"goodbye!"
"You're really not coming with us on the train?"
"I have a more convenient way."
"Well, that's exactly what you would do, keep in touch." Lee Jordan dragged his suitcase towards the carriage, preparing to take a night carriage to the train station with several acquaintances.
"We're not leaving school by train?"
After saying goodbye to her friends, Katrina followed Albert into the castle.
By now, most of the students had taken carriages to the train station, and the once bustling castle had become dead silent.
"No, Dobby will take us away."
Albert took Katrina to the agreed empty classroom, where the house-elf Dobby was already waiting for them.
Katrina saw the familiar suitcase and guessed what was going on. She turned her head to look at Albert and asked in confusion, "You seem to like having the house elf take you to Apparition?"
"Because it is safer. House-elves can Apparate to areas where wizards cannot Apparate, such as an area that is forbidden to Apparate. That means other wizards cannot track them." Albert walked into the suitcase and explained to Katrina, "Besides, even the Ministry of Magic will not pay attention to the whereabouts of a house-elf. They, wizards, always look down on these hardworking little guys."
"Just say you're afraid of death!" Katrina could understand, but she was just not used to Albert's excessive vigilance.
"Yes, I really don't want to die." Albert said seriously, leaving Katrina next to him speechless.
The two waited briefly at the entrance, as the trip was shorter than expected, with the house-elves moving through several areas that were forbidden from Apparition.
Then, arrive at their temporary new home: Nicolas Flamel's safe house in Devon.
As the two old men were about to die, they gave the safe house in the UK to Albert.
"this… "
Katrina looked at the empty space in front of her. There was nothing there, so she guessed what was going on. She turned her head to look at Albert and asked tentatively, "Loyalty Spell?"
"Yes. It's somewhere in Devonshire, where Nicolas Flamel and his wife once lived." Albert took out a piece of paper and handed it to Katrina.
The latter took the piece of paper, glanced at its contents, and after reciting it in his mind, he discovered that an old house with a strong French style suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Don't just stand there, go in!"
After Albert burned the piece of paper, he took the suitcase from Katrina and walked towards the entrance of the house.
This place was cast under the Fidelius Charm, so the secret keeper was naturally Dumbledore.
In fact, Dumbledore was the secret keeper of Nicolas Flamel and his wife's safe house, which was one of the reasons why he gave the safe house to Albert.
Even if it is not given to anyone, in the end only a few acquaintances can enter. This is the bad thing about being protected by the Fidelius Curse. This spell cannot be lifted and can only be inherited or completely forgotten by people.
"I heard you didn't want to come here for Christmas?"
Yin Zebel heard the door open and walked out of the hall, glaring at Katrina with her hands on her hips, her face full of displeasure.
"You know, if you want to get a good grade in the final exam, you'd better stay in school and prepare for it." Katrina argued stubbornly.
"You can review here, and there are people who can teach you. And don't you want to spend Christmas vacation with your mother?" Yin Zebeier stared at Katrina: "Or, you don't want to spend the holiday with us?"
"No, no, I..."
"That's good. Come and help decorate the hall!" Yin Zebeier pulled Katrina to the hall and turned back to say to Albert, "You come too. I can't handle it alone."
“Here I come.”
"Dobby, help put the suitcase back to the room."
"Yes sir."
Whether wizards or Muggles, they all like to use a lot of holly, mistletoe and gold and silver ribbons as Christmas decorations. There is a Christmas tree next to the fireplace. Yin Zebel is decorating it with ribbons and ornaments to add a Christmas atmosphere to the place.
“Are these packages real?”
Katrina was placing the Christmas presents on the table under the Christmas tree.
"It's true. Albert receives a lot of Christmas gifts every year. These are actually relatively few." Yin Zebel used his magic wand to create many sparkling snowflakes and hung them on the tree.
“That’s really exaggerated.”
"If you give out an exaggerated amount of gifts every year, you will naturally receive a lot of return gifts." The Christmas gifts that Albert gives out every year are prepared with the help of Yin Zebel.
"We're going to spend this year's Christmas holiday here?"
Katrina looked into the fireplace and asked in confusion, "I've been wondering what this smell is all along?"
"It should be related to the wood being burned. The wood here was left by Mr. Nico. Some of them have a special smell when burned." Albert turned on the record player, played a cheerful tune, and began to help decorate the hall.
"That's about it."
The three of them sat in the hall to rest, enjoying the French desserts and black tea brought by the house-elves. The Muggle song "Merry Christmas" was playing in the hall.
"Why not let the house-elves help with the decoration?" Katrina had been wanting to ask this question since a while ago.
"I'll find you something to do so that you won't be too idle. And it will feel more festive if you decorate the house yourself." Yin Zebel said these heart-warming words with a smile.
"I helped decorate the castle when I was in school." Katrina didn't want to talk and just tasted the food in silence. Compared with the food at Hogwarts, Albert was always very particular about food.
She secretly looked at Yin Zebeier's figure and found no signs of weight gain. Instead, she looked more charming than before. It was incredible.
"What's wrong?" Yin Zebel looked up and asked.
"Do you always eat so well at home?"
Katrina ate another freshly baked meat floss pie, drank a sip of black tea, and lazily leaned back on the leather sofa.
"Because I exercise every day." Yin Zebeier said proudly.
"How enviable! How's the research on beauty potions going?" Katrina asked.
"Have you thought about opening a beauty salon?" Albert asked with a smile.
"No, just asking."
Katrina was indeed a little confused. She probably wouldn't be able to find a job after graduation because, according to Albert, the first two years after graduation would coincide with the most dangerous period in the wizarding world.
"By the way, I recently learned their healing magic from Firenze. Maybe you can use it." Albert took out a notebook from the deformed lizard skin bag and handed it to Yin Zebel.
"Is this a Christmas gift?" Yin Zebel took the notebook, smiled and kissed Albert on the cheek and asked.
"right."
"What's wrong?" Yin Zebel noticed Katrina's expression and asked in confusion.
"Firenze is a centaur from the Forbidden Forest, and he is now the new Divination professor at Hogwarts." Katrina withdrew her gaze from Albert and reminded him, "The magic of centaurs is definitely different from ours."
"Their healing magic is more of a combination of herbs and magic," Albert introduced.
"Wizards can use it, too."
“I tried it and it worked.”
“It’s incredible.”
It turned out that wizards could not successfully use healing magic using only distilled water twigs like the centaurs. The success rate of using a wand was also extremely low. They needed to use the extreme healing wand specially made by Albert to succeed. All three of them tried it in turn, and in the end only Mrs. MacDougal succeeded.
So, under Yinzebel's resentful gaze, Mrs. McDougal took the notebook.
That night, Albert took a long time to calm his girlfriend.
Christmas is here in the blink of an eye.
Albert and Inzebel got up very late. After enjoying a sumptuous Christmas lunch, the McDougal sisters, at Albert's invitation, built a snowman in the yard and made an igloo that could accommodate three people. They experienced what it felt like to drink tea in the snow.
Anyway, they don’t have to worry about the Christmas dinner at all, the house-elves will prepare everything.
In the afternoon, Albert took out the "Tales of Beedle the Bard" given by Dumbledore and read it with Inzebel, discussing the comments Dumbledore left on it. Katrina went back to her room, probably because she didn't want to stay and eat dog food.
Mrs. McDougal was very busy at work and had to work overtime on Christmas Day, so she didn't return home until eight o'clock in the evening.
Luckily, they didn't bother with roasting the turkey, which would have been harder than a rock when it got cold.
After enjoying freshly baked international delicacies and drinking a glass of eggnog in the Christmas atmosphere, everyone sat on the sofa in the hall and chatted. At first, they talked about the wedding of Albert and Yin Zebel, after all, Albert's family was not in the UK, but after confirming that someone had helped prepare for the wedding, Mrs. McDougal looked a little regretful, but also seemed relieved, because with the list of guests that Albert needed to invite, she had no idea how to handle it alone.
Later, the topic was brought to the healing magic of the centaurs. It was indeed very effective in treating external injuries, but wizards did not really need it because most of them could not use it at all, and dittany essence could actually achieve a similar effect.
Of course, if it could be studied in depth, perhaps new discoveries could be made, but the difficulty of its use also limits its upper limit, so Yin Zebel successfully got the notebook back.
"Oh, by the way, your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor seems to be in some trouble." Mrs. McGonagall changed the subject and talked about what happened on her way to Hogwarts today: "She seems to have drunk a compound potion with toad added in it."
"Compound potion?" Katrina blinked curiously. She had certainly seen the appearance of a toad before, and she thought it was some kind of transformation curse. She didn't expect it to be caused by a compound potion.
"Have you told her about this?" Albert was not surprised that Mrs. McDougal had seen through the toad.
"No, Madam Pomfrey said it was a skin disease. I think there must be some reason." Madam McGonagall shook her head and said, "Besides, Umbridge is unwilling to go to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for more formal treatment. This is itself strange."
"Well, because Umbridge went too far in school, all the teachers and students hated her, and she ended up getting retaliated against," Albert explained with a smile.
"Did you have someone do it?" Katrina asked suspiciously.
"Harry Potter did it."
Albert decisively passed the buck, saying that it was indeed Harry Potter and his friends who did it.
"It seems that Umbridge has indeed done a lot of bad things." Yin Zebel raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, the school's number of educational orders is almost over a hundred," Katrina complained, and she briefly recounted the terrible things Umbridge had done recently.
"She actually used Veritaserum on students?" Mrs. MacDougal was very surprised at Umbridge's audacity. Once Veritaserum was overused, it could cause irreversible damage to the user. She suddenly understood why Umbridge became like that. No wonder Madam Pomfrey hated her so much. The shit she did in school was really hateful.
"It's not that bad actually." Albert passed a plate of shrimp dumplings among the crowd and said with a smile, "Although Umbridge did make Hogwarts a bit worse, she also brought a lot of joy and laughter to everyone."
"You've almost made her a laughing stock in school." Katrina dared to say that those things were definitely related to Albert. "When are you going to drive her away?"
"I never did anything to her. It was other people who were avenging her." Albert shrugged and changed the subject: "I heard that Arthur Weiss was injured and hospitalized a while ago."
"Oh, you said Arthur Weiss is here. He was bitten by a poisonous snake. His life is not in danger, but we haven't found the antidote yet, so the wound can't be completely healed." Mrs. McDougal recalled: "Why are you asking this? Is he also your friend?"
"A few days ago, two of my friends were called away in the middle of the night. I think it was because of this incident." Albert suddenly added, "Phoenix tears are actually the best antidote."
"That thing is far too precious, and there is no phoenix to provide tears at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries."
Albert took out a small medicine bottle from the shapeshifting lizard skin bag and placed it in front of Mrs. McDougal, "If you can't find the antidote, use this thing on him."
"This is?"
Mrs. McDougal picked up the medicine bottle and looked up and down at the tiny amount of transparent liquid inside, as if she had guessed what it was.
"Phoenix's tears."
"Where did you get it?" Mrs. McDougal was surprised.
"Professor Dumbledore asked me to pass it to you," Albert explained. "He is in a bad situation right now. If he shows up, it may cause Arthur Weiss to be expelled by Fudge. If you still can't find the antidote after a while, use this thing. Well, this thing can actually be considered an antidote."
"It seems that this matter is more complicated than I expected." Mrs. McDougal put away the crystal bottle and had no intention of delving into the matter further.