I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 543 In the Humble Abode

(Edited)

Many stories took place here. Looking back now, it all seems like a dream.

Vague and unattainable.

Just as Harry was about to go and look around some more, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

He suddenly sat up straight, his head slamming against the low door frame with a thud.

He paused, swore a few times in his Uncle Vernon’s favorite swear words, and then stumbled back to the kitchen, clutching his head, before coming to the living room.

"Oh?"

Irving strode to the top of the stairs and said to what is now a storage room, "Checking in at a famous landmark—the place where my dream began!"

"."

Harry was a little confused by Owen's sudden remark.

However, he was already used to Irving's unreliability, but what surprised him was that it wasn't Kingsley, but Mad-Eye Moody who came here.

"How could it be you? Alone?" Harry rubbed his head vigorously, his face a mixture of crying and laughing.

"What? You don't welcome me?" Owen began to look around the room on his own.

Previously, he would simply glance at the street as he passed by in a car.

Last year, when I came with Dumbledore, I only sat in the living room and didn't see him anywhere else.

The room looked exceptionally clean, perhaps because most of the belongings had been moved out. Although the carpet was covered in dust, it must have been left over from moving the furniture.

It must be said that although the Dursleys were quite detestable, they were very clean, possessing a kind of rigid tidiness, including in the garden outside the main house.

In this respect, the humble dwelling cannot compare to this place.

"And me too!" Just then, someone else walked in from outside.

It was Hermione—she trotted into the living room and opened her arms to hug Harry.

Ron followed and patted him on the back.

Koyatl watched from the side.

"Hey, hey—what are you doing!" It was Ginny—she ran over quickly, glared at Hermione, and then gave Harry a hug.

"I'm jealous of her." The twins walked in, arms around each other's shoulders. "Honestly, we're still here, how long are you two going to keep hugging!"

Just as Ginny was about to kiss Harry on the cheek, George and Fred couldn't stand it any longer and pulled her away from them.

Harry gave an awkward laugh, while Ginny—she wanted nothing more than to bite her two brothers.

"Well, they insisted on coming." Irving raised his hand and said helplessly, "The plans have changed, and I've replaced Kingsley and Moody."

"What's going on?" Harry led them all into the kitchen, where they sat laughing and chatting, either on Aunt Petunia's gleaming countertop or leaning against her spotless dishes. Ron was tall and thin; Hermione had thick hair braided into a long plait at the back of her head; Fred and George grinned identically; Ginny's face was full of joy, her eyes fixed on Harry; and Koyatl crossed his arms, his eyes fixed on the stairwell.

Irving seemed to be in much better spirits.

A smile appeared on her fair, rosy cheeks. Her hair was also meticulously braided into a long ponytail.

"Manpower—manpower!" Owen said. "The Muggle Prime Minister needs a lot of manpower! Koyatl has already had to become one of the wizards protecting Mr. Harker. Originally, this wasn't part of her job."

Ron's expression immediately turned displeased.

He had already guessed that the Muggle prime minister had deliberately used this trick to lure the "wizard advisors" led by Koyatl away. If a war really broke out, how could these people possibly stand idly by?

Lee Jordan and Cedric both suffered from this.

"The Ministry of Magic has made some moves," George explained from the side. "Rufus Scrimgeour went into battle, and he was slightly injured in the fight at King's Cross Station."

"I thought he was dead!" Ron said, pouting.

Fred picked up the thread and continued, "He's caused the Order of the Phoenix a lot of trouble. He's classified many of his actions as illegal, and if caught, you'll go to jail. For example, connecting this house to the Floo Network, leaving a key here, or Apparating in and out. There are many places with these kinds of restrictions. They say it's to prevent Death Eaters from infiltrating."

"Heh—the Ministry of Magic is riddled with infiltration. If he had that kind of energy, he should be checking if his subordinates have been replaced," George scoffed. "Anyway, the Ministry of Magic is no longer trustworthy, Harry. We can't just openly take you out."

Harry frowned. He had never trusted the Ministry of Magic, just thinking about what the Ministry had done all these years.

How can anyone feel at ease with this?

"Of course, none of that is the most important thing." Owen waved his hand. "Rufus Scrimgeour still has some backbone. At least he hasn't sided with the Death Eaters or told anyone else about this location. But we have no doubt that a large portion of the Ministry of Magic is now under Tom's control."

"Harry, you're not an adult yet, which means you're still a trace of magic. If there's any magical fluctuation in you or around you, the Ministry of Magic can detect it. Although they won't immediately connect it to you, they'll send someone to check, and that's when you'll be exposed."

"Furthermore, the Order of the Phoenix cannot wait until you come of age and disappear without a trace before coming to take you away, because by then you will lose all the protection your mother left you."

"So what should we do?" Harry asked. "Leave by bus?"

"No need for that much trouble." Owen chuckled and took out a fist-sized clock from the cloth bag at his waist.

The finger moved the only pointer to five o'clock.

Then hang it on the wall.

Gradually, the clock slowly merged into the wall, and then countless strange patterns emerged, these patterns displaying extremely regular shapes. They combined together to form an ancient and simple gate.

With a muffled "thump," the door transformed from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

"All you need to do is open the Anywhere Door," Irving said.

"Huh?" Harry was quite surprised. Countless ingenious plans that might be carried out flashed through his mind, but he never expected that reality would be so easy.

"Isn't it true that we can't use the door key?"

"The Anywhere Door isn't a key," Owen said. "They're worlds apart, fundamentally different. Well—you wouldn't understand the principle even if I explained it, but one thing you'll definitely understand is that the Anywhere Door is powered by ancient magic, and ancient magic doesn't trigger any traces."

"Oh—is that so?" Harry said blankly.

"Stop talking," Hermione urged from the side. "Mrs. Weasley has already prepared dinner."

Ron stepped forward and pushed the door open.

The twins were in charge of carrying Harry's luggage.

The group quickly left the unfamiliar living room.

On the other side of the house, Mrs. Weasley was preparing something in the kitchen when she turned around in surprise to see a door suddenly appear on the wall by the stairwell. Harry and the others then walked out from behind the door.

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley wiped her hands and rushed over to hug Harry. "I thought you wouldn't be here for a few days."

"You are—"

"Mom—this is Owen's magical gadget, the Anywhere Door—it's basically like a key to a door." Ron gave a haphazard explanation, knowing his mom wouldn't understand anyway.

"Alright—" Mrs. Weasley didn't dwell on the matter. She looked at everyone and said, "Let's go sit in the garden first. Kingsley and Moody are here too, so we'll have to wait a while before we can eat."

“Okay, Mom, we’re not in a hurry,” Ron said.

The group passed through the gate leading from the kitchen to the garden.

Then I saw a long table in the garden made of piled stones. It was a bit like the long table in the kitchen of Blake's old house, but not as ornate and extravagant. The tabletop was covered with all sorts of marks, and you could tell at a glance that it had been used for many years.

Mr. Arthur, Kingsley, and Mad-Eye Moody were sitting together. They were supposed to be the ones picking up Harry today, but Owen had taken their place.

At this moment, the three seemed to be talking about something, but they immediately shut up when they saw the young wizards coming over.

Owen pulled Hermione along and walked straight over.

The two sat down in the chairs.

"It seems you didn't suffer any casualties? I thought you were fighting to the death that day, and at least dozens of people must have died."

His tone was quite sharp.

You could tell from his voice that he was very unhappy.

In fact, not only Owen, but the young wizards were not very happy.

The Order of the Phoenix kept the news from them, and Hibiscus and the Twins knew too little because they hadn't played the entire match.

The Daily Prophet is publishing some more nonsense and drivel.

This naturally made them, who were already worried, very dissatisfied.

Especially when you see them sitting here without any problems.

"Casualties?" Kingsley and Moody exchanged a glance and immediately realized what was going on.

"Our casualties weren't high because Dumbledore got involved halfway through the battle," Kingsley said calmly. "He and Grindelwald drew a lot of fire, and then we retreated."

"The Death Eaters have become powerful and bizarre again. They can hardly be called human; they are more like controlled undead. Many traditional methods cannot kill them. The only option is to imprison them."

This resulted in heavy casualties among the Muggle troops involved, with approximately another hundred deaths. Many buildings in the city were also destroyed, and some civilians were buried alive. Despite our best efforts to provide aid, several hundred people still perished.

"That's a train station after all—there's a lot of foot traffic." With that, Kingsley shut his mouth, clearly the deaths and injuries he mentioned had left a very deep scar on him.

I imagine that would be a hellish scene.

Mr. Arthur sighed, then picked up where Kingsley left off, continuing, "On the wizarding world side—mainly the Ministry of Magic—the casualties are more severe. The Magical Law Enforcement Team under the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was almost completely wiped out, with dozens of people killed. Most of them were graduates of Hogwarts in the last four years."

Upon hearing this, the young wizards present fell silent, all somewhat astonished, because these were things that the Daily Prophet had not reported.

"The Magical Law Enforcement Team was originally just an agency responsible for pursuing minor crimes such as commercial offenses in the magical world. Their magical level can't be judged by Auror standards!" Owen frowned, his tone indignant. "Is Rufus Scrimgeour's brain filled with pig manure? Sending these people to their deaths?"

"."

The young wizards nearby also realized what was happening.

Hermione, in particular, had the strongest reaction.

"My God! Why did Rufus Scrimgeour do this! So many people died! Susan's grandmother... that day..."

"Rufus Scrimgeour is the executioner, he's responsible for these casualties!" Ron roared.

"No wonder the Daily Prophet has been publishing nothing but meaningless drivel lately. It's all to cover up Rufus Scrimgeour's crimes!" Ginny said with a sneer.

"The Ministry of Magic is absolutely rotten!" Harry said with a cold face.

"."

The young wizards' righteous indignation left the three adult wizards speechless for a moment.

Kingsley's face turned ashen.

Mr. Arthur, on the other hand, looked very worried.

As for Mad-Eye Moody, he was more about anger.

"Didn't the Order of the Phoenix notify the Ministry of Magic in advance?" Owen said. "Would the Hogwarts Express be attacked by Death Eaters?"

"Hmm—" Mr. Arthur took a deep breath and said, "First of all—it was a Death Eater captured by the Federation. We got it out of his mouth. We ourselves are not sure if this information is very accurate, let alone the Ministry of Magic."

Rufus Scrimgeour has always been at odds with us. Expecting him to completely trust us is a pipe dream.

On the day of the incident, a dozen or so Aurors from the Ministry of Magic's Auror Command, led by Director Gardwin Robards, went to Sweden to take custody of the prisoner—yes, the Death Eater captured by the Federation's special operations team.

Rufus Scrimgeour never quite believed that the Death Eaters would attack the Hogwarts Express, so he only assigned Amelia Bornes, then Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to lead a team to meet them.

"Then they were ambushed by the Death Eaters, and all of them were killed and their bodies were hung on the wall as a form of humiliation," Owen recounted the story that followed.

"Rufus Scrimgeour deserves to die!"

"That's how it is," Kingsley said coldly. "Although Rufus Scrimgeour later received the news and personally led a team to provide support, it was too late. Moreover, some clashes occurred with our people. I estimate that Scrimgeour hadn't even seen Amelia's tragic state by then."

"He should step down and take responsibility for his actions," Hermione said firmly. "Because his negligence led to the deaths of more than a dozen Aurors. He should be tried in Wizengamor, punished, and imprisoned in Azkaban."

"I don't understand why he's still able to sit in that position?"

"Because—everyone's attention has been drawn to Dumbledore's injury!" Moody finally spoke, his Magic Eyes stretching and contracting like a human pupil, foreshadowing the anger deep within him. "I suspect that the Ministry of Magic deliberately released the news of Dumbledore's injury."

"How badly is the professor hurt?" Harry asked quickly.

"have no idea--"

"Don't know?" Irving raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

(End of this chapter)