[HP] Seven Nights Talk

Chapter 107 The Chosen One

This dinner is probably the most tasteless one since the beginning of school.Ron felt that he had received a big bomb, and in fact he should have discovered the existence of the bomb, and the Slytherins felt that they had been greatly shocked, if it hadn't been a little bit earlier, it would have been even more shocking.The portraits in the principal's office were required to be kept secret, so among the professors at Hogwarts, only Snape and McGonagall clearly knew about it.

The busiest communication mediums today were probably owls and fireplaces, spreading the news one after another—the Dark Lord is back.Although it doesn't seem high-profile enough, it is enough to cause a lot of shock, no matter from which aspect.Apart from speculation about the Dark Lord's magic power, attitude, and thoughts, what is more noticeable is the Dark Lord's goal.

No one would be naive to believe that Voldemort was content with just a Hogwarts teaching post.No one would believe that Voldemort fell in love with the savior he was going to kill when he appeared for the last time when he reappeared more than ten years after disappearing.

Is it because they don't know the truth caused by that prophecy more than ten years ago, or they don't know what has changed in the time since Voldemort disappeared?

In the hearts of the Death Eaters, the Dark Lord seemed to have other plans.At least on the surface, the savior can speak Slytherin's iconic Parseltongue, so is he really a pure savior?

On the other hand, the members of the Order of the Phoenix didn't know so much news yet.So this whole thing looks more like a conspiracy, and Voldemort may have played a trick in some way to coax Harry into submission.

Although the two sides speculated independently, but the Death Eaters were in the dark and did not move, so it was impossible for the Order of the Phoenix to act rashly.At this time, it fell into a stalemate.As for the Ministry of Magic, Fudge has not received any relevant news at all—since Batty became an Auror when he was a child, his actions to secretly censor Fudge have not stopped for a moment—you must know that there were many Death Eaters who served in the Ministry of Magic before, and now Only more.

Amidst the apparent calm, school life at Hogwarts hasn't changed much.The fifth grade still had a lot of homework, the Quidditch team practiced twice a week, and the duties of the prefects were fulfilled, and the days passed quickly.As for the tooth marks incident, Harry grabbed Voldemort's hand and forced the Healing Charm that night-he saw that the Slytherins had imagined far away, and he couldn't help being angry with embarrassment.Voldemort didn't resist much, anyway, he achieved his goal; of course, it was necessary to take advantage of the situation to push Harry to the bed and do something completely.

By the time the first Hogsmeade weekend arrived, it was already the first week of October.The weather has obviously become colder, but this does not affect the enthusiasm of the students to go out at all.The three of Harry went out for a stroll together, and drank a cup of hot and fragrant butter beer in the Three Broomsticks with Sirius.During the period, Sirius said that everything in the Order of the Phoenix was business as usual, but he seemed a bit hesitant to speak.

Harry saw a possible reason, his godfather knew that Ron and Hermione only knew half of it, and the rest of the truth was a devastating blow to that half.So he purposely said before finally going back to school that he had left something at the bar and told Ron and Hermione to go back first.

Sirius was waiting for his return at the fork in the road that led to the Shrieking Shack.Since Harry had told him so many things, on the one hand he believed that his godson would never do anything wrong, on the other hand he was full of doubts and had to change his views.The biggest distrust is of course Voldemort - he doesn't have any kindness to the name.

In order to avoid the crowd, the two walked towards the side of the low-lying dirt road.Because of haunted legends, the place is deserted and the mud is green.Harry carefully avoided these places and walked to a relatively clean dirt slope. "Sirius," he said first, "I'm really not a kid anymore, I know what I'm doing." It was true, even though it sounded like an excuse.

Sure enough, Sirius frowned tightly. "Harry, you know he's the murderer of James and Lily, but you still believe him? Did he lie to you, saying he had some last-minute excuse?"

Harry shook his head. "No." Although Voldemort did all kinds of evil, he never denied that he did those things.If it hadn't turned into a bigger and more complete failure in the end, maybe Voldemort would have regretted not killing him too.But this assumption is just an assumption, at least in their current situation, it is no longer possible.So all he has to do is, make things better. "He realizes that his methods in the past are bad, so he feels that some things must change." He added, not saying whether it is a good change or a bad change, because Sirius will judge for himself.

Sirius watched him silently.

He knew that what Harry said was not a lie, the style of Death Eaters was indeed different from before.While Voldemort stayed at school, all the reviews he heard were that the other party taught well.No white terror, no violent killings.It's just that there were decades of dark reign before Voldemort. Are these two or three years really representative?

Oh, and it must also be said that Voldemort's subordinates were clearly purged.Not to mention werewolves, giants and infernal corpses, even the original Death Eaters were re-evaluated.Leaving aside a large number of people who were captured into Azkaban in the past two years (because the prison break happened before, this matter does not seem so absolute), as long as it can be seen from the sources of the Order of the Phoenix on the Death Eaters.While he didn't trust Snape much (not at all if not for Dumbledore), he was clearly excluded from the inner circle of Death Eaters—his delivery of messages was not as fast as it could have been. Go to Harry's star and a half.

Harry's rank among the Death Eaters would have been very high in the worst fears - but the thought was fleeting, and then immediately dismissed by himself.This was back to the old problem, he believed in Harry's judgment, but he just felt that the other party was too gullible, which was more exaggerated than Dumbledore's trust that Snape had turned back.

"You think he's trustworthy?" Sirius said softly. "Have you ever wondered, is it worth it? For more than a month, I've been out looking for the guy you mentioned." He shrugged, "No news, and you know, for the Order of the Phoenix, this It’s definitely not just a matter of more than a month.”

Of course Harry knew that Sirius was referring to Voldemort's cunning.The last thing Ring was known to do was cast the Greater Imperius Curse on old Crouch, but still didn't reveal himself.Voldemort said that the ring is stronger than when he was on Quirrell. This relatively good foundation makes it stronger and stronger now, and naturally it will not easily fall into the hands of the Order of the Phoenix.Even if the ring is just a part of Voldemort's soul piece, it doesn't seem to be a big deal; but it is clear that he has done a good job in how to preserve himself.

"I do know, and it's almost inevitable," Harry admitted.He paused and didn't tell Sirius that the ring was likely to have assumed human form by now - he didn't want someone to get in the way of the ring for him, it might as well have the ring come to him or Voldemort. "He will pursue his ambitions in new ways."

"What if it's not true? If he lied to you?" Sirius couldn't help asking.No matter what method Voldemort used, he didn't want to show that he didn't understand Harry at all or force him to make a choice, but the problem was that he really felt that Voldemort's past history made this man untrustworthy.

Harry took a deep breath. "Then I will kill him with my own hands." When he said this, his tone was firm, and there was nothing more firm.

Startled, Sirius could only stare at him.He always thought that Harry tended to be gullible and soft-hearted, but he didn't expect it to be so.Come to think of it, for a 15-year-old, Harry should be worried if he's going to kill Avada or be cruel.But Harry did say something that didn't sound like a 15-year-old child - who would clearly realize at this age that there are two choices in front of him, and if one fails, the other must be death?

Harry could see that he was scaring Sirius.Of course he knew how to make a choice, because he had already experienced a brutal war, but Sirius didn't. "Don't forget, he still has Katamari in my head." He said in a slow tone. "If he wants to kill me, he has to kill himself first."

Hearing this again, Sirius immediately scowled.This sentence made him pay more attention to the understanding that in order to kill Voldemort, Harry must be killed first.To be honest, if it wasn't for such a reason, he exploded early in the morning, how could he bear it until now?Because this matter is too sensitive, it is impossible for him to tell the third person.Let the godson die, adding victory chips to the war that has not yet happened-sorry, maybe someone can do it, but he doesn't have such noble sentiments yet.But at the same time another problem bothered him.Even if it doesn't matter what the overall situation is, what about James and Lily who died at the hands of Voldemort?

"I think the worst won't happen." Harry comforted Sirius again.He could guess what Sirius was thinking, because he did know the past now.

Sirius blew up half the street for the deaths of James and Lily (although he thought he did it), killed a lot of Muggles, and finally confessed with a laugh.But for Peter who betrayed them, Sirius can take the greatest risk to escape from prison and wait for an opportunity to take revenge.No matter which one it is, it can be seen that Sirius is definitely not a person who will compromise with the enemy. The only restricting factor is him-Harry, the only son of James and Lily, and his own godson. .

Thinking of this, Harry unexpectedly thought of Regulus Black.They hadn't gone to get the fake locket yet, because he couldn't find the time.Kreacher was intimidated by Voldemort and did not dare to press him.Maybe he should take this back and let Sirius know that his brother isn't a coward... No, it's probably the ring itself that's more useful, and the gem on it is the Resurrection Stone.As for the one in his head...

A vague plan formed in Harry's head.During the summer vacation, he still felt that the remaining things were quite troublesome, but now he has gradually begun to understand what he wants to do, and the stages are unfolding before his eyes.These things can only be done by him, and it has nothing to do with the savior, but he is the chosen one.

Sirius was also aware of this.There was no way and no need to continue this topic. The two walked down the hill silently, returned to the main road, and finally separated in front of the gate of Hogwarts with a wild boar sculpture.Sirius stood where he was, looking at the thin but not particularly tall figure, and his heart was filled with unknown emotions.In the end it all boiled down to self-blame, guilt at what he had to do to make Harry suffer and couldn't do anything about it.

For the next month, nothing happened at Hogwarts.The same is true outside the school, no one tried to publish this big news in a certain newspaper or magazine.The Death Eaters did not hold another meeting, but the trusted Death Eaters, such as Crouch and Lestrange, were about to have their doors broken.As for the Order of the Phoenix, they finally slowly began to gather information about the Death Eaters, completely confirming what Voldemort once said - "I'm just a traitor, so I'll give it to you."

Dumbledore was in yet another internal meeting of the Order of the Phoenix when he thought of those words again.There were very few people, only five including him.Snape's face was gloomy, McGonagall's was serious, Kingsley Shacklebolt was talking about the situation of the Ministry of Magic, and Sirius was unusually silent at such a time.

"...the Death Eaters who escaped from prison seem to have a serious job. I think they must be following Voldemort's orders to fulfill some purpose for him, such as gathering information. We have already begun to investigate some key The list of employees of the organization, such as the Ministry, as well as newspapers and radio stations. This can roughly find a few suspicious objects, but it is not sure who is under those false identities. And I think it is better to find out than to find out There are a lot of people." Kingsley said, glanced at Snape intentionally or unintentionally.

Snape said nothing.This kind of news can only come from within the Death Eaters, but the structure of the Death Eaters is not what it used to be, and it is difficult for news to spread from the core.Even Lucius had been disliked, let alone a man already stamped as a Death Eater traitor.He is extremely skeptical now that the leaked information was deliberately told to them by the other party.

McGonagall also had this idea.She felt that this had nothing to do with Snape's ability, but the Mysterious Man himself.He became even more difficult to deal with, and she couldn't imagine that she had eaten at the same teacher's table with the mysterious man for a year without knowing anything.If Dumbledore hadn't told her, she would never have believed that Roald was the mysterious man.At least she was sure that if the mysterious man hadn't admitted himself, no one would be sure that it was him.Of course, evil must be eradicated, but the situation now exceeds expectations.She looked at Kingsley and asked, "Where's the minister?"

"The minister doesn't know anything yet." Kingsley sneered. "He won't believe us, he liked Chester earlier. But it's not his fault," he was a little depressed, "I also thought Chester was a capable and good Auror at first."

So he could understand Dumbledore's idea of ​​not telling it, because most people wouldn't believe it.Naturally, it is impossible for Death Eaters to expose themselves, and they are not convincing to ordinary people.They said it rashly without evidence, it was more like framing the blame, and it might be regarded as a provocative signal by the Death Eaters-no one could figure out how Voldemort would react to this, and Fudge would surely think that Dumbledore was trying to covet the ministerial position - no good anyway.

Dumbledore's slender fingers tapped lightly on the table.His eyes fell on a slender-legged silverware on the table, as if fascinated by the silver mist emerging from it.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Snape couldn't help it.He is here because of his former Death Eater status, McGonagall is because the school needs more eyes to keep vigilant, Kingsley is because he can synthesize the trends of the Ministry of Magic and other aspects, and there is only one Black, isn't it Was it just for Potter's relationship?You know, Potter is now at school, and any one of him, McGonagall, and Dumbledore has a better chance than Black to take care of Potter.In other words, Potter must have told Black more things - just look at the other party's current silence, otherwise, with Gryffindor's temper, wouldn't he have jumped up earlier? "Gryffindors are always so gullible." He pursed his lips in distaste.

Sirius gave him a dark look.Ever since they were students, he and Snape had quarreled every time they met, and their mutual dislike had reached its peak.He wanted so badly to push back, but he knew he couldn't—he was trying to provoke him into saying things he shouldn't have said.To the extent that Snape hated James, if he knew about the Horcrux, wouldn't he let Harry die immediately?

"Why don't you talk? If I remember correctly, this is really a rare thing." Before anyone interrupted, Snape continued talking like a cannonball, approaching him while talking: "You I also think this is right? You can watch Potter with his father-killing enemy? Does he really know everything? Or, he has completely forgotten about it..."

"Shut up!" Sirius, who was motionless, suddenly jumped up, his eyes were red.

Snape was frightened back two steps, but found that the other party did not charge up. "I hit the mark, didn't I? Are you guilty?" he mocked.

Sirius rushed over and grabbed him by the collar.He pushed the man against the wall with too much force, smashed several silverware into pieces, and the wand hit his throat almost instantly. "You—one more—say—ha—li—one—word—I—will—kill—you—!" He was totally snarling.

Snape didn't expect him to react so much.But the situation didn't make him flinch, and he was about to say something when he heard Dumbledore's calm voice. "That's enough."

Sirius was still glaring at Snape, but he didn't follow up with another jinx.Snape glanced at Dumbledore, and found that Dumbledore had stood up from behind the table and closed his mouth too, but the corners of his mouth twisted into a mocking arc.Both McGonagall and Kingsley watched them nervously, until Sirius finally let go after a few seconds. "No matter what this matter is, it has nothing to do with Harry." He reluctantly dropped this sentence, turned his head and walked towards the door. "I don't care what you think, but don't let me hear that next time."

He slammed the door, shaking the picture frame a few times.The remaining four people looked at each other in blank dismay. This was not so much for Snape, but for all of them.That said, Sirius had ironclad reasons for trusting Harry, but reasons he didn't want to tell them?Dumbledore stared at the doorknob and was silent for a while.What reason could make Sirius feel that the current situation is normal?

Harry didn't know about this little episode.With two jobs, he has much more to do than before.At the beginning of November, the Gryffindor team ushered in his first Quidditch match after taking office as captain, against Slytherin.

"... Monty seems to be going for size rather than skill," Harry said at a combat meeting the day before the game. "He's got Crabbe and Gore as new hitters. Say, it's good they know how to hold the bat. I'll draw Malfoy's attention. Fred and George, watch the others, don't let the Chaser and the goalie be plotted. Others, pay attention Cooperate, try not to put too much pressure on the goalkeeper, Ron is the first time after all. Finally, Ron, we believe you can do it. Any questions?"

"No!" Everyone responded loudly.They have maintained regular practice after the trials, and every time the situation is good, everyone is naturally confident.

"However," George said suddenly, "a lot of Slytherins have been asking us about you lately, Harry."

Harry raised one eyebrow high.He knew that Fred and George's business was getting bigger and bigger, and it was no longer limited to Gryffindor, and it was natural to have contact with Slytherins. "What did they ask? Skill? I've been playing Quidditch for three years, what can I ask?" He was puzzled.

"No, no, no," Fred waved his hand aside, "It has nothing to do with Quidditch. What we mean is that they have been very interested in you recently, and it doesn't seem to be malicious." Judging from his tone, he himself It's weird not being malicious.

Harry's eyebrows went even higher.He felt he had guessed some possibility, like some Death Eaters' favorite information gathering, had something to do with Voldemort's attitude. "Leave them alone," he said dryly. "We just need to focus on winning games."

Everyone nodded.

On the day of the game, the stands were crowded with people.Last school year, Quidditch was canceled due to the Triwizard Tournament. This time, the opponents in the competition were Gryffindor and Slytherin, who had always been at odds with each other. expectations.

But Harry smelled something unusual when he shook hands before the game.The problem was Montague, a gorilla-sized guy who liked to shake hands with such force that he could break them.Today, the other party's facial expression was contorted, and Harry thought he was going to get worse, but unexpectedly, the other party almost didn't dare to touch him—it was said to be a handshake, but in fact it was just a wipe.

Mrs. Hooch frowned at this, but probably considering Slytherin's not-so-clean style of play, she didn't force it.It was only when Harry was riding on the broom that he suddenly realized that Montana's distorted expression might not be evil, but trying to smile at him... This thought almost scared him off the broom, he firmly told himself that he wanted to too much.

But it turns out that's true, because it's not just Montague who acts like this.For example, Malfoy, when they played games before, the other party would follow him closely, but now they simply avoided him; he wanted to go down to see the situation, even if he was in the way, Slytherin would definitely Hit the ball the other way - so much so that several own goals were scored.

Harry didn't realize it was his problem at first, and was still wondering if Slytherin had eaten something wrong today, but Fred suddenly flew up to him and said, "Did you have a Slytherin with you today?" The Repelling Curse of Raitlin? They're all avoiding you!"

"Yeah, they suddenly became honest today?" George flew over from behind, "Fred and I have never had such an easy time—they're not going to bump into each other at all!"

Thinking of the greatest possibility, Harry was stunned.In order to prove it, he deliberately rushed down and got stuck in the middle of the rings on both sides.Crabbe was about to pass the ball, but when he saw him halfway, his hand shook, and the ball went the other way and hit Goyer on the forehead.Goyle rolled his eyes and fell with the broom.

The audience was in an uproar, Harry wiped his forehead silently, and then went to the rostrum.Snape had already covered his eyes, his robes covering his face, and it seemed he couldn't bear to look any further.And Voldemort, leaning comfortably in his seat, smiled amusedly when he caught his gaze.

"Plop!" Another dull sound.Harry looked back hastily, only to see Crabbe fall in the same position as he had hit himself on the head.

Seeing the faces of his teammates struck by lightning, Harry didn't want to say anything.