[SSHP] End of life

"I don't want to dance anymore, thank you."

This is the No. 12 time Harry said this sentence at the ball.Everyone was dancing, loud, and the atmosphere was so intense that he was sweating even just standing still.Pretending to get a drink, he sneaks out the front door.The outside of the foyer was completely changed by magic, and clumps of low shrubs separated many private spaces.A magic lamp with soft light is hung above each hollowed-out bench, scattered here and there, and some people are sitting on it.The snow that fell the night before had not been cleared, and those bright red roses stretched out from the snow, swaying gently with the splashing of the fountain.

Harry walked around a large stone statue, unfolded the Invisibility Cloak and hid behind it.He dared not go any further, for his footprints would give him away.He climbed onto the base of the stone sculpture, stretched his head and looked obliquely ahead.Karkaroff and Snape stood behind a bush that was relatively taller. Karkaroff was talking about something with a frightened look on his face.His hand rested on his left arm.

Harry knew what Karkaroff was talking about without having to cast a Wiretapping Charm on his own ear.He wanted to tell Snape that Voldemort was back, they were in danger, and he wanted to hear Snape's countermeasures.But Harry didn't like Karkaroff at all. He knew that Karkaroff didn't mean to remind Snape.After Voldemort's fall from power, Karkaroff tried to escape the charges against him by the Wizengamot Wizarding Court by betraying Snape. Fortunately, Dumbledore was the chief wizard of the Wizengamot at the time, and he proved that Snape Pu served as a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix before the end of the war.But since then, Snape has been treated unfairly by the Ministry of Magic, Aurors, and even Harry himself, and Karkaroff finally left Azkaban by betraying his former companion.

The two began to move.Snape looked very impatient, and Harry knew that Karkaroff was trying to persuade Snape to escape, and Snape told Karkaroff that he chose to stay at Hogwarts.The irascible man waved his wand and blasted away the rose bushes while walking, and the figures of the students fled in a hurry.The hem of his cloak trailed in the thick snow.

Snape was clearly not going to the ball, he wasn't wearing his dress robes.The familiar thick cloak was not buttoned properly, and he opened it with his movements, revealing the same black robe underneath.Perhaps under the light, his complexion looked much better than the previous days.

Harry climbed onto the statue and stared at Snape, never having noticed that black could be so layered.Snape's scarf was a deep black, his robe a dull black, and his cloak a grayish black.The same is black, but the difference is obvious when put together.Karkaroff followed behind Snape. Compared with the two, Karkaroff looked nervous and shy, not majestic and oppressive enough, thin and not tall enough.Harry watched the two of them walk up the path, parting ways, and he thought again of Snape's solid chest and the incredible strength that lay beneath his gaunt exterior.

******

Soon after the ball passed safely, the Christmas holidays were coming to an end.Harry chose to stay in school during the holidays, but it didn't meet his expectations. Snape didn't inform him that the course would resume, as if the short extra-curricular study was over.One night not long after the class officially started, Harry took the Marauder's Map and the golden egg and sneaked into the prefect's bathroom.

Behind the purpose of seeing if the contents of the golden egg had changed, Harry had actually been wanting to use the prefect bathroom for some time.He misses the bubbles and taps that serve different purposes, and the size of the tub that he's comfortable with.When he saw the prefect's bathroom for the first time back then, his first reaction was that being a prefect is not bad, just being able to use the bathroom is worth half of the ticket price.After Ron became a prefect, Harry accepted his invitation unceremoniously, and they used this bathroom for a long time.It's a pity that there is still a long time before Ron becomes a prefect, and he still has no way to enter the prefect's bathroom openly.Of course he could hide under the invisibility cloak and eavesdrop on the password, but he felt that he really couldn't do this kind of thing. Only during this specific period of time, he took advantage of the last memory, was he able to sneak in smoothly.

Harry whispered the password to the statue and was delighted to see the door open - a password he hadn't thought Cedric would use.He walked in carefully, locked the door from the inside, and the familiar, long-lost prefect bathroom appeared before his eyes again.He walked to the side of the bathtub, and familiarly selected a few models that he had always liked from the one hundred golden faucets, then he took off his clothes and slid into the bathtub, sighing contentedly.

He has been practicing the head soaking mantra these days, and spends time in the library at other times, his body and brain are exhausted.Assuming that the second match was exactly the same as the last one, and the warriors needed to rescue their treasure from the bottom of the lake, he couldn't guarantee that his treasure would still be Ron this time.He cannot reveal his secret.

With the help of Hermione, he found the history of the Triwizard Tournament and studied the rules hard, but each tournament never had the same items.Just today, he finally deduced from a similar project how the cup selects the most important people of the Warriors: write down all the names of the people who are judged by the referees to be closely related to the Warriors on paper, and throw them into the extinguished Goblet of Fire , even if the cup does not catch fire, it can still perform its screening duties.Dumbledore wouldn't throw Sirius' name in there, and he wouldn't throw Snape's name in either.

He's been tense for too long.Until today, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.His little secret is safe.

Harry dived under the water and silently cast the Bubble Charm on himself.He intends to dive a few meters after the start of the race and then use the Bubble Curse, he doesn't want other people to see that he can do this.The spell was successful, and he unscrewed the golden egg underwater, and the song of the golden egg remained unchanged.He lay on the bottom of the pool-sized tub for a while, floated up to dry off, and get dressed.

Harry went out into the dark corridor and checked the Marauder's Map again, to see if there was anything wrong.Fortunately, in the picture, Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris, are still safely in their office. The castle is silent, only Peeves is active.Suddenly, Harry's eyes widened.He looks at the map.

A small dot moved around in a room in the left-hand corner of the ground floor - a room he knew all too well, Snape's office.But the little point's name is not Severus Snape, but Barty Crouch.

Harry stared at the dot.After school started, he heard that Crouch had disappeared again, and Percy was nervous and happy.But the time is not right.The last time he decided to use the prefect's bathroom was in the middle of January, and it was on a Thursday, not the second Tuesday in January.Could it be that Barty Jr. had been rummaging in Snape's office for days before he found out?Harry watched carefully as the dot moved around the room, stopping here and there.The little dot stood in the corner for a while, that was the cabinet where Snape kept the potion ingredients, after a while, the little dot moved to the wall.Harry knew it was the door to Snape's potions room.

That little dot stood there for a long time.Snape had put such a powerful spell on Harry's bedroom and potions room doors during the first term of his fourth year that Barty Jr. apparently couldn't open them.

Harry hesitated, thinking.Then, he still decided to go and see what Voldemort instructed Barty Jr. to look for.None of those Horcruxes were in Snape's possession, and there was no way Voldemort didn't know that.

Harry hugged the golden egg and tiptoed upstairs, trying to send the golden egg back to the dormitory first.He would never forget the loud bang and scream that woke up the entire castle the last time he accidentally fell into the stairs from the golden egg.He's trying hard to walk as fast as he can without waking up the portraits, and he's wishing earnestly that he's done delivering the golden eggs and Barty Jr. isn't out of the office so he can hide from Moody's magic eye.That false eye could see through his invisibility cloak.

He walked and thought all the way.His mind was too concentrated, which caused him to fail to catch anything when he suddenly stepped into the air.

It was a full second after the fall that Harry finally realized that there was a flight of steps descending out of nowhere in front of him. This step opened a hole in the middle of the corridor, penetrated several floors, and spiraled down to the cellar.The golden egg that he wanted to send back to the dormitory flew out of his hand again, and rolled down the long stairs. Every time he went down a step, there was a loud bang, like a big drum was beating.He staggered a few steps and grabbed hold of the banister to stabilize himself, desperately chasing down the stairs, suddenly realizing that Dumbledore was probably not joking about the toilet that only appeared to those who needed to urinate at five o'clock in the morning.

The golden egg rolled to the bottom of the stairs, made a final bounce on the ground, and began rolling and screaming in the corridor below.Harry pulled out his wand and tried desperately to silence the golden egg.The Marauder's Map in his hand was already crumpled by his grip. He glanced at the map, and there were two small dots quickly approaching him.

Harry re-wrapped himself with the Invisibility Cloak, and quickly hid behind a secret passage next to a statue.Fortunately, there is a familiar secret passage beside him.He peered out through the gap at the foot of the statue, the damned steps were gone.

Filch's angry roar was buried in the scream of the golden egg, and Harry hurriedly whispered the spell to mask the smell.The footsteps stopped, there was a click, metal clashed, the screaming stopped - Filch picked up the golden egg and closed it.

"Here's a clue to the Triwizard Tournament! It belongs to one of the school's champions!" Harry heard Filch say, bending down to look up, where Filch was standing with his cat.Filch held the golden egg in his hands, as if thinking about something.

"Peves!" Filch exclaimed joyfully. "You stole!"

He paced up and down the corridor, now and then jerking aside a piece of tapestry or skirting a piece of armor.Of course there is nothing behind.

"It's hiding, isn't it?" he whispered. "I'm coming for you, Peeves... you stole the clues to the Triwizard Tournament, Peeves... Dumbledore won't take it lightly this time." Forgive me, you dirty, sneaky, mischievous bastard..."

"Filch? What happened?"

Filch stopped and turned away.Harry pressed his face against the statue, crouched as best he could, and looked up.At the end of the corridor stood a man, and if there was anyone who could give Harry a backbone in such a situation, it would be this man: Severus Snape.He was wearing a dark green bathrobe with silver threads that Harry hadn't seen before, his hair was sticking to his cheeks—dry, not greasy, and his face was livid.

"It's Peeves, Professor," Filch whispered viciously, "and he threw the egg down the stairs."

Snape hurried upstairs and stopped beside Filch.Harry stared at Snape's bare calves, he had obviously been drawn out by the sound in the shower, and there was a good chance he wasn't wearing anything under his bathrobe, yet he was wearing those black dragons directly over his feet. leather boots.Harry gritted his teeth, afraid he couldn't help laughing.

"Peves?" said Snape softly, keeping his eyes on the golden egg in Filch's hand, "but it's impossible for Peeves to break into my office..."

"Was this golden egg originally in your office, Professor?"

"Of course not," Snape said sharply. "I heard a bang and a scream, so I came to investigate, but when I passed by my office, I saw a light inside, and a cabinet door was open. Crack! Someone's looking for something in there!"

"But Peeves can't—"

"I know he can't, Filch!" Snape's voice became stern again. "I have sealed my office with a spell, and only wizards can break in!" His eyes shifted, and he glanced at The tapestry that Harry stayed in last time, Harry was very glad that he didn't hide behind it this time, "I want you to come and help me search for the intruder, Filch."

There was the sound of crutches and prosthetic legs tapping the hallway.The familiar voice echoed in the empty corridor, and Snape stopped talking abruptly.Harry had a hard time getting his eyes off Snape's pale leg with an old scar, and saw Mad-Eye Moody limping into view.Moody wore his old traveling cloak over his nightshirt and used his cane as usual.

"Pajama party, huh?" he said gruffly, rolling his fake eyes around.

"Something insignificant," said Snape coldly. "Filch, give me the golden egg. I guess it's Potter's golden egg - only he would make it so dirty. "

Harry let out a silent roar in the tunnel.He washed the golden egg clean, and wiped off all the water stains to prevent it from slipping out of his palm.If it wasn't for the damn stairs that made it dusty as it rolled down and Filch held it in his hand for a long time to examine it, it wouldn't have a single fingerprint on it.

"Potter's golden egg?" growled Moody. "It's very important. Why don't you give it to Dumbledore?"

"Potter is doing labor service with me," said Snape. "Maybe by the time he finds out that his golden egg is missing, the second game will have started. Dumbledore can't do it for every careless student." Service—I just happened to be able to get this into Potter's hands."

"But as far as I know, Potter's labor service was completed a long time ago." Moody said in a sullen and persuasive voice, "and you and Karkaroff are old acquaintances. At the Christmas ball, someone saw You are talking to him in secret!"

Harry squatted in the secret passage, he had to kneel down in order to see everyone's faces up.He saw Snape's livid face grow angrier.

"Secret talk?" Snape's voice was low and cold. "You think I'll tamper with Potter's golden egg to give the trophy to Durmstrang?"

"Who knows? Snape, Snape." Moody's fake eye, which was always spinning around, snapped back after a horizontal turn of more than 180 degrees, and he stared at Snape, maliciously Chant, "I haven't retired yet, one of the jobs of the Aurors is to keep an eye on—"

"Spying on what?" Snape said through gritted teeth. "Spying on your own colleagues who have some old acquaintances with foreign wizards?"

"You know if it's an old friendship!" roared Moody. "I think some stains don't wash off, Snape! Some stains never wash off, you know what I mean?"

Harry was furious and cold.He knew that the Moody in front of him was not Moody, but Barty Crouch Jr. who had served Voldemort for a long time.stain?He meant either being a Death Eater or being a traitor.Did he say it as the real Moody, or as Voldemort meant it, or as himself?

Snape looked at Moody coldly, but didn't answer.His hands were still clasped across his chest, motionless.

"Go back to sleep, Snape." Moody sneered, slamming the ground with his cane.

"Give me the golden egg, Filch," said Snape flatly, holding out a hand. "The students of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are not sleeping in the castle, and Digory's golden egg is gone." No more screaming, the fact that he solved the riddle is known all over the school these days. That golden egg belongs to Harry, no doubt about it - maybe Potter is here, wearing his Invisibility Cloak!"

Harry's heart beat violently.

Harry - Snape blurted out Harry.The last time he was stuck in a panic on the stairs, he didn't notice Snape's address, but this time he heard it clearly.Many people called him Harry, but the Harry from Snape's mouth was completely different.He played over and over in his mind the inexplicably familiar pronunciation of Snape calling his name.

"This one eye of mine sees everything, Snape! There are only three of us in this corridor!" roared Moody, "but I'd love to tell the Headmaster how easily you suspect Harry Potter!"

"What do you mean?" Snape turned to look at Moody again, his face darkened.

"I mean, Dumbledore would be interested in knowing who was up to that boy!" said Moody, limping a few more steps towards Snape, "and, Snape, I ……very interested……"

Snape looked down at Moody thoughtfully.After a while, he slowly sneered and said, "Keep your interest, maybe you can successfully send someone to Azkaban one day? I'm going back to sleep." He stretched out his hand again, Successfully snatched the golden egg from Filch with a stern look and went straight away.

Harry watched Snape walk away, the hem of the man's boot dangling above his ankle.He had never noticed before that Snape also had his own dormitory, presumably the ensuite bedroom in the potions office was for him to take care of the potions that needed to be brewed for a long time.But Harry had never seen Snape go anywhere else, so his quarters must have been underutilized.He hesitated, wondering if he should run after him and tell Snape that the Moody he was talking to was Barty Crouch Jr.

He quickly dismissed his thoughts.This Snape was the Snape who hated him.He got along with him for a while by learning spells, but he still couldn't understand him.He didn't know what kind of reaction some of his actions would bring about, and he didn't know where there must be a certain boundary around Snape - Snape used a set of behavior patterns to strictly guard this boundary and never opened it, which led to Harry still had a lot to say and a lot to do.If he caught up, Snape would probably not only not believe him, but also confiscate his Marauder's Map directly.Two years later, he still dared to reason with Snape, maybe Snape would listen, at least he would tolerate it.But now, Snape didn't have the slightest patience with him, he wouldn't bother to listen to Harry's explanation, he would just give him a nasty smirk and tell him to get out.

The few weeks of getting along had allowed Harry to get to know Snape a little bit—this man was like a big moss-covered rock, which could always be slippery and hard if he didn't want to.

He crouched on the stairs behind the statue, concentrating on wanting a staircase that led directly to Gryffindor Tower.But this time the castle doesn't seem ready for him. Ten minutes later, looking at the Marauder's Map, Snape's name had frozen on the other side of the cellar, and Filch and Moody were back in their own rooms.He flashed the statue and walked towards Gryffindor Tower.This time he no longer dared to concentrate on thinking while walking in the corridor.

Whether to take the initiative to find Snape and get the golden egg back is a big question, Harry thought as he lay back in his bed.If he acted like he was panicking about losing something, Snape would humiliate him for being careless.If he showed he didn't care, Snape would humiliate him for being so sloppy that he didn't notice the drop.No matter which way he chooses, the old bastard has a million ways to adapt, waiting to add to his troubles.

Let it be fate.At last he thought desperately, pulling the quilt over his head.

The author has something to say: pay attention here.In the original English book, SS didn't talk about Harry, he said that the golden egg belonged to Potter, and the parchment also belonged to Potter.The humanities version was translated into Harry.I will use it.

Children who have only watched the Humanities version, if you noticed the two Harrys in the Humanities version and they were cute, you are right, it was me at the time, let's wash and sleep together.