Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 420 One Must Stay
The scene fell completely silent again.
The former students of the castle stared blankly at the principal . For a moment, they could not figure out what he was talking about.
Why did they talk about exchanging prisoners?
Putting aside the question of who the prisoners are, the first big question is why they need to be exchanged.
Hasn't Dumbledore always been defeated by their headmaster?
Even if they acknowledged the final result of the Triwizard Tournament, the other party had already declared war on their own doorstep!
Shouldn't we give a strong counterattack at this time?
While the students could not see the problem, other adult wizards could hear a lot from Voldemort's words.
The first moment the reporters who were still here reacted, they looked meaningfully at Voldemort, who looked no different from before but always gave people the feeling that he was a different person.
This sentence itself is a sign of weakness.
The enemy has already declared war, and you are still talking about exchanging prisoners. The students can't tell who these so-called prisoners are, so how can outsiders like them figure it out?
It was obvious that these students surrounded by the Order of the Phoenix had been tacitly regarded by Voldemort as Dumbledore's captives.
In other words, Voldemort himself believed that if he resorted to force, he would not be able to safely rescue the people under Dumbledore's care from the current situation.
Not only them, but also professors like Barty Jr. and Snape have discovered this situation.
Compared to the ignorant students, many of these adult Death Eaters seemed much more nervous. Among them, only Snape's expression remained stern. However, little Barty turned his gaze to him when Voldemort opened his mouth to speak.
That expression and look was as if he was doubting something.
No one on the Wizarding World spoke, but John could clearly feel that the gap between the Voldemort in front of him and the Voldemort who had just killed him in the castle was so huge.
No wonder Voldemort in the castle has been calling his other self a fool. The current Voldemort No. 1 obviously seems to be quite afraid of Dumbledore, but he also looks like he wants to preserve his own power and not let it suffer too much loss.
But if you think about it carefully, the Voldemort No. 2 who fought with him in the castle was clearly the one who took back the soul in the Horcrux, which makes him appear more rational and powerful.
The person in front of him is a broken soul. He is the same madman in the original book who is addicted to killing and only wants to kill Harry Potter regardless of anything else!
Now that he has regained control of his body, he has suddenly gained a high position that he has not had since being excluded by his other self. In addition, there is no danger from the prophecy. Now the only threat is Dumbledore, who is exhausted and in his twilight years.
Bringing in the thoughts of the Voldemort in the original work, the other Voldemort has already laid a solid foundation. In the eyes of the current Voldemort, as long as he becomes himself again, it means that he has realized more than half of his original ideals.
Gain power !
Compared to the other Voldemort No. 2, it can be said to be an ideal without any ambition.
Of course, what John didn't know was that this Voldemort No. 1 actually still wanted to keep France. After all, the blood oath was signed by another Voldemort No. 2 with his own soul, and had nothing to do with him at all, so Voldemort No. 1 had no intention of abiding by it at the moment.
However, in the French Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore's strength woke up Voldemort No. 1 a little, making him realize that the reason he was able to crush Dumbledore in strength before was the result of the two of them working together, but now he was the only one left, so he would not be able to gain much advantage in a one-on-one fight.
So Voldemort No. 1, who was originally full of greed and also thought that he was a waste, and France had been planning for so long but still hadn't eaten it, chose to slow down his pace.
He planned to first sort out the other mess he had left behind, and then slowly deal with Dumbledore who had regained his power.
Now that the situation in France is definitely irreversible, the biggest problem left is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Since he decided to slow down, Voldemort No. 1 has temporarily given up the idea of fighting Dumbledore to the death. He just wants to preserve his greatest strength for the time being, and then restore himself to his peak state little by little, and finally fight with Dumbledore.
It was precisely because of this idea that even though he came to Hogwarts Castle with so many people behind him, he actually had little intention of starting a face-to-face conflict. Instead, he wanted to rescue the professors and students who were surrounded first.
Of course, Voldemort is a little crazy now, but he is not really that stupid.
If Dumbledore had taken a tough stance and refused to negotiate any conditions, and had insisted on having a decisive battle with him here, Voldemort would not have given in so easily.
He couldn't guarantee that he would win against Dumbledore now, but the two of them had fought to a draw in the French Ministry of Magic before, so he wasn't certain to lose.
Dumbledore also looked at Voldemort. He seemed to have seen the people surrounded by the Death Eaters.
"So where are your captives?"
Voldemort waved coldly to his men behind him, and the Death Eaters in black robes and iron masks on their faces dispersed, revealing the middleman who had been held hostage by them from the beginning.
They were a group of young male and female students wearing tattered linen robes. They seemed to be cast under a petrification spell. They looked around with horror, fear and uneasiness on their faces.
These are the Muggle-born students in the castle. After the Triwizard Tournament began, they were directly transferred out of the school. This was done by Voldemort No. 2 to prevent Dumbledore and his men from contacting these students privately, and then he replicated John's previous actions to rescue these students.
This now gave Voldemort No. 1 the right hostages. In addition to these students, there were also some wizards from the Wizarding World who had been captured by Voldemort's side in the war in France.
But there were not many of these people, because many people died directly in the war at that time, and only less than ten people were captured and still survived.
The bargaining chips that Voldemort wanted to exchange with Dumbledore at this time were them.
This undoubtedly gave Dumbledore's side a handle. They had originally fought to liberate the Muggleborn wizards and to restore equality, and now there was no way they would just sit back and watch in public.
There were captives, but when they realized that the captives in Dumbledore's hands were themselves, and the former students of Hogwarts saw that the captives their headmaster had exchanged were the "Mudbloods" whom they had previously ignored and despised, everyone had an expression of humiliation on their face.
According to what they had learned, purebloods and half-bloods had always been respected above the Muggles. But now that their headmaster had come up with this theory, he was actually using such a group of lowly "Mudbloods" to exchange with them one-on-one. This of course made them feel ashamed.
But even though they all felt humiliated, when they saw the captives displayed by Voldemort, Dumbledore's men, Sirius, Lupin and Kingsley all disagreed with the exchange.
"If we let these people go, we will definitely sacrifice more people in future wars."
Moody looked at Dumbledore sternly.
"We can't give up more lives just because of some soft-heartedness." Kingsley, who has always been known for his gentleness and kindness, also disagreed. "These pure-blood students don't matter, but Barty Crouch Jr. and Severus Snape must stay!"
Their voices were not loud, but Voldemort in the distance could still guess what they were talking about. He just spoke in a cold voice.
"I hope you will consider it carefully, Dumbledore. If you are unwilling to accept my proposal, then these people are of course useless. To me, the greatest value of useless mudbloods is death. Will you kill these students of mine? And kill them all?"
Such extremely despicable remarks came out of his mouth just like that, which formed a huge contrast with the glorious and upright personality that Voldemort No. 2 had always presented in Britain.
Such words not only made the already extremely humiliated castle students even more embarrassed, but even the group of Death Eaters following Voldemort were slightly agitated. They all wore iron masks on their faces, and their expressions could not be seen, but it was obvious that Voldemort's words had caused some problems among them.
John saw the performance of Voldemort No. 1, then looked at Barty Crouch Jr., whose expression seemed a little strange after Voldemort started speaking. He suddenly turned to Dumbledore and whispered.
"Professor, how confident are you that you can defeat this Voldemort?"
Dumbledore had fought Voldemort just an hour ago, so he was well aware of the difference in strength between the two.
"If a fight really breaks out, I'm 60% sure I can kill him, but I remember you also said that there's still one of his Horcruxes left in Hogwarts Castle?"
Of course, John had already communicated with Dumbledore about the resurrection stone ring.
"Yes, if we leave one behind, we can't guarantee that he won't leave a second one. Does that mean we have no way to end this mess tonight?"
"It looks like this."
"Then agree to his request, Professor." Jon said decisively, but he obviously hadn't finished his words yet. "But we can only agree to exchange some of the people. It's obvious that the captives they have are not worth as much as the captives we have, so of course we can't release all of them."
Kingsley and Moody also heard what John said, and Moody asked .
"We only agree to exchange students for students? Are we going to insist on keeping Death Eaters like Crouch and Snape?"
In response, Jon just shook his head.
"Voldemort is not stupid, he will definitely not agree to such conditions. What I want to say is, on the contrary, we should keep these students and only use these Death Eaters like Crouch, Malfoy, Snape and others to exchange with them."
Hearing his words, Kingsley and the others, including Lupin and Sirius, all frowned.
"What's the point? Letting all these Death Eaters go and leaving only the students is no different than letting them all go?"
Jon turned sideways, using Sirius's tall stature to hide the smile that was gradually forming on his face.
"The current Voldemort is so different from the previous one. Do you think these Death Eaters won't notice it?"
Of course it is impossible that they didn't notice anything. The changes between the two Voldemorts were too great. Not to mention the major strategic decisions, there was a huge contrast in their personal styles alone. These Death Eaters were not fools, so it would be strange if they didn't notice anything.
"So if they find out, what kind of changes will happen in Britain? Let's not talk about fence-sitters like Malfoy, what about those diehards who once pledged allegiance to Voldemort because of his policies? When they find out that they actually have two masters, how will they choose? Or what choice will the current Voldemort force them to make?"
Jon's question made Lupin think.
"You mean, we don't need to do anything, the Dark Lord will be in chaos. But the Dark Lord himself is still very powerful. Even if these people are dissatisfied, will they really dare to resist?"
"Then we will send him a former Voldemort loyalist who has the courage to resist and is equally influential."
Jon spoke softly, looking at Barty Crouch Jr., who had been staring at his master since Voldemort appeared.
The people around, including Dumbledore, noticed John's gaze, and they also saw Crouch's unusual reaction at this time.
"Besides, I think these students are much more useful than these Death Eaters." Jon went on to say, "All the pure-blood and half-blood wizards in the prime of life in the entire British wizarding world, their children are here. If they knew that their masters had abandoned them and were taken away by us, would they have any thoughts in their hearts?"
The consequences of this are actually easy to see. After John said this, Kingsley and the others also saw the value of these former castle students.
Release Voldemort's adult Death Eaters as a destabilizing factor, and leave these pure-blood and half-blood offspring to continue to expand this destabilizing factor. As long as Britain itself becomes chaotic first, it will undoubtedly be much easier for them to start counterattacking later.
Finally, Jon continued.
"And we have to add one last condition. All other Death Eaters can be released, but one of Barty Crouch Jr. and Severus Snape must stay!"
