It was raining heavily outside. A fire was burning in the old manor hall, and a wizard was talking respectfully to someone in an armchair.
"Have you found the Mudblood's hiding place?"
There was a hint of surprise in Voldemort's hoarse voice, and he was obviously surprised at the efficiency of his right-hand man.
"I used the Imperius Curse on Diggory." Yaxley handed the letter to Voldemort respectfully, "But I can't be sure if it was a trap. After all, that Mudblood is very cunning. Lucius and the Strange family fell into his hands. This may also be a trap to lure us into it."
"You want to use that old woman to determine if this is a trap?"
After Voldemort glanced at the contents of the letter, he threw it directly into the fireplace and let it burn to ashes in the flames.
"Yes, my Lord."
"Go and bring her here." Voldemort paused, "Oh, by the way, I think you should have captured her family as well."
"They've been captured and the Dementors are guarding them," said Yaxley.
"Very well, I'd like to see if the old woman can still refuse so stubbornly." Voldemort sneered.
Soon, Yaxley came to the hall pushing a wheelchair. Sitting in the wheelchair was the master prophet Cassandra Vabrsky, who had disappeared from St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries some time ago.
"Do as I just said."
A crystal ball was placed in front of the old prophet by Yaxley.
The old man stretched out his hand tremblingly, and the moment his fingers touched the crystal ball, the thick fog on the crystal ball began to swirl like a whirlpool.
But when the fog stopped spinning, what came into view was still a thick fog.
"Failed?"
Yaxley stared into the crystal ball, frowning slightly.
"It failed. The accuracy of divination and prophecy is not high. Otherwise, the prophecy hall in the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic would have been filled with prophecy balls long ago." There was a hint of contempt and sarcasm in the old woman's tone. She was seeking death.
Ever since she fell into Voldemort's hands, Cassandra knew her fate. She had lived too long and had no fear of death.
If Voldemort hadn't used her relatives to threaten her last time, Cassandra wouldn't have wanted to pay any attention to them at all.
"lie."
Voldemort turned his chair and looked at the old woman in front of him coldly, "No one can deceive me."
"You must have failed Divination when you were in school." Cassandra sneered mercilessly, "Anyone who has learned about Divination knows how low the success rate of divination and prophecy is. Of course, I can be sure of one thing, you will be defeated by Harry Potter in the future."
"If you want to die, you need my permission." Voldemort stared at the old woman in front of him with cold eyes, a cruel smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, "You never intended to predict for me. It doesn't matter, I won't torture you, but I can torture your daughter, son, and grandson. I have asked people to capture all your family members, maybe you would like to meet them."
Cassandra didn't have to wait too long before she saw a group of Dementors carrying several terrified wizards into the hall.
"If you are still so stubborn and refuse to tell fortunes for me, I will torture them to death in front of you." Voldemort raised his wand and used the Cruciatus Curse on one of the middle-aged wizards. Silence and panic screams filled the entire hall.
"Quiet." Voldemort sneered, "If you die, I don't mind letting them be buried with you."
"How can I tell fortunes for you if you're like this?"
Cassandra was completely desperate after seeing her relatives. She angrily threw the crystal ball at Voldemort, stood up from her wheelchair, and pounced on Voldemort, but lost her balance due to her age and fell to the ground.
"Help her up," Voldemort ordered grimly.
Yaxley helped the old woman back into her chair and placed a new crystal ball in front of her.
"Now, tell me what I want to know."
"What do you want to know?"
Cassandra's voice trembled, and she tried her best not to look at her relatives.
"Tell me where Albert Anderson is," Voldemort commanded. "I want to know where the Mudblood is hiding."
Cassandra placed her hand on the crystal ball, her eyes widened, and she murmured, "Failed."
The prophecy actually failed.
As if to confirm her words, Cassandra performed divination again and saw Albert appear in a forest.
And then, nothing happened.
"You know, my patience is limited. Perhaps I should remind you of your current situation." Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it at a middle-aged woman.
"Stop, I really can't find Albert's location." Cassandra shouted at Voldemort, "There is no need for me to lie..."
"Avada Kedavra!"
A green light filled the hall, and the middle-aged woman fell to the ground with empty eyes.
This was followed by a scream of panic.
"You're a lunatic, a complete lunatic."
Cassandra put her hands on her chest and looked at her dead granddaughter. She completely regretted not leaving England and why she didn't die earlier so as not to implicate her family.
"Tell me what I want to know. I don't think you would want to..."
"Kill if you want!"
Cassandra turned her eyes away from her granddaughter and stared at Voldemort with hatred. "You never intended to let us live anyway, so don't expect me to help you predict."
Cassandra's indifference was a little unexpected to Voldemort, and he was also unhappy about someone challenging his authority.
Anyone who dares to do this will need to pay the price for it.
Voldemort raised his wand at a wizard and tortured him with the Cruciatus Curse in front of Cassandra until he fell to the ground dying.
"Why don't you continue?"
Cassandra, however, remained indifferent to this, and her toughness surprised Yaxley.
Avada Kedavra!
A green light flashed, and Harry Potter, who was far away in the Gryffindor Tower dormitory at Hogwarts, suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from his bed. He gasped for breath, looking at the dim room in confusion.
Voldemort killed people.
Harry put his hand to his forehead and tried hard to recall the scene he saw in his dream. However, it seemed that some things had become vague.
"What a terrible morning!"
Listening to the sound of rain outside, Harry lay back on the bed and stared at the dark ceiling in a daze.
The things in the dream seem to be disappearing from memory.
When he opened his eyes again, the sky outside had brightened slightly, but the rain was still pouring down. His roommates had already gotten up and were changing clothes, preparing to have breakfast.
On the way to the hall, Harry told Hermione and Ron about the dream he had last night.
"Harry, you should close your mind." Hermione grabbed Harry's arm nervously, and said worriedly, "Dumbledore must want you to close your mind and not let the mysterious man affect you again!"
"Hermione, the situation is not as bad as you think. Dumbledore also believes that Voldemort will not try to snoop into my brain again." Harry whispered to comfort her.
Although he didn't know whether this was true or not, Dumbledore must have his reasons for saying that.
Moreover, Harry didn't think this was a bad thing. At least he knew what Voldemort was doing, and it was important to collect intelligence.
"It seems he killed someone as a warning to another person."
Harry tried hard to recall what he dreamt about last night. "But the effect doesn't seem to be very good. I can feel his anger. That guy seems... angry out of shame."
"Who do you think can make the mysterious man angry?" Ron was a little curious about who that person was.
"I guess I know who You-Know-Who is threatening," Hermione said suddenly.
"Who is it?" they both said in unison.
"Cassandra Vabrowski."
Hermione pulled yesterday's newspaper out of her backpack.
"It seems that this master of prediction and her relatives have disappeared inexplicably."
"Cassandra Vabrowski?" Harry repeated the name in his mouth, and it always sounded a little familiar.
"The author of 'Seeing the Future Through the Mist'." Hermione reminded.
"What does Voldemort want to know from the prophecy?"
"Maybe I should tell Dumbledore about this, if Voldemort really has some conspiracy... Oh, come on Ron."
Harry felt helpless about Ron's fear of Voldemort after hearing his name.
"I'm sorry, Harry, but there's a reason why everyone is afraid of You-Know-Who." Ron was actually very brave. He was much less reactive than most people when they heard "Voldemort". "Besides, even Anderson wouldn't call You-Know-Who by his name. I don't think that's true..."
Ron stopped talking and looked at the owl that landed in front of him.
"Do you really think Anderson is afraid of Voldemort? No, that guy doesn't take Voldemort seriously at all." Harry felt that Albert didn't say the name not because he was afraid, but because he just said it casually and was too lazy to change it.
No wizard born into a Muggle family is truly afraid of Voldemort, at least not so afraid that they dare not even say his name.
Hermione is a ready example.
The reason she didn't mention Voldemort was that everyone around her was afraid of this name.
Ron pretended not to hear what Harry said, took the letter from the owl, and when he found out it was from George, he immediately opened it and began to read.
"Any questions?"
Harry asked immediately after noticing Ron's expression, he thought the letter contained some bad news.
"Fred and George said that if we are too busy with the DA gathering, we can ask Cedric to come and help organize the event." Ron handed the letter to Harry and muttered quietly, "I don't know what they are thinking."
"I remember Cedric seemed to be an assistant to Mr. Weasley. Could it be that he has resigned?" Hermione didn't understand what they wanted to do.
"I don't know, but I think something must have happened that we don't know about." Harry quickly read the contents of the letter, handed it to Hermione and said, "I think Albert seems to be interested in cultivating the dark magic defense skills of Hogwarts students."
This behavior seemed quite abnormal to Harry, even if it was used as an excuse to help him cultivate so-called supporters. Moreover, Cedric had already left the school, so how could he return to Hogwarts
Could it be possible to use the secret passage of Hogwarts
Fred and George certainly knew the locations of those secret passages, but was it really necessary to go to such lengths
"Oh, there's this thing in the envelope," Ron handed Harry a piece of metal.
"Communication bookmark."
Hermione knew what Ron was holding at a glance. She also had a similar thing that could be used to contact people who had the other half of the communication bookmark. The magic gold coin was a simplified version of this thing.
"I think they mean that we can contact each other through the communication bookmark and discuss the DA gathering together." Ron said to Harry after confirming that there was nothing else in the envelope. "After all, there are still a lot of people at the gathering this time, and we are simply too busy to handle it."
"I think this is a good idea too. It would be best if Cedric could come to help. This way I don't have to worry about the DA party." Harry also thought it was a good idea. He was actually not very willing to spend too much time on the DA party. It was nice to have someone to help him share the pressure.
As for what Albert wanted to do, Harry didn't care.
He really was too busy anyway.
There was no other way. The number of people joining the DA gathering was quite staggering, even with the help of Ron and Hermione. Moreover, Ron and Hermione's level in Defense Against the Dark Arts was only average, and they also needed to learn. He couldn't teach a bunch of people by himself, that was simply unrealistic, unless he restored the previous teaching mode and taught the members separately.
"How do I use this thing?"
Harry handed the communication bookmark to Hermione and asked how to use it.
"I think we can ask Fred and George to come along as well. Maybe I can learn some useful knowledge from them."
"Harry..."
Hermione saw through Harry's plan and kindly reminded him, "I think you should host the DA meeting yourself."
"Of course I will go there in person, but you can't expect me to be the first one to teach everyone." Harry took out the list of DA gatherings from his schoolbag. "Currently, the number of participants has exceeded 60, and the number is still increasing. Do you really think I can handle it by myself?"
"But I think Fred and George must have some purpose in doing this." Hermione reminded, "Maybe Albert has some purpose."
"Perhaps, they are planning to form a team from among the students to fight against the You-Know-Who." Ron looked around and made sure no one was eavesdropping before lowering his voice and saying, "I heard that they seem to be planning to re-establish the Defense Association."
"You actually think Albert would count on a group of underage children to stand up against the You-Know-Who." Hermione thought Ron's words were quite ridiculous, and sneered sharply, "Are all the adults in the wizarding world dead?"
"I think it's very likely. Many adult wizards are very timid. On the contrary, students in school are braver. As long as they undergo proper training, they are not much worse than so-called adults. They may even have more advantages. After all, they have stronger learning abilities." Harry agreed with Ron that the students of Hogwarts were braver than the wizards in the magical world and were more willing to resist.
“Ahem.”
Seeing that Hermione seemed to want to say something, Ron quickly changed the subject, "By the way, Neville said this morning that he saw Cedric in the hospital wing yesterday."
"Didn't Cedric graduate? Why is he in the school hospital?"
"Maybe we can find time to visit him if he is really in the school hospital." Harry felt that this matter was becoming more and more strange. Maybe he should go and ask Cedric in person what was going on.
After finishing the morning transformation class, the three of them hurried to the school hospital.
"We came to visit Cedric. I heard that he seemed..." Hermione explained to Madam Pomfrey, who looked unhappy.
"Mr. Diggory left quietly yesterday."
Madam Pomfrey became even more dissatisfied when she talked about this matter. In her opinion, Cedric had to be hospitalized for at least two days for observation. After all, he was tortured by the Cruciatus Curse and should have stayed for a thorough examination. But that guy actually slipped away quietly.
"Why is Cedric at school?"
Harry tried to find out some information, but was directly driven out of the school hospital by Madam Pomfrey who was in a bad mood.