pocket and replaced it with a copy she had written:

"Honorable French Minister of Magic, gentlemen from the Department of Transport, and colleagues from the British Ministry of Magic in France, good evening everyone,

It is my great honor to attend this banquet again to celebrate the new round of cooperation between the British and French Departments of Transport. Our two governments will continue to work together and cooperate wholeheartedly, so that the people in the magical world of the two countries will know that the Ministry of Magic the biggest idiot ever—”

When Tony read this sentence, he stopped abruptly, and the guests in the entire banquet hall looked at him in surprise. After a while, the reporters became excited and frantically took pictures of Tony, and Claudia sneaked away Gone, laughing so hard my stomach hurts.By the next day, Tony's "amazing quotes" made the headlines of major newspapers in Britain and France, and some called him a fool. The reporter of the "Daily Prophet" wrote: "Tony Randall is the only An official who dared to speak the truth to ordinary people, we should thank him for his candor and courage."

When she saw this sentence, Claudia was having lunch in the cafe opposite the clothing store. She laughed so hard that she choked on her tuna sandwich and coughed again and again, tears came out.While she was laughing wildly, someone sat down opposite her.

She stopped laughing and looked up. Tony, who was wearing a dark blue shirt, was sitting opposite her, looking at her with his legs crossed.

"So you are Claudia Stuart?" he said. "We seem to have met each other many years ago. Does this successful deliberate revenge please you?"

"No," said Claudia, wiping her mouth with a napkin, and standing up, "I feel very sad and sympathetic to see you discredited and called the greatest idiot in history by the newspapers of two countries."

Tony stood up and followed her to the door of the cafe, while making an expression of sudden realization: "It turns out that the way someone expresses sadness and sympathy is to laugh."

"Yeah," Claudia said, and she started laughing again at the glint of sullenness in Tony's eyes.

When they walked to the door and were about to cross the road, Tony suddenly put his arms around her waist without warning, bowed his head and kissed her.Tony's eyes were dark blue, the same color as the shirt he was wearing that day, his blond hair hung down on his forehead, handsome and dazzling, his kiss was not very deep, but gentle and focused, with a hint of love between his lips and teeth Light mint fragrance.

Claudia froze, defenseless, and Tony said with a mischievous smirk on his face, "We're even."

After speaking, he let go of her, got into a blue sports car parked by the side of the road, and drove away quickly.

Thinking of the situation that day, Claudia felt a burst of laughter in her heart.Later they became friends. Tony was a very reliable friend. After knowing that she had fallen out with his mother, he helped her find an apartment at a reasonable price in Paris. Later, they went out for a few times for a drive together. After going deeper, she realized that although Tony likes to enjoy life in various ways, he is not the kind of prodigal son she originally imagined.Tony once invited a large group of friends to visit Monte Carlo and invited her too.He was throwing a party on his new yacht, and while she was standing alone in the stern, he walked over, took her hand suddenly, and put a ring on her finger.

"Just the right size," he said with satisfaction, "don't take it off after you put it on, okay?"

She never thought that she would fall in love with this playboy who used to play tricks on her, but love is always so sudden and full of drama.She stood in the garden thinking about all this, with a sweet smile unconsciously on her face.

"What is a person giggling?" Tony's lazy voice came from not far away, and Claudia turned around and saw him walking from the lake with one hand in his trouser pocket and the other holding a bag of fish food come.He was wearing a white shirt and a dark blue tie, and seeing that he was still meticulously dressed in such hot weather, Claudia knew he had just returned from the ministry.

Tony let go of his tie, unbuttoned his cuff buttons and rolled his shirt sleeves up to his elbows, saying, "It's really hot, isn't it? I sent the housekeeper to get a load of ice. How's Estella doing today?" ? Are you crying again?"

"How can a child not cry?" Claudia said dumbfounded, only a man would ask such untechnical words.Tony put his arms around her waist, turned her around and pushed her against a smooth and straight birch tree by the side of the road. The scent of woody men's perfume and mint tobacco on his body instantly surrounded her.Claudia put her arms around his neck and said, "Elizabeth went back to Scotland this morning."

"Understood." Tony said, "You can also live with Estella in Stuart Manor in a few days. It's much cooler there."

Suddenly, there was an explosion sound from the direction of the valley, scaring Claudia to bury her head in Tony's arms.Tony looked up in amazement, and saw a green light apparently shot from a wand piercing the eastern sky.

Although this is a purely wizarding area, it is surrounded by villages, towns and beaches full of muggles. No one has ever used magic so recklessly.At first, Tony thought it was the drunk Frenchmen who were making trouble, but soon he realized that something was wrong. There were four or five loud explosions together with the sound of bricks and stones collapsing, and thick black smoke billowed up In the sky, bright flames rose into the sky not far away, and there were several terrifying screams from the house.

"Estella!" Claudia came back to her senses, and her first reaction was to yell like this, and rushed towards the house with her skirt in hand.

"Mr. Randall!" The maid's voice came from the house in a panic, "Ms. Randall! There is a war in the valley!"

The living room window facing the road was full of gunpowder smoke, the garden in front of the house was charred, the mermaid sculpture was blown to pieces, and the driveway was flooded with water from the fountain.The hood of Tony's Mercedes was also shattered and caught fire, and several footmen rushed up, spraying water from the tip of their wands, trying to extinguish the fire.

The nurse and the nurse ran down the stairs with Estella, and the whole house was in a mess.Some of the servants were terrified and wanted to Apparate away as soon as they reached the door, but the air in Bernard's Valley seemed to become an invisible wall, and no one could Apparate away.Even the Floo powder was useless.

The passage out of Bernard's Valley by magical means has been blocked.

"Damn it!" Tony cursed viciously, thinking quickly. These days, although he always knew that under the surface calm in Monte Carlo, a fierce battle was about to break out, but he didn't expect it to come so suddenly. And it happened in the Bernard Valley, and my family was still trapped here.In the end what happened?Why didn't Francis, or anyone else at the Ministry of Magic inform him?

At this time, the explosion stopped, and there were screams and crying outside. Other residents in the Bernard Valley rushed out and fled. The road was full of broken bricks and branches, and a thick pine tree fell down. On the road, lit by magic, green flames shot up to ten meters high.

Tony walked to the door and saw a burly figure in a black cloak at a glance.

"Sherwood!" Tony yelled, rushing across the lawn in front of the house, pushing past the charred fence and out. "Hey! What happened?"

Sherwood is from the Auror Office of the British Ministry of Magic. Tony knows him. Beside him is a tall Frenchman who has lost one eye and is covered with a pirate-like blindfold. When he sees Tony running towards him, He raised his wand high.

"It's okay, this is someone from the Ministry of Magic." Sherwood waved impatiently at the Frenchman, then turned to Tony, "Randall? What are you doing here?"

"For Merlin's sake, I live here!" Tony growled angrily, pointing to the house behind him and the messy garden in front of the house, "My wife and daughter under one year old are inside! Damn it Yes, what the hell are you people doing? Where's Stuart?"

Sherwood patted Tony on the shoulder: "I'm sorry, it happened so suddenly. We just followed orders. As soon as the leader of the dark wizard appears, we will launch an attack. Now we have successfully trapped them in the Bernard Valley Now we are organizing the residents to evacuate, the situation may not last long, you have to leave before the second round of firefights, and it won't be long before this place will become a sea of ​​flames."

"Where's Mr. Stuart?" Tony said. "Has he given you any direct orders?"

"I don't know," said Sherwood, "I only report to the Auror Chief of Staff. I don't have time to give you crap. Listen, pack up and leave if you don't want your head blown off. I'm going to check. The residents in front are gone!"

Tony cursed at his back again, before turning around and walking back.All the servants at home had almost run away, leaving only the driver, Mr. Edmund the housekeeper, the nanny holding Estella, and Karin, Claudia's personal maid.Everyone was shivering in the hall, waiting for news from him.

"Get out immediately!" he yelled. The Mercedes and Bentley parked in the driveway were already on fire and could not be driven. The horses were harnessed to an open buggy, and they drove up to the house.The carriage was very small, and the nanny, Karin, Claudia, and Estella sat crowded together in it. The driver drove the carriage, and Tony rode another horse behind the carriage.

"You leave first, I'll come later." Edmund the butler called from behind, "I'm going to lock up the wine cellar and the silverware."

"Never mind that!" Tony yelled over his shoulder.

But Edmund didn't listen to him, and the conscientious and old-fashioned British butler rushed back to the house with a wall that was scorched with a large bunch of keys.

"I'll definitely give you a raise when you get back to London!" Tony yelled at his back, and turned to chase the buggy.

Their carriage was blocked on the road several times. The long and deep mountain road, which was usually deep and quiet, now looked like a terrible road leading to hell, crowded with witches and wizards fleeing outside the valley.Men were howling, women and children were crying, there was now and then a flash of sparks and faint explosions from above in the air, and now and then there was a terrible flame in the forest by the roadside.

Some of them rode horses, some drove cars, some rode broomsticks, and some even blatantly flew over their heads on magic carpets that had been banned by the Ministry of Magic a few years ago.At the moment of death, breaking a little traffic regulations is nothing at all, they all try to fly as low as possible, afraid of becoming the target of the dark wizard hiding in the dark.

When he was almost at the exit of the valley, Tony breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that when he returned to London, the first thing he would do was to find Francis and eat him alive. He would never forgive him for not notifying him in advance!

The flat grass at the exit has long been a resting place for a large group of escaped wizards. Most of them are sitting on the ground, terrified, some are waiting for relatives and friends to pick them up, some are comforting their injured family members, and more has already Apparated and left.

Their carriage stopped on the side of the road, and Claudia straightened up in the carriage, and shouted palely, "Tony!"

Tony walked over on horseback: "What's wrong?"

"Estella has a fever, she has been asleep, and I can't wake her up no matter what." Claudia was so anxious that she was about to cry.

"Don't worry, I'll take you away right away." Tony said, looking up at the dark mountain road leading into the valley, "Why hasn't Edmund come yet?"

"Sir!" Karin exclaimed, "Mr. Edmund is here!"

A broomstick whizzed out of the woods, and Edmund climbed off the broom, panting, and said, "Mr. Randall! You won't believe what's going on...Merlin...it's Stu Mrs. Art, she's still in the house!"

"What?!" Tony almost roared, making Karin tremble all over with fright, "Didn't she leave this morning?"

"Obviously, she's back!"

"Take everyone to Paris!" Tony yelled at Edmund, using an unquestionable command tone, "No one is allowed to be injured! After arriving in Paris, use the entry and exit fireplace at home to go back to London immediately!"

"Tony!" Claudia exclaimed. "And you? Where are you going?"

"I'll be right there." Tony leaned forward, kissed Claudia, then turned around and galloped off into the valley.

"Tony!" Claudia yelled again, at this moment, a landslide-like explosion came from the valley again, Claudia and Karin hugged each other, curled up in a ball on the carriage, all Everyone screamed in fright, and the valley was on fire again. Bright purple flames shot up to tens of meters high, illuminating the increasingly dark sky.

Claudia jumped out of the carriage and grabbed the broom that Edmund threw on the ground. The heart-shaped face was pale but extremely determined: "Edmond! Take everyone back to Paris immediately, and then use the exit fireplace at home to go back to Paris." Go to London, don't delay for a second. Karin..." She looked at Estella, whose face was flushed in Karin's arms, with pain in her eyes, "When you arrive in London, send the child to St. Mungo!"

"Ma'am!" Karin cried desperately, "what are you going to do? You can't follow Mr. Randall back to that dangerous place!"

"He is my husband." Claudia said simply, taking one last look at her beloved Estella, stepped on the broom, and flew up, her thin figure passing by the burning forest, It quickly disappeared into the valley in the twilight.