"He made it." Harry muttered.
"Potter, come with me to the hospital wing, you need a long sleep." Professor McGonagall said.
"No, Wait, Professor McGonagall. I know what Voldemort has done, what he's been plotting all this time! It's a wand, he got a wand using this commotion as a distraction."
Professor McGonagall stared at him, her mouth pursed tightly for a few seconds before she said, "If you're talking about the 'Elder Wand', Professor Hap has dismissed the rumour ..."
"Not the one the professor is holding." Harry said aloud, "It's too late, he got a wand from under a snakewood tree, and it looked extraordinary, like a legendary wand ..." His voice slowed and his mind spun frantically, "It's a snakewood wand! He's got Salazar Slytherin's snakewood wand!"
A few people drew in a breath.
"The one ranked seventh in the top ten wands?" Ron asked.
"What? Oh." Harry said blankly, still lost in his own thoughts, "Exactly, that's what Voldemort is after, he doesn't care about the Elder Wand ... No, not really, of course, he wants it, but it's too difficult to get it from Professor Hap, and he's not sure if it's genuine or not... So he deliberately stirred up a dispute and gave the Professor trouble in order to mask his investigation about the other wands ..."
Snape looked at Harry with a complicated look.
"But how did he know where the snakewood wand is?" Professor McGonagall asked dryly.
"He's been on the hunt for similar rumours, and quite a few people have gone missing." Sirius said, "Like the owner of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, I suspect he was taken because of this. He--"
"He's a descendant of Dexter Fortescue, the former headmaster of Hogwarts, and has legends of possessing a powerful wand from his ancestry." Hermione said pointedly, then gave Sirius a cautious look, "I only learned that recently, is it correct?"
Sirius smiled at her.
" It all matched up," Harry hammered his palm with his fist, "He went through all the trouble to finally get the best wand that matched him."
" Do you know where the Dark Lord has gone?" Snape asked coldly.
"I don't know," Harry shook his head, "I only saw a complex of buildings on a hill that looked a bit like Hogwarts ... By the way, there are two huge statues on either side of the main entrance."
"The top of a hill, resembling Hogwarts, and two statues at the entrance ..." Hermione racked her brain to remember where she had heard that before.
"Yes, the two statues of a man and a woman, but I really didn't notice, no, I think it was Voldemort who didn't care ..." Harry looked at Hermione with an expectant look, hoping for an immediate answer. A few seconds later-
"Ilvermorny!"
"Ilvermorny."
Hermione and Neville said at the same time.
The crowd looked at Neville, who scratched his head, " Byers and I have talked quite a bit about his school, including the tree you mentioned. As you know, I am very interested in the herbology subject, so I asked more questions about it... And I heard something different, Byers told me that the two founders of the school planted an unknown snakewood tree outside the school that could not be cut down or destroyed. It was later discovered that the leaves of the tree had powerful medical effects."
"I will inform Dumbledore immediately." Professor McGonagall said decisively. She drew her wand and a silver Patronus flew out of the tip and flew towards the outside of the school, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Harry relaxed slightly.
"So, Potter-" said Professor McGonagall, looking over at Harry.
"I don't need to go to the hospital wing," Harry said hurriedly, "I'm fine, something similar to this has happened before ... Just need to rest or get some air." He made an excuse for himself.
Sirius cleared his throat, "Well - I'll take him out for a walk, just around the corner."
"Alright then, I'll tell Dumbledore all about it as it is." Professor McGonagall said, rather reluctantly, as she hurried away.
The others were prepared to leave as well, when they suddenly realized that there is someone else on the scene - not Snape, whose presence is so strong that he unconsciously radiates cold air just by standing there, scaring the other students away - it is another person hiding behind Snape.
"Draco Malfoy! What are you doing here?" Ron nearly dropped his jaw in shock.
Harry and Hermione's breath stopped, Malfoy knows! He knows that I (Harry) can see into Voldemort's mind! He knows it, that means Lucius Malfoy knows it, then what about Voldemort ...
The five remaining men figured this out at the same time. An unnerving silence followed.
Sirius drew his wand in silence as Snape said slowly, "Leave him to me, Black--"
"Fuck off if you don't want to get hurt, I'm not joking." Sirius said.
" Really?" Snape's hand went to his pocket, where his wand is, as he said with a scowl, "You are as impulsive and arrogant as ever, with absolutely no regard for the consequences."
"I know what I'm doing." Sirius said coldly.
Draco took a step back from his glare, his face turned pale.
Snape gazed at Sirius and whispered, "Oh? You know what you're doing ... as you did at the Shrieking Shack when you were at school?"
The muscles in Sirius's face suddenly quivered with agitation. He knew what Snape was talking about; they had been mortal enemies at school, and they would never hesitate if they had the chance to get the other one expelled. Snape had spent a lot of time stalking him and James back then, even closing in on the truth that Remus is a werewolf at one point. Fed up with being stalked, Sirius had impulsively told him where Remus had transformed, and who knows what would have happened if James had not stopped Snape from entering the Shrieking Shack when he learned of it.
There was a chance that Snape could successfully escape with their secrets and then spread them around to force Remus to drop out, or there was a chance that Snape could simply be torn to pieces by werewolves who caught the scent of humans...
Sirius hesitated for a moment, but then he looked at Harry and his expression firmed with determination.
He had already made one mistake, a terrible mistake when dealing with Peter Pettigrew, and he couldn't leave any more hidden ends.
"Just one Obliviate ... Snape, Harry ... I can't take any chances." He whispered with his teeth flaring, his eyes gradually becoming frantic.
"Better wait till Dumbledore returns," Snape said, as he clutched his wand in his pocket with a death grip, "if our Headmaster finds out you attacked a student ..."
"I don't care!" Sirius said frantically, a few fiery sparks erupting from his wand.
Snape immediately drew his wand and the two pointed at each other, just like they had done in the Shrieking Shack over years ago.
"But I care, Sirius." Harry said.
Sirius immediately turned his head to look at him, and Harry met his eyes with determination, after holding his gaze for a long while, Sirius voluntarily averted his eyes.
James ...
"I won't say anything." Draco suddenly said.
Everyone looked at him.
Draco's face paled even more and a few drops of sweat permeated the tip of his slender nose.
"You're lying!" Ron said, "If we just let you go, you'll turn around and tattle! He's got a record, remember? Buckbeak-"
Draco gave him a vicious glare as he said to Harry, "Potter, I have something to tell you, something important ... that only you can know." He added.
Harry looked back at him and saw that Draco's expression quivered with fear.
"Good." He said.
"Harry?"
"Harry!"
"It's okay, let's hear what he has to say first." Harry said, looking deeply at Draco, "Malfoy, even if you did nothing, I wouldn't let Sirius cast the Obliviate on you, not because I believe you, I saw what happened that night with my own eyes ... I just don't want Sirius to leave the school because of you, because ... it isn't worth it."
A faint blush spread across Draco's pale face, Harry had practically pointed his finger at him and said, I know your dad is a Death Eater, so I don't trust you to keep this a secret at all.
"We'll come over too," Ron said, "me, Hermione, and Neville."
Draco turned his face to glare at him.
"We'll stand far back, where we can't eavesdrop." Ron tilted his head and muttered in a small voice, "Who knows if you'll take the opportunity to hex Harry."
Draco returned a mocking sneer, "Could be."
They walked down the steps, Ron, Hermione, and Neville following them from a distance, Harry looked back and could even see Hermione clutching her wand as Ron said something to Neville, his fingers gesturing. Further away, Sirius and Snape stood on the stone steps, neither of them looking at the other.
They walked a good distance away, leaving the greenhouse and Hagrid's hut behind them, and they could see that they are almost close to the main entrance of Hogwarts, the boar's wings visible on the castle' iron gate. Harry finally grew impatient, feeling like he had made a mistake by showing up here.
"How much longer are you going to hesitate?" Harry asked.
Draco finally paused, glancing at the three figures stalking them in the distance to make sure they wouldn't hear what he would say next. His lips moved slightly, and he said in a faintly audible voice, "I'm supporting Professor Hap."
"What?"
"I said, between that man and Professor Hap, I'm with Professor Hap." Draco tried to keep his tone as calm as possible, but when he saw Potter's face, which looked astonished to the core as if he had spouted nonsense out of his arse, he burst into a fit of anger and badly wanted to slam his fist on his face.
But he didn't dare do that, they were followed by three other heels.
"Don't think I believe everything you say, Malfoy." Harry said.
"Well, I can tell you a secret. But I want you to swear that you won't tell anyone." Draco said reluctantly, as his mind squirmed.
Harry blinked, "Okay, I swear."
"You answered too quickly! You're not sincere at all." Draco snapped irritably.
"I don't have time to waste." Harry shot back, "You can choose to believe it or not, at least my credibility is much better than yours."
Draco's grey eyes filled with disgust as he sized up Harry, this is the first time he had ever been in this situation. He forced himself to think about one question: is it worth it to give Harry Potter his secret or not?
Draco took a deep breath, "Well, do you remember what happened in the second year, with the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk?"
"Of course I do." Harry said with an odd look on his face, Malfoy isn't going to try and say that he knows how he and Ron used a polyjuice potion to trick him, is he? That would indeed get them in trouble, they had broken quite a few school rules and Hermione had even sneaked into Snape's private storeroom to take the horn of a bicorn and the skin of a boomslang snake.
"That diary, I once had in my possession."
"What?" Harry froze, not because of what Draco had said - he had already known that, Dobby had told him. What he is puzzled about is why Draco Malfoy is telling him this; shouldn't he keep this to himself?
Draco's expression turned odd as well.
"I followed you to an abandoned girls' lavatory and later got spotted by you... Then later I returned to investigate when you were gone. There was only a diary there, which I picked up from the floor ..."
"And then what?" Harry asked, this is something he had discussed with Ron and Hermione.
"Something happened in between ..." Draco said vaguely, "Then I gave it to Professor Hap who destroyed it."
"You handed it to the professor personally?"
"Yes. I asked him to help me keep it a secret, I don't want to get involved with this."
Harry stood stunned in place, he had always thought that the Professor had noticed the anomaly and confiscated the diary (Horcrux) from Malfoy's hands, and they had laughed at Lucius Malfoy for creating a trap and almost harming his own son with it... but the truth is Draco Malfoy had handed the diary (Horcrux) to Professor Hap with his own hands, which had led to the first Horcrux's destruction.
This is just too ridiculous.
He felt the sky spinning, the scene around him blurred as his consciousness continued to plummet downwards. His scar started to hurt again.
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