What Are These Stones For?

What Are These Stones For?

After Transfiguration class, the students left the classroom in twos and threes. After such a "lively" lesson, they probably would not be in a good mood for the rest of the day!

Seamus patted his chest. "I used to think Snape was the scariest professor, but I realized I was wrong. You have no idea—Professor McGonagall kept staring at me throughout the whole class."

"That's because you somehow managed to blow up a matchstick in Transfiguration class when you didn't even know how to cast the spell!" said the blunt little chubby boy, Neville.

Seamus's face was black with soot, his hair standing on end. His already dark face became even darker after hearing Neville's words, rivaling Old Tom's. "Neville, are we good friends?"

"I suppose... we are?" Neville raised his head and answered after thinking it over.

"Then haven't you heard? If you see through something but don't say it out loud, you can still be good friends!"

Neville: b(￣▽￣)d...

A large group of students behind them sighed repeatedly, occasionally staring enviously at the two top students ahead. Harry and Hermione—why were they so smart? Merlin, why did you favor them so much?

If Hermione heard their inner thoughts, she would definitely say sternly, "I'm not a genius. I simply spent the time you used to play Wizard Chess, practice prank spells, eat pudding, cheese, pie, and..." The students' eyes filled with tears. "Princess, is that enough?" "...reading books!"

The students retorted, "But while we were playing Wizard Chess, practicing prank spells, eating pudding, cheese, pie, and... Harry wasn't studying either!"

Hermione looked at them disdainfully. "You losers think you can compare yourselves to a genius? Haven't you woken up yet today?"

An arrow pierced their hearts! The students clutched their chests as blood gushed forth, crawling away into the distance with difficulty. "Why? Life is already so hard, why do you have to expose us like this?! Ah, pfft..."

Harry said to Hermione, "Let's go to the dining hall together."

"I'm not going with you!" Hermione said haughtily.

Harry chuckled. "Did you forget what I told you? You're nowhere near as tsundere as Railgun."

"Who's tsundere?!" Hermione was like a kitten whose tail had been stepped on.

Harry said, "All right, then explain why you don't want to. Weren't we always in perfect harmony before?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. She had long since become familiar with Harry's casual manner and said helplessly, "The girls in my dorm keep pestering me every night, asking about my relationship with you and trying to find out things about you. They're driving me crazy."

Harry stroked his chin. "I didn't know I was so charming!" Seeing Harry's self-satisfied expression, Hermione wore the look of someone who had expected nothing less.

In the end, the two still went to the dining hall together.

The dining hall looked similar to the great hall from when they had first arrived at school. There were long tables, with students seated by House.

When Harry had first arrived, he had searched for several days without finding the dining hall. In the end, he had only learned its location after sacrificing his looks.

As usual, while everyone was eating that day, a large number of owls flew in from outside. After finding their owners, they dropped their packages in front of them. This often led to scenes of chickens flying and eggs breaking. The owls did not land on the tables before dropping the packages—they simply tossed them down from the air!

Of course, there were exceptions...

Someone shouted, "Look, isn't that Harry's Optimus Prime?"

Among the many owls was one eagle several times larger than the rest. Many people knew that this one-of-a-kind eagle was Harry's pet.

After finding Harry, the eagle glided low over the table, making many people shrink back and tuck in their necks. The eagle dropped a black package and flew away.

Hermione took a spoonful of soup and asked curiously, "Who would send you something?" Harry placed the tightly tied package before him. It was a cube-shaped object, not very large, though it looked rather heavy in Harry's hands.

"I bought it myself," Harry replied.

"Hm?" Hermione's curiosity was completely piqued. "What did you buy?"

Once the wrapping paper was removed, the item inside appeared before Hermione. It was a wooden box containing dozens of stones of identical size. Each was roughly the length of a finger and cube-shaped.

Harry nodded in satisfaction. "This is it. I asked Old Tom, the owner of The Leaky Cauldron, to buy it for me. Don't ask what it is or what it does. It hasn't succeeded yet, but I think it should be ready in a few days."

Hermione could only suppress her many doubts.

Just then, an owl flew in and dropped a letter for Harry. Harry opened it and saw that it was from Hagrid.

After reading it, Harry let Hermione read it as well.

"Hagrid wants us to visit him this Friday," Hermione said happily. It seemed she really had been feeling cooped up.

"I was just thinking about when to visit Hagrid. Now the timing works out perfectly."

"Mm, I have a small favor to ask Hagrid."

Luo Bei: Below is a story about Harry and Hermione that I found online. I was deeply moved after reading it.

We had thought Sirius Black could stay with Harry until the end, but Sirius Black ultimately fell behind that Veil; we had thought Dumbledore could stay with Harry until the end, but Dumbledore ultimately fell beneath that wall; we had thought Ron could stay with Harry until the end, but Ron ultimately vanished into the rain curtain of that forest. In the end, the only one who had remained by his side from beginning to end was her. He was the Boy Who Lived; she was not. He had a mission to destroy darkness; she did not. Why, then, did she not leave? Why did she not go home? Why did she take his burden upon herself? He never asked, and naturally, she never answered.

Did he love her? Did she love him? We do not know. We only know that when everyone doubted that he had put his own name into the Goblet of Fire, she believed him without needing him to say a word; we only know that when everyone was panicking and fleeing from the Death Eaters' pursuit, she did not forget to put his Invisibility Cloak into her beaded bag; we only know that she put all her effort into building him an army loyal to him; we only know that she threw herself into his arms in a frenzy and incoherently told him that he would not be expelled from school; we only know that during his darkest years, she accompanied him on his first return to his homeland and placed flowers on his parents' graves. She had her little gestures too. She would interrupt Harry's date with Cho, tell him to "behave himself" when he saw Veela, kiss his cheek when he needed encouragement the most, and coquettishly say, "I'm not changing the subject," when Harry asked, "Can you change the subject?" So in the end, we still do not know whether she loved him.

He and she were not friends, not lovers, not even more than friends but less than lovers. Their relationship could not be summed up by any known word, because it was unique—he was her Harry, and she was his Hermione. It was that simple.

So Dumbledore accepted all this as a matter of course. He told Harry, "I will use Miss Granger to restrain you," because he knew that Hermione was Harry's wisdom.

So Cho accepted all this as a matter of course. She knew that Hermione was his "dear Hermione," and that she could never challenge Hermione's place in his heart.

So Bellatrix Lestrange accepted all this as a matter of course. She knew that without that "Mudblood" by their side, Harry and Ron would lose their souls and be unable to escape that dungeon.

So Harry accepted all this as a matter of course, holding her hand again and again as they completed astonishing adventures, until the very end—before Harry went to his death, he thought of those he loved, and Hermione's name appeared first. Perhaps that did not mean anything, but how could she care? She had already accompanied him all the way, because some love need not be expressed and cannot be expressed!