Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 467 Independence
Not long after saying those words, Tierra simply vanished.

She truly vanished. Tiera left only the words, "I'm busy with other things lately," before disappearing. For several weeks afterward, Ha could not contact Tiera using either the Resurrection Stone or the Tarot cards.

This situation made Harry a little annoyed.

Almost the day after Tyrell said goodbye to them, Harry finished his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the new term, opened his dormitory door, and had just taken a step inside—

His head started to throb with pain, as if it had been sliced ​​open.

He didn't know where he was, whether he was standing or lying down, or even his own name. Maniacal laughter echoed in his ears. He hadn't been this happy in a long time—elated, overjoyed, and ecstatic, as if something incredibly wonderful had happened.

"Harry? Harry!" Someone slapped him across the face, a painful cry punctuated by the maniacal laughter. The joy faded, but the laughter continued.

He opened his eyes and realized that the maniacal laughter was coming from his own mouth.

As soon as he realized this, his laughter stopped.

Harry lay panting on the floor, staring at the ceiling, the scar on his forehead throbbing horribly.

Ron leaned over and looked at him, looking very worried.

"What happened to you?"

“I, I, I don’t know!” Harry sat up. “He was very happy, he seemed very happy.”

"Mystery man?"

“It’s like something good has happened,” Harry mumbled weakly, trembling as if he had dreamt of Mr. Weasley being bitten by a snake. “It’s like something he’s been hoping for has finally happened.”

Harry's question was answered the very next day. When Hermione's Daily Prophet arrived, she opened it to look at the front page, then suddenly screamed, drawing stares from everyone around her.

"What's wrong?" Harry and Ron asked at the same time.

She spread the newspaper on the table, pointing to the ten black-and-white photos that filled the front page: the faces of nine male witches and one female witch, some silently smirking, others arrogantly tapping the border with their fingers.

Each photograph is captioned with the name and the crime for which the person was imprisoned in Azkaban.
Antonin Dolokhov, a pale, twisted, long-faced wizard, sneered at Harry and brutally murdered Gideon and Fabian Pwett.

August Lukewood, a greasy-haired, pockmarked man leaning against the frame with a weary expression, was revealing Ministry of Magic secrets to the mysterious man.

But Harry's attention was drawn to the witch.

Her face jumped into his eyes the moment he first looked at the newspaper; her long black hair looked messy in the photo, but Harry had seen it smooth and shiny before.

Her eyes, hidden beneath thick eyelids, stared at him, a haughty, disdainful smile playing on her thin lips. Like Sirius Black, she retained some traces of her former handsomeness, but something—

Perhaps it was Azkaban who stole most of her beauty.

Bellatrix Lestrange tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom, leaving them permanently disabled.

Hermione nudged Harry and pointed to the caption above the photo:

The Ministry of Magic fears Black is the "initiator" of the Death Eaters' escape from Azkaban.

“Black?” Harry shouted. “No—!” “Shh!” Hermione snapped. “Keep your voice down and look down!”

The Ministry of Magic announced last night that a mass escape had occurred in Azkaban. Minister Cornelius Fudge confirmed in an interview in his office that ten serious offenders escaped last night, and that he had informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the danger posed by the escapees.

“It is very unfortunate that we are in the same situation as Sirius Black, the murderer, who escaped two and a half years ago,” Fudge said last night. “And we do not believe that the two escapes are unrelated. Such a large-scale escape raises suspicions of outside assistance, especially considering that Black, as the first person to escape from Azkaban, is best positioned to help others escape. Among the escapees is Black’s cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange. We believe these escapees may have regarded Black as their leader. But the Ministry of Magic is making every effort to apprehend the escapees and urges the public to remain vigilant and avoid approaching these wanted criminals.”

“Look, Harry,” Ron said fearfully, “that’s why he was so happy last night.”

"Watch out for escaped Death Eaters!"

—This sentence seems to echo in everyone's ears.

Up to this point, all of Tyrell's prophecies came true in a chillingly precise way.

Fear and unease gradually spread among the young wizards at Hogwarts following the report in the Daily Prophet.

“I can’t believe it!” Harry growled. “Fudge is blaming Sirius for the prison break.”

“What else can he do?” Hermione said sarcastically. “He can only say, ‘Sorry, Dumbledore warned me that the guards of Azkaban have sided with Voldemort.’ Fudge spent over six months telling everyone that you and Dumbledore are liars, didn’t he?”

Hermione opened the newspaper and began to read the report carefully, almost word by word. Harry wondered if she was trying to memorize it.

"If only Tierra were here right now," Harry said, looking disappointed and somewhat dejected.

“Yes, it would be even better if Tiera were here; Tiera is indeed very powerful.” Hermione finally finished reading the entire report and lifted her head from the ink-smelling pages of the Daily Prophet.

“But we can’t rely on him for everything,” Hermione said firmly. “Tiera must have gone missing because of something important. He’s already helped us enough. It’s time for us to take on some things ourselves.”

“Perfect timing.” Hermione said, opening a package that had just been delivered by an owl. “The workbooks I asked my parents to buy have arrived.”

Hermione neatly stacked the exercises, which were at least as thick as two magic history books, on the table.

"So many?" Ron exclaimed. "Are we supposed to finish all these exercises?"

"No." Hermione's answer brought Ron a slight sigh of relief, but her next reply plunged him into despair—

“It’s not just us,” Hermione said. “Everyone has to do this much.”

“What?” Ron cried out in despair, “You mean we each have to do this much?”

“Hmm.” Hermione nodded and said, “My parents bought these from Chinatown. They were a bit expensive, so I asked them to only buy me one copy. Anyway, we can use magic to copy these exercises.”

“But, but, but… how can there be so much?” Ron asked. “Isn’t this too much?”

“Not much,” Hermione said. “I bought them exactly as Tiera suggested: Algebra, Solid Geometry, Plane Analytic Geometry, and Introduction to Modeling.”

“Once we’ve copied these, we can distribute them,” Hermione said. “Remember not to copy the answers to these questions as well. We need to be independent; we can’t always rely on Tierra!”

(End of this chapter)