94 Diagon Alley

Li, it's not hard to imagine what he looked like when he was a teenager, lean and strong, full of anger, bravely facing his brother. "I told him you'd better give up as soon as possible. You can't move her, she's not in a good state, you can't take her with you, go where you intend to go, give your clever speeches, and incite yourself a following He doesn't like listening to it." Aberforth said, the firelight on his glasses temporarily obscured his eyes, and the glasses were white again. "Grindelwald was very upset when he heard it, he was angry, Saying I'm a stupid little boy trying to be a stumbling block for him and my wonderful brother...and that I don't get it The poor sister will no longer have to hide."

"We argued...I pulled out my wand and he pulled his, I was under the Cruciatus, it was my brother's best friend - Albus tried to stop him. So the three of us fought a duel, and my sister was irritated by flashes of flashes and loud noises, and she couldn't take it—"

Aberforth's face suddenly turned bloodless, as if he had suffered a fatal wound

"—I guess she's trying to help, but she doesn't know what she's doing, and I don't know who among us did it, either—she died."

Speaking of the last sentence, his voice choked and he threw himself down on the nearest chair. Hermione was in tears, and Ron was almost as pale as Aberforth's. Harry only felt a pain: he wished he hadn't heard it, wished to get it out of his head.

"I...I'm sorry," Hermione whispered.

"Gone," said Aberforth hoarsely, "forever."

He wiped his nose with his cuff and cleared his throat.

"Certainly, Grindelwald ran away. He already has some criminal records in his own country, and he doesn't want Ariana's account to be counted on him. Albus is free, isn't he? ? Get rid of the burden of my sister, and be free to be the greatest wizard—"

“He was never free,” Harry said.

"What did you say?" said Aberforth.

"Never," said Harry, "the night your brother died, he drank a poison and became insane. He started shouting, pleading with someone who wasn't there: "Don't Hurt them, please... come at me. '"

Both Ron and Hermione looked at Harry in surprise. He never told them the specifics of the island in the middle of the lake. What happened after he and Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts made that scene irrelevant.

"He thought he was back, with you and Grindelwald, I know so," said Harry, remembering Dumbledore's whimpering plea, "he thought he was Watching Grindelwald hurt you and Ariana...it was so painful for him, if you saw him at the time, you wouldn't say he was relieved."

Aberforth stared at his knuckles and veins in a trance. After a long time he said, "How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother is more interested in you than in the greater good? How can you be sure that you are not dispensable like my little sister. Woolen cloth?"

It seemed that a sharp ice ball had pierced Harry's heart.

"I don't believe it. Dumbledore loves Harry," said Hermione.

"Then why didn't he tell Harry to hide?" Aberforth retorted, "Why didn't he tell Harry to take care of himself and save his life?"

"Because," Harry replied before Hermione, "sometimes you have to think about more than your own safety! Sometimes you have to think about the greater good! This is war!"

"You're only seventeen, child!"

"I'm an adult, I'm going to keep fighting, even if you've given up!"

"Who said I gave up?"

"'The Order of the Phoenix is ​​over,'" Harry repeated. "'You-Know-Who has won, it's over, and those who pretend not to admit it are deceiving themselves.'"

"I didn't say I would, but it's true!"

"No, it's not," said Harry, "your brother knows **** You-Know-Who, he told me about it. I'm going to keep going until I make it—or die. Don't think I don't know What might end up in the end. I knew it years ago."

Harry waited for Aberforth to sneer or retort, but he didn't, he just sullen.

"Pause a minute, gentlemen." Gwen interrupted their argument with a few butterbeers. Pour another glass of spirits for Aberforth. "Sir, I think you've tested enough of Harry, he knows what he's doing. No one here has been brainwashed by Dumbledore - we all want to beat You-Know-Who, including yourself."

Aberforth did not speak any more, he drank the brandy from the glass in one gulp.

"We need to enter Hogwarts," Harry said after seeing the atmosphere softened a little, "If you can't help, we'll wait until dawn, find a way, and stop bothering you. If You can help - that's a good time to say it now."

The room was still very quiet.

"Sir, think about what we were doing last summer." Gwen turned to Aberforth. "Maybe that's the way for them, you know your brother."

Aberforth remained motionless in his chair, staring blankly at Harry, his eyes reminiscent of his brother's. Finally, he cleared his throat, stood up, and walked around the small table to the portrait of Ariana.

"You know what to do," he said.

The girl smiled slightly, turned and walked away, she did not disappear beside the frame like the people in ordinary portraits, but seemed to be walking down a long tunnel painted behind her . They watched as her slender figure moved further and further away, and was finally engulfed in darkness.

"Er—what's this—?" Ron wanted to ask.

"There is only one way in now," Aberforth said. "You must know that the whole school has never been so guarded. From what I have heard, they have kept all the old secrets Both ends of the passage are blocked, the walls are surrounded by Death Eaters, and the school is regularly patrolled. Snape is in charge, and the Carlo brothers and sisters are his right-hand men. What can you do even if you enter the school... Alas , that's your own business, right? You said you were ready to die."

"But..." Hermione frowned at Ariana's portrait and said.

"Don't worry." Gwen patted her on the shoulder, and only then did she feel a real sense of reunion, and she was a little excited for a while. "Aberforth and I, and Dobby, dug the secret passage for half a month."

A small white dot appeared at the end of the tunnel in the painting, and Ariana walked back towards them, getting closer and bigger. But there was another person beside her, taller than her, walking with a limp, with a face full of excitement. His hair was longer than anything Harry had ever seen before, his face appeared to be cut a few times, and his clothes were torn unremarkably. The two figures grew larger and larger until their heads and shoulders filled the portrait. Then the portrait on the wall opened like a small door, revealing the entrance to a real tunnel. The real Neville Longbottom crawled out of the tunnel, with grotesquely long hair, bruised face, and torn robes. With a roar of ecstasy, he jumped off the mantelpiece and shouted, "I knew you were coming! I knew it, Harry!"

“Neville—really—how could—?”

Neville saw Ron and Hermione again, screamed with joy, and hugged them one by one. The more Harry looked at Neville, the more appalling he looked: one eye was swollen and blue and purple, there were many deep arc wounds on his face, and he was unkempt, indicating that he was having a bad day. But there was joy on his scarred face. He let go of Hermione and added, "I knew you guys would come! Keep telling Seamus it's a matter of time!"

"Neville, what's the matter with you?"

"What? This?" Neville shook his head, not taking his injury seriously, "Nothing, Seamus is worse than me. You'll see. We'll go now Huh? Oh," he turned to Aberforth, "No, there might be two more people coming."

"There are two more?" Aberforth said fiercely, "What are you talking about, Longbottom, there are two more? There is a curfew outside, and the whole village has a howling spell! "

"I know, so they'll Apparate right into the bar," Neville said. "Just let them go through the passage when they come, okay? Thank you."

"Actually, I called George and Fred," Gwen said to Aberforth. "They may have passed by...notifying the rest of the Order of the Phoenix."

Aberforth was about to jump with anger. "This is my bar, not—"

"Okay, you stubborn and awkward old man." Gwen dared to contradict him, thinking that he might be going back to Ollivander's wand shop soon. "Just let me go this time, okay?"

Neville extended his hand to Hermione and helped her climb up the mantelpiece and into the tunnel. Ron followed, followed by Neville.

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

"Twice," Ron swallowed the last loaf of bread, "from the Hog's Head Bar."

"Take care of them," said Aberforth gruffly, "I'm afraid I won't save you three times."

Harry climbed onto the mantelpiece and passed the one behind the portrait of Ariana