the Gambler

As soon as the three of them appeared in the living room of Grimmauld Place, the fireplace that had not been used for a long time was lit with a green flame. Dumbledore walked out from it with a very serious expression on his face, and he was visibly relaxed after seeing Harry nodding. in one breath.The old man took out three bars of chocolate from his pocket, and Harry opened Sirius' mouth and stuffed one of them into it.

"I noticed that you are in danger." Dumbledore waved his wand and moved Sirius' unconscious body to the sofa that turned into a big bed, his tone full of guilt, "This was beyond my expectation, I didn't expect It was my miscalculation that the dementors would appear in Diagon Alley."

"You already know?" Harry asked in surprise. It was only 5 minutes since they were attacked, and Dumbledore knew what was going on.

"I've got this." Dumbledore held up his hand, and Harry noticed a letter in his hand.Harry took the letter and looked at it carefully. The ink pad from the Ministry of Magic made his stomach heavy. He quickly tore open the envelope and pulled out the parchment inside. It said that Harry had violated the regulations of the "Act on the Reasonable Restraining of Underage Wizards" , need to go to the Ministry of Magic for trial.

Harry slammed the envelope on the floor, met Dumbledore's concerned gaze, and roared angrily, "This is all nonsense!"

"I think so too." Dumbledore pulled Harry into his arms and kept patting the boy's back, waiting for Harry to calm down before letting go.Dumbledore grabbed Harry's shoulders and bent down to meet his eyes. Harry felt that the firm light in the old man's eyes seemed to warm his whole body. He believed that the headmaster would protect him. In Harry's eyes, Dumbledore has always been an omnipotent wizard, he has a power that people can't help but want to believe in.

"There's something you can do," Harry said expectantly. "Someone in Diagon Alley must have seen a dementor. I'm acting in self-defense. They can't destroy my wand, Headmaster."

"The fact that no one has noticed the arrival of the dementors is a bit too coincidental," Dumbledore said with a pensive expression, "which makes me suspect that they were instructed by someone who obviously knew you would be there." It's time to come to Diagon Alley—"

"You mean someone deliberately revealed my information? I have indeed made a good disguise, and no one should find me," Harry's mind went blank. The only person who knew the situation was the Order of the Phoenix. He didn't know whether to Should he suspect that there is a traitor in it, which makes him feel chilled, and it is only the eve of the war that someone has turned to Voldemort?

Harry looked up at Dumbledore's sad expression: "You suspect there are spies in the Order of the Phoenix?"

Dumbledore shook his head.

"I have an even worse guess." The old man turned his head to look in the direction of the fireplace, where green flames were burning again, and a large group of wizards with fiery red heads came out of it.Seeing Harry, Mrs. Weasley excitedly took the boy into her arms and checked his body carefully. After confirming that there was no trauma, he turned to look at Dumbledore.

"You need to do something, Albus! I can't imagine dementors appearing in Diagon Alley in full swing! Merlin, this is too bad, poor Harry, thanks to Remus who taught you the Patronus Charm !” Jasmine blushed, and her voice became sharper because of her anger, “Fudge is a piece of trash. I have already said that those monsters are completely inhuman, and they don’t care about agreements at all! Now there are dementors coming from Azka. Ben escaped!"

"It must be because someone gave them instructions." Dumbledore's calm voice stopped the noisy discussion in an instant.

Arthur's face was pale, he looked at the old man in horror and said, "You mean the mysterious man?"

"No, he still needs time to regroup, but I have my own guess."

"We got spies in there? Oh, Albus, that's pretty scary, I can't imagine a member betraying the Order, I mean a few of the more timid ones, but they're not going to go to You-Know-Who— —They shouldn’t, Albus?” Arthur longed for Dumbledore’s nod of affirmation, the idea of ​​spies within the Order of the Phoenix made him uncomfortable, and they needed to unite against the upcoming war, which was definitely not good start.

"Then give everyone Veritaserum!" Moody's rough voice came from behind the crowd, and Harry noticed that seven or eight strange wizards were beside the experienced Auror, with the same unsettling expressions on their faces. Confident expression.Professor Lupine was also among them, his complexion didn't look very good, he looked very tired.The boy remembered that the full moon had just passed.Noticing Harry's concerned gaze, the haggard wizard smiled.

"Long time no see, Harry."

"Long time no see." Harry walked away from the path that blocked the professor's view, revealing the sleeping Sirius behind him. Lupine pushed everyone away in panic and knelt down in front of his friend, brushed the man's hair with his hand, and carefully looked at his pale face.Harry tapped Lupine on the shoulder, signaling that Sirius was all right.Lupine exhaled the unconsciously hanging breath, and slumped on the floor. He couldn't lose another friend.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with the Order of the Phoenix," said Dumbledore calmly.

Moody's prosthetic eye spun around a few times, and the wooden prosthetic limb made a clanging sound as it hit the floor.The old Auror frowned: "You always think of the best of others, Albus. I don't trust people as easily as you do. I think Veritaserum is the best test."

"We don't have that much Veritaserum," Snape replied coldly. "And now is not the time. If you haven't noticed, I need to remind you that Potter's trial will be held tomorrow. We have to do it sooner." Get ready, obviously that stupid dog can't testify."

"Then I'm the only one left." Tom's voice suddenly rang in Harry's ear, which startled the boy. The turmoil just now made him completely ignore the existence of the other party.Tom looked at Snape with flickering eyes, and his tone was extremely cold: "It's an honor for me to taste Veritaserum again, isn't it, Professor?"

Mrs. Weasley drove all the underage wizards to the third floor and urged them to go to their rooms to sleep. She didn't want the children to overhear the meeting.Apparently there were more people coming this time, Harry struggled and dragged Tom into his bedroom amidst everyone's horrified gazes.There was no light in the room, and the dim moonlight made the inside look gloomy like a haunted house. There were still faint sounds from the ceiling above him, and Harry didn't want to know what was upstairs at all.

Tom took off his robes directly in front of Harry and changed into dark green pajamas, the same style as Harry's fiery red.He lifted the sheet and lay down on his left side, and Harry could see his silhouette blurred by the moonlight.

"Thanks," Harry murmured, knowing Tom could hear him.

Tom opened his eyes, and the words he hadn't spoken were interrupted by the sudden opening of the door. Four fiery heads rushed into the room, seeing the situation on the bed making a suffocating sound.Frowning, Tom got off the bed and walked to the window to make room for the others.

Ron hesitated to sit cross-legged on the still warm part of the four-poster bed, and Ginny and the twins imitated him.

"It's too bad, I mean, you need to go to the Ministry of Magic for trial, it's ridiculous!" Ron slapped the sheets hard, his face flushed.

Harry rested his head on the bedpost, his head was in a mess now, and he didn't even realize what Ron had said.It's all like a nightmare, first he was attacked by a dementor, and now he needs to go to the Ministry of Magic for trial, and the only witness is Tom, so funny, really.

"It's not so bad." Tom, who was sitting in the armchair by the window, interrupted Ron's chatter calmly. "If Harry was not with me at that time, but in Muggle London, he would have been killed by now." Hogwarts expelled. That's the real purpose of the Ministry of Magic, to expel Harry from the wizarding world entirely."

"What? Are you kidding? You mean the Ministry of Magic gave orders to the dementors?" Ron exclaimed, as did the rest of the room in disbelief.Tom leaned back in his chair with his chest crossed, surveying the room full of redheads, looking at the room full of redheads with disdain.

"It's obvious that they spent the whole summer trying to discredit Harry and Dumbledore just to convince others that they were grandstanding liars," Tom continued, tapping his index finger on the armrest, "Dementors There is a strict contract with the Ministry of Magic, who would believe that they will get out of control? And this time is too coincidental, no one is watching the incident, if Harry said he saw a dementor appearing in Diagon Alley, what would you do think?"

"Crazy. Everyone will believe that Harry has mental problems." Tom threw the "Daily Prophet" on the table, "It has already reported Harry's trial, isn't it an obvious conspiracy? Not to mention that Fudge is a member of the Order of the Phoenix." The only other person who knew the Dark Lord was back, he just didn't want to believe it."

"But, but this is unbelievable, I mean the Ministry of Magic has other ways to eliminate the threat of Harry and Headmaster Dumbledore, we all know that he has been investigated by the Wizengamot and the International Federation of Wizards during this time It’s so frustrating.” Ginny said in a low voice, she still dare not look Tom’s face in the face, that memory was too painful for the girl, if she was not worried about Harry’s comfort, she would not want to be with Tom who almost killed him for a moment. The murderer who killed himself stayed in a room.

"Although I don't want to admit it, that old man is not so easy to uproot. Even so, there are many people who believe in him, and Fudge has no way to deal with him." Tom sneered, "Leading the public opinion that he was deceived by Harry Yes, that's much easier."

"It's terrible!" Ron flinched. He wasn't the type to analyze conspiracies. Those were Hermione's jobs, but what Tom said seemed to make sense.

"Dumbledore should have guessed it too." Tom pointed to the floor. Everyone knew that the meeting going on in the hall downstairs was nothing more than dementors, trials, thieves and the Ministry of Magic.

"Then we have to figure it out!" Fred and George said in unison, pulling out a pair of retractable ears from their bosoms and blinking at Harry.Everyone quickly followed behind them, watching them slowly put down the retractable ears and stop at the door of the meeting room.After eavesdropping for a while, the twins wrinkled their noses and pointed in Tom's direction. The wizard leaning against the door frame was smiling triumphantly. Fred said in a muffled voice, "It seems that his guess was right."

"Oops!" Ginny exclaimed, staring at the sudden appearance of red hair at the bottom of the stairs, "Mom is coming up!"

After the crackling sound, the twins apparated back upstairs. Ron complained, dragged Ginny, who was still dazed, into the end of the corridor, and Harry rushed back to the room.He held his breath, and the creaking footsteps outside the door stayed for a moment before going upstairs, presumably Mrs Weasley went to check on the twins.

"Good night." Harry pulled the quilt over his head, he didn't know if he could fall asleep, too many things happened today, and tomorrow he had to go to the Ministry of Magic to face those cunning adults.He needs to sort out his messy thoughts, it's all right, he's got Tom to testify, it's going to be all right.Harry silently comforted himself, and after a few minutes, he smoothly fell into a deep sleep.