Chapter 48 Memory
"O.W.L.s Exam Training Class?" Harry said the fresh noun, "What is this?"
"As the name suggests, it is a special training course to help some students with not very solid foundations pass the O.W.L.s exam quickly. It was offered by Jack Silver." Dumbledore said, "It is said that the effect is very good. If you are under great pressure because of the O.W.L.s make-up exam, you might as well try it."
Harry didn't comment.
"Minister, I have something to say to you," Harry said hesitantly.
"What's the matter? Harry." Dumbledore sat down.
"I got very accurate news that Snape was a Death Eater, and so was Malfoy-and there was another Voldemort." Harry was organizing the words randomly while observing the expression on Dumbledore's face.
Dumbledore didn't seem surprised at all, "Where did you know this, Harry?"
Harry kept silent, obviously not wanting to expose himself hiding in the bathroom and eavesdropping on others.
"It seems that you do know a little, but you only know part of it. Parts are more likely to mislead people's judgment than a thorough lie. I came here today just to teach you. Molly told me that you always want to know more things. Sirius also thinks that you should let you know more truth, so let's start from scratch."
"Start from scratch?" Harry asked in a daze, "How to start from scratch?"
Dumbledore stood up, and walked over the table, and walked over to Harry. Harry turned eagerly in the chair and watched Dumbledore leaning down in front of the cabinet next to the door. When Dumbledore straightened up, he held a shallow-bottomed stone basin that Harry knew, with a circle of weird symbols engraved on the mouth of the basin. He placed the meditation basin on the table in front of Harry.
"You look worried," Dumbledore said.
Indeed, Harry looked at the meditation pot with a worried and fearful look. He had very bad memories of this strange object that stored and displayed thoughts and memories - in the fourth grade, the fake Moody tied Harry out of Hogwarts with a meditation pot transformed into a door key.
Dumbledore's face was full of smiles, "Don't worry, this time is not the fake one from last time. This is a real meditation basin."
"This time, you go into the meditation pot with me."
"Where are we going, Mr. Minister?"
"Let's walk on Bob Ogden's memory path." Dumbledore said, pulling out a crystal bottle from his pocket, which contained a rotating and floating silver-white thing.
"Who is Bob Ogden?"
"He worked in the Magic Law Enforcement Division," Dumbledore said. "He died for some days. But before he died, I tried every possible way to find him and convince him to tell me these memories. Now, we are going to accompany him to a place he was on his mission. Harry, stand up..."
Dumbledore pulled out the corks of the crystal bottle: poured the silver substance in the bottle into the meditation basin, and they slowly rotated in the basin, emitting a faint light, neither like liquid nor gas.
"You go in first." Dumbledore pointed to the meditation basin and said.
Harry leaned forward, took a deep breath, and plunged into the silvery matter. He felt his feet leave the ground in the office. He walked through the rotating darkness and fell down, falling, and suddenly, the strong sunlight pierced him with his eyes closed. Before his eyes could adapt, Dumbledore landed beside him.
They stood on a country road, with high shrubs and hedges on both sides, and a summer sky above them, as clear and blue as forget-me-nots. About ten steps ahead of them, stood a short, fat man wearing glasses with particularly thick glasses, his eyes shrunk into two dots, like moles' eyes. He was reading a wooden signpost that stretched out from the thorn bush on the left side of the path. Harry knew that this must be Ogden. Because no one was seen everywhere, and like those wizards who wanted to dress up as muggles but were inexperienced, he wore a weird dress in Guli: a striped swimsuit with a dress coat and a shoe cover on his feet. As soon as Harry looked at his weird appearance, Ogden walked quickly along the path.
Dumbledore and Harry followed.
"This is Hangden, which was a place of wizards a long time ago, of course. This was hundreds of years ago," Dumbledore said. "Now Hangden has no wizards inhabited, but when Bob was on his mission, there were still several down-and-out wizards living here.
They followed Bob for a long time. After a long time, Harry's eyes saw a house half-discovered among the tangled bushes. He thought it was a bit strange to choose this place to build a house, or it was a strange decision to let those big trees grow next to the house. The trees blocked all the light and blocked the valley below. He wondered if this place would be inhabited: the walls were covered with moss, many tiles on the roof fell, and the rafters inside were exposed. The house was surrounded by dense nettles, and the high nettles were all the way to the window, which were very small and filled with thick old dirt. Harry was about to decide that no one would live in it, but suddenly, with a click, a window opened, and the fierce quarrels of two men came from it.
Ogden walked forward quietly, Harry felt his movements very cautious. When the dark shadow of the tree slid down from him, he stopped again, staring straight at the front door of the house, and someone nailed a dead snake to the door.
At this moment, a rustling sound rang out, followed by another click, a man in ragged clothes jumped down from a tree near him and landed in front of Ogden. Ogden quickly retreated, but stepped on the back of his coat and almost fell down.
“You are not popular.”
The man standing in front of them had thick dirt tangled in his thick hair, and he could no longer tell the original color. A few teeth fell from his mouth, and his two black eyes stared in the opposite direction. He seemed quite funny, but in fact he was not. His appearance was scary, and Harry thought, no wonder Ogden took a few steps back before speaking.
"Uh-Good morning. I'm the Ministry of Magic-"
“You are not popular.”
"Uh-I'm sorry-I can't understand you." Ogden said uneasy.
Harry thought Ogden was extremely dull. In Harry's opinion, the stranger had already expressed his meaning very clearly, especially with him waving a magic wand in one hand and a bloody knife in the other.
"I think you can understand him, Harry?" Dumbledore asked softly.
"Yes, that's all." Harry said a little puzzledly, "Why can't Ogden listen-"
Before Harry could finish his words, a middle-aged wizard with silver hair came out. His outfit was the most fashionable Muggle outfit decades ago. Compared to the sloppy man, he looked like a king.
"Mofen, you should be polite to this gentleman from the Ministry of Magic. Don't use your snake-like accent. This is very rude." The middle-aged man looked at the sloppy man with contempt.
"Do you think this person looks familiar? Harry."
Harry nodded and shook his head again.
Dumbledore pointed to the middle-aged man who shook hands with Bob and said, "He is Jack Silver's great-grandfather, Richard Silver, a wizard who was quite prestigious at the time."
Chapter completed!