"Actually, you can still come into contact with them," Ron said with his head lowered, looking a little embarrassed. "Quite a few magical objects that need to be confiscated end up falling into Muggle hands, and then they trigger some special incidents."
"Those items all have to be retrieved by my dad and the others, and then handed over to the Department of Mysteries for containment."
For the first time, surprise appeared in Link's eyes as he looked at Ron.
He really hadn't expected Ron's father's job to include responsibilities like this. He had always thought it was just some slack, do-nothing position.
"That's not the point!"
Hermione suddenly walked over and pointed at the newspaper article as she spoke loudly. "The Death Eaters in Azkaban have only just escaped, and now a Unspeakable from the Department of Mysteries has been murdered! Honestly, I don't think this is an accident at all!"
"You mean…?" Harry sucked in a sharp breath. "This was also done by Voldemort?"
As soon as he said that, even more people sucked in their breath.
Quite a few young wizards nearby who had been eavesdropping looked at Harry in terror, unable to understand how he could say that name so directly, and so casually.
Harry was completely unaware of those looks. He rubbed his smooth chin and said, "The more I think about it, the more it makes sense! Think about it, there are loads of mysterious objects stored in the Department of Mysteries, like Time-Turners! It's totally normal for Voldemort to want to get his hands on them! And if he really succeeds, then…"
Harry didn't continue.
But everyone around him understood what he meant. One by one, their faces turned pale. Even Cedric beside them nodded silently.
Clearly, this was exactly what he had been trying to express to Link earlier.
However, listening to this whole chain of reasoning, Link's expression looked rather strange.
To be honest, Link didn't remember the latter half of the original storyline very clearly.
A big reason for that was hearing that Hermione and Ron ended up together.
Still, he vaguely remembered that Voldemort really was interested in something stored in the Department of Mysteries, which almost completely matched Harry's deduction.
But there was another part of his memory telling him that the Department of Mysteries was actually a trap Voldemort set to deal with Harry Potter and Dumbledore.
Sirius Black died there.
With these two memories overlapping, even Link felt a bit confused.
Shaking his head, Link ultimately decided to wait until he met with Barty Senior and Percy before making any conclusions.
This time, Link had seized such a huge advantage within the Ministry of Magic that no matter what Voldemort was planning there or in the Department of Mysteries, Link felt confident he could come out on top.
After making up his mind, Link finally snapped back to reality.
Only then did he realize that the people who had been chattering nonstop earlier had all fallen completely silent, and were now staring straight at him.
"What's going on?" Link asked with a smile.
"No one wanted to interrupt your thinking," Harry explained, then put on a worried expression again.
"Getting back to the point, Link, have you thought of any way to deal with this? Things might really get worse this time!"
Link glanced around at the hopeful looks directed at him, then smiled gently.
"Go warn Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic, and have them strengthen security around the Department of Mysteries."
At this, everyone nearby couldn't help but lower their eyes in disappointment. The method was too conventional, too ordinary, and didn't live up to their expectations of Link.
Seeing this, Link smiled and continued, "I know what you're worried about. Given Dumbledore's status and the Ministry's past behavior in situations like this, if you went to warn them yourselves, they'd probably just treat it as childish imagination or nonsense."
"That's unavoidable. You don't carry much weight, honestly, very few people would take your words seriously."
"But if I raise the issue personally, it's different."
"With my status as the head of the Flamel family, they won't dare take it lightly."
"This method may seem ordinary, but it's actually effective."
"Also, instead of placing all our hopes on others, it's better to rely on ourselves."
"If everyone here truly wants to contribute to the fight against Voldemort, then study hard and work on improving yourselves!"
As he finished speaking, Link took out a D.A. Galleon from his robes, almost indistinguishable from an ordinary Galleon, and silently infused it with magic, changing the meeting time engraved on it to tonight.
The students who had been drawn over by the commotion had already lit up the moment Link said he would personally warn Dumbledore and the Ministry.
Now, as they felt the D.A. Galleons in their pockets heating up at the same time, they became so excited they could hardly contain themselves.
Especially when they noticed many students nearby who knew nothing about the D.A. looking completely confused, a sense of superiority rose in their hearts. Their faces flushed, fists clenched tight. If they hadn't been in the Great Hall, and if they didn't need to keep the D.A. secret, they probably would have cheered out loud.
Of course, not everyone agreed with what Link said.
Plenty of people in the Great Hall just watched from afar, their faces full of coldness and disdain.
They scoffed at Link's words and didn't believe Voldemort had been resurrected at all. Some even thought it was just a rumor Link had deliberately fabricated to win people over.
After all, the Ministry of Magic still firmly denied Voldemort's return.
Compared to the Ministry's authority, Link meant nothing to them.
Link took all of their expressions in, but didn't care too much.
Even if they didn't believe it now, once the facts were laid bare in front of them, they would have no choice but to believe.
And by then, he, the founder of the D.A., would be their best person to rely on, and their spiritual leader.
As for anyone who stubbornly refused to accept reality, Link wouldn't mind casually eliminating them either.
Hogwarts was a piece of meat he had already placed on his plate. There was no room for mistakes.
With a slight smile, Link stood up and gently said to the trembling-with-excitement Harry, "Get ready. Tonight, we'll begin Occlumency training. This is very important, I hope you succeed."
Link's words were like a bucket of cold water poured straight over Harry's burning heart. He shuddered all over, and when he looked again, he saw that Link had already left the Great Hall surrounded by Cedric and John.
"Harry! The D.A. is finally holding another meeting! And it's being led by Link himself, this is amazing!" Ron threw himself at Harry, speaking excitedly.
But before he could be happy for long, a cold voice sounded beside him, "You're that happy, are you saying you were dissatisfied with the D.A. meetings I hosted during Christmas?"
Ron instantly shivered, turned his head, and weakly said to Hermione, who now had a frost-covered expression, "It's not that I was dissatisfied, it's just… just that when Link hosts it, it's always… always a bit better… right?"
Hermione's eyebrows shot up immediately, but when she looked at the other D.A. members around them who were just as excited, her eyebrows drooped again. She said somewhat dejectedly, "I know that already, but do you really have to make it so obvious?"
The beating Ron had been expecting didn't come, which only made him feel worse.
Especially when he saw Hermione's eyes reddening, Ron almost wished she would just hit him.
Thankfully, Ron finally noticed something off about Harry and quickly changed the subject, "Harry, you don't look so good! Did Link say something to you earlier?"
At that, Hermione hurriedly looked up as well. She saw Harry shake his head first, then quickly nod.
"Link said that tonight, he'll start teaching me Occlumency."
"That's a good thing!" Hermione's eyes lit up. "Most people don't even get the chance to learn it!"
"I wonder if Link will teach us too!" Ron said dreamily.
Over this period of time, he had learned a lot about Occlumency from Hermione.
He wasn't particularly interested in its effects, he didn't think anyone would be bored enough to invade his mind, since, as Professor McGonagall often said, there was nothing in there anyway.
But he was very attracted to how difficult Occlumency was.
Since Hermione said learning Occlumency required talent beyond that of ordinary people, if he managed to learn it by sheer luck, wouldn't that mean he was a genius too?
It was like buying a lottery ticket, even though the chances were slim, you still wanted to try.
Just by looking at Ron's expression, Hermione knew exactly what he was thinking.
She glanced at him disdainfully, once again impressed by his stupidity and narcissism.
'Didn't this guy understand?'
When she said "ordinary people" earlier, she meant people like Ron.
Under normal circumstances, Harry would definitely have either joined in praising Ron or helped Hermione mock him.
But right now, he wasn't in the mood.
Frowning, he said, "Link told me that learning Occlumency is very important for me."
"Isn't that obvious?" Ron said matter-of-factly.
"If you don't learn Occlumency, your headaches will never get better."
"No!" Harry grabbed his hair irritably.
"I feel like he meant something else… but I-I don't understand…"
Seeing Harry grow more agitated, Hermione quickly stepped forward and stopped him from raking his hair again.
"Harry, don't do that. No matter what, once you actually start learning tonight, you'll understand. And if you still can't figure it out, we can just ask Link directly, it's not a big deal. As for now, I think we should hurry to class. Professor Flitwick may not be as strict as Professor McGonagall, but he still won't tolerate us being late."
With that, Hermione winked at Ron and Harry, hugged her books to her chest, and jogged out of the Great Hall.
Ron immediately snapped back to his senses as well, grabbed Harry, who was still lost in thought, and chased after her.
Unfortunately, at this moment, Harry had no mind for class at all. His head was filled entirely with that sentence Link had said earlier.
More precisely, that sentence had connected many things in his mind, making him feel more and more that something was wrong.
The biggest, and most terrifying, possibility was this, the one who had invaded his mind was Voldemort.
Both Dumbledore and Link had actually hinted at this quite clearly.
Then another question arose.
Was it possible that Voldemort was using him to spy on information from Hogwarts?
That seemed entirely possible.
Voldemort's power was far greater than his.
Harry didn't understand how Voldemort did it, but those vivid, immersive dreams were proof enough.
And if that was the case, then Dumbledore's reluctance to meet him made sense.
How could Dumbledore possibly allow Voldemort to observe his side's intelligence?
In this situation, the fact that Harry hadn't been isolated as a high-risk individual was already a blessing.
That was also why Link kept emphasizing that he absolutely had to learn Occlumency.
Only after mastering Occlumency could Voldemort's surveillance over him be completely cut off.
By the time he reached this conclusion, Harry felt as if his entire body was being smothered by an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Even as the professors stood on the podium, nearly hysterical as they repeatedly stressed the importance of this term's O.W.L. exams, and even as Hermione and Ron looked at him with increasing concern, his mind was completely blank.
This state lasted the entire day, until night fell and the three of them arrived at the Room of Requirement as agreed, and finally saw Link. Only then did Harry feel a little better.
No matter what, as long as Link was there, he felt safe.
Taking a deep breath, Harry looked at Link with utmost seriousness and said, "Link, I'm ready. We can start Occlumency training at any time!"
Hearing this, Link, who had just entered the Room of Requirement with Cedric and the others, was a bit confused.
He looked at Harry, who seemed solemn, as if he had fully prepared himself and was about to charge into battle, then shook his head.
"You're too eager. This is a D.A. meeting, not a lesson just for you. And your Occlumency training is better kept quiet. So we'll leave that until after the D.A. meeting. For now, let me check on everyone else's training results from this period."
Harry froze for a moment, then scratched his head awkwardly.
Beside him, Hermione grew excited.
"Don't worry about that, Link. I was very strict with them during the holidays, they definitely won't disappoint you!"
"That's good to hear."
Link smiled and nodded at Hermione.
At the same time, as the clock in the corner crept closer to 10 p.m., more and more D.A. members gathered inside the Room of Requirement.