[HP] Comparative

The first project is scheduled for the next evening.Harry realized he was right as soon as he walked into the tent that had been put up for the Warriors: there was a resigned look on all the contestants' faces, and it was obvious that everyone knew what the competition was about.Although he was prepared, he couldn't help becoming more nervous.

Fortunately, things were sort of orderly: Bagman gave them a pregame briefing, the Warriors drew lots, and then walked out of the tent one by one in the order in which the lottery was drawn.Harry was the last; the movement outside while he waited made him think wildly, and he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

However, after he really grasped the broom handle of the Firebolt, all of Harry's lack of self-confidence was swept away by the high-altitude wind.As long as the golden egg is a snitch, and the fire dragon is the opposite player... This is not a Triwizard Tournament, but a Quidditch match... He has to do it, even if it's just for a breath...

Harry pressed his broom and swooped down.Maybe he used some strategy, but he didn't really think about it, because all he could see was the dragon's huge head dangling along his flight path, dodging a sudden flame from time to time.The sound of the wind seemed to disappear, and so did the people in the stands; the golden light in the nest was flickering far and near in his vision, and all he did was to catch it——

Harry didn't regain some sense of reality until he fell back to the ground again.As he stood there clutching his broom in one hand and holding the golden egg aloft in the other, the audience's excited cheers suddenly became deafening.His arm may have been cut a cut or two by a Hungarian Horntail's backsting: but who cares now?

In the end, Harry achieved the same result as Krum, and the two tied for first place.No one could have imagined this before the game, and the Gryffindors were all crazy with joy.A group of excited people almost carried Harry back to the common room, and the twin brothers brought a lot of mead and food.The rave party started automatically, and Harry was so dazed that he didn't know how he got into bed.

In the early hours of the morning, Harry woke up thirsty.He stared at the crimson curtain for a long while before his consciousness gradually came back—he successfully got the golden egg; no matter how harshly it screamed after opening, the next project would be three months later.He blinked hard, and got up as lightly as possible.The dormitory fell asleep, and Neville's regular snoring echoed in the sky.He tiptoedly put on his slippers, intending to go downstairs to get some water.

Although Harry found himself top-heavy as soon as he stood up, he still managed not to make a sound that would wake the others.He walked down the stairs and found that the common room had been cleaned up by the house elves, empty glasses and food scraps were gone, only the students' things were scattered in a mess.He poured himself a glass of water and drank it all in one gulp, feeling much better immediately.So he poured himself a second glass and strolled slowly over to the window with it.

The season is approaching winter, the dawn is late, and the distant mountains still look sleepy.The dark blue sky is dotted with one or two morning stars, flickering on and off like mischievous eyes.The nearby Forbidden Forest was also very quiet, and Hagrid's hut was dark.Frost seemed to have fallen on the field, and there were patches of faint silver light.The temporary playing field has not yet been dismantled, and the top of the tarpaulin is also stained with fragmentary white spots.

Surrounded by the cold air, deep forest, high hills and the black lake, Hogwarts is half asleep and half awake, with a unique charm.

Harry swallowed heavily, unable to believe that he was thinking about how to escape from school yesterday.What is a fire dragon, he thought casually, he can definitely deal with another...

Suddenly, a black shadow flashed by the edge of the forest.Harry thought he was dazzled and couldn't help rubbing his eyes.When he looked over again, the bushes moved again.He straightened his back suddenly, lay down on the glass, held his breath, and stared at that place with all his attention.Something must have come out, but he couldn't see anything...

Can't see anything?

Harry quickly put the glass away, turned around and ran upstairs.He used his fastest speed, and less than a minute had passed when he dug out the Marauder's Map from the box under the bed.As soon as he spread out the map on the bed, he frantically searched for it in the field——

At this time, there should be no one there; there is indeed no one on it, only a small dot marked Tom Riddle entered the castle through the gate.

It moved very fast, as if flying around the castle on a broomstick, and Harry had to concentrate all his attention not to lose track of it.Then he discovered that the opponent's route did not go through the corridor at all, but passed through the wall like a ghost, otherwise it would not be possible to reach the same position on the second floor from the first floor all at once.Finally, the spot turned into the ladies' room and came to a solid stop.

Just when Harry began to think about whether it was too late to go down and block people, it turned outward again and left quickly.

Not to mention guessing why, Harry couldn't figure it out at all.what the hell is tom doing

This unsolved mystery became a thorn in Harry's heart.For the next few days, whenever he was free, it tickled him, reminding him of Tom's toughness when he ordered him to get the Triwizard Cup.

Whether or not Tom knew who named Harry, it didn't sound like a lie when he wanted Harry to win the title...

But I'm [-]% sure that that person is not Tom; I have to bother to remind Harry, wouldn't it be easier for Tom to sign up for himself...

Also, Harry suspected that the man wanted his life, and why did this anger Tom... "Is that all you can do"... "Better finish the dragon for me nicely"... "Don't just think about dying"...It sounds like Tom values ​​his abilities, and even his life, more than Harry...

If it was said that Harry had no way of inquiring into the tall boy's thoughts, the many doubts surrounding the women's bathroom had made him almost unable to hold back his desire to investigate on the spot.However, the right time is hard to find, after all, he doesn't want to be discovered by others.As an alternative to nothing, he checked the map from time to time to check Tom's location, but he never appeared near the ladies' room again.

By the end of the week, Harry finally came up with a good reason to say that he wanted to quietly study the clues about the second item in the golden egg.Ron had no objection, and Hermione appreciated it very much, so he left Gryffindor Tower with the golden egg in his arms.Although lying to his two friends made him a little guilty, he still proceeded according to the original plan——

Find a safe place to place the golden egg, and then wait in the empty classroom on the second floor, while wearing the invisibility cloak to check the surrounding situation.

After eleven o'clock in the evening, except for a few students, most of them went back to their beds.Convinced that no one was moving about on the second floor of the castle and the adjacent two floors, Harry slipped quietly out of the classroom and slipped into the bathroom.

He had never been in this kind of place before, and he felt that it was almost the same as the men's bathroom except that there was no urinal, the cubicle was bigger, and there was a faint fragrance of flowers in the air.He looked around, walked to the place where Tom had stopped according to the directions of the map, and when he looked up, he found himself standing in front of the sink, staring at the person in the mirror.

It's impossible for Tom to come here to wash his hands every time, right?

Harry couldn't hold back his slander, and began to carefully examine everything in front of him.The marble vanity is shaped into an octagon, with a large mirror on each side, a silver faucet and a white porcelain vanity.He didn't see anything unusual on it, and when he looked down, he didn't find anything.

But there must be something right...

Half an hour later, Harry had gone through all the compartments.He even climbed up the small stained glass window for ventilation, but still found nothing.

When he realized this, he almost suspected that he was too suspicious, but he was still unwilling to give up his guess.If there is really nothing, how did Tom come here?Tom is obviously not a person with nothing to do, let alone already twice...

Harry pondered, and walked back to his original position, staring at the clean countertop without focus.He must have overlooked something... maybe just wash his hands?

With a little luck, Harry turned on the tap.Clear water gushed out, but nothing unusual could be seen.Unwilling to give up, he turned on the faucets one by one.The increasingly loud sound of running water echoed throughout the space, but nothing happened.

How could this be... Harry was almost desperate.To prevent the sound from attracting Filch, he turned off the taps one by one.Just as I was screwing on the last one, the tip of my right finger suddenly touched a rough bump.He thought it was something stuck on the faucet, but when he took a closer look, it was a small snake-shaped relief, exactly the same as the one on the flag of Slytherin House.

How could someone carve a snake on the side of a faucet?

Could this be a faucet just for Slytherins?

Harry was puzzled.He didn't believe Tom would do such a thing, and the tall boy didn't seem to have any intention of being an artist at all.Besides, even if Tom did it, he wouldn't have to leave his work in the ladies' room, would he?

In any case, he couldn't figure out the logic, the snake-shaped symbol didn't respond to pressing or spelling, and midnight was approaching, so Harry had to give up for the time being, and returned to the tower in despair with the golden egg.Luckily both Ron and Hermione were asleep, and he was able to sit by the fire alone and rethink the whole thing.

There must be something wrong in the ladies' room; it may or may not have something to do with the faucet with the snake carved on its side; and if his first guess is right, there's a good chance Tom will go again...

It seems that if he wants to figure out the whole thing, there is one and only way——

When Tom went in next time, he waited inside in advance.

It is self-evident that the difficulty and risk of this matter are high, and the invisibility cloak cannot be hidden from Tom's eyes.But if he doesn't try it, how will he know it won't work?

After making up his mind, Harry immediately put it into practice.After he passed the first project, Lily, James, and Sirius sent him more things as a reward, including new clothes and candy treats.He picked out a few odd-looking magic objects and gave them to Fred and George, and asked the twin brothers to help him get the fifth-grade prefect's night watch list.They thought Harry wanted to be a prefect, and they laughed and laughed at him several times when they handed him the form.

With this, Harry, according to the arrangement above, paid close attention to Tom's movements during his night patrol, so as not to always find that Tom was either in the library or in the Slytherin common room on the map.One could imagine that a solo night watch would be a good time to do something sneaky, but there was no way Tom would be there on every night watch.He wants to find out some rules, so that he can seize the opportunity to wait for the rabbit.

However, things didn't go as smoothly as Harry expected.Most of the time, the little dot representing Tom Riddle moves at a constant speed in the corridor, patrolling at a moderate pace.Once, it sneaked into the library silently and stayed in the restricted | book area for a while.Another time, it walked down the same corridor three times, then disappeared, only to reappear in the same place after a long time.

Every three or four nights, Harry had to wrap the curtains around his four-poster bed and watch Tom, yawning and straining.But the other party never went to the Forbidden|Forest again, nor did he go to the women's bathroom again.He had no choice but to divert his gaze, trying to start from other suspicious places——

He quietly went to the forbidden book area, but the shelves were full of dangerous magic books, and he didn't know which one Tom had read; the corridor that was empty on both sides, he followed Tom and walked back and forth three times , nothing happened, let alone disappeared in place.

Harry had thought there were only puzzles about the tall boy, which he was sure to be able to solve with a little effort.But now, he had to admit half ashamed and half annoyed, not to mention solving the previous ones, he was completely helpless with the subsequent puzzles that popped up one after another.

——This is really a ghost!

——The whole body is full of riddles (Riddle), should he praise Tom as worthy of the surname Riddle?

From birth to now, Harry had never been so frustrated.It was a rare time for him to think carefully, make a decision before making a move, but his little patience had been completely exhausted in one after another.

Maybe Harry shouldn't be patient with the shrewd Slytherin at all: Tom bumped into Harry on the second floor, and although he didn't say anything at the time, he would definitely be careful next time.It would also explain why Tom went to the ladies' room in the early hours after the first project, when he was sure Harry wouldn't be able to get out of bed.

If it wasn't for thirst, he really wouldn't be able to get up...

Could he wait for Tom to act again until the second event started?

In other words, Tom also guessed that Harry was going to investigate from the night watch arrangement, so he deliberately avoided it; and Harry was not staring at the map at the time, so he didn't know?

The more Harry thought about it, the more he felt that the last possibility was very strong.If this is the case, the matter will be deadlocked: he can't spend every night in the women's bathroom on the second floor, can he?He still had classes, and Ron and Hermione were already wondering why he had dark circles under his eyes these days...

Just when Harry was getting more and more upset, Christmas was approaching.

The author has something to say:

Ah, wonderful Christmas, everyone who has seen my other Vauhavens knows~

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