"You're talking about the same thing." Ginny judged, shaking her hair - which looked like a bright wispy flame - and counted on her fingers to conclude, "Try to get the trophy earlier - or grab it from someone else, and then stay mobile - " she cocked her head towards Hermione, "looking for teammates while being careful not to be ambushed, and avoiding traps and dangerous creatures in the maze itself -"
Ron nodded solemnly from the sidelines, indicating that that was exactly what he was thinking.
"-and the last part," Ginny's eyes lingered on Harry, "as time stretches on all the champions will get closer and closer to the trophy, it's likely you'll run into a new enemy before you get more than a few steps out, so it's necessary to deal with the opponent in a quick and clean manner!"
She gestured with a fierce gesture, and Harry thought she looked cool today.
"Actually, we can also rely on luck to advance through the maze," Ron suggested seriously, "we have to consider the best-case scenario to happen, haven't you forgotten? We're the first ones to enter the maze, and if we're lucky enough, we don't have to meet up with the rest at all ..."
...
They discussed in the corner throughout the day, and in the evening Professor McGonagall made a rare appearance in the common room, calling Harry and Ron out, leaving an unsure Hermione and Ginny behind. They didn't come back until almost lights out, with a look of unconcealed joy on their faces.
"What did Professor McGonagall say to you guys?" Hermione looked up from her pile of thick documents, her eyes listless as she looked at the empty space between Harry and Ron, as she had spent quite a bit of time going over the rules again.
"It's about Dark Force Defence League," Harry said excitedly, handing over a certificate, Hermione and Ginny came over to look at it, and Ginny let out a short squeal, "You've become an official member of the Dark Force Defence League? Harry, is this true?"
"And me too." Ron reminded her.
But Ginny ignored him and said to Harry, "Do you know what that means?"
"It means that, um ... I've joined a wizard organization?" Harry replied hesitantly.
"No, of course not!" Ginny's flaming hair began to jump again, "Look, it's a formal member, not an honorary one! There's a difference here -"
"Wait, I kind of remember ..." Ron meditated, "I think someone mentioned THIS to me many times."
"It was Lockhart." Hermione, as always, is reliable.
"That's right! He said he is an honorary member of the Dark Force Defence League, not an official member ... What does that mean?" Ron stared at his certificate as if trying to get a perfect explanation from it.
" Official members need to be tested or contribute a great deal, preferably the kind that can be generalized." Ginny knew a little more about this than Ron did, "I guess Lockhart refuses to show what he can do because he doesn't have any such thing!"
Delighted, Harry revealed more information, "The Dark Force Defence League people told me that if I ever planned to pursue an Auror or similar career, they would write me a letter of recommendation, even if I lacked an O.W.Ls certificate or two-"
"But you guys wouldn't throw in the towel, right?" Hermione looked at him sternly.
"Yeah." Harry said against his will, feeling good about using the promise of the Dark Force Defence League as a form of assurance.
"The only shame is, that Malfoy got the honour too," Ron said, "How ironic, isn't it? At the Quidditch World Cup riot, he even hinted to us that his dad was involved in the riot."
"How come Professor Hap didn't catch him in the act!"
After a while, Ginny yawned gracefully and went back to bed in the girls' dormitory.
Harry and Ron looked over the certificate with joy, stroking the patterns and seals on it, no matter how many times they looked at it, they still liked it very much, and as they lay in bed after lights out, Ron said to Harry, "I think it would be good to be an Auror." Neville listened half-heartedly for a while and couldn't resist joining in, "Actually, uh, I'd like to be an Auror too," he said, "and of course, a professor sounds good too."
Harry was surprised to find that three people in their dormitory wanted to become Aurors, and soon Seamus and Dean joined in the discussion, so they didn't sleep until the second half of the night.
Half-asleep, Harry imagined himself as an Auror: Ron and Hermione with him, accompanied by Neville, Seamus, and Dean; and to his surprise, Luna, Ginny, and Draco Malfoy were also in the crowd.
Malfoy? Even in his dream, Harry felt outrageous. He murmured disgruntledly, and soon these images disappeared, and he found himself standing in an old room, which seemed to smell similar to the room in Grimmauld Place, although it certainly isn't the same place.
He seated on a couch and spoke to someone: "Well done, Yaxley, you've proven your loyalty again ..."
Harry rolled over, his Occlumency kicked in, and he slipped back into a sweet dream.
...
As June arrived, time began to quietly accelerate. After the fifth and seventh-year wizarding level exams were over, the final exams for the other grades officially began. This also meant that the third task is approaching - the competition will take place on the last night of the exams.
The atmosphere in the castle became tense and intense, and after the third day of the Ancient Rune exam, Felix heard one student say to his peers, "If we just make it through the remaining four days, we can watch the last game, and have a crazy fun for a week to welcome the long and wonderful summer holidays!"
He couldn't agree more with this student's words.
He had a great time throughout the first two-thirds of June, and his body's transformation process is mostly complete - although he doesn't see any purpose for it yet, there are no hindrances, which means everything is going well.
The next morning, June 21, while he supervised the fourth-year exams, although the Champions are permitted to be exempted from the final exams, Hermione still insisted on answering the papers for twenty minutes before looking up the journal to deduce the time-turner disassembly project developed by Nicolas Flamel, and judging from her recent queries, Felix judged that she should be able to finish before the end of the school year.
But what he didn't expect is that Hermione handed him a paper the same day the exam ended.
"Professor, this is the plan I designed. Some changes are made based on Nicolas Flamel's research. It's a more tedious procedure, but it also allows me to avoid advanced alchemical procedures."
"I don't see any problems, very clever transitions, especially suitable for your magical characteristics, Miss Granger." Felix said after a closer inspection.
Hermione left the office satisfied.
Before he went to bed, an owl landed outside the window and repeatedly pecked at the window edge with its beak.
After Felix opened the window, the brown owl strapped with an owl post office anklet circled the room for a while and dropped a palm-sized package before flying away without looking back.
A small box contained a thumb-sized glass vial inside. Felix held up the clear vial in front of the magic lamp on the ceiling and gazed at it for a moment; inside the vial is some silvery substance, hovering slowly, neither solid nor liquid.
It is a memory.
Whose memory could it be? Felix's lips curled slightly, he got intrigued by the owner of the memory.
Felix flicked his wand on the cork of the bottle, and the sealed stopper immediately popped open. The black jade-like wand turned slightly in his hand, twisting the silver thread around the tip of the wand, then he threw it towards the midair with force, and a picture appeared very abruptly.
The person in the picture - Felix's body knocked apart in the sky amidst a green light, at the same time, an icy voice resounded in the office for a while -
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Kee!" Valen froze in fear, and after a few seconds of being dazed, she jumped fiercely into Felix's arms, covering her eyes up and clutching the clothes on his chest with her two small hands.
"It's okay," Felix whispered soothingly, gazing at the fading bright light, catching the memory that reverted back to a silver thread in his hand, his fingertips twirling it as he pondered.
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