Chapter 193 - 193 The third school year, it begins!

Chapter 193: Chapter 193 The third school year, it begins!

An airburst suddenly sounded, breaking the silence of the neighborhood.

There was an extremely odd, frightening face that suddenly appeared in front of Harry and Tonks. Every inch of the face seemed to be scarred, the mouth looked like a large, crooked gash, and the nose was missing where it should have been bulging.

Most horrifying of all were the eyes on the face -

One eye was small and black, while the other was huge, a stark bright blue, and moved without blinking, up and down, completely out of place in that normal eye.

Harry was taken aback and jumped backward menacingly, almost falling again.

Luckily Tonks reacted quickly to pull him again, which kept his head from making a close contact with the ground.

"Instructor Moody, didn't Director Scrimgeour say that you should go home and retire?" Tonks looked at the visitor and asked with some surprise, "Why did you even come over again in person this time?"

She always felt that sending a door key was just a matter of casually arranging a small clerk to send it over, there was no need to let the Ministry of Magic's soon to be retired Legendary Auror personally make a trip.

"It's not that coward Fudge, afraid that something will happen to Harry Potter under Breck's hand to delay his political future." Moody cursed, his wooden leg pounding on the ground with a winter thud.

"Besides I never intended to retire myself, it was purely Scrimgeour and the rest of them idiots who were always without brains and thought I couldn't tell the difference between an ordinary handshake and an intentional murder by now, and had to be told to go back to my old age!"

Scrimgeour and a bunch of wizards from the Auror's office weren't actually wrong; after experiencing a great deal of danger in his career, Moody had long ago become a bit paranoid, even overly delusional.

He always prepared all the food and drinks himself, and only drank from the curved flask he carried with him in case someone tried to poison him.

On April Fool's Day one year, a witch drank in Moody's wake, only for Moody, alerted by a sudden noise, to overreact and attack her; on another occasion, Moody, believing that a birthday present he had received contained a cleverly-disguised snake-monster's egg, smashed it to smithereens no matter what before realizing that it had been a travel alarm clock... ...

Moody himself, however, was not the least bit self-conscious about his own paranoia, and thought it was Scrimgeour and the others who had been too lax.

"How many times have I lectured them, they just don't know what it means to 'stay alert at all times'!" He exclaimed.

Moody aggressively handed Tonks an old teapot before turning his head to Harry, "You're Harry Potter, aren't you? Boy, go back and get your professors to teach your entourage to manifest, if you still can't do anything like you did today, you're going to lose a lot of chances to escape."

"Remember, always be on your guard!" His expression was quite stern, and with the scarred grimace, it scared Harry to death.

Tonks didn't dare to say another word even after receiving the old teapot that had been made into a door key, for fear of drawing the legendary Auror's wrath on himself.

Harry and Tonks didn't even notice that the big dog on the side of the street, after seeing Moody, became nervous in a rather anthropomorphic way, and moved to the side with very gentle movements without making a single sound.

But Moody's magical eyes, which were constantly turning, spotted the big black dog from behind.

He fiercely drew out his wand and cast a dazzling red light in a lightning fast speed.

The big black dog was startled, "Woof woof", and rolled on the ground very appropriately, quite fortunately escaping Moody's magic spell.

"Instructor Moody, stop it, it's just a dog!" Tonks looked at Moody, who was starting to overreact again, and rushed forward to pull one of his arms.

"What's wrong with a dog? A sorcerer who is proficient in shapeshifting is perfectly capable of using human shapeshifting to temporarily turn himself into a dog!" Moody glared at Tonks, "What if that dog is Sirius Black in disguise?"

Tonks had no way of convincing her instructor, and could only hold onto his arm for dear life, while sweating a little inside.

Director Scrimgeour hadn't misjudged the situation; Instructor Moody was just mentally deranged to be able to mistake a dog for Sirius! She said secretly.

It wasn't until the big black dog finally escaped the street that Tonks finally released Moody's arm, fearing that he might accidentally hurt an innocent animal.

"A couple of bells ago, two members of the Department of Occasional Incident Reversal were instructed to arrive at Maiden Road. Miss Maggie recovered, and her memory was adjusted. She will not remember this incident today at all. That's all that happened, and no harm was done." Fudge smiled amiably.

Even though he already knew that he wouldn't be expelled from Hogwarts anymore, Harry still couldn't believe his ears a little when he heard the Minister of Magic tell him about it personally.

He opened his mouth to say something thankful and couldn't think of what to say, so he closed it.

"Ah, you're worried about your aunt and uncle's reaction, aren't you?" Fudge said, "Well, I won't deny that they're extremely angry, Harry, but as long as you stay at Hogwarts for Christmas and Easter, they are prepared to let you go back next summer."

Harry's throat finally stopped clogging up.

"I'll always be at Hogwarts for Christmas and Easter," he said, "I don't want to go back to Maiden's Road."

"Naw, naw, I'm sure you won't feel that way once you've calmed down." Fudge said, with a worried tone of voice. "They are your family after all, and I'm sure you ... well, deep down you love each other."

Harry didn't bother correcting Fudge, just obediently followed him out the straight staircase door towards a tastefully decorated office.

"So now all that remains is," Fudge pushed open the office door and gestured for Harry to sit on one of the sofas against the wall, "where you're going to spend the rest of your two weeks vacation. I suggest you just stay at the Ministry of Magic, it's the safest place to stay at the moment."

"There's no way Sirius Black, even if he was more lawless, would be able to sneak into the middle of the most heavily defended Ministry."

"Stay at the Ministry of Magic for the next two weeks and not go anywhere?" Harry asked.

"Of course, my boy." Fudge took off his pinstripe suit jacket and black cloak and tossed them aside before taking a seat sharply across from Harry, "You need to be aware of the situation, you're in danger and I have to make sure you stay somewhere safe enough."

"But isn't the safest place in the world Hogwarts?" Harry hesitated, it always felt a little scary to spend two weeks in such a strange place without any familiar faces.

So he spoke up and asked, "I suppose I could go back to Hogwarts early."

"Oh Harry, Hogwarts is known as the safest place to be just because of someone like Dumbledore." Harry's trust in Hogwarts made Fudge a little impatient and he couldn't help but furrow his brow, "Now that Dumbledore isn't at Hogwarts, naturally I can't let you go back to this castle."

"Or I could go and ask Mr. Weasley to take me in." Harry hastily changed his mind.

"Don't be naive, Harry." Fudge shook his head, "Sirius Black is an extremely dangerous Death Eater, and you wouldn't want to put the Weasley family in danger, would you?"

Of course, Harry didn't know that the underlying reason for Fudge's refusal was still because he didn't want to leave too much credit to Dumbledore's beloved, Arthur Weasley, and prevent him from continuing to rise in the Ministry of Magic.

Harry fell silent and said no more.

"Well, it seems you don't want to stay at the Ministry of Magic." Seeing that Harry's mood was a bit down, Fudge once again squeezed out a kind smile, "In that case, I can find you a room at the Broken Kettle Pub, as long as you don't leave Diagon Alley for the next two weeks ..."

"With all the entrances to Diagon Alley being tightly controlled by the Ministry of Magic and guarded by some elite Aurors, I'm sure you'll be able to get plenty of security at the Broken Cauldron Bar!"

...

And so, for the remaining two weeks of the summer vacation, Harry was given more freedom than he had ever had in the Broken Cauldron Pub and Diagon Alley.

Before he had never been able to sleep and eat whenever he wanted. Now he could even go wherever he wanted, as long as that place was inside Diagon Alley, a long, little stone-paved street lined with some of the most mesmerizing magical stores in the world.

It was a freedom that even as he boarded the Hogwarts Express at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, he still felt a little unfulfilled.

Finally, the train's whistle blew.

The third year was about to begin!