Ravenclaw's Blue Gem

"I found it from the corner of the closet. It was probably a gift from a friend before, but I accidentally got my size wrong." Mr. Weasley found a cowhide belt and fastened his waistband. "We have to dress up like Muggles this time, Harry, what do you think?" After getting Harry's approval, Mr. Weasley seemed very happy. He was very interested in Muggle affairs. interest.

Every one of the boys who had been kicked off yawned and looked sluggish. Ron walked in the living room like sleepwalking, but his eyes were still tightly closed, and he didn't know what he was muttering.George and Fred put their arms on each other and stood still.At this moment, there was a rush of footsteps, and Mrs. Weasley took Ginny and Hermione over and awoke the twins standing in the aisle.

"Why do we wake up so early! I swear it's not two hours since I went to bed!" Fred complained, "Yes, Mom, Bill and neither of them are there!" Mrs. Weasley looked sternly. While holding them, the two little girls hurried to wash, "They will all Apparition, so they can sleep for a while. You can't, you must not run around with Arthur, you know?" The twins' apparently perfunctory response made Her mood looked worse.

"There must be a housekeeper at home, or I will follow you and watch you, two mischievous guys." Ginny and Hermione could still hear Mrs. Weasley complaining about George and the others, Ginny. Holding up the water to wash her face, the temperature of the cold water drove part of her sleepiness, and she looked a lot more energetic.

"Mom always said that, thinking that George and the others would have nothing to do, but she still loves them very much." She and Hermione bit their ears in a low voice. Little secret—this kind of behavior obviously made them closer, and Hermione felt that Ginny's attitude towards her was closer.

"I support George and Fred. They don't have to fight for the future of the Ministry staff like others. That would be a waste! If you can make those things, don't you think they should open a prank shop? "Hermione had to agree that the talents of the two brothers for trouble-making were far more outstanding than their other talents, even better than their ability as a Gryffindor batsman.

"But they shouldn't make Mrs. Weasley sad, at least the outward attitude should be agreed." Hermione also washed her face, took the veil Ginny handed her, wiped it and looked through the mirror. Ginny, "I really envy you. My hair is always reluctant to stick softly by myself. They are always messy. Next time I think I can try to use a spell to help..."

At this time, Mrs. Weasley’s warning sound came from the living room. Even though Mrs. Weasley had tried to keep her voice down in order not to wake the sleeping person, the anger inside was very obvious.The girls walked to the living room and found that the air was constantly flying up and down in various packages of candies. They all slipped out of Brother Weasley’s pockets and various places, and Mrs. Weasley was holding a magic wand. Flew to her feet and piled a lot.

It seemed that the two brothers were planning to bring their inventions to the World Cup venue for sale. Mrs. Weasley became angry until they were ready to go and were about to leave. Her attitude towards the two brothers did not become more gentle.The twins didn't just give in. They left Bao behind angrily and left the burrow in stride, without even saying goodbye.

*****

"Zoe, can you pass me the teapot?" As soon as Draco's voice fell, he saw a large teapot with delicate patterns drifting over, and then stopped firmly on the table in front of him. The teapot also automatically filled the two cups with tea. The light-colored tea smelt hot, and the faint scent spread into Draco's nose.

"Why are you using a magic wand here?" Draco was startled. "Minors can't use spells outside of school."

"That's just a lie used by the Ministry of Magic to deceive children. They can roughly detect where the wizard used the spell, but it can't be accurate to a certain person. This is now the home base of wizards all over the world. Relax Draco. I just shipped the teapot, I don't want to waste time." Zoe said while sitting in a chair reading a book without looking up.

"We are all here at the World Cup finals. Why do you have to stay in the tent and read a book? How about going out together? Dad said we still have about an hour of free time before we set off to the box. Mr. Crouch will come and They must have set up their stalls, we can find a lot of good things." Draco patted his side pocket, and there was a crisp sound of coins. From the sound, he should have left this time. I brought out all the pocket money I put down.

"I saw a store selling Bulgarian and Irish souvenirs when I was out just now. We can walk from one end of the tent to the other end of the tent, and stroll through every store." Draco was immersed in his coming. I am excited about having a lot of commemorative goods, "When my father invited you before, I thought you wouldn't agree."

He remembered that Zoe had simply agreed to Lucius' invitation. Even if she asked her the reason, she didn't explain it, but just said that she was willing to visit them with them.Narcissa is very happy because she thinks this is like a family activity. She thinks it is very meaningful. Even though Zoe and their family are not related by blood, she always treats her as a daughter.

Zoe thought for a while, and based on what he had seen before, promising Lucius's son was the correct answer here.Judging from her past dealings, although she has her own likes and dislikes, she should be very willing to "wrong" herself for important people. After all, this time she was just observing what kind of person Barty Crouch is. Don't be too prominent.

According to her mind, Draco seemed to be considering whether or not to go out.Finally she nodded, "It's better to go with two people than to go alone." Draco had a big smile on his face. "Dobby! Dobby!" The elf ran over with his short legs. Little master, for and for you!" it cried shrillly, its head sank, and made a funny bow.It was a little afraid of Zoe who was on the side, "Hello, miss."

Draco didn't do too much to the elf as he had done in the past, "Get my jacket," he ordered.Since Zoe and him raised the issue of the treatment of house elves last year, at least on the surface, he just regarded Dobby as a servant, not a slave to be insulted.

"This is a very smart choice, Draco." Zoe watched him put on his jacket, Dobby bowed again, and then ran towards Narcissa to add tea and water."Even if you did it because I joined SPEW..." "I'm not!" "Well, just treat it like this." Zoe accepted with a chuckle, but Draco felt even more aggrieved.

"But what you need to know is that house elves, as a part of the ancient wizard family, are themselves informed about history and stories. Wizards are passed on from generation to generation, and if the elves are always there, they will be passed on from generation to generation. The older the family, the deeper the dark part. The elves may be the only creatures that face them completely. They know more than the wizards, because people will subconsciously regard elves as belongings. Avoid exposing their ugliest side to them. They are the most silent insiders. Thinking about it this way, is it not natural to treat these walking sources of intelligence? If one of them is determined to rebel, everything in that family All will be exposed to people, nothing is left."

Chapter 17 SPEW

"Of course there are other ways to make these little guys really shut up." Zoe's voice couldn't hear the joy or anger, as if he was just stating an irrelevant fact. "You know how the Black family treats their family members. Elves? When the elves are old, they cut off their heads and hung them on the wall like trophies... I don’t know if the person who made this suggestion is to keep a secret or to satisfy the vanity of curiosity, but it always returns. Said this is a good way to completely control the life of the elves, from birth to death, so that they will not go around and say something."

"But..." Hearing her indifferent tone, Draco only felt terrified, even though Zoe didn't show any judgment on the right or wrong of such behavior, but only stated the existence of this fact, but it is precisely because In that way, there is a sense of cold scrutiny.He opened his eyes wide, and some details that he had never thought about before suddenly appeared in his mind. Those traditions that he believed should be absolutely correct, were condensed with what he felt these years and the last summer vacation that solidified them. Everything that happens collides.

"The wizards treat the elves as slaves and think they can control them. They are unintentional beasts. They only need to follow the instructions of humans. They take this for granted, but few people see it. Draco, you beat too much. Is it better? When you feel irritable, when you feel the need to vent, or when you look at Mr. Lucius," she said the title very smoothly, "when punishing the elf for various reasons, are you? Also stood aside and laughed? Think this little figure is screaming funny?"

Draco lowered his head, feeling that his head was full of sweat, only a small part of it was because of what Zoe said, more of those cold eyes that were so cold that there was no trace of affection, and the confident tone, which made Della a knife. Ke's heart was cut open, directly opening his most secret places, those things that he had taken away from his sight in the past and accepted as truth.

"Why do you think that little elves will not climb on your bed in the middle of the night and cut your trachea with a kitchen knife? Or use their spells to directly guide heavy objects to smash your heads. If done well, they can even be regarded as What an accident."

"Contracts...Yes, they have contracts! How can they resist the master's orders..." Draco was a little too loud, attracting Narcissa's attention, "What's the matter, dear little guys?" The conversation between the two There was a brief interruption. After Narcissa's doubts were dispelled, Draco wiped his forehead, and the back of his hand was already wet.

"Contract? Is that ridiculous act of exchanging clothes? Giving clothes heralds freedom...a long-term mental self-suggestion, self-enslave, these are not shackles, whether it is a human or an elf, as long as they have suffered spiritual despair The blows and the constant stimulation of the body will be distorted and metropolised. I am very experienced about this... Don’t you think that at that time, even if they will commit suicide due to collapse in the end, they will definitely give them the pain of desire to end Erase it?"

Her attitude caused Draco to fall into a trance, with a strong but unreasonable credibility, "Don't treat life differently, Draco. First of all, they are all one, and second are their respective races. Little Elves are a race that loves to work. This is their characteristic. This makes them willing to serve humans for a long time, but gradually they become slaves and become part of tradition, for example." She picked up Lucius. I haven’t finished reading today’s Daily Prophet.

"This strange wizard who died in the deep alleys of Hogsmeade last weekend has his limbs and joints twisted by magic." She turned one of the pages. "There is no prisoner yet. But what if we Boldly guess, if the prisoner is a house elf and the victim is its owner, it has been humiliated under his hands, and it is more painful and more serious than you think..." Zoe’s tone was strange With the rhythm and rhythm of her, Draco looked in a trance, as if following her words to the deep alley.

He saw the wizard who was hurriedly fleeing. The little Reaper took his life without saying a word. Maybe it still had a happy, empty expression on its face... He found that he agreed with Zoe’s point of view. The elf body was full of deep scars, many old wounds, many new wounds. It silently looked at the past master who had died, and then, like the Dobby he had seen before, began to roll frantically on the ground, using Head hit the ground.Then it really became Dobby, and the fallen corpse became his face.

With a snap of his fingers, Draco woke up from the nightmare. He seemed to have been fished out of the water. He felt that his back was soaked. The kind of thing that leaped forward realistically even in fantasy. With the smell of death, Draco felt the trembling of his hands and feet couldn't stop, until a pair of warm hands held him, and then he saw Zoe's eyes telling him all this.

The sea-blue pupils seemed to suck him in: “That’s why we want to let the little elves choose to be able to choose their own way of life voluntarily. They may think that the current way of living without independent thinking is easy. They only need to follow the lifestyle given to them by their masters, and they can live like domestic animals. But even if it is forced, we also want to let them know the smell of freedom, at least knowing that we have such a choice, this is also to let wizards have Consciously, in order not to be killed by something in the middle of the night..."

The compelling pressure suddenly disappeared: "Then join SPEW, whose full name is the House Elf Rights Promotion Association. Our goal is to let people ban cruel abuse of our magical creature friends and launch a campaign to improve their legal status. The entrance fee is two silver sikes. This is a badge that serves as a member's logo." She skillfully took out a small round badge with SPEW letters from her pocket and placed it in Draco's hand. Draco was dumbfounded. Looking at her, her mind couldn't work at all.

"Okay, okay, I'll join the club." Finally, he said weakly.

"Congratulations on becoming our second full member." Zoe smiled and shook hands with him. The horror that Draco had brought before seemed to have never appeared.

*****

"You really have changed a lot. You never said those things so harshly before." The two of them shuttled between various stalls, and there were strangely dressed wizards everywhere. At first the Ministry of Magic They can also be forced to behave normally in front of a few Muggle rangers, at least not to make people doubt their identities.But as night fell, the excitement of the upcoming World Cup finals ignited everyone's nerves. The Ministry of Magic could no longer control wizards from all over the world, and had no choice but to let them put on wizard robes and talk loudly about the next thing. the match of.The dazzling light effects of strenuously drawing the fireworks lit up in various places, and the children ran around holding the fireworks.A variety of small cart stalls have been erected on both sides of the road: long hats representing the colors of the two teams, the green one is Ireland, and the clover above is dancing with the wind; the red one is Bulgaria, and the lion head on the ribbon is yawning lazily. , As long as a customer dares to reach out, it will roar imposingly.

Not only are the small objects related to Quidditch, but there are also long lines in front of the food stalls. Many people chew on pies and apple candies. Most of the snacks sold here are convenient for people to eat while walking. Halfway through, Draco felt his stomach bulge. He ate something in the tent before he went out, but Zoe ate less than her. She may have no appetite, even the sweet tooth that has always been a fanatic. I only ate a little.

"People change, don't they?" Zoe was noncommittal, playing with the small statue of Irish Seeker Lynch in his hand. Draco was eagerly choosing what he wanted. "You think I would buy a plum. Grid's statue, will she hit me if she sees it?" He hesitantly looked at the blonde villain walking up and down on the wooden table.

"I think she will be particularly proud, and I feel worthy of her." Zoe said flatly, "Who is this person?" She picked up a small figurine of a player that didn't look very eye-catching. Draco glanced at it, obviously not interested The previous Gao said, "Ireland’s seeker Aidan Lynch, he is also a good player, but when it comes to the Irish team, everyone thinks that their overall team is better than their personal strength."

In the end, under the sway of the shop owner ("Mr., you have to think carefully, there is only the last statue of Marguerite!") Draco hesitated to take it."I don't understand why she didn't come to see the World Cup." Halfway, he complained to Zoe, who unexpectedly bought Lynch's statue, even though she was not interested in this person at all, but she had a lot of money. , Can support her to do some meaningless waste.

"It's very simple, she's going to spend her honeymoon." Zoe twisted Lynch's arm to a horrible arc, but the plastic villain didn't feel pain. In fact, they are just magic items that can produce small things. Reaction, but not human.Lynch seemed to be expressing dissatisfaction, jumping up and down Zoe's palm, and the good arm kept pointing at the broken one.

"Is love really so attractive?" Draco complained, "If it were me, even if I were married, I would definitely come to the World Cup finals."

"That's why you can't even find a lover now, Draco." Seeing Draco's squat expression, Zoe curled his mouth. Unlike Lucius, the boy in front of him wanted It's much more interesting, maybe Lucius was like this before, but then she couldn't find the fun like this.

"Zo, Zoe?" A familiar voice came from behind, with anxiety, anxiety and doubt, "Why are you here?"

Chapter Eighteen Encounters

What kind of encounter can be more embarrassing than running into someone you are not mentally ready to meet?Hermione knew that her stiff face must look silly, but what made her even more alarmed was that she recognized Zoe's back at a glance. In the dazzling background, among countless strangely dressed wizards, she just When he raised his head, he felt that his back was a bit familiar, so he blurted out.But Hermione knew that her intuition was correct.

"What's the matter, Hermione?" Harry was talking to Ron before. They walked all the way, their pockets filled with the results of the battle, Ron's pockets were empty, and Harry finally paid him for a multi-function telescope. , In order to dispel Ron's enthusiasm, he told him it was his Christmas present."Siegel is here too? Don't you say she doesn't like Quidditch?"

Hermione nodded silently, and pointed to the girl who turned around in front of her.She knew that Zoe would definitely not watch the World Cup, so she easily agreed to the invitation of the Weasleys, because she also wanted to do some relaxing activities, instead of staying indoors for the whole summer vacation. She will go crazy down.

Is she a little thinner?Did you eat well?Unconsciously, Hermione kept her eyes on Zoe secretly.You must know that they have not written a letter to each other during a holiday. She has no idea about Zoe’s situation during this time, she doesn’t know where she is, what she has done, and how she feels. It has never happened since she became Zoe's friend. Even in the summer vacation of the first year, they exchanged some letters about their academic views.

Keep your distance.This is what she said to Zoe at the beginning. She thought that by doing so, she could calm down her mood and think about everything more rationally and naturally. Then she could see the true meaning of this mood, and it was a time for her. test.If, under the baptism of time, she is no longer moved and tossed because of Zoe's various things, it proves that this is indeed just a reckless impulse.

In fact, she did not think about Zoe all the time, although sometimes she felt painful because of the things that happened before, whether there was a better explanation for those things that happened, and about the things that broke Zoe’s heart. The matter felt a strong sense of guilt, but Hermione did feel that she had come out. She quietly wrote a few letters, but without exception, they did not send them out. Instead, they were pressed into the bottom of the drawer. She treated the letter as a letter. After sorting out her emotions, every time she finishes writing a letter, she is like walking out of a deep tunnel. The wind and the warm sun feel very comfortable.

As long as a period of time passes, the past time will be restored, and it must be possible.So even though she got Ginny’s advice because of her conversation with Ginny, she found that she was resisting thinking. It was not that she was afraid that Zoe would leave her, but that she couldn’t feel it at all. They were just friends, not more. What's the further relationship.Hermione sensed her own despicableness. She didn't want to be separated from Zoe, but she just wanted to limit the relationship to friendship. She didn't want to open Pandora's box.

Even though she thought about it countless times and thought about so many things, and felt that she was about to be ready, of course she did not want to meet another party, she was vaguely afraid, now seeing Zoe, if she still uses that pair of fullness Looking at her with affectionate eyes, everything she insisted on before will be broken into pieces like glass that has been hit hard, and can no longer be picked up.

But now the worst situation happened in front of her. Hermione found that the direct consequence of not meeting and communicating during a holiday was that she could not take her eyes off Zoe at all, and her mind was blank, and she could not follow her usual attitude. Saying hello, there is no way to escape, the whole person seems to be nailed in place, unable to move.

She noticed that the person turned around, but no longer looked at her first, nor smiled gently at her as he used to.Her was sensitive to loss and shock, but she knew that she couldn't blame anyone, because keeping the distance was the solution she proposed, and she was the first to lift her foot away, even if Zoe was still angry with her, it was natural.

"Potter, it surprised me to see you here." Hermione was surprised, knowing that Zoe always used Harry as a background board or air, and never paid attention to him.This is pretty good. Before, even if Harry appeared within two meters of her radius, she would put on a very dissatisfied face, as if Harry had polluted the air around her.It's just that when Hermione talked about Harry's past, she couldn't show her friendliness, nor could she continue to treat Harry hostilely, so she could only ignore him.

Harry was probably also taken aback. It took a long time to realize that Zoe was talking to him. The moment he heard the pronunciation of his surname countless times, the moment he vomited out of the girl’s mouth, he felt like he was talking. For another word, Ron also opened his mouth wide. As one of the trio, he was also very clear about Zoe's attitude.