Chapter 1025: Another Christmas
Madame Maxime was willing to help them with this favor. Student Exchange had always been a tradition between wizarding schools.
As long as her identity was kept secret, no one would know who Elaine was, and it would be easier to look after her at school.
Her current identity was the same as Harry’s, and she needed to be protected by the Order of the Phoenix. What place was safer than Hogwarts?!
Of course, this matter still needed the approval of the Ministry of Magic, and Dumbledore would find a way.
Compared to Elaine, Harry had been in a low mood after waking up. He was thinking about the connection between himself and Voldemort.
When it was all over, this feeling became even clearer, the scene he saw in the dream, the horrible statue he turned into, the situation when he was finally controlled by Voldemort, and Dumbledore not saying anything to him, not even willing to look at him.
All of this bothered Harry.
He had experienced a lot in these twelve hours, but Dumbledore still refused to talk to him, or even show himself.
Harry was wondering if Dumbledore was worried that he would see Voldemort in his eyes, that his green eyes would suddenly turn blood red with a slit like a cat’s eye, and that he would turn into Voldemort, just like in that final moment.
Voldemort entered his body, and at that moment, he was Voldemort, and Voldemort was him, indistinguishable.Harry had seen Voldemort’s snake-like face emerging from the back of Professor Quirrell’s head in the past. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would become like this someday because of the connection between him and Voldemort, turning into a monster.
No, he was probably a monster now!
Evan and Sirius had both talked to Harry separately, but it had little effect, because none of them could explain or maybe they had not to explain what exactly the connection between Harry and Voldemort was. Dumbledore thought it was not yet time to tell him.
The most important thing now was for Harry to master Occlumency to prevent something like this from happening again.
In short, the incident ended like this, and everything was developing according to its inherent trajectory.
Returning to his ancestral home, Grimmauld Place, Sirius showed quite a bit of enthusiasm.
Perhaps recalling his childhood, or perhaps trying to find a way to make Harry happy, he actually proposed to put up Christmas decorations, took the initiative to sing Christmas carols, and asked Evan, Harry, and Elaine what they wanted as gifts.
Yes, Christmas was approaching, the most important holiday of the year.
Both Voldemort and the evil god should make concessions for this.
For this Christmas, Evan originally planned to go skiing with his parents and Hermione’s family, but now it seemed that he couldn’t go. This was really a pity. Evan wrote a letter to his parents and explained the reasons, stating that he was studying at school. He was staying at Hogwarts this Christmas because he was preparing for exams, and this was a reason they could understand and accept.
Hermione and the rest of the Weasley family arrived at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place at ten o’clock that morning. Evan was writing a large order for Blood-flavoured lollipops and similar flavors, which somewhat improved Elaine’s mood.
“Oh, Evan, Harry, are you both all right?” Hermione’s voice came from the hallway, very fast; she must have run over. “I heard from Ron that Harry’s scar hurt. It’s Voldemort. Where did you and the Headmaster go afterward?”
“Norway,” said Evan, standing up and hugging Hermione. “How did you get here?”
“I came on the Knight Bus. Mrs. Weasley came to pick us up,” said Hermione, pulling off her jacket and curiously looking at Elaine behind Evan, giving her a friendly smile, “Hello, I’m Hermione Granger, you must be Elaine, right? I heard Evan talk about you.”
“Hello!” Elaine said, she pulled Evan’s sleeve and hid behind him, cautiously looking at everyone.
Evan didn’t know that she was so afraid of strangers or so shy. She had never been like this with him before, and she was obviously much bolder.
He briefly explained what happened to Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George, and introduced Elaine to them. Everyone already knew her identity.
Mrs. Weasley must have warned them not to ask anything, and everyone remained polite and curious as they should be.
This was the first time they had seen a vampire at such a close distance, but they found that Elaine was a very beautiful girl who was very afraid of strangers, very polite, and seemed very timid. Other than that, she was not scary at all, not what a vampire should look like as rumored: white-faced fangs, evil and sinister, and bloodthirsty.
“Dumbledore told us early this morning, and asked us to come here,” said Hermione. “But we had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. Well, you two disappeared right under Umbridge’s nose. She went crazy searching for you two in the castle, waking up half the castle. You really should have seen it…”
“Angry toad!” said Ron, also inspecting Elaine.
Then, as if he remembered something, he hurriedly turned to look at Harry. “Harry, how are you feeling?”
“Fine,” said Harry stiffly, without looking at them.
“Oh, don’t lie, Harry,” said Hermione. “You don’t look fine at all!”
“Really?!” Harry glared at Hermione. He actually wanted to say that no one else would feel better being controlled by Voldemort.
But seeing the worried and concerned looks on everyone’s faces, he didn’t say that in the end.
“Don’t overthink it, Harry, the connection between you and him is just a function of magic, because he once tried to use the killing curse on you, and it backfired, leaving a mark on you. Once you learn Occlumency, these won’t be issues anymore,” said Evan hurriedly, thinking it was best not to talk about this topic, otherwise it would be endless and not pleasant. “By the way, Hermione, we can’t go skiing this time, your parents…”
This time it was the Grangers who took the initiative to invite Evan’s family. It would be rude to refuse like this now, and it was also something Evan was worried about.
“Don’t worry. I’ve told them that everyone who’s serious about the exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. You and I both want to stay. They hope that both of us will do well in the exams, so they’ll understand, although they may be a bit disappointed,” Hermione paused and continued, “To tell the truth, I don’t like skiing. It’s not really my thing, so I’ve come for Christmas. Well, I’m happy to do it.”
“You just told me how great skiing was on the Knight Bus!” Ron yelled.
“Yeah, because you always laugh at me and say something like strapping narrow strips of wood to my feet,” Hermione replied.
“What’s skiing?” Elaine asked curiously.
“It’s a Muggle sport. Skis are mounted on the soles of boots to perform speed, jumping and sliding on the snow,” said Hermione, happy to finally find a common topic with Elaine. “What sports do you usually like, Quidditch?”
“I’ve played it a few times,” said Elaine, becoming interested. “I have a Nimbus 2002, a gift from my uncle last year. It’s the best broom. I’m usually used to being a Beater. Although I’m thin, I actually have a lot of strength.”
That was pretty good, but there was a small mistake in what she said, Nimbus 2002 was not the best broom.
Evan felt it was necessary to let Elaine see the Starcatcher when he returned to his room later. His enlarged, thicker and longer black gold broom would definitely satisfy little Elaine.
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