《[HP]Enemies》Patronous

3、Chapter 2 Day Talks by the Forked Road

　　Someone was knocking the door.
　　The young knight seemed upset to be woken up in the middle of the night, rubbing his eyes hard to find the wand through the thick darkness in Hogwarts.
　　In a moment the door opened with a big noise, where a tall figure appears - but of course not so tall as Godric was.
　　"Don't be so rude, you are waking everybody in the castle."
　　He greeted his friend almost in a relaxed tone. --At least his aching head would be thankful to Salazar for rescuing it from endless nightmares.
　　"You're being too friendly, Godric." The founder of Slytherin replied with a hypocritical smile, stopped pacing forward at the distance of less than an arm to the new patient for the infirmary. "Who were you awaiting for, THAT Salazar from the forest in Bavaria？"
　　Godric shortly twitched his arm, seemed as if something had stung it in a sudden, then he found himself unable to keep his gentle voice any more.
　　"Goodnight then." He pronounced in a weird way, like trying one’s first word in a completely foreign language. That playful smile he masked himself shattered in
　　overwhelming recollections.
　　"I thought we both remember." Slytherin seated himself, "'thought you were attached to me."
　　"Memories." Godric shook his head gently, those blonde hair dangled in the air, "Save the good ones for me, if you will. But how much of them had you left, I wonder, after all the years away from Hogwarts?”
　　“Where did you die, Salazar?”
　　...
　　"Mr. Potter, we do not starve our patients here." Madam Pomfrey looked seriously into Harry's eyes, "And chocolate frogs certainly do not help with Mr. Gryffindor’s injury."
　　"They ruin your teeth as well." Hermione quickly added.
　　"Oh, I don't know that." Godric had already bitten the poor frog's head, "Thanks for reminding, Hermione. I hated it when my teeth got weak, hope you kids never know that feeling."
　　Hermione seemed proud to be praised by the founder of Gryffindor. Ron curled his lips.
　　"Godric, I can't imagine that you were old." Harry looked at Godric's face wonderingly. It was beardless, filled with energies that only a young soul may exhibit.
　　"I guess you also can't imagine that Albus was young then." Godric grinned, "I've already got used to it after I died. You'll meet so many whose souls are opposite to their ages."
　　"What was it like to be... dead?" Ron asked warily.
　　"Felt like being alive." Godric saw suspicions in the kids eyes, "Well, there were a lot of differences, of course. I was just, you know, trying to get you less unease."
　　"How were you back to life then?" Harry was almost urgent to get an answer.
　　"Oh, no, Harry, I was never back."
　　"Wait, I don't... But you are alive, for real. We've touched you, and you're talking with us."
　　"Seeing is not believing, nor is touching. Ghosts can nearly do this as well. There are lots of mirages of a dead one revived. You've heard The Tale of the Three Brothers, don't you?”
　　"No." Harry and Hermione said with one voice.
　　"See, Ron understands, you can ask him later. I'm sure our library also has it. It's in... um... Right, The Tales of Beedle the Bard."
　　"Well, if my parents could simply be back like how you were..."
　　"No, Harry! Don't ever do that, for your parents' sake. You'll soon see how I end."
　　The kids took some time to grasp an idea of what Godric means, then the sudden heaviness muted them all.
　　"Now, fellas, I ask you for wiping away any of the wake-the-dead thoughts in your minds. Do not let them haunt you. There are more to chase than shadows at your age."
　　The kids looked at each others for a moment, then Hermione suddenly raised her hand.
　　"I have a question."
　　"Yes, Hermione?" Godric nodded.
　　"It is about banishing charm. The book said that it is the countercharm of the summoning charm, but the targets to which the two charms are effective are very different..."
　　"Blimey, Hermione!" Ron said with bulging eyes, "Do you have any idea that you're asking one and the only Godric Gryffindor about a... Banishing charm? Is that really on our textbook this year?"
　　"No, you're just asking the right person, Hermione!" Godric sat up excitedly, "Now you really remind me of those days when... Can anyone hand me some blank parchment?"
　　The kids left the hospital wing before lunch break ended.
　　"I still can't believe it." Ron moaned, "Can you, Harry? We get to know Godric Gryffindor, and Hermione just made him an extra professor for charm class!"
　　Harry just smiled, so did Hermione.
　　Their enemies, meanwhile, gained the same moments of peaceful conversations.
　　"You wonder how death looked like?" Salazar Slytherin moved his silver eyes off Quirrell's teaching plan. Those eyes had deeply creased lids, so deep that made their owner a man of the most tiredness and boredom in the world.
　　"To me it was no more than another life," he glanced at the back of Quirrell's head, "but an eternal one, one full of sufferings that never end."
　　"Sufferings." Voldemort repeated.
　　"Yes," Slytherin gave a snort of laughter, "all the sufferings that ever came during your lifetime, all the rage and regret... They haunt you."