Chapter 289: False Mother

"No, that's not right, Xie Nuofeiliusi promised not to tell anyone," Harry said incoherently. He really couldn't understand why the Death Eaters would know this conclusion.

"That Leta, she also has the surname Lestrange," Luo En comforted. "It must be that she said something on her side."

"The key evidence was buried with the shipwreck. The only witness is Leta. No matter what the truth is, the public will choose to believe the Lestranges," Hermione sighed on the side. "This is no longer a question of knowing or not..."

"Harry, did you see the newspaper?" Zhang Qiu, wearing a blue school uniform, ran over hurriedly. "The Death Eaters are even more cunning than we thought. They didn't intend to smear Albus at all; they were prepared to target Aberforth from the beginning!"

Harry was still a bit dazed. His first sentence was: "But I still can't figure out how they knew this conclusion."

"The Death Eaters aren't all idiots. As long as they set the tone of bringing down Aberforth, they can naturally make up such rumors!" Zhang Qiu said seriously. "Their real killer move is to argue the point that 'the Order of the Phoenix has deteriorated' by smearing Aberforth, and the possibility of success is very high!"

"You must be careful. If you use the resources of the Order of the Phoenix to defend or clarify for Aberforth, it will be easy to fall into their trap," Zhang Qiu analyzed. "You have to tell everyone that Aberforth's private life has nothing to do with his determination to defeat Voldemort!"

"But people won't follow a leader who commits incest with his sister wholeheartedly; this must be denied," Hermione shook her head. "Harry said that the Death Eaters smearing Deng Buliduo is to infiltrate the Order of the Phoenix. We must clarify the rumors as soon as possible, otherwise, there will definitely be cracks in the Order of the Phoenix."

"But how to clarify?" Luo En said. "The key witness is in the hands of the Lestrange family, that Leta. If she remembers something about the identity of the guest in the next cabin, we will be even more passive."

"Leta has already passed away; she was unfortunately killed while resisting Grindelwald," Zhang Qiu said. "It should just be Bellatrix pulling things together by the surname."

"And don't forget, there is actually another person who really knows the truth of the matter and has not said a word so far," Hermione said. "Aberforth himself, what does he say?"

"Coming out to argue for this kind of thing will only make it darker," Zhang Qiu raised an objection. "It's better for Aberforth to continue to say nothing."

The disagreement between the two girls actually represents the current dilemma. The Death Eaters dragged the Order of the Phoenix into a new battlefield never seen before by attacking Aberforth's private life, so the situation suddenly became very passive: unless they find a perfect way to clarify and iron-clad detailed evidence, Aberforth, who cannot explain clearly, will lose his restraint on the Order of the Phoenix. Some members who were already dissatisfied with Aberforth might choose to betray under the temptation of money and status.

Just then, an owl flew in and sent a note from Sirius to Harry.

"You don't have class in the morning, right? Come to the Three Broomsticks to see me, the Order of the Phoenix is having an emergency meeting."

Harry shook his head helplessly, then explained a few words to his classmates, and wrapped himself in his Invisibility Cloak and hurried toward the secret passage.

"You finally came, we have to think of a way together," Sirius took Harry's hand, and they Apparated without walking a few steps.

When Harry recovered, he found himself in Deng Buliduo's old house. The only people sitting around were Lupin, Doge, and Aberforth.

"Our new statement must be able to respond to all doubts one by one," Lupin said seriously. "It's best to find enough evidence. This is not an easy thing."

"But what is the truth? Aberforth?" Doge asked. "I have always believed that telling the truth is always easier than making up lies."

"Make up whatever you want," Aberforth said angrily. "I'm going back to sleep."

"You don't know the seriousness of the problem, Aberforth," Sirius frowned and said. "If your reputation is stained, the cohesion of the Order of the Phoenix is not enough to resist the corrosion of the Death Eaters, then we will have to spend a lot of effort to catch internal ghosts and guard against our own people!"

"The fact is that Ariana rushed out, I dodged a spell shot at me, and then that spell hit her. Who knew they could make up so many things? What rushing out, what blocking a knife for whom," Aberforth said unhappily. "Reality doesn't need logic, so even if I told the truth, how many people would be willing to believe it?"

"So, the child's mother is really just an ordinary Muggle girl who died in a shipwreck?" Doge asked cautiously.

"I don't want to repeat it, you make it up yourselves," Aberforth sighed tiredly, then grabbed the armrest and went upstairs.

"Compared to explaining doubts, I think it is more important that we must immediately prove that Aberforth and Ariana did not commit incest," Harry regained a bit of his train of thought. "And we must produce more powerful evidence than Leta Lestrange."

"Whose child is it?" Doge asked. "Or rather, whose should we argue it is?"

"Complying with Aberforth's wishes, let's say it's his," Lupin suggested.

"If we decide to use lies to counter lies," Sirius hesitated, "we all know that living witnesses are more powerful than dead witnesses, right?"

"How do you say?" Doge looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"If the child's mother is a witch and saved Leta's brother, and the two have been living elsewhere?" Sirius's tone trembled slightly. "She now sees rumors flying everywhere and decides to come out to clarify. This is reasonable, right?"

"Is there really such a person? Do you know her?" Lupin asked suspiciously.

"Nymphadora Tonks," Sirius sighed.

"Don't joke, Tonks's age is wrong—oh you mean," Lupin widened his eyes. "Let Tonks pretend to be that 'mother'? That's right, she is a Metamorphmagus, it's hard for others to see the flaws..."

"It's not a way, but a way," Harry also sighed. "Then let's perfect the details of the story?"

"First, she should be an Englishwoman. After finding out she was pregnant, she went to find Aberforth, but he was in a low period of losing his sister at that time, and the two quarreled over some small things. The girl left Aberforth in a fit of pique, preparing to go to her aunt in America for a few days," Sirius began to make up the story. Perhaps because of the experience with Hoffa, he was very skilled. "Before boarding the ship, she gave birth to the child, and then after the shipwreck happened, she Apparated with the child. Because of the Statute of Secrecy, the crew didn't know that these two guests had escaped, they just claimed that they had perished."

Harry nodded. Sirius's story sounded very reasonable.

"And later, she was surprised to find that the child she saved was not Aurelius. She realized that her crystallization of love with Aberforth had been lost. So out of guilt, she didn't go back to find Aberforth, but raised Corvus Lestrange alone and lived in seclusion," Sirius gave the story an ending at will.

"That's not very good, out of guilt or something, it's not so easy to convince others," Lupin added. "You can say that she didn't know Corvus, so she sent him to some orphanage, and then started a new life, formed her own family, and the youthful frivolity with Aberforth became a past she didn't want to mention."

"That's true, the more immoral the child's mother appears, the more it can make everyone feel that the things back then were not Aberforth's fault," Harry said.

"Now this widowed old woman sees her first love from her youth being attacked by such vicious rumors, and can't help but come out to say a few words, which is also very normal," Sirius nodded. "And to ensure that others can't check her genealogy, she'd better be married to some foreigner."

"Push it to China," Harry said. "When she was at her aunt's in New York, she met some Chinese person. If someone really has to dig to the bottom, let Zhang Qiu write a letter to Master Xuanjun. It is said that Xuanjun and Deng Buliduo have a quite good relationship, he shouldn't mind this small favor."

"I'll go talk to Tonks later," Lupin let out a sigh of relief.

"I think I need to find Xie Nuofeiliusi again. I actually suspect a bit, did he tell the results of our conversation to others?" Sirius said with a livid face.

"Maybe it was eavesdropped," Harry stroked his chin. "The Daily Prophet eavesdropping on The Quibbler, although it sounds a bit unbelievable, but the day we two visited him, I think if I were Rita Skeeter, I would also try to eavesdrop."

"And, all the setups he made before were also very clear. Even if Rita didn't hear the conclusion, she could probably think of this herself—after all, she was originally a reckless reporter with bold ideas," Harry shook his head lightly.

"Then we also need to change his article before The Quibbler is published," Sirius said. "Tell him about the child's mother."

"I'll call Tonks to go together later," Lupin said. "Wait for her to change her look, and then take a fake name, so it's more appropriate to leave some photos or something."

"We can forge evidence," Doge suddenly said. "Let Aberforth copy some correspondence."

"Then we should get moving," Sirius said. "As for you, Harry, I'll send you back to school first, you have class in the afternoon, right?"

"I've already missed half of History of Magic," Harry looked at his watch. "Fortunately, it's History of Magic." ===== CHAPTER 290 =====