[HP] Raven

Episode 04

Alex was fined heavily, not to mention voluntary labor, the longest review in the past five years (a full seven and a half inches), and her father was also notified.This result was almost predictable. On the one hand, it was a wrong choice to pull out the wand to one's classmates. What's more, the witnesses present all said that "this is just a trivial dispute." On the other hand, Pa Kimson's parents, through the school board, claimed Alex was making "death threats" against their precious daughter.

She didn't care about voluntary labor and self-criticism, and at most she gave up the time of the potion interest group, and it was disturbing to inform her father.But this matter is like throwing a stone into the black lake, there is no movement at all. Parkinson and her companions have been looking forward to it for a long time, hoping that one day the owl will bring a letter to Alec. The Howling letter from Si-Everly, or that Mr. Everly whom they had never met might come and reprimand his daughter himself to kill her vigor.But nothing happened in the end, which seemed to confirm Parkinson's conclusion: "Her father didn't go anywhere normally."

The eccentric Everly and his surly daughter.Inheritance, it must be inheritance, this abnormality is written in their genes.The rumors circulated among Slytherins for a while, but they were quickly forgotten, and there were always more worthy subjects for ridicule waiting for them.

The review paper was quickly dealt with half-heartedly by her, and Professor Slughorn shook his head helplessly at her, and accepted the parchment that was full of writing.

At first, Lily Evans only knew that she had been punished for a semester of compulsory labor. She was so surprised that her jaw almost dropped, but when she understood the reason, she turned pale with anger, and said that it was Parkinson and the others who went too far. There is nothing you can do about it.

She was assigned to Professor Slughorn for the first few times of voluntary work, cleaning the mucus from moth eggs, or grinding some scraps of lumpy potions.Later, the work was done in a hurry, and she was assigned to Professor Sprout.Hufflepuff's headmaster is usually soft-hearted, and Alex is always an obedient and studious child in her heart, so she arranges some light jobs, watering the sage seedlings and helping the death flowers weeds.

"I don't have anything to do here, Everly," she said to Alex one day, "maybe you can find Hagrid."

Alex felt like a day laborer being kicked around when she knocked on the wooden door of the hut.The door was opened by a large bearded man in a huge moleskin coat.

"You are..." He narrowed his eyes, as if recalling her name, "Evely?"

She nodded. "Hello."

Hagrid got a broom and an oil lamp outside the door, and led her to the animal shed, talking as he went. "Hey girl, I know what you did."

Alex stared at him without saying a word.

Hagrid lowered his voice and continued. "Actually, well done, I'd say. It's time to show those bad boys some color."

Alex couldn't help laughing, feeling that the half-giant in front of her was a bit clumsy and cute.

Hagrid punished voluntary labor as a kind of reward. You must know that not all students who were punished for voluntary labor could get in touch with all kinds of magical animals in the animal shed.Alex gave birth to the Hound under the leadership of Hagrid, and one of the cubs was named "Footh" by Hagrid. He seemed to be very fond of this Hound cub, and Alex guessed that he even Will sleep with it.

"Alex," Hagrid had already started calling her by her Christian name at that time, holding the hound cub with wet eyes in his hands, "is there any cuter creature in this world than Fang?"

She took a sip of the overly strong black tea and took a cookie that Hagrid had served her, trying to figure out whether the hard black lumps on it were chocolate or gravel.

"Maybe not, I think."

During that time, Alex was even happier than when she was not punished for compulsory labor. She hadn't had much interest in the Protection of Magical Beasts class, and her grades were only "reasonable".Perhaps every animal that Hagrid showed her is cute, Alex seriously considered whether to engage in related research in the future, but she gave up after sweeping the excrement residue for a week this thought.

Wednesday's Potions class was over, and when she rushed to do voluntary work as usual, she found a boy in a Gryffindor robe standing inside, sweeping the floor of the animal shed, dust was flying everywhere .She realized belatedly that she had a partner for voluntary labor.

"Hi, Everly," Sirius Black turned around, propped a broom made of dead branches and rotten leaves on the ground, showing an unruly and bright smile, "Shall we go together?"

--

The two of them cleaned up the animal shed under Hagrid's supervision. Hagrid was very loose, and there was a bit of deliberate element in it. After a cursory inspection, they were put into the forest hut to rest. Neither of them was obviously The first time I came, I only ordered hot strong tea, but no biscuits.

"So what did you...do?" Alex asked cautiously, and felt that the beginning of this conversation was a bit stupid, like chatting across the railing in a prison-but actually think about the relationship between them and the relationship between them. The inmates are almost the same, and they are still the kind that were a little bit festive before.

In fact, Sirius Black had long forgotten about the potions class taught by Slughorn. The "friction" between them that Alex had cared about for a long time was nothing worth mentioning in his opinion, and it was very serious. Forget about it.

He opened his mouth carelessly. "James and I blew up two cauldrons in Professor Slughorn's class."

"Just fined as compulsory labor?" She thought Professor Slughorn would just make them do it all over again, he was always very polite to Potter and Black.

"Then I used a confusion spell at the observatory to let the students see Professor Binns in a whalebone tutu through the telescope."

"Um……"

Sirius Black went on to say, "We're going to catch a field mouse in the school. You know, the mice in Transfiguration class are too small." After that, he gestured with his hand.

Alex thought. "Catching voles doesn't seem to be a problem?"

He continued to say vividly: "James and I have put more than 100 mousetraps in the school, all of which have been enchanted. It is guaranteed that as long as the voles appear in the school, they will not be able to escape."

Alex had a sense of foreboding. "Then?"

"That night, Professor McGonagall, who turned into a cat, was caught."

Alex tried hard not to make any comments on this, and quietly changed the subject: "...So what about Potter? He won't be punished with you?"

"Professor McGonagall has already established a rule that I cannot participate in the same voluntary labor as him." Sirius Black shrugged, as if he really missed his good buddy.

This is justifiable, they are noisy enough to attend class together, and it is worth doing voluntary labor together, the whole school will be bombed.

"So, how did you get punished?" Sirius Black raised his eyebrows and took a sip from his teacup.

"I cast a spell on my classmate," she said vaguely.

"Oh? What spell?" He was excited.

"Dizzy," she said the truth, and added the reason after thinking about it, "Parkinson said something rude, so I beat her up."

"you succeeded?"

"Yeah." She nodded, thinking of Parkinson who fell to the ground like a mummy, she had to admit that she was in a good mood.

"Cool." He whistled, and Ya Ya, who was snoring in the corner, barked half-dream and half-awake.

"Parkinson said it first..." Alex didn't know why she hadn't let go of this stupid topic. "Well, anyway, she offended first."

Sirius Black raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue.

"She said my mother was..." Alex hesitated, and mouthed "Mudblood".

Sirius frowned in disgust. "That's really a lesson to be learned. If I were you, she might not be able to get up in the medical wing long ago-although I don't beat women very much, it seems very unstyled."

The conversation seemed to come to an end here, and they drank tea in silence like two adults, until Hagrid excitedly held a blood-stained cub in front of them like a moving mound, and bumped into it by the way. Broken cabin door.

"Sirius! Alex! Look, the newborn Hippogriff!"

--

Alexis became the second human to hold a hippogriff cub, and soon Sirius Black became the third.

"We're going to give him a name." With tears in his eyes, Hagrid blushed and showed them the cub with its beak open and ready to be fed.

Sirius Black said several names in one breath, similar to "Comera", "Tauros" and "Larkes". It sounded like a hero who pulled mountains and rivers, but Hagrid called them one by one. turn down.

"I'm not saying those names are bad, but it sounds... just not appropriate." The half-giant Hagrid was picking and choosing like a newborn father.

Sirius was deflated. "Anyway, that's all I have in mind, then Hagrid, you can figure it out yourself."

Alex stared at the hippogriff cub who was able to open its eyes without saying a word. The little guy's black eyes were fixed on her, and he let out a weak cry. "Buckbeak?" she suggested. "That sounds like him."

--

Friday's Charms class was the last one, and the students idly walked out of the classroom door to go to the Quidditch field or the common room to have some fun.

"So, you're friends with Sirius Black?" Lily asked, her green eyes staring at her inquiringly.

"Well... I was punished with compulsory labor together with him." Alex said indefinitely, not sure if it was explaining their relationship or confirming the conclusion of "becoming friends".

"Okay," Lily flipped through a page of the textbook, "but before the end, you have to review with me before the final exam, um...and Sif."

With the final exam approaching and the voluntary labor finally coming to an end, Hagrid deliberately let them go back and study hard (or maybe he just wanted to monopolize Buckbeak's early childhood).The end-of-term review started vigorously. Lily Evans grabbed Alex with one hand, followed by Snape, who followed him like a shadow, going to the library to report every day, flipping through the books, and getting ready for battle.

Maybe it was because he found that Alex was a reliable enough teammate in class. Lily Evans stuck to her all day when the class was suspended for review, and Severus Snape followed closely behind. Still not a good face, as if desperately rejecting alien species.

Of course Alex knew that Lily was popular, but she had a better understanding of Lily's popularity during the final review - Lily was popular for a reason, and Miss Evans was very generous and selfless in her studies , will take the initiative to answer the questions of the lower grades, and will also share the information in the notebook with other students.This is almost impossible in Slytherin. If you want other people's notes, the second way besides stealing is to buy them with money, and the price is often not cheap, although most Slytherins are not short of money. .

Although voluntary labor took up most of Alex's extracurricular time, her final exam results were still very stable, except for the translation of the ancient rune, which was written in the wrong order, and in astronomy class, she misspelled a galaxy with 32 letters. For the full name, I took two E's and the rest are all O's.

Louise Gower peeked at her report card and let out a gasp of envy or disdain.After the fainting incident last time, Parkinson and her completely turned against each other, and most people still kept a distance from her—just like before, Regulus somehow knew that the conflict had something to do with him, and several times in public When they ran into her in the lounge, they hesitated to speak, and the relationship between the two gradually became estranged, becoming strangers who didn't care if they met or not.

Just as she was carrying her luggage and preparing to go home, James Potter found her.

"Evely."

"Potter." She nodded.

James Potter asked slightly courteously, "Do you like Quidditch?"

Every kid who grew up in the wizarding world knows about Quidditch, but she doesn't have much interest in it. It's an option to watch or not, mainly depending on whether she has time-but most of the time, she has more important things to do.

"It's okay. What's the matter?" She looked at the awkward Potter.

"There is the Quidditch World Cup this summer... I called some of my classmates. If you want, you can watch it with us."

She guessed it was because of Lily, she and Lily-Evans got too close during the final review period.

"I'm honored to be invited," she said, not intending to save Potter's face. "What do you mean by 'some classmates'?"

James Potter reported a few names, and there were a few classmates besides the foursome. Alex guessed that they were all Gryffindors, and she didn't know them, but this didn't prevent her from interrupting James.

She raised her eyebrows: "So, Lily didn't agree?"

James Potter nodded with a little embarrassment when he was talking about the main thing. "Yes."

She admired James Potter's frustrated expression with a slightly wicked taste. "That's a real pity."

"So," James Potter said with difficulty, "if you want to go, can you..."

"Lily is a strong-minded girl." She didn't want to be this month old, "Potter, if you want her to agree, you'd better go for it yourself."

"But... I've been fighting for almost a semester." He bowed his head in frustration.

Alex gave a false admiration. "Oh, your tenacity is impressive."

"Evely," said James Potter, looking at her as if at the last straw. "There's nothing wrong with going to the Quidditch World Cup, is there?"

"It's nothing bad." She had to marvel at Potter's financial resources. It was hard to get a ticket for the Quidditch World Cup, and he could still get so many tickets.To be honest, she didn't want to go, which somewhat meant that she was short-handed, but when she thought of Sirius Black, she began to waver again, and finally got closer to him. She didn't want to go back to zero after not seeing each other for a summer vacation. Well, Porter's "middleman" appeared just right, allowing them to maintain a relationship that was neither too far nor too close.

"Then you agreed?" Potter was like a lit candle.

"But I don't guarantee that Lily will agree."

Potter was relieved: "She will definitely agree when she hears that you will go too. You have such a good relationship—by the way, happy holidays."

"Have a nice holiday, Potter." She got into the car with her luggage.

--

Alex Everly made it to Seaweed Lane, where she grew up, before dark.When I was a child, I wondered why this place was called Haizao, since it is not close to the sea.After reading, she guessed that maybe it was because it was dark and humid like a deep sea, and the dark gray houses were built next to each other, silently like clumps of floating seaweed.

She found No. 34, Seaweed Lane, which she was familiar with. The house elf, Mir, had been waiting for some time. When he saw her, he nodded slightly, took the luggage and carried it upstairs silently.Her father bought it with money after he ran away from the family. There are three floors in total. The second and third floors are used for living, and the first floor is rented out to make ends meet. Sold, but her mother died before a suitable buyer came along.

"Is father okay?" She asked, thinking of her incident with Parkinson this semester, she was a little worried.

"It's the same, so it's not good or bad." Mir, the house elf, followed her, a bit like a prisoner.

Maybe it's time to talk to him.After thinking about it, she decided to admit her mistake first.

Hull Everly is a silent and thin middle-aged man with the iconic blue eyes and thin lips of the Everly family. At first glance, he is a fair and medium-sized man. This face alone will probably be praised as beautiful.

He glanced at his daughter who knocked on the door and came in. "Alex."

"Father."

He was silent for a while, and then said, "I think you're okay these days?"

"I got an E in Astronomy and Ancient Rune, and the rest is okay." She mentioned it concisely, took a deep breath, and felt that she was about to start the main event, "Father, this semester I..."

"That's fine, Alex. Don't stand around here and go about your own business," he said, before continuing to sit motionless, his eyes blank, and he seemed oblivious to anything. Don't care, as if everything is not real, just a too real dream.The most conspicuous place on his desk is the framed photo of Alex's mother, next to stacks of yellowed manuscript paper and drawing paper, Alex took a look, the picture on the drawing paper The woman has a soft and sweet smile, and her face is round and delicate. There is no doubt that she is her mother.

Alex suspected that her father hadn't received the letter from Hogwarts informing him, but in fact he had, in a corner of the messy desk, on an envelope stuffed between books that read Hogwarts Ci's school badge, but there is no trace of it being taken apart, and the date is exactly the day when she committed the crime.

The letter came, but he did not read it.In fact, she had expected it a long time ago, but she was still unavoidably disheartened. She walked out of the study in three steps at a time. The house elf Mir pointed to the food prepared for her on the table, and turned around to help her put the luggage into the room. tidy up.

The bread had just been toasted while they were talking, with a thin layer of butter on it, slices of vegetables and ham, and a glass of cold milk.

Spreading out the paper while chewing, she wrote a long letter to whom she didn't know who to send, and burned it with her wand.There was silence, and she habitually put the empty ink bottle in the drawer under the desk, and when she realized what she was doing, she handed it to Mir to throw it away.

Tiredness rushed up from the soles of her feet, she climbed into bed after taking a bath, hugged her mother's pajamas and fell asleep deeply.