Struggling to survive at Hogwarts

Chapter 350 The Pledge of Allegiance

"What...what is this?!"

Early in the morning, Ron's undisguised shout instantly woke up the few people left in the house.

"map."

Unlike Ron, who was terrified, Thea calmly added the last few strokes to the canvas.

"map………"

Ron seemed stunned, his eyes wide open, only able to blankly repeat Thea's words.

“Weasley, I swear, if you don’t give me a reasonable answer, I’ll definitely teach you a lesson…”

Awakened, Hermione stormed down the stairs, and then—she perfectly replicated Ron's stunned expression.

"...Thea?"

Hermione's voice was dreamlike and ethereal, not because she was ignorant, but mainly because...

Merlin!

I'm wrong!

I knew that Thea had a better memory than us, but I never thought she could draw a map by hand!

A map of the wizarding world?

At the crucial moment, Harry remained as calm as ever. He was not only not infected by the two stunned fools, but he also recognized what Thea had drawn.

"It's just a rough map, not very detailed."

"These different colors...represent the current distribution of Death Eater power?"

“Hmm.” Thea nodded, then added, “This is information I obtained before I was placed under house arrest, but now they’ve begun to assemble, so the map of their forces might not be entirely accurate—”

"But if it's useless, then why did you draw it in the first place?"

Harry picked up where Thea left off, and as they looked at each other, they saw the same answer in each other's eyes.

The two spoke so quickly, and their language was so enigmatic and cryptic, reminiscent of Dumbledore's style, that Ron was completely bewildered.

Ron wanted to speak directly, but the two people opposite him managed to build an unassailable protective barrier within a few words.

Left with no other option, Ron quietly nudged Hermione's arm and whispered, "Hermione, do you know what they're saying?"

Hermione, her thoughts interrupted, gave Ron an annoyed look, then, to Ron's incredulous gaze—

She tore through that invisible protective barrier and, with an unstoppable force, pulled Thea to her side, then launched into a barrage of questions.

"You're planning a... counter-encirclement?"

"Breaking down the group into smaller units... with the current members of the Order of the Phoenix... this is a very feasible option..."

Hermione's excited exclamations rang in her ears, while Thea remained calm, only occasionally glancing out the window with a hint of nostalgia in her eyes.

A counter-encirclement?

This statement is actually not entirely accurate.

Thea actually preferred to call this tactic "besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements".

As for the inspiration, it came from a play in the Far East called "Li Yunlong Attacks Ping'an County".

In the small living room, the four people had different expressions.

After Harry "stole" Thea from Hermione, his expression didn't change, but the curve of his lips gradually flattened out, and finally he simply buried himself in the map, looking completely focused.

Ron looked around. On his left was his good brother's "sad face," and on his right was his "wife" and "former friend" being all lovey-dovey. In a daze, Ron felt as if he had been cuckolded.

So, what exactly is this "counter-encirclement"?

Completely bewildered, Ron scratched his head and eventually joined Harry, determined to figure out the problem.

On the stairs, little Ginny looked at the lively scene in the living room, shook her head with a wry smile, and quietly slipped into the kitchen, a surge of envy welling up inside her.

Has their relationship always been lively?

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After finally managing to calm down the overly enthusiastic guys around her, and having a quick breakfast, Thea picked up her paintbrush again and began drawing other maps.

Before anyone knew it, Harry had come over again.

He was quiet this time, but his gaze, which was fixed on Thea's hand, eventually made Thea look at him.

"Is there something wrong with my hand?"

"……No--"

Caught red-handed, Harry paused for a moment, but still asked the question that had been bothering him, "The knuckles of your fingers..."

"Does it look severely deformed?"

Harry nodded heavily.

In fact, for someone who has experienced many years of education in China, the deformity of the middle finger joint is almost a given.

This was a habit for Thea, but to Harry it was like a drop of ink on a blank sheet of paper, extremely glaring.

"Before today, I hadn't paid much attention..."

"However, if you write enough words and for a long enough period of time, your hand might also become like that."

"Is this how you got your good grades?"

Both of them smiled as they recalled their time at Hogwarts.

"Of course, the early bird catches the worm."

Harry was speechless at Thea's words, but quickly laughed again.

Thea didn't know what Harry was laughing at, but seeing the rare boyish look on his face, she couldn't help but laugh too.

The two looked at each other and laughed, their expressions indescribably silly.

"What are your thoughts on our next move?"

Harry didn't forget his purpose after all, but the moment he spoke, Thea's guard was instantly raised.

Trying to figure out Harry's purpose, Thea looked at the map from that morning and said slowly:

"Gringotts...it's not easy to break into..."

"That's a place we have to pass through."

Harry didn't argue, but his tone was serious.

Thea didn't refute this, which made Harry even more certain of the owner of the mysterious package.

"Hmm...I have an idea—"

Upon hearing this, Harry's eyes lit up.

Hermione and the other woman, who had appeared out of nowhere, also brightened up.

There was a time when, whenever Thea said this, it meant that they basically didn't need to use their brains anymore!

In any case, time has proven everything, and they couldn't find any fault with Thea's plan no matter how hard they racked their brains.

"So, our next stop is—"

Southeast side of the Tote Forest.

"The object that can help us lives there."