Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Evan and Harry seemed to have come at a very bad time — what had Dumbledore and Professor Trelawney been doing in the office just now?

The atmosphere was a bit tense. It was Professor Trelawney who first noticed the two of them, her expression a mixture of sudden realization and aggrieved indignation. “Aha! So this is the reason I am to be thrown unceremoniously from your office, Dumbledore!”

“My dear Sybill,” said Dumbledore in a slightly exasperated voice, “there is no question of throwing you unceremoniously from anywhere, but Evan and Harry do have an appointment, and I really don’t think there is any more to be said —”

“Nothing more to be said, that’s your answer?!” said Professor Trelawney, in a deeply wounded voice. “Very well, Dumbledore, if you will not banish the usurping nag, so be it. … Perhaps I shall find a school where my talents are better appreciated. …”

She shoved past Evan and Harry, heading for the spiral staircase. Her footsteps were unsteady, and after only a few steps, she tripped over one of her long trailing shawls, stumbled, and nearly fell.

Professor Trelawney steadied herself against the wall, stubbornly tidied her disheveled robes and shawl, and disappeared down the spiral staircase.

“All right, Evan, Harry, please come in, close the door, and sit down,” said Dumbledore, sounding rather tired.

Evan and Harry sat down at the desk. Behind it, Dumbledore looked more exhausted and aged than ever. He’d clearly been having a hard time lately.

“Sir, Professor Trelawney still isn’t happy Firenze is teaching, then?”

“Not happy, very unhappy!” said Dumbledore. “Divination is turning out to be much more trouble than I could have foreseen, never having studied the subject myself. I cannot ask Firenze to return to the forest, where he is now an outcast, nor can I ask Sybill Trelawney to leave. Between ourselves, she has no idea of the danger she would be in outside the castle. She does not know — and I think it would be unwise to enlighten her.”

Professor Trelawney had made a prophecy about Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort urgently needed to know the details of this prophecy. He had failed in the Ministry of Magic last time. Now if he had a chance, he wouldn’t hesitate to extract it directly from Professor Trelawney.

There were many ways. Voldemort was highly skilled at torturing people, digging into their souls and memories to unearth things even they’d forgotten.

All he needed now was to get hold of Professor Trelawney — and for that, she had to leave Hogwarts.

Firenze was also a problem. After being exiled, he could not return to his original herd, and the Wizarding World wasn’t ready to accept a centaur either. Just imagine Firenze walking through a Muggle street — it would be a disaster.

He couldn’t leave the school. Part of the reason he had agreed to come teach at Hogwarts was his fascination with humans and the Wizarding World, but Dumbledore’s invitation had played a big role too. The Headmaster couldn’t just abandon him now.

In fact, if Firenze didn’t talk so much about omens from the stars and all that, he’d actually be quite easy to get along with. He was mysterious, possessed knowledge most humans didn’t, and that alone made him incredibly intriguing to students.

However, rivals often walk the same path — there could only be one Divination professor at a school. The idea of Firenze and Professor Trelawney peacefully coexisting seemed nearly impossible — an even slimmer chance than Ron and Luna getting together.

Speaking of Ron… Evan really didn’t know what to say about him anymore.

Ron’s brain was clearly broken. He genuinely seemed to be considering pursuing Luna — or some other girl — and had been avoiding Lavender altogether. He hadn’t even told her he’d been discharged from the hospital.

No one knew what he was thinking. This kind of thing couldn’t be concealed forever, and the outcome was easy to imagine…

If he wanted to break up, he should just say it outright. That sort of thing was completely normal at school. But Ron was dragging his feet, refusing to talk to Lavender — maybe out of fear, or reluctance, or false hope? 𝑅ＡΝȮ𝔟ΕȘ

No one could figure out what was going through his head. Again, this poisoning must have really fried Ron’s brain. The toxins had probably made it into his brain, hadn’t they?

Behind the desk, Dumbledore heaved a deep sigh, then said, “But never mind my staffing problems. We have much more important matters to discuss. Firstly — have you two managed the task I set you at the end of our previous lesson?”

Harry was silent. With Apparition lessons and Quidditch and Ron being poisoned and getting his skull cracked and his determination to find out what Draco Malfoy was up to, Harry had almost forgotten about the memory Dumbledore had asked him to extract from Professor Slughorn.

“No, sir!” said Evan. He had not asked Slughorn for the memory, and he knew Harry had not gotten it either. Sticking to his earlier thoughts, he shared what was on his mind, “Compared to Horcruxes, I am actually more worried about the evil god. Sir, have you made any progress in deciphering the message left by Slytherin recently? I was thinking…”

Dumbledore listened to Evan quietly, seeming deep in thought.

“I can understand your thoughts, Evan,” said Dumbledore gently. “We don’t have much time left, but I hope you can wait a little longer. I am very close to obtaining a certain object — very close to success.”

“What object?” Evan asked. What was Dumbledore working on? What was he trying to get?

“An item that can help us enter that space, which is where Slytherin wants us to go,” said Dumbledore. “I believe we’ll uncover the secret of the evil god and the clues left by Slytherin there. And when the time comes, I will absolutely take you with me. But until then, I need you to retrieve that memory from Slughorn. If we want to defeat Voldemort, Horcruxes are an obstacle we cannot avoid. That memory is vital. In fact, I did my best to impress upon you that it is the most crucial memory of all. Without it, everything we do next to find a way to defeat Voldemort will be nothing but a waste of time.”

There was a brief moment of silence as Evan and Dumbledore locked eyes — blue gazes meeting.

In a sense, that memory was indeed very important. There were some things Evan knew, things Dumbledore did not. He had to understand them before the next steps of the plan could proceed.

At last, Evan said, “Alright, sir. As you wish — we’ll get that memory.”

“I’ll try my best to get it too,” Harry added quickly.

“Very well, then we shall say no more about it just now,” said Dumbledore. “but continue with our story where we left off. You’ve both seen most of the memories I have about Voldemort. We know that in order to obtain items related to the history of Hogwarts, he did a lot of terrible things, killed the old woman, took the golden cup and the locket from her, framed a poor house-elf for the whole thing, and then disappeared…”

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