“Bang, bang, bang!”
Suddenly, there was a rapid knock on the door, awakening the Weisley brothers who were still sleeping. They jumped out of bed together, grasped the wands on the pillows tightly in their hands, looked at the wooden door vigilantly, and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter?"
"It's time to get up. Albert just sent a message to the patron saint saying that he will come to the meeting later."
Sana's voice came from outside the door, making Fred and George both breathe a sigh of relief and lie back on the bed. They originally thought something had happened.
"What time is it?" Fred asked with his eyes closed.
"It's almost ten o'clock!"
George said, suppressing a yawn and glancing at his pocket watch.
"I say, you two, how long do you plan to sleep?"
The door was pushed open, and Lee Jordan stood outside looking at the two people still hiding in the quilt and said.
"Let us sleep a little longer," Fred muttered.
"I can't stand it." After Lee Jordan finished the pumpkin pie in his hand in a few bites, he strode into the bedroom, reached out to grab the quilt on the bed, and lifted it up with force.
"cold."
The twins were forced out of bed, sneezed, and quickly wrapped the sheets around themselves, glaring at Lee Jordan.
"Okay, we're up, you go out, we need to change clothes!" Fred said unhappily.
Then Lee Jordan was pushed out of the dormitory and the door slammed shut.
“They’re too shy.”
Lee Jordan shrugged at Shanna in the corridor.
After a while, Fred and George, who had changed their clothes, walked into the living room, yawning. The twins looked very tired, obviously they stayed up very late last night.
"When is the meeting?"
Fred threw himself on the soft sofa and asked with his eyes closed.
"Ten o'clock." Shanna reminded, "The time is almost up."
"Why doesn't he schedule it in the afternoon or evening? I'll have to talk to him about this later." Fred couldn't help complaining.
It is really difficult to ask people to get up so early in the winter for a meeting.
"Okay, let's eat something to cheer ourselves up."
Cedric pushed a plate of steaming pumpkin pie in front of the twins and asked the house-elf to make them a cup of strong tea.
"You should go to bed early at night. If someone doesn't know, they might think..." George interrupted Lee Jordan before he could finish his words.
"Then come and help us. I'd like to rest early." George took a piece of pumpkin pie and handed it to Fred. He also took a piece for himself, put it in his mouth and took a bite. The freshly baked pie tasted great.
"Look at the headlines in today's newspaper."
Lee Jordan changed the subject stiffly. He couldn't make magic props and couldn't help Fred and George.
George covered his yawn again and asked, "What news?"
"The Ministry of Magic's Shelter No. 1 has been completed, and many high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Magic have moved into the shelter." Diggory briefly stated the content of the headlines and handed the Daily Prophet on the table to George.
"Is the Ministry of Magic crazy, or is the Daily Prophet crazy? They actually reported this matter. Don't they know the consequences of doing so?" George picked up the newspaper and read the latest front-page news, and couldn't help frowning.
"What's the problem?" Sana asked in confusion.
"Are you saying there aren't enough places in the shelter?" Cedric guessed the reason.
"Yeah, what do you make the other employees of the Ministry think?" George reminded.
"Didn't the newspaper say that the Ministry of Magic was still building Shelter No. 2 and No. 3?" Lee Jordan motioned for the two to finish reading the newspaper.
"It's definitely too late." Fred took a bite of the steaming pumpkin pie in his hand and said, "However, I still think the shelter built by the Ministry of Magic is very good. I think I can suggest Albert to do the same."
"Don't be silly, we don't have enough time to do that." George shook his head and said, "It's unrealistic to want to bring the people of the Defense Association together."
"At least it's safe." Fred said without hesitation.
"We certainly can't convince them to give up their jobs and hide in a damn shelter, unless it's my situation." Cedric thought this was unrealistic. If possible, no one would want to hide.
"We can't provide free food for everyone. Food alone will cost a lot of money every day. Do you want Dobby to die of exhaustion?" Lee Jordan also felt that this idea was unrealistic.
"I'm just saying it casually!"
Fred's cheeks wrinkled as he drank the strong tea brought by the house-elf.
"However, I think Albert may have had a similar plan originally, but gave it up later, or he felt it was inappropriate." Cedric took out his pocket watch to check the time, then cast his gaze towards the entrance of the hall.
After a while, the sound of the door opening was heard in the entrance hall.
"You are always on time!"
"Get ready for the meeting!"
Albert ignored Lee Jordan's teasing and clapped his hands to signal everyone to start the meeting.
After they sat down at the round dining table, Cedric frowned and asked, "What happened?"
"I recently received news that a mysterious man is targeting us." Albert said straight to the point.
"Hasn't the mysterious man been targeting us for a long time?" Everyone did not find this strange. They all knew that the mysterious man hated Albert and had tried to kill him more than once, but his plans had never succeeded.
"They already know about my formation of the Defense Association." Albert tapped the table with his fingers, motioning for everyone to look over. "The mysterious man is likely to target our members and try to use them to deal with me. After all, they have had a successful case with Peter Pettigrew before."
"What did you predict?" George asked curiously.
"We need to give up on Zuo Ke for now." Albert looked at Fred and George and continued, "I suspect he has been targeted by someone for a long time. There is no need to take any more risks now. Let's use him as bait to attract our attention."
"What about Zuo Ke?" Cedric asked with a frown.
"He's safe. I'll go say hello to the Ministry of Magic."
"What about our owl mail-order business?" Fred and George asked in unison. "Should we give up the joke shop business for a while?"
"Most of the orders for the joke shop come from Hogwarts. We can ask Ron to lend a hand and temporarily hire him to help us distribute the goods. I think Ron will be willing to help us deliver the goods for the sake of Garlon."
"Well, that should be fine. We'll write to Ron." Fred nodded in agreement. As long as they could continue to do mail order, they could continue to make money. Moreover, the most profitable business at the moment was supplying the Ministry of Magic with Defense Against the Dark Arts props.
"Next, there is the issue of the safety of the members of the Defense Association." Albert directly stated the purpose of coming here today.
"You think the Death Eaters would do something bad to them?"
"As long as they have nothing wrong with their brains, they will definitely look for my friends first. After all, you guys are all my friends. Others are likely to become the target of the mysterious man." Albert said without hesitation.
"But..." Shanna hesitated for a moment and said, "Don't you think it's strange?"
"What's strange about that?" Albert asked.
"Why would they attack your friends?" Shanna reminded, "They don't have any evidence. They just guess that they are related to you and may be suspected of joining the Defense Association."
"Sometimes evidence is not needed, especially for the You-Know-Who." Albert said calmly, "As long as he suspects, he will do this, have someone catch them, use Legilimency to spy on them and search their memories. Never underestimate the bottom line of a dark wizard."
"How about we build a similar shelter?" Fred pointed to the headline on the newspaper and said, "Let them all move in. It will be safer that way, and they will have more time to train."
"It's unrealistic." Albert shook his head. "We did prepare a lot of shelters, but we can't provide everyone with normal living security. I mean complete supporting facilities like the Ministry of Magic. That place is basically an empty shell with only a few days of water and food reserves."
"So what are you going to do?" Lee Jordan asked.
"Find them a temporary place to get rid of the enemy." Albert said without hesitation, "I have already chosen the location."
"You mean the place that pretends to be the headquarters?" Digory asked suddenly.
"Yes, in fact, that is the prototype of the Ministry of Magic's shelter, but I don't have enough manpower and material resources to complete it, so I can only leave it there abandoned." Albert briefly explained his plan. He intended to let other people Apparate and hide in the area protected by the Fidelius Charm when they encountered danger.
Of course, many people have never thought about this kind of thing, simply because using Apparition to appear in someone else's house is a very rash thing to do, but the possibility of executing it is very high, even Voldemort has no good way to deal with it.
"Are you actually planning to use that place as bait to attract the Death Eaters' attention and use it to conceal the existence of this place?"
Cedric understood.
If the Death Eaters knew the location of the Defense Society's headquarters, they would definitely focus on surveillance and ignore this place.
Cedric still remembered that he had told those dark wizards the location of the Defense Society's headquarters in the same way.
As long as Albert admitted that it was the headquarters of the Defense Association, it wouldn't be considered a lie.
"I'll take them there when the time comes. And here, give them the communication bookmarks at the next gathering."
"It contains a communication bookmark that can receive my messages."
Albert took out a wooden box and handed it to Fred. He then turned his head to Lee Jordan and said, "I think wizards in the entire wizarding world need a channel to obtain information."
"It's been done before," Lee Jordan said.
"I mean the channel of the Head Defense Association. It sends some fixed messages every day. As for the secret codes, they are transmitted using the communication bookmarks."
"This is getting more and more cumbersome. Why don't you get a version of the communication pen that Sirius uses? That way everyone can communicate with each other easily."
"No, once someone is caught, it will be easy for everyone to be implicated." Albert shook his head.