[HP] Raven

Episode 20

James Potter actually worried too much. No one asked about Alex's injury in the screaming shack. Dalia Greengrass and Louise Goyle yelled and asked once. , Regulus Black also asked her once when he came to her for self-study, and Alex's answer was very consistent, "I didn't see the stairs when I was reading while walking, and I accidentally broke my head." Madam Pomfrey said exactly the same.Under Madam Pomfrey's treatment, her wound healed quickly, and after the gauze was removed, nothing could be seen anymore, but she was forced to sleep on her side for a while, and the back of her head still hurt a little.

The sixth grade is a suitable grade for dating. Young and restless souls are struggling to survive in the OWLs of the fifth grade and the NEWTs of the seventh grade. The busy schoolwork is indeed in front of us, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself in time.

A Hufflepuff boy was walking on the grass with a Ravenclaw girl, also in the sixth grade. The girl was holding a book, and the boy was holding a flying broom in his hand. After a while, the boy suddenly lowered his head He secretly kissed the girl on the head, the girl stretched out her hand and pretended to hit him angrily, then lowered her head shyly.

Alex, who was sitting in the library, looked away, lowered her head and continued to look at the "Perfect Potion Decoction" she had borrowed.Professor Slughorn lent it to her after a certain slug club, and generously said that she could return it to him after looking after it.

"Evely, if you need to, you can come to borrow books at any time, and it doesn't matter if you ask me to go to the library to borrow them." Professor Slughorn, who had a belly as round as a sea lion, spoke flamboyantly like an opera singer.

Alex took the book and smiled humbly. "Thank you, Dean."

Professor Slughorn poured some light wine and drank it bit by bit. "You've been the most satisfying student I've had in recent years, Everly," he added a little more when he was drinking happily. "I found out when you were all kids, and you, Snape, With Evans, they are all very good seedlings."

"Snape was very creative when making potions, and Evans' theoretical foundation is much stronger than mine," Alex raised his eyes, "You are overrated, Professor Slughorn, I didn't You said it so well."

"You have an advantage that none of them have, a very crucial advantage." Professor Slughorn felt that his bottle of wine was extremely mellow, and quickly poured himself another glass.

Alex smiled quietly, shaking her head slightly. "Compared to them, I don't think I have anything particularly outstanding."

"Evely, your stable performance is rare, and more importantly...you are 'focused' enough. When making potions, there is only the crucible in your world and nothing else." Professor Slughorn If there is something to point out, "This is more important than talent at your level."

Alex froze.

"Smart people always have a way to spot talented young people and sum up their strengths." Professor Slughorn was very proud, stuffed a piece of pineapple candied fruit into his mouth, and waved to her, "Good boy , get busy with your business, NEWTs have to prepare well."

Professor Slughorn later really let her go to all his books. She was pushed to a slightly higher position than other students, and she had more power than ordinary students. Snape and Lily didn't enjoy it either. this treatment.This kind of privilege made her happy from the bottom of her heart, but it also brought her troubles. Too much kindness always comes with a price tag, but fortunately, Professor Slughorn is her teacher, so her psychological burden Could be a little smaller.

She closed the book, closed her eyes, and wanted to lie down in the library for a while.

"Evely, it turns out that you will sleep in the library too." A voice suddenly came from behind her.

Sirius Black!

Alex jumped up from the table in shock.Mrs. Pince had already started to look in their direction, frowning tightly.

"What are you doing?" She looked at him like a stranger.

"Come out, I'll show you a surprise." Sirius pulled her up.

Alex shakes him off. "I don't want to read it, thank you very much. If you invent something new, I sincerely hope you share it with others."

"Hey, soon," Sirius said, asking her to get up and go out with him. "Just for a while, it will take up to 5 minutes of your dozing time, so as not to delay your hard work in studying."

"Blake, you—"

She was a little angry, but before she could speak, she heard Mrs. Pingsi sternly shouting: "You have something to say! What are you arguing about here? Do you want to disturb other people?"

—

"I think Mrs. Pince and Mrs. Pomfrey must have been rivals back then. One hated listening to others the most, and the other was always talking nonsense." Sirius said as he stepped out of the library.

"So what are you going to say to me, Mr. Black?" Alex looked at him impatiently. It would be a bit embarrassing to be kicked out of the library by Mrs. Pince, especially since most of the students in the school are younger than her. At that time, for Merlin's sake, she was already in the sixth grade.

"It's not a prank." Sirius excitedly took out a small book of paper and handed it to her.

She glanced at it, didn't answer it, and looked up at Sirius who looked expectant, as if looking at a giant monster with a flower pot on its head.She felt that the other party and herself did not live in the same world at all.She sincerely admitted that the last time she met him was the most out of control temper in recent years, second only to Parkinson's use of "swoon" in the third grade, if she hadn't been so angry that she forgot that she had As for the wand, it will probably cast some kind of jinx on him.

The proud and arrogant Sirius Black was scolded shamelessly by her, and even smiled at her and wanted to show her a new invention that seemed to have put a lot of effort into it. If this is true, then this What else in the world is real.

"Look!" He impatiently stuffed the small stack of folded paper into her hand.

She opened it and saw that there was nothing there. A large piece of blank parchment. If it was a feature, it might be very large. She made a rough estimate, and it was about four sheets of parchment for writing papers. Made of paper.

"Is this fun?" she asked angrily.

Sirius seemed to have anticipated her reaction, and pointed at the parchment with his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I have no good intentions."

The ink lines on the parchment began to extend, and roads emerged one after another, and a map of Hogwarts emerged. On the map, one can even see the footprints that are moving one by one. The owner of the footprints marked next to him just returned from Quidditch. James Potter who came out of the strange training ground, Dahlia Greengrass who stayed in the cellar, and Horace Slughorn who appeared in Professor Sprout's office for some reason.

Alex was stunned, staring intently at each string of moving footprints on the map. "Everyone's on it?"

"Of course," Sirius told her proudly, "everyone."

Alex never imagined such an invention. "You did this?"

"The four of us did it together, James, me, Remus and Peter, um...Although Peter didn't do anything, the parchment is his, so James added his name." Sirius shrug.

"This is great, Blake." Alex said sincerely, and then saw Lily's name in the Gryffindor bedroom. "Why is Lily's name tag in red?"

If it was meant to indicate Gryffindor, then Mary MacDonald's name should also be red.

"James asked for it. Specifically, the Gryffindor girl." Sirius leaned over and pointed to the lower left corner of the map, "We are here."

She did see two pairs of stationary footprints in the side door of the library, one marked "Padfoot" next to it, and the other with "Alex Everley."

Her name is also deliberately marked, green.

"How about it, Slytherin girl." Sirius raised his chin triumphantly, as if waiting for a compliment.

Alex was stunned for a moment, a flower gently bloomed from the bottom of her heart—and then she closed it again with her own hands. "I think it's great, Blake."

Sirius snorted feigned dissatisfaction. "Sounds like Professor McGonagall is praising the student who got an O in Transfiguration."

she said quickly. "I've never seen a cooler invention."

He raised his eyebrows happily, as if saying, "That's about the same." He looked at Alex who was still studying the map, and asked abruptly. "Are you going out today?"

"Huh?" Alex was confused.

Sirius coughed unnaturally, he froze for a second like a wooden sculpture, blinked his gray eyes, and continued. "Um, I mean, do you want to go for a walk today?"

Alex habitually looked out the window, it was raining today.Sirius also realized that this was not a good idea - just stupid.

Alex felt like she couldn't see through Sirius Black at all.There is actually something wrong with this statement, people are always like this, they can’t see through others, and they can’t see themselves clearly either.But she has always had a secret sense of pride because of her maturity, in other words, self-righteous control, this kind of mentality makes her think she can see through Sirius' behavior, looking at him is like reading a young book It is as easy as that, and then hastily label him as "childish" or "cynical".But now, she found that she had no idea what he was thinking.

"I left earlier, and the prongs are back." Sirius said suddenly.

Alex didn't know who the prongs were, but she nodded with something on her mind. "Well, goodbye, Blake."

Sirius put away the map in the blink of an eye, turned around and disappeared into the corridors of Hogwarts.

—

The late night rain beat on the leaves of the Forbidden Forest, and the large leaves blocked the faint moonlight outside. The cold wind raged in this autumn and winter season with excessive rain, Alex's cloak was completely wet, tick tick The rain fell on the muddy soil.She adjusted her hood in vain, but realized that she might have to rush back to take a shower and rewash her hair tonight.

She let out a sigh of relief, and ran around in the woods, looking for the huge black dog.

It's not there.

Too.With such a heavy rain, shouldn't it find a tree hole or other places to hide?The rain was too heavy, and she felt her own stupidity and impulsiveness.

However, just as she was about to return the same way, a familiar "Wow" appeared behind her.

"I knew you were here." She looked at the black dog whose fur was soaked in surprise, and stretched out her fingers that had been frozen for a long time to touch its thick fur.The black dog buried its face in her palm, tried to warm her with the fur on its jaw and neck, then barked at her and walked down a rough woodland path, Alex at his heels .

The black dog took her to find a dry cave, she could barely stand in it, the huge black dog lay beside her, Alex cast several drying spells on herself and the black dog, rubbed Rubbing my frozen red fingers, I finally feel that I can no longer tremble all over. The rainy night in late autumn and early winter is really too cold.

"It's raining too much, and winter is coming soon... I suspect that there is nothing to eat in the Forbidden Forest." She took out a slightly greasy paper bag from the cloak, and roasted meat was leaking from the still warm paper bag. Kind of oily aroma.

The black dog froze in place, his gray eyes staring at her motionlessly.

Alex walked up to the black dog, squatted down and shook the brown oil paper bag in front of it.

"So you like beef? I picked out the onions and green peppers."

—

Boys started asking Alex out, guys she knew, guys she didn't know, guys she'd met, inviting her to Hogsmeade, or going to lunch.Lily-Evans soon found out, as if she had expected such a day, excitedly asking which boy would take the crown.

Alex smiled, without saying a word, and brought the topic to Lily.

There is nothing wrong with it, Lily-Evans is her frame of reference, she is the closest to Alex among girls of her age, and Alex never sees herself as the same species as girls like Greengrass or Goyle.

The 16-year-old girls bloomed one after another like flower bones, and clusters of hair and smiles exuded the budding fragrance.And Alex felt that she didn't look any different than usual.

"Do you like them? Those poor people who came to you and were severely rejected by you." Lily smiled at her mysteriously.

"I didn't turn them down hard, I said thank you and I wasn't available." Alex pulled out the parchment.

"You're refusing like you're refusing a bowl of oatmeal with cement and bullet casings," Lily joked, frowning, "so—let's continue this cliché—oh I can't believe I'm Talking about this kind of topic with you, what kind of boy do you like?"

Alex stared at her with his chin propped up, not answering the question. "What about you, what do you like?"

Lily rolled her beautiful big eyes and said while thinking. "Be righteous, be kind, be brave..."

"Ha," Alex smiled, and interrupted her jokingly, "do you want to persevere rather than surrender?"

"Alex!" Lily pretended to be angry.

"This standard is too vague, Lily, your standard sounds like the Ministry of Magic is recruiting Aurors, the kind of death squads."

"Then tell me, what do you like, I was the one who asked you." Lily forgot to be angry after being laughed at, and asked happily while lying on the table.

Alex thought for a while, but didn't know how to answer Lily. She saw a breeze blowing through the window, blowing a feather on the table - there was a time when Hogwarts had a feather stuck to the cover. Notebooks, due to poor glue quality and overuse, those poor feathers are bound to fall everywhere.

Alex looked at the feather that moved with the wind, and said very lightly.

"Maybe I want to chase the wind."

The author has something to say: before the holidays, catch a fish first, and run the relationship line quickly... It’s too late to fall in love, children (you???

The Marauder's Map is a stalk I have been thinking about, and I have always wanted to write it.Lily didn’t know hhhh, of course she found out later, when she saw the Marauder’s Map, Harry was so big

In fact, there is a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter, such as the words of Professor Slughorn hhh, he is actually a very important person

And, I want to read the comments (do you want to go too far if you urge me to comment every time???