days at Hogwarts

Chapter 599 Shocking Change
In front of the fireplace in the basement kitchen of the old Black mansion, Loren, who was lost in thought, suddenly had a crystal blue light in his eyes. He thought about it and quickly looked to the right, where Harry was dozing with his head down.

In a vision that did not belong to the real world, black mist was growing in the shape of lightning, and ominous magic was escaping, invading Harry's brain and soul. His magic and emotions were fluctuating at an abnormal frequency.

Harry's brain has been invaded by Voldemort again! ?
Without giving it much thought, Loren stood up from his seat and came to Harry's side. He noticed that Harry's eyeballs were rolling rapidly under his eyelids, his eyebrows were tightly knitted together, and a thin layer of sweat was oozing out of his forehead. The skin near his scar was slightly swollen and red, and the slightly blue arteries were swollen due to excessive congestion. It was obvious that he was trapped in a nightmare.

"Wake up Harry, wake up..."

Just as he reached out to wake Harry up, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind. Loren stared at the scar that seemed to be wriggling, his eyes moving slightly.

He knew very well that Harry's current state of rapid eye movement, coupled with the black magic emanating from his scar, clearly meant that Voldemort had taken control of the secret passage between their souls and was invading Harry's brain and soul to influence him.

If it were in the form of a dream...

Loren frowned slightly, as if thinking about something. He reached out and lifted his glasses slightly, and with his other hand he opened Harry's eyelids. The trembling of his eyeballs stopped temporarily, and he observed the dilated pupils, which reflected the crystal blue light and shadows.

"What's wrong with Harry?"

"He's having nightmares again!"

The others around also noticed that something was wrong and quickly gathered around, staring at Harry anxiously. Just as Ron reached out to forcibly wake Harry up, Loren held his hand and said, "Wait."

"What are you waiting for!" Sirius' tone was a little anxious, "Voldemort may be in his mind!"

"Can you wake him up this time, and every time in the future?"

"What do you mean?"

"Perhaps I can try to give him some direct help in this secret duel."

"..."

Sirius looked up and met those strange eyes. He was stunned for a moment, remembering the dreams that had kept him tossing and turning in the past. He was silent for a moment and took a step back silently.

Hermione gently tugged at the corner of his clothes: "Are you sure?"

"decide as things go……"

Loren bent down, took off his glasses, and at the same time opened his eyelids. A soft magical power flowed into Harry's eyes. The crystal blue light illuminated his eyes, flashed a few times, and quietly spread to his soul and brain.

The scene in front of him gradually blurred, the heavy breathing of the people around him gradually disappeared, the strong fire in the fireplace sank into darkness, and his heart slowly calmed down. When the surroundings lit up again, a strange world unfolded in front of him. Loren quickly locked onto Harry, or Voldemort's figure...

Harry was standing in a high-ceilinged room with tall shelves lined with neat rows and blue candlelight floating in the aisles. On the shelves were displayed countless grey crystal balls, similar to Professor Trelawney's scrying ball, but more magical, and their surfaces gleamed with a faint blue light under the light of the wall candlesticks.

Harry looked at two familiar faces not far away, and at their red hair, violent thoughts arose in his heart.

He longed to torture them, unbearable torture, to make them wail in agony under his wand, to destroy their minds and souls with the Cruciatus Curse until they begged for mercy...

A long breath came out from his nostrils, smoother than ever before. He pulled out his wand from his wide sleeves and pointed it at the vague outline in front of him. The spell that had almost become instinctive was on his lips. His lips opened and closed, and he uttered leisurely:

"Heart-piercing—"

The movements suddenly slowed down, and he found that the world in his dream was changing rapidly.

Those dark blue and mysterious crystal balls became clear, and each crystal clear spherical plane was reflecting each other, as if countless real worlds were nested in each other. Space had lost its meaning of measuring distance. The red-haired father and son were in front of his eyes, yet they seemed to be separated from him by a whole world. The scale of time became blurred at this moment, and the brewing scarlet spell stagnated at the tip of the wand.

The smooth spherical surface of the crystal was like a curved mirror. With the help of the mirror, he finally saw his face clearly at the moment.

The skin is pale and smooth, without any hair, the vertical pupils that are unique to reptiles are narrowed into a line, the reason why it can breathe smoothly is because it has no nose, only two scary air holes, the lips are thin, and the smile makes people shudder——

Voldemort.

Harry's consciousness was frozen by a chill, his thoughts became rigid and slow, and he struggled to sort out everything he had encountered in his dream.

One moment he was waiting in front of the fireplace for news about the Aurors' suppression of the Death Eaters, and the next moment he was in a dream. His emotions were consumed and divided by a series of fantastic and bizarre scenes, which relaxed his brain's defenses. It was at that time that Voldemort took advantage of the situation and sneaked in. In other words, he was controlling the entire dream...

Just as Harry was organizing his thoughts, the figure on the crystal mirror suddenly moved. The gloomy face stared at him intently, with a sharp and resentful look, as if angry that his plan had failed. The next moment, it gave him a brilliant but chilling smile:
"I am very surprised, Harry dear, that you are sober at all."

"Voldemort!"

Harry tried hard to break free from the dream, but the body in the dream was extremely heavy, like a sarcophagus carved from solid ice, imprisoning him tightly. He spoke with difficulty, "You made me see this on purpose, didn't you?"

"You are very smart."

"What exactly do you want to do?"

"Guess what..."

Harry didn't want to play any guessing games: "Let them go...it's me you want!"

“Harry, my dear Harry, you don’t think I will give up the pleasant torture just because of your words?” Voldemort smiled grimly, his voice almost gritting his teeth, “But I can give you a chance. As long as you arrive in time, maybe I can save their humble lives…”

This is a trap!
Harry's eyes were fixed on him.

Voldemort's expression gradually calmed down. "Or you can choose to hide in a safe place and notify Dumbledore and the members of the Order of the Phoenix. If you are quick enough, you should be able to harvest two warm corpses."

Harry's heart was trembling. He couldn't imagine that if Mrs. Weasley came home from shopping, she would be greeted by the corpses of her husband and son...

"I'll meet you in the Department of Mysteries."

As Voldemort turned into a black mist and dissipated in the dream world, Harry saw his original appearance in the mirror of the crystal ball. It was dyed a faint blue by the candlelight, and there was an indescribable weirdness.

Accompanied by the sound of countless crystal balls exploding, the entire world was cut into countless crystal fragments and shattered like a mirror.

……

After removing the interference in Harry's dream and returning to the real world, Loren put the glasses back on Harry's nose and slowly told him the information he had heard in the dream.

Except for Betty and Marjorie who have no magical powers, Sirius is Harry's godfather, and everyone else present is the Weasley children. There is no need to hide the fact that their father and brother were attacked from them. As for Voldemort's threat to kill them...if Voldemort's words can be believed, he should not be called the Dark Lord.

Most importantly, Loren felt something was wrong. He had no evidence, just his intuition. Anyway, he felt that the current situation was very strange. Arthur and Percy went back to work at the Ministry of Magic, Bill, Charlie and Molly went out to buy things, and other Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix were held back by the Death Eaters who suddenly appeared. All the accidents created an extremely clever coincidence - Harry was almost isolated and helpless.

At such a clever time, Voldemort took control of the Ministry of Magic and set a trap to lure Harry into it...

What about Dumbledore and Snape?

Are you still drunk at the wedding banquet?

"...No, you can't go!"

After listening to the story, Sirius exuded an anxious aura from every part of his body, as if he was a hound that had detected danger, and paced back and forth restlessly in front of the fireplace.

Loren's expression was calm: "I think my presence will have a greater impact than yours."

"But……"

Sirius felt so frustrated that he wanted to howl, but he had to admit that what he said made sense, and his face turned red.

Hermione glanced at Loren's expression, vaguely aware of something, and said calmly in the same tone as him: "I know the Ministry of Magic, and I have been to the Department of Mysteries. I know the structure inside."

Sirius gritted his teeth.

Although Ginny, George and Fred didn't say anything, their resolute expressions showed their attitude.

"you……"

Sirius frowned tightly, he didn't care about too much now, he just wanted to figure out the situation of Arthur and Percy first.

"Don't worry about these little things now. Notify Dumbledore as soon as possible. Let's go to the Ministry of Magic first..." Loren waved his hand and turned to look at the person sitting in the chair.

Harry opened his eyes on the chair in front of the fireplace and found that the lining of his inner clothes was soaked with cold sweat, sticky and cold, and the scar on his forehead seemed to be pierced by a hot pair of tongs, which hurt terribly.

He sat up with difficulty and saw Betty and Marjorie standing in front of him, while Loren, Hermione and Sirius were standing behind them and talking in a low voice.

"..."

Harry heard a few words vaguely, and some distant yet familiar fragments awakened from the sea of ​​memory, knocking his head as if it was going to split. He endured the pain, his chest heaving, and he grabbed Ron's sleeve breathlessly: "Your father and Percy...something happened..."

"I know."

"You knew?" Harry was a little confused.

"We all know about this," Sirius said, waving his wand to summon a patronus. "I used the fireplace to try to contact Professor McGonagall, but she wasn't in the office. I used the patronus to notify Dumbledore first, and we'll go to the Ministry together."

The puppy's entire body was glowing with silver light, but its size was smaller than normal and its speed was faster. It turned into a streak of silver light and passed through the wall and disappeared.

Hearing what Sirius said, Harry recalled Voldemort's threat and couldn't help but feel anxious: "But..."

"Don't even think about it. Do you really think Voldemort will let Arthur and Percy go?"

"..."

Harry, who had just woken up from a nightmare, had no time to figure out the situation before he was stuffed with a handful of Floo powder and pushed into the fireplace. He followed the people in front of him to recite the destination, and he was still dizzy until he stepped out of the fireplace in the main hall of the Ministry of Magic.

Sirius, who was walking at the end, turned to face Betty with a gentle look. He stretched out his hand to smooth her frown and said with a relaxed smile, "Don't worry, we will be back before lunch."

Feeling the warmth of his palm, Betty lowered her head and whispered, "I know Marjorie is still waiting for you to take her to Diagon Alley to buy magic candy."

Sirius turned to look at Marjorie who was standing behind him and said teasingly, "You must eat it all when the time comes. Don't waste it!"

Marjorie lowered her head and said nothing, and Betty couldn't help but redden her eyes.

……

Stepping out of the Ministry of Magic's traffic fireplace and walking through the spacious corridor, a magnificent golden statue stands before your eyes. Crystal clear and sparkling streams of water spurt out from the tips of wizards' wands, from the arrows of centaurs, from the tips of goblins' hats, and from the ears of house-elfs, falling into the nearby pool, splashing with crisp water sounds.

The wizard who was responsible for checking wands was nowhere to be seen, and the main hall was filled with oppressive silence.

"Come on."

Seven people ran in the corridor. Hermione came to the gate of the fence and pressed the button with the arrow pointing down. With a jingling sound, the golden elevator door opened and everyone rushed in. Hermione pressed the button for the ninth floor where the Department of Mysteries was located. The elevator began to descend with the chain rattling.

Harry couldn't help but ask, "What on earth is going on?"

Ginny sniffed and explained in a muffled voice: "Loren noticed that something was wrong with you, so he entered your dream to check, and when he woke up he told us everything..."

Harry turned to look at Loren who was studying the elevator next to him. For some reason, the worry in his heart seemed to be resolved.

"We have arrived at the Department of Mysteries. Please be careful when opening the door..."

The gate slid open gently.

Loren observed the surrounding structures. The underground corridor was silent. The torches on both sides of the wall burned silently. There was no sound around. Only the torches closest to them were swaying left and right due to the counter-airflow caused by the opening of the elevator door.

The protection is looser than expected, so Apparition can be used.

The corridor outside was quiet. Harry was a little dazed for a moment. Since the summer vacation, he had seen this corridor and the black door at the end of the corridor in his dreams many times.

"When I applied for a time-turner, I followed the principal here once, but I only entered the Time Hall."

Pushing the door open, Hermione led the way and strode across the threshold into a large circular room.

The room was pitch black, with only a few dim magic candles dotting the walls. The candle flames were blue, and the swaying cold light was reflected on the polished marble surface, like the calm surface of a black lake, without a ripple.

(End of this chapter)