Farewells took place in every corner of the castle. It was not until the moment of separation that everyone truly realized the deep friendship we had forged with the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang over the past year. Fleur Delacour came to say goodbye to Harry, bringing her sister with her. She said she wanted to find a job in the UK after graduation. Gabrielle stood on tiptoe and kissed Harry and Thalus on the cheek respectively, then blushed and hid behind her sister. As if to comfort Ron, Fleur politely kissed him on the cheek as well. Ron stammered at once, saying that his brother Bill worked at Gringotts and had mentioned that they were short of hands. Hermione frowned beside him.

But soon it was Ron's turn to frown. Krum came to say goodbye to Hermione and wanted to have a few words with her alone. Ron shouted at Hermione's departing back, who left with a ready smile, "You'd better be quick! The carriage will be here soon!"

"I want to go somewhere," I said to Harry and Neville, seeing that the carriage was still out of sight. "I'll be back soon - right away."

The students had all taken their luggage and gone to queue up for the carriage. Hogwarts became empty, calmly waiting for the students to return to its embrace next September. I ran to the bushes outside the Great Hall, drew out my wand towards the waist - high bushes and said, "Accio Constellation ball!"

But nothing happened. I changed direction and said again, "Accio Constellation ball!"

I tried several times, but nothing flew into my outstretched palm. I thought it was probably broken into too many pieces, or maybe Mrs. Norris had taken it away as a toy. I stood there for quite a while until I heard Hermione and the others calling me from a distance.

I wiped my eyes, put away my wand, and ran towards them. The sun was shining brightly, and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.

The compartments of the train were packed full. Crookshanks kept grumbling because he couldn't find a good place to sleep. Hedwig had tucked her head under her wing and was dozing off. Vivian was making a racket, trying to wake Hedwig up to play with her. We were squeezed together. Dumbledore's speech had undoubtedly boosted everyone's confidence. A smile appeared on Neville's face, and he started discussing with them what measures Dumbledore might take to prevent You - Know - Who from making a comeback. I tried to get Vivian to stop making noise, but she wouldn't listen to me until Harry took out a small bag of nuts in their shells from his luggage and asked me to feed them to her. Only then did her attention shift.

"It's so strange that Rita Skeeter didn't write anything," Ron said as he took Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet and examined it carefully. "How could she let go of such a great opportunity to spread nonsense?"

"Oh, she can't write anymore," Hermione said, as if she had been waiting for a chance to tell this. She spoke in one breath, "I discovered her secret - if she misbehaves again, she'll pay the price."

"You didn't tell us this all along!" Thalus sat up straight (he had been using Crookshanks as a cushion). "What did she do?"

"An unregistered Animagus," Hermione took out a sealed glass jar from her schoolbag. "She can turn into a beetle - "

"The beetle in Iris's hair when we came back from St. Mungo's last term?" Harry asked in shock. "So she just flew around as a beetle, eavesdropping on people's conversations?"

"Yes," Hermione said with a smile as she watched the beetle in the glass jar buzzing at her. "Viktor also found a beetle in my hair after he rescued me from the lake - I caught her outside the hospital ward. We made a deal. I'll release her when we get to London, but she can't write anything this whole year."

"How did you negotiate with a beetle?" Neville asked curiously.

"If she agreed, she would raise her left pincer. If she disagreed, she'd raise her right one," Hermione said calmly as she stuffed the glass jar back into her schoolbag. "The lunch trolley is coming. I'm going to buy some food. Who wants to come with me?"

"I'll go too." I stood up. The boys took out their money and started struggling over what to eat. Hermione shook her head helplessly at the list of snacks they came up with.

"Are you okay?" We ran into Draco in the corridor. He passed us by expressionlessly with Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione turned to look at his retreating figure and asked me, "I've always been too afraid to ask..."

"I'm fine." I tried to force a smile but failed. "It'll be okay."

Perhaps it was only at this moment that I truly realized everything had changed. Just like I could never get back the constellation ball that he threw out of the window. This was no longer a quarrel that would surely end with a reconciliation. We finally untangled this knot, but at the cost of gradually drifting apart along the paths we each chose.

There will never be such a person in my life from now on. From the toy broomstick to the Nimbus 2001, from the children's toy that could only shoot out streamers to writing letters to show off to each other the first wand obtained from Ollivander's, from pinning each other unceremoniously into the dirt with a runny nose to standing on tiptoe and brushing a light kiss on the corner of his mouth. Those times were much longer than I thought. That pale - faced, blond boy who was a head taller than me would no longer be waiting for me somewhere. He would never again restrain the sarcastic smile on his face and hold my hand to walk forward.

Growth always comes at a price. At that time, we were completely unaware of how great the price we would have to pay in the future would be.

Finally, I've reached this point. It took me much longer than I expected. I originally thought I could finish writing it within a year after the first book was published. But who knew it was not until after Christmas of the second year that I barely managed to organize the content and hand it over to the publishing house's owl. Just as I explained to the publishing house owner when he came to apologize to me in person, people always think that recalling the dark years is the hardest. I used to think so too, but that's not the case. What's truly painful is looking back on the last glorious days before the darkness came. They were so beautiful that it was as if they were stolen from someone else's life. They even seemed a bit unreal because of their perfection - after experiencing so many separations, the former reunion and peace have instead become a luxury and a kind of cruelty.

Gain, lose, gain again, lose again. This cycle is perhaps the normal state of life.

Whenever I can't go on writing, I put down my quill and hug my daughter tightly, burying my face in her long, deep - red hair and taking a deep breath. Thank Merlin for giving her and her two brothers to my husband and me, allowing us to finally harvest a relatively peaceful happiness after we've all been through so much and struggled through our own devastated paths.

I'm very sorry that this book is so late. See you in the next volume.