"Harry......" Hermione called softly, but Harry didn't respond, he just shook his head.

Now, something called faith collapsed within him, just like Ron had felt after he left.

Harry had always believed in Dumbledore as the embodiment of goodness and wisdom.

Now, however, everything is gone...... How much more could he afford to lose?Ron, Dumbledore, Phoenix Wand......

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

"Yes, of course you can say that......" Harry said stiffly, in a cold tone.

“...... But don't forget, Harry, this was written by Rita Skeeter. ”

"You've read that letter to Grindelwald, haven't you?" Harry didn't answer, but asked rhetorically.

"Yes, I ...... I read it. Hermione hesitated, looking uneasy, and clutched her teacup with her cold hands. "I guess that's just the worst-sounding part. I think Bathilda thought it was just talk, but 'for the great good' became Grindelwald's credo, and it became the justification for his later atrocious crimes. And...... From this point of view...... It was indeed like a revelation from Dumbledore's words. Their words 'for great good deeds' are even inscribed at the entrance to Nurmond. ”

"What is Nurmond?"

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

"I knew you would say that," Harry said. He didn't want to let himself lose his temper with her, but he was having a hard time making his voice sound nonchalt right now.

"I know you're going to say 'they're young'. They were the same age as we are now. Look at us now, risking our lives against the dark Ones, and look at him again, joining his new friends in plotting to establish their rule over Muggles. ”

At this point, Harry couldn't control his emotions any longer: he stood up and walked back and forth, trying to vent some anger.

"I'm not trying to defend this stuff about Dumbledore," Hermione said. "All 'laws of rights' are a façade, a reproduction of 'magic is power'. But Harry, his mother had just died, and he was alone in his room to endure these ......"

"Alone, he's not alone! He's got a brother and sister for company, and he's locked up his Squib sister......"

"But Vanlin said that Ariana is not a squib, you know that......"

"Oh, so why didn't Ariana show up at Hogwarts?" said Harry without thinking, "just like you, Hermione...... They can even be found in Muggle households...... I'm sorry, but I'm not targeting you, Hermione...... You're great, you're good, and there's no one I know of a female wizard better than you......"

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

"I'm not apologizing, Hermione," Harry dressed roughly, "I'm just stating a fact......"

"Maybe...... I mean, I believe in the ...... of Van Lin."

"I believe him, too, but, the reality is, it's Dumbledore's past!" Harry yelled a little maniacally.

"But, I don't believe it, Harry!" Hermione stood up as well, arguing, "No matter what they say about that girl, I don't believe she's a squib, and the Dumbledore we know will never, will never, never allow ......"

"Don't we also think that the Dumbledore we know would never attempt to conquer Muggles by force!" Harry roared, his echo echoing through the empty mountains, startling many mountain birds to chirp and hover in the misty night sky.

"But people are going to be Harry...... He's gotten better, he's gotten better! It's obvious! Maybe he did get addicted to it when he was seventeen, but he spent his whole life fighting the dark arts. It was Dumbledore who defeated Grindelwald, it was he who had always worked to protect Muggles and uphold the rights of Muggle-born wizards, it was he who fought against the Mystics from the beginning, and it was he who eventually died to defeat the Mysteries......!

Rita's book was placed between them, and Albus Dumbledore, pictured in the book, smiled lonely 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 gasped slightly, trying to calm herself.

"Maybe!" Harry erupted, his arms raised sharply, as if to lift his boundless anger high or defend himself under the weight of his fantasies, "Look what he told me, Hermione: risk your life, Harry, do it again, do it again, do it again, don't expect me to explain anything to you, just fight for your life Trust me, believe me I know what I'm doing, even if I don't trust you have to trust me! Never want to know the truth! Never want to know!!"

Harry's voice had become hoarse in the hysterical shouting, and looking at Hermione, who was as pale as himself, Harry suddenly felt that they were so small in this vast world.

"But...... He loves you," Hermione whispered, "He really loves you." ”

Harry's arm hung limply. "I don't really know who Dumbledore ever cared about, Hermione, but that person definitely wasn't going to be me. It's not love, it's just a mess he's left me, and he'd rather share his truth with Gellert Grindelwald than ...... That's not me, Hermione, Van Lin probably knows more than I know, but, as it looks like right now, there's nothing left but what is known, isn't it? If Van Lin knew, we wouldn't be hiding in this camp like a shrunken turtle, and we would have to watch out for the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters every day, and we wouldn't even be able to contact Sirius......"

Harry picked up the wand he had just thrown into the snow and sat back down at the mouth of the tent.

"Thank you for your tea, I'm done reading the book, you can go back and warm up, Van Lin is very badly injured, and now he needs more care, doesn't he......?" Harry gestured to the book and then looked at the wand in his hand.

His hands were clenched into fists, turning white from the force...... Harry felt his body tremble, and the hot tea Hermione had given him had cooled down early.

Hermione hesitated, but didn't know what to say, but the girl's concern for Van Lin prompted the girl to her feet, and she picked up her book and slipped out of Harry's side and into the tent back. Before leaving, she gently brushed Harry's hair with her hand.

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

At midnight, when Hermione took over from Harry to stand guard, Van Lin was still not awake, and the only thing that relieved Hermione was that Van Lin's high fever had subsided a bit, and those potions really worked.

This situation relieved Hermione's anxiety to some extent, and Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief, which seemed to be a good sign, but it was confirmed that Harry still refused to talk about Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Ariana.

It's snowing outside, which makes the surroundings less empty and cold, and it's always better to have a snowy day than a day when the snow melts.

However, Harry's dreams baffled and troubled him: Nagini meandered around them, crawling over wreaths of Christmas roses.

Harry woke up in a panic again and again, thinking that someone was calling him from afar, imagining that the wind whipped the tent around him was someone's footsteps or the sound of talking.

Eventually, Harry got up in the darkness and walked over to Hermione, who was curled up at the entrance of the tent, reading a book called A History of Magic by the light of her wand.

The snow is getting heavier and heavier.

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

"We're looking for a safer place," she said, trembling as she added a sweatshirt over her pajamas. "I've always felt like I could hear people walking outside, even once or twice, I seemed to see somebody outside, Vanlin is in a precarious condition, but there's no way we can contact Madam Pomfrey, and not at St. Mungo's Hospital, so I should have prepared sooner. ”

Harry paused in his coat and stared at the silent silence, the speculum resting motionless on the table.

"Of course, about the people outside...... I'm sure it was 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 shift the phantom under the cloak of invisibility?"

Half an hour later, the tent was packed, and Harry carried the tightly wrapped Van Lin on his back, his wand broken, so Hermione had to preside over the operation.

Hermione grabbed the beaded bag and shifted into a phantom.

They were overwhelmed by the same sense of oppression as ever. Harry's legs didn't get on the snow and hit the hard, leaf-covered frozen ground, Harry held back the pain and tried to stop Van Lin, but luckily, Hermione noticed the situation and used the levitation to stabilize Van Lin.

"Where are we?" asked Harry, rubbing his shoulders as he looked around the woods.

Hermione opened the beaded bag and tugged the tent's pillars outward.

"Dean Forest," Hermione replied, "I used to camp here with my mom and dad. ”

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

They had spent most of the day in their tents, moving Van Lin's bed over, and the three of them had gathered around a warm blue flame that Hermione had become so adept at casting the magic that the flame could be scooped up with a shovel and put into a jar.

The warmth seemed to relax Van Lin, at least the frown he had been frowning a little.

In the middle, Fan Lin woke up for a short time, maybe the energy was not enough to repair, but it was good news that he could wake up.

Harry couldn't even imagine what would happen if Vanlin left suddenly at some point, and they wouldn't even have a chance to escape.

Hermione was pleasantly surprised to give some hot porridge to Van Lin to drink, and added some small blue bottles along the way......

Does this count as a mantra?

However, it did give Harry some confidence back.

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

Now, with barely slept for two nights, Harry seemed more alert than usual, and the escape in the valley of High Cenk had made Voldemort seem closer and more threatening than before.

As night fell again, Harry refused Hermione's vigil and let her go to sleep, after all, there was a patient in the room now, and the wound that had been penetrated through his body was not so easy to heal, which was not at all 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, but despite this, he was shivering with cold, and as a last resort, Harry asked Hermione to prepare a jar of fire for him, he only needed to release the magic, which was not something that had to rely on a wand to do.

As time passed, the night grew darker, and I couldn't see my fingers.

Harry was about to open the map to see where Ginny's dot was, but Harry suddenly remembered that it was the Christmas holidays and she was supposed to be back at the Burrow.

In the dense and tranquil forest, every small movement is magnified exponentially. Harry knew that there were all kinds of creatures there, but he wanted them all to be quiet, so he could distinguish the sound of the animals running and jumping from the sounds that represented danger.

He still remembered the sound of the cloak sliding over the fallen leaves all those years ago, and he immediately felt himself hear it again, and his whole body shook with it. Their protective magic has been working successfully for weeks. Why is it cracked now? And he always felt that something was different tonight than usual. Every now and then he stood up suddenly, and his neck ached a little, for he had fallen asleep several times, and his head had been tilted to the side of the tent at an uncomfortable angle.

The night turned velvety black, and he felt as if he was floating between apparitions and manifestations, and Harry raised his hand in front of him, which seemed to give him some courage......