"...Isn't this impossible?"
"At least that's how it seems to me."
The next day is Sunday. Early in the morning, before dawn, Maka was helping in the potions preparation room behind Snape's office. They chatted casually while busy with the work at hand.
The anti-eavesdropping measures here are very good, and there is no risk of being overheard while talking here - at least the probability is very low.
To be honest, Maka was really confused when Hermione was chosen as the fourth warrior yesterday. And his confusion continues to this day and he still hasn't figured out the answer.
What did Voldemort want to do? Does this make sense to him
Maka weighed it in her mind and took this opportunity to ask Snape's opinion.
However, Snape's guess made Maka scratch her head.
"You mean that Voldemort wants to put Hermione in danger, or even face death, to test whether I have any ulterior motives?"
Maka frowned and said in confusion: "But... why Hermione?"
Snape pouted and showed a "don't pretend to be confused" expression. He held it in for a while, then simply continued busy with the work at hand and stopped continuing the topic.
"... Could it be that it's because I forcibly rescued Hermione from him?"
Maka thought about it for a moment, then shook her head speechlessly.
After a while, when things were done, Maka left Snape's office first, planning to go to the Great Hall to finish breakfast.
But right at the side entrance of the auditorium, he met Ron with a gloomy face.
"Oh... Good morning, Maka." Ron took the initiative to say hello, but he didn't look very happy.
"Well, good morning." Maka glanced at him and said, "What's wrong? Who are you angry with?"
"No, who can I be angry with?" Ron forced a smile, but his smile was uglier than crying.
Maka shrugged and said, "Is it because of Harry and Hermione?"
"No, how is that possible!" Ron couldn't help but argued, "They are all my good friends, and now they have become warriors. I am happy for them!"
"Yeah?"
"certainly!"
Ron said, his hands clenched into fists subconsciously, and finally he couldn't hold it in any longer.
"I just... I just think that they shouldn't lie to me! That's obviously a problem!" He shouted, "We are friends - best friends! Aren't we?"
Maka nodded noncommittally and said calmly: "Of course it's wrong to deceive friends, but we can't be sure whether they deceived you or not."
"Even you said that..." Ron said angrily, "Okay! Someone must be framing them, and someone must want their lives! This is really scary. There is a mysterious madman who confuses the goblet and then gives it to us. The school will have one more chance to win the championship!”
Ron finished speaking angrily, then ignored Maka, turned around and walked into the auditorium without looking back.
At this moment, another person came behind Maka.
"That... Maka?"
He stopped again and turned around: "Oh, good morning, Hermione."
"Last night... thank you."
Behind Maka, Hermione, who had recovered from her confusion, thanked her quietly.
"Last night?" Maka pretended to be confused, "What are you talking about?"
"What?" Hermione asked strangely, "Last night you asked Cathead-"
Halfway through her words, she seemed to understand something from Maka's expression and immediately stopped.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, "I guess I didn't sleep well last night, and I'm still a little confused at the moment... I just saw Ron... what happened to him?"
Maka shook her head slightly, and while walking inside, she told Hermione what Ron had just said...
At this moment, Harry had just woken up from an uneasy sleep.
He sat up and sat in bed in a daze, and it took him a while to remember why he felt so sad and anxious. Then, what happened last night suddenly came to mind.
He sat up and opened the curtains on his four-poster bed, wanting to talk to Ron again, intending to force Ron to believe him. But then he found that Ron's bed was empty, and he had obviously gone downstairs to have breakfast.
Harry got dressed and walked down the spiral staircase to the common room below.
As soon as he appeared, the classmates who had already had breakfast cheered enthusiastically again. He was a little scared when he thought about having to enter the Great Hall and face the other Gryffindor students, who all regarded him as a hero.
But if he didn't go to the auditorium, he would have to stay here and let himself be pestered by his classmates in the lounge. So, he decisively walked to the hole behind the portrait, pushed it open, and climbed out.
When he arrived at the door of the auditorium, he happened to meet Hermione who was walking out.
"Hello," Hermione said, holding up a stack of bread wrapped in a napkin, "I've got some for you... Want to take a walk?"
"Good idea," Harry said gratefully.
They went downstairs and quickly crossed the foyer without so much as a glance at the auditorium. Soon, they were striding on the lawn that extended toward the lake.
Durmstrang's large ship was moored on the lake, casting a dark reflection in the water.
It was a cold morning, and as they walked and munched bread, Harry and Hermione discussed the accident together.
"Of course I know you didn't sign up yourself," Hermione said when he had finished telling what happened in the room next to the Great Hall, "Of course I didn't either!"
"Look at the look on your face when Dumbledore said our names! The question is, who put your name in? You know, Moody was right, Harry... I think, except No student other than Maka can do this! We have all seen that it is not a very simple thing even for Maka to do it."
"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted.
Hermione hesitated.
"Well... I saw... he was having breakfast." She said.
"Does he still think we signed up for it ourselves?"
"Um... No, I don't think so... Actually not." Hermione said unnaturally.
"'Not actually', what does that mean?"
"Oh, Harry, don't you understand this?" Hermione said helplessly, "He is jealous!"
"Jealous?" Harry asked in disbelief, "Jealous for what? Is he willing to make a fool of himself in front of the whole school?"
"Think about it," Hermione said patiently, "you know, it's either you or Maka who gets everyone's attention all the time—"
Seeing Harry open his mouth angrily, she quickly added: "I know you are not pursuing this... But, how to put it - you know, Ron has to compete with so many brothers at home, and you, as his Best friend, and so famous—"
"Every time someone sees you, he is left aside, and he suffers it silently, never saying a word. And this time, there happens to be another me... Both of us have a share, only he No, it's as if we abandoned him." At this point, Hermione paused before saying, "I think this time he can't bear it anymore..."
"Very good," Harry said bitterly, "That's great... I think, as long as he wants, I can trade with him at any time! When a person has people staring at his forehead stupidly wherever he goes, people!"
"Yes, that's right." Hermione said simply, "You should use these words to talk to him. Only in this way can the problem be solved."
"I don't want to chase him around and try to teach him to mature!" Harry said. "When will he believe that I'm unhappy? Maybe when I break my neck, or -"
His voice was so loud that it frightened several owls in the nearby trees and flew up.
"That's not child's play," Hermione said softly, "That's absolutely not child's play!"
She hesitated for a moment, then moved closer and said in a very small voice: "Harry, Maka secretly gave me three bottles of potion last night, and told me-"
"I know, I received it too." Harry interrupted, "Just this morning, I saw a package beside the bed, and I knew it was from Maka."
"Really?" Hermione's expression stiffened for a moment, but she continued the next second, "Then you should have seen it, and Maka also thinks that this Triwizard Tournament will be very dangerous!"
"Harry, I've been thinking—you know what we should do, don't you?" she reminded softly.
"Yeah, give Ron a good kick—"
"It's a letter to your godfather!" Hermione said angrily, "You must tell him what happened. Didn't he write before asking you to tell him everything that happened in Hogwarts? ? He seemed to have expected something like this to happen. I brought out some parchment and a quill—"
"Stop talking nonsense," said Harry.
He looked around and saw that no one could hear them, but the place was empty.
"You saw it last year - he was so impulsive. If I told him that someone asked me to sign up for the Triwizard Tournament, he would probably rush straight to the castle -"
"He wants you to tell him," Hermione said sternly. "Anyway, sooner or later he'll know -"
"But-"
"Maka seems to have something very important to do this time - he even deliberately pretended not to contact us just now." Hermione said seriously, "Since he can't be with us, we have to go alone early Let’s make plans... We can’t always rely on Maca to help us.”
"Okay, okay, I'll write to him," Harry said, throwing the last piece of bread into the lake.
The two stood there, watching the bread float on the lake for a while, and then a huge tentacle emerged from the water and grabbed it under the water.
Shortly after they left, a tiny hummingbird flashed across the trees by the lake.