Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 178 The One in the Most Pain

While Draco was receiving subtle guidance from Ike, Harry, who was ordered to stay at his uncle's house, finally saw a glimmer of hope in the darkness.

This holiday was hardly a friendly one for Harry.

Like a nightmare, everything that happened in the cemetery that night almost suffocated him. To make matters worse, he and Dudley encountered Dementors. What happened afterward made him feel like a complete fool, someone everyone could easily manipulate.

Mrs. Figg is a Squib, she is to be tried at the Ministry of Magic on August 12th, and Aunt Petunia, who has always been harsh and sarcastic towards her, seems to know something very important.

And who sent that yelling letter to Aunt Penny?

"If Hermione were here, she could definitely sort out all this mess." Harry would always think this in the face of this chaotic reality, but unfortunately, the letters sent to them by Hermione, Sirius, and Ron all seemed to disappear without a trace.

However, things took a turn for the better.

One evening, after Uncle Vernon, Aunt Penny, and Clerk Dudley had all gone out, Moody, Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shackleton, and others came and took him away from the place he had long grown tired of.

Riding broomsticks, they sped through the town, along the highway, until they came to a small square. It was a very dilapidated place, with gloomy houses all around, some even with broken windows.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, looking around curiously.

No one answered him, and Lupin simply told him to wait a moment. A short while later, Moody roughly shoved a piece of parchment into his hand.

Read it carefully and remember it well!

The Order of the Phoenix headquarters is located at 12 Grimmauld Place, London.

"What is this? What is a phoenix..." Harry was interrupted by Moody before he could finish his sentence. He was pulled to a row of dilapidated houses, and Harry could only see numbers 11 and 13.

He subconsciously remembered the note, and then a dilapidated door suddenly appeared between number 11 and number 13. Then walls and windows appeared, and number 12 appeared in front of him.

"Come on, don't move around too much, and don't go too far." Lupin gave him a push from behind, and Harry followed Moody inside, completely bewildered.

The house was pitch black, but a distinct smell of decay filled the air. Lupin dispelled the illusion spell on him, and Moody fiddled with something, and the dim lights came on.

"Harry, it's so good to see you." Mrs. Weasley came over from the other side of the hall and hugged him tightly. "You look like you've lost a lot of weight. You need to eat more, but dinner will have to wait a while."

After saying that, he whispered to Moody and the others, "The meeting has begun."

Harry watched in confusion as the group of wizards, who had suddenly become excited, walked toward the door through which Mrs. Weasley had come out. He was about to follow them when he was pulled back.

"Only members of the Order of the Phoenix are allowed to attend this meeting, Harry. You can't go in," Mrs. Weasley said. "Hermione and Ron are upstairs. You can stay with them until the meeting is over."

"Keep your voice down, you must keep it low."

Without giving Harry much of an explanation, Mrs. Weasley led him through the corridor and up the stairs, pointed him in the direction of the room, and then hurriedly went downstairs.

As soon as he pushed open the door, Ron excitedly rushed over and gave him a big hug. Hermione waved back with a smile, and even Crookshanks called out to him.

"God knows how much we wanted to reply to you. After your last two letters arrived, Hathaway pecked at our hands several times because she hadn't received a reply from us," Ron continued. "But Dumbledore made us swear that we wouldn't tell you anything..."

"Yeah, so I don't know anything..."

Suddenly, the joy of seeing his good friend vanished, and for some reason, Harry became a little impatient.

"...Dumbledore probably thought it was safest for you to stay with Muggles, and he even sent people from the Order of the Phoenix to follow you..." Ron continued rambling on, and Harry replied intermittently, but he became more and more irritable and unable to control his anger.

"Enough!" Harry rudely interrupted Ron. "You guys have been together, comfortably hiding here, while I'm all alone, stuck on Privet Drive, forced to rummage through trash cans for newspapers just to get a few pitiful bits of information..."

"We weren't always together," Hermione suddenly interjected.

"What?"

"We haven't always been here; in fact, I only arrived a week before you." Hermione looked at Harry calmly, and for some reason, that look made Harry even angrier.

"Really? Where did you go? But I'm sure it was with Dumbledore's permission, and no one would be following you all this time." Harry suppressed his anger and tried to appear as calm as possible.

"Actually, Tonks has been following me since the start of the holidays, but that's not something you care about, is it?" Ron tugged at Hermione, but she dodged him.

"Yes, you witnessed the mysterious man's resurrection, nearly lost your life, and were attacked by Dementors..."

"Everyone knows you're in pain, but Harry, you weren't the only one hurt that night."

"Enough, Hermione, stop talking." Ron frantically winked at Hermione, seeing Harry's contorted face. Although he had a small argument with Hermione about this not long ago.

But it's clear that Ron can't get either Harry or Hermione to say what they want to say.

"I went to Gloucester, Harry."

"Gloucester? You went to see that traitor!" Harry suddenly shouted, jumping up from the bed.

"No, no, no, Harry, calm down and let Hermione finish..." Ron quickly stood up and stood between Harry and Hermione. "Hermione didn't go to see Ike, she went to be with Mrs. Julianne, the headmistress of the orphanage where Ike is..."

Upon hearing this, Harry suddenly froze, standing there blankly, the anger in his eyes fading slightly, replaced by a hint of bewilderment.

"Regardless, we shouldn't take our anger out on innocent people." Seeing that Harry had calmed down a bit, Ron spoke up. "I was furious when I found out about this, and I even had a big argument with Hermione. But Harry, what Ike did had nothing to do with Mrs. Julianne..."

"And..." Ron leaned close to Harry and whispered in his ear, "Don't forget, he and Hermione..."

Seeing Hermione's calm expression, Harry's anger vanished. Suddenly, he realized that he wasn't the one suffering the most among them.

(End of this chapter)