[HP] Born to be a pair

Chapter 41

The days at the lake house were carefree, and Neville easily won Mrs. Longbottom's approval—perhaps she considered that wizarding families were no safer than Muggle families at this time.

But she left a sum of money, which was the pounds she exchanged from Gringotts, not too much but included Neville's board and lodging expenses. Augusta Longbottom was always a proud and polite young man. witch.

During the day, they played in the forest and the small town to their heart's content. Renee took Neville to measure out the small town and the large patches of grass with their feet.

She had introduced Willie, Joan, and Rosanna to Neville, and when she had used up her vacation, she had asked Neville to help out at the ice cream window.

"Give him half my salary," Renee insisted. "He'll just pass me the cone."

Here Neville learned how to use a gas stove, ride a bicycle and a table sewing machine, all taught by Renee.

And his homework is a plate of slightly burnt sun eggs, a bicycle tour service that goes around in circles, and a small rag stuffed squirrel doll that Renee cherishes by the bedside.

At night, Neville usually could only hide in Renee's bedroom, and wait until Mr. Hawke, who came back from work late at night, finished his dinner, washed and returned to the opposite bedroom, hearing the faint sound of the TV behind the closed wooden door , he was able to go downstairs with peace of mind.

"Why can't Mr. Hawke know that I'm here?" Neville was a little unhappy, "Don't you want him to know that I exist?"

"Of course not," Renee said, "but if you let him know that there is a big living person eating, drinking and lodging at home, the money your grandma gave is not enough in his eyes-he even wants to collect rent for the cockroaches in the bathroom. "

A few days later, the OWL report cards of the two of them came in one after another. Renee got nine certificates, nine of which were excellent, which is not bad for a person who has repeated the exam many times.

Neville took seven certificates, Herbalism and Charms were 'excellent', Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Protection of Magical Animals got 'good', and the rest of the courses were all low-flying, Just got a passing grade, just got 'poor' in Divination and Astronomy.

"I can't believe it!" Neville held up the parchment in surprise and read it several times, "Seven OWL certificates! I never dared to think that grandma would be proud of me."

"How wonderful! Now we are all students of NEWT," Renee said happily.

After receiving the OWL report card, it was getting closer and closer for Neville to go home. He made an appointment with his grandma to go home the day after his birthday, and she would come to pick him up near the forest at that time.

And when Neville was finally able to make a tall and beautiful ice cream, his birthday also came.

Renee said that she had arranged a surprise birthday celebration long ago, but she would never reveal it to Neville, which made him look forward to and nervous.

And a little inexplicably shy—maybe it was because they were so crazy and happy these days, Neville had a lot of things in his mind that he seldom thought about before.

"I didn't even know you could bake," Willie said.

He was preparing for today's work schedule, and Renee came to borrow his kitchen because she said she was going to prepare a birthday cake for her boyfriend.

"I seldom do this," Renee began to shape with a little headache compared to the simple drawing, "it's too much trouble-and no one eats it, my father doesn't want to eat it, and I don't like it. But it's Neville's birthday, a A special day deserves a special cake."

"But you plan to challenge this difficult art cake from the very beginning?" Willie frowned, "Please tell me, what is this?"

"A cactus," Renee said, and it was inconvenient for her to tell people that it was a magical plant called a meebu meebo—after all, even many wizards had never seen such a plant.

"Well, just tell me when you need my help." Willie shrugged his shoulders, and turned his head to bring the buns he had baked out of the stove.

At seven o'clock in the evening, "Penrose Dessert" put up a sign that it was closed, but everyone did not leave, but quietly turned off the lights. Everyone found a place where they could hide themselves, snickered at each other, and squatted down .

And Neville, who had been wandering alone in the town and the forest all day, returned to the small red brick house with a gloom, intending to pick up his girlfriend home.

"Hopefully there will be some good news tonight," Neville thought gloomily and hopefully, "then this 16th birthday isn't too bad."

But the glass window was pitch black, and the pale moonlight shone on the glass, showing the clean and empty environment inside, and Neville's face of despair reflected in the glass.

Did Renee go home first?Without waiting for him, without leaving a note—

"Oh! God!"

Renee's scream came from the bakery, and Neville suddenly felt a surge of electricity rushing through his limbs to every cell in his body, and his rapid heartbeat stopped for a beat.

He quickly pulled out his wand from the shapeshifting lizard skin bag, gritted his teeth, smashed open the unlocked glass door and rushed in. Before he could continue running in, the dark environment suddenly became brighter.

"Happy Birthday--"

Willie, Joan, and Rosanna were all here, and they blew off their little firecrackers, and streamers and confetti exploded from Neville's head and floated down.

"Happy birthday, buddy!" Willie exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "What's that?"

He pointed to the wand tightly clenched in Neville's hand, and like the other two, he had a puzzled expression.

"—Uh, this, this is..." Neville was terrified by such an unexpected incident, and he stammered, not knowing what to say, "...It's a branch on the side of the road...Well, I think."

He was a little moved, but also a little happy. It turned out that this was the birthday celebration that Renee had prepared for him.

Even though these were people he'd only met a while ago, the fiery Willie, the sentimental Joan, and the fiery Rosanna all treated him exceptionally well. everything.

At this moment, the lights gradually turned off again, and a small, weak light came out from the baking room.

Immediately afterwards, Renee, who was singing the Muggle birthday song, came out carrying a twelve-inch cake, and the flickering candlelight shone on her peaceful and happy face, which completely relieved Neville, who was holding his breath. tone.

The sudden lighting of the lights in the dark, the sincere congratulations from the new friends, and the cake that looked so exquisite did not make him feel relaxed.

Only when the safe and healthy Renee appeared in front of him with a smile, did Neville really feel a warm carnival of surprises and surprises.

"Do you like this cake?" Renee looked at him expectantly.

Neville carefully looked at the Mibu Mibao on the cream cake, it was a snow-white color, and only a few boils were made, which was not very similar to the original.

But Neville still nodded contentedly and happily, and said affirmatively, "I like it so much—no, I just fell in love with this cake!"

Then they all ate the cake, and Willy was a little bit tempted to criticize the taste of the cake and how whipped the cream was, but since Neville, the birthday host, had a great time eating, he had no choice but to hold back the words.

There were not many other dishes, but small bagels with dried mulberries, fresh butter and clotted cream, raspberry jam, lingonberry jam, and a large bucket of cake scraps--all kinds of flavors, freshly baked today .

Most of the food was sweet - because it was a sweet bakery - and Neville was sweet in his heart, the kind that filled the air when he and Renee shared the boil part of the meebu meebo. The sense of happiness in his chest almost made him float.

By the time this little, happy birthday celebration was over, it was past time for old Hawke to come home from get off work.

So when they went back, they could only cover each other's mouths with a snicker, like two sneaky thieves, looking into the room.

"Oh, that's not good," Renee whispered to him as she quickly pulled back from the living room, "he's sitting in the armchair in the living room! You'll have to wait outside—let me get him lead away."

"Okay." Neville had a silly smile on his face, as if he had drunk an alcoholic drink, and two round blushes crept up his cheeks.

So Renee tidied up her overly happy smile, like a normal off-duty person—with a drooping face, she pushed the door wearily.

"Ah, you're back." Old Hawk rolled his heavy eyelids, revealing two cloudy gray eyes, looking at Renee in the dim moonlight.

"Too late today," he said, "have they paid you for these hours?"

"Of course, it's all included in this week's salary." Renee suppressed her disgust and said as gently as possible, "Why are you sitting here—won't you go up and watch TV?"

"Later, the TV show is delayed tonight, and the daily papers say it's half an hour late—I'm not going to idle around and tune to another channel just to find another show that might interest me. , consumes electricity and time.”

"Then you can go wash up early, sit in the bedroom and read a book." Renee suggested, trying to make him go back to the room calmly.

"I just had dinner, and it's not time to wash up yet." Old Hawk frowned and said, "Have they given you food? If you stay so late and don't give me a meal, I'll find you tomorrow Gideon that bastard!"

"...I ate. Willie and Joan and Rosanna were there, we ate together."

Ten minutes passed, and Old Hawk still showed no signs of getting up. Renee gradually became agitated and impatient, but no matter what reason she gave, she couldn't keep his noble buttocks away from the stained armchair for a few seconds bell.

"—Then, the group of Portuguese seemed to understand what I meant, and they wanted to get their goods back—"

"Click."

Old Hawke's babble was interrupted by rustling noises from outside the wall.He suddenly became alert, got up from the armchair quickly, and looked out the window nervously.

"Damn it, there are thieves in this place too?" Old Hawk muttered, "It must be someone from that group of tourists... a bunch of dirty people, I knew that no idiot would come to this kind of ghost forest to set up a tent ..."

"I'll go out and have a look!" Renee said nervously, "Maybe you misheard, who would visit our house in the middle of the night?"

"Visiting?—I don't think so, naive brat, those floos always describe their behavior like that—wait here, I won't allow you to go out, or follow."

He immediately turned back and went to the storage room to get his shotgun, loaded several bullets that were as precious as gold, and hunched his back like a skilled hunter and pushed open the door of his house.

Renee knocked off his shoulder and slipped past him like a fish, taking two or three steps into the dark front garden.

"Look! You must have heard it wrong!" Renee looked around suspiciously, but there was no one around, "Here——there is no one here."

Under Old Hawk's suspicious eyes, the strange rustling sound suddenly reappeared in the quiet atmosphere, and it was right above his head!

Old Hawk's hairs turned upside down, and he was so startled that he quickly stepped forward to block Renee, raised his weather-beaten shotgun and pointed it at the outer wall of the second floor.

A small piece of fabric was pulled from between the windows - Renee saw it, old Hawk didn't.

A feeling of relaxation and gratitude that seized her body and mind flooded her body, making her unable to help but let out a heavy sigh of relief.

When Old Hawk began to patrol around the lake house suspiciously, she pretended to be relaxed and said: "Maybe it's just a bird, your nerves are too sensitive-well, I've been busy all day today, and now I have to go back Sleep in the bedroom."

"Whatever you - when you go up, lock your windows, I don't care what you say about you needing fresh air while you sleep."

Renee snorted coldly, then rushed into the house like a bird, and ran heavily down the stairs to the second floor.

"He didn't see you! How did you—"

As soon as she pushed open the moth-eaten oak door of the bedroom, her words stuck in her throat, because - Neville was half leaning against the window sill and the writing desk, holding the black notepad she had hidden in the crevice.

The author has something to say:

surprise! mXtherfXcker!