Chapter 2718 Firebird Land (26)

Every year on the first day of school, after finishing the sorting ceremony and starting the banquet, Albus would give a short speech from the owl podium. It's usually a cookie-cutter reminder to students to obey school rules and not go to the Forbidden Forest.

For students before the fifth grade, they must go back to the lounge before 9 pm. They can do their homework or have a party in the common room. There is no such rule after the sixth grade, because they are about to enter adulthood. No need to follow the "little kid" rules anymore.

Pomona stood on the moving staircase, waiting for it to turn to the landing she wanted. At this time, the light sources in the castle have been extinguished, and the portraits have fallen into a deep sleep, not staring at her as described in the story.

The iris of the portrait does not rotate like a living person, but when the viewer changes the angle, the iris and pupil of the portrait from the side seem to be out of their original positions. This is actually an illusion, just like portraits with perspective effects also use human visual illusions. The space occupied by the three-dimensional people in the painting is only a two-dimensional plane, and the three-dimensional effect is caused by the light and shade of the picture. .

Soon the stairs stopped moving, and although she was wearing an invisibility cloak and no one saw her at the moment, she still kept her elegant demeanor going upstairs.

It wasn't a full moon tonight, and there wasn't much light because of the thick clouds, but she could see something after getting used to it. So when she came to the tapestry where the troll beat Barnabas with a stick, although she couldn't see the patterns on it clearly, she could know that she had arrived based on the outline of the tapestry.

Not only Dumbledore's Army, but even the house-elves and Filch knew the existence of the Room of Requirement, but even a room where everything you want has its rules. Usually, only one person can go in at a time, unless the people who go in later have the same needs as those who go in front, for example, like "Dumbledore's Army", you need a room for 28 people to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts without being blocked. A room any teacher knows. Otherwise, even if you know about the Room of Requirement, you will be refused entry because you do not meet the requirements.

Severus should already be in, what kind of place would he want?

Pomona remembered his habit of closing the classroom windows to keep it dark when he was in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, so she figured it was a dark room.

But not too dark, like his paintings of tortured people illuminated by candlelight in class.

A polished door appeared on the wall. She reached out, turned the brass handle, and pushed the door open. It was a dark room with only a fireplace by the wall, and a fire was burning inside.

There was a sofa by the fireplace, wooden bookcases running along the walls, and if there was a window, it would be almost like a house in Spinner's End.

She went to the low table by the fireplace, where a phonograph stood, and as she placed the probe on it, soft music blared.

It's not Beethoven, it's not Elvis, it's a slow music. Just as she was about to sit on the sofa for a while, the secret door behind the bookcase opened, and Snape had already taken off his cloak, staring at her with blank black eyes.

"Don't stand there." He said silkily, "You look like a painting."

She felt very strange, subconsciously turned around, and found an empty picture frame behind her.

"What do you want this for?" Pomona shuddered. The frame reminded her of the curse that had trapped Phoebe for a year.

"Look what I've found." He held a dusty wine bottle in one hand and two gold-rimmed glasses in the other.

"I know there are a lot of alcoholics in this school." She looked at the bottle and thought it looked very familiar.

He opened the bottle and poured the red wine inside into the glass. If it wasn't for the scent of grapes, she would almost have thought it was blood.

"You want me to investigate why Slughorn invited Astonia Greengrass." He handed a glass of wine to Pomona. "You are studying vampires, do you know their recent situation?"

She didn't understand the relationship between the two, but she took the glass anyway.

"Muggles hope to gain the power of vampires' immortality through the 'First Embrace', but there is no such ritual, so Muggles abandoned them, just like they gave up using alchemy to create elixir." She frowned. "At least there is The way Muggles are, they don't lack 'food', but they lack money, and Romania is not a rich place."

Severus sat on the sofa with his wine glass in hand and watched her for a while "Take off your clothes."

She wanted to splash the wine on his face with the wine in her hand.

"You can stand there all night." He said slowly, "If you don't agree to my request, I won't continue."

She knows what's coming, so why not be generous?

The dress slid off the skin with a rustling sound, and finally fell to the floor like icing on a cake.

He took a sip of his wine. "Not only them, but also wizards and mercenaries. The Dark Lord is raising an army."

"I'm not surprised," said Pomona. "Anything else?"

"Aren't you cold?" He said flatteringly.

"Won't you dress me like a real gentleman?"

"Is this the reward you said?" He said contemptuously.

She hesitated for a moment, walked to the sofa, and sat down on his lap.

"You can tell me now?" Her fingertips drew circles on his chest.

"They are now in Malfoy Manor. Arthur Weasley came to search that day and they were evacuated because they received the news and withdrew early. The Ministry of Magic has their internal response, and I believe that the Order of the Phoenix will not be able to organize another similar search. .”

"That's it?" She unbuttoned a button on his chest and put her hand in.

Maybe her hands were really too cold, he stiffened for a moment, and then continued.

"Bella is mad, she's not going to let it go."

"What does she want?"

"I don't know, she doesn't believe me." He smiled at her, curling the corners of his mouth. "But I don't think the Order of the Phoenix will like this 'Christmas present.'"

"So, Harry is staying at Hogwarts for Christmas?" She looked at her hands, moving under his coat.

His heart beat faster.

"Give me a kiss." He made a new request.

"I kissed you and what do you talk about?" she laughed. "Or is it Harry going back to Grimmauld Place for Christmas? Same as last year?"

"That would make him emotional, given his sentimental nature." He put his hands on her lap. "Keep your voice down."

She didn't know what he was going to do next, but she jumped off his lap alertly, and quickly grabbed the clothes on the ground.

"You didn't answer my question!" she said, meeting his exasperated gaze.

"I said that."

"You just said don't go back to Black's old house, but didn't say what will happen if you stay in the school!" Pomona immediately said, "Is it because the school is not safe?"

"I don't know," he whispered. "The Dark Lord gave Draco a mission."

"What mission?" Pomona asked.

After a moment of silence, Severus said, "We're talking about Astonia, don't change the subject."

She heard the annoyance in his tone, and she felt herself sitting back on his lap again.

Then he let out a long sigh.

"He dumped a mess on me and went on a trip by himself."

"Him? You mean Albus?"

"Slughorn invited a vampire to the party. He's kind of an expert in blood." Severus whispered into her ear. "He came to make sure of one thing."

"What's up?"

"Don't move." He warned, as if he was afraid that she would run away like before.

Vampire bats will bite the animal's skin before sucking blood, and use their tongues to lick the blood that flows out. Because its saliva has anticoagulant ingredients, it will make the wound heal less quickly.

The bat often sits in its chosen location for a few minutes, sniffing and licking, before laying down its mouth, but it is disgustingly ugly and not a pleasant experience for the victim.

In the earliest vampire movies, beautiful women would scream when they saw monsters, but at some point, the image of vampires changed.

He easily picked her up and walked to the secret room behind the bookshelf. The inside was even darker than the outside.

She grabbed the bookshelf and caught his eye.

"You haven't told me..."

"Astonia Greengrass may be a generation of people who have been cursed by blood, and that vampire came to confirm this." He said impatiently, no longer being as close as before, "Horace wants Study the curse on her."

"You call him Horace?" Pomona said in amazement. What she actually wanted to ask was whether the old slug thought of Astonia as a human being.

"What tricks are you playing again?" He looked at her puzzled.

It was difficult for her to explain clearly to him. The topic just now was like a basin of cold water, and no matter what kind of flame it was, it was extinguished.

"I didn't say yes," he said, as if trying to make amends. "I think he crossed that line by doing that."

That line, what line?

"No wonder he's teaching madmen like the Dark Lord," she teased. "You've done a good job."

Then she let go of her hand.

"You can take your reward now."

She smiled, and followed him into the darkness.

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Then at Christmas that year, Bella gave the Weasleys a "big gift". She took the Death Eaters to burn the Burrow as a "return" for Arthur Weasley's two inspections of Malfoy Manor. ".

Pomona passed the information to the Order, and the Order arranged for Harry to stay at the home of one of its members, though they were distracted by more pressing matters at the time, Susan Burns' aunt, Amelia Byrne. S is missing.

She had supported him at Harry Potter's hearings, but more importantly, with Fudge's downfall, his appointment as Head of the Ministry of Magic's Executive Division was replaced by Amelia Burns.

It would be unwise to fight against the Dark Lord's return when it had become so undeniable that no one in the Wizengamot wanted to take over as Chief.

It was Amelia Burns who signed the search warrant for the second search of Malfoy's home, and although it was a covert operation, legal procedures were necessary.

Sir Bacon divided goodness into kindness and sexual goodness. "Goodness" is the one who benefits others, which is the Greek word for "philanthropia", which literally means "humanity", and sexual goodness refers to the natural tendency of "goodness" in the character of. "Goodness" is consistent with the virtue and "benevolence" in theology, and it will not be excessive, but only wrong.

Excessive desire for power has corrupted the gods; excessive desire for knowledge has corrupted humans.

But Pomona at that time didn't know this, she was like a child, she "felt" whoever was a good person would take the initiative to get close, and the bad person would stay away...

"That's Henry Langenhorn's younger brother." Luderer followed Georgiana's gaze. "I heard he is also a doctor."

Georgiana looked at the young man who was enjoying himself with the little ones.

If no one said it, no one would have imagined that he would be obsessed with blood research.

"Not a doctor yet," Georgiana said without emotion, turning her gaze away.