I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 410 Anti-Voldemort Alliance

Hagrid's smile suddenly froze. "Why?"

"Because Hogwarts is being renovated," Owen had no choice but to use Dumbledore's excuse.

"But—" Hagrid's expression changed several times, and he said with genuine disappointment, "No one notified me."

"It was decided this morning, and you happened to be out," Irving added.

"This..." Hagrid was stunned, clearly not expecting this to happen. He looked at Hermione and Owen, his eyes filled with disappointment and helplessness.

"Well, well," he sighed. "At least I have someone to spend Christmas with this year. This tree is still somewhat useful, but it finally brought a festive atmosphere, and now it's gone again."

"Are you heading towards the Forbidden Forest? It's best not to go too deep into the Forbidden Forest lately—uh—he'll get very irritable if he's woken up. It's also getting a bit too cold." Hagrid dragged the tree, turning back with a hint of helplessness.

It seems he intends to plant this fir tree in front of his house.

"No, we'll only stay near the edge of the forbidden forest."

The two of them knew, of course, who Hagrid was referring to when he said "he".

That was Hagrid's younger brother, the giant, whom he brought back from the island of giants.

Although everyone had reservations about Hagrid keeping a giant in the Forbidden Forest, what could they say? After all, he was his brother, and they really didn't have any better options.

The three of them walked together toward the cabin.

The two parted ways in front of his door. Owen found a relatively high mound where anyone coming from the Forbidden Forest would surely be able to see them.

At this moment, the light snow began to fall even more heavily.

The wind was blowing fiercely.

Hermione moved even closer to him.

Not far away, Hagrid took a shovel from the house, found a suitable corner, and began digging.

This is not easy.

The earth was frozen solid, and even with his giant strength, he couldn't dig much out.

After more than ten minutes, he managed to dig a hole about two feet deep.

Just then, a strange noise suddenly came from the forbidden forest in the distance.

It was the sound of leaves being scraped by something, followed by the sound of snow falling to the ground.

He and Hermione looked up and saw a silver light rapidly approaching them.

Hermione instinctively took out her wand.

It wasn't until the ball of light flew closer that she realized it looked like someone's guardian deity.

"Don't let Lucius pass on any more messages. He's completely unreliable. That opportunist."

A silver orb of light floated in the air, and then a snake crawled out of it, flicking its tongue and speaking.

"What? You're not stupid enough to personally contact him, are you?" Owen teased.

"Hmph—unless I'm an idiot." Bellatrix Lestrange's voice came from the sphere of light. She seemed flustered and impatient, the appointment clearly putting her under immense pressure. "He just left the information in a specific location; I'll retrieve it later."

"Not bad, but how am I supposed to contact you without Lucius?" Owen said. "I can't exactly just mail a letter to Tom, can I?"

His words caused the other person to pause briefly.

Indeed—they did not have an effective and secure channel of communication.

She seemed to be thinking for about ten seconds before speaking, "The Black family has a house-elf named Kreacher. Use him to contact me; the Dark Lord never cares about these beasts."

"No problem!" Irving said decisively.

This is not a difficult task, and Kreacher is very loyal to them. The only variable might be Malfoy's mother, Narcissa Malfoy.

She also has control over Kreacher, although the fairy will, in principle, firmly keep the secret.

But Narcissa Malfoy, after all, knew Kreacher and might notice something amiss.

However, we can't worry about that right now. There's no such thing as absolute safety, and some hidden dangers are inevitable.

"Alright, let's get down to business. What did you want to see me about?" The guardian's voice paused for a moment before continuing.

Owen wasn't going to play games with her and asked directly, "Last night, did Voldemort send someone to infiltrate the Department of Mysteries to steal a prophecy orb?"

"How did you know?" The other person seemed surprised, then confirmed, "That's right, but it wasn't stealing—it was taking. The Ministry of Magic's inside man was already prepared."

"An inside man?" Owen frowned, then asked, "He got it? Who was the inside man? And someone died in the process."

"Of course we got it. As for the inside man—a nobody, a mute named Broderick Bode. We orchestrated a conflict between him and that vampire."

As expected, the vampire, whose mind was already possessed by dark magic, killed him in a fit of rage. This was exactly what we planned; otherwise, the Ministry of Magic wouldn't have even noticed that something was missing.

"Wait? Broderick Bode is an inside man? This was all part of your plan? What do you mean?" Owen asked, puzzled.

"We can't disobey the Dark Lord's orders, but we can make things difficult for him. However—I must say, this wasn't part of my plan," Bellatrix Lestrange said sharply, clearly indicating that her relationship with the person behind the plan was not good.

"That Broderick is an idiot—no—a madman. He claims that his wife is trapped in the past because of time travel, but in fact, he has never had a wife or been married. Neither the wife he is talking about nor her family ever existed. But he stubbornly believes that the false wife existed and keeps applying to the Ministry of Magic to conduct larger time magic experiments."

The Ministry of Magic refused him several times, and he became increasingly deranged.

Finally, this caught the attention of a "pretender," who acted as a go-between, bringing them into contact with the Dark Lord.

"The Imposter? The Dark Lord?" Owen's face showed a thoughtful expression.

On the other side, Bella didn't explain much, but continued telling the story of Broderick, "That guy claimed that the Ministry of Magic has an 'extremely powerful time magic item' that he can steal and offer to the Dark Lord."

She made no attempt to hide her disgust for this person, her tone filled with contempt.

Clearly, Bellastrom did not believe in the so-called time magic item.

That makes perfect sense—she probably hadn't even heard of the Time-Turner when she was at Hogwarts.

As for Voldemort?

Irving wasn't quite sure.

But he knew for certain that Dumbledore would never request a Time-Turner for him.

Therefore, whether he understands time magic is still unknown.

Regardless, this was crucial intelligence.

We must inform Dumbledore immediately.

We can't let the Time-Turner fall into Voldemort's hands, otherwise dealing with him in the future will be quite troublesome.

As for that Broderick Bode—what he said might actually be true.

The Department of Mysteries has precedents for this.

In 1899, Eloise, a taciturn woman from the Department of Mysteries, used a time-twister to travel back in time during an experiment, but died because the time exceeded several hours.

In the experiment to travel back in time, Eloise was trapped in 1402 for five days.

When she finally returned to the present, her body had aged five centuries and suffered irreparable damage, eventually dying at the St. Mungo's Hospital for the Wounded and Maligned.

Her travels altered the life trajectories of everyone she had met in the past, with at least 25 descendants disappearing from the modern world and becoming "never born" (according to the woman herself).

Ultimately, several warning signs emerged in the days following Ms. Mintab's discovery, indicating that time itself had been disrupted by this act that so severely violated the laws of time.

Her first Tuesday after her reappearance lasted two and a half days, while Thursday lasted only four hours.

The Ministry of Magic encountered many troubles in trying to cover it up, and subsequently enacted the strictest laws and penalties for those who researched time travel.

Owen had no idea how the Ministry of Magic actually kept track of time.

What does it mean that Tuesday lasts for two and a half days and Thursday only lasts for four hours?

Unless in this world time is not an abstract concept, but a physical form of energy or some kind of matter.

It can be reduced or increased, which in turn leads to a reduction or extension of time.

In short, the magical world has too many secrets, and he has limited energy and does not know them all.

A normal time converter can only return about five hours, so it's not too dangerous. But a time-traveling device that can go back several centuries is far more important.

On the other side, Hermione also had a furrowed brow.

As a user of the time converter.

She knew all too well the disastrous consequences that magical items could cause.

She couldn't even imagine how serious the consequences would be if Voldemort were to get his hands on that thing.

Could he, in his madness, travel back in time and kill Harry before he was even born?

This is to avoid failure.

Or kill young Dumbledore?

Too many possibilities and disasters have arisen.

This is bound to make people nervous.

Just as the two were deep in thought.

Bella's voice could still be heard from the other side.

"His presence has made our operations very difficult, and many plans have been put on hold, so the only way to get rid of him is to eliminate him," she said coldly.

At this moment, it was as if she had returned to her former state as a female demon.

"Oh—it seems you have some companions in the Ministry of Magic?" Owen squinted at the serpentine Patronus.

Bellatrix Lestrange is now making no attempt to hide her betrayal of the current Dark Lord, whereas she used to try to conceal it.

She must have recently been having in-depth conversations with her 16-year-old senior, Tom.

She was more inclined to emulate young Tom.

When faced with Irving's question, Bella chose to remain silent, which can be considered an indirect admission.

"By the way, the Prophecy Orb is now... The Department of Mysteries holds countless prophecies from over a hundred years ago. How did you find the correct one? You know, only those involved in the prophecy can take the Prophecy Orb off the shelf of the Department of Mysteries without going insane."

"That vampire you mentioned—how did he get it?" Owen asked again.

"A Horcrux," the voice from the Guardian said bluntly, "He possesses a Horcrux belonging to the Dark Lord."

"A Horcrux?" He rested his right hand on his chin, lost in thought.

Now almost all of Voldemort's Horcruxes have been destroyed—except for the diary.

All he had left was—the Gaunt ring?

The one with the resurrection stone?

In fact, the mansion was destroyed because the third-year Aurors launched a raid on Voldemort's Gaunt family's old house.

Therefore, Dumbledore did not find the Horcrux.

Was it taken by Voldemort beforehand?

"However, I switched them before he got the prophecy ball," Bella said after a pause.

"You switched them?" Owen looked at the serpentine guardian in front of him with some surprise.

He had a strange feeling that Bella desperately wanted Voldemort to die as soon as possible.

How did you find it?

"The real Dark Lord can be found!" Bella said decisively. "He wants to know why the great Voldemort was defeated by a baby."

"so--"

Upon hearing Bella's words, Irving instantly understood everything.

When sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle returned to Bella's care, his first priority was to find out how he had been defeated by an infant. So he ordered her to find the prophecy orb. With the help of Tom's soul, Bella easily found the prophecy orb in the Mysterious Things, which had been sieved and opened unilaterally to the Death Eaters.

Irving could even deduce that it was Bella who told young Tom about the prophecy of the ball, because that's exactly what old Tom was looking for.

"What about the real prophecy ball?" Irving pressed.

“He destroyed it after he finished reading it,” Bella replied. “Then he made a fake one, altered the contents, and put it back in its original place.”

"Great—very Mission Impossible!" Owen breathed a sigh of relief for Harry, but on the other hand, he was also uneasy about the rapid split within the Death Eaters.

How come you're moving even faster than us now?

You're trying every possible way to kill Voldemort, aren't you!

It is clear that some—or even many—Death Eaters within the Ministry of Magic have now completely sided with young Tom Riddle.

Although Irving had no idea what methods this senior had used to fool so many people so quickly.

Keep in mind—that was just sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle, not the adult Tom who had traveled the world and possessed profound black magic.

How could he possibly be capable of doing all that?

Is this some kind of fabricated story?

Using an elderly Voldemort as a shield, is this a case of the fox borrowing the tiger's might?

But not all Death Eaters are fools. How could they not see how capable a Hogwarts wizard is?

Of course—he himself is excluded here.

Unless—Owen has another idea—that diary has been in Dumbledore's hands for a full two years!

Two years!

Who knows what the old headmaster actually turned that sixteen-year-old Tom into?

Overall, however, seeing the Death Eaters split up was undoubtedly a great thing for them.

As for how many good people are still within the Ministry of Magic.

forget it!

This institution is rotten to the core; let's overthrow it and start afresh.

"Okay, you did a good job!" Irving said casually.

The little snake flicked its tongue and replied, "In a few days, Kreacher will give you a list of people."

"Oh! Who is it?" Owen became interested.

"The pawns controlled by the Dark Lord, or as you would say, are all 'imposters.' That list—don't arrest them immediately, or it will be exposed."

"【Impersonators】? Voldemort can create 【Impersonators】?"

"He couldn't before, but he can now." The little snake paused, then said, "He's no longer human at all. A monster? No—he's even more terrifying than that. His method of punishing his subordinates is to make them swallow the [Dead Root]."

"What is 'Dead Root'?" Owen asked curiously.

"A plant, a plant with a fleshy exterior, like a clump of minced meat, which you have seen, is what was originally meant to be stuffed into your mouths at the top of Azkaban's Tower."

"After consuming the [Dead Root], the wizard will transform into a monster in human skin, who will only obey his commands and whose soul cannot escape."

Irving could clearly feel the fear emanating from the snake in front of him; his body was trembling slightly.

"Do you have a way to treat this?" she asked after a moment.

"Of course." Owen nodded. The so-called "Deadroot" must be the name of the parasitic flesh monster they had seen before. "As long as it doesn't mutate immediately."

"Okay—" came the guardian's crisp voice, and then it seemed she was about to say something else.

But just then, the silver light became flickering. "It's calling me; I have to go."

Having said that, the guardian deity in front of him suddenly turned into a ball of silver light and disappeared.

"So eager?" Irving muttered to himself.

Under Voldemort's oppressive rule, the Death Eaters are having a very difficult time.

No wonder so many people choose to betray him.

He then turned around, took Hermione's hand, and prepared to return to the castle.

Walk down the hill.

Hagrid was carrying a bucket of water and watering the fir tree that had just been buried in the ground.

The pale green liquid seeped into the tree roots.

That's not just simple water.

It is a plant growth regulator.

It was arranged by Professor Sprout.

"Hey—who were you talking to just now?" Hagrid greeted them.

"The head of some resistance organization," Owen said with a hint of sarcasm.

"The resistance?" Hagrid looked at him suspiciously. "What are they up to?"

He didn't know much. He thought Owen was joking with him. "Never mind—you guys should go back to the castle as soon as possible and not wander around the Forbidden Forest. There's been a lot more people coming to Hogsmeade Village lately, which has led to poachers sneaking in from time to time."

"Okay," Hermione replied.

They definitely don't intend to stay.

We must inform Dumbledore of the intelligence we just received as soon as possible.

Especially information about the time converter.

They quickened their pace on the way back, but not by much.

How can you walk fast when the snow is deep and slippery?

On the way, Hermione kept recalling Bella's attitude.

From her perspective, this woman—who had previously been shouting and threatening them, and was known as Voldemort's most loyal servant—had shown a completely different attitude today, which greatly surprised her; the change was too rapid.

The speed made her somewhat worried.

"Did her attitude change too quickly? Could she be plotting something?"

On the covered bridge, Hermione finally asked the question.

"Hmm—maybe, but it's unlikely," Owen replied. "The Unbreakable Curse will bind her to her vow."

"Of course—an unbreakable spell is not very useful to clever people, just like the law—no matter how detailed the regulations are, there will always be people who can find loopholes."

Once inside the courtyard, their pace quickened considerably.

"However, this time she probably has someone helping her, so she's unlikely to lie to us."

"Help?" Hermione turned to look at him.

"It was Voldemort," Owen said. "Back then, fresh out of Hogwarts, Tom attracted a large following with his eloquence and charismatic personality."

But for an organization to truly make waves, it needs the support of at least one class.

He deliberately chose the pureblood ideology—perhaps this is related to his Salazar lineage.

He believed that his bloodline was the noblest.

In short—because of his advocacy of pure-blood supremacy, he immediately gained the strong support of those pure-bloods who had long been squeezed out by half-blood wizards and Muggle-born wizards.

Owen continued, "Among the twenty-eight pure-blood saints, only a few families, such as Hannah's Abbot family, did not collude with Voldemort because they were Hufflepuffs for generations."

Ernie's McMillan family is also half Hufflepuff.

There are also characters like Weasley, who were labeled traitors by purebloods.

In addition, his ideology was supported by almost all other pure-blood families.

This is precisely why Voldemort was able to rise so quickly and become a force capable of challenging the Ministry of Magic and even the Federation.

"Of course—supporting you is naturally for the sake of getting something in return. The Malfoy family is very straightforward. They hope that after Voldemort comes to power, he will pass some laws that benefit them, such as hunting Muggles."

"Good heavens!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise, as this was the first time she had ever heard of such a requirement from the Malfoys.

Consider that her parents had met Lucius before.

It's truly terrifying.

"Voldemort doesn't care about pure-blood interests; he only cares about himself and eternal life. He used to pretend, but now..." Owen paused, his expression gradually turning cold.

"Ever since he colluded with the Outer Gods, he has become less and less like a human. We can no longer determine what is inside that humanoid creature wearing snakeskin?"

Perhaps he was just like the priest we saw in Egypt, a twisted mass of flesh and blood.

Faced with such a 'master'.

Pure-blood wizards, of course, would also rebel.

What they need is an agent who can represent their interests, not a monster that rides on their heads and holds a knife to their throats at all times.

Hearing this, Hermione understood immediately: "So—the Death Eaters' split was inevitable. Or rather, their defection was inevitable; they even wanted to see Voldemort's downfall more than we did. It's just that Voldemort's powerful magic is a deterrent to them now, otherwise they would have scattered long ago?"

"clever."

Owen added, "As an organization, the Death Eaters don't even have a number two, which speaks volumes. The organization's cohesion rests entirely on Voldemort. As soon as he falls, the Death Eaters will immediately crumble, just like they did fifteen years ago."

Now, more and more people are secretly rebelling against Voldemort. Nobody wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with a monster, which is absolutely great for us. As a result, while our power hasn't increased, it has become stronger.

(End of this chapter)