"Neville, this way..." Dean waved at Neville.
"They said you were training here!"
Neville took a few steps forward and gave Dean a big hug.
"Mr. Thomas, I'll leave Mr. Longbottom in your care." Dobby waited for the two men to say hello before bowing slightly to them and preparing to leave.
"Thank you, Dobby. Leave him to me." Dean almost patted his chest to make the promise.
After the house elf left, Neville began to look around, "Is this really the headquarters of the Defense Society?"
"Otherwise, where do you think needs such strict protection?" Dean seemed to see through Neville's thoughts and explained with a smile, "This village is actually the periphery, used for our activities. The most important place is protected by the Fidelius Charm, so it's normal that you can't see it."
"The Fidelius Curse?"
Neville had heard this spell from Hannah and was surprised that there was another layer of protection under such strict protection.
"Mr. Thomas, have you told Mr. Longbottom about the things he needs to pay special attention to when staying here
A gentle voice suddenly sounded beside the two of them, and Shanna appeared out of nowhere.
"I was just about to tell him about this." Dean scratched his head sheepishly.
"What's the matter?" Neville was a little confused.
"Please follow me. There are some rules to follow here." Shanna led Neville into the house protected by the Fidelius Charm.
"Can I join the Defense Society now?" Neville asked in a low voice.
"Of course, the premise is that you are an adult."
Shanna took Neville to the office to go through the procedures for joining the Defense Society, while Dean waited outside for about ten minutes before he saw Neville again, who looked very excited.
Neville put the pocket watch into his pocket and sighed softly, "If I had known earlier, I should have dropped out of school and come here for training."
"It's actually pretty boring here." Dean said insincerely, "Every day it's basically nothing but training."
"Do you know how many people envy you for receiving formal training here?" Neville suppressed the urge to hit someone and said to Dean, "Take me around."
"The houses here have been abandoned, and most of the people who are temporarily staying at the headquarters live in tents.
Of course, you can also spend some time repairing those dilapidated houses." Dean pointed to the old houses that had been repaired and said, "But there is no need to waste time. The house-elf Dobby and others will help provide food."
"But why is there no one here?" Neville asked his question.
"Everyone should be training." Dean greeted with a smile, "I'll take you to the training ground and you'll know why."
"this… "
Looking at the entrance that tilted downward, Neville looked at Dean with some confusion and asked, "I thought..."
"Ordinary Death Eaters can't break through the outer protective magic at all, and they don't even know where this abandoned village is." Dean introduced to Neville some of the information he had learned while staying here, "Of course, none of us actually knows where this place is."
"Once the village is really breached by the You-Know-Who, the two safe houses protected by the Fidelius Charm will be our last refuge."
Passing through a dim passage, they came to a large hall that was as big as a Quidditch field. Fred and George were organizing everyone to practice dueling. Although they were only using some conventional spells, the scene was extremely fierce and made people's blood boil.
"Want to try it?" Dean asked with a smile.
"With you?" Neville asked.
"right."
"All right."
Neville agreed.
So, one minute later.
Neville, hit in the chest by the Impediment Curse, fell heavily to the ground.
"Are you okay?"
"No wonder Cedric always talks about laying a solid foundation."
Neville reached out and shook the arm that Dean offered, a little depressed, "It's great to be able to receive training from Mr. Anderson in person."
"No, it's not that easy. Mr. Anderson has his own things to do, and he is also the secret keeper here. He usually only shows up at important gatherings. Most of the time we have to train on our own." Dean grinned as he recalled the recent changes and sighed softly, "However, the atmosphere here is really good. Everyone will share their combat experiences with each other, and there is plenty of time to practice duels every day. You will understand after you stay here for a while."
"That's similar to the DA gathering at school, but why is the gap so big?" Neville was still a little concerned about being easily defeated by Dean.
"It's different. The one at school is just children's play."
Dean pointed at the people practicing next to him and said, "This is the most basic combat training. As long as you complete the basic training, most ordinary wizards will no longer be your opponent."
"Well, many Death Eaters are actually included in ordinary wizards, so wizards who have completed basic training are much stronger than most dark wizards." Dean added, "You should have heard about them using Dementors and dark wizards as practice opponents a while ago."
"If I had that kind of power, I would definitely kick Snape out of school." Neville clenched his fists. He still cared a lot about this matter.
"How's things going at Hogwarts?"
Dean felt that Neville seemed to have misunderstood something, so he changed the subject to avoid offending him.
"Not so good. Those Death Eaters like to use Veritaserum to cause trouble for everyone. I originally planned to stay in the Room of Requirement and pretend to be missing." Neville and Dean stood by and watched the others practice. He envied them for being able to use various magic attacks fluently. Everyone in the training room seemed to be much stronger than him.
"That can't be helped." Dean knew what Neville wanted to do, and he sighed and reminded him, "Unless we defeat the You-Know-Who, it will be useless even if we drive Snape away. They will come back."
"Is there nothing Mr. Anderson can do?" Neville asked a stupid question.
"Unless we go to war with You-Know-Who ahead of time, but that would be meaningless." Dean lowered his voice and said, "At present, we are still secretly accumulating strength, waiting for the day when we can go to war with You-Know-Who. Now there are more and more official members in the association, and everyone is getting stronger and stronger, so there is no need to rush. We can slowly wait for the final battle brought by Harry."
"Actually, I was just about to ask, it seems that all the people here are students who graduated from Hogwarts not long ago." When Neville just entered the training room, he found that the members of the association were unusually young.
"I've asked similar questions before."
Dean smiled and explained to Neville, with an expression that said, "You are really curious too. They said that other members have more thoughts and many do not have the courage to stand up and fight against the You-Know-Who. In addition, some older adults will join the Order of the Phoenix. You know, they generally have good fighting power and do not need to receive training here.
"Can we join the Order of the Phoenix too?" Neville knew that Harry had joined the Order of the Phoenix, and he also heard from his grandmother that his parents had also joined the Order of the Phoenix.
"Of course, but I don't think it makes sense because the two sides have been cooperating all the time. Fred and George are the contacts, and a lot of information is shared." Dean reached out and patted Neville's shoulder, motioning him to follow.
The two will fight together against Lee Jordan.
Such sparring can provide all three parties with valuable melee experience.
Amid the shouts of the crowd, the duel between the three began.
Dean and Neville did not take advantage of the numbers, especially when they saw that their spells were blocked by the defense against dark magic items. Neville was stunned for a moment, and then he was knocked away by the barrier spell. Dean, who was left, was soon knocked down.
"Don't be distracted when fighting." Dean reminded a little depressed.
"Isn't that cheating?" Neville muttered.
"No, we're all fighting, who cares if you're cheating or not." Dean shook his head vigorously, "We just need to defeat him without using any dark magic."
"Dark magic is also taught here?" Neville was very surprised.
"We teach, but not much, because most black magic requires strong magical power to support it, which may not be useful in a duel." Dean explained, "And we focus more on practice, and watch the enemy being knocked down and subdued."
"Remember, most wizards have little ability to resist once they lose their wands," Dean reminded. "So after you defeat your enemy, remember to use the Scythe to disarm their wands. It's easier than killing them outright."
"Have you killed many dark wizards?" Neville's eyes widened.
"I don't know. I'm not strong enough to go out with everyone." Dean looked a little depressed when talking about this. "I heard that they are planning the next action, but unfortunately I am not qualified to participate."
"That sounds interesting."
Neville was interested in the Defense Society's actions against the Death Eaters.
"There are more interesting things. It's a pity that you came at the wrong time, otherwise you could have experienced Imperius Curse training."
"What is that?"
Neville suspected he had heard wrongly.
"It's training to resist the Imperius Curse. Mr. Anderson will use the Imperius Curse on us, and we just need to resist the control of the Imperius Curse to pass. Unfortunately, no one has successfully resisted it yet."
"Like what fake Mad-Eye did when we were in fourth grade?"
Neville recalled the training that the fake Moody had done in class in fourth grade on how to resist the Imperius Curse. At that time, only Harry succeeded in resisting it.
"Yes, it is difficult, but as long as you resist it, you will not be easily controlled by others using the Imperius Curse in the future. Everyone says that such an opportunity is rare, because the You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters like to use the Imperius Curse to control other wizards."
Dean also participated in training to resist the Imperius Curse, for which he crawled on the ground several times like a dog.
"Don't you have any private practice?" Neville couldn't help asking.
"No, Mr. Anderson will be there in person when practicing black magic to prevent any accidents." Dean explained, "Similar training takes place about twice a week, and the next one will probably be on Friday."
"I may not be able to attend." Neville looked a little regretful.
"Why?"
"I need to go back to Hogwarts with Cedric and keep Dumbledore's Army going." Although Neville was a little depressed, he could understand it. In Sana's words, at least the students of Hogwarts need to have the courage to stand up against the mysterious man and the Death Eaters. This is more important than anything else.
"It seems that you have your own tasks just like us." Dean seemed to be in a good mood after hearing Neville's words.
"What is your mission?"
"I will be in charge of the shelter." Dean said, "In a couple of days, Justin and I will go there to replace Hannah and Susan. We will help look after the expelled students and teach them Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"It's fine over there. I stayed there for a day before coming here."
"Are you okay?" Dean looked odd.
"What's the problem?" Neville asked puzzled.
"It was a mess over there at first, but later it was thanks to Hannah that everyone was integrated into Dumbledore's Army." Justin reached out and gently hit Neville's shoulder, "I thought you were in Hogwarts."
"I dropped out of school." Neville shrugged.
"He's just missing temporarily," Dean corrected.
"How is Hogwarts now?" Justin was a little curious about what Hogwarts looked like when run by Death Eaters.
“Not very good.”
Neville repeated what he had just said to Dean, and was shocked to hear that Defense Against the Dark Arts was changed to Dark Arts and the Cruciatus Curse was practiced using detained students.
"Okay, it's almost time." Dean took out his pocket watch, checked the time, and took Neville to the living room for dinner.
"The food here is much better than in the shelter." Neville looked at the house-elf who was serving food to people and was a little surprised at the variety of food here.
"Of course, if you like, there's also a simple afternoon tea."
The three of them each ordered a portion of food, sat at the long table to enjoy it, and chatted about what had happened during this period.
"By the way, do you have any news about Harry?" Neville asked curiously.
"Harry, I heard from Fred and George that Harry has also been receiving training recently. He is said to be practicing a very powerful spell with Professor Moody."
Speaking of this, Justin was very envious. It was a pity that they were still in the stage of laying the basics, and the spells they learned were simple and practical.
If you want to learn more complex spells, you need to complete basic training, but it will take at least a year to complete the most basic training.
"He should be preparing for a duel with the Noseless Monster!" Neville speculated, "It seems that the time for the two sides to officially start the war is not far away."
"Noseless monster?"
Dean and Justin were stunned, and it took them a moment to realize what Neville was talking about.
"That guy really has no nose." Cedric sat down next to the two of them and kindly reminded them, "You can't call him by his name here."
"I know," said Neville.
"Follow me for the next few days, and I will give you some emergency training." Cedric continued, "Next, you need to follow me back and forth between the two places. The main focus is still on Hogwarts. Albert hopes that someone can guide the students to continue to muster up the courage to resist the mysterious man."
"I know." Neville asked his doubts, "Why does Anderson pay more attention to the students in the school?"
"Because many adults are unreliable." Cedric's expression was very complicated. "Like the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, they should have stood with us to fight against You-Know-Who, but they chose to bow to You-Know-Who and become his minions."
Talking about this matter, the three of them were very angry about it, especially after knowing that Scrimgeour was killed by a mysterious man in order to protect the Aurors, they suddenly understood why Albert chose the young wizard.
"If this wizard war continues, those members of Dumbledore's Army who graduated from Hogwarts will become our most reliable allies." Cedric explained, "So I hope you can pay more attention to this matter."
"Leave it to me!" Neville promised, patting his chest.