It's been snowing these days, and when you look out the window, it's basically a vast expanse of white. Obviously the scenery around Hogwarts is beautiful, but it would be a pity if it was always covered with snowflakes like this.
Fortunately, the weather today seems to be very good. Early in the morning, you can see the fiery red sun quietly jumping over the mountains to the east.
Obviously, it must still be very cold in the front yard of Hogwarts this early morning. But just looking at the morning sun is worth it for those students who like peace and quiet to take a short walk outside in the morning when no one is around.
At this moment, you can see that in the white vestibule paved with thick snow, a figure that looks a bit bloated due to winter clothes is slowly passing by, leaving two lines of winding footprints.
"Oh, she is a girl who knows how to enjoy life!"
Ron seemed to have forgotten the coldness in the stairway. He leaned against the window and muttered to himself, looking quite fascinated by it.
But soon, when he came back to his senses, he began to worry again - should he choose to wait for Hermione in the common room? Or is it better to just go down and try to strike up a conversation with that girl
Logically speaking, he should choose the first option. After all, judging from the current situation, the chance of him scaring the girl away is getting closer and closer to 100%!
"At least I have the first success to give me a foundation!"
Having encouraged himself in this way, Ron immediately decided to go down and try again. It wouldn't be too late to ask Hermione for yesterday's answer when he came back.
"...You really haven't gotten up yet?"
Probably because Ron came out too early due to insomnia all night, he didn't notice Hermione when he passed by the common room.
So he didn't hesitate anymore and hurriedly ran downstairs.
…
"Hey, wait-"
In fact, Ron, who had just arrived outside the castle gate, did not find the other party immediately. It was not until he followed the footprints on the ground and walked around the east garden that he saw the slightly familiar figure from behind.
Immediately, he stopped and opened his mouth to call out to the girl who made his heart beat. But he just started, and he immediately swallowed back the rest of his words.
And then... Well, Ron shrank behind the flower bed for some reason, squatted there and shut his mouth.
There is no one here now. Even if he stopped speaking in the middle, he could not stop what he had said. The girl naturally heard it.
But he saw the girl suddenly turning around, with a little doubt and surprise on her round face, and even her cotton-gloved hands subconsciously clenched her fists in front of her chest.
It's a pity that maybe it was the reason why she was so frightened at that first moment. When she looked back, she didn't see Ron who was hiding just a step ahead of her.
"Oh! What am I doing?"
With his back against the somewhat harsh flower bed, and the evergreen bushes blocking the girl's view in winter, Ron squatted behind and began to worry about his stupid behavior again.
In fact, his idea at the moment of hiding was very simple - he just suddenly thought that if he shouted out like that, he would probably scare people away again.
Therefore, he hurriedly stopped shouting and planned to talk closer.
However, now that he thought about it, he began to feel annoyed... The sound just now must have frightened the other person. Even if the other person was not scared away immediately, would he still dare to reappear in front of the girl now
"What should I do... what should I do? Can I still go out now? Just pretend that nothing happened?"
Ron curled his neck and closed his eyes, simulating the situation he would encounter after going out over and over again, but no matter how he thought about it, the answer seemed to be the same!
"There's no chance! There's definitely no chance today! But... But I can't squat here all the time, right? She might be coming this way... "
"No, no, I can't wait any longer. If she finds me squatting here, it will be impossible to explain anything. She will definitely become farther and farther away from me in the future... "
Ron kept muttering in his heart, and finally couldn't bear it any longer. He stood up and turned around to look.
“…”
"Where are the people?"
He looked at the deserted garden in front of him and was immediately dumbfounded.
At this moment, Maka, who had been looking down at the office window from the beginning, shook her head in confusion and silently offered condolences to poor Ron.
In fact, just now when Ron closed his eyes and thought to himself, the girl had already come to him.
Maka saw clearly at that time that the girl stood beside Ron and watched for a short while before leaving in a hurry.
Unfortunately, until the disappointed Ron left the garden and returned to the castle vestibule, he didn't notice that the footprints outside actually told him everything.
"It turns out that except for sleeping every night and the last eternal sleep, it is best not to close your eyes too tightly at other times. Because that often makes us miss many beautiful pictures."
Maka looked up at the white-capped mountains in the distance. The brilliant morning glow reflected the flowing clouds in the sky red, and also painted the mountain ridge with red paint.
If someone could hear what he was thinking at this moment, they would probably wonder whether he was talking about the beautiful view of the rising sun or Ron's unlucky encounter just now.
Of course, the reason why Maka was standing by the window now was not to spy on Ron and the girl.
Not long after, a black spot suddenly appeared from the eastern horizon, slowly enlarging in Maka's eyes. After a while, the black spot finally turned into an owl, fluttering and landing on the window sill in front of Maka.
Seeing that the little guy had settled down, Maka reached out and took down today's secret message.
And when he read the content word for word, a premonition that couldn't be called bad but couldn't be called good suddenly passed through his mind, causing him to reveal a subtle expression.
"As a result, the pressure from President Ajinbad... I'm afraid it will become even greater!"
…
The coded note in Maka's hand roughly described what happened last night. As for what happened specifically, it has to start with a decision made by Sirius.
That night, Sirius and Lupine were hiding together in a Muggle house. Due to the recent attack, both of them had moved to another place to live, and even for food, they only relied on some dry food they carried with them.
"Stop poking your head behind the curtains, come and sit for a while!"
Because the lights were not turned on at night and all the windows were covered with curtains, the room seemed extremely dark, and it was almost impossible to see anyone inside.
Sirius was naturally no stranger to darkness. During the years he spent in Azkaban, at least seven out of ten days were spent in darkness.
As for Lupine, what the werewolf blood actually brought him was not just a life that was difficult to integrate into society, but also some small conveniences.
For example, even in his normal human form, he still has a certain degree of night vision in the dark. To him, the darkness in the room was actually a little intimate.
At this time, Lu Ping was sitting quietly at the table in the middle of the living room, sipping the mead in the cup.
When Sirius, who was standing by the window, heard Lupine calling him, he also retracted his gaze beyond the gap in the curtains and silently came to sit on the chair next to Lupine.
"Pour me a drink, too," he said casually.
Lupine then shrugged, reached for the bottle, poured some wine into another goblet, and then placed it in front of Sirius.
"Hey, becoming a werewolf is not without its benefits, is it?" Sirius took a sip from the cup and said boredly, "At least Animagus doesn't have this ability."
When Lu Ping heard what he said, he suddenly felt a little emotional.
"Don't you remember? You've said this a long time ago!"
"Yeah?"
Sirius thought about it for a moment, but he couldn't think of anything at this moment.
"Was it when I was with you in the shack?" As he was talking, he suddenly looked around at the darkness around him, "Speaking of which, it's really a bit like here..."
It was when Sirius and Lupine were still in school at Hogwarts. At that time, there was also Harry's father, James, and Peter Pettigrew, who was not a traitor at that time.
Every full moon night, the four of them would follow the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack and spend the entire night with Lupine in their Animagus form.
That was a place Dumbledore had specially set up for them to prevent Lupine from harming other students when he transformed into a werewolf, and the animal form of Animagus would not arouse the ferocity of werewolves.
For this reason, Hogsmeade Village of that era also left a terrifying rumor of a full moon wolf howling, which has been spread to this day.
"Yes! It is indeed a bit similar to here," Lu Ping also looked around and said, "To be honest, my memory of there is not very clear. After all, after the transformation, my consciousness was completely messed up! I can remember Living there is actually dusk and early morning... "
"That's really a pity, I remember James told a lot of jokes in those nights!" Sirius laughed, "He really told all the jokes in his life!"
When Lu Ping heard this, he couldn't help but laugh a few times, and then sighed:
"It would be nice if the Wolfsbane potion was invented earlier."
But after the two laughed for a while, they quickly fell into silence again.
For both of them, James' death will always be a thorn in their hearts. No matter how much time is spent, it will be difficult to remove it from their hearts.
Perhaps because he didn't want to be so dull anymore, Sirius suddenly raised his neck and poured all the wine in the glass into his throat. Then he put the wine glass on the table.
"I'm going out for a walk. Your injury is more serious. Just stay here and rest!"
After that, he didn't say anything more and walked straight to the door.
"etc!"