Of course he still remembered that first night under the starry sky and the night wind fluttering his clothes.
That night, he and this ignorant girl with a hint of intelligence stood side by side on the open grass in front of the house, chatting paradoxically about him and the yearning for the magic school she was about to enroll in a year later. The vision and imagination of the magical magic that the two of them would learn arose.
Two children who also lost their mothers just looked at the stars. One said that he wanted to delve into the mystery of magic so that both of them could see their mother again. Then the other person showed a quiet smile and said that although it was dangerous, it was indeed a way.
Today, the girl has gradually grown up, and various experiences and tribulations have also made her original simple mind grow. But after so many years, the girl who has grown much taller still seems to have the same aura as before, like a cloud sarong and the moon.
"Maka, have you found that way?"
At this moment, the girl suddenly continued to talk about the original topic again. Even though it seemed to have no beginning and no end after several years, it fell on the ears of the former young man as if he could smell the cool night breeze of that night again. How could he not remember.
But now, the girl is still the girl, and the boy is still the boy.
It's just that some people or things seem to have undergone subtle changes unknowingly, making everything no longer as simple and beautiful as yesterday.
A moment of silence passed, and Maka's face, which had always maintained a faint smile, lost its smile for the first time tonight. He no longer paid attention to the expressions of others. He just looked at the girl with long pale golden hair who was still waiting patiently from a distance, and said in a rare and serious tone:
"Do you hope I find it, or do you hope I don't find it?"
He neither affirmed nor denied, but asked rhetorically, throwing the question back to the girl.
The conversation between the two left everyone in the hall confused. But at this moment, it was obvious that no one had thought about what to say, so no one tried to interrupt, but just silently watched the subsequent developments.
The girl, that is, Luna, did not answer the question after hearing the rhetorical question thrown back by Maka from the high stairs. She thought for a while, then nodded calmly and calmly as usual, facing the other person's eyes and replied:
"It doesn't matter to me, as long as this is what you want, that's fine."
"Really?" Maka paused, and suddenly her tone became a little low, "Even if the 'path' I find, might it tear everything apart?"
After hearing this, Luna's expression still did not change at all, she was still as calm as before.
"Yes!" She nodded again, looked at him and said, "Although we all love each other deeply and everything we know, I and everyone know that your love for this world is no more than ours. Anyone much less, if not more. So, just know that this is indeed what you want, and we will support it... Isn't that right, Hermione? Neville? Harry?"
At the end of her sentence, she used her calm gaze with a sense of matter-of-factness to sweep over the other friends one by one, staying on the other person for a few seconds each time she recalled a name.
However, her intuition, which had always been inexplicably accurate, seemed to suddenly fail at this moment. On the faces of Hermione and others, there was no expected affirmation, but more of a struggle with deep hesitation.
After a few seconds of silence, a few people such as Neville and Hannah nodded hesitantly, but sporadic responses made the atmosphere even more subtle and stiff.
Luna blinked her eyes, and after circling around her friends, her eyes finally returned to Hermione standing on the steps.
The next moment, she was seen walking slowly out of the crowd in the center of the hall, passing Snape in front of her, and went straight to the stairs.
She stopped just a few feet away from the steps, and she would have stepped onto them if she took one more step forward. She raised her neck and stared at Hermione who had already turned around, and said with some confusion:
"Hermione?"
The fair "competition" with Hermione not only allowed Hermione to gradually understand the various behaviors and thoughts of Luna, who had a unique mind, but also made Luna become closer to each other, allowing her to get a girl as she wished. The true friend she'd always wanted.
It is precisely because the "friendship" between the two parties can be said to be directly based on their emotions with Maka, so after excluding certain factors for the time being, this friendship - both to Hermione and Luna - seems More pure and special.
However, these two girls, who have finally established a friendship, are ultimately two people with completely different personalities. When encountering some major choices that touch the values of life, the contradictions that were temporarily suppressed in the past are destined to resurface irresistibly.
And there is no doubt that the choice that everyone here must face tonight is really too important, so important that even if the other person is his former student, junior, best friend, teacher... or even everyone. No one who loves can give up thinking and blindly follow based on "trust" alone.
not to mention... ...
"Maka!"
On the stairs, after Hermione and Luna looked at each other for a few seconds, it seemed that she couldn't resist the other's particularly pure eyes, and she suddenly let go of the latter and suddenly turned her head to look back.
"Are you serious? Haven't you ever thought-"
Looking at that tall figure, many words came to her lips, but she couldn't say them out. Because as one of the few people who had been closest to the other party, she was deeply aware of the other party's wisdom and knowledge, so even though she had a lot of words to ask and refute what the other party had just said, she knew what she could think of. How could Maka not think of something
So why
"Why!"
Finally, Hermione couldn't help shouting.
Of course she is willing to believe Maka, and she believes that friends such as Harry and Ginny who have not been able to agree with Luna for the time being are also the same as her, but who can interpret a trust to an unparalleled degree of thoroughness like Luna? It even seems that even principles can be ignored
Yes, to a certain extent, maybe she can do it, or... It's better to say that she hopes she can do it. But at this moment, when she tried to fight for it, she found it extremely difficult and even painful.
"Maka," so she had no choice but to confide in her heart, "Don't bear it alone... No matter what the difficulty is, let us face it together! You see, we have all grown up, We can even hunt powerful and terrifying demons. We are no longer the fragile classmates who can only be protected under your wings."
"Maka, let's fight side by side, okay?"