Chapter 275

"I object!" Aberforth said with a straight face. "The Hog's Head Inn is my property, and I won't hand it over to others."

"Yes, I don't think there is a need to change the operator..." Moody took a sip of watermelon juice and suddenly changed his statement. "But then again, for you Aberforth, other tasks of the Order of the Phoenix are already busy enough, will it be a bit overwhelming?"

"Before that, we have to confirm one thing." Snape, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. "Harry Potter intends to engage in that Deng Buliduo's Army at school, right?"

Harry didn't really want to look at him, but the answer to this question was obvious. He looked at the table and said in a low voice, "Yes."

"And you, young Auror, are preparing to mix into Hogwarts as an outsider when their gathering starts, right?" Snape said slowly. His tone was not intense, but anyone could hear that he was not happy.

"Practice always needs a venue." Doge used a soft tone to smooth things over again.

"I don't think Hogwarts has such an empty classroom that can be used by people." Snape said stiffly.

"Then why not." A person wearing a big hat made a suggestion. "Before Harry finds a suitable venue, let Clister serve as a liaison at the Hog's Head Inn?"

"I have almost thought about where to set the venue." Harry said. He thought the Room of Requirement was just right as a gathering place for Deng Buliduo's Army. "It won't occupy the classroom, we are a secret gathering."

"That's just right, letting Clister stay in Hogsmeade Village is more convenient for you to keep in touch." The person wearing the big hat said in a sharp voice—Harry just remembered that he should be called Dedalus.

Dedalus tried his best to persuade Aberforth, hoping to let Clister stay as a bartender at the Hog's Head Inn. Harry noticed that the cup he quietly placed on the windowsill had moved to near Dedalus at some point.

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

Aberforth reluctantly agreed to give up the kitchen and bar of the Hog's Head Inn. He promised that in addition to his Auror work (in fact, his current Auror work is to be sent to the Order of the Phoenix to do things), Clister could serve as a chef and bartender at the Hog's Head Inn, so that Harry Potter could find him at any time when needed.

As soon as he got the consent, Clister immediately used a "Scourgify" spell, making the floor of the Hog's Head Inn drop by a full two millimeters.

Before he continued to cast cleaning spells on other places, the members of the Order of the Phoenix covered their noses one after another and said goodbye to Aberforth and Clister. Sirius Black also grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him out, but as he walked, he found himself standing in Godric's Hollow again.

"Next, let's go to the headquarters to continue discussing the Horcrux matter." Doge said loudly. "We can't let the Ministry of Magic know about these things, at least we can't let them know our progress."

"Very reasonable," Moody said in a rough voice. "If the Ministry of Magic masters the Horcruxes, even if it's just one, we will be very uncomfortable."

"Why?" A witch asked.

"The Ministry of Magic doesn't care if you are righteous, it only plays balancing acts." Moody said with some dissatisfaction. "We and the Death Eaters have to fight to the death, we must never let the Ministry of Magic have a chance to intervene."

"To be precise, once the Ministry of Magic finds a way to intervene," Sirius Black said, "it will be difficult for us to completely eliminate the Death Eaters."

Harry thought for a while. Indeed, the Ministry of Magic is the group of people who least want to see war, but that is because their thinking is rigid and they are always thinking about maintaining the status quo. Therefore, they will not help the Order of the Phoenix uphold justice, let alone help Britain improve its comprehensive strength.

In this case, in fact, the members of the Order of the Phoenix handled things very well, and limited cooperation with the Ministry of Magic is a very good choice, but the key point of the struggle like Horcruxes must never let them participate.

"Now, let's discuss the matter mentioned last time." Doge said. "If Lu Xiusi hides the Horcrux in his own manor, then Bellatrix is likely to do the same. However, we still haven't found out where the Lestrange family manor is."

"These pure-blood families have many properties," Dedalus said. "I found a country villa of theirs on the Isle of Wight, but it seems to be empty and no one lives there."

"Perhaps there are more," Emmeline said. "Hestia found that Rodolphus also arranged many footholds in the European continent, and even several in East Germany."

"And the Horcrux of the Lestrange family, we are not sure what it is." Moody said. "I feel there is a great possibility that it is the missing Hufflepuff Cup, but I can't be 100% sure."

"We still need to figure out where Hoffa hides the Horcrux," Kingsley said with a solemn expression. "I only found a Muggle with the same name, but he doesn't know anything. He hides very deeply, he must be living in the Muggle world with a fake name."

Harry nodded in deep agreement.

"If Hoffa has the cup? Then the things Voldemort hid in the Lestrange family will be even harder to find." Doge sighed.

"On the contrary, I think that's better." Lupin said seriously, and served another pot of cheese-baked vegetables. "Lestrange might let it slip, but we really can't do anything about Hoffa."

"Severus, do you have any way to trick Hoffa into handing the Horcrux to you?" Sirius Black turned his head and asked.

"I'm afraid not." Snape's mouth twitched. "Everyone knows he trusts Regulus more."

"Lu Xiusi's things also need to be checked, right?" A bearded, short and fat male wizard said. "Now we only know it's a snake, but we don't know the type of snake, and we can't be sure if it's kept in Malfoy Manor."

"You are right, Mundungus." Doge nodded to him, and Harry secretly remembered the name, trying hard to correspond it to this face.

"This gathering was still a bit hasty, but the most important thing is that we smoothly avoided the intervention of the Ministry of Magic." Doge concluded. "This is still very meaningful. Next, I will trouble you, Harry, to continue to organize Deng Buliduo's Army, so as to cover for us to find Horcruxes."

"You shouldn't say 'continue', you should say 'start'." Harry spread his hands helplessly. "But indeed, I will try my best."

"At least the work is still advancing." Doge tried to boost morale.

Subsequently, they exchanged some other fragmented information, and this meeting was declared over.

When walking out of the headquarters, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that at least he was clear about what to do next: organize Deng Buliduo's Army at school.

This is just like the Order of the Phoenix using this to fool Clister, they are also trying to find some things for Harry that look very useful, time-consuming, and not so dangerous. However, Harry didn't care about this point. He happened to think that Deng Buliduo's Army was not as useless as everyone thought: it might help Harry become the next Deng Buliduo—from the perspective of organizational ability and connections.

Moreover, a fulfilling school life and a student club that looks like it has far-reaching significance are exactly what Harry wants.

"Next is tomorrow's Death Eater meeting." Sirius Black rubbed his forehead. "Is Hoffa preparing to go?"

"Tomorrow?" Harry felt a bit strange. "Why do they have to hold meetings on weekends? These pure-blood nobles don't need to go to work."

"They are not not going to work, oh, in fact, the Death Eater meeting is also part of the work." Sirius Black took a turn. "But the real reason is, they have to wait for Snape."

"As the headmaster of Hogwarts, running around to attend meetings every day is a job duty." He said. "But, who told him that he also intends to serve as the Potions professor?"

"My god, saying so, Professor Snape is too busy." Harry just listened to the description and felt that Snape was really tired.

"Of course I'm not relaxed either, I have to hold meetings for the little brothers at night, and I have to arrange work in Gilneas tomorrow morning." Sirius Black yawned. "Fortunately, such big meetings are not held from Monday to Friday, they are all small-scale."

"But, what do they need to do now?" Harry felt a bit confused.

"Of course, we need to make war preparations. Although we don't intend to go to war, and the Death Eaters don't intend to go to war, and the Ministry of Magic doesn't want us to go to war, we must pretend to be preparing for war, and the Death Eaters are also pretending to be preparing for war. The Ministry of Magic doesn't know that our war preparations are fake," Lupin added on the side. "Therefore, in order to prevent us from going to war, of course we all know this is just pretending, they will carry out some mediation and intervention, and if the Ministry of Magic's energy is placed on preventing our fake war, they won't realize that the real war has actually started."

"Yes, yes," Harry felt a bit dizzy. "But anyway, your last sentence refers to Horcruxes, right?"

"That's right." Lupin said. "But we can't really do no war preparations at all. In fact, I am organizing werewolves to build a huge wall."

"Wall?"

"Yes, you think, we can't pull werewolves to the battlefield, this violates the original intention of Gilneas's founding, but we can't let others feel that these werewolves haven't played any role at all." Lupin said. "So we plan to build a huge wall, set up numerous defensive magic, which can be used to provide shelter for Hogwarts students—or other innocent people in the future."

"And on the Death Eater side, we promised that the Greymane Wall is used to protect their property and family members. For this reason, one hundred thousand Galleons have been raised from their hands." Sirius Black sneered. "I am looking forward to the day they really put their property in."