Chapter 301 - 301 The Calm Before the Second War
Chapter 301: The Calm Before the Second War
"If I remember correctly, it says: 'Dumbledore's well-known contributions include - defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, discovering the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and making great achievements in alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel.'"
"Hermione, how come you remember everything?" Ron scratched his head.
Hermione ignored him and became serious.
"If Grindelwald escapes from Nurmengard, the situation in the wizarding world will become more complicated." She said, "One mysterious man is enough for us, if we add the dark magician of the previous generation..."
"So, Grindelwald is a big evil as powerful as Voldemort?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I have checked the information," Hermione nodded, "Grindelwald's name is listed in the list of the most dangerous dark wizards in ancient and modern times. If he is not on the top of the list, it is only because the mysterious man took the first place later..."
"But because Grindelwald never extended his terrorist activities to Britain, the details of his rise are not widely known here."
"But... why didn't Grindelwald escape from prison in the past few decades, but escaped at this time after Voldemort's resurrection?" Harry frowned and asked in confusion.
"I passed by the Slytherin table this morning and heard a few people discussing it." Colin Creevey said hesitantly, "They said that the previous Dark Lord was released by the You-Know-Who, and that the two Dark Lords would unite to overthrow Dumbledore..."
"I don't need to guess, I know that among these people discussing it are Draco Malfoy and his two followers." Ron said disgustedly, "A bunch of scum who will definitely become Death Eaters after graduation!"
"Actually... it seems that Draco Malfoy is not participating in the discussion this time." Colin shook his head instead, "He seems to have been excluded from the circle of pure-blood students, and Crabbe and Goyle are not with him."
"How could this be?" Ron was stunned for a moment, "He is not a Has he always claimed to be the leader of the pure-blood family in Hogwarts? "
"Because Lucius Malfoy betrayed Voldemort!" Rolf, who was sitting beside Luna's bed, suddenly said, "Ron was knocked unconscious at the time, and he may not know that his betrayal at the last minute in the Department of Mysteries played a crucial role in the entire battle."
"Lucius Malfoy? Betray Voldemort?!" Ron jumped up from the bed and shouted, "What a joke!"
"Rolf is right, it was Lucius Malfoy's betrayal that made the advantage at that time lean towards our side." Harry nodded and said, "To be precise, he defected to Professor Dracula."
"I can't believe it..." Ron's eyes widened, still a little bit unbelievable.
But within a moment, he seemed to have thought of something and suddenly laughed, "So Draco Malfoy must be miserable now? Wasn't he beaten to death by the younger generations of the other Death Eaters?"
"It seems not. After all, Malfoy is the prefect of Slytherin and can complain directly to the professors." Colin said, "As for Crabbe and Goyle, they have abandoned Malfoy and gathered around Theodore Nott."
"Sure enough, even if they change their masters, they can't change their nature of being followers." Ron laughed loudly, "I really want to be discharged from the hospital earlier and laugh at them earlier, hahahaha..."
However, Ron soon turned from joy to sorrow.
Madam Pomfrey heard the noise here and came over angrily.
"Don't make loud noises in the infirmary. Will you be responsible if you disturb others' rest?!" She yelled at Ron.
Then, Madam Pomfrey looked at Harry and the others who were not hospitalized, "And you guys, you can leave now, the patient needs rest!"
Faced with the murderous Madam Pomfrey, Harry, Rolf and Colin had no time to continue discussing Grindelwald's problem. They nodded timidly and slipped out of the school infirmary together.
Ron lay depressed on the bed, and Madam Pomfrey poured a large cup of extremely unpalatable potion without any sweetener, which made him not even in the mood to laugh at Malfoy.
...
Standing at the door of the school infirmary, Harry said goodbye to Rolf and Colin and prepared to visit Hagrid in the shed next to the Forbidden Forest.
Walking up the stairs leading from the infirmary to the first floor hall, Harry didn't meet many people along the way.
Even on Sunday, the castle seemed too quiet.
It seemed that everyone had gone out and came to the sunny field to enjoy the relaxation after the exams and the leisure of the last few days of the final semester without class arrangements and homework.
Harry walked slowly in the empty corridor, staring out the window; he could see some Quidditch players floating in groups above the Quidditch field, a few little wizards playing on the lawn, and two students swimming with a giant squid in the lake.
He found that he seemed to have formed a kind of separation atmosphere with the students of this castle:
The burden of Voldemort's return was on Harry, which made him a little breathless, and he couldn't play as heartlessly as those little wizards.
Even though the notice had been issued in the Daily Prophet, most students had not yet realized that the danger was coming. They always felt that there would be tall people to support the sky when it fell -
In short, Dumbledore and Professor Dracula would definitely handle all the dangers!
But Harry was different...
As a little wizard who had faced Voldemort several times, and as Voldemort's nemesis in the prophecy, Harry was naturally on the opposite side of the dark wizard, and he also believed that Voldemort wanted to kill him all the time.
In addition, there is now one more Grindelwald, and it is unknown what kind of changes the re-emergence of the previous generation of Dark Lord will bring to the wizarding world.
Just as Harry was thinking, he just walked down the last marble step and entered the porch, but he met an old enemy from the past.
Draco Malfoy was walking out of the doorway leading to the Slytherin common room on the right. His face was gloomy, and his pale face was completely bloodless.
Slytherin's green striped tie was draped around Draco's collar, and the collar of his white shirt was also messy, with a few gray handprints, as if he had just had a fight with someone.
Harry stopped suddenly, and so did Draco.
At this moment, the air between the two seemed to solidify, and only the shouting, laughter and splashing of water from the field could be heard from the open front door, which was out of tune with this place.
Draco glanced around - Harry knew he was looking for the professor - then returned his gaze to Harry and whispered, "You should be very proud, Potter."
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"It's funny," Draco said coldly, "It only takes a newspaper to go from a nonsense liar to a hero admired by everyone..."
Harry had never seen Draco so angry.
He looked more angry than ever, and at the same time, there was a kind of confusion hidden deep in his pale face, which was twisted by anger.
"You must be very proud." Draco said, his voice not much louder than a whisper, "You have established your reputation as the savior, while I can only be a pure-blood traitor, looked down upon by my classmates and friends!"
"But betraying Voldemort was your father's own choice, I didn't force him to do it." Harry spread his hands, "Sooner or later you will be happy, because Voldemort will be destroyed by Dumbledore soon... What's wrong with you?"
He saw that Draco's eyes became horrified when he heard the name, so he added : "You should learn to adapt, Malfoy, your family is no longer in the same group with Voldemort, there is no need to be in awe of him."
"Do you think you are a great man? How dare you preach to me like this, Potter?" Draco's face was a little ugly, and he approached Harry, "Just wait, after the war is over, we can still rely on our family's connections and property to recover to a place you can't even hope for!"
"Do you think that after experiencing Voldemort, pure-blood families will still be as popular as before?" Harry asked back.
"You don't understand, the advantages of pure blood are beyond the imagination of you people." Draco said softly, "My father will make the family business prosperous again in no time..."
"But you are just a family that relies on Professor Dracula now." Harry said sarcastically, "But at least he has saved his life now-"
Draco's eyes twitched suddenly.
The next moment, his hand quickly reached for his wand, but Harry was faster, and before Draco could put his fingers into the pocket of his robe, he had already taken out his wand.
"Potter!"
Just then, a greasy voice came from the other end of the porch, interrupting the duel between Harry and Draco.
Snape appeared on the stairs leading to his office. Seeing him, Harry's emotions became extremely complicated again, and that feeling far exceeded his impression of Draco...
No matter how much Dumbledore trusts him now, it was Snape who told Voldemort that half of the prophecy at that time...Harry's parents lost their lives because of this incident.
Even though Snape tried to save Harry from danger several times later, the disgust in his eyes for Harry was not fake at all! Harry didn't have any good feelings for Snape at all!
"What are you doing, Potter?" Snape didn't know what Harry was thinking, but he strode towards the two of them while talking, and his tone was as cold as before.
"I was just thinking about what spell to use on Malfoy, sir." Harry couldn't control his emotions and said angrily.
Snape glared at Harry.
"Put your wand away immediately," he shouted decisively, "Gryffindor will lose ten points--"
Snape looked at the four huge hourglasses on the wall and smiled contemptuously.
"Ah, I find that there are no points left in Gryffindor's hourglass. In this case, Potter, we have to--"
"Add some points?"
Professor McGonagall walked on the stone steps leading into the castle and interrupted Snape's words, looking quite good.
"Professor McGonagall!" Snape said as he came forward, "Potter is about to attack his classmates with magic, but you are going to give him extra points... am I understanding correctly?"
"Yes, Professor Snape," Professor McGonagall said as she adjusted the pointed hat on her head, "I think Potter and his companions should each get 50 points. Because they reminded everyone that the mysterious man is back!"
"What do you think, Professor Snape?" Professor McGonagall looked at Snape with a smile.
"What?" Snape asked in surprise, "Oh... maybe - I think..."
"Then, Potter, the Weasley brothers and sisters, Longbottom and Miss Granger each get 50 points." Professor McGonagall waved her wand without asking Snape's opinion.
A large number of rubies fell into the ball under the Gryffindor scoring hourglass. "Oh - I think there are 50 points for Miss Lovegood and Mr. Scamander."
She added, and some sapphires and topaz fell into the hourglasses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff respectively. "Now you have to deduct 10 points from Potter, I think, Professor Snape - well, that's it..."
A few rubies flew back into the ball above, but even so, the remaining number was still considerable.
"Well, Potter, Malfoy, I think you should go outside for a walk in such good weather." Professor McGonagall continued excitedly, "It's rare to drive Umbridge out, and the air in the castle seems to have become fresh."
She has been dissatisfied with Umbridge, who was forcibly arranged into Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic for a long time. Now that Dumbledore has won the game with the Ministry of Magic and driven Umbridge out of the castle, Professor McGonagall feels very happy.
"Professor, you don't seem to be very worried about Grindelwald?" Harry was a little surprised by Professor McGonagall's relaxed and cheerful tone.
He originally thought that a professor like Professor McGonagall, who was a serious and serious person, might frown and think about countermeasures for a long time after hearing the news of the birth of another Dark Lord!
"So you also know Grindelwald?" Professor McGonagall looked at Harry in surprise and said to him, "Indeed, Grindelwald is indeed a very dangerous person, there is no doubt about that."
"But for us, especially for Dumbledore, this is not a completely bad thing."
"Just wait and see, Grindelwald can't be in the same camp with the mysterious man!"