Chapter 275: Back-to-Back Meeting

"I object!" Aberforth said, his face stern. "The Hog's Head is my property, and I won't hand it over to anyone else."

"Yeah, I don't see the need to change operators…" Moody took a sip of watermelon juice, then changed his tune. "But then again, Aberforth, you're already swamped with other Order missions—could you really manage it all?"

"Before that, we need to confirm one thing," Snape suddenly spoke up, having said nothing until now. "Harry Potter plans to form Dumbledore's Army at school, correct?"

Harry didn't want to meet his gaze, but the answer was obvious. He looked at the table and whispered, "Yes."

"And you, young Auror, intend to infiltrate Hogwarts as an outsider when they begin their meetings, correct?" Snape said slowly, his tone not harsh, yet anyone could tell he was displeased.

"Practice needs a venue, after all," Dodgy said again in his soft, placating voice.

"I don't believe Hogwarts has any empty classrooms available for public use," Snape said bluntly.

"Then how about this?" suggested a man wearing a large hat. "Until Harry finds a suitable location, let Kelaisite serve as a liaison at the Hog's Head?"

"I've almost decided where to set up the location," Harry said. He believed the Room of Requirement would be perfect for Dumbledore's Army meetings. "It won't take up any classrooms—we're a secret gathering."

"Perfect. Keeping Kelaisite in Hogsmeade makes it easier for you to stay in contact," said the man in the large hat, his voice high and thin—Harry suddenly remembered his name was Dedalus.

Dedalus pressed hard on Aberforth to let Kelaisite stay at the Hog's Head as a bartender. Only then did Harry notice that the drink he'd quietly placed on the windowsill had somehow moved closer to Dedalus.

After another round of noisy discussion, the Order reached a consensus on this meeting.

Reluctantly, Aberforth agreed to let Kelaisite use the Hog's Head's kitchen and bar counter. He promised that, in his spare time between Auror duties (in truth, his current Auror assignment was simply working for the Order), Kelaisite could also serve as chef and bartender, so Harry Potter could find him whenever needed.

Immediately after gaining approval, Kelaisite cast a "Scourgify" that lowered the Hog's Head's floor by two millimeters.

Before he could cast more cleaning charms elsewhere, Order members covered their noses and bid farewell to Aberforth and Kelaisite. Sirius grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him toward the exit—but halfway there, he realized they were standing again in Godric's Hollow.

"Next, we continue discussing Horcruxes at headquarters," Dodgy said loudly. "We can't let the Ministry know about these matters—not even our progress."

"Makes sense," Moody grunted. "If the Ministry gets hold of even one Horcrux, we're done for."

"Why?" asked a witch.

"The Ministry doesn't care if you're righteous—it only plays balance games," Moody said irritably. "We're fighting the Death Eaters to the death. We can't give the Ministry any chance to interfere."

"Precisely," Sirius said. "Once the Ministry finds a way to intervene, it'll be nearly impossible to eradicate the Death Eaters completely."

Harry thought for a moment. Indeed, the Ministry was the least willing to see war—because they were rigid, obsessed with maintaining the status quo. They wouldn't help the Order uphold justice, let alone aid Britain's overall strength.

Under these circumstances, the Order members were handling things well. Limited cooperation with the Ministry was a sensible choice—but the Horcruxes, the core of this struggle, must never involve them.

"Now, let's discuss what we mentioned last time," Dodgy said. "If Lucius hid a Horcrux in his manor, Bellatrix likely did the same. But we still haven't located the Lestrange family estate."

"Pure-blood families own many properties," Dedalus said. "I found a countryside villa on the Isle of Wight, but it appears abandoned—no one lives there."

"There may be more," Emmeline said. "Hestia discovered Rodolphus set up numerous safehouses across the Continent—even a few in East Germany."

"And we still don't know what the Lestranges' Horcrux is," Moody said. "I suspect it's the lost Hufflepuff Cup, but I can't be certain."

"We still need to find out where Ho Fa hid his Horcrux," Kingsley said gravely. "I found only one Muggle with the same name—he knew nothing. He's hidden deep—definitely using a false identity in the Muggle world."

Harry nodded in deep agreement.

"What if Ho Fa has the Cup?" Dodgy sighed. "Then Voldemort's item hidden with the Lestranges becomes even harder to find."

"On the contrary, I think that might actually be better," Lupin said solemnly. "The Lestranges might slip up—but with Ho Fa, we truly have no leverage at all."

"Severus, can you trick Ho Fa into giving you the Horcrux?" Sirius asked, turning his head.

"I doubt it," Snape's lip twitched. "Everyone knows he trusts Regulus more."

"We still need to keep investigating Lucius's belongings, right?" said a short, stout wizard with a scruffy beard. "We only know it's a snake—but we don't know the species, or whether it's even kept at Malfoy Manor."

"You're right, Mundungus," Dodgy nodded to him. Harry quietly memorized the name, struggling to match it to the face.

"This gathering was still rushed, but the most important thing is we smoothly avoided Ministry interference," Dodgy concluded. "That's meaningful. Harry, you'll need to continue organizing Dumbledore's Army to help us cover our search for Horcruxes."

"You shouldn't say 'continue'—you should say 'start,'" Harry said, shrugging helplessly. "But yes, I'll do my best."

"At least progress is being made," Dodgy tried to boost morale.

After exchanging a few more scattered bits of intelligence, the meeting ended.

As Harry stepped out of headquarters, he exhaled slightly. He now had at least a clearer sense of what he needed to do next: organize Dumbledore's Army at school.

Just as the Order was using it to deceive Kelaisite, they were also giving Harry something that seemed useful, time-consuming, and relatively safe. But Harry didn't mind. He actually believed Dumbledore's Army wasn't as useless as everyone thought—it might help him become the next Dumbledore, in terms of leadership and connections.

Moreover, a full school life and a student club that appeared profoundly meaningful were exactly what Harry wanted.

"Next up: the Death Eater meeting tomorrow," Sirius rubbed his forehead. "Will Ho Fa attend?"

"Tomorrow?" Harry found it odd. "Why do they always meet on weekends? These pure-blood nobles don't even have jobs."

"They're not jobless," Sirius said, veering off. "Actually, Death Eater meetings are part of their work. But the real reason is—they're waiting for Snape."

"As Headmaster of Hogwarts, attending meetings daily is part of his duty," he said. "But why does he insist on being Potions professor too?"

"Good heavens, now that you say it, Professor Snape must be exhausted," Harry thought, just from the description.

"I'm not exactly free either," Sirius yawned. "I have meetings with my boys at night, and tomorrow morning I need to arrange things in Gilneas. Luckily, we don't hold big meetings Monday through Friday—only small ones."

"But what exactly do they need to do right now?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"Of course—we need to prepare for war," Lupin added. "Even though we don't plan to go to war, the Death Eaters don't either, and the Ministry doesn't want either side to start one. But we must pretend we're preparing for war, the Death Eaters are pretending they're preparing for war, and the Ministry doesn't realize our preparations are fake. So, to prevent what they think is an impending war—though we all know it's pretend—they'll mediate and interfere. And if the Ministry's attention is fixed on stopping our pretend war, they won't realize the real war has already begun."

"Right, right," Harry said, slightly dizzy. "But your last point is about the Horcruxes, isn't it?"

"Exactly," Lupin said. "But we can't do zero war preparations. In fact, I'm organizing werewolves to build a massive wall."

"A wall?"

"Yes. Think about it—we can't send werewolves into battle; that violates Gilneas's founding principles. But we can't let others think they're useless," Lupin said. "So we're building a huge wall, layered with defensive magic, to serve as a refuge for Hogwarts students—or other innocents—in the future."

"And to the Death Eaters, we promised the Grimmauld Wall protects their property and families. We've already collected one hundred thousand Galleons from them," Sirius sneered. "I'm looking forward to the day they actually put their wealth inside."