Alice's Travels

The first thing Harry saw when he woke up was Hermione and Ron standing in front of the hospital bed. Hermione's eyes were red and swollen, and Alice stood behind holding her shoulders.

His memory seemed to keep jumping, there was heavy rain...black dog...golden snitch...dementor, and then biting cold, as if falling into a fog.He heard the voice of a woman trying to protect a child—begging with her life for another to spare him, and then a piercing laugh, a woman's scream—

"What happened?" Harry sat up abruptly.

Fred and George explained to him what had happened, how he had nearly died after falling from a height, and everyone was very worried.

Harry asked the result of the match first - they lost without a doubt, and just as he fell, Cedric Diggory of the Hufflepuff team caught the Snitch and claimed the victory.

Harry lay back on the bed sullenly, without saying a word, looking extremely disappointed—this was the first time he failed to catch the Snitch, and it was also the first time he lost the game.

After a while, Madam Pomfrey came and told the team to leave, Harry needed to rest.So everyone comforted Harry again and walked out of the ward, leaving only Hermione, Ron and Alice there.

Hermione told Harry that Dumbledore had magically saved him and sent him to the hospital.

"And what about my halo?" Harry asked instead of talking about dementors.

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, hesitantly said that his broomstick was smashed to pieces by the Whomping Willow when it fell, and she slowly bent down to pick up a pocket at her feet. Pour out the wreckage inside.

Harry's face turned pale in an instant, and he felt as if he had lost a best friend—his heart crinkled tightly as if being pinched.

Hermione looked at him sadly, not knowing what to say.

Alice had been listening to their conversation, and suddenly said: "Aren't you afraid, Harry?"

"Falling from such a high place, and meeting the dementors again, it seems that you are only a little short of death-don't you feel scared?" Alice said.Why only ask Quidditch, why make such a face about a broom, why don't you seem to worry about yourself at all?

"But I'm fine now." Harry said sullenly.

Alice's lips tightened into a straight line.

"Tell me, why did so many dementors appear at that time?" Ron asked, "They came too suddenly, didn't they?"

"For whatever reason, Dementors shouldn't be breaking into the school!" said Hermione angrily. "That must be why Dumbledore looked so angry!"

"Then—why did they break in suddenly?" Alice analyzed, "They were stationed at the entrances of the school for the purpose of searching for Black, and they shouldn't come in without a valid reason—then, would It would be because of the discovery that Black had entered the school—"

"You mean, Black's already in?" said Ron in a panic.

"It is indeed possible." Hermione frowned and said, "Harry, did you see any suspicious people when you were at the stadium?"

Harry shook his head, seemingly hesitant to speak.

"If you find something, it's better to tell it," Alice said, sensing Harry's hesitation, "these things shouldn't be kept under wraps."

"I seem to see something ominous on the pitch," Harry said slowly.

"What? You mean the black dog—" said Ron, startled.

"Don't be so nervous, Ron!" Hermione stretched out a hand to gently hold Harry's hand and said, "Harry, this doesn't mean anything, this time it's all because of the sudden appearance of the dementor, and that It doesn't matter if there is a dog. There is nothing ominous at all, so don't think about it."

Harry's gaze rested on their clasped hands for a second, then looked away again.

"Are you sure it's the same black dog you saw last time?" Alice asked.

"That's it, I think." Harry said after a moment's thought.

"I remember you saw it in the normal world last time, right?" Alice continued after Harry nodded, "Then if you read correctly, it means that it also came to the school, probably because of The ominous omen continues to follow you—that's what you think, right? Now there are two questions, first, why does it insist on following you? Second, how did it enter the school under the guard of dementors? "

"But it's perfectly in line with Professor Trelawney's divination—" Harry said hesitantly. "Maybe it just wants to follow me until I die?"

"Harry!" Hermione yelled angrily, holding his hand violently, "Stop talking nonsense!"

Harry glanced at Hermione, lowered his eyes and looked at their intertwined hands, then raised his head and pursed his lips—feeling a slight pain from his hand, Hermione was too hard, he thought .But he didn't take his hand out.

"No," Alice shook her head, "divination is just a prediction, a prediction about certain things that may happen in the future, but it doesn't mean that there is no reason for those things to happen—"

"Like a divination might show that bad luck is going to happen to your pet not long after—maybe it does happen after a while—that it's sick, but there must be a reason for it, like you fed it something bad, There is a triggering factor that led to this result, which does not mean that this event is inevitable, nor does it mean that this event happened only because of divination—the fact is that it must have its own reasons.” Alice put her thoughts Speak up.

"You mean the black dog followed Harry for a reason?" asked Hermione.

"I think so, it must have some reason for wanting to follow Harry, maybe it's malicious towards Harry, maybe it's not malicious, but it must have a source." Alice looked at Hermione and said.

"I think sometimes it's staring at me," Harry recalled, "and sometimes—even if it's just for a moment, it's almost human—"

"A dog has always been a very spiritual animal," Alice said. "Maybe it is following its master's orders, and maybe it is staring at you."

"Who does it belong to?" Ron asked.

"Could it be Black?" Hermione thought suddenly.

"It's not impossible." Alice thought for a while and said quickly.

"In other words, the dog was following Black's orders to keep staring at Harry, wanting to see him die?" Ron said with his mouth open and trembling.

"Maybe." Alice did not come to a conclusion, "but these are all conjectures, and there is no evidence. It is hard to say whether the black dog is malicious or kind. After all, in fact, it has never done anything to Harry. , it just happened to be there when the accident happened."

"So Harry, you don't have to care about it at all—" Hermione said quickly, "There's nothing ominous about it, it's just a black dog, and we'll find out what it's really about."

"Yeah." Harry smiled at Hermione.

Hermione smiled back, and then realized that her hand was still holding Harry's. She couldn't help opening her mouth a little, and then let go immediately.

Harry spent several days in hospital before recovering.Hermione and Ron stayed by his side every day except at night, Alice also visited him often, and Hagrid, Ginny, and Gryffindor players all visited him once.

His mood gradually recovered from the influence of the dementors, but he also finally knew who the last scream he heard was the scene of his mother still trying to protect him before she died.

This made him wake up sometimes at night, half asleep and half awake, always hearing Voldemort's wild laughter, terrified pleading and mother's voice, falling into those cold hands full of corruption in the dark nightmare.

After Harry woke up suddenly again, he stared at the streaks of moonlight on the ceiling, and began to look forward to the arrival of the next day - with the smiles of the light, Ron, Alice, and Hermione.

The rain outside lasted until December and finally stopped.

Two weeks before the end of the semester, Alice signed on the detention list, and Ron and Hermione also decided to stay at school for Christmas in order to accompany Harry.

And on the last weekend, the students received another exciting news—everyone was allowed to visit Hogsmeade again.

As a third-year student who could only stay behind, Harry seemed extremely disappointed this time.

Hermione promised to bring him Honeydukes candy to comfort him, and Ron promised to bring him back something fun.

Alice agreed to go with Hermione and Ron this time-they said they hadn't seen her last time, and it would be better for everyone to get together this time to see if they could bring Harry something.

On Saturday morning, Harry sent them to the hall and went back. Hermione kept looking at his lonely back and frowned, looking very unbearable.

Alice saw Malfoy crane his neck and look around in the crowd while queuing, and when she realized she was watching him, she immediately snorted, retracted her head and stood up straight.