The fourth pair of footprints
It's raining in Godric Valley today.
Queenie woke up to the sound of pattering rain. She drew back the curtains; there was no wind outside, but the rain was heavy, with large raindrops relentlessly pounding against the windowpane. The whole valley was both lively and quiet.
Queenie chose a red dress; she needed to look her best when the sky was overcast.
She drank the half-cup of warm water that was on her bedside table, and when she went downstairs, she saw Harry leaning on the windowsill, intently counting the winding streams of water on the glass.
Queenie watched for a while, waiting for him to finish counting before speaking, "How many are there?"
“Eighty-one, uh—” Would Queenie think he was childish?
She walked over to him and leaned against the windowsill with him. "You like rainy days?"
“Yes.” Harry smiled at her. “It was raining the day Hagrid picked me up, just like it was the first day I went to Hogwarts.”
"It sounds like your lucky day."
“Not entirely…” He also had many unpleasant memories related to rain, such as the Quidditch match in his third year… Of course, Queenie didn’t need to know that. “It’s more like every day is my lucky day—I’ve arranged to meet Hermione and Ron in a bit, shall we head straight to the coffee shop? We can have breakfast together.”
Tom is a waiter at the coffee shop.
He neither liked nor disliked rainy days; while there were fewer guests on rainy days, he had to be extra careful with cleaning.
For example, right now, the café has welcomed its first group of customers of the day, and the carpet at the entrance has instantly become dirty, while the rainwater sliding down the umbrellas has also soaked a small patch of ground around the umbrella stands.
Tom took the order for the customer and went to the door to tidy up when he noticed four pairs of footprints on the off-white carpet.
He paused for a moment, then peered into the corner.
There are definitely three people, right...?
Ron couldn't help but exclaim, "Merlin, today's rain is just as heavy as the day Harry was so scared by the Dementors in the third-year Quidditch match that he dropped his broom!"
Harry, "..." Thank you!
Queenie's interest was piqued. "Harry dropped his broom? What happened?"
Ron immediately began to tell Queenie the whole story with great enthusiasm—starting from the first time Harry was knocked unconscious by the Dementors on the train.
Harry couldn't stop him at all, because Queenie's hand was on his leg the whole time, making it clear that she wanted to listen.
Ron's vivid recounting not only delighted Queenie, but even Hermione, who had been worried since their first meeting, couldn't help but smile upon hearing the "funny stories." However, she quickly frowned again, "Harry, Horcruxes... are they real?"
“I don’t think Sirius would lie to me.”
Hermione tugged at her hair in frustration. "So the second-year diary wasn't just a memory, it was a piece of soul." She told herself to calm down. "It's okay, it's okay. If we could destroy a piece of Voldemort's soul in our second year, there's no reason we can't in our fifth or sixth year. Harry, I remember you said that you finally made Tom disappear by piercing the diary with the basilisk's fang? So it seems that the basilisk's venom might be one of the things that can destroy Horcruxes—although we still don't know how Horcruxes work."
She picked at her nails, clearly anxious, but still trying to reassure everyone, "I think Sirius is right. A wizard's power comes from the integrity of their soul, and Horcruxes aren't so scary—at least not as scary as basilisks, otherwise we would have been wiped out in our second year. When school starts, we'll go to the Chamber of Secrets to pull out the basilisk's fangs and get our weapons ready... Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Queenie clapped her hands. "Darling, you're amazing!"
"Hermione, you're amazing!" Harry, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak, clapped and praised her.
“I knew you’d have a way—you always find a way. I hadn’t even thought of the basilisk’s venom!” Ron was so excited that his face turned red, and his voice was so loud that it drew frequent glances from the waiters.
"Oh, uh, I... I was just guessing..."
“That must be it! You never make a mistake!” Ron said decisively, then changed the subject, “But I think Dumbledore and the others must have thought of it too. Maybe the basilisk is now a toothless eighty-year-old snake grandmother—snake grandfather—was it a man or a woman?”
Harry fell into recollection. "Should it be a lady? I remember her voice was somewhat delicate, unlike the one I first heard at the zoo."
"Really? But the tone of your Parseltongue sounds almost identical to its, both are hissing sounds."
Hermione, "..." How come they don't care at all?!
Wait, this scene seems familiar. Just yesterday, right here.
Hermione thought in a daze that so much had happened in the past two days: the Deathly Hallows, the love affair of the century, the Horcruxes... each one more explosive than the last.
Queenie was overjoyed. She thought that if Voldemort were willing to spend time getting to know both Harry and Ron at the same time, he would be laughing his head off at them. "Hermione, darling, I don't think you need to worry so much. The Order of the Phoenix already knows, and they're taking action."
Yes, the Order of the Phoenix. They have discovered Voldemort's greatest secret, which he himself is probably completely unaware of.
Hermione deflated, as if finally realizing she was utterly useless, and muttered, "Fine, but it's never wrong to improve our strength, we must—"
“Oh, speaking of which, I have some great news to tell you,” Ron interjected excitedly. “Last night I was so shocked that I lay in bed with my mind completely blank, and then—I learned Occlumency!”
Hermione, "..." What kind of cause-and-effect relationship is this?
Harry, “…” Then what about the days he was tormented by Snape?
"I might be exaggerating a bit, but the first step is always the hardest, isn't it?"
“Great!” Hermione exclaimed. “Then we can start practicing advanced spells. The Disillusionment Charm is a good start, and Harry won’t have to wear the Invisibility Cloak anymore. I’ll go back and look through the book and send you the practice instructions.”
Ron glanced at her and muttered under his breath, "Or you—you guys could at least not be so perfunctory in your compliments."
Hermione heard this, and she feigned composure, "Of course, I know you can do it. You are my—our prefectural head."
Ron straightened up immediately and slurped down two large bites of fried egg.
Queenie is now experiencing the same feeling Hermione and Ron had when they watched her and Harry together. How wonderful!
Harry squeezed her hand. "Queenie, what kind of jam do you want?"
"Hmm, I want them both."
The butter knife on the table immediately began to deftly dart up and down, and Queenie just had to prop her head up and wait.
The rain stopped, and the guests at that table were leaving.
Tom moved to the doorway, lowered his head, and said, "Welcome back again."
After the door closed, he stared intently at the small puddle on the road outside.
The reflection of the streetlights in the water swayed once, twice, three times… four times! There really were four people!! Closely following behind the girl in the red dress!!!
Tom resigned that very day, sending the store manager a message with only four words: "There are ghosts on rainy days!"
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