Harmonica
The mountains of Northum do not sing, they sit in silence and sleep in peace. A bonfire in the night of the full moon, and an elder has a story to tell you.
This is an old song sung in rural Northumberland, praising the boring life of the local people. The Northum mountains were cascading, the roads were rugged, and the vegetation grew as if they're venting. People who have seen it say that what grows here was no vegetation, but loneliness.
It can be seen that the mood of the Northum Mountains was not too good.
However, there may be some improvement today. There was a bus passing through Northum, and a dust line was leapt up between the mountains. The rumble of the engine and the cheerful harmonica was faintly discernible, and the back of the old chestnut tree on the top of the mountain went quite straight by the sound.
Ginny and Harry had already adapted to the rapid alternation of weightlessness and overweight and could walk like flying on the turbulent bus, moving forward and retreating freely. They were wiping the glass windows on the first floor. This was the last time. A week passed in a hurry, and the road to debt repayment was about to come to an end. Early this morning, Stan, who had been living on the third floor for six or seven days without leaving, broke out, cheering and hugging everyone in the car, and kissing everyone on the cheek in ecstasy.
"I love all of you!" He screamed to the morning light happily.
Stan called the two agents up to the third floor and unfolded a design drawing with intricate lines. This was the source of all his happiness!
"It's done! I designed it. I spent two years struggling with him! My knight!"
Ginny and Harry couldn't understand at all, yet they were still happy for Stan. They gave all kinds of compliments, from the material of the paper to the font. Stan was full of tears, thanking them for their help, saying that if it weren't for them two, he wouldn't have his achievements today.
The resentment of deducting wages is wiped out, and today's guests are sent away, and the agents can retire honourably.
Passing through the plains and Edinburgh, most of the passengers have left. There was only one, sitting by the window. The last passenger, ragged and dusty, took out an outdated pocket watch from time to time, and repeatedly asked when he could get to Hogsmeade.
"About six o'clock in the evening."
After Harry answered this question for the seventh time, the passenger stopped talking and looked out the window with a tired face. Soon, tired of the same scenery, he reached into his pocket, fumbled for a while, turned out a wooden box, took something out, put it close to his mouth, and played a note.
It turned out to be a small harmonica, the simplest kind of diatonic harmonica, with only one octave. The performer was exquisitely skilled, with a few notes flying around him happily, he was able to give a grand piano-like magnificence. The four hands wiping the glass immediately became prisoners of the music, swaying briskly along with the rhythm.
Ginny finished wiping the window on the left and jumped to the right to help Harry. She heard him unconsciously singing. It was the song played by the traveller. The lyrics were very interesting and it was tailor-made for the passenger:
Daisy, Daisy
Give me your answer do
I'm half crazy
All for the love of you
It won't be a stylish marriage
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet
Upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two [1]
Ginny also hummed along with the song, snickering a little, imagining the passenger's shabby wedding, the wedding march accompanied by harmonica playing, the bride and groom exchanged rings made of bridal straw, walked out of an alley, riding a squeaky bicycle and rushed towards the sunset.
Unconsciously, the two leaned back on the traveller's chair and stared at the harmonica in his hand. The sun was about to set, like an orange, the soft colour glows golden on the silver harmonica surface, dazzling people's eyes.
"Do you think there's any girl who's willing to marry someone who'd have their wedding reception at Pizza Hut?" Harry asked softly.
This was a very serious question. Ginny thought carefully and suddenly remembered her father, remembering that a few years ago, at a moment when the sun was about to go down, her father held her mother's waist and sat on the wooden chair next to the tomato field. The tomatoes were growing well, and the vegetable garden seemed to be covered by the colours of the sunset. At that moment, Dad said the most romantic thing Ginny had ever heard.
"No one should afraid that they can't find it, every pot has its own matching lid." She quoted her father.
The music stopped abruptly, and the harmonica-playing traveller turned to look at his audience, his stubble smile clustered with sunset:
"Your father is a wise man."
Ginny listened and smiled embarrassedly, pretending to continue cleaning the glass diligently. The guest's gaze swept across the faces of the two of them and stopped on Harry's forehead. Harry lowered his head subconsciously, letting his hair slip off, covering the scars on it.
"Can you tell me your name? You can call me Remus." the traveller asked Harry.
"My name is Neville… Neville Lovegood, sir."
Remus looked Harry up and down as if there was something unbelievable. He stared at the strand of hair that's trying to conceal the truth, and said uncertainly, "Neville, it's nice to meet you… Could I ask how your forehead got hurt?"
His question made both of them nervous. Ginny rushed to say, "He fell down the stairs when he was a kid, didn't you, Neville?"
"Yeah, life is full of little disasters, no big deal."
"Like me, I fell off the broom last summer and got scars on my knees."
"Who doesn't have scars, it's not uncommon at all."
"Yes, yes, my dad said, adults have more scars, and all of them are all in their hearts!"
The two accompanied each other like a duet, leaving no room for Remus to question. He also felt that the question asked was a bit awkward, so he explained with a smile:
"You look like an old friend of mine… Would you mind chatting with me? The three of us." He also nodded to Ginny.
Since the customer is God, speaking with God is definitely more meaningful than cleaning the glass. So the two sat down and chatted casually. They talked about Remus' harmonica. He said it was passed down from the family, from his grandfather's grandfather together with the skills. The abbreviation of each heir's name will appear on one side, and the abbreviation of his lover will appear on the opposite side, the pair engraved with their names will be blessed with happiness forever. Ginny took Remus' harmonica. On the opposite side of his initials, R.J.L., there were two shallow letters-N.T. The difference was that the other letters have been whitewashed in gold, these two were just light scratches. Ginny's gossip switch was activated, and she kept asking N.T.'s story. Remus was tight-lipped and insisted that it was the abbreviation of a kind of cheese called Tamembert from Normandy, which he liked the most.
He really can't lie, who would blush because of cheese! Okay, okay, you can live with Normandy cheese for the rest of your life! Ginny, whose curiosity was not satisfied, cursed viciously.
In order to change the subject, Remus talked about the technique of playing the harmonica and wrote a few simple scores on a small piece of paper. After the strong request of the audience, he played the little tune just now. The old harmonica was playing outdated songs. The poor people were sitting in shabby cars. Everything was so coordinated. They ran to the other side of the mountain with the sun.
The sky was getting darker and Remus was getting more and more restless. He stopped playing and asked that question for the eighth time.
"What time does it arrive? Is it too late?"
"The Knight Bus has always been a bit casual, but it won't be too late by the look of it now. Do you have something urgent to do?"
After hearing Ginny's words, Remus shook his head and said that there was nothing urgent, but he was hungry, hoping that Ginny would come over with some food.
"Please give me the cheapest kind of wheat bread, the amount for ten Sickles."
This strange request shocked Ginny. Ten Sickle's bread totalled at least twenty pounds. It was unreasonable whether it was eaten up or taken away. Moreover, the bread on the Knight Bus, no matter how big or small, the hardness was close to that of a brick, which was by no means a delicacy that people want to feast on.
But she did as the traveller wanted, and placed three large trays of bread in front of him, staring wide-eyed to watch him sweep away. Harry grabbed the edge of the tray nervously, for fear that Remus would get excited and eat the tray too.
The last bit of bread crumbs also entered the traveller's mouth. He leaned back on the chair with peace of mind, said something softly, then searched his bag, took out a handful of silver coins, and handed them to Ginny and Harry. They shook their heads uncertainly, and no one reached out to pick them up.
"Take it, good generals get medals, good waiters get tips."
Generals and waiters were different, but the happiness from getting a medal was always the same as getting a tip. Although it was a bit unbearable to spend money on a guest covered in patches, when they thought of their own situation, the two of them were very happy to reach out their hands.
"Remember, these Sickles will need to be carried with you two tonight. The silver can drive away calamities and avoid disasters." Remus said solemnly.
This was the first time someone offered such advice to a tip, Ginny and Harry nodded inexplicably, picked up the tray on the table, and walked into the kitchen.
"Remus must have a Stephen in his stomach." Ginny picked up the cleaning utensils.
"He whispered something weird just now, did you hear it?" Harry put the tray in the sink and scrubbed it.
"What did he say?"
"He said, 'It's okay, Remus, you will not hurt them.' "
"Them?"
"I don't know, strange."
The two people cleaned up the kitchen and soon forgot about the strangeness of Remus, thinking about coming to Luna tomorrow, there will be a blue sky of the liberated area above their heads, and they will walk on the road of happiness. Ginny couldn't help but started singing.
"From tomorrow on, I will be a happy person~~~ "
"Look at the sky, daze, and sleep late~~~ " Harry is also very cooperative.
"From tomorrow on, I will eat more ham and meat~~~ "
"Luna's house's facing the sea, and the spring flowers are blooming."
"Oh~~~ Facing the sea~~~ Spring flowers are- "
Before Ginny's flowers bloomed, darkness suddenly fell, and the sudden tumbling threw her to the ceiling. The Knight trembled violently, like an angry bull, and everything around left where it should have been and jumped flying with the bus. Eggs smashed on the glass, milk spilt over the storage room, pots and pans scattered all over the floor.
"Errie- whazze ma'er?" Ginny yelled bluntly, she bit her tongue.
"The Knight is angry! He doesn't want to go any further! It's useless to step on the accelerator!"
"Then step on the brakes!"
Ernie listened to Harry's suggestion and slammed on the brakes, the wheels were screaming, the ceiling and floor lights burst, and glass sawdust rained on the five people. After the piercing sound of breaking, it took a long, long time before the world slowly returned to peace.
"It's over… the Knight… "
"Ouch… "
"Gin… Luna! Is that you? Why is your hair shorter than before?"
"I'm here."
"That's my beard you're touching."
Remus used his magic wand to light up the bus, and the scattered people approached in the direction of the light and looked out the window. All they could see were black mountains and jagged vegetation, and there was still some distance from the town. No one could tell what was going on. Remus kept looking at his watch, with beads of sweat oozing from his forehead and shortness of breath.
"It's just six o'clock, why is it so dark… no… the moon won't… calm down.. ." He whispered over and over again.
"Are you uncomfortable?" Stan asked with concern.
"No, no… does this happen often?" Remus wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Only once, that time he was also ill-tempered halfway, turns out soon a landslide happened right in front of us."
Ernie's words made everyone worried. No one knew what to say. After a while, Remus stood up, looked at his watch, and said, "We still have time. Ernie, you and I will go see what happened and look for people nearby. Stan, you take care of these two children."
"I'm going too, I'm not a child anymore." Harry drew out his wand.
"Then count me in!" Ginny decided to join in the fun too.
"No! Stay out of this!"
Ernie threw a roar, lit his wand with Remus, and walked towards the darkness together.
"Yeah, yeah, you have a beard, you're the boss," Harry complained under his breath.
"Grow one yourself~" Ginny leaned out the window, looking at the flames disappearing into the twilight.
"Hmm, do you think I should get a beard?" Stan rubbed his chin seriously.
"Hey… " Harry walked to the back of the car sullenly. "I'll go talk to Stephen."
"I want to go too, let me talk first!" Ginny couldn't help but pushed him away and rushed into the bathroom. Harry drew circles on the door resentfully.
Ginny lit an emergency candle, chatted happily with Stephen, walked to the sink and turned on the faucet. Suddenly, her fingertips were cold, and she realized that what was coming out was not water, but a chill. Her whole body was submerged in the cold, the kind of severe cold that leaked from the depths of the bones, and it went straight to the heart.
"Neville, look at the window!"
She heard Stan's exclamation outside, and hurriedly looked to the window, and saw pearl-coloured frost climbing up the window from all directions, and soon the entire bus was packed and the frost was spreading inside!
The cold wind blew, the candle went out, and the moment everything sank into the darkness, Stephen let out a sorrowful cry from the depths! The pores all over Ginny's body were enlarged at the same time, and she reached out to the door with her trembling hand, finally twisting the doorknob outside. It was also dark outside. Stan's wand went out, nothing could be seen. Faintly, Ginny saw a ragged thing floating in the front of the bus, like a corpse hanging from the ceiling.
"Who is it!" Ginny screamed courageously. She stepped on someone in her retreat. She fell to the floor in a panic, pushed her companion up, and pulled his collar to back with her together.
The ragged thing was getting closer, staring at Ginny with an absolute zero degree. She couldn't see its eyes, but she felt that she was cut by a cruel gaze, and she grabbed anything she could reach in fear and threw it over!
"Go away, go away, go away!"
Everything she did could not stop the black shadow from moving forward, and the more despair she felt, the closer it went. Ginny could no longer drag her companions. She fell to her knees on the floor, the only power left is breathing. In a trance, she saw countless ironic smiling faces, and countless voices burst in her ears:
You can't save anyone!
I can't save anyone…
With this thought, she sank to the deepest place in the darkness. Before it reached the end, a thick white mist took her arm, warm, penetrated into the body, and brought a little light…
I can't save anyone… It doesn't matter… There is someone else… Would save me too…
[1] A Bicycle Built for Two, Song by Harry Dacre
-Ye
