94 Diagon Alley

    Neppe's—" she looked around cautiously, "— 'preference' for Harry was about the same. "

    Gwen was sure she wasn't being heard when she was talking behind her back, but her labor assignments today were scary. Professor Snape seemed to be in a very bad mood. He asked Gwen to collect 20,000 cockroach eggs today, mix them with leech blood, and dry them until they were eight mature.

    After coming out of the gloomy basement, Gwen felt like his spirit was about to collapse.

    until she bumped into Dobby pulling Winky on the way.

    "Good evening, Dobby, Winky. What are you doing?" Gwen asked, suppressing his nausea.

    "Dobby is going to Miss Ollivander! Dobby has done her job!" The elf answered shrilly, bouncing.

    "Thank you, Dobby." Gwen grabbed the two elves, scratched the pear quickly, and slipped into the kitchen.

    "You can call me Gwen, Dobby." Gwen looked at them gratefully, the Ollivanders had never had a house-elf, so she didn't think she should be called Miss . "Then tell me who stole Professor Snape's personal stash?"

    Dobby pushed Winky in front of Gwen: "Winky saw it! Winky was on duty yesterday! She saw Professor Snape's office in the middle of the night with a torch on and a cabinet door open. A seam! Someone's looking for something in there"

    But Winky covered her eyes tightly with a tea towel and refused to say a word.

    Gwen could only pull its hand down: "Winky—who stole Snape's potion ingredients?"

    Winky's mouth seemed to be under a spell, but Gwen thought it was his own refusal to speak. The elf immediately slammed his head into the table: "Bad Wink! Bad Wink!"

    Gwen was taken aback, "What happened to it? Dobby? Why didn't Winky tell me?"

    Dobby crossed his hips, mad with anger: "Winky must still be thinking about its old owner! But Professor Dumbledore gave Dobby and Winky work, and Dobby worked for Hogwarts! One Galleon a week, one day off a month, Dobby loves freedom and loves work. But Winky can't adjust, Gwen Ollivander. Winky forgets she's cut off from Mr. Crouch, she Now she can say whatever she wants, but she can't."

    "Why, can't house-elves just say what they think when they comment on their former masters?" Gwen watched the thumping twinkle and gave it a headache.

    "Oh, no, ma'am, absolutely not," said Dobby, suddenly serious. "It's house-elf slavery, sir. We keep secrets for our masters, keep silent, Sir. We uphold the honor of the family and never speak ill of our master."

    Gwen rolled her eyes, "Winky, you can stop answering my question."

    The elf had tears and snot mixed on her face, so she barely let herself go.

    "You just have to tell me that you didn't answer my question because you couldn't tell me who he was?" Gwen asked.

    After a while, Winky nodded very weakly.

    Gwen looked at Dobby again, "Dobby, you said Winky's old owner was Mr. Crouch?"

    Dobby nodded under the threatening gaze.

    This is not what Gwen imagined, and she does not believe that Mr. Crouch will come to Hogwarts - the office of the potions professor in the basement - to steal a little potion material.

    "Dobby," Gwen skipped Winky this time, "please keep staring at that for me, please? When you're not on vacation."

    Dobby patted his chest and bowed as if he had received some honor.

    Inviting a dance partner is harder than defeating a dragon

    Gwen was suddenly surprised to find that Hogwarts accommodated so many girls that she hadn't noticed before. Girls giggling and whispering in the hallways, girls shrieking when a guy walks by, girls exchanging ideas about what to wear on Christmas night…

    Gwen couldn't help but ask Katie, "What a big event the Christmas ball is? How can I see everyone being more enthusiastic than the Triwizard Tournament?"

    Katie couldn't help showing a rare and strange look: "Gwen, no surprise, this is the only Christmas ball most of us have at Hogwarts."

    Gwen pinned her fingers and counted for a long time, really, no wonder all the students above the fourth grade chose to stay in school for Christmas.

    "And from inviting the dance partner, to preparing the dress, and finally dancing with the dance partner to spend a good night together." Katie held her hands with a dreamy look on her face. "The bond between boys and girls - how fascinating."

    Gwen looked like she had eaten a leech: "You sound like you read ten Muggle romance novels in a row last night."

    "I did read a few," Katie flipped her hair, "but the school doesn't allow graduating students to come back - my dear Oliver wrote eight letters about it - this is Something that never happened."

    Indeed, Katie's owl lost a circle, Gwen was also a little surprised, she always believed that if Wood had a leaderboard, Quidditch goal, three kinds of four Quidditch **** , the team's seven brooms will be in front of the girlfriend. But the truth is that this gentleman is jealous because Katie can't take him to the dance.

    "Don't tell me George hasn't invited you yet." Katie blew her shiny nails, "Does he plan to invite anyone other than you?"

    "No." Gwen pouted, Ginny just came back from outside, and her face was not very good-looking.

    "What's the matter? Darling." Gwen and Katie leaned in and the three of them crammed together on Ginny's four-poster bed.

    "There is a funny news, and a not very funny news." She said sullenly.

    Gwen and Katie always thought that Ginny might be the most mature child of the Weasleys, far better than her brothers. It was a rare expression for her, except that she was bewitched by Riddle's diary in her first grade.

    "Ron - um - he just invited Fleur Delacour to the dance with him." Ginny said the first news.

    Katie was trying her best to hold back her laugh, and Gwen was a little unhappy: "Why do boys like her? Because she's beautiful?" Gwen is still fascinated by George's veela trouble.

    "He still invited her in front of a bunch of people—'She looked at me like I was a sea cucumber or something. She didn't bother to answer.' That's how Ron described it. "

    Gwen feels more sympathetic to him now.

    Then Ginny dropped her face, "Harry said he invited Qiu Zhang...".

    No one could laugh this time, they all knew that Ginny felt a little different about Harry.

    Gwen patted Ginny on the arm: "As far as I know she's going to the dance with Diggory."

    Ginny covered her face: "It made me even more uncomfortable, she rejected Harry."

    Gwen and Katie put their arms around Ginny's shoulders and Katie said softly, "Don't be sad, Ginny. You know, boys are so annoying."

    Ginny was more mature than they thought, and she didn't want to cry at all. Because the next second she would be indignant for Hermione. "Neville invited Hermione, but Hermione has already agreed to someone else's invitation."

    Gwen and Katie were not surprised.

    "But Ron actually said that no one would invite Hermione." She growled angrily, "These two rejected idiots - laughing at other girls!"

    Gwen was also a little angry, "Ron didn't invite Hermione?"

    "Trust me," Ginny said sarcastically, "he might realize at the last minute—he could choose to invite Hermione..."

    "...then go to the prom alone." Katie sneered unceremoniously, "Ginny dear, I can invite you to the prom, have you chosen your dress? Oliver anyway? I can't go back to school either..."

    Ginny was a little frustrated, "I've promised—yes to Neville. After Hermione rejected him, he invited me, and I think... anyway... anyway, if I don't say yes, I'm too I can't, I'm not in fourth grade yet."

    "Ow!" Katie covered her heart in a pretentious way, as if she had lost her love: "Gwen, my good friend, since George hasn't invited you yet. Promise me."

    Gwen, annoyed by the stupidity of the Hogwarts boys, nodded, "If George doesn't invite me, I promise to dance with you."

    "Thank goodness the principal didn't stipulate that the dance partner must be a man and a woman," Katie snickered, "The two of us must dance very well together."

    Gwen and George have been dating for almost a month, and he still has no intention of formally inviting her, as if he has decided that Gwen's dance partner must be him.

    They ran into Sirius and Harry on several walks, the cynical godfather trying to teach Harry how to please girls - although Gwen didn't think Harry needed much, his Fame has attracted enough peach blossoms for him.

    Gwen sighed and shook his head like an old man: "Sin, he likes but doesn't love him, and he likes him but he can't see it."

    George also sighed and shook his head in a similar fashion: "Sorry, Ron may finally invite Ginny to dance."

    Gwen is so anxious, do you still have time to care about your brother's dance partner? Maybe you're going to dance with Fred.

    Fred just came over to find them, and planned to ask Ron to borrow an owl to deliver the letter.

    "There are clues about Bagman, I just need to write to confirm," he said.

    So the three of them took the jumping machine and returned to the tower.

    Hermione was urging Harry when they entered the lounge. "But it could take weeks to solve that mystery!" said Hermione, "if everyone else knows what the next project is, you are the only one.