Chapter 343: Chapter 343: Visiting the Sick (Edited)
Harry sat there in silence on his bed, looking at the remains of his broom. He no longer remembered how the following day had passed. He only knew that Madam Pomfrey had come several times, offering him some potions and asking him to stay in the infirmary over the weekend for observation. She also tried to dispose of the broom fragments, but Harry firmly refused her request.
He knew his behavior was a bit foolish, aware that his Nimbus 2000 couldn't be fixed: Professor Flitwick had already tried, and even he couldn't repair it, so probably no one else could. But he simply couldn't part with it; just thinking about the remains of the broom slowly rotting in a trash can made his heart ache as if someone were squeezing it.
That broom wasn't just a broom; it was also his friend.
...
Fred and George exchanged glances, with complicated expressions on their faces.
"Fred, do you think that twig of wood helped Tom find Scabbers?"
"I'd prefer to believe that wood can play Quidditch," Fred said, but just as he was speaking, someone gave him a tap on the back of his head. He turned and saw their captain, Wood, glaring at them.
"Could you stop making jokes with my name? Seriously, I'm fed up with it," grumbled Wood impatiently, then pushed them aside and ran off to the bathroom, where he was going to dismantle a fuel tank. As soon as he entered the bathroom, Fred could hear Wood complaining about his name.
"I bet my Merlin's pants that Tom doesn't rely on that stick," Fred frowned confidently. "He has another hand hidden under his robe, and that's the key."
Both of them stared at the hand Tom concealed in his sleeve, lost in thought.
"Tom, wow, how did you do that? Was it divination? It's amazing, you'll surely become a seer," Ron exclaimed as he tucked Scabbers into his robe and hurried to catch up with Tom, praising his divination skills.
"I just gave it a try; it was my first time using twig divination, and it will be the last," Tom made a few wry faces, then tossed the wooden wand into the fireplace.
He was about to leave the Gryffindor common room with Hermione when Ron called to him.
"Tom, I...". He hesitated and stammered for a moment before he could finally say, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have been so impulsive... and misunderstood you."
Hermione, holding Crookshanks, accepted his apology and then followed Tom as they left the Gryffindor common room.
"Wait!" Ron seemed to remember something. "Tom... Hermione... would you like to come with me to the infirmary to see Harry? It seems like Fred and the others are also going, it will be interesting for sure... I mean, I'm sure they'll bring lots of joke items..."
Tom considered the idea for a moment and thought it sounded good. Today was Sunday, and he had plenty of free time. He looked at Hermione beside him, and seeing that she had no objections, they walked together to the infirmary.
When they entered the infirmary and opened the door to the ward, Tom saw Harry sitting on the bed, staring at the broom fragments. Ron approached his side and picked up the pieces that were piled in his lap.
Ron approached him and picked up the pieces from his lap.
"No..."
"It's okay," Ron understood what Harry meant. He neatly placed the broom fragments on the nightstand and then took a chair to sit by the bed.
Ron's arrival clearly improved Harry's mood. His eyes regained some life, and when he saw Tom and Hermione accompanying him, his lips trembled a couple of times, as if he wanted to say something.
"Feeling better, mate? That was close for you, I saw it, 15 meters! The Levitation Charm and all that didn't work..."
"I'm much better..."
"The Levitation Charm isn't very useful in that situation; you should have used the Cushioning Charm..."
The two were chatting, with Hermione occasionally chiming in.
"Harry, something important happened today," Ron said as he took Scabbers out of his pocket. "When I woke up this morning, I found out that Scabbers had disappeared. There was only a bloodstain left on the sheets. Guess what happened?"
"Tom found him using twig divination!"
Harry: ...
Peter Pettigrew: !!!
He opened his small, round eyes wide and stared at Tom. "So, you're the one who brought Ron here? You little brat, you're looking for trouble again!"
Huh? Why did I say "again"?
Peter Pettigrew was someone resilient to adversity and showed no difference from an ordinary mouse in front of Tom, who had ruined his plans.
"Twig divination?" Harry was confused.
Seeing that Harry had never heard of this magical form of divination, Ron excitedly began to explain it to him. Tom listened attentively for a moment and thought that after Ron graduated, he could definitely become rich as a novel writer and lift the Weasley family out of poverty.
Soon, people coming to visit Harry began to arrive gradually.
After sitting here for a while, Tom realized that there really was an endless stream of people coming to see Harry. Shortly after he and Ron arrived, Wood showed up with a group of players from the Gryffindor team.
Wood stood in front of Harry's bed and consoled him in a dry tone. He seemed to want to tell Harry that losing the match wasn't his fault, but his sincerity didn't even compare to the customer service messages of chat applications.
While Wood was having an awkward conversation, Fred and George approached Tom from both sides, surrounding him.
"Tom, tell us how you found Scabbers. Don't come up with nonsense about twig divination; we're not as stupid as Ron."
"An alchemical artifact," Tom shrugged and told the Weasley brothers about the tracking parchment.
"Great! I think we could try making a similar product, a parchment that can locate all sorts of things. What do you think, George?"
"Why not just use the Accio spell?" George rolled his eyes unable to contain himself.
"We'll talk about that later; in summary, the problem is solved." Fred's doubt was dispelled this way. He smiled happily and left a bag full of joke toys by Harry's bed, joining the conversation.
The Gryffindor team chatted for a while and also left the room.
Shortly after Wood left, Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, appeared at the door. She looked around, seeming a bit suspicious.
After hovering outside the door for a while, she finally gathered enough courage and rushed in, her face completely red. She handed Harry a homemade get-well card and without saying another word, rushed out with her head down.
"I bet she likes Harry," Hermione whispered to Tom's ear when Ginny left, low and almost inaudible. "Harry is lucky; that girl will be beautiful when she grows up."
The warm breath that came out of Hermione's lips made Tom's ear tickle. He flinched.
"You're quite sensitive," Hermione said with a smile, blowing a little air into his ear.
At that moment, the door opened again, and Hermione quickly sat in a proper position as if nothing had happened.
This time it was Hagrid who entered, carrying a bouquet of flowers resembling a earthworm, with intertwined stems and leaves, looking like yellow kale. After several days without seeing each other, Hagrid seemed much worse. His face bore an unerasable tiredness, as if he had been staying up all the time. His already messy beard and hair tangled, merging into one.
"Hagrid, how's Buckbeak's case going?" Harry asked Hagrid about the progress of his trial.
"Oh, it's going fine, don't you worry about that, just get well," Hagrid said with a slight shadow of sadness in his expression, then tried to cheer him up with some loose words and prepared to leave in a hurry.
"Hagrid," Tom called to Hagrid, "maybe Professor Dumbledore and Professor Scamander can help you...".
"Professor Dumbledore already has enough on his plate, and as for Newt Scamander, I'll go look for him myself," Hagrid sighed before turning around and leaving hastily.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew cold.
The letter Ginny had sent suddenly began to sing at the top of its lungs, and no matter how much they tried to silence it, so Harry quickly found a fruit bowl and snapped it shut to make the sound less harsh.
"Hagrid is going through a very tough time. I saw him not long ago searching for books related to magical creature laws in the library. Frankly, I don't think he has much chance in a legal showdown against Lucius. The Malfoys are experts at playing within the rules..." Interrupted by the card, the air in the room returned to normal, and Ron began to voice his opinion.
"It's all Malfoy's fault!" Hermione was well aware of the details of the Buckbeak incident, so she sympathized with Hagrid emotionally.
"We know it's Malfoy's fault, but that doesn't change the final outcome." Ron, frustrated, waved his hand in the air. He felt bad about it too. After seeing Hagrid's fake smile, he even felt like entering the Slytherin common room and hitting Malfoy's nasty face. He was sure Malfoy was rejoicing over Buckbeak's death.
At that moment, Harry, on the bed, spoke.
"Ron, I want to be alone for a moment." As soon as Harry spoke, Ron fell silent.
"I want to talk to Tom alone." After a brief silence, Harry looked at the two people who seemed somewhat unnecessary in the room.
Hermione and Ron: So, are we leaving?
"Let me talk to Harry alone." Tom thought for a moment and opened the room's door for the two to leave.
Hermione: !!!
Though she was surprised, she complied and left, raising her fist as a warning to Tom.
"So you want to talk about the 'Grim' with me, don't you?" When they left the room, Tom said to Harry with his back turned.
"Did you want to talk about the 'Grim'?" Tom said as they left the room, his back to Harry.
Harry was stunned, surprised that Tom had guessed directly what he was thinking.
Can he read minds? Harry thought to himself.
Indeed, he did want to talk to Tom about the 'Grim,' because there was no one else he could discuss it with. Although many people had visited him that day, they failed to make him feel better since they only knew half of his concerns. He knew that mentioning the 'Grim' to others would only lead to panic or mockery.
But Harry's instinct told him that Tom might have a different perspective. In the end, curiosity led him to stay with Tom and talk to him.
"Tom..."
"Did you see the 'Grim' yesterday during the match?" Tom asked, causing Harry's words to get stuck in his throat, and he could only nod silently.
"I saw it too."
"So, you saw it too...?" Harry raised his head instantly; Tom's news was too shocking. He had thought he was the only one who could see the 'Grim.'
"Look, I'm still safe and sound. The 'Grim' hasn't done anything to me," Tom shrugged. The prophecy Professor Trelawney made while he was conscious was not reliable at all. It's true that Harry was pursued by a large black dog, but that dog is the last person in this world who could hurt him.
Harry wanted to ask something more, but Tom beat him to a question.
"Harry, what do you think about Divination?"
Harry remained silent for a moment and replied cautiously, "Divination is a field of study that reveals the future in various ways, right?"
Although many Gryffindor students considered Divination a subject associated with charlatans, deep down, Harry still believed in it a little.
"I think Divination is the art of glimpsing a fragment of the future. What we see is only an extremely limited part of the future. Have you ever tried a starfruit?"
"Eh? No, I haven't tried one."
"Here's one," Tom said, taking a starfruit from a fruit basket that someone had sent. The basket was quite full, with all sorts of fruits, even a small watermelon and a pineapple.
"Look, on the front of the starfruit, there are stars, but on the side, it looks like this," Tom said, showing the starfruit. "It's like what we observe from the future. Professor Trelawney is an exceptional seer; she didn't make a mistake, but what she sees is not the complete future." Tom tossed the starfruit to Harry.
"Limited..." Harry muttered as he observed the starfruit in his hand. Before he could ponder further, he heard a commotion outside the door, mixed with phrases like "Catch that beast!" and "Stay away from me!"
It was Ron's voice.
It seems Hermione couldn't stop Crookshanks after all.
Tom swung the door open and saw Hermione holding Crookshanks, who was struggling relentlessly, outside the room. Ron was sitting in a corner, holding Scabbers, who was squealing.
"Indeed, that cat is just as crazy!" Ron exclaimed as he rushed into the room with Scabbers, trying to keep as far away as possible from Hermione and her Crookshanks.
"Do you have any more questions? If not, we'll be going," Tom asked Harry, who was semi-lying on the bed with a starfruit in his hand.
Chapter 344: Chapter 344: Buckbeak (Edited)
Harry remained silent for a moment, "I heard you successfully conjured a corporeal Patronus. Could you tell me the trick?"
His attitude was like that of a struggling student in the classroom, who had failed along with another lagging student yesterday, but suddenly that boy scored a perfect grade in the exam. Naturally, Harry was curious about how Tom achieved it.
Tom scratched his head from behind, "How did I do it? The truth is, I've always been able to conjure a corporeal Patronus..."
In other words, the boy who failed alongside you simply forgot to mark the answers on the answer sheet...
This truth was too cruel for Harry, so Tom chose to tell a white lie.
"Find something happy in your mind, and then practice more."
With that nonsense thrown out, Tom flew away.
Leaving Harry and Ron there to reflect slowly.
"How about we take a walk by the Black Lake?" After leaving the school hospital, Hermione suggested voluntarily. She thought that staying in the common room or library all the time would decrease efficiency, so it would be better to go for a walk, which would help improve efficiency.
Often, distress and frustration are caused by a lack of physical activity. Just by taking a walk outside and letting the cold air enter your lungs and chest, all negative feelings will dissipate.
"However, you'll have to wait for me while I return to my room." Hermione adjusted her clothes, "This outfit is really uncomfortable to wear."
Of course, Tom had no objections.
They arrived at the Ravenclaw Tower and rang the doorbell.
The eagle-shaped doorbell asked the usual question, "What is a nose without a body?"
"No one knows." Tom pushed the door of the tower open: "I'll be waiting outside."
Hermione entered the common room. She was somewhat bewildered by Tom's decision to stay outside; at first, she thought Tom just wanted to get some fresh air, but soon she understood the reason.
Once inside the common room, all the young wizards who were busy with their tasks stopped working and stared at Hermione.
Hermione: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
Suddenly, she understood the reason: yesterday, she had attracted a lot of attention, so it was normal for everyone to watch her. So she hurriedly entered her own room before her roommates surrounded her.
But once inside the room, she realized it was like going from the tiger's mouth to the wolf's den; her "roommates" were already waiting for her.
"Hermione Jean Granger," Sue Li quickly approached her, blocking her escape route, "Could you tell us where you were last night?"
The other girls approached, surrounding Hermione.
Hermione's eyes darted, "I got drenched in the rain, and I was getting cold, so I went to get a warming potion from Madam Pomfrey, and then she left me in the school hospital for observation overnight... You know, Madam Pomfrey is very kind, sometimes even too kind..."
Hermione felt that at that moment, she was like a television actress, and she was sure her facial expression must be very stiff; her acting skills were definitely of low quality.
"That makes sense." Sue Li spoke with a dignified expression, like a judge.
"However, according to the testimony of witness number one, Padma Patil, after the Quidditch match ended, you didn't immediately leave the field. So, Miss Granger, can you explain why, if you were soaked by the rain, you didn't quickly return to the castle and instead stayed in the same place?"
Hermione: ???
"Witness number one?" She thought that this group of girls was prepared today, and it would be hard for her to get through smoothly.
But Hermione was not one to give up easily. The pressure from her roommates was awakening her competitive spirit, so she maintained her composure and claimed she was freezing.
"So someone took you back, right?" The girls present had starry eyes.
"Yes, Tom took me to the school hospital."
"Wow!" Hermione's roommates erupted in a wave of joyful exclamations.
"So, he spent the night with you in the school hospital?"
"Did he really spend the night in the school hospital?"
"Where did he sleep?"
The girls asked.
"Did anything happen between you?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked with a gossipy and nervous air.
Hermione remembered the "wild kitten" outfit and felt a strange sensation, but quickly composed herself.
"Nothing happened at all, we were in the school hospital!"
Sue Li frowned, feeling that things weren't so simple. She thought this matter required further investigation. And she, Hogwarts' famous love detective, Sue Li, would be the one to uncover the truth behind the hazy relationship between Tom and Hermione.
She approached Hermione and sniffed her scent gently. "This is the smell of a lie..."
Hermione: ???
"What are you saying? I don't understand..." She felt a little guilty.
Sue Li squinted her eyes.
"In any case, give me some space; I need to change my clothes." Hermione pushed her friends aside and rushed to her wardrobe, opening it and her trunk, starting to search and select.
This successfully drew her roommates' attention away from where Hermione had been the night before, and they began helping her coordinate her clothing.
"How about red? With a yellow scarf, you'll look beautiful."
"If you wear red, I think you also need to wear that purple skirt to make it perfect, even though it's a bit cold now..."
"And what if it's cold?!"
While the girls discussed animatedly, Hermione found a gray woolen skirt. The skirt was long and covered her knees; it looked very warm. Under the skirt, there was also a scarf of the same tone and a light gray knit coat. Additionally, she pulled out a pair of brown boots from under the bed.
This outfit stood out for keeping warm.
"Our Hermione doesn't need clothes to stand out; even if she wears a burlap sack, she's still beautiful, and if Yodel dares to say anything bad, I'll rip his mouth off!"
"Our Miss Granger definitely can't..."
Hermione was already accustomed to her friends. She changed her clothes, but before leaving the common room, her friends stopped her.
"Merlin, have mercy! Aren't you going to put on makeup?" They pressured her into a chair and did her eyebrows, foundation, and eyeliner.
"Use this color; you'll look pale but not overdone."
"This is how you should draw your eyebrows to make them look longer..."
"Where's the eyeliner?"
...
When Hermione left the common room again, she looked completely different.
"Sorry for the wait," she said with her head down, rushing up to Tom, feeling a bit embarrassed. She knew she had kept Tom waiting outside for a long time.
"It's okay; I went down to get two breakfasts." Tom showed Hermione the kraft paper bag he was carrying in his hand.
"You also put on makeup," he noticed the sophisticated makeup on Hermione's face. He thought it must have taken a lot of time and effort to achieve that makeup.
"Yes," Hermione lowered her head, surprised: Weren't boys supposed to be unable to tell if a girl was wearing makeup or not, as long as she didn't wear lipstick or blush? Why did it seem like Tom somehow noticed?
"You look very nice."
"...thank you."
The two of them walked down the stairs, crossed the castle courtyard, and exited through the back door of Hogwarts. Not far away were the greenhouses and the school orchard. Professor Sprout cultivated many teaching plants and common vegetables there.
"Do you want some cherries?" Tom opened the kraft paper bag and took out a smaller one filled with thumbnail-sized purple cherries.
Hogwarts' orchard and garden were enchanted to produce a variety of fruits and vegetables, regardless of the weather. Like these cherries, they usually ripened in May or June, so it wasn't easy to get fresh cherries in this autumn season.
But at Hogwarts, there were always freshly picked cherries.
"Have some!" Hermione approached, her hands crossed over her chest as she peered over, eagerly eyeing the cherries in the bag. Then, she reached in and plucked several cherries that looked delicious.
"They're very sweet!" Hermione praised. "I'll test you. What kind of cherry do you think these are? If you guess correctly, you'll get a reward."
Tom: Eh?
"There are four types of cherries: cherry, sweet cherry, sour cherry, and wild cherry," Hermione informed Tom as she ate the cherries. "Think it over; it's not difficult."
"Um, sweet cherry?"
"Correct!" Hermione snapped her fingers. "How did you guess?"
"We're in Europe, and it's very sweet..."
Hermione: ...
"Alright, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Remember, the fruit of the sweet cherry is nearly spherical or oval, ranging from red to dark purple, with a diameter of 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters."
Tom nodded obediently.
"Here's your reward." Hermione took a cherry, gestured to Tom, and then, in the instant he turned away, brought it to her mouth and fed it to him.
It was like a round ball making its way between Tom's lips, delivered by a little trickster. Before Tom could react, the little trickster had already completed its mission and run off.
"Mmm..." Tom swallowed the sweet and juicy cherry and was about to say something, but he was interrupted by the crunchy sounds coming from the nearby orchard.
He looked towards the sound and spotted a beige-colored rabbit.
"Bunny!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly and threw a cherry towards the rabbit from the bag.
The rabbit jumped in fright, almost running away, but upon seeing that the two people weren't approaching and that there was another cherry in front of it, it crouched down again.
After a few seconds, it realized there was no danger and cautiously approached the cherry. It opened its mouth and snapped the stem of the cherry with a click, swallowed it, and began to chew with delight.
Watching the rabbit eagerly munch on the cherry, Hermione blinked: It seems the rabbit interprets cherries differently than we do?
"Maybe it's grinding its teeth," Tom speculated.
They couldn't know what the rabbit was thinking. After finishing chewing the cherry stem, the rabbit hopped away.
After playing with the rabbit for a while, Tom and Hermione continued to walk through the orchard.
"Look, Hagrid's pumpkin patch has something!" Hermione pointed towards the pumpkin patch in the distance. Tom looked in that direction and immediately saw the huge creature that was crouched at the edge of the field. It had the body, hind legs, and tail of a horse, but the front legs, head, and wings of an eagle.
It was the hippogriff Buckbeak, a magical creature with an eagle's head, a horse's body, and wings.
When Buckbeak saw Tom and Hermione approaching, it went on alert, fixing its large orange eyes on the two people. Its steel beak gleamed with a cold glint, and its half-foot-long talons scratched the ground, leaving deep marks.
Fortunately, it was tethered with a thick chain around its neck, securely fastened to a wooden post, which confined it to a specific area.
"Tom, be careful," Hermione said with concern as she grabbed his sleeve. Although Malfoy deserved it, after all, it was an animal that had injured people. You never know if its predatory instinct will return...
Hermione shuddered at the sight of the sharp claws of the hippogriff.
Tom looked into Buckbeak's orange eyes and faced it directly, bowing in reverence to him. Buckbeak gave Tom a couple of glances and then bent its scaly knees into a standard bow.
"We did it," Tom signaled to Hermione to do the same. Buckbeak responded once more, though this time it seemed somewhat impatient, bending its knees somewhat hastily.
One on each side, they gently stroked Buckbeak's beak, making it close its eyes comfortably. It seemed to enjoy this treatment since it was hard to touch its beak from its position.
"Hey!" Suddenly, a panicked cry startled them. Tom raised his head and saw Hagrid running towards them like a tank, abruptly stopping a few meters away once he understood the situation.
Buckbeak emitted a grunt of displeasure towards Hagrid, who quickly came to a halt.
"How did you get here? I mean... well, I didn't expect you to get along with him so well..." Hagrid calmed down upon seeing Tom and Hermione were safe. He was really scared, fearing that Buckbeak might hurt someone again.
"Well, since you're here, why don't you come in for a cup of tea?" Hagrid unhooked a furry and undefined creature from the nearby fence and threw it to Buckbeak.
With a bone-crunching sound, Tom and Hermione entered Hagrid's cabin. As soon as they entered, Tom caught a strong scent of coffee.
"Take a seat wherever you like." Hagrid invited them to sit down as he took out two teacup-sized bowls from a cupboard and grabbed a teapot steaming on the stove.
"Tea?"
"Coffee, please."
In the morning, coffee would be perfect.
Tom placed the paper bag containing breakfast on the table and watched Hagrid prepare the coffee.
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