The snow is getting heavier and heavier.
A few weeks have passed since Maca returned from Romania. Although McGonagall read Akinbad's letter to him as soon as he returned to Hogwarts, he did not make any specific comments.
He just said -
"Christmas is coming soon!"
After that, the situation at Israel's Heberhe Academy of Magic also spread to Hogwarts with the media's voice, but Maka still didn't react at all.
It's like, now he just wants to prepare for Christmas well and let all the teachers and students in the school have an unforgettable night. Other than that, don't do anything else.
So, as the days passed, the biggest change in everyone's daily life was only the snowflakes dancing in the sky.
In the office, Maka was immersed in the manuscript paper and calculating quickly, and his pen never stopped.
It can be seen that there is a comet orbit map not far away on the table, which was recently predicted by Muggle astronomers. It is obviously much more detailed than the one he had before.
Only occasionally would he pick up the cup on the table and pour a sip of cold tea into his mouth while writing.
He didn't know how long it took before he suddenly inserted the quill into the ink bottle, then gathered the thick stack of manuscript paper in front of him and put it aside.
After drinking all the tea in the cup, he finally leaned back on the chair, squinted his eyes and rested for a moment.
"In this way, it might really work..." Maka thought to herself, "Of course, the premise is that the data are correct."
After letting his brain rest for a while, he stood up and walked towards the door.
…
It's almost dusk, and without the warm sunshine during the day, you can intuitively feel the temperature dropping rapidly.
Maka stepped on the snow that had accumulated long ago, and walked through most of the front yard with the sound of "crunching", and once again came to the door of Hagrid's hunting cabin.
"Bang bang!"
He knocked on the door, but after a while he couldn't wait for Hagrid to come out and open the door.
Of course, these days, it's more likely that Hagrid won't answer the door when he knocks on the door, but that doesn't mean Hagrid isn't at home.
Maka has long been used to this.
He didn't pay much attention to it, he just waved his hand in front of the door a few times, and then opened the door.
"Are you really in there again?"
I looked around the room, but there was no one there.
But in this small room today, there is something that has never appeared here before - it is a flat box like a door panel. To put it more unluckily, it is like a coffin lid.
At this moment, the "coffin lid" was leaning against the wall of the hut. The room was quiet, with almost no movement.
Maka shrugged, raised her legs and walked straight there.
It wasn't until he came to the front of the thing that he could see that one side of the flat box was basically a door panel, and there was even an old copper door handle on it!
And when he grasped the doorknob with a nonchalant expression and suddenly pulled it open, everything behind the panel door immediately came into view.
It is no exaggeration to say that there is a small world hidden in this flat box with a thickness of no more than 3 inches (about 7.62 cm).
"Roar-"
As soon as the door panel was opened, a loud roar immediately came from inside, but the sound seemed to be thousands of meters away.
Maka didn't stop at the door, and stepped in directly after opening the door.
Because the flat box is leaning against the wall of the cabin, the simultaneous shift in the ground's inclination and center of gravity may seem a little strange when you first walk over it.
But when you enter it, the suddenly clear view will make you completely forget your previous doubts.
The first thing you see is an open grassland, and above your head is a shade of trees.
In fact, if you look back for a moment, you will find that the place you just came in is actually a thick tree. The door located on the trunk of the tree seems to have grown there, and it even has a somewhat artistic flavor.
"Bang!"
He closed the door panel first.
"Hagrid!"
Suddenly turning around, Maka's shout spread along the green grass, attracting many magical animals living here along the way.
A group of white Pegasus were chewing the grass with their heads down. After hearing Maka's voice, their ears suddenly twitched twice, and then they all raised their heads and looked here.
There were several holes in the ground not far away. When Maka's shout passed by, several goblins emerged from the ground and looked around curiously - and then they were caught by the owl Mafa who flew by. Toward the distance.
Suddenly, a series of ball escapers flashed, jumped and ran past the Pegasus' feet.
Those naughty little guys were chasing each other and playing, but unexpectedly, an invisible beast suddenly appeared next to them, seemingly trying to drive them back to the safety of their nest.
Maka's eyes did not linger on them for too long. He raised his head and looked further away. You can see it from a distance, there is a huge creature soaring in the sky.
"Roar-"
Suddenly, another roar resounded through the space, causing all the magical animals to flee towards their nests.
That was Norberta, the Norwegian Ridgeback. Most animals didn't know that although her voice could spread, she couldn't pass through this area.
"Oh! Maka, are you here?"
When Maka walked over, Hagrid, who heard his shout, temporarily put down the iron bucket in his hand and came over to meet him.
"I'm preparing dinner for Norberta! I brought some fish over today..." he said happily, "I've long heard that the Norwegian Ridgeback is the only fire dragon that can go fishing in the sea. I was just thinking about giving it a try. not real."
But Maka spread her hands after hearing this.
"It may be possible to catch fish, but it's not necessarily for eating -" he said. "You know, going for a swim in the sea may just be a way of entertainment for them."
Having said that, Maka did not stop Hagrid's attempt. After all, he just casually mentioned a possibility.
When he watched Hagrid turn back to knead some minced meat, Maka also helped him do it.
"How are you getting along with the animals?" He asked while adding vegetables to the minced meat. "If you have any problems, tell me at any time. I will work with you to find a solution - especially the safety aspect. , but we can’t cause any accidents!”
"Well, in fact, it's nothing," Hagrid thought for a while and said, "If I have to say, hey, can this place be bigger? I think Norbert's sweetheart never flies well enough..."
Maka grinned when he heard this. To be honest, he really couldn't stand Hagrid's strange behavior.
"It's not impossible to superimpose the Traceless Stretching Spell again, but it will take more time to stabilize the space. I'm afraid Christmas will be over by then!"
"Oh, okay!"
Hagrid shook off the pieces of meat on his hands, then wiped his hands and went back to cutting the cabbage.
But after he took a few steps, his feet suddenly stopped, and he turned around to look at Maka with a puzzled expression.
"Maka, seriously!" Hagrid couldn't help but ask, "Why do I feel... that you seem to be particularly attentive to the preparations for this Christmas event?"
"Huh? Wouldn't it be better to be serious?" Maka said with a relaxed smile, "Every year, old students graduate, and new students enroll - I hope to leave some wonderful impressions or memories for them."
"Of course this is a good thing, I just..." Hagrid struggled with his words and hesitated, "I feel that you seem to be more diligent this time than when you were preparing for the Alchemy Competition last time!"
"There are also guests from outside the school coming this time, and there are quite a few of them!"
Maka waved her hand and stopped talking. Instead, she let the iron bucket containing a large pile of minced meat and vegetable shreds float by itself.
The bucket alone was half as tall as him, and he didn't have the strength to lift it up like Hagrid.
"Dong dong—"
But I saw him tapping the wall of the barrel with a spoon, making several muffled sounds as it was full of things.
Before the knocking sound could settle down, several hippogriffs emerged from a small forest in the distance. After running on the grass for a few steps, they spread their wings and flew towards them. come over.
Hagrid watched Maka start to feed the hippogriffs, and had no choice but to stop asking questions and instead picked up another bucket containing large pieces of fish and walked further away.
Maka was scooping out the minced meat with a large spoon and throwing it to the hippogriffs surrounding her, watching them raise their front hooves to catch it.
The hippogriffs were all sick, and he and Hagrid had to mix a potion into their food. But it was precisely because of their illness that Hagrid was able to buy them at a low price from a certain breeder.
He fed him a few tablespoons of minced meat, looked back at Hagrid's leaving back, and then sighed secretly.
"I hope everyone can have a good time at Christmas soon!"
After finishing feeding the large bucket of minced meat, and watching the hippogriffs slowly return to the woods, Maka gently took out the staff and waved it in the sky.
While watching a certain light source in the sky gradually dimming, most of the animals looked up to the sky - they are not used to this kind of darkness yet!
Looking at Hagrid again, she saw that the guy was being whipped to the ground by Norberta's tail, but he immediately got up and tried to give him a hug. Maka couldn't help shaking her head and laughing.
If only I could be as pure and frank as Hagrid, maybe many things would become very simple.
"I'm going back!"
After shouting this again, Maka stopped delaying and turned around to walk towards the big tree.
He didn't just have to take care of Hagrid's side, he still had to deal with the Defense Against the Dark Arts stuff that Snape still gave him!
Not long after, when the door embedded in the tree trunk closed again, this space finally entered the real night.