The days at Hogwarts

At night, in the library of Book of Fantasy.

Loren gently held Professor Granger's waist, and the two of them rotated and paddled to the soothing music. Their steps were light and their limbs were smooth. They were much better than the stumbling practice during the day.

But from Flamel's professional perspective, the dancing between the two was really eye-catching, especially when Hermione self-righteously explained some wrong moves, while Loren learned them without any scruples.

After watching for a while, Flamel decided to teach the two a lesson: "The waltz originated in Bavaria, Germany, and was introduced to the Vienna court in the 17th century. The aristocratic ladies at that time were very obsessed with this free and uninhibited dance. Later, people even changed the fast rhythm to The waltz is called the Viennese Waltz.

Hermione's spinning movement paused. She stored this piece of historical knowledge in her mind. She leaned closer and said in Loren's ear: "Slow down the square step. If you can't remember, just touch my toes." Move together."

"Okay..." Loren also replied in a low voice.

When Flamel heard this kind of heterogeneous teaching, he slowly exhaled a depressed breath and continued: "Nico and Perenal once settled in Vienna for a while, and Perenel liked this kind of dance very much.

"The waltz is easy to learn and free and comfortable, so it attracts a large number of dancers, and they can often learn it by just watching for a while. It was in line with the social trends and changes in morals at that time, so it became widely popular, and now it has become the most representative It’s one of the dances of sex.”

Hermione led Loren in a swaying motion, deciding in her mind that there was no need to memorize this knowledge, just an impression.

"As a dance music with four or three beats, its basic steps are one step per beat and three steps per three beats per section, but there are also specific dance steps of two or four steps per section..."

"..."

Hermione automatically ignored the following words and continued to spin and slide with Loren.

Loren didn't hear Flamel's voice from beginning to end, silently keeping up with Hermione's rhythm.

They were immersed in the world of two people. One dared to teach and the other dared to learn. They both felt that the experience was good. It seemed that they vaguely heard Flamel saying angrily that their actions were wrong. After being angry for a while, they calmed down and began to talk without emotion. Point out their mistakes.

Listening carefully, it seems like it's just a vague hallucination. Anyway, the library is very empty. Maybe it's the echo of music, but who cares...

One song after another, an hour later, Hermione ended the dance class, feeling quite satisfied:

Well, the student is a good student and the professor is a good professor!

Loren also broke away from the immersion just now, turned around and looked, where was Flamel's figure——

Just say it was just an illusion.

……

A group of five people ate dinner slowly and leisurely.

Different from the buffet restaurant upstairs, this one is a paid customized set meal. You pay for the reservation three hours in advance. After confirming a few main courses, the service staff will note whether the customer has any taboos and will go to the banquet three hours later. .

Since it was the last night on the ship, Bates decided on this restaurant.

The melodious violin wafted out a soothing melody, causing the customers to lower their voices when chatting. The silver knives and forks made a slight crisp sound when they touched together. The bread and butter provided before the meal were mediocre. The appetizer was special cheese made from duck liver, bullfrog legs with parsley sauce, and a salad with fermented cheese. The main course was ribeye steak with red wine sauce, black truffle pasta... …

In short, by the end of the meal, everyone felt that the belt was a bit restrictive.

Walking out of the dining room, Bates and the Grangers rushed to watch the finale of Macbeth, leaving Loren and Hermione hanging out in the cabin.

Unknowingly, I walked to the outdoor teahouse again. There were no customers now, and there was only a small goose-yellow lamp hanging on the wall, so it looked clean.

The cool sea breeze carries a moist, salty smell. Fortunately, they have become accustomed to this smell in the past few days. The hull of the boat cuts through the sea, and the snow-white waves hit each other, making a rustling white noise.

Hermione raised her face slightly, breathing out the boundless night at sea happily. The noise and music in the cabin were mixed together, and after being blocked by the hull, they became very weak and somewhat distorted.

The girl felt as if they were in another world, a world that belonged to them alone.

Loren saw the gramophone on the counter. He waved slightly, and the needle automatically landed on the black vinyl disc. When the melody of the Blue Danube slowly poured out from the phonograph, he leaned slightly towards Hermione: "Beautiful Madam, can I ask you to dance?"

Hermione smiled and held out her right hand.

The 10,000-ton giant ship beat away the waves, and the faint light in the teahouse stretched and entangled the shadows of the two people, and the Atlantic Ocean became quiet.

……

In the evening, there was still half an hour before the theater ended.

Loren and Hermione sat opposite each other at the small round table on the balcony. He held his quill and looked down at his arithmetic divination homework. He looked very serious, but his perspective was slightly deflected, and you could see that his eyes were not focused at all, and he was obviously absent-minded. From time to time, he also showed a few strange smiles.

He smiled and suddenly stopped, raised his head and glanced at Hermione opposite him.

At this time, Hermione's little face was tense, and she was looking at her homework attentively. Her expression was very serious, her brows were slightly furrowed, her eyebrows were slender, her eyelashes could be seen fluttering, her eyes were filled with sea water, and she was pinched together under her delicate nose. lips.

Originally, the girl's lips were a little thin, showing some coldness in her delicateness, but now they are slightly red and swollen, and the coldness in her temperament has been completely dissipated. Even if she purses her lips and tightens her face, she still feels pretty and cute.

She said nothing, and Loren would probably have thought she was doing homework if she had ignored the quill, which had no ink on it at all.

Hermione stared at the letters on the paper. After looking at them for a long time, some of the letters became unfamiliar, as if she didn't recognize them.

After staring for a while, they slowly began to sway, and some even split into several, holding hands and began to sway, spin, and dance a waltz.

The slightly salty sea breeze filled her nostrils, which reminded Hermione of her experience in the teahouse just now. She shook her head vigorously, completely clearing the picture in her head, then raised her head and looked away from her homework, seeing the opposite side. The man who looked straight at him didn't even blink.

"..." Hermione tried to sound stronger, "What are you looking at me for?"

Loren's eyes lingered on her lips: "Enjoy the scenery."

Hermione was immediately frightened.

Loren stopped teasing Hermione and chuckled twice: "In addition to the International Federation of Wizards, when we get to New York, let's go to those famous attractions."

"What attraction?"

"The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Golden Gate Bridge, which is always bombed in movies."

"There is no Golden Gate Bridge."

"what?"

"The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco..."

"Oh, you are so annoying, do you have to correct me?"

"..."

Chapter 397 Arriving in New York

The cruise ship arrived at New York Harbor at 10 a.m., and Loren and others disembarked in an orderly manner along the bridge.

There was a long queue at the immigration, crowded with people from various countries. Before Loren and the others could officially join the queue, a rough-looking black man walked over from the side.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen."

The black man was wearing the clothes of an immigration officer, but the Muggle uniform felt strangely awkward on him: "The looking glass reacts to you, wizard?"

Loren and Hermione looked at each other, both of them a little confused. The Grangers and Bates were completely confused about the situation. They looked at the black man warily.

"Hey! Don't be nervous!"

The black man waved his hands in a comforting gesture. He turned sideways and pointed out the passage next to them: "I am here to guide wizards like you. I mean using No-Majs - oh, using you." In other words, they are Muggles. To be honest, I think No-Majs are more suitable to describe them - in short, they are wizards who entered the country in the No-Maj way. Let me be your guide."

"Come with me."

The black man greeted them warmly and led them into the passage: "You can call me Mike, don't complain, although it is true that many Americans have this name... I belong to the Magic Security Management Department, and I have been in contact with it since last month. Reception work.”

Loren glanced at Mike who was talking to himself non-stop, and judged that his magical reaction was less than half of that of the Hogwarts professors. After marking him as a low-level fighter, he signaled the people around him to follow him.

Mike took them to a spacious room. The incandescent lamp was emitting a dazzling light. There were some bottled drinking water and canned coffee on the reception table.

There were some lantern-style looking glasses hung on the surrounding walls, which glowed green as Loren and Hermione walked past them. The looking-glasses dimmed as the Grangers and Bates passed by them.

Several people quickly understood the function of the indicator light. Loren and Hermione looked at it with curiosity. This was the first time they had seen such a detection method. Wendell couldn't help but take a few more glances, trying to find any trace of magic on the lanterns, but of course he couldn't see anything.

After asking a few people to sit down at the guest seats, Mike walked to the main seat and started a routine inquiry:

"Sorry, can I see your No-Maj IDs? Since you came through the ordinary way, you should have these things."

Bates took out the three people's IDs from his bag and handed them over.

Mike didn't check it carefully. He just glanced at the information from the three adults and then put it down. He stayed on Loren and Hermione's IDs for a few seconds.

"Loren Morgan, Hermione Granger..."

Mike looked at the photo on the ID: "British, right?"

"Yes," Hermione replied.

"First time in New York?"

"Yes." Loren nodded.

"Do you have any potions in your carry-on luggage?"

Loren paused and replied, "No."

Mike glanced at him, as if he could see that his answer was untrue, but did not ask for investigation, and then asked: "Where are the magical animals?"

"Absolutely not." Loren answered simply.

Both Hanhan and Crookshanks stayed at home, the bedroom windows were unlocked, and there was enough food left on the trees in the backyard. With the intelligence of the two little guys, they should not starve to death.

Mike looked incompetent at all. After asking a few simple questions, he returned the certificates to them: "Sorry, routine inquiry, regulations left by the ministry. It is said that many years ago, a guy among you British wizards brought them A zoo came and caused a big mess..."

Wendell and Bates listened with great interest, and they vaguely realized that the distance between wizards and ordinary people in this country was closer than imagined.

"The last item, register the wand..."

As Mike spoke, he took out the parchment from behind and unfolded it on the table. "Aim at the small dots on the parchment and output a little magic power... Remember, it only takes a little bit. There was a reckless boy last week who directly Burned my registration book, his parents are still Aurors of the British Ministry of Magic..."

Listening to his rambling voice, Loren and Hermione exchanged a few glances and clicked on the parchment as he asked.

Wendell craned his neck and looked curiously.

The wand was like a quill filled with ink. A ball of ink spread out on the parchment, and scrawled writing was slowly outlined under the ball of ink:

"Loren Morgan: Applewood, Phoenix Tail Feathers"

"Hermione Granger: Vinewood, Dragon's Nerve"

Mike quickly folded the parchment and smiled more sincerely at the people: "Well, welcome to New York!"

……

The basement floor of the Woolworth Building in downtown New York.

The light in the inquiry room is bright, and taking No-Majs to the underground floor for inquiry can avoid all kinds of incredible magic scenes upstairs, which can effectively reduce the workload of the memory canceller.

"It looked like a wolf walking upright, or a zombie, but it hadn't rotted yet... I saw that guy's in the underground pipes in the Brooklyn neighborhood. I saw teeth, sharp teeth, and wetness. hair."

A middle-aged man wearing a yellow plumber's uniform sat in the interrogation room and said in a panic.

He was holding the hot coffee handed to him by the staff of the building. That had already happened three days ago, but he still couldn't help feeling frightened when he recalled the scene of that night.

In fact, he thought it was the product of a human experiment by a pharmaceutical company, or that the government military was cultivating some kind of biochemical weapon. These speculations obviously could not be revealed, because the person who was recording the statement was also from a government agency, although he did not know what agency it was.

Bob the plumber recounted in detail what he saw in the underground pipes that night. It was already two hours before he left the building.

Bob stood at the intersection and looked back at the Woolworth Building, with some doubts in his eyes.

It had been less than five minutes since he came out of the building, but now he couldn't remember the pipe structure inside the building. He obviously observed these every time he went to a new place.

As for the staff who asked questions, he couldn't recall their faces now.

"That's weird..." Bob muttered and walked away muttering.

In the Woolworth Building, a group meeting of the Humanoid Magical Species Protection Department was underway.

"We must keep an eye on those werewolves in Brooklyn. This is the third sighting this week, and we still don't know what they are up to!" Niedander slapped the table in annoyance, making a loud banging sound.

"Boss, we are not sure yet whether the thing in the sewer is a werewolf."

The team member responsible for information collection looked at the minister's almost cannibalistic look and hurriedly reported the summarized information: "Those No-Majs were sighted at different times, but they were not seen on a full moon night. Logically speaking, Werewolves can only transform on a full moon night.”

"And based on their accounts, it is speculated that the werewolves they saw were different from normal werewolves. They were like corpses and could not move. There are also doubts here. After the werewolves died, their magic power faded, so they should return to their human form."

"..."

Detailed information was narrated from the mouths of the team members one after another. However, instead of compiling the truth, this information made the facts even more confusing. The team members followed the clues one by one and found that they were intertwined together. Messy.

Niedander, the Minister for the Protection of Humanoid Magical Species, was full of doubts, and some unspeakable intuition reminded him——

Something very bad was brewing somewhere he couldn't see.

"All team members!"

Niedander slammed the table: "Starting from today, teams of two will take turns guarding the underground pipelines in Brooklyn! Report any abnormalities immediately!"

"Okay Minister!"

……

After leaving the port, we got on the hotel shuttle, checked into the hotel, had a light meal in the hotel restaurant, and bought our own towels and toiletries. Although the hotel would provide cleaning supplies, the Grangers, who are doctors, were always uneasy. .

While checking out at the supermarket, the waiter recognized their accents and chatted happily with Bates.