Chapter 180. We Are the Best of Friends!
Three hours after Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe were captured by the pixies.
The sun watched everything in silence and sank a little without a sound.
A deep red evening glow was like a wine-purple gown, its edges trimmed with a border of cloud as pure white as snow, opulent and stately.
Soft light filtered through the afterglow and fell to earth, laying over the surface of the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts as if draped with a gorgeous veil.
Duncan, carrying his suitcase, moved through the eerie forest, passed a moss-covered stump, and stood atop a dead log sunk in a patch of mire.
He raised his right hand to his brow to block a slanting ray of light from above, straining to look into the distance in search of the pixies' traces.
He had originally planned to come to the forest in the afternoon to see Nofi and the others, but he hadn't expected Fred and George to go mad the moment they saw the Room of Requirement.
They looked as if their eyes were glowing red, using the tools in the room to try, again and again, the gadgets they had always wanted to make.
Because too many projects were started at once, Duncan and Neville, after much pleading from the twins, stayed behind.
They helped the Weasley twins handle some simple yet extremely tedious tasks.
Only when night was about to fall did Duncan slip away, while Neville was still in the Room of Requirement, sweating buckets as he followed Fred and George's instructions.
Neville had now become the first employee of the not-yet-founded Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, with a generous salary of one Galleon per month.
When Pro heard Duncan recount this, even it couldn't help widening its eyes and cursing the twins as black-hearted for bullying its idiot friend.
But Neville did not seem to mind this in the least; he was delighted to work with the Weasley twins to develop all sorts of gadgets.
So he spent the entire day finding work for himself to do, hardly resting at all.
If he wasn't stirring the brew in a cauldron, he was processing ingredients on a tabletop—so energetic that Duncan felt a little afraid.
Gusts of evening wind howled in from afar, leaves rustled, and the piled snow slid down with a crackle and a patter.
Duncan's face felt as if scraped by little knives; he rubbed it, then tightened the collar of his school robes.
After that he searched the places the pixies often frequented, but unfortunately he still could not find a trace of them.
Those little fellows seemed to have evaporated from the forest, leaving no trace at all.
"Hello, have you seen my friends?" Duncan tilted his head back and asked a grey owl standing on a branch.
The owl slanted a glance at Duncan and replied lazily, "Those little fellows that birds despise?"
"That's right, them!" Duncan nodded emphatically.
"Sorry, I haven't seen them," the owl said, giving a mighty yawn. "I'm on night duty today, so I got up rather late."
"However…" The owl cocked its head in thought. "They don't seem to have been around nearby; I haven't heard their racket."
"If you're in a hurry or uneasy, I have a few friends living over there—why don't you go ask them?"
"Alright, thank you." When Duncan finished speaking, his brow knit slightly. Those little fellows hadn't run off somewhere else to make trouble, had they?
Without him around, the fierce, strong creatures in the forest would not indulge their mischievous tempers; if they were hurt, that would be bad.
Duncan pondered a little and unconsciously quickened his pace, hurrying off to check other places the pixies might have gone.
He ducked his head to avoid a drooping branch and moved quickly through the trees, and when he pushed through a particularly lush thicket, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Chirping chatter drifted from his right—very familiar.
If he guessed right, it should be the pixies.
Judging by their voices, they seemed to have just experienced something wonderful and were in exceptionally high spirits.
Sure enough, after a moment, a flock of steel-blue pixies, grinning from ear to ear, fluttered out from the dense twigs.
"Where did you run off to play? You're this happy." Duncan set the case on the ground, lifted his chin a little, folded his arms, and asked.
At his words, two pixies were so startled that their flight went all to pieces, and they plunged headfirst out of the air.
The remaining pixies were tense as well, faces taut as they hovered among the branches, feigning calm while secretly edging about to hide themselves.
"Mm?" Duncan raised an eyebrow. "Did you go and do something bad behind my back again?"
"No, absolutely not!" Nofi and the other pixies spoke in perfect unison, faces solemn as they shouted their reply.
"Sure about that?" Duncan narrowed his eyes, suspicious.
"Really, really." Nofi dropped to Duncan's side, not daring to meet his eyes, its heart full of guilt.
They had only just sent those three hateful fellows out of the forest; if Duncan had come a little earlier, he would certainly have discovered it.
"Duncan, how was your holiday? Did anything interesting happen?" Nofi's eyes rolled, and it yanked the topic away.
"Not bad. A few new friends have joined the case, and the space has grown as well. Do you want to move back in?"
Duncan asked without pressing the earlier question. So long as they weren't hurt, that was enough.
And with Nofi there, it would keep the other pixies in hand and wouldn't let them cause too much trouble.
"Move back in?" One pixie's eyes sparkled as it said excitedly, "Brilliant! The case is loads more fun!"
"We haven't seen Pro in ages—hehe—I wonder if it misses us." A strange smile hung on the speaking pixie's face.
"Hold on." Another pixie waved for silence. "Have you forgotten? Nofi said it would lead us to conquer the whole forest!"
"Oh, right… If we go back, the conquest plan can't be completed…" the pixie said in a crestfallen tone.
Duncan glanced at Nofi and blinked, as if to ask, "Goodness, mate, are you really this bold?"
Nofi gave a little cough, then kicked both pixies hard on their backsides, sending them spinning twice in mid-air.
"Duncan, don't listen to their nonsense. What conquest plan? There's no such thing." Nofi grinned sheepishly.
Duncan smiled and nodded. "So what you mean is, you're moving back in?"
"Of course!" Nofi nodded vigorously. "I miss our good friend—the lovely Niffler Pro—so very much."
"Right, right, sometimes I even dream about it!" a pixie said, its hands rubbing the air as if kneading Pro's chubby cheeks.
Duncan raised an eyebrow and said with a smile, "But I think it doesn't much want to see you."
"How could that be?" Nofi said, beaming. "We are the best of friends!"
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