days at Hogwarts

Chapter 541 Giant Tribe
seven in the morning.

It was already light outside, and the morning mist was squeezing in through the window, bringing a slight chill. The small village at the foot of the mountain was remote, and one could first hear the sound of the mountain breeze blowing through the trees along the gentle slope, as if someone was whispering something. The person immersed in a beautiful dream seemed not to hear it and slept exceptionally soundly. Then a few distant sounds of chickens crowing and dogs barking came into the ears, and the two people who were sleeping in messy but inexplicably harmonious positions smacked their lips and breathed evenly. Finally, the sounds of birds singing and insects chirping were heard clearly in the ears, and one could even tell that the birds had changed their tunes. The eyelashes of the person who had a good night's dream fluttered slightly.

Hermione opened her eyes, but her body was sealed by the weight of one hand and one foot, unable to move. She could only curl up in the quilt and wait silently. She couldn't fall asleep, and it was difficult to take out the map to look at it again. She turned her head slightly and looked at Loren sleeping peacefully beside her pillow, and she didn't feel bored.

There was an indescribable smell from him in her nostrils. It was not some distinct fragrance, nor was it the usual orange peel scent. It was a smell that belonged only to Loren, and it made Hermione feel a sense of solid security.

Loren is always more obedient when she is asleep than when she is awake, and her face looks much prettier, if you ignore the hand on her belly and the leg on her thigh.

The sound of the wind in the window quickened slightly, whispering -

Loren frowned slightly, as if he was unhappy.

The neighbor's adults seemed to be out, and the energetic puppy barked excitedly and vigorously -

Loren's eyebrows knitted together and he took a breath impatiently.

A bird landed on the window sill, and it seemed to have found a small insect that had nowhere to escape, and it chirped crisply:

Loren finally couldn't bear it anymore and shrank into the quilt as if to escape, trying to plug his ears with cotton.

"Get up when you wake up. We'll go up the mountain after breakfast."

"Kiss me and I'll get up." Loren hummed, moved his hand on her belly up, hugged her neck, buried his head in the crook of her neck and sucked.

Hermione stiffened for a moment, pursed her lips and pretended to be calm: "Kiss after you brush your teeth."

"!"

Five minutes later, Loren put down his toothbrush faster than ever before, rinsed his mouth with cold water that had frozen his teeth, spit out the foam in his mouth, and waited expectantly by the side.

Like baby birds waiting to be fed in a nest.

Hermione brushed her teeth silently. Loren had squeezed the orange sea salt flavored toothpaste for her. It was sweet and a little salty, with rich and dense bubbles, and it was said to prevent tooth decay.

I don't know if the front teeth can be made smaller.

"Well……"

He finally sucked the soft worm into his mouth and bit it gently. His lips, which were used to feed the worm, became slightly swollen and bright red. It didn't hurt, but it felt numb and tingling, and his mouth was full of the taste of orange sea salt.

I went downstairs with satisfaction. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace and the firewood was crackling. Breakfast was wheat-flavored bread paired with wheat juice, the bubbly kind, which had a unique flavor.

The morning mist was as thick as milky white. The door of the tavern was only half open, and the misty fog flowed in. It seemed that tiny particles could be seen, and the firelight was scattered and dim.

"Alice, I'll have to trouble you to look after the store for me today. I have to take them both up the mountain." Old Dodd washed down the bread in his mouth with the last bit of wheat juice and breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's nothing wrong with watching the store. There's no business anyway." Alice was squatting in front of the fireplace, adding fuel to the fire with a piece of bread in her mouth. Only half of her face was facing the three people. The flames reflected her red face, and her expression could not be seen. "But do you really want to set off right away? Otherwise, wait until the sun comes out before going up the mountain. The fog is too thick. If you slip and step on air, it will be troublesome if you get hurt accidentally..."

"This little bit of fog is nothing to a wizard. It will be gone by the time we leave the village."

"Oh, okay..." Alice lowered her head and added fuel to the fire, and said no more.

Old Dodd turned to look at the young couple on their graduation trip and said, "When I was steaming bread this morning, I suddenly remembered that Ben Nevis is very large. If you are unlucky, it may take you a week to find it from the giant tribe. I have prepared some things for you that you may need on the mountain..."

"Thank you, Mr. Dodd."

"..."

There was a rustling sound, and Alice squatted in front of the fireplace, with a straight posture, as if adding firewood was a solemn and serious job that could not be distracted. But when they were concentrating on cleaning up, the Muggle girl turned her head quickly and peeked at them. Then she turned back quickly and continued to stare at the flames.

She was extremely curious. The old liar had prepared several large bags of things. How could two people carry them with nothing?

The steaming breads from the oven were thrown into the pendant one by one, and there were also tender vegetable leaves with morning dew on them, and fresh water in the wine barrels, which were not precious, but took up a lot of space. However, the magical pendant made these things seem to have no size and weight. She even doubted that the pendant could hold the entire tavern.

The three of them were so focused on packing their things that they didn't notice the surprised looks behind them.

Alice held her breath, wanting to see how much the pendant could hold.

Seeing Loren hand over the food and water in gold galleons, Old Dodd did not refuse. He took a bag of coins and threw it on the counter. He did not count the amount, nor did he care whether it was a loss or a profit. He clapped his hands and looked at the sky outside: "Let's go."

Alice quickly turned her head to look at the fire in the fireplace, only to hear the young wizard turn around and say goodbye. His clear voice penetrated the morning mist and said to the Muggle girl:
"Alice, believe me, your college life will be more exciting than magic school."

Alice was stunned when she heard this, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

It's like the beautiful summer mountain flowers blooming in the thick fog.

"You are a wizard, of course you would say that..."

"Ordinary people are not like you. They can graduate and travel around at the age of 17 or 18. I had just started college at that time..."

"It's all old Dodd's fault, old liar. He cheated me for so long and yet he still wants to run away. This is too much..."

Alice kept muttering to herself, not knowing how much time had passed. No new firewood was added to the fireplace, and the flames gradually weakened and the firelight gradually dimmed, until the charcoal inside was burned to ashes and there was no longer any combustible material. However, there was always a flame burning quietly in the furnace, calm and lasting.

Alice picked up the tongs and poked at it a few times. She looked carefully at the situation inside the fireplace and gradually opened her eyes wide.

……

The sun climbed over the peaks, got rid of the cover, and cast its warm light. The sound of birds singing and the rustling of leaves echoed in the air, and milky white mist particles escaped, some of which were carried by the mountain wind to the top of the mountain, some melted into the moist and soft soil, and some gathered on the green grass leaves, condensing into crystal-clear morning dew.

The mountain fog gradually thinned, and the vague and hazy objects in the distance gradually became clearer. Three figures walked out of the mountain fog with steady steps.

The leader, Old Dodd, stopped under a tall, straight ash tree and pointed to the area on the mountainside that was still shrouded in fog. "Go in that direction. When you see flat land or a cave with a wide entrance, you will have reached the giants' settlement... If you encounter any big trouble that you can't solve, or if you are besieged by giants and can't escape, just set off a big firework in the sky to give me a signal..."

"Although I've said it many times, I still want to say thank you, Mr. Dodd," Hermione said sincerely.

"You're welcome. You paid for the room and the things cost gold galleons, not to mention that Loren gave you such an expensive gift." Old Dodd waved his hand. "Okay, let's say goodbye here. I wish you good luck."

"Goodbye, Mr. Dodd." After watching the old man go away and disappear at the end of the winding mountain road, Hermione turned her head and looked at Loren in confusion, "Gift, what gift?"

"Gublai Fairy Fire Youth Edition."

"?" Hermione tilted her head and twirled her hair, confused.

"I made the Gublerite fire based on Dumbledore's. Although it can't burn forever, it can still burn for a few hundred years."

Hermione's eyes gradually lit up: "How do you do it? How do you build a stable magic circulation model inside the flame?"

Loren snorted, raised his chin and squinted at her: "You remember to ask me now? Why didn't you ask when I took the initiative to discuss it with you last night?"

"Okay, okay, it's my fault." Hermione suppressed her laughter, "Please forgive me, Professor Morgan, and explain to me the knowledge points here."

"You only had one chance and you missed it."

"..."

As they talked and made noise, it seemed as if their heavy bodies became light, although Hermione insisted that it was the effect of the levitation charm.

The view at the foot of the mountain is relatively wide. Climbing all the way up the mountain, the fog not only did not disperse, but became thicker and thicker. Looking back, the rough silhouette of the village can no longer be seen. Only the endless gray and white fills the field of vision. Stones of different shades are looming. Occasionally, a cool mountain breeze blows, and the fog flows lightly. The strangely shaped rocks seem like ferocious monsters waving claws, ready to pounce from the unclear road ahead at any time and devour anyone they choose.

Loren and Hermione were not afraid, but rather a little delighted. The abnormally thick fog was not only due to the terrain, but also revealed traces of magic.

The further we walked into the foggy valley, the more obvious the traces of Muggle-Repelling Charms became.

If an ordinary person who doesn't know magic breaks in here, he will probably get lost. Smart people will judge the direction by the shape of the tree rings, the crooked marks of grass leaves and the lines of shadows. People who are not smart enough or can't judge the direction will have an inexplicable sense of direction after going around in circles, and determine a direction that they think is correct. But no matter how they go, they will return to the original path that entered the fog.

Only a few unlucky souls would find a few weak points in the large-scale Muggle-repelling spell and send themselves to the giant...

Loren thought that if he entered the valley and walked a little further inside, he would be able to see the cave where the giants lived, but the journey was longer than they thought.

With the help of the floating spell, they climbed quickly and gradually walked into the silent world of deep mountains. The isolated mountain peaks seemed so rare that even birds seldom visited them. There was no road ahead, and they were almost floating on the grass leaves. Except for the occasional sound of stepping on dead leaves and broken branches, there was almost no sound of insects or birds.

The two gradually stopped talking, holding hands, and walked towards the unclear road ahead.

Hermione would occasionally wonder if they had taken the wrong path, and would make sure Loren had a look at the magic floating around, and would only continue forward after confirming the direction again and again.

We had a simple meal of pies and bread on the way, and then continued to climb after a rest. I don’t know how long I had walked, but when I looked up, I reached an area covered with snow, a vast expanse of white.

"Do we want to keep going?" Hermione exhaled a breath of white air, took out a thick winter coat from the pendant, handed one to Loren, and put the other on herself.

"It shouldn't be necessary."

Loren turned his head and looked at a patch of grass on the left. There was a strange path on the grass. It was more like overlapping footsteps than a road. The footsteps were too big and heavy, so they trampled out a flat path.

Loren and Hermione looked at each other, and touched each other's bodies with their wands. Cool waves spread throughout their bodies, and their figures gradually became transparent and disappeared on the spot.

A series of rustling sounds were heard on the deserted mountain, and the rustling sounds gradually faded away along with the huge footsteps.

The giant's footsteps compacted the soft soil and made it flat, making the last section of the journey easier. After crossing a ridge, a wide and flat depression appeared in front of the two men, surrounded by mountains on all sides and a deep lake not far away.

The depression was flat all around, and every few meters you could see caves with wide entrances, as if they were carved out by humans. There were seventy or eighty giants underneath, generally about twenty feet tall, and the largest ones might be twenty-five feet tall (nearly eight meters). When they walked, it was as if the mountains were moving, and their huge feet stepped on the ground, creating slight vibrations.

Loren and Hermione stopped in tacit understanding and breathed lightly.

A barbecue feast was taking place in the depression, with piles of bloody and dirty internal organs thrown around. More than a dozen wild boars had been simply and roughly processed, with their stomachs ripped open and their organs taken out, and then skewered. Small bonfires could only barely roast the wild boars that had not been cut up.

The flames flickered and a huge shadow covered the hill.

In the center of the canyon, the most vigorous campfire was occupied by a burly, ferocious-looking giant with black hair, big black teeth, and a necklace made of bones, human bones and other various bones, making him look hideous and terrifying.

He kept adding undried firewood to the campfire, but the flames did not increase but decreased. Instead, the thick smoke made it impossible for him to open his eyes.

The giant roared in anger: "McNeill! McNeill!"

Loren and Hermione then discovered that there was a tall and well-proportioned human wizard at the feet of the giant. Hermione took a deep breath and said, "McNeill? Walton McNeill, the Death Eater who was there that night? The guy from the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Animals?"

Loren squinted his eyes and carefully identified him for a few seconds: "Yes, it's him."

"The Death Eaters have also found their way here. I hope Hagrid isn't in danger!" Hermione saw the skull necklace hanging around the giant's neck from afar and couldn't help feeling a little worried.

"Don't worry, Dumbledore said that Hagrid just encountered some trouble on the way back." Loren shook his head and said thoughtfully, "Wait until dark, let's go down and take a look, there should be some clues..."

(End of this chapter)