Chapter 564

In the clubroom, Harry, Ron, and Hermione bickered verbally.

“Harry, we should better not get carried away, remember, in the first year you thought Professor Snape was planning to steal the Philosopher’s Stone, but he was actually spying on Quirrell. He also extended his protection when Quirrell tried to make you fall off your flying broom.”

Hermione magically locked the door and chanted a few more anti-disruption spells to make it easier for them to talk about the dangerous topics without fear.

“I know.” Harry sullenly agreed.

“And second year-”

“Thanks for mentioning the second year, he tried to expel Ron and I as soon as school started, don’t say he wanted to protect me, Hermione, his mind shouldn’t have been magically connected to Dobby, not to mention he didn’t know the Chamber of Secrets was going to be opened at that point.”

“Oh, er …” Hermione was a little short of words, “Third year, he was on our side …”

“Do we need to award him a medal? For not siding with the Dementors?” Harry was annoyed, “Hermione, why do you keep speaking for him? He used to be a bloody Death Eater!”

Hermione was silent for a few seconds, “But Headmaster Dumbledore defended him, you told us yourself, Harry, remember? You saw it in the Pensieve …”

“He – also – doesn’t – deserve – to be – trusted.” Harry said through clenched teeth.

“Who?”

Harry didn’t say anything.

Ron and Hermione looked at him uneasily, “You mean Headmaster Dumbledore – what makes you think that -”

Harry remained silent.

He is hiding a huge secret inside him that is weighing him down, and he doesn’t know if he should tell it to Ron and Hermione. The secret had nothing to do with Snape, but it had to do with Headmaster Dumbledore. In the pile of letters Sirius had handed him, he learned a fact that shook him to his core.

“Have you had any nightmares lately, Harry?” Hermione asked softly, looking over to Ron, who shook his head to show that he knew nothing about it.

“No.” Harry said with a blank face, but Ron and Hermione looked even more worried. Harry hesitated twice internally before he pulled a letter out of his pocket and handed it to Hermione.

Hermione immediately read it.

“Dear Padfoot-” she paused, “Who wrote this letter?”

“My mum,” Harry said, “Keep reading.”

“Oh, well.

Dear Padfoot.

Thank you, thank you for Harry’s birthday present! It’s his favourite toy ever. He looks delighted to be flying around on his toy broom. I’ve attached a photo for you to see.

I’m sorry you couldn’t make it …

James was feeling a bit stuffy here, though he tried not to show it, but I could tell – the invisibility cloak is still with Dumbledore, so there’s no opportunity to go out. How happy he would be if you made it over.

Wormtail was here last weekend and I felt he was downcast, but maybe it was from the news about the McKinnons. I cried all night too when I heard it.

Bathilda drops by often, she’s a funny old lady who tells so many stories about Dumbledore, it’s truly unimaginable. I don’t know if he would be happy to hear it in person! To be honest, I don’t know how much to believe it, it’s hard to believe that Dumbledore once knew Gellert Grindelwald, the dark lord who rampaged through Europe and that they were once close friends because they shared the same ideology!

But Bathilda claims to be Grindelwald’s aunt, and if that’s true, then it’s hard to pretend what she said is anything but true – after all, she doesn’t have any reason to lie. She also revealed a fact about the catchphrase that was later used by Grindelwald to justify all his atrocities and which made him famous – ‘for the greater good’ – which is said to have originally been written in a letter addressed to his close friend Grindelwald by Dumbledore. It’s unbelievable.

There are even more unbelievable things, which I cannot reveal in this letter, and perhaps we should not be harsh on a young man at seventeen. Just think how silly we acted back then, and how James still thinks the whole world should know about Quidditch!

That’s all for now, I hear Harry’s cry, I hope it’s not because James tries some crap due to him being bored, if it’s I’d knock him hard on the head …

– Lily.”

Harry saw the shock written all over Ron and Hermione’s faces, almost exactly the same as when he first saw the letter, one second he was experiencing all that tender care that he never remembered through his mother’s handwriting, the next he was pulled back to reality by the cold truth. It was as if his heart had been torn in two, one half leaping with jubilation and sadness at the knowledge that they had once had a cat, that Sirius had bought him his first flying broom, and that his mother had been as gentle and kind as everyone had told him she was, perhaps a little sentimental as well …

But the other half, Harry didn’t know how to describe his feelings, when he was exposed to the more real Dumbledore, the seventeen-year-old Dumbledore, who had already become good friends with Gellert Grindelwald, the Dark Lord who was destined to bring shoppingmode doom later on when he was only two years older than he was now, and how ironic the words ‘shared same ideology’ … sounded!

And there is also that invisibility cloak, Harry thought. For what reason did Dumbledore took the invisibility cloak? A Legendary Warlock like Dumbledore could become perfectly invisible even without an invisibility cloak. He recalled another implausible conjecture he, Ron, and Hermione had made about the invisibility cloak that the older brother of the Three Brothers from the Deathly Hallows … held …

If Dumbledore shared the same interest as a young man who aspired to establish a new order dominated by wizards in his youth, was he also interested in the legendary Deathly Hallows that could make one a master of death? Did they plan to establish an eternal reign together, just like Voldemort? Harry was ashamed of himself for thinking like that; how could he put Dumbledore on the same level as Voldemort? But it was hard for him to find excuses and prevent himself from having an afterthought: if Dumbledore hadn’t taken the invisibility cloak, was it possible that his family might not have died?

Harry stubbornly ignored the fact that Dumbledore, Professor Hap, and Professor Moody had all seen through the invisibility cloak, and held on to the possibility that could never be verified, repeatedly shifting between hope and cynicism. He buried it all, locked away firmly with an Occlumency until he couldn’t help but burst out suddenly during his conversation with Hermione.

He felt resentment coursing through his veins as he looked fervently at Ron and Hermione, like asking them to see how Headmaster Dumbledore wasn’t as nice as they thought … he felt a gush of pleasure from seeing the looks on Ron and Hermione’s faces as they were on the edge of collapse.

“Harry,” Hermione trailed off, “I know it’s truly unbelievable, but it’s understandable-”

“Understandable?!” Harry shouted, “Understandable… UNDERSTANDABLE – you know he -”

“Yeah, I know.” Hermione stroked her hair confusedly and walked around the activity room, “I know … talented people always have a lot of ideas, not to mention some people will go much further off the rails than that at their most creative age … ”

“Who do you mean?” Harry snapped.

“What-”

“You said some people are far more outrageous with their ideas than Dumbledore, I can’t think of-”

“That doesn’t matter!” Hermione said impassively, “We’re all well aware that Headmaster Dumbledore is sitting in the Headmaster’s office right now, he didn’t participate in any of Grindelwald’s speeches and atrocities, on the contrary, he stopped him.”

“He took the invisibility cloak.” Harry said stubbornly, through clenched teeth.

“Ugh, I … I’m sorry, I know it’s hard on your heart, Harry, but we both know the Invisibility Cloak won’t stop Vol, Voldemort, their fate was sealed from the moment Wormtail betrayed- ”

” I! WON’T! BELIEVE! FATE!” Harry shouted, his panting voice distorted with rage.

Hermione gave him a careful look and gestured with her eyes for Ron to help, who seemed to have not gotten over his shock. He racked his brain and said, “Yeah, Harry, I think Hermione’s words have a point …”

“Which words make sense?” Harry said through clenched teeth.

“It’s just that, that … geniuses always think differently, they’re all quite precocious, like Professor Hap, and of course, you-” Ron slowly mumbled.

“Me?” Harry looked at Ron incredulously, the anger in his heart strangely lowered a little, not because Ron had called him a genius by any means, it was ridiculous.

“Yes, that’s right, you.” Ron’s tone smoothed out considerably, but it was still slow and sounded like he was making it up as he went along. “No kid your age has been through more than you, to put it mildly, even Dumbledore …” he deflated, preferring not to say anything offensive, “You’re targeted by one of the world’s strongest wizard, and thwarted his plots three times, and you also established the Auror Reserve-”

“My performance-” Harry opened his mouth.

“To be honest, it’s quite outrageous too. I collect chocolate frog cards, and you know ‘Andros the Invincible’, right? He’s known for conjuring up giant-sized Patronus, and you did it at the age of fifteen-”

“I had the help of the rune-”

“At least it hasn’t been publicly demonstrated by anyone other than Professor Hap yet, has it? And as for practical skills, you’re above the average Auror’s level now, you also once managed to beat Sirius in training, which is why he was too embarrassed to name you in class …”

“That was a sparring match.” Harry’s face flushed a little.

Ron patted him on the shoulder, “Harry, you know what the other graduates say about you? A well-deserved student leader of this era. No one but you could possibly claim that.”

“I’m sorry,” Hermione interjected coldly, “I haven’t heard that one before.”

“Because you’re not a graduate.” Ron said without thinking, “Collins told me that, and the footage of the last two events of the Tournament, you have no idea how hot they sold … Harry, you’re not just famous for the scar on your forehead. Well, speaking of that, I’m quite famous too, I have fans sending me letters …”

Harry and Hermione stared at him.

Ron said cheekily, “Not as many fans as you, of course, but I mean, do you expect me to complain?”

Harry felt very strange inside, he didn’t know how the conversation had turned to the question of whether he is a genius or not, but there is no doubt that he felt much less resentment towards Dumbledore in his mind and the gloom that had been weighing on his heart for the past few days dissipated.

“Even if you all have a point, it at least shows that Headmaster Dumbledore can also make mistakes.” He said stiffly.

“I thought of a good idea.” Hermione said.

Harry looked at her and asked, “What is it?” But there wasn’t much hope in mind.

“Write a letter.” The corner of Hermione’s mouth curled slightly as she pulled blank parchment and a quill out of her book bag, and with a flick of her wand, the quill automatically wrote on the parchment, in a completely different handwriting than Hermione’s usual one.

Harry and Ron came up next to her left and right side and both of their mouths dropped open in surprise when they saw the first sentence being – ‘Dear Felix’.

“Dear Felix,” Felix read the letter in front of him with an odd expression, as he had assumed that he would never receive a letter from ‘Ms. Jane’ in his life, and he continued to read on with anticipation-

“Please forgive me for taking the liberty to write, I was a little pessimistic in my last letter, but things are gradually getting better.

The hard times are not yet over, but I am confident that the future will get better. Lately, I’ve had so many strange ideas popping into my head, they’re like a thousand Billywig insects buzzing around, maybe adapting the story in my head into a book would be a big hit?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I don’t think I’ll ever be a writer, but the characters in this story seem to come to life, and the problems they had started to plague me as if they were real in reality. I urgently need valuable advice if you are willing …

The story takes place in a remote and closed town where the mayor is a respected elder who fought in the battle and captured the most feared bandits with his own hands, and then he returned to the town and became the protector of the town’s civilians, and the townspeople all hold him in high regard.

But there are a few formerly influential blokes who believed that the old mayor had touched their interests, and decided to gather behind a brutal and evil ringleader to overthrow him and regain their former noble position.

A boy lives in the town’s herb shop and among his neighbours there is a warm and cheerful girl, they are both about the same age and later they become very good friends.

After going to school, the boy and the girl did not end up in the same class, but their friendship was always preserved. In the meantime two major incidents happen to the boy, first is that he joins a school group that favours the idea of the criminal gang that rampages around the town and the girl keeps urging the boy to leave, but the boy wants to gain fame and refuses to agree. As for the other incident, he and the girl fell out two years before graduation.

After graduation, the boy secretly joined the criminal gang, while the girl became a policeman and married her suitor. The girl and the suitor foiled several plots of the criminal gang, which angered the gang leader, who killed them personally, leaving only a baby behind.

After that day, the evil gang leader also disappeared and the townspeople rejoiced. When the trial took place, the mayor of the town stepped in and shielded the boy. It was said that he had indeed been a member of the gang, but at some point, he realized his mistake and became undercover.

The boy then became a teacher at the only school in the town and in this way, more than ten years passed and the girl’s orphan child came of school age. The child, who had been secretly fostered by the mayor of the town in the home of the girl’s relatives because both of his parents had died, had a miserable childhood and had always believed that he would be shovelling cow dung for the rest of his life, but to his surprise, he received a letter of acceptance from the school.

The child enters the school with great joy, only to be met with hostility from the boy – who is now a teacher – who had the same unhappy childhood as he did. I don’t know why maybe it’s because the child always reminds the boy about the father of the child?

The child showed a great deal of athletic talent and had the potential to become a good sheriff later on. The girl’s orphan child wants to avenge his parents’ death, so he has been trying to gather information about the gang leader. He later discovered about the comeback of the gang leader who now had found a new weapon, and also learned the reason why he didn’t die last time was because he had built strong armour from precious materials, and he has six pieces of such armour in total …

The boy had recently noticed that the teacher who had been targeting him had been acting strangely and might also be investigating the armour’s mysteries. This is very unusual – because not only did the mayor already know the reason why the leader was not dead, but he also destroyed several pieces of armour personally – so this teacher is definitely investigating privately behind the mayor’s back.

There were so many doubts in this boy’s mind, he didn’t know if the teacher who treated him badly is a good or bad person, and if he is good, why did he disobey the mayor’s orders? Especially since the boy had also recently discovered that the mayor had made his share of mistakes when he was younger, and his image of the wise and good man in the boy’s mind was shaken …”

Felix put the letter down and laughed rather heartily. Valen looked at him curiously.

“Oops, someone’s secret is going to be impossible to hide.” He looked at the snow Owl that is waiting for a reply and asked, “Your name is Pigwidgeon?”

Hedwig reluctantly whimpered in response and buried her head in her wings.

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