days at Hogwarts

Chapter 560 Draco's Intelligence
King's Cross station, platform 9.

On September 1995, 9, the bright red paint of the Hogwarts Express still looked as bright as new, the chimney on the front of the train was spewing black coal smoke, the platform was crowded with students and their families who were saying goodbye, the young wizards breathed in the familiar smell and crowded into the crowd to board the train, their sight was full of familiar faces, their hearts, which had been silent for the entire holiday, were now pounding with joy, as if they wanted to fly.

Sirius was defeated by Molly and Moody's double torture, and finally gave up the idea of ​​lurking in Hogsmeade and bid farewell to Harry in disappointment.

"Take good care of yourselves."

"Especially you, Harry, be careful."

"Each of you must remember that when you write a letter you must be careful not to include everything."

"If you're not sure, don't write it at all."

"Avoid trouble and never let your guard down!"

"..."

The shrill whistle sounded and the train started moving.

"goodbye!"

"goodbye!"

The young wizards shouted out of the open windows. Ron and Ginny leaned half of their bodies out of the window, waving their hands with joy on their faces. The figures of Tonks, Lupin, Sirius, Moody, the Weasleys and others became smaller and smaller, and finally shrank into an indistinct black dot, which turned a corner and disappeared behind the platform pillar.

They walked with difficulty in the aisle, looking into each box through the glass doors. Most of the boxes were already full, and a few had a few scattered empty seats, but the group did not want to separate and sit with unfamiliar people.

As they passed a carriage, a tall boy with dreadlocks called out, "Here, there are two empty seats here, come over here!"

"Thank you, Lee!" Fred looked inside the box and immediately laughed. He squeezed in, "Oh! Long time no see, Katie, Alia and... Angelina!"

"Hey!" George realized something was wrong and yelled, "Why did you put Angelina last?"

"what?"

"..."

Loren and his companions greeted each other with a smile and continued to walk to the back carriage. People kept greeting them along the way. As the champion of the Goblet of Fire, everyone in Hogwarts knew Harry. Even many freshmen were staring at Harry with great interest, and some of them even poked the people sitting next to them with their elbows and pointed at him.

This happened in five consecutive carriages.

"Oh, look! The famous Harry Potter!"

"Look at the scar on his forehead, it's really in the shape of a lightning bolt!"

"I heard that he defeated that guy..."

Ron winked at him and said with a weird smile, "It looks like Colin's club is going to expand again. How about setting up a fan club, just like Krum did last semester..."

Harry could only smile wryly in response.

In the last carriage, they met Neville, who was holding a pot of small gray cactus in one hand and holding his struggling toad Lev with the other. His round face was covered with sweat, and he greeted them breathlessly: "Hey, Harry, Loren... Don't look for it, everywhere is full, just go to the last compartment, Luna is alone there..."

Ginny glanced at the box at the back, then at Neville who was sweating profusely, and couldn't help but wonder: "Then why are you going outside?"

"I must go to the Prefects' Box..."

"You're our prefect, Neville!" Ron exclaimed in disbelief.

"Um……"

Neville responded softly, his round face blushing, and he said shyly, "I don't know why Professor McGonagall chose me, but grandma is so happy... Never mind, I'll tell you later. I have to receive instructions from the President of the Student Union, and then patrol the corridors from time to time."

"Go ahead, Prefect Longbottom," Harry said with a smile.

Hearing this name, Neville's face turned red, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on Leif's hand, squeezing the main force of the Toad Choir and making him scream: "Don't, don't call me that... I'm leaving first, see you later!"

Watching him running away in a panic, Ron put away his envious gaze and muttered unconvincedly: "I also want to be a prefect, why didn't Professor McGonagall choose me..."

"Because you still have Quidditch to do."

Loren greeted Luna who was sitting inside, and moved two empty boxes into the box swiftly. He placed Hanhan's cage and Crookshanks' bamboo basket on the boxes, one for each little guy, and fed them some pet snacks.

"What?" Ron looked up stupidly.

"Don't forget, Wood once told you before graduation that if Angelina graduated and left, she would hand over the position of Quidditch captain to you..."

Loren explained slowly that Professor McGonagall had discussed the selection of prefects with them at the afternoon tea party in the principal's office a few days ago, so she knew about this matter: "Last year, due to the Goblet of Fire Tournament, there were no Quidditch activities for the whole year. Angelina is about to graduate this year. If you don't take advantage of this year to get familiar with the captaincy, what will you take over next year?"

"!!"

Ron's eyes widened and his breathing became rapid. He never thought that he would have such an important responsibility on his shoulders before the school officially started.

"I...Captain...hehe..."

Seeing that he was even more flustered than Neville, several people smiled knowingly. Then they had time to say hello to Luna next to them. Ginny even took her hand and asked her what she did during the summer vacation and how she spent her time.

"I had a great time. My dad took me to the primeval forest to look for traces of the Scimitar-horned Snorkeller. We made some discoveries..."

Luna said in a trance, her golden hair was messy and down to her waist, and her thin pearwood wand was inserted behind her left ear. Her eyebrows were very light and she blinked very rarely, so it was always a bit strange to look at her clear eyes. Fortunately, she was not wearing the necklace made of butter beer corks, but the Quibbler magazine in her hand was upside down. After two years of getting along, Hermione had already adapted to her eccentricities and understood that this girl from Ravenclaw had a pure heart, so she did not refute her that there was no Snorlax in the world, but she didn't want to agree with her either.

"Hey, Luna, did The Quibbler publish any interesting articles this summer? You know, the Daily Prophet is full of words that denigrate Dumbledore and praise Fudge, it looks like a buzzing fly..."

"uh-huh!"

Luna pursed her thin lips into a pleasant smile. Although she knew Hermione was trying to change the subject, she still found it very useful: "I recommend you to read this issue. My father revealed many secret truths in his articles that most people don't know. Someone from the Ministry of Magic sent a warning letter, asking him to withdraw these manuscripts, but we threw those letters into the fireplace..."

Hermione took the magazine and the cover had been hard to see because it was upside down, but now they saw that it was a very badly drawn cartoon of Cornelius Fudge, wearing a lime-green hat, with one hand clutching a bag of gold and the other around the neck of a goblin.

The caption on the comic reads: How close is Fudge to taking over Gringotts?

Then the titles of other articles in the magazine were listed below: Corruption in the Quidditch Federation; The New Education Order - What the Ministry of Magic wants to do to Hogwarts; The conspiracy of the silent pure-blood family...

Although he knew that these articles were most likely clickbait titles and the cover content contained the most information, Harry still became interested. Hermione spread the magazines on the small table and began flipping through the pages. For a moment, the carriage was filled with discussions about fake news.

Luna always had a happy smile on her face. There were two things in the world that made her happiest. One was those weird and unconfirmed magical animals, and the other was the popularity of "The Quibbler" edited by her father.

"Tsk tsk..."

Loren couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, as expected, all media outlets are full of clickbait headlines.

"When Cornelius Fudge was elected Minister for Magic five years ago, he denied that he had any intention of taking over Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Fudge always insisted that he only wanted to "cooperate peacefully" with the custodian of our gold. But is this really the case?

Informants close to the Ministry of Magic have recently revealed that Fudge's strongest ambition is to gain control of goblin gold reserves, and he will not hesitate to use force if necessary.

A Ministry insider revealed: His friends call him Cornelius Fudge, the "Goblin Slayer". I wish you could hear what he said when he thought no one was around, he always talked about the goblins he killed. Some were thrown into the water and drowned, some were pushed off the building and fell to death, some were poisoned and some were baked in pies..."

Although these unfounded slanders against Cornelius Fudge were not true, they were very popular with the young wizards, because they hated Cornelius Fudge. Listen to Harry and Ron making up some absurd guesses on the spot, then listen to Luna's serious analysis, and finally listen to Hermione's refutation in a low voice with a tangled face...

Loren listened with great interest.

The train rattled forward, bringing them to the empty countryside. The weather during the transition from summer to autumn was always changeable. Sometimes the carriage was full of sunshine, and the next moment the sky was gloomy and covered with dark clouds.

As fine raindrops began to fall outside the car window again, Loren suddenly caught a glimpse of someone waving at him outside the box. Looking up, he saw Draco's shiny golden hair close to his scalp, his pointed chin raised high, and his expression was exactly the same as his father's.

As soon as Loren walked out of the box, Draco, with a cool expression, pulled him to the secluded observation platform at the rear of the car, and carefully checked whether anyone was following him. He deliberately closed the door of the platform, as cautious as an experienced spy.

"Hey, isn't this the new Slytherin prefect? ​​Why did he lock up a Gryffindor like me right after taking office? You are abusing your power for personal gain, Prefect Malfoy." Loren teased in a drawn-out voice, staring at the president of the prefects on his chest.

Draco looked at him coldly, his eyebrows knitted tightly together: "During the summer vacation, I sent you a message with that copper Knut, why didn't you reply to me?"

"Slander, I clearly responded!"

"..."

Hearing his self-righteous tone, Draco took a deep breath and tried to hold back some impolite words: "You call that a reply? Count how many letters there are yourself. Read! Read! The spells of first-year students are longer than this!"

"The prologue of The Standard Book of Spells, Miranda Goshawk's summary and criticism of some outdated spells. I can cite more than ten spells to refute you."

"Are we talking about spells!?"

"Hey, how can you say that? You are now the prefect of Slytherin. You should set a good example for the younger students. Charms is one of the most core courses in Hogwarts. It cannot be overemphasized."

"..."

Draco's fists hardened. If he could beat this man, he would have wanted to take out his wand and cast a few standard spells at him. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "What I want to tell you is something very serious, about the Dark Lord's plan!"

"He's looking for your father again?"

"Hmm..." Draco nodded slightly. "He moved into our house a few days before school started. He probably used Malfoy Manor as a temporary base. He secretly asked my father to do something."

"what's up?"

"do not know."

"I don't know what you mean—"

"But my father had a secret meeting with someone last night. I was hiding behind a pillar wearing an invisibility cloak, so I didn't hear the specific actions clearly. His condition was very abnormal, very similar to the symptoms of being under the Imperius Curse as described in the book." Draco had a gloomy face and frowned slightly. He looked a bit like Snape at this time, "Sturges Podmore, do you know this name..."

Loren was stunned for a moment, and the image of a middle-aged wizard with a square jaw quickly emerged in his mind - Sturgis Podmore, the guard who was late this morning!
The long-lost memories buried deep in his mind rose rapidly like a giant whale in the deep sea, finally breaking through the water surface and splashing huge waves. He tried to find some clues about Sturgis Podmore from those pictures that did not belong to this world, but found nothing.

I don't know this person's identity, what he has done, or what role he plays in the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters...

Loren's heart skipped a beat, but he quickly calmed down. Since they got on the train safely, it meant that Sturgis Podmore was fine for the time being. He suspected that Lucius and Voldemort didn't even know that this man was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and just chose this unlucky guy when selecting the puppet.

And because of the existence of the Fidelius Charm, even if this person has been controlled by Voldemort, he cannot reveal the existence of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Loren exhaled and asked slowly, "Then what did Sturgis Podmore do?"

"I haven't heard of his plan, but I can guarantee that he can't do anything." Draco spread his hands and smiled triumphantly, "I found out that he was under the Imperius Curse, so after he walked out of the manor gate, I quietly followed him and cast a few universal spells on him. Although they are not enough to remove the Imperius Curse, they can make his mind clearer..."

"I really want to give you a few spells to clear your mind!"

(End of this chapter)