Chapter 123 Cracks
Harry couldn't remember how long he had been listening to Ron complain last night. He only remembered that it was very late when he climbed into bed and he could barely keep his eyes open.
He didn't sleep well. In his daze, the sound of Ron's complaints kept ringing in his ears, as well as the images that kept flashing during the process of learning the Patronus Charm, Voldemort's grin, his parents' pleading, and the bright green light. .
"Get out of here! You damn cat!"
A roar suddenly rang in his ears, and Harry sat up in a daze. At a glance, he saw Ron throwing things on the bed at a cat like crazy.He put his left hand on his chest, holding a mouse tightly.
"Stop! That's enough! Ron!"
Harry suddenly woke up and jumped out of bed, blocking Crookshanks and Ron, for which he was hit in the head with a sock.
It didn't hurt, it just tasted bad.
"It's back to harm poor Scabbers again!" Ron's left hand was still holding Scabbers tightly, his eyes were red, and he let out a deafening shout, "It just came back, and it came here today!"
"I'm going to kill it! I'm going to kill it!"
"Calm down Ron! Calm down!" Harry blocked Crookshanks behind him and kept saying to calm Ron's mood.But it was obvious that Ron couldn't hear anyone at all now.
"Harry! Get out of the way!" Ron pulled out his wand and held it tightly. Harry could even clearly see the blood vessels on Ron's right hand.
A very deep green, much like the dazzling green that night.
"Don't be like this Ron..." Harry said, "It's just a cat and won't hurt Scabbers..."
"Get out of the way, Harry!"
Ron remained unmoved and exerted all his strength. Harry even rolled his eyes when he saw Scabbers clutched in his left hand.
"Wait, Ron! Scabbers! Scabbers!" Harry was a little incoherent. He had never seen Ron like this before. "Let go, Scabbers is about to be strangled to death by you!"
"what!"
With a scream, Ron relaxed all his strength and collapsed on the bed, holding Scabbers in his hands, who was breathing heavily.
"It's okay, it's okay Banban..."
Seeing Ron like this, Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief.He looked back at Crookshanks behind him, couldn't help but sigh, touched lightly with his foot, and whispered: "Go quickly, go back to Hermione..."
Crookshanks looked up at Harry, then at Ron sitting on the bed and the strange mouse in his hand, then turned around and slipped away.
After a while, Ron's mood finally stabilized.Harry was very smart and didn't mention what happened just now. He just asked him to wash up quickly so that they could have breakfast together.
But when the two of them just walked out of the dormitory, they saw Hermione standing in the lounge in her pajamas with a cold face and holding Crookshanks. Neville was a little flustered and stood beside him at a loss.
"Hug... I'm sorry, Hermione heard it just now. I... I wanted to remind you, but..." Neville glanced at Hermione secretly, and his voice became smaller and smaller. "But he was stopped..."
"I heard that you are going to kill my cat?" Hermione said expressionlessly, holding Crookshanks with her left hand and stroking her rhythmically with her right hand.
"Hermione, listen to me, Crookshanks sneaked into the dormitory just now, and Ron was a little excited..." Harry was just halfway through speaking when he saw Hermione raising her right hand to signal him to stop.
"Tell me, Ron, are you going to kill Crookshanks?" Looking directly at Ron, Hermione at this moment suddenly made Harry feel like he was facing Professor McGonagall.
"That's right!" Ron suddenly became hardened, perhaps thinking of what this cat did to Scabbers.
"Let me ask you, has Scabbers been hurt because of Crookshanks?" Hermione's tone was cold.
"Why not!" Ron shouted, "At the Leaky Cauldron..."
"That's Scabbers you kicked when you were chasing Crookshanks."
"Then last semester..."
"Crookshanks never caught it."
"This morning..."
"See for yourself..." Hermione glanced at the faintly visible handprints on Scabbers' body, "You pinched them."
"I..." Ron was speechless for a moment, and he suddenly remembered that this was indeed the case.Although Crookshanks has been looking for Banban, he has never really caught him. On the contrary, he often hurt Banban.
"Ron Weasley, I have never been so disappointed." Hermione's tone was very calm, but she said nothing more. She looked at Ron calmly, then turned to Harry and said, "Harry, you You have to hurry up, otherwise you will have to go to class hungry."
As if under a petrifying spell, the three men watched Hermione return to the dormitory, and then they all shuddered.
"So... so scary!" Neville said.
"Yeah, I've never seen her like this." Harry sighed and patted Ron on the shoulder, "Ron, go apologize. We were wrong about this..."
After hearing this, Ron's face suddenly turned red, and he hugged Scabbers without saying a word.Harry pushed again, still unmoved.
"Okay, let's go eat first, otherwise we'll really be hungry."
Another push, and this time Ron didn't resist and followed Harry out.
But he kept his head down and didn't see it. Before leaving, Harry winked at Neville and pursed his lips in the direction of the girls' dormitory.
Neville stood alone in the common room. After a while, he relaxed and sat on the sofa to wait quietly.
Not long after, Hermione came out in school uniform, and Neville quickly said: "Hermione, I..."
Hermione smiled and replied: "I know, Neville, it's none of your business."
"Let's go and eat."
"Oh ah?"
"Ok."
Arriving at the Great Hall, Hermione and Neville sat down at the long table as usual, eating and chatting as if nothing had happened.But Harry still felt a little strange, as if something was different.
"...So you should hurry up. Buckbeak's case is about to go to trial. We promised Hagrid to collect information for him." While chatting, Hermione talked about Buckbeak the hippogriff. In Ke's case, the subconscious commanding tone was exactly the same as before.
"I know, but I didn't find many precedents. There is really little content about this in the library." Harry scratched his hair worriedly.
"Harry, you didn't look carefully. Maybe you can try to go to the magical beasts area. Sometimes they will use cases to illustrate the dangers of magical animals." Hermione said.
"Okay, I'll go," Harry agreed.
Hermione nodded after hearing this, drank all the milk in the cup, then stood up and said, "Then you have to hurry up, the court date is not far away, and I can't possibly finish everything."
After that, he hugged the textbook and left.
The three of them watched Hermione leave again. It wasn't until she walked out of the auditorium door that Harry said: "I always feel that there is something different about Hermione today, but I can't figure it out."
"Me too," Neville agreed.
"I don't think there's any difference. She's always like this." Ron was obviously sulking, with a hint of sting in his words, "Let's go, the first section is about transformation. If you take it again, Professor McGonagall will become very... fear."
Throughout the morning, even in the Transfiguration classroom, Harry had been wondering what was wrong with Hermione. When he was eating at lunch, he made a special observation, but still found no clues.
It wasn't until night, when he lay in bed and fell into a drowsy sleep, that he suddenly woke up.
"I know!" Harry shouted.
"Don't make any noise, Harry, go to sleep..." Ron muttered, turned over, and soon there was no movement.
Looking at Ron's bed, Harry looked inexplicably lonely.
Because Hermione didn't say a word to Ron all day.
Not a word.