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Chapter 704 Lily's Letter!!
Harry woke early the next morning.
He lay inside the sky-blue bed curtains.
The thick quilt still held the warm scent of sunlight.
The room was dim.
Downstairs, he could hear Mrs. Weasley giving instructions. Fred and the others seemed to be getting scolded again.
For a moment, Harry felt as if Dumbledore were not dead.
As if they were still living at Grimmauld Place.
As if Dumbledore might come in at any moment to hold a meeting.
They wouldn't be allowed to listen.
Although he had once been frustrated that Dumbledore never let him participate, deep down he had always felt safe.
Everything would be handled by Dumbledore.
But not anymore.
Dumbledore was dead.
And what Aunt Muriel had said had shaken his admiration for him.
Dumbledore keeping his sister from attending school.
Dumbledore's father being sent to prison.
His brother breaking his nose at their sister's funeral.
Even the rumors that he had once been connected to the first Dark Lord.
All of it weighed heavily on Harry's mind.
He even began to wonder—
Had Dumbledore really been helping him?
What exactly had Dumbledore been trying to do?
After all, Dumbledore had known very well that even if Darren was poisoned, he could still hold off the Death Eaters. Yet he had pinned Darren in place and forbidden him from acting.
The more Harry thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.
What irritated him most was that Darren didn't seem bothered at all.
When Harry told him these things, Darren had simply said that he himself had taken in members of the old dark lord faction during second year and even given them potions.
Even now, Rozier and the others were quietly running their shops.
As for Dumbledore keeping his sister from school, Darren had only said that it was a family matter—how could outsiders know the truth?
Just as Voldemort once said: greatness breeds jealousy, jealousy breeds resentment, and resentment gives birth to rumors.
Darren didn't believe Dumbledore would have done such things.
That answer only made Harry more frustrated.
The room was quiet.
Darren was still asleep.
There were shadows beneath his eyes. Harry knew he had been exhausted lately.
Everything rested on Darren's shoulders. He hadn't even had time to sleep properly.
Not wanting to disturb him, Harry slipped quietly out of the room.
The sky outside was still gray.
Harry didn't want to go downstairs and face the Weasleys, so he continued climbing the stairs.
As he passed one of the rooms, Sirius came out.
He smiled brightly.
"Harry! Finally decided to come upstairs and see me?"
Harry felt a little embarrassed.
Only then did he remember that Sirius's bedroom was upstairs—and that he had never come to visit him.
"Come on, let me show you my room!"
Sirius pushed the door open enthusiastically.
Harry only needed one glance to know the room suited Sirius perfectly.
The walls were covered with pictures of Muggle girls.
It was easy to tell they were Muggle photographs—the images were faded and still, unlike the wizarding graduation photo nearby, where Sirius and the others waved and moved.
Harry's eyes were drawn to one figure in that graduation picture.
Someone who looked very much like Sirius.
His vision blurred.
Sirius seemed to understand his mood, but instead of interrupting, he began searching through a pile of items.
"Yesterday was your and Darren's coming-of-age… I couldn't sleep afterward," he said.
"So I stayed up cleaning and sorting things. Look at this—your mother's letter."
Harry quickly took it.
The handwriting was elegant.
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Dear Padfoot,
Thank you for the birthday present for Harry. It's a wonderful broom, and he absolutely loves it.
But sometimes I can't help thinking… if my other child were still alive, the two of them would have been wonderful brothers.
They would have flown together.
I'm not blaming you. I just keep having this strange feeling that he isn't really gone. Perhaps I'm just imagining things.
Anyway, Harry adores the broom. Yesterday he nearly knocked over the cat and broke that hideous vase Petunia gave me.
I'm not complaining… I just don't quite know what to say.
We held a small gathering. Bathilda Bagshot came and told me many things about Dumbledore. I don't know how much of it is true, but it made him seem very human.
Recently, Dumbledore borrowed James's Invisibility Cloak and hasn't gone out much. He seems rather troubled.
Of course, James and I have been arguing lately, so I haven't really tried to comfort him.
But I think if you could visit, he might feel better.
By the way, Bathilda comes by often. She's a very interesting old lady and always encourages me to stay strong.
Though she does keep bringing up Dumbledore, which makes things a bit awkward.
---
Sirius gently smoothed the edges of the paper.
"She suspected me at the time," he said softly. "You can almost read the worry about Darren between the lines.
Your mother was a very perceptive woman."
Harry smiled faintly.
Of course she was.
Darren had inherited all of her best qualities.
But as he reread the letter, a doubt suddenly occurred to him.
"Why did Dumbledore borrow Dad's Invisibility Cloak?" Harry asked.
"If Dad had kept it… would he have survived?"
Sirius shook his head.
"Dumbledore was curious, that's all. And honestly, do you think a cloak like that would matter to someone like Dumbledore… or Voldemort?"
Harry sighed.
Then something else struck him.
Bathilda Bagshot had told his mother many things about Dumbledore—enough to make her uneasy.
Aunt Muriel's words came back to him.
Once again, Harry felt the urge to go to Godric's Hollow.
He wanted to see it for himself.
He wanted to hear the truth about Dumbledore from Bathilda Bagshot.
But Darren had suggested the same place as their destination, and there was no need to rush.
For now, finding R.A.B. was more important.
They still had no real clues about the Horcruxes.
"Come on," Sirius said. "Let's go down to the kitchen."
Harry followed him out.
The moment he stepped into the corridor, he saw Darren standing there.
Darren was staring at the door of one of the rooms, lost in thought.
"Darren?" Sirius asked.
"Why are you up so early? Did I wake you?"