Chapter 400 On the Train

Chapter 400 On the Train
July 7nd, Sunday, the day to leave Hogwarts.

Hogwarts Entrance Hall. Students wait in the crowded Entrance Hall for the carriage to take them to Hogsmeade Station.

Harry's trunk was packed; Hedwig was back in her cage on top of it. It was another beautiful summer's day. Harry imagined that when he reached Privet Drive in the evening it would be hot, the grounds lush and leafy, the flower beds bursting with colourful flowers. He felt no pleasure at all at the thought.

At the other end of the hall, Sherin stood with the Slytherin students, as well as Murray, Zhang Qiu, and Luna.

"Xie Lin!" A very pleasant female voice came.

He looked over his shoulder. Fleur Delacour hurried up the stone steps and into the castle. Behind her, across the field, Shaylin could see Hagrid helping Madam Maxime harness two huge horses. The Beauxbatons carriage was about to depart.

"What are your plans for this summer vacation? I would like to invite you to visit France and the Delacour family," Fleur ignored the faces of the girls beside Xie Lin and smiled mischievously, "If you accept my invitation and come to France, I can take you around!"

Here it comes again, here it comes again. We just survived a disaster last night, but there is no Dumbledore to save us today.

Xie Lin could only smile bitterly and said, "Ms. Delacour, thank you for your invitation. I think I may not be able to accept your invitation. I have many schedules this summer vacation..."

"That may not be the case," Furong said with a half-smile, "I heard that you have been selected as the representative of Hogwarts this year, and will go to France in August to participate in the Inter-School Magical Potions Championship!"

"Well, you would say that, could it be..." Xie Ling was a little stunned.

"Hehe," Fleur shook her head gently, her silver hair rippling like waves in the sun, "Unfortunately, I am the representative contestant of Beauxbatons this year, so..." Fleur smiled with a treacherous smile and said, "We will meet again."

"Ahem," Xie Lin coughed to cover up his embarrassment, "Now that you mention it, I remember that I will indeed go to France, and I will definitely visit the Delacour family. Please convey my regards to my uncle and aunt."

"Then I'm looking forward to your visit!" Fleur said in a hoarse voice, and then she approached Xie Lin, leaned over and kissed Xie Lin on both cheeks. "I'm leaving now, see you soon!" Fleur said, turning around and leaving, "It's a pleasure to meet you this time."

Xie Lin felt a burning sensation where her lips touched. He was not sure whether he and Furong were already so familiar with each other or whether all French girls were so passionate, but it was obvious that Furong's action made the girl next to him very dissatisfied.

Xie Ling only felt a chill on his back, and could only change the subject: "I wonder how the students from Durmstrang will get back. Without Karkaroff, can they still drive the ship?"

"Karkaroff isn't at the helm," said a magnetic voice. "He's in the cabin. We do the work."

Uh, this seems to be...Eleanor's voice.

Eleanor came alone.

"Polyarco, Krum and the others are already preparing to set sail on the ship. I came here to say goodbye to you." Eleanor said, and then her face flushed slightly. "Can I talk to you alone for a few words?"

"Oh... okay... all right," said Sherin, and he followed Eleanor through the crowd and disappeared from the rest of the crowd.

Eleanor stood in the corner. Wearing the scarlet uniform of Durmstrang, she regained her former heroic demeanor, staring at Schelling with a smile, as if in her eyes, Schelling was the only one left in the world, and everything in the outside world was not worth her attention.

Xielin approached her. Although Eleanor was two years older than Xielin, Xielin's figure was slightly taller than Eleanor's due to long-term training and the effects of the potion. In front of Eleanor, his figure cast a warm shadow. He said softly, "What's the matter? Are you reluctant again?"

Eleanor raised her head slightly, her beautiful eyes fixed on Xie Lin, revealing an unconcealable reluctance in her eyes. "I don't know either. We'll be meeting soon, but whenever I think of parting with you, I feel so bad..."

"Silly," Sherin said gently, reaching out his hand to gently brush away the brown hair from Eleanor's forehead, "just remember that no matter where you and I are, I will always think of you in my heart - I promise you that no matter how busy I am, I will write to you."

"Ah," Eleanor's face changed slightly, "Shouldn't you be talking to me through a two-way mirror?"

"Oh... yes, you see, I'm so sad about parting with you that I can't even speak - I mean, don't worry, I will definitely keep in touch with you using the two-way mirror." Xie Ling said a little embarrassedly.

Eleanor burst out laughing. "I was just teasing you. Of course I know you are an ambitious and responsible person. There are so many other girls around you. Don't worry—" Eleanor smiled brightly and said, "I won't selfishly take you for myself."

After saying that, she stood on tiptoe and gently put her arms around Xie Ling's neck. In this corner where no one was paying attention, the two of them hugged each other tightly and kissed passionately.

"Um……"

Eleanor turned and left. Xie Lin stood there, watching her back disappear at the end of the corridor. He seemed to still feel her warmth on his chest. His heart was filled with inexplicable emotions, and he could only sigh. He had gone too far on the road of hegemony and was no longer qualified to have time for his children's love affairs.

At the same time, a raging fighting spirit burned in his eyes, and he secretly made up his mind that in order to protect those he loved and those who loved him, he must defeat Walpurgis!
……

On their way back to King's Cross Station, the weather was completely different from when they came to Hogwarts last September. The sky was cloudless.

After a long struggle, Harry, Ron and Hermione squeezed through the crowd and finally found an empty, dilapidated box. They ignored the mold-like smell coming from inside and quickly sat down.

Piggy (a noisy little owl Sirius had given Ron as compensation for the loss of his pet mouse Scabbers) was again hidden by Ron's dress robes as he squealed incessantly, Hedwig dozed with her head tucked under her wing, and Crookshanks curled up on an empty seat like a large, fluffy ginger cushion. As the train drove south, Ron and Hermione began talking again, thanks to Harry's efforts to mediate.

The friendship of the trio passed the test once again, but I don’t know how many times they can experience this kind of friendship test again.

They were discussing animatedly what steps Dumbledore would take now to prevent Voldemort's resurgence, until the lunch trolley arrived.

When Hermione returned from her meal at the trolley and put the money back into her bag, she pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had been carrying in her bag.

Harry looked at it, unsure if he really wanted to know what it said. Hermione saw him looking at it and said calmly, "It didn't say anything. You can look for yourself, there's really nothing. I check it every day. Only the day after the third task did there appear to be a lot of congratulatory articles about Shalling winning the Goblet of Fire. If you ask me, I think Fudge forced them to keep silent."

"He couldn't keep Rita quiet," Harry said. "Rita wouldn't let go of such a great story."

Hermione showed a very confused expression, "Rita has disappeared for a while... To be honest, I have roughly guessed how she would get our information. Just when I thought I was about to catch her, she suddenly disappeared from Hogwarts... It's really strange, could she know that I have guessed her transformation..."

"Don't worry about her. It's best if she disappears. That way we can save ourselves from her annoying text attacks." Ron said, "Okay, who wants a game of Crackling Explosion cards?"

……

On the other side, Shaylin was sitting in the comfortable and spacious private box of the Malfoy family.

As the Malfoy family's influence in Hogwarts grew, and Shalling won the Triwizard Tournament, gaining this extremely valuable honor for Hogwarts, Shalling asked Snape to improve the box, and soon obtained Dumbledore's approval.

Now, the box where Xie Ling is located not only has very clean seats and floors, but also comfortable cushions on the seats, so even if he sits for a long time, he will not feel sore in the back; a rattan basket full of fresh fruits is thoughtfully placed on the table in the middle, for the passengers in the box to eat, and next to the basket there is a slender porcelain vase filled with fresh flowers, making the air in the entire box filled with sweet fragrance.

The interior of the box showed signs of having been recently modified by a Traceless Extension Charm, and the space inside was almost comparable to the Slytherin common room. At this moment, in addition to Shaylin, Daphne, Astoria, Murray, Luna, and Zhang Qiu were all sitting here, and it did not seem crowded at all.

Schelling lay with his head resting on Daphne's thighs. Daphne carefully peeled the grapes one by one and fed them into Schelling's mouth.

Do you think Xie Ling is enjoying himself?
Wrong! Just looking at the cautious and uneasy expression on Xie Ling's face, you can tell that he was actually forced.

He didn't dare to resist. Whenever Daphne's slender fingers approached him, he would immediately open his mouth obediently and wait for Daphne to feed him.

After all, he himself knew that he was in the wrong.

The matter of Sharf had already upset several of his girlfriends, and later he didn't know how to stop and got entangled with Eleanor. Just a while ago, he seemed to have gotten involved with that French girl with Veela ancestry.

Astoria, Murray and Luna looked at Xie Lin's bitter face, wanting to laugh but not daring to. Zhang Qiu's face showed her envy without hiding it.

"Um... where is Sharfu?" Zhang Qiu asked, breaking the silence. "Isn't she leaving school with us?"

"Oh, about this, I think I should explain it to you clearly," Xie Lin sat up and said in a deep voice, "Salph is not actually a student of Hogwarts. The face you see is actually the face revealed after some kind of human body transformation. She is much older than you think, so in order to avoid arousing suspicion, she has already left the school through the secret passage on the fifth floor in advance."

"What about Susan?" Astoria asked in confusion. As the whole school year passed, she, who was the kindest-hearted one, had developed deep relationships with the other team leaders in the Sleeping Dragon Society. Now that Susan was missing, she felt a little uncomfortable.

"Susan has always been a Hufflepuff student, and this year's Hufflepuff and Gryffindor have a very close relationship. I don't want her to have too much interaction with us on the surface, causing her to be excluded or isolated in her own college." Xie Ling explained in a deep voice, and the girls immediately showed a look of understanding and nodded in agreement.

At this time, Luna spoke up: "By the way, Sherin, I haven't seen you in the past few days, so I haven't had time to report to you - the Ravenclaw boy you took a fancy to, Gabriel Cresswell, has been successfully recruited into the Sleeping Dragon Society by me."

"Well done, my Luna," said Sherin. "I will send a letter to Professor Slughorn and ask him to ask Mr. Cresswell for a position in the Goblin Liaison Office."

"Is it necessary to go through so much trouble just for a job vacancy?" Daphne asked puzzledly.

"It's not just for a job vacancy," Sherin explained confidently, "Although Mr. Cresswell was born into a Muggle family, he is a rare talent. Not only is he proficient in the goblin language, but he can also often grasp the inside information of goblins and Gringotts. To do this, you must gain the trust of the goblins. The fact that he can do this is enough to prove his talent."

"So that's how it is. What you really want is to win over the talent of Mr. Cresswell." Daphne nodded.

"Is there anything else?"

"Dobby brought me two pieces of news..." Daphne paused and said, "The first piece of news is that after the Selwyn family's unusual behavior, the werewolves in Knockturn Alley had disagreements again. It must be said that Nightcat acted very quickly and decisively. Before other forces in Knockturn Alley could react, he had successfully obtained the surrender of a group of werewolves. Together with those who had surrendered to us before and temporarily lived in the vampire castle to receive training from Prince Bathory, our werewolf army now has 32 people."

"Well, let's temporarily leave these new werewolves with Nightcat. If Nightcat wants to expand its influence in Knockturn Alley, these werewolves can provide considerable combat power." Xie Ling made a decision after pondering for a while. "Also, let Bathory and Annis send some helpers over as well. The influence in Knockturn Alley is of great importance, and I don't want Nightcat to make any mistakes."

"Understood. I'll have Dobby notify them as soon as possible," Daphne said quickly.