Regarding the accident of the Goblet of Fire, most students seemed a little aggrieved, but this did not include the little lions of Gryffindor House.
When Harry and Hermione made it all the way to the common room and the portrait opened, the sudden noise that filled their ears almost made them fall on their backs.
The next thing he knew, he was being dragged into the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, facing the entire Gryffindor house. They were all screaming, cheering, and whistling.
Obviously, the little lions who have always been united are always more excited than unwilling to have two warriors in their academy.
"You should have told us you signed up!" shouted Fred Weasley. He looked half annoyed, half excited.
"How did you get by without growing a beard?" George Weasley shouted in the same breath.
"I didn't," said Harry, "I don't know how—"
Harry felt that he didn't know how to explain it because he was confused himself! And Hermione lowered her head, letting her messy hair cover her face.
At this moment, Angelina rushed to them like a whirlwind and defended: "Oh, even if it can't be me, at least she is a member of Gryffindor-"
"Yeah! Better than having Hufflepuff's Diggory be the champion, Harry!" screamed Katie Bell, also a Chaser on the Gryffindor team.
"We've prepared something to eat. Harry and Hermione, come over and have some-"
"I'm not hungry. I ate enough at the party—"
Hermione walked through the crowd without saying a word, leaving everyone behind and headed to the girls' dormitory.
However, it was the boys who made the most noise, especially the Weasley twins. They seemed to feel that it was not suitable to forcibly stop Hermione, so they all focused on Harry.
No one wanted to hear him say that he wasn't hungry, no one wanted to hear him say that he didn't put his name into the goblet, and no one seemed to notice that he was in no mood to celebrate it.
Everyone wanted to know how he did it, how he fooled Dumbledore's age line and put his name into the goblet...
"I don't know," he said over and over, "I don't know what's going on."
But everyone ignored him at all, as if he didn't say anything.
"I'm tired!" After about half an hour, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and yelled, "No, seriously, George - I want to go to bed -"
Harry especially wanted to see Ron. His good friend would always understand him, but he didn't seem to be in the common room.
Harry kept insisting that he needed to sleep, nearly knocking the Creevey brothers to the ground as they tried to intercept him at the top of the stairs. Finally, he finally got rid of everyone and hurried upstairs to the dormitory.
To his great relief, he found Ron lying on the bed fully clothed, alone in the dormitory. Ron looked up as Harry slammed the door shut.
"Where have you been?" said Harry.
"Oh, hello," said Ron.
Ron was smiling, but it was a very awkward, forced smile.
Harry suddenly realized that he was still wearing the bright red Gryffindor flag that Lee Jordan had just tied around him. He wanted to take it off quickly, but the knot was very tight.
Ron lay motionless on the bed, watching Harry struggle to untie the flag.
"So," Ron said when Harry finally took off the flag and threw it into the corner, "congratulations... I mean, congratulations."
"What do you mean, congratulations?" Harry said, looking at Ron.
At this moment, there was something obviously wrong with Ron's smile, and he looked at Harry as if he was looking at something irrelevant.
"Nothing... no one else has crossed the age line," said Ron, "not even Fred and George. What did you and Hermione use - the invisibility cloak?"
"There's no way the invisibility cloak will let us cross that line." Harry looked at Ron's expression, and an uncomfortable feeling arose spontaneously.
"Oh, sorry," Ron said, "I thought you used an invisibility cloak together... because the invisibility cloak can cover two people at the same time, right? So you found some other way, right? ?”
"Look," said Harry, "I didn't put my name in the goblet, and I don't think Hermione did either - she's been depressed today and hasn't been talking to anyone."
Ron raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, none of you... Who could it be?" Ron forced a smile and said dryly, "Who would help others become warriors for no reason?"
Ron's tone was strange, as if he was thinking about Harry, but also had a hint of inexplicable discomfort.
"Why would they do that?"
"I don't know," Harry said. He thought the following words sounded sensational and staged. "To kill me."
Ron's eyebrows were raised so high they seemed to disappear into his hair.
"It's okay, you know, you can tell me the truth." He said, "If you don't want others to know, that's fine, but I don't understand why you lied. You didn't get in trouble for it. Yes or no?"
"That friend of the Fat Lady, that Violet, she has told us all that Dumbledore has selected you. Yes, that's right, you and Hermione, a thousand galleons bonus, right? And also No more year-end exams…”
"I didn't put my name in the goblet!" said Harry, starting to get annoyed.
"Really, okay," Ron pursed his lips, "But you also mentioned it this morning. You said you could do it last night, and no one would see you... You know, I'm not a fool."
"That's certainly the impression you're making on me now," Harry said crossly.
"Really?" Whether it was forced or sincere, the smile on Ron's face disappeared without a trace now, "To be honest, I am very sorry for having misunderstood Maka in the past - I'm very sorry. Although he always acts mysteriously, he never plays tricks with others when he should be aboveboard!"
After that, he suddenly pulled the curtain over to cover his four-poster bed, leaving Harry standing by the door alone, staring at the crimson curtain in a daze.
He thought that a few people would definitely believe him, and one of them was behind the curtain.
After tossing and turning on the bed for a long time, Harry finally fell asleep.
However, Ron across from him kept staring at the curtain. In his heart, there was endless boredom.
"Harry and Hermione... Harry and Hermione... Why is this happening? They left me and became warriors together... Why is this happening?"
This feeling was like there were countless bugs crawling around in his heart. He wanted to scratch them, but he couldn't. This disturbed state of mind almost drove him crazy.
The whole night, Ron stared at his bloodshot eyes and didn't sleep at all.
…
On the other side, Hermione had been buried under the quilt and motionless since she returned to the dormitory.
She didn't know what she was thinking, and she didn't know what to think. Her mind was blank.
The feeling of being wronged was too uncomfortable, and it also hit her most insistent principle, without any reason or warning. It was as if she had been hit by a bomb. She was caught off guard and had no time to think about anything.
Facts have proved that no matter how smart she is, she is just an extremely strong girl. Faced with the sudden grievance, she even forgot how to deal with it.
It was late at night, when her roommate couldn't persuade her and had already gone back to bed. Suddenly, a slight noise broke the tranquility of the night.
Hermione didn't move, because she had been immersed in a blank inner world and didn't hear anything at the moment.
However, the noise continued, as if something was tapping on the window. It kept ringing, as if it would never stop if no one answered it.
Hermione, who was under the quilt, finally noticed the movement. She moved slightly, lifted the quilt and looked blankly toward the bedroom window.
After a long time, she recognized it. It was an owl she had never seen before, and it seemed to be holding some package under its talons.
Hermione pushed the quilt aside, and then realized that she had gotten into bed without changing her clothes at all.
She pursed her lips, caressed the wrinkled school robe, then walked to the window and let the owl in.
The owl called "Cuckoo", put down the package, turned around and flew away.
Hermione looked out the window. Hogwarts was as dark as usual at night, and in mid-air, a crescent moon was hanging quietly and dimly in the clouds.
She raised the package and looked around in the dim moonlight, only to find that there was no sender, only a solitary "To Miss Hermione Granger" scrawled at the bottom of the package.
"Who sent the package?"
Hermione opened the package with some confusion.
They were three bottles of glowing black potion. They were bundled together and packed very carefully in a large box filled with cotton. On the top of the box, there is a small card.
On the back of the card, the usage of these three bottles of potions was described in detail, and it was repeatedly noted that "only for self-defense, do not use lightly."
On the front of the card, there are two sentences written:
"Stay away from the fight and protect yourself."
"Although it's a little late, happy birthday."
Hermione bit her lower lip, and the tears in her eyes overflowed unconsciously.
"What's 'somewhat late'? It's obviously more than a month late!" She wiped away the tears that she couldn't hold back, but a long-lost smile appeared on her face.
Yes, although someone would always forget her birthday, and she always acted like she didn't care. But there was one person who was never missed even once, and that was Maka.
But Hermione didn't know that Maka, who always focused on maintaining friendships, rarely missed other people's birthdays. Even Dumbledore took some trouble to find out when his birthday was!
So far, Dumbledore has received different styles of wool socks for four consecutive years.