We had only danced to half of the piece when we were chased away by Madam Pince. As she shook off the little stars that kept bouncing onto her head, she shouted at us, saying that the library was not a place for us to have fun. Actually, I felt a bit relieved because I had probably stepped on Draco's feet four or five times by accident – it wasn't my fault. Firstly, I have no talent or achievements in dancing. Secondly, in the library, we could only hear the faint music coming from the Great Hall, making it extremely difficult to find the rhythm.
After the chaos and panic in my mind caused by Legilimency gradually subsided, my thoughts became a bit clearer. I felt that I might have been too good - tempered. This jerk who was pulling me by the wrist and leading me out had calculated me with great pride and joy, and in his eyes, I was like a small animal struggling and floundering in a trap.
"I don't want to go to the Great Hall," I thought, then pulled my hand back. "I can't handle a piece with such a fast tempo."
The initially soothing music had now turned into the fast - paced pop music that young wizards and witches were crazy about. I was sure that in this rhythm, I could not only step on his feet but also my own. However, quite a few students had already left the Great Hall in pairs to find fun in other parts of the school - their conspicuous dress robes became a burden at this time, and some of the fabrics even sparkled in the night sky. I thought that if I were to throw a holiday firework into the grass by the lake now, it would surely startle at least five times more students than usual.
"There are people everywhere," Draco said in a sharp tone. "So this is just a school dance after all..."
There were twinkling lights in the rose garden. The moment we stepped in, it seemed that there was no one there, but the soft laughter and whispers coming from the flower bushes clearly didn't belong to the flower fairies in bedtime good - night stories. (There were empty, intricately carved flower benches by the roadside. Why did they have to choose the bushes?) We walked forward along the winding path for a while. The roses were in full bloom recklessly in a season that wasn't theirs, gently swaying in the moonlight with the wind.
"Er, I don't know what you're talking about, Karkaroff." Turning a corner, we heard voices ahead. Judging from the footsteps, it seemed that the people were walking towards us. Draco stopped, obviously trying to figure out who was talking, just like me. This voice was full of energy, and now it was full of confusion: "And I don't know why you're telling me this - "
"Don't play dumb, Bagman!" Another voice was hoarse and angry. "Don't think no one here knows about you. Do you think I'm willing to talk to you about this? I have no choice. It's becoming more and more obvious, and I can't help but worry - "
Their voices were getting closer and closer to us. It didn't seem like a good idea to run into such an obviously unpleasant conversation. I pulled Draco and hid behind a huge stone statue next to us. He seemed very interested in this conversation and was trying his best to hear more clearly.
"If you're talking about that matter, I got tired of saying those few words back then. To be honest, at first I thought it was those two Weasley boys who were pestering me and had caught up. I'll say it again, I really didn't - "
It was easy to guess the identities of the two people in the conversation. One was my mother's current immediate superior, Ludo Bagman, the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and the other was Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang. I really couldn't figure out what kind of connection there could be between them. Could it be that Mr. Bagman had known Karkaroff when he was a Quidditch player?
"We're all standing here today thanks to having our own set of excuses back then." Karkaroff now sounded completely devoid of the demeanor of a headmaster. "Look at your arm. Can you really pretend that nothing happened?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Mr. Bagman's tone started to get impatient. "You must be exhausted and have had a bit too much to drink – whoa! Look who we've got here, Harry! As one of the Hogwarts Champions, shouldn't you be dancing with the girl you love in the Great Hall right now? What are you doing out here with – your friend?"
"We came out for a walk, sir," I heard Harry's voice. "Are we disturbing you?"
"No, no, ha - ha - ha! Come on, I actually wanted to have a chat with you – your friend wouldn't mind, would he?" Bagman's voice was overly enthusiastic, as if he wanted to get rid of Karkaroff's pestering as soon as possible. "Come on, let's go over here! Your friend can wait for you at the garden entrance. We won't take too long..."
Karkaroff also left from the other direction soon. The path gradually became quiet, and all that could be heard was the gurgling sound of the nearby fountain and an occasional soft laugh from farther away.
"Draco?" I took a few steps out from behind the statue and looked back to see him still standing there. "What's wrong?"
I wasn't sure if it was an illusion caused by the magically - suspended orbs of light in the garden, but his face looked even paler than usual, with his brows furrowed in thought.
"Draco?" I called him in a low voice again, and then he seemed to come to his senses as if he had been jolted awake. He followed me out, without making any comment on Bagman's over - friendliness towards Harry (normally, he would have said something sarcastic). He was very quiet all the way, and his hand would touch his arm every now and then, then he would shake his head.
"Are you okay?" He seemed listless. I thought back to the conversation we had just heard, but I couldn't think of anything that would make him care so much. There was some unpleasantness between Bagman and Karkaroff – surely Draco wasn't suddenly worried about whether Krum could win the Triwizard Cup? Or did the Legilimency I used on him mess up his mind? Suddenly recalling Hermione's warning, I felt very uneasy. I reached out and touched his forehead, asking him, "Should we go see Madam Pomfrey?"
"I'm fine. What could be wrong?" He shook his head, as if trying to shake off some unpleasant thoughts. "I just – do you want to take a walk by the lake?"
It took us some time to look for an unoccupied patch of grass by the lake (which was really difficult). After sitting there and throwing a few stones into the lake, he felt a bit better. For the rest of the time, we talked about the obviously not - so - successful Legilimency spell I had just cast. He drawled and mocked me for getting flustered as the caster, and then corrected some of my misunderstandings about Occlumency from that notebook.
"I think you've got one thing wrong," he said, tapping the ground with his wand. A large number of stones neatly lined up at our feet. "You think that successful Occlumency means hiding all your thoughts."
He waved his wand and murmured a spell, and those stones rolled aside, leaving only the bare sandy ground. "But I don't think that's right. Occlumency is to counter Legilimency, so the premise is that someone is trying to pry into your thoughts, like a thief. What you did just now was more like a robber, kicking in the door of a house only to find it empty. What would the intruder think then?"
"The owner has hidden everything," I replied, just like a student answering a question.
"But thoughts aren't possessions that can be moved. They must exist somewhere in the brain," he said, waving his wand again. A gust of wind blew, pushing the stones he had set aside earlier in a mess back towards us. "That's where Legilimency comes in handy. I believe that those who are proficient in it can use certain techniques to forcefully find hidden memories, no matter how deep they are hidden."
"So you mean that as a defensive measure, Occlumency is useless against a master of Legilimency?" I said. "But there's more content about Occlumency than Legilimency in Dad's notebook."
"No, of course not. That's why I said you don't understand what Occlumency is for," I rarely saw such an excited glint in his eyes. "Liz, Occlumency isn't about passively hiding. It's about leaving some things that the intruder might be interested in in the 'room' - making the intruder think they've got what they want while hiding what you really care about."
He tapped a few stones and cast a Levitation Charm, floating these stones behind him. There were still many stones lying haphazardly on the ground.
"Show him what he wants, protect what I want to protect. What the intruder thinks is active is actually passive, being led astray in the end," he said in a low voice. "Very fascinating... very interesting."
"I'm obviously very talented in Occlumency," he boasted to me proudly. "I only glanced at your notebook on the train, and immediately guessed what to do. Lend it to me, and after I finish reading it, I can teach you."
The Christmas ball ended at midnight. Many people seemed dissatisfied and they still gathered around the Great Hall in twos and threes. In the crowd, I saw my mother chatting with Professor Moody. My father stood beside them, still using his usual gloomy expression to drive away the students who lingered and were reluctant to leave.
"Liz!" Mom stretched out her arms and gave me a hug. She had the familiar scent of perfume lilies that only Dad could make. "I've been wondering where you were tonight... But it seems you've had a good time too?"
Undoubtedly, she had seen the grass clippings and sand on my robe. I coughed a few times, praying that she hadn't seen Draco who had just parted with me.
"Er, I have something to tell you and Dad. I happened to overhear something tonight... I think I should let you know," I said, looking at Professor Moody uneasily.
"Is it related to Hogwarts, little girl?" Moody's blue magical eye spun wildly. He took a sip of the drink from his curved flask. "You can tell me as well."
"Um, maybe I'm overthinking it." I roughly repeated the conversation between Mr. Bagman and Karkaroff to them. "I just thought that Mr. Bagman is Mom's boss, and Karkaroff seems to be worried about something. Could something have gone wrong with the Triwizard Tournament? Harry (I quickly corrected myself after looking at my father) - I mean, Potter has already been chosen as the fourth champion. There can't be any other accidents, right?"
Moody laughed gruffly, and his eye spun even more frantically. "Lily, your daughter will surely become an excellent Auror in the future!"
Mom and Dad exchanged a look. Apparently, they had thought of something but didn't intend to tell me.
"We know, dear," Mom said, gently kissing my forehead. "You've done a great job, Liz. I think you're tired from playing today, aren't you? Go back and rest early. Merry Christmas, sweetheart."
"Go back and rest," Dad said, reaching out to ruffle my hair. "Don't go to the lakeside in the middle of the night next time - not with anyone."
However, it seemed that the Christmas ball didn't end perfectly just because the clock struck twelve. On my way back to the common room, I met Harry. He seemed to be deep in thought and almost bumped into a suit of armor.
We wished each other a Merry Christmas. It wasn't as awkward as I'd imagined, and I let out a sigh of relief. But as soon as we climbed into the common room, we heard Hermione and Ron Weasley arguing heatedly. They were standing face - to - face, shouting at each other from a distance of about ten steps. I'd never seen Hermione so angry. Her beautiful bun, which had taken her two hours to arrange, was in a mess, falling untidily around her face, which was now distorted with anger.
"You only take it out on me, don't you? Wasn't Talos dancing with Astoria Greengrass? Didn't they dance from the first dance to the last? Why don't you have the guts to tell him that this is a betrayal of Gryffindor? Huh? You can only come here like a coward and accuse me of unfounded charges!"
"Hey, hey! Don't drag me into this," said Blaise Zabini, who was sitting aside (I just noticed he was watching the fight). He raised a finger. "First, I said I'd dance with the third girl without a partner I met, even if it was a female baboon, and I'd be happy to dance with her all night. Second, we didn't dance from start to finish. She needed to rest from time to time. Third, she danced pretty well, and I enjoyed it. That's all. Carry on, and Merry Christmas."
After that, he gracefully glided into the boys' dormitory with a dance step. I noticed that the pansy he'd pinned to his chest earlier was gone.
"I know there's a way to solve this," Hermione continued to shout at Ron Weasley viciously. "Have you thought of it?"
"I can't think of it!" Ron Weasley shouted back defiantly. "Why don't you tell me then!"
"Next time there's a ball, you invite me before anyone else does - don't wait until there's no other option and then remember that I exist!" Hermione almost cried out these words, then suddenly turned around and rushed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
Ron Weasley stood there, opening and closing his mouth several times before he finally turned around and said weakly to Harry, "She's being completely unreasonable, right... She doesn't get the point."
Harry didn't say anything. I think he was thinking the same as me - that Hermione was the one who really got to the heart of the matter.
In the girls' dormitory, the girls didn't go to rest immediately. Hermione pulled down the bed curtain and hid inside. The others seemed much happier, chatting non - stop about the ball. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were sorting out the tarot cards they'd collected from various places.
"This Chariot is Harry's. He got a second one but forgot to give it to me - forget about him. Talking about him makes me angry," Parvati muttered as she sorted the cards. "The High Priestess is Hermione's. Luckily, I asked her for it when I met her on the way. I knew she'd draw this one. Whose is the Hierophant?"
"Neville's," Lavender replied. "Whose is the Strength card?"
"Forgot. Maybe Ron's," Parvati mumbled. "Those two are really annoying - don't expect to ask me or my sister out again."
"Hey, Iris!" They greeted me enthusiastically. "What card did you draw? Can you give it to us?"
"Oh, sure," I said, handing them the Wheel of Fortune card from my pocket. "Here you go."