The Weasley twins looked at their mother with utterly aggrieved expressions, though their eyes were still glinting with unmistakably mischievous light, who knew what bad ideas they were cooking up.
After shooing the Weasley twins away to put out the fire, Mrs. Weasley glanced around the long table. "Where's Hermione? Didn't she come here with Dumbledore and the others?"
Ron shook his head. "She's already gone to Italia with her parents."
Kasenhis lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling. Didn't Ron say Canada last time?
And what country even was Italia?
"You should have told us earlier. You made us come all this way for nothing!" Mad-Eye Moody said gruffly.
"I didn't expect you all were planning to gather everyone together," Ron explained helplessly. "I thought you were just asking for an address."
"Forget it. Since things have come to this, let's eat first. Anyway, the Granger family is in Italia…" Dumbledore suddenly felt that something was off, but in the end, he didn't say it out loud.
A lively dinner was about to begin, and there was still one empty seat beside Kasenhis.
Harley looked at that seat and couldn't help putting on a pained expression. He didn't even need his brain to guess who that seat was reserved for.
And really, only Kasenhis and Dumbledore could stand sitting next to that person.
Before long, the main doors in the distance were pushed open once again. Snape walked in, travel-worn and dusty, dressed in a raincoat. He casually took it off and hung it on the coat rack, then sat down in his seat.
"Now, let us all begin eating, although this line was originally supposed to be said by Sirius," Dumbledore said, lifting his glass and taking the first sip.
As the meal went on, Snape ate while staring at Harley, who was seated diagonally across from him. He kept his gaze on her until the banquet finally ended, only then withdrawing it. He reached into his pocket, took out a bottle of potion, and used magic to float it over to Harley.
"This is your antidote," he said dryly.
"Mm… thanks."
At the long table, most of the younger generation had no idea about the complicated history between Snape and Lily, so the young wizards naturally assumed that Snape was still just the same old potion-brewing tool man.
The adults, however, could see what was really going on, and that included Harley herself. She let out a small sigh, her mood a little complicated.
On one hand, she would soon be able to turn back into a boy. On the other, next term she would probably have to endure Snape's venomous tongue all over again.
A different kind of pain and happiness mixed together.
…mmp!
The dinner ended quickly, something the adults had clearly sped up on purpose. As for whether the young wizards would end up not eating their fill?
If they weren't full, they could just go sneak food from the kitchens. Nothing to worry about.
After herding all the young wizards upstairs, the adults finally opened up and started talking freely, though that naturally didn't include Kasen.
In truth, he didn't know much more about the current situation than Harry and the others did.
But even if you've never eaten pork, you've at least seen pigs run around.
Big shots secretly setting up private armed groups behind the government's back? Wasn't that perfectly normal?
By all rights, Dumbledore should be pulling out a massive battle map any moment now and start deploying troops.
But he didn't. Instead, he cheerfully looked toward the Weasley family first. "Where's Percy?"
Mr. Weasley let out a sigh. "Don't even get me started. The situation in the Ministry is far too chaotic right now. I can't even tell which side he's on anymore. Every day he just runs back and forth between office after office, doesn't get anything done, doesn't tell me anything, and somehow still gives off the impression that he's incredibly busy."
"Then all we can do is wish him good luck," Dumbledore said, effortlessly extracting the useful information. Percy was already out of control, and might not even be on his side. He immediately moved on from the topic.
"Do you need me to go over the current situation again?"
There was a three-second silence around the long table. Dumbledore nodded to himself and continued, "Our new member, Hogwarts' Alchemy professor, Kasenhis. Everyone may call him Professor Kasen. He prefers that."
Kasen stood up with a completely blank expression, awkwardly applauding himself while looking utterly confused as he turned his bewildered gaze toward Dumbledore.
When had he ever said he wanted to join Dumbledore's secret order? How did he not know about this himself?
But at least for now, it seemed… no one really cared.
"Since we've all gathered here, there should be some kind of plan, right?" Kasen said, seeing the atmosphere suddenly go cold and casually picking a topic.
"Oh, actually, the Ministry of Magic has made some arrangements. Minister Scrimgeour deployed additional measures," Tonks suddenly raised her hand and spoke up. "Since Voldemort's truly loyal followers, the Death Eaters, are all in Azkaban, he believes Voldemort will definitely look for an opportunity to attack Azkaban. So he's increased the number of guards there and asked us to pass this information on to you, Headmaster."
"No problem. A very good deployment. I already know," Dumbledore nodded and accepted it.
At that moment, little-ideas-king Kasen quietly raised his hand. "Since Voldemort's diehard Death Eaters are all in Azkaban, why don't we just charge straight into Azkaban and…"
As he spoke, Kasen stretched out one hand, pressed his five fingers together, and swish swish swish waved it through the air.
The moment his words fell, everyone at the table stiffened.
Not because of anything else.
But simply because…
He was right. Why not?
"Dumbledore! This is a good idea," Moody said gruffly.
"I can lead the team. I'm fairly familiar with the place," Sirius added.
"Uh, can I be included too?" Kasen weakly raised his hand. "Because from what I can tell, the Order of the Phoenix doesn't seem to have that much real combat power."
Another strange silence fell over the long table.
All kinds of people from every corner of the magical world seated there felt a faint sense of offense.
But then they remembered how Kasen had forcibly dragged Cedric back from a graveyard where Voldemort and the Death Eaters were gathered, killing a few Death Eaters along the way…
Fine. Offended or not, forget it. Dumbledore, however, clearly had other thoughts.
"Not only can we go to Azkaban and kill those Death Eaters in advance, we can also hide there. When Tom brings his current Death Eaters over, we ambush them and trap them inside," Dumbledore said quietly.
"Damn..."
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