Chapter 659 Power and Memory

"Happy birthday, Ron." The next day, Harry got up with a yawn. He closed his mouth subconsciously halfway through the yawn and vigilantly used his tongue to feel the mandrake blade in his mouth.

He looked around the dormitory. Seamus and Dean had already gone out, and Neville was not there either. He was just thinking it was strange, but then he remembered that Neville had to go to Professor McGonagall's office this morning to receive Animagus guidance.

"Congratulations." At this time, Ron said drowsily, and when he put his feet on the ground, he stepped on a small pile of packages. He woke up instantly, "Gifts!" Ron shouted loudly, and started to open the gifts without even changing his pajamas.

Harry threw a colorfully wrapped box on his bed, "Your gift." Then he started to change his clothes.

It only took him two minutes to take off his pajamas and put on his robes. After finishing all this, he looked at his watch and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had enough time.

"Where are you going - hey, thanks, Harry, this is a great gift." Ron waved the dragon leather Quidditch goalkeeper gloves Harry gave him. He sat on the ground with a pile of wrapping paper scattered around him, and said with great joy: "This year is really a great harvest. All the gifts I received have been upgraded. I really hope to become an adult again next year - where are you going?"

He asked again, and this time he finally took his eyes off the heavy gold watch.

"I have an appointment with Professor Bagshot." Harry muttered.

"Oh, what a bummer, I was thinking of going to Hogsmeade with you," Ron said, "If Fred and George still have a conscience, they will consider giving their brother a discount on his coming-of-age day..." He counted the gifts again and said dissatisfiedly: "Maybe I think too much, they didn't even give them gifts."

"Maybe they are going to give them to you personally." Harry reminded.

Ron thought about it and became happy again. "You're right... But don't get your hopes up. They've been busy lately. I guess they just stored a box of dung eggs at the Hogsmeade branch."

Harry and Ron said goodbye at the castle gate. "I'll bring you some Honeydukes candy." Ron said, walking towards Filch. Harry walked down the stone steps and came to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Grindelwald was already waiting there.

They walked slowly on the grass. The soft sunlight sprinkled on the treetops. The air was mixed with a humid moisture and the smell of fresh grass. Harry saw the Whomping Willow in the distance. It looked harmless and swayed gently in the breeze.

"Harry," Grindelwald said, "You have learned a few spells, but I find that you are far from exerting your true power."

"I'm sorry," Harry said a little uneasily, "I'm not very proficient yet..."

"That's not the reason." Grindelwald whispered, "Although I explain the theory and model of spells in class, it is to take care of the progress of ordinary people, to take care of... those mediocre students."

Harry looked at him in surprise.

"People are different. Most of the people you meet - unless there are any accidents - are just mediocre all their lives. Their greatest use is to continue magic."

Grindelwald walked forward slowly. Harry followed him and said, "Sir, I disagree with this point of view." Grindelwald glanced at him, "Then tell me what you think."

"Uh-" Harry said, "Isn't it good to be mediocre and live in peace? I like this kind of life very much. Moreover, I think judging a person's value based on magical ability is too, too..."

"Utilitarian?" Grindelwald asked with interest.

"A little bit." Harry said honestly. He felt that Professor Bagshot must have been influenced by the thoughts of the dark wizard Grindelwald. He saw a similar description in the travel notes he found in the library.

"I think - well, there's no need to divide people into different uses. Take my friend Ron's family, for example. Mr. Weasley works in the Ministry of Magic, and he's recently been preparing a new Muggle Protection Act. I think this is quite meaningful, but it has little to do with magic, right? And Mrs. Weasley, she's a housewife, a very good person, and takes care of the entire family..."

"Their eldest son, Bill, used to be a curse breaker in Gringotts, but because of the war, he applied for an office job. I think with his personality he would want to switch to a cooler career. Oh, not now... his girlfriend is there too; the second son, Charlie, raises dragons in Romania; the third son, Percy, works in the Ministry of Magic like Mr. Weasley, but I guess his job is to write reports all day long..."

"After graduation, perhaps only Fred and George will continue to study magic. They opened a magic trick shop, and they're working on all kinds of prank props all day long; Ron dreams of becoming an Auror, and Ginny is still too young, but I think she has the potential to become a professional Quidditch player..."

Harry counted on his fingers and listed the members of the Weasley family one by one.

"If you follow your idea, most of them will be classified as useless, but I think they don't care about this evaluation at all. They just need to live their lives well."

Harry said in one breath, taking a few breaths. Professor Bagshot didn't speak for a long time, which made Harry wonder if his tone was too stiff and too intense. He didn't dare to look at the professor's eyes, and lowered his head to stare at a blade of grass on the ground.

"I envy their family, Harry." Grindelwald said, and then he changed the subject, "I just have a question, when Voldemort was rampant, did your dear Weasley family also live their lives carefree?"

"Think about it, if there was no Dumbledore and no Felix Hep, what would the scene be? Oh, if I remember correctly, the Weasley family is pure blood. If they show obedience to Voldemort, they should be able to live well..."

"They will not accept Voldemort's evil rule!" Harry retorted loudly.

"Then they are dead." Grindelwald said lightly, "As fragile as this little grass." He walked in front of Harry and crushed the plant that Harry had been staring at under his feet. Harry was filled with anger, but he suddenly thought of something...

It was the scene of him practicing the Patronus Charm in Professor Happ's office. In order to inspire his fighting spirit, he entered the illusion set up by the professor. In the illusion, he saw many terrible things. Everyone fell down and Voldemort won. It was that time that he inspired an extremely powerful Patronus.

"If you don't want your fate to be at the mercy of others, you must have strong strength. Like Happ, there are not many people in the world who can threaten him. If he is cruel enough, he will not even have the last weakness." Grindelwald's eyes flashed with a strange light, "I am very curious."

"But the war is over, and Voldemort has been imprisoned-"

Harry quickly stopped talking, not wanting to tell Voldemort's secret in Classroom 7. However, Professor Bagshot did not seem to notice his slip of the tongue, and continued in a calm tone: "There will always be conflicts. Can you guarantee that there won't be a terrible dark wizard among your classmates? Also, never underestimate the belligerence of Muggles. If you look through their history, you will find that it is a history of war."

"There won't be a war," Harry said eagerly. He brought up what Sirius had told him before. "The Ministry of Magic has found a way, and the Minister of Magic and the Muggle Prime Minister have been in contact. As long as-"

"What about the influence of the public?"

"--both sides can, er, what?" Harry asked in a daze.

"You ignore the influence of the public on the Muggle government. I know the characters of those politicians. They may deceive, incite, and induce the public, but they will never let themselves stand on the opposite side of them. If a considerable number of Muggles oppose wizards, there will definitely be no shortage of despicable politicians without a stance to speak for them. Even under the design of someone with ulterior motives, it only takes a small spark... poof, your so-called peace will instantly vanish." Grindelwald stated coldly: "This kind of thing is too easy, and it is bound to happen."

Harry was stunned. They had discussed the topic of Muggles and wizards before, but never as bluntly as today, even mixed with the smell of blood. He swallowed his saliva, but found that he seemed to have lost his vocal organs.

"Wizards are the ones who truly love peace. For thousands of years, we don't need strict order to be law-abiding. We have powerful abilities but we don't abuse them. On the other hand, Muggles' civilization was born in wars. However, the absurd thing is... wizards chose to give in when they should have established order, because there are always ignorant Muggles who will hurt our children when we are not paying attention... This makes Muggles arrogantly think that they are the masters of this land. Wizards have become aliens."

"With Professor Happ..." Harry said in a hoarse voice.

"Do you think he can succeed?" Grindelwald glanced at him calmly, which frightened Harry. He was afraid that the professor would say something terrible again, but Professor Bagshot just said lightly: "Maybe, so you plan to pin your hopes on others and close the door and pretend that everything is peaceful? It sounds good. I remember that the Potions professor did that." He was referring to Slughorn.

Harry's face was burning, a little embarrassed, but more mixed with fear.

Because he knew that even Professor Happ was not sure, so theoretically what Professor Bagshot said was entirely possible. At this moment, he thought of the Dursleys and Uncle Vernon. If wizards were really exposed to the world, would he allow wizards to appear in his life openly?

Harry knew the answer without any hesitation. Think about Uncle Vernon's attitude towards the homeless on the street and his attitude towards himself... He would definitely call the government hotline.

How many people like him are there? If they get together, protests will follow. Will things be like what Professor Bagshot expected, with some government officials taking the lead in compromising and the situation heading towards an unknown direction... Harry recalled the Muggle parade in the first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and those cold eyes seemed to fall on him again across time. Harry

's expression was heavy, his limbs seemed to be filled with lead, and he followed the professor in a daze. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with a good solution. At this moment, he suddenly found that Professor Bagshot stopped and said, "We're here."

Harry looked around blankly. They were standing deep in the forbidden forest, surrounded by tall trees, but it was only March and the branches and leaves were not lush. He could see the sky above his head through the sparse leaves.

"Remember the magic I taught you? Try it." Grindelwald said calmly, as if the previous conversation had never happened.

Harry waved his wand randomly and cast a spell on a tree. The huge trunk shook. Even he felt that it was not good. "Oh, sorry, try again." He tried to calm down and waved his wand for the second time. This powerful spell broke the thick trunk in two.

Harry looked at Professor Bagshot with some satisfaction. The professor's previous words still worked. Harry still hadn't come up with a perfect solution, but he felt that if things really went in the worst direction, he would never stand idly by or hide.

Besides, Harry thought that he would most likely be an Auror at that time, with his family and everything he cared about standing behind him, so he had no way to retreat.

"Not enough," Grindelwald was not satisfied, and said loudly: "You can do better."

"I have tried my best." Harry said.

"Do you think I am playing house with you?" Grindelwald scolded: "Why don't I go find that little girl from Muggle family? She performs much better than you in class."

"I am also surprised by this." Harry said stiffly.

"If you don't have potential, I won't waste my time at all. There are not many people in the whole school who can surpass you, and you have to count the professors. Your biggest problem is that you have never thought about how far you can go! Magic is not a rigid thing. You are restricting your own strength."

"I don't have--"

"Then show your real strength, otherwise go back and pray that bad luck will not befall you, and pray like a coward that you can be forgiven by the big man--"

The forest suddenly exploded. The huge impact smashed hundreds of giant trees into pieces, as if a big explosion had occurred. The space within a radius of two or three hundred feet was flattened to the ground, and the trees farther away were leaning to one side and the other, as if they had experienced a violent typhoon.

Broken wood and branches fell one after another, and Harry's eyes widened, unable to believe that he had done this.

"Look, Harry! Look!" Grindelwald said loudly, his eyes sweeping across the large ruins in front of him, "This is your real ability."

...

In the evening, Harry appeared in the headmaster's office.

"Harry, you are here." Dumbledore said gently as usual. Harry noticed that there was a Pensieve on the table, and the silver substance inside was spinning rapidly. He guessed that the headmaster might have just used it.

Dumbledore put his wand against his forehead, drew out new memories, put them into the Pensieve, and then tried to grab Harry's hand.

"We must speed up the progress. There is a lot to do today."

Harry dodged. He lowered his head and stared at the Pensieve without looking at Dumbledore.

"But, sir, I don't understand the meaning of doing this. I know that it is troublesome to deal with the soul fragments in my brain, but I can't figure it out - if even magic doesn't work, then what's the point of just looking at these things that have happened?"

A moment of silence.

"Ah, Harry." Dumbledore said in a slightly distressed tone: "It seems that I must reveal some information so that what we are doing now will be more valuable in your heart... In short, I hope you have the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and the courage to make the right choice at the critical moment."

Harry sat there staring, feeling insulted. What kind of image did he have in Dumbledore's mind?

"Don't get me wrong, Harry." Dumbledore said: "You are one of the people who are closest to saintly qualities that I have ever seen, even unique. Considering that my life is still long and I have met too many students, this evaluation is actually quite convincing."

Harry was a little fidgety, his face was burning. He didn't expect to hear such straightforward and enthusiastic praise from Dumbledore, especially since he had just lost his temper. He wanted to make his expression look softer.

"Of course, I'm not saying that you don't have shortcomings and troubles. In my opinion, this is a good thing. It shows that you are still a normal person. You haven't become arrogant because of your fame or your strength that exceeds your peers. Because of this, I have higher expectations of you. I won't treat you as an ordinary student. For example-"

Dumbledore raised a finger.

"When you were studying magic with Professor Bagshot, did you feel afraid of your ability, even a little bit?"

Harry was a little absent-minded. He thought of how he easily destroyed a small piece of the forbidden forest under the guidance of Professor Bagshot in the morning. He did feel incredible and a little scared, and even wondered if he was possessed by Voldemort.

"I-you know, sir?"

"Yes, I know." Dumbledore said calmly.

"That's the ability you already have," he seemed to see what Harry was thinking, and said, "Professor Bagshot must have comforted you, although I don't know what reason he used, but his idea may not be suitable for you."

"Not necessarily suitable for me?" Harry murmured again.

"Only you can find the answer to the question, Harry." Dumbledore said seriously, "I can't help you on this point, I can only borrow Alastor's catchphrase: Be careful, Harry. Force without thought can easily turn into violence."

Harry had an idea.

"So you let me see those memories, is to let me control my power?"

"We can discuss this question later. In fact, I hope you pay more attention to the choices of different people in the memory, especially the situation they faced at the time. It would be better if you can generate some useful thinking." Dumbledore said, "The reason why I use my memory - forgive my arrogance, is because I have seen too many joys and sorrows of men and women."

Seeing Harry lost in thought, Dumbledore said happily, "Then - let's get into today's class."

He stood up and bowed slightly, as if he was ready to go to a gorgeous banquet.

"I will have the honor to share with you my experiences during my student days. You will find them a little trivial because they involve more than one person. Some of them are still in contact with me. Maybe you have heard of one or two names!"

"Let's start the adventure!"