Chapter 1319 Successor
September 1st, the students of Hogwarts ushered in the new semester in the drizzle.
On the deserted platform, some students’ family members were holding umbrellas and saying their final farewells and instructions to their children.
Everything seems to be the same as usual.
However, everything has become different again.
The huge station was filled with an atmosphere called uneasiness.
“Whatever you want to do, just do it.”
Neville’s grandmother, Lady Augusta, gave her grandson a big hug.
“Don’t worry about me, and take care of yourself.”
"I will."
Neville puffed out his chest.
“We’ll be proud of what you do.”
Under the watchful eyes of Lady Augusta, Neville pushed his luggage onto the Hogwarts express train.
Looking at the crowds of people in the aisle, Neville murmured: "School has started!"
Hogwarts is really a magical place. Everyone loves the old castle and even regards it as another home, including Neville.
Especially after the DA was established, he loved this party and the time spent practicing Defense Against the Dark Arts with everyone.
However, Neville couldn't be happy about the start of school this time.
Not only was the DA gathering he was looking forward to gone, but even his good friends were no longer at school.
Whether it was Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, or even Dean, who was in the same dormitory, they were all forced to drop out of school.
Neville simply couldn't imagine how terrible Hogwarts would look like today.
In fact, during the summer vacation, Neville even wanted to drop out of school and join the Defense Association to fight against the mysterious man when he listened to the broadcast from the Wizard Observatory every day.
After all, there is little point in returning to Hogwarts. Hogwarts, controlled by Death Eaters, is no longer the other home that makes people feel nostalgic.
His crazy idea even got support from his grandma.
Mrs. Augusta believes that Neville should bravely stand up against the mysterious man, and supports Neville to join the Defense Association to learn useful self-protection knowledge.
However, a letter from Hannah Abbott temporarily gave up Neville's idea of dropping out of school.
Because the Defense Association hopes that Neville can go to Hogwarts, unite the students in Hogwarts school who are willing to stand up and resist, reorganize Dumbledore's Army, and teach everyone the knowledge of defense against the dark arts. This matter is simply a matter for Neville. It's an unprecedented challenge.
After much hesitation, Neville was still willing to try. He knew very well that Harry, Hermione and Ron would not be able to return to Hogwarts and continue to lead everyone to resist Snape.
But someone else always needs to step up and take the torch and move on.
After putting away the luggage, Neville knocked on Ernie Macmillan's carriage and waved to Ernie who was talking to his friends in the carriage.
“Longbottom, what’s the matter?”
Ernie MacMillan looked surprised, probably not expecting Neville to come to him.
“Looking for a place to chat?”
Neville gestured towards the outside of the carriage, beckoning the other party to follow.
Ernie hesitated for a moment and followed Neville out of the carriage.
“I got a letter from Hannah during the summer. She was with Susan, and Justin was there too.”
Neville deliberately revealed some information that could arouse Ernie's interest, smiled at him, and took him back to his empty workshop.
After using a spell to seal the carriage door, Ernie couldn't wait to ask, "Have Hannah, Susan and Justin all joined the Defense Association?"
After reciting the earplug listening spell, Neville started to talk to Ernie about what happened during the summer vacation.
These words undoubtedly hurt the Hufflepuff prefect a lot, not only because several of his friends at Hogwarts have now dropped out of school for various reasons, but also because none of them wrote to him.
"It's good that they're fine, but you know, I've been worried about their safety all summer, and those heartless guys forgot about me." Ernie trembled his lips, but he was still very happy that Neville could give him Bring this good news yourself.
"I actually wanted to drop out of school. You should also know that Mr. Anderson formed a defense association. I originally wanted to join them."
Neville looked directly at Ernie and told him why he was looking for him.
“However, Hannah wrote to me and told me that Mr. Anderson hoped that someone could reorganize Dumbledore’s Army and unite the students in Hogwarts who were willing to stand up and resist.”
"You're thinking…"
Ernie's eyes widened in surprise. He now finally knew what Neville Longbottom was mysteriously doing to him.
“How about it, do you want to join?” Neville looked at Ernie expectantly.
"I'm afraid we can't do it alone." Ernie didn't agree or refuse.
"We can find some trustworthy people. Don't forget that many people also joined Dumbledore's Army." Neville reminded kindly, "I have contacted Luna during the summer vacation, and she is also happy to join us. , to help reorganize Dumbledore's Army, and their family has always supported Harry."
In fact, Neville has been thinking about this throughout the summer vacation, and has also tried to contact some of the original DA members to ask them sideways if they have that wish.
“Then let’s split up and see how many people are willing to join later.”
After a while, the empty carriage was filled with people.
Except for Slytherin, the other students are here. Everyone is very aware of the current situation and is very interested in Neville's plan to reorganize Dumbledore's Army.
It never hurts to have a little more defense against the dark arts.
“I am also very happy to reorganize Dumbledore’s Army, but I have a question.” After Anthony raised his hand to attract everyone’s attention, he asked his doubts: “Who will teach everyone the Defense Against the Dark Arts?”
Everyone in the carriage looked at each other.
yes!
Who will teach them?
Everyone present knew that their level of defense against dark magic was only relatively better than others. It would not be a problem to teach some lower-level students, but they were not qualified to teach former members of Dumbledore's Army.
"You don't need to worry about this. We can teach the simpler spells ourselves. For other more difficult spells, the Defense Association will send people to teach us regularly." Neville's words made everyone widen their eyes. .
"Is there any way they can break into Hogwarts silently?" Ernie couldn't help but ask.
Although I know that Hogwarts has many secret passages to the outside, it is not easy to break into the castle quietly.
“I don’t know, but I think Mr. Anderson has great powers, so this shouldn’t be a problem for them.”
Neville has great confidence in Albert. From the recent helplessness of the Death Eaters against the Defense Association's actions, their energy can be seen.
"Do you think we have joined the Defense Association?" Ernie suddenly said, "Dumbledore's Army can also be considered DA."
“It should be counted.”
Seamus cast a searching look at Neville.
“It should only be considered a peripheral member, not a formal member.” Neville shook his head.
“Peripheral member?”
Everyone seems a little excited, and the peripheral members are not far from the official members.
"Actually, as long as you support Harry Potter and the Defense Association against the mysterious man, you can be regarded as a peripheral member of the Defense Association." Luna suddenly put down "The Quibbler" and explained to everyone, "I heard dad say, The peripheral members of the Defense Association are all over the British wizarding community, but there are very few official members. They are gathered at the headquarters of the Defense Association and receive Albert's dark arts defense training every day. It is said that everyone has an Auror. duel experts. Therefore, they can always easily defeat those hunting teams who know some black magic."
"is this real?"
After listening to Luna's words, everyone became more curious about the legendary Defense Association.
If it is true what Luna said, the Defense Association is already a very huge force.
"But why didn't they stand up and lead everyone to resist the mysterious man?" Simo was even more confused.
“Aren’t they doing it?” Ernie suddenly said, “Do you think that after we graduate, we will also have the opportunity to join the Defense Association?”
"There must be a chance. Hannah has successfully joined the Defense Association and is said to be receiving training in defense against dark arts." Neville said softly, "If Hannah hadn't written to me, I would have dropped out of school."
Everyone is very envious of Hannah and the others, and they all have the urge to drop out of school and join the Defense Association.
After all, the opportunity to be taught by Albert, the dueling champion, is very rare, and the results are obvious to all. Today’s members of the Defense Association do have excellent dueling skills, and I have never heard of any member being unfortunately killed. .
Most importantly, God knows what Hogwarts would look like if it were controlled by Death Eaters.
Moreover, even if they really graduate from school next year, no one is really willing to go to the Ministry of Magic and work for You-Know-Who.
After discussing the Defense Association, everyone brought the topic back.
After all, reorganizing Dumbledore's Army is the next focus. If the Death Eaters really make Hogwarts a mess, Dumbledore's Army will be everyone's last hope.
No, those **** Death Eaters will definitely make Hogwarts a mess, otherwise they wouldn't be called Death Eaters.
"We need to occupy the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts for a long time and use it as the headquarters of Dumbledore's Army." Neville put forward his own suggestion. "If we really encounter a problem, we can hide in the Room of Requirement."
“But what should we do?”
Simo was not opposed to it, but he felt that there might be problems with its operation.
"If we want to occupy it for a long time, we need to have someone in there, but we can't always have someone in the Room of Requirement. After all, everyone needs to go to class."
"Don't worry, we can always find a way." Neville comforted, "This is just a small problem. By the way, we also need a secret method of communication."
"We can continue to use this contact." Luna took out a gold coin from her pocket, which was the fake Galleons used by Dumbledore's Army to send messages to each other.
"Yes, that's what I'm saying. You should have not lost it, right?" Neville asked expectantly. His transformation magic was only average, but he couldn't create anything similar.
“Don’t worry, I can do this stuff too.” Ernie almost slapped his chest to assure him.
"There is another question. If they know that we did it, I mean those Death Eaters..." Anthony still has some concerns. They all know the danger of Death Eaters. Once they know what their group has done, they will definitely There will be big trouble.
"Don't worry, they are reluctant to waste too many pure bloods, and they will only torture us a little, and they won't really kill us." Neville comforted: "Of course, as long as they don't let them know, even if they know , they will only cause trouble for me as the leader, anyway, I am not afraid of them."
Everyone could not help but admire Neville's courage, and they all realized that Neville was not afraid of being expelled from school.
“Don’t expect what a school run by Death Eaters will look like. Someone needs to stand up and resist. Only then can everyone see hope, just like Harry and the others when they first formed the DA.
“What is our goal, to get Snape out of Hogwarts?” Ernie asked.
"The short-term goal is this. As for the long-term goal, I actually don't know much. They didn't say much. They said that we should unite the students of Hogwarts and let everyone support Harry." Neville actually didn't know much about AI. What Bert wants to do does not prevent him from uniting everyone to fight against the mysterious man.
“By the way, what is Harry doing now?”
Unconsciously, the topic of discussion fell on Harry. Everyone believes that Harry Potter is the savior and that he can lead everyone to defeat the mysterious man.
“Last time at Wizard’s Watch, Harry was almost ambushed by a mysterious man in Godric’s Hollow.” Anthony recalled.
Most people now pay special attention to the news from the Wizard's Watch Station. As for the news in the "Daily Prophet", anyone with a right mind knows that it has been controlled by You-Know-Who and now only speaks for You-Know-Who and Death Eaters.
“Don’t know, but they should be fine.”
“Harry must know a lot of things we don’t know,” Ernie said suddenly.
"Of course, my dad said that Harry is said to be preparing to eliminate the mysterious man. Rumor has it that he is completing the task left to him by Dumbledore." Luna handed "The Quibbler" to them casually.
“What are we doing with these?”
"There are actually a lot of secrets hidden in "The Quibbler."" Luna handed Neville the ridiculous mirror that came with the magazine: "They thought of a way to hide the real content to avoid exposing Death Eaters. The secret of the magazine was discovered, so the cost of this thing has increased a lot."
“Wow! It’s amazing.”
Neville's eyes widened in surprise. He found that the Quibbler in front of him had completely changed.
After everyone took turns using the ridiculous magic mirror to watch "The Quibbler," they brought the topic back to Dumbledore's Army.
Since they were going to do it, they naturally wanted the whole plan to be secretive, at least so that no one could easily grasp it. After all, the enemies were extremely vicious Death Eaters.
It is much faster for several people to think of a solution together than Neville alone.
After everyone worked together to raise and solve problems, the relationship became closer.
“It would be great if we could get in touch with Hannah?” Ernie looked sideways at the pouring rain outside the window and suddenly asked, “Do you think the Death Eaters will come to search the train?”
"Yes, they are such fools. I'll bet on the chocolate-filled candies." Anthony took out a handful of candies from his pocket and distributed them to everyone.
"It's not necessarily for Harry Potter, it may be to capture other people. Kidnapping children to make relatives obey has always been effective." Neville said contemptuously.
(End of this chapter)