The three of them went all the way back to the common room, Hermione looked exceptionally silent, but she had already made up her mind to tell Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt.
Harry had received a brand new Firebolt this morning, and she had heard Harry recite the name of the broom more than once, the Firebolt claimed to be “the fastest broom in the world”, currently there is no mass production, no price tag, just think about it, you can guess how exaggerated the price is.
On more than one occasion, Harry described how he spent his time in Diagon Alley with Professor Hap looking at the stunning curves of the Firebolt through the window of a Quality Quidditch Supplies – it seemed to be one of the things that kept Harry alive through the training.
But Hermione didn’t think Harry and Ron realized the danger – the broom might well have been sent anonymously by some dark wizard, harbouring an unknown curse. Especially after having the experience in the first year, as their broom was tampered with by Quirrell, she wondered why Harry became so careless?
‘What if it’s from Sirius Black?’
It is only when Harry initiated the conversation about the odd gift from Professor Hap that Hermione joined the conversation, “The Professor sent you a Dementor?”
“It’s a Dementor doll!” Harry said emphatically, “It’s practically identical to the real thing, with that sudden rush of chills and bad memories …” he shuddered.
“Didn’t you look at the card inside? Maybe there’s a note on it.” Hermione guessed, but she couldn’t really think of any use of it.
Harry shook his head, “I only opened it and looked at it before I hurriedly closed the box … To be honest, I would have liked to switch it with Ron.” He looked to Ron, who raised his eyebrows and smiled, “Professor Hap gave me a whole series of his comic books.”
Harry couldn’t resist asking Hermione, “What did the professor give you as a gift?”
Hermione said, “It’s a chestnut wooden memory disk.”
“Chestnut wood … what?” Harry asked in confusion.
“It’s hard to describe in words, wait, I’ll show it to you. And Harry, bring your dementor doll over here too, we’ll work on it together, the professor must have a purpose for it.”
After a minute, they gathered again.
Harry looked at the chestnut wooden memory disk and gawked, “Is this … an artwork piece? I’ve seen something like it at the Dursley’s, they bring it to give it to important clients.”
“Oh, of course not, I’ll demonstrate it to you, Professor Hap wants me to make some more suggestions … might appear in class next term,” Hermione said, she tapped the chestnut disk with her wand, the intricate magic rune pattern in it lit up, silvery fine sand condensed into a cloud, Hermione closed her eyes and carefully recalled a memory, and then reached out to point her fingers on the cloud.
Fine sand fluttered down, the familiar three-dimensional picture appeared in front of Harry and Ron.
“Merlin’s beard ah, this is — we are in the chamber, the chamber …” Ron’s eyes widened.
“It’s a recreation of our memories.” Hermione whispered.
Harry also got taken back by the sight in the chestnut disk as it showed a scene from a year ago, but he looked at that experience from a different perspective for the first time, and he couldn’t help but ask Hermione: “I jumped like that then?” He measured, the Slytherin statue is almost five or six times his height, if he jumped a little awry, without waiting for the basilisk to attack, he himself will fall to his death, and then be eaten by the basilisk.
“We’re all pretty brave,” Ron said to Hermione, looking at his “self” clumsily luring the basilisk away, “that, Hermione – Can I give it a try?” It is the first time he had called Hermione by name since the altercation outside Hagrid’s hut.
Hermione pursed her lips, “Sure. You can pick another memory, something that you remember better, for a better effect.”
Harry is glad they started talking again, because, from his experience, Ron and Hermione originally would have a Cold War for a day or two.
“Let’s see, more immersive …” Ron muttered, his wand tapped on the edge of the chestnut disk, and soon a new three-dimensional image appeared – the background is rather blurred, and you can vaguely see a car, which is rammed straight into a tall tree, that is a whomping willow.
The branches of the whomping willow danced wildly, whipping the car crazily, like a furious storm, and the car barely dashed out with two muffled thuds, and the door popped open, flinging out the travelling trunks and two people off – it is Harry and Ron.
“Other than that time in the Chamber of Secrets, this is probably the experience that made me feel most like I was going to die.” Ron examined the small figure on the disk, “Still a lot of it is blurry though, I can’t remember what the car looked like anymore, I hope it’s all right in the Forbidden Forest.”
Harry also tried, “I just happen to have something to show you, the real look of Voldemort …”
A few moments later, Ron and Hermione also finally saw the scene from the first year when Harry faced Voldemort alone – Quirrell lifted his garlic-scented scarf and turned his back to Harry, revealing a dead white face with two long, snake-like slender nostrils under an evil crimson eyes.
Ron and Hermione drew a cold breath, and the two of them nervously grabbed Harry’s arm left and right, Harry could not help but grimace, “hiss ~” he said grumblingly: “When I told you guys last year, you guys did not look this exaggerated, right?”
“That’s different, Harry. We were just listening to you describe it in words, this time we saw the image directly.” Ron said shakily, “Hey, he’s so scary, does he have no nose?” It seemed strange where he was concerned.
Harry almost laughed out loud, but he hurriedly made himself look serious and said as objectively as possible: “Uh … he is indeed quite ugly, there was a period of time I often had nightmares.”
The trio then looked at the box in front of them, which is a gift from Professor Hap to Harry.
Ron rushed to confirm: ” Do you really want to open it? The look on your face when you first opened it almost scared me to death.” He explained to Hermione: “Imagine you are happily opening a gift, and then you see your friend next to you suddenly fall off from the bed with a pale … face.”
Harry glanced at Hermione, who nodded at him and said, “We definitely should make sure.”
Harry took a deep breath and opened the gift box –
At first glance, it looked like a relatively elaborate Dementor doll, nothing unusual, but the next second, a chill swept through his body, the doll seemed to come to life, the Dementor’s robe began to flutter, they even saw a sight: from underneath the black robe peeked out a gray rotting hand, like a corpse that had been soaking in water for a long time …
Harry hurriedly closed the box before he suffocated, and he said under his breath, “You all saw it.” Ron looked squeamish.
“The Card,” Hermione said suddenly.
“What?”
“The card, Harry, there’s a card tucked underneath the Dementor doll.”
Harry and Ron looked at each other, and Harry perked up a little, “So, we just have to hold back one more time to find out why Professor Hap gave me this thing?” He actually suspected that Professor Hap is mocking his cowardice, but it is unlikely to be possible by any stretch of the imagination.
But until he confirmed it, his heart would remain jittery.
Hermione gave him a blank look, “I don’t think so.” She took the box and opened it slightly with a slit just enough to accommodate her hand inside, and as she fumbled around, she then explained, “How a professor would give a dangerous gift … there it is!”
She smoothly pulled a card out of the box, Harry and Ron looked at her in awe, “Hermione, you’re so clever.”
Hermione waved her hand, “Gee, I just – I just thought more about it, you guys were the ones who got caught up in the misunderstanding.” She read out the contents of the card –
“Harry, I heard you approached Professor Lupin to learn the Patronus charm, maybe this can help you.
Also: the doll is hexed, you won’t be affected as long as you don’t look at it.”
She looked over at them: “That’s all it says, and it’s clear enough.”
“Wow, that’s cool!” Ron said, “We can try it again.”
Harry breathed a hard sigh of relief as he nodded and opened the box. The chill hit him again, but he immediately closed his eyes, then the horrible cold and damp feeling disappeared very abruptly. He then heard Ron’s excited voice: “It really works! Just avert your eyes.”
Harry opened his eyes and watched as Ron kept turning his head back and forth, glancing at the dementor doll, then quickly turning to the side and then back again … He looked so comical that Harry finally couldn’t help but laugh out loud this time.
…
Malfoy Manor.
Draco Malfoy is opening his own gift, in the gift box written “Felix Hap to Draco Malfoy”, there is a whole set of comic books neatly stacked inside, he is no stranger to the name of the comic books – ” The Strange Adventures of Mick the Little Wizard “. For some time, the book caused quite a stir.
His mother Narcissa Malfoy walked in, she had blonde hair and blue eyes, Narcissa gently put her hand on Draco’s shoulder, “Draco, we’re about to have lunch, have you finished opening your presents, what did Pansy give you?”
Draco grunted, “A dress.”
“Oh, our Draco is growing up.” Narcissa smiled, her eyes falling on the book in Draco’s hand, “Whose gift is this, a … comic book?”
“A professor at school,” Draco said, turning the page smoothly.
…
The Longbottom house.
The old house had been rejuvenated, the dark tapestry cleaned up to reveal its original golden red colour. Almost every few steps up a block, a small Christmas tree is seen with brightly coloured ribbons hanging from it.
A round-faced boy is attempting to hang small golden balls strung together on the Christmas tree.
” Neil, Neil!” Alice Longbottom called from a distance, “Your Uncle Algie and Aunt Enid are here.”
” Coming right away, Mom!” Neville responded, and it took him a dozen seconds on his tiptoes to finally hang the little ball on the Christmas tree, the tip of his nose already permeated with a fine bead of sweat.
When he looked back, Alice is standing behind him looking at him with a serene expression.
“Mom–” Neville reddened, feeling a little ashamed of how he had just behaved.
At the table, a large family of relatives sat around, celebrating the return of Frank and Alice, and halfway through the meal, Uncle Algie a man with thin cheeks and a goatee said loudly, “Good! How wonderful!” He drank two glasses of high spirits in a row, his face red as if it were on fire.
He looked at Neville: “Boy, I hear you’ve made a lot of progress lately, show us something!”
Neville cowered behind Alice, Alice patted his shoulder, Neville stood out, he drew his wand, the tip of the wand suddenly flashed with red light, a spell flew out.
“Silent spell!” Uncle Algie taken aback, nearly fell over from his chair, “Don’t, Frank, don’t help me – I didn’t have this skill at his age!”
Neville scratched his head and laughed nervously.
…
Muggle world, London townhouse area.
“Justin, it’s eleven o’clock, the guests will be here in a while, remember the excuses we discussed out.”
” I know ~ know ~ it ~,” said Justin, who had curly hair, not seems that happy, “The reason I didn’t go to Eton is because I have poor health, I can only hire tutors, and every year I have to go to a place with fresh air to relax… … Mom, don’t you think this’s a lame excuse? I’m alive and kicking when they see me every year.”
“I’m more disappointed than you are that we have a little wizard in the family, who can’t go to Eton, but–” Mrs.finch-fletchley winked mischievously: “when the guests are gone, you can tell me all about your school. I still can’t believe that Lockhart is a liar, his books are so good …”
Justin rolled his eyes covertly.
…
Hogwarts.
Felix walked out of his office, along the usual gaudy Christmas decorations, with ribbons wrapped around holly and mistletoe in the corridors that pointed distantly toward the great hall, and the castle armours polished to perfection.
He entered the great hall, four long wooden tables were moved to the wall, the center of the room remained with only a table for a dozen people to eat. Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick all arrived. Filch had also changed into an old tuxedo.
“I hope I’m not late.” Felix said with a smile.
“Merry Christmas, Felix, I love the wool socks you gave me, there are twelve colours, I can change them for the rest of the winter.” Dumbledore said happily, “We’re still waiting for the students to come over, they probably think it’s going to be on the usual time, but it’s actually slightly earlier-”
“To pass the time, we’re taking turns telling jokes, and it’s Severus’ turn.”
Felix turned his head to look at Snape, who had resistance written all over his stern, expressionless face.
———-
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