In the last period before returning to Hogwarts, Maka didn't go anywhere. He took Luna to sit in the Three Broomsticks bar for a while.
For this very popular bar in Hogsmeade, most wizards will choose to sit here every time they come.
The owner of the bar, Ms. Rosmerta, has a wide range of contacts and is a very popular woman. She is always very talkative, and many wizards like to chat with her.
Well, especially the wizards and wizards - even most of the professors at Hogwarts knew her.
"Speaking of which, there is an interesting little allusion to this bar." Maka sat at the table and said to Luna, "Before Ms. Rosmerta took over this bar, it was called 'The Two Broomsticks'."
"Is this interesting?" A somewhat sloppily dressed wizard on the other side came over. He looked at Maka and asked.
"The interesting thing is not here," Maka spread her hands, "Do you know what is going on?"
"Hmm..." The wizard thought for a while and then guessed naturally, "A broom?"
"No, earlier, this was a private broomstick workshop." Maca said, "The 'Moon Occultation' at the end of the 19th century was born here. It was built by Grady Broom at the beginning of the 20th century. The creative source of Siby’s design of ‘Zhuyuehao’.”
"This is unexpected. It is indeed an interesting allusion..." The wizard said with a smile, "You know a lot. Are you young wizards from Hogwarts?"
"Yeah, you know, Hogsmeade is full of Hogwarts students today."
"That's right, that's right." The wizard smiled, "But there are not many people who are as calm as you."
At this time, Ms. Rosmerta came over with a tray, and while laughing with the wizard, she placed the glass in front of him.
"Do you want me to buy you a drink?" The wizard hugged Maka and said, "How about this as payment for the interesting little allusion you told me?"
"Hey! Tarino, don't teach bad children!" Ms. Rosmerta said in warning, gently slapping him on the back.
"Stop it, Rosmerta, I won't invite you, I won't invite you... Haha!"
The slovenly wizard whom Ms. Rosmerta called "Tarino" pretended to dodge, with a naughty smile on his face and a completely glib look, as if he had always been this way.
"Ignore him, he's just a sloppy guy." Rosmerta smiled at Maka and went straight behind the bar.
"Look at that figure... ahem, I mean, Ms. Rosmerta is a charming witch."
Probably because he finally realized Maka's age, and because Luna had been watching him curiously, he finally controlled his mouth and did not continue to say any offensive remarks.
But Maka stared at Tarino thoughtfully for a while, seeming to be thinking about something.
He paused for a while and then suddenly said: "Mr. Tarino, I think it would be more appropriate for me to invite you."
As Maka spoke, she suddenly turned her head and shouted towards the bar: "Ms. Rosmerta, give Mr. Tarino a glass of Blue Label John, my treat."
"Oh, of course, but—" Ms. Rosmerta hesitated.
"Don't worry, it'll be no problem."
Tarino stopped smiling and looked at Maka in surprise.
"How can this-" he said, "I was just joking."
Maka smiled at him and said calmly: "However, I am not... enjoying the bar in peace, sir. I just wanted to ask a few questions."
Tarino was stunned for a moment, then shrugged and said, "Oh, okay! Blue John, what reason do I have to refuse?"
The wine came quickly, but Maka had no interest in touching it, he was only interested in getting useful information.
"Mr. Tarino, you must be familiar with the dark side of the magical world. Can you have a casual chat with me?"
"I think so, but... there are no interesting stories there. Are you sure you want to hear it?" Tarino spread his hands and confirmed.
"Of course, otherwise why do you think I would invite you to drink for no reason?" Maka said naturally, "This is a bar. Apart from the wine, there are stories. Now that we have wine, of course we need some stories."
"Hey! I really can't tell. You know the details here quite well... Okay, okay, let's tell a story..." Tarino took a cautious sip of wine before continuing, "Speaking of which , I’m actually not very stable recently—well, to be honest, I’ve never been stable...”
In Tarino's intermittent narration, Maka learned for the first time the messy things hidden in the shadows of the magic world.
In fact, it is somewhat scattered. After all, Britain has the greatest white wizard today - Albus Dumbledore - and basically nothing major has happened in recent years.
It's just that there are no big things, but small things are always forbidden and destroyed.
The Aurors of the Ministry of Magic are very dedicated to their duties, and there are also dark wizard hunting teams and strikers who specialize in dealing with dangerous criminals. However, no matter how strict the protection is, there will always be times when one fails to care for the other.
What's more, there are also werewolves and vampires who are prone to crime by nature, so there are a lot of little troubles.
Of course, the most popular incident recently is of course Sirius Black's prison break. The type of criminals who can escape from Azkaban are the real troublemakers.
"In other words, someone has seen him recently?" Maka asked.
"Yes! I heard that he is lurking in Hogsmeade!" Tarino whispered, "But he seems to have been injured on his leg. If this is true, the risk will be reduced a lot-"
"You know, even those dark wizards with bad records don't want to mess with a lunatic like Black."
"That's true... Although as far as I'm concerned, there were a lot of doubts about that incident. Black didn't even go through the trial process before entering Azkaban." Maka nodded.
"Who knows?" Tarino immediately curled his lips after hearing this, "No one can tell clearly what tricks are inside."
After that, Maka followed the topic and talked about something else. After learning about the little things about sneaking around, she left with Luna.
It's getting late, it's time to go back to school.
"Just take another secret passage when you go back. The Ravenclaw common room is probably full of people right now."
Maka took Luna towards the Shrieking Shack not far away.
The secret passage leading to the Whomping Willow was still so narrow that the two of them finally bent down and reached the other end of the secret passage.
But when Maka just showed up, he found a black dog staring at him with its big round eyes.
"...Good evening." Maka said with a wink.
He really didn't expect to meet Sirius Black here by such a coincidence. Because the incident happened suddenly, he really didn't know what to say for a while.
But the next moment, Blake, who had turned into the Animagus form, made a forward movement.
"Maka?"
Just as Maka was hesitating to take out the wand, Luna, who was still bending down in the secret passage, spoke up.
Suddenly, Maka stopped moving, and so did Blake.
The other party looked at Maka, then turned around decisively, ran towards the forbidden forest not far away, and soon disappeared into the bushes at the edge of the forest.
You know, the wand Maka is using now is the same wand that was knocked out of Blake's hand.
On that day, Maka still had a disguise on her body, so she did not let the other party discover her identity today. But if you take out the wand, the other party will definitely recognize it at a glance.
He couldn't reveal his identity so quickly. After all, since he failed to subdue Black last time, he had to take a long detour. There were some things he had to get from Blake.
The matter was very important, and the relationship between him and Blake could not be too tense at the moment.
"It's okay, come on up, the dinner will start soon."
Maka crawled to the ground, then reached out and gave Luna a hand. Afterwards, the two walked quickly to the auditorium.
In the shadows at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Blake was looking at the backs of Maka and Luna, with a glimmer of doubt in his eyes.
…
As Ron said to Harry, today's dinner was indeed a sumptuous one.
There were hundreds of jack-o-lanterns hanging in the auditorium, as well as a swarm of bats flying up and down and many orange streamers spitting flames - they floated lazily under the ceiling, like a group of brilliant water snakes.
The food was so delicious that even people like Hermione and Ron, who ate Honeydukes sweets until their stomachs exploded, ordered second portions of everything.
On the teaching bench not far away, Lupine looked happy and as funny and natural as usual - he was chatting animatedly with the Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick.
Looking down the table, you can see where Snape is sitting.
He still had the same cold look, still so out of place in the festive atmosphere of the auditorium.
The dinner ended with entertainment provided by the ghosts of Hogwarts.
Ghosts suddenly appear from walls and tables in a sort of gliding procession - Gryffindor's Nearly Headless Nick successfully recreates the circumstances of his beheading.
Everyone had a great time one night.
Many students were discussing various things about going to Hogsmeade today. The excitement and happiness still remained in their bodies, as if they would not be able to sleep tonight unless they were washed away.
When the dinner was over, Maka followed the other Hufflepuff students back to the common room. But Harry, Ron and Hermione found that many people were crowding in front of the common room in Gryffindor House - that is, in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Why doesn't anyone go in?" Ron said strangely.
There were too many people in front of them, and they couldn't see clearly what was going on.
Harry stood up on his tiptoes and looked over the head - the portrait seemed to be closed.