[HP] Comparative

Actually, it didn't bother Harry for long.Because while he was trying to come up with a good reason, Hermione came back.The smile on Ron's face disappeared as soon as he saw her.The two obviously didn't forget the conflict that just happened in the auditorium, and they quarreled viciously.In the end, Hermione climbed up the stairs of the girls' dormitory angrily, and Ron was completely put down by her last words-"Next time there is a dance, you invite me before others, don't wait until you have no other choice but to think of me." !"--shocked.

Overall, it's been a really bad Christmas.Harry thought he had more conflicts with Tom, but the chances of him meeting Tom were not many; in contrast, Ron and Hermione did not pass so easily.Although Harry didn't like to see his two friends being unnaturally polite to each other and unwilling to be together, he was glad that no one kept asking him about the source of the wound on his lip.

On the second day after the festival, Harry finally learned what he missed last night—Hagrid mentioned to Mrs. Maxim that he was a half-blood giant, but Mrs. Maxim firmly refused to admit that he had giant blood, and the two broke up unhappy. scattered.

"This..." Harry hesitated, and finally chose to tell the truth, "Actually, I already knew."

Hearing this, Ron's eyes widened in surprise. "What?!"

Harry then repeated what James and Lily had told him. "Sorry, I kept it a secret from you," he said apologetically, "because both they and Dumbledore thought it best not to spread the word."

Ron had opened his mouth wide when Harry started to explain it, and he still couldn't close it at all. "You knew Hagrid's mother was a giant before you entered school, but you still like him so much?!"

Harry knew why Ron was so shocked.Giants have a very bad reputation. They are born to be violent, fierce and cruel, and fighting and killing are commonplace. "Hagrid is different," he said patiently. "At least my parents have a good impression of him."

Ron finally managed to close his mouth. "That's true, Hagrid is not harmful..." He said, shaking his head, "But how troublesome it is to tell..." After thinking about it, he said again: "I thought he had a particularly vicious one when he was a child." The Expansion Curse and the like..."

"Who else heard about this?" Harry leaned forward and asked with concern, "Mrs. Maxime probably won't tell it?"

Ron shook his head again. "I don't think so, she doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with the giant at all. And when I went back to the tower, she went back to the auditorium sullenly. As for the others..." He thought hard, "You and Li After Del left, Fleur left too, and she didn't want to stay any longer. Soon Hagrid confessed...I didn't see anyone else until I left."

That is to say, only Ron and Mrs. Maxime heard the secret.Harry was relieved, because James had warned him that Hagrid could get fired if he accidentally slipped the story, and he didn't want to see that at all.

That afternoon, Harry went to the library to do his homework and told Hermione about it.The brunette girl was no less shocked than Ron. She pulled Harry out before dinner time, wanting to know more news.

"...how did this happen?" She scratched her head in annoyance, "There are still giants in England! If this is revealed, it will bring Hagrid so much trouble!"

This is indeed the case, and Harry can only comfort her: "It's okay, Ron will definitely not say it. As for Mrs. Maxime, I guess she shouldn't take the risk of connecting herself with giants."

Hermione stared at Harry with round, sad eyes. "But the place is full of roses, you don't know if there are other people around! And I doubt Hagrid didn't lower his voice when he said that..."

Recalling Ron's description, Harry had to admit that Hermione was right. "Can't we think of something better, Hermione?"

Hermione bit her lower lip tightly, her fingers twisted together, unable to relax at all. "Oh, I hope so..."

It turned out that Hermione's worries were warranted, and Harry's reassurance was too early——

During dinner, Harry receives letters from Lily and James.He thought it was yesterday morning's reply, and happily opened it; but before reading two lines, his face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.He glanced at the teacher's table again, and sure enough, Hagrid wasn't there.

"What's the matter?" Ron was biting into the cod cake, distractedly noticing the change in Harry's expression, "What's written in it?"

Harry folded the letter in twos and hurriedly stuffed the bread into his mouth. "Go out and talk." He whispered.

The reaction was so unusual that both Ron and Hermione put aside their problems for a while and speeded up their meal together.It was only when the three of them walked quickly through the empty corridors of the castle that Harry told the two of them what was mentioned in the letter——

The Daily Prophet features an article by Rita Skeeter.She pointed out Hagrid's bloodline in the article, and even found out information about his mother.

"...now everyone knows that Hagrid is a half-giant?" Ron groaned in disbelief, panicked.

Hermione was hurrying to read Lily and James' long letter.Because of too much force, her fingers turned white, and the letter paper was crumpled. "'We've sent Hagrid a letter, but I suggest you help us bring our support to Hagrid in person'... They also think something is wrong, Harry!"

It was so obvious that she didn't need to point it out. "They also said that Skeeter's slandering Dumbledore in the newspaper is not good for the job!" Harry said gloomily, still walking quickly, "Find a half-blood giant as a teacher—whether Dumbledore knows it or not, she will Can make up a lot of nonsense!"

"Let's go to Hagrid now, shall we?" After the panic, Ron confirmed, "Anyway, Dumbledore will definitely settle Skeeter!"

None of them doubted it.The three of them left the castle, almost ran down the hillside, ran to Hagrid's cabin, and knocked hard on the closed door. "Hagrid! Open the door, it's us!"

The cabin was dimly lit, but the door was locked from the inside.Hearing their voices, Fang Ya barked excitedly.However, ten minutes later, they shouted hoarsely, and the door was still firmly closed.

"Hagrid!" cried Hermione at last, "we know you're in there! Don't you even believe us?"

It was still dark in the wooden house, and there was no response.The three of them exchanged glances, realizing that it was impossible to make any progress today.They had no choice but to walk back resentfully, anxious and worried.

"Did you say Hagrid got your parents' letter?" Ron asked Harry in a low voice. "If he saw it, wouldn't he keep us out?"

Harry shook his head, with a heavy heart. "I don't know. Maybe Hagrid got it, but didn't read it."

Judging from the passive resistance they encountered just now, this is very possible.

"Maybe he read it, but that's not worth the damage he suffered!" Hermione quickly brought up another possibility, almost gnashing her teeth, "The letter also mentioned that Malfoy claimed that Hagrid's class was terrible, which had caused several Students were injured and maimed - how can Malfoy say that?"

Hearing Malfoy's name, Ron immediately took the letter from her hand, glanced at ten lines, and soon saw those descriptions. "'My friend Vincent Crabbe was bitten badly by a Flobber caterpillar'?" he read, looking utterly disgusted. "Flobber caterpillars don't even have teeth!"

"I just want to know how Skeeter found out," continued Hermione, her hair burning red with rage. "Could it be that Skeeter was lurking in the flowers? She never got Christmas." Invitation to the dance!"

This reminded Harry of something. "That's true," he mused, "and when did Skeeter interview Malfoy? The last time she interviewed Hagrid's class?"

"I don't know," Ron looked up from the parchment, and began to think desperately, "You mean when the list of warriors was just announced? But I remember Hagrid saying that Skeeter had no interest in protecting magical creatures. It's very likely that the interview with Malfoy was then..."

Unable to draw a credible conclusion, the three of them were very downcast.It wasn't until she was about to reach the auditorium that Hermione squeezed out a low sentence through her teeth: "It would be great if I was there at that time... I must find her out!"

"But we didn't know it was going to come out," said Ron, trying to keep it from being ironic or shirking responsibility, "and, if there were other people there at the time, they didn't necessarily know about it." The existence of each other!"

Ron might have linked Hermione's words to her distaste for his lack of observation, Harry guessed.But what Ron said was true, even if there were other people around at the time, they might not have been able to find Skeeter; unless they had Tom's ability...

Enlightened, Harry stopped abruptly.

Ron and Hermione were still walking forward, but when they saw him stop, they turned their heads in wonder. "What's the matter, Harry?" Ron asked, puzzled.

"It suddenly occurred to me that I forgot something in the library this afternoon," Harry lied, "I have to go back and look for it."

"Really?" Hermione stared at him, disbelief written all over her face.

Harry thought she was suspecting that he was trying to give her and Ron a chance to make up, but that wasn't the case. "Go back to the tower first," he said no more, and ran away, "I'll come as soon as I go!"

That being said, Harry still spent a lot of time on the sidelines.There were very few people in the library during the holidays, but as a star student, there were still several girls sitting on the other side of the bookshelf and behaving infatuated with Tom.He had to wait until the library closed, watching in the dark as Tom politely said goodbye to the administrator, Mrs. Pince, and left with the book in his arms.

The Slytherin common room was underground, and Harry planned to take a small path and block him before the first floor—after all, it would be extremely stupid to block a Slytherin prefect in an underground corridor where only Slytherins haunted, Not to mention that the prefect was Tom Riddle, the swaying Slytherin student.

But once again things didn't go the way Harry expected.As soon as he ran out of breath to the corner of the stairs on the first floor—it was the only way to go downstairs—he heard a soft voice behind him: "Harry Potter."

Harry froze, turning his head slowly.As expected, it was a handsome face, with a smile that was not a smile. "What a coincidence."

This was said so deliberately, Harry had every reason to believe that he was discovered by the other party outside the library door.Although it doesn't feel good to be predicted to act, but since he just wants to find Tom and there is no one around at present, it can be regarded as the same goal by different routes. "Yeah," he reluctantly responded, and at the same time encouraged himself vigorously in his heart, "it happens that I have something to ask you."

Tom raised his eyebrows slightly, evidently thinking it was odd that Harry had come to him so soon after last night's events and hadn't yelled at him. "Really?" He stroked the thick leather-bound book in his hand, staring at Harry thoughtfully, "I would like to hear more about it."

"Last night..." Harry braced himself and raised his head. As expected, he found that the other party's eyebrows were raised even higher, but he persisted. "When you called me away, did you see Hagrid and Maxime?" Does the lady sit by the fountain?"

As soon as he heard Hagrid's name, Tom's expression changed to "I see". "I must say, his volume is hard to be unnoticed." The tall boy smiled, no longer raised his eyebrows.

Harry very much suspected it was a pun.Moreover, Tom seemed to have guessed his purpose.The reaction strengthened his confidence in what Tom knew. "Is there anyone else around there besides you, Fleur, Ron and me, and Hagrid and Madame Maxime?"

"Why do you think I know?" Tom drawled back, as if amused by it.

Harry wanted to answer, and you didn't ask me why I wanted to know, so you already knew.But if he said this, Tom would grab the end of the sentence and ask him for a stronger reason, so he gave up decisively. "Could you please tell me? It's very important to me!" It must have been a cheeky request, but in order to help Hagrid, he went all out.

"'Important to you'?" Tom repeated softly, as if things were getting weirder. "What does that have to do with you anyway? You don't even want to hear me about the golden egg clue, But are you willing to beg me for something irrelevant?"

"Why has nothing to do with me?" Harry couldn't help retorting loudly, "Hagrid is my friend!"

Tom looked at Harry like he was looking at some hopeless fool. "Friends with a half-giant?" He shook his head in disbelief, stepping around Harry. "I should have seen that you really weren't picky about your friends."

Although the words were not spoken loudly or clearly, Harry suddenly realized clearly that Tom Riddle was actually a blood theorist, even if the other party never showed the slightest bit in public.In addition, Tom is probably hinting that he also strongly disapproves of Harry being friends with Hermione.

"So what?" He turned his head and shouted unevenly at the other's straight back, "I'm a half-blood wizard, but that doesn't mean I can't be friends with half-blood giants! Besides, aren't you a Muggle orphan yourself? ..."

As soon as he said this, Harry knew something was wrong—Tom suddenly stopped, and his footsteps stopped. "What did you say?" The tall boy turned around with extremely cold eyes.

Facing the viper-like eyes, Harry's whole body stiffened, as if his feet had been nailed to the ground.He wanted to say that Tom was also from a Muggle orphanage and there was no reason to be picky about other people's blood, but he shouldn't have leaked, he had promised Hermione... "No, nothing," he stammered, guilty as hell, not at all. Dare to look into the other person's eyes, and try to move back, "It's fine if you don't know, I'll go back first..."

But it was obvious that there was no way Tom would let Harry just run away.He changed his mind about going back to the common room and dragged Harry almost rudely into the nearest empty classroom. "Say, how do you know?"

Had it been another pressing question, Harry might have argued hard, and quarreled with Tom, blushing and thick necked.However, he was really irrational in this matter, so he became more and more short of breath. "It's really nothing," his eyes flickered, looking left and right, but he didn't dare to look at the person in front of him, wishing he could shrink himself into a smaller size, "I'm just too angry, nonsense..."

Tom snorted coldly over Harry's head. "Come on, you're terrible at lying," he said dismissively. "Don't make me do it, Harry."

Harry suddenly remembered the irresistible Legilimency by the lake, and Tom's confident look when he said that no one could fool him.If Tom glanced at his head again, no matter whether it was Hagrid or Hermione, he couldn't protect anyone... "I accidentally saw it in Professor Slughorn's office," he closed his eyes, "no It's nobody else's business!"

A long silence followed.Just when Harry was worried about whether the other party would believe it or not, Tom suddenly clicked his tongue. "That guy is really..."

The words were full of disdain for not doing enough to make things worse, Harry couldn't care less about anything else, and looked at the tall boy in shock. "How do you..."

"What about me?" Tom glanced coldly at Harry, seemingly unaware of the fuss about picking on his Head of House.

Harry choked.He knew he was helpless against Tom, but Tom acted as helpless as Professor Slughorn was against him.He admitted that Tom is indeed very powerful, but is Tom really so powerful...

"Since you mentioned it," the tall boy's slightly impatient voice interrupted Harry's thoughts, "I'm of mixed race."

"...what?" Harry was still thinking about Tom's true character and magical abilities, but couldn't react right away.

"You heard me, and I don't want to repeat it." Tom was a little more impatient. "By the way, this may be the only similarity between you and me."

Harry blinked, and blinked again.He could probably understand why Tom wanted to clarify his parentage—probably because the other party couldn't bear to be regarded as a Muggle-born—but when it came to similarities... "Of course a half-blood wizard can be friends with a half-blood giant!" He emphasized again .

Tom had that foolish look again. "Okay, anyway, that's your scope of making friends." He said mockingly, without losing his arrogance, "We can do our own thing."

Seeing the tall boy turn around to leave, Harry jumped up reflexively, grabbing his arm. "You haven't told me if anyone else was there then!"

"No," said Tom, pulling away without looking back—more forcefully than Harry thought, "if you must have an answer."

This was perfunctory, and Harry became even more anxious.He ran two quick steps, rushed over to block the door, and opened his arms wide. "Someone must be there, and you must know it!"

Facing the people blocking the exit, Tom sighed helplessly. "You know you can't stop me, right? Trying to provoke me isn't an option in this situation."

Of course Harry knew it was a threat.When the other party said "You can't stop me", his mind was filled with images of being unable to move and being nearly choked to death by the wand last night.This made him tremble suddenly, and after he realized it, he pressed the door more firmly. "Skeeter himself or Malfoy's?" he asked aloud, looking bravely into those dark eyes.

The reaction was one of obstinacy, and Tom's impatience was at last a little surprised.He looked Harry up and down, as if he had never seen anyone like Harry; or rather, Harry was such a fool.Finally, he raised his hand that was not holding the book, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you have to meddle in this business?"

"Yes," Harry affirmed, and immediately corrected, "because I don't think it's a big deal!"

Tom let out a long breath from the back of his throat, and dropped his hand. "Why don't we make a deal?" He proposed coldly, his expression and tone were calm.

Harry stared at him suspiciously, instinctively feeling that something was wrong.

The reaction was far from welcome, but Tom didn't care at all. "I'll tell you who it was then, and you don't meddle in my business—" he said. "What do you think?"

Harry didn't expect the other party to propose such a proposal, and was stunned for a moment. "What did you say?"

"Don't play dumb, Harry," Tom continued, "it's only good for you, not bad. You want to know who leaked Hagrid's secret, and I don't want a pair of eyes that will be staring at me at any time." Eyes. Fair and reasonable, each takes what he needs, isn't it?"

To be honest, the deal doesn't sound too bad.Harry really wanted to know who the leaker was, and it would only make it easier for him to stop looking for Tom's whereabouts on the Marauder's Map.But……

"I guess I can't do it." Harry turned his head stiffly to one side, and replied dryly, his voice like a mosquito.

After waiting a long time for such a response, Tom was surprised. "You can't do it? What does this mean?" He seemed to draw an inference from Harry's instantly reddened ears, and couldn't help being even more surprised: "You can't possibly still have any illusions about me, can you?"

This was said so directly that Harry's skin started to burn with embarrassment.

It wasn't that Harry wasn't willing to make things easier for himself, but it wasn't up to Harry to decide who subconsciously paid more attention to.If he could, he probably wouldn't have had to fight back sleep to watch Tom's whereabouts in the first place.

What's more, even if Tom has confirmed that his usual performance is fake, Harry's cheated and hurt feelings must not be weighed on the opposite ends of the scale with a leaker-they are not the same kind at all. thing.

In the end, Tom took the initiative to bring up the deal, which may mean that the other party treated Harry deliberately and roughly last night in order to make Harry completely give up; Promise to keep Tom's many violations of school rules secret...

Now, Harry was quite angry. "What do you think of me, Tom?" He turned his head again, stared hard at that handsome face, and growled angrily, "You never believed me, did you? Or you think I like a straight-A student Tom Riddle? I admit, I thought so at first; but even before the first project, I knew I was mistaken!" In fact, if they hadn't bumped into each other in the women's bathroom, he might have Not paying more attention to Tom...

Tom stared at him, his pale face suddenly becoming wax-like. "I'll ask this one last time, do you agree?"

This sounds dangerous, not to mention that the classroom is empty except for the two of them.Harry mustered all his courage, shook his head resolutely and was ready to draw|draw his wand.

"Then we have nothing to talk about," concluded Tom unemotionally.But instead of attacking Harry as he had at the lake, he turned and walked towards the other door.

Harry watched him leave helplessly.It wasn't until he was the only one left in the huge space that he realized that his body had been tense, and his back was covered with coldness soaked in sweat.

The author has something to say:

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone who is late~

And, the fourth article is added to the reading instructions of this article. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s recommended to turn back to the copy and have a look, which will help improve the reading experience~

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