Study Days at Hogwarts

After Dumbledore's funeral, all the students who had attended the funeral boarded the Hogwarts Express and embarked on their way home.

Of course, Harry, Ron, and Ginny are special cases. They did not leave with the express train, but stayed at the school and prepared to leave with the members of the Order of the Phoenix later. That was undoubtedly safer and more effective. Avoid Death Eaters attacking the train and causing trouble for the students.

At this moment, in Professor McGonagall's office, members of the Order of the Phoenix were having an impromptu meeting, discussing Harry's safety and whereabouts.

"Harry, are you really not going back to your Uncle Vernon's house?"

Mad-Eye Moody was extremely troubled by this. Dumbledore's death disrupted many original plans and made everything a mess.

"If I don't go back, there's no point in going back now." Harry shook his head. "When I become an adult, I should complete my mission. I think I need to do something more meaningful in these few months."

"What mission."

Mrs. Weasley still refused to give up.

"Sorry, this needs to be kept secret."

"I think Arthur and I have a right to know..."

"Sorry, if Dumbledore hasn't told the others, I'm afraid I can't tell you." Harry had known this would happen, so he acted calmly.

"Don't look at us like that, we don't know either." Fred and George shrugged, "Maybe Albert will know. I suggest you ask him yourself."

"Why does Dumbledore think Anderson is more reliable than us?" Stooges Podmore muttered disapprovingly.

"Don't be stupid, Stork." Mad-Eye glanced at the other person and reminded, "Now is not the time to discuss this."

"The problem is that No. 12 Grimmauld Place is not safe now." Lupine frowned and reminded, "After Dumbledore died, the secret keeper of No. 12 Grimmauld Place was transferred to us. The protection there is Being significantly weakened, especially by Snape's betrayal, No. 12 Grimmauld Place became completely unsafe."

This is the main reason why it is believed that Harry needs to return to his Uncle Vernon's house to spend the last few months of his adulthood.

"Didn't the Order of the Phoenix prepare other new safe houses?" Hermione suddenly raised her hand and asked, "I mean other safe houses protected by the Loyalty Charm."

There was an eerie silence in the office. It was obvious that the Order of the Phoenix had no other safe houses protected by the Loyalty Charm.

After all, outside the Order of the Phoenix headquarters, which was originally cast by the Loyalty Curse, no other place could be considered safe.

"Perhaps, we need a new, reliable safe house." Ron also felt incredible. "If No. 12 Grimmauld Place is no longer safe, I think such a place is necessary."

Didn't the other Order members realize that Dumbledore had been dead for days?

No, of course they did, it's just that they simply couldn't find a suitable house to serve as the Order's new headquarters.

Moreover, who will be the confidentiality keeper is also a problem.

Aware of the surrounding atmosphere, Fred and George looked at each other, a little surprised by the current situation.

In their minds, a safe house is very important.

This is not only to ensure that Harry has a safe and secret place to stay before the healds on his body disappear completely by the end of July this year, it is also related to the life safety of the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

At least, when their lives are threatened, they can have a place to hide from danger without being endlessly hunted by mysterious people and Death Eaters.

However, they fell silent when talking about it.

"Honestly, everyone is confused now. Not only us, but also the Ministry of Magic is in a mess now." Kingsley tried to divert everyone's attention to prevent others from being embarrassed.

Just now, the entire Order of the Phoenix knew from Professor McGonagall that Dumbledore's death may have been of his own free will, but they still couldn't understand why Dumbledore did that. Maybe he really didn't have a few years to recover. However, after Dumbledore's death, the entire British wizarding world fell into chaos.

What is he planning?

Everyone was fooled!

This news also caused the entire Order of the Phoenix to fall into chaos.

The Order of the Phoenix certainly needed a new safe house, especially knowing that Harry had no intention of returning to Uncle Vernon's house to spend his pre-adult years, and they realized that the Order could not guarantee Harry's safety.

"Can you change the location? I mean the headquarters of the Defense Association." Ron turned to look at the Weasley brothers, "That place should also be protected by the Loyalty Charm!"

"Albert probably had no intention of letting Harry go to the headquarters of the Defense Association." Fred shook his head and rejected Ron's proposal. "Otherwise, he would have mentioned this matter when we met just now."

"Why?"

Lupine also thought this was a good idea. It was said that the headquarters of the Defense Association was more strict than the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry would undoubtedly be well protected wherever he went.

"I also think that the Order of the Phoenix needs to have its own safe house. Maybe you can find an abandoned manor that no one is using and rebuild the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." George also felt that it was unreliable that the Order of the Phoenix didn't have other safe houses. . As far as he knew, there were several similar places in the Defense Association.

"But, now..."

"It's useless and meaningless even if you say that. We are not secret keeper, and there is no way we can take you to the headquarters of the Defense Association." Fred shook his head to remind everyone not to have unrealistic illusions.

"Also, we never thought we could convince him." George shook his head. "In fact, even Scrimgeour was abandoned after Dumbledore died."

Everyone present was silent.

"If Harry has no good place to go, then he can stay at his Uncle Vernon's house for the time being. At least it will be safe somewhere when Harry becomes an adult. As for when he becomes an adult, I think Harry probably won't want to stay at home, so …”

"What's Albert's suggestion?" interrupted Harry, who had never wanted to waste precious time returning to his Uncle Vernon's house.

Building a safe house from scratch has never been difficult.

Fred and George stopped talking. They really felt that the Order of the Phoenix was really unreliable, especially after Dumbledore's death, the Order of the Phoenix was basically finished.

No wonder Albert really looked down on it at first. Why didn't they discover this problem before?

However, if you think about it carefully, if the Defense Association loses Albert, the situation does not seem to be much better than that of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Then let's do it. There are many abandoned villages and abandoned manors in Britain anyway. Let's just use the buildings abandoned by Muggles." Harry was also a little disappointed with the response of the Order of the Phoenix. This kind of thing actually happened Still need to hesitate, I really don’t understand what they are thinking.

"is that OK!"

After saying that, Harry looked at Sirius.

After Dumbledore's death, the Order of the Phoenix definitely needed to find a new headquarters.

"It should be... no problem." Sirius hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "However, the secret keeper is indeed a problem."

"The secret keeper is actually very simple. Fred or I will do it then." George said calmly, "Let the secret keeper stay under the protection of the Loyalty Charm in another place, and safety can be guaranteed."

"Will you be the secret keeper then?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course it's guessing." George said matter-of-factly.

"All right."

"That's it Harry, you go to your Uncle Vernon's house to stay for a few days, and then we will take you to a new safe house." Mrs. Weasley was still a little worried about Harry's safety.

"No, I'll just go to No. 12 Grimmauld Place. My Uncle Vernon's house will definitely be under surveillance anyway, and it will be troublesome to leave there in the future. And I plan to learn from you at No. 12 Grimmauld Place." Something more useful." Harry shook his head. "It shouldn't take much time to build a safe house anyway."

Several people looked at each other, but in the end no one refuted Harry's words. They all realized that Harry had grown up and matured.

During the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, the British Ministry of Magic did not block the news of the collective escape from Azkaban. This incident had spread through newspapers and shocked the entire British wizarding world.

However, what is even more shocking is Scrimgeour's speech at the press conference. He reluctantly said that this day had just arrived early.

No one expected that the mysterious man would help the prisoners of Azkaban escape collectively on the day of Dumbledore's funeral. Even if the Ministry of Magic had predicted it from the beginning, it could not prevent it.

The entire wizarding world was shocked by Scrimgeour's speech, and it wasn't like no one was calling for Scrimgeour to be replaced.

But after Scrimgeour is replaced, who will take over and who will step up to clean up the mess?

nobody.

Yes, no one.

At least Scrimgeour has done a good job. Since he took office, he has been committed to combating and humanely destroying dark wizards and Death Eaters.

Who else is qualified to take his place?

Especially after Dumbledore's death, many people realized that the current position of Minister of Magic was a hot potato.

As for what Scrimgeour said at the press conference: If you feel that I am not suitable to continue to be the Minister of Magic, as long as you can elect a suitable one, I can immediately abdicate and directly let those guys who still like to complain nonsense. Shut up.

He was afraid that Scrimgeour would really give up his position as Minister of Magic.

Who will clean up this mess then?

It’s really not that Scrimgeour is willing to give up on himself, but that the position of Minister of Magic is a trap for him now, and continuing to stay in the position will ultimately lead to death.

People may be dying, and Scrimgeour is not used to other people. He decides to follow Albert's suggestion and leave the decision to the entire British wizarding community.

If he really loses his position as Minister, then he can just run away, or he can drag the entire British wizarding community together and go to Voldemort to fight the Death Eaters.

In fact, the majority of people support Scrimgeour.

At least the employees of the Ministry of Magic all support Scrimgeour. Compared with the unpopular Fudge, they see all the efforts Scrimgeour has made. More importantly, Scrimgeour has always led everyone from victory to victory. Another victory.

If after Scrimgeour leaves, another scammer like Fudge appears, everyone will be dead.

"You don't seem very happy?" Piers Thicknesse raised his eyebrows and asked, "Obviously everyone still supports you. I dare say that few ministers in the past can enjoy such treatment."

"What's there to be happy about, celebrating that your death is approaching?" Scrimgeour fiddled with the pocket watch in his hand, with a weird smile on his face.

"Why do you say that?" Pierce was shocked, "Could it be that Mr. Anderson..."

"After Dumbledore's death, the mysterious man's next goal will definitely be to control the Ministry of Magic." Scrimgeour leaned on the armchair and said extremely calmly, "And I am their biggest obstacle. Do you think I can still do it under those circumstances?" Can you survive?”

"You just gave up?" Pierce couldn't understand. "We still have the most elite Auror troops and crisis response teams. Even if the mysterious man..."

"From the very beginning, you made one mistake." Scrimgeour put down his pocket watch and looked at Pierce. "The entire British wizarding world has always been protected by Dumbledore. I actually didn't quite agree with what Albert said at the time. , but you have also seen what happened today. The mysterious man released and controlled the prisoners of Azkaban without any scruples. He never paid attention to the British Ministry of Magic. "

"Our previous successes over and over again were just created by Albert Anderson out of necessity." Scrimgeour laughed at himself, "He needs someone to help him take revenge on the mysterious man and the Death Eaters, and the Ministry of Magic is responsible for this. job."

"But after Dumbledore died, everything changed." Scrimgeour handed the pocket watch to Pierce and said, "I believe that the mysterious people will soon let me die in the line of duty, and then replace them with one of their own to control Britain. Ministry of Magic, you should be the one to take over."

"Me?" Pierce was a little dazed. It would be right to take over as Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic, but...

"They will probably use the Imperius Curse to control you!" Scrimgeour said something that made Pierce's face twitch. "Those guys will probably force you to become a member of the Death Eaters, and then they will use you as a transition to support themselves. The man becomes the Minister of Magic.”

"Are you starting to explain your funeral?" Pierce couldn't understand why Scrimgeour could say this so calmly.

"You can think so. If possible, I would like to fight with the Death Eaters again. If not, I will split the crisis response team and let them go to Albert Anderson and Harry Potter. Scrimgeour said to himself, "That guy must have a way, but I don't know what he is waiting for."

"It's a pity that the mysterious man won't give me time and opportunity." Scrimgeour glanced at Pierce and said in a regretful tone, "Otherwise, things might not have become so bad."

(End of this volume)