[HP Doujin] 1943

I'm not the only one who noticed something was wrong with Margaret.

"She's in a bad mood, she's always sleeping during class," Ada said to me, "What do you think happened to her?"

I shook my head: "I don't know."

Actually, I know something, but I don't know whether I should tell Ada.I'm afraid I'll freak her out.Every few weeks for the past few months, two Slytherin girls would come into our dormitory in the middle of the night, hood Margaret, and sneak away with her.

I have heard that some of the oldest clubs in the school have such a tradition that they like to hide their meeting places, and newcomers to the club must be covered with a hood, and the old members will take them to the meeting until they Passed the newcomer assessment and formally integrated into this club.

I am more and more convinced that Margaret and Riddle are connected with some mysterious society.

Sometimes fate really does run a magical line, and you never know when a seed you inadvertently plant will germinate.If I had never inadvertently "sided with Mettle", then I might never have discovered the secrets of the Walpugett Order, and I would never have remembered the past that was dusty in the past.

As I said, Myrtle Warren was an extremely sensitive girl.Because of her funny glasses and misfit, she was always the butt of teasing for our whole house and even the whole grade.Not only did she not have any friends, but no one ever spoke up for her, and Olive in our dormitory was the one who liked to make fun of her the most.

I don't like girls like Mettle, and I'm not interested in being friends with her.I blew up Olive's beer bottle last time only because she happened to kiss Tony when I was in a bad mood, which made Ida sad.But in the eyes of a girl like Mettle who always thinks too much, I am her only friend in school.Therefore, after Christmas, she talked to me more and more, and brought me finger cakes made by her mother from her home.

"She's really kind, though she's stupid," Ada commented, as she and I ate finger cakes from Myrtle. Judging people is her favorite thing to do. "However, Lizzie , you have to find a way to avoid her, you don't want to be haunted by her for the rest of Hogwarts, do you?"

What Ada said was indeed reasonable. In the next period of time, I was already in a bad mood and always found various excuses to avoid going to the library or eating together with Mettle.But she didn't seem to understand my hint, and she really thought that I really couldn't get away because of something, not because I didn't want to get too close to her.

It was a cold snowy night, and I was wandering alone at the observatory.I sat on the top step and used my magic wand to lift up the snowflakes on the ground, gather them into big snowballs, and then slam them down on the field below.From time to time someone screamed loudly below, frightened half to death by the snowballs falling from the sky, and then cursed viciously.

My mood was not improved at all by this prank.

"Lizzie?" A cheerful voice suddenly came from below, "Why are you here alone?"

I don't have to look back to know who it is.

"Benevolent Merlin, can you fucking let me be alone for a while?! This is the top of the observatory, I have hid here, and Mettle can still find me?" I wailed in my heart, But I could only force myself to turn my head away, put on a smile uglier than crying, and greeted Mettle.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone for a while," I said.

"I know," she grinned at me, and sat down next to me, "Don't the students who come to the observatory at night just want to be alone for a while? This is the place where I often come to cry alone, I didn't Thinking of meeting you, it seems that we are destined to be friends."

She giggled at her one-liner, with the typical "Mettle" way of laughing, in the high-pitched, thin voice of a goofy ten-year-old girl.I smiled perfunctorily with her.She took off her spectacles from her nose, wiped them on the sleeve of her gown, put them on again, and said, "Lizzie, you have something to worry about. You have been so morose for months."

I glanced at her in surprise and didn't know how to answer for a while.

"Is it that obvious?" I said.

"Of course." She nodded, "Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't want to."

With a flick of my wand, I dropped another snowball.I cursed in my heart, hell, I actually had a desire to talk to this freak Mettle.But the things between me and Tom, Tony, and Margaret cannot be explained clearly in a few words, and no one can understand my troubles.

"If..." I said hesitantly, "if you feel that you seem to like someone, but his attitude is very strange. Sometimes he makes you feel like he likes you, but sometimes he makes you feel like he likes you." You think he doesn't want to see you at all, and he still hides a lot of secrets from you, what will you do?"

Mettle looked up at the snowflakes flying in the night sky, with a pensive expression on his round face.

"Forget it, you pretend I didn't say anything," I said, "you don't understand what I said."

Myrtle turned to look at me and asked, "Are you talking about Tom Riddle?"

I was so scared that I almost fell off the observatory.

"For Merlin's sake, Myrtle Warren!" I exclaimed. "How do you know? I never told anyone!"

"I don't know if you like Riddle," Mettle shrugged, sweeping a huge broom-like braid behind his shoulders, "I just thought the guy you described resembled him."

"Do you know him well?" I continued in amazement.

"Well," she shrugged, "it's not really understanding, I've spied on him."

I looked at her like a ghost, my eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets.This girl is literally the biggest freak I've ever seen.Someone once said that the biggest feature of our Ravenclaw college is that every three years there must be a mental illness, which is really true.

Seeing that I didn't speak, she continued to talk on her own, as if she didn't notice my shock at all. "Of course I didn't mean to spy on him. I'm not interested in boys with his appearance. In fact, I think taller and thicker boys are more handsome..." She said, "You know, from the first grade, classmates The favorite thing to do is to make fun of me. So, I have always had a habit, I like to find some places in school where no one disturbs and cry alone. Gradually, I also discovered one thing, I am not the only one Someone who likes to explore the hidden corners of the school. I saw a lot of secrets among the students, including things related to Tom Riddle and Sylvia Black."

At this point, she stopped, and I urged her anxiously: "Keep talking."

But Mettle seemed to hesitate, as if she wasn't quite sure how to structure the words that followed.

"Lizzie... I never told anyone else about it," she said.

"I'll keep it a secret from you," I promised.

Mettle bit her lower lip tightly, hesitated for a while before whispering, "I know the place where they meet secretly."

I grabbed her arm nervously: "Then do you know what their group does? Who are there?"

She shook her head, her expression became terrified: "I don't know, I really don't know. I've never followed them down, I dare not, it's too scary. They come late at night, I don't know Don't dare look out of the toilet cubicle, so I don't know who's there."

"Toilet?" I was shocked again.What a wonderful meeting place.

"The girls' bathroom on the fifth floor," she whispered. "If I were you, Lizzie, I'd stay as far away from them as possible. They're a horrible bunch."

No matter what I asked, Myrtle wouldn't say anything more, but I was also sure she didn't know anything else, so I decided to take individual action next.

Since I wasn't sure what day they were going to meet, I started watching Margaret secretly, but I either slept too deeply at night to hear her leave, or she didn't leave when I was awake , So, it wasn't until the end of March that I took a chance.

After Margaret left, I lay on the bed for more than half an hour before I quietly got up and slipped out of the dormitory.I found the girls' bathroom on the fifth floor. The door of the bathroom was wide open, and the bright moonlight fell in from the window, shining on the shiny floor and mirrors, and there was no one there.

I stood at the door for more than ten minutes before I boldly walked in, pretending to be a student who sneaked out for a stroll in the middle of the night, and strode into a cubicle.

I locked the stall door and sat down on the toilet lid, noticing my legs were shaking.Maybe there is no one here at all... I thought to myself, Mytel is a lunatic, I must be even crazier than her to believe her words, and came to this place in the middle of the night!

I raised my wrist and looked at my watch.It's one o'clock in the morning, and I'm going to wait here for an hour, and if there's no more movement, I'll go back to sleep.It's so cold in this damn place, I'm so sorry I didn't come out with a sweater on.

In this way, I spent an extremely torturous hour sitting on the toilet seat.Just when my patience was about to run out, a bright white light suddenly illuminated the entire bathroom, but the light was fleeting, followed by a smooth rubbing sound, as if something was moving.After the rubbing stopped, I heard a whoosh, followed by a plop, and someone fell to the floor.

I sat motionless on the toilet lid, holding my breath in horror.

"Damn it, you're crushing me!" a husky boy's voice complained, "Go away!"

"You're welcome, Avery," another boy said curtly, "get your thick legs off the broom, we've got to throw the broom down for someone else to fly up."

"Can't they take a few more brooms down?"

"Do you think the school wouldn't notice if dozens of brooms disappeared all at once?"

"If Malfoy could come up with the money he spends on robes every year, it would be enough for each of us to get a new broom," the boy said sourly, and I heard the sound of the broom being thrown.

"Malfoy? I think it's better to forget it. Don't you know that he can follow the boss willingly only because the boss threatened his sister Rosaline last year. Rosaline still has the aftereffects. When she walks, her legs are still Not coordinated enough."

"Didn't Dippet say that Rosalind fell off the broom by accident?"

"Do you believe what that old fool said?"

Then, the two of them laughed together, and one of them said: "Haha, if Dumbledore and Dippet knew that we had been picking up those scumbag students under their noses, I don't know what kind of expression they would make. "

"Shh, keep your voice down, I hear someone coming."

Then, there was a dead silence again.

I talked my body and looked out through the keyhole.

The backs of the two boys, one tall and one short, were facing my direction. The tall one was standing vigilantly at the door of the bathroom, looking like he was watching out for the wind, and the short one was standing in front of the sink—I gasped. Cold air, stretched out his hand to cover his mouth.

Where the pool was originally, now there is only a dark pipe left.

There was a swishing sound in the track, and two brooms flew out one after another.Tom Riddle and Sylvia Blake landed deftly on the bathroom floor and threw their respective brooms down the pipe.

"Others are queuing up, Rozier," Sylvia said to the short boy indifferently, "There are fifteen people who have been ordered to gather tonight. Have you brought the list?"

"Of course I brought it, of course I brought it." Rozier said in a repeated voice, and took out a piece of parchment from his robe pocket.

"Very good." Sylvia glanced at him coldly. "After counting the number of people, let them go. I will give you the time and list of next week's rally tomorrow afternoon."

"Good night, Miss Black, Mr. Riddle." Rozier bowed respectfully to them.

The two of them didn't talk to each other, just nodded coldly and walked towards the door of the bathroom.

"There's no one in the hallway, boss," said the tall boy standing at the door, "you can go."

Tom didn't thank him, but turned to Sylvia as if he didn't hear him, and said to her, "Don't call Rosalind for next week's meeting, but call Margaret."

"No problem." Sylvia said clearly.

The two of them disappeared from the bathroom door.

I don't remember how I got back to the dormitory that day, anyway, when I climbed into bed, I was shaking all over, and I was out of my mind for the next few days, and finally I did what I did in my life Most impulsive decision: I'm going to use Polyjuice Potion to transform into Margarita and sneak into the bathroom tunnel to find out.

Little did I know at the time that this was not only the most impulsive decision I'd ever made, but also the biggest mistake I'd ever made.Ten years later, when I still recall this moment, I can't help but think: "If I hadn't meddled in my own business, Tom would have faded away from my life, and I would have lived happily ever after with Francis." For a lifetime."

But this is also the most correct and brave decision I have ever made in my life.Because even when I don't remember him, I have a lot of courage for Tom that no one can imagine.

All my miserable life I have spent my whole life on his behalf.

******

"You go down first." Sylvia said coldly in my ear.

Somebody pushed me and I stumbled on the ground with my hood on and couldn't see.

Trembling, I climbed into the black hole, let go, and then felt a wave of dizziness - I began to slide rapidly, the wind whistling past my ears, until I was sure that I was a few hundred meters deep in Hogwarts. Underground, I just stopped.

With a muffled sound, I fell to the ground covered with plants.The branches of those plants immediately wrapped around my neck.

Three wands pointed at me at the same time, glowing fluorescently.I saw three tall figures with hoods, one of them stepped forward and asked, "Name, purpose, password."

I took a deep breath and tried to say in a neutral voice, "Margaret Randall, attend the rally. I forgot the code."

"Forgot?" A boy's voice asked with a hint of teasing.

"Yes," I said dryly, "I'm Margaret Randall. I'm a fool."

"You are quite self-aware." One person laughed sarcastically, lowered his voice to communicate with others for a while, then raised his voice and said, "Let her in!"

I bite the bullet, listening to my heart beating faster because of fear, and being dragged by two other people along the tunnel in the dark.

The real Marguerite is sleeping soundly in my bed right now.I gave her a strong sedative, turned into her and lay on her bed, and was brought here by Sylvia and a girl I didn't know.

We walked for about half an hour, and I already felt the pain in my knees, and the tunnel had just come to an end.Someone rudely took me a step back, and then removed my hood with a bang.I looked up and saw that we had reached an open area with a very high ceiling, like a spooky underground cemetery, and the cold water dripped down the stone cracks, making a terrible, continuous ticking sound.

I looked around, green torches were burning on the jagged rocks, the fire reflected in the black underground lake, the water surface flickered, emitting a terrifying light like will-o'-the-wisps.

A dozen people stood silently by the water's edge, all of them wearing black cloaks with hoods covering their heads.

Without saying a word, Sylvia led me to an empty seat, and then she left me and receded into the shadows.

In the dark and treacherous atmosphere, I felt a burst of unspeakable pain and cold.Just when I felt it was unbearable, a tall, slender figure appeared on the other side of the underground lake.There was a rustling sound around him, and everyone around raised their wands with their right hands, the tip of the wand flashed with fluorescent light, knelt down on one knee, and silently saluted the slender figure.

I did so, a little slower than the others.

"Good evening, Walpurgis knights [9]," said a deep voice.My whole body trembled, this voice was extremely familiar, yet extremely strange.This is Tom Riddle's voice, but it is full of indifference and prey that I am not familiar with.In my impression, his voice has always been polite, gentle and charming, even if there is a flash of coldness occasionally, it has never been so cold and biting.

While I was still in shock, a low, regular voice sounded from all directions, like a kind of church prayer, but also like some kind of heathen's evil priest--

Fortherise of eternal glory, for thy eternal glory,

Here we gather and take theoath: Here we gather and take the oath:

MyDarkLordinthehighest, the supreme Dark Lord,

My humble heart and soullies at your feet, my humble heart and soul lies at your feet

With my flesh and blood, with my flesh and blood

Inhyeternalgloryshallmysoulrest. My soul shall live forever in Thy eternal glory

After everyone recited this oath, which seemed to me to be very perverted, then Tom Riddle turned around and said casually: "We have nothing else to do today, only the formal joining of two new members. Who Today's first? Ah, I see, Cade Morris, a fourth-year Slytherin, extremely talented in Potions. Can you prove your absolute allegiance to me?"

A thin, flaxen-haired boy said in a trembling voice, "Of course! I will serve you till the end of my life!"

I heard several jeers from around me.

"I need proof," Riddle said grimly.

"I believe in your ideas!" Cade said excitedly, taking a step forward, "Only the true descendants of Salazar Slytherin are the hope of the wizarding world! You are the true heir of Slytherin! The realm of the dark arts, we need a light to know that we are in the dark—"

"Okay, okay——" Riddle lazily interrupted him, "I need proof of practical actions. Every newcomer needs to go through two challenges. The first one, which is the easier one , do you see a rock protruding above the subterranean lake? Grab this broom and fly up, then jump into the lake and show us your mettle."

As he spoke, he let out a strange hissing noise that made everyone cringe at the sound.I heard the rustling of some sort of gigantic reptile inside a gigantic black hole.

"The Great Guardian of Slytherin will join us tonight," said Tom Riddle slowly. "Don't worry, he won't open his eyes unless I tell him to. He's waiting for us in the lake." Alright..." He paused, and I was horrified to see a gigantic boa constrictor slid into the black underground lake in front of me with a snap, splashing icy groundwater at the foot of my robe.It took all my strength not to back away screaming.

Cade Morris did not move for a long time.When I felt sympathetic for him, several senior students around me jeered and hissed contemptuously, and a boy shouted: "Coward, why don't you go back the same way?"

"I'm not a coward!" Cade Morris yelled at the jeering boys, jumped on the broom and flew to the stone that was a hundred feet high, and took off his robe , Jumped off the cliff without hesitation.

A huge splash of water broke the deathly silence, and someone clapped their hands.The giant python lazily curled up in a pile, motionless.Drenched Cade crawled to the ground, trembling all over, with an ecstatic expression on his face.

"Now, someone will tell you what your next task is..." He tilted his head, and Sylvia Black gestured to him coldly, signaling him to stand behind the line first.

"The next one is Miss Margaret Randall of Ravenclaw." Riddle mocked, "Over the past few months, Miss Randall has expressed her sincere desire to join the Association. , she hopes to follow my belief to the death...whether her brother agrees or not."

When the last sentence was said, everyone burst into laughter.

"Go to hell, Randall!" someone yelled.

But Riddle raised his hand, signaling for everyone to shut up.

"It's time for you to show us your mettle, Miss Randall," said Riddle grimly, "don't be so afraid, I'm just going to ask you to jump off this rock, as a Walpurgis Si Knight, don't you even have the guts?"

I wasn't terribly frightened of the height of twenty feet, that's not the point...but that was the end of it, and I just gritted my teeth and walked on.

I grabbed the broomstick from the ground and rode on it.The cold air whistled past my ears, and I landed on the black rock.I walked forward step by step, trying not to care about the cold black lake water and the giant python entrenched by the water.

The soles of my feet were empty, my eyes were tightly closed, and I fell rapidly from the endless void, falling, falling——

But the icy lake water and the splashing water that I imagined did not appear. With the exclamation and the sound of gasping for air-conditioning from the surrounding crowd, my fall changed from a free fall to a gradual deceleration, and finally stopped slowly at It reached a height of more than three meters above the water.

I looked towards the shore in amazement, only to see that almost everyone looked as surprised as I was.

"How long are you going to pretend, Elizabeth Bradley?" Tom said in a calm but icy voice, looking at me without moving. "You really think a bottle of Polyjuice Potion can fool me? You Do you really think my men didn't notice you when you came to spy on us in the bathroom last week?"

"How did you find out?" I was so angry that I asked such a stupid question.

"Well," Tom chuckled, and took a step forward, playing with his wand in one hand, "When you were looking around at the door of the bathroom, the guard who cast the Disillusionment spell saw you. Oh, you Wouldn't be really foolish enough to think we wouldn't keep a guard in the upstairs washroom while we're meeting down there?"

"Also, you don't even remember the password?" The boy surnamed Rozier said sarcastically, "Knight Walpurgis would rather forget his name than the password! After we found you last week, the boss Ordered us to spy on you, so our Ravenclaw spies told us you'd come here in the guise of Margaret!"

"What are we going to do with her, boss?" another boy asked, with a hint of cruel pleasure in his tone, "Do her according to the rules?"

"Our huge pet should be hungry too." A strange girl said viciously, and glanced at the basilisk by the lake, several people laughed.

"Shut up, the basilisk is not your pet!" Sylvia said coldly.

As soon as they heard her voice, everyone fell silent as if they had been ordered, and stopped talking.

"Tom, what are you going to do?" Her voice was always so cold and indifferent. "Do you need me to do it for you?"

I can not swim.I knew that if he waved his wand, I would fall into the water and drown.

I closed my eyes, and the only sound in my ears was the dripping water in the underground cave and the hum of my own blood hitting the eardrums.

I'm waiting for the second fall.

fatal fall.

Ah, I feel that the spell that binds me is gone, the sound of the wind has returned to my ears again, and death is about to stretch out its arms to embrace me... I really fell into a pair of powerful and warm arms, in the midst of excessive I probably fainted a little bit under the shock of my heart, but I still have some residual consciousness. For example, I still remember my thoughts at that time: If death is really so warm and reliable, then let me die like this .

It felt so good, like dying in the arms of a loved one.

But... I don't seem to be dead, because I heard the voice of Sylvia Black. In my memory, she has always been so calm and restrained. I have never seen her lose control.But at that moment, judging from the voice I heard, her voice was a little close to hysterical.

"Tom! What are you doing! Have you forgotten the rules you set yourself? What the hell are you thinking?!" She kept saying, her voice became a little different from hers—there was a hint of madness in the hoarseness, like a It's like a woman trying to hold on to a man who wants to abandon her in endless despair.

"Shut up," said Tom coldly.When he spoke, I felt a vibration in his chest, pressing against my face, so real, so warm, so palpable.

There was a burst of shock and confusion in my heart, followed by bursts of joy and disbelief—he caught me.He caught me as I fell.

I don't know why, as if out of an instinct deep in my soul, I reached out and grabbed the skirt of Tom's chest tightly.

Tom hugged me, and walked towards the exit of the secret room step by step under the eyes of a dozen people at the scene.When they reached the exit leading to the underground lake, Sylvia yelled in despair again from behind: "Tom!"

He turned around slowly, and said calmly: "Cade Morris, your assessment task before becoming a Knight of Walpurgis was to bring Myrtle Warren down here. I want to kill him with my own hands." her."

He hugged me and walked forward step by step in the dark tunnel.In the deathly silence, he bowed his head and whispered in my ear, "I can't kill you, but I'll let you see your friend Myrtle Warren for your stupidity and die. I warned you that there is a price to be paid for approaching me... my dearest Elizabeth."

[9] Knights of Walpurgis (Knights of Walpurgis), the predecessor of the Death Eaters.