Chapter 1,117

Then naturally, the plan fell through.

The corridor was now so crowded with people looking out for the dining car that it was impossible to get through them while wearing an invisibility cloak. And he also made a very serious mistake.

Harry put the cloak into his bag with some disappointment, remembering that if he had been wearing the invisibility cloak just now, he wouldn't have attracted all these stares, but now more people were looking at him than when he walked over.

Every now and then, students would rush out of their carriages to get a good look at him. The only exception was Qiu Zhang. As soon as she saw Harry approaching, she rushed back to her car as fast as she could. As Harry passed her compartment, he saw from the window that she was talking steadily to her friend Marietta.

Marietta put a thick layer of makeup on her face, but it still couldn't completely cover up the strange-shaped pustules on her face. Harry smiled slightly proudly and continued walking forward.

"That's it for you and Qiu..." Fan Lin recalled the previous discussion with Ron and the gossip about Harry...

However, Fanlin still felt a little helpless about Slughorn's invitation. This was not an interesting thing. Slughorn was still the same as Dumbledore said...

When the three arrived at the carriage, they immediately discovered that they were not the only invitees, but judging from the enthusiasm with which Slughorn welcomed Harry, Harry was the one he was looking forward to the most.

"Harry, good boy!" Slughorn jumped up as soon as he saw Harry. The big belly behind the velvet robe seemed to be filling the remaining space in the carriage. His shiny bald head and large silver beard shone like the golden buttons on his waistcoat. "Nice to meet you! You must be Mr. Longbottom!" Neville nodded, looking frightened.

"so you……"

"Fan Lin Aier, professor, we have met!"

"Oh, of course, I know, smart boy, Dumbledore has been praising you in front of me, come in!" Slughorn greeted a few people into the room. In fact, looking at his expression, he was very disappointed with what happened that day. Unpleasant but very impressive.

At Slughorn's signal, they sat down facing each other in the three remaining door seats.

Fan Lin glanced around at the other guests. He recognized a Slytherin student in the same grade as them. He was a tall boy with dark skin, high cheekbones, and a pair of thin and slanted eyes. There were also two unknown boys in the same grade. Then, in the corner of the box, there was a girl sitting squeezed next to Slughorn. She looked like she still didn't understand why she was invited here. That was Ginny.

"Okay, do you all know each other?" Slughorn asked Harry Fanlin and others, "Brace Shabini is at the same level as you, of course -"

Shabini did not show that he knew the three of them, nor did he get up to greet them; Fanlin and Harry were also indifferent: Gryffindor and Slytherin students hated each other in principle, not to mention, in Slater just now In Lin's private room, a few people were making some unpleasant noises.

"This is Cormac McLagan. Have you met before? No?"

McLagan, a large boy with stiff hair, waved and Fanlin and Harry nodded.

"—And this is Marcus Belby, I wonder if you—?"

The thin, nervous Belby gave them a forced smile.

"—and this charming young lady told me that she knows you!" Slughorn concluded his introduction. Harry saw Ginny make a face at the three of them from behind Slughorn.

"Well, this is the most pleasant thing," Slughorn looked pleased with himself, "the chance to get to know you better. Come on, grab your napkins. I've finished my meal. My own share, I remember, the dining cart was full of licorice sticks, which was really hard on a poor old man’s digestive system... How about some pheasant, Belby?”

Belby, as if startled, took what looked like half a cold pheasant.

"I was telling little Marcus just now that it was very fun to teach his uncle Damkos," Slughorn told Fanlin and Harry about the previous conversation, and distributed bread rolls to everyone. "Excellent wizard, very outstanding, and deserved to be in the Order of Merlin. Do you still see your uncle often, Marcus?"

Unfortunately, Belby had just taken a large bite of the pheasant; in his haste to answer Slughorn, he swallowed them all in one gulp and choked, turning his face purple.

"Breathe," Slughorn said calmly, pointing his wand at Belby, and his windpipe seemed to return to normal immediately. "No... not often... no," gasped Belby, his eyes sparkling with tears.

"Really, of course, I guess he must be very busy," Slughorn looked at Belby with doubtful eyes, "I don't believe he invented the Wolfsbane Potion without any effort!"

"I think..." He didn't dare to bite the pheasant until Slughorn had finished asking, "Well... he doesn't have a very good relationship with my dad, you know, so I don't know too much..."

As soon as he heard this, Slughorn's eager expression quickly cooled down visibly, which surprised Fan Lin. In fact, Fan Lin had never seen that person control his attitude so clearly. .

Obviously, Babir's greatest role to Slughorn is his uncle, but obviously, Babir does not meet Slughorn's requirements.

Slughorn smiled coldly at him. His voice was so low that it was inaudible. Slughorn turned to Cormac.

"Well, you, Cormac," said Slughorn, "I happen to know that you often visit your Uncle Tiberus, for he has a beautiful photograph of you two hunting pygmies together. The photo was taken in, let me think about it, in Norfolk?"

"Yeah, that was really fun, yeah," Cormic said. "We went with Bertie Higgins and Rufus Scrimgeour - apparently not yet the Minister for Magic -"

"Ah, you know Bertie and Rufus again?" said Slughorn cheerfully, as he passed around another small plate of pies; somehow he had left out Belby's.

"Come and tell me..."

Just as Fanlin guessed. All the invitees had some connection to some famous or influential figure - except Ginny. The next person Slughorn asked about was Shabini, seemingly because he had a witch mother who was famous for her beauty (Fan Lin learned from that conversation that she had been married seven times in total, and each of her husbands was mysterious. The earth died, leaving her a pile of gold). Next came Neville: It was a very difficult ten minutes, because Neville's parents, the famous Aurors, were tortured crazy by Bellatrix Lestrange and several other fellow Death Eaters. Toward the end of the conversation, Harry sensed that Slughorn was holding back on Neville's assessment, and that he was still on the fence as to whether Neville had the skills of his parents.

"As for you, Fanlin Al..." Slughorn paused. Obviously, for a student who can threaten the professor, Slughorn's impression of Fanlin is really a bit...

"Oh, I'm listening to Professor." Fan Lin said, putting down his knife and fork with some reluctance. Compared with arguing with Slughorn, Fan Lin obviously liked the food at the moment more, but he hadn't had lunch yet. With.

"I've heard about you, a guy with great power, which is rare."

"This is not a difficult thing, Professor. As long as you practice diligently, I think everyone present can do it." Fan Lin said, and a circle of favor cards were handed out, which made... at least let the exam Mike found it very useful.

"Oh, of course, everyone here is good." Slughorn also added, "So, I heard Dumbledore say that you are still an alchemist?"

"Oh, I'm just getting started. I'm studying with Professor Nicoléme, but unfortunately, Professor Nicoléme doesn't have much time to teach me. I believe you also know."

"Oh, this is really a pity." Slughorn said, but in the blink of an eye he couldn't find any better topic. Fan Lin had many things to talk about, but they were all ignored by Fan Lin. Simply cover it up, as for more, it is not something Slughorn can know.

"Now, then," Slughorn adjusted dramatically in his chair, looking as if the host was about to introduce his star actor.

"Harry Potter! Where to begin? I think that meeting in the summer only allowed me to learn a little bit about you!" He looked at Harry as if he were a particularly fat and juicy pheasant, and then He continued, "That 'Mr. Right', that's what they call you now!"

Harry said nothing. Belby, Cormac and Shabini were all watching him.

"Of course," said Slughorn, looking at Harry more carefully, "Rumors have been going around for years... I remember that time - well - on that terrible night Lily - James - and You survived the catastrophe - they said it was because you had extraordinary abilities -"

Shabini coughed slightly to express his amusement and suspicion. Suddenly an angry voice came from behind Slughorn.

"Yes, Shabini, because you are so talented... in the art of posturing..."

"Ouch!" Slughorn chuckled happily, looking at Ginny who was walking around Slughorn's big belly to glare at Shabini.

"You have to be careful, Blaise! When I passed by her box, I saw her cast a wonderful bat spirit spell! I will not go against her!" Shabini just looked contemptuous.

"Anyway," Slughorn said, turning to Harry. "There was so much gossip this summer. Of course, no one knew which to believe, and the Daily Prophet was known for publishing false reports and making mistakes - but there is no doubt that many people witnessed it. There was a huge commotion at the Ministry of Magic, and you were right in the middle of it!"

"Oh, and Fan Lin, Fan Lin is also present. If we talk about strength, Fan Lin is obviously more suitable!" Harry said, and carried Fan Lin out.

"Oh, it's undeniable that Al is indeed very powerful, but he and you can't be confused, right, Harry..."

Fan Lin did not refute, and Harry could not think of any overlap or similarity between himself and Fan Lin. He was indeed the only one mentioned in the prophecy.

Harry just nodded and said nothing. Slughorn smiled at him.

"So humble, so humble, no wonder Dumbledore was so fond of you - so you were really there? But the rest of the story - so heard, of course no one knows what to believe - such as this legendary prophecy--"

"No prophecy, Professor!" said Harry.

"That's it," Ginny said decisively, "Harry and Fanlin are here, and all the nonsense about 'Mr. Right' is made up by the Daily Prophet as usual."

"Yeah...well...of course the Daily Prophet's reports are often exaggerated..." Slughorn continued, sounding a little disappointed. "I remember dear Gwenno told me - I mean Gwennoe Jones, of course she is the captain of the Holyhead Harpies -"

He fell into a lengthy nostalgic reverie, but Harry clearly felt that Slughorn had not let him go yet, nor did he believe Neville and Ginny's words.

In the blink of an eye, the afternoon time passed slowly. Before that, Fanlin used his status as the president of the student union to leave in advance and go to Hermione. As for the reason, except that he was full, Fanlin really couldn't think of it. There is no other reason for him to stay here.

Ignoring the earnest eyes of Harry, Ginny and Neville, Fanlin left the scene first, while Slughorn kept telling anecdotes about the outstanding wizards he taught and how happy they all were at Hogwarts. Joined what he called the "slug club."

Harry couldn't wait to leave, but couldn't think of a way to do so without being rude. When the train finally drove into the sunset from another long period of thick fog, Slughorn looked around and blinked in the twilight.

"Oh my gosh, it's starting to get dark! I didn't even notice they had the oil lamps on! You'd better go and change into your school robes, everyone. McLaggen, you gotta come to me Borrow the piggy book here, Harry, Blaise - you can come over any time, too, miss," he winked at Ginny.

"Okay, go, go, go!" When Shabini squeezed past Harry, he glared at Harry as if he was looking at someone dirty, and Harry returned the favor. He, Ginny and Neville walked back behind Shabini.

"I'm glad that's over," Neville muttered. "He's a weirdo, isn't he?"

"Yes, a little," Harry said, his eyes fixed on Shabini.

"Why are you there, Ginny?"

"He saw me hexing Zachary Smith," Ginny said. "Remember the D.A... that Hufflepuff idiot at the party? He kept asking me what happened at the Ministry that night. Well, eventually I got a little fed up with it, so I hexed him - just as Slughorn came in, I thought I was going to be put in detention, but he just thought it was a cool spell and invited me to lunch! That’s crazy, right?”

"But this reason is better than those who rely on their mother's fame," Harry frowned at the back of Shabini's head, "or better than those who rely on their uncle..."

Harry paused. An idea suddenly occurred to him, a somewhat reckless but potentially brilliant idea... In a minute, Shabini would return to the Slytherin students' box, and Malfoy was sitting there, thinking that there was no one else around him. No one in Lytlin's group heard what he said... If Harry could sneak into the carriage behind him quietly, what else could he not see and hear? Indeed, there wasn't much left in their journey - judging from the wild scenery flashing outside the window, Hogsmeade Station was less than half an hour away - but since no one took Harry's speculation seriously , he wanted to prove it to them. (To be continued)