Harry Potter and the Way of Reason

"Well," Daphne whispered, keeping her voice as low as possible, "at least now I don't feel like I'm the only sane person in Hogwarts."

"Is it because you have friends like us now?" whispered Lavender Brown, who was tiptoing to her left.

"I don't think that's what she meant," General Granger whispered back from Lavender's left.

They crept slowly and cautiously through the corridors of Hogwarts, all eight ears pricked up for the troublemaker, as if it were a war, and they were looking for an opportunity to ambush enemy fighters; except In the current situation, they were looking for a bully to beat and a victim to rescue, taking advantage of the time after breakfast was over before Lavender and Parvati left for their herbalism class.

Lavender's point was that if one first-grade girl could defeat three upper-class bullies, then eight first-grade girls should be able to defeat 24 upper-class bullies by the multiplication principle.

Judging by General Granger's incoherent speech and waving, she didn't think it was convincing.

Padma remained silent during the debate before pointing out thoughtfully that even at Hogwarts, beating up a first-year girl might not be considered a very honorable thing for a bully.

Parvati straightened up and announced that this meant they were the only ones who could do anything about the bullying problem at Hogwarts, which made the whole thing a true and genuine act of heroism .Besides, the only reason why their parents moved to England was so that they could go to the only magic school in the world with zero death rate. Isn't everything meaningless?

General Granger commented that Parvati had completely misunderstood what a perfect safety record meant—

Lavender said that if they were indeed friends and not Hermione's followers as Professor Quirrell thought, then this kind of thing should be decided by voting.

Daphne had thought her vote would be the decisive one after Hermione and Susan and Hannah had voted no.So, after the initial enthusiasm faded, Daphne thought about it seriously.After all, she's a Slytherin, which means it's her responsibility to look out for their own interests while they're busy helping others - and she has to figure out how dangerous this is for them. Not worth it, like a mother would do in her place.Taking care of yourself and your friends like this all the time is what real Slytherin is all about...

Hannah Abbott, the timid little Hufflepuff girl, said in a small trembling voice, "I agree."

Now Daphne and Susan and Hermione had to stay with the other five girls, and they couldn't leave the others alone and let them take risks.Because no Gryffindor would descend to harm the last surviving Burns child, and no Slytherin would dare attack the noble and oldest Greengrass daughter (at least that's what Daphne hoped. ) As for General Granger who started it all...you don't have to ask her.

Hall after hall of Hogwarts was left behind them, their hands kept tensely near their wands, as stones and logs and ever-burning torches came into view and disappeared.Once they heard footsteps, held their breath, and almost put their hands on their wands, but it was just a senior Ravenclaw, who looked at them curiously, sniffed, and continued walking while buried in his book .

The heroines tiptoe past a section of oak panelling, engraved with stately gilt frescoes, into a cul-de-sac that leads to the men's toilets.They turned back, passed again through oak paneling with stately gilt frescoes, and turned into a dusty corridor of brick and old cement that turned out to be a loop, and they went to the The second portrait asked the way, turned into another dusty brick corridor, and went up a few marble stairs.If this is not Hogwarts, their location should be on the fourth and a half floors, but the end of the stairs has changed back to the slate floor, and although it is far from the top floor, there are skylights, and beams of sunlight come from the skylights. After turning a few corners along the corridor, they came to the door of another men's toilet. There was a prominent sign on the door, which showed a man in a robe urinating into the toilet.

Eight people stood in front of the closed door, staring at it wearily.

"It's boring," Lavender said.

With a dramatic movement Padma took a pocket watch out of her robes and glanced at it. "Ten six minutes and thirty seconds," she said, "broke the Gryffindor attention span record.[6]"

"I don't think it's useful either," Susan said. "I'm a Hufflepuff."

“You know what,” Lavender said wistfully, “I was thinking maybe what really makes people heroes is that when they’re doing these kinds of things, funny things actually happen.”

"I bet you're right," Tracy said, "I bet if Harry Potter were with us we'd have three bullies in less than five minutes and a secret full of treasure The room. I bet General Chaos just needs to go to the bathroom and he can, say, discover the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets or something—"

Daphne really couldn't let this sentence go. "You thought Lord Slytherin would put the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in the toilet—"

"What I'm saying," Susan said, when Tracy was about to open her mouth to answer, "is that we have no real way of detecting bullies. I mean, they can just find a Hufflepuff anywhere, But we have to arrive at exactly the right time, you understand? This question is actually a good thing, because if we do find them, they will all be run over like bugs. Why can't we follow everyone's expectations , to break into the forbidden corridor on the fourth floor?"

Lavender snorted contemptuously. "You're not going to be a real heroine if you just go against what the headmaster told you not to do!"

(Daphne's brain tries to make sense of the sentence, secretly grateful that the Sorting Hat didn't put her anywhere near Gryffindor.)

"When you think about it..." Parvati said slowly, "I mean, what are the chances that Harry Potter will accidentally run into five bullies on his first morning at school? He must have something There is a way to find them."

Daphne was positioned just so she could see Hermione when she looked at Parvati, so she noticed the Ravenclaw girl's expression changed - which made her realize that General Sunshine had spotted bullies recently too ——

"Oh!" said Padma in a tone of sudden realization. "Of course! The ghost of Salazar Slytherin told him!"

"What?" Daphne and several others said at the same time.

"I'm pretty sure he was the ghost that frightened me," Padma explained. "I mean, I thought of it later, but...yes. The ghost of Salazar Slytherin doesn't like The Slytherin house is bullying, he thinks it's an insult to his reputation, and this ghost still has access to Hogwarts' monitoring system, so he knows all kinds of things going on here. I bet so thing."

Daphne's mouth opened; she saw Hannah put a hand on her forehead against the stone wall, while Tracy's eyes burned like little brown stars.

The ghost of Salazar Slytherin?

Allied with Harry Potter?

Sending Hermione Granger to stop Derek's gang?

She was willing to pay a hundred Galleons to see what Draco Malfoy's face would look like when he heard about it.

But according to the speed at which rumors spread in Hogwarts, since Padma told the secret, Millicent might have told him three or ten minutes ago...

Actually... if Daphne thinks about it...

"So," said Parvati, "we have to ask the Boy Who Lived where to find the ghost of Salazar Slytherin? Wow, I'm saying that out loud, feeling like maybe it's going to change Be a heroine—"

"Yes!" said Lavender. "We must ask the Boy Who Lived where to find the ghost of Salazar Slytherin!"

"We have to ask... the Boy Who Lived... where to find the ghost of Salazar Slytherin..." Hannah repeated nervously, as if forcing herself to say the words.

"If that doesn't work," cried Tracy, "we'll knock Harry Potter unconscious, tie him up, and take him with us!"

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That's telling, thought Hermione Granger, and a rather sad one—by the time they ran out of class, not a single bully had been found, and eight of them were walking along the crooked Hogg Walking back through the Watts maze—she really didn't know whether it was the ghost of Salazar Slytherin, or the phoenix, or something else that was guiding Harry Potter.Whatever Harry did, she hoped it didn't work out for them.In particular, she hoped that other people would not vote for Tracy's idea of ​​knocking Harry Potter unconscious and using his unconscious body as bait to attract Adventure.This is impossible in real life, or if it can be successful, she decides to give up.

Hermione looked at the witches around her, Tracy was chatting with Lavender, someone else interrupted by chance; her eyes fell on a quiet and depressed girl, she couldn't guess her at all, of all people. idea.

"Hannah?" Hermione said to the girl walking beside her, trying to soften her voice as much as possible, "You don't have to answer, but may I ask why you voted for fighting bullies?"

Hermione thought her voice was getting quieter, but everyone stopped in their tracks, and Lavender and Tracy stopped talking and looked at them.

Hannah's cheeks were already flushed, and just as she opened her mouth—

"That's because she's braver than you think, obviously," Lavender said.

Hannah stopped with her mouth open.

She shut her mouth.

She swallowed hard, her cheeks getting redder.

Then Hannah took a deep breath and whispered, "I like a boy."

The little Hufflepuff girl shuddered as she spoke, and she turned nervously around everyone who looked at her, and there was a long pause and silence.

"Well, what then?" Susan said at last.

"I like five boys," Lavender said.

"Padma and I knew we liked the same type of boys," Parvati said, "so we made a list and flipped a coin to see who went first."

"I know who I'm destined to marry," Tracy said, "I don't care what the world says, he's meant to be mine!"

That statement made all the other girls look at Hermione expectantly, and her brain decided to automatically ignore Tracy's declaration and focus on what Hannah had said earlier.

"Uh," said Hermione, careful to keep her tone gentle, "Hannah, the reason you're in Witch Heroes is because if you become a hero, a boy might like you more?"

The Hufflepuff girl nodded again, her cheeks flushed even more, and she stared down at her reflection in the dark leather shoes.

"It was Neville Longbottom that she liked, actually," said Daphne.The Slytherin sighed regretfully. "Unfortunately for her, however, he's going to marry someone else. Very unfortunate."

Hannah let out a high-pitched whoosh at this statement, and she continued to stare down at her feet.

"Wait a minute, what are you talking about?" said Lavender. "Neville is marrying someone else? How did you know? Who?"

Daphne just shook her head regretfully with a dejected expression.

"I said," said Hermione, and when everyone turned to look at her again, "ah..." she tried to gather her thoughts, "I mean, um... Hannah... to make boys like it It's not very feminist for you to be a hero."

"Actually, the correct pronunciation is feminine[2]," Padma said.

"Why do you say Hannah is unfeminine?" Susan asked. "There's nothing unfeminine about trying to attract a boy's attention."

"Besides," Parvati said, sounding a little baffled, "we're going to do it even if it's not feminine, and that's the point, isn't it?"

The discussion that follows is certainly not Hermione Granger's most successful attempt at political education.She tried to explain, and explained it again in the ensuing argument, only to have the other seven girls watch her with increasingly suspicious expressions.Daphne later declared, with the pride of the future Lady Greengrass, that if feminism meant girls couldn't court boys all they wanted, let it stay in the Muggle world where it belonged.Lavender suggested that maybe witchism could promote witches doing what they like, which sounds much more interesting than feminism.In the end Padma ended the discussion, wearily pointing out that she couldn't see the point of the debate, since SPHEW had nothing to do with feminism in the first place, it was all about making more girls heroes.

Hermione gave up at this point.

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When the day's Charms lesson was over and the first-year Ravenclaws began to leave the classroom, Hermione was already shuddering.They arrived just as the bell was about to ring, and had to get to their desks quickly, so the dreadful thing hadn't had time to happen; but it just meant that Hermione had a whole class time imagining what was going to happen. disaster.

Sure enough, when Professor Frivy announced the end of the class in a shrill voice, and everyone stood up from their chairs, Harry started walking towards her; Hermione stuffed the book into the Mok bag, walked quickly to the door, and pushed it open , walked to the corridor; sure enough, Harry followed her in surprise, because they had made an appointment to study in the library in advance——

"Hermione?" Harry asked, closing the door behind him, "what happened?"

Immediately behind Harry the door opened again, and Harry dodged, almost being knocked over, as Padma Patil came out of the classroom with a terrifying determination on her face.

"Excuse me, Mr. Potter," came the terrible words, and the little girl's high-pitched voice echoed in the corridor like the gloomy bell of doom, "may I ask if there is something I can ask you to do? "

Harry raised his eyebrows and said, "Of course you can ask."

"Can you tell us how we can talk to the ghost of Salazar Slytherin? We'd like him to tell us where to find bullies, just like he told you."

There was a moment of silence in the corridor outside the classroom.

The door opened again, and Su poked his head out curiously——

"By the way, we're going to the library," Harry said rather casually, with a relaxed expression on his face. "Would you mind following us?" Then he started walking in the direction where the library is located on the odd days of the month, Sue looked Tried to follow too, but Harry's face stayed in her direction for a moment.

Harry turned a corner, drew his wand, and murmured precisely "Silence," before turning to Padma and saying, "Interesting guess, Miss Patil."

Padma's expression was smug; she said, "Actually, I should have thought of that. There was a hissing note in the ghost's voice that I should have immediately thought of Parseltongue, after he mentioned Godric. Gryffindor should have guessed it earlier."

Harry's expression didn't change. "May I ask, Miss Patil, if you have given this thought to—"

"She said it in front of all the members of SPHEW," said Hermione.

Harry's eyes seemed to be calculating rapidly, and then he said, "Hermione, how likely is it-"

"She said it in front of Lavender and Tracy."

"Uh," Padma said, "I shouldn't have done this, should I?"

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"Wait here," Mr. Goyle said gruffly to her, turning the corner and disappearing; then there was a knock at the door, and he was knocking on the door of Draco Malfoy's private chambers.

Tracy felt a little uncomfortable in her stomach, and she reminded herself again that since Padma told this secret, someone must tell Draco Malfoy, so she might as well tell it, she Nothing was owed to Harry Potter, and Slytherins had to do what was necessary to fulfill their ambitions.

She's been collecting aspirations since being taunted by Professor Quirrell, and so far she's decided she wants to own her own Nimbus 2000 broom, become super famous, marry Harry Potter, eat chocolate frogs for breakfast every morning, At least three Dark Lords must be defeated, so that Professor Quirrell can see who is an ordinary person.

"Mr. Malfoy would like to see you," Mr. Goyle said in a low, menacing voice when he returned, "you better not let him think you're wasting his time." A little pressure, and then let go.

Tracy added having her own servant to her wish list and went in.

Malfoy's private room looked similar to Daphne's.She had secretly wished to see a diamond chandelier, or a magnificent mural—she had never said so to Daphne's face, but the Malfoys were indeed superior to the Greengrasses.However, this is just a small bedroom, no different from Daphne's bedroom, the only difference is that Malfoy's daily necessities are decorated with silver snakes instead of emerald plants.

When she entered, Draco Malfoy - well-dressed even in his own bedroom - rose from his desk chair and greeted her with a friendly slight bow, a charming smile on his face, as if Tracy was so flattered by how important she was that she completely forgot the lines she had rehearsed in her head and just blurted out, "I have something to tell you!"

"Yes, Gregory told me," said Draco Malfoy smoothly, "please sit down, Miss Davis." He gestured for her to sit in his own writing chair, and sat down. bed.

She sat down carefully in Malfoy's own chair, feeling slightly dizzy, her fingers subconsciously smoothing the knees of the robe, trying to make it look as dignified and straight as Draco Malfoy's—

"So, Miss Davis," said Draco Malfoy, "what do you want to tell me?"

Tracy hesitated, and then, when Malfoy began to look a little impatient, stammered out everything Padma had said about Salazar Slytherin's ghost Paiha. The words Leigh Potter went to stop the bullies, and how Daphne told her that Hermione Granger had a part too—

While she was speaking, Draco Malfoy's expression remained unchanged, nothing at all, Tracy suddenly understood, and her heart sank suddenly.

"You don't believe me!" she said.

A slight pause.

"Oh," said Draco Malfoy, his smile not as charming as before, "I do believe that Padma and Daphne said those words, so thank you anyway, Miss Davies." Boy Standing up from the bed, Tracy stood up subconsciously.

As he walked her to the door, just as he reached out to turn the handle, Tracy thought—"You didn't ask me what I wanted this information for," she said.

Draco Malfoy looked at her meaningfully, she didn't know what that meant, and he said nothing.

"Oh, anyway," Tracy said, temporarily changing her previous plan, "I don't want to exchange this information for anything, I'm just showing friendliness."

A momentary look of surprise flitted across Draco Malfoy's face before changing back to a poker face and saying, "It's not easy being friends with Malfoy, Miss Davis."

Tracy smiled genuinely. "Okay, then I'll go ahead and be friendly," she said, bouncing out of the room, feeling like a real Slytherin for perhaps the first time in her life, and instantly deciding that Draco Malfoy would too. is one of her husbands.

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After the girl had left, Gregory walked in, closed the door again, and said, "Are you all right, Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco didn't answer his servant and friend.His eyes stared into the distance, as if he wanted to stare through the bedroom wall, across the lake of Hogwarts that surrounded the Slytherin cellar, through the crust and atmosphere of the earth and the interstellar dust of the Milky Way, all the way between the galaxies. , into a dark vacuum of nothingness that no wizard or scientist has ever seen.

"Mr. Malfoy?" Gregory said, sounding a little concerned.

"I couldn't believe it, I believed every word she said," Draco said.

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Daphne finished the last inch of her Transfiguration homework and looked up across the Slytherin common room, where Millicent Bolstrom was still working on her homework.It's time to make up your mind.

If SPHEW does go around and fight bullies, bullies won't like it, that's for sure.They'll do some nasty things, that's for sure.But on the other hand, if the bullies are really tough, Hermione can ask Harry Potter for help, or they can put everyone's Quirrell together and ask the Defense Professor for help... No, what Daphne was really worried about was whether this matter would offend Professor Snape.You never want to offend Professor Snape.

But since she challenged Neville in the oldest dueling method, she found that everyone looked at her differently.Even the Slytherins who had made fun of her looked at her differently.Daphne realized now that being a daughter of the noble and oldest Greengrass family commanded far more respect if you were a beautiful heroine of an ancient line than a pretty ordinary noble girl.The difference is no less than whether the person playing your role is the heroine, or the two Jin Jialongs, an extra who still laughs badly.

Fighting bullies might not be the best way to be a heroine.But her father had told her once that the problem with giving up an opportunity was that it was habit forming.If you tell yourself that you're going to wait for the next better opportunity, hey, you're likely to say the same thing to yourself the next time it comes your way.My father said that most people spend their whole lives waiting for a good enough opportunity, and then they die.My father said that while it was true that taking a chance would mean causing all kinds of trouble, it was better than being a puddle of mud that couldn't support the wall.Her father said she had to get into the habit of seizing opportunities before she could start picking from them.

But on the other hand, her mother had warned her not to follow all of her father's advice, saying that Daphne was not allowed to ask what her father did in her sixth year at Hogwarts until she was at least 30 years old.

But in the end the father did get the mother to marry him, successfully relying on ingenuity to walk into one of the oldest families, so that's it.

Millicent Bosd finished his homework and started to pack his things.

Daphne stood up from her desk and walked over.

Millicent lifted his legs off the table, stood up, and threw his schoolbag over his shoulder.The girl looked confused when she saw Daphne walking towards her.

"Hi, Millicent," Daphne approached, whispering excitedly, "Guess what I found today?"

"Was the ghost of Salazar Slytherin helping Granger with that?" Millicent asked. "I've heard about that—"

"No," Daphne whispered, "better than that."

"Really?" Millicent also whispered excitedly, "What is it?"

Daphne looked furtively around. "Come into my room and I'll tell you."

They headed down the stairs, the private room was lower in the lake than the seventh-year dormitory...

Soon, Daphne was sitting in her comfortable writing chair, and Millicent was bouncing down beside her bed.

"Silently," said Daphne after they were all seated; instead of putting her wand back in her robes, Daphne let her hand drop naturally, still holding it, just in case.

"There!" said Millicent. "What is it?"

"You know what I found out?" Daphne said. "I see you hear gossip so fast that you know it before it actually happens."

Daphne originally thought that Millicent would turn pale and faint, but she didn't, but the girl did shudder violently, and then began to stammer and deny.

"Don't worry," Daphne said with her sweetest smile, "I won't tell anyone you're a prophet. I mean, we're friends, aren't we?"

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Ryan Filson, a seventh-year Slytherin, was hard at work writing yet another two-foot paper (she took all but Divination and Muggle Studies, her Ultimate Wizarding Exam the school year seems to be nothing more than homework), when her Head of House came to her desk and bellowed, "Follow me, Miss Filson!" when he walked away.

When she caught up with Professor Snape, he was waiting outside the room, looking at her with half-closed eyes that seemed too intense; before she could ask what it was, he turned back to Going forward, she had to hurriedly follow behind.

They went down one flight of stairs, and another, lower than she remembered the Slytherin basement.The corridors looked ancient, the building dated back centuries to jagged stone and primitive mortar.She began to wonder if Professor Snape was going to take her to the rumored real dungeon, a dungeon that was forbidden at Hogwarts and only open to staff[3]; The innocent and helpless young girl does terrible things, but I'm afraid that's just her wishful thinking.

They descended another flight of stairs and entered a room, which was not a room at all, but an empty stone cave with a door in it, and many dark gaps pierced the cave wall, and an ancient torch greeted them as they entered. time to burn.

Professor Snape took out his wand and began casting spells one after the other, so many she could not count; when the Potions Professor had finished, he turned back, looked her in the eyes, and said in a steady voice. Not in the usual drawn-out tone, "You must keep this matter a secret, Miss Filson, now or in the future. Nod if you accept it. If you don't accept it, we'll go back now."

She nodded, a strange hope rose in her heart (well, not strictly speaking) while she was afraid.

"The task I want to give you is very simple, Miss Filson," Professor Snape said in an expressionless voice, "The extremely high reward of fifty Galleons is just compensation for you being forgotten afterwards .”

She couldn't help taking a breath.Her family may be rich, but they have more than one daughter, and they are very strict with her.This is a lot of money for her.

Then her ears heard the word oblivion, and for a moment she felt a humiliating rage that it wouldn't make any sense if she couldn't have memories, what kind of girl Snape thought she was?

"Of course you do," said Severus Snape, "Miss Hermione Granger, General of the Sunshine Corps?"

"What?" Ryan Filson was taken aback, and said in disgust, "She's only in the first grade! Abnormal!"

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[1] Attention span: the amount of time a person can concentrate on a single activity. en.wikipedia/wiki/Attention-span

[2] "Actually, the correct pronunciation is femininity": Feminism (feminist) and femininity (feminine) are very close in English. Padma didn't know much about the feminist movement, so she mistakenly thought that Hermione was talking about Femininely corrects her pronunciation.

[3] Dungeon: Dungeon refers to the dungeon of the castle in architecture, and the humanistic version translates into a cellar.But in the game dungeon refers to the giant maze explored during adventure, usually translated into dungeons.