26

Eli had never known a holiday so long as this Christmas. It was not a fun experience to spend several weeks in the hospital. So much had happened in those few weeks that had a profound effect on him.

His estranged ancestral family suddenly appeared and wounded his non-magical father; His father spent weeks in hospital, a testament to Muggle helplessness in the face of wizards; The family officially moved house on the penultimate day of the holiday, hastily choosing an address. It was a wizarding settlement in Durham County, where about a third of the residents were witches. It wasn't a huge number, but at least there was someone to watch, and the next time a Death Eater descended on us, at least there were neighbors who knew what was going on, who could help and spread the word.

It was a very quick move, and Mr. Smith had not even left the hospital, but Mrs. Smith was very upset, and it was difficult for her to explain the seriousness of the situation to her husband. Although Mr. Smith understood that the wizarding world was at war, he had no memory of the Imperius Curse, and did not really know how deadly his ordeal had been. That might be a lucky thing for him as a Muggle.

Eli fully understood his mother's concern, and on the day of the move he helped her clean up all the items in the house. Then Mrs. Smith packed them up and put them away for the movers. It was a difficult project. The family had lived here for more than a decade, longer than Eli, and when everything was put in its place, it felt like it would never have to change its place again.

And now they have to start all over again in a strange home, as if a happy ending drama has been forced into a new life.

It's not that Eli doesn't understand that the only thing left here is the house, and the family is the most important part of a family. It's a rare blessing that no one is missing in this family of three. But man is not a machine, and he can control all his feelings rationally and precisely. Both he and Mrs. Smith are experiencing an endless pain. This incident did not bring irreversible harm to Mr. Smith, but eventually left an unforgettable wound to both of them.

Fortunately, their family had enough money to buy a new house. They did not need to sell the old house for turnover. All the big furniture was still there, and they could come back to have a look whenever they wanted.

He did not know how to describe the feeling, perhaps the indignation of being forced to do it, or the depression of having done it. In the end, he began to enjoy himself, taking a series of family memories at home and sending them to Penny.

When he moved, he had a new address, and of course he had to give Petunia a copy of it -- perhaps it was because some words came out in an attempt to conceal them, and the expression of his emotions was not as specific as writing down each word carefully.

He took pictures of the ugly graffiti he had secretly left in a corner when he was five years old, and told Penny that his mother had put a protective spell on it to mock his ugly style, keeping the minimalist graffiti to this day. He was too small to lift his legs off the ground, so Mrs. Smith pretended to hold a broom in one hand and actually let him fly by himself. This must have limited his instinct for galloping on a broom -- causing him to grow up to fly slowly too, often overtaking owls as he rode in midair.

I'm sorry I haven't invited you to my house yet. He wrote to Petunia: "From my third-floor balcony, looking out at the castle and the mountains in the distance, and the clouds and clouds in the sky, I wish you could see them."

In the evening, he went to the balcony of his bedroom on the third floor, took a camera to take pictures of the burning sunset clouds and put the frozen memories in an envelope.

By the time he heard from Petunia, it was after he had returned to Hogwarts. With everything that had happened over the holidays, the memory of that phone call in the common room seemed like a long time ago to Eli. But in reality, school is exactly the same. Everything is exactly the same as it was before the holidays. If your school has a history of thousands of years, it is inevitable that the personal waves are but a drop in the history of this ancient castle.

Along with Petunia's letter, there was a very thick letter from Arthur, full of ideas and sketches for magical defences. He read both letters so intently that he forgot to eat his breakfast, and Remus sat next to him. Lupin, noticing his bustle, picked up a piece of toast, slathered it with peanut butter, and held it out to him.

"Still have something to eat." "Breakfast time is almost over," he said.

Oh, thank you. Eli recovered, took the toast and thanked him. When their eyes met, he looked at Lupin and frowned anxiously.

"You look worse and worse, Remus." He looked at him carefully, his eyes wandering over his pale, almost bloodless face. "You asked for leave again the other day, didn't you? Have you ever been to St Mungo's? The disease so frequently must not be ignored, easy to drag a minor illness into a serious disease."

good Lupin paused and nodded in response. As Eli tucked the letter away and began to eat his thick slice of toast, Lupin's eyes lingered on the side of his face for a few seconds, then drew them away silently, with an involuntary hint of melancholy.

Sirius and Jaime, sitting next to them, looked at each other, their faces very serious. Peter buried his head behind the cereal bowl. No one looked at him in his watery eyes, as if he thought he could avoid all problems by burying himself in his meal.

After breakfast, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff headed off to Herbology, where they were going to give a very noisy ball to the mandrakes growing in the greenhouse. When Eli met Professor Sprout, he asked her alone if the seed he had given Petunia could be kept in the Muggle world. Professor Sprout told him that he had no problem, but that the Muggles had to be careful not to notice that its leaves moved.

That shouldn't matter. Eli was relieved to turn his attention back to the plants he was dealing with today.

Sadly, this ordinary thing seems to be especially difficult today -- each one of the Mandrakes is better at screaming than the other, and as they gather in excitement to party, even with their thick earmuffs, three or four of the students are knocked unconscious on the spot.

Besides, the gaze from behind was not easy. Eli looked over his shoulder more than once, and each time he found himself nearly melting under the focused eyes of the guys behind him, whether they were looking at him, or at Lupin in his group, or at the particularly ugly and yucky Mandela plant in front of them. Eli put up with them for the whole lesson, and finally, after removing his earmuffs, he found an opportunity to ask a puzzled question.

"What were you watching in class?" "I almost thought you were going to see a hole in my back," he said, rather puzzled.

Lupin looked quizzically at his three friends, too. They all looked at each other, their faces still slightly serious.

It came down to Jaime, who waved his hand, put it on Eli's shoulder and led him forward. "A little problem, man, don't mind... Why are you suddenly standing still, Remus?"

Lupin stopped dead in his tracks: he looked at his three friends, shock and panic creeping into his face, his pale face now taking on an unnatural, grey colour, his lips quivering, his eyes suddenly full of fear, and he could not utter a word.

The air around us was quiet for a while, and the sky was full of snow, perhaps this year's Hogwarts last snow, not very big, a few people's faces have a clear look, but also in the snow with a vague fuzzy distant.

With barely a moment's hesitation, James let go of Eli, turned, and took Lupin by the hand.

"What are you doing in this cold weather, Remus?" "He said lightly, as if nothing had happened, pulling him two steps forward." Let's hurry back to the dormitory -- I'm freezing to death. I should have heard you say that this morning.

Lupin's mouth was half open, his eyes slightly evasive. At James's words, he seemed to come alive at last. He stared uncertainly at him for a few seconds, then slowly turned his head to Sirius and Peter.

Peter averted his eyes from looking at him. Sirius, who had been watching their reactions, was suddenly distracted: opposite them, the Slytherins and Ravenclaws were coming out in droves. Their next lesson was Herbology, and, as they had done, they were going on to the second-half party with the Mandrakes.

At the end of his line of sight, Regulus walked among a group of Slattering students. They gathered round him, talking and laughing, and the atmosphere was very cordial. Regulus did not join in much of their lively conversation, but he walked calmly and deliberately, apparently unburdened by the burden of being the center of his classmates.

Sensing that someone was watching him, Regulus raised his gaze. The brothers' eyes met briefly in midair, and Regulus, with a simple nod to Sirius, walked past them.

Several Slytherins glanced furtively back after they had passed. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and size, with palpable superiority and pity. A small jeer broke out from the crowd and faded away in the wind.

Sirius looked away without a word, noticed Lupin looking at him and briefly tugged at the corner of his lip.

"Go back." 'You should have stuck to your guns in the morning, Remus. James won't be mad at you, you're one of his best friends, are you? Friends are always more in tune with each other than relatives. People choose to be friends by choice, not by blood. Look at my brother. I must say, I think you're much better than him."

The colour on Remus's face became natural at last, and he smiled at Sirius without commenting on his words. They walked together toward the main building. After a few steps, they noticed that someone had not followed them.

"Eli? James turned to look at him in surprise. "Hey, how old are you that I need to walk around on your shoulders?"

"I'll stay out a little longer." Eli looked back from the Slattering students in the distance and gave them a lip tug, in short.

Sirius's dark gray pupils were staring at him, and Eli suspected that he knew what he was going through over Christmas, but they didn't talk about it, and perhaps both still felt slightly at ease with the other's second cousin status.

All right. James shrugged and moved on with his friends; Sirius looked back and followed. Eli watched their backs disappear into the snow, turned a corner, and headed for the corner of the modest corridor not far away.

By coincidence, he had just looked over his shoulder and seen the man standing there, which made him feel compelled to come and meet him.

"Headmaster Dumbledore," said Dumbledore. He walked over and greeted him politely. "What are you doing here? Am I disturbing you?"

"I've just come back from outside the school, where you can't disapparate, so of course I'm going back down this corridor to the castle." "And five minutes ago, I found Hogwarts in the snow to be a beautiful place. I am delighted that, after more than a hundred years at this school, I still have such a genuine love and appreciation for it."

Yes, it's really beautiful here. Eli smiled and stood next to Dumbledore, looking at the snowy castle with him for a while, blanketed in snow that made it look even more like a Muggle-imagined wonderland.

"It's such a beautiful place, such a magical wonderland, and yet people can do bad things in a world like this." Eli sighed slightly. "Magic can do a lot of good, but now even my Muggle friends are constantly worried that I'm in danger."

"People are complex animals, light and dark go hand in hand, and good and evil never exist in isolation." "And the reason we are trying is so that more people here can feel the magic, rather than the cruelty of unprotected life. Magic is supposed to be beautiful."

Eli thought about it, nodded, and said, "That makes sense."

"Do you have a magic camera, Headmaster?" "He asked suddenly, raising his hand and scratching his face." I've heard you need a magic potion to make the picture move, but I haven't had time to research it yet."

"What a coincidence, I have it, and I put it very close to here." "Said Dumbledore, waving his wand; the window of the headmaster's office on the eighth floor opened and the camera flew lightly down from above." What is it, Eli?"

"Take a picture of my friend." "I want her to know... After all, it's still very much to like, so I'm going to do what I can."

That's a good idea. Dumbledore raised his camera. Eli looked at him, withdrew his eyes, and waved his wand.

From the tip of his staff came thin lines, which lingered in midair, and he wrote them into letters. Petunia Evans's name shone softly through the fine snow at Hogwarts, and the camera's shutter flickered faithfully.

"Magic is amazing." Eli put away his wand, feeling heartily.

"Yeah." 'said Dumbledore gently, smiling.' And the only thing more magical than magic is the wizard who was given this magical gift. When he's determined to do something about it, the whole world shines because of him."