bioinnovel Chapter 414 The Crisis in Xiaohuijin District
Chapter 414 The Crisis in Xiaohuijin District
Chapter 414 The Crisis in Xiaohuijin District
The hottest day of summer is finally coming to an end.
The sun had long since set, the deep blue night sky was filled with stars, and the streetlights cast a dim yellow glow.
Fifteen-year-old scarred Harry Potter stood in the dimly lit amusement park on Magnolia Road, with his cousin Dudley standing beside him. The two brothers, who had never gotten along, were arguing heatedly.
Harry mocked Dudley for being so big, yet only daring to bully ten-year-old boys. He even used cheesy nicknames like "Daddy the Little Darling" and "Baby Egg" to disgust Dudley.
Dudley mocked Harry for being a coward, pretending to be a man with a thin stick during the day, but turning into a coward crying for his parents at night.
The two cousins poked at each other's sore spots and exposed each other's secrets, neither of them showing any mercy.
Surprisingly, in this contest of stabbing each other in the lungs, Harry lost to his cousin Dudley.
During this sweltering summer, Harry was plagued by nightmares almost every night. He dreamt of an unfamiliar cemetery, a village nestled in a valley, and many other places he had never been before.
No matter where he went in his dreams, the nightmares always ended with a pale, skull-like face and a pair of cruel, tyrannical, scarlet eyes.
Harry knew that the face and eyes he dreamed of belonged to Voldemort, even though he had never seen the resurrected Dark Lord.
In this sweltering summer, Harry would get up promptly at five o'clock every morning to buy the Daily Prophet delivered by owl, eager to know what was happening in wizarding society.
He wanted to know if Voldemort had done anything wrong, and how the Ministry of Magic was preparing to deal with him, but the newspapers were filled with the same smears against Dumbledore and old stories about Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Little Harry was very confused. He didn't know what the Ministry of Magic was trying to do, nor did he know what Dumbledore was doing. Why was the Dumbledore in the newspaper so different from the kind and gentle old man he knew?
For the past month, Harry has tried time and again to contact the wizarding community. He wrote to Ron and Hermione, to Sirius and Lupin, and he also wrote to Belvina.
However, all of Hedwig's letters went unanswered, and apart from the gifts he received on his birthday, Harry seemed to have been abandoned by everyone on Privet Drive.
Trapped in the Dursleys' house and unable to move, he could only wander aimlessly all day, eavesdropping on Muggle news on television from under the window and picking up old newspapers from roadside dumpsters.
The summer of 1995 was a disaster for Harry. He couldn't stand it anymore and even wanted to ride a broomstick to London and Grimmauld Place.
Today, the hottest day of the summer, the sweltering heat intensified Harry's resentment, which piled up and finally erupted on this sultry night.
Under the cover of night, the sultry air flowed slowly, and the warm smell of hay kept wafting into our noses.
An enraged Harry shoved his wand back into his pocket, raised his arms, and spread his legs apart, his left hand and left foot forward, assuming a stance similar to a boxer's stance.
He yelled at Dudley, "Come on, D-bro, hit me! You only dare to throw punches at ten-year-old Mark Evans? Come on, hit me, little Dudley!"
Right now, Harry just wants to have a good fight with Dudley, win or lose, even if he gets a good beating.
Dudley, tall and fat, was furious. His jaw muscles twitched uncontrollably. He wanted to punch Harry in the face and show him that his boxing skills were not for nothing.
However, the thin stick Harry had tucked into his pocket made Dudley hesitate to approach. Dudley remembered how he had grown a pig's tail when he was eleven, and he also remembered how Aunt Maggie had swollen into a ball of flesh.
Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded in the dilapidated amusement park on Mulan Road: the tall, thin Harry, who looked like a bean sprout, kept verbally provoking Dudley, who was tall and fat, but dared not respond to the provocation, even though his cousin was several weight classes lighter than him.
Just as Harry was about to step forward and give his flesh-clad cousin a little wizarding shock, he suddenly sensed something was wrong and a vague unease rose in his heart.
Impossible! I must have seen wrong! How could there be other wizards near Privet Drive?
Harry thought to himself, finding everything that had happened that night very strange. First, he heard a bang like a gunshot on Privet Drive, then he saw a figure that looked like a wizard on Magnolia Drive—
This is really strange, as if Harry Potter wasn't the only unpopular person around Privet Drive, as if there were other undocumented wizards living in this neighborhood.
Harry pulled his wand from his trouser pocket and looked warily at the patch of dry grass behind Dudley—just now, Harry felt as if someone was standing on that patch of grass, and that person was watching him.
Harry wasn't sure if he was seeing things or if it was just his imagination, but there wasn't a soul in sight on the sun-dried grass, yet he felt like someone was standing there.
Is it an illusion, a hallucination, or perhaps an invisibility cloak or a phantom cloak spell?
Harry had no way of knowing for sure, so he could only hold up his wand and point it at the empty meadow.
"Get that thing away from me!" Dudley shouted in alarm. "Point it somewhere else, can't you stop doing this?!"
"Shut your mouth! You two-legged pig!" Harry snapped irritably. "Get behind me, quick!"
The tall, stout Dudley was angry, scared, and also felt wronged. Although Dudley didn't know why Harry had suddenly become violent, he obediently shuffled behind his cousin.
However, the two cousins, who were born in the same year, were not in the same weight class at all; the skinny younger cousin was no match for the fat older cousin.
"What—what are you doing?" Dudley asked慌张地, hiding behind Harry. "You're pointing at—"
What are you pointing there for?
"Shut up!" Harry said impatiently. "Listen to me, back away little by little."
After saying that, Harry shielded Dudley behind him and slowly retreated towards the outside of the amusement park. A strong sense of unease welled up in Harry's heart, telling him: Get out of here as soon as possible.
"Tell me right now, what are you doing? What are you trying to do!" Dudley said frantically as he slowly backed away. "Tell me now, or I'll tell Dad!"
"Shut up! Please, Dudley, you idiot!" Harry's eyes remained fixed on the empty meadow.
The eerie scene reappeared once again in the amusement park on Magnolia Road: the wizard Harry Potter was outwitting thin air, while the Muggle Dudley Dursley was filled with fear of the unknown.
Before long, Harry and Dudley retreated to the entrance of the amusement park.
"Dudley, listen!" Harry whispered. "Get out this door and run straight home, don't look back!"
"Tell me why!" Despite his fear, Daddy still wanted to get to the bottom of it. "I'm going to tell Daddy that you've taken this piece of junk out and started fiddling with it again!"
These words made Harry really want to leave Dudley there alone, but Harry couldn't do that.
Just as Harry was locked in a tense battle of wits with thin air, a soft popping sound rang out behind him.
Harry whirled around and instinctively cast a spell in the direction of the explosion, the red magical light striking the figure that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Disarm you!"
"I am Williamson, an Auror from the Ministry of Magic!" the person who appeared out of nowhere hurriedly explained. "I'm here to protect you!"
As the man spoke, he waved his wand to block Harry's disarming spell.
Harry looked at the brightly dressed man in front of him, who had a ponytail as long as Bill's.
Harry didn't attack Williamson again, but he remained vigilant, wand in hand. Harry had never met Williamson before; how could he know if the man was real or not?
Suddenly, the air was filled with the rustling sound of cloaks.
On the empty streets, beside the square houses, and around the amusement park, wizard phantoms kept appearing.
They were all dressed in wizard robes and holding wands. They ran over quickly and were soon beside Harry and Dudley, protecting the two cousins in the middle.
"I am Williamson, an Auror from the Ministry of Magic," the wizard with the long ponytail repeated. "I am here to protect you on the orders of Madam Burns—the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
Seeing that Harry still didn't believe him, Williamson had no choice but to continue, "I know Miss Black very well, and I've even been a guest at Fertile Ground."
Hearing this, Harry lowered his guard a little and his wand, which was pointing at Williams, drooped slightly.
Williamson gave a wink to the wizards protecting Harry and Dudley, and the rustling of their cloaks sounded again. Half of them stayed where they were, while the other half went into the increasingly dimly lit amusement park.
The wizards entered the amusement park slowly and cautiously, their goal clear: the patch of dry grass that Harry had just pointed to with his wand.
"You're from the Ministry of Magic, what are you doing here?" Harry asked warily. Behind him, Dudley looked terrified and trembled violently.
"It's a long story, let me escort you back to the Dursleys first," Williamson said. "We'll talk as we walk."
After saying that, Williams led Harry and Dudley away from the amusement park on Magnolia Road.
The other wizards who stayed behind to protect Harry also sprang into action. Some stayed by Harry's side, some went ahead to scout ahead, and some stayed behind to cover the rear.
As the wizards from the Ministry of Magic led Harry and Dudley out of Magnolia Road, the amusement park was suddenly illuminated by beams of magical light, their power turning the park as bright as day.