Harry spent the entire afternoon sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace, staring vacantly at the flames, and Michael did the same beside him, with no interest in speaking.
They both wanted to do something, but the adults had strictly forbidden them to leave the room. Lupin still hadn't returned, and a young unfamiliar witch named Tonks was acting as their "guard."
"Hey, I say, can you two please cheer up?" Tonks tried to liven the mood. "Look at me—"
She turned her nose into a pink pig's snout and made snorting sounds, but the two kids by the fireplace didn't even spare her a glance.
"This is the first time my trick has failed!" Tonks said, frustrated, raising her voice.
"Look on the bright side, the kid was kidnapped, not killed, which means they definitely need him alive. You have to trust the Ministry's Aurors, we'll bring him back!"
This time, Michael finally glanced her way.
"Did they catch the three escapees?"
Tonks: "…"
"Have they found Mabel Roland?" Michael asked again.
Tonks: "Uh…"
"Did you guys give any explanation for the Dementor attack in Diagon Alley yesterday?"
Tonks was nearly in tears. She felt these issues weren't entirely her fault, but one after another, they kept piling on her, and she felt like she might just collapse.
Michael sighed deeply with his face buried in his hands. His mind kept replaying the scene from earlier that morning when they all left.
I actually noticed… I noticed that Wade wasn't in high spirits and seemed very tired. But since everyone else was going shopping, I didn't say anything about leaving Wade at home.
If I had spoken up then… If I had insisted Wade stay home to rest… could I have prevented what happened?
The red flames in the fireplace suddenly turned green. The group turned their heads simultaneously, and Tonks quickly pulled out her wand, shielding the two kids behind her.
Immediately, they heard a young voice: "Oi! What are you all doing here? You really don't need this many people!"
"Fred, you stepped on my foot!"
"Sorry, Ginny, but I'm George!"
A bunch of redheads seemed to have no coordination, chattering as they tumbled out of the fireplace. Ron ended up at the bottom of the pile, Ginny was shoved onto the sofa by one of her brothers' knees, landing with a thud on her knees.
Fred and George weren't much better off. They got tripped up by their younger siblings and fell, getting covered in soot.
Then came Mr. Arthur Weasley, barely maintaining an adult's dignity, stumbling out of the flames and muttering to himself:
"You little troublemakers, just wait until you get scolded!"
"Mr. Weasley!" Harry exclaimed in surprise, peeking out from behind Tonks. "And Ron, Ginny, George, Fred! What are you all doing here?"
"Oh, long time no see, Harry, and this must be Michael?" Arthur Weasley said, brushing off the dust from his clothes. "We're here to pick you up, kids."
"—Pick us up?"
Harry asked, confused, while Michael immediately furrowed his brows.
"I heard Wade's gone missing, what happened?" Fred asked, pulling his sister up.
Ginny blushed and hid behind her brother, wishing her presence could be as inconspicuous as possible.
George then asked, "We came to see if we could help... the more people looking for him, the better, right?"
"Are you okay, Harry?" Ron asked with concern, he looked at him carefully as though Harry were fragile. "I guess you're not feeling too great right now..."
"What happened?" Fred pushed his brother aside and asked.
A jumble of voices erupted around him. Harry opened his mouth but couldn't say anything, feeling as though his throat was filled with sand.
How could he explain this — that he had carelessly lost his friend?
Fortunately, he didn't have to answer, as before Harry could speak, the door was suddenly pushed open, and the cold wind, carrying tiny snowflakes, rushed in.
Dumbledore stood in the doorway with a grim expression. Snowflakes were scattered on his silvery-white hair and shoulders.
The elderly man seemed to harbor an overwhelming fury within him, which immediately silenced everyone, and the noisy voices instantly stopped.
Dumbledore's anger wasn't directed at those inside the room. He quickly reined in his expression, scanned the room, and nodded at them. With a flick of his wand, a silvery-white Patronus shot out in an instant.
Soon after, a series of "pop-pop-pop" sounds like firecrackers rang out, and several wizards appeared with Apparition, they quickly walked into the living room and pulled off their hoods.
Harry saw a pale-faced Lupin, the long-absent Sirius Black, the Auror Kingsley who had once tried to take Sirius away, and two other wizards he didn't recognize.
A man with a terrifying appearance and different-colored eyes frowned upon seeing them and said, "Why are there so many kids here?"
Kingsley spoke in a calm tone, "Because the one who went missing is also a kid, Moody — these are probably his friends from school."
Alastor Moody clicked his tongue, "I see most of them are from the Weasley family... Arthur, get them out of here quickly! This isn't something for children to be involved in!"
"Wade is our friend!" George said angrily. "And our magic skills aren't bad. Don't underestimate us! We can help!"
"The only help you can provide is not getting in the way of our rescue operation!" Moody said coldly.
"We're involved too!" Michael said, trying to stay calm, but his voice still trembled slightly. "Wade... Wade went missing while we were right next to him. We might have some clues!"
Moody's magical blue eye spun around and suddenly locked onto Michael. He gruffly asked, "Oh... so what clues have you discovered, sir?"
Michael gritted his teeth, unable to speak.
"This is entirely my fault," Lupin suddenly said. "I took them out, but I... I was too careless and didn't notice in time..."
"At this point, arguing about whose fault it is won't help. The most important thing is to find Wade as soon as possible."
Dumbledore spoke, he still appeared calm, as though the extreme anger they had seen earlier was nothing but a hallucination.
Even though Harry felt miserable, he couldn't help but feel a little confused—if Dumbledore's anger wasn't directed at Lupin, then who was he really angry with?
Just as he was thinking this, he saw the headmaster look over at him. "Harry, Michael, this place may not be safe anymore. You need to stay at the Weasley house temporarily. Arthur, take the kids with you."
"Of course, Dumbledore," Arthur Weasley said quickly.
"We're staying!"
"I can help!"
"We're not kids anymore!"
Everyone started shouting. Some of the adult wizards frowned, showing a clear expression of annoyance at the unruly children.
"I know," Dumbledore said, sounding very calm. "When we need help, I'll ask for it. But right now, we need to act quickly and deal with this. I hope you can cooperate with the arrangements, alright?"
The headmaster's voice seemed to have a sort of magic, calming the anxious, worried, and angry crowd.
His tone was gentle, but his attitude was firm. Harry felt that if they continued to argue, it would only make it clearer that not letting them participate was the right thing to do.
Michael clenched his fist and stood up first. "Let's go, Harry. They're right, we can't cause any more trouble right now."
Arthur Weasley sighed in relief. He quickly threw Floo powder into the fireplace and said to Michael, "—The Burrow, kids, that's your destination."
The green flames carried the kids away one by one, and the room was immediately left in silence.
"Tell me what happened, Remus," Dumbledore said.
"Yes," Lupin said in a low voice. "This morning, I took them to the Muggle supermarket to buy Christmas gifts..."
The mode of transportation, the route, the address and time, the circumstances surrounding Wade's disappearance...
Lupin quickly and thoroughly explained everything that had happened.
"The Muggle supermarket heard that a child went missing, and they provided some assistance. Fortunately, the supermarket we went to had just recently installed surveillance cameras..."
"Surveillance cameras?" Sirius asked in confusion. "What are those?"
"Muggle technology, they can record footage," Tonks answered eagerly.
Lupin paused for a moment. When no one else asked any more questions, he continued, "We looked at the footage and noticed an elderly man who seemed very suspicious."
He thought about how to describe the man, but felt that details like his appearance and height might not be reliable, but then he heard Dumbledore speak:
"Let me see your memory."
With a flick of his finger, an old stone basin appeared on the table.
"I've brought the Pensieve," Dumbledore said.
Lupin didn't hesitate. He inserted the tip of his wand into his hair at the temple and pointed it at his forehead.
Moments later, he withdrew his wand, and several strands of silvery material—resembling soft clouds—hung from the tip.
Lupin placed the memory into the Pensieve, and Dumbledore tapped it twice with his wand.
Instantly, a small-scale image of the supermarket appeared above the Pensieve. Wade was pushing a cart and selecting items, and a bald elderly man was casually approaching him...
Dumbledore's face turned completely cold.
...
In his sleep, Wade suddenly heard a strange wind. He groggily opened his eyes and, after seeing the object in front of him, his heartbeat nearly stopped—
A monster with a head the size of a house was looking down at him, and then it stuck out its enormous tongue, which was covered in white barbs like forest-like spears, trembling as they pointed toward him.
Wade's hair stood on end. With a quick lunge, he pulled out his wand and struck it forcefully!
The wand tip sparked, and though it was harmless, the monster was startled. It "meowed", and jumped dozens of meters high, instantly leaping out of the room.
Wade, stunned, looked at his useless wand and then at the "monster" that had jumped out. Only then did he realize that it was just a cat with long fur.
I was always the one using enlargement charms to challenge others' tolerance, but now someone has turned that tactic on me?
Wait...
Wade suddenly remembered how high the cat had jumped just now. After a brief silence, he slowly looked up.
The ceiling appeared much higher and farther than he had expected, far beyond the height he had imagined. The chandelier was huge and stunning.
Then he looked at his surroundings—
He had thought the floor beneath him was white, but in reality, it was white silk fabric, with clear fiber patterns crossing in all directions.
A real, 800-square-meter bed.
A rabbit-sized, spotted beetle crawled past with its yellow-brown shell gleaming. Its long, feather-like antennae wobbled twice, as if greeting him in a friendly manner, or perhaps evaluating whether this strange creature in front of it was something it could eat.
Wade finally realized that it wasn't someone playing tricks on him with an enlargement charm. He had been shrunk.
—It's okay, the shrinking potion was just covered in last semester's class by Professor Snape. I still have a stash of the potion and the antidote...
He reached into his pocket, but then froze.
—Oh right, I did not bring my wardrobe space with me this time.
But maybe that is a good thing... While I can't immediately solve the current predicament, if I had brought my wardrobe space, perhaps the magical item I had spent countless hours crafting would no longer belong to me at this moment.
Wade forced himself to calm down quickly and lightly waved his wand, looking for other solutions.
As expected... this place has indeed been affected by an anti-apparition charm. The enemy is as careless as I thought...
Wide-area repelling spells, shielding charms... Now, even owls wouldn't be able to find him, and no wizard or Muggle could accidentally stumble in...
There are only a few small windows in the room, which are positioned high and cannot be opened. However, there are ventilation ducts near the ceiling...
Wade glanced at the dark grates, feeling the call of freedom beckoning to him.
If I transform into an eagle, maybe I could fly up there.
But my current condition is unusual, and I am not sure if my Animagus transformation would still work... Plus, this is my last trump card. If I exposed it in a moment of impulse and failed to escape, I wouldn't have a second chance to use it.
Wade wasn't sure if anyone was watching him in secret right now, but he held back the urge to immediately transform and fly out. Instead, he decided to test things with conventional methods.
"Diffindo!" (Severing Charm)
The spell's light hit the glass, leaving only a shallow crack on its surface.
And he couldn't tell if it was because of magical leakage, but when casting the spell, fine,gold-like particles sparkled around the tip of his wand, reminding him of the fairies Professor Flitwick used to decorate the classroom with during every Christmas.
Those little creatures' wand would glow like this when using magic.
He looked at the toy-like wand in his hand, and couldn't help but sigh.
Not far away, the cat that had jumped off the bed earlier now stared at the tiny person on the bed. It glanced at the fine golden light, and its round black pupils widened.
It bared its teeth, crouched low, and silently placed its paws on the ground, slowly taking two steps forward...
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- +235 Chapters
⭐MCU: Druid's Adventures (MCUDA)(⭐COMPLETE⭐) - Total Chapter 460
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