Duten and the others returned to the starry sky, and Harry dragged Dumbledore to the nearest reef and helped him to his feet. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info He braced Dumbledore's soaked, shivering body. Duten reached out and pressed Harry and Dumbledore's shoulders, silently thinking about the destination of the next stop: Hogsmeade. Then he grabbed Harry and Dumbledore's arms with all his might, and walked into the horrible sense of oppression.

Harry knew before he opened his eyes that they had shifted: the smell of sea salt and the faint sea breeze were gone.

He and Dumbledore stood in the middle of Hogsmeade's dark pathway, shivering and dripping with water. Harry had a terrible hallucination, thinking that more Yin corpses were crawling towards them from the shops on either side, but he blinked, and found that nothing was moving; Except for some street lamps and illuminated windows, it was dark.

"We did it, Professor!" Harry whispered with difficulty; Suddenly, there was a burning pain in his chest. "We did it! We've got that Horcrux! Thank you, Dutten, I really don't know what to do if it weren't for you......"

"These are all things I should have done, I should have come earlier, the previous potion, if I could drink it in advance, the professor would not feel sad to drink the liquid in the stone basin again."

Du Teng said with a hint of shame on his face.

"It's a lot better...... Du Teng, don't waste your time in mind me, I ask you to complete the task...... You have to do it, leave me alone......"

Dumbledore staggered against him.

"......" Du Teng was slightly silent, then nodded, "I see." Professor. ”

He glanced at Dumbledore, turned around, and vanished from where he was.

Harry watched Du Ten leave, and there was a lot he wanted to say, but he couldn't say a word when it came to his lips.

He could only hold on to Dumbledore, and for a while thought that his unskilled apparition had caused Dumbledore to lose his balance; Then he saw Dumbledore's face, far away from the streetlights, even more pale and moist.

"Professor, are you okay?"

"It's much better," Dumbledore said weakly, though the corners of his mouth were still twitching, "the potion...... Drinking it is not good for your health......"

Dumbledore fell to the ground, much to Harry's horror.

"Professor-it's okay, Professor, you'll be fine, don't worry-" Harry looked around desperately, trying to ask for help, but didn't see anyone, all he could think of was that Dumbledore had to be taken to the hospital as soon as possible.

"We have to go to school, professor...... Madam Pomfrey......"

"No," Dumbledore said. "What I need is...... It was Professor Snape...... But I want to ...... I can't get that far now......"

"Okay - Professor, listen to me - I'll knock on the door now, find you a place to stay there - and then I'll go to Pomfrey-"

"Severus," Dumbledore said clearly. "I need Severus ......"

"All right, Snape - but I'm going to leave you for a while so I can—" Before Harry could act, however, he heard running footsteps. His heart skipped a beat: someone saw them, someone knew they needed help—and he turned to see Lady Rosmerta hurrying toward them in her high-heeled plush slippers and silk nightgown embroidered with dragons.

"When I drew the bedroom curtains, I saw your apparitions appear! Thank God, thank God, I don't know - what happened to Albus? She stopped, panting and glaring at Dumbledore.

"He's hurt," Harry said. "Ms. Rosmerta, I'm going to the school now to get someone to help, can you bring him to the three broomsticks?"

"You can't go there alone! Don't you perceive it—you don't see it—? ”

"Please help me hold him," Harry didn't hear her, "I think we can get him in—"

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked. "Rosmerta, what's going on?"

"It's—the Dark Mark, Albus." Miss Rosmerta pointed to the sky, which was the direction of Hogwarts. Hearing this, a sense of fear swept over Harry...... He turned his head to look.

There it was, floating above Hogwarts: a dazzling green skull with a serpentine tongue, the mark that Death Eaters would leave behind any time they entered a building...... Wherever you kill someone......

"When did it appear?" Dumbledore asked, clutching Harry's shoulders in pain, struggling to get to his feet.

"It must have been a few minutes ago, when I let the cat out, it wasn't there, but when I went upstairs—"

"We must return to the castle at once," Dumbledore said. "Rosmerta,"

Although he was still a little shaky, he seemed to be completely in command of the situation, "We need a vehicle - a broom - "

"There are two in the back of the bar," she said, looking very scared. "I'm going to run over and fetch—"

"No, Harry can do it." Harry immediately raised his wand.

"Rosmerta's broomstick is flying!" A second later they heard a loud bang, and the front door of the bar was slammed open; Two broomsticks shot out into the street, racing to Harry's side, and they stopped at Harry's waist, trembling slightly.

"Rosmerta, please send a message to the Ministry of Magic," Dumbledore said as he mounted the nearest broomstick. "The people at Hogwarts probably haven't realized it's gone wrong...... Harry, put on your cloak of invisibility. ”

Harry took the cloak of invisibility out of his pocket and draped it over his upper body, then mounted his broomstick; Harry and Dumbledore leapt to their feet and flew into the air, just as Miss Rosmerta began to stagger towards her pub. As they sped towards the castle, Harry glanced at Dumbledore beside him, ready to grab him to prevent him from falling, but the presence of the Dark Mark acted like a stimulant for Dumbledore: he was low on his broomstick, his eyes fixed on the mark, his long silver hair and beard flowing in the night sky behind him.

Harry looked forward at the skull as well, and the feeling of fear swelled inside his body like a poisonous bubble, pressing down on his lungs and driving all other discomfort out of his mind...... How long have they been gone? Have Ron, Hermione, and Ginny run out of luck? Was the Dark Mark raised for one of them, or Neville, or Luna, or some other D. A。 Member?

If yes...... He was the one who made them walk the hallway, and he was the one who got them out of the safety of their beds...... Is he again responsible for the sacrifice of a friend? They were flying over the trail they had walked earlier, when Harry heard Dumbledore muttering something in a strange language, in addition to the howling of the night wind.

He felt like he understood why his broomstick shook as they flew over the walls of the school grounds: Dumbledore was unenchanting the magic he had set around the castle so they could get in as fast as they could. The Dark Mark was shining directly above the Astronomy Tower, the highest point of the castle. Does that mean that the death happened there? Dumbledore had already crossed the jagged walls and dropped his broom; Harry landed beside him a few seconds later, and he looked around.

The walls were empty. The door to the spiral staircase in the castle is closed. There are no traces of struggle, no signs of desperate struggles, no corpses.

"What does this mean?" Harry asked Dumbledore as he looked up at the skull above their heads, its tongue was a snake, all glowing wickedly. "Is this really a Dark Mark mark? Has anyone been sure that - the professor? With the faint green light of the marker, Harry saw Dumbledore gripped only his chest with his blackened hand.

"Go wake up Severus," Dumbledore said weakly but clearly. "Tell him what happened and bring him to me. Don't do anything else along the way, don't talk to anyone, don't take off your cloak of invisibility. I'm waiting for you here. ”

"But—"

"You swore you'd obey me, Harry—go!" Harry hurried to the door leading to the spiral staircase, but as soon as his hand touched the iron knocker, he heard the sound of running footsteps on the other side of the door.

He looked back at Dumbledore, who motioned for him to step back. Harry took a few steps back as he drew his wand.

The door was slammed open, and a man rushed out and shouted, "Get rid of your weapons!" Harry's body instantly stiffened and couldn't move, and he felt himself fall backwards, leaning against the wall of the tower, resting there like an unsteady statue, unable to move or speak. He didn't understand what was going on - except your weapon wasn't a Cryo Spell - and then, in the light of the Dark Mark he saw Dumbledore's wand arc through the walls in the air, and he understood...... Dumbledore silently froze Harry, and the split-second spell deprived him of the opportunity to protect himself.

Dumbledore stood leaning against the wall, his face very pale, but he showed no trace of panic or pain. He just looked at the man who had disarmed him and said, "Good evening, Draco." Malfoy stepped forward, looking around to see if it was just him and Dumbledore. His eyes swept to the second broom.

"Who else is here?"

"That's a question I'm going to ask you. Are you acting alone? ”

"No," he said. "I have backup. There are a lot of Death Eaters in your school tonight. ”

"Yes, yes," said Dumbledore, as if Malfoy were showing him an ambitious homework plan. "Very good indeed. You've found a way to get them in, haven't you? ”

"Yes," Malfoy said, gasping for air. "Right under your nose and you don't notice it!"

"Be creative," Dumbledore said. "But...... IMHO...... Where are they now? You look a little isolated. ”

"They met your guards. They're fighting it down there. They won't fight for long...... I'm coming up first -- I have a task to accomplish. ”

"Oh, then, you must hurry up and finish it, my dear child," Dumbledore said softly.

Silence enveloped them. Harry's invisible, stiff body was imprisoned there, staring at them both, pricking up his ears to listen to the fight of the Death Eaters in the distance, and in front of him, Draco Malfoy just stared at Albus Dumbledore, who smiled incredulously.

"Draco, Draco, you're not a killer."

"How do you know?" Malfoy said immediately.

He seemed to realize how childish the sentence sounded. Harry blushed at the sight of him in the green light of the Dark Mark.

"You don't know what I can do," Malfoy said harder, "you don't know what I've done!" ”

"Oh no, I know." Dumbledore said mildly, "You almost killed Kate Bell and Ronald Weasley. You've been trying to kill me for a whole year, but you're getting more and more desperate. IMHO, Draco, but I have to say those are unhelpful attempts...... So unhelpful, to be honest, that I even doubt if you're really putting your mind to it......"

"I'm mindful!" Malfoy said fiercely. "I've been working hard for a year, and tonight-"

Harry heard a low shout coming from the depths of the castle. Malfoy straightened up and glanced behind him.

"Someone played well," Dumbledore said nonchalantly, "you were just talking ...... Yes, you managed to get the Death Eaters into school, and I have to admit, I thought it was impossible...... How did you do that? ”

But Malfoy didn't say anything: he had been listening to what was going on below, and he looked almost paralyzed like Harry.

"Maybe you should do this task yourself," Dumbledore suggested. "What if your backup is thwarted by my guards? As you may have noticed, there are many people from the Order of the Phoenix here tonight. At the end of the day, you don't really need help...... I don't have a wand right now...... I couldn't defend myself. ”

Malfoy just stared at him.

"I see," Dumbledore said kindly, and Malfoy neither moved nor spoke. "You don't dare act before they come."

"I'm not afraid!" Malfoy roared, but he still didn't hurt Dumbledore. "You're the one to be afraid of!"

"Why? I don't think you're going to kill me, Draco. Killing people is nowhere near as easy as naïve people believe...... So while we wait for your friend, let me know...... How did you get them into the lull? It seems like you've been thinking about it for a long time to find a solution. ”

Malfoy looked as if he was restraining his urge to scream or vomit. He swallowed, took a few deep breaths, glared angrily at Dumbledore, and pointed his wand at the latter's heart. Then, as if unable to help himself, he said, "I had to fix that vanishing cabinet that no one had used in years, the one that Monty had lost in it last year." ”

"Ahh Dumbledore probably groaned and sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment, "Very smart...... That's a couple, I guess? ”

"The other one is at the Borgin Burke store," Malfoy said, "and they create a passage between the two." Monty told me that he was stuck in the middle ground when he was stuffed into the vanishing cabinet at Hogwarts, but sometimes he could hear what was happening at school, and sometimes he could hear what was happening in the store, as if the cabinet was going between the two locations, but his voice couldn't be heard...... Eventually, he managed to leave the place with an apparition, though he never passed the test. He almost died. Everybody thought it was a good story, and only I recognized what it meant, not even Borgin. It was I who realized that if I repaired the broken cabinet, I could enter Hogwarts through the two vanishing cabinets. ”

Malfoy said with some smugness and some pride.