"Awaken?"
Such a common word, yet when it struck his eardrums, Wade only felt his fingertips grow faintly cold. At some unknown point, the toad in the cage had already gone completely silent.
After a moment, Wade asked: "The ancient things… what are they?"
This time, however, Grey Lady did not answer. She only cast Wade a quiet glance before saying: "Be careful… those things are far more dangerous than the basilisk in the Chamber."
The ghost turned her head, drifted straight through a tall oak and the thick underbrush, and her pearl-white figure quickly disappeared from sight.
Wade did not follow. He lowered his head and looked at the toad inside the birdcage.
Perhaps because its small brain could not support overly complex thoughts, the toad still crouched in the cage in a daze. Only after a long while did it suddenly come back to its senses, and lifted its eyes to sneak a look at Wade's reaction.
Two pairs of gray eyes suddenly met. The toad's pupils shrank, its belly heaved, and it croaked with a low "Guu—."
Wade's gaze suddenly grew meaningful.
He looked at the nervous toad but did not expose its identity. Without showing any sign, he simply picked up the cage and walked out of the shadowy forest.
The "toad" in the birdcage let out a sigh of relief and curled up quietly in the corner. As the castle in its vision grew larger and larger, it could not help but burst into tears.
Heaven knew how many dangers he had endured, weak, ugly, and helpless as he was, to finally make it here!
…
In truth, Lucius Malfoy's first choice had been to seek Narcissa's help in breaking the curse.
Unfortunately, the protective system of Malfoy Manor had been maintained and strengthened by their family for generations. Even though he was the master of the manor, in the form of a toad he had no way of sneaking inside.
He caught insects and drank dew, and lingered outside the manor, hoping for a chance to see his wife. Lucius believed that as long as Narcissa knew who he was, she would spare no effort to help him.
But because of her husband's disappearance, Narcissa was running about everywhere. She had no interest in taking her usual strolls around the manor grounds.
She hurried about, always entering and leaving the manor via Floo powder or Apparition. Lucius waited for two full weeks before finally seizing the chance when Narcissa came out through the front gates.
And the result?
Before he could hop in front of her and hold up the leaf he had prepared (on which he had written "Lucius Malfoy" to reveal his identity), his wife gave a cold, disgusted glance at the eager toad that had leapt toward her, then lashed out with her wand like a whip!
Lucius: "…"
He did not want to recall that day.
All in all, he survived—bitter, tearful, trembling with lingering fear.
The painstakingly written leaf was blasted to pieces, and his toad body bore several wounds that were hard to heal.
Afterward, he realized it was best not to appear directly before Narcissa again, and tried every method he could to send her a message instead—
He caught bugs and arranged them into the words he wanted to say, but before even one word was spelled out, ants had already carried off the earlier insects;
Abandoning bugs, he switched to brightly colored berries. That not only attracted a flock of small birds, but also earned him the mocking laughter of two nosy crows. Their raucous "caw, caw, caw" still echoed in his mind, refusing to fade even after many days;
He switched to leaves, but the wind blew them away;
Then he switched to twigs, but they weren't very noticeable either.
After much effort, he managed to gather a pile of pebbles and finally spelled out the words he wanted to say. But after waiting day and night, Narcissa never again came out of the manor.
The closest they came to each other was still more than a hundred meters apart.
Through the gaps between the fence and the bushes, Lucius saw his wife sitting pale-faced in the pavilion. Her gaze was vacant, her body was thin, as though she had lost all vitality.
His heart ached, and he grew anxious. Outside the fence, he hopped desperately, croaking— "Look at me! Look at me! I'm right here!"
But instead of drawing Narcissa's attention, his cries attracted a starling—a bird known for clutching a toad by its hind legs, thrashing it again and again, and swallowing it once the toad was too weak to struggle!
Relying on human intelligence and battle experience, Lucius barely managed to shake off that vile predator after a long struggle.
By the time he returned, exhausted, to where he had laid out the words with pebbles, a bone-chilling cold shot up from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, making even breathing difficult.
At last, someone noticed his message. But it was not the Narcissa Malfoy he had longed for with all his heart. Instead, it was two skinny house-elves.
—House-elves of the Malfoy family.
The two elves discovered the words on the ground, and whispered in each other's ears. Suddenly, one crouched down, touched the pebble letters, then lowered its head to inspect its fingertips.
Lucius's heart pounded violently, as though a cold viper was slithering up his spine.
He knew what the elf had seen—while arranging the pebbles, he had unavoidably smeared some of his own mucus on them.
This kind of mucus was often used in potion-making, so it was something no witch or wizard would be unfamiliar with.
Which meant they would know immediately that the one who laid out the pebbles… was a toad!
One of the elves clutched a pebble in its hand and looked around. Lucius quickly shrank back behind the bushes, and hid himself completely.
In the past, Lucius, well aware of the loyalty of house-elves, would have walked out proudly and ordered them to fetch their mistress.
But now, he held his breath and his body trembled slightly, as though bound by an invisible force, utterly afraid to show himself.
After Dobby's betrayal, when he looked again at the two house-elves with their bodies scarred old and new, clothed in tattered pillowcases, he could not help but wonder—
Now that he had become a weak and powerless toad, would they really still obey him, still treat him with goodwill and respect?
One of the house-elves returned to the manor, while the other stayed behind to search the surroundings.
A glimmer of hope rose in Lucius's heart—if they could bring Narcissa over, then perhaps that would mean…
But he never saw Narcissa.
In just the blink of an eye, almost all the house-elves from the manor came running out. They gathered around the name on the ground, discussed it for a moment, then scattered to search in all directions!
…
Thud, thud, thud…
A rush of heavy footsteps came, and the ground around them seemed to tremble. Lucius Malfoy once again recalled the tension and fear of nearly being discovered by the house-elves.
—That was the moment in his life when he had felt closest to death!
The toad's body trembled, and he snapped out of his memories—only to see an enormous figure appear from between the shadows of the trees, blocking out the sky, terrifying beyond measure!
His mind froze for two seconds before he realized, belatedly, that the person running toward him was none other than Rubeus Hagrid!
"Wade, it's you?"
Dew clung to Hagrid's thick beard, and he carried a large axe in his hand. He explained: "I heard a student had gone into the Forbidden Forest, thought it was those twins again. Merlin's beard, they never stop causing trouble for even a single day!"
"So what then?" Wade joked, "You planning to chop them up?"
"What? Oh, of course not! This is just for self-defense." Hagrid slid the axe into the belt at his back, gestured for Wade to follow him, and added: "You shouldn't be in the Forbidden Forest, Wade! You know the school rules!"
"Sorry." Wade instinctively shifted the cage with the toad behind his back, and casually made up an excuse: "I just thought… this was a good place to think about the third task of the tournament."
Since the tournament was now the school's top priority, using it as an excuse was like a Wallfacer saying, 'This is part of my plan'—a reason easy enough to win understanding.
But Hagrid's reaction was nothing like what Wade expected. The half-giant's eyes widened in shock, his thick brows knitted tightly together, and he blurted out:
"You—you—how do you know that? Who told you about the third task?"
[TN: The term "Wallfacer" comes from the renowned science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem" by Liu Cixin.
In the story, Earth faces an imminent and over whelming invasion by an alien civilization.
The aliens, called the "Trisolarans", can monitor all human communication and see everything that happens on Earth. They can read emails, watch security footage, and hear private conversations. This makes it impossible to develop any secret plans to counter them.
To overcome this, the United Nations initiates the "Wallfacer Project." It selects four individuals, known as "Wallfacers," and grants them almost unlimited resources and authority.
While the Trisolarans can see their actions, they cannot read their minds. Therefore, a Wallfacer's true plans and goals are to be kept entirely within their own heads.
A Wallfacer is allowed to do anything—no matter how bizarre, wasteful, or seemingly unrelated to the war—and no one is allowed to question their motives.
The key phrase they use to deflect all inquiry and criticism is: "This is part of my plan." ]
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