Days wandering around Hogwarts

Chapter 410 Someone wants to burn down number 3 Privet Drive

The workday arrived, and Harry felt that the Weasley house suddenly became quiet.

Arthur and Percy went to work early in the morning, Fred and George went to do business, Bill and Charlie were asked to help, and after Bakalova came back from interviewing Grindelwald, she had been writing furiously in Bill's room.

Now Harry, his three friends and Ginny were the only ones with nothing to do in the Burrow.

Inspired by Bakalova's diligence, Hermione plans to take everyone to preview next semester's courses, which scares Harry so much that he starts learning wizard chess with Ron.

At breakfast time, everyone was talking and laughing at the dining table today.

Arthur brought back today's Daily Prophet from outside and looked at the front-page headline with some confusion.

He handed the newspaper to Harry and asked, "Harry, look, is this Charles's house?"

The first thing Harry saw was the photo in the news. It was indeed number 3 Privet Drive, and the lawn outside the house was still mowed before he came to the Burrow.

He smiled and said, "What funny things did Charles do again?"

Hermione next to him reminded him: "Look at the title!"

"A wizard's home in Surrey was nearly attacked, and Minister of Magic Fudge strongly condemned it."

Harry was startled and immediately read the contents.

The news was not written by a Western journalist, so it is not that shocking and the course of events is relatively simple.

In the early hours of last night, a wizard attempted to burn down number 3 Privet Drive, setting off the alarm. Aurors arrived and arrested him.

The news only gave a general description of the crime scene, without mentioning which street it was, because the focus of the report was on the angry Minister of Magic, Fudge.

The Quidditch World Cup is about to begin. More than 100,000 wizards from all over the world will come to the UK to watch the finals. The finals, semi-finals and third and fourth place matches currently being held have also attracted 20,000 to 30,000 foreign spectators.

At this juncture, the house of the owner of the internationally famous Dancing Grass Restaurant was burned down. If the Dancing Grass Restaurant made some discontent moves again, such as closing for a few days, the Ministry of Magic would be under great pressure.

So the Ministry of Magic has to declare that Britain is safe, that last night was an isolated incident, and that the prisoner has been sent to Azkaban to be eaten as breakfast by the Dementors.

After watching the news, Ron asked in confusion, "Why would someone burn Charles' house?"

Hermione frowned and said, "Could that wizard be trying to kidnap Mr. Smith and extort money?"

When she was in elementary school, there was a kidnapping case in her class for the purpose of extortion, and Charles was kidnapped by the kidnappers, so she quickly thought of this.

Harry said, "It's also possible that he wanted to kidnap Mr. Smith and force Charles to hand over something, or ask him some questions."

Black had just kidnapped Malfoy not long ago, so this incident cannot be mentioned, but it can be used as a reference.

Arthur said, "I think it might be revenge against Mr. Smith."

The Harry trio didn't understand what that meant and looked at him curiously.

Arthur continued, "Mr. Smith was a Muggle, but became friends with many wizards and often visited Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade."

"I heard in the Ministry that some stubborn wizards who hold to the bloodline theory are very dissatisfied with Mr. Smith's actions and think that he should be sent to Azkaban."

Molly exclaimed, "Mr. Smith is a good man. I saw him at the Leaky Cauldron last time. After he knew I was Ron and Ginny's mother, he chatted with me for a long time. He also asked me what jobs Bill and Charlie did, whether their salaries were high, and whether they had bought a house or a car. It was like we had been neighbors for many years."

"To send such a good man to Azkaban? That's horrible."

Jack has the passive skill of being a killer of middle-aged and elderly women. Matilda Weasley, the vice-president, took good care of him and became closer to the Weasley family, so Molly felt that he was like an elder in the family. Percy had been working at Charles's house recently and had more contact with Jack. He also had this feeling, and continued his mother's words: "Mr. Smith is knowledgeable, kind, and a rare good man."

"What kind of people are they to do such a terrible thing as sending him to Azkaban?"

The mother and son didn't know that the Dementors in Azkaban thought the same thing. It was too terrible to send Jack here.

At this time, Charlie asked everyone, "Has anyone read the Flower Hat magazine recently?"

Ron replied, "You three are the only ones in our family who need to pick out nice clothes for your girlfriends. Who would read a fashion magazine?"

The girls in the common room often read fashion magazines, and sometimes when they couldn't reach an agreement they would ask the boys to comment on them. When he heard the name, he thought it was this type of magazine.

Hermione said to him seriously, "Ron, The Flowered Hat is an herbology magazine. It was founded by Professor Garrick, the former Herbology professor at Hogwarts. It's in the library."

Arthur also said: "Before I went to Hogwarts, Professor Garrick came to visit our house. I still remember the hat full of flowers on her head."

Ron shrank his neck, stopped talking, and continued eating breakfast.

Charlie went on to say, “I think this has something to do with a paper Charles just published in The Flowered Hat.”

"We often use herbs, so I am very interested in herbal medicine. I have read the latest issue of the magazine."

"Charles did an experiment using Muggle fertilizers when growing herbs, and it worked very well."

Ron said immediately, "Yes, yes, this experiment was done at Hogwarts. Neville, Dean and I also helped measure the length of the leaves."

Arthur thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we ask Mr. Smith to come to our house for shelter."

Molly nodded first, then said worriedly, "But there aren't enough rooms."

Fred said, "How about we squeeze in with Ron and Harry?"

George also said, "If Percy wants to squeeze in with the others, that's fine."

Percy was a little embarrassed because he still had to work after returning.

Arthur finally said, "Then squeeze in."

"Molly, you and Harry will go to Mr. Smith's house and ask him if he is willing."

Of course, there is no problem with Molly.

After breakfast, she left Ron to wash the dishes and went to number 3 Privet Drive with Ginny and Hermione, led by Harry.

They didn't expect that number 3 Privet Drive would be so lively today. Fudge and Scrimgeour came, as well as Neville's father, Frank Longbottom.

Fudge was worried that more wizards would come to cause trouble, so he suggested that Frank be Jack's bodyguard.

Fudge spent some time thinking about the choice of bodyguard. He remembered that Neville, the son of Franken, was a classmate of Charles among the Aurors, so he was the one.

Molly invited Jack to the Burrow, and then said: "No one would expect you to be in our house. Although it's a bit narrow, the view is nice."

Jack sat on the sofa with a very serious expression, and what he was thinking was different from others.

After a long moment, he said firmly: "There is no word 'escape' in my dictionary."

(End of this chapter)