The days at Hogwarts

He had known it since he was 8 years old. That time he followed his grandmother to St. Mungo's to visit his parents, and watched them expressionless and silent. He also watched them look crazy and talk nonsense.

The child in the next bed said that they were carrying out a mission and would be discharged from the hospital after drinking the medicine.

The eight-year-old Neville had an even worse memory, but he remembered this sentence, sneaked to the pharmacy, drank half a belly of bitter water, and admitted himself to the hospital. Scales grew on his face and feathers grew on his arms.

Neville spent a week in bed, finishing his potion.

But mom and dad’s bitterness will never be exhausted, there will be new bitterness every day, how miserable they must be.

Neville wanted to give them something sweet, and frozen pears were just that. That day, Dad and Mom ate all over their faces, Neville was smiling, and so was Grandma.

But at night he saw his grandmother secretly wiping away tears. The water his father and mother drank was bitter, and the water that flowed from his grandmother's eyes was also bitter.

I can’t stop drinking my parents’ bitterness, and I can’t stop shedding my grandma’s tears.

Neville kept all these things in his heart, looked into Loren's eyes and said seriously: "Frozen pears are the sweetest, sweeter than frozen apples and frozen yellow peaches."

……

Before going to bed, Harry and Ron were sneaky, and from time to time they would stare at the other three people in the dormitory to see if they were asleep. As soon as Loren looked at them, the two turned their heads away and pretended nothing happened with their poor acting skills.

When Neville's cry came out, Harry and Ron made secret signals with "puff" and "puff". They tiptoed out of bed, walked out of the dormitory, walked down the stairs, and walked to the common room which was empty late at night.

In the dim lounge, the two of them buried their heads together, and with the light coming through the window, they looked at a piece of silver-shining fabric that was so thin that it seemed to be flowing like liquid.

"Invisibility cloak!" Ron's surprised voice echoed in the lounge.

There was another rustling sound.

Harry covered the two of them with the silver fabric and disappeared, and the lounge was suddenly empty. There was no figure, but the sound continued to come out.

"This invisibility cloak can hide three or four people."

"Merlin's beard. Now we don't have to worry about being caught when we go out at night." Ron's voice was full of excitement.

There are many invisibility cloaks in the wizarding world, and there are two mainstream ways to make them.

One is to weave the fur of the invisible beast, which has been banned by the Magical Creatures Protection Act promoted by Newt. On the other hand, the eyes of the invisible beast can foresee the future, and few people can catch it.

Most of the existing invisibility cloaks made of animal fur are handed down from the past.

The second method is to use alchemical arrays to fix the effect of the Disillusionment Spell. This is the mainstream production method in the magic world. It is expensive, the effect is mediocre, and the invisibility cloak produced will gradually lose its effectiveness over time.

The Invisibility Cloak in Harry's hand, one of the Deathly Hallows, is the most mysterious. No one knows what material it is made of. It is said to be the clothes of the God of Death himself.

But in terms of effect, this Deathly Hallows seems to be no different from an ordinary invisibility cloak. Some wizards have keen perception. Although they cannot see, they can detect people under the invisibility cloak. Snape is one of them.

Loren hid behind the stairs, black and gray shadows floating in his blue eyes, outlining two figures leaning against each other side by side, with a fiery red magical glow floating around them.

In the abandoned classroom where the Mirror of Erised was discovered, Loren realized that his eyes could break invisibility, even Dumbledore's Disillusionment Charm, and this time the invisibility cloak was no exception.

Loren chuckled and his eyes rolled around.

While the two people below were looking at his invisible body, he restrained his smile and pretended to be sleepwalking. He walked down the stairs blankly with a dazed look on his face, muttering in a pretentious manner, "Sorcerer's Stone, Sorcerer's Stone."

Harry and Ron were surprised at first, and then they fell silent at the same time, their eyes glued to Loren, and they pricked up their ears to listen attentively to what Loren said.

"The secret of the Philosopher's Stone is——"

Harry and Ron's eyes widened.

"The secret of the Philosopher's Stone is——"

The two held their breath.

"Let Harry become light."

Harry's pupils shrank, and he didn't have time to think about what it meant to turn into light.

While the two were unable to react, Loren reached forward and pulled off the invisibility cloak.

"I knew you two were being sneaky and abnormal."

"Want to go on a night tour?"

Loren rubbed the cloak with his fingers. It was thinner than parchment and had no resistance at all. It was smooth and cool, unlike any known fabric.

I only got 2k today, I'll see if I can make up for it tomorrow. This week was really unlucky, first I was bitten by a bug and my legs hurt so much. Then I kept working overtime and got scolded, I feel like I might be laid off.

As for me, Shushu, I might have to devote myself to writing books full-time.

Chapter 86: The Night Before School Starts

Chapter 86: The Night Before School Starts 4K

Harry came back to his senses and said unhappily, "Yeah, do you want to join us?"

They had planned to use the invisibility cloak to get around Fluffy and see if they could get through the trapdoor.

But Harry remembered that Fluffy was a three-headed dog, with three heads and three noses, so he could smell them even if he couldn't see them.

Realizing that the invisibility cloak was of no use to Lou Wei, he just let Loren talk.

"Extremely happy!"

Like an elegant gentleman, Loren lifted the collar of the invisibility cloak and shook it, covering the three people. The invisibility cloak was big enough to cover three first-year wizards. From the moment it was put on, the silver fabric disappeared with the figures of the three people.

"Who is it?" The fat lady opened the door but saw no one and looked around in confusion.

Looking out from the inside of the invisibility cloak, there is no obstruction to the vision. The three of them ignored it and walked forward with their heads down.

"Where are we going?"

"How about the restricted section?"

The destination was decided by Harry and Ron, and Loren didn't care where to go.

They could still see each other under the invisibility cloak, and the three of them were so close together that it was inevitable that there would be some bumps and bruises.

Loren lagged behind a little, watching Harry's footsteps moving forward. With a malicious thought in mind, he stopped Harry's footsteps and gently stepped on his heel.

"Oh, you stepped on my heel," Harry whispered, thinking it was just a normal bump.

"I'm sorry." Loren apologized straightforwardly, but his voice sounded as if he was trying to hold back a laugh.

Then he walked forward, and Loren waited for the right moment to step on the shoe on Harry's right foot.

"Oh, again!" Harry sensed something was wrong.

"Koko," Loren couldn't help laughing, "I'm sorry."

"Oh!"

The third time, Harry felt that his entire shoe was about to be stepped on and he realized that this was intentional. He gritted his teeth and said, "Loren Morgan!"

"Isn't that right?"

Loren's apology was cut off when his heel was stepped on by Harry, "Ouch! You did that on purpose."

The two of them started stepping on each other's feet, and even Ron, who was standing next to them, was affected and his heels were lost.

The three of them started fighting, and they lowered their heads to look at the footsteps of the two people next to them, trying to step on their shoes.

There were heavy footsteps in the corridor, like the sound of someone trying to step on something and missing something.

After going up the stairs to the second floor, the three of them squatted down and put on their shoes again.

"Two against one, that's not fair, let's do it again next time." Loren was indignant. He was just caught in the middle. The two men were each targeting one shoe, while Harry and Ron were on both sides. Only one shoe was attacked.

"no next time!"

Harry fell into deep self-doubt. Why would he be addicted to this kind of game? Stepping on heels, this is too childish. After thinking for a while, he finally attributed the reason to Loren.

His voice was exhausted. “There is no game more childish than stepping on heels.”

"And stepping on other people's shadows," Ron added. After being teased by the twins for a while, he became obsessed with stepping on the twins' shadows, thinking it would teach them a lesson.

"Then let's play shadow-stepping next time." Loren is always positive about these things.

Harry said nothing, there was no way he could communicate with these two.

The three of them set out again, wearing invisibility cloaks and moving forward in the corridor on the second floor, pulling each other along.

After turning a corner, Filch suddenly appeared in front of him.

Harry and Ron's hearts stopped beating in fear. They covered their mouths, not daring to make any sound.

His thinning hair was gray and hung on both sides, and his hunchback was more obvious when he squatted. Filch was wiping a stain on the corridor wall with a rag. Scrubbing vigorously with a brush had no effect, so he used his fingernails to pick it up bit by bit, and the rag dipped in water wiped off some small black spots.

Mrs. Norris sat nearby with her front legs stretched out and her tail wrapped around her front paws, looking rather obedient.

It twitched its nose, looked left and right, and called out in the direction of Harry and the others, "Meow!"

"Is there anyone?" Filch suddenly looked in that direction.

There was only an empty corner of the corridor and nothing else to see. Filch looked around for a while, then lowered his head and continued to wipe the wall.

Mrs. Norris couldn't sit still, so she circled around Filch and called out a few more times.

Filch dried his hands on his clothes and stroked Mrs. Norris's furry head, stroking the fur all the way to the tip of her tail. "Okay, stop barking. Once I'm done with this, I'll go back and give you some canned food."

Mrs. Norris squinted her eyes comfortably, stretched her spine, and fully enjoyed the touch.

It was Filch himself who couldn't see. The cat had done enough. That was enough. Mrs. Norris sat down again.

The three men were a little surprised when they saw the gentle Filch for the first time, but they still didn't dare to move for fear of making any noise.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he couldn't even hide it from Mrs. Norris, let alone the three-headed dog. Fortunately, he didn't go directly to see Fluffy.

They huddled together and watched quietly as Filch struggled to clean the stains on the wall, then walked away with Mrs. Norris.

"He's only gentle with Mrs. Norris," Ron muttered.

Harry noticed something else and asked, "Why didn't he use Clean Up? Wasn't it because magic wasn't allowed in the corridors?"

Ron chuckled. "He might be a Squib."

"What's a Squib?"

"A Squib is a person who is born into a wizarding family but has no magic at all."

Loren explained to Harry, turning to look at Ron in confusion, "What's so funny about a Squib?"

"Well, it's not actually funny, but for Filch..." Ron covered his mouth and started laughing again.

"How do you know Filch is a Squib?"

Ron slowly recounted the dispute between Weasley and the school administrator.

His parents, Arthur and Molly, were secretly in love when they were students. They were caught by the former administrator, Filch's predecessor, Apollyon Pringle, and were severely beaten. They still have the scars from that time.

In the 70s, Filch took over Apollyon's class. He respected Apollyon very much and often regretted that he could not follow Apollyon's example and punish students physically.

The Weasleys always had special troubles with the administrators. Although Bill and Charlie had good grades, they always broke some small rules from time to time, and if they were caught by Filch they would be put in detention.

Percy was better. When the twins went to school, their family received letters from Hogwarts every month in their first year, complaining about how many school rules George and Fred had broken.

Ron was gloating over his twin brother's expulsion, but he was disappointed. Even though he broke hundreds of school rules, the twins were still able to continue going to school.

Ron then formed the idea that Hogwarts would not expel students, until he heard that Hagrid was expelled.

The twins, who were promoted to the second grade, copied the school rules dozens of times and became the most familiar people in the school. They began to compete with Filch in wits and courage, and the family received fewer letters. The twins discussed at home from time to time how to deal with Filch and the cat, and Ron heard some news.

"Why does he have to stay in Hogwarts, where it's all magic?"

Loren couldn't understand it. For a squib, every time he saw others casting spells, it was a torture. The jealousy would drive a person crazy. No wonder he had such a bad temper.

"Who knows?" Ron shrugged.

The topic stopped here and the three of them continued their night tour.

The library was dark, and they were already experienced in groping for the lights in the cabinets by the wall. Wearing an invisibility cloak and holding a lamp, in the gloomy library, a lamp was floating alone in the air.

"It's pretty scary, to be honest," Ron exclaimed.

Carefully crossing the rope that separated the restricted book area, the three of them emerged from their invisibility cloaks and looked around.

Harry wanted to find a book about the Philosopher's Stone or the three-headed dog, but Lauren and Ron were just there for a night out, so it didn't matter what book it was.

Chains extended from the bookshelf, binding some hideous tomes. When the light passed by, they struggled violently, causing the chains to rattle.

Harry and his companions quickened their pace and left the chained area. As they walked along, they saw dark stains on the covers of some books, which looked like dried blood, and were chilling.

In some books, the shrill cries of witches can be heard, sharp and subtle, echoing in the ears intermittently.

Loren and Ron watched all the way through without any particular purpose. "The Skin of the Howling Banshee" and "The Curse That Pains the Soul" were both exciting just by the names.