Ever since Hermione had revealed her dancing partner at the Ball, her relationship with Ron had turned sour, and after a brief show of his shock, he had started to get into a fuss, at least in Hermione's opinion.

She couldn't understand why Ron was angry, and who she chose as her dance partner should report back to him?

Ron even maliciously speculated if Krum wanted to get close to her and steal information about the second project.

"He's Durmstran's!" Ron snapped, "He's Harry's rival! He's Hogwarts' rival! You—you are—" Ron was obviously searching for powerful words to describe Hermione's heinous sin, "You're a pro-foe and a deed, and that's what you did!"

"Don't think of others so badly! I'm going to read a book, get out of the way," she scolded, then unceremoniously pushed him away and walked out the door.

As she was about to step out of the threshold, Hermione turned her head and sneered, "I don't know who was so excited to see him coming?Who was so bent on getting his autograph?Who was putting his model in the dorm room?" and left without looking back

"Look, that guy just asked her out, and she started doing the same to her old friend who had known her for four years, and now I guess she's going to find that Krum. Ron said hideously, as if after being taunted and rejected by Fleur, the suppressed anger in his heart completely exploded at this time.

"Oh, brother, this really is—" Ginny looked at Ron sympathetically, and stopped talking.

"Forget it, this kid looks like he deserves it. The twins glanced at each other and shook their heads in tacit agreement.

"Little brother, you still have a long way to go when dealing with girls, and arguing with girls is a very ungraceful thing. George shook his head and said with some hatred.

"Especially if you still can't argue, let's go, if you don't mind, can you give me the model of your great enemy? Fred seemed to add fuel to the fire and patted Ron on the shoulder.

"Do you all think it's my fault!" said Ron, his face flushed, and he said loudly, squeezing through their encirclement and walking up the spiral staircase in the direction of the dormitory, and then a model was quickly thrown down the stairs, and one of the model's arms was shattered.

Meanwhile, Hermione walked down the road, thinking about what had happened today, and just the other day, Krum had found her in the library and said that he wanted to invite her to be her Lady at the Ball, and she replied that she needed to think about it.

And today happens to be the time for her to give an answer.

She and Krum agreed to meet in the auditorium today and give her answer.

Coincidentally, she had experienced that embarrassing scene, but luckily Luna blocked the girl's direction, otherwise Hermione would not have known how to respond.

She really thought she had been invited for a moment, but of course this idea was quickly dispelled.

But while she was happy, she had some unexplained irritability in her heart.

"Who could be his dance partner?" Hermione wondered in her mind, "Is it that little girl from Luna?" Although it didn't do her any good, or even distracted her, she couldn't help but think about it, and then some sour feelings flowed from the bottom of her heart.

At that time, she fled to find a corner position, and then slowly calmed down her somewhat agitated mood.

"You don't look very good, Homien, what's going on?"

Krum belatedly, and then, in a not-so-standard pronunciation, asked Hermione with concern.

"Nothing. Hermione shook her head.

"Well, how are you thinking about it, can you accept my invitation?" Krum asked with some embarrassment, still a little overwhelmed when faced with someone he really liked.

"I want to ask you a question first, can you answer me?"

"You say. ”

"Why did you invite me? I think a lot of girls would be happy to be your dance partner, right? And there must be no shortage of pretty girls, and I don't think I have anything to boast about other than being a little clever enough to be able to excel in this aspect of learning. ”

Hermione shook her head, speaking out her inner question.

Before Krum could answer, she asked Krum again: "Also, you are not my classmate, and you certainly don't know my study, in the eyes of most unfamiliar people, I should be an ordinary girl, by the way, although I really want to change my image, but my hair has always been messy and untidy, no one will invite such a girl, right?"

"I can't find a single reason why you invited me. Hermione had already changed her somewhat defensive gaze at this time, looking at the boy in front of her, feeling that he had bad motives and impure intentions.

At this time, Hermione had some thoughts in line with Ron's thoughts later.

"I don't care about that! And I think you're beautiful, they didn't appreciate it at the time! And, I swear, I don't mean anything other than to invite you to be my dance partner. Krum explained with a flustered expression, trying to show his sincerity as much as possible.

"You rushed into the library in a hurry that day, I felt that this girl was not ordinary, you have an independent temperament around you, which is rare. Krum continued.

Hermione remembered that the first real time they had met and talked was in the library, where she had searched for information about the dragon for Harry, and then met the Quidditch star and

"You're so confident! I've been paying attention to you when you've been rummaging through the shelves for those books, I've never seen a girl with such temperament!"

"Yes, yes?" Hermione said in a stammering voice in the face of such a blunt compliment.

Her instincts told her that the boy had no ill intentions.

"Don't regret it, inviting me will probably be ridiculed by a lot of people, who may say in private - oh, look at which Durmstrang warrior, is he blind to find such a girl who is not good-looking. ”

"Who dare, I see?" said Krum, slamming his strong fist on the table in front of him, his eyes looking around viciously. The long square table trembled a few times, and the delicate silver plate on the table made a crisp crashing sound from one end to the other. Many of the students who secretly looked at the two of them closed their mouths tacitly and were silent.

People from extremely cold regions only reflect their fierce atmosphere at this time.

"Looks like I have no more reason to refuse, I'm looking forward to this ball, thank you for the invitation, and I'm sorry for my suspicion of you, I hope you won't be upset by it. Hermione smiled apologetically, then held out her hand and said.

"Of course not!" Krum said hurriedly, then hurriedly stretched out his powerful palm. The irritable mood just now disappeared without a trace.

Of course, after that, Hermione still underestimated the speed of the rumors and the malice of others, and just on the way back to the Gryffindor common room, she heard these words more than once-

"I bet she's definitely an aphrodisiac on Wickdore!

"I'm going to go to Professor Snape and tell him that there are students who use banned drugs, that this is his specialty, and that he must be interested in the erring Gryffindor. ”

On the way back, Hermione heard all kinds of chatter, she thought her heart was strong enough, but she still couldn't control her emotions and became a little depressed.

The frustration quickly turned to anxiety, and finally Ron's questioning seemed to have completely ignited the last bit of lead on the powder keg in her heart.

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This farce brought the relationship between Hermione and Ron to an impasse again, but her relationship with Harry was not affected, she was still actively giving advice to Harry, and she was still trying to crack the secret hidden by the golden egg, but she looked through a lot of information and found no clues.

Until the Christmas holidays came, the semester ended in the blink of an eye.

"Harry, aren't you in a hurry?" Hermione stared at Harry with a strange gaze, as if that would make Harry understand her painstaking efforts.

"It's Christmas, Hermione. Harry said lazily. He sat in an armchair by the fire and read "Flying with Artillery" for the tenth time.

"Aren't you going to do your homework? We need to make time to study the golden eggs!"

"Hermione, don't worry, it's still early to turn in your homework, isn't this the first day of the holiday? Harry leaned back in his chair and put the book on the coffee table beside him, and said lazily.

"As for the golden eggs, we still have plenty of time until February 24th, don't we?"

With so many friends helping him, his godfather is still in Hagrid's hut, and according to Sirius, his working hours are flexible and the location is the same, and it seems that staying at Hogwarts now is part of his job, which makes him even more confident.

"Harry, if you're a bit of a pursuit, you should be prepared to endure hardships, don't you just want to go through the motions after getting this hard-won opportunity? Don't you have the desire to get the first place?"

Forced into desperation, Hermione could only resort to radical tactics, of course, in her heart, she still felt that Harry only needed to be safe.

"I don't know if Malfoy has already solved this problem. Hermione's mind popped into the heart of a thought that startled her.

"I'm so stupid to copy so many useless things and secretly give them to him, and it looks like he didn't use any of them. Hermione's thoughts couldn't help but extend, remembering what she had done before.

Ron's previous nonsense was right, but the subject was mistaken.

"Okay. Harry sighed, then got up from his chair and prepared to go back to his bedchamber and take out the golden egg to study, which was sitting quietly in the chest under his bed, and had not been tried to study it except when it had been opened the last time they had celebrated.

The screams were terrible.

"Let's change places, Harry, it's not a good place to study. Hermione said, then made her own suggestion, "Is Sirius in Hagrid's cabin? that should be a good place to go, and he should be able to give us some advice." ”

Harry quickly agreed to the offer, and as he was about to leave, he suddenly asked, "What if Ron isn't there?"

"I don't mind if he goes along, but if he wants me to communicate with him, he has to apologize to me first. Hermione's expression froze.

"Oh, okay. Harry sighed and decided not to discuss the issue again, as Ron happened to be out of the common room at this time, which saved him some trouble.

Outside, there was a bleak and solemn atmosphere, and the leaves on many trees had already returned to the earth at this moment, turning into dust, and occasionally a few withered yellow leaves were still hanging on the intertwined branches, and when the wind blew, they fluttered and fell from them.

Harry and Hermione trudged through the leaf-covered path, and soon a patch of orange and yellow came into their view

After Hagrid left, the land next to his hut was completely deserted, and the pumpkins that had not been plucked seemed to grow in the land without restraint, unaffected by the seasons.

"Harry, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Sirius seemed to see them through the window, and then took the initiative to open the door and walk out of the house, giving Harry a big hug as he stood on the threshold.

Sirius wore a black fur coat today, I don't know what kind of animal fur was used, but at a glance, it gave people the instinct that it was quite warm, and the lower half of his body was wearing a pair of brown leggings, which looked very energetic, Harry had no doubt that his godfather could posefully pretend to be a hunter if he was paired with a bow and arrows at this time.

"Don't stand, come in, it's warm in the house. Sirius said with a smile, and then drew Harry into his room.

By this time, the cottage had taken on a new look, similar to the one in Grimmauld Place, with all the bacon hanging from the lanyards thrown away and the bed replaced with a real one (Hagrid had previously used several patches of paper). ）

Soon, Harry and Hermione explained what they were here for.

"Interesting. Sirius touched his chin and said, the faint stubble rubbing against his slender fingers, and he fell into thought.

"Let's open it first. Hermione gave her advice as she pulled four earplugs from one of her delicate purple ladies purse and put one back.

"We can keep the noise to a minimum. Hermione suggested, and Sirius nodded in agreement and took the earbuds.

After all three of them were ready, Harry clasped the golden egg open with his hand.

A terrible and desolate hoarse cry came from it, but after being weakened, it was finally no longer so unacceptable.

Just as they were about to take a deeper look at the golden egg, Harry suddenly felt his scar start to ache as if it had been burned.

Deeper into the bone marrow, it hurts a lot more than that night during the holiday.

"Surrender, or die. A hoarse voice suddenly entered his ears.

Such a picture suddenly broke into his mind-

A middle-aged man was curled up on a black marble floor, groaning in pain, as if he was being tortured with extreme cruelty.

From Harry's own point of view, it was as if he was the abusive party.

"Don't think about it. The man said disdainfully, then looked up, ready to make eye contact with "Harry", he was fighting, he didn't want to give in.

"For me, death is the most terrible thing, but for you, there may be more terrible beings than death, and it is not so easy to die. Harry heard a sound that sounded like a snake roaring, and he couldn't help but feel creepy.

An even more penetrating pain came from his forehead at this time, and the severe pain made him not even have the strength to moan, and he fainted directly, as if he had lost his strength, and fell straight backwards.

Before he lost consciousness, he could only faintly hear Hermione's screams, Sirius's shouts, and the noise of the golden eggs that were still ongoing.

"Can you close the golden eggs first?" was Harry's last thought before he lost consciousness, and then he passed out completely.