94 Diagon Alley

The fire in Chi's office also needs a well-established contact method. Professor Snape found that Sirius was with me unharmed. "Old Principal Yan Bi looked at his charred fingers again," and helped me solve some small problems. "

"However, when Professor Snape found out that you and Umbridge had not returned from the Forbidden Forest, he became concerned that you were still thinking that Sirius had been captured by Voldemort. He immediately notified several A member of the Order of the Phoenix."

Dumbledore sighed deeply, and continued: "At that time, Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Cedric Diggory and Remus Lupin are at HQ. Everyone agrees to act immediately to help you. Snape wants Sirius to stay at HQ because he is the best person Voldemort can use to blackmail you. Meanwhile, He also planned to go to the Forbidden Forest to find you. But Sirius didn't want to see everyone else looking for you and he stayed at headquarters. So he told Kreacher to tell me what happened when I woke up. What happened. Shortly after they left for the Ministry, I recovered and it was the house-elves who told me where Sirius went."

"Are you hurt?" Harry asked in a low voice, looking at one of Dumbledore's fingers with burning eyes.

"I'm obviously slower than I used to be." Dumbledore hid his hand in his sleeve, his voice full of exhaustion, "As for Kreacher, it can't betray us completely. It's not the secrecy of the Order of the Phoenix Some secret plans of the Order of the Phoenix that cannot be leaked by humans. It is bound by magic, which means that Kreacher cannot go against the direct orders of the master Sirius. And the information that it tells Narcissa that is very useful to Voldemort, in Sirius It seems that they are all very inconspicuous little things, there is no need to think about not allowing him to say it."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"For example, the person Sirius cares about most in this world is you." Dumbledore said softly, "and the fact that you regard Sirius as your father and brother. Of course Voldemort knew Sirius was in the Order of the Phoenix, and you knew where he was—but Kreacher's intelligence made him realize that Sirius Black was someone you could have saved."

Harry's lips were cold and woody.

"So...last night when I asked Kreacher if Sirius was at home..."

"Malfoy--must be following Voldemort's instructions--requested him that when you dream of Sirius being tortured and tortured, he must try not to let Sirius be a stumbling block. So, you want to Find out if Sirius is at home, and Kreacher will say he's not at home - wherever he is, it's a sign that Sirius has been captured."

Harry seemed to be deprived of oxygen, breathing quickly and short.

"Kreacher told you all this?" he asked hoarsely.

"He didn't want to tell me," said Dumbledore, "but my Legilimency has been well established, and I know when people lie to me, and I advise him—in Before I go to the Department of Mysteries, tell the whole story."

"And," Harry whispered, his cold hands clenched into fists on his knees, "and Hermione keeps asking us to treat him well—"

"She's right, Harry," said Dumbledore, "When we chose 12 Grimmauld Place as our headquarters, I reminded Sirius that he must be treated with respect and kindness. Kreacher. I also told him that Kreacher could be bad for us. But I don't think Sirius took my words to heart, or he always saw Kreacher as someone with the same sensibilities as humans. a creature—"

"Are you blaming--did you- call Sirius-" Harry was a little breathless, he couldn't express it accurately, but the anger that had just subsided was burning in his heart again Rise up: He can't allow Dumbledore to denigrate Sirius, "Kreacher is a liar—dirty—he deserves it—"

"Kreacher was made by wizards, Harry," said Dumbledore, "so he's pitiful, and he exists as pitifully as your friend Dobby. He had to obey Sirius because Sirius was the last remaining member of the family he served, but he wasn't really loyal to him. Whatever Kreacher did, he had to admit that Sirius didn't Anything that would improve his fate—"

"Don't say that about Sirius!" Harry shouted. He stood up again, furious, ready to rush up and give Dumbledore a hard lesson: obviously he didn't know Sirius at all, how brave he was, how much suffering he had gone through...

"What about Snape?" Harry retorted, "You haven't mentioned him, have you? When I told him Voldemort had Sirius, he was just as usual. laugh at me-"

"Harry, you know, in the presence of Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend he didn't care what you said." Dumbledore He said calmly, "Yet as I said, he informed the Order of the Phoenix as quickly as possible of everything you said. You didn't come back from the Forbidden Forest, he figured out your whereabouts. When Umri When Professor Qi tried to force you to tell Sirius' whereabouts, he also gave her a fake Veritaserum."

"Snape didn't continue teaching me Occlumency!" Harry yelled angrily, "He kicked me out of his office!"

"I know this," said Dumbledore gravely, "I have said that it was a mistake that I did not teach you myself, although at that time I was sure that there was nothing before me than to It's more dangerous for Voldemort to expose your mind further—"

"Snape made things worse and my scars always hurt more after his class—" Harry remembered Ron's comments on the class. Thought, went on to add, "—how do you know he didn't try to get me to lower my defenses against Voldemort in order to make it easier for Voldemort to invade my—"

"I trust Severus Snape," Dumbledore said simply, "but I forget another mistake of old age—some wounds are too deep to heal easily. I Thought Professor Snape could get over his feelings about your father - I was wrong."

Harry kept his mouth shut, as if he didn't want to argue with Dumbledore about this, because he thought the idea of ​​him and Snape coexisting peacefully was naive and ridiculous.

"Harry, I have been trying to protect you." After a moment of silence, Dumbledore said softly.

"But no one likes to be kept secret!" Harry retorted, furious, "that's how you treated me all summer last year—"

Dumbledore closed his eyes and buried his face in his long fingers. Harry watched him. It was an anomaly, but neither exhaustion nor pain nor any other emotion had calmed Harry's temper. On the contrary, Dumbledore's display of weakness made him even more angry. There was no reason why Harry couldn't be tough when he wanted to get mad at him and yell at him.

Dumbledore dropped his hands and looked at Harry through his half-moon glasses.

"It's about time," he said, "I should have told you what I should have told you five years ago. Please sit down and I will tell you everything. I Just a little patience from you. Then you can get mad at me—you can do whatever you want—and I'm not going to stop you after I'm done."

On the other side of Hogwarts Castle, with the orange sun in the morning, Gwen lifted his heavy eyelids on the hospital bed in the medical wing.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a red-headed melon.

George's expression was very rich, he looked worried and surprised, probably because Gwen was the first of all the sick patients to wake up. But he pressed his lips tightly again, as if he was about to give Gwen a hard lesson the next second.

"Don't look at me like that," Gwen's throat was on fire, but she still joked cautiously, "I followed for your brother and sister."

"You're lying, Gwendelyn Ollivander." George called her by her name with a stern face, "Even if Ginny and Ron weren't around, you'd be happy to follow Ha Leigh is making a mess at the Ministry of Magic."

Gwen smiled wryly, "I'm sure you do too."

"If Fred and I hadn't been sent directly to Mom by Bill, of course we would have rescued." George looked even more angry, but for a moment he was like a deflated ball, Because Madam Pomfrey came with a tray full of potions.

"Very good, you woke up quickly." Madam Pomfrey looked more serious than ever. "You should be thankful, Miss Ollivander, there are only some scary skin injuries—"

"—but she fainted," said George immediately.

"—that's exhaustion." Madam Pomfrey said relentlessly, "If you want to continue sleeping, girl, take the medicine."

Gwen shook her head, "I want to help more." Then she put Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna in the satisfaction of Madam Pomfrey Magical or physical attacks repeated. With each additional word she said, George and Fred's faces got worse.

Until Gwen came to a hospital bed at the end, she covered her mouth and exclaimed.

"He's alive?"

Sirius Black, half-frozen, was lying on the bed.