分卷阅读4（1 / 2）

Harry’s mouth dropped. “You think I’m connected to it?”

Valentine smiled, “Absolutely not.”

“But you just said I was too involved in it!”

“You were too involved in the events of today, yes.”

“How can I be too involved if I was just doing my job?” Valentine simply stared back at him. Harry, desperate to see out his shift and try to find any intel from the Thursday night card gas, pleaded, “Can I at least finish out the shift? You have no one to replace .”

“No, it’s an instant termination.” Valentine shook his head and started to pry the porter’s jacket off of Harry’s shoulders. “Everyone is replaceable.”

Harry shook his head incredulously. “You literally said at my performance review that I was irreplaceable.”

Valentine motioned for Harry to take off his dress pants and said, “The you from then was irreplaceable, but the you from today is pletely replaceable. See to it that you get your things and don’t set foot in here again. Thank you, Archer.”

Months of working there and Valentine couldn’t even be bothered to rember his na. Maybe Ron was right, Archie Eversworn was forgettable. After he’d changed back into his street clothes and gathered his personal items, Harry felt too dejected to say goodbye to anyone and imdiately left.

He couldn’t bring himself to send word to Ron yet, so he andered his way back to his flat in a downtrodden haze. Just as he started to think there might be hope, so way to fix the situation, he tripped over sothing and fell to the ground. A loud hiss echoed in his ear, and he caught the blur of a red kneazle before it hurried across the street to find refuge in an alcove.

He mildly recognized it as the sa kneazle from earlier, but his gaze focused on the bloody page of the Prophet on the ground before him. It must have slipped out of his pocket when he fell. Harry turned it over and examined the print for the first ti.

New Players Called Up for Quidditch National Team—Barton Hunterpot has nad the provisional squad for the next series of friendlies against Ireland, Croatia, and Pakistan. New nas among the players featured are Heidi McTavinton, Bart Martin, and Ginevra Weasley.

He smiled. Well that was sothing. He shoved the paper back in his pocket and went ho. At least sothing went right for soone today, he thought as he entered the side entrance of The Laughing Fox.

Harry took slow steps up to his flat and paused in front of the door as the dulcet tones of Alwyn and the Briarclucks drifted over from Umphrey’s flat. Sothing about the depressing lody of “You Cracked My Cauldron and Now We’re Done” brought Harry’s spirits crashing back down again.

How could he have let this happen? He’d had one job and ssed everything up. He let Ron down, and Robards, and missed the chance to prove he was more than just the Boy Who Lived Twice. He was capable. He just needed to figure sothing out. Maybe there was a way to infiltrate the potions ring from the inside, if only he hadn’t lost access to the hotel. Harry kicked the door fra. He shook his head, sighed, and opened his door.

He walked into his flat and marched to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. Harry didn’t realize all the lights were on until he’d grabbed the kettle and turned to the sink. He started to glance around and then heard a bang from the other side of the studio, turning just in ti to see a figure in the window ground his feet on the floor and stand straight.

Before Harry could put the kettle down to grab his wand, the blond figure had disard him.

“You,” Harry breathed. He took in the lithe fra of Draco Malfoy dressed in head to toe black robes.

“Hello,” Malfoy said, staring at Harry. His face revealed absolutely nothing. There was no trace of exertion or disfort after having, apparently, climbed the building and crawled through the window. Grey eyes fell to the kettle in Harry’s hand. “Are you making tea?” Malfoy snidely nted.

Harry went for a knife, but Malfoy lunged across the room faster than he’d anticipated and whacked it out his hand. They stood close for a mont before Harry took a step back and ran into the counter. With his arms still raised in a defensive stance, he asked, “How did you get in here?”