分卷阅读26（2 / 2）

Then the plant crashed into them and Draco stumbled backward. “What—” Harry looked around.

“Is it—” someone nearby started to ask. “It is! It’s Harry Potter!” The vicinity broke out in murmurs as bodies started flocking to his side. Harry looked around for Draco but he’d disappeared. All he had was the damned plant floating next to him.

“Harry! What are you doing in Edinburgh?” a woman shouted. A young man cut in front of her. “Harry! Is it true you’ve left the aurors to become a chocolatier?” Someone grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. “Harry! When is Ginevra’s baby due? Are you getting back together?” A hand slid into his from behind and yanked Harry out from the center of the mob. “Harry!?”

Draco pulled Harry away from the dance floor and rushed them to the side exit and into the alley, the plant floating not too far behind. Draco pulled out the Timepiece and began adjusting it. “Looks like Lovegood actually had the story right for a change,” he smiled.

“Come again?” Harry asked. He nestled the plant in the crook of his arm, resting it against his hip.

“Earlier, when Lovegood said you’d been in a nightclub,” Draco was grinning wildly, and Harry thought he’d never seen him look so liberated. “Said you’d been dancing with a mature ficus.” He leaned forward and grabbed Harry for the time jump. They ended up flush against each other. Draco’s breath danced against Harry’s neck, “Cockblocked by a ficus is more like it.”

And then they fell.

Hermione shuffled through the Ashtyl’s Floo Room and headed to the hotel room at five til eleven in the evening. She was still a bit flustered from her argument with Cormac McLaggen at the Ministry. He had insisted she leave without him.

“I will give you a ten minute head start,” he’d said.

Hermione replied, “It’s not a proper tail if I know you’re there. Just come with me.”

Cormac replied, casually, “I know what I’m doing,” and motioned for her to leave. So without another thought, she left.

When she got to the hotel room, she quietly knocked. After no one answered, she tried the knob and the door swung open. That was not a good sign. Wand ready, she crept inside.

The room was deserted. She quickly cast a few security checks and probes, but nothing showed up as alarming. There was a food cart in the corner of the parlour, two plates of pasta and an empty bottle of wine. She peered around for any other signs of her friends and that’s when she noticed a big, leafy potted plant about the size of a small child on the coffee table. A few open books were littered around it.

She dived into them and soon felt sick at the thought of what inquollis anicorpus could do in the wrong hands. The implications of soul-catching were reminiscent of Voldemort’s efforts to achieve immortality and great power. But if someone could simply gain power by changing the body they inhabited, they could be anyone, do anything, control governments, industry—hold the entire world hostage to their own whims.

She desperately wanted to know how the others had found it, but quickly moved on to figuring out how to approach the ransom drop. She had everything on the list: a phony Timepiece, the Galleons in a bag with an Extension Charm and tracker, and now the plant. Glancing around, Hermione started to panic when she realized the kneazle was nowhere in sight.

She looked everywhere, from under the furniture to inside the shower, until she finally noticed a note on the wardrobe that said PUT ONE ON. She threw open the wardrobe doors and was practically blinded by bright, flashing multicolored lights.

Hanging inside were four of the ugliest Christmas jumpers Hermione had ever seen. One depicted a snowman making several lewd gestures while another, much larger jumper showcased Father Christmas stuck upside down in a chimney with his feet flailing about and his butt crack visible. Another one lavishly featured multiple ornament orbs appearing and disappearing across its front while flashing JINGLE MY BALLS in bright green letters. Each one featured bright enchanted lights and one had a fireplace in the area over one’s navel, a roaring fire crackling in its hearth. There were even sparks.

The entire spectacle, note included, was so bizarre she felt that under different circumstances it would’ve been a funny joke. But the situation was dire and if someone said jump to save Bertrice, Hermione wouldn’t think twice before doing it. As it was the smallest of the four, she grabbed the lewd snowman jumper and put it on over her blouse.

Minutes later, after she’d been pacing back and forth in front of the plant, she decided to hide a timed Self-Kindling Charm on the soul-catcher —just case they couldn’t stop the kidnappers from getting away with it. Frankly, it worried Hermione that the plant wasn’t as extinct as the texts had claimed.