Chapter 108

"I can't believe it," said Harry hoarsely.

At Ron's urging, he tore open the long package, and then a beautiful, glittering broom rolled onto his bed. He was breathless with surprise.

Ron dropped his socks and jumped out of bed to look carefully.

It's as like as two peas, which are seen and dreamed of every day when they are in the diagonal alley with Harry.

Harry picked it up. It glittered.

He could feel it trembling slightly, so he let go - it was hanging in mid air without any support, and the height from the ground was just right for him to ride up.

His eyes looked from the golden serial number at the top of the broom to the end of the completely smooth and streamlined broom.

"Who gave it to you?" Ron whispered.

"See if there's a card or something..." Harry asked Ron to tear the wrapping paper of the firing crossbow.

"Nothing! Hey, who spent so much money for you?"

"Well," said Harry, looking surprised, "I bet it's not the Dursleys."

"I bet it's Dumbledore," Ron looked carefully from beginning to end around the magnificent Firebolt. "Didn't he send you the invisibility cloak anonymously?"

"But that's my father's," said Harry. "Dumbledore just gave it to me... He won't spend so much money on me. He can't give students such valuable things."

"That's why he didn't say he gave it!" said Ron. "Otherwise, a guy like Malfoy would say he was eccentric. Hey, Harry -"

Ron burst out laughing. "Malfoy! He'll die when he sees you riding this broom! It's an international broom, really!"

"I can't believe it," muttered Harry, stroking the broom with one hand. "Who is it..."

Then Ron lay on Harry's bed. He couldn't breathe with laughter at the thought of what Malfoy would look like.

"Oh, yes! There's another package." Harry looked back and bent down to pick up the small package.

"Uh... Owl food?" Harry seemed more surprised than when he saw the Firebolt. "And it's a gift from Marca. Why?"

"Oh, speaking of it, I seem to have a small package there..."

Ron got up from Harry's bed and walked to his bed.

There was a sound of tearing the wrapping paper, followed by Ron's surprised whisper.

"Is Maka going to have a pet food tasting party this year?" he wondered. "Each person has a small bottle. Maka seems to be getting more and more stingy..."

"Oh -- and a little card, let me see --" Ron suddenly said, "well... Maka made it herself. She said it was very nutritious and could make my spots healthier?"

Ron took speckles out of his pocket.

Harry was surprised and unhappy to find that the once fat spots were now only skin and bones - the spotted hair seemed to be falling off one by one.

"It seems that Marca always knows what I need." Ron felt a little moved. "No one has noticed that speckle is not in good shape recently, but he noticed."

He poured some reddish brown rat food out of the small bottle that Marca gave him and put it in front of the spotted.

The spots came up and smelled, and looked a little hesitant.

"Come on, my friend made it for you. It's nutritious!" Ron pressed it again. "It should make you fat."

The spotted head shrunk. He found that Ron wouldn't let it go if he didn't eat, so he had to stretch his neck and eat a few.

With a wheezing bite, speckle found that he couldn't stop - what on earth is this made of? It's delicious!

It's fragrant and crisp, and it seems to have a faint smell of barbecue. It's like

"It's like..." Harry picked up one and smelled it, then threw it into his mouth and chewed it. "Fried peanuts! Uncle Vernon ordered it out in a Chinese restaurant. That's the smell. That's right! But he only gave it to Dudley."

"Hey! Don't grab food with spotted!" Ron was a little embarrassed.

"... but, I said, this is delicious... Why?" Harry glared. "I think I still want to eat. Give me some more!"

"Don't you have it there too! Grab it with your Hedwig -" Ron said angrily.

"What are you two talking about?"

Hermione came in through the door. She was still in her pajamas and took crook mountain. Crook Hill looked bad tempered and tied a circle of wire around his neck.

"Don't bring it here!" said Ron, hurrying the speckles back into his pocket. But Hermione didn't listen to him. She put crook mountain on Seymour's empty bed and opened her mouth to look at the Firebolt.

"Oh, Harry! Who gave you this?"

"I don't know," said Harry. "This gift doesn't have a card or anything."

To Harry's great surprise, she was neither excited nor curious to hear this. Instead, her face elongated and she bit her lips.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Ron.

"I don't know," said Hermione slowly, "but it's a little strange, isn't it? I mean, it should be a pretty good broom, isn't it?"

"It's the best broom, Hermione," said Ron.

"Then it must be very expensive..."

"Probably more expensive than all Slytherin's broomsticks combined!" Ron said happily.

"Well... Who would give Harry such a valuable thing without telling him who it was?" Hermione asked.

"Who cares?" said Ron impatiently. "Listen, Harry, can I ride down? Can you?"

"I don't think anyone can ride it now!" Hermione shrieked.

Harry and Ron looked at her in surprise.

"What do you think Harry is going to do with it - sweep the floor?" said Ron.

But before Hermione could answer, crook Hill jumped out of Seymour's bed and went straight to Ron's chest.

"Get it out of here!" Ron shouted, covering his pocket immediately.

But before he could cover it, crook mountain's claws had torn Ron's dressing gown and tried to escape from Ron's shoulder.

Ron grabbed the spotted tail and kicked crook mountain, but he didn't hit it. He kicked the box at the foot of Harry's bed and knocked it over.

Ron himself jumped on one leg in place, screaming with pain.

The hair of crook mountain suddenly stood up, and the room was full of sharp, faint calls.

"You might as well take the cat away, Hermione," said Ron angrily, sitting on Harry's bed rubbing his toes.

Hermione pursed her mouth, then picked up crook hill and slowly walked out of the room. Crook Hill's yellow eyes were still staring at Ron.

At this time, the spots curled up in Ron's palm.

"It doesn't look good, does it?" said Harry hesitantly.

"He's just too nervous!" said Ron. "If that stupid hairball doesn't mess with him, he'll be fine!"

But Harry remembered that the woman at the magic zoo said that a mouse can only live for three years... He couldn't help thinking that speckle might be approaching the end of its life.

Despite Ron's constant complaints that speckle was annoying and useless, Harry was sure that Ron would be very sad if speckle died.

"Marca said that rat food would make spotted healthier, he must know," Harry couldn't help thinking so.

That morning, in Gryffindor's common room, the atmosphere of Christmas must have been weak.

Hermione locked crook mountain in her dormitory, but was extremely angry that Ron wanted to kick it; Ron was furious that crook mountain wanted to eat again.

Harry gave up trying to reconcile them and went to see his Firebolt wholeheartedly - he had brought it to the common room.

For some reason, it also made Hermione unhappy.

She said nothing, but she kept looking at the Firebolt gloomily, as if it had offended her cat.

While Ron and Hermione were sulking, Marca was flying in the sky

"Whew!"

Maka passed by at low altitude and ran quickly in front of Ernie's three people, causing them to scream.

"Oh - great!" Ernie shouted. "Come on, do it again!"

Next to him, the two little girls clapped and clapped. They were all red and looked very excited.

But after Maka made a circle in mid air, she came down and stopped in front of them.

"It's no fun for me to fly alone. Won't you come together?" said Marca.

"But we can't fly well!" Ernie said. "It's better to see you fly more vigorously."

"Then take a break!" said Marca, falling to the ground. "It's lunchtime soon, isn't it? You haven't introduced me to this new friend!"

"Ha! This is Leila shafik, a good friend of Hannah and I. We've known each other since childhood." Ernie shrugged.

"Well," Leila said with a smile, "Ernie told me about you - many times!"

"I said it so many times, but don't you still remember the wrong name?" Ernie couldn't help but say.

"Oh - I'm not very good at remembering names -"

"Leave her alone, Marca," Ernie smiled. "She's always so rash, don't care..."

"It's all right. Just be careful. Don't knock yourself." Maka also hooked her mouth and pretended to be laughing.

"Hey, don't laugh. You laugh awkwardly!" Leila said suddenly. "It looks a little gloomy."

"Well, really?" Marca touched her face.

It seems that I should hurry up. This state is really not conducive to the progress of the plan.