the Gambler

Suddenly, there was a loud beep in the principal's office, and Dumbledore woke up from a light sleep, his blue eyes were as cold as ice.The old man grabbed a handful of Floo from the fireplace and stepped into the greening flames.The next moment, the wizard's figure was engulfed in flames, and when he stopped spinning again, he saw a different scene in front of him. In the dark bar, only the owner was alone wiping the dusty glass.It was a man who looked almost like Dumbledore.

"Albus." The boss greeted coldly.

"Aberforth, something happened to the Dursleys, and I need you to Apparate." Albus said hurriedly, and Aberforth put down the rag and grabbed his brother's arm. He took it with him.No sooner had his toes touched the ground than Albus saw the great Dark Mark hovering over the house.He broke through the closed door, followed the corridor to the living room, and there were only three lifeless corpses in front of them.Albus squatted next to Petunia to examine carefully, the woman's expression was very calm, as if she had already anticipated her own fate.Vernon didn't take any additional damage either.It couldn't be more obvious, it was directly hit by the Killing Curse and died.He turned his head to look at Dudley. The Muggle boy had a painful expression on his face, and he was still gasping for breath before he died.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Aberforth firmly. "Dudley Dursley was tortured in his lifetime. Who do you think did it?"

"I have a few guesses." Albus reached out to close their open eyes, and he picked up the dewy flowers, the gorgeous flowers almost burned his eyes, "To my love, Interesting information. Do you think Voldemort or Tom?"

Aberforth pursed his lips and snorted coldly.

"The police will come here soon, we need to go back to the headquarters immediately and tell others about the accident."

Harry has been a little restless today, and even Professor Sprout, who has the best temper, had to deduct twenty points from him, but it still couldn't calm him down.Hermione punched Harry's stomach a few times, and the boy raised his head in confusion. The pod in his hand had been chopped into fine pieces, and the class required it to be diced.Harry sighed, returned to the front of the strange-shaped plant again, carefully avoided the oncoming fireball, and put his hand into the root, the sticky liquid made him gag.

"What's the matter with you?" Ron asked in a low voice, "Professor Sprout has been staring at you for a while."

"I don't know," Harry said dejectedly, he peeled off the green peel non-stop, and took out the purple pod inside, "I always feel that something big is going to happen."

Ron stuffed his finished product into a glass bottle and glanced at the professor of herbalism: "If you fail again, it will really be a big deal."

"I--"

Harry's words were interrupted by a loud banging sound. The glass door of the greenhouse was forcefully opened by someone. Just as Sprout was about to reprimand someone who came, he saw McGonagall rushing in with a flustered expression, with black robes behind him. tumbling.She nodded to Sprout, but didn't stop, walked straight to Harry, and said in a heavy tone: "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger—" She paused, looked at Sprout In the direction of Raitlin, Tom just raised his head to meet the witch's gaze, "And Mr. Gaunt. It's urgent, Albus asked me to take you away from Hogwarts."

"What happened, Professor?" Harry couldn't suppress the fear that spread all over his body.

"Not here, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall gave Sprout a sorry look, and walked away quickly again.Harry and the others trotted to keep pace with the witch.Soon they were at No. 12, Grimmauld Place, through the fireplace in the headmaster's room, and the old house was full of heated arguments.There was a moment of silence caused by Harry's presence, and soon he felt the pain of those sympathetic looks make him tense.Dumbledore motioned for them to find an empty seat, and Harry took the seat next to Sirius.

Dumbledore placed a newspaper in front of Harry with two huge photographs on it.The first shot was of a familiar hut, surrounded by yellow cloth strips, those Muggle policemen were maintaining order, and many onlookers were pointing at the Dark Mark covering the roof.The second photo was taken of the bodies of three Muggles.

Harry covered his mouth, sour bile welled up in his throat, shook off Sirius' hand on his back, rushed into the bathroom and vomited loudly.He didn't know how long he sat on the cold floor tiles, his head was muddled.Harry felt as if he had vomited out all the food he had these days, and his stomach still hurt, but he kept retching until all he could vomit was yellow bile.

"Are you all right?" Sirius looked at Harry in bewilderment, who was scooping up a handful of water and splashing it on his face.

Harry shook his head, lifted his clothes and wiped off the water stains on his face, then turned his head and walked towards the living room.When passing by Sirius, the man grabbed his arm and said earnestly: "You don't need to attend the meeting, Dumbledore will understand."

"No, I need to face it bravely," Harry took a deep breath, and met the godfather's silver-gray eyes firmly, "There will be many such situations in the future, this is war, Padfoot, I can't hide Behind someone else's back."

The atmosphere of the whole meeting was very depressing. Everyone knew that the Dursley family of the deceased was Harry Potter's last relatives. Even though their attitude towards the boy was terrible, Harry's performance showed that he still cared about those troublesome things. melon.The rare witches in the Order of the Phoenix were discussing the accident in whispers with their heads together, occasionally casting Harry a few glances.Dumbledore motioned for Harry to sit between Sirius and Mrs Weasley.The comforting words of Hermione and the Weasley children were stifled by Dumbledore's raised hand.

"Be quiet now." Dumbledore said seriously, "Aberforth and I were the first to rush to Little Whinging, and we noticed that the wizards who attacked the Dursleys used the Killing Curse and the Cruciatus Curse. The Unforgivable Curse."

"Death Eaters!" Muggles yelled loudly. "Obviously Death Eaters!"

"Shut up and let Albus talk!" said Moody gruffly.

"Thank you, Alastor." Dumbledore turned cold, and the whole room suddenly fell into a deathly silence. The old man radiated power from his whole body, "From the point of view of being able to launch the Dark Mark, he is at least as good as Death Eater." Aberforth and I have reached a consensus that it was done by one person. There was no sign of a fight in the room, and the barrier was easily lowered, which shows that the murderer was a powerful wizard and very important to the Muggle world. Understand, at least he worked on his appearance."

"Mr. Potter is not in the room, the magic barrier will be weakened a lot." Moody analyzed, his fake eye turned around, and finally stopped on Tom.Slytherin snorted coldly, and looked at the old Auror calmly.Moody was silent for a moment, then turned to look at Dumbledore: "How many people do you think can take down the protection magic you designed?"

"Several high-ranking Death Eaters." Dumbledore said, and he motioned Snape to take a step forward, only then did Harry notice that the man had been hiding in a dark corner.His face was very gloomy, and his tone was weak: "I can barely take down the weakened barrier, the only Death Eaters who are similar to me are Bellatrix and Lestrange Brothers, yes, Lu Hughes' ability is inferior to mine, he climbed up by flexible political means, as we all know, he is very successful in the Ministry of Magic."

"Thank you for your opinion, Severus," said Dumbledore, "plus Voldemort himself, our main suspects."

"It wasn't Voldemort." Harry interrupted the argument suddenly, and everyone looked curiously, "It wasn't Voldemort. He was in Romania when the incident happened."

"Harry is telling the truth." Lupine said, "he was trying to unite the werewolf tribe there, and I have a good friend who proudly said that he would join Voldemort." His expression was guilty, "I failed to complete the task, I'm sorry. Fenrir Greyback's influence was so great that the werewolves chose Voldemort almost without hesitation."

"There is no need to blame yourself for this, child, you have worked hard." Dumbledore said gently, "This is what we expected."

"Illegal portkeys are not hard to come by." Moody clacked his prosthetic leg.

Dumbledore put the whole bouquet of lilies on the table, and the blood-like red was climbing up the petals bit by bit along the rhizomes, which was so beautiful that it made people dizzy.Harry couldn't look away for a moment, his breath caught in his throat.Dumbledore cast a sympathetic look: "'To my love', that is the message left by the murderer, Harry."

In the ensuing meeting, when Lupine remained silent, Tonks put his head on his shoulders, and their approaching hands mingled together on the witch's lap.Harry noticed a pair of simple silver rings on the clasped hands.Noticing his gaze, Tonks gave the boy a weary smile. She reached out with her right hand and brushed back Lumin's white hair that had fallen to her eyes and pinned it behind her ear.Witnessing such an intimate exchange with the ex-professor made Harry look away in embarrassment, just in time to meet Tom's gaze.

After an unknown amount of time, Dumbledore announced the end of the meeting, and all members of the Order of the Phoenix were asked to be vigilant. No one knew when Voldemort would launch an attack.When only the Weasleys and Harry were left in the room, Dumbledore leaned across the table, wrapped Harry's cold hands with his firm and powerful palms, and smiled kindly.

"Don't worry, Harry, we're sure to find the murderers of the Dursleys. You need to rest now, I've spoken to the other professors. Go back to Hogwarts."

Harry and the others got out of the fireplace, and Professor McGonagall had already returned to the office, burying himself in correcting a thick pile of classwork.When the flames were extinguished, the witch raised her head to say something, opened and closed her mouth several times, and finally stood up and held Harry tightly in her arms.Mag let go of the hands around the boy, and his voice was still a little trembling: "You have always been alone, I know this incident has hit you hard, but time will heal everything. Get up, don't Forget that we're all around you. Go back and rest now, Harry, you look terribly tired."

Harry cleared his dry throat, "Thank you, Professor."

McGonagall put her hand on Harry's back and gently pushed the boy out the door.This seemed to give Harry strength, and he turned his head again in thanks.The portraits in the corridor looked at them suspiciously. After all, it was class time and no students could walk around at will.There was nothing to say along the way, and Ron and Hermione didn't know how to comfort him. Perhaps the comfort itself was unnecessary, and Harry was stronger and braver than them.The four of them kept a quiet pace until the end of the corridor, and Harry and Ron Hermione separated. During this time, Tom followed the boy silently.

Tom's gaze was so intense that it made Harry's mouth dry.He really wanted to just go back to his room and rest. He was so tired that he could fall on the floor and fall asleep at any time.

"You told me Voldemort had stopped contacting you."

Tom's words made Harry's heart pound, and of course he caught himself when he slipped.Voldemort is now a taboo between Harry and Tom, and this relationship that is on thin ice is barely maintained.He closed his eyes sleepily.

Tom was further annoyed by Harry's silence, and he tightened his grip on the boy's arm.

"Obviously I lied," said Harry, opening his eyes.

The portraits next to them stopped talking and listened to their conversation with their ears pricked up. Harry twirled his feet impatiently and blurted out complaining, "Can't you find another time? I just want to lie down and sleep right now."

"At eight o'clock tonight, the secret room is waiting for you." After Tom finished speaking, he turned around and strode away.