Fail Demon King

Come: "Yes, yes, I forgot. Of course, give Slytherin its fair share of ten. Riddle, Riddle, um... let me think about the last name - what's up, boy?"

He looked at Tom in surprise, a boy with dark chestnut hair suddenly raised his right hand straight up.

"I'm sorry, sir, to interrupt you." Billy said innocently, touching his nose, "I think we'll have to start cooking the tentacled slugs—in fact, the water in my cauldron is about to boil done."

11 A puzzle about life experience

At the end of the class, four people were given Slughorn's bonus gift—the four plants he had let the class identify at the beginning of the class.

"Of course, they're not a very unusual thing," Slughorn said with a smile, "but they'd be nice to decorate in a dormitory, wouldn't they?"

"It will get better and better in the future." Walking in the damp underground passage, Billy glanced at the mistletoe in Tom's hand, and shook his own foxglove back and forth, not knowing whether he was comforting himself or not. He, "The reward will be... well, it will get richer and richer-blood." He said the password, and the stone wall opened.

People in twos and threes in the common room sat on carved chairs and read books. They walked straight to the dormitory. Tom suddenly said, "Why did you interrupt him?"

Billy was opening the door of the dormitory when he heard this and was startled suddenly.However, answering this question is not too difficult, he skillfully pretended to be stupid: "——what?"

"When he mentioned Riddle," Tom said nonchalantly, and they stepped through the door, and Nagini swam merrily over, wrapping himself affectionately around Billy's ankles.

"Hello, Nagini—listen, don't touch this flower in my hand." Billy turned to Tom. "Translate for me."

Tom glanced at him, then hissed slowly.The little snake was taken aback for a moment, she looked at Billy, seemed a little aggrieved, and then swam away reluctantly.

Billy looked at him suspiciously: "What the hell did you say?"

"It's between me and her."

"..."

"You haven't told me," said Tom, calmly, "why you interrupted him anyway." He sat on the bed, his eyes dark and bright in the dim light, "didn't you— what do you know?"

"What do I know?" Billy's heart skipped a beat, but in fact his face was full of disbelief, "How would I know? The water in my cauldron was indeed boiled dry, as you saw, the last snot The worms almost got stuck in the bottom of the pot." He paused, a little hesitant, "You—you want to know your last name—"

Tom studied Billy carefully for a moment, then looked down.After being silent for more than ten seconds, he opened his mouth slowly but surely: "I think my ability probably comes from my father. I have thought about this problem for a while - my mother died when I was born, she It couldn't be a wizard—then, Riddle, there must be some connection to some ancient wizarding family. Maybe—" He looked up at Billy sharply, and that strange flush of excitement began to wash over him. Pale cheeks spread, "Do you believe it? I know that I have talents that are envied by ordinary people, and...and I am not only a lucky one among Muggles, I may have some extraordinary blood!"

Billy stared at him.

There was an irritating silence.

Tom frowned.The blush on his face seemed to have been sucked away by something, and it suddenly faded completely. Now that delicate face is as pale as a mask, and his eyes—the pair of dark pupils—are now It started to turn red: "That's what the Sorting Hat said."

"No...yes, I mean—I believe it." Billy looked at him a little flusteredly, he swallowed and calmed down, "...Of course I believe it."

—I already knew that.

For some reason, Billy felt a little downcast.He slumped on the bed, sitting face to face with Tom, pulling his hair subconsciously.

"So, so..." After a long time, he said dryly, "How do you plan to find it?"

"Hogwarts must have records about him, there must be." Tom said decisively, "Since he is a wizard, he must have also attended Hogwarts. I want to find him, and I want to know myself Who is it?"

Billy looked at Tom steadily.He is so handsome, the black hair on his forehead is curly and soft, the corners of his mouth are turned up, showing a firm and proud smile——

"Yeah," Billy said softly, not sure if he was smiling wryly, "—of course you would."

They sat facing each other on their respective beds, their eyes met, and the two of them swayed their legs unconsciously together, bumping their ankles from time to time.

Nagini had long ago sacked forgotten foxgloves and mistletoe into her own corner.The little snake sat contentedly on the great drooping yellow bell-blossom, and the thin green branches of the mistletoe rested quietly against her tail.

Hogwarts has been in a hallucinatory time before Halloween.It's already cold, but when the sun is shining on the lawn, sitting by the lake with a hot chocolate, the huge shadow of the castle is projected beside you - it's like a dream come true The sweet dream I tried my best to keep.

"It's your turn, Tom." Billy sipped what little of his drink was left, watching Tom intently.Victor - the little owl preened his feathers in the sun, and Nagini looked slouched.

Only then did Tom look like an eleven-year-old boy, scratching his hair hesitantly and biting his lip as if he didn't know what to do.However, the chess pieces in this set of wizard chess are too noisy, especially the black chess piece held by Tom, they shout almost non-stop:

"Hurry up! Hurry up! Can you play chess?"

"Get that owl of yours away! He's looking at me! He's looking at me! I can't concentrate!"

"I don't want to be thrown off the chessboard so soon, woo woo woo..."

"Shut up," said Tom impatiently. "Whoever makes another call, I'll let him be captured by White--I can still do that."

The world is quiet.

As effective as the threat was, Billy couldn't help laughing - but finally he couldn't help it.It would be immoral to piss off a future Dark Lord, nor would he need to.

Nagini swam over obediently and peered, as if wondering if swallowing a few of Billy's pieces would help her master.

"Don't think about it, Nagini." Billy saw her intention and pinched her directly.The little snake kept making a loud "hissing" sound while struggling and twisting. Victor flapped his wings and looked at this side curiously, while Billy showed an extremely nasty smile, "What are you talking about? I listen don't know."

Tom looked down at the chessboard without moving. "She said you should let her go—"

"Ha, I won't let it go."

"—or she'll bite you."

Billy coughed violently, twitched the corners of his mouth in a disguised manner, and gently put Nagini down.

"Of course I lied to you," said Tom casually. "She was just saying, 'Let me go, let me go.'"

"..."

Billy felt the corners of his mouth twitch, and he tried to turn his attention back to the chess game, lest he couldn't help strangling the boy with a smirk on the opposite side: "It's my turn, isn't it?"

"No." Unexpectedly, Tom paused for a while unwillingly, and finally gritted his teeth, "No need. I lost."

"Great." Billy ignored the protests of the chess pieces and began to clean up the chessboard. Victor leaned over to his furry heads and excitedly pecked at them, making them scream even more sharply, "It's a pity that you can't go find them again today." Those prize showrooms you numbered, you still have the last sixteen rules to memorize, and you have to go back to the dormitory before nine o'clock in the evening—"

"Don't be so loud, Billy Stubbs. As I said," said Tom through gritted teeth, "I gave up. And besides," he gave Billy a hard look, "I've already known about those It's over."

Billy lowered his head and smiled as he cleared the chess pieces—he knew Tom had agreed.

"But I was wondering, instead of looking it up yourself without a clue, why didn't you just ask Slughorn?" Billy asked, "if 'he' had read at Hogwarts decades ago . . . The pharmacy teacher should not have changed during this period."

Of course, Billy knew the answer to that suggestion - old Tom Riddle had never been at Hogwarts at all.But it would at least spare Tom the need to hunt down various trophy cabinets for a biography of his father.

"I won't ask." Tom returned to his usual lazy look, and he and Billy walked side by side towards the castle, "I believe 'he' must be very capable and good enough-but You know Slughorn, that old man's ancestral home, and I don't need to let him know that I was raised in an orphanage before I was sure, didn't I? "

"But what if..." Billy kept a ten-thousandth hope, touched his nose, and asked cautiously, "What if you don't find it in the end? What if the Sorting Hat—"

"Impossible!" Tom's expression changed.He interrupted Billy sharply, stopping on the lawn like a nail, and said, through gnashing of teeth, "It must be true—I believe I have special blood in me, and those The Muggleborns who only came here by one-ten-thousandth luck are different." The muscles around his lips twisted, which made him let out a convulsive and mocking smile, "I can't live my whole life knowing only me Walked into Hogwarts from that squalid orphanage in London—”

"But—I am."

Tom froze for a moment. He turned his head and stared blankly at Billy with a startled expression, as if he didn't understand what he just said: "...what?"

"I said, I am." Billy shrugged, crossed his fingers behind his back, and said plainly, "Like you said, lucky Muggleborn, from an orphanage—that's me, and I may never know where my abilities come from in my whole life.”

As if someone had choked his throat, Tom stayed there and didn't make a sound for a long time.He was stunned for a while, as if trying to squeeze out a mocking smile but finally failed, so the expression on his face became very distorted.

"Do you think the position of people like us is awkward?" Billy said slowly, deliberately imitating Tom's usual tone. I'm still an oddity. That's not good, is it?"

Tom didn't speak, but there was a murmur-like sound in his throat, and his usually extremely pale cheeks were now flushed with obvious redness: "I...I'm not..." He uttered a sentence, not loudly, but clearly, "I'm very sorry."

Billy blinked rapidly, staring at Tom with raised eyebrows, and this time he didn't seem to understand the sentence.

"I'm sorry." Tom repeated clearly, "I didn't mean that, I didn't... you're different, you're—"

Tom paused again, biting his lips desperately, but he still didn't say the last sentence.

12 An old acquaintance with a round face

The students' honeymoon with Hogwarts was over, and the real malaise hit on a massive scale in November.The courses are on the right track, and the homework is gradually assigned. Halloween is over and Christmas has not yet arrived. The atmosphere in the castle is somewhat bleak—more and more new students are homesick.

With Tom, however, things were quite different, and he was now at home.There were few subjects he wasn't good at, and few people didn't like him, and he was easy-going, genuine, with a touch of endearing humor - of course Billy knew his true colors when it was just the two of them in the dormitory , ridicule and meanness are his norm.

As for Billy himself, in the face of familiar and oversimplified courses, he only requires not to make mistakes, and he is really at ease.What's more, there is another good thing that can comfort him recently.

Quidditch season has arrived.

Too bad Tom made his disdain for the star sport that has taken the wizarding world pretty clear, thinking flying around on broomsticks and batting and throwing is just plain silly - "if they had ability," he said with a snort, "you can throw your broom and fly in the sky by yourself."—especially the Seekers who are looking for the Snitch, "Yeah, they fly very fast, just hover in the air Looks a bit like a mindless blowfly."

For this comment, Billy used an indecent word for Tom for the first time without grace.Unfortunately, the prefect had just passed the common room before he could finish his sentence, and copying the Slytherin rules became an inevitable foregone conclusion.What's even more tragic is that he actually lost to Tom in today's wizard chess. Amidst the triumphant laughter of the black chessmen, Tom just said "See you in the evening" and disappeared in a hurry.

"I was going to drag him to a Quidditch match anyway," Billy muttered to Nagini reluctantly, "Today is the first game of the school year—Slytherin vs. Ravenk labor."

Billy didn't know whether Nagini understood or not. In short, she seemed to forget that she was a boa constrictor, and she kept shaking her tail.Her icy snake kiss rubbed against his wrist, and she hissed sympathetically as she spat out a letter.

"...they fly pretty well—especially the dive at the end, which I'd say is an impressive feint."

It was a coincidence that Lucretia Black and Billy were walking the underground passages of the castle after the game, they just met by chance.Most Slytherins think of Lucretia as "typical Black", the dark-haired girl with a sullen and haughty look, but in reality, her blood mania is much less severe than that of the entire family up.

“But the Thunder 260 has always been a bit tricky at the rear when cornering,” says Billy. “You have to lean on the outside foot to maintain balance. Obviously, they still need to continue to improve.”

"It's much better than the previous generation." Lucretia raised her eyebrows and glanced at him, then turned her head and said flatly, "You can't ask too much." She paused and stopped at the entrance of the underground passage, "Obviously Del didn't come to the game, and you could tell he missed a pretty good one."

"I will."

"I still have something to do." It seemed that Lucretia was not going back to the common room, but unexpectedly, she looked a little anxious, "Then, I have to go."

Billy nodded. "Goodbye, Lucretia."

The girl raised her chin proudly and looked at him.

"I mean," changed Billy, "Blake."

"Goodbye, Stubbs."

Billy walked towards the underground passage alone, and soon he ran into several senior students who were walking towards him.They walked in a hurry, just nodded to him and passed by.They didn't look very happy, all of them were frowning, and they walked at an unusually fast pace, as if they were trying to get away from something quickly.

What a weird day, Billy thought.He also quickened his pace, wanting to hurry back to the warm dormitory burning with green flames, but just after walking into the next passage, he stopped abruptly——

A faint cry suddenly came from the shadows beside him.

For a split second, Billy felt the creeps.It wasn't because he was scared, you know ghosts, apparitions and magical creatures were common at Hogwarts, but he thought he had seen this crying man.

A girl with a round face and glasses!

"Oh," the crying stopped, and the girl's voice was high-pitched, "I think...have I seen you?"

"No," said Billy emphatically, and he began to back away cautiously. "You didn't."

"—it's you! I remember, I saw you on the bus to school, didn't I?"

If she hadn't grabbed the hem of the robe tightly, Billy would have walked away.However, just when he was hesitating whether to break her hand quickly, her penetrating crying sounded again: "Yeah, it's so funny for me to cry, isn't it? Just because I went to the wrong watch game Tha... Olive Hombey with a bunch of Ravenclaws laughing at me! Laughing at my glasses, my haircut, and I don't know why they're flying around on broomsticks! That's actually What a fool...why would a normal person fly on a broomstick?"

——Merlin, there are no normal people here, okay?

"Don't forget, you're a witch too," Billy said dryly while tugging on his robe, "but it seems that someone will like you, and finally someone agrees with him... Just let me go and go back to your own common room."

"But, I... I'm lost..." She cried even louder, "...Do you, you, do you know how to get to the Hufflepuff common room?"

The few Slytherins who passed by from time to time looked at him and the girl in surprise, and Billy felt like he was about to cry.And when he saw her wiping her snot on the hem of his robe, he finally had to make a decision.

"Get up!" He lowered his voice, managed to salvage his robe back, and finally got a little annoyed, "I'll take you out."

"Thank you." She stood up sobbing, and wiped her crying glasses with Billy's robe, "I'm Myrtle Hill, what's your name?"

"...Myrtle?" Billy responded, feeling that the name sounded familiar.However, there were too many girls named Maitel in this era, and he couldn't remember it for a while.

Myrtle blushed slightly, and she whispered, "Yes, you can call me Myrtle."

Just as they turned the dark corner, there was a tiny beep from the badge on Billy's chest, followed by Tom's familiar voice: "Where are you?"

"I'm in—" Billy glanced at Myrtle, and answered curtly, "I'm in the Underpass."

"Come and find me." In a familiar commanding tone, "Go to the farthest west, that road is the closest to the library."

Billy hesitated for a moment: "I have something to do, you have to wait—" He saw Myrtle's curious eyes and tried to block the badge, but it was too late.

"Who is talking to you?" Myrtle asked. "What is it?"

Tom on the other side of the badge obviously paused for a while, and when he spoke again, his voice became very soft, but not soft at all: "Who the hell are you with?"

"I..." Billy opened his mouth, looked at Myrtle again with a headache, and turned off the badge with a quick "I'll talk about it later."

At last Myrtle stopped crying, and she even looked a little shy now: "You haven't told me your name yet."

Billy felt something was wrong, but he couldn't say anything but took a deep breath and walked faster.

But Myrtle was still relentless: "What is your name—"

"Knowing my name has nothing to do with finding your way back." Billy quickly interrupted her, "We've almost reached the lobby on the first floor, you should know your way there, and I'll send you to— —”

He stopped suddenly, and Myrtle, who was walking behind him, almost ran into him.

Tom Riddle appeared at the door of the hall, he was visibly taken aback when he saw Billy and Myrtle, and then strode up to them with a straight face.

One of Myrtle's hands was still clutching Billy's robes, and for some reason he felt a little embarrassed.

"I'll take you here," Billy said stiffly to Myrtle over his shoulder. "Now you can find your common room by yourself without worrying about getting lost."

Myrtle looked at him with teary eyes, and pursed her lips as if reluctantly.

Inexplicably, Tom looked back and forth between the two of them, and instead said drawn out, "No, we can take her home. Nothing to do in the afternoon anyway." He glanced at Billy out of the corner of his eye. You two go ahead."

Billy looked at him incredulously--queer day!

After they sent Myrtle back to the common room, they stopped for a while by the passage leading to the basement.Billy rubbed his nose and looked at Tom. He had a stomach full of things he wanted to tell him about Quidditch, but now he couldn't say anything.

It was Tom who broke the silence first, raising his eyebrows sarcastically: "Seriously, how is your new friend?"

"One, we're not really friends. Two, it's not great. When she cries, she makes me think of a mandrake root," Billy said to himself. They're on par. Come on, let's go back."

"We're thankful we don't have Hufflepuffs this semester, as long as you don't get on your own you won't run into her again—shh."

A familiar figure suddenly appeared from the front corner, Tom grabbed Billy, and the two subconsciously flashed back together.

"Lucretia Black?" Billy recognized her. "So she went to the house-elf kitchen."

"She doesn't look so..." Tom frowned, apparently picking out an appropriate adjective. "So—gloomy, doesn't she? She seems to have a bag of something."

"It's candied pineapple." Billy murmured, "Have you ever seen such a contented expression on her face? No wonder Slughorn likes her so much, probably not only because of the Black family, but also because they are all food fanatics." .Merlin... this day is incredible, I have to go back to sleep quickly to make sure I am not dreaming."

Tom blinked quickly, looking at him strangely.

A month later, the freshmen who entered Hogwarts in 1938 spent their first Christmas after entering Hogwarts.The castle was half empty, and would probably remain so until after New Year's Day.Standing together with the cleaned armor and the decorated Christmas tree, they said Merry Christmas to the occasional passing students.

It's Christmas again, and everything seems to be the same as in previous years, and it seems to be completely different.

In the Slytherin common room, Billy and Tom occupied the embroidered sofa closest to the fireplace, quietly playing wizard chess.They brought Viktor back from the owl shed, and the little owl was twittering and pacing up and down the carpet, while Nagini was in a state of adversity again, lashing her tail violently on the ground.

Tom made a random move, and he didn't intend to care about the life and death of black: "Where's my gift?"

"You'll see it tomorrow morning."

"Double."

Billy nodded slyly: "Of course, you can think so." He paused, and said reluctantly, "Think about what birthday gift you gave me in June? An owl collar! Let Victor buy it himself of."

Tom smiled lazily: "So what are you going to use to get revenge on me?"

Billy answered him grimly: "A pair of wool socks."

He mercilessly let his knight end Tom Black's last struggle, and said a little wistfully: "Another year is coming, isn't it? People always like new things, and it seems to be the same with the year."

"Because the past never stops," said Tom casually, "and the new always comes."

They were silent for a while, feeling that the only pity was that they were at the bottom of the lake, and it must be snowing outside, but they couldn't see anything.

But that was all right—Billy reorganized the game lazily, planning to ask Tom to come with him to the hall if he won again this game.

—that enchanted ceiling must be white by now.

13 The torment of a bad cold

In the blink of an eye, Billy and Tom had spent two years at Hogwarts.

And the last day of the first and second grades was a gloomy Friday.

The comfortable days are passing too fast, and this time is the most suitable time to think back to the words about the history of Northern Europe in "History of Magic" that Professor Binns once read out in that dry voice similar to the broken pages of old books:

"...Even the real gods are struggling in the torrent of time, and the three goddesses of Noren cannot turn back after calling thousands of times. Their appearance means the end of the golden age of the gods, and the priests can Conjecture, only the mysterious smile of fate."

During this period, Tom has never let go of his pursuit of his life experience. He has traced the list of prefects back to 50 years ago, and the names in the prize showroom are so familiar to Billy that he can memorize them quickly. The descendants of Slytherin still got nothing.

Apart from that, they have achieved good results in both academic years.Billy became almost Slughorn's favorite student.Not surprising, since he was perfectly familiar with the ways of the old slug (as almost everyone called Slughorn behind his back now), and Potions was his forte.His high grades in this subject this year had more than made up for his lack of success in History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Professor Mellors seemed close to despairing of him.

And Tom is almost the darling of all teachers.It is true that Dumbledore does not like Tom as much as the other teachers have shown, but he has said in class more than once that Tom will definitely be a master of Transfiguration.At the end of the second grade, Tom deservedly received a straight A and a class first in his second school year.

At the last moment before leaving, Billy sat on the clean bed and looked at the dormitory in a daze.Tom was wrapping their correspondence badges and packing them together in the luggage.The green curtains were rolled up, Victor was caged, and Nagini's corner den was packed into a box.

Even Billy, not to mention Tom, who hated it, could not help but feel dejected at the thought of the cramped, depressing orphanage, which was cold even in summer.

"It's time to go," said Tom, standing up and clapping his hands, finally showing a little reluctance in his dark eyes. "Just pretend--just pretend we're going on a short summer trip."

"It's not a very pleasant trip, though."

"It's disgusting." Tom curled his lips and said, "You can just say disgusting."

"But we'll always be back." Billy jumped out of bed, checking to see if there were any missing textbooks in the dormitory. "No matter how annoying the trip is, we'll be home in September. And there's something good about this vacation." .”

Tom looked at him suspiciously.

"You didn't know?" Billy blinked. "There's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! Slughorn has been nagging for almost half a month that he can get tickets. And—" He slowed down deliberately. Speed ​​said, "He specifically promised me that he would invite you to come with me."

Tom frowned, showing a mixture of "You're kidding, I'm not going to see a party of fools" and "But you can go anywhere as long as you get out of that damn place in London".He thought for a while, finally pursed his lips, and nodded reluctantly.

Billy couldn't help laughing.

In mid-August, Tom and Billy finally got Slughorn's invitation.Inside the gold-edged envelope were two tickets to the World Cup and a sheet of paper with exaggerated cursive script.At that time, Billy was suffering from a bad cold. Without Madam Pomfrey's strong refreshing medicine, the low-grade fever and dizziness had almost driven him crazy.

"Or I could explain the situation to him," said Tom with a smirk, handing Billy a handkerchief, "'Due to Billy's medical condition, sir, we regret to decline your offer and miss this event. ',what do you think?"

"It's not good. I think you've had enough of Mrs. Cole's recent nervousness. She's always suspicious that she's going to expel you and me next school year." Billy blew his nose vigorously and said in a low voice, "Get our quills out of Nagini's lair and answer the letter, and if you don't have one, pull one out of Victor--maybe I can ask Slughorn for it when I see him." A bottle of antipyretic potion."

Billy's hopes were dashed, however.When they made their way to Slughorn's house through the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, they were greeted by the Potions master enjoying a plate of brown sugar waffles.After a warm welcome to the two students, whose faces were covered with hearth dust, Slughorn generously offered two cups of ginger tea: "It's raining and cold today, isn't it? Come and have some with me." Hot tea—wait a minute, there are two more students in the same grade as you. I think they will arrive soon, let's go together."

"You added ... oxwood powder to it, sir." They sat in some small armchairs, and Tom sniffed the tea as he took it. "You have a cold?"

"Nice nose!" Slughorn nodded in admiration. "I know, Ghost, of course I can't hide it from you. It's just a precaution. I just ran out of cold medicine."

Billy saw Tom cast a gleeful glance at him from the corner of his eye while drinking tea with his head down. nose.

Slughorn looked at him a little dissatisfied. "I'm surprised, Billy, why didn't you smell it? I thought you knew that buffalo has a—"

"Yes, sir, a special aroma." Billy took a sip of his tea in frustration, and said in a thick nasal voice, "but sorry, I can't smell anything now. I can only make out its fruit powder that has settled at the bottom of the teacup —and you must have added ginger, too.”

One of the other two students was their old acquaintance, Hattok Granger, who had been in Potions class with them for two years, and since the last semester, Billy felt that he was becoming more and more like a letterpress "Magic Potions and Potions"; and the other is a Ravenclaw student, who is familiar with them, but they don't know them.

It was already evening when the five of them arrived at the Quidditch World Cup camp. The muddy road after the rain was extremely difficult to walk, and the fragrant green grass was the compensation for this.The camp was extremely noisy and crowded, and Slughorn had a harder time navigating through it than normal, and soon he was shaking his walrus mustache and wheezing.

"Sir," Hattock said, trying to raise his voice through the crowd, following closely behind Slughorn, "I don't know how long we have to go? I don't think we have time to pitch our tent."

"Compared to your performance in class, Hattock, I'd say you've fallen short on this question." Slughorn looked less cheerful, which, of course, had something to do with his difficult trek.Only when a wizard greeted him from time to time at the beginning of the camping area, did he show his usual smile, "Of course someone has set up the tent for us. Alan, you don't look well, what's wrong?"

The Ravenclaw student didn't say a word, just gave a livid "hmmm", and he looked like he was going to throw up.Hetok supported him: "It's all because of the damn portkey." In fact, he himself was not very well. When he was separated from the portkey, he stepped into a grass pit full of muddy water. The legs were dried mud.

Now three of the five looked as if they had just been through a disaster, and Billy slumped at the end of the line, feeling like he'd been stomped on the head by a troll.After he stumbled over someone's foot for the third time and said sorry, Tom grabbed his wrist hard.