the Gambler

Compared with the sunny weather outside, the atmosphere in the classroom is much colder.Professor Babling divided the class into groups of four and began to practice. The Ancient Runes class has always been notoriously difficult. After reaching the sixth grade, many people chose to give up it and take arithmetic divination, so the whole classroom is composed of four people. The two colleges are formed together, even so, there are only a dozen people.Babling poked hard at the blackboard with her wand, making an uncomfortable squeaking sound, and a row of crooked runes appeared on it. This was very inconsistent with the gentle appearance of witches. Harry guessed that the empty classroom also angered the professor. a reason.

"I hope you understand the beauty of the runes, and repeat the words on the blackboard with me." Babling said in a high voice, while waving her wand, the inkwell in front of her eyes flew into the air danglingly, "Flick, flick, Just like the Levitation Charm you learned in Charms class, this sentence is not a literal Latin translation, which is why I want you to really understand the rune."

Harry followed the instructions over and over, and the quill still didn't budge. He scratched his ear in frustration, and was utterly annoyed when he heard Tom's snicker.In retaliation, he poked the man hard in the ribs with his wand, hearing the stifled groan of pain with satisfaction.

Professor Babling seemed very dissatisfied with the status quo. So far, no one could raise the quill. She cast hopeful eyes on Tom.The latter clenched his fists to his mouth and coughed a few times, then waved his arms, the feather fluttered up a few feet, and even flaunted a circle around Harry's head before falling down.Babling clapped her hands enthusiastically, giving Slytherin twenty points by the way.

"Don't be complacent." Harry said angrily, and poked Draco, who was full of admiration, with his wand. He and Hermione were the other two members of the team, and it was the episode just now that made Draco stop hating Hermione .Harry was waving his wand very hard, which was never a good idea, and the quill seemed to fly into the air with too much force, breaking the barrel when it hit the table, splashing black ink all over them.Draco groaned under his breath and cleared the entire table.

"An interesting performance, but it does keep it afloat." Professor Babling suddenly appeared in front of them, with an unabashed smile that made Harry uncomfortable. "Ten points from Gryffindor!"

The beautiful witch lowered her head again, easily restored the quill to its original state, and said softly, "I believe you can be gentle this time?"

Blood rushed to his cheeks involuntarily, Harry nodded hastily, his eyes sparkling.Tom sneered, and the next moment, the quill slapped Harry's forehead. If it weren't for Hermione's warning eyes, he would definitely tear off the other's smirking face.Draco glanced back and forth between Tom and Harry with interest, making sure nothing more dramatic was going to happen, and sighed rather disappointedly.Hermione cursed 'boys' under her breath and set them aside to practice on her own.A few minutes later, she bit her lip and looked at the two still staring at each other unconvinced.Unnoticed, Hermione spoke in the loudest voice the professor could not hear: "I can't float the quill! There must be something wrong."

Draco snorted exaggeratedly: "Why, Miss Know-it-all doesn't know either?"

"Shut up, Malfoy, if you have the ability, raise your quill first before laughing at me!"

Draco's face was flushed, he straightened his body, his eyes were fixed on the quill, his lips were trembling, and the target still didn't respond.He swung his wand vigorously, and the quill suddenly caught fire, and a foul smell wafted into the air.This time, Hermione just laughed out loud, and Draco quickly extinguished the flames, glaring at each other darkly.

Half an hour later, everyone succeeded one after another, and all kinds of gadgets were floating in the air.Professor Babling put her hands behind her back, leisurely swayed to the front of the podium, stopped, and turned to face everyone.She slapped her palms hard a few times: "You should have noticed that it is more difficult and longer-lasting to cast the floating spell with runes. Of course, I think Latin is more effective in terms of practicality, especially in emergencies. You can repeatedly stack several Levitation spells on the falling person to reduce the impact. But this is not the purpose of our class, some people have already guessed, yes, I hope you find that Latin and runes have something in common, And translated a few other simple spells for the first grade."

Then, the professor said a lot of messy things, but it was difficult for Harry to settle down and listen carefully, his thoughts always flew uncontrollably to Dumbledore's wand.It was the legendary powerful Elder Wand, and Voldemort must have wanted it very much, especially after discovering that his and Harry's wands were twin wands and could not attack each other.Harry didn't know how he jumped there, he didn't even bother to pay attention to his class notes, and the condemning gazes cast by Professor Babling from time to time were perfectly ignored by the boy.

Draco rushed out of the classroom right after class, as if staying with Hermione for an extra minute would be unbearable torture. Fortunately, Hermione also had the same expression. Harry sometimes wondered who they hated each other more .He saw Ron waiting at the door of the classroom. He looked refreshed, especially when Hermione took the initiative to wrap his arms around him. Harry suspected that the stupid smile on his friend's face was almost grinning.

"This class felt great?" Ron tried to look interested, which was too difficult for him, and it proved to be the case when Hermione started to rave about 15 minutes later, he was like frost The beaten eggplant is sickly.Tom, fed up with Hermione's chatter, put his arm around Harry's shoulders and walked in the other direction.It didn't take long for Harry to hear Hermione giggle happily. He turned his head and saw the witch standing on tiptoe and kissing Ron, both of them had the same happy expression on their faces.

"I never knew Ron could change Hermione so easily," said Harry, eyes round. "She really does look like a girl."

"She's just a girl," said Tom curtly. "Maybe you should stop thinking of Granger as a brother, it would hurt her self-esteem to hear that. Obviously, Weasley knows how to treat someone he likes." people."

"You think I don't know?"

"You know?" Tom lowered his head and looked directly at Harry's face, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and there seemed to be a golden gleam in his eyes.The big reason was that he was facing the sun, Harry reminded himself, he didn't feel that the other party was as handsome as a prince charming walking out of a poster for a moment!

"I--"

"Malfoy." Tom said suddenly, Harry turned his head quickly, and saw in the corner not far away, the person in question was bending over and staring at a witch who also wore Slytherin robes, looking like a real villain .Harry wanted to step forward to stop him, but was stopped by Tom's hand on his shoulder.He frowned, but still didn't say anything, and quietly watched the development of the situation.

The girl let out a feeble sob, pressed her back against the cold stone wall, and tugged at the clothes on her chest.Draco frowned, he remembered that the other party was a first-year Slytherin, a half-breed from somewhere.The Malfoy family has never dealt with lowly blood, especially the other's parents are not even good for pure blood.

"What are you doing here?" There was cold anger in Draco's voice, and he took a step forward, making his posture look more menacing, and the girl curled up into a ball, eyes falling behind him anxiously.Draco looked back to see Harry and Tom standing less than ten paces away from him, obviously passing by here, on their way back to the room.Tom looked at the shivering girl without saying a word, Harry pretended not to see, turned his head to look at Hufflepuff flying freely on a broomstick outside the window, and sneaked a glance at them from time to time.

Draco straightened his body and returned to his arrogant and conceited appearance. He lowered his voice and tried to hide his sense of uncertainty. This was when he needed to show his strength the most, especially in front of Tom.It shouldn't be difficult to deal with a junior witch.

"Tell me what you're doing here!"

The girl wanted to use her trembling hands to get up from the ground, but she couldn't move, she just looked at Harry with that terrified gaze.Harry squinted his eyes and saw the girl's hand was hidden in the pocket of the clothes. The soft fabric outlined the shape of a long box. He couldn't bear it any longer, and strode up to the witch, who looked like She trembled violently as if being shocked by an electric shock.

"What are you hiding in your pocket?" Harry said calmly and grabbed the other's wrist, a dark wooden box fell to the ground and rolled around a few times.Harry bent down to pick up the box, and almost as soon as he touched it, he had a bad feeling.He turned to look at Tom, who had gloomy eyes and a cold air about him.

"Voldemort's," said Tom firmly, and the Witch let out a shrill cry and stepped back several paces.Draco's face was also pale, and he didn't even think about this possibility.

"Are you the messenger?" Tom drew out his wand and pointed at the girl, who nodded tearfully. "For me or for Harry?"

The eyes that fell on him answered the question very simply, Harry let out a long breath, opened the wooden box, and almost couldn't help vomiting.Inside was a severed hand, wrapped in silver-green silk. When he took a closer look, he found that there were only four fingers on it.

Pettigrew's hand.He didn't know Voldemort's intentions, so he wouldn't want to show favor to him?Harry drew his wand and picked the severed hand aside, revealing the letter underneath, sealed with red wax.Tom snatched the envelope and tore it open, looking more and more sullen.

"He wanted a chance to talk."