Chapter 1276

Harry knew from Hermione's tone that this time it was his parents.

For no apparent reason, Harry felt a palpitation in his heart again.

Harry suppressed panic and walked towards Hermione, feeling something heavy squeezing his chest, just like when Dumbledore had just died, grief was truly weighing on his heart and lungs.

The tombstone, just two rows behind Kedra and Ariana's, was made of white marble, like Dumbledore's tomb, which made the tombstone easier to see and it seemed to glow in the dark.

James Porter

Born on October 7, 1960

Died on October 1, 1981

Lily Potter

Born on January 0, 1960

Died on October 1, 1981

The last enemy to be defeated is death!

Harry read slowly, silently, as if he had only one chance to understand the meaning of the words. Then he read the last sentence aloud.

"The last enemy to be defeated is death..."

Suddenly, a terrible thought flashed through his mind, with a hint of panic, "Could this be a Death Eater's idea? Why are they here?"

"This is not what Death Eaters call defeating death, Harry." Hermione said gently. "It means...you know...life can transcend death. Some people are still alive despite death."

"But they've lost their lives," Harry thought... "They're gone!"

These empty words could not hide the fact that his parents' bones were slowly rotting under the heavy snow and rocks. This was inconsequential and did not need to be noticed. Before he could control it, hot tears burst out of his eyes and immediately froze on his face.

What’s the point of erasing or covering it up?

Harry let his tears flow down and pursed his lips tightly, looking at the thick snow covering the place where the remains of Lily and James were buried. There might only be bones left, or it might be dust.

They didn't pay attention to or care that their living son was standing so close. Because of their sacrifices, Harry's heart was still beating and he was still alive, but at this moment, he wished that he was sleeping in the heavy snow with them.

Hermione had taken out her wand and was holding it tightly.

Harry didn't look at her, but there was a sense of urgency. He swallowed heavily of the night air, trying to calm down and control his emotions. He should have brought something to his parents, but he never thought about it, and all the plants in the cemetery were withered and frozen.

But Hermione raised her wand, drew a circle in the air, and a circle of Christmas roses opened in front of them.

Harry took it and placed it on his parents' graves.

Once on his feet, he wanted to leave: he didn't think he could stay there any longer.

Harry weakly put his arm on Hermione's shoulder, and Hermione held Harry back with her backhand. Then they quietly turned around and walked through the snow, past the graves of Dumbledore's mother and sister, trying to return to the darkness. church and the narrow door that is no longer visible.

"Fan Lin..." Hermione called softly, as if she didn't want to disturb the souls sleeping in the cemetery.

But there was no response from the empty cemetery.

This made Harry's nerves, which had been relaxed due to grief, become tense again.

"Wait a minute..." Hermione seemed to be frightened, and a snow-white shadow came out of the darkness behind her.

That's Fanlin's Animagus.

"What's wrong..." Harry responded in a daze.

"There's someone watching us over there, I'm sure, behind the bushes."

As if to cooperate with Hermione's words, Fan Lin's body stopped in the snow, and the muscles all over his body were tense. You can clearly feel that Fan Lin's slightly bulging back and curled up body seemed to be rushing out of place in the next second. go out.

In fact, this feeling of surveillance has not dissipated since entering the cemetery. Perhaps it is due to animal instinct, so this also makes Fan Lin pay attention.

"Fan Lin..." Hermione shouted, but before she could finish her words, a threatening roar erupted from Fan Lin's mouth. It was different from the soft and cute sounds in the past. It could be clearly observed that , the hair on Fanlin's body stood up slightly.

Suddenly, Harry and Hermione also became nervous. The two stood there, staring at the dark border of the cemetery.

But after a long time, Harry still didn't see anything.

This not only gave Harry a jittery feeling.

"are you sure?"

"I saw something move. I swear I saw..." Hermione reached out and tried to pull her wand out, but Harry stopped her.

"We look like Muggles now," Harry said.

"Will Muggles lay flowers in front of your parents' graves? Harry, I'm sure there is someone over there!" Hermione said helplessly, but Harry was right, the two of them are now two Muggles.

However, Hermione's words reminded Harry of what was said in "History of Magic" that cemeteries are often haunted. If that's true...

But then he heard a rustle in the bushes and saw a few snowflakes swirling and falling from the bush Hermione was pointing to. Ghosts cannot move snowflakes.

"It's a cat," Harry said, and after a second or two, "Or a bird. If it had been a Death Eater, we would have been dead just now."

But Fanlin didn't move. After a few minutes, it seemed that he was sure that there was no sign of other life, and Fanlin's body gradually relaxed.

"Let's leave here." Fanlin's words were suddenly remembered in Harry and Hermione's heads.

This is similar to magic such as mind control or mind transmission.

"I didn't see clearly what it was, but it's certain that it left." Fanlin said.

"Okay..." Harry nodded, "We can put on the invisibility cloak again."

Fanlin jumped back into Hermione's arms, as if he was taking a nap, but his little ears were still trembling back and forth.

Animals' perception of danger is much stronger than that of humans, isn't it?

However, Fanlin was puzzled. It was as if the judgment was interfered by magic before. Fanlin couldn't observe the whole appearance of the dark shadow.

Is it a person?

But the feeling that Fanlin gave was more like a... monkey? Or something else...

If it was a person, this image would be a bit too strange, and, as Harry said, if it was a Death Eater, then one of the three of them would definitely fall down just now.

An uneasy mood enveloped the three people.

As they left the cemetery, they still looked back from time to time.

Harry felt that he was not as optimistic as when he persuaded Hermione to be at ease. He was happy to reach the door and return to the slippery sidewalk. At least there was still the smell of people here, right?

They took off their invisibility cloaks.

The tavern was more lively than before, and many people sang the carols they had heard in the church. Harry thought about whether to suggest hiding in the tavern for a while. Before he could say it, Hermione whispered, "Let's go this way."

Without saying anything, Hermione pulled Harry in the opposite direction of the way they came, towards the gloomy street leading out of the village.

The houses around them gradually became sparse, and the narrow path opened up again. They walked quickly forward, passing by windows shining with colorful lights and revealing the outline of Christmas trees.

"How can we find Bathilda's house?" Hermione asked, she shivered a little and looked behind her from time to time.

"Harry? What do you think, Harry?" She tugged at his arm, but Harry ignored her, looking at the huge ruins at the end of the path.

Suddenly, Harry pulled Hermione and ran towards it so fast that Hermione almost fell on the ice.

"Harry..."

"Look, look, Hermione..."

"I didn't... Oops!" Harry saw that the Fidelius Charm must have broken with the death of James and Lily.

The fence had grown wild from neglect since Hagrid had pulled Harry out of the rubble amid the waist-high grass years before. Most of the house was still intact, although it was completely covered with dark ivy and snow. The right side of the top floor had been blown away, where, Harry was sure, the spell had exploded.

He and Hermione stood in front of the gate, staring at the building that should have been the same house they had just passed, now only the wreckage of it.

"I wonder why no one has rebuilt this place," Hermione whispered.

"Maybe it can't be rebuilt," Harry answered. "Like the damage caused by the Dark Arts, there is no way to repair it?"

Harry reached out from under the Invisibility Cloak and grabbed the rusty door covered with snow. He didn't want to open it, but just hoped that he could become part of the house.

"Don't go in? It doesn't look safe. It might... Oh, Harry, look!"

His contact with the door seemed to bring some changes. A wooden sign emerged from the tangled nettles and weeds in front of them, with golden letters on it: Here, on the night of October 98, Lily and James Potter lost their lives, and their son, Harry, became the only wizard to escape the Killing Curse!

This house, invisible to Muggles, remains in ruins as a monument to the Potters and a warning bell about the violence that tore their family apart!

However, it is not just that.

Around these neat words, the wizards who came to witness the immortal boy scribbled their words.

Some simply wrote their names in indelible ink, some carved their initials into the wood, and some wrote short messages.

Whether the handwriting looked a few days old or was written sixteen years ago, all the people said the same thing: Good luck, Harry, wherever you are.

When you read this, Harry, we are behind you!

Long live Harry Potter.

"They shouldn't write on the sign!" Hermione said indignantly.

But Harry smiled at her: "That's great. I'm glad they did. I..."

Harry stopped suddenly.

A heavily dressed person walked slowly toward them from the side street, and the bright lights in the square in the distance made it difficult to see his dark outline. Although it was difficult, Harry saw that it was a woman.

She walked slowly, perhaps because she was afraid of slipping on the snow. Her hunched back, her determined look, and the tired way she dragged her feet made people feel that she was very old.

They watched her approach in silence.

Harry wanted to see if she would go into any house, but he knew very well that she would not go into any house.

Finally, she stopped a few meters ahead of them, standing in the middle of the frozen street, looking at them.

Harry didn't need Hermione to pinch his arm now to realize that this woman couldn't be a Muggle. She was standing there looking at a house that Muggles couldn't see.

And one thing made her even more certain that she was a witch, because it was very strange to come out on such a cold night just to look at an old, ruined house.

And according to the rules of magic, she shouldn't be able to see Hermione and Harry.

Yet Harry had a very strange feeling that she knew they were there and who they were.

Just as Harry came to this unsettling conclusion, the woman raised a gloved hand and gestured.

Hermione moved closer to Harry under the Invisibility Cloak and squeezed Harry's arm. "How did she know?"

Harry shook his head.

The woman waved her hand more vigorously.

Harry could think of a lot of reasons to ignore her, and as he stared at her in such a deserted street, his doubts about her identity grew with each passing second. Could she have been waiting for them for these long months? Would Dumbledore ask her to wait for them, telling her that Harry would come eventually? Had she followed them from the graveyard to here in the dark?

She could see them, which was the only thing Harry could be sure of. It felt like facing Dumbledore, because Dumbledore could also find her hiding under the invisibility cloak.

Finally, Harry spoke suddenly, scaring Hermione and Vanlin. "Are you Bathilda?"

"Are you crazy, Harry!" Vanlin's voice rang out from Harry's head again, "You shouldn't be exposed like this, even, we can't be sure."

"When did you become so careful?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Don't you think it's strange?" Vanlin squinted his eyes, as if he had returned to the daytime, and his originally round blue pupils suddenly shrank into a vertical line, which felt like a snake.

In the blur, the figure gave Vanlin a strange illusion, as if he had seen it there.

"What's strange?"

"No one received the news that we came here today, right?" Fan Lin said, "And even if she was watching this house all day, but in the invisible state, the road was almost all hard snow, how did she find us?"

"Maybe Dumbledore gave her a way?" Harry responded uncertainly, looking at the old wizard who seemed not to hear him.

"This is an invisibility cloak, Harry!" Fan Lin said, and then added in his heart that this is one of the Deathly Hallows.

"It's no different..." Harry said uncertainly, "Dumbledore and you can find me..."

"It's different, Harry, we can find it because we are familiar enough." Fan Lin said, raising his eyelids, and the old man who was still standing there was slowly walking towards the three of them.

"Anyway, she found us." Fan Lin said, looking at the gradually approaching figure.

"What should I do."

"Just like you thought before," Fan Lin said, "but pay attention, I think this person is a little bit wrong."

"Okay!"

Harry nodded slightly, and then briefly exchanged glances with Hermione.

"Are you...Bathilda?" (To be continued)