Chapter 166

"... is that impossible?"

"At least in my opinion, that's it."

The next day is Sunday. Early in the morning, before dawn, Marca was helping in the potion preparation room behind Snape's office. They chatted casually while busy with the work at hand.

The anti eavesdropping measures here are well prepared, and the conversation here is not likely to be heard - at least the possibility is very low.

To tell the truth, Maka was really confused when Hermione was selected as the fourth warrior yesterday. And his confusion even lasted until today and he didn't come up with an answer.

What does Voldemort want to do? Does this mean anything to him?

Maka weighed it in her heart and took the opportunity to ask Snape's opinion.

However, Snape's guess made Marka scratch her head.

"Do you mean that Voldemort wanted Hermione to be in danger or even to die, so as to test whether I had ulterior motives?"

Maka frowned and said, "but... Why Hermione?"

Snape pursed his lips and showed an expression of "don't pretend to be confused". He held it for a while and simply continued to be busy with the work at hand and stopped talking about it.

"... is it because I forcibly saved Hermione from him?"

Maka pondered, then shook her head speechless.

After a while, when things were finished, Maka left Snape's office first and planned to go to the auditorium to solve the breakfast.

But at the side door of the auditorium, he met Ron with a gloomy face.

"Oh... Good morning, Marca." Ron said hello, but he didn't look very happy.

"Well, good morning." Marca looked at him and said, "what's the matter? Who's angry with?"

"No, who can I be angry with?" Ron smiled reluctantly, but his smile was more ugly than crying.

Marca shrugged and said, "because of Harry and Hermione?"

"No, it's impossible!" Ron couldn't help arguing. "They are all my good friends. Now they have become warriors. I'm happy for them!"

"Really?"

"Of course!"

Ron said, his men consciously clenched into fists, and finally couldn't hold it.

"I just... I just don't think they should deceive me! That's obviously a problem!" he shouted. "We're friends - best friends! Aren't we?"

Maka nodded noncommittally and calmly said, "it's certainly wrong to deceive friends, but we're not sure whether they deceived you."

"Even you say that..." Ron said angrily. "Well! Someone must be framing them and who wants their lives! It's terrible. A mysterious madman confused the goblet and gave our school another chance to win the championship!"

Ron said angrily, then ignored Marca, turned to the auditorium and walked in without looking back.

Just then, another man came behind Maka.

"That... Marca?"

He stopped again, turned back and said, "Oh, good morning, Hermione."

"Last night... Thank you."

Behind Maka, Hermione, who had recovered from her loss, thanked in a low voice.

"Last night?" Marca pretended to be confused. "What are you talking about?"

"What?" Hermione said strangely, "last night you let the cat head -"

Halfway through her speech, she seemed to understand something from Maka's expression and stopped immediately.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I don't think I slept well last night. I'm still a little confused now... I saw Ron just now... What's the matter with him?"

Marca shook her head slightly, walked in and told Hermione what Ron had just said

Just then Harry had just woken up from his never too steady sleep.

He sat up, lost himself in bed, and after a while remembered why he felt so sad and anxious. Then the events of last night suddenly came to mind.

He sat up, opened the curtain of his four poster bed, wanted to talk to Ron again, and tried to force Ron to believe him. But then he found that Ron's bed was empty. He obviously went downstairs for breakfast.

Harry dressed and walked down the spiral stairs to the common room below.

As soon as he appeared, the students who had already had breakfast cheered warmly again. He thought of entering the auditorium and facing other Gryffindor classmates, who regarded him as a hero. He was a little nervous at the thought.

But if he didn't go to the auditorium, he had to stay here and let himself be entangled by the students in the lounge. So he resolutely went to the hole behind the portrait, pushed it away and climbed out.

When he came to the door of the auditorium, he just met Hermione who was walking out.

"Hello," said Hermione, holding up a stack of bread wrapped in a napkin. "I've come to give it to you... Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Good idea," said Harry gratefully.

They went downstairs and without looking at the auditorium, they flew through the hall. Soon, they strode on the lawn extending to the lake.

Demstrom's big ship moored on the lake and cast a dark reflection in the water.

It was a cold morning. They kept walking and chewing bread. Harry and Hermione discussed the accident together.

"Of course I know you didn't sign up," said Hermione when he finished what happened in the room next to the auditorium. "Of course I didn't!"

"Look at the look on your face when Dumbledore announced our name! The problem is, who put your name in it? You know, Moody's right, Harry... I don't think any student except Maka can do this! We've all seen that even Maka can't do it very easily."

"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted.

Hermione hesitated.

"Well... I see... He's having breakfast," she said.

"Does he still think it's our own name?"

"Well... No, I don't think so... Actually not," Hermione said unnaturally.

"What does' actually not 'mean?"

"Oh, Harry, don't you understand?" Hermione said helplessly. "He's jealous!"

"Jealous?" Harry asked incredulously. "What are you jealous of? Is he willing to make a fool of himself in front of the whole school?"

"Think about it," Hermione said patiently. "You know, all the time, it's either you or Marca who has attracted everyone's attention -"

When she saw Harry's angry mouth open, she quickly made up, "I know you didn't pursue this... But how to say - you know, Ron has to compete with so many brothers at home, and you are so famous as his best friend --"

"Every time someone sees you, he is left out in the cold. He tolerates it silently and never mentions a word. This time, there happens to be another me... We both have a share, only he doesn't, as if we abandoned him." speaking of this, Hermione paused and said, "I think he can't bear it this time..."

"Good," said Harry bitterly. "That's great... I think I can change with him whenever he wants! Be a person who has people staring at his forehead foolishly wherever he goes!"

"Yes, that's right," said Hermione simply. "You should use this to talk to him. Only in this way can you solve the problem."

"I don't want to chase him anywhere and painstakingly teach him to grow up!" said Harry. "When will he believe that I'm not happy? Maybe when I break my neck, or --"

His voice was so loud that several owls in the nearby tree fluttered up.

"It's not a play," said Hermione softly. "It's definitely not a play!"

She hesitated, then came closer and said in a very low voice, "Harry, Marca secretly gave me three bottles of potions last night and told me --"

"I know, I got it too," interrupted Harry. "Just this morning, I saw a package by the bed. I guessed it was from Marca."

"Really -" Hermione's expression stiffened for a moment, but she continued the next second. "Then you should see it, too. Maka also thinks that this top three competition will be very dangerous!"

"Harry, I've been thinking - you know what we should do, don't you?" she whispered.

"Yes, give Ron a hard kick -"

"It's a letter to your Godfather!" Hermione said angrily. "You must tell him what happened. Didn't he write to ask you to write to him about everything that happened at Hogwarts? He seemed to have expected it to happen. I brought out some parchment and a quill -"

"Stop talking nonsense," said Harry.

He looked around and saw that no one could hear them, but there was no one in the sky.

"You saw it last year - he was so impulsive. If I told him someone asked me to sign up for the top three competition, he would probably rush straight to the castle -"

"He wants you to tell him," said Hermione sternly. "Anyway, he'll know sooner or later -"

"But --"

"It seems that Maka has something very important to do this time - he even pretended not to contact us just now." Hermione said seriously. "Since he can't be with us, we have to make our own plans... We can't rely on Maka to help us all the time."

"Well, well, I'll write to him," said Harry, throwing the last piece of bread into the lake.

They stood there and watched the bread float on the lake for a while. Then a huge tentacle came out of the water and caught it under the water.

Shortly after they left, a tiny hummingbird flashed past the tree by the lake.