Schiller lowered his eyes and waved to Hallie. Harley stared at him as if fascinated, and slowly walked towards Schiller.
Schiller knelt down and wiped the dust off Hallie's face with his hand. Hallie looked at him blankly. Since her father's death, no one had touched her face like this.
"Professor?" Harley repeated.
"Yes, I am the professor you are looking for." Schiller nodded gently. His movements always seemed cautious and restrained. When he retracted his hand, he looked down at the ground and then looked up at Harley.
said.
"You are very smart. You cracked the code in the newspaper and saw the scene of another world. In that world, everyone has a code name. That is what they are most proud of. You have thought about your code name.
?"
Hearing this question, Harley began to become a little excited. She nodded vigorously and said: "If one day I can publish an article, maybe I will call myself a lucky girl, or a genius kid. I shouldn't have done that yet.
People use this code name, right?”
Schiller smiled and did not comment on the two code names given by Harley. He then asked: "Then do you know why my code name is Professor?"
Harley stared directly at Schiller. She was in a daze for a long time before she said, "Because you are a professor at Gotham University?"
Schiller nodded first, but then shook his head. He looked into Harley's blue-green gem-like eyes and said, "I am indeed a professor at Gotham University, but I am also a professor at Hogwarts.
Do you know where Hogwarts is?"
Harley's eyes widened, attracted by Schiller's story-telling tone. She seemed to know what Schiller was going to say next, and asked in an excited tone: "Where is it?"
"That's a magic school. It's ancient, mysterious and powerful. Compared with the students who graduated from this school, the magicians you saw today are as lame as the elementary school students who just entered school."
"Even the wizarding family they call it may not know much about this school, because Hogwarts only admits the most talented children."
Schiller put an emphasis on the words "most gifted" and continued:
"Every year when they enter school, the owl will put the letter of admission notice on the children's desk. They will first go to Diagon Alley, where there is a bookstore with the same name as Flourish and Blotts, and there is also a wand seller.
Wand shops, clothing stores that sell mage robes, grocery stores that sell all kinds of weird and interesting gadgets..."
Harley's eyes became brighter and brighter, and she could feel that a door to a new world was opening in front of her eyes.
She almost couldn't wait to open her mouth to ask Schiller a question, but Schiller speeded up his speech and didn't give her a chance to interrupt:
"After buying all the school supplies in Diagon Alley, all the children will row boats and go to their dream Hogwarts, which is a magnificent castle towering on an isolated island..."
"Then I...then I..." Harley almost jumped up anxiously. She did not question the authenticity of what Schiller said. After all, she had just seen magic with her own eyes.
And brought into the society of ordinary people, if there are no schools and no one to teach magic, how can there be magicians? If there are no shops selling robes, staffs and various magic supplies, then where do these magicians get these things?
Woolen cloth?
Harley's rich imagination allowed her to immediately outline a lively, mysterious and fantastic scene——
The lively streets are lined with weird-shaped buildings, and all kinds of interesting magic items are displayed in the windows. Wizards wearing wizard robes and holding wands cast brilliant magic in another world that is completely different from ordinary people.
, living happily.
No child can refuse such a beautiful imagination, and the same goes for Harley.
In other words, she is looking forward to such a life more than others. Her extremely talented brain and soul wandering on the edge of madness have long fed up with the boring daily life of ordinary people. She longs for excitement and excitement.
Thrilling and eager for legendary adventure.
But Schiller squatted in front of her, looked directly into her eyes, and asked curiously: "Have you never seen an owl?"
Harry recalled it and shook his head slowly, but Schiller stood up directly, pretending not to care and sighed and said: "Then it seems that you are a child without magical talent. The magic world considers such a child
People are called Muggles."
Harley's eyes slowly widened, and she said in disbelief: "What did you say?!!!!"
Schiller looked down at Harley again, but did not show any anger at her questioning. As if he had seen this situation countless times, he said:
"Whether a person has magical talent is innate. Miss, I'm sorry, you are not that lucky. If you were a gifted child, you should have been waiting for the owl and the admission notice as early as the school entrance age."
"How old are you now? 12 years old? 13 years old? Generally speaking, children at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will enter school between the ages of 9 and 11, and no later than 12 years old, because if it is too late, the magic power will be lost.
The constant accumulation in their bodies causes disaster, and no one wants to see this happen."
Harley was stunned, but Schiller seemed to suddenly remember something and said: "Oh, you are an American, right? The United States actually has its own local magic school, what is it called? ... Efa
Mo Ni? It seems to be in Massachusetts, they should accept children from the United States..."
Harry's eyes gradually lit up again, but Schiller changed the subject and said: "Although they don't use owls to deliver letters, the admission age is the same as other magic academies. The young wizards must get age-appropriate education before they can...
Better control your own power, and if you miss this age, you may not have the chance to enter school."
Harley's eyes gradually turned red. She stared at Schiller and said in disbelief: "Impossible!! How is this possible?!!"
Schiller stared at her eyes with some indifference and said: "Not everyone is so lucky to have magic talent. People without talent will not be exposed to this circle, and naturally they will not have any chance of magic school."
"Impossible." Harley screamed. She took two steps back, stared at Schiller's face and said, "What on earth are you talking about?! How could I not have talent!!! How could I not be lucky enough?"
!!!!!”
She waved her arms and showed Schiller: "Did you see it?! All the houses here were obtained through my talent and luck!!!!"
"My talent allows me to protect the inheritance, and my luck has increased their value dozens of times. I am the most talented and lucky person in the world. How could I not have magic talent!!!"
"I'm sorry, I told you, miss, this is something you are born with." Schiller looked at Hallie, showed a sneer and said, "Even if you have all the luck and talent in the world, there is always one corner missing.
There’s no way to make up for it.”
Harley let out a piercing scream, then started talking nonsense, and even wanted to run out of the house, but at this time, Schiller held her back.
Schiller knelt down and hugged Harley into his arms, like a father holding his daughter, patting her back constantly and comforting her: "Okay, Miss Harley, you were just a bad person just now."
It’s a joke, I told you a lie, I hope you don’t mind.”
Schiller repeated this sentence over and over again, apologizing to Halle and admitting his mistake, saying that he should not have made such a bad joke.
With tears on her face, Harley stared at Schiller and said, "I knew you must have lied to me. How could I not have magic talent?"
Schiller wiped away the tears on her face with his hand, and said with some surprise: "What did you say? What magic talent?... Oh, I'm sorry, you may have misunderstood. I said I told a lie, I meant
Yes, there is no magic school in this world, and everything just happened was made up by me."
Harley's expression cracked again. She covered her ears with both hands, shook her head constantly, took two steps back, and screamed loudly: "You devil! Get away! Don't even think about lying to me again!"
Already!!!”
"Everything I say is true. If you don't believe me, you can ask the magician lady... There is no Hogwarts, no Ilvermorny, no owl, no wand in this world. The family you are in has already
The shabby bookstore that was razed to the ground was the only Flourish and Blott Bookstore."
"No!!!!" Hallie shouted in a broken tone, and she babbled in a very broken voice: "No way!!! I could have escaped from this mediocre life!!!!"
Harley ran out of the bookstore like crazy and caught Zatanna who was interrogating the female mage who attacked the bookstore. Zatanna turned around and saw Harley who was crying like a kitten.
Zatanna liked children very much, so she knelt down and wiped Harry's tears, and then said, "What's wrong? Did Schiller reprimand you?"
Zatanna glanced at the scene in the bookstore, shook her head helplessly and said, "Don't pay attention to him. By the way, I still want to ask, what is the relationship between you two? You are not his daughter, are you?"
Harley didn't pay attention to her question at all, but stared at Zatanna and asked: "What is the wizarding world like? Is there a magic school that selects the luckiest and most talented children and teaches them magic?
?”
Zatanna was stunned by Harley's question. She showed a surprised expression, and then said, "Who told you?"
"The magic world is not a good place." Zatanna said a conclusion that everyone knows: "All mages are cursed. We will pay a heavy price for using magical power. No one can be in debt."
return."
Harley asked anxiously: "Then...how did you learn to use magic?"
"Magic doesn't need to be learned." Although Zatanna didn't understand what Harley was asking, she still answered truthfully: "It's possible that you were walking on the street, provoked a behind-the-scenes spirit, and reached a deal with him. You
You can use magic, but you have to pay him the price on time."
Harley was stunned again. She took two steps back in disbelief and said quickly: "How is it possible? Can ordinary people use magic at will? Don't you need to learn how to use spells?!"
Zatanna shook her head slightly and said: "Ordinary people can use magic, but their souls may have collapsed after they paid the price once. The so-called mage is a person whose soul is tougher than ordinary people."
"And the so-called tenacity is not an advantage. It may make many demons target you. Constantine is an example. He has suffered countless costs and is very painful, but he can still use magic."
"As for how to learn to use spells..." Zatanna recalled it and said: "In fact, you don't need to learn. The devil who lent you power will directly instill all the skills into your mind. When casting spells, you will instinctively
As long as the action is strong enough, it will not fail."
"So, the so-called magic is actually borrowing money?" Harley asked with great disappointment.
Zatanna looked around, lowered her voice, looked at Harley and said very sincerely: "Little girl, at your age, I am also full of unrealistic fantasies about magic."
"But if you meet enough magicians, you will understand that this is not a gift, but a curse. In addition to sacrificing your own organs or soul to the devil, magic will gradually eat away all your luck.
!”
Zatanna showed a sad expression and said: "We are all puppets controlled by magical power, endless borrowing, endless repayment, more and more power will bring more and more fights, and more and more
The hatred brought by more fights will make us want more power. This is an endless whirlpool from which no one can escape."
Harley still had her last hope left. She looked at Zatanna and said, "But the mage just said that you don't need to pay the price!"
"Yes, I don't have to cut my soul or donate my organs like they did." Zatanna gritted her teeth and said, "But this doesn't mean that I really don't have to pay the price at all. The separation between me and my father,
It is one of the manifestations of the power of the curse. We will always lose something and will never be able to resist."
Big tears welled up from Harley's eyes. Zatanna didn't understand what she was crying for, but she still hugged her. She heard Harley whisper: "I've had enough of this place for a long time. I've had enough."
Everything is here.”
"I want to completely leave the world of this group of dirty and ugly ordinary people, away from their stupidity, greed and arrogance...
"Their tragic death was purely deserved by them, because even though we had the closest relationship, they just regarded my words as the ravings of a madman."
Harley gradually lost all expression and just kept crying: "When I showed that my intelligence was far higher than theirs, even family affection could not cover up their disgust and fear of me... I didn't belong here in the first place.
"
"When I stood on the balcony and saw the police car reporting the death of my parents parked downstairs, I only saw groups of crows and groups of bats. If there really was an owl, it could send a letter
No matter what is written in a letter from afar, I will leave without hesitation."
Zatanna slowly let go of Harley because she saw Schiller walking over. Miss Magician took away the female mage, so only Schiller and Harley were left in front of the bookstore.
"Are you satisfied?" Harley wiped her red eyes with her sleeves and said, "I finally know why that guy said, I don't want to see you anymore."
"You are simply the most vicious adult in the world. You personally broke a beautiful dream you weaved and hurt a child's heart like this."
When Schiller turned to look at Hallie, Hallie also stared at him. Hallie saw Schiller suddenly smiled, still a little nervous and indifferent. She heard Schiller say: You know why I did this.
? Why should I attack your weak point and hurt your heart so much?"
"Why?" Harley looked at him and asked.
"Because you broke into my office..." Schiller tilted his head and said. Harley's eyes widened a little angrily, but the next second, Schiller continued: "But it doesn't matter, you are still young.
, so I forgive you."
Harley was confused by his backbiting, but the next second, Schiller looked at her and said fiercely: "But you put a dagger you touched on the right side of the drawer on the second floor of my desk.
, and my ink pad should have been placed there!"
For the first time, Harley felt like she had been defeated in terms of mental illness. She first covered her forehead and rolled her eyes, then sighed deeply, relaxed her shoulders, lowered her head, her emotions were intense.
The fluctuations made her a little sleepy.
Seeing Harley's expression, Schiller showed another bad-emotional smile. He reached out and patted Harley on the head, and then said: "You know what? Actually, in what I just said,
One thing is true…”
"……what is that?"
"Owls were once real."
Harley's eyes widened again, and then she heard Schiller say: "Maybe it's not that you don't have talent or you're not lucky enough, it's just that the owl was too unprofessional and lost your letter."
"They actually lost the letter???"
"Of course, especially when their owner is an evil dragon."