Chapter 685: The Meeting - (1)
The departure time of the Hogwarts Express was forced to be delayed. Except for some parents who came to attend the funeral and were allowed to take their children directly from the school, the remaining students were all driven back to the castle.
Due to the presence of the Weasley couple, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and others, Harry and his friends were not required to return to the Gryffindor common room but were allowed to stay with their families. They were temporarily housed in the school auditorium. Harry saw many familiar faces, Ernie, Zacharias Smith, Seamus, Cormac McLaggen, Hannah, Susan Bones, Anthony Goldstein, Marcus Belby, Draco, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini...
Many of them were regulars at Professor Slughorn's parties.
These students all had family or relatives staying, including the Weasley family. They chatted quickly in the hall, occasionally stopping, glancing anxiously towards the direction of the staff room, hoping someone would come out—Akingbade temporarily borrowed the school grounds to discuss important matters with the Ministers of Magic from various countries.
"Ms. Bones sent out a large number of Aurors before entering to prevent riots..." Percy said solemnly, dressed in formal attire, along with Bill, Sirius, Lupin, Moody, and the Longbottom couple among the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Percy had originally planned to return to the Ministry immediately after the incident, but Mr. Weasley requested him to stay, and he argued, "The department needs me now!" In the end, Penelope sarcastically said, "What are you going back for? To organize celebrations for the wizarding world to be exposed to the public eye?" So Percy stayed.
Old members and children of the Order of the Phoenix sat together, "There's nothing to worry about!" Neville's somewhat intimidating grandmother said firmly, Mrs. Weasley responded absent-mindedly, Fleur had just seen off Madame Maxime and came back to see Penelope and Mrs. Weasley sitting intimately together, pouting dissatisfiedly.
"Oh my goodness—I saw Madame Maxime kissing that big guy, it's unbelievable, isn't it?" Fleur tossed her waterfall-like hair, forcibly squeezing herself between them, "Maybe it's true love in adversity, or just purely ceremonial..." Mrs. Weasley responded with an ambiguous attitude.
Ginny was squeezed aside, looking unhappy. She stood up, shook her hair, and walked to her twin brothers with her head held high, her beautiful head lifted proudly, just like another Fleur.
"So you've been taught by a dark wizard for a year, your school life is indeed colorful." Fred said.
"Don't act like you're ignorant," George said seriously, "Remember, one of us personally took down another dark wizard."Harry said with a gloomy expression, "Thanks, George—I'd be happy to share that part of the experience if you're interested." After speaking, he glanced at Ron, who had just slipped up.
Ron looked around, seemingly interested in what Professor Marchbanks was shouting on the other side of the hall. The old lady yelled, "Stupid! Lost your mind! I wonder when our government became so keen on dealing with criminals? In my opinion, Dumbledore should not have stepped down at all. Could that Abacabad be another Fudge?"
The real Fudge stood awkwardly in the corner, twirling his hat. He also attended the funeral, but he was alone, even less popular than the Malfoy family.
Ron withdrew his gaze, pretending not to see Harry's gaze at him, shrugged and said, "She's right, there's no shortage of people like Fudge in the world."
"I think," Hermione said matter-of-factly, "it's unfair to put Akingbade and Fudge together. At least his intentions were good, to avoid war. But obviously, he underestimated Grindelwald."
"That's his biggest problem, Hermione," Fred pointed out.
At this moment, Harry saw a figure flash at the door of the hall. He jumped up from his chair all of a sudden, his heart pounding, but immediately realized he was mistaken. He slumped back into his seat, seemingly losing all strength.
"What's wrong with you, Harry?" Ron asked in surprise.
"Nothing—" Harry hesitated, "Well, I thought I saw Dumbledore, but it should've been Aberforth."
"Oh, they do look somewhat alike," Ginny said, "But I don't think I saw him at the funeral?"
"He went to classroom seven."
Nick, nearly headless, floated behind her, shaking his head, and Ginny and Neville, closest to him, froze for a moment, discreetly making room for him. ℞АƝŐ𝖇Ёᶊ
"Room seven?" Ron asked with interest. "Why? Oh—" He caught on. "That's where his family is."
"Yeah... but he's had a rough day. Almost got chased out by a couple of the professors' memory bodies working together," Nick said.
"What happened?" Harry asked sensitively.
"It's related to a newcomer memory body. He's about the same age as Dumbledore, uh, I mean the Dumbledore in room seven," Nick said. "I know a bit about Aberforth. He's been showing up a lot lately, not just me who's bumped into him at meal times... but he usually just watches from afar. But today, when he saw that new memory body, he suddenly got angry..."
"So, it's connected to the new memory body?" George asked thoughtfully. "Who is he?"
"I don't know," Nick said cautiously, shaking his head. He tilted his head sideways, his whole face turning upside down, then cried out in alarm and quickly adjusted himself. Harry shuddered and looked away.
A new memory body in room seven, making Aberforth so angry. Who could it be?
Harry's eyes lit up as he realized. He looked at Hermione, who seemed to have figured it out too.
It's likely the memory body of Grindelwald himself. From what Nearly Headless Nick said, Grindelwald's memories left behind should be from his youth, but when did he do it? Does Professor Harp know? If he does, why didn't he stop it? Is it because of his special relationship with Dumbledore? Have they made some undisclosed agreement? Harry's head was spinning.
"We can ask Professor Harp when we have time. Room seven is his territory, he'll surely know the identity of the memory body," Ron said to Nick, glancing at the inconspicuous door of the Great Hall. "But he's going to be busy next, sigh, I thought he could foresee and stop Grindelwald in advance. But then again, it's hard for ordinary people to imagine Grindelwald's madness." Fear flickered in his eyes.
"Why do you say that?" Neville asked softly. Does the professor know something?
Ron shrugged.
"He's almost invincible in my mind. You know, tracing clues like a Muggle detective, didn't expect him to miss this time."
"Totally different, Ron," Hermione shook her head, counting on her fingers seriously. "Grindelwald seems to have done a lot—calling the core saints, negotiating with the chairman of the International Confederation of Wizards, announcing Dumbledore's death openly, making an unbreakable vow, and attending today's funeral—but in fact, these things are all optional, irrelevant to the overall situation."
Harry's numb mind began to work again, Hermione's words bringing him a whole new direction of thought, as if he had suddenly cleared away the fog in his mind.
"I got it! Grindelwald's sole purpose from beginning to end is one: to expose the entire magical world, force the wizarding society and the Muggle society to integrate, and fulfill his and Dumbledore's original dream," Harry exclaimed excitedly.
"So, everything he did before was just a distraction? Everyone was fooled by him?" Ron looked at the two of them, hesitatingly asking.
"At the moment, we can only guess," Hermione said softly. "From Grindelwald's display of power today, he could accomplish the plan alone—maybe he couldn't beat Professor Harp, but at their level, he can withdraw from battle at any time, so capturing Voldemort was so difficult. Ordinary wizards couldn't intervene at all. I even think that once Grindelwald judges that the plan is not going well, he will immediately abandon those trivial matters and go straight to the point."
"Why did he have to make things so complicated?" Ron said irritably.
"Because Grindelwald is also human," Harry said slowly, memories of past meditations with Dumbledore providing evidence for his words.
"He's arrogant, conceited, wants to prove himself right, wants to announce the arrival of a new era to the world in person, maybe even hopes to give Dumbledore a decent burial... since his escape, he has been invincible, everything he did afterwards was just to ensure that the result remained unchanged, while making the process as much as possible to his liking."
"But what about Professor Harp—"
"He may have guessed some of it," Hermione thought of what Felix had said before. "But he probably didn't guess much earlier than us, maybe because of Grindelwald's speech at the funeral, or because of what Grindelwald said during their brief encounter at the school gate, the professor sensed something and connected everything."
"...Think about it, the professor knows Grindelwald better than we do. We can all immediately think that negotiations led by Grindelwald must conceal a conspiracy, how could the professor not think so? Including the public announcement of Dumbledore's death—it's the same. The professor doesn't believe that Grindelwald's purpose is so simple, he wants to find out Grindelwald's true intentions, the professor always plans before acting. And that's the case, Grindelwald fooled everyone. But it's too late now."
"But he made an unbreakable vow!" Ron exclaimed.
...
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