A soft firelight flickered in the fireplace of Aghasheyan's house.
After Dumbledore and others left, Arkhipovna and the old wizard were the only two people left in the living room.
Perhaps due to an emergency or other reasons, Dumbledore did not call Arkhipovna when they left, and the Russian shrew had no intention of leaving with him. She took out a book from her backpack
With a stack of manuscript paper, I read carefully and started writing.
Time slips away quietly in the ticking of the pendulum clock, leaving no trace.
After drinking the second cup of tea, Aghaxiyan finally couldn't help but break the silence first.
"So, the child just now was not your and Lockhart's daughter?"
"Um. No."
Arkhipovna answered without raising her head, cherishing every word like gold.
"Then you and Lockhart also..."
"We have just dated. He is my fiancé for now."
"We just started dating, so you are also a writer?" The old wizard glanced at the woman who was writing something.
"No, I am a physicist." Arkhipovna replied calmly.
"oh oh."
The old wizard opened his mouth. He had many questions in his mind, but for a moment he felt like he couldn't find anything to say.
Unlike the beeping chatterbox of Gilderoy Lockhart, his "fiancée" is simply the other extreme.
From the second time he woke up in the room, to the visit by Dumbledore and others, to the hurried departure of the two wizards, the woman named Arkhipovna said no more than thirty sentences in total, except
Apart from answering questions and explanations, there was almost no unnecessary chatting.
On a normal day, Aghaxiyan would be happy to be quiet. After all, he is a wizard who hates causing unnecessary trouble.
However, the current situation is obviously different...
No matter what happened before, judging from the current results, that guy Lockhart obviously sacrificed himself to save his life.
Under this situation, Arkhipovna's silence was undoubtedly a nail in the heart of the old wizard. He would rather the other party make noise, ask questions, or even scold, rather than wait for the dawn in this suffocating atmosphere.
, this feeling is really bad!
After a few more seconds of silence, Aghasheyan glanced at Arkhipovna, who was reading quietly, and tried to find something to say.
"Hmm, so you are currently studying your... um, physics?"
"No, I'm reading a novel. By the way, I'd like to answer the questionnaire that comes with the book."
Arkhipovna shook her head and stood up the book she was reading. The first thing that caught the old wizard's eyes was Gilderoy Lockhart's particularly unbeatable smiling face, followed closely by Lockhart's photo.
The big gilded book titles below: "Wandering with Werewolves".
"Ah, this one..." Aghaxiyan considered the words, "If you are interested in this story, you can ask me directly..."
"No, thank you. I think Lockhart's book is quite interesting -"
Arkhipovna declined politely, her eyes swept over the printed words line by line, and she said quietly.
"I once said to someone: Novels come from life and are higher than life. Whether a novel is exciting or not, the ups and downs of the plot and the surprising facts are naturally important, but they are not the whole story... Otherwise, the best thing in the world is
The novels you read must all be autobiographies of adventurers. Good books are worth reading over and over again. Like the shells on the beach after the tide goes out, the writer's vision dotted in the text is the truly precious thing..."
"Well, do you understand what I mean? Mr. Aghasheyan. There are some clumsy fools who secretly hide their dreams."
Arkhipovna's eyes moved, and in her low voice, there was a trace of tender and slightly disgusting complex emotions.
It was as if what she was holding in her hands was not an adventure novel, but a love letter written to her.
"I……"
The old wizard opened his mouth. He felt that the current situation was a hundred times more difficult than when he was fighting the werewolf.
"Don't worry, that guy Lockhart is the cunningest and most eloquent guy I've ever seen. He can definitely come back safely. Werewolves were normal people before they transformed and can communicate well - maybe he will now
On the way back, or...well..."
Aghaxiyan was silent for a few more seconds. He didn't believe these words himself.
As a wizard, if Lockhart could escape, he would be back here by now.
The night of the full moon is coming, and no one will be crazy enough to stay in that primeval forest full of werewolves.
Just as he told the little girl before, even a top wizard like Dumbledore can, at best, lock his position and move phantom when the wolf howls. There are too many uncertain factors in this, Aghashe
Yang knew it very well.
Gilderoy Lockhart... is probably gone this time.
"Hmm, novel questionnaire? About this book? Let me fill it out together, if you don't mind——"
Aghasheyan quickly came back to his senses and glanced tentatively at Arkhipovna. Seeing that she had no objection, he reached out and took out a questionnaire from the pile of parchment and placed it on the table.
Spreading it out, he pulled out his wand and summoned a quill to help him fill out the questionnaire.
After all, he is the prototype of the book "Wandering with Werewolves". If it is an easter egg questionnaire, he should still be able to...
Snap.
The quill in Aghaxiyan's hand fell down.
"These are all... uh, weird questions?!"
He stared blankly at the questionnaire in front of him and read as if he was constipated.
"1.What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?"
"2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?"
"3. What do you think is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?"
And so on, it fills up a whole piece of paper, and the last question is:
"18. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday? What would be his ideal birthday present?"
Many of the blanks in the front have now been filled in, and now only a few questions remain.
Aghaxi raised his eyebrows, glanced at the last question, turned his head and looked at the Muggle woman not far away who had been sitting upright in the living room and filling out the questionnaire for a while, and said slowly and awkwardly in a polite manner.
I slowly returned the questionnaire to the other party, seeming a little helpless.
"Sorry, I thought this was about the content of books..."
"In fact, these are indeed the contents mentioned in the book-besides the story, the reflection of the creator."
Arkhipovna took the questionnaire, looked at the questions above for Lockhart to "screen" the lucky readers, and answered in a calm tone.
"Lockhart mentioned in "A Year with the Tibetan Snowman" that his favorite color was lilac. And the answers to other questions are also hidden in the text fragments of his adventure stories. For example
His secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and protect everyone living in the sun and the shadows...Of course, if he can make a little more money along the way, then he might be happier."
"As for birthdays, there is the most ideal birthday gift——"
She paused for a few seconds, put down the half-filled "top secret questionnaire" in her hand, turned her head and looked at the wall clock not far away.
"If he had not lied about his age in the book, after twelve o'clock tonight, he would be twenty-nine years old. In the last two paragraphs of Chapter 12 of the book "Wandering with Werewolves", Lockhart said that he would be twenty-nine years old after twelve o'clock tonight.
The birthday gift I want is: a harmonious coexistence of all magic and non-magic people. I guess I can’t help with this, but I asked someone to buy a large bottle of Ogden aged fire whiskey from the store. He should like it, right?
"
"Suka—it's still his birthday today? It's a good birthday, but why did he come to my place?!"
Aghaxiyan's eyes couldn't help but twitch, and he finally swallowed back the short and powerful Armenian dialect sentence.
If I had known he wouldn't talk so much and the atmosphere would be more focused, it would be much better than now.
It was better now, but Aghashyan felt even worse.
The old wizard's eyes wandered around the living room for a few seconds, and finally stopped on a dusty storage shelf not far away.
"Ahem, that's good. It's not an option for us to just sit here and think wildly. How about I try to do some divination?"
"Divination?" Arkhipovna frowned in confusion.
"This is not a trick in the non-magical world. Divination is a very important formal course in magic schools."
Aghaxiyan nodded, stood up, walked quickly to the storage shelf, picked up a box, blew away the thick dust on it, walked quickly back to the table, and opened the wooden box solemnly,
I poured out a pile of yellowed pieces of paper and explained it carefully.
"When I graduated from Kodos Doriz Magic School, I almost got an O (excellent) in Divination. If it weren't for the fact that the examiner was too hard to fool - I mean too rigid, I almost got an O (excellent).
I can also become the most outstanding graduate. I am not particularly good at crystal ball divination, tea leaf divination, etc. My divination still needs someone to cooperate with me in order to become accurate..."
"So, your specialty is divination... Tarot cards?"
Before the old wizard could sort out the pile of things he had not used since his graduation, Arkhipovna's curious voice came to his ears.
"Uh--so you know this..."
Aghaxiyan blinked his eyes and his hand movements froze.
You know, not to mention the Russian magic world, even the entire former Soviet Union - the non-magic world and the magic world combined - not many people know tarot cards at this point in time. Although Gilderoy Lockhart
He is a wizard from England, but his "fiancée" is obviously an out-and-out Russian shrew. Whether it is appearance, accent, or certain wording habits, these are things that are difficult to change.
Aghaxiyan originally planned to take advantage of this information gap and use some light and shadow to comfort the other party a little.
"I just heard about it not long ago. I just know that each card seems to have a special meaning, but I don't know what it is."
Arkhipovna closed the book in her hand and looked at the pile of cards with a complicated and curious expression.
Ever since she learned about the existence of the "Major Arcana" wizard, she wanted to know the meaning of each name besides simple code names.
Although according to Lockhart's explanation, his "Hanged Man" does not have any special meaning.
But Arkhipovna didn't completely believe it. After all, Lockhart's brain was sometimes not as smart as a lab rat.
As a newly promoted A-level research director, Arkhipovna may not have the authority to query information about every major arcana, but she can judge their number and know the existing "major arcana" through members who cannot be queried.
Which "Kana" exists:
The Fool, the Magician, the Priestess, the Queen, the Pope, the Chariot, the Hermit, Justice, the Hanged Man, the Tower, the World.
There are currently eleven "Major Arcana" whose information is unavailable for query.
If it were just for distinction and concealment, it stands to reason that such a strange "number jumping" phenomenon should not occur.
unless……
The main card of each of them also corresponds to a mysterious meaning.
For this reason, Arkhipovna immediately conducted a search on the Hyperion.
However, in the various information collections of Destiny, there is no content about tarot card interpretation, and the divination class at Hogwarts does not teach tarot cards.
Perhaps there are some explanations in the non-magical world, and maybe there is one in the library at Hogwarts Castle.
However, as a "secretly hidden" researcher in the Hogwarts Institute, Arkhipovna has no access to these contents.
Moreover, there was still a slight worry in her heart, so that she did not dare to make a big inquiry to Hogwarts.
There may actually be two explanations for what Lockhart doesn't know:
Either this guy is just a simple-minded fool, or...someone doesn't want him to know.
Most of the answers are hidden in the explanation of the "Major Arcana".
"Mr. Aghashyan, if you can... could you help me introduce a card in detail-"
Arkhipovna glanced at the old wizard who was stunned and didn't know what he was thinking, and took out a tarot card from the pile.
"The Hanged Man. What meaning does this card contain?"
"Huh? Card interpretation? Divination is not like this. A card will have many, many interpretations in different situations, upright, reversed, and in different orders. If we want to explain them all, just the contents of all the main cards
, maybe enough to talk about for a day or two..."
"It's still a long time before dawn. Can you tell me everything about the Hanged Man first?"