v4 Chapter 69： Here are your wings (2 in 1)

"I definitely won't miss this event, this is the Triwizard Tournament!" Tom said to Hermione.

But that didn't allay Hermione's worries. She frowned, giving Tom Cope the dangers of the Triwizard Tournament.

"This is one of the most dangerous games in the magic world. It is said that half of the players will die. How dare you sign up without knowing anything about the content of the game—" Hermione stopped here. She suddenly realized that Tom seemed to have been involved in the design of the competition.

"You know the content of the first project? Right?" Hermione jumped up suddenly, as strong as a kitten, "I actually ignored this! So you understand that the game is not dangerous? Worry me in vain one!"

The expression on her face was now replaced by excitement. After learning that the competition was not dangerous, Hermione was overwhelmed by the desire for adventure - who could refuse to participate in a Triwizard Tournament?

"Ah, that's not true. The competition is still quite dangerous, but as long as the volunteers don't die, they won't encounter any problems." Tom has to admit that after his transformation, the risk factor of the competition project has increased a lot... …

But the playability is also greatly increased.

Hermione: ? !

"Don't worry, Dumbledore has long thought about it, and the volunteers will be guaranteed." Tom could only move out of Dumbledore to appease Hermione.

However, it may be that this trick has been used too many times, causing Hermione not to accept it very well.

"Security isn't foolproof, Tom Yoder--"

"Then do I want to tell you about the first project? You'll be relieved after listening." Tom winked at Hermione and threw a rather tempting bait.

"How can this be, this is a leak... Can you tell me where the first project was held?"

Hermione took the bait.

"sure."

Just as Tom was giving Hermione a spoiler for the Triwizard Tournament, a beetle landed on the edge of the window beside them. Tom was caught by the beetle and stopped.

He looked at the beetle, and his expression suddenly changed. It reminded him of a nasty woman: Rita Skeeter.

"Hermione, I suddenly thought of a question."

"You said." Although Hermione wanted to continue listening to the project-related content, she was still ready to answer Tom's doubts patiently.

"You said that when Animagus died in an animal state, would the corpse remain in animal form or return to human form?"

Beetle:  …

Hearing Tom's question, Hermione was stunned.

This question is very popular, and there is no answer in the textbook. Hermione could only rely on her intuition.

"Returning to human form? After all, magic spells need to be maintained with magic power, and Animagus is no exception. When the wizard dies, the magic power escapes, and the corpse returns to its original shape."

"That makes sense," Tom nodded, then he suddenly reached out and grabbed the beetle on the edge of the window in his palm, "Let's talk about the project here..."

The true identity of the beetle was difficult for Tom to speculate. The greening of the Hogwarts campus is well done, and it is normal to have beetles. He also wasn't sure that the beetle was the infamous Rita Skeeter.

There is only one way of verification: catch the beetle and let it identify itself.

So Tom took the beetle and let it struggle in his hands.

Tom remained silent, but Hermione quit. She was fascinated by what she heard, but Tom didn't say anything, so she couldn't get up and down, and she was scratching her heart.

"Tell me quickly—"

"Aren't you afraid now?"

After being interrupted by Tom like this, Hermione realized that her fear of the Triwizard Tournament had completely faded away. Dumbledore prepared a very adequate plan, enough to ensure the safety of everyone.

Seeing that Hermione was no longer afraid, Tom was relieved. He couldn't let Hermione go on the field with anxiety, so why bother to let her participate in the Triwizard Tournament?

"What did you just catch?"

"nothing."

The two went back to the bedroom while chatting like this.

At the corner of one of the stairs, Tom saw Mrs. Norris, the Maine Coon cat owned by Filch, the janitor. Looking at the pair of yellow cat pupils, Tom had a plan.

He squatted in front of Mrs. Norris, trying to get close to it. But obviously Mrs. Norris was not interested in him, but glared at him viciously, warning him not to act excessively.

Tom was unmoved and moved closer.

"Meow (look at me again and I'll let the **** shovel clean you up)!" Mrs. Norris began to bark her teeth, and a low warning sound came out of her mouth.

Tom slowly stretched out his fist. Facing the fist in front of her, Mrs. Norris's muscles were tense, always ready to teach this ignorant little wizard a lesson of blood.

Then, the fist spread out.

A beetle appeared.

Mrs. Norris: Meow meow?

The beetle saw that it was free again, so it immediately spread its wings and soared into the sky.

I am free!

The beetle flew towards the side window.

As long as you get to that place, as long as—

Snapped!

The beetle felt what is called the pressure of Mount Tai, and a soft and tender claw fell down with lightning speed, pressing the beetle firmly on the ground.

Mrs. Norris: Want to please me with beetles? Haha, it's too naive, I'm not a kitten anymore, I've stopped doing things like catching beetles a long time ago!

Then the beetle appeared under its claws.

Mrs. Norris: ?

What happened to this beetle? Why is it under my paw? Damn instinct!

Madam Norris disliked it and played with the prey she had obtained.

Tom just stood there happily watching the play.

The beetle at this time understands what torture is!

It feels like a ball, being kicked around, and like a mass of mud, being kneaded into various shapes.

In the end, she couldn't bear it anymore.

Transform into release!

A witch in a magenta robe suddenly appeared in the corridor, making Mrs. Norris jump up in fright.

It can be seen that this witch used to dress very delicately: a flamboyant wizard's robe, delicate hair, glasses inlaid with jewels, well-maintained nails...

But these things were destroyed by the cat. The wizard's robes were torn apart, the delicate curly hair was made like a chicken coop, and even the glasses were smashed.

This witch is Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet. This reporter is an Animagus who can turn into a beetle and fly around to get the scoop.

Today, when she was wandering around the Hogwarts campus, she accidentally found a pair of young wizards chatting, and the boy between the two was Tom Yodell, who made a big splash at the World Cup finals. The girls are not ordinary. His girlfriend, Hermione Granger.

The pair immediately caught the attention of Rita Skeeter. She approached the two of them and wanted to eavesdrop on their conversation, but she heard them discussing the form of Animagus after her death.

This frightened Rita Skeeter enough that she was about to run away, but was caught by Tom.

She was so afraid in her heart that she thought her identity was exposed, but in the later conversation, Tom Yoder didn't doubt the identity of the beetle, but just held her tight. This made Rita Skeeter a little confused, and finally decided to act on a whim.

Of course, in the end, not only did I see the "machine", but also the cat.

After the cat catches the prey, it will not eat the prey immediately, but will play with its prey until it is squeezed out of the last trace of energy.

Under the torture of Mrs. Norris, Rita decides to change back into a human form.

The transformed Rita wanted to find the cat to vent her anger, but Mrs. Norris ran so fast that she disappeared in a blink of an eye, so she could only stare at Tom and Hermione angrily.

Faced with this unexpected situation, Hermione was stunned. She didn't expect a big living person to suddenly appear in front of her. It's not that Hermione is rare and strange. She has never seen Animagus' transformation-Hermione has seen Professor McGonagall's transformation countless times, and this time today is mainly a surprise.

"What's the matter, Miss Animagus?" Tom said nothing, and handed it over with a carefree "What are you looking at".

For other places or other people, such a sentence is enough to cause a scolding war. But at Hogwarts, Rita Skeeter, who heard this, was instantly miserable. Because she, the Animagus, is not registered with the Ministry of Magic.

This means that once she is found, she will lose her job or be thrown into Azkaban.

"It's nothing," Rita Skeeter resolutely confessed after realizing that she was in a bad situation, "I just want to do a simple interview with the warriors of the Triwizard Tournament..."

"Well, walk slowly." Tom signaled Miss Skeeter to leave.

But just as Rita Skeeter was about to leave, Tom said something else, which made her stumble—

"Miss Skeeter, you don't want the Ministry of Magic to know that you're an Animagus, do you? So I suggest you take care of your quill and don't write anything weird."

"Okay, definitely!" Rita Skeeter ran away like a fly.

On the way, she also met Filch, the squib looking for the culprit who frightened Mrs Norris angrily. For him, Mrs. Norris was his closest partner, even his partner, and Filch had zero tolerance for any bullying of Mrs. Norris.

So after seeing that Mrs. Norris was almost scared and stressed, Filch was outraged. He took Madam Norris around the castle frantically, and then Rita Skeeter appeared in his sight.

"You stop, what are you doing?" Filch roared, stopping the strange face, and Mrs. Norris jumped behind Filch, looking terrified.

For Mrs. Norris, the transformation of Animagus is a very difficult thing to understand.

Seeing Mrs. Norris' reaction, Filch felt that he had caught the culprit.

"Come here and explain how people from the other school got in..." Filch "arrested" Rita without saying a word.

Rita Skeeter wanted to cry without tears: What happened to her today!

No one knows how Miss Skeeter got out of Filch's clutches. But after that, she really restrained a lot.

……

"Floating runes...can make objects levitate, power runes...provide a certain thrust..." Tom sat in the alchemy studio of the Room of Requirement, carefully carving the magic silver in front of him.

The metal on the workbench has nothing to do with the bulky piece of magic silver. At this time it looks extremely beautiful, like a work of art.

This artwork is made up of thousands of feathers, which are fixed by Tom to a base plate, forming the appearance of a pair of wings. The wings are almost finished, but there is still a small round hole in the center, which makes the progress of the wings stuck at 99%. In fact, what is to be installed in this small round hole is the most important.

At this time this thing is in Tom's hands, it is the control center of this wing.

"Connect the rune... You're done!" Tom engraved the last rune, filling the last bit of space on the small ball.

After the completion, Tom carefully placed the ball in the hole. The ball and the hole card fit together perfectly.

At the moment of getting stuck, a reflective light flashed across the wings, all the feathers trembled slightly, and the whole wing appeared to be ready to fly.

Tom knew he was done now.

This wing is Tom's birthday present for Hermione. Perhaps it was the ability to read flying that replaced her flying talent. Hermione knew nothing about flying and couldn't even control her broomstick. That is to say, there is no final exam in the flying class, otherwise Hermione's report card will definitely have a failing record.

According to the characteristics of Hermione's "chocobo", Tom tailored this birthday gift for Hermione.

The gifts are ready, and now it's only Hermione's birthday.

……

In the early morning of September 19, Hermione changed her clothes as usual and came to the common room of the Ravenclaw Tower. At this time, many students had already woken up and were discussing the Triwizard Tournament.

Listening to their bold speculation about the first project, Hermione felt a little funny in her heart. At this time, she met Tom, who was approaching, face to face.

"Good morning," Tom greeted Hermione, shaking a small bag in his hand, "I brought you breakfast, do you want to go out for a walk?"

"Of course." Hermione suddenly realized that today seemed to be her birthday!

On his birthday, Tom would definitely invite her to go out for a walk with him, and he never missed it. Hermione bowed her head shyly. While shy, she was also looking forward to what her birthday present would be.

The two went downstairs and went straight through the hall. Soon, the two were walking on the lawn by the lake. Not far away, Durmstrang's ship was docked by the lake, casting a vague reflection.

The two stopped under a tree, and Tom asked Hermione to turn his back and closed his eyes.

These are your wings. When taking out the gift, Tom looked at Hermione's back and said silently.

————

2-in-1 4,000-word chapter, is there a monthly pass or a recommendation ticket?