Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 961: Combat Training

Evan was thinking about what Sirius said. There was a lot of information here. Was there any connection between vampires, evil gods and Grindelwald?

Salazar Slytherin had left Hogwarts a thousand years ago, and he carried with him a very powerful thing. Evan didn’t know what it was, but he could confirm that there were the whereabouts of the Caduceus and pieces of the evil god’s brain and body that were yet to be determined…

Regardless of which item it was, each was crucial. Among them, Evan felt that the possibility of the evil god being a part of Salazar Slytherin was quite high.

Voldemort already had a statue of the evil god in his hands. Allowing him to obtain a part of the evil god’s body…

Evan couldn’t bear to think further. He felt it necessary to go to Norway; if the situation changed, he had to intervene swiftly.

Additionally, there was Elaine’s situation. Apart from the last farewell letter she had sent at the end of the last semester, there had been no further contact.

He wondered what could have happened to her. Had something unexpected occurred?

By the fireplace, Harry and Hermione asked a few more questions, and Sirius answered them one by one, seeming a bit impatient.

“Okay, enough about me. Don’t bother much with the situation in Norway, I’ll inform you promptly if there’s any news,” said Sirius, smiling again. “How’s everything here? Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Although they wrote a lot on parchments through several letters, they still had a lot to tell Sirius face to face.

Especially Harry, who had a very tough summer, staying alone with the Dursleys, cut off from any magical news, attacked by Dementors, and facing the terrible media and everyone’s reactions since the start of the school year.

Harry wanted to confide in Sirius, to tell his godfather everything.

However, the words got stuck in his throat as he thought about how dangerous Sirius’s situation was, and he couldn’t be of any help, let alone burden him with these troubles.

“Harry’s scar!” When Harry hesitated, Hermione said directly, “Just a few days ago, when Umbridge touched him, his scar suddenly hurt, and we’re all worried about it.”

“Harry, your scar hurt again?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah, Dumbledore and Evan both said it hurt whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion,” said Harry. “So maybe he was just, um, really angry or something the night I had that detention.”

“This may be a coincidence!” Evan added.

“Maybe,” said Sirius. “Now he’s back, it’s bound to hurt more often…”

“So you don’t think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?” Harry asked.

“I doubt it,” said Sirius. “I know her by reputation and I’m sure she’s no Death Eater.”

“She’s foul enough to be one,” said Harry darkly.

“Yes, but the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters,” said Sirius with a wry smile. “You don’t have to bother to verify anything; she should have nothing to do with Voldemort. I know she’s a nasty piece of work, though — you should hear Remus talk about her.”

“Does Lupin know her?” asked Harry quickly, remembering Umbridge’s comments about dangerous half-breeds during class.

“No,” said Sirius, “but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation a few years ago that makes it almost impossible for Remus to get a job. It was just before he started teaching at Hogwarts, so he went through a tough time.”

“Yeah!” Everyone remembered how much shabbier Lupin looked these days and their dislike of Umbridge deepened even further.

“What’s she got against werewolves?” said Hermione angrily.

“Scared of them, I expect,” said Sirius, smiling at her indignation. “Apparently she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have Merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too. By the way, what are her lessons like? Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?”

“Don’t even mention it; she’s not letting us use magic at all!”

“All we do is read the stupid textbook,” said Ron, “and copy it down.”

“Ah, well, that figures,” said Sirius. “I can tell you one more piece of information. The Order of the Phoenix got information from inside the Ministry of Magic that Fudge doesn’t want you trained in combat.”

“Trained in combat?” repeated Harry incredulously. “What does he think we’re doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?”

“That’s exactly what he thinks you’re doing,” said Sirius.

“The few of us are indeed learning magic with Evan, but it’s not combat training, and it has nothing to do with forming an army.”

“We’re currently learning basic defensive spells, hardly anything that could be considered combat training,” said Evan. “However, I plan to pass on the Auror knowledge and combat training content you taught me to everyone in a while, and help them improve their skills.”

“Sounds good to me. In fact, I think you should all learn more magic. If it weren’t for coming to this place, I was going to take you guys on an adventure last summer,” said Sirius. “But not everyone thinks it’s a good thing. That’s exactly what Fudge thinks now, or rather, that’s exactly what he’s afraid Dumbledore’s doing — forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic.”

After hearing this, everyone fell silent for a moment.

“He’s simply gone mad. No normal person would think like that.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with,” said Ron.

“I finally understand what’s going on. So we’re being prevented from learning Defense Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we’ll use spells against the Ministry?” said Hermione, looking furious.

“Yep,” said Sirius. “Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He’s getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It’s a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge.”

Another moment of silence followed as they learned more from Sirius. Fudge really seemed to have lost his mind!

“So, the four of you need to be careful while at Hogwarts. My advice is not to engage Umbridge directly and definitely not to give her any reason to hold against you. But it’s a good idea to continue learning magic with Evan. You can keep going, and if you need any help, just let me know.”

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