94 Diagon Alley

How about the ghosts? cried the other Death Eater, "let them out, they'll find him soon!" "

"The Dark Lord wants to kill Potter himself—"

"—the Dementors won't kill him! The Dark Lord wants Potter's life, not his soul. If he'd been kissed first, it would have been easier to kill him !"

The Death Eaters shouted in agreement. A dread crossed Harry's mind: to dispel the Dementors, the Patronus would have to be summoned, and that would reveal himself immediately.

"Just try Apparition. Harry!" Hermione whispered.

When her voice fell, Harry felt an unusual chill come down the street. The lights all around were sucked out, and even the stars disappeared. In the dim darkness, he felt Hermione grab his arm, and they spun in place together.

The air they need to travel through appears to be solid: they cannot Apparate. The curse of the Death Eaters is really powerful. The chill crept into Harry's skin little by little. He and Ron and Hermione backed away step by step down the side street, groping along the walls, trying not to make a sound. Then, Dementors appeared on the corner of the street, more than a dozen of them, drifting silently over. He could see them because their black cloaks and scabbed and rotten hands were darker than the darkness around them. Can they sense fear in the vicinity? Harry knew it would. They seemed to be moving faster now, with the long, slow, rattling breathing he hated, tasting the despair in the air, and closing in—

He raised his wand. No matter what happened next, he could not and would not be kissed by the Dementors. "Guardian!" he whispered, thinking of Ron and Hermione.

The silver stag dashed forward from his wand. The dementors fled in all directions, and there was a triumphant cry from out of sight.

"It's him, right there, right there, I see his patron saint, a stag!"

The dementors receded, the stars began to blink again, and the footsteps of the Death Eaters grew louder. In a hurry, Harry didn't know what to do for a while. Just then, there was a creaking sound of a latch, a door on the left side of the side street opened, and a gruff voice said, "Come in, Potter, come in!"

Harry complied without hesitation, and the three rushed through the open door.

"Go upstairs, don't take off your invisibility cloak, don't make a sound!" said a tall figure, walking from their side to the side street and slamming the door.

"This way," Gwen pointed to the direction of Aberforth's room above the stairs, and then made a silent gesture, "I'll go help him, you guys hide."

Harry didn't know where they were just now, and now in the dim light of a solitary candle flickering, he saw the dirty, sawdust-strewn bar at the Hog's Head. They ran behind the counter and through another door, where there was a rickety wooden staircase, which they climbed as quickly as possible. At the top of the stairs was the living room, with a worn carpet and a small fireplace above which hung a large painting of a blond girl looking blankly and tenderly into the house.

Cries were heard from the street below. Still in their invisibility cloaks, they crept up to the grime-covered windows and peered down. Their saviour - then Harry recognized him as the owner of the Hog's Head - was the only one without a hood.

"What's the matter?" he yelled at a hooded face, "what's the matter? You dare to bring Dementors into my side streets, and I'll call the Patronus to deal with them. They! I can't let them come near me, as I told you, absolutely not!"

"That's not your Patronus!" said a Death Eater. "It's a stag, Potter's!"

"Stag!" the hotel owner roared, pulling out his wand, "Stag! You idiot - Godly Guard!"

A big guy with horns emerged from the tip of his staff: it buried its head in the street and disappeared.

"I didn't see this—" said the Death Eater, but not as sure as before.

"Someone violated the curfew, you heard the voice," one of his accomplices told the bar owner, "someone broke the rules and ran into the street—"

"If I want to let the cat out, I will, of course, what a **** curfew!"

"Did you hit the Howling Charm?"

"What about me? Take me to Azkaban? Kill me for sticking my nose out of my house? Well, wanna do it , you can do it! But for your consideration, I advise you not to press your little dark mark to call him. He will only see me and my old cats when he comes, and he will not be happy, will he? "

"Don't worry about us," said one of the Death Eaters, "think about yourself, against the curfew!"

"If Pig's Head is closed, where are you guys going to sell potions and drugs? What about your side business?" Gwen got out from behind him, using a fake model The fake gruff voice threatened.

"You dare to threaten—?"

"I promise to be tight-lipped, that's what you're here for, isn't it?"

"I still think I saw a Patronus stag!" shouted the first Death Eater.

"Stag?" barked the bartender. "That's a goat, idiot!"

"Okay, we made a mistake," said the second Death Eater, "If you dare to violate the curfew again, we will not be so polite!"

"Did you hear you two idiots—I'm talking about my cat, gentlemen." Gwen yelled into the street, waving the dog and Crookshanks back, "Don't Wander around again, idiot, hurry up and stay in your nest."

The Death Eaters turned and returned to the street. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, slipped out from under the invisibility cloak, and sat on a rickety chair. Harry closed the curtains and pulled the Invisibility Cloak off himself and Ron. They heard the bartender bolt down the bar's door below and go up the stairs.

The bar owner entered the room.

"You **** fools," he said rudely, looking at the three of them one by one, "what did you think, you came here?"

"Thank you," Harry said. "I don't know how to thank you. You saved our lives."

The bar owner grumbled angrily. Harry stepped forward and looked up at his face, struggling to see him through the wisps of grey hair and beard. He wears glasses, and behind the dirty lenses, his blue eyes are bright and sharp.

He turned around, stopped looking at the three of them, and lit the lamps with his wand.

Gwen returned Crookshanks to Hermione, and the cat was so happy that it rushed straight into Hermione's arms and snorted on her lap. The clever little witch looked a little embarrassed, but she did not forget to give Gwen a mouthful of thanks.

"You are Aberforth." Harry said to the shopkeeper's back.

He was noncommittal and bent over to light the fire.

Aberforth said, "Albus told me about you. I've been watching you closely."

Ron gasped in surprise.

"That silver doe!" he said excitedly, "is it you too?"

"What are you talking about?" Aberforth asked.

"Someone sent a doe Patronus to us!"

"This kind of brain can be a Death Eater, boy. Didn't I just confirm that my Patronus is a goat?"

"Oh," said Ron, "Yeah... ugh, I'm hungry!" His stomach rumbled suddenly, and he said in defense of himself.

"I have something to eat," said Aberforth. He gave Gwen a look, and she had to give up her three best friends, walk out of the room, and come back a moment later with a large loaf of bread, a few slices of cheese, and a jar of mead, and put it on the stove A small table in front of the fire. The three of them devoured and ate and drank, and the room fell silent for a while except for the crackling of the fire, the clinking of goblets, and the sound of chewing food.

"I'm lucky I bake bread today," Gwen said, sighing again. "You three freaked me out—just so suddenly—"

"Okay," said Aberforth, and Harry and Ron slumped drowsily in their chairs when they were full, "need to think of the best Ways to get you out of here. Not at night, you heard it just now, what happens if someone is outdoors at night: Trigger the whistling spell, and they will rush towards you like a tree-protecting pot rushing towards a fox egg. I'm afraid I won't be able to pretend to be a stag a second time with a goat. Wait till dawn and when the curfew is lifted, you can put on your invisibility cloak again and set off on foot. Get out of Hogsmeade and go into the mountains where you can Apparate Maybe even see Hagrid. He's been hiding in a cave with Grapp ever since they tried to get him."

"We're not leaving," Harry said. "We need to get into Hogwarts."

"Don't be silly, boy," said Aberforth.

"We have to go," said Harry.

"What you must do," said Aberforth, leaning forward, "is to get out of here as far as possible."

"You don't understand. Time is running out, we must enter the castle. Dumbledore—that is, your brother—wanted us—"

Firelight shone on Aberforth's glasses, and the grime-filled lenses suddenly turned opaque, splint-like bright white, and Harry remembered the blind eyes of the giant spider Aragog.

“My brother, Abu, wants a lot of things