Chapter 375 Hao Qi’s Funeral

Entering April, the rain and sunshine in Hogwarts became more and more abundant, and the leaves of the forest became emerald green, as shiny as water.

The Easter holiday is not easy. The third-year students have never done so much homework. The professors seem to be starting the prelude to final review. A whole year of knowledge is crammed into the homework during the Easter holiday, even more than during the Christmas holiday. More.

"This is also called a festival!"

One day after lunch Seamus Finnigan shouted in the common room: "We're still far away from the exams. What are they doing?"

No one paid any attention to him. Compared to Seamus Finnigan, who had not participated in Quidditch classes and was not a Quidditch player, the others were even more busy.

The Quidditch final was scheduled for the first Saturday after the Easter holiday. Harry and Ron had to do their homework every day after Quidditch training, not to mention that they had to discuss endlessly with Wood. Tactics, even though they looked like they were enjoying it.

Gryffindor's old Quidditch captain Oliver Wood is about to graduate, and Slytherin's Quidditch captain Marcus Flint has retained a level. It is foreseeable that this will be the end of the two old rivals. A battle.

Slytherin once had a glorious time, and Gryffindor has been unparalleled in recent years. For the senior wizards, this game will bring an end to their era. No matter they win or lose, they will be in the future. The academy will be left to the little wizards behind.

Even Percy seemed to have a similar idea. Every night, when Wood and other players discussed tactics in the common room, he would always ask the crackle player to stay away.

In everyone's memory, no game has ever come in such an atmosphere of anticipation and gunpowder.

Hearing Seamus' complaint, Loren yawned lazily and continued to flip through the tome in his hand - "Psychological Studies of House Elves".

He also had books of the same type on hand, such as "Pets or Slaves" and "The History of House Elf Domestication".

This is the book Hermione asked him to help read. Among all the third-year wizards, no one is as busy as Hermione. Although she has dropped out of Divination and Muggle Studies, she still has many classes.

Complicated arithmetic and divination, and obscure ancient runes, these two subjects took up her main focus.

In addition to completing her homework, she often discussed some grand topics with Professor Bubaji, such as the harmonious coexistence of Muggles and wizards, and the future development of the two societies...

Recently, the topic of house elves has been added, and the topic of house elves has been extended to other non-human intelligent races, including goblins, giants, Veela, centaurs, unicorns, vampires, werewolves, merfolk, and even acromantula... …

Inspired by Hermione, Loren discovered that the current social situation in the wizarding world was more complicated than imagined. The differences in the interests of all parties were not only the differences in the wizard class, but also dozens of races and humans with independent intelligence. Humans They are also divided into wizards and Muggles.

Wizards are divided into pure blood and mixed blood...

Loren became more and more convinced that there would be a huge war in the future, not just between wizards and Muggles, but also between humans and other intelligent creatures. The whole world is like a high-pressure boiler that is gradually boiling. The tentacles of Muggle society are constantly extending into the originally mysterious territory. It is like adding pressure to the boiler. Sooner or later, it will explode and the world will be turned upside down.

But that should be hundreds of years later, and it has nothing to do with him anyway.

Loren turned the page and saw this paragraph in the upper left corner, with something strange in his eyes: "In the 18th century, there was a house elf who put forward an idea from the perspective of an elf. If the wizard master wanted to punish the house elf, You should choose the most cruel punishment. When the wizard master can't stand his cruelty, he will be considerate of the house elf."

"It's crazy, it sounds like he's letting someone beat him up and then he relents when he gets tired!"

Hermione's eyebrows knitted together as she heard this, and she even put down the travel notes of Professor Bubaji that she was reading in her hand: "I just can't believe it, why would any creature have such an idea?"

"Hermione, do you need to put this paragraph into your notebook?" Loren asked.

Hermione hesitated for a while: "Yes, once we collect enough cases, we will go to Professor Dumbledore and ask if there is anything that can help Hao Qi."

Loren nodded noncommittally, tapped the page with his wand, and used the copy spell to leave an identical page on the spot. He held the page and laid it flat on the notebook, then cast a sticky spell, and a page of notes was That's it.

By the time Loren finished reading "The Psychological Study of House Elves", most of Hermione's notebook was filled with sticky notes.

The house elves that can be recorded in this book are more psychologically twisted than the last, but according to the author's discussion in the preface, these twisted psychology are not uncommon among the house elves. It only takes a sign, even if they have never been exposed to it before. If you learn similar ideas, house elves will quickly become die-hard fans of these ideas.

Harry and Ron came over several times to borrow Potions homework for reference. Later, they stopped pretending and sat across from Loren and Hermione, copying the homework openly.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the light of the sun had dimmed. Prefect Percy came back from outside and walked towards the four people sitting together with a serious expression: "Hermione Granger, Professor McGonagall asked me to tell you, Principal Dumbledore. I'm looking for you, I need you to go to the principal's office."

The four people raised their heads together and looked at him blankly.

Percy paused and looked at the other three people: "Professor McGonagall has asked you to go too. Today's password is Edinburgh Rock Candy, so hurry up."

The four people hurriedly came to the monster statue and gave the command to take the spiral staircase.

Ron came back to his senses and asked in confusion: "It's a bit strange, why did Dumbledore specifically look for Hermione and said that we can go too... I mean, it used to be Harry and Loren, they Get to know the principal better.”

Hermione blinked thoughtfully, her eyes a little more uneasy.

A minute later, several people pushed open the oak door of the principal's office and saw Dumbledore standing by the window of the office from a distance. He was wearing a dull gray robe, a black scarf, and a pearl brooch on his chest. Looking at the grounds outside the castle intently.

Fox on the branch winked at several people, but no one could understand what it wanted to express.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, are you looking for us?"

Loren noticed that there was an ornately carved pensieve on the desk, with mysterious runes engraved on it. There was a medium-sized wooden box next to it, and he didn't know what was inside.

"To be precise, looking for Hermione."

There was apology in Dumbledore's blue eyes. He turned back to look at Hermione seriously and said softly: "I'm sorry, Hao Qi passed away just yesterday."

Hermione was stunned for a moment, unable to react.

Harry and Ron looked at each other quietly, with the same doubts in their eyes: Who is Hao Qi?

Loren looked at the wooden box on the table a few more times, and he probably guessed what was inside.

"I originally planned to bury her in the Smith family cemetery, but I heard from people nearby that their family did not have a tradition of burying house elves. Only Hepzibah's great-grandmother once cut off the head of a house elf and brought her home. Into the coffin..."

Dumbledore paused, "So I brought her ashes back, and I plan to ask Hagrid to bury her in the Forbidden Forest."

The light in Hermione's eyes gradually focused. She seemed to have thought about a lot of things in an instant, and her expression was a little dazed: "I, I thought I would be very sad, or even cry..."

"But I'm not as sad as I thought. I've never met Hao Qi. Even if she was standing in front of me, I wouldn't recognize her... In fact, I haven't met many house elves."

"Obviously just now, I was still thinking about saving her from Azkaban..." Hermione's voice began to have a hint of crying, "Professor, am I a hypocrite?"

Loren looked at the girl with some distress.

Of course she was not hypocritical. She just knew the name Hao Qi and some of her experiences, so she was willing to put it into practice to save a house elf she had never seen before.

When she suddenly learned of Hao Qi's death, she even doubted herself because she wasn't that sad...

If this is a hypocrite, what about the rest of the world?

"I don't think so..." Dumbledore comforted softly. He patted Hermione's hair. "We can go see Haoqi now and see this poor house elf. She hasn't faded yet." In memory.”

Harry glanced at the pensieve on the table and probably understood something.

"Sorry..." Ron said bravely, "I still want to ask, who is Hao Qi?"

"This is a poor house elf..." Dumbledore said softly, "Her owner is an old and very wealthy witch named Hepzibah Smith."

Dumbledore took out a small crystal vial, which contained a silver mist of memory. He tapped a vial with his wand. The cork flew out, and the memory swirled and poured into the pensieve.

"let's start……"

Loren and Hermione already had a rough idea of ​​what had happened. Harry and Ron were a little confused. They approached the Pensieve doubtfully and got into the ethereal silver ripples.

In the next half hour, Dumbledore took them into the Smith family's old house in the memory of house elf Hao Qi.

They met Hokey, a house-elf that was tiny and impossibly old, far beyond any Dobby they had ever seen.

The old witch Hepzibah was a very fat old lady. In Hao Qi’s memory, she wore an exquisite ginger wig, her old cheeks were covered with rouge, and she wore a gorgeous pink robe. Like a piece of melted ice cream.

And she dressed up all this to meet the newly graduated Tom Riqueur, a tall and handsome young man with elegant manners and polite words.

Not much had changed from the student Voldemort Harry had last seen in the Pensieve.

Hepzibah was obsessed with Tom Riquil and lost her mind. She showed the treasured Slytherin pendant and Hufflepuff gold cup to Voldemort...

Seeing Voldemort greedily playing with the treasure, with a flash of frightening red light in his eyes, Ron shivered: "Oh my god, was he already so scary at that time?"

"In fact, what's even scarier than that is his heart," Dumbledore said.

The next memory is even more blurry, like a distorted black and white diaphragm, with distorted ripples at the edge of the field of vision:

The time was two days after Voldemort left. They saw the old Hao Qi adding a few spoons of strange-colored sugar to the cocoa tea. Hepzibah died immediately after drinking it...

The footsteps made a slight sound on the grass. The old wizard wearing a black scarf walked in front, and next to him was a burly man. He was holding a medium-sized wooden box in his hand, and four young wizards followed him. , six people walked in the open space on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"Voldemort tampered with Hao Qi's memory, put the crime of killing Hepzibah on her head, and took away Hufflepuff's gold cup and Slytherin's pendant." Harry said angrily, "He He was a bad guy from the beginning!”

Loren held Hermione, who was still a little sad, and said nothing. He didn't know how much Dumbledore planned to reveal to Harry. Maybe he had other plans, so it was best not to say more.

Ron had kept his head lowered since he left the castle. He seemed to have thought of something. He often looked at Dumbledore's back with suspicious eyes, but he didn't dare to ask.

Hagrid held Hao Qi's ashes with a solemn expression and said in a dull but loud voice: "Poor little guy, it reminds me of Aragog. They ended another hibernation not long ago. It is already very old. I know it Almost dying of old age..."

The four little wizards fell silent. None of them liked Aragog. Harry and Ron wished it would die soon.

Loren even thought about gathering some wool, but thinking that it was Hagrid's friend, he felt that this idea was not good.

Finally, they dug a small pit in an open space in the Forbidden Forest and buried Hao Qi's ashes. According to the funeral process, they should tell the story of Hao Qi's life, praise her spirit and character, and hope that she will find comfort and secret joy on the other side of death.

But no one spoke.

Hermione held Loren's hand, feeling a sense of security and tranquility in his palm, and there was a glimmer of light in her eyes.

Hagrid was diligently digging holes and filling them with soil. He looked sad as he worked.

That was not for Hao Qi's sorrow, but for Aragog, who was about to die of old age.

Professor Dumbledore showed compassion in his eyes. He was not pitying Hao Qi, but thinking of the many victims who died because of Voldemort.

Harry and Ron were muttering about the Horcruxes. They had never heard of Hao Qi's name before. Although they felt some regret for her death and condemned Voldemort, that was all.

Loren's eyes were calmer, but he was a little worried about Hermione's condition.

What about yourself?

Hermione asked silently in her heart.