The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

Hogwarts.

The bluestones used to build the outer wall were blunted by the wind and sand, and after being exposed to the sun and rain, they turned deep dark green. The morning mist that had not yet dissipated floated in the corners of the wall, and there were still dewdrops on a few blades of grass. The top floor of the tower was bathed in the summer sun, and the bricks and stones were stained with a faint golden light. The light and dark contrast made this magic school more dreamy.

In front of the lobby, Harry sat on the marble steps, staring at the copper nut in his hand.

Unfortunately, the copper nut was silent. After a few minutes, no new messages were received. If nothing unexpected happened, there would be no news in a short time.

The expectation in Harry's eyes slowly extinguished, and he sighed deeply, like a lonely old man who stayed alone in his hometown.

Based on his understanding of this little friend, this person probably put away the communicator. If there is no valuable information, the next time he thinks of communicating with his roommate who stayed at school should be on his seventeenth birthday at the end of the month.

This heartless guy was reliable at critical moments and his advice was useful, but he only had enough patience for Hermione. As long as other people were not in front of him, his attitude was perfunctory.

But this guy was quick-witted. No matter how bad his attitude was across the communicator and the letter paper, he would always find a way to eliminate the other person's anger the next time they met, making people lose their temper.

"..."

Harry muttered in a low voice that he would definitely ask him harshly the next time they met, making him feel ashamed.

The breeze blew through the castle, through the empty corridors and aisles, and blew away the fog trapped in the school along the wall, making a slight sound.

"Hu, hu..."

The flowers and leaves swayed gently, and dewdrops fell, as if everything in this ancient building was responding to his thoughts, and the castle came alive, and it seemed quiet.

Harry let out a long breath, his butt was a little cold after sitting on the stone for a long time, so he stood up and patted it twice, and then walked towards the Forbidden Forest.

Hagrid should be back soon. He and Grawp have to patrol the Forbidden Forest once in the morning and once in the evening. The time is not fixed, but they always walk twice a day, not only to prevent people from sneaking into the school during the holidays, but also to prevent forest fires. Of course, the main purpose is to collect food for the giant brothers.

The unicorns seem to know that the school is on vacation, and occasionally go to the outer edge of the Forbidden Forest.

There are also centaurs. On the night of the last waning moon, Firenze took a few foals to the field for divination, and lit a bonfire made of strange hay, which was full of smoke.

It is not clear what the future is foreshadowing, but the mosquito repellent effect is quite good.

The summer vacation life at Hogwarts is not boring, sometimes it is quite lively. He is not the only one in this castle. In addition to those house elves who are unwilling to take a vacation, there is also Professor McGonagall.

It is said that Professor McGonagall stayed in school specifically for him, but Harry is not sure about the details.

The main job of the house elves is to clean the castle, including the four colleges, the long-term classrooms, and the remote towers. The Hogwarts kitchen no longer provides three meals in batches. If you don't go to Hagrid, you have to eat with Professor McGonagall every day, which feels weird.

You have to report to the office before lights out every night, which feels like a dormitory check in a Muggle boarding school.

After walking for about ten minutes, we arrived at the Forbidden Forest Hut.

Now it is a small courtyard with a large area. The nearby trees have been cut down and cleared. Some of them are made into firewood for winter, and some are made into fences.

The vegetable field is divided into several pieces by soil ridges. The largest piece is planted with pumpkins, and the other pieces are planted with purple cabbage, radishes, cauliflowers...

There is also a small piece of vacant land with nothing planted. That is Aragog's grave, and the weeds on it are quite lush.

The yard was quiet, the doors and windows were closed, and there was a pile of dried wood on the open ground, which seemed to be ready to be chopped for firewood. The water tank in front of the door was empty, with only half of the water left.

It seemed that Hagrid and Grawp had not returned yet.

There was a small iron lock on the door, which was roughly made and the lock post was fragile. It was obviously unable to stop the unlocking spell. Hagrid should not mind... but Harry did not open the door and go in.

He could not explain why.

It was somewhat influenced by Loren.

Harry glanced at the firewood and the water tank, thought seriously for a moment, and decided to lean on the fence to watch the slugs on the pumpkin head and wait for Hagrid to come back next to the vegetable garden.

These tasks were slow and tiring for him to do, so it was better to wait for Hagrid and Grawp to come back here.

There was a good reason, which was also influenced by Loren.

The two slugs were about to pass through the vines lying in the middle and complete their destined encounter. At this moment, the path behind the house finally rang with a loud barking.

Harry retracted his unsatisfied gaze, stood up and went to the back, ready to tell Hagrid that his vegetable garden should be dewormed.

Fang was as enthusiastic as ever, and when he came close, he began to circle around his trouser legs, sticking out his tongue and making a small chuckle, as if introducing him to the things he saw along the way. Hagrid stayed behind and stared at Grawp, to prevent him from being attracted by some birds or butterflies and running into the forest and getting lost. There were precedents in the past.

"Hagrid, Grawp!"

"Ha... Harry..."

"It's Harry! Why don't you go into the house and wait?" Hagrid threw the hunted rabbit on the ground and wiped his hands on his moleskin coat. "I was delayed by Bain on the way, so I came back late. Please help me take care of Grawp, I'll go prepare lunch."

"Oh!"

Harry sometimes felt that he was a professor, staying at school to help Hagrid look after the children.

I don’t know if Professor McGonagall feels the same way about him, worried that he will be attracted by some butterflies or birds and leave the school, and he will have to do something stupid to make a scene to find him.

It feels a little subtle.

Harry had already mastered the trick of getting along with Grawp. He came to the pure-blood stunted giant, took out a box from the storage scales, opened the box, and found an ellipsoidal gray ball tied inside. .

Bludgers!

Harry specifically asked Professor McGonagall to ask for it. The school's equipment was about to be phased out. The shelf life had expired. The Bludger seemed to be mentally ill, flying in a mess, and the speed was faster. It could not be used for competitions at all.

It's quite suitable to be used as a toy for Grawp.

As soon as the thing untied the rope, it rushed out, drew a straight line and was about to hit the water tank in the yard. It was caught by Graup's big hand, then changed its direction and came out from between the fingers, and was caught by another. A giant hand grabbed it and squeezed it out between the fingers again...

Repeatedly, both the pure-blood giant and the Bludger had a great time playing.

Relying on the charm of the old Bludger, Harry temporarily allowed Grawp to sit safely in the open space. Although his hands kept waving, his legs and head were safe, and Harry would not be accidentally injured, nor would he delay his Legilimency practice. read.

Isn't the pure-blooded giant's head hollower than his own?

At least there's room for a baby hippogriff.

Harry, who was standing on the ground and was no higher than the giant's ankles, smiled, stepped back slightly, and looked up at the thrashing giant.

The fog in the forest has not completely dissipated, and the sunlight is slanting down, and the light seems to have a shape. Curly, thick fern-colored hair hangs on the giant's head, and his skin is rough and thick. From a distance, it looks like a large stone covered with moss. The face is astonishingly large, and the facial features seem to be roughly carved out of a huge stone ball. The short and thick nose is almost shapeless, and the mouth is crooked, covered with strange yellow teeth that are half the size of a brick...

Most importantly, those huge brown-green eyes are piercing.

Harry muttered silently in his heart: "[Legilimency]"

…

"When will Hagrid be persuaded to give up Rockpie?"

Harry hummed inarticulately, his steps brisk.

It was already the moment when the sun was setting, and the golden afterglow spread over the open and spacious field, making it dazzling. The castle in front was also covered with a layer of golden shirts. Harry was planning the next practice plan, and before he knew it, the foyer was in sight.

Harry stepped into the castle and caught a glimpse of a familiar figure from the corner of his eye. The short and thin elf was at the door of the auditorium. He immediately walked over:

"Dobby, are you back from vacation?"

"Dobby has gone too far. The wizards there can't understand Dobby's words and can only communicate with gestures. Everything is very expensive. Dobby came back after spending all his savings." The house elf looked excited, not at all. Feeling sorry for money.

"I can't understand the words. Where have you been?"

"Dobby doesn't know either."

"Forget it, I hope I get back smoothly. Anyway, I will stay at school during the summer vacation, and we can still be friends. The elves in the kitchen are afraid to talk to me. Every time I think I am a bad person, it's weird."

"Harry is a good man!"

Dobby shouted loudly, as if remembering something, he lowered his head quietly, not daring to look into Harry's eyes, and whispered: "But Dobby can't accompany Harry. Dobby has to work to save money. Fight for it." Go further afield.”

Harry was stunned for a moment, but after thinking that this was a house elf and Dobby, he no longer felt strange.

Thinking of the meal problem that had troubled him recently, Harry's eyes lit up: "How about I hire you to work for me?"

Dobby stared at him with wide eyes, a little angry: "Dobby should have worked for you in the first place. Dobby is an employee of Hogwarts. He received Mr. Dumbledore's salary. How could he receive another salary from you?" Oh! Do you think Dobby is some kind of greedy elf?"

"What a mess..."

Harry looked at the stubborn little guy and couldn't help having a headache. He tentatively said: "If it were during normal school hours, you should indeed provide services, but now it is summer vacation and you are on vacation yourself, so you have no obligation to continue to provide services." ”

"Dobby and Harry are friends, and Dobby is willing to serve Harry, even if there is no salary!"

"I know, I know..." Harry thought for a moment, assuming what he should do if it were Loren, "What I offer you is not a salary, but an extra allowance, or compensation."

"?"

"I hired you not to cook and wash clothes, but to practice a kind of magic. Do you know Legilimency? This kind of magic may invade your privacy, so I should compensate you."

"My privacy?" Dobby frowned and thought seriously. He seemed to have heard Xiaomai mention this.

The guy read a lot of awkward books. The house elves in the kitchen said that he was confused and didn't want to listen to him. However, Dobby felt that some of his words made sense, and some of them were unintelligible but impressed Dobby. For example, privacy, human rights, respect...

Anyway, it is what a slave should get. Once he gets it, he will get rid of his slave status and become an equal with his employer.

Dobby is a free elf, so it seems reasonable to take this allowance.

Dobby blinked his eyes and planned to go back to the kitchen to ask questions in the evening. Now he agreed: "Okay, I can practice this with you...this..."

"Legilimency."

"Let's not talk about allowances and compensation for now. I'll go back and consult with you and I'll give you an answer tomorrow."

"OK."

Harry smiled, turned around and went upstairs to find the dormitory manager to sign in.

…

I was the only one in the dormitory, and I couldn't find anything to do.

Harry washed up and walked out of the bathroom. The sky outside the window was not completely dark yet. When he took out the communicator again, he found that Loren had replied. It was some practice techniques for Legilimency. There were several long paragraphs. Just reading and flipping through them made me dizzy.

Such a long text must have taken a long time to type.

Harry was slightly touched in his heart. Loren was so busy during the summer vacation, but he could still take time to help him. It showed that he still cared about the friendship between roommates. He would not question him harshly next time they met.

After reading these words carefully, Harry felt that his Legilimency skills had made great progress and was ready to try tonight.

He opened the curtain, stood in front of the Mirror of Erised, took off his glasses, and stared at the reflection in the mirror.

Some invisible and immaterial magic penetrated along the equally illusory gaze, and Harry's perception touched a layer of cold barrier, like the ice on the lake after the first snow, thin and brittle, and with a little effort, it could penetrate through and enter another vast underwater area.

Exclude those memories about family reunions.

Exclude those memories that have nothing to do with Voldemort.

Harry gave himself a hint in his heart, but this vague and broad concept description was not very effective. On the contrary, because of thinking about which memories were family reunions and which were not related to Voldemort, many irregular memories surfaced and appeared in front of Harry one by one.

In the memory of the Dursleys, Aunt Petunia's face was the clearest, Uncle Vernon and Cousin Dudley's faces were unclear, but their body shapes were very personal.

"It should have lost weight now..."

Harry threw away this idea and looked at the next memory.

This process is like fishing aimlessly at the bottom of a lake. It is impossible to predict what memories will be fished up next. Maybe it is about the Dursleys, like a discarded and useless stone, or it may be about Quidditch, like a useless shell with patterns that can make people happy.

The process of Legilimency is like a projection in a pensieve, but it is different. You can flip through the pictures from a third-person perspective and experience your own emotions as a witness at the time. As a bystander, you will also have new emotions in real time.

There is always an indescribable feeling, weird and wonderful.

Memory bubbles floated by one by one, and Harry savored this feeling until the picture of the first-year sorting ceremony emerged.

Looking at the childish Harry Potter sitting at the long table of Gryffindor College for the first time, he looked around with curiosity, and his sight happened to intertwine with Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell at the guest of honor seat——

"Hiss..."

Harry felt the pain of the scar that he had not seen for a long time.