A few days later, Harry was again asked to attend a hearing at the Ministry of Magic, which was completely meaningless, but the Minister seemed to think that Harry's occasional presence at the Ministry of Magic was an effective way to show the supreme authority of the Ministry.

Harry trepidantly followed Mr. Weasley to the Ministry of Magic. During the hearing, he saw many familiar faces, including representatives of the twelve wizarding families--- Neville's grandmother's conspicuous hat, which made it impossible to pay attention, and Harry saw a middle-aged witch sitting next to her, who was supposed to be Neville's mother, and Neville had said that Andrew had saved his parents from his madness. And, of course, Dumbledore. The headmaster didn't seem bored at all, and he smiled and greeted the many wizards, some of whom paid homage to the white wizard with solemn courtesy, but from the beginning to the end, the headmaster didn't make eye contact with him, not even a glance.

One big stone in Harry's heart fell, but the other became heavier. Dumbledore acted as if he was avoiding him, and the Headmaster was not afraid to give him a wink or smile at any given time.

Again, Harry didn't know which was worse, or maybe the Minister and others already knew about Voldemort's Horcruxes, which might include himself— Of course, Harry felt that in this matter, the Headmaster would insist on justice and try his best to ensure that the secret was not made public, but there are many fools in the wizarding world, and there are also many smart people, and the secret of the Dark Lord's Horcrux has been spread, and maybe someone will soon realize that the Dark Lord and the Savior are symbiotic---- and if you want to kill the Dark Lord, you must first kill the Savior--- a ridiculous joke.

Even Harry had to think that if this was indeed the case, sacrificing himself to bring peace to the wizarding world would be a good choice, but .....

The awkward situation undoubtedly diluted Harry's joy of returning to Hogwarts. Also, it has to be said that seeing the Minister chatting enthusiastically with Lucius Malfoy as he left made Harry's mood even better.

“…… What are Malfoys doing there?" asked Hermione, frowning and disgusted - Harry had just returned from the ministry at this time, and Mrs. Weasley was pleased with the news he had brought back, and stopped holding them to work for the time being.

"He probably wanted to eavesdrop on the trial," said Ron, looking very experienced, "and I heard from my father that he had donated a lot of gold to the Ministry, and that the Minister liked him." Recently, though, it seems that Andrew's dad has become the minister's favorite, and now everyone says that Lee holds half of the power in the Ministry of Magic. ”

However, Harry did not think that Voldemort needed Malfoy's first-hand information about his trial—Voldemort's performance in the Little Whiffin District showed that the Dark Lord's reaction to the Ministry of Magic had been anticipated. "I don't know," he said slightly upset, "I don't think he's looking good." ”

This Ron has even more to say. "The Malfoys have always had that face," he said in disgust, "pale, haughty, and cold...... Like a flock of stupid big white geese...."

The Weasleys and Malfoys had always been at odds, and it wasn't so easy for Ron to really complain, so Hermione hurriedly started another topic: "You said you saw Dumbledore, Harry?"

"yes," Harry admitted unhappily, as he found it difficult for him to complain directly about "why didn't Dumbledore look at me". It's so embarrassing...... In the end, he could only change the sentence: "I think he probably doesn't care about me anymore." ”

Both Ron and Hermione were taken aback. "Why do you think so, Harry?"

Harry endured and endured, but finally he couldn't hold back: "I sat in the front row of the hearing, and many wizards came to greet me, you know the "savior", but he can give me a look from beginning to end. ”

The other two quickly exchanged glances. "I don......'t know," Hermione tried to explain, "but Dumbledore is busy!

"yes," Ron said, "you didn't see Dumbledore's face on the night of your attack...... The Order of the Phoenix immediately called an emergency meeting, and we peeked at the second-floor landing and it was terrifying!"

"If he's what you say, then why don't you just tell me?" Harry said angrily.

There was a dead silence.

Ultimately, the one who was brave enough to break it was Hermione. "Occlumency......" she muttered, "do you remember Sirius saying that?"

Harry did remember. Sirius later explained to them that Occlumency prevents someone else from invading your brain. "What do you mean by that, Hermione?" he asked sensitively, "and you think Voldemort might have invaded my brain?"

The name of the Dark Lord caused a chill again. Hermione tried to pretend she hadn't heard. Sirius said that the sudden loss of your scar was most likely due to the occlusion technique on you, the mystery man discovered that you could perceive his thoughts. In other words, this connected switch is currently unilaterally in the hands of the mysterious man. If you master Occlumency, it will definitely be more secure. ”

"So?" Harry was a little impatient. The painless scar did give him a few good night's sleep, but he didn't feel like it was a good thing to be kept in the dark. In addition, he firmly believed that he was doing exactly what he wanted, and that Voldemort could not influence him at all.

"I mean, Dumbledore probably thinks the connection is a two-way street. Hermione shook her hair, her voice crisp. "If that's the case, your doubts have an explanation - the opposite of Occlumency is the Dementor's Mind, and the key to the Dementor's Mind is eye contact, and Dumbledore doesn't look at you, not to hide from you, but from the mysterious person hiding behind you!"

Harry opened his mouth. He wanted to loudly refute the impossibility, he wanted to loudly mock this was all nonsense, but he suddenly thought of the inexplicable nightmare that he had disappeared with the pain of the scar. "It wasn't my dream," he muttered in shock, "that's his ......"

"What dream?" Hermione and Ron asked in unison. "What do you remember?"

"Lots of corridors, long, and dim. Walking all the way down the corridor, it's either a closed door or a dead end. Harry said quickly. He finally discovered that Voldemort had been lurking in his deepest consciousness and had created those dreams. "For the first month of the summer vacation, I dreamed about them every day. I thought it was my dream, but it disappeared completely after I was attacked...... It's his idea! He wants to go there!"

Silence again, the three of them looked at each other. The question is, where is this place with a lot of corridors?

In the remaining days, nothing else worth mentioning. They finally cleared up to the fourth floor of 12 Grimmauld Place, which meant that the cleaning was finally coming to an end. On the penultimate day of the holiday, Ron walked into his and Harry's bedroom with two envelopes. "Here you go, Harry, we need to go back to school, even if we are about to graduate, and there is a graduation ceremony at the end, and some other formalities to be done, this is the notice from the school. ”

Harry is feeding Hedwig. "Let's leave it there for now, I'll see later. For a long time, he didn't hear a response, and he couldn't help but turn his head-

Before Harry could come up with a proper reaction, a terrible scream came from downstairs, sounding like Kreacher. This was a bad sign, as the noise startled a row of portraits in the foyer. For a while, the mournful cries were deafening in the house.

“…… What happened?" said Ron.

"I'll go down and have a look. Harry was glad to find this reason because he found out that he was jealous of Ron - which shouldn't be, Ron was his best friend.

By the time Harry descended to the foyer, Mrs. Weasley was struggling to pull the curtain in front of the portrait — Sirius's mother, Mrs. Black, was making a high-decibel noise — and Sirius had arrived. "Go back," he commanded Kreacher, impatiently, "how many times have I told you, don't shout in the house—"

"The treasure of the Black family!" Cleage deaf ear, "they were all taken away by the thief, the liar, the shameless villain! while Kreacher was not paying attention yesterday!the silver cup engraved with the Blake's coat of arms!the finest silverware made by the elves of the fifteenth century!the Order of Merlin, the glory of the Black family!the great gold ring of the lord! all of them were salvaged from the closet in the drawing-room! and the ...... of Thunder."

Sirius didn't care about that at all. "Come on," he said contemptuously, "that's all rubbish." ”

"Master Siris is a bad boy!" Kreacher almost went mad, glaring at Sirius with resentment. "Bring werewolves, scum, and mudbloods into the noble house of the Black family!" Master Siris has disgraced the family, he has defiled the Black ......"

"I'll tell you to shut up!" Sirius was genuinely angry.

Kreacher grabbed his own throat for a moment, but Harry could see that he was still cursing in a silent rage. Sirius stared at the house-elf as he disappeared into the gloomy corner before turning back to see Harry. "I'm sorry," he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a headache, "for you to see this." ”

Harry shook his head and walked down the last few stairs. "What's wrong?"

"Mundungus seems to have taken some of the contents of Kreacher's locker. Sirius helped Mrs. Weasley pull the curtain back on, unimpressed, "It's the garbage we cleaned up, and Kreacher picked it up. ”

Harry did remember Kreacher trying to hide something under his loin and take it away. Then he remembered the snuff box with sarcoma powder, the multi-legged tweezers that would climb up his arm, and the heavy souvenir box that none of them could open.

To be fair, those things were worth a lot of money, or Mundungus wouldn't have taken a fancy to them, but in Sirius's eyes, they were just all the things he had been trying to escape from, and had been trapped again.

Harry understood. Fortunately, Sirius has now gained freedom and innocence, and during this time, except for worrying about the Dark Lord's soul fragment on Harry's body, Sirius's mood is obviously much better.

"But I'm also going to tell Dumbledore that Mundungus can't come into us if he's so sneaky. Sirius said again—Mrs. Weasley whispered in agreement. Then, he noticed Harry's expression, "Looks like you're not so angry with Dumbledore now?"

While Hermione's explanation made sense, Harry didn't want to mention it right now. Their speculation and Dumbledore's actions were two different things. "It's all right......," he said vaguely, "do you want to come up and stay with us?"

Mrs. Weasley had already wanted to go to the kitchen, but when she heard this, she immediately looked at it sharply. Harry was in a hurry, "We'd like to ask some questions about future employment, you know, Ron and I are graduating soon!"

The effect of this sentence was immediate. Mrs. Weasley was stunned for a moment, a little skeptical, but in the end she did not stop him.

Sirius watched her back disappear around the corner of the stairs before frowning, "Employment issues?" Harry, I remember you always wanted to be an Auror, did you change your mind?"

This made Harry feel a little hopeful, and then he felt that he had some hope. He was about to say something else to redeem his lie, but the scar, which had not moved for a long time, suddenly passed by a slight pain that was indeed joyful, and it was fleeting.

Harry paused. Voldemort was pleased? Why?

That didn't bother Harry for long. It's not that he guessed it, but because they were about to start school, and everyone in the Order of the Phoenix had a lively dinner.

When there are many people, it is impossible to think about things quietly. Hermione pulls Lupin and earnestly discusses the similarities between house-elves and werewolves in protecting their rights, while Moody brings Harry a photo of the Order of the Phoenix from years ago.

There were a lot of people who had already died in battle, including, of course, the Potters, Sirius was on their side, Neville's parents were on the other side, Moody looked much younger and less vicious than he was now, and of course, Albus Dumbledore was the most conspicuous.

Harry didn't want to reminisce about his sad childhood now, so he made an excuse to slip away. Before going upstairs, he saw Mundungus Fletch at the bottom of the stairs who was trading with his twin brother. He wasn't interested in the poison tentacle seeds, but he suddenly remembered what had happened in the morning.

After a while, George and Fred contentedly swept away the withered, beeping black pods, and Mundungus lit the newly arrived gold galleon by the dim light that poured down from the cracks in the staircase. Looking up again, he noticed that Harry hadn't left. "Why, you want something that's hard to get your hands on, too?"

Harry shook his head and moved closer to Mundungus. "What did you take from Kreacher?"

Mundungus's face froze for a moment. "Sirius has warned me, and I promise him that there will be no next time," he said gruffly, "nothing is wrong with you. He immediately wanted to leave, and the next moment he found that Harry had blocked his way. "You ......"

"What did you take from Kreacher?" repeated Harry. The sound of conversation in the living room was faintly heard in his ears, and he knew that Mundungus did not dare to make a big deal about it. And he had some vague conjectures, he needed to be sure.

Mundungus also realized that he had to answer Harry's question. "Nothing," he said dryly, "just some of the garbage you took out of the living room." ”

Harry shook his head again. "No," he said, "they're garbage in Sirius' eyes, but not in yours. Why don't you pick them up when they're in the living room?"

Mundungus choked for a moment. "There are too many people out there!" he exasperated, "Seriously, who would do that?"

But Harry wasn't going to let it go. "Even if what you say is true," he pressed step by step, "but why was it yesterday? We cleaned the living room more than half a month ago, why didn't you take it then?"

"Because I didn't know they were worth that much money!" Mundungus growled. His shoulders tightened, as if ready to push Harry aside at any moment, "I didn't know if they were worth the risk!"

"You didn't know then?" Harry keenly grasped the point, "Who told you they were worth something?

Mundungus gasped. His eyes widened as if he had never really known Harry. “…… How do you know?"

This reaction is equivalent to default. Harry's heart began to beat faster, and he desperately wanted to know the next answer: "What does that man look like, and what did he tell you?"

"The man, tall and thin, dressed in a black robe, had a hoarse voice. The hood was pressed so low that I couldn't see his face. I don't know who it is, there are so many weirdos in Tumble Alley. "I'm selling crucibles, and he said that any ancient silverware is worth more than a hundred crucibles, and I'm ...... moved."