The summer night wind blew in through the window lattice, like a pair of big hands around Ron's neck, and he felt so hot and irritable that he didn't want to listen to the twins read the pesky newspaper anymore.

"I'm full—"

Putting down his knife and fork and pushing his chair away, Ron left the kitchen despite the worried eyes of his parents behind him, crossed the narrow passage, and climbed up the winding staircase that led to his own room.

"Rest assured, I think our brother is just worried about his good friend Harry - as far as we know, Ron and Ning'an don't have a very good relationship."

Fred smiled and said to his parents, and George then added, "But Harry and Ning An have a good relationship?" ”

Molly? Weasley's chubby face frowned, and she looked at her husband uneasily, "Arthur...... I'm also a little worried about Harry......"

"Don't overthink it, Molly—Dumbledore has his own plans."

Arthur? Weasley said in a soft tone, not sure whether he was comforting his wife, himself, or both.

Ron made his way up the winding staircase, past Ginny's unclosed room, up two more floors, pushing open his peeling paint door, and slumping headlong on his orange sheet of Charlie's artillery with two capital "Cs" printed on it.

The members of the artillery team on the wall saw Ron enter the house, and they mounted their broomsticks, seven of them in a row, and waved happily at him.

But Ron wasn't in the mood to pay attention to them today, so he just lay on the bed in a daze, and his brain took him back to the cold and empty secret room.

Samantha's roar, the flash of Walter's spell, Ning'an's sneer, even Harry's blood, Hermione's scream played out in his mind like a slide, in a trance.

At this time, the sound of "bang" sounded in my ears.

"Damn it—"

I don't know who he was scolding, Ron rolled over, he guessed that it must have been the ghoul in the attic just now, knocking on the pipe, all day long.

But as soon as he turned over, he caught a glimpse of a snow-white owl pecking at the glass with its beak outside the window, but the sound was muffled by the sound in the attic.

"Hedwig!" Ron jumped up and roared at the ceiling, "Damn it, stop knocking on—"

He went to the bedside and removed the fish tank with frog eggs on the windowsill, and he carefully set aside the fat mouse Spotted, who was still dozing, and then Ron opened the window and let the big bird in.

It looked like Hedwig had been waiting outside for a while, and as soon as it flew in, it angrily pecked Ron on the head.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Hedwig- I didn't notice you-"

He stroked Hedwig's black-spotted wings to get the owl to reluctantly forgive him, allowing Ron to untie the white envelope tied to the bird's talons.

There was no doubt that it was Harry's letter, and Ron guessed that Harry must have been in a hurry, and that he who lived with Muggles must have no idea what was going on, and although he tried to call Harry, he seemed to be self-defeating not to call, hoping that he didn't cause Harry any trouble.

The Weasleys' owl Errol is too old, and his parents have been using Errol to deliver letters lately, and Percy refuses to lend his owl to him because he has to keep in touch with his new girlfriend, so Ron has to wait anxiously for Harry to reach out to him.

He couldn't wait to tear open the envelope, take out a piece of white letter paper folded in half, and read it carefully:

"Dear Ron,

I think it would have been better if you hadn't called and said you were a Hogwarts student.

Anyway, I was completely grounded, and the Dursleys wouldn't let me leave my room, but they didn't lock it in the cupboard on the first floor because they were tired of Hedwig's screams, so I could let it sneak out to deliver a letter to you."

"Oh, I'm sorry Harry-" Ron clutched his head and regretted the phone call he made, he should have asked his dad how Muggle phones were used.

Saying sorry to Harry again, he continued reading

"Anyway, I haven't heard anything here, Hermione hasn't contacted me once, is she okay? I wonder how the situation is now? Did the Ministry of Magic catch Ning'an?"

"No—" Ron muttered to himself, "It's gotten worse"

"I'd like you to contact Hermione, on the phone - I'm worried about her anyway, because you know that Ning An actually has a better relationship with her......

Ron went to his small desk and put aside the letter he had read, and the fat mouse he had raised had woken up at some point, and was standing on the desk at the moment, pulling at the letter with his paws.

"Oh, you're hungry? Spots? Sorry, I'll have to write back to Harry before you can make it to dinner with us if you don't sleep. ”

As he spoke, Ron picked up a quill and wrote on the blank side of the back of the letter:

"Dear Harry...... I'm sorry about the phone thing......"

Ron, who had finished writing the letter, put the letter back in the envelope, tied it back to Hedwig's feet, opened the window and shouted:

"Go, Hedwig, bring the letter to Harry."

The female snowy owl spread her massive wings, nodded at Ron, and then flapped her wings and disappeared into the distant night sky.

Ron didn't rush to close the window, he just leaned on the windowsill and let the wind blow his head, and the wind above was finally not so stuffy.

Until now, he felt that what had happened two weeks ago seemed like a nightmare, but reality reminded him over and over again that someone was missing, someone was dead, and Ning An and another terrible wizard had fled.

Ron had never experienced the reign of the Dark Lord, and his fear of the mysterious man came from public opinion in the wizarding world, and now, it was the first time he had such a close encounter with "evil", which made him feel uneasy.

Looking at the moon in the sky, the moonlight shone lightly on the earth, he knew that Ning An was also shining by this moonlight, but where was that person now?

Where is Ning'an?

Let's turn the clock back to Hogwarts two weeks ago -

Ning An walked around the dark and complex water pipes for a long time, and finally came to the exit with the help of the Guiding Charm, which was on the cliff outside of Hogwarts, and below was the misty black lake, and he could see the shadow of the giant squid under the lake.

The distance between the cliff and the lake is still very high, and if you jump down, even if you fall on the water, you can't guarantee that you won't be crushed, so Ning An pinned his wand to his waist, threw the Gryffindor sword off the cliff, and gently waved his robe, as if it was a pair of wings, and then he squatted down, as if he had disappeared after just turning around, replaced by a raven with black feathers.

The raven folded its wings, snapped a few steps forward with its claws, and then leaped down from the small pipe embedded in the middle of the cliff, and swooped—an arrow toward the lake.

He was so fast that he caught up with the falling sword in a few moments, its sharp and strong claws grasping the hilt steadily and accurately, and grasping it before it fell completely into the lake.

And then—the ravens spread their wings and glided across the lake, making a white splash, and Grindillo jumped out of the water and reached out to catch Ning'an, but he nimbly dodged it, and these little green water ghosts often used this method to catch those unlucky water birds.

Ning An flew over the Black Lagoon and landed on a rock far from Hogwarts, he put his sword aside, covered his head with his wings, and in the blink of an eye, the raven was gone, and a young wizard with black hair and black eyes appeared on the rock in a half-crouching position.

Ning An picked up the sword on the ground without hesitation, took out his wand, and then there was a piercing "pop" sound in the air, and he disappeared again, this time he left here completely, and the black lake was as calm as ever, as if nothing had happened.

Far away in Leicestershire, in the Shafiq Valley –

"Bang Bang"

Two explosions, Ning An held the Gryffindor sword here, and in front of him was a somewhat gloomy old mansion, the iron door in front of the mansion was crawling with ivy with small purple flowers, the flowers were luxuriant, but they did not entangle the iron door, and it could be seen that someone was still taking care of it.

This is Shafiq's old mansion, due to the Loyalty Curse, except for Ning An and Daphne and William, who Ning An deliberately revealed, no one else can see here, and even if the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic come to investigate, they can only see a deserted open space.

And except for Ning An, who is a secret person, even Daphne can't leak this place to others, unless Ning An is dead, then all those who know this place will automatically become a secret person and can tell it to others.

There was a sound of footsteps in the small courtyard inside the iron gate, William? Baron Lesenbra hurried out of the house, the burning pain in his arm reminding the old vampire, who had lost his mana and had little life, that his master had returned.

"Oh, master——!"

William shuddered and opened a few vines and opened the iron gate, even though it was already summer, but the courtyard still maintained the same appearance as it had been last autumn, with withered yellow leaves.

Ning An stepped over the high doorway, his feet on the rotting dead leaves, making a "creaking" sound, and the fingers that grabbed the Gryffindor sword did not know if it was too strong, showing a bloodless pale.

"Where's the ring?"

He went straight to the point, and asked directly before he could get back to the mansion.

"Ah—I've found it, and I did as you commanded, and I didn't dare to take it with me, and put it away with that enchanted box."

The old vampire replied respectfully, he hadn't seen him for a semester, and the wrinkles on his face had increased a lot, and he was aging at a rate visible to the naked eye, and this frail old guy had less than ten years to live.

"Take me to—" Ning An commanded succinctly.

Baron William, of course, complied, and led the way with his body hunched over, and the two of them walked one after the other through the gravel path covered with dead branches and leaves, and came to the old house of Shafiq.

Pushing the door into the house, Sarah, the house-elf, carefully wiped the corners of the picture frames hanging on the wall with a rag that had been used for an unknown amount of time.

Most of the frames were the ancestors of the Shafiq family, and they were covered by a magic curtain by Calidora, because the little girl didn't want to hear the endless nagging of the ancestors, but Sarah still found time to clean their exposed frames.

Since making an unbreakable vow with Ning An, Sarah's spirit has recovered a bit, she is not as hysterical as she was at the beginning, but she still doesn't like to talk, and she loves to ignore Ning An and William, just busy with housework.

"Hey, Sarah—good afternoon"

Passing through the corridor, Ning An smiled and greeted Sarah, but the elf still didn't speak, just seriously wiped the corner of the photo frame above his head.

Ning An didn't care, William took him all the way forward, through the front hall, stepping on the old staircase, making a "crunch" screeching sound, came to the study on the second floor, pushed open the door, this was Ning An's favorite place to stay.

"Here it is, master—"

From the bookshelf behind him, William took out a pure black box with some complex spells written on it in the magical script Niven, which was a prop used to seal items.

"Well, you go out."

Ning An held back his excitement, he put the sword flat on the desk, and only after hearing the sound of "bang" closing the door did he let out a sigh, trembling and stretching out his right hand to gently stroke the black box.

What was in it was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes found in the dilapidated wooden shed, Marvolo, who he had asked William to go to Gaunt's old Gaunt mansion in Great Hangdon. Gaunt's ring.

But it didn't matter to Ning An whether it was a Horcrux or not, he didn't care if Voldemort was dead or alive - at least that didn't matter to him for now.

He was concerned that the ring was set with the Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows, which, according to the sixth story of the poet Bedou he had read, could lead the living through the Gate of Life and Death.

In Ning An's impression, the only thing that could be related to the door of life and death was the other side of the curtain located on the ninth floor of the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Mysterious Affairs.

Maybe you'll be able to walk through that door with the Resurrection Stone? Ning An thought so, no matter what, he only had one try.

So he took a deep breath and slowly opened the box, the bottom of which was covered with a soft sponge, and on the sponge was a golden ring with a pattern like snake scales, and a black gem engraved with a Peverell medallion in the middle.

Ning An knew what kind of magic this ring had, even Dumbledore couldn't help but wear it because he fantasized about being able to resurrect his sister Ariana, and was cursed for it, how could Ning An let his guard down.

Not giving himself a chance to be tempted, he picked up the Gryffindor sword on the table that had absorbed the basilisk's venom and raised it—slashing cleanly towards the ring.

"Gurgle"

With a crisp sound, the golden ring broke into two pieces, the resurrection stone in the middle fell to the ground silently, and a fine black smoke rose from the ring, Ning An seemed to hear a scream of pain coming from it, as if it was a soul enduring painful torture.

But it didn't take long for the black smoke to dissipate and the screams to disappear, leaving only a black square stone, lying alone on the desk, which was the holy weapon that Ning An had dreamed of—the Resurrection Stone.