[HP] Raven

Episode 23

Summer with nothing to do is the most wonderful season, even in the spooky Austrian ancestral home.Grandma had to go out because of some trivial matters, and took away two house elves by the way. Alex lost two pairs of eyes to supervise her, and her style began to become casual, so she no longer had to wake up early every day to accompany her. For breakfast, there is no need to hold the knife, fork and wine glass too politely.She stays in the library all day long, reading ancient rune books, trying to imagine the original gathering places of elves, mermaids and goblins, and all the creatures she has never met before can only be conjured up by illustrations and imagination. The rough silhouette, the real face is unknown, but the blur does not lose a kind of advanced beauty.

It certainly wasn't enough for Alex to call it the most beautiful summer in 16 years.

After the fourth day and night of her lying at the window, Sirius' letter finally arrived.He mentioned James and Lily in the letter. He said that Lily finally agreed to start dating James, and they planned to ask her to go to Godric's Hollow with Lily.

Alex agreed without thinking.Thanks Merlin.Thanks for Apparating.She can go back and forth throughout the day.So she prepared her clothes in advance, told the house-elves that she would not be home that day--she told them in a commanding tone for the first time, not to reveal all this to her grandmother, and quietly looked forward to That day came.

She found one of her most expensive wizard robes, looked at the complicated dark patterns on the rose gray fabric, and felt that it was not suitable for outings, so she took it off and threw it on the bed after trying it; her usual black robe looked too She was too plain, and she threw it on the bed; one of the new wizard robes this year was dark blue. She tried it, and felt a little too mature, so she rejected it again.The bed was full of colorful wizard robes that were rejected after being tried. She sneaked out of the manor, ran to Gringotts in Austria, exchanged some Muggle currency, and then went to the Muggle shopping mall.

The final decision was a white dress with a conservative and clean one-line collar and a narrow waist. Half of the calf was exposed under the skirt embroidered with camellia dark patterns. Alex carefully described it in the mirror before leaving. Deepened the eyebrows, and lightly applied a layer of water red lipstick.

Alex went to Godric's Hollow during the summer vacation of her fourth grade, where James Potter's family lived, and it was also from here that they went to see Quidditch.She Apparated to Godric's Hollow, only to realize that everyone had already arrived.

"Lily!"

Alex saw Lily in the red dress for the first time, and began to congratulate herself on how right she was to take the risk.

Lily was the first to burst out in surprise praise. "Alex, you are so perfect for this dress."

James smiled and waved to her.Alex turned to Sirius who was standing next to James, he approached her, kissed her cheek, and whispered in her ear. "If I could, I'd spend the whole day praising you."

"Oh, you're exaggerating, Sirius." She bowed her head sheepishly.

"Merlin can testify to me, this is the truth."

James coughed exaggeratedly, and Lily snickered, covering her mouth.They teased each other for a while, and finally set foot on the road to explore the valley. James even brought a camera. He always got a lot of strange things. Alex was no longer surprised. James vowed to hold Looking at the camera, he said that he wanted to take a lot of photos for everyone as souvenirs.

At first, it started from the wide and flat concrete road where James's house was located, and that road ended in a 10-minute laugh and play, and became a trail that was barely opened with the dirt that had been cleaned of weeds. , and soon disappeared, and then there was an uninhabited wasteland in front of them. Because of the summer, the densely grown branches and leaves exude a refreshing greenness. According to James, there was some light rain last night, and the sultry and humid environment made people feel uncomfortable. Around the exposed roots of the big trees grew a small patch of poisonous red or blue poisonous mushrooms.

They walked into a valley full of fig trees. It was very quiet. James and Sirius joked with each other as usual, and there were echoes of them everywhere. Lily laughed out of breath all the way, and Alex Also laughed many times.They found a very small rabbit in the grass. It was light gray and only the size of an adult's palm. Its two soft and fluffy ears shook slightly as it gnawed on the turf. Lily liked it very much. , holding it in her hand all the time, the rabbit lay on her palm, carefully rubbing against the girl's soft fingertips.

James fed it some of the bread he'd brought, and nearly got his finger chewed on it.Sirius started laughing as usual, the sun was shining on their young and fearless smiles, thin thin sweat let the hair stick to their foreheads, and their faces were horribly bright.

Alex stood beside them with a smile. Lily hugged the cute rabbit all the way, and put it on the grass to eat from time to time. James hugged the rabbit, and Lily started to exclaim, she was afraid that James would Tom shook the rabbit unconscious.

They found a clear stream in the valley, the water was just knee-deep cold, they took off their shoes and stepped into the cold stream, James and Sirius bent over and started to attack each other with spray.

James hit with a splash of water, Sirius ducked and dodged, and the handful of water splashed all over Lily.

"James Potter!" Lily was completely soaked, and her long dark red hair was covered with water.

James froze for a moment, Alex was also frightened, and Sirius let out a "wow" and crossed his arms as if watching a show.

Unexpectedly, Lily bent down suddenly, arched her palms and slammed the water on James' face. "You are dead!"

Lily looked at the dumbfounded James and the drops of water on his glasses, and laughed. Alex took the opportunity to give Sirius a shot, and his hair was all wet.

It quickly turned into a four-man melee.Lily tried to truce in the middle, but every time her declaration of truce was interrupted by splashes of water, what really made them end was a sudden light rain in the sky, and everyone had to hide in a nearby cave, pointing at each other with a magic wand and casting a drying spell.Then they ate the rations Jaime had brought in the cave.

After the rain stopped, they continued to go deep into the valley. Sirius didn't know when he picked a large bunch of wild flowers the size of a fingernail, and stuffed them all into Alex's hands.

Lily proposed to weave all the wildflowers into a garland, but in the end the plan failed, as the stems were too thin to support the weaving link.When Alex was holding the wildflowers in her hands and thinking about what to do with them, she heard Sirius calling her from behind.

"Alex! Turn around!"

She turned around in a little surprise, and the white light of the flashlight flashed.Sirius took James' camera and took a picture straight at her.

In the photo, the girl in the white dress turned her head thousands of times, with a large bunch of colorful wild flowers in her hands, bright blue eyes looking at the camera with a little expectation, and a gentle and shy smile on the corners of her lips.

After their outing, James developed the photo and sent it to Alex.Sirius insisted that it was the best photo of the whole trip.On the express train to Hogwarts, Alex and Lily sat together. Lily took out a thick stack of photos and said that James had taken hundreds of photos of her, but at a glance, most of them were Lily looked so wet and soaked, Lily was so angry that she just wanted to hit him.Alex couldn't help laughing as she watched.

The seventh grade started in such a pleasant atmosphere. Nine months after the NEWTs exam is not too far away, all professors warn students that this year will pass quickly.

Those pranks intensified, and she began to receive frequent note attacks, but no one confronted her head-on, and she couldn't spare the energy to track down who they were—although she probably had a few, and she didn't want to have too much trouble with them, She is about to graduate.

Professor Slughorn frequently mentioned to Alex that he wanted her to stay in his lab and work as his assistant.He offered Alex a lot of benefits, including a relatively generous salary, relatively free commuting time, generous experimental funds, a large amount of advanced experimental equipment, and the opportunity to get acquainted with other potion masters.

The dean of Slytherin didn't know why he made a choice quickly-he gave up Snape, who was more creative in potions, and Evans, who had the most solid basic skills.

"Evely, you are the most suitable candidate." Professor Slughorn lit a match and lit a cigar, exhaling light blue smoke, "As I said, your strength is concentration, you won't Get me in trouble."

Alex smiled and said nothing on the surface, but it was hard not to be puzzled in her heart.She understood why Snape was out - he had the Dark Mark on his hand, but what about Lily?Was it because she wasn't a Slytherin?She felt that Professor Slughorn wasn't so housebound... but who knew.

"You first made a name for yourself in Potions class in the third year, I remember it very clearly," Professor Slughorn recalled calmly, smoking a cigar, playing with a platinum pocket watch set with emeralds, "Most The students are beginning to notice that the difficulty of potions is getting worse. Some of them start to miss class, some start to plagiarize other people's homework, and some occasionally skip class. I know these problems, but I didn't pursue them too much. They all These mediocre people are not worth my energy... Yet, Everly, where others end is where you begin. Since then, you have become as outstanding as Snape and Evans. Destiny indeed Always a surprise."

Alex was a little taken aback, she didn't expect Professor Slughorn to remember so clearly.She had to admit it.Although there are countless shortcomings, Slughorn is indeed a good teacher with heart.

"So, I'll give you the chance. Geniuses who are slow-witted often know how to cherish their talents, don't they?" He held the cigar between his fingers and looked at her inquiringly through the light blue smoke.

Alex nodded. "I'll do my best, Professor Slughorn."

Her life was busier, besides the NEWTs exams that were waiting for her, she had to spare time for the Potions Lab and Sirius Black.Sirius also suddenly became very busy, which was beyond her expectation. She thought he could easily deal with his schoolwork and his own adventures, and there would be no other problems that could hinder him, but he also began to reject her frequently For an unknown reason, Alex didn't ask, and let him keep the things he didn't want to tell himself secret.

Both of them began to change the time of meeting constantly, and finally reached a consensus that they went to Hogsmeade together on a certain Saturday after school started, neither James nor Lily went, and they stayed in the school.Sirius proposed to explore the mountains and forests near Hogsmeade, and Alex agreed without much consideration, and they led each other to the nearby wilderness together.The coolness of early autumn lingers on the yellowish leaves of the ginkgo trees, and the breeze with the dry smell of fallen leaves captures the entire vast wilderness.

Sirius is obviously a frequent visitor to adventure, he quickly found a cave, and went straight into it happily. Alex hesitated for a while, and then went in with him. It was dark inside, nothing unusual, but Sirius still yelled happily, saying that he didn't expect there to be a cave here, and he might have a chance to hide in it in the future.Alex didn't know that there was any chance of hiding in this valley, which was at least 15 minutes' walk away from Hogsmeade, and she didn't quite understand why a cave that required half-bending her knees to keep herself from knocking her head was worth so much excitement. .But Sirius was very happy, and she cheered up with him.

The variables started on their way back.When they walked out of the cave and walked towards the Hogsmeade town, Sirius didn't know what he saw. Suddenly his eyes darkened, his brows were slightly furrowed with vigilance, and he pulled her to hide behind a farmhouse. Alex Kess heard the cooing of a hen on the other side of the wall.

"What's the matter, Sirius?" she asked.

"Hush—" he said in a low voice, "there are Death Eaters over there."

Alex froze.She hadn't expected to see Death Eaters in this situation.For Merlin's sake, they're dating.

Sirius pulled her along and followed, but the Death Eater - Sirius said it was Dolohov - was very cautious, and seemed to have noticed someone behind him, and soon Apparated and disappeared from their sight.

"That's not the first time they've been here, he was spotted around Hogsmeade two weeks ago and we've been trying to figure out what he's doing," he said to her, walking ahead and putting his hands in the In his pocket, he kicked the stones on the ground dejectedly, "But I finally found him this time, but lost him."

Alex doesn't know who "someone" and "us" really deserve.Frowning, she began to wonder what had been the cause of his recent unexplained absence and busyness.

"Don't look at me like a suspect, Alex," Sirius turned around abruptly, "I'll tell you a secret, I joined the Order of the Phoenix."

Order of the Phoenix?The organization that fought the Death Eaters and Voldemort.The war had already started, and Alex was not unaware of this, as evidenced by the contagious disease in the fourth grade, although the school has been calm since then-thanks to Headmaster Dumbledore.

Alex took a deep breath. "I should have guessed, you will join, Sirius."

"What about you, do you want to join?" Sirius stared at her with gray eyes.

For a moment Alex really wanted to say yes.She knew the Order of the Phoenix was "right," but she thought about Professor Slughorn's potions laboratory and eventually hesitated.She has to wait until this busy period is over.

"I need to think about it for a while, Sirius, the potions lab is taking up too much of my time."

Sirius obviously didn't expect her to hesitate, but he still nodded tolerantly. "Oh well."

The author has something to say: I drank a glass of wine on New Year's Eve... it's time to wake up completely wodema (this update rate is unsustainable

I want to see the real happy ending of Sirius and Alex. In fact, I can say goodbye to this article forever after reading this article...I want to see why James and Lily didn’t die/Alex’s rest of the story, so I can stay

Professor Slughorn is a very pure elitist, it is difficult for me to judge him personally.From the point of view of teaching, compared with Snape, he is indeed a good teacher. During his teaching at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn brought out many talents such as Snape, Lily, and Riddle.But there seems to be almost no rising stars in potions after Snape taught, but maybe I don't remember, he feels more like, top scientific talents are forced to teach (x