The Return to Hogwarts

Mr. Weasley's tone was no longer his usual gentle manner; he looked sternly at his children until Harry and the others reluctantly put away their wands. Then, Mr. Weasley turned to Draco.

"Please put your wand away, Mr. Malfoy. No fighting is allowed here!"

Why should I listen to you?!

Draco's arm remained completely still.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Malfoy!"

Mr. Weasley stepped forward and said angrily,

"Perhaps you've forgotten, but I have an obligation to remind you that I am a Ministry of Magic official, and it is my responsibility to maintain order here. Are you prepared to launch an attack in front of a Ministry of Magic official?!"

Draco was clearly taken aback by Mr. Weasley's words, as he had never taken the Weasleys seriously. However, with a large crowd now gathered, he found himself in a difficult position.

"Put your wand away, Draco. It's not worth it for these scoundrels."

Narcissa was more rational than Draco. She knew that it was no longer appropriate to argue with this group under such circumstances. Moreover, Arthur Weasley was a senior Ministry of Magic official and came from a pure-blood family. If things really escalated, her husband would probably be in a difficult position as well.

Narcissa pressed Draco's arm down, giving Sirius a deep look, as if trying to memorize his face. She then casually put her arm around Draco's shoulder, raising her voice slightly.

"Let's go, Draco, to Greengrass's tent. There's no need to bother with a criminal from Azkaban and a werewolf; it's very ungentlemanly!"

Upon hearing this, the onlookers suddenly stirred. Many foreigners who were unaware of the situation looked at Remus and Sirius with horror, backing away as if they had seen pests.

Sirius and Remus looked grim as people pointed and whispered among themselves. However, they couldn't explain anything to these uninformed foreigners, especially since, in a sense, Narcissa Malfoy wasn't lying; Remus was indeed a genuine werewolf, and Sirius had indeed spent a third of his life in the infamous Azkaban.

"Halt, Malfoy!"

A surge of anger welled up in Harry's heart. He raised his wand again and shouted at Malfoy's back.

"You look really funny, Potter. Oh, are you planning to make a good impression at the World Cup?"

Draco was quite pleased with Sirius and Remus's bewildered expressions. He wasn't worried about Harry's wand at all. After a wicked laugh, he and his mother disappeared around the corner without looking back.

"Potter? You mean Harry Potter?"

"It's him! Even though his face is swollen, I can see his scars!"

"Oh, it was him who defeated the Mystic! Cam, get my camera, I need to take a picture of Harry Potter, your mother has always been curious about him!"

The surrounding chatter surged like a tide under the moonlight. Although people were afraid of werewolves and criminals, the foreign wizards who had just retreated couldn't resist their curiosity and slowly came forward.

"Hurry inside, Harry—"

A somewhat bewildered Harry stood there blankly, not expecting that so many foreigners had actually heard of him. Hermione, who was the first to come to her senses, grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him into the tent.

call--

Sirius took a deep breath.

"Come on, Harry, let's go inside and talk."

Chapter 462 Bagman

2023-09-06

If it weren't for the fact that Professor Blaine's classroom, which had once been used to deal with Inferi and Hinkpunk and was now used as a gymnastics training room, Harry would have been amazed by the space inside Sirius's father's tent.

The tent appeared to be only half the size of Hagrid's hut on the outside, but the interior space was dozens of times larger. It seemed the wizard who built the tent had brought in a seaside villa. Harry's aunt and uncle's family had always longed to buy a holiday home on Mallorca. They had bought many related magazines and brochures. The luxurious houses Harry had once admired were quite similar to this white four-story villa in front of them.

"Oh——"

The events outside had left them all rather unpleasant, but when they saw the villa and the enormous swimming pool in front of it, even the Weasley kids, whose composure wasn't quite up to par, gasped in amazement. Ron immediately ran out of the group, went to the pool, lay down, and touched the water with his finger. Then, he stared blankly at Sirius Black.

"This is a real swimming pool! My God, I thought it was just an illusion!"

"Truly eye-opening, Sirius—"

Mr. Weasley stared in amazement at the moon in the sky, which was emitting a soft light.

“It’s much bigger than the tent I borrowed from Perkins.”

Harry didn't care who Perkins was; the shock of the luxurious tent was nothing compared to the fact that Sirius and the Malfoys were related. After carrying that heavy head for so long, Harry's neck finally started to feel the strain. He rubbed his cheek with his hand, his brow furrowed as he looked at Sirius.

"Remus, do you think you can help Harry's head recover? He just ate a piece of bubble gum and now his head looks like this."

Sirius looked at Remus and said calmly.

“I know that kind of bubble gum you're talking about. Not long before you came, I saw a little boy when I went to get water. His head was more than ten times bigger than yours, Harry—”

Remus stared at Harry's head with great interest and said...

"But the little boy returned to normal immediately after swallowing the other half of the bubble gum. I guess you swallowed the prank half and the antidote in one gulp, didn't you, Harry?"

Harry muttered something under his breath, and then, under Remus's restoration spell, his head began to leak air.

"What exactly happened, Sirius? You and Draco's mother?"

Remus went into the villa to tell Kreacher to serve everyone food, and Mr. Weasley, who could tell that the father and son wanted to chat, gave Ginny a guilty look before they also went into the villa for a visit. By the pool, Ron, Fred, and George had already started to take off their shirts and jump in to show off their skills.

"Heh, just like Ron said, Harry—"

Sirius gave two dry laughs.

"In the magical world, there are some stubborn individuals who refuse to abandon outdated traditions. These are the pure-blood families. They are fanatically obsessed with the purity of their bloodlines and consider it a disgrace to marry a half-blood wizard. However, this leaves them with few choices. To ensure their families don't perish, these pure-blood wizarding families intermarry, so—"

Sirius spread his hands, giving Harry a helpless look.

Harry wasn't unaware of what Sirius had said. He also knew that these pure-blood families generally consisted of members who graduated from the same house, just like Ron's family members all attended Gryffindor, and Malfoy's ancestors were mostly from Slytherin.

Sirius rarely talked to him about his parents, so Harry naturally assumed that the Black family, like the Weasley family, were 'outliers' among pure-blood wizarding families.

But judging from what Malfoy's mother said outside, the one who truly belongs to the outcast category is Sirius.

After a brief silence, Harry suddenly frowned and said,

"Draco's mother just mentioned Walbuga, who is she?"

"She is my mother--"

A shadow crossed Sirius's gray eyes. He took a deep breath and nodded.

“You guessed right, Harry, she is my mother. Yes, Narcissa Malfoy is right. She didn’t like me very much. In fact, to prevent me from having the opportunity to take over the family fortune, she made a will before she died, dividing the gold accumulated by the family over the centuries to my two cousins. One of them was Narcissa Malfoy, and the other, oh, I really don’t want to mention that woman—Bellatrix Lestrange.”

Cousin

Harry suddenly remembered the night of his fourteenth birthday dinner. Sirius and Remus had talked to him about his dream. Sirius had suspected that the woman in his dream was his cousin, but then he mentioned Narcissa Malfoy, which meant it was Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Yes, it's her."

Sirius said with disgust, “She was locked up in Azkaban with me, but of course, she’s different from me. She’s definitely worthy of what she did.”

What did she do?

Harry asked eagerly, realizing today that he knew nothing about Sirius's background.

"What did she do?" Sirius chuckled coldly. "She's Voldemort's lackey. Believe me, Harry, you won't find anyone more loyal to Voldemort than Bellatrix Lestrange. Even in Azkaban, under the torment of those Dementors, I've heard her shrilly laughing for years, waiting for Voldemort to return and make everyone pay!"

"But--"

Harry was about to say something, still puzzled, but Sirius was getting impatient. He waved his hand and said irritably,

"Don't you understand, Harry? Don't you know who my mother and all my relatives are? The vast majority of them are direct followers of Voldemort, and some who aren't directly involved are secretly contributing to Voldemort's horrific cause. And my mother, well, yes, she's not a Death Eater, but if I asked you, if she were twenty years younger, who knows what she might have done!"

Sirius's words weighed heavily on Harry's heart. Only now did he realize that the injustice Sirius had suffered was not only due to the world's misunderstanding and persecution of his parents, but perhaps even more so because of the damage his own family had caused him.

Mr. Weasley came out of the villa, presumably to call them for dinner, but just then, the wind chimes outside the tent suddenly rang, and at the same time, a light and cheerful voice reached their ears along with the melodious sound of the wind chimes.

"Hey, is anyone home here? I heard there was a fight here, and I had nothing to do, so I came to check it out!"

"Oh!"

Mr. Weasley immediately perked up. He hurried past the pool, Sirius, and Harry to the tent entrance, presumptuously greeting them on Sirius's behalf.

"The most important person right now is Ludo!"

"Hey, Arthur, old buddy!"

Mr. Weasley's voice caught those outside a little off guard, but Ludo, realizing who it was, burst in and shook hands warmly with Mr. Weasley.

"Is this your tent, Arthur? It's really nice. I bet this tent could sell for at least six thousand Galleons!"

"Who is he?"

While Mr. Weasley was exchanging pleasantries with the man, Ron, Fred, and George climbed out of the pool one by one. Harry quietly asked Ron,

“Ludo Bagman, the director of the Department of Magical Sports, used to be a Quidditch player. My dad had a good relationship with him, and he helped us get our Quidditch tickets.”

Harry nodded. Indeed, Mr. Weasley had mentioned it.

Without a doubt, Ludo Bagman was the most eye-catching person Harry had ever seen. He wore a striking Quidditch shirt with wide yellow and black stripes and a huge wasp splattered across the chest. It seemed that he used to be very strong, but now he was starting to decline. The robe clung tightly to his large belly. One can only imagine that when he represented England in Quidditch, his belly was certainly not so big.

“Ludo received a report that a conflict had occurred here and wands had been used. He came to investigate, but I have already cleared up the misunderstanding with him.”

Mr. Weasley led Ludo to them and said hastily. He pointed to Sirius Black and said to Ludo,

"Actually, this tent belongs to Sirius Black, I'm sure you've heard of him, Ludo?"

"Ah, of course, your name is legendary!"

Ludo gazed eagerly at Sirius,

"I was in Paris at the time and heard about you from the newspapers. If you ask me, you are a true hero, Sirius!"