Chapter 104: Whereabouts Exposed
After Harry struggled in the Leaky Cauldron for almost half a month, he finally waited until the day before school started.
But just when he thought he would have to wait until tomorrow to see Ron and Hermione, he saw Ron and Hermione in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
"Yeah, and about Riddle's escape—Ah! Harry! I finally see you! Harry, we went to the Leaky Cauldron to look for you, but the owner said you had left." Ron shouted happily.
He probably didn't want to mention the name "Tom", so he changed his words abruptly, but this did not affect Harry's mood.
He put his arm around Harry's shoulders and said excitedly: "I heard that you Inflated your aunt from inflating charm making her a balloon during the summer vacation?!"
"Don't mention it, and I didn't mean it. I just can't control it sometimes." Harry got angry when he said it. If it weren't for Aunt Marge, Uncle Dursley wouldn't be unwilling to sign his application form.
And Harry almost thought he was going to be expelled from school.
"That's a big problem, why didn't they expel you even after that?" Hermione was very puzzled.
"I'm wondering too..."
"Come on Hermione, you sound like you want Harry to be expelled." Ron rolled his eyes and said with a smile, "Maybe it's because you are the famous Harry Potter. I don't dare to even think what the Ministry of Magic would do to me if I inflated a muggle. But at least they would have to dig me out of the ground first, because Mum would have killed me! hehe!
"Okay, you can ask my dad tonight. We plan to stay at the Leaky Cauldron today, so we can go to King's Cross Station together tomorrow." Ron said, taking another quick bite of ice cream.
Harry grinned. He wanted to talk to Ron and Hermione about Mr. Cyrus' letter, but this was obviously not the right place.
"Let's eat quickly, I have something to tell you two," Harry said hurriedly.
"It just so happens that we also want to tell you something about ...Riddle." Ron lowered his voice.
The three of them finished their ice cream quickly and then walked to the Leaky Cauldron with some guilt. After all, "Mr. Riddle" is still a wanted criminal by the Ministry of Magic, and their attitude seems to be to protect him, right?
...
"Wrong! You are planning to cover him up!" After Ron closed the door forcefully, he turned around and said firmly.
"Don't be like this Ron, you know Mr. Riddle is not a bad person," Hermione said in a pleading tone.
Ron shrugged and leaned back in his chair: "I don't think so."
"The fact is, he didn't hurt any of us!" Hermione turned to look at Harry angrily, "Harry, you should also know about Mr. Riddle's escape from prison, right? Aurors from the Ministry of Magic are searching for him everywhere now, he must be in danger. I.. I really don't know how we can help him."
She sighed: "Ginny is also very worried."
"Father and mother are more worried. They are always afraid that Ginny is so depressed nowadays. They fear Ginny will get crazy and run away to find Riddle at this rate." Ron said.
Ron's expressions then slightly turned fearful "But do you think Riddle is really... I mean.. is he really Vold—I mean.. do you really think he is 'him'? I always think Dumbledore must be mistaken."
"Speaking of which..." Harry finally had a chance to speak, "I actually received a letter from Mr. Riddle, no, Mr. Cyrus, on my birthday."
"What, he actually wrote to you?" Ron and Hermione shouted at the same time, but they expressed completely different meanings.
Ron: He actually dares to write to you? Is he not afraid of dying?
Hermione: He actually wrote to you? Why didn't he write to me?
"Where's the letter!?" the two people said at the same time.
"After I read the letter, it burned itself. Only this is left." Harry took out the dynamic greeting card of the Quidditch star that he had left behind, causing Ron to scream again.
"It's Viktor Krum!"
He held the greeting card in both hands like a pilgrim, and his eyes seemed to be about to fall out: "I was wrong, I was wrong, he is a good man!"
In contrast, Hermione's attention was focused on the words on the back of the card.
"You can call a silvery guardian..? Expecto Patronum..? Is this a magic spell?"
"He said I might need it this semester, so he asked me to learn it early," Harry said with a blushing face.
Naturally, he had no chance to practice during the summer vacation at the Dursleys' house, but after coming to the Leaky Cauldron, his whole mind was focused on this year's new broomstick.
"This spell seems to be the Patronus Charm!" Hermione finally found the relevant content after recalling so many books she had read. "This is simply not a spell that little wizards of our age can learn."
"Really? But I think Mr. Cyrus thought I could learn it, otherwise he wouldn't have written it on the card." Harry said a little proudly.
This villain's triumphant look made Hermione couldn't help but give him two punches!
"Be careful, I'll beat you up!"
"Didn't you already beat me?" Harry covered his nose and screamed.
"But the Patronus Charm is used to deal with Dementors. What does Mr. Riddle—Ah, I mean Mr. Cyrus mean by this? Does he think you need to deal with the Dementors?" Hermione asked strangely.
"How would I know? He has always had many secrets.." Harry said, "By the way, what is a Dementor?"
"That's the guard of Azkaban." Ron shuddered. This was a strange thing. Harry rarely saw Ron feel scared when he wasn't talking about words such as Voldemort or spider.
"If you want to know how scary they are, just ask Hagrid, who spent a few months there last year. When he came back all the happiness was gone."
"I thought he was just sad that Aragog and the other Acromantulas were dead," Harry said.
After he ignored this topic, he continued to mention other things in the letter. Unexpectedly, neither Ron nor Hermione objected to Harry keeping these things secret and not telling Dumbledore.
Ron explained intermittently: "I think he is indeed different, right? He even gave you a Krum edition greeting card! But I didn't expect that he actually left a backup plan. I guess he might have expected to meet Dumbledore. "
They didn't discuss it for long because Mrs. Weasley came back from outside with Ginny.
Ron remembered that he was going to get some medicine for Scabbers, and Hermione was going to buy an owl. Harry originally wanted to go with them, but was taken aside by Mr. Weasley.
"Harry, come here boy."
Arthur Weasley is a slightly bald middle-aged man, but his family is very kind. Harry spent some time at the Weasleys last summer, and it was one of his rare happy moments.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley."
"Harry," Mr. Weasley put his hand on Harry's shoulder and led him to his room, "Molly may not want me to tell you, but I still want to tell you. Maybe you already know It's—"
"You mean, about ..Tom Riddle? I know he has escaped from prison." Harry struggled with what expression he should show. But Arthur Weasley shook his head.
"No, no, with You-Know-Who—well, maybe he's not You-Know-Who, but he has little to do with him." Arthur finally changed his mind and continued, "What I want to say is about Sirius Black. Although Fudge insists that they are a team, in fact, we have not found any connection between their escapes. Black escaped from prison almost half a month before Riddle."
Harry listened blankly as Arthur talked about things related to Sirius Black, but he didn't understand what the relationship between this man and him was.
"Sirius Black was one of the most brutal Death Eaters under You-Know-Who. He once blew up an entire street with a spell, killing more than a dozen Muggles." Arthur said seriously, " And his purpose to escape must be to kill you, for his 'master'!"
Harry's expression changed, but he couldn't say he was scared.
"Harry, I want you to promise me-"
"Promise to be a good boy and not leave the castle?" Harry said gloomily. But after all, it was impossible for him to leave the castle. There was no name on the application form for Hogsmeade.
"Not exactly." Mr. Weasley said. Harry had never seen him look so serious before. "Harry, promise me you will never go looking for Black."
"What?" Harry looked at him in shock, as if he didn't understand what Mr. Weasley meant.
"But why would I want to go find someone who wants to kill me?" he said absurdly. "You might as well advise me not to go to Tom Riddle."
"Dumbledore believes that Tom Riddle will not return to Hogwarts in the short term. And it seems that Tom's target is not you, otherwise, he would have had many opportunities to kill you last year." Arthur Weasley said, "But Sirius Black is different. You have to promise me, Harry!"
Arthur Weasley was very serious, even a little aggressive.
Harry always felt that something was a little strange, but the only thing he knew was that the Weasley family were all good people, and they would never want to see him hurt. So he had no choice but to nod in agreement, swearing that he would never take the initiative to find Sirius Black.
'Now I think I know why Mr. Cyrus said I was going to have new trouble.' Harry sighed.
In the evening, Ron and Hermione returned.
The two of them seemed to be having a bit of a quarrel, and Harry soon understood why.
Hermione was holding an ugly orange cat in her arms, and the cat seemed to be very interested in Ron's rat, Scabbers.
Harry told the two of them what Mr. Weasley wanted him to promise, and Ginny also participated, but neither of them figured out why.
On the contrary, during dinner, another piece of news suddenly made them uneasy.
Arthur Weasley put down the letter, first glanced at Ginny, then extended his gaze to Harry, Ron and Hermione, and spoke slowly:
"Letter from the Ministry. They say they have found traces of Tom Riddle. It seems he was seen in Little Hangleton County not long ago."
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