Alice's Travels

Alice frowned, she paused, and then looked at Harry with a penetrating gaze and said, "Tell me, what happened?"

"I wanted to ask you to the dance - you'd say yes, wouldn't you?" said Harry, staring at her inquiringly.

Alice stared at him carefully for a few seconds until Harry became uncomfortable before saying, "You were rejected by Hermione?"

Harry's face flushed immediately, and various complex emotions of anger and disappointment appeared on his face after several changes, and he said sullenly: "Oh, yes——she said that she had promised others—"

"So, you just want to come to me as a substitute?" Alice said with a smirk, "Did you invite Hermione in the first place?"

"I - I, no, but -" Harry said dryly, "How could Hermione say yes to someone else? She's lying, isn't she?"

"Why can't she promise to others?" Alice asked with a half-smile, "Hermione has always been an excellent girl, and it's normal for someone to invite—it's also normal to promise others. Why can you invite others, she Can't you accept other people's invitations?"

"No—we, we're friends!" said Harry suddenly, "she can't just sit and watch Ron and I have no dancing partners..."

"Oh, I'm glad you remembered that we were your friends—" Alice sneered ironically, "and not someone else's back—"

Harry's face turned pale, he opened his mouth but couldn't speak.

"Why, I was rejected by the beautiful girl I wanted to invite, so I went to La Hermione as a backing-" Alice continued with his downcast expression, "Take it for granted that she should and will definitely agree, Am I right? Take a look, this is just a request of yours, not an invitation! As a result, when you find that Hermione agrees, others act in disbelief, anger, and questioning. Have you considered Hermione? Thoughts?"

"Of course, I'm obviously asking in vain - because it's my turn to be a substitute after Hermione." Alice said flatly, "This kind of invitation without the slightest sincerity, who would accept it?" Do you want to agree?"

Harry lowered his head dejectedly, his lips moved and his face turned pale.

"I see." He whispered, walking away slowly.

Alice turned around and walked to the library, where Hermione was indeed there.

"Harry just asked me to go to the dance with him," she said, sitting down opposite Hermione, "and I said no."

"He's just looking for someone who's willing to accept his invitation—" said Hermione sharply, "and the pretty dance partner he wants, Cho Chang, has already promised Cedric Diggory, and that's why we're the last choose!"

"Exactly," agreed Alice. "I heard him say you refused him, and he was acting very disappointed..."

"Oh, is it—" said Hermione sharply, raising her eyebrows, "that's all right, I'm sure he'll find someone who's willing to accept him somewhere—"

"Did Neville invite you?" Alice asked.

"Yes, but I didn't promise him," whispered Hermione, "because I already promised someone else."

"Yes—Victor Krum," Hermione whispered to Alice, flushing a little, "he said—he used to come to the library every day just to talk to me, but you know— - I was with Harry all the time and he couldn't get a chance to talk to me alone. And he said I was not like any other girl at all!"

"It seems that he is really sincere," Alice said slightly surprised, "at least he is more attentive than Harry and Ron."

"Don't mention them both!" said Hermione angrily. "I'm glad it took them three years to finally find out I was a girl!"

Alice twitched the corner of her mouth and said rather speechlessly, "It's good—everyone has become brothers."

"By the way, who are you going to the dance with?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," Alice said honestly, shaking her head, "I haven't thought about it." She might go for a stroll then and leave, not wanting to dance with anyone.

Hermione's lips moved, but the words didn't come out.

Alice didn't stay in the library much. She wanted to find Hermione in the past, but after talking to her, Alice left directly.

But she hadn't gone far when Ron and Harry were heading in that direction.

Both of them seemed a little listless. Ron saw Alice's eyes suddenly brighten up, and he looked at her with a new look and said, "By the way, there's Alice! Harry, we can—"

"What?" Alice asked with a smirk before Harry could speak.

"The ball, of course!" said Ron. "You could have chosen one of us, Alice! And Hermione, so Harry and I would have partners—"

"I have to remind you that Hermione has already agreed to someone else." Alice glanced at Harry's listless expression and said, "Then what about you, who rejected you?"

"It's Fleur Delacour." With Ron blushing and remaining silent, Harry said it for him.

"Come on, Alice," said Ron, adopting a tone of impatience. "You and Hermione, you can choose between me and Harry. We need a partner, and if everyone else has it, we don't." , that would be too embarrassing—"

"Oh, Ron, when did your ears get so bad?" Alice said with a deliberately surprised expression, "Hermione has already accepted someone else's invitation—didn't you understand?"

"She wouldn't, she didn't!" said Ron firmly. "She just said that to get rid of Neville!"

"It's a pity that Hermione has always been a popular and good girl," Alice said slowly. "Remember I told you that of course the good girl has been picked long ago - you're too late, Ron  … ..."

"Come on, Alice," said Ron, laughing, "it's true, we know she's a nice girl, but - who's going to ask her?"

"I won't say it a third time!" Alice said coldly, with a straight face, "Who Hermione promised is her private matter, I won't say it casually. But Ron—you have to figure it out For one thing, Hermione is excellent, and it's only normal for someone to like her!"

Harry became expressionless all of a sudden, feeling like a big rock was crushing his heart instantly, and the dull and uncomfortable feeling blocked his throat all the way.

Ron stared at her blankly, as if frozen in place.

But immediately he asked sharply again: "Oh, who is that man!"

"Ask Hermione to see if she'd like to tell you," Alice said with a sneer. "As for the ball—you, and Harry, figure it out for yourself—you can find whoever you want. Go, I will not accompany you."

"You're lying!" said Ron, glaring at her angrily. "Aren't you going to watch with Hermione as I don't have a partner with Harry - even if I could, but you don't think about Harry?" ? He is a warrior, he must have a partner for the opening dance!"

"Then why didn't you invite me and Hermione from the very beginning?" Alice said coldly, "Before anyone else, maybe Hermione will agree to you, maybe I will too—rather than waiting until now After the others rejected you, they only thought of using us as a retreat!"

"That's—that's—" Ron was very angry, but he couldn't think of any good words for a while.

Alice had already pierced his mind - it was nothing more than that he and Harry had someone they wanted to invite early in the morning, and they never thought about Hermione and her at all, and after being rejected, they had no choice but to focus on them.

However, since they had the right to choose whether to invite them at the beginning, they naturally also had the right to choose whether to accept it or not—everyone was friends in the first place, and they didn't look good to them at the beginning, so of course they didn't have to save face for them anymore.

Alice was too lazy to continue talking nonsense with Ron, and walked away quickly without even looking at them.

The night wind was blowing, and Alice walked back to the lounge with a sullen face and blustery feet—she was still annoyed by Ron's tone.

The lounge was warm, and the warm breath rushed towards Alice, and she let out a small sigh of relief.

Malfoy sat expressionlessly in the middle of the sofa, not turning a single glance.

Parkinson sat across from him, talking cheerfully about what dress she was going to wear to the ball, and then loudly announced that she was Malfoy's partner.The two girls next to her immediately laughed and complimented that she and Malfoy would definitely be the most dazzling couple then.

Parkinson smiled smugly.

Alice frowned unconsciously, and went straight back to the dormitory without stopping.

The holidays always go by so fast, it seems like Christmas is here in the blink of an eye.

The students began to wait with anticipation and excitement for the evening dance.

Harry eventually invited a Gryffindor girl to dance as his partner, and the girl's sister agreed to join Ron at the ball.

Alice still didn't have a partner, and she didn't even have the interest to go for a walk. These days, whenever Ron met her, he kept asking who invited Hermione, and Harry also kept his eyes on her. She just didn't ask.

Hermione had been reluctant to tell them, and Alice certainly wouldn't.

She had always disliked what Harry and Ron did, and now she didn't want to see them—it was annoying to death.

On Christmas morning, Alice woke up to find a pile of Christmas presents at the foot of the bed.She took them apart and put the ones that needed to be stored on the cabinet as usual, and the ones that could be eaten were put on the table.

Alice still gave gifts to Hermione, Harry, Ron, Neville, Hagrid, Malfoy, and Snape this year, and received gifts from them respectively—Snape sent a small bottle of potion , Alice raised her eyebrows and accepted.I thought to myself, it’s terrible, even the professor will give her a gift, it seems that I am embarrassed and can only get in but not out.

While going out in the afternoon, Alice ran into Hermione, Harry, Ron and the Weasley twins, who were going to have a snowball fight in the field outside.

Alice twitched the corners of her mouth and waved them goodbye.

She had eaten something in advance, and was going to go straight to the library after going back to her dormitory. When the ball started at eight o'clock, the castle would definitely be noisy, so she'd better stay alone for a while.

The lounge was extremely quiet at this time, the boys and girls went back to change their dresses, and the girls started to wash and dress up early.

Alice went straight to her bedroom, but the first second she entered, she found a shadow that was almost invisible standing by the table and staring at it coldly.