[HP] Astringent

Vanessa sat among the piles of corrugated boxes in the cramped one-person apartment, with torn handkerchiefs, old sweaters, and messy scraps of paper thrown on the floor.She is preparing to move, from New York to London.She has been cleaning things since the first day of the holiday, donated a lot of old but still clean clothes, bound the manuscripts written in the past few years, and packed sets of exquisite wine glasses...

In fact, she couldn't get any energy up at all, she just wanted to sit by the bed all day, watching the busy traffic downstairs.

When she lived here, she hated everything here, hated the loud rock music next door, hated the car horn that never stopped at midnight, hated the weird smell of burgers and car exhaust.But the sudden move back made her feel so uncomfortable.She can be regarded as a nostalgic person, and it is always difficult to let go of many things.

Vanessa rarely thought of Snape, but dreamed of him often.She was always crying in the dream, but when she woke up, there were no tears on the pillow.It was as if a piece of my heart had been dug out—I heard that Muggles have a kind of medicine, which can be injected before they perform an operation, and people don't feel anything at all.This is how she feels now, even though her heart is empty, it can't be said that it hurts too much.

As a result, she waited for many years, but when she really waited, she was at a loss.She advised herself, that's fine, instead of dragging each other, it's better to break up completely.

She originally planned to go to the Spider Tail Box to practice spells with Snape, but she didn't go, and Snape never contacted her.

A gray owl gave it, and several letters were thrown through the window together.Vanessa looked at the envelopes, one was from Molly, one from Harry, and one from Blake, and they were thrown into the wastebasket without opening. Those are the names of the believers.

She sat by the window for a while, and there was no longer a home here, so it might be a good choice to move back to the house left by her parents earlier.

At dusk, there was a knock on her door.Only then did Vanessa realize that she had wasted another whole afternoon.Standing outside the door was a tall, thin man, wearing a gray work attire, with a gray peaked cap with a yellow edge pressed low.

"Is this Miss Weasley from Building 25, 1309?"

"Yes."

"I'm here to pick up the courier, my God, does everything in this room have to be couriered?"

Vanessa sideways let him in, and he waved his wand, and a stack of paper labels flew out of his pants pocket and stuck to the corrugated box by itself.This is a more popular way in the United States now. You must know that space suitcases are very expensive, and they are only suitable for travel, not for moving.Professional moving companies will help transfer luggage through their own Floo network, saving the owner the trouble of going to the Ministry of Magic to apply for a temporary Floo network.

"Today is July 31st, and it is expected to arrive on August [-]nd. If you confirm that there is no problem, please sign below." The courier walked through the business process carefully.

"No problem...wait a minute, what date did you say today is?"

"Number 31, miss."

"Merlin, what have I missed!"

After Vanessa sent the courier away, she hurriedly picked up the letters in the wastebasket, and opened Harry's first: Harry used two full pages to tell the story of the day Black picked him up from the Dursleys. situation.Because the Muggle news reported that Black was a vicious wanted criminal, the Dursleys were so frightened that they dared not speak out, and were almost frozen in place by the petrification spell.Finally, Harry remembered to tell Vanessa that Black had inherited the family house, and he could move to live with him every holiday, although he had to return to his aunt's house for a week every year before the age of 17 according to Dumbledore's request.On the bottom line of the letter, written in a barely visible slit, Black was throwing a birthday party for him today, the Ron family and Hermione would be there, and asked her if she would go.

Vanessa felt a little guilty. She had been immersed in her own emotions for half the holiday, she didn't go out and didn't contact others, and she even forgot Harry's birthday-and this must be the happiest Harry has ever been in memory of a birthday.

Then she opened Molly's letter, saying that they had worked so hard to get tickets for this year's Quidditch World Cup, and they had originally asked for one for Harry, but now that Black had already bought tickets for Harry, she asked her Do you want to go together? At the end, she was also invited to attend Harry's birthday party.

In the end, she opened Black's letter. His handwriting was deliberately gorgeous, and the complicated cursive style reminded people of how prosperous and long the Black family used to be. The letter was very short. First, she concealed for herself that it was Animag He apologized for the incident, and then wrote how much Harry missed her and hoped that she could attend the birthday party and stay in Black's old house for a few days.

To be honest, she still has complaints about Blake. Anyone who has a beloved pet for a year suddenly becomes a human will not be happy.Of course, if it was her when she was young, after suffering from the torment of romance novels, she might have a fantasy to start a beautiful relationship, but now she just feels tired.But she was not unreasonable, and she was relieved a lot after reading the three or four apology letters from Blake in the wastebasket.

Vanessa picked up a pen and planned to write a reply to Harry - she knew that Molly's family was living in Black's old house, so they could reply together.But thinking that he didn't have an owl, he put away his pen and planned to apologize to Harry when he visited again when he returned to London.

The old pendulum clock struck eight times, and a wooden pigeon came out and sang a nursery rhyme cooing for a while.It was getting dark, Vanessa got up and put down the curtains, and was startled by the dark owl standing quietly on the window sill—it almost merged with the night, making those big yellow eyes very scary.

It waited quietly for Vanessa to untie the letter, pecked at her finger, and urged her to write a reply.

Vanessa, who has never seen a domestic owl before, opened the lacquered envelope suspiciously, and a letter with a faint pine scent slipped out:

"Dear Vanessa,

How's everything going?

Mr. Malfoy sincerely invited the heirs of various families in the magical world to attend the dinner, in order to celebrate Mrs. Malfoy's cousin, Mr. Black, as the only legal heir, inheriting all the property of the Black family.

I hope I will be lucky enough to invite you to attend as a companion.A dinner will be held at Malfoy Manor on August [-]nd at nine o'clock in the evening.I hope my invitation will not trouble you.

Your loyalty,

Auston Greenglass"

Vanessa wanted to refuse, but it was too suspicious for Malfoy to entertain the heirs of various pure-blood families at this time.In particular, although he was proven innocent, everyone knew that he took refuge in the mysterious person, and the title of this dinner was to celebrate Black's retrospect—Blake is now the spiritual leader who resisted the mysterious person.This matter is too strange, even without Dumbledore's instructions, I have to pay attention to it and see what happened.

The house was emptied, and she couldn't even find a decent piece of letter paper, so she didn't pay much attention to it, so she simply wrote a reply on the back.

Letters can be sloppy, but dresses are not.She put on the only set of clothes she had, white half-sleeves and light blue washed wide-leg jeans, and went out.She has lost a lot of weight. The fat on her waist due to not exercising for a school year has completely disappeared, and the ordinary half-sleeves look loose.This is the first time she has stepped out of the house in more than a month.The heat wave that hit her face made her frown uncontrollably.

Vanessa Apparated directly onto Fifth Avenue - the shopping street in the very heart of Manhattan.This is a place where Muggles and wizards are mixed, and any store you walk into may enter a private custom-made high-end wizard robe through the innermost fitting room.The attitude of the American wizarding world towards Muggles is much more open than that of the UK. There are even wizarding luggage shops and Coaches who have cooperated with Coach to produce a Swagger space bag.

She has come to shop a few times, but rarely actually buys anything, because she doesn't need to attend too formal occasions.This time, I went shopping more seriously than usual.

After visiting five stores, Vanessa couldn't forget the backless gown she saw at the first store.It was a regular skirt at first glance. The neckline was a little two inches below the collarbone. The cut was simple and decent. The waist was slightly handy, and the skirt was slightly dragging the floor. There was no decoration on the back, which could reveal her beautiful back curve.

She turned back to the first store and tried on the dress again.The clerk saw her hesitation, and spared no effort to persuade her: "Our dress has a special design, follow me." The clerk pulled her to the window, and turned off the headlights in the room, leaving only Two station wall sconces.

The moment the light dimmed, the hem of the skirt gradually turned silver from the height near the calf to the end of the skirt, emitting a faint silver light.At this moment, Vanessa had no other thoughts, and paid the money immediately.

With the clerk's increasingly friendly smile, she walked out of the store, regaining her senses and feeling a little regretful.The dress was beautiful, but she wasn't the type to wear a halter - she had several distinct scars on her back that couldn't be concealed.

Vanessa wakes up early in the morning, she still has a lot of things to do.I haven't cut my hair for more than half a year, and it looks more and more messy.She had to go back to her home in Godric's Hollow to pack up and buy some necessities before going to Harry.She had bought Harry a new birthday present - a navy blue bow tie trimmed with dark red and beige stripes - and Dumbledore had informed the professors that there would be a Triwizard Tournament next term, with every fourth year and up The little wizards will be at the ball, which happens to be available to Harry.

She put the dress and skirt she bought on impulse yesterday into the suitcase and sighed.Why is it that when I get older, I can't restrain my desire to buy when I see shiny things?

Vanessa dragged her suitcase to the barber shop she used to go to. It was a Muggle barber shop, but the style she made was in line with her requirements.The clerk saw her and greeted her eagerly: "It's been a long time since I came here. Are you busy with work recently? Do you want a new look?"

Vanessa took a heavy styling booklet and finally stopped at a short hairstyle.She seldom cuts her hair short, and even when she travels on adventures, she wears her long hair up at best.But now she suddenly wanted to change.

Three hours later, she looked at herself in the mirror with satisfaction, a little strange and radiant.The neat short hair was only slightly lower than the chin, and it was not curled, but let it hang down softly.

"Are you still satisfied?"

"Thank you, I am so satisfied!"

The clerk took the money with a smile and looked at her ring finger: "Is that a new tattoo on your hand? It's very different."

She just thought of the scar on her finger, she was used to it, and almost didn't understand what the other party was talking about.

It was inconvenient for Vanessa to explain too much, so she nodded in response.

"Did you get the tattoo at the newly opened tattoo shop next door? I'm planning to get one..."

The clerk babbled that Vanessa was already deserting, but wouldn't a tattoo be a good idea?

Going out and turning right is the tattoo shop that the clerk said. There are various patterns on the window, including elements such as skulls and snakes.Vanessa thought it was a little funny that someone like Snape, who was sometimes stern and a little rigid, would allow a tattoo to appear on his arm, without mentioning the meaning behind the Dark Mark.

While she was wandering, the bell hanging on the store door rang, and a sleepy man poked his head out: "Do you want to get tattooed or not?"

Vanessa inexplicably followed the man into the store, and the moment the store door closed behind her, the bell rang again.There were two bells hanging on the edge of the door, one white and one black, and she noticed that only the black one shook.

"Oh, give her the black book." The man said to a smaller woman behind the cash register.

Vanessa was a little confused and asked, "What's the difference?"

"The patterns in the two booklets are the same, but you can choose what spell to engrave. The tattoo can move, glow, or change color..."

"Tattoos... can move?" Vanessa wasn't sure if she heard it wrong.

The woman explained: "Yes, this moving tattoo is the most popular now, just like the photo."

"Are you... wizards?"

After listening to their explanations, Vanessa finally figured out that women are Muggles and men are wizards, and they jointly opened this store together.The bell at the door is to detect whether the guests are wizards or Muggles, and they recommend different tattoos according to different people.

Recently, tattoos have also become popular in the wizarding world of the United States, and tattoos engraved with spells have also been developed.Vanessa didn't expect that someone would agree with the mysterious person in this regard.

Vanessa turned to the last page, which said Summoning Charm.

"Usually only couples get this tattoo together, but you can do it if you want."

Vanessa still couldn't help thinking of Snape, and fell into it for a second. She shook her head severely: "I just want the most common one."

"Well, you have to think about it, it's not easy to add the spell after the tattoo is finished."

Impulsive again, Vanessa sighed deeply.She didn't like herself like this, it was a feeling of powerlessness that she couldn't control herself at all.Her mind seems to have returned to her student days, and she can be easily influenced by others.Now with her long hair cut and tattoos, she's desperately trying to change, as if it's an escape from things she can't control.But in the end, she didn't even have the courage to face Snape calmly.

Vanessa shook her head, apparating back to Godric's Hollow with the wonderful sensation of losing her hair's drape.