“Neville, this way…” Dean waved to Neville.
“They said you were training here!”
Neville stepped forward and gave Dean a big hug.
"Mr. Thomas, Mr. Longbottom leaves it to you." Dobby waited for the two of them to say hello, then bowed slightly to them and prepared to leave.
"Thank you Dobby, just leave him to me." Dean almost patted his chest to assure him.
After the house elves left, Neville began to look around, "Is this really the headquarters of the Defense Association?"
"Otherwise, why do you think such strict protection is needed?" Dean seemed to see through Neville's thoughts and explained with a smile, "This village is actually a peripheral place, used for our activities, the most important place It’s protected by the Chidan Loyalty Charm, so it’s normal that you can’t see it.”
“The Brave Loyalty Curse?”
Neville had heard this spell from Hannah and was surprised that under such strict protection, there was another layer of protection.
“Mr. Thomas, have you told Mr. Longbottom some things you need to pay special attention to when staying here?
A gentle voice suddenly sounded beside the two of them, and Shanna appeared out of nowhere.
“I was just about to tell him about this.” Dean stretched out his hand and scratched his head in embarrassment.
“What’s the matter?” Neville was a little confused.
"Please come with me, there are some rules that need to be followed here." Zannah led Neville into the house protected by the Loyalty Charm.
“Can I join the Defense Society now?” Neville asked quietly.
“Of course, the premise is that you are an adult.”
Zannah took Neville to the office to go through the procedures for joining the Defense Association, while Dean waited outside for about ten minutes before seeing Neville again, who looked very excited.
Neville stuffed his pocket watch into his pocket and sighed softly, "If I had known I should have dropped out of school and come here for training."
“It’s actually quite boring here.” Dean said sincerely, “Every day is basically just training.”
“Do you know how many people envy you for receiving formal training here?” Neville suppressed the urge to hit someone and said to Dean, “Take me around.”
“The houses here have been abandoned, and most of the people temporarily staying at the headquarters live in tents.
Of course, you can also spend some time repairing those dilapidated houses. Dean pointed to the restored old houses and said, "But there is no need to waste time. The house elf Dobby and others will help provide food." "
“But why don’t we see anyone here?” Neville asked his question.
“Everyone should be training.” Dean greeted with a smile, “I will take you to the training ground, and you will know why.”
"this…"
Looking at the entrance sloping downward, Neville looked at Dean with some confusion and asked, "I thought..."
"Ordinary Death Eaters can't break through the outer protective magic at all, and they don't even know where this abandoned village is." Dean introduced to Neville some of the information he had learned while staying here, "Of course, none of us actually know. Where is this?"
“Once the village is really captured by the mysterious man, the two safe houses protected by the Loyalty Charm will be our last refuge.”
Through a somewhat dim passage, they came to a hall the size of a Quidditch pitch. Fred and George were organizing everyone to practice dueling. Although they only used some conventional spells, the scene was extremely ferocious and made people's blood boil.
“Want to try it?” Dean asked with a smile.
“With you?” Neville asked.
"right."
"All right."
Neville agreed.
So, one minute later.
Neville, who was hit in the chest by a barrier spell, fell heavily to the ground.
"are you OK."
“No wonder Cedric always talks about laying a solid foundation.”
Neville reached out to hold Dean's outstretched arm a little depressed, "It's great to be able to receive training from Mr. Anderson in person."
"No, there is no such thing as such a good thing. Mr. Anderson also has his own things to be busy with, and he is also the secret keeper here. He usually only shows up at important gatherings. Most of the time we have to train by ourselves." Dean recalled the recent events with a grin. After seeing the changes over time, he sighed softly, "However, the atmosphere here is really good. Everyone will exchange their combat experience with each other, and there is enough time to practice dueling every day. You will understand after you stay here for a while."
“It’s just like the school’s DA party, but why is the gap so big?” Neville was still a little concerned about being easily defeated by Dean.
“It’s different. It’s just children’s play at school.”
Dean pointed to the people sparring next to him and said, "This is where you receive the most basic combat training. As long as you complete the basic training, most ordinary wizards will no longer be your opponents."
"Well, many Death Eaters are actually included in ordinary wizards, so wizards who have completed basic training are much stronger than most dark wizards." Dean added, "You should have heard that they put Let the dementors and dark wizards use it as training for their opponents."
"If I had that kind of power, I would definitely be able to drive Snape out of school." Neville couldn't help but clenched his fists, still very concerned about this matter.
“How’s it going at Hogwarts?”
Dean felt that Neville seemed to have misunderstood something, so he changed the subject so as not to offend the other party.
"It's not good. Those Death Eaters like to use Veritaserum to cause trouble for everyone. I originally planned to stay in the Room of Requirement and pretend to be missing." Neville and Dean stood aside and watched the others sparring. He was envious of their ability to use various magic attacks smoothly. Everyone in the training room looked much better than him.
"There is nothing we can do about it." Dean knew what Neville wanted to do, and sighed and reminded, "Unless you defeat the mysterious man, it will be useless even if you drive Snape away, they will come back."
"There's nothing Mr. Anderson can do?" Neville asked a stupid question.
"Unless we start a war with the mysterious man in advance, it means nothing." Dean lowered his voice and said, "Currently we are still secretly accumulating strength, waiting for the day when we will start a full-scale war with the mysterious man. Now there are more and more official members of the association. Everyone It’s getting more and more powerful, so don’t worry, just wait for the time for the final battle brought by Harry.”
“Actually, I just wanted to ask. It seems that here are all students who have just graduated from Hogwarts.” When Neville first entered the training room, he found that the members of the association were all extremely young.
“I’ve asked similar questions before.”
Dean looked like you were really curious as well, and explained to Neville with a smile, "They said that other members have more thoughts on their minds, and many of them don't have the courage to stand up and confront the mysterious man. Others, some older adults, People will join the Order of the Phoenix, you know, they generally have good combat capabilities and don't need to be trained here.
"Can we also join the Order of the Phoenix?" Neville knew that Harry had joined the Order of the Phoenix, and he had also heard from his grandma that his parents had also joined the Order of the Phoenix.
"Of course, but I don't think that makes sense, because both parties have been cooperating. Fred and George are the connectors, and a lot of information is exchanged." Dean reached out and patted Neville on the shoulder, motioning for him to follow. .
The two of them will fight against Lee Jordan together.
Amidst the shouts of everyone, the duel between the three began.
Dean and Neville were not able to take advantage of the number of people, especially after seeing that their spells were actually blocked by black magic defense items. Neville's face was stunned for a moment, and then he was hit by the obstacle spell. Flying out, the remaining Dean was quickly knocked down without support.
“Don’t be distracted while fighting.” Dean reminded a little depressed.
“Isn’t that cheating?” Neville muttered.
“It doesn’t matter, we are all fighting. Who cares whether you cheated or not.” Dean shook his head vigorously and said, “We just need to defeat him without using black magic.”
“Dark magic is also taught here?” Neville was very surprised.
"Teach, but not much, because most black magic requires strong magical power to support it, which may not be easy to use in a duel." Dean explained, "And we pay more attention to practice, and we pay more attention to knocking down and subduing. enemy."
"Remember, most wizards have basically no ability to resist once they lose their wands." Dean reminded, "So after you defeat the enemy, remember to use the Flying Charm to disarm the opponent's wand. This is easier than killing them directly. .”
“You have killed many dark wizards?” Neville couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
"I don't know, I'm not strong enough to go out with everyone." Speaking of this, Dean looked a little depressed, "I heard that they are planning the next operation, but unfortunately I am not qualified to participate."
“Sounds interesting.”
Neville was interested in the Defense Society's operations against the Death Eaters.
“There is something more interesting, but it’s a pity that you came at the wrong time, otherwise you could have experienced the Imperius Curse training.”
"what is that?"
Neville suspected that he had heard wrongly.
"It's training to resist the Imperius Curse. Mr. Anderson will use the Imperius Curse on us, and we only need to resist the Imperius Curse to be qualified. Unfortunately, no one has successfully resisted it yet."
“Like what the fake Mad-Eye did when we were in fourth grade?”
Neville recalled the training that fake Moody did in class to resist the Imperius Curse in fourth grade. Only Harry successfully resisted the Imperius Curse.
"Yes, it's difficult, but as long as you resist, you won't be easily controlled by someone using the Imperius Curse in the future. Everyone says that such an opportunity is rare, because both mysterious people and Death Eaters like to use the Imperius Curse to control other wizards. "
Dean also participated in the training to resist the Imperius Curse. For this purpose, he crawled on the ground several times like a dog.
“Didn’t you practice in private?” Neville couldn’t help but ask.
"No, Mr. Anderson will be there in person when practicing black magic to prevent accidents during the period." Dean explained, "Similar training is done about twice a week, and the next one is probably Friday."
“I may not be able to attend.” Neville looked a little regretful.
"Why?"
"I need to go back to Hogwarts with Cedric to continue to maintain Dumbledore's Army." Although Neville was a little depressed, he could understand that, in Zannah's words, he needed to at least keep Hogwarts alive. Students have the courage to stand up against You-Know-Who and Death Eaters, which is more important than anything else.
"It seems that you have your own tasks just like us." Dean seemed to be in a good mood after hearing Neville's words.
“What is your mission?”
“Responsible for managing the shelter.” Dean said. “In the next two days, Justin and I will need to go over to replace Hannah and Susan, help look after the group of expelled students, and teach them about defense against the dark arts.”
“Is everything okay over there? I stayed there for a day before coming here.”
“Are you okay?” Dean looked strange.
“Is there any problem?” Neville asked puzzled.
“It was a mess over there at first, but thanks to Hannah, everyone was integrated into Dumbledore’s Army.” Justin reached out and lightly punched Neville on the shoulder, “I thought you were in Hogwarts.”
“I dropped out of school.” Neville shrugged.
“He’s just missing temporarily,” Dean corrected.
“How is Hogwarts now?” Justin was a little curious about what Hogwarts looked like under the management of Death Eaters.
"not too good."
Neville repeated what he had just said to Dean. He was shocked when he heard that Defense Against the Dark Arts had been changed to Dark Arts, and students who had been detained were used to practice the Cruciatus Curse.
"Okay, it's almost time." Dean took out his pocket watch and checked the time, then took Neville to the living room to have dinner.
"The food here is much better than in the shelter." Neville looked at the house elf who was bringing food to people, and was a little surprised by the variety of food here.
“Of course, there’s also a simple afternoon tea if you like.”
The three of them each took a portion of food and sat at the long table to enjoy it while chatting about what happened during this time.
“By the way, do you have any news about Harry?” Neville asked curiously.
"Harry, I heard from Fred and George that Harry has also been receiving training recently, saying that he is practicing a very powerful spell with Professor Moody."
Speaking of this matter, Justin was very envious. It was a pity that they were still in the basic stage, and the spells they learned were all simple and practical.
If you want to learn more complex spells, you need to complete basic training, but if you want to complete the most basic training, it will take at least one year at the earliest.
“He should be preparing for a duel with the noseless monster!” Neville speculated, “It seems that the time for the official war between the two sides is not far away.”
“A noseless monster?”
Dean and Justin were both stunned, and it took them a moment to realize what Neville was talking about.
“That one really has no nose.” Cedric sat down next to the two of them and reminded him kindly, “You can’t call him by his name directly here.”
“I know,” Neville said.
"You follow me these days, and I will help you with emergency training." Cedric continued, "Next, you need to follow me back and forth on both sides. The main focus is still on Hogwarts. Albert hopes that someone It can guide students to continue to muster the courage to resist the mysterious man."
"I know." Neville asked his doubts, "Why does Anderson value the students in the school more?"
"Because many adults are unreliable." Cedric's expression was very complicated, "Just like the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, they were supposed to stand with us to resist the mysterious man, but they chose to bow to the mysterious man and become his 's minions."
Speaking of this incident, the three of them were very angry about it, especially after knowing that Scrimgeour was killed by a mysterious man in order to protect the Aurors, they suddenly understood why Albert chose the young wizard.
"If this Wizarding War continues, those members of Dumbledore's Army who graduated from Hogwarts will become our most reliable partners." Cedric explained, "So I hope you can spend more time on this matter. dessert."
“Leave it to me!” Neville promised, patting his chest.
(End of this chapter)