cycle

It was an overcast Saturday morning, with a misty mist in the air.Although you can't see the obvious rain, if you don't wear an umbrella and walk through the field robes, you will be slightly moistened by the water vapor.Harry rescheduled the Quidditch trials to the afternoon (so that he wouldn't have to go to Slughorn's dinner party for a little delay), and they planned to use the morning time to visit Hagrid after breakfast.

"I still have to practice the Clear Water as a Spring Curse." Ron muttered while dismantling the "Advanced Potion Making" that the owl had just delivered with a bad face, "I really don't know what to explain, should I knock Hagrid open?" and say 'I'm sorry we didn't take your class because we hated that stupid class'?"

"We don't hate it!" Hermione retorted.

"Come on, ask yourself, do you really love those snails?" Ron shook his head as he ate his fillet of salmon. "If we'd stayed on for lessons - probably teaching his brother how to tie them now." shoelace."

Hermione opened her mouth and just wanted to say something. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil came in from the auditorium door arm in arm. When they passed by Ron, Lavender patted Ron on the shoulder and smiled at him: "Come on later!"

Ron was choked by the salted salmon in his mouth and couldn't speak for a while. Harry, who was looking down at the "Daily Prophet", raised his head and said to Lavender: "The weather in the morning is not very good, and the trials have been adjusted to the afternoon." .”

"Oh!" Lavender smiled and blinked at Ron, "Got it, we'll see!"

"Has anyone been caught?" Tallus sat down next to Hermione with his uncombed hair, randomly took a plate of scrambled eggs closest to him, and added it to his porridge, every time Hermione or Harry looked He would ask this question with a sullen face in the newspapers.

"No," Hermione replied icily. "A report of a dementor attack, and then news of a dispute between Mr. Potter and the head of the Auror office."

"Who pissed you off?" Tallus asked casually, tilting his head to read the newspaper in Harry's hand. "Looks like it's about Stan Shumpak—your dad doesn't agree with Scrimgeour's idea and would rather A method that cannot be missed by mistaken killing. Tsk...asking whether the current Minister of Magic is just a puppet of Albus Dumbledore, these media are much more forgetful than imagined."

"They're not forgetful, they only care about what kind of sentences can help them sell the newspaper." Hermione selectively omitted Talus's question just now, and said worriedly: "They don't care about these Will the words cause panic, I think if Mr. Potter wants to interfere, tomorrow they will dare to publish "Ministry of Magic Attempts to Interfere with Freedom of Speech" on the front page."

"A lot of people actually prefer Scrimgeour." Harry, who hadn't spoken just now, folded the newspaper and glanced at the rainy sky above his head. "But Scrimgeour didn't get along well with my dad when he was deputy director. It's not surprising."

Hogwarts at this time is like an isolated island heavily protected by various means for us. We live in the castle as before, as if nothing has changed.But this happy illusion can always be easily torn apart by some things——the principal’s seat that is always vacant on the faculty desk, the classmates who were suddenly called away from the classroom and told that their mother had died, one by one rushed to pay for their own Parents whose children have dropped out of school, it seems that every day they open their eyes, there will be familiar or not yet familiar figures disappearing in this castle, and every farewell cannot confirm the date of the next reunion.

The sky began to clear up during lunch, and the few people who came back from Hagrid's hut seemed to be in a good mood. Harry told me that Hagrid forgave them for not taking the class.Hermione and I were quietly discussing the problems I encountered when I was doing my homework alone in the library this morning, and Harry was drawing and drawing on the registration form full of names while eating.As if realizing that the Quidditch trials were just around the corner after lunch, Ron looked no longer so relaxed looking at the sunshine outside the window, and even lost his appetite for food. Talus patted Ron on the shoulder, But it doesn't seem to have any effect.

There were already a few Gryffindors sitting in the stands here and there to watch the selection. Hermione dragged me up the stands in a hurry, without even saying "good luck" to Ron. From the beginning of Lavender, Hermione didn't seem to have another word to Ron.She looked visibly sulking, but she chose the seat closest to the goal and sat down.

"Hey, can we sit here?" Lavender and Patil walked over arm in arm and pointed to the empty seat next to me.

I glanced at Hermione, she nodded expressionlessly, and the two girls sat down immediately. I noticed that Lavender was wearing Patil's favorite big bow in bright colors, and painted Weasley's Weasley's Weasley's Color Changing Lipstick.

Immediately I saw Romilda Vane standing among a group of girls on the court. Even though I don't know much about Quidditch, I can be sure that their team of girls just want to go to the court to have a good time, haha As soon as Lee blew the whistle, they laughed so hard that they couldn't straighten up. They hugged each other and refused to obey the instructions. Some of them didn't even take the broom.Those who failed the selection did not leave immediately, they also sat in the stands to watch the next process.

"I thought you'd be bored." Hermione whispered in my ear (actually it's not necessary, Lavender and Patil are flipping the cards for each other to count "the one who is meant to be", so there shouldn't be time to listen to us What are you talking about), "But I found that you are more serious than I am."

"I thought it was kind of funny." I looked at Harry who spent about half the time on the court yelling at all kinds of people. "I've never seen him be so... hard on anyone."

In fact, I don't quite understand the selections in front of me, but the selection of goalkeepers can be understood by everyone-as long as the ball does not leak into the goal.Therefore, when the final goalkeeper selection began, everyone in the stands was full of enthusiasm, and even though it was dinner time, they had no intention of leaving.The crowd in the stands erupted in enthusiastic cheers as each goalkeeper candidate flew towards goal, and a missed goal drew boos of the same magnitude.The five people in front only saved two balls at most. Hermione leaned out and looked at the people waiting to enter the field with brooms on the side of the field. Now only McLaggen and Ron were left.

I didn't expect that a man like McLaggen, who is big, big, and round, can fly around nimbly on a broom. He saved the first four balls in a row, and whistled triumphantly at the girls in the stands, which attracted a lot of attention. There was a lot of giggling in response, and when Ginny charged at him with the last free throw, I suddenly felt an unnatural wind blowing by my elbow, and the next second McLaggen was lunging in the exact opposite direction Go, provoked a louder roar of laughter.

"Good luck!" Lavender called to Ron as he mounted his broomstick, making the shape of a trumpet with his hand to his mouth.Hermione didn't seem to pay much attention to this matter, staring at Tallus with the Quaffle ready to take off.I think she's even as nervous as Ron, but her pride doesn't allow her to cover her face with both hands like Lavender.

But Ron performed very well, he successfully saved five goals in a row, and the cheers from Gryffindor almost overturned the already darkening stadium.

"You're great, Ron!" Hermione almost ran down the stands (yes, she even forgot to bring me, I kept chasing her), and the new team members selected by Harry were standing around around him, but McLaggen roughly brushed aside the emaciated-looking batsman, and said viciously to Harry: "Ron Weasley's sister and Tallus Black are Didn't take the serve seriously! The balls they gave him were easy saves, it wasn't fair at all."

"Nonsense." Harry's voice had long been hoarse from the yelling all afternoon, but he still frowned and replied, "Everyone saw that Ginny's last ball Ron almost missed, Talus every time It's the same spin every time, just in a different direction. You played really well today, Ron did better than you, and that's true."

McLaggen took a step closer to Harry: "I'm going to try again."

Harry didn't back down, he shrugged blankly: "I read the rules to all of you before the trials started, and the rules are that the goalkeeper saves five balls, and whoever saves the most wins—you were at that time If you don't raise an objection, you will naturally follow the rules, and I don't think there is a 'try again' in the rules."

McLaggen looked around at the glaring rookies, made an ugly face, and walked away cursing.

"I thought he was going to leave because I had to teach him a lesson." Ginny said disdainfully, reaching out to remove her long hair that was coiled up for the convenience of flying, "What a pity, I researched the new bat spirit The curse has never been found to be tried."

Her words swept away the tense atmosphere just now, and everyone smiled.When they finally set the next training time for next Tuesday, the sky had completely darkened and it started to rain again. Ginny waved to us and left with her boyfriend Dean Thomas affectionately on her arm.Ron seemed to be still immersed in the selection just now and didn't come back to his senses. Not only did he not comment on his sister's behavior of kissing her boyfriend's cheek in front of him, but he also happily described his thrilling rescue to us on the way back. Almost tripped over his own broom.

"Anyway, I'm better than that McLaggen." Ron said in a very proud tone, "I was really worried at first, but I didn't expect him to jump in the wrong direction in the end, as if under a confusion spell -"

Hermione's face turned red suddenly, and I thought of the unnatural gust of wind around my elbow at that time. She avoided my probing eyes, and hurriedly asked me as if trying to hide something: "Didn't you specifically take A box of peppermint ice mice? Give Harry some, he's almost speechless."

"Oh... oh." I lowered my head and fumbled in my schoolbag. The cardboard box was pressed by a pile of thick books, and it took me a long time to take it out. —Why don’t you eat it?”

"It's okay." Harry reached out his hand and took an ice mouse whose tail had completely melted away, stuffed it into his mouth, and was terrified from the cold.

"I think McLaggen was indeed confounded." Seeing McLaggen hit the door frame as he walked into the auditorium, I pulled Hermione aside thoughtfully, "We were very close to the goal at that time." close."

Hermione's face was red again, she looked around vigilantly, and after confirming that the boys had entered the auditorium and began to gobble up, she nodded slightly and said, "You also saw the bad reaction of McLaggen after he was defeated, and He's pestered you! I just don't think Harry would want a guy like that on his team—"

"Is there really no other reason?" I tilted my head, "Like for Ron—"

"Oh, keep your voice down! Don't look at them!" Hermione interrupted me immediately, "Alice, don't tell them about this, okay?"

"Of course." I nodded, "This is your private matter."

After dinner I wanted to go to the Owl Shack to post a letter to my mother, and unexpectedly ran into Astoria Greengrass there.When I pushed the door open, she looked over with sparkling eyes and smiled awkwardly when she realized it was me.

I was about to pick one of the owls in the school that was not dozing off, when Hedwig flapped her wings from the railing next to me and landed on my shoulder, steadily stretching out one of her claws towards me.

"I'll just use the school owl." I stretched out my hand and scratched the warm white down on its chin. "What if Harry needs you to send a letter home?"

Hedwig blinked her eyes, leaned her head over and bit my finger lightly, making a cooing sound.I thought of Vivienne - it's been a long time since I thought about it.

"Do you miss it too?" Hedwig quietly watched me tie the letter to the foot of a tawny owl, and I stretched out my hand to comb its wings, "I'm really sorry, I didn't take good care of it."

"Ah, I'm sorry, are you waiting for someone here?" I realized that Astoria didn't seem to be sending a letter. She brought a small basket with several puddings and small cakes in different packages. "Don't worry, I'll be leaving right away."

"It's okay, I'm not waiting for someone, er...it's quite naive." Astoria stroked her hair, and said with some embarrassment: "I accidentally broke the medicine before, and I came here to send home at night. Xin, I found a dog here...it was sleeping in the haystack—"

She pointed to the messy haystack in the shed.

"Later I found out that it often comes here at night, and it may be that the least number of people come to the shed at night to post letters. My parents said that I am not in good health, and they forbid me to touch furry animals, let alone keep cats, but I like small animals very much." Animals, furry animals are very warm, so I can't help but touch it... That dog is so cute! At first I touch it, it will bark its teeth and drive me away. Although it looks very fierce, it never bites. Afterwards, it became very well-behaved, and when I patted its legs, it knew to lie down on my lap and take a nap."

"Did you bring dessert for that dog?" I looked at her basket curiously. "Dogs like to eat meat? I never knew anyone had a dog at Hogwarts except Hagrid."

"Yeah, I wanted to find its owner and buy it, but I couldn't find it." Seeing that I didn't mean to laugh at her, Astoria no longer whispered shyly, she said: "It's quite strange." , but it does seem to be just an ordinary dog ​​without magic... At first he didn't even smell the treats I brought him, until the last time my mother sent me and my sister some custard pudding, and he actually buried himself in it for a while The whole...I saw that it wagged its tail more happily than usual when it ate, so I bought some sweets, I don’t know if it will come today.”

"It's windy here, don't wait too long." I looked at her pale face, and I couldn't help but remind her as the rain kept splashing in from the open window.

"Well, thank you, Miss Snape." She nodded at me, and I hesitated to ask her if Draco had said anything strange in the Slytherin lounge lately.Astoria's clear eyes make her look too much like a delicate rag doll that you can't help but want to take care of, that I don't want to use her innocent kindness to spy on anything.

I went back to the crowded Gryffindor common room, only to see Ron and Tallus sitting there doing their homework, and just as I sat down I heard Ron say in a weird tone, "You're out of luck." .”

"Huh?" I looked at Ron's sullen face inexplicably, he was still very happy during dinner, "What's the matter?"

"As soon as you left, Professor Slughorn blocked Harry and Hermione in the auditorium, saying that since the trials were over, he would have time to attend his dinner party. He was disappointed that he didn't find you after searching for a long time." Talu Si glanced at Ron who was frowning and flicking the quill, and explained to me.

"Didn't he invite you?" I thought Slaghorn admired Mr. Black when he talked about it before, so he would invite him too.

"Please, I just said that I don't want to go." Talus yawned, "He didn't think I was offended, and he told me not to be too sad for my mother."

"Well, no one ever thought of asking me to a party anyway," Ron stood up abruptly. "I'd better go to bed."

After he finished speaking, he went straight away. I stared blankly at the back of his leaving, wondering why Ron looked more irritable than Talus now-speaking of which, Talus has gradually recovered a lot recently, just now Talking about Mrs. Black was much calmer than before.

"I'll go for a walk." Tallus stretched his waist. "See you later."

"See you later." I took out my homework from my schoolbag and spread it out.