Ravenclaw's Blue Gem

"Are you Hermione Granger?" the old witch asked.

"Huh? No, I'm Luna Lovegood..."

"So you are Luna, the girl who lives in the same dormitory with her? She once told us about you." The old witch shook her head, "What use are you asking these questions?"

"It will affect my judgment of her." Luna said, "If she really betrayed us, I will be very painful... and it is absolutely impossible to forgive her, even if you want to fight her."

"To be honest, I don't know." The old witch sighed.

"I want to know the truth--"

"This is the truth, or this is the fact." The old witch explained patiently, "You can ask any principal here, and they will give me the exact same answer as me."

"But you told Professor McGonagall that she was the murderer!"

"We told Minerva only what we saw: she and Principal Snape went to visit Albus together. Apparently they had scheduled a meeting in advance because it was already late. We just watched them enter the principal's room. , But Professor Snape cast a spell to isolate us from prying eyes. We don’t know what happened next. We just remember that a limp Albus appeared on the seat when the spell was lifted. I thought he was resting. One thing we regret last."

"But why didn't Professor Dumbledore stop Snape from casting spells on you?" Neville asked suspiciously.

"They used to do this when they met. They used to do this when they needed to discuss important confidential matters."

"They've met before?" Ginny cried out in surprise."Is it in the principal's room?" The old witch gave her a positive answer.

"Last question, ma'am." Luna stared at the portrait frame earnestly. "Is there anything else hidden in Zoe's body? A soul? A personality? Is she unable to control herself?"

"This is not a question I should answer." The old witch said quietly.

"Thank you. Sorry, let's go."

They broke the glass box, carefully went around the broken glass to take out Gryffindor's sword, and left the principal's room.

Chapter 24 Theft (Part 2)

"Did you get the answer you wanted, Luna?" The atmosphere on the return journey was subtly low, even though they managed to get the sword.

Luna did not answer Ginny's answer. She fell into deep thought and started with the fragments, but how to stitch together to get the correct pattern is not a conclusion that can be drawn in a short while.

The stairs from the principal’s room to the gargoyle seemed to be stretched indefinitely. Neville carefully held the sword and pressed it to his skin with a cool touch. Perhaps it was an illusion. He felt that the heat of courage continued to flow from his heart. The earth gushed out, and even his body became brisk. After regaining the founder's treasure, he even felt for a moment that even if he was tortured to death by the Carlo brothers and sisters, it was not unacceptable.

Will grandma be proud of his death?So what about Daisy, will he recognize him as Longbottom, as the elder brother?

The thought that flashed like a glimpse appeared in his mind.Grandma is still receiving treatment in St. Mungo, and her old age makes the healing of her injuries slower and more difficult.Although the Death Eaters who broke into her house wanted to force her to submit, when the two sides tore their faces and the battle officially started, the spell would not take the initiative to escape from Mrs. Longbottom.

And while his grandma was admitted to the hospital, he actually lost Daisy.He should have thought that it is impossible for Daisy to remain silent on the search and arrest on the platform, but he gave up thinking at that time, just separated from Daisy according to the usual practice, and went to his own friends and box.

"We have to hide it in advance, Neville." Ginny said, looking at the stairway that was about to end. "When the portraits tell Snape about it, he will definitely ask someone to search the dorms of the three of us."

"After you two go out, go straight back to the tower. I am responsible for hiding the sword." Neville thought for a while, "I plan to hide it in the forbidden forest first and wait for the limelight to pass before moving it."

"It's dangerous there, it's still late at night!" Ginny disagreed.

"I won't go in very far, just find a hidden place to dig a hole and bury it in." Neville said, seeing what Ginny wanted to say, and added, "You don't want to go with me. Conspicuous and easy to make mistakes. If Snape comes to search before I return, you can also cover me in the lounge."

He swallowed another possibility back into his stomach.If Snape didn’t hesitate to torture them, he would get the information of the sword. Ginny and Luna who didn’t know would be spared the pain of skin and flesh. He had been accustomed to beatings in the past few months. Even if he sacrificed his life, he Nor will the information of Baojian be leaked.

"It's a pity that you have no chance." The stone statue jumped aside, and a cold male voice came from the doorway close at hand. Snape's bat-like black figure appeared there, holding a wand in his hand, approaching them, "Wes Miss Lai, if you dare to move your hand in your pocket, I want to move more than just my mouth."

The three of them couldn't find the time to attack from his posture, and Snape's sudden intrusion made them panic. Every time the opponent took a step in the direction of the stairs, they unconsciously took a step back.

"Now slowly raise your hands." Snape dragged his tone. "Longbottom, please put the school's private property on the ground... squat down!" Neville stared at him in disgust. The professor who was the most annoying and frightened of all time gritted his teeth in humiliation and placed Gryffindor's sword on the ground as he said.

From the moment Snape appeared, they knew the plan had failed.

********

"Labor?" Alekto exclaimed in disbelief, "After they premeditated and implemented such a crazy plan? Your punishment is only labor?!" Her brother Amicus leaned against the wall with his arm in his arms. He examined the layout of the principal's office with those little mung bean eyes.

"This place is really irritating." He didn't participate in Alekto's questioning, shaking his head and muttering, "The color is too bright, it always reminds me of Albus Dumbledore." He drew his wand and faced Dumbledore. The portrait seems to be considering ruining it.The other portraits on the wall stopped pretending to be asleep, and they condemned him for trying to destroy the portrait of a great wizard.

"Shut up! You chattering and tattered portraits! I'm going to destroy all of you and throw them into the trash can—" Amykus waved his wand excitedly.

"Put down your wand, Amicus." Snape said impatiently. The brothers and sisters had been entangled in his office for almost two hours. Alecto hoped that he could modify the punishment, at least let her take it. A few little ghosts in their early days stunned others; and Amikos is a brainless idiot who just loses his temper like a bullfighting. "The portrait of the principal’s office is protected by magic. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t be so reckless. ."

"Severus, you must let me punish those three people personally!" Alekto slammed the table. She did hold the power at Hogwarts, but that was limited to other professors who were equal to her.Snape's authority at Hogwarts is much greater than hers, and the decision he made can only be revoked by himself in principle. "It's just for breakfast today, and the news has been spread all over. Those three What the guy is doing is making some rebellious students ready to join them!"

"'Must'? Alekto, you better figure out who you are talking to. Who got this position, who got the master's respect. It's not your turn to order me what to do." The corners of Snape's mouth conjured a shallow arc, which made his whole face feel ironic.

Alekto's face flushed with shame, and Snape didn't even give himself any face.The Dark Lord attaches great importance to Hogwarts, which is not difficult to obtain information among the Death Eaters. To be able to manage Hogwarts for the Dark Lord is, in a sense, proof that he values ​​it.

"If this continues, resistance activities will only become more frequent."

"Just grab the evidence of their violation of school rules and divide their scope of activities, and that happens to be the responsibility of your brothers and sisters. What you need is to do things more diligently instead of coming to me to find fault."

"We don't know how to contact them, how to grasp the current situation?"

"That's the problem you need to solve." Snape said. "There is one more thing, you can all hear clearly."

"You've done too much punishment on Longbottom before, learn to stop it in moderation." Hearing Snape's words, Alexo smiled sarcastically."Why, did that old guy file a lawsuit against you?"

"Do you think I was joking with you?" Snape said solemnly. "Why do you think the master let you in to teach? Is it to make you torture these students and make them shed more blood? He I hope you can teach them the correct concept! The inheritance of the pure-blood family has always been a big problem. The number of pure-blood wizards has never been dominant among all wizards. For thousands of years, many family names have disappeared. Now you But I want to make the students understand fear by torturing the three pure-blood wizards desperately? What if they die!"

"It is necessary to avoid the reduction of pure blood members as much as possible. This is also what the master meant." As soon as Voldemort's name was moved out, Caro brothers and sisters became calmer and more cautious.Snape took a bit more to get them to accept that forest labor was an extremely insulting punishment for the wizard's self-esteem.

When the two left, only the rustle of a quill was left in the office.Pure blood is a useful shield. For all Death Eaters, the term itself means privilege. Even though it is ridiculous, it has many believers. Even Voldemort believes in the power it contains.

The news that the sword was stolen will soon reach Hogwarts, even to the ears of the Dark Lord himself. If he wants to keep the position of the Dark Lord’s loyal servant, he should take advantage of the fact that no one has tried to use it. This incident discredited him before attacking.

He sealed the letter addressed to Voldemort.Voldemort asked them not to disturb him with trivial matters, but this was out of the scope of trivial matters. Snape was certain that Voldemort would be satisfied with his proposal to transfer the sword, which meant that he valued Voldemort's property.

He put down the letter in his hand and held the sword that he had snatched from the trio.According to legend, Godric Gryffindor carried this sword besides his wand when he went out to practice."Wizards should not be proud of defeating Muggles with magic, but should use the glory of winning the duel to get their approval." It seems that one of the reasons he commissioned the goblin to forge this sword.

This sterling silver forged sword carries hundreds of years of history, the legends of its founders, and the pride of Gryffindors. The body of the sword under the firelight flows with a soft light, like a perfect work of art. The heart of the person staring at the sword is taken away.

Beautiful and delicate, enough to be fake.

Chapter 25 Journey Home (Part 1)

"Good morning, Hermione. What's written in today's newspaper?" Ron took a bite of bread, his voice vague.He first went to the kitchen after leaving the bedroom, and now he returned to the living room, bypassing the solid wood dining table in front of him and leaning over to Hermione. "You won't be reluctant to leave this bastard." He pointed to the one occupied. Most of the photo of the page, this is an exclusive interview from the Daily Prophet, the subject is Ms. Seagal, the director of the Muggle-born Registration Committee, and the subject is to explain the necessity of removing Muggle-born from the wizarding team , "She actually went to the newspaper. Now I see this hypocritical smiley face and feel sick."

Hermione raised her face that was about to be buried in the newspaper pile, and gave Ron a fierce look: "If you disturb me again, Ron, I'll throw you out of the restaurant." She printed a little flustered. The newspaper page of Zoe's picture was turned over, "As always, there are many lies, but they can also give us some information."

"For example?"

"For example, they formally lifted restrictions on the use of black magic, and they even encouraged people to do so. Using the unforgivable curse is no longer illegal." Hermione hastily turned over a subject to speculate that Harry Potter was actually a crime. According to the author’s report, this kind of slander has never disappeared since Voldemort came to power. “Another example is that they announced that they would cooperate with Gringotts——”

"Cooperation? You are kidding!" Ron cried, "Goblins won't cooperate with humans. Those stingy and cunning little guys will chop off your head while you sleep!"

"Okay, I should change the word." Hermione rolled her eyes. "They will forcibly intervene in the work of Gringotts. When the time is right, they will kick the goblin out."