the Gambler

Sirius had the urge to poke his own eyes blind. He received the visual shock early in the morning, and his precious godson was nestled in the arms of the young Dark Lord!He had heard Dumbledore say that Tom mistook Harry for his soul mate, and he had seen the interaction between the two yesterday, but he didn't intend to see Harry willing!It was horrible, and James was going to beat him up!

"Sirius, are you okay?" Harry watched sleepily as the godfather slammed the bedpost hard. The violent vibration made Tom grunt in dissatisfaction, pulled the quilt over his head and kicked the mourning man out of bed.

"You ignorant boy!" Sirius threw himself on the bed with a carp, and Tom, who was the target of the attack, quickly pulled out his wand from under the pillow and pointed it at the man's nose. awake.Tom looked like a viper poised to strike, ready to sink its fangs into the neck of its prey.

"Get off me, Blake." Tom pushed his wand into Sirius' skin, and the latter hesitantly backed away for a distance. Tom shook him off and stood up in front of the man who fell to the ground, with a cold tone "I'm glad you're Harry's godfather. Next time you say this sentence, you'll have to add a past before your title."

Harry broke the sudden tension. He reached out and grabbed Tom's wand-holding arm, pulling the tall boy towards him. Time wasted trying to stop the two of you from killing each other."

Diagon Alley was far less lively than it used to be. Padfoot wagged his tail excitedly and had fun in front of Harry. He jumped more than ten meters and ran back with his tongue out.Tom snorted disdainfully, Harry was too lazy to pay attention to him, and now he was looking at the cheerful black dog with all his heart. He had rarely seen Sirius with such obvious joy, and it made him feel that it was all worth it.

"So, which one are you going to go to first? The robe shop, the bookstore, or the potions shop?" Harry came out of Florin Fusco's ice cream shop, still holding two three-ball cylinders, and he glanced at the Tom, with a look of disgust, squatted down and put one of the ice creams in front of Padfoot, who barked happily.Since he couldn't be too noticeable outside, Sirius put his front paws on Harry's knees and concentrated on licking the cylinder.

Tom looked away, this scene was so stupid, he had no intention of staying here to accept the weird stares from outsiders.He patted Harry on the shoulder, signaling to the latter to go to Lihen Bookstore to buy the required textbooks first, and noticing Harry's hesitant expression, Tom reluctantly promised to come back here within an hour.

Now is not the time for Hogwarts students to buy textbooks. Dumbledore brought the book list for the two of them in advance. The old man told them to prepare the things they need for the school as soon as possible. Now that the outside is not peaceful, many students have given up shopping in person. Use owl mail instead.Tom looked up and looked around the environment of the bookstore. It was not much different from when he was in school, but the owner of the bookstore was obviously much older.

Tom quickly pocketed all the required textbooks from the list. He looked out the window and noticed that Harry and Sirius hadn't finished eating. The boy decided to go to a more secluded corner, maybe he could find some good things.Dumbledore was cunning, and the gold coins he gave were just enough to buy the necessary items, but Tom was no fool, and he had a retracting charm in the inner pocket of his robes, which contained heavy gold Galleons, which he used for classwork and those things. In exchange for Slytherin.

His slender fingers slid across the entire row of books, and finally stopped on a dark red dilapidated manuscript.He pulled the notebook out of the bookshelf, which was very interesting. When he just touched it, Tom could hear the faint trembling and humming of magic, which was very similar to when he touched the ancient Slytherin books in the Chamber of Secrets. picture.

"This book has been gathering dust in this corner for a long time, and no one has been interested in it." A hoarse and old voice sounded from behind the boy. Tom turned his head quickly, aiming his wand at the visitor's throat, and the other person raised his head and stretched out his hand in surrender Because of the smile, the old man's deep wrinkles are squeezed together like a ball of torn cotton wool.

"Who are you?" Tom's wand didn't leave the opponent's neck. He squinted his eyes and looked at the old man carefully. There were many calluses, and the dark yellow nails were embedded in the textured fingertips.Tom wasn't the type to be deceived by appearances, and he noticed that the old man had the same twinkle in his eyes as the annoying old bee that made him uncomfortable.

"It doesn't matter who I am, you just need to know that I am the owner of this book," the old man shrugged indifferently, with a row of dark yellow teeth showing in his open mouth, "I expect her to be discovered It's been a long time," he stared at the notebook in Tom's hand with that look of a lover, "it's been 70 years since I first saw her, and I took her from three gallons Old Maozi's hand. I must say she's charming, though I don't know how to read her—it's an ancient and mysterious language."

"Climbing language." Tom confirmed his guess.

The old man's eyes began to sparkle, and he stared at Tom with that fascinated look: "Slytherin's language! Sure enough! I should have thought of it a long time ago, that kind of strong magic like a siren song, the ancient family— It's really wonderful!"

"You are a descendant of Slytherin," the old man sighed, and the hand he stretched out to Tom's face was pushed away by the latter with his wand.

"I need this notebook. Make an offer."

"That's nature, that's nature," the old man showed a strange smile, "This book has met someone who is destined, I will not insult her value with gold gallons, dear child, promise me to treat her well."

Tom threw the goods on the round table in front of Harry. The sound of books and wood colliding made the cylinder in his hand almost thrown out. Although there was not much left, Harry still stared at the black-haired boy with condemning eyes, The instigator didn't feel guilty at all, he kicked the stool vigorously with his feet to get the black dog off it, and he himself took the position opposite Harry.Sirius howled angrily.

"A good afternoon." Tom lifted his chin, the irony and boredom in his tone evident.

"So far." Harry said, since he entered Diagon Alley, he has had an ominous premonition, always feeling that something is going to happen, whether he is delusional or persecuted, Harry has long been used to all kinds of inexplicable things happening around him. strange things.The boy twirled the cone, stuffed the rest of it into his mouth, chewed it roughly a few times, and swallowed it all.Tom made a disgusted expression.

"What else do you need, I can accompany you to the clothing store, uh, I'll wait for you at the door, you choose the robe before we go?"

"I've already bought it." Tom pointed to another package at his feet and explained, "clothes and potion materials."

Harry was dumbfounded: "So fast?"

"I don't like wasting time in this kind of place. If you're done, we can go back to Black's house. I don't feel very comfortable here." Tom frowned and looked at the street. There were fewer and fewer wizards on the road, maybe Something to do with sudden changes in weather.The climate of the wizarding world is not affected by many factors like the Muggle world, especially the sky above Diagon Alley is shrouded by ancient barriers.When they first came out, the sky was still sunny, but in the blink of an eye, it was covered with dark clouds, and the temperature seemed to drop by dozens of degrees.

"It's getting colder," Harry agreed, the fur on Padfoot bristling from the cold.Tom got up quickly. After using magic to shrink all the packages into his pockets, he roughly pulled Harry's arm and walked quickly towards the place where the apparition took place. Harry complained a few words but still stumbled to keep up.Padfoot looked around uneasily, and he noticed that the street was empty at some point.

"There's something wrong." Tom said, as if he had been doused in ice water, he shivered uncontrollably, his naked//exposed skin was covered with goosebumps, and his feet were as heavy as if they had been filled with lead .The distance to the destination was less than ten meters, but the boy felt that he couldn't move any further.Tom's bewilderment came back to his senses because of the sudden increase in strength in his hands. He frowned at Harry's serious expression, and the latter pulled him hard and ran forward.

Tom could vaguely hear Harry muttering the word dementor over and over again.Dementors.Tom's whole body froze. He'd heard of those disgusting creatures, soul-sucking monsters that fed on the happiness and joy of humans, and he'd never had a chance to actually meet any of them.

"Damn it!" Harry suddenly stopped walking and cursed. Tom raised his head, a few of them were wearing cloaks, and their bodies were floating in front of the two like monsters soaked in water. Padfoot shrank and hid behind Harry. behind.The disgusting putrid smell of dementors penetrated Tom's nostrils, his hands and feet became colder, and his whole head was confused.Tom felt as if his heart was grasped by a pair of invisible hands.

Think of something pleasant!Tom kept reminding himself in his heart that the Guardian Charm needs happy memories!Damn it, this has never been his strong point, he can't even let the silver-white mist emerge from the tip of the staff!

"Guardian!" Harry's trembling voice rang in Tom's ears, he felt the boy's voice was as distant and indistinct as it was separated by water, Tom looked up at the boy struggling to wave his wand, and the silver-white mist wrapped around him Around them, dementors hesitantly broke through the barriers and rushed towards them.Not enough, not enough, Tom had never been so powerless.

"Guardian!" Harry yelled again, visibly firmer this time, as a gigantic stag emerged from the tip of his staff, and the beautiful creature slammed its head down at the dementor, laying itself on top of Sirius. The other one arched hard and circled them quickly, shrieking to drive the other dementors away.It took a few minutes, Harry felt like hours, before those loathsome creatures retreated into the boundless darkness.All this came and went quickly.

Sirius had returned to his human form, his pale face was pressed against the cold brick, his eyes were lifeless, his mouth was slightly open, if it wasn't for the trembling eyeballs, Harry would have thought it was a corpse.He looked around vigilantly, the doors were all closed, and no one seemed to be aware of the terrible thing that happened just now.Harry quickly pulled Tom who was stunned, and disappeared from the gloomy Diagon Alley together with Sirius.