Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts

As they entered, they passed through a gate that felt like walking through a mist, and then walked through a meticulously designed garden with fountains and white peacocks roaming freely.

After leaving the vast garden, they first entered the foyer, then went up the stairs to a very luxurious reception room.

When they arrived, Lucius was sitting alone in a sofa chair in the living room.

When he saw Severus and his two companions enter, he did not get up, nor did he show any smile.

He simply questioned her coldly and loudly.

"Severus Snape! Do you want to repent for betraying the Dark Lord?!"

The moment he finished speaking, more than a dozen wizards stepped forward, raising their wands, and surrounded Severus and his two companions!

Chapter 105 A Battle of Wits with a Group of Death Eaters

The sudden turn of events made Lupin's hair stand on end. He nervously pulled his wand from his sleeve, and Harry instinctively moved closer to Severus's side.

However, Severus acted as if he didn't see them all pulling out their wands and pointing them at him.

He casually beckoned over three chairs, sat down himself, and gestured for Lupin and Harry to relax and sit down as well.

"Don't try that, Lucius. If you really wanted to interrogate me, you would have done it the moment I stepped through your door. You didn't need to wait until you entered this room."

He glanced at the luxurious crystal chandelier overhead.

"If I accidentally broke any of these bottles and jars in your house, wouldn't you be heartbroken?"

At Severus's prompting, Harry and Lupin also carefully sat down in the chairs, but they only dared to let their bottoms touch the very edge of the chairs.

The elegantly dressed wizards around him, with their wands raised high, showed no sign of lowering them, keeping them aimed at Severus.

Lucius's expression remained cold; he simply looked at Severus indifferently.

“You know better than anyone what you’ve been doing lately! In the Wizengamo trial, you claimed you wanted to repent and apologize. I’ve never seen you act so obsequiously in all the time we’ve known each other!”

"He also worked for the Ministry of Magic, opposed the werewolves who claimed to be the Dark Lord, sent them to Azkaban, and ruined Barty Crouch Jr.'s plans!"

"What exactly do you want from all this? Do you really want to betray the Dark Lord?!"

Severus simply crossed his legs, not even taking out his wand, and looked Lucius in the eye, speaking with certainty.

"Little Barty must have already contacted you."

At the same time, he turned to look at the dozen or so Death Eaters who were now the upper echelon of pure-blood wizards in the magical world, who were pointing their wands at him.

"He must have contacted you as well."

"So what? Everyone, are you really going to listen to Barty's baseless words and choose to help him? Where is the Dark Lord now? And where is Dumbledore?"

The drawing room fell silent, as if infected by Severus's confident voice; Lupin and Harry also relaxed.

Lucius simply stared at Severus, remaining silent and offering no response to the question.

Severus then pointed to the figures holding wands.

"And look at who these people you've brought here are."

“Goll, Crabbe, Nott, the Caro siblings, Parkinson, look at these pampered guys! Why didn’t you bring Karkaroff over too? You could have said that capturing me was a sign of your loyalty to the Dark Lord.”

Lucius could no longer maintain his calm and indifferent demeanor. His face flushed red, and he cursed the idiots in the Ministry of Magic in his mind!

Has Severus repented?

Is this a sign of self-reflection?

Is this an admission of wrongdoing?

His mouth is still the same as before, like it's full of toads, unable to utter a single good fart!

"Put it down! Put it down! We can't scare him!"

Lucius waved his hand, and the pure-blood wizards all put down their wands with dark faces and sat down in the high-backed chairs in the drawing room.

Their expressions were naturally unpleasant; after all, no one would be in a good mood after being scolded like that.

Especially since those insults weren't even wrong.

After the tension eased, Lucius immediately focused his attention on Harry.

"Where did you find this student?"

“His parents and I are somewhat acquainted,” Severus said casually.

"Let's go upstairs and play with Draco," Lucius said, trying to get rid of the unrelated people. Some things could be heard by outsiders, but some absolutely could not. "You're about the same age, you should get along well."

Harry turned to look at Severus, who nodded and then whispered something in his ear.

"Go have fun. But remember this: with me here, don't cause trouble, but don't be afraid of others causing trouble either."

After Harry was led upstairs by the house-elf Dobby.

Then someone looked at Lupin.

"Is this the lackey Dumbledore sent for you?" The speaker was old Goyle.

Lucius also looked at Lupin with ill intent.

"He really knows how to pick his targets. Severus, do you want us to help you teach him a lesson and vent your anger on your behalf?"

Lupin's expression remained calm after he sat down.

Even after hearing Lucius's words, the expression on his face did not change.

“Go outside for a stroll, Lupin. Remember what I said, the Malfoy gardens are quite a sight.”

After hearing Severus's words, Lupin nodded, stood up, and turned to leave the drawing room.

After he had completely left, Lucius looked at Severus and raised an eyebrow.

"It seems that this guy who used to be by Potter's side has been taught a good lesson by you?"

Severus didn't respond to his question, but simply asked indifferently.

"You called me over here in such a grand manner just to scare me and then talk about this?"

"No matter what, it was inappropriate for you to do or say those things publicly, Snape!"

The one who spoke was the younger sister of the Carlo siblings—Alecto Carlo, a sturdy little witch.

She and her brother Amycus Caro were typical opportunists who bullied the weak and feared the strong.

After the First Wizarding War ended and Voldemort fell, the two siblings fled without ever intending to find Voldemort or, like the other die-hard Death Eaters, choose to fight the Aurors to the bitter end.

Instead, he came up with some crooked ideas and escaped Azkaban's imprisonment.

“Why is it inappropriate?” Severus simply turned and stared at her. “What do you think I should say in this situation? That I am unrepentant? That I am still loyal to the Dark Lord? And what should I do for Barty the Younger and his gang? Help them cause all that trouble, and then get caught by the Aurors and sent to Azkaban with them?”

Her brother, Amycus, spoke up for his sister, expressing his dissatisfaction.

“Alecto didn’t mean for you to be so extreme. You could have simply pretended you knew nothing and nothing happened. But now it’s turned out like this, with Barty Jr. forcing us to take sides! If we don’t help him, it’s tantamount to completely betraying the Dark Lord!”

Severus merely glanced coldly at the group of pure-blood wizards and asked in a loud voice.

Do you all think the same way?

No one spoke up, which clearly meant they all agreed.

They felt that Severus's close association with the Ministry of Magic and his blatant sabotage of Barty Jr.'s plan to find Voldemort were too extreme, putting those of them who could have easily swayed into a predicament where they were forced to take a stand.

"I originally thought that my friends might not be too good at being loyal to the Dark Lord, but at least they all had some ability to make a living and to judge the situation."

He said calmly.

"It turns out that your intelligence in this area isn't as good as I thought."

Such sarcastic remarks made even a group of pure-blood wizards, who were already used to Severus's foul mouth, somewhat uneasy.

Goyle took the lead in loudly rebuking Severus, saying what right he had to talk about them, and how much better his sycophantic speech at the Ministry of Magic could be.

The others chimed in with sarcastic remarks. These people were all very skilled with words; they were adept at flattering Voldemort and even better at cursing without using profanity.

The chaos was broken when Lucius spoke up.

"Stop arguing! We didn't gather here today to fight!"

The scene gradually quieted down, and Lucius simply stared at Severus.

"If you think our ideas are wrong, then let's talk about what you think."

Severus's face turned cold, his expression as if the whole world owed him a fortune, exactly like Ghost Snape's.

"My idea is very simple, folks! What Barty Crouch Jr. is trying to do is force us to our deaths!"

He launched into a tirade that left many in the audience speechless.

“He wants to find a master and lead us to regain the glory of purebloods! Is he trying to kill us?” Crabbe said.

"If he has indeed made clear contact with his master, or to put it another way, if he has concrete clues about his master, then you are right, we can indeed find his master with him and restore the glory of the purebloods."

Severus spoke slowly and softly.

"But did he tell you that he really knew where his master was?"

The reception room was silent; clearly, no one could answer his question.

If any Death Eaters truly knew where Voldemort was hiding, they would have acted long ago instead of allowing the wizarding world to remain peaceful for so many years.

"Therefore, everyone, he has no clue whatsoever about the master, and he has no way of proving whether the master is alive or dead! He is just trying to drag us all into an abyss of no return based on his meaningless and blind loyalty!"

"Think about it! Use your brains! If Barty succeeds in getting those werewolves to kill seven children and publicly detonate the Dark Mark, unilaterally announcing the return of the Death Eaters while the Dark Lord's fate remains unknown, what action should the Ministry of Magic take?"

“They’ll hunt down Little Barty and his gang like mad dogs,” Nott said.

Severus turned to look at him.

“Yes, the Aurors will certainly go crazy over this. But what if they fail to catch Barty? Who will be the one to suffer then? Without the Dark Lord's protection, who will bear the wrath of the entire wizarding world?”

Silence fell over the drawing room once again. The former Death Eaters present found themselves unable to answer Severus's questions on many occasions.

Even though they already had a vague idea of ​​the answer.

"It is us! It is all of you here! It is us who, through various means, escaped the Ministry of Magic's judgment and escaped the law!"

Severus said it with absolute certainty!

The next chapter will still be before 12 o'clock.

Chapter 106 Let's find the Dark Lord first!

"What's your name?"

Following behind the house-elf, Harry went up the stairs of the Malfoy house and asked curiously.

Dobby shuddered, turned to look at Harry, and pointed to himself with his long, thin finger.

"Are you... are you asking about Dobby?"

"Okay, I already know your name is Dobby."

Harry looked at the gauze wrapped around its head.

"How did you get hurt? Did you fall down the stairs?" he asked uncertainly, because he didn't know if house-pocket creatures needed to go up stairs. The house-pocket creatures he saw all appeared with a "bang" and disappeared with a "bang".

"No, no, it was Dobby who did something wrong, and Master made Dobby punish himself."

Dobby avoided eye contact and spoke timidly.

Harry was somewhat shocked.

I've seen house-elves twice before, once at Slughorn's house and once at Hogwarts Castle.

Although the little elves living there also have to work, they all seem to be quite healthy and live a relatively comfortable life.

However, Dobby in front of Harry made him realize that not all house-elves can enjoy such normal treatment.

"Is that Mr. Malfoy? How could he do this!"

Upon hearing Harry's words, Dobby trembled involuntarily, instinctively banging its large head against its own!

"Dobby is wrong! Dobby is wrong!"

"Stop! Stop it now!" Harry quickly stopped it.

Dobby continued to stumble and lead Harry to the third floor, finally stopping in front of one of the doors.