While Harry was making his position clear to Ginny's ex-boyfriend Michael Corner, they both barely noticed an acquaintance passing by across the street. And even though Ginny glanced at it inadvertently, she was disturbed by Harry's declaration in the next moment, and in the blink of an eye she completely forgot about the strange scene she saw.
Of course, although it is strange, only some insiders will be surprised by this. Because passing by on the opposite side of the crowd at that time was the rare pair of Hermione and Luna.
Now Luna was walking in front, her brisk steps showing her happy mood at this moment. To be honest, she had wanted to find a real friend from a long time ago, and Hermione, who was always straightforward in her dealings with others, was undoubtedly a very suitable friend.
Luna is sometimes very naive, her heart is very pure, and she always simply likes mysterious and interesting things. She can treat creatures that may not actually exist as if they actually exist, and use her abundant imagination to carefully describe what they might look like.
But innocence does not mean stupidity, Luna is not stupid. On the contrary, sometimes her purity even makes her know how to listen to others' voices better than ordinary people.
So, she felt very happy today. Because she felt that maybe starting from today, she and Hermione could become a pair of real good friends. As for why this is...
Who knows? She just had this hunch, that's all.
But compared to the innocent and happy Luna, Hermione, who was walking silently behind her, looked much more distressed. She specially invited Luna to come to Hogsmeade Village yesterday, which really showed her great determination.
Yes, she wanted to take advantage of Maka's absence at Hogwarts to have a good chat with Luna. She wanted to know what kind of feelings this seemingly carefree girl had for Maka.
Many classmates mentioned Luna behind her back. They called her "loony" because they all thought Luna Lovegood was a strange girl with unpredictable ideas. But it is this strange, even somewhat unremarkable crazy girl that makes Maka willing to stay by her side quietly. What is the reason for this
Looking at Luna's erratic pace in front of her, Hermione looked a little confused.
On the way from Hogwarts to here, it was not like she didn't use words to test him. But after a lot of confusing conversations, she just felt that she couldn't figure out the other person's character even more.
"Luna, where do you plan to go first?"
After continuing to follow for a while, Hermione realized that she should go to Hogsmeade train station if she continued walking, so she had to ask.
"The Screaming Shack," Luna said in her sleepy voice without looking back, "I've been there many times, but I've never found the entrance. But Maka told me , he said that there is an entrance to the Shrieking Shack... Hermione, you are very smart, I think you can help me find its entrance."
"Screaming Shack?"
Of course Hermione knew about the dusty snow cabin. There are rumors that there is a haunted haunted house there, and there lives a red-eyed ghost who can touch entities. On a frosty moonlit night, he will capture people and torture them. This rumor is very famous, and all the residents of Hogsmeade know it. Many people even say that they have heard the roar and screams at midnight.
Nowadays, that room without doors and windows has become a place that little wizards will definitely visit when they first come to Hogsmeade Village. It can be said to be quite famous.
But what does that have to do with Hermione? She was not interested in the sensational rumors, nor did she want to know whether there was a sinister ghost hidden inside. Rather than looking for an entrance there, she would rather go to the Three Broomsticks Bar to sit down and drink a glass of delicious butterbeer.
However, she had planned to go shopping with Luna today. At least before starting to ask some more personal questions, she felt that she should relax with Luna, which might help open up the other person's defenses.
"Maka said it was an interesting and warm place with some touching past events." Luna put her hands behind her hands and walked step by step, "But he didn't tell me how to get in, so I always wanted to find a way in.”
"Yes...really?" Hermione said quietly from behind, "Since he knows, wouldn't it be better for you to ask him directly? I think if you ask him, he will definitely tell you."
"No, that would be boring." Luna suddenly turned around and whispered like a singer, "The process of hard work will give the greatest value to the result."
As she spoke, she walked backwards with her hands behind her hands. The sun hanging diagonally in the air opposite her silently shed a dazzling golden light, causing her to narrow her eyes slightly.
In her eyes, Hermione, who was shrouded in the sun, had only an unclear outline; but in Hermione's eyes, she was completely illuminated by the sun, and the long pale golden hair behind her faintly exuded a wonderful light. Halo.
As mentioned before, Hogsmeade is really not that big. It wasn't long before Hermione saw the shack located on the edge of the village from a distance.
Because of Maka, Hermione didn't know much about the secrets buried in this shed. She knew some stories about Lupine, but if she wanted to be specific, what happened to Lupine, Sirius, Harry's father James Potter, and that smelly mouse Peter in the Shrieking Shack. She had never heard of the past events.
Therefore, when she looked at the shack from a distance, she didn't feel much.
"Oh, we're here." Luna finally stopped.
This is already a relatively remote place in the village. Even if there are many people in Hogsmeade now, it still seems a little deserted. Perhaps when school starts next year, the new batch of third-graders will come in droves to visit, but that is definitely not the case now.
As Luna slowly stopped beside the street, Hermione also stood beside her. The two of them stared at the old shack leisurely, one's eyes were full of curiosity, the other was a little absent-minded.
The Screaming Shack appeared here unknowingly, and no one knew who built it, making the rumor even more mysterious. But to be honest, the scenery here is pretty good.
Set against the dense evergreen forest behind it, even though the shack looks quite old, it looks surprisingly harmonious here. Thick snow was quietly covering it around and on top of it, making it look like a big dusty cake.
"Huh?"
Hermione looked around the shed casually, and inadvertently saw a small, inconspicuous stone tablet. It was placed on the edge of the snow forest, about ten steps away from the Shrieking Shack. It looked a little lonely and monotonous.
"That's a tombstone," Luna seemed to notice Hermione's gaze and suddenly said, "Maka said it also has its own story."
Hermione thought for a moment, then raised her legs and walked over there.
As she got closer, she realized that it did look like a tombstone. It was embedded in the ground, half-hidden by snow, covering nearly half of it. If she hadn't happened to see the different colors just now, she might not have noticed it.
She knelt down and swept the snow aside, only to find that there was not even a word on the tombstone.
"Is this really a tombstone?" Hermione asked herself doubtfully.
But when she thought about it again, she realized that her doubts seemed to be unnecessary. Since Maka had said that to Luna, then this should be a tombstone - Maka rarely said anything uncertain.
A shack with rumors of being haunted, plus an unnamed tombstone... It seems like they are proving something to each other, making people care about it unconsciously.
After looking around, Hermione straightened up again and continued to scan the surrounding scene.
She looked a little aimlessly here, because she had no intention of finding an entrance. But Luna had already walked around the shack, checking carefully bit by bit, as if she was afraid of missing some clues.
From what she said before, you can tell that she must have been here many times before, sometimes with Maka, and probably by herself... Wouldn't she get tired of it after so many times
Hermione waited beside the tombstone for a while, but began to think about what she should ask Luna for a while. But as time passed, she discovered that Luna had no intention of stopping.
To be honest, she couldn't help it.
But just after she took a few steps toward Luna, she suddenly felt a sudden slip under her feet, causing her to plop down and sit in the snow before she could react.
Fortunately, the snow on the ground was thick enough, so the fall didn't hurt.
"what?"
Because the feeling under her feet just now was really unusual. In addition to being slippery, she could definitely feel an inexplicable coolness, which made her shiver even after she fell to the ground.
Hermione sat on the ground and stretched out her feet, kicking them randomly a few times. Suddenly, a bright blue light was exposed in the snow. The blue and white color that shimmered under the sun looked very familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before.
She quickly stood up and pushed it a few times with her feet, only to find that it was actually a piece of extremely solid ice. The area of the ice that seemed to be plated on the ground was not large. After Hermione swept away the snow, it looked very abrupt on the dry land.
"This is..." Hermione frowned slightly, a look of contemplation on her face.