05

Penny never used the handkerchief that came with the letter.

She used an exquisite box to keep the handkerchief properly—the box also contained a big-name lipstick she had saved up to buy, and the most satisfying gift she received on her birthday. The most precious things in her twelve years of life were all concentrated in this small box, and now she put the handkerchief in it.

Because it was a gift from someone else, and even this person claimed to be her friend, it was right to pay attention to the gift of a friend, and she deserved it. Penny told herself so. The more times I persuade myself, it seems that I gradually accept my own value, and I no longer feel embarrassed and guilty, and I no longer feel that I have taken something that does not belong to me.

She sat at the table many times, looking at the handkerchief over and over again by the light of the lamp on the table. It looked normal—white cotton material, boxy, soft to the touch, good quality—but it was nothing more than the kind she could buy. The only difference was the name embroidered in gold thread in the corner, Penny Evans, Penny had never seen the letters of her name look so good.

He said it was done with the help of magic - how did he do it? There was a magic that would shoot needles and thread from a wand and automatically weave the cloth in the way he wanted? Lily didn't do that... this Is it some kind of magic? Anyway, it sounds practical.

Penny carefully touched the gold thread on the handkerchief (she had to wash her hands carefully before touching each time), rubbing her fingertips on it repeatedly. She didn't know what she wanted to touch from it, maybe it was the faint remnant of that magic? Unfortunately, she found nothing every time.

But it's not quite right to say that. Petunia opened the drawer on the side of the desk, and the letter lay there quietly, not suddenly disappearing or turning into a frog or something just because she checked it from time to time. It stayed there exactly, representing a friendship that reached out to her.

That person is gentle and friendly, and although he is a wizard, he does not look down on anyone because of his special abilities. Penny thought of the hurried side they saw at the station, they looked at the scarlet steam train in front of them together, and although one was about to board and the other was about to leave, at that moment they stood side by side, As if there was no difference.

At that time, the expression on his face if he wanted to cry or not must be very ugly. Penny suddenly thought of this inadvertently, then took a sharp breath and raised her hand to cover her forehead in annoyance.

Eli doesn't know anything about Penny's little troubles. He hadn't received a new letter from Penny, but even his family wouldn't write letter after letter. It would be nice to be able to get in touch when the need arises, and he was inexplicably certain that Penny would write to him again. Although they were still not very familiar with each other's personalities and people, Eli was quite confident in his presumed conclusions.

If he must say the reason, he probably thinks that Penny is brave enough - expressing her rejection and resistance clearly and fiercely is a kind of bravery, and it is also a kind of bravery to try to communicate with the magic world who has already felt rejection. Although she could not say that she used the right method and attitude, and could not even maintain a good relationship with her wizard sister, Eli felt that one cannot always demand that others do everything well, and communication depends on both parties s hard work.

So he gave her the address of his home, even though it drew overzealous questions from his parents - Mr Smith was curious how he got a pen pal, Mrs Smith was surprised he was writing to a Muggle , said very bluntly that although she did not intend to interfere with her son's emotional problems, and she was not a wizard who was prejudiced against Muggles (or would not have married a Muggle), she believed that her son was now involved in these matters. It's too early to think about it, at least until after the fourth grade.

Eli felt it was too early for her to worry about these things...

In short, for the sake of family harmony and to get Mom and Dad to stop paying too much extra attention to his pure pen pal, Eli had to stay a little longer at the round table in the Gryffindor common room after finishing his homework. , wrote a letter to his parents.

When he was responding to the excessive curiosity of his parents, Lily came back from the outside with a smile on her face, ran straight to him and sat down, approached him happily, and lowered her voice to share her joy.

"Eli!" she said happily, with a joyful lightness all over her, "Penny wrote me back! I owled her a letter the day before yesterday, and it was delivered to school—she wasn't mad about it! Still in the letter Apologize to me! You are right, communication is always effective, I have to try my best, after all, that is my own sister!"

Eli stopped writing and looked at the letter she was clutching tightly in her hand. From the address to the handwriting, it was a bit familiar, just like the one he had received.

So, he received Penny's letter one step earlier than Lily, although there were some reasonable reasons for this, but I don't know if it was because he received a joke from his parents, Eli subconsciously dragged a roll of parchment from the side and covered the letter halfway to himself.

"That's great." He said, smiling visibly, "I think it should be like this, I told you on the train, didn't I?" Your sister is also sorry for the impulse, and if you can communicate well, everything will be better. "

That's right. Lily nodded vigorously, then sighed in annoyance.

"If only Seaver could be so friendly." She said, bothering one hand to support her cheek, "He was always very polite to Penny, I think Penny's attitude was so bad before, and the two of them are hostile to each other... Why does Seaver seem to be so hostile to Muggles? I felt like he wasn't just targeting Penny. "

"It's so obvious." Someone at the round table next to him said, "The people of Slytherin are all arrogant people with nostrils in the sky and look down on everything, you should always know, the people in that house are not normal, and of course the slug is the same." "

The expression on Lily's face immediately became angry, and she turned her head away and said angrily, "No one asked you, Potter!"

Jimmy Potter and his roommates sat at another round table, their hair messy and their uniforms not very neatly dressed, casually revealing an inside shirt collar. He was sitting on Erlang's legs without sitting and was casually writing letters on parchment, all of which matched him well.

"Come on, Evans." He snorted and said conclusively, "Slytherins are always like that, and you'll soon find out how ridiculous your behavior of maintaining snot is, and it's not so annoying to say that he doesn't look like he has washed his hair in days." "

"If you can't learn to respect other people's friends, please shut your mouth!" Lily said sternly, glaring at him.

James whistled nonchalantly, raised one eyebrow at her, looked at her a little provocatively, and said with a grin: "Don't get excited, just tell the truth, I can't help if I don't want to listen." "

Lily looked furious, and Eli patted her arm soothingly, looking at James and his friends at the next table.

They all lived in the dormitory next door to him, Hogwarts was obviously very good at sorting and sub-dormitories, his roommates were relatively good communication and rule-abiding people, and the students in the dormitory next to him were much more lively. Just a week into school, Jaime . Porter and his friend Ciris. Black had already made all the professors remember them—they had even eaten their first confinement, and they had achieved great results.

"In general, it's better not to speak so absolutely." Eli said quietly, "Your friend's family is also from Slytherin, so it's probably a bit rude for him to talk like that." "

Oh. James showed a sudden expression, apparently remembering this after Eli's reminder. He turned to his friend to the side: "Sorry, buddy, I forgot." You don't mind, do you?"

Sirius Blake looked nonchalantly at the scenery outside the tower window, and in the early morning of the rest day, he should be so casual and idle. He didn't join them until he heard James call him, and then he turned his head.

He was an absolute celebrity in Gryffindor, and throughout Hogwarts. It's not even limited to the middle of first year – both his classically handsome appearance and his status as a member of the Black family are so striking. What really made him famous was the result of his sorting - a Gryffindor of the Black family, the only one of the Black family to have a recorded history.

He received a shouting letter from home the next day, and his mother, Walburga, echoed throughout the Hogwarts Great Hall. Mrs. Black's stern and high-pitched scolding was an excessively harsh reprimand, and the result of the sorting was not specified by him.

His gaze swept over James, shrugged at him to show that he didn't mind, and then looked at Eli, dark gray eyes watching him.

"Jaime can't be wrong." He said, with a distinctly cold and disapproving expression, "Pure Black, noble Slytherin, proud of pure wizarding blood, looking down on any half-blood and Muggle-born wizard, ashamed to be fellow wizards, and thinking that they had defiled magic—they were like that, especially after answering that man's call-"

"That person?" Eli and Lily asked together.

Sirius Black snorted.

"They don't say his name, they just call him the Dark Lord." He said, "I don't know exactly what happened, maybe you can ask that friend of yours, who may be in the Slytherin common room, thinking with the others about how to join the Dark Lord." "

The air was quiet for a moment, no one spoke, and it seemed that the moment the name was spoken, a cold wind blew through everyone's heart.

James didn't continue to provoke Lily, he and Siris were head to head, not knowing what they were saying. Lily resolutely withdrew her gaze, unwilling to show curiosity about their topic. But she was visibly indifferent to what she had just heard, and moved restlessly in her chair.

"The Dark Lord?" She whispered to Eli, "Do you know what kind of person that is?" The name doesn't sound very good..."

Eli took a deep breath.

"I heard my mother say it once, when I got my acceptance letter and was about to come to Hogwarts." He whispered, "Mom asked me to promise that I only need to study in school and not reveal too much of my own opinions—especially when there is a clear conflict with a popular opinion, and it is unwise to come forward and be in the spotlight."

"What popular opinion?" Lily asked quickly, looking a little uneasy.

"Pure blood is supreme." Elaine paused for a few seconds, "...fascism also had many supporters in the early days, didn't they?"

Lily's face suddenly turned pale.

"But I think..." she said hesitantly, "We're just students? And I think everyone in the school is very friendly, at least basically friendly. Although there are some discordant voices from Slytherin, I think it should be Not to…"

"It's good to think so." Eli lifted his brows and smiled reassuringly at her, "I don't really know much about the magic world, but... Lily, maybe you should talk to Snape, Discrimination is always wrong no matter what, whether it's wizards or ordinary people."

When he said this, he inadvertently thought of Penny again. It was much harder to convince Snape than to convince her to change her attitude. He could vaguely sense that Snape's distaste for Muggles was more determined than Lily had imagined, and it was difficult to change. And Penny's rejection of the wizard, I don't know if it is more accurate to say that it is a kind of jealousy mixed with longing and untouchable loss.

And now that her attitude has changed so obviously, the part she wants doesn't seem to be that much. It's like some kind of highly vigilant little animal, blowing up Mao and seeing everyone with a hostile expression, looking fierce, but in fact, it can be solved as long as the hair is smooth, but I just want to be treated more seriously.

I don't know why such an idea suddenly popped up in my heart, but Eli smiled at this.

"What did your sister say in the letter?" He and Lily chatted a few more casually and asked casually.

"Huh?" Lily thought about it, "mainly apologizing to me and caring about my life at school... oh, but she asked me if I could use magic to embroider words on handkerchiefs, I don't know how she would Thought of asking this question... would you, Eli?"

Eli blinked.

"As far as I know, this spell is not taught in school." He said, the smile on his lips wider.

"But this spell seems to be very useful, what do you think? It probably won't hurt to learn it."

Yes. Lily nodded in agreement: "That makes sense. Then Eli, can you—"

"No." Eli coughed and turned his eyes to the side, "I can't teach you, my mastery isn't enough."

Well, I can only learn it after Eli has mastered it completely. Lily wrote back to Penny:

-Also: Penny, that spell you asked me about is not something we will learn in class, as far as I know, Eli is the only one I know, but he says he doesn't master it very well , still can't teach me... how did you come up with this spell? You are so smart!

Of course, she was not one of those wizards with strange abilities. Petunia took out the handkerchief once again when she got the letter, looking critically for imperfections in the letter. She searched for a long time, and found that the ending of the last s might not be as smooth as the previous ones, which made her smile at the handkerchief for a while inexplicably.