Chapter 1281

"Harry..." Hermione called softly, but Harry did not respond, he just shook his head.

Now, something called faith collapsed in him; it was just like what he felt after Ron left.

Harry had always firmly believed in Dumbledore, believed that he was the embodiment of kindness and wisdom.

But now, everything was gone... How much more could he bear to lose? Ron, Dumbledore, Phoenix Wand...

"Harry." Hermione seemed to know what he was thinking. "Listen to me. This... This is not a very good book..."

"Yes, of course you can say that..." Harry said stiffly, his tone was unbearably cold.

"... But don't forget, Harry, this is written by Rita Skeeter."

"You have read the letter to Grindelwald, right?" Harry did not answer, but asked back.

"Yes, I... I read it." Hermione hesitated, looking uneasy, covering her teacup with cold hands. "I think that's the worst part. I think Bathilda thought it was just talk, but 'for the greater good' became Grindelwald's motto, the justification for his subsequent atrocities. And... from that point on... it does seem like Dumbledore's words inspired him. They even said 'for the greater good' was carved at the entrance to Nurmond."

"What is Nurmond?"

"It's the prison that Grindelwald built to hold his opponents. He died there himself, when Dumbledore caught him. Anyway, it's... it's a terrible idea, and Dumbledore's idea helped Grindelwald achieve his goal. But on the other hand, even Rita couldn't lie and say they were just getting to know each other that summer, after all, they were still young, and..."

"I knew you would say that," Harry said. He didn't want to lose his temper with her, but it was hard for him to sound nonchalant now.

"I know you'll say 'they were young'. They were the same age as we are now. Look at us now, risking our lives to fight the Dark Forces, and then look at him, working with his new friends, plotting to establish their rule over the Muggles."

At this point, Harry could no longer control his emotions: he stood up and paced back and forth, wanting to vent some anger.

"I'm not trying to defend this stuff about Dumbledore," said Hermione. "All the 'rights and laws' are a cover, a reappearance of 'magic is power'. But Harry, his mother just died, and he endured all this alone in the room..."

"Alone? He is not alone! He has a brother and sister to accompany him, and he also locked up his Squib sister..."

"But Fanlin said that Ariana is not a Squib, you know that..."

"Oh, so why didn't Ariana appear in Hogwarts?" Harry said without thinking, "Just like you, Hermione... They can even find you in a Muggle family... I'm sorry, I'm not targeting you, Hermione... You are great, very good, and no one I know of among the female wizards can surpass you..."

"You don't have to apologize to me..."

"I'm not apologizing, Hermione," Harry said with a rough breath, "I'm just stating a fact..."

"Maybe... I mean, I believe Fanlin..."

"I believe him too, but the reality is that it was Dumbledore's past!" Harry roared a little crazily.

"But I don't believe it, Harry!" Hermione also stood up and argued, "No matter what they say about that girl, I don't believe she is a Squib. The Dumbledore we know would never, never allow..." "Don't we also think that the Dumbledore we know would never attempt to conquer Muggles by force!" Harry roared, his voice echoing in the empty mountains, startling many mountain birds, which circled and chirped in the misty night sky. "But people change, Harry... He's changed for the better, he's already changed for the better! That's obvious! Maybe he was addicted to it when he was seventeen, but he spent his entire life fighting against the dark arts. It was Dumbledore who defeated Grindelwald, who was always committed to protecting Muggles and upholding the rights of Muggle-born wizards, who had been fighting against You-Know-Who from the beginning, and who finally sacrificed himself to defeat You-Know-Who! No matter what, you shouldn't deny what he did later, maybe it was just a mistake he made when he was young..."

Rita's book was placed between them, and the Albus Dumbledore in the illustration on the book smiled sadly at them.

"Harry, I'm sorry, but I think the real reason you're so angry is that Dumbledore never told you about his past." Hermione took a breath and tried to calm herself down.

"Maybe!" Harry exploded, raising his arms as if to lift up his immense rage or to protect himself from the weight of his fantasy. "Look what he told me, Hermione: Risk it, Harry, again, again, again! Don't expect me to explain anything to you, just risk your life. Trust me, trust that I know what I'm doing, even if I don't trust you! Never know the truth! Never know!"

Harry's voice had become hoarse from the hysterical shouting. Looking at Hermione, whose face was as pale as his own, Harry suddenly felt that they were so small in this vast world.

"But... he loves you," Hermione whispered. "He really does."

Harry's arms dropped limply. "I really don't know who Dumbledore has ever cared about, Hermione, but that person will definitely not be me. This is not love, it is just a mess he left me. He would rather share his true words with Gellert Grindelwald didn't want to share it... That's not me, Hermione. Fanlin may know more than me, but right now, it seems that there is nothing left except what is known, right? ? If Fan Lin knew about it, we wouldn't be hiding in this camp like a tortoise. We have to be on guard against being hunted by the Ministry of Magic and Death Eaters every day. We can't even contact Sirius and the others... "

Harry picked up Fanlin's wand that he had just thrown into the snow, and sat back at the entrance of the tent.

"Thank you for the tea. I've finished reading the book. You should go back and warm yourself up quickly. Fanlin was seriously injured. He needs more care now, doesn't he? Compared to this..." Harry pointed at the book and then read it again. Look at the wand in your hand.

His palms turned into fists, and his fingers turned blue and white from the exertion... Harry felt that his body was shaking, and the hot tea Hermione gave him had gone cold early.

Hermione hesitated, but really didn't know what to say, but her worry about Fanlin still prompted the girl to stand up quickly. She picked up the book and got into the tent from Harry's side and went back. Before leaving, she gently combed Harry's hair with her hands.

Harry closed his eyes and felt Hermione's touch: how much he hoped that Hermione was right and that Dumbledore really cared about him... But just because of this thought, he hated himself even more.

At midnight, when Hermione replaced Harry on guard duty, Fan Lin still didn't look awake. The only thing that made Hermione feel relieved was that Fan Lin's high fever had subsided a little, and those potions really worked.

This situation relieved Hermione's original anxiety to a certain extent, and Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief. This seemed to be a good sign, but it was confirmed that Harry still refused to talk to Dumbledore and Grinder. Waugh and Ariana talked about things.

It's snowing outside, which makes the surrounding area less empty and cold. Snowy weather is always much better than days when the snow and ice melt.

Still, Harry had dreams that confused and troubled him: Nagini snaking around them, crawling through a wreath of Christmas roses.

Harry woke up in panic again and again, feeling that someone was calling him in the distance, imagining that the wind whipping around the tent was someone's footsteps or voice.

Finally, Harry got up in the darkness and walked over to Hermione. She was curled up at the entrance of the tent, reading a book called "History of Magic" with the help of the light of her wand.

The snow is falling harder and harder.

Hermione agreed with Harry's suggestion and decided to pack her things early and move on.

"We're going to find a safer place," she said, shakily adding a sweatshirt over her pajamas. "I always felt that I could hear someone walking outside. Even once or twice, I seemed to see someone outside. Fan Lin's current condition is very unstable, but we have no way to contact Madam Pomfrey. Saint Mang Not even Ge Hospital. I should have prepared earlier."

Harry paused as he put on his coat, staring into the silent silence, the speculum lying motionless on the table.

"Of course, about the people outside... I'm sure it's just my imagination," Hermione said, looking a little nervous, "The snow and the night play tricks on your eyes... but, just in case, maybe we Should he apparate under his invisibility cloak?”

Half an hour later, after packing up the tent, Harry carried Fanlin, who was wrapped tightly on his back. His wand was broken, so Hermione could only take charge of this operation.

Hermione grabbed her beaded bag and disapparated.

They were engulfed by the same sense of oppression as before. Harry's legs did not touch the snow and hit the hard frozen soil that looked like leaves. Harry held back the pain and wanted to stop Fan Lin. Fortunately, Hermione discovered the situation here. , stabilized Fanlin with suspension.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, rubbing his shoulders and looking around the large forest.

Hermione opened her beadwork bag and tugged outward on the tent poles.

"The Forest of Dean," Hermione replied, "I used to camp here with my parents."

There is a lot of snow on the trees, and the temperature here is unusually low compared to the previous place, but at least there is no wind here.

They stayed in the tent most of the day, moved Fanlin's bed, and then the three of them gathered around a blue warm flame. Hermione was already very skilled in casting this magic, and the flame could still Use a shovel to scoop it up and put it in the jar.

The warmth seemed to relax Fan Lin, at least his frowning brows relaxed somewhat.

In the meantime, Fanlin woke up for a short period of time. Maybe he didn't have enough energy to repair. However, being able to wake up is good news.

Harry couldn't even imagine what would happen if Fan Lin suddenly left at a certain moment. They wouldn't even have a chance to escape.

Hermione was surprised and gave Fan Lin some hot porridge to drink, and added some small blue bottles along the way...

Does this count as replenishing magic?

However, this did restore some of Harry's confidence.

In the afternoon, fresh snowflakes drifted over them, and powdery snowflakes appeared in the protected open space.

Now, after two nights of almost no sleep, Harry seemed more alert than usual. The escape in Godric's Hollow made Voldemort seem closer to them and more threatening than before.

As night fell again, Harry refused Hermione's request to keep watch and let her go in to sleep. After all, there was a patient in the house now, and a wound that was pierced through the body was not so easy to heal. This was not the same as piercing a hole in the body with a knife.

Harry moved an old mat to the door of the tent, put on all his thick sweaters, and sat down. Despite this, he was still shivering with cold. As a last resort, Harry asked Hermione to prepare a can of fire for him. He only needed to release magic, which was not something that could only be done with a wand.

As time passed, the night deepened and it was pitch dark.

Harry was about to open the Marauder's Map to see where Ginny's dot was, but he suddenly remembered that it was Christmas vacation and she should have gone back to the Burrow.

In the dense and quiet forest, every tiny movement would be magnified. Harry knew there were all kinds of creatures there, but he hoped they would all remain quiet, so that he could distinguish the sounds of animals running and jumping from the sounds that represented danger.

He still remembered the sound of the cloak sliding across the fallen leaves many years ago, and he immediately felt that he heard that sound again, and his whole body was shocked. Their protective magic had been used successfully for several weeks. Why was it broken now? And he always felt that something was different tonight. He stood up suddenly from time to time, and his neck hurt a little because he fell asleep several times and his head kept falling to one side of the tent at an uncomfortable angle.

The night turned velvety black, and he felt as if he was floating between the apparition and the appearance. Harry raised his hands in front of him, which seemed to give him some courage... (To be continued)