But when he returned to school, Harry realized that Dumbledore wasn't back.
Not only that.
Even Red Robin wasn't back. Bart, who was close to Bat's family, told Harry, "Something happened in Gotham."
Harry was shocked. "Gotham? Did something happen to Tim? " Gotham was Batman's Gotham. With the Dark Knight around, how could Bart say that something had happened to it in such a serious tone?
But what he said next was even more ridiculous. "It's not Tim. It's Batman and Nightwing."
"Mr. Grayson is also —" Harry had a bad feeling.
Ignoring the cleaning up, he pulled Bart into the room and kicked the door shut. "What's going on?"
Bart didn't look too good either. He scratched his short red hair into a bird's nest. "I live in Central City.
I don't know what exactly happened.
I heard it from the Flash and Wally. I heard that there were several riots in Gotham this month, and there was a large-scale prison break at Arkham Asylum.
Those villains — the Joker, Two-Face, Penguin Man and so on — suddenly joined forces to cause trouble for Batman.
They even planned a large-scale hostage situation to force everyone to hand over Batman.
In short, Batman inexplicably became the target of public criticism … "
Looking at Bart's troubled expression, Harry could roughly guess what kind of situation Batman was facing. He wanted to protect the people of Gotham, but Gotham wanted to push him over a cliff. "They forced Batman to take off his mask?"
As far as Harry knew,
The superheroes who were currently public were either not bound by the law, like Wonder Woman and Thor, or were not afraid of threats, like Iron Man and Captain America. However, most superhumans were still willing to maintain their dual identities.
Otherwise, the first to face danger wouldn't be the heroes themselves.
It would be their family and friends. So, before the three schools worked together …
Dumbledore and the others added a complicated confidentiality contract on top of the layers of protection that Hogwarts had.
"Not only that." Bart sighed. "They also forced Batman to admit to several cases involving human lives." Those were complicated cases that couldn't be explained, such as those committed by Two-Face.
"What about Mr. Grayson?"
Bart wrinkled his nose again. "Dick, in addition to being Nightwing, is also Batman's partner and his adopted son. Everyone knows that. But not long ago, there was a rumor that Dick and Batman had … a very close relationship. Of course, this is actually not a big deal. Almost everyone in our school knows about this. The problem is that when Dick was still Robin, he was only twelve or thirteen years old, about the same age as us. "
"They're trying to pull Batman down from his pedestal." Harry gasped.
A murder case and a pedophile. It might not be a big deal if these dirty water were poured on Batman, but once Bruce Wayne stood out, the public would have a specific target to attack, and the consequences would be immeasurable. At least for this year, the rumors would push the King of Pop from the other side of the ocean into the abyss.
And the most serious problem was Gotham. Bart was still worried about Batman's reputation, but Harry was thinking more. He could foresee what would happen to Gotham after Batman was gone. The crazy and desperate citizens of Gotham would lose their last hope, and Gotham would fall without a bottom line, and this time, no one would come to save it.
"So, did Principal Dumbledore go to Gotham?" This was indeed a serious matter, and it wasn't surprising that Dumbledore went to help.
But Bart shook his head to show that he didn't know much. "Gotham doesn't seem to plan to involve the other members of the Righteous Alliance, so I know even less."
That day, Harry told Kamia the news. After their conversation last night, they reached a compromise. Whether it was Nihon or Voldemort, no matter what he wanted to do, it wouldn't be what Harry or Kamia wanted, so it was better to put aside their differences and work together. And the first step to working together was to exchange information.
Kamia had another opinion about this. "I still think the key is you. After all, the foundation of this world is still Harry Potter, isn't it?"
Harry didn't think so. "Never mind. Based on what we've seen so far, I've only taken up one third of the plot, okay?"
After hearing about the chaos in Gotham, Kamia frowned for a while. She agreed with Harry's opinion, and she pointed out, "Even if the crisis has been resolved, the bad influence has already been done."
Harry had a feeling that there was a great misfortune behind this statement. This misfortune had been hanging in the air ever since he entered the Hogwarts. It was like a giant black curtain that was slowly descending, and today, it had finally landed before his eyes.
Everything that happened had a reason. Harry believed that they would eventually become clues that would lead him to the end, and then the curtain would fall, and the story would end.
(And then, and then the story would end …)
Harry came out from Kamia's office and wandered to the Gryffindor tower in a daze. Then he remembered that he had already moved out of this place, so he turned around to walk back. Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name. He turned back and saw Neville, who was sweating profusely from running.
"Hey, Neville!" Harry looked at little Neville's chubby face and felt that he really liked this little fatty.
The fatty smiled shyly and pulled on his robe. "Hey, Harry, I've prepared Christmas presents for you … I mean, I've prepared Christmas presents for you before Christmas, but one night, I overslept and forgot to pour in the potion, so …" The more Neville spoke, the redder his face became. Harry had to pat his thick shoulders to comfort him. "So, you've succeeded in the end, right? What is it? "
"It's a pot of rain grass." Neville blushed as he pulled Harry inside. "Before the holiday, Professor Sprout gave me a bag of rain grass seeds. I planned to plant them all before Christmas and give them to you. But something went wrong when I was dividing the pots, and then I forgot to water them. I had to write several letters to Professor Sprout to save them." Harry was stunned. He was stunned for a moment before he realized what was going on.
When Neville talked about the flowers and plants, it was as if he was talking about his own children. Ron wasn't in the dormitory. Only Seamus and another Gryffindor boy were sitting together and loudly discussing Christmas stories. When he saw Neville bring Harry in, Seamus whistled.
Neville's bed was on the balcony, and there were more than a dozen flower pots under the balcony. In each pot, there was a ball of wrinkled hemp rope curled up. Harry looked carefully for a long time before he realized that it wasn't hemp rope, but the rough and yellowed stems and leaves of the rain grass.
Neville said with annoyance, "Ever since I split them into pots, they haven't been in a good mood."
Harry was a little scared. "I thought the rain grass could detect our mood." It didn't express one's feelings freely.
"Yes, it can!" Neville picked up a pot of rain grass. The dry stems and leaves swayed unhurriedly as he stood up, looking like a slow old pedant. After the leaves stretched out, Harry saw the wrapped "wooden stick". There were no flowers or leaves on the stick, only three or four fruits the size of longans. Each fruit was golden with a slight pink color.
Harry felt that the fruit looked familiar. After thinking for a long time, he fished out a word from his memory: emoji.
The rain grass with the emoji fruit reflected Neville's feelings: blushing.
Harry eagerly took the rain grass from Neville. He thought that the emoji would be "laughing and crying", but after taking the leaves and shaking them for a long time, all the fruits became wrinkled. Harry looked at it for a long time and didn't understand. "Does this mean that my heart is full of vicissitudes?"
Neville also pondered for a while before he said with certainty, "Harry, this means that your heart hasn't been calm these days …"
Yes, there was always ethereal singing in the tall buildings.
With his wrinkled heart, Harry walked out accompanied by Neville. At the entrance of the common room, they bumped into Percy, who was about to come in, so they stepped aside to let him in.
After seeing Percy's appearance, Harry was very surprised. Percy was originally a very gentle, thin, and tall man, but after a vacation, Yulin looked like a bamboo pole. He looked sick at first glance. Neatly dressed, meticulously, and with a pale face, and a pile of documents under his arm, he looked exactly like the poor little scribe Bartoby in Melville's novel.
"Oh, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom …" Percy looked up and greeted his two juniors.
"Ah, Percy …" Harry was shocked as he responded. Then, with a trembling voice, he said, "Um, Senior, can you help me hold this flower pot?"
Percy didn't understand, but he didn't refuse. He freed one hand to hold the flower pot. Then, he saw Harry and Neville nervously staring at the ordinary-looking plant in the pot.
The long dry leaf shook weakly a few times, then spasmed and unfolded, revealing three gray fruits that seemed to have been petrified. Neville exclaimed, "Why is there one missing?"
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