Volume 7: A World with Bad Consequences Chapter 461 The War is About to Begin
As Slughorn left the room, he passed by little Barty, who was walking towards him.
They didn't usually interact with each other, not because Slughorn didn't want to have contact with this favorite who was always in Voldemort's favor.
It's just that little Barty had always stayed in Hogwarts Castle before, and rarely had time to meet and communicate with Slughorn who worked in the Ministry of Magic. Now that Hogwarts is gone, even if he has returned to the Ministry of Magic, he basically keeps to himself. Slughorn has held several parties privately and sent him invitations, but he never replied.
When he reached the corner of the stairs, Slughorn paused slightly and watched little Barty disappear behind the door.
After Slughorn left, Voldemort entered a state of meditation.
His wand was placed on a tray beside the chair, and while thinking, his hand was subconsciously rubbing the back of his other hand, the skin surface of which had obviously become much rougher than before.
It wasn't until there was a knock on the door that he came back to his senses.
"Come in."
As soon as little Barty came in from the door, he knelt on the ground, then respectfully raised a small square box above his head and handed it to Voldemort.
When he saw little Barty, Voldemort showed a rare smile on his face.
No matter when, his most loyal servant always behaved impeccably when facing him.
Voldemort took the square box from him, and inside it lay a blood-red stone!
"The Philosopher's Stone can temporarily slow down my aging. Although it is not a long-term solution, it can also be used as a temporary measure. You are very thoughtful, Barty."
"It is my greatest wish to be able to help you."
Little Barty was always so humble in front of Voldemort. Even though his master never asked him to do so, he spontaneously expressed his respect in this way.
"What do the others think?" Voldemort's smile faded.
Little Barty still kept his head down.
"There are still some dissents among the Avery and Carrow families, but they seem to be just complaining and don't dare to really be dissatisfied with you."
"Humph, they have forgotten their past ambitions for the sake of the little benefits they have now." Voldemort said sarcastically, "They just don't dare to do anything, but who knows if someone will give them the courage one day."
Little Batty did not say anything about this. He seemed to know what to say and what not to say.
"What about Dumbledore? Any news?"
Voldemort leaned back in his chair. His channel for obtaining information from the outside world basically depended on Barty Crouch Jr. His next step was to promote Barty Crouch Jr. to the position of acting minister so that he could control the Ministry of Magic for him.
"It seems like France is actively preparing for the war. They haven't stopped since the end of the Triwizard Tournament and have been preparing all the time."
Upon hearing this news, Voldemort's expression darkened noticeably.
"He really underestimated me..."
The voice of this sentence was very soft, and it was unknown who Voldemort was talking to, but he soon asked another question.
"Then I've been asking you to pay attention to other things...do you have any new information?"
…
This year, Hogwarts' enrollment work, which only began during the summer vacation, was not easy.
After all, the Muggle students who met the requirements were all in the UK, and Dumbledore had no intention of letting Hogwarts snatch students from Beauxbatons, so McGonagall and Lily would still need to contact the new students under the wanted list of the British Ministry of Magic, just like they did in the days of the carriage exile.
However, since they are recruiting students now, they don't have to rush to take people away before Little Batty and others arrive like before.
Now that Voldemort's side has lost the Book of Admission and the Pen of Acceptance, they have lost the ability to obtain the most basic information about children with wizarding talents in Muggle families, and they are no longer able to compete with the current Hogwarts.
This means that Mag and Lily no longer have to erase the memories of the new parents. They just need to explain the pros and cons to them and let them make a voluntary choice.
And because Hogwarts knew that a war of turning defense into offense would take place this year, its desire to recruit students this semester was not particularly strong.
Each of them is full of hope that the war will turn out in a positive direction. When Hogwarts returns to Britain, all order will continue. Even if they are not admitted in time this year, it will be the same if they start school a year later next year.
It was in this atmosphere that the new semester at Hogwarts began.
Since last year, the opening party has been held in the auditorium of this temporary school . In the past, Hagrid would take the students around the UK in a carriage and hold banquets in various open air places, which became a topic of bragging among both old and new students.
But whenever a freshman shows an envious expression and says that the old students had a really good life in the past.
They will be taught that these are just ways to find joy in exile, and no one likes a life where they live in uncertainty and face being hunted down all day long.
It would be best if we could settle down in Hogwarts and have a stable teaching place now.
After entering the fifth grade, Jon and his classmates began to be selected as class leaders.
Neville was successfully elected as this year's class monitor, but Jon did not participate in the election. For him now, participating in student management is a complete waste. Even after entering the fifth grade, he hardly needs to go to normal classes.
Normal courses could no longer teach him anything.
During the time that Jon studied with Grindelwald, he had already learned a lot of advanced magical knowledge that was equivalent to what a normal senior student would learn in a semester.
But in addition to the magic on the ring, after the start of the fifth grade, that is, after September, Jon began to receive professional Apparition training with George, Fred and other new graduates this year.
Even though John can perform a special kind of Apparition by transforming his own magic power into the Phoenix's exclusive magic while in human form, it does not mean that he does not need to learn ordinary Apparition magic.
Although the Phoenix's special Apparition had basically no restrictions and it could move freely in and out of places with anti-Apparition magic, its form of expression was still too eye-catching.
Every time he Apparates, a golden-red light will light up, and the same light will also light up after the Apparition lands. This undoubtedly makes Jon more recognizable. As long as the golden light appears, it means he is leaving or coming.
This kind of recognition was obviously not something he wanted. If he was really needed on a battlefield in Britain, there would be a flash of golden light and a group of Death Eaters shouting, "Jon Greene is here! Let's surround him!" or "Jon Greene is here, let's run!" Either way, just imagine what might happen later and you will know that you will have to learn the ordinary Apparition.
For John, who had already gained experience in Apparition naturally after turning into a phoenix, it was not difficult for him to start learning ordinary Apparition now. He was the fastest learner among all the graduating students. By the third day of professional training, he could basically Apparition and Apparition stably, without any mistake in splitting himself.
After graduating and joining the Wizarding World, the Weasley twins did not join the front-line combat sequence, but were absorbed into the logistics research department.
The Weasley Ball they had developed previously had become a mass-produced weapon in the Wizarding Horizon. In addition, some of the magic props that they had talked to John about but had not yet been completely successful had also begun to be actually improved and explored.
Dumbledore obviously attached great importance to the twins. Not only did he give them an expanded team, he also transferred their father Arthur Weasley to work with them.
Because Arthur himself was extremely interested in improving various magical tools, the talents possessed by George and Fred were probably inherited from him.
Since the start of the school year at Hogwarts in September, the situation in the entire European wizarding world has become increasingly calm.
It was as if the war was completely over, and the various magic newspapers no longer published predictions about when the British and French Ministries of Magic would go to war every day as before. Instead, they began to report some gossip that had previously been placed in the most remote corners of the newspaper pages.
Even the Spanish Magic Daily has begun to imagine that the Quidditch World Cup, which was cancelled last year due to the war, might be rescheduled this fall.
Just when the vast majority of wizards in Europe believed that they could spend the rest of the year in a rare peaceful time in recent years.
The last day of October, which should have been Halloween night, in Dumbledore's office, Lyon, France.
The Halloween dinner on campus has not yet ended. Even in the principal's office with the door closed, laughter can be faintly heard coming from the auditorium.
At this time, Dumbledore did not celebrate Halloween like other students, nor was he reviewing any documents, nor was he holding any meetings with anyone.
He just held a letter in his hand, and there was only a short sentence on the letter.
“The preparations are complete.”
Dumbledore slowly put down the letter in his hand. His eyes were as deep as the sea of stars under the candlelight.
The headmaster's office was silent. Even the portraits of past headmasters on the wall made no sound. They all seemed to know what it meant when Dumbledore received the letter.
"What if our guess is right?"
There was a rare sense of melancholy in his tone.
And this question is obviously asking the portraits on the wall.
"This is against the order of magic, and I think the possibility is very small."
The person speaking was the headmistress, Delis, who had a frown on her face in the portrait.
"But even this magical order is inferred by us based on history that has never had any precedent. No one knows whether it is a truth or not."
Slytherin said solemnly.
"And now the only person who can help us verify this is right in front of us."
"Then we are all doomed." Phineas shouted, "But again, these are just guesses after all. We must practice them to make the guesses become truth."
After hearing his words, all the portraits around him stared at him as if they had offended everyone.
"Shut up! No one will think you're dumb if you don't speak!"
"Why can't you say less at this time!"
"None of that mattered before, do you know what you are saying now?"
"Take him off the wall quickly! If I stay with him any longer, I'm afraid my brain will be infected by him and I'll become an idiot!"
Phineas couldn't help but shrink his neck as he listened to the scolding and cursing around him. In the end, Dumbledore clapped his hands to stop the quarrel.
"Phineas is not wrong. I have the same idea as him. You shouldn't blame him like this."
Dumbledore's words made every portrait on the wall pause for breath. Every headmaster of Hogwarts for thousands of years was looking at him in shock, even Phineas who said this.
"I think you should reconsider it. Even if you try, we may have more..."
Slytherin didn't finish his words, not because he was interrupted by someone, but when he got to the end, he couldn't come up with any better suggestions, so he could only remain silent.
"You don't have to be like this. From the moment I walked up to you and announced to you that I was the new headmaster of Hogwarts, didn't you already have unreserved trust in me?"
Dumbledore calmly picked up the bottle of golden gravel.
"Jon always said that I had a bad habit of never making things clear to people and always kept them guessing."
"But I don't like to make people guess, but some things are already destined, and telling them the destined results in advance will only add to their troubles. It's better to let them understand the cause and effect themselves. When they reach the last step, they will look back and find that it is more fun than if I tell them directly."
Most of the portraits on the wall curled their lips after hearing this. No matter what Dumbledore said, they still felt that this was a kind of bad taste of Dumbledore.
Dumbledore didn't hear anyone trying to make fun of him, but he didn't care. He blinked and stood up from his office chair.
"We can talk about the verification later, but no matter what, there is one thing that cannot be changed. The war is about to begin."
