Moody's Death

December 20th, five days before Christmas.

In the evening, Dumbledore's Army held their last gathering before the Christmas holidays. Instead of learning new spells, they reviewed the Impediment Jinx and the Stunning Spell.

Of the group, Neville showed the most significant improvement—admittedly, Neville knocked out Padma Patil instead of Dean Thomas, whom he had been aiming for, but his accuracy was much better than before, and the others had also made great progress.

That night, Harry's scar started hurting without warning, waking him from his sleep and causing him to S.P.E.W. all over the bed.

He heard Voldemort's arrogant laughter echo in his ears; he would never forget that terrifying voice. He also vaguely heard Voldemort say a name...

Who is that?

"Harry! Harry!"

Ron stood by the bed, looking terrified. There were several figures at the foot of the bed. Harry clutched his head, his vision blurring from the pain... He rolled to the edge of the bed and vomited again.

"Harry! Harry!"

Harry gasped for breath, propped himself up in bed, and forced himself not to S.P.E.W.; his vision was blurred with pain. He pounded his head, seemingly trying to recall the name.

"Harry, man," Ron said worriedly, "Are you alright?"

"Moody... it's Mad-Eye Moody, something's happened to him."

Mad-Eye Moody is dead.

The cause of death was Killing Curse.

Thanks to the advice that Skylar had given to the Order of the Order of the Phoenix through Snape, the person on duty at the Ministry of Magic was replaced by the most powerful Moody.

But unexpectedly, Moody also failed to survive.

When the Order of the Phoenix received this news, they were thrown into utter chaos.

Molly broke down in tears on the spot because her husband Arthur was supposed to be on duty that day, but by a twist of fate, Moody was the one on duty instead. As a result, Arthur was fine, but Moody died. She was caught in a complex mix of guilt and relief.

In a bad mood, Sirius Black made the same mistake as in the original story. As if to vent his emotions, he yelled at Kreacher to let it out. Kreacher, who already disliked Sirius Black, deliberately interpreted Sirius's "get out" as allowing it to leave the Black Ancestral Home.

So, at that moment, Kreacher appeared in Skylar's bedroom, bowed, and respectfully reported the whole story to Skylar.

Skylar's face was icy cold.

Surprisingly, despite the Order of the Order of the Phoenix's preparations, the situation has only worsened.

"Who killed Moody? Has Dumbledore found out?" Skylar asked.

"Young Master Skylar, Dumbledore is still investigating this matter. Kreacher will report to you immediately if there is any new information," Kreacher said respectfully.

"What about the rest of the Order of the Phoenix? How are they?" Skylar asked casually.

"Miss Black's magical skills are becoming increasingly refined, and her position in the Order of the Phoenix is becoming more and more important. Now, many missions of the Order of the Phoenix are implicitly led by her, and her opinions have a great influence on the others in the Order of the Phoenix," Kreacher said.

Skylar smiled with satisfaction. The so-called Miss Black was none other than his servant "Thousand Charms" Nymphadora. After his training, her strength had reached a peak. As her position in the Order of the Phoenix became more and more important, it would be more and more helpful for him to keep track of the Order of the Phoenix's movements.

"Remus Lupin, he seems to have been driven out of the Werewolf Tribe. He has returned to the Order of the Order of the Phoenix headquarters and is temporarily assisting Sirius Black in coordinating the tasks and communication among the members," Kreacher reported mechanically, without a trace of emotion.

Skylar declined to comment. Lupin's mission in the Order of the Order of the Phoenix was to infiltrate the Werewolf Tribe. With the Werewolf power now settled and under the Werewolf Tribe's control, Lupin naturally had no need to stay. Therefore, under Skylar's arrangement, he was expelled from Knockturn Alley by Ulfric.

"As for Sirius Black, that spendthrift..." Kreacher said through gritted teeth. Although Sirius Black was its nominal master, it had no respect for him, but rather loathed him. In its heart, it always believed that Sirius Black had tarnished the honor of the Sirius Black House of Black and was not worthy of being its master.

"What happened to Sirius Black?" Skylar asked curiously. He didn't really like or dislike this character. Although he was his cousin, Sirius Black wasn't close to his mother. Moreover, according to the original story, in the near future, it was because of him that the House of Black's wealth ended up in the hands of Harry, an outsider.

"He's almost squandered the House of Black's fortune. That wretched spendthrift!" Kreacher exclaimed.

Then, Kreacher began to recount Sirius Black's various "misdeeds" at length.

After listening carefully, Skylar understood the whole story.

It turns out that Sirius Black had been trapped in the Black Ancestral Home for too long. Because of the fear of exposing his status as a wanted criminal, Dumbledore did not allow him to go out on missions, so he could only spend his days in misery with an empty house and Kreacher.

Skylar was partly to blame.

In his third year, Skylar tricked the House of Black into revealing the secret code to their Gringotts, then packed up all the savings inside and took them with him, leaving him not a single Knut.

Even after losing all his savings, he still hadn't broken his bad habit of spending money recklessly—which makes sense, since in the original story he and James Potter were two spoiled rich kids who wouldn't know the value of money.

For example, last year he first bought Harry a Firebolt, then bought Ron an owl- Pigwidgeon, and with other expenses, he eventually fell into poverty and had to sell his possessions to make ends meet, such as selling various ancient and precious silver items from the House of Black collection.

That wasn't all, Kreacher continued—

Overwhelmed by these frustrations and setbacks, he developed an alcoholism and spent his days drinking heavily.

When Kreacher saw him, he was either dead drunk and unconscious, or on his way to get drunk.

According to Kreacher, not only him, but even Molly Weasley from the Order of the Phoenix couldn't stand it and had several arguments with him, each time requiring Lupin to step in and resolve the conflict.

Skylar sighed inwardly, never expecting the Order of the Phoenix to be full of such people. In the original story, due to the protagonist's halo, Sirius Black, James, and Harry were born without having to work or earn money; they were winners in life from birth, so they always considered themselves extraordinary, believing that they were the protagonists and that the whole world should revolve around them.

Once fairy tales become reality, Skylar sees these people's character, will, and wisdom as utterly vulnerable.

The next morning.

The news of Alastor Moody's death at the Ministry of Magic did not make it into the Daily Prophet.

It seems that neither the Order of the Phoenix nor the Ministry of Magic is willing to expose the affairs of the Department of Mysteries.

Fudge, of course, didn't believe that a dark wizard had attempted to attack the Ministry of Magic. He was more inclined to believe that Moody had been instructed by Dumbledore to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic to do something illegal, but something had gone wrong and Moody had been killed.

He was unwilling to expose the matter because he didn't want the public to lose faith in the Ministry of Magic's security capabilities.

Skylar scoffed at this, saying it was the ostrich mentality of politicians who think they can pretend things don't exist by ignoring them.

Time flies, and before we knew it, the three-week Christmas holiday was here.

Unlike in the original story, Harry and Ron went to the Burrow for their long holiday, while Hermione went skiing with her family.

Draco returns to the Malfoy Manor, while Pansy, Nott, Goyle, and Crabbe also return to their respective families.

Daphne, Astoria, Luna, Morrie, Cho Chang, and Susan chose to stay at Hogwarts. It was safe there, and they could also help maintain the Sleeping Dragon Society.

Although most students choose to leave school during the long holiday, the Sleeping Dragon Society's intelligence network operates around the clock, with a large amount of intelligence being transported daily from Great Britain and various parts of Europe by House Elf.

Furthermore, the Miraculous Alchymia needs help to produce Potions and alchemical bracelets in order to handle the large number of orders from all over the world.

Sazerus's guards had arrived in Hogsmeade Village. They were several tall men dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses, each exuding a chilling aura. They would be responsible for escorting Sazerus safely back to his family in Sicily, Italy.

Before leaving, Skylar took out an alchemy blueprint he had personally designed and expressed his hope that Sazerus could have the Vongola Family create the items depicted in the blueprint.

Sazerus glanced at the blueprints, a look of surprise on his face. This thing was not easy to manufacture, nor could it be used by ordinary wizards. However, as a loyal ally of the House of Malfoy, and having also developed a close relationship with Skylar during this time, he gladly accepted Skylar's commission on behalf of his family.

As for Skylar, he planned to travel to Egypt with Akabane Sakura — the Cairo Alchemy Research Center was about to host this year's International Alchemy Conference, in which Skylar and Cherry Moon were both participants, representing Hogwarts and Mahoutokoro respectively. Eleanor, as the first in line to inherit a family of alchemists, would also be there.