HP Midnight Light

During the year John left home to attend Hogwarts, rumors of the oldest Prewett daughter began to fill the town.People got together after tea and dinner to whisper about the nine-year-old girl who still didn't show any magical tendencies. After a lengthy argument, the townspeople unanimously reached a consensus:

The eldest of the Prewetts, Cherie, is a Squib.

However, Xie Li has not yet reached the age for entering school, so no one in the town dared to sigh openly.

"Do you think that's possible?" Mrs. White quietly discussed the issue with her husband as dinner was being prepared.Mr. White, busy with bookkeeping, gave a brilliant answer:

"Maybe she's just dull, darling. Don't forget her real parents... who would have thrown the gardening spell out of the way?"

Yes, Cherie Prewett is not the Prewetts' biological daughter.In fact, she is Mr. Prewett's niece. After her parents died unexpectedly due to a curse, Mr. Prewett stepped forward without hesitation and decided to adopt his niece.Shirley's parentage was an open secret, known even to the Prewetts' three biological children, but no one disputed it.

Mrs. White was deeply skeptical about this statement: "Is the slowness of magic inherited?" She shook her head and put the steak into the cast iron pan to fry the thick fat on the side carefully. At this time, the doorbell rang, and Mr. White habitually called :

"John—"

Outside the door are Gideon and Shirley, brother and sister who have come to return the gobstone they borrowed from John.The Whites enthusiastically stayed on for dinner, and John took the Prewetts to his room to show them the new gadgets he had bought in Diagon Alley.John doesn't think those rumors will have any impact on their relationship. After all, Shelley may just be insensitive. This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened...

2.

Two summers later, the village of Ottery St. Catchpole was abuzz with a big news--in the summer, Shelley Prewett did not go to Hogwarts, as it was secretly expected. admission notice.The silence of the Prewett couple also verified the news.

One day when John was out for a stroll, he accidentally ran into Xie Li outside the church in the town. Although she walked hurriedly with her head down, John recognized the black hair at a glance: Xie Li was the only black-haired woman in the town. Girl, it is said that this is inherited from her mother, and it has become the best feature to identify Xie Li.

"Sherry!" John yelled. He didn't mean anything at first, but he just wanted to ask if she would like to come to his house and get a box of sugar quills from Honeydukes.But Xie Li lowered her head deeply and quickened her pace secretly. John caught up with her in three steps and two steps at a time:

"Gideon said you and Molly love sugar quills. I have a few more boxes. Do you want them?"

With her head down, Xie Li pulled back her sleeves forcefully, turned around and ran towards home without saying a word.

"Hey!" John didn't react for a while, he foolishly yelled at Xie Li's back, "Are you sure you don't want it? If you don't want it, I'll give it—"

"I don't want to talk to you!" Xie Li suddenly shouted at him in extreme annoyance not far ahead.John was surprised to find that she had stopped and turned around to stare at her angrily, and then he was bewildered to find that Cherie's eyes were filled with tears. "Go away!" She whimpered and turned around and ran, this time He couldn't catch up no matter what.

"She has been like this for a while." Gideon came out from the shadow of the corner, "Papa told me to follow her to prevent her from doing stupid things."

John reacted belatedly.

"Did I... er... offend her?" He asked shamefully.

"Recently, anyone can provoke her because of a trivial matter." Gideon shook his head, and John noticed that his expression looked a little displeased:

"What happened to you?"

Gideon shrugged: "Fabian didn't want to be responsible for watching her, so I had to do it."

John finally understood.

At this time, Gideon looked at Sherry's fading figure in the distance and sighed heavily: "Papa and Mom are considering sending her to Aunt Muriel."

"But it's not Cherie's fault." John couldn't help pleading. "Sometimes the townspeople talk too meanly..."

"Hey buddy," Gideon smirks, "she's a Squib."

Yeah, she's just a Squib.People think so.

John couldn't help defending Cherie a few words, but Gideon's negative attitude hinted at the Prewett family's unavoidable thoughts on this niece.

It was during this moment when they were chatting—

Xie Li, who was alone, was targeted by a few children in the town who discriminated against Squibs on the way home. They took Xie Li back to one of them's home by virtue of their numbers and beat and kicked her, claiming to "Arouse her witch potential".The girls pulled her hair, the boys spat at her, and they excitedly insulted the Squib girl for being a disgrace.

Until the hostess and hostess of the family came back in the evening and discovered his son's evil deeds.

Mr. Prewett was furious at this, and he rolled up his sleeves looking at Sherry's appalling face, and was about to settle accounts with the other party, but Mrs. Prewett stopped him crying.

The couple had a brief argument in the foyer, which ended with Mr. Prewett slumping down on the couch in resignation and lighting a cigarette.

Mrs. Prewett herded the children upstairs, and Gideon and Fabian sneaked out to overhear their parents' conversation.

"Send away", "countryside", "shouldn't have been in the first place"...

Later, during the winter and summer vacations, John never saw Shirley again.She was always absent when he visited the Prewetts, and it was Molly who followed Gideon to the Whites.

John didn't ask, but the news spread like wildfire: Cherie was sent to her Aunt Muriel, and the Prewetts paid a fee for her to go to a Muggle school. Li also very wisely stopped appearing in the town.She may be traveling, or she may just be hiding in the attic at home, in short, she seems to have disappeared.

But John's mother ran into Shelly once by chance.She said that she became introverted and strange, sitting alone by the river behind the town in a daze, and when she saw someone coming, she quickly got up and ran away.

The Whites sighed and talked about how lively and lovely Cherie was when she was a child, and then mentioned the accident that happened that summer, and then they were silent, as if no matter how regrettable Cherie's story was, it could not be undone.

Even at school, the three Prewetts pretended Shirley never existed.John tentatively asked at dinner one time, "Sherry—"

"Try this." Gideon interrupted loudly, placing a piece of lemon meringue pie on his plate. "It's delicious."

But John didn't expect that he would meet Shelly again.

The summer he graduated from Hogwarts, Gideon and Fabian invited him to their house for lunch.Then he was surprised and bewildered to see Shelly.

It was an ordinary summer day, and they were cooking together in the Prewett kitchen.Cherie piles tomatoes, sausage, chicken, onions, and olives in what she calls a "small town lunch."John thought the name was cute, and he laughed goofily, even though there wasn't any funny joke here.

During the meal, he dealt with the Prewett brothers and secretly looked at Shelly.He realized with some embarrassment that she had long since ceased to be the little girl he remembered following Gideon, she had grown into a young woman with jet-black hair and light gray eyes.When she stood up and asked John if he wanted some more lemonade, he knocked over the plate in a panic and was met with jeers from the Prewett brothers.

"I'm sorry." He explained anxiously, "Uh...I'm a little sleepy, it's summer now..."

In order to dispel the drowsiness of the guests.After dinner, Xie Li took him to her room to look at the paintings. John knew nothing about "Monet", "Van Gogh" and "Picasso".

At first John didn't know that he was in love with Shelly.It's just that John misses her after not seeing her for so long.He knew that Cherie would leave the town to live in the Muggle world after this summer, and he just wanted to talk to her more before then... But as the date of Cherie's departure approached, John felt that it was becoming more and more difficult for him to breathe.

He tentatively told the story to Gideon, anonymously, and he replied emphatically, "You're in love with her, John!"

John was taken aback by Gideon's words.But after he got home and thought about it carefully, he felt that there was nothing wrong with it.

To say, or not to say?Throughout July and August, John pondered this question.

He knew that he and Xie Li had no chance - first of all, she might not love him as much; second, his parents would definitely oppose it desperately.Who would want their only son to marry a Squib?That's impossible, absolutely impossible.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to not talk and leave everything as it is.

In this way, John put a lock on love, and the key was hidden in his heart.

One day in late August, the doorbell rang suddenly, and John opened the door to see Shelly.She stood there with an unhappy expression, even sad.John opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.

"Do you have any spare old suitcases?" Shelley finally asked.

"Yes. What do you want it for?"

"I'm unpacking. I'm missing a case—for my paintings."

"Are you going to London?"

Shirley didn't answer, and John saw a drop of water fall on the White's front steps.

"Stay here, Shelly," he said suddenly, and John felt drunk as he uttered, dizzily but clearly, the words he had been holding back all summer, "I love you, and maybe you'd like to What about my marriage? Or at least think about it?"

John can't remember what happened next.He vaguely remembered them all crying and laughing like crazy.What is the beginning of love?John doesn't know.

The next day, Xie Li got up early and made breakfast.John came downstairs to find her sitting at the table, her eyes reddened.

"I'll tell my parents when they get back from vacation," John told her. "I'll marry you."

It took seven years for his promise to be fulfilled.

The astonishment of the Prewetts was in stark contrast to the rage of the Whites, followed by overwhelming rumors and strange looks that could burn the entire town.

In that era, a marriage that was not blessed by parents was cast aside.John could use silence as a weapon against his father's scolding and exhortations and his mother's tears and entreaties, but he could not persuade them either.

John found a job at Gringotts, and he bought a rose from the florist in Diagon Alley every day after get off work.And then deliver it to the Prewetts with all eyes on and off.

Once Gideon chased him out and stopped him: "Don't come, John." He thought for a while and then said, "You can't."

John shook his head noncommittally.

"She's a squib." Fabian folded his arms and looked at him coldly, "Squib." He uttered the word very slowly and clearly, as if it was some fatal disease.

"I'll marry her," John told him, "and I'll have my parents bless our union."

"Daydreaming," Fabian said behind his back.

John ignored it, looking up at the closed window on the second floor.He knew Cherie was inside and the rose would be delivered to her too.

In September 1957, seven years later, the protracted war finally won. The parents of both parties reluctantly chose to give in under their stubborn but silent persecution. Under John's insistence, the Whites even reluctantly agreed to attend their wedding.Although their love and union were not favored, John and Shelley still held a simple ceremony in the town's chapel that autumn to officially become husband and wife.

Gideon came to help John decorate the cottage where the newlyweds were going to live, and he sighed repeatedly: "I didn't expect you would really marry her."

"Do you think I'm joking?" John solemnly nailed nails into the wall, which will be the studio of the future Sherry, "Gideon, if Sherry is not a Squib, you and my parents Isn't that the attitude?"

Cherie became pregnant two years after their marriage, and she gave birth to a daughter the following July.John was ecstatic. He was always a casual person, but this time he made an exception and used flowers as his daughter's name according to the tradition of those ancient wizard families.

From then on, besides roses, John brought home a baby gift when he got off work.Either a new toy, or a book or a pretty dress that his baby girl would never need right now.

"You shouldn't be like this." After several months of this situation, Shelly finally couldn't bear to accuse him. "She's too young to use these things."

"But I want to give her the best thing in the world." John picked up his sleeping daughter and shook it gently, "This way Hyacinth will know that she is Papa's little princess..."

Xie Li looked at the father and daughter, and felt a sense of satisfaction in the quiet time.On this sunny winter day, she came to a conclusion: There is nothing in this world that is better than a happy and warm family, and nothing can make people happier than being loved.Now when she pushes Hyacinth's pram down the street, she doesn't care about the eyes of people, they're all waiting to see her joke, but that's not going to happen.

Impossible.

One day a few months later, Shelly accidentally cut her finger with a knife while sharpening a pencil, and Hyacinth burst into tears when she was sucking the wound to find gauze.As Cherie hurried to the nursery to comfort her, she saw from the window two figures in Ministry of Magic uniforms approaching.Xie Li's heart missed a beat, she put down her daughter and rushed downstairs in a panic, her heart was beating so fast.

"Mrs. White." The man's lips parted and closed and spit out ruthless words, "Your husband died in an accident at work three minutes ago today. When he was inspecting the No. 3 vault belonging to the Black family, the guard The fire dragon in the vault was frightened and breathed fire without warning..." He said businessly, "Sorry."

Xie Li slumped to the door of the house, and the staff of the Ministry of Magic said a few routine and innocuous words and then left.Her mind went blank, Shelly wasn't crying, she just couldn't believe it.

A leaf slowly fell in front of her.

It was the last leaf of spring.

Residents of Ottery St. Catchpole never saw Shelley again.After John's funeral, she quietly took her daughter and moved out of the town under Mrs. White's almost crazy reprimand. No one knew where they went.

Gradually the story was no longer mentioned.After the Whites passed away successively, people even gradually forgot that there was a Squib adopted daughter whom they despised in the Prewett family.

Until a few years later, Xie Li's coffin was sent back.

Not until much later, when Erica Wood arrives to unearth the story behind John's daughter.

"I'm a Squib."

"That made me love you even more."

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