Pieces of ice and snow fell from the sky, and the winter of 1940 arrived as promised.

On Christmas Eve, Hoffa stood in front of the mirror in the public shower room, his head lowered.

Transparent and shiny slime flowed on the marble floor, crawled out from under the cabinet, and then slowly, slowly crawled across the floor.

When he raised his head again, he saw himself in the mirror with high cheekbones, pale skin, and darker eye circles than ever before. He looked like an ascetic who had suffered from excessive self-abuse, and also like a lemure struggling in purgatory.

The self in the mirror showed a faint smile, and his mouth was densely covered with sharp teeth. On his forehead, sharp horns grew out little by little.

Hoffa was startled and shook his head vigorously, and the hallucination disappeared.

The self in the mirror returned to normal. He was thin and had no clothes. He was just a tired, depressed and ordinary gray-haired boy who was about to take a shower.

"hateful....."

He rubbed his temples.

In the past four months, he had not seen Dumbledore or received any help. Almost every night, he would have some weird nightmares, and even have some hallucinations and auditory hallucinations from time to time.

In the past, he could eliminate the weirdness in the sea of ​​consciousness through meditation, but now, he cannot detect any abnormalities in his body.

He felt like he might be crazy.

Bang!!

There was a crisp sound from next door.

William, who was also naked, stuck his head out and grinned: "Let's go take a bath."

This is the last day of the semester. Students who have finished a semester of tired life have come to the public bathroom. Hoffa and his roommates are no exception. Because of the long-term refining of potions, they all have a strange smell in their bodies.

medicinal taste.

Antonio turned around from the other side and handed him a white towel timidly.

Hoffa closed the cabinet and silently took the towel. He nodded to Antonio.

Antonio asked with some worry: "Are you okay? You talked in your sleep again last night."

"What did I say?"

"Listen...can't hear clearly."

Antonio said hesitantly.

"Does it disturb your sleep?"

Hoffa tied the towel around his waist as he walked.

"Not...not really."

"Hey, what are you talking about?"

William poked his head out from the corridor again and waved to them. "Hurry up."

Hoffa stopped talking and walked straight towards the bathtub. When passing through the marble corridor, he felt something looking at him and looked up.

On the head of the statue of the wizard Manikos, a strange black and white cat is looking at him. The cat looks very strange, with a half black and half white face, like a Tai Chi diagram. It looks at itself like this, as if talking to

Speak for yourself.

Whose pet ran into the bathtub?

Hoffa thought.

...

...

The boys' bathroom is a very large place, filled with smoke and steaming heat.

The water surface was a little hot for the feet, and many boys sat on the marble and could only tentatively submerge their knees in the pool. They saw Hoffa coming and greeted him one after another.

"Yo, Bach."

"Sit here."

"Sit here with me."

Hoffa smiled and did not sit between them. He soaked directly in, and the hot water flooded up to his neck.

Ever since he fought Sherlock on Halloween, these students now regard him as their spiritual idol, and they cheer him on wherever he goes.

Countless girls wrote to him to express their love. Countless boys tried their best to enter Hoffa's "circle".

But the attention of others did not bring Hoffa the happiness of vanity and dignity. On the contrary, he felt the pain of losing his freedom. No matter where he went or what he did, there were a group of people watching him.

Did he really defeat Sherlock?

Hoffa knew not. It was Fatir who defeated Shylock. But no matter what he said, other students didn't think so, and they refused to believe other answers.

On the other side, William greeted the group of bathing guys one by one, and then sat among them.

On the contrary to Hoffa, William was extremely satisfied with all this. He enthusiastically made friends everywhere, considered himself Hoffa's closest friend, built a huge social network, and became the actual leader of the network, meeting regularly.

Eat, take a bath, and conduct secret activities to strengthen the cohesion of the group.

William: "The president of the Gryffindor Transfiguration Club said hello to me yesterday and wanted to invite you to the Transfiguration Club."

"Who's going?" A Hufflepuff boy leaned lazily on the bathtub.

"There's not a single girl in Culver's Transfiguration Club, and even a mule can't get in."

William was disdainful: "I want you to go, but I won't invite you."

"I won't go if you ask me to go."

The boy rolled his eyes: "Hey, speaking of which, our college recently opened a herbal medicine club. I want to invite you to come and have fun. Do you want to go?"

"How beautiful is she?" William asked with squinting eyes.

"There are more, half of the beauties from third grade and above are here."

"real?"

"Why did you lie to me?"

"Hoffa, are you going?"

William asked loudly and poured a handful of water on him to attract his attention.

Hoffa soaked in the hot water motionless, letting the water droplets fall from his head, and he said in a deep voice: "Why don't you go?"

He didn't understand how this group was formed at all, and it was far from his comfort zone. Out of politeness, he habitually gave the other party a positive answer, but he didn't want to go.

William laughed, slipped into the water, and said to the Hufflepuff student: "You are lucky, it's rare that Hoffa is thoughtful enough to participate in your club activities."

"What does Hoffa usually do?" two boys asked curiously.

"Same old, library, ah~"

William let out a satisfied groan as his whole body soaked in the bath, and something suddenly occurred to him:

"Hey, that's right. I heard that the baths used by the prefects are much better than the ones we use here."

Taylor asked: "The prefects have gone to train dragons, so is there anyone still using the bathhouse?"

Antonio said: "No one will use it anymore."

"Prefect...?"

William sneered disdainfully. "He is just a defeated general."

"It's a waste if no one uses it." Antonio sighed with emotion.

"I really want to take a look. I heard it's much more luxurious than the ones we ordinary students use."

"Tsk, when Hoffa becomes the prefect in the fifth grade, we can do whatever we want." William said confidently.

Several students taking a bath nodded in agreement.

"That's a sure thing."

"The fifth grader must be the prefect."

"After graduation, I think I can go directly to work for the Minister of Magic."

...

Hoffa feels that if Hogwarts does not collapse and develops according to normal logic, his life path seems to be no different from what they say.

I became a prefect in fifth grade and went to work in the Ministry of Magic after graduation, starting as a secretary to a high-level official.

After a few years, I became the director of a certain affairs department, gave birth to a lot of children, and worried about making a living all day long.

But where does this inexplicable fear come from, where does this invisible pressure come from.

He didn't know that he soaked half of his head in the hot water, trying to use this action to let himself feel the temperature and let the pores discharge sweat and pressure.

But he couldn't feel anything, not a drop of sweat fell from his head, it was like he was locked in a cement-sealed cage.

In the past month, his mind has become more and more sensitive, while his body has become slower and slower. He has almost lost his sense of taste and touch, and of course he can't feel high temperatures.

After a few people had a heated discussion for a while, William touched his chin:
To be continued...