Chapter 304

Although Harry had long known that Darc was brought by Tang Nade to clean up his image, he was still stunned when he saw him in person at the Order of the Phoenix.

"A Black man?" Harry couldn't help saying, "Are you sure he's Darc Fontroy?"

"Why not a Black man?" Sirius asked, puzzled. "There are plenty of Black people in America—it's not strange, is it?"

"Besides, his skin tone is fairly light—obviously mixed race," Lupin added beside him.

Harry observed Darc as he spoke with Dobby, frowning slightly. Indeed, upon closer inspection, he did resemble Tang Nade—but he had always been certain that Darc and Tang Nade were twins, and should look identical.

"But Cui Ge's skin tone…" he still couldn't make sense of it. "And Tang Nade has already admitted Cui Ge is his nephew."

"Maybe he got tanned in Africa?" Sirius said casually.

"Come on, don't meddle in other people's family affairs," Lupin patted Harry's shoulder. "What matters is that he's willing to help the Order."

Putting himself in their shoes, Lupin—who had once had to hide his werewolf identity—disliked prying into others' private matters.

After finishing his chat with Dobby, Darc walked up to Harry and greeted them: "Harry, buddy, good to see you."

"Uh, me too," Harry nodded politely.

"There's one thing I need to ask you—don't mention me to Cui Ge, okay?" Darc lowered his voice. "It's complicated."

"Why?" Harry asked instinctively.

"I suspect Cui Ge isn't even my son—just look at his skin tone," Darc launched into a preemptive accusation. "Anyway, let things stay as they are. I'm mainly here to help the Order."

"But Tang Nade brought him to live with him," Harry's tone grew stiff. "He's admitted Cui Ge is his nephew—"

"Of course, to avoid a scandal," Darc chuckled, lightly punching Harry's shoulder. "Tang Nade's running for Congress, you know. Me and Daisy had a fling, didn't we?"

"She dropped out for this child and was expelled from the magical world," Harry said coldly. "It nearly destroyed her life."

"Of course, of course—but the child isn't mine," Darc sighed. "Tang Nade offering her some compensation is already humanitarian."

"You make me sick!" Harry had never been so angry—he stood up immediately and shouted, "I won't agree. I won't let someone like you join the Order!"

"What's going on?" Dobby hurried over. "Why are you two arguing?"

"It's nothing—just a misunderstanding," Darc looked confused. "Harry might've been misled and formed a wrong impression of me."

"Harry, Harry, you must've heard about Cui Ge," Dobby panted. "You're still young—you might not understand the dirty tricks of the Magical Congress. To sabotage opponents, they'll do anything."

"And those poor, promiscuous women—they'll latch onto any chance to make false accusations. There are plenty of cases like this…" Dobby droned on.

Harry wanted to blurt out everything he knew and expose the whole charade. But he remembered that Cassandra, with the help of the Chinese, was now living well. She had become a bargaining chip the Chinese used against Tang Nade. If he revealed all the facts now, before the Order's members—

It wouldn't help Cassandra or Hermione much, but it would deeply hurt Zhang Qiu.

Harry sat down, scowling and shaking his head. Darc's chocolate-brown eyes held a clear, naive confusion. He stood awkwardly for a moment, then asked cautiously: "Harry, are you still angry? Did I not explain something clearly?"

Harry could guess that the man brought in to play "Darc" probably didn't know the full truth either—Tang Nade had deceived him too.

"It's fine," Harry forced a smile. "It's not your fault."

"Good, good," Dobby exhaled in relief. "We can start the meeting now—once Moody arrives, we'll begin."

The Order meeting began promptly. As scheduled, they voted overwhelmingly to accept Darc as a member, then each member reported progress: Emmeline indicated the Lestrange family's Horcrux was likely hidden in a Gringotts vault; Dedalus uncovered several details about the snake Nagini; Mundungus learned that Hofer might have once lived in Annecy…

As they repeated half-truths and rumors, Harry drifted off. The Order was genuinely searching for Horcruxes—and that, of course, made the Death Eaters vigilant, yielding little real progress. In truth, the Horcruxes weren't important; what mattered was forcing the Death Eaters to focus their attention on guarding against the Order, leaving Harry room to maneuver.

After the meeting, Harry and Sirius returned to Hogsmeade. Out of nowhere, Harry suggested visiting the Light Snap Photography Studio for some photos.

"I can't imagine you'd have such leisurely whims," Sirius said, but his face was already lit with a smile. Harry had never told him about Cassandra, so he assumed Harry simply wanted a nice memory with his godfather.

Light Snap's business seemed busy—two or three staff members bustled about. Cassandra guided them to a large blank backdrop and asked what background they wanted.

Looking at her cheerful face, Harry sighed inwardly. He didn't ask about Darc, followed Sirius's suggestions, and took several sets of photos with different backdrops, then a few joint pictures.

As they left the studio, Sirius happily fiddled with the leather envelope holding the newly developed photos. Harry smiled along, too. Setting aside Tang Nade's lies and schemes—if this was something that made his godfather happy, he was happy to do it.

After Sirius waved goodbye, Harry returned to school alone through the secret passage. One thing was certain: Zhang Qiu had mentioned Tang Nade had spies watching the studio. So, being photographed with Sirius would reach Tang Nade's ears as a warning: don't keep using the Order.

The next noon, Harry and Zhang Qiu worked together in the library. He felt the weight of his coursework deeply, and had no intention of finding time to impersonate Hofer. But soon, he realized he might need Hofer to attend the next meeting—because Pansy and Draco stood before him, faces grim, quietly asking him to find a private place to talk.

They didn't go to the Room of Requirement, but to Torchwood Headquarters—not the usual lounge for chatting, but the meeting room inside.

"Harry, I don't know if you've already figured it out," Draco said gravely. "The last Horcrux the Order and the Death Eaters have been searching for is right in this room."

In fact, there were two Horcruxes in this room right now, Harry thought wryly.

"I guess you didn't just find out—you just decided to speak up now," Harry looked carefully at the glass case. "You want to take it out?"

"Will you destroy it?" Draco asked. He tried to keep his voice calm, but it was clear he didn't want Harry to do it.

"If I planned to destroy it, I'd have used another method already," Harry smiled like Arnold, a sly, fox-like grin.

"I never thought I'd live to see this day—children still in school, holding equal power to speak with adults," Pansy said. "I only want to use it to protect my relationship with Draco. That's my only demand."

"But we can do more than that, can't we?" Harry said meaningfully.

"Yes, I only just decided to speak up because I just realized what we should do," Draco said seriously. "We'll use it to make our voices heard by the adults."

"What demands will you make?" Harry asked naturally.

"It's simple enough," Draco said. "Adults always have conflicting interests, but we don't want those conflicts to hurt us. That means—"

"They must not use the Killing Curse," Pansy added, glancing at him.

"Nor the Cruciatus or Imperius Curses," Harry said. "We oppose total war."

"Exactly," Malfoy said. "We want adults to resolve disputes through intellect and politics—even if they fail, they must preserve dignity. That's our demand."

"I think this basic stance isn't bad—it has some sense," Harry hesitated. Because of Draco, he'd already planned to give Lucius a dignified end. "But Bellatrix—that madwoman—after all the crimes she's committed, we shouldn't give her another chance to stir up chaos."

"Then expel her," Malfoy said. "Rodolphus is headmaster of Durmstrang—send her to live in Europe."

"If she won't live quietly, let the European Aurors lock the Lestranges into Nurmengard—it's empty right now," Pansy said gleefully.

But if she planned more crimes, many new victims would appear before her arrest. Harry frowned, about to speak—then suddenly remembered: those victims might be French. And that, somehow, didn't seem so bad.