After the holidays, things went back to normal at school. The day I came back it was snowing, and the temperature was so low that even when I was wrapped in the thickest cotton clothes, I could feel the cold water vapor soaking through my bones. Even when I moved, I could hear the sound of the ground ice between my joints.
The snow had almost buried Hogwarts, and only the deep green of the Forbidden Forest stood out against the cold dark grey sky. The overwhelming density of the pale threatened to overwhelm the ancient castle.
The school of Magic in the middle of winter was as white as a clean, gentle dream.
Since Aurora received the Potions class notes at Christmas, she has finally escaped the tragic fate of the polarization between theory and practice, and evolved from a master of trampling to the state she is most satisfied with, neither good nor bad.
In contrast to Aurora's relief, Salazar was unsparing in his vitriol when he learned that even with the student notes of the fabled "youngest Potions master," Aurora struggled to make it out of the line.
Fortunately, Aurora's state of mind is very good, plus this will be nearly half a year to get along with her already used to Salazar's sharp. Otherwise, with the way the founder talks, the confidence of the average little girl can be crushed into molecules.
A new semester begins. Aurora had worked hard to learn Potions once she realized that she was finally free from tramps, hoping to maintain a sense of security all the way to her end-of-year exams.
But Aurora's weakness in potion-making limited her training on the field. If she wields a cauldron in the library, the next thing you know, Madame Pince will be feeding her fish in the black lake.
This problem puzzled her for several days, until Beverly showed her the right way -- Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor of the castle.
When she heard the suggestion, she stood in awe of Beverly. Bill and Vox, however, thought it was a good idea and raised their hands in favour.
"In fact, it's a perfect place to take refuge, apart from potions." "If you're cornered, you'll be saved by hiding in Myrtle's bathroom. Enemy combatants can only hold for a while and then give up."
Aurora finished the last bite of her sandwich and looked at each other strangely. "... Don't tell me you were in there. Myrtle doesn't sound like a boy at all."
"Actually, I wasn't the only one going in." Bill put his hand on the shoulder of Vox, who was pretending to look up at the sky, and hugged him toward him, squeezing his fingers a little harder. "On Halloween this year, not long ago. You and Professor Snape went to the Forest the other day, and I must say, you dodged a bullet. You have no idea how terrible the battle was that night."
"They all hid in the women's room. Is it hard to imagine how terrible it was?" Beverly answered with an understatement. "It was an accident. I just couldn't see straight and that's why I went in."
"I understand. It's the human instinct to want to live." Beverly's face remained expressionless, her dark brown eyes undisturbed. Volquez felt as if a sword had been thrust through his heart and into his kidney.
So the school is really a scientific reason can be examined, the same college of people, the way of speaking like a formula box out of the same. The only difference is one of degree.
If Beverly was still a little snake, then Snape was probably an invulnerable python. As for Salazar, he conflicts with the definition of human and is not part of the study.
Since the other three agreed, Aurora was skeptical and decided to go with them to the women's room where no one had ever dared to go. The team of four raised a lot of eyebrows along the way, probably the most harmonious Slytherin and Gryffindor had ever seen.
After all, the rest of us had every reason to look at the team differently, given the inhuman slug-fighting between the two houses at the last Quidditch match. Hufflepuff, on the other hand, never hurt anyone they played against because they were rarely the one who won.
As she made her way through the snowy garden into the interior of the castle, a question occurred to Aurora. "So, what were you hiding from on Halloween? It's so sad."
"Oh, nothing." "It's just the girls who've been chasing our violin prince since last year. It's been a lot of fun, and it got a little out of hand."
Volquez nearly stumbled forward, glancing back at his roommate.
Aurora asked in surprise, "The ones from last year? These kids are pretty persistent."
As soon as he said this, the other three stopped and looked at Aurora with strange eyes. "You are a child, too."
"Er... Where is the bathroom?" She touched the tip of her nose a little awkwardly.
"This way." Beverly straightened her arm and pointed down the hall.
There was no light in the closed corridor except the candlelight on the wall, except for the grey gleam flowing from the bathroom at the end, which covered the ground like a film and barely reached the edge of the first candlelight.
Bill went first, glancing cautiously inside, then looking back at Aurora. "I don't think Myrtle is here right now. You go in first." 'Then where is she? Aurora asked as she walked slowly inside.
"Maybe in the toilet, maybe in the ceiling." Walkers shrugged. "Who knows."
"Does she look scary?" Aurora asked again, suddenly regretting coming in unprepared. If he looks exciting, she will be embarrassed.
"Of course not, in fact you'd be hard pressed to find a ghost more nightmarish than Peeves." Bill conveniently placed a mute charm at the door.
"She was a Hogwarts student, too." "And then died here in an accident, the ghost of this bathroom. No one will ever come into this bathroom again."
"Why? There are a lot of ghosts in the dining room." "Asked Aurora, a little surprised. She had thought that the bathroom had been abolished because Myrtle was a vicious ghost, but it didn't seem that way.
Beverly pressed her lips and looked a little resigned. "Do you enjoy having other people watching you when you go to the bathroom?"
She touched the tip of her nose. "... I see."
Imagine going to the bathroom in a hurry, pulling down your pants and finding a face in the toilet... Yeah, it's gonna be so scary that you can't pull up your pants, you can't even use the toilet, you can just do it right there.
"It wasn't an accident! Then, with the force of a trachea, and with the childish squeaky voice of a girl, came from the toilet stall closest to Aurora. The dark green wooden door swung open with a crash, and a translucent girl in a Hogwarts uniform, with glasses and a ponytail, was staring at them from the edge of the toilet.
Aurora was startled, but quickly realized, "You are..."
"Cry a lot... Myrtle." Bill went on quickly.
Myrtle's face changed, and a thick melancholy quickly crept, without warning, over her lifeless pearly white face. Her already high-pitched voice was lifted even higher, and the words pricked her eardrums with a slight tingle, and a shrill cry burst from her throat: "I knew you were all talking about me behind my back, calling me ugly and a crybaby! You always do, I knew you would say!"
When she had finished, she plunged into the toilet, sending high sprays of water flying like fountains everywhere.
"She's really a bit of a nervous wreck." "Murmured Voakes, casting a cleansing and drying spell on himself. Aurora shook the water off her cloak in agreement. "That's what teenage girls do. They grow out of it."
"..." The other three cast strange looks again.
"Of course it was difficult for Myrtle." "Aurora added.
After she had drained the water from the floor, Beverly sat down directly and took out her potions books and other things. "This is a nice place, at least I think so. I've been here many times."
"Here it is, then." Aurora nodded and sat down next to Beverly. Vaux scratched his hair and said, "We've got Herbology with Ravenclaw this afternoon. I'll see you after class."
"See you later."
"See you later."
Then Aurora laid out all the potion-making tools and began to follow Beverly's instructions.
After some time, Beverly looked at the potions in the cauldron and said to Aurora, "It's almost ready. You can put the evening primrose roots in it."
"All right." Aurora placed the notebook on her bag and sprinkled the materials she had prepared into it.
"Don't put so much in there." Beverly, seeing how generously she sprinkled a handful into it, stopped her. "These herbs are hard to find. Cherish them."
"There's plenty in the Forest. I'll just have to look again. But only if the professors don't find out." "Aurora said.
Beverly paused, half-drooping her eyelids and looking at the little girl before her. "Not everyone can get around magical creatures as easily as you can. Why do you think the prices of potions vary so much?"
"... I forgot that."
"... What do you remember?"
Aurora grinned and went on stirring the potions in her cauldron. Beverly shook her head, sighed, glanced casually over Aurora's notebook, and was stunned. "Where did you come from?"
"Huh? Aurora looked back. "What's wrong?"
"Who gave you this?" She pointed to the notebook with a strange look in her eyes. "This writing looks like... Like Professor Snape's?"
"Er..." Aurora hesitated for a moment, then considered for a moment, and was about to say something when a high-pitched, silky cry crept into her ear, causing goosebumps, and the sound of the water bubbling up and down the cubicle.
Myrtle jerked out of the toilet and sat on the edge of the window sobbing, sounding as if she were yanking the strings of an old violin, forcing them to vibrate out fragile, jarring notes.
Nearly two hours had passed, and Aurora's potion was almost ready to take shape, but Myrtle's tears were still like a faucet that had been turned off. With a sudden admiration for his perseverance, she reached into her ear and asked, "Aren't you tired? I mean, you've been crying for so long."
Beverly gave her an odd look.
"That's because I was crying when I died, so all I could do was cry." Then Myrtle began to cry again, a stream of translucent white tears.
"Huh? So... Myrtle actually cried herself to death? ! The students at Hogwarts are truly extraordinary!
Perhaps because Aurora's expression was too dramatic, Myrtle pulled back her tears and gave the little girls a fierce look. Her voice became hoarse and terrible. ! I know, you must want to laugh at me like they do, bully me, see me cry especially happy! I knew it... Whoo whoo --"
Aurora's point is always clear: "Wait a minute, who are they?"
"The same people who laugh at me. They bully me every day and say I'm ugly... I had to, I had to cry in the toilet." Myrtle said, crying even louder.
"So they killed you, too?" Beverly asked with a slight frown.
'No! "Cried Myrtle in a wailing voice, emotional." I'm crying! I'm sorry, but a boy came in and bothered me by saying something I didn't understand! I opened the door to drive him away, but the moment I opened the door I was dead! '
"... ? !"
Olo tugged at the corners of his mouth. "I'm so sorry... But how can you open the door and..." Is there a mine out there or something?
"Then how should I know? !" Myrtle rushed over angrily, pointing the tip of her nose at Aurora's, and a cold chill spread all over Aurora.
Her voice became more like that of the old witch of black/dark/child/words, each word as sharp as if it were going to pluck out your flesh: "All I see are big yellow eyes, with vertical black pupils. Then I died."
Then, crying, she jumped into one of the toilets and disappeared again.
"Huang... Yellow eyes?" Aurora gave a trembling breath, threw a series of warming spells at herself, and tried to warm herself by blowing air into her hands.
"I don't know." Beverly, still frowning, shook her head. "Very few people at school know about Myrtle, and you see she's got it all backwards herself."
"But what's that yellow eye? Did the school never investigate?" That's a dead student.
"Myrtle was here ages ago, and we don't know much anymore." "Said Beverly." Maybe it's some kind of dark jinx."
Just then Walkers and Bill, who were out of class, slipped through the door. "Hey. Well, is this all right?"
Aurora nodded, clearing a relatively clean space for the two of them. "Not bad, except for the monotonous accompaniment." Bill looked clear. "Myrtle was back?"
"And vaguely mentioned the cause of her death." "Aurora replied.
Walkers looked at her in surprise and asked, "What? What did she say? ' Aurora shrugged, a little resigned. "It was strange, like someone was outside, and then she opened the door and died. The last thing I remember was a pair of giant yellow eyes."
"Huge..." Bill thought for a moment. "Are you sure you can still be human with that adjective for eyes?"
"I don't know." She shook her head.
"Well," said Beverly flatly, "it's been ages since Myrtle, and with all the magical creatures at Hogwarts, I'm sure the yellow-eyed one's long gone to the Forest. Do you still want to be Holmes or something?"
"Curious." Volquez spread his hand.
"Blimey, I've got potions all over my hands. I'm going to wash it." With that, Aurora got up and went to one of the taps. She reached over and turned it on, but no water came out.
"This is bad." Myrtle popped out of another toilet and was leaning over the edge, staring at the children. The wet water did not displace her hair or robes at all, but her voice had a chill that she had just fished up from the underground river. "I wouldn't go near that sink if I were you."
'Why? Bill is interested.
"It was in that sink that I saw these huge yellow eyes. Then I died." Then Myrtle disappeared from the toilet again.
Aurora gaped at the toilet where Myrtle had disappeared, then looked at the faucet next to her potion-stained hands and was startled by what was on it. "Is it a snake?"
The other children gathered around at once, and sure enough, they saw a lifelike little snake carved on the side of the faucet.