harry potter book of crimes

"Come! You all come here too. Everyone should put cream on their faces. This is a birthday tradition among Muggle friends, isn't it?"

Seeing Harry, Ron, Neville and other male compatriots being pushed to the side of the hospital bed, little Cathy smiled and giggled and applied a finger of cream with her own hands. Maka couldn't help but also showed a hint of

Heart smile.

But when everyone discovered that little Cathy had finally set her sights on Maka, he suddenly realized that the smile on his face was about to be taken away by someone else.

"Oh, beautiful Cathy, don't you think you should save a little?"

But to be honest, since the cake Hannah made was not very big, little Cathy was already frugal enough. At the moment, everyone's faces were actually just smeared with a finger of cream.

But looking at the amount left on the tray, Maka felt that she might be receiving relatively special "care".

"Come! Come here!"

Seeing that little Cathy was completely unmoved and just waved her hand persistently towards him, he could only walk to the bedside of little Cathy obediently and leaned down as if he had resigned himself to his fate.

"Don't use too much. I'm really not used to putting these greasy things on my face."

Before he finished speaking, he saw little Cathy picking up the fresh cream from the tray with both hands and happily slapping it on his face.

After wiping off the cream covering her eyes with her hands, Maka opened her eyes and licked her lips helplessly.

"Okay! Maybe applying cream once in a while will be good for the skin..." He smashed the delicate sweetness in his mouth and made a joke as if he had given up completely. At the end, he said, "Oh, Hannah! Say

Really, your craftsmanship is really great."

Maka's face with cream all over her face caused everyone to burst into laughter. Especially Luna, she always had a tendency to be unable to hold back her laughter, and her laughter was quite magical.

But because of what Maka said just now, Harry and the other boys seemed to taste a little helpless sadness from this joy, which made them unconsciously restrain their smiles.

Unknowingly, probably due to the lack of participation of the male voice, the laughter gradually became thinner and thinner. As everyone was affected and stopped laughing one by one, which became more and more strange, the atmosphere suddenly turned from light to lively.

Too heavy.

And this is another reason why Maka suddenly told Harry and others what was going to happen. He needs those boys who are not very good at hiding their emotions to create this opportunity.

.

At the moment, some of the people in the ward still don't know what is going on, while others already know some rather cruel realities.

Even Luna, a special girl who is usually not affected by the environment, gradually stopped smiling. Of course, it still felt a few beats slower than others.

Perhaps realizing something from this sudden change in the atmosphere, Mrs. Pierce suddenly looked towards Maka.

Maka then nodded slightly at her, and then said to everyone:

"Let's all go out! Today is Cathy's birthday. I think she must need some alone time with her mother. What do you think?"

While speaking, he secretly winked at Harry and the others, and immediately they cooperated in taking Hermione and the other girls out of the ward.

Little Cathy, who had known about it from the beginning, didn't say anything at first, but when she saw Maka helping a patient who couldn't move around and leaving the place with other patients, she finally couldn't help but call out:

"M-Maka?"

No matter how mature and sensible little Cathy is, and no matter whether she is one of the creators of this opportunity, she is still a very precocious child.

Maka heard an imperceptible tremor from her soft, seemingly casual cry.

As for Mrs. Pierce standing aside, she would not understand the true meaning of little Cathy calling Maka's name. Without knowing it, she would only think that her daughter was upset that everyone was leaving.

"Well, help Mr. Woods out for me..."

After handing the patient at hand to another patient with minor injuries, Maka stopped, then slowly turned around and returned to little Cathy's bedside.

"Madam, it's just me saying, is it okay to stay?"

Seeing her daughter reach out and grab Maka's sleeve, Mrs. Pierce nodded silently.

"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. MacLean."

Maka could feel that her sleeve was being held tightly by Cathy's little hands. What kind of expression did she have now? Maka did not lower her head to see.

After that, the ward suddenly fell into silence. Only Mrs. Pierce's nervous breathing proved that the space here had not solidified.

After about two or three minutes, the lady finally spoke.

"Little Cathy, my mother didn't want to tell you this originally... Mr. MacLean told me that even the last memory is often more regretful than leaving nothing behind."

"So, in order to prevent you from regretting it in the future, mom decided to tell you this fact."

At this point, Mrs. Pierce no longer had any reason not to say anything. She didn't care that Maka was right in front of her, silently opened the belt around her waist, and then let her coat slip to the ground.

.

And at that moment, her upper body was immediately exposed to the air. It could be seen that except for the robe just now, her extremely thin upper body was not wearing any clothes, but was tightly wrapped with bandages.

stand up.

Faintly, you can even see traces of black translucent flames peeking out from between the gaps in the bandages from time to time, as automatic and windless as living creatures.

Yes, it was actually Mrs. Pierce who was about to be seriously injured.

This was the terrible consequence of the disaster in London when she used her body to block a ball of black flames in order to protect little Cathy.

For this reason, her soul suffered serious damage that even Maka could not heal, but little Cathy only injured one arm.

However, although she thought that little Cathy had fainted at that time, she did not expect that the scene had already been burned deeply into her heart.

"My daughter... Mom may not be able to stay with you for too long."

As Mrs. Pierce just said, although this reality is extremely cruel, it is something that little Cathy will know sooner or later. Rather than hiding it and exchanging a short period of peace for a sudden shock, the mother and daughter might as well take advantage of it.

Use this last period of time to create the last meaningful memory.

What's more, little Cathy has always known the truth, and it was the madam herself who was kept in the dark.

"Brother, I know you must have tried your best. The bad guys are just those black monsters on the street. But please help me again and let my mother tell the truth! I don't want her to hold it in so painfully.

Already..."

Maka still remembered that a few days ago, when he was examining little Cathy, and Mrs. Pierce happened to go to the restaurant to buy lunch, this exceptionally sensible little girl whispered to him.

To be honest, even Maka was a little surprised by how smart and sensible this little girl is. Even though she has a lot of childish qualities like other people of her age, her sharp eyes can see a lot of things clearly.

For example, in order to prevent Mrs. Pierce from knowing about her injuries, she asked Maka to wait for her to go outside for treatment every time.

But as time went by, little Cathy easily saw through the pattern, and even struggled to get out of the hospital bed to watch Maka treat her mother.

And precisely because of this, of course Maka immediately discovered what little Cathy was doing, and that was how the two secretly communicated and planned.

However, little Cathy's strength was limited after all, so when Maka was about to leave, she couldn't help but secretly stop him.

Perhaps she subconsciously realized that she needed someone to bear this unparalleled pain with her. Otherwise, she might have collapsed on the spot when she saw her mother speaking the so-called "truth".

"Mother!"

When Mrs. Pierce's extremely abnormal upper body was revealed, and when Mrs. Pierce said that her time was running out, little Cathy jumped on her and couldn't help hugging her.

"Mom, how could...how could this happen, why..."

Lowering her head for a moment, Maka looked at the wrinkles on the cuffs and didn't raise her eyes again for a short period of time.

He understood that at this time, little Cathy was no longer suppressing her acting, she was really crying out for the injustice of the world.

"Why" the Pierce family, which has already lost its father and husband, will now be deprived of a mother. "How could" this world be so ruthless?

To be honest, Maka also wants to know the answer to this question. If there is a pair of hands controlling the world, then what the hell is the owner of those hands thinking?

He wanted to know even more, why on earth was he thrown into this colorful but extremely realistic world?

"Mom... Cathy can understand, Cathy won't cry... So, mom, don't cry either, okay?"

When Maka heard this, she suddenly looked up.

It turned out that in the silence, Mrs. Pierce's face was already full of tears.

After standing in silence for a moment, watching the mother and daughter hugging each other speechlessly, Maka knew that little Cathy no longer needed him.

Therefore, he left the ward quietly without making any sound.

"Let them stay in there for a while! Let's not disturb them," Maka, who had just come out of the corridor, said calmly, "Let's go to the tea room on the sixth floor and have afternoon tea."

As he was talking, he suddenly saw a figure running out from the corner of the corridor in the distance. It was Sirius. (To be continued)