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Chapter 968: Doubt
🕑 Added 2023-12-20 07:07:28 +0000 UTC"All the people are here, and there are still a few who can't come today. We'll inform them of the discussion results later."
"Well, there are more people than expected. The idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily.
"Yeah, everyone wants to learn magic from Evan."
"Thank goodness, the Slytherin girl didn't come!" Ron looked at the crowd, seemingly relieved.
Evan had also invited Astoria with a willingness to give it a try. He believed that in improving their strength to confront Voldemort and evil gods, Slytherin shouldn't be singled out, and not everyone in that House was a Dark wizard or irredeemable villain.
Salazar Slytherin was a great wizard, and so were the students who carried his will.
Not to mention, Astoria had a great personality, and unlike traditional Slytherins, she was not a fanatical supporter of the pure-blood ideology.
But even if she didn't come, Evan could understand. After all, she still had to consider the opinions of others around her.
Not everyone had the courage to be an "outsider," especially in the "cruel" environment of Slytherin.
"Don't stand there stupidly; let's quickly pull up some more chairs."
Inside the Hog's Head Inn, students came in one by one. Aberforth The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly he had never seen his pub so full.
“Hi, barman,” said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly. “Could we have … twenty-seven butterbeers, please?"
Aberforth glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar.
“Cheers,” said Fred, handing them out. “Cough up, everyone; I haven’t got enough gold for all of these."
The large chattering group took their beers from Fred and rummaged in their robes to find coins. They seemed excited and curious, as if they were on an outing. Only Luna sat alone in a daze.
When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Evan and Harry.
Evan was fine, but Harry's mouth was exceptionally dry. Cho had just smiled at him and sat down on Ron’s right.
Her friend, who had curly reddish-blonde hair, did not smile, but gave Harry a thoroughly mistrustful look, and then glanced at Evan with the same look, the expression on her face plainly indicating that, given her way, she would not be here at all.
"I don't need to say much, I think you know why you’re here today!" said Evan, seeing Aberforth glaring at them angrily from behind the bar, as if they were having an illicit meeting. Mundungus also leaned forward.
"Evan, I heard that you want to teach everyone magic?"
"That's right!" Hermione replied directly, "As you all know, Evan is going to teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts and learn some real skills, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us. If you don't have any objections..."
"I have no objections at all, what you said is great!"
"That's right; nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts!"
"I believe in Evan’s strength, just look at what he’s done."
"We've already had Evan teach us magic before, and he's been great at it."
"Well, what Evan and I mean is to carry out formal training, so that everyone can learn how to effectively defend themselves, not only to learn those theories, but also to get in touch with actual combat and conduct real dueling practice," Because of the enthusiastic response of everyone, Hermione’s voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident. She took a deep breath before finishing her words, "Because Voldemort’s back!"
As expected, as soon as she finished speaking, the reaction was immediate.
Cho’s friend shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough.
All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Evan, Harry, and Hermione.
"That's the plan, and that's why I called for the formation of such an organization." Evan followed Hermione's words, “If you want to join us, we need to decide how we’re going to proceed. Besides Hermione, Harry... "
"Wait a minute, where’s the proof You-Know-Who’s back?” said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.
After entering the Hog's Head Inn, he let go of Ginny's hand, but sat down next to her.
Ginny seemed a bit displeased; the guy had seemed a bit forceful at the Inn’s entrance, trying to hold her hand in front of so many people. When she entered, she had shrugged off his hand, but she hadn't refused to let him sit next to her.
"Oh, we have talked about this topic many times!" said Evan, not wanting to continue explaining.
"Yeah, Dumbledore also believes..." Hermione was interrupted before finishing her sentence.
"Are you trying to say that Dumbledore believes them?!" said the blond boy, raising his chin and nodding at Evan and Harry, "But the Daily Prophet says otherwise. It says they’re lying."
“Who are you?” said Ron rather rudely, not liking him since he first laid eyes on him.
Exchanging a glance with Evan, he also noticed that the guy went straight for Ginny's hand.
If there weren't so many people around, he'd definitely go and ask what was going on.
“Zacharias Smith,” said the boy, "I admit Mason is very strong and has done a lot of things, but before learning any combat skills with him, I think we’ve got the right to know exactly what makes you say You-Know-Who’s back."
“Look,” said Hermione, intervening swiftly, with a slight frown, “that’s really not what this meeting was supposed to be about."
"And I don't want to continue talking about it either. Since the beginning of last term, Harry and I have explained many times," said Evan. "In my opinion, it hasn't achieved much, and it's just satisfying your curiosity over and over."
"People have the right to know the truth. Where did you and Potter go, and what did you do during the time you disappeared at the bottom of the lake last term?" Zacharias continued on, as if he hadn't heard Evan and Hermione's words, "Tell us, why do you say You-Know-Who has returned? Also, why did Cedric transfer to another school? What did you do to him, and where’s he now? Potter said a while ago he became a vampire, what's that all about?
