Chapter 572 Lunch at the Pig's Head Bar

"[Split into pieces]"

"boom!!"

The wooden back door of the Pig's Head Bar was blasted open. The accumulated dirt and weathered gravel raised smoke and dust into the sky. Two figures in cloaks and hoods jumped out. After rolling around in embarrassment for a few times, they evaded several times. Ten colorful magic beams stumbled towards the depths of the alley.

"[Tornado Sweep]"

When Umbridge, who was chasing after her, cleared her field of vision, she saw only a black shadow that disappeared in a hurry. The artificial smile on her face slowly fell, and gradually became cold and stern. "A team ambush two people and they can escape." They are really a bunch of useless guys. I will definitely report it to Minister Fudge and strictly investigate the responsibility of your Auror Office!"

The faces of the Auror team were a little ugly. The team leader glanced at her and protested in a low voice: "Ms. Umbridge, these two are definitely not ordinary dark wizards. They just released the Death Curse immediately... …us……"

The other team members looked at Umbridge with some resentment. According to the Auror training manual, they should take advantage of the dark wizards to make a sneak attack when they were distracted from inquiring about information, control and arrest the two dark wizards and bring them back to the Ministry of Magic for interrogation. As a result, this In order to stand out, the pink toad revealed everyone's identities in advance, which led to the ambush being exposed...

What's more, the two enraged dark wizards were ruthless. They were greeted by the Unforgivable Curse, and they were asked to stay alive. They were caught off guard and faced each other head-on. The fact that they were able to avoid reducing their numbers was the result of tacit cooperation and excellent personal strength.

"If you have anything to say, please explain it back to the ministry. Now, catch up with me!"

Umbridge's sharp voice was slightly ferocious, "Even if it's two corpses, bring them back to the Ministry of Magic!"

"Yes, ma'am!" The members of the Auror team felt cold and chased in the direction where the two dark wizards disappeared.

"..."

Umbridge glanced back at the messy bar, snorted coldly, straightened her pink scarf, and walked away in her hard-soled leather shoes.

The guests in the bar had already left when the two parties started fighting. They didn't know when the money they owed for today's drinks would be repaid. The bartender slowly waved his wand to restore the back door to its original appearance. There were mutterings from the nearby streets. , the worker in the shop next door stretched his head and looked around, and sighed with disappointment when he saw it: Why don't you take the opportunity to renovate it...

Most of the candles in the tavern were extinguished by the strong wind caused by the spell, leaving only a solitary candle head flickering with light. Next to the shabby and dirty bar with sawdust scattered, a rickety wooden staircase leads to the bar. Upstairs, the landing leads to the living room, which is covered with shabby carpets and a large magical portrait hangs above the small fireplace. It depicts a young blonde girl looking into the room with a gentle smile.

"Ariana..."

Dumbledore looked at the blonde girl in the portrait longingly, his blue eyes filled with mist. Just when he was about to say something, there was a sudden sound of heavy footsteps behind him.

"Oh, what brought you, a busy man, here, my dear Headmaster Dumbledore... my dear brother!?"

The bar owner walked into the room, slammed the door roughly, glared at him angrily, walked to the portrait in front of the fireplace and stretched out his hand to pull up the curtain on the frame, looking at the girl frowning slightly on the canvas, his voice Be gentle and say, "Good boy, you know where to find a quiet place to sleep for a while, it will be very noisy tonight."

The blond girl looked at the two of them fondly for several times, then slowly withdrew her gaze and walked along a tunnel painted behind her.

Dumbledore watched her slender figure move further and further away, and finally disappeared completely into the background of the portrait. Then he took a deep breath, turned to look at the bar owner, his blood brother, and said softly: " Aberforth, long time no see..."

Aberforth's appearance is very similar to him. His hair has not completely turned silver, but has wisps of wire-like gray. He wears old round glasses, and the bars accumulated in the gaps of the glasses frames can be seen everywhere. The lenses were also dirty, with fingerprints from thumbs, stains from lard and sweat mixed with dust, but none of these could hide the bright and sharp eyes, glowing with a deep blue light.

Aberforth's face was expressionless, but the slightly bulging masseter muscles proved that he had clenched his back molars: "The following performance is wonderful, isn't it? What great plans does Mr. Albus Dumbledore have?" Is it for a greater good or something else..."

Dumbledore didn't care, and even had a slight smile on his face. They had not completely broken off contact. He still understood his brother's character. He was rough and weird on the surface, but twisted inside like a maze. Even he I can't even figure it out myself.

He didn't say anything, but took out his wand and looked around, lighting the lamps in the room. Then he bent down to light the fire. When the room became bright and warm, he raised his head and used his ashes-covered hand to light the fire. He rubbed his beard with his hand: "Is there anything to eat here... Well, I'm a little hungry..."

Aberforth gave him a cold look, turned and walked out of the room, returning a moment later with a tray of food. On the tray was a large piece of bread, a few slices of cheese, and a jar of mead.

"This store does not accept credit."

"certainly……"

The two sat down at a small table in front of the fireplace. Dumbledore ate and drank regardless of his posture. The sound of chewing and swallowing was even rough.

Aberforth was unmoved. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and pushed it over on the table. It was about the same size as the chocolate frog card. It depicted a blond boy perched on the window sill, with a posture like a big bird. The boy looked up and a joyful smile bloomed on his handsome face.

"It couldn't be more familiar, right? The bartender just gave it to me..." Aberforth finally put away his thorny attacking posture and said in a relatively calm tone, "It's an old guy from decades ago. There are not many wizards in the world who have seen this face. They are either lying in coffins or too old to move. They all stay at home and don't go out. No wonder they can't find it..."

Dumbledore didn't speak. He was concentrating on sandwiching cheese with bread. He stuffed a big mouthful into his mouth and almost choked. He drank half a glass of mead to drink it down.

Aberforth glanced at him: "I know that the rumors clarified in the newspapers are true. You are not old and confused. Voldemort has really resurrected and is preparing to make a comeback. These two dark wizards are instigated by him... But I can't understand why they are looking for Green..." Dumbledore swallowed the last piece of bread and exhaled a long breath: "Don't worry about these, Aberforth, I-" "Can you solve all the problems?" Aberforth stared at him fiercely, his lips moving, as if chewing the words he held back, until the anger and dissatisfaction in his heart completely broke out, "You have always been like this! Self-righteous! You learned to keep secrets when you were on your mother's knees. You think you are taking care of me, right?" The irritable voice echoed in the living room on the second floor of the tavern. The two pairs of blue eyes looked surprisingly similar, staring at each other, and the sharp and oppressive eyes seemed to penetrate into people's hearts. "Just like you thought you were taking care of Ariana decades ago, you always thought you were taking care of this family. In fact, Ariana is more worried about you as a brother!" Aberforth stood up, his tall figure cast a long shadow, and his expression looked a little hideous because of the severe pain. "She saw clearly that you were unwilling to be trapped in Godric's Hollow, so she agreed to go on a trip with you regardless of her own body. She felt sorry for you as a brother. What about you?"

Dumbledore was obviously stunned for a moment, pursed his lips but said nothing.

Aberforth closed his eyes painfully, clenched his trembling hands into fists, turned around and left, leaving only a sentence full of disappointment: "Selfish guys, they have always been like this!"

"..."

Dumbledore was silent for a long time before he came back to his senses, slowly lowered his head, looked at the picture on the small table, and whispered softly.

"Gellert... Grindelwald..."

...

Hogwarts, deep in the Forbidden Forest.

An unusually flat open space appeared in the dense forest. The nearby tree trunks were broken in a brutal way, leaving only low tree stumps. The stones embedded in the soil were dug out and cleaned up to build a rough stone house. It was called a stone house, but in fact it was almost as big as a tower. There was no furniture in the house except for the thatch on the ground.

Smoke was curling in front of the stone house, and the aroma of barbecue floated with the breeze in the woods. The bones of the lamb were piled aside, and the tendons were not cleaned up, but the hound Yaya lying next to it could only look at the bones and whine softly, and his whimper was full of grievances.

Its stomach was slightly bloated and painful, and it really couldn't eat anything at all.

"Ah..." Ron breathed a sigh of relief, lying on a flat stone, patting his bulging belly, "I'm so full..."

The giant Grawp, who was not far away, understood half of what he said, scratched his head, lay down properly, patted his belly and made a thunderous roar, "I'm full... I'm full..."

Harry rubbed his ears that were tightened by the shock, his expression was a little stiff, this giant brother of Hagrid seemed to be different from what he expected, not easy to get along with, but much better than the dragon, he didn't know how to persuade Hagrid.

Hagrid next to him was cleaning the grill and seasoning, his hands were moving fast, looking at Harry, then at Grawp, the corners of his grinning mouth never closed.

Loren didn't care much about their thoughts, anyway, Principal Dumbledore approved it, he didn't want to meddle in other people's business. He stretched lazily, found a comfortable position, put his head on Hermione's legs, didn't sleep, just looked up at the little witch.

Hermione felt a little embarrassed, and stretched out a hand to cover his eyes, blocking his gaze.

"..."

Delicate and soft.

Loren slowly closed his eyes, and the not-so-bright light gradually sank into the gaps between the girl's fingers. He casually asked, "Harry, Ron, how were the results of your Quidditch selection yesterday?"

Ron was alert when Quidditch was mentioned, and answered happily, "I'm the vice-captain of the team, so can't I choose a goalkeeper? I tell you, that McLaggen missed five goals, which is far worse than me!"

"In the third year, the gap between you was not obvious. It should be that he didn't practice for a year, so his Quidditch skills are rusty." Harry shook his head, very much like a starting seeker. "This time, not only did we select a goalkeeper to fill the vacancy left by Wood's graduation, but we also recruited a lot of substitute players, because Angelina, George and Fred, the main players, are graduating this year, so we should prepare in advance so as not to be in a hurry next year..."

"Time flies so fast..." Loren didn't pay attention to what he was talking about.

…

The Ministry of Magic building was not as busy as usual on weekends. About half of the staff were on vacation. The empty hallway seemed a little deserted. Umbridge stepped out of the green flames and stepped into the golden elevator. With the sound of the chain swishing, she came to the Minister's office on the top floor.

When she was about to raise her hand to knock on the door, Umbridge suddenly realized that the sleeves of her expensive pink coat were a little dull. She looked at the wool on the cuffs and found that it was stained with a little ash. A trace of displeasure flashed under her drooping eyelids.

Taking out the small mirror in her handbag and spending a few minutes to tidy up her appearance, Umbridge squeezed out an exaggerated smile and knocked on the door.

Pushing the door open, a familiar figure sat at the desk. Minister Cornelius Fudge raised his head and asked directly without any politeness: "How is the investigation going? Have you found out the identities of those people?"

Umbridge first glanced at the corner of the room. In the brightly lit room, the figure of Minister's Assistant Bertha Jorkins had nowhere to hide. She lowered her head and scratched on the cracks of the floor with her toes. It seems that she not only has a bad memory, but also has some problems with her IQ.

Umbridge's eyes flashed with a hint of sarcasm. She pretended to hesitate for a few seconds and replied in a sweet voice: "The Auror team's negligence caused them to escape. It is not certain whether they have any relationship with Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?" Fudge was obviously stunned.

"Yes, Dumbledore." Umbridge looked at him secretly, "A dark wizard with suspicious behavior and ruthless means appeared near Hogwarts. How can we be sure that this has nothing to do with Dumbledore? Moreover, Hogwarts rejected the supervision reform of the Ministry of Magic. Who knows what...conspiracy they are planning?"

"This...this..." Fudge hesitated. Although Dumbledore stood on the opposite side of him, he knew clearly that Dumbledore would definitely not associate with dark wizards.

"Don't worry, Minister. We will not wrongly accuse any good person, nor will we let any dark wizard go..." Umbridge slowed down her speech, with some bewitching tone, "It's just that this requires a thorough investigation, an investigation of Hogwarts..."

In front of the desk in the minister's office, the candlelight burned calmly, and the faint light from the fireplace illuminated Minister Fudge's slightly widened eyes.