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Chapter 847: Verification
🕑 Added 2023-08-31 08:46:31 +0000 UTCIn fact, the Dursleys’ garden was indeed very beautiful, the lawn had been meticulously mowed, and the side near the house was full of varied roses.
They obviously had put a lot of effort on this. If there were really the All-England Best-Kept Suburban Lawn Competition, they might have really won the prize.
"It looks like the Dursleys have indeed left." Evan whispered. The house in front of him was dark and quiet.
Even Harry's room was not lit, and they had no idea what he might be doing in the room alone.
"Hold on!" Moody was rummaging in his cloak, his gnarled hands clumsy with cold. "Got it," he muttered, raising what looked like a silver cigarette lighter into the air and clicking it.
The nearest streetlamp went out with a pop. He clicked the un-lighter again; the next lamp went out.
He kept clicking until every lamp in Privet Drive was extinguished and the only light there came from curtained windows and the crescent moon overhead.
If someone looked out at this time, they wouldn’t be able to see their unwelcome visitors.
“Is this a Put-Outer?!" Evan asked, staring at the silver lighter in Moody's hand.
This thing involved a lot of alchemy knowledge, and he wanted to take it apart to see its internal structure.
Since mastering those magical runes, Evan’s first instinct upon seeing a precious magical item was to take it apart and study the specific construction, the arrangement of runes, and their meanings.
This was not a good habit. These magical items were very precious, and there was a high possibility that Evan would not be able to restore them after breaking them apart.
"Yes, I borrowed it from Dumbledore," growled Moody, pocketing the Put-Outer. "That’ll take care of any Muggles looking out of the window. Now, come on, quick. We shouldn’t be found out here."
Moody waved his wand vigorously, and the door of the Dursleys opened immediately, and everyone crowded inside.
"Where’s that kid?" said Tonks, looking around with great interest.
"Upstairs, I'll call him!" said Evan, climbing up the pitch-black landing.
"I'll go with you!" Moody followed, carefully watching the surroundings.
As before, he rudely opened Harry's door, and Evan hoped he wasn't doing something unsightly in there. It would be too embarrassing to be discovered just like this!
In the room, Harry curled up on his bed, raised his wand and pointed it carefully at both of them.
He’d obviously heard the sounds and was frightened.
"Hello, Harry!" said Evan with a smile.
"Evan!" Harry looked at him in surprise, never dreaming that he would show up.
Harry's heart was thumping uncontrollably, looking at Evan in disbelief, but he didn't lower his wand.
"Come on, everyone’s downstairs!" Evan walked over and pulled him from the bed.
In front of him, Harry, like Ron, had grown a few inches taller in the past few months.
But he was still the familiar thin boy in Evan’s memory, with black hair and glasses. He looked a little weak and sickly, probably due to a growth spurt in a short period of time.
He was dressed in sloppy Muggle clothes. The jeans were torn and dirty, the T-shirt was loose and faded, and the soles of the sneakers under the bed were separated from the uppers.
It seemed that his summer vacation was really bad, and Evan couldn't help but suspect that the Dursleys were abusing him.
"What on earth is going on?" said Harry hurriedly, putting down his wand, feeling a warm joy in his heart at seeing his friend, "I don't understand. I stayed here all summer vacation, no one contacted me. You all seem to have forgotten me."
"You know, Hermione and I have been in Egypt," said Evan vaguely.
He knew Dumbledore's plan very well, and knew he wanted Harry to stay with the Dursleys for the entire summer.
If it weren't for the Dementors’ attack and the hearing at the Ministry of Magic, Harry wouldn’t have been able to leave here till now.
But if Evan was in England, there would not have been a problem for him to come to visit Harry and play with him.
Because of his parents' status, the Dursleys would not say anything about his identity as a wizard.
"Yeah, you’ve been in Egypt," said Harry, looking at Evan, the joy in his heart gradually extinguished, and a cold thing poured in, "Ron has also been busy with other things. That’s why you didn’t tell me anything. You left me alone..."
"We'd better go down and talk, they all want to see you," Moody urged, and walked in.
Hearing Moody's voice, Harry hurriedly raised his wand.
"Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone’s eye out," said Moody in a low, growling voice.
"Professor Moody?" Harry was taken aback for a moment, and said in surprise, "Why are you here?"
"Come on, we’re here to take you away. Ron and Hermione are waiting for us," said Evan, pulling Harry out, "I’ll explain everything to you, I promise, you’ll know everything you want to know."
"Hold on, kid, we have to verify that he’s really Potter." Moody stopped them and growled, "It’d be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"
"Okay!" said Evan, who was sure that Harry was next to him. But if he didn’t do what Moody said, he wouldn’t agree.
Not long ago, he’d been faked for more than half a year, and he was being kept in a trunk, which made Moody more suspicious.
"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?" Evan asked.
"A stag," said Harry nervously.
"The answer is correct. Then what’s my Animagus form?"
"It's a black cat!" Harry had once really seen Evan as a cat.
"Well, a few months ago, Sirius and Hagrid and I left Hogwarts for Italy. What was the real purpose?"
"Did you succeed finding the trace left by Rowena Ravenclaw?" Harry asked rhetorically.
"I'll tell you in detail later," said Evan, turning his head to look at Moody. "I think that’s Harry."
When the three of them went down in the dark, Tonks and the others were still crowded in the hall, talking in a low voice about the decoration inside the house.
"I really don't understand, why are we all standing in the dark?" she said. "This is so stupid, Lumos."
A light suddenly appeared at the tip of her wand, dispelling the surrounding darkness.
