It was already dinner time, but not only Harry had not returned yet, but Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, Tonks and a series of other members of the Order of the Phoenix who worked in the Ministry of Magic had not returned yet.
To be honest, everyone in the kitchen was freaking out.
Sirius was sitting on the main seat, shaking his legs constantly - he was the first to say that he wanted to find Harry, but Mrs. Weasley, who was always more careful about Harry than anyone else, was the first to stop him.
Sirius definitely couldn't go out, especially during this very sensitive period. If he ran out rashly and someone discovered his true identity, it would be the worst.
Hermione and Ron were forced into chairs by the calm Lupine, preventing them from sneaking out to look for Harry. But in fact, Lu Ping himself was extremely anxious, but he knew very well that he had to stay calm when encountering a situation.
Mundungus was as distracted as ever.
A wizard like him who lives at the bottom has always been a short-sighted person who only cares about his own interests. He shows up here every day just to eat and drink.
Although he also has his own principles, his "principles" will never include Harry's life and death.
As for the sisters Leni and Lena...it seems like they don't really care.
But overall, the atmosphere in the kitchen is extremely tense now, and I'm afraid the situation won't get better until Harry and the others come back.
At this time, two brothers, Fred and George, walked into the kitchen quietly, only to find that everyone was staring at them.
"What's wrong?" Fred and George said in unison.
"No, it's nothing."
I don't know who answered, and then everyone's eyes quickly moved away - they were waiting for Harry, not these two troublemakers.
It was Hermione who spoke hastily.
"Fred, George... Isn't there any movement in the study yet?"
The twins shrugged at the same time, and then George said, "Still no reaction."
After Maka went back to the study, Hermione felt something was wrong after thinking about it. There was a sense of violation that constantly reminded her that Maka seemed to be hiding something.
So, she later ran upstairs again, only to find that the door to the study had been enchanted. Now, let alone opening the door, it couldn't even knock, as if there was an invisible wall blocking the door.
"Don't stand there! Sit down, everyone! Sit down!"
Seeing brothers Fred and George standing at the door talking to Hermione, Mrs. Weasley impatiently greeted her two restless sons and asked them to sit down at the dining table.
However, she was leaning against the wall, her inner anxiety already written on her face.
"Molly, it's useless for you to stand there - you should sit down too!" Lu Ping waved his hand and said, "Wait another ten minutes. If they don't come back, I will go out and find a way."
"I'll go too!" Sirius immediately stood up.
"Stop causing trouble!" Mrs. Weasley said dissatisfied.
"You can't go." Lupine calmly shook his head slowly towards Sirius, "Molly is right, if you run out, we will have more worries."
"Then what do you think we should do?" Sirius's aggressive temper seemed to show up again, "Tell me! What should I do? Why don't I go to the Ministry of Magic -"
"Sirius!" Lupine raised his voice and said seriously, "Do you understand what you are saying?"
Sirius opened his mouth, then took a deep breath, and then sat back heavily in the chair.
At this moment, Lu Ping suddenly frowned as if he thought of something. Then, he shook his head slightly and sighed.
"Although now is not the time to talk, I want to say-have we relied too much on McClain recently?" He frowned and said, "If there hadn't been an emergency today and McClain was not here, I really didn’t notice this problem…”
"Recently, whenever an incident occurs, we will subconsciously write a report and hand it over to McClain for decision, and then he will naturally issue us a solution one by one..."
"Yes, McClane's handling methods are indeed very powerful. He often gets to the point and saves us a lot of trouble in execution... just like Dumbledore before!"
"Dumbledore?" Mrs. Weasley was stunned.
"Molly, you are still as smart as before... I think you understand, right?" Lupine nodded and said, "Yes, we used to rely on Dumbledore's decision-making, but now we just rely on it. It just transferred to McClain."
"I think you are right," Mrs. Weasley also showed a thoughtful expression, "Compared to us, Moody and Kingsley will have more independent opinions, but just the few of us... "
"No matter what you think, I'm not good at using my brain anyway," Sirius said impatiently, "What should be done and what decisions should be left to smart people to think about. I am only responsible for the execution."
"Like right now - I just want to know, what do we do?" he exclaimed.
"Molly, what do you think?" Lupine asked Mrs. Weasley.
Just when Mrs. Weasley couldn't help but fall into deep thought, there was a sudden sound of footsteps coming from far away outside the kitchen, and then everyone was surprised to see Mr. Weasley, Kingsley and Tonks filing in.
"What happened? Why is everyone looking like this?" Mr. Weasley asked with a puzzled look on his face.
But no one in the kitchen answered him immediately. Instead, they looked behind Tonks, who came in last.
no one! No Harry! Only these three people!
"Where's Harry? Arthur, didn't Harry come back with you?" Mrs. Weasley asked anxiously.
"Harry?" Mr. Weasley said in surprise, "He should have come back a long time ago? Miss Bones personally took him away from the Ministry of Magic... He didn't come back?"
"Miss Bones?" Lupine said in shock, "You mean, Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Legal Enforcement? She's not—"
"I'm not sure. It's possible that Dumbledore went to find her... The question now is not this, but... Harry really didn't come back?" Mr. Weasley was extremely surprised, his eyes widened.
"What did I lie to you for?" Lu Ping shook his head helplessly.
"Where's Mr. MacLean?" Kingsley interrupted their conversation, "He must know something... It's not necessarily possible, he's not at home now, right?"
"He is here, that is..." Mrs. Weasley pointed to the stairs upstairs. "As soon as he came back, he went to the study. He said there was no need to prepare his dinner, then he locked the door and never came out again..."
Kingsley was stunned when he heard this, and then showed a puzzled expression.
"Locked the door?" he asked strangely.
"Yeah! He's put a spell on the study door so we can't even touch it," Fred and George interjected.
Even Kingsley had no idea this time. He thought about it and simply turned around and walked out the door.
"I'll go to Bones' house and ask. Don't go out and run around... By the way, don't use the fireplace recently. The Floo Network has been monitored."
After that, his figure disappeared from everyone's sight, leaving only a group of people staring in the kitchen, all anxious and confused.
The food on the table was getting cold little by little, during which only Mundungus and Leni ate some, and even Leni did not touch the tableware in front of them.
Of course she was not worried about Harry, but because the atmosphere at the scene made her feel that if she ate carelessly now, she would create unnecessary quarrels with other people.
Leaving a bad impression on the people in front of her is something Lena has been trying to avoid. She needs her sister Leni to live peacefully in this "big family" so that she can feel at ease.
"I wonder... is Mr. McClain hungry?"
Lena looked up at the ceiling and thought of Maka inexplicably.
…
Of course Maka will be hungry, and he usually eats the most. But tonight, he had no time to worry about whether he was hungry or not.
At this moment, in the study room, a vast sea of blue magical light is constantly surging, and a large number of runes are dancing throughout the study space, shining with beautiful colors.
On the cleared floor, lines meandered and erupted with soft white light.
Maka sat seemingly casually in the center of the room, closing her eyes tightly and focusing on the magic in her body.
To be more precise - it is concentrated on the black energy mixed with the magic power.
He was using the power of the rune array to try to filter out the black energy from the magic power.
The black energy seems to be very easy to infect magic power, and its adhesion is quite high, so it is extremely difficult to remove it. But with the help of the rune array, this is not an impossible task.
The rune pattern under him can cause all the magic power within the range of the array to rotate at high speed. It is only a matter of time to separate the magic power from that weird black energy.
Of course, the premise is that the carrier of magic power, that is, Maka himself, can support it.
The flow of magic power is affected by the spirit of the wizard, and the high-speed flow requires the wizard to have a correspondingly strong spiritual will, otherwise magic riots will inevitably occur.
Just like when the little wizards first awakened their magic power, it was because their spirits had not yet adapted to the magic power that had just awakened and slowly flowed.
However, what Maka has to face now is a high-speed flow that is much more terrifying than when the magic power is awakened.
At this moment, he was still sitting calmly in the center of the rune array with his eyes closed, his chin propped up on one hand and his other arm resting casually on his thigh.
However, his hand was clenched hard, and veins popped out on his forehead. Sweat dampened the bangs on his forehead, causing a few strands of hair to cling to the skin at the corners of his eyes.
Only the slight sound of breathing echoed gently in the quiet study.