, wonderful and free of pop-ups! The weather at the end of November was extremely cold. It stands to reason that Britain is better than the United States in this regard, but when walking through the castle for class, Harry felt that the temperature was no different from the winter in New York.
"It will snow in a few weeks." Zhang Qiu told him.
After hearing this, Harry felt like he was facing an enemy. He didn't know why he was particularly afraid of the cold, and he often wrapped himself up very thickly on days like this. Hogwarts' school uniforms are not very warm. How to wear them warmly without being bulky is also a skill. My advice to him in this regard is - Owl customization!
Before he could customize a suit of clothes as he was told, Mrs. Malfoy's package arrived at Slytherin's dining table one morning. It was twice as big as it contained new clothes and handmade sweets, and Harry also had some. One copy, with his name thoughtfully embroidered with silver thread, and a letter from Sirius inside. It can be seen from this that the relationship between him and his cousin is not as bad as he said.
There was no class this afternoon. Harry was sitting in the lounge and unfolded a piece of letter paper, biting the end of the pen and planning to write a reply to Sirius. There was class at this time, so it was his most pure time.
However, I don’t know if it’s intentional or not. Most of their afternoons are free. At least the girls gather together, solving homework easily, chatting over black tea and cakes, and exchanging the news they have heard recently, Harry We were sitting not far from them, so we could hear them clearly.
"Have any of you confirmed their statement?" Boot, a rare senior boy, asked casually as he walked past the group of girls. He had three tomes in his hand, obviously for the purpose of looking up information. Passing by the girls, "I'm very interested in the new ghosts they talked about. You know, except for Myrtle, there haven't been any new ghosts in Hogwarts in a hundred years."
"The twins of Gryffindor have been wandering the castle at night for three days," his girlfriend, a blonde beauty, answered him while biting a biscuit. "They didn't see any suspicious ghosts, but, well, there were us too. The school girls ran to investigate, and they did see something again, but they didn't see it clearly and only heard a little sound."
"Which one is it?" Harry heard Boot ask.
"They met the one with blond hair," a girl named Mandy quickly replied, while taking out her notebook, "Let me see - blond hair, about twenty years old -"
"I thought ghosts were all pearl-colored?" Zhang Qiu opened his mouth in surprise.
"It is said that the newly appeared ghost has color on his body, but it is very light," Mandy continued. "The style of the wizard's robe is very old. From their description, it looks a bit like the Middle Ages, so it can be speculated that he did not die recently. And his accent was unfamiliar."
"Old English?" some people muttered.
"It's possible -" Mandy closed the notebook with both hands, "and he still asks that question when meeting people, as you know," she suddenly lowered her voice very low, and said in a long and sinister tone, "'Where is he? ——'"
There was a burst of screams and laughter among the girls. They pushed Mandy, and someone held a soft cushion and said to her: "Oh Mandy——"
"Okay, okay, anyway, that's the end of the matter. Our school girls have just disappeared - when they shook their heads and said they didn't know, the ghost ran away and they couldn't catch up." Mandy raised her hands in surrender, angrily Panting.
"Then it was as if they had lost their souls - and the ghosts were said to be extremely handsome."
…………
As Harry listened, he felt that he shouldn't listen any more - this kind of thing that only contained rumors but no truth would, as always, become more and more widespread and become more and more exaggerated, just like the incident they reported about Sirius before - - Rumor has it that he and Neville had a big fight, and curses were everywhere. In the end, he wisely and bravely saved Sirius, and Neville bravely helped him fight Wormtail for several rounds...
Well, although he was very angry because of such rumors (since he had no part in the role at all), Harry was happy to see Neville paying half of his attention, and he felt at ease. As for accusing him of being 'unenterprising' for this reason 'Stupidity', and even yelling at him together, Harry felt that it could be ignored for the sake of the precious potions notes lent to him.
Professor snape is a wizard. Harry sighed when he got the Potion Enlightenment Notes.
The same potion formula, or even the same material processing method, as long as there is an improvement in snape, the potion cooking time will become shorter, the materials will become easier to process, and the medicinal effect will be better. This made Harry think that the potion might not be that difficult - among a group of seniors who were troubled by the jumping beans, Harry's relaxed posture of crushing out more bean juice made Snape's greatness in this aspect becomes particularly obvious.
If it weren't for the fact that his father had a... blood feud with this professor, Harry would actually be willing to ask him for more advice. However, due to his normal behavior, he doubted that going a few more times would only make things worse.
Harry shook his head when he thought of this and continued to immerse himself in writing letters. In the last letter, Sirius used fluent cursive calligraphy to declare the perfection of his recovery. At the same time, he couldn't help but confide to Harry about his current situation - he was completely controlled by his cousin. , diet, clothing, work and rest habits, daily schedule, everything is controlled. As a thirty-year-old man, this is very embarrassing, but Sirius cannot disobey her because they have an agreement—— Mrs. Malfoy provides the necessary protection for her cousin. On the contrary, Sirius has to shoulder the responsibilities of the family and cannot let his health fall below the average level because it is too detrimental to the continuation of the bloodline - and there are many more to come at the same time. A photo of a witch for a blind date.
Harry was reading this letter side by side at the time. The two boys almost burst out laughing when they saw this, especially gloating: "Thank you Merlin, he should know that he should respect his sister! My mother is quite proficient in taking care of people. But she’s also very proficient in this area!”
Harry suppressed a smile and looked at the lower part - there, Sirius assured him in a sincere tone that he would never get married easily before Harry came of age, let alone have children. In fact, he considered Harry his godson. Deserve an inheritance of all his property - as if Harry would want that. However, this still made Harry quite moved and troubled. After all, Sirius Bck was obviously very kind to him, but he could not return the same solemn feelings now. After all, he spent very little time with this godfather. Pitiful.
But what Dad said was right, he thought so and wrote the words 'Dear Sirius' on the parchment. Everything can be done slowly. He can try to talk to the godfather and have a good start. .
In the end it took him an hour to write the letter. At the beginning, he greeted Sirius, thanked him for the gifts, and explained the whereabouts of those gifts, such as the broom that he had put away properly, the wizard robe that he had been wearing and received many compliments, and the custom-made winter coat that fit perfectly... ...Of course, there is also a small snack to thank Mrs. Malfoy. He asked Sirius to help him thank this mother. Next, he tried to write some daily stuff, such as he was researching different versions of healing spells, helping a senior sister to cultivate aquatic magic plants and borrowing his good potion notes, but the blueprint came from Snape...and, the academy There was a petrification incident. Maybe Sirius himself has heard the news, but please don't worry. He is very safe and has no habit of going out in the middle of the night. Professor Lupin's health is not that bad... In short, Harry wrote eloquently A lot. In the middle of the description, he also jokingly wrote something that would make the person involved get angry: '...I highly doubt that if he persists in going back to the cellar every night at midnight, he is likely to be raped recently. Maybe the rumored blond ghost would take him to meet the great Slytherin. '
At the end of the letter, when he was preparing for the end, Harry had an idea in his mind. He hesitated for a moment, and finally wrote an invitation.
'We're going to have a new neighbor in the house soon, who's a good friend of my dad's, so we might have a little party, maybe around Christmas, would you like to come? '
…………
Holding his schoolbag, he was walking in the corridor. Suddenly, he stopped and sneezed loudly, his face distorted.
"Tell me, you should eat more, it will make you stronger," said the chubby and strong Crabbe next to him, "Do you have a cold? You have sneezed three times today."
"Shut up! Do you want me to be like you?" he said viciously, taking a few steps forward quickly, then remembered something, turned back and glared at his two followers, warning them: " Don't tell Harry, you hear me! I don't want to be his experimenter to test spells and cold potions!"
The two people nodded quickly.
He nodded with satisfaction and continued to move forward quickly - it was almost time to eat, and he didn't want to be late for anything.
Crabbe and Goyle quickly followed. The latter took a few steps forward and asked him in a low voice: "——This is not what I meant, but Pansy must tell you," he said with a blush, "She asked You, are you not going to have afternoon tea with her this weekend? This is not because I want to help her! She insisted on it, she insisted on me asking!" He emphasized the word 'must', very afraid of it. In anger, he took his temper out on himself.
"Tell her to go drink with Bsie." Without even looking back, "She has to tell her a few times before she realizes that I don't have time to sit there and waste an afternoon drinking tea with her!"
"Why did you have it before?" Goyle muttered in a low voice, "You haven't had it since you met Xavier - what is so charming about him?"
He stopped and gave him a cold look.
"Wait until your grades are as good as his, or if you can avoid throwing away your wand under his spell, before you say such a thing." He sneered.
"——" Goyle hurriedly wanted to say something.
"Tell Pansy what I just said." He said every word, with a thin layer of anger in his gray-blue eyes. "Tell her not to be so bored that she meddles in other people's business - especially not to meddle in my head." Come up."
After saying that, he quickened his pace and walked away.
Crabbe glanced at his companion and complained a little: "Why are you so angry?"
"Why does he hang out with a w every day? He's even alienated from us!" Goyle said.
"Didn't we agree before? It doesn't matter what we want to do, we just listen to him - besides, Pansy definitely can't beat Xavier, he knows so many magic spells! Besides, what's wrong with Xavier? He did it The food is so delicious!" Crabbe said sincerely, "And if he gets angry and takes revenge on us - it will definitely be scarier than Pansy getting angry. Even Pansy is afraid of him. Man, have you ever seen him afraid of anyone else?"
When Goyle heard this statement, he nodded sharply: "Oh, yes, yes, yes, you are right! That's so right! What a tragedy, do you think you will tell Xavier about this -"
Crabbe patted his shoulder sympathetically, and the latter's face turned as white as a ghost.
…………
Neville and Ron ran all the way out of the restaurant, with the Weasley twins chasing after them, holding a few pieces of candy in their hands, and behind them was Percy who was chasing his two twin brothers - such a scene was actually in the lobby When I saw it at the door, it had to be said that it was strange, at least Harry was extremely surprised.
"Oh, Merlin!" Ron roared at his two brothers unbearably, "How do we know when that damn thing will appear! Why don't you go find it yourself?"
"He, he's right," Harry heard Neville trembling and said, "We don't know."
Because the conversation sounded too much like a mafia interrogating innocent people, Harry had to stop and focus on the three red heads and one brown head.
"But we searched all over the second floor in the middle of the night—"
"I didn't even see that ghost -"
"So our dear little brother, does it only appear if you go there?"
"Come on, how about going out with us tonight - of course, you can choose to refuse, but as compensation, we just need a few test subjects for our new canary toffee..."
"That's not true," Neville whispered, "someone else saw it too."
"But I haven't seen as much as you, right? I know you saw it at least three times after that," I don't know if it was Fred or Geogle who hooked his neck, "and most of them only saw the 'Lost Blond Prince' .”
Sticking out his tongue in disgust: "What's that name - I mean the 'lost blond prince'?"
"I don't care what kind of prince that is," Percy rushed forward angrily, and Harry saw that he even rolled up his sleeves, with veins popping out of his forehead, "How dare you make a scene in the auditorium?! And spread such news that is not good for public opinion? !”
"Oh, trouble is coming. Get away first, little brother~"
The twins quickly dodged away, so fast that Harry couldn't help but gasp. He began to feel strange - logically, someone in the school had been petrified, which was a dangerous sign - but compared to that, it seemed that someone in the school had been petrified. The news of a strange ghost's presence spread faster and more intensely.
"What are you looking at?" At this time, he happened to walk to the door. When he saw where Harry was looking, he curled his lips and said, "Tch, Weasley."
"I witnessed a chase." Harry joked, "But now it's no longer attractive, because I think it's better if I get in quickly - I'm going to starve to death."
She looked at him up and down with squinting eyes: "So - what did you do all afternoon?"
Harry's eyes were bright: "Awesome, I successfully healed the wounds caused by the cutting spell and the Swiss Army Knife on the white mouse. I also successfully brewed an anti-inflammatory potion that can be obtained from Professor Snape. I also found a book A book dedicated to explaining defensive spells——"
"Stop, stop! I regret it. Don't tell me such boring results in the future!" He held his head and walked forward, "I shouldn't expect you to do anything interesting! I won't expect it anymore. You will suddenly have a whim and occasionally fly around on a broomstick!"
Harry nodded with a smile and pushed.
"If you are willing to give me one of the mango puddings on your long table, I promise not to tell you anymore, because I think I can eat five of them now."
"What can I say? Good sir Harry Xavier, no one but you would eat so many sweets in one go!"
"That's not right. You obviously love to eat-"
"nonsense!"
………………
In Malfoy Manor, far away from Hogwarts, a pair of cousins were having an afternoon tea that couldn't be described as cozy. Before that, two owls flew here, one behind the other, dropped two letters and left.
Maybe it was because the weather was nice today, or maybe it was because she and her husband had a wonderful night last night. In short, the distinguished Mrs. Malfoy decided to experience something she had not done for a long time - read the replies from her children with her family.
Logically speaking, the protagonists of this matter should be her and her sisters, or at worst it should be Regulus, the wife of her youngest cousin, a pure-blood lady with noble birth and good education. After all, the population of Malfoy has been declining for many years, and a close relative nor. If it were more than ten years ago, Narcissa would never have imagined the scene today - sitting with Sirius enjoying afternoon tea, and then reading the replies from the children studying at Hogwarts together.
Narcissa knew this sounded funny, but her eldest sister had no contact with her for a long time, and her daughter was already an adult, and the second sister Bel... Oh, let's not mention it.
But then again, this does not mean that even if Bel has a child, Narcissa will sit calmly with her sister and read the reply. After all, it is Bel, and Bel will always be the craziest one in the family, she will always be.
Sirius was looking at the pictures of witches on the table with a lifeless look. When Narcissa handed him the letter, he became energetic as if he had drunk a refreshing potion, and suddenly he squatted on a chair. The black dog turned into a man sitting on a chair.
"Mr. Xavier wrote a reply to you. I thought you were going to open the letter with a dog's paw?" Sirius heard his cousin say so casually with a relaxed smile on his face, "In terms of thickness, it is thicker than the previous one." It should be longer.”
Sirius quickly opened the envelope - there were three pieces of letter paper inside. Although it was not the parchment paper used by wizards, and it was thin and brittle, it was indeed longer than the short piece of paper in the previous letter.
He thought with some joy that this meant that his relationship with Harry had taken another step forward - the child was very strange to him, yes, and refused to call him Sirius, yes, so what? It was all his fault, and now that he was starting a new life, he would get to know the kid.
Then with almost ecstasy he read the beginning - dear sirius. Oh Merlin, Harry is willing to call him Sirius!
Narcissa sat on the chair opposite him, opened the letter with a sip of warm black tea, and quietly read the two pieces of parchment. In it, she half complained and half tentatively asked about the "school emergency" Is there any historical record for the petrification incident? In addition, she also secretly hopes that she will ask her family if they have any recent plans. Recently, they have been quiet, but Neville's reputation is gradually rising. I think these two are very contradictory. The phenomenon. In addition, he also chatted about some things about his friends. Narcissa noticed that his son was much more mature than when he first entered school. Those sentences about how outstanding he was and how stupid others were were gone. Looking for Showing off other people's troublesome achievements has also decreased - because his inseparable friends ask him to study hard and stop doing useless things all day long.
The complaints about this are endless.
'He actually said that he was afraid that if I kept doing this, one day I would be caught by those stupid lions and dragged to the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night to beat me up! Merlin, mom, who knows how he could have such a ridiculous idea! '
Seeing this, she couldn't help but smile.
——'Being asked' is one thing, but actually responding to the request, or in other words, doing what is asked is another thing.
"...He is really quite capable." She put down the tea cup and whispered, raising her head to glance at Sirius, who was unaware of it and was immersed in the increasingly complicated letters from his godson. This man was obviously over thirty years old, but he was still as handsome as a twenty-year-old man. Just like an eighteen-year-old young man, he was secretly delighted with every little detail he noticed, and his smile grew bigger and bigger.
Narcissa's smile deepened a little, and she lowered her head and continued reading the letter. As a mother, her favorite thing to do is to guess her son's thoughts from these clues, just like this -
'Pansy has been very annoying recently. She often criticizes me and Harry's dating behavior, but even so, I have to admit that some of her words are right. For example, Harry's pair of glasses are simply unnecessary, and some of his Muggle clothes are simply too much. It's so ugly that I can't bear to look at it...'
——The girl in the Oh family is no longer as important as Mr. Xavier, and the latter needs some advice on appropriate dressing.
Narcissa nodded obediently, maybe there could be a few more items on this year's Christmas shopping list.
"What the hell!"
Sirius, who was sitting opposite her, suddenly roared in a low voice, "Petrified? Unseen ghosts? Damn it, when did hogwarts become airtight? How come I didn't encounter any of them when I was in school?"
"There hasn't been a new ghost in Hogwarts for nearly fifty years." After thinking for a while, Narcissa thought that some issues could be discussed with her cousin. "What do you think, Sirius? And, what do you think about home?" Impression? They have been in the limelight in recent years, but now they have become quiet."
Sirius's expression hardened, and his previous smile and softness seemed to have been polished away by a cold blade at this moment: "I don't want to discuss those things with you, Cissy, you know what Bel did - but I The thing about that damn ghost is that it can’t just show up for no reason.”
"You mean it appeared because of something." The mistress of the Malfoy family said calmly, but her face began to turn pale, as if she was recalling something, and her perfectly manicured nails dug directly into her palms.
"It's not just that, Cissy," Sirius looked at his cousin, remembering that she used to be such a gentle and quiet woman, but now she is like this, he cursed Malfoy a hundred times in his heart to express his hatred, and was extremely irritated, "This is not the case. It means it appears to do something!" He stood up and paced in front of the table, "No, I have to go to Diagon Alley... Don't say I didn't tell you before, you have to tell your son that little Bastard, cissy, tell him to stop being responsible and stop causing trouble. It's definitely not safe at this time, I have to go get Harry some self-defense."
After speaking, Sirius seemed to feel that his tone was too cold and hard, so Sirius added another sentence dryly.
"Of course, there is still Dumbledor in Hogwarts who is in charge of the overall situation...you don't have to worry too much."
"Oh come on, Sirius," Narcissa forced herself to smile, "If you're not worried, I don't have to worry either."
Sirius remained silent.
"And you're worried," Narcissa said at last.
