Chapter 288: Deng Buliduo's Secret

In the end, curiosity overcame morality, or perhaps Harry just wanted to find a place far away from the kitchen to avoid smelling the burning underwear. In short, he walked upstairs along the stairs.

Lu Na's bedroom was quite clean. She placed a Hogwarts snow globe on the table and drew the people of Torchwood on the wall beside it. I don't know if it was intentional or if she just couldn't draw anymore, but Harry didn't find the faces of Crabbe and Goyle there. And by the bed was another large photo, which should have been taken when Lu Na was a child with her mother.

Harry stared at the photo for a while. He had heard Lu Na say that this beautiful witch in the photo was named Pandora Lovegood. When Lu Na was nine, she left the world forever because of a spell experiment error. Lu Na once mentioned that her mother wanted to use a spell to achieve the effect of Ravenclaw's diadem—this happened to be the inspiration spell Lu Na discovered. Harry mourned for a moment with deep feeling. When he walked out of the room, he was immediately attracted by a huge poster.

Under the deep blue sky, a blue and white painted fighter jet was rushing out of the clouds, with "Fly Higher" written underneath. Harry looked at the furnishings in the room. This should be the guest room; Trig probably lived here before. Thinking of Ron covering his room with Quidditch stars, and then seeing the various airplane pictures Trig posted, Harry always felt that this child was out of place in the Wizarding World.

Further up might be Mr. Lovegood's room. Harry hesitated slightly and decided to return to the restaurant. No matter how weird the things served were, he had to drink a little bit anyway. This was to avoid hurting Mr. Lovegood's feelings and make him cooperate more with the Order of the Phoenix's work.

"Ahahaha, fish soup is here!" Mr. Lovegood brought a pot of things that were black and colorful. Harry barely maintained his smile and tasted a mouthful.

Although the taste was weird, it wasn't completely impossible to swallow. Just as Harry was trying to dip bread in the soup, Xie Nuofeiliusi spoke up, "Actually, I just thought of another possibility."

Harry listened respectfully, actually secretly rejoicing that he had an excuse not to continue drinking soup.

"There is one thing that, although it has always been outside the scope of our discussion, is also full of oddities, and that is Ariana's death," Xie Nuofeiliusi said seriously. "Deng Buliduo and Grindelwald are both legendary mages. In that duel of the three, did they really miss?"

Harry frowned. Although the battle in Grindelwald's memories was very chaotic and hard to see clearly, from Deng Buliduo's later performance, there is a high possibility that the spell that hit Ariana was cast by him. But as Xie Nuofeiliusi said, would Albus's spell miss?

"And, if what hit Ariana at the time was a Disarming Charm or a Full Body-Bind Curse, or even a small trick like Densaugeo, was she that fragile? Died at once?" Xie Nuofeiliusi continued. "And don't forget, Ariana was an Obscurial. Unless she died immediately upon being hit by the spell, the Obscurus would explode, and the Deng Buliduo family would be destroyed at once."

"But as you said before, they argued and dueled among themselves, it's impossible to utter a Killing Curse," Sirius raised a doubt.

"Yes, but if we revert the conclusion to the previous version, if she was hit by a dark curse, such as the Stunning Spell or even the Cruciatus Curse, and her body was very weak at this time," Xie Nuofeiliusi's body leaned forward slightly, "for example, just finished giving birth, then does it make sense?"

Harry had nothing to say. He had to admit that this was a quite reasonable conjecture. He could only deliberately deny this point in order to take care of Aberforth's wishes.

"There is another doubt," Xie Nuofeiliusi widened his eyes and continued. "Why did Ariana 'rush out'? Think about it, if you are a sickly sister, hearing movement outside the door, should you rush to join the duel, or stick your head out to observe first, or shout a few words to persuade them to stop?"

Harry had never considered this point before. Even from Grindelwald's memories, he didn't see it very clearly. Perhaps Grindelwald didn't pay attention to Ariana at the time.

"And generally speaking, the bedroom is always upstairs, and the duel of the three mostly happened in the living room—that is, downstairs," Xie Nuofeiliusi continued to ask questions, but looking at his expression, perhaps he already had a shocking conjecture. "If you are just a sister who wants to persuade them to stop, would you choose to stand on the stairs and shout 'stop', or rush into the battlefield?"

"Then according to this, Sirius also leaned forward slightly," "Why did Ariana want to rush into the battlefield?"

"Generally in this situation, it must be that she wanted to protect one of the three, and believed that the other two would stop for her sake," Xie Nuofeiliusi nodded slightly. "Who do you think she wanted to protect?"

"First exclude Grindelwald, and then Deng Buliduo was accused of not caring enough about his sister, so she wanted to protect Aberforth?" Harry naturally guessed what Xie Nuofeiliusi wanted to say. "Indeed, Aberforth is the person Ariana trusts and is closest to."

"So, Ariana must have died blocking the spell Albus shot at Aberforth. This is why Albus has been guilty to this day, and why Aberforth beat Albus at the funeral," Xie Nuofeiliusi tapped the table. "Then let's consider another question, why did Aberforth run out to argue with Albus?"

"If it's really as they said on the surface, Aberforth accused Albus of not caring enough about his sister, don't you think it's ridiculous?" Xie Nuofeiliusi's voice suddenly lowered a bit. "Aberforth has always been the person Ariana trusted and was closest to. He took good care of Ariana himself, so what if Albus didn't care enough? Or in other words, what if Albus cared or not? Shouldn't it be you, Aberforth, who really decided Ariana's quality of life?"

"That's true..." Harry somewhat understood what Xie Nuofeiliusi meant. Aurelius is a topic that is eye-catching enough, so that everyone ignored the various oddities in Ariana's story.

"Then what would be the real reason for their argument?" Xie Nuofeiliusi blinked, his voice lowered a few more points. "I guess, it should be that Deng Buliduo wanted to send Aurelius away, because this is a boy who symbolizes the scandal of the Deng Buliduo family."

The clues were connected, and Harry's face suddenly became brilliant. If he wanted to explain the oddities of Ariana's death at the same time, the alchemy life hypothesis was becoming less and less tenable.

"So Grindelwald would say to Aurelius, the Deng Buliduo family abandoned you, he knows this is a fact," Xie Nuofeiliusi leaned forward again. "Of course, Ariana must want to protect Aurelius, because this is her child, but why is Aberforth so excited? We can say he was taking care of Ariana's emotions, but I have a bolder conjecture."

Harry and Sirius also leaned forward. At a distance that was almost a whisper, Xie Nuofeiliusi said in a mosquito-like voice, "Aurelius is the child of Aberforth and Ariana."

Harry's head was buzzing. The last time he had this feeling was when he learned the true relationship between Deng Buliduo and Grindelwald. But this time it lasted longer, because this was a conclusion that was like a fantasy derived from detailed and rigorous reasoning.

Yes, everything makes sense. Aurelius's Obscurial talent, Aberforth is indeed the child's biological father, everyone is unwilling to mention his mother, and Grindelwald knew all this very early. When Aberforth condemned Albus for not caring enough about his sister, his first reaction was to laugh...

"Of course, I will still publish the alchemy life article in the magazine," Xie Nuofeiliusi nodded. "And I will be careful to avoid this new conjecture as much as possible. This is to support your work."

"Thank you," Sirius said, and Harry just came back to his senses.

"However, I think my new conjecture is the truth of the matter. I'm glad you are willing to listen to me finish. Don't worry, I promise not to tell others, I won't mention this matter again," Xie Nuofeiliusi nodded and served himself another bowl of Gurdyroot fish soup.

After finishing a bizarre dinner, Harry and Sirius said goodbye to Mr. Lovegood, and Sirius sent Harry back to Hogwarts. Along the way, Harry was still immersed in that terrible conjecture. He had to admit that this was the conjecture that explained all the oddities and seemed closest to the facts, which made him feel creepy.

However, early the next morning, something that made him even more terrified happened.

The terrible conclusion that Xie Nuofeiliusi promised "never to tell others" actually appeared completely and in detail in the next day's Daily Prophet, and with the headline "The Deepest Secret Buried by the Deng Buliduo Family," it squeezed out the news of Jim Hack visiting the farmer and appeared on the front page headline.

And, after rigorous reasoning, it was supplemented with the follow-up of the story and some plausible evidence.

"... After discovering that his brother and sister had done such an ugly thing, Albus, as the head of the family, decided to quietly send Aurelius to New York and entrusted a friend to choose an adoptive family for him. Even after Ariana passed away, he didn't change his mind.

However, a very coincidental thing happened. On that ship heading to New York, in the cabin next door, a little girl named Leta Lestrange, because she disliked the noise of her brother's crying, swapped Aurelius Deng Buliduo with her brother Corvus Lestrange. Then, when the shipwreck happened, she didn't have time to hug her brother before she was taken to take refuge, so the baby who should have died in the shipwreck changed from Aurelius to Corvus.

We believe that when Grindelwald discovered Aurelius, he might also have been shocked. And for many years, the Dumbledores always thought Aurelius had died in the shipwreck, which is the real reason why Aurelius was late to recognize his ancestors and the Deng Buliduo brothers never looked for him. Even for the Deng Buliduo family, Aurelius dying in the shipwreck was a better ending."

"Special thanks—to Mrs. Lestrange for revealing the truth to us." ===== CHAPTER 289 =====