Hogsmeade, Outer Winter
It was the first snow of the winter this year. It came late, but it came fast. It only stopped in the evening, and the small shops in Hogsmeade looked like little gingerbread houses sprinkled with frosting. It had been a few years since the post-war reconstruction, and the wizards seemed to have finally regained the vitality of the past. They wanted to celebrate this Halloween properly, so the little gingerbread houses were decorated with various colors of cream or chocolate needles. Oh, and the indispensable pumpkin jack!
In this rare festive atmosphere, there was only one shop that appeared desolate and deserted. The door of the shop was half open, and the wind blew in and out of it. Who knew how many years old goods were messily placed on the rotten shelves or scattered on the ground. The half-asleep shop owner was unshaven and his hair was disheveled. He sat alone behind the counter, drinking, and playing with a wind-up toy in his hand.
When the man in the black robe pushed the door open, the scene in the shop was like this.
The shopkeeper shuddered, as if he was frightened by the footsteps he had not heard for a long time, or as if he was frozen by the sudden invasion of the cold wind. He casually threw the empty bottle to the corner, where there was a pile. He stood up and asked, "You are …" The shopkeeper's voice revealed a sense of weariness and vigilance.
The man slowly closed the door, walked to the counter, and pulled down his hood. "It's me …"
Not a Death Eater. The shop owner fell back to his seat and reached for another bottle. "It's you … Harry."
The blind young man's face was pale, but there was a smile on his face. It was a bleak smile. He said calmly, "It's me, George. It's really cold today. Can you give me a can of Butterbeer? "
"I don't have any Butterbeer here, only vodka …" The shop owner muttered, almost to himself. "Well, there's one more, one more … Here you go."
When Harry took the first sip of beer, George finally came out of the world of alcohol and found some sense of reality. He looked at the savior across the counter and found that the 25-year-old young man was unbelievably thin. Coupled with his pale face, he reminded George of an old friend from many years ago.
"Harry, why are you here all of a sudden? I thought you'd be at …"
"Godric Valley." Harry interrupted. "I've already been there. I talked to James, Lily, and Dumbledore for a while." As he spoke, the young savior smiled again. "The snow in Godric Valley is so beautiful."
George was silent. The Clockwork Man in his hand rolled back and forth. He stared into Harry's deep eyes and suddenly felt that the person in front of him was a Phantom. 'Yes,' George repeated silently. The chaotic snow, the cold night, the dark shops, the decadent world, and the visitors who descended from the sky. No matter how one looked at it, it did not look like a product of the real world.
Everything was a Phantom. George glared fiercely at Harry. Staring at him, he swallowed another mouthful of beer and said unhurriedly, "I've been visiting a lot of friends recently. Lupin and Tonks are still the same. I told them that Teddy has started dating, but they didn't believe me. Too bad I don't have a picture of that girl. Ha. Sirius, on the other hand, has been forcing me to date … "
George shrank deep into the shadows, listening to Harry's name jump out of his mouth and slip out through the crack in the door. Suddenly, Harry leaned forward and asked with a chuckle, "George, do you still remember Scrimgeour? When Bill got married, he came to the Burrow to look for me. "
George did not know which word burned him. He suddenly tightened the Clockwork Man and said in an almost shrill voice, "I don't remember. It's too far away …"
Harry rudely interrupted him again and continued, "I can finally tell him honestly: you really look like an old lion!" After saying that, he gulped down more beer.
And then? George waited for Harry to continue, but Harry suddenly quieted down and turned his head casually, as if he was looking at the decorations in the shop with hollow eyes.
"Where are the others?" George could not help but ask, "Then, where are the others?"
"The others?" Harry was at a loss for a moment, then patted his head. "You mean Hermione. Hermione went to Australia with her parents for a vacation, so I didn't disturb her."
George finally looked at Harry's sincere face and could not say anything. He could only close his eyes and take a deep breath. "So, why are you looking for me?" You have been missing for so long, why are you looking for me?
Seven years ago, Harry, who had just graduated from the Hogwarts, led the remaining members of the Phoenix Society to rebuild the wizard world after the war. At that time, there were ruins, graves, corpses and fugitives everywhere, so the system was almost paralyzed. The wounded heroes returned, only to see poverty and hunger. At that time, many people were suffering from mental illness, and St. Mungorry was full of soldiers with faces full of despair. But the young savior was like an emotionless man, mercilessly forcing everyone to take up their posts, to prop up the Ministry of Magic, to prop up Hogwarts, and to restore the functioning system of the wizarding world. For a period of time, Harry forced everyone to assess the mental and physical condition of every wizard day and night. But there were still so many tears, so much pain, so many suicides. Only then did George realize that there were so many families in England that were originally intact. But just when everything was on the right track, Harry Potter suddenly disappeared. He had been gone for five years, and there was no news of him.
George opened his mouth, and it took him a long time to be sure that he was not making a strange sound. "We all thought you were dead, Harry." In fact, the Prophet's Daily had published the news of the savior's death two years ago.
"Is that so?" Harry said lightly, rummaging through a small box of gag candies on the counter. He peeled one open and put it into his mouth. "Ah, it's expired."
"What happened to your eyes?"
Harry avoided answering and talked about something else. "Speaking of which, Molly's candies are still the best."
George loosened his grip, and the little red-haired toy bounced up and down on his lap, singing in a hoarse voice, "Weasley is our king."
"You went to the Burrow." George's voice sounded rusty.
"Ah, yes, I went to the Burrow," Harry said calmly. "I went to see Fred."
George held the little figure in his hand and looked at its funny red hair and funny expression. The muscles on his face trembled as if he was about to laugh. "Fred."
"Well, Fred still likes to joke, but Molly strictly forbade him from doing too dangerous experiments at home, because Arthur also brought Xenophilius to the Burrow. You know, since Luna went out to look for the Curved Horn Beast, old Lovegood's health has not been very good …"
George and Harry sat across the counter from each other. George was slow to realize that the distance between the two was so far that Harry looked like a thin silhouette. It made George feel cold all over.
"Harry …" George stood up and reached out to touch the young man to make sure that he was real, but Harry tilted his head and avoided him. "Harry, what happened to your eyes?"
Harry tilted his head and continued talking. George leaned on the counter weakly and was forced to listen.
"… Then I went to see Severus."
"What did you say?" George looked up.
Harry calmly looked in George's direction. "I said, after I left the Ministry of Magic, I went to see Severus, and then I gave him what he wanted."
George was caught by a huge shadow.
Harry said that he gave Snape what he wanted. In a daze, George saw the savior, who had just turned twenty, hurriedly run away from the crowd with old injuries and diseases caused by overwork. (Yes, it was a snowy night. George saw it in the newspaper) Then, he found the piece he wanted among the many tombstones. Did he cry? Did he say anything? Did he show that bleak smile? The young man gouged out his eyes with his own hands. (The bright red blood flowed on the white snow and the gray tombstone) Then, he buried them in front of his old teacher's grave.
The blind young man was unaware of the shadow George saw. He just sighed in the dim light. "It's too lonely."
George used all his strength to say, "It's been a long time since we had a customer."
"The more difficult the world is, the more jokes we have to make." Harry took the red-haired doll from George's hand and cast a repair spell on it. The doll's dispirited hairstyle became lively again, and it sang "Weisles is our king" in the dust. When it turned around, both of them saw the letter on its back.
Harry hummed a few lines with the doll and then pulled his hood up. George came back to himself. "Are you leaving?" Why did you come back?
"Time to go …" Harry listened to the wind outside in a daze. "Happy Halloween, and I wish you a prosperous business!"
"A prosperous business?"
Harry had already opened the door of the shop. The snow outside suddenly became heavier, and large snowflakes rolled in. Harry's thin figure was even more like a silhouette. He looked back and seemed to be smiling, but the smile was soon swept away by the wind.
George only heard one sentence clearly.
Business must be booming.
— — — A Dividing Line
The door opened with a bang. George, who was staring at the toy in a daze, looked up in surprise. Why are there so many visitors today?
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