Chapter 540 End of June

Chapter 540: End of January

Harry had thought that the Azkaban breakout would have tempered Umbridge a little, that she would be ashamed of the blunder that had occurred under her dear Fudge's nose, but it seemed only to make her more frantic in her desire to control life at Hogwarts.

She seemed determined to have Hagrid fired, and attended nearly every Care of Magical Creatures class with her clipboard.

Harry thought Hagrid was on the verge of a breakdown, and although he seemed to have listened to Hermione's advice and had not used anything scarier than a crup in class since Christmas, he seemed to be irritated. He was distracted and absent-minded in class, often forgetting his train of thought, answering questions incorrectly, and glancing nervously at Umbridge.

He also distanced himself from Harry and the other two, and specifically asked them not to visit him after dark.

"If she catches us, we'll all be doomed," he said bluntly. Not wanting to incriminate him further, they stopped going to his cabin at night.

Harry felt that Umbridge was gradually stripping away the things that made his life at Hogwarts meaningful: visits to Hagrid's hut, letters from Sirius, his Firebolt, Quidditch. He retaliated in the only way he knew how: by doubling down on his involvement in Dumbledore's Army.

When the news of the Death Eaters' escape came, Harry was pleasantly surprised to find that the members had trained even harder. However, among all the people, Neville's change was particularly obvious.

He became silent and almost stopped communicating with anyone during training. He just concentrated on practicing every spell Harry taught him, with a round face tense. Even if he was injured, he just wiped the blood and continued training without any complaints. His progress was amazing. When Harry taught a special armor spell, only Hermione learned it before Neville.

However, it wasn't just because Hermione was smarter than Neville.

Her obsession was even more terrifying than Neville's. She tried her best to learn every spell, and even cast a spell with more power than normal before she would stop. Her eyes were always filled with reluctance, and she kept repeating words like "Not enough... Not enough..."

Harry gradually realized that Hermione's pursuit of power seemed to be a little out of control. Although they had said when they founded Dumbledore's Army that they hoped the members would have the ability to protect themselves, in fact, no one really thought that they would face the Death Eaters face to face. He could see in Hermione's eyes that it was a strange madness, as if she was chasing something and was determined to get it.

But it doesn't matter.

The most important thing to him was that the strength of Dumbledore's Army was growing rapidly.

He, Harry Potter, the leader of Dumbledore's Army, finally had his own power. He inexplicably remembered the scene of Draco always being followed by a group of little followers, and the fawning senior students around McLaggen. And now, he was standing in the same position.

A burning feeling rose from my lower abdomen, turning into boiling emotions surging in my chest.

There was something called ambition flashing in his eyes. He would lead these people to fight against Umbridge and become the one they looked up to. He even began to think, if he could be stronger and more intimidating, could he change everything about Hogwarts?
"sure……"

The mysterious voice came from my mind again.

"You are the savior chosen by fate. Think about the wonderful magic you have learned... the magic that can control people's hearts and is terrifying... When you raise your arms, everyone will follow you and fight against your enemies together..."

Harry clenched his fists unconsciously, and a shadow passed through the depths of his pupils.

Ron watched all this silently, and his uneasiness grew. He noticed the change in Harry and Hermione's obsession. But he didn't think the problem was with them.

He attributed the source of all this to Schelling.

Although it was due to different reasons, Harry and Hermione became like this, after all, they could not avoid the influence of Schelling. After all, they just wanted to follow in Schelling's footsteps.

Ron said nothing on the surface, but the jealousy in his eyes grew stronger.

……

Time flies - from the staggering amount of homework that often keeps fifth year students up late to secret Dumbledore's Army meetings, January is almost over before we know it.

Before January really ended, the dormant Death Eaters began to take action. Sherin received a lot of intelligence every day - for example, Cuthbert Mockridge, who had just retired from the position of Director of the Goblin Liaison Office and was enjoying his retirement life at home, was suddenly visited by an uninvited guest one night, but except Sherin, this incident did not attract anyone's attention.

Schelling guessed that Mockridge must have been under the Imperius Curse, but he was puzzled as to what contribution a retired employee of the Ministry of Magic could make to Voldemort. He did not make the matter public, but quietly added his name to the list of targets for surveillance by the Sleeping Dragon Society.

What is certain at the moment is that Voldemort's main target is still the prayer wheel door key in the Department of Mysteries.

Therefore, he would certainly use the Imperius Curse to gradually infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and establish a small circle under his control. No matter how the process is, as long as Schelling always holds the defense line of the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort's plan will end in vain.

However, something unexpected happened.

Florin Fosco, the owner of the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley, has mysteriously disappeared.

When Xie Ling saw this information, his brows furrowed deeply. This was indeed the plot in the original novel, but it happened half a year earlier than the original novel.

It was mentioned in the book that Florin Fosco was actually a descendant of Headmaster Fosco and was well versed in the history of magic. Because of this, he knew a little about the origin of the Elder Wand, which was why he was kidnapped by the Death Eaters and eventually killed.

There was a gleam of brilliance in Xie Ling's eyes.

Florin was just an ice cream shop owner, and arresting him didn't seem to help Voldemort's plan to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic. In other words, if his mysterious disappearance this time was related to Voldemort, then Voldemort's purpose was obvious - the Elder Wand!
It seems that my appearance has really changed a lot of the plot, and Voldemort's pursuit of the Elder Wand has also been brought forward.

But the most puzzling question is - who leaked the existence of the Elder Wand to Voldemort?
In this world, Voldemort did not fight with Harry, and naturally did not trigger the replay spell between the brothers' wands. In this case, he should not have known the hidden dangers between his wand and Harry's wand, and he should not have been in a hurry to find a new wand. In other words, he had no reason and no motivation to chase the old wand.

There must be someone behind all this, fanning the flames.

Florin's disappearance did not happen quietly.

According to the Auror's report afterwards, Florin's ice cream shop was in a mess, and it was obvious that a fierce conflict had occurred. From the traces at the scene, it was speculated that Florin was forcibly abducted, and even force was used in the process. Combined with the news of the Death Eaters' jailbreak, many wizards and civilians could not help but connect the two events together, and panic began to spread in the wizarding community.

As a result, people in Diagon Alley began to panic.

People doubted the safety of the outside world and reduced the number of times they went out. The merchants in Diagon Alley were the first to be affected, losing a lot of business and income due to the decrease in the flow of people.

In contrast, the revenue of SHIELD Security Consultants has increased instead of decreased.

As people's demand for security increases, more and more customers come to seek the services of SHIELD Security Consultants. Penelope Clearwater's team has also expanded rapidly in a short period of time. The number of employees under her has increased to ten, and Verity, who joined the company the earliest, has been promoted to team leader to help her share management work. Despite this, they are still overwhelmed by the almost crazy market demand.

Many business leaders finally realized that this once unremarkable armor shop had become the most valuable and influential enterprise in the entire Diagon Alley under Penelope's transformation.

Every day, countless people approached Penelope with cooperation and investment proposals, trying to get a piece of the pie. However, with Sherin's funds and connections behind her, she didn't take these people seriously at all and rejected all proposals.

Her vigorous and tough style of doing things had spread throughout Diagon Alley, and she was even given the title of "Queen of Business". Suddenly, this witch of Muggle origin became a hot and important figure in the wizarding business world.

This made her even more annoyed.

Her talent and beauty attracted many admirers, and every day, all kinds of young talents tried to pursue her, but she always ignored them. In her heart, there was only the young man from the Malfoy family -

It was he who, when she was at her lowest point, extended a hand to support her;
It was he who gave her her first chance to make a name for herself in the wizarding world;
Without him, Penelope wouldn't be where she is today.