the lost castle

Horse-drawn carriages and knights galloped through the town. People in gray or khaki half-worn clothes carefully leaned back against the wall, holding on to their naughty children. Their faces did not have the curiosity of children, but a kind of fear. Numbness mixed with trembling piety—because of seeing the emblem on the carriage and the attire of the knight.

The Holy See is from life to death, and besides the nobles of the lords, there are priests and churches in big towns on the heads of the common people.

The road surface was dry and cracked, and there were many people around the well at the entrance of the street, pulling buckets, with a gray expression of despair.Even if he saw a passing carriage, there was only a little hope after a second of sluggishness, which was soon replaced by numbness.

When people are accustomed to despair—

"It hasn't rained a drop since four months ago."

Count Robert rubbed his chin with his hand, and looked at Neville with his head out of the carriage with interest.

His chubby face had already lost almost half of his weight due to the struggles of the seventh school year. Since he woke up, Neville has become more careful. He was originally slow and uncertain, and the sudden change in the decisive battle is still puzzling to this day. , but was forcibly taken away from everyone. When he woke up, he found that the wand was also thrown in the castle. He became more and more panicked. He really didn't know what this bishop and the so-called Count Robert who was obviously a wizard were. Relationship, and what to do with him.

From the time of King Arthur in Merlin to the end of the 20th century, I have never heard of aristocratic wizards being close to Muggles. It is still such a weird situation now. In these dilapidated towns, people dressed in old and shabby clothes can hardly be eaten during meals. Even if the Longbottom family is in decline, Neville has never lacked food and clothing since he was a child. In addition, the wooden wheeled carriage that was not padded at this time made him vomit for several days. I lost a lot of weight, and I can see the tip of my chin, and no one here seems to treat him as a child, whether talking or eating on weekdays, they are all rude. At first, I didn’t feel anything, just be careful Shrunken, I accidentally saw the faces under the helmets of those knights yesterday, but I was taken aback. Half of the seven knights looked younger than him.

"Hey, little man, tell me again, what's the name of that castle?"

"I have no idea."

Neville seldom dealt with Muggles, and he really didn't understand some things. He even barely passed the exams in History of Magic and Muggle Studies. The character that comes out?Shrinking his body, although the expression on his face was unnatural and said that he was lying, he still bit him to death and pretended to be ignorant: "I don't remember anything."

Well, it's not really pretending, and it's so weird that I don't understand what's going on now.

"Forget it, but what does the lion on your clothes mean?" Earl Robert had obviously thought of what this familiar badge was at that time, so the doubt in his eyes deepened.In the castle that day, this kid was not the only one wearing such clothes.

"…I can't remember."

Although Neville sometimes couldn't turn the corner and was said to be stupid, but he was no longer in the UK with these strange and horribly backward scenery along the way, but there is no place in Europe that is so poor and backward.He turned his head and didn't dare to look at Count Robert again. The so-called bishop in the carriage seemed to have a bad temper. He just fiddled with a stack of papers full of numbers and symbols all day long, sometimes frowning and sometimes joyful, except for eating and sleeping. , actually seldom speak.

"Bishop Gelbert, in another seven days, you will be able to cross the Abigail Mountains."

"In this way, before we reach the Great Swamp, we won't be able to catch up."

"I don't think so, Lord Gryffindor may still be on the way."

This was the second time Neville had heard the name in a few days.

At first he thought it was an illusion, or he missed a few syllables. Although these people spoke English, he had a hard time hearing it. It seemed that many pronunciations were very weird, and he even guessed them. But things like names , the pronunciation will never be bad, no matter where it is, it will not be much worse.

But Gryffindor—

He didn't dare to think, why would someone call him that name?

Neville felt that his mind was in a mess. He was already confused, but now he was even more confused.

If only Harry had been there, no, if only Hermione had been.

The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt, it was really boring for a long time, and he thought over and over of his companions, Harry who left school, the principal who died last year, and the Order of the Phoenix.

"Harry, Hermione, Ron..."

He muttered softly, making up his mind at the time, no matter what happened tonight, he would run back to save Harry and the others.

These knights have been carefully observed these days, and they must be able to escape.

Thinking about the weird situation in Hogwarts Castle, Neville became more determined.

"Go back and kill Voldemort first, and Lestwich..."

Thinking of his parents lying in St. Mungo's, Neville's eyes were red.

however--

"Boom!"

Harry's feet were weak, and he fell hard to the ground before he woke up.

Surprised and frightened at the same time, he immediately went to look at Voldemort across the way, only to see Ron and Hermione lying on the ground, Ron was still dizzy, and Hermione was already struggling to crawl this way, before he could wait. Harry became happy, and saw Voldemort, who had been frozen in front of him for several days, suddenly fell to the ground, and then the Lestwich couple.

There was a look of surprise and guard in everyone's eyes.

But nothing happened.

Harry tried his best to control his body, but he could only move his fingertips slightly. He hadn't eaten for a few days. Although a heavy rain had moistened his lower lip, he managed to avoid starving and thirsting everyone, but this would not stop. It's because the body is so stiff and numb that it's hard to move, and even the magic power is exhausted, it won't take long, after another day and a half, there will be no living people but dead bodies here.

Harry was used to being hungry by his uncle and aunt since he was a child. Wizards have magic power to consume, which can last longer than muggles. Now he has no idea of ​​killing Voldemort. Instead, he desperately wants to escape here with Hermione and Ron.

After struggling for a long time, she finally managed to move a few steps, but saw that Hermione couldn't move, and the muscles on her face were twitching constantly, as if she wanted to say something. After a while, she heard a low voice: "Lu... Bo Hagrid..."

The big man who was tied to the post suddenly collapsed.

"Minerva...McGonagall..."

As Professor McGonagall no longer maintained a stiff and embarrassed posture, even Ron understood this time, and hurriedly shouted their names one by one. Bella over there seemed to have recovered a little bit of energy, and she was not to be outdone. disciple's name.

In a blink of an eye, the whole hall of the castle was full of people lying on the ground with twitching hands and feet, desperately trying to stand up but unable to do so. There were wands everywhere on the ground. Everyone wanted to regain mobility as soon as possible, at least to get the wand back In the hand, it just doesn't work.

"Avada..."

Bella chanted the spell fiercely, but the magic power was exhausted, and it was just a few words.

"Restored—as ever—"

It's the same with white magic. No one can be considered a wizard now, and even a fluorescent flash can't be used.

Must get out of here quickly.

Whoever restores the magic power first can kill everyone except his own side.

This cognition is extremely heavy, but Voldemort's face is gloomy, and he is the most confident to recover, but the Order of the Phoenix doesn't think so. After Harry moved a little, he crawled to Hermione and Ron, and the three of them After panting for a while, it was Hagrid who stumbled to his feet first, but after taking a step and falling, Voldemort's expression finally changed.

"go!"

Following the order, several Death Eaters who were barely able to crawl gathered together one after another, and after a while, a few who could stand appeared, but with their waists hooked, they all walked a few steps and fell, and had to move outside the door with difficulty.

There was an almost perfect tacit understanding. The Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters retreated to the castle gate as fast as they could maintain. Neither Voldemort nor the Savior chose to hide temporarily in the secret passage in the castle. They were inflexible, and the distance between them was not very far. Hatred and angry eyes were exchanged with each other. Starting from the gate of the castle, they stumbled one by one, and then sank into the deep night woods.