the Gambler

The carriage staggered on the muddy road, and soon the majestic Hogwarts castle appeared in front of them.Thestrals stood silently in the moonlight, and Harry could even see their breath forming a white mist in the cold air.The auditorium was filled with senior students.Just like when Harry first came to school, the ceiling is a starry night sky, the hanging crystal chandelier emits warm light, the walls are inlaid with burning torches, and several silver-white ghosts echo around the dining table with.

"I need to go to the Slytherin table." Tom adjusted his tie and said, Harry shrugged nonchalantly.

As the Gryffindor trio walked slowly into the auditorium, Harry couldn't help noticing that the others were avoiding him and whispering to each other. Harry took a deep breath to calm the sudden outburst of anger. Had enough of those people's stupid comments, it looked like a vacation time, and his temper was back.

Harry sat down at the long table, surrounded by Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Ginny, shielded from the prying eyes of the others.Harry greeted the students in the academy with a stiff expression, and they nodded hesitantly.Harry glanced back and forth across the chair. Hagrid wasn't here. His place was now taken by Professor Graplan, the witch who had taken Hagrid's place in Care of Magical Creatures the year before.

"Hagrid's not here." Harry frowned, his eyes swept across the teacher's seat again, and settled on a squat witch in the middle, Harry remembered this annoying woman, she strongly advocated during the trial of the Wizengamot The one Harry was expelled from school, Harry remembered that she and Fudge seemed to have a very good relationship, although she didn't know the other's name, but Pink Toad//Toad was enough to call this woman.

Dumbledore stood up, walked to the podium covered with candles, and welcomed the arrival of new students and the return of old students with open arms.After a short sentence of 'open your belly to eat', a variety of food appeared on the tables in the auditorium, and the rich aroma rushed into Harry's nose.The boy glanced at the long Slytherin table. Tom was sitting next to the freshmen. He didn't care about the gazes and lowered discussions of other people. He gracefully cut a piece of steak and chewed it gently in his mouth. .Harry noticed that not far away, Malfoy was not as proud as usual, and he looked at Tom like a frightened little animal, especially after the other party gave him a deliberately indifferent glance.Harry swore Malfoy would have fallen off the bench had it not been for the people sitting next to him, and it looked like Tom's performance before leaving school had a good deterrent effect.

It was a great show, Harry had to admit, it was one of the best he'd ever seen, and unlike the others, Harry stayed closest to Tom and he heard the boy hiss as he cast the spell Snake language, this may be the reason why Lucius couldn't resist the spell. Harry secretly tried to cast the same spell. To the boy's surprise, he could also transform into a violently burning flame. The only difference was that He looked one size smaller than Tom.But powerful, Harry reminded himself, remembering how quickly the flames had engulfed an entire abandoned package.Harry wanted to learn the Reptilian spell, but his Parseltongue identity couldn't be revealed to Tom, and Dumbledore meant the same.

"Who's that?" Hermione elbowed Ron, who kept stuffing chicken legs into his mouth. The latter blushed and took a moment to swallow the food in his mouth, and wiped it away with Harry's handkerchief. Oil stains around the mouth.Hermione grimaced in disgust.

"That pink creature?" Ron wrinkled his nose and said in disgust, "Seriously, she must be four or fifty years old, and no one told her not to use this color to wrap greasy fat, uh oh Oh oh oh, I feel like I'm going to spit out what I just ate!"

"Shut up, Ron, you'd better eat your food." Hermione narrowed her eyes and said angrily, Ron nodded happily, and buried his head in the high pile of plates again.Hermione sighed and shook her head, but Harry couldn't ignore the love in the witch's eyes, get married, Harry thought, they are completely like an old couple, that's really obvious, Lavender nearby The jealous look would burn a hole in Hermione's forehead.

After eating and drinking, Dumbledore stood up from the long desk again. He clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention, and the entire auditorium fell silent almost instantly.The old man stroked his gray beard and said in a loud voice: "I believe everyone has noticed that Professor Graplan will come back to teach you the protection of magical creatures. I hope you will give you a warm welcome—" There was a burst of applause. Dumbledore pointed in the direction of the pink toad//toad, "Let us also welcome Professor Umbridge, she will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"She was one of the ones who claimed that I was guilty." Harry said, the others looked at Umbridge who stood up with horrified eyes, and Hermione asked in a low voice, "You mean she is from the Ministry of Magic?"

Harry's reply was interrupted by Umbridge's shrill voice, and together they refocused their attention on the woman who had spoken. She smirked and nodded at Dumbledore. This disrespect to the Headmaster caused many people in the hall to They all frowned.

"I must say it's great to be back at my alma mater! Especially seeing your young faces!" Umbridge grinned falsely, "I hope that in the next year, we will be good friends— —" Here Harry snorts, who wants to be friends with a pink toad?Noticing that many people also looked disgusted, he continued to look up and listen to the woman, "It is the long-standing wish of the Ministry of Magic to educate underage wizards and cultivate them into pillars of a harmonious society in the wizarding world," said Harry in the Witch Slowly distracted during the chattering speech, he couldn't help looking for Tom with his eyes. The other party looked quite bored. Harry watched him transform the fork in front of him into a pink mouse and back again, completely ignoring the panicked Parkinson next to him. expression.

"—Let us enter a brand new era. I believe that Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic will work together." The woman finished speaking and bowed towards the entire auditorium, but no one applauded. Everyone seemed to be immersed in distraction. There were only a few sparse applause from the faculty seats, and even the professors had expressions of undisguised disgust on their faces.

"Harry, are you coming to the lounge later? I mean you don't need to go back in such a hurry?" Hermione got up from her seat, and Dumbledore announced the dissolution. As prefects, she and Ron needed to take First-year freshmen leave.

"What do you want to tell me?" Harry saw the witch nodded, "Should I take Marvolo with me? You know he can't be separated from me for too long, he's too dangerous."

"Bring him, maybe he can confirm my guess." Hermione thought for a while and said.In fact, Harry was skeptical of it, Tom had clearly been on the loose during the entire speech.But who knows?

Harry walked out of the hall, Tom was leaning against the edge of the porch, surrounded by a few Slytherin girls surrounded the boy, Tom smiled charmingly and whispered something, the girls covered their mouths and giggled, A daring witch reached out to grab his arm, but the latter evaded without a trace.Harry coughed lightly to attract Tom's attention, who glanced up at him, smiled and waved goodbye to the others, and followed Harry's footsteps.

"Prince Charming, huh?" Harry couldn't help joking, the smile on Tom's face immediately collapsed into a disdainful expression, the wizard wrinkled his nose in disgust, sniffed the smell of perfume on his body, and cast a spell on himself. A 'cleaned up'.

"You mean the young girls?" Tom tilted his head. "I prefer older women with soft bodies. Seriously, they look like they want to get into my pants. I can't imagine those The superficial woman is actually a Slytherin, and it would be more suitable if the tie color was changed to red gold."

"Always find an opportunity to taunt Gryffindor," Harry complained disapprovingly. "We're going to the Tower now, and Hermione has something to say."

Harry muttered "Wood Fairy" to the fat lady, the portrait spun to reveal a person-high door opening, Harry took the lead to get in, it was very noisy inside, and the first-year students were still chatting in the middle of the lounge , the old students nestled in a more remote place, Harry walked towards the place where Hermione and Ron were, and when he passed by, no matter how lively the discussion was, it stopped.Harry smiled at the little carrot head who was secretly looking in his direction. Instead, they seemed to be frightened, and squeezed their bodies into the soft sofa.

"Tough day, Harry?" Dean greeted with a smile, noticing the expressions on the others, and Harry returned a dry smile, almost throwing himself into the armchair.Tom took out his wand and lightly tapped the goblet on the table. The small gold cup turned into a seat that was exactly the same as Harry's, but the color was silver and green.There were whispers from the freshmen, and Harry could see them pointing at Tom and at himself.

"Are you really a couple?" Lavender spoke in that expectant voice, her eyes remained on Tom's handsome face, and the witch's cheeks were flushed.Parvati tossed her black hair back her shoulders exaggeratedly and blinked at Tom's makeup-smeared eyelashes, giving occasional bursts of giggles.

"I don't think this has anything to do with you." Hermione stood up suddenly and cast a silencing spell on the surroundings, shielding irrelevant people from the outside.The two witches stared at Hermione fiercely, their mouths moved rapidly, and Harry felt that it was not a good word from the expressions on their faces.Hermione rolled her eyes, focusing on Tom.

"What do you think of Professor Umbridge's speech tonight?"

"The Ministry of Magic is going to intervene in Hogwarts. I don't think it has anything to do with us. Anyway, Defense Against the Dark Arts doesn't work for me. According to rumors, the existence of this course is dispensable." Tom put his head on the floor On Harry's shoulders, he adjusted his position and dozed off with half-closed eyes, looking exhausted.

"Unbelievable! How can you say that, especially in the midst of a war! We need to arm ourselves!" Hermione's voice was raised several points because of excitement. She probably didn't expect Tom to be the type who didn't care much about his studies , but Harry knew better that the boy had mastered the knowledge, so he had the capital to say such a thing.Of course Harry wouldn't be so stupid as to say to Hermione's face that the witch was likely to transform herself into a third-year crazy state to compete with the future Dark Lord.

"You're noisy." Tom frowned, and sent his head to Harry's neck, which made the latter feel a little uncomfortable with the furry touch.Tom yawned. "If that's all you're talking about, I want to go back. I didn't get a good night's rest."

Harry raised his eyebrows. Tom went to bed early last night. Maybe this state has something to do with his precious notebook?Harry took a sneak peek at the cover. It was just an ordinary travel diary, nothing special.