"Wake up, Nymphadora, wake up!"
"Mom, what's going on?"
Tonks opened her eyes in confusion. Not long after she closed her eyes and fell asleep, she was awakened by her mother.
"Auror, an Auror from the Ministry of Magic is looking for you." Madam Andromeda reminded in a low voice.
"Auror?" Tonks glanced out the dark window and complained, "Is this the right time?"
Tonks rubbed her eyes and came to the living room, where she found her colleague standing.
"Williamson?"
"Amelia Bones is dead, and there's a Dark Mark above her house." Williamson looked at the sleepy Tonks and continued, "We also found the body of Emmeline Vance nearby. She should be a member of the Order of the Phoenix, right?"
"What? Emmeline is dead."
All the sleepiness on Tonks' face disappeared, and she just stood there stupidly.
"Yes, she is dead, in an alley near Bones' house." After the middle-aged Auror finished speaking, he nodded slightly towards Tonks' family, turned and left.
By the time Tonks came to her senses, the Auror named Williamson had disappeared, and only Mr. and Mrs. Tonks were left in the living room, looking at her with concern.
"I have to go out for a while."
Tonks hurried back to her room to change her clothes, then rushed to number 12, Grimmauld Place.
The Auror passed the message to her because she was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and Emmeline Vance was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Scrimgeour hoped to pass the message to the Order of the Phoenix or Dumbledore through Tonks.
When Tonks rushed to 12 Grimmauld Place with the news of Emmeline Vance's sacrifice, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix was in chaos. Everyone notified other members of the Order of the Phoenix and asked them to hold a meeting at 12 Grimmauld Place. Mrs. Weasley also prepared strong tea for everyone to drive away sleepiness.
"I've said it before, Amelia Bones will kill herself sooner or later." Sirius was extremely angry after learning of Emmeline Vance's sacrifice.
"Calm down, Sirius." Lupin looked at his old friend helplessly.
When the Order of the Phoenix planned to provide Amelia Bones with invisible protection, Sirius Black was strongly opposed to it. He believed that Amelia Bones would kill him sooner or later.
As Albert expected, Amelia Bones was murdered by Voldemort, and worst of all, he also killed Emmeline Vance who was protecting her.
"Emeline Vance's death is very suspicious." Mad-Eye Moody frowned and said, "She was attacked when she left the base and went out on patrol. She didn't even put up any resistance."
In fact, members of the Order of the Phoenix would use the Disillusionment Charm on themselves to ensure their personal safety whether they were in or out of the base.
Generally speaking, with the protection of the Disillusionment Charm, even if Death Eaters break into the temporary base, it is difficult to find and kill the Order of the Phoenix members in the base in the first time.
Emmeline Vance was killed while on patrol. She was killed without any resistance. The other party could actually see through the Disillusionment Curse and attacked Emmeline when she was completely unprepared. This matter was weird no matter how you looked at it.
"The Death Eaters were well prepared." Sirius tapped the table with his fingers and muttered, "Don't forget, in addition to us, there are Aurors from the Ministry of Magic who are responsible for Amelia Bones' safety, but they were knocked down without raising any alarm."
"You mean there's a traitor among the Aurors in the Ministry of Magic, or..." Tonks was also emotionally unstable now, not only because Emmeline Vance was murdered, but also because she almost died.
"Voldemort and the Death Eaters knew from the beginning that we were protecting Amelia Bones." Sirius reminded, "Someone must have leaked the news to them."
"Calm down Sirius, no one here will leak the secret to You-Know-Who." Lupin guessed who Sirius was talking about.
"You know who I'm talking about, and I'm calmer than any of you," Sirius sneered as he took a big gulp of butterbeer, "Because I had expected this day to come, but I didn't expect Emmeline Vance to be sacrificed for it."
"You believe in those prophecies too much!" said Mad-Eye Moody, frowning.
"But those prophecies all came true." Sirius put the wooden cup heavily on the table and reminded angrily, "I know what you want to say, but compared to such a sacrifice, I would rather believe Anderson's prophecy."
"Don't blame me for saying such harsh words. Amelia Bones was just courting death. She knew Voldemort would kill her personally, but she didn't care... She deserved to die." Sirius said self-deprecatingly, "From the beginning, we shouldn't have had any luck."
"What should we do now? Is the Ministry of Magic really going to... collapse?"
Arthur hesitated for a moment, but still expressed his inner concerns. They secretly provided protection for Amelia Bones, actually hoping that Amelia Bones could change the current situation.
Because Sirius had mentioned that according to Albert's prophecy, Fudge's successor would inevitably be an unlucky person who would die during his term of office. At that time, the Ministry of Magic would completely collapse and be controlled by Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
"I don't think so now." Sirius frowned. "I remember Fred and George saying that the Ministry of Magic would collapse in a year or two."
"Fred and George?" Everyone was a little surprised.
Isn't that what Albert said
"Maybe we should go find Fred and George to find out the details." Lupin stopped Sirius from continuing.
"No, I remember I wrote it down." Sirius waved his wand and a notebook appeared out of thin air.
"Did you take notes?"
Everyone was surprised and looked at Sirius with disbelief.
"Fred and George said that Albert predicted this war a long time ago, so he made those defensive props against the dark arts." Sirius ignored the looks of others and flipped through his notes. "I found it. He thought that Fudge's successor was an unlucky guy who would eventually die tragically during his term, and the next successor would also be an unlucky guy because he would become Voldemort's puppet. I think the collapse of the Ministry of Magic should refer to this. Albert mentioned that everyone would need to hide by then."
"Anything else?" Lupin asked, breaking the silence.
"Harry will eventually destroy You-Know-Who." Sirius closed his notebook and said, "Albert obviously thinks Harry is our hope."
"Eliminate the mysterious man completely." Moody muttered. His intuition told him that the mysterious Anderson must know something.
He suddenly felt that it was a great loss for Dumbledore not to invite Albert to join the Order of the Phoenix. Even if the other party was indeed on their side and provided them with help, the situation would be completely different when the target was a master of prophecy who could predict the future almost 100%.
"Perhaps it's time to have a good talk with Dumbledore." Moody suddenly understood why Sirius admired Anderson so much.
"Where's Dumbledore?" Tonks asked suddenly.
"I don't know." Moody shook his head. "I have sent a message to Dumbledore, but I haven't received a reply yet. I suspect he may not be in the UK."
"Not in England?"
"I don't know. Dumbledore rarely tells anyone where he is, but I think he must have something important to do," Moody speculated.
"Important things? Like?"
"Find a way to defeat You-Know-Who and destroy him once and for all." Moody muttered, "I suspect that Anderson might know something, too."
"It's best to leave this matter here." Sirius suddenly said seriously, "Don't spread it outside, especially don't let Snape know."
"What?"
Everyone was a little stunned and turned to look at Sirius.
"What would happen if Voldemort mistakenly believed Anderson knew his fatal weakness?" Sirius asked rhetorically.
"You mean... the mysterious man will chase Anderson madly?"
"No, the You-Know-Who probably can't do anything to Anderson, but we might all be in trouble because of it," Sirius warned.
"Will we be in trouble for this?"
"You don't know him." Sirius said in a low voice, "He was the one who put Umbridge in Azkaban."
"Umbridge is not ..."
"Who do you think warned Harry?" Sirius sneered, "Do you really think he is a young wizard who just graduated?"
"I dare say that when the Aurors found Voldemort's lair, it was probably him who leaked the secret to the Aurors. Voldemort once wanted to kill him in the dueling tournament."
"He also used us to send all the Death Eaters who had tried to assassinate him to Azkaban prison. Goyle, Crabbe, Avery... The Death Eaters who were captured in Spain were all among those captured."
"But, this..."
The living room fell into a strange silence and everyone looked at each other. Although they didn't understand why Sirius said that, was that really the truth
Tonks' intuition told her that what Sirius said might be right. At least the location of Voldemort's lair was probably revealed to Scrimgeour by Anderson.
Mrs. Weisley suddenly asked, "When does Emmeline's funeral begin?"
"the day after tomorrow."
The restaurant fell silent again.
"Let's all go and take a rest. I know everyone is very tired," suggested Mrs. Weisley.
No matter how much they discussed, they could not come to any conclusion. Amelia Bones was already dead, and it was hard to say what the situation would be like next.
"Go back and rest. I will contact Dumbledore as soon as possible." Moody stood up with the help of crutches. Staying up late was not kind to an elderly man.
"Lemus, I have something to tell you." Sirius called his old friend after the meeting.
After all the members of the Order of the Phoenix left, Sirius poured a glass of butterbeer and placed it in front of Lupin. The latter reached out to take it, but did not drink it. He looked at Sirius with a slightly tired look and asked, "What is it, Sirius."
"You like Tonks, right!" Sirius suddenly said in a firm tone.
"What?" Lupin was a little stunned, as if he didn't understand why Sirius said that.
"She almost died tonight!" Sirius reminded: "If it weren't for Emmeline Vance's bad luck, it would have been Tonks who died tonight."
“Perhaps, you are right.”
Lupin clenched his glass tightly and fell into a brief silence. He drank the butter beer in the glass in one gulp and changed the subject, "Amelia Bones was eventually killed by Voldemort."
"Tonks likes you, too, my old friend." Sirius looked at Lupin with his eyes downcast and reminded him, "You almost lost her tonight. Maybe you should face up to your feelings."
"What about you, Sirius?" Lupin asked back.
"I'm just a little disappointed." Sirius said irritably, "Just like when Dumbledore wanted to win over the werewolves, I was very pessimistic about it, but you went anyway. What can I do? I don't have any way."
"Well, I admit that if you are not willing to even try, then there will be no hope at all." Sirius looked at his old friend and said calmly, "So, I think I should remind you to grasp your own happiness."
"I'm not suitable, Sirius." Lupin shook his head and said self-deprecatingly, "I'm too old, too poor, and too dangerous."
"I know what you're worried about." Sirius said slowly, "I asked Anderson, he said the probability of a werewolf being passed down to the next generation is not high. Even if it is passed down, you won't actually turn into a werewolf. At most you'll just have some werewolf symptoms."
Lupin opened his mouth slightly, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
"As for poverty, that won't be a big problem." Sirius patted Lupin's shoulder and said, "You should have seen that Fred and George easily made a lot of Galleons. You can do the same. Even if you can't make a lot of money, we can still get you a good job. Fred and George need help. They asked you for help not only because you need the money, but also because your defense against the dark arts is also not low. They recognize your ability."
"After this experience, our magazine can also become the most famous Defense Against the Dark Arts magazine in the UK. It will definitely be a hot seller. And you are the editor-in-chief of the magazine, so you don't have to worry about the Galleon issue." Sirius said softly, "There is also the problem of werewolves. There is a Reverting to Human Form spell, but the spell is more difficult. But I believe that if Tonks is willing, she can learn it after spending some time. Even without the wolfsbane potion, you are not a big threat."
"Think about it, my old friend." Sirius said softly: "Your worries are actually not a big problem."
"I'm tired. I'm going to go back and rest." Lupin lowered his eyes and stood up and left.
"I still think you should stay." Sirius tried to persuade him to stay.
Lupin walked away quickly without saying anything or stopping.