#416 - Chapter 416: Friendship Enters Countdown

"You've completely mastered Occlumency?! And Professor Snape and Professor Swann both confirmed it?"

Malfoy's brow furrowed deeply, almost forming a '川' character. He stared at the nonchalant Harry with disbelief, his tone filled with surprise and suspicion.

Impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

It hasn't even been a day since the two of them last met, how could he have completely mastered it?

It's not April Fool's Day, why would he need to lie to me for fun?

"Really," Harry said, trying not to show any smugness, "Professor Snape taught me some special tricks, they're very useful."

"Don't say I don't look after you, come on, I'll explain them to you."

Although somewhat skeptical, Malfoy still carefully memorized the techniques Harry shared and then tried to integrate them into his own Occlumency.

These techniques didn't sound too difficult. If Harry could do it, he could definitely do it too, although he might be a little slower than Harry, but it wouldn't be too bad of a loss.

After a week of hard practice, Malfoy arrived at Sebastian's special Occlumency tutoring session on Saturday evening, full of confidence.

"Draco, there are still loopholes in your mental defenses."

Looking at the disappointed Malfoy, Sebastian smiled slightly, "I think you might need a little pressure. Let me ask you, why do you think I wanted you to learn Occlumency?"

Looking at the professor's half-smiling expression, Malfoy paused slightly, and a terrifying thought couldn't help but pop up.

"Professor..." He chuckled awkwardly, "I'm not like Harry, I'm also to guard against the Dark Lord, right?"

"Smart!" Sebastian sat up straight, his tone becoming serious, "According to reliable sources, the Dark Lord will be resurrected and return by the summer, and at that time, there is a ninety percent chance he will be living in your house."

"That is to say, you will have a vacation period, living with the Dark Lord, seeing him all the time."

Like a bolt from the blue!

Malfoy opened his mouth wide, unable to say a word, his whole person seemed to be petrified.

What to do?

Does Dad know?

How will the Malfoy family get through this difficult time?

Should the house be cleaned up before the Dark Lord arrives?

Which room should he stay in?

Malfoy's heart was completely in chaos, and all kinds of thoughts appeared in his mind, almost bursting his brain.

Harry was also shocked by the news. He originally didn't need to come to this special tutoring session anymore. He was only here out of concern for his good friend, wanting to witness the other party's success, and he never expected to hear such shocking news.

"Professor, can't the Malfoy family just defect to our side, so they can avoid the Dark Lord?" Harry said anxiously, racking his brains for ideas.

"Unfortunately," Sebastian spread his hands, "The Malfoy family is too deeply involved with the Dark Lord, and they are now the richest and most powerful family among the extreme pure-blood families, so the Dark Lord will not let them go no matter what."

The Malfoy family is the Dark Lord's money bag and a living signboard among the pure-blood families. The Dark Lord needs this signboard to buy people's hearts.

Therefore, in the original story, even though the Dark Lord hated Lucius immensely in the later stages, he didn't kill him.

You should know that Lucius made one blunder after another, first losing the Horcrux notebook, then botching the mission for the prophecy, and later capturing the trio of Harry, only to have them escape from Malfoy Manor.

This is the Malfoy family. If it were an ordinary minion, the Dark Lord would have long given them the Cruciatus Curse and the Killing Curse in a silky smooth combo.

If the Dark Lord were to discover that the Malfoy family had defected, he would likely personally hunt down their entire family out of humiliation.

As a last resort, even if he didn't personally take action, many of his subordinates would want to eliminate the Malfoy family to please the Dark Lord.

In this case, unless the entire Malfoy family hid in Hogwarts and never went out again, there would be no way to survive at all, and as for the family's various industries, they wouldn't even need to think about it, being able to save their lives would be good enough.

Listening to Sebastian's analysis, Harry's heart slowly sank, and Malfoy's face was even paler, until he was shivering all over.

The pressure has been applied, and the next step is to motivate them. Of course, direct motivation is not very effective for Malfoy now, after all, he is almost scared out of his wits, so Sebastian decided to use a little reverse psychology to stimulate the young man's courage first.

He looked at Malfoy and asked gently, "Draco, would you betray Harry?"

Betray Harry?

Malfoy raised his head, looking at Sebastian in confusion, as if he hadn't heard the other party's question clearly.

Immediately afterwards, his face began to turn red at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if he had been greatly insulted.

At this moment, all the fear was thrown aside by Malfoy, and he now only wanted to prove that he was not a person who would sell out his friends for personal gain.

"Professor, you can't say that about me. Harry and I are friends. I swear in the name of the Malfoy family that I will never betray him."

"I believe you," Looking into Malfoy's eyes, Sebastian nodded seriously, "Then, for the sake of your friends, for the sake of your mom and dad, you have to hurry up and practice Occlumency, after all, your current level can't hide anything from the Dark Lord."

"Go for it, Draco!" Harry patted the other party on the shoulder, "I also believe in you, you can definitely do it, tell me anytime if you need any help."

Encouraged by the professor and Harry, Malfoy's blood rushed to his head. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and vowed in his heart.

So what if it's the Dark Lord.

Watch how this young master uses Occlumency to play with you!

"By the way," Sebastian's voice sounded, "I'll give you two a task. After the third task, find a chance to have a big fight, so that everyone knows that you two have broken up."

Break up?

Why?

Harry and Malfoy turned their heads at the same time, looking at Sebastian with puzzled faces.

"Because of the Triwizard Tournament, you two have been getting too close this year, and I'm worried that the Dark Lord will make a fuss about this."

"Therefore, you must quarrel, the more fiercely you quarrel, the better, to make everyone believe that you have become enemies and there is no possibility of reconciliation."

"War is coming soon, and you two are both in the eye of the storm, so you must be especially careful not to give the Dark Lord any opportunity to exploit."

"Of course," Sebastian pointed to the position of his heart, "I know your friendship is precious, so I'm not asking you to completely break off relations, just to temporarily put this precious friendship in your heart, and take it out again when the storm has passed."

This......

Malfoy and Harry looked at each other and fell silent.

That is to say, the friendship between the two has already begun to count down?

So unwilling, it's clear that the friendship between the two is so hard-won.

After a long time, Malfoy smiled freely and patted Harry on the shoulder.

"There are still almost four months left, you have to give me a lot of guidance, Harry!"