The dawn of Christmas had arrived. The weather was cold, and the surroundings were white. Hogwarts was as silent as the snow on the ground. A heavy atmosphere enveloped the whole castle. The students were like frosted eggplants. The petrification incidents that happened one after another made them feel a little unenthusiastic about the Christmas that they had been looking forward to for a long time.
Early in the morning, Harry was woken up by Hermione. He instinctively looked at Ron's bed, but there was still no one there. He sighed and thought, "Today we might find the murderer."
"Merry Christmas to you," Hermione said to Harry. Hermione said to him, tossing the present to Harry, and confirming the heartening news that the medicine was ready.
Harry sat up, completely awake.
"Malfoy better pray he didn't do anything bad, or I won't let him go." Harry clenched his fists. Then he teased Ron's pet, Spotty, who seemed a little listless because his master had been petrified.
"Yes." Hermione just nodded slightly.
Just then, Hedwig flew into the room with a small package in her mouth. It looked like a Christmas gift for Harry. Hedwig nibbled his ear in a very affectionate way. This greeting was much more precious than the gift it brought him.
A toothpick and a letter from a terrible relative was not going to make anyone happy.
The other Christmas gifts Harry received were much more satisfying. Hagrid gave him a large bag of fudge, which Harry decided to roast by the fire until they were soft. Hermione bought him a luxurious quill. Harry opened the last gift, which turned out to be a brand-new hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley, and a large raisin cake. He held up Mrs. Weasley's card, and felt a surge of guilt. He thought of Mr. Weasley's car. Ever since it had collided with the whacking willow, it had disappeared without a trace. He also thought of Ron lying in his hospital bed. This made him feel even worse when he received the gift.
He saw the unopened copy of "Flying with the Artillery" on Ron's desk. He knew that Ron had prepared it for him, but he was not here now.
At the Christmas dinner at Hogwarts, everyone ate with relish. The food was good at diverting people's attention. The delicious food made them temporarily forget the dull atmosphere from before.
The auditorium was grand and imposing. Not only were there a dozen Christmas trees covered with silver frost, and thick bands of mistletoe and holly crisscrossing the ceiling, but there was also enchanted snow, warm and dry, falling gently from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in singing some of his favorite carols, and Hagrid's voice grew louder and louder as he downed cup after cup of custard.
"Hermione, it's time." Harry estimated the time and said to Hermione.
"Mm." Hermione nodded.
Malfoy and Pansy were enjoying the delicacies from the Christmas dinner at Slythrin's table. Suddenly, screams came from the crowd and spread to Slythrin's table.
A fountain pen had gone out of control. It flew wildly in the air, spraying black ink everywhere. The students were in an uproar. It also brought a long-lost liveliness to the auditorium. It kept moving towards Slythrin's table and finally stopped in front of Pan Xi.
"Oh my God." Pansy screamed and quickly got up to avoid the "root of all evil." But she couldn't dodge in time and was sprayed with black ink. As for Malfoy, he was concentrating on his own matters at the time and only subconsciously chanted a spell to prevent himself from suffering. He didn't care about Pansy either.
"Who did this?" Pansy screamed like a frightened kitten. She looked around, trying to find the culprit. No one would be in a good mood if something like this happened on such a joyous occasion, not to mention that she was still eating.
"I'm sorry, Fred and George were teaching me how to use this pen. There was a small problem." Harry walked over from the crowd and lowered his head to apologize sincerely.
"Hmm?" Malfoy was not in the mood to care about these things. He was still thinking about how to find an opportunity to get rid of the diary and the basilisk once and for all, so he slightly raised his head. He said to Pansy's robe, "Clean it up." It seemed that he wanted to make a big problem small, and a small problem nothing. He was going to persuade Pansy not to bother with Harry.
However, it was completely ineffective.
"I'm really sorry." Harry lowered his head even more. "This pen's ink is specially made. It can only be cleaned with a special potion."
"Oh, then there's no other way." Malfoy shrugged and said to Pansy, "Then let's go find our dean. I'm sure he'll have a way."
"What a bummer." Pansy looked at her ink-stained robe angrily.
Malfoy was not suspicious at all. Not to mention that he was now fully focused on the diary, he had to witness the Weasley brothers' pranks at least once a week. It was very common, and there were always a few people who fell for it. Now that the plot had turned out this way, and he had no idea where Crabbe and Gore were, he had no idea that someone would try to get information out of him later.
History was always surprisingly similar.
Harry walked out of the auditorium with Pansy with a dejected expression, and then secretly made a gesture to Hermione. Hermione understood and hurriedly ran to the girls' washroom. She had to hurry, and the time that Harry could buy was not much.
Her figure was not much different from Pansy's, but she still stole a robe from Slythrin's changing room. After all, the uniforms of the two academies were not the same.
In the washroom, the bubbling, thick syrupy soup made a gurgling sound. Hermione was a little nervous. If Ron and Harry were here, she might not be so nervous, but one was on the hospital bed, and the other was attracting her attention.
She used her trembling hand to hold the spoon, and then scooped up a large clump of soup and poured it into the glass she had prepared.
The soup made a loud noise, like a pot of boiling water, and bubbled vigorously. A second later, it turned into a faint purplish color.
Perhaps because their figures were similar, Hermione, who had only slightly adjusted her figure, did not suffer too much pain, but her face was slightly itchy. She walked in front of the mirror and looked at herself.
There was no flaw.
But now she could not go out immediately. It was too strange. Hermione suppressed her eagerness to go out and paced back and forth in the washroom. She could only choose to believe that Harry would buy her enough time.
About twenty minutes later, Hermione slowly walked out of the girls' washroom. When she came out, she tried to avoid being discovered, and kept looking around. She gasped for breath, trying to calm her heart that was about to jump out of her chest. This nervousness should not be just because of one reason.
In front of the auditorium door, she took a deep breath and touched her chest with her hand, as if to fix it there. Perhaps she was so close to the truth, but she felt more and more afraid. She even had the thought of running away at the last minute. But then she thought of her petrified classmates, and one of her best friends, Ron, who was lying unconscious in the hospital bed, and her hesitant heart became firm again.