After Wormtail left, Voldemort, who was thinking about his next plan, suddenly felt uneasy. The possessed rat suddenly raised his head and looked around, with red light flashing in his eyes.
This place should be safe. What did I overlook
Just at this moment, some subtle noises were heard outside.
"Wormtail is back?"
Voldemort felt more and more uneasy. He knew that the person coming was most likely not Wormtail.
"Good evening Tom, I know you're hiding in here."
The wooden door of the hall creaked open, a familiar and annoying voice sounded in the corridor outside, and Dumbledore walked in with a glowing wand in hand.
Voldemort's mood suddenly sank to the bottom. He never thought that Dumbledore would appear here.
An inexplicable feeling of frustration arises spontaneously.
Not long ago, he was blocked by Dumbledore, his original plan was completely disrupted, Nagini was beheaded, and he was chased and fled everywhere.
I didn't expect that I would be blocked by Dumbledore again.
"Found you." Dumbledore raised his wand and shook it gently.
Voldemort only felt his body suddenly floating up, and the whole person, no, it should be said that the whole mouse seemed to be held up by an invisible force, struggling weakly in the air, looking very funny.
Voldemort originally wanted to use the advantage of possessing the rat to hide, but he never expected that he would be easily found by Dumbledore.
"I'm really surprised that you've become like this. You're really embarrassed."
Dumbledore stared at the mouse in front of him. He was sure that the mouse was possessed by Voldemort. As for Voldemort's possession itself, he had seen it in Quirrell a few years ago.
Dumbledore waved his wand, and watched as one magic spell after another flew towards the rat in the sky, trapping it completely. Voldemort then gave up struggling completely.
He finally stopped pretending.
"Dumbledore!"
Voldemort's remaining soul suddenly separated from the mouse and rushed out of the cage built by Dumbledore.
He floated in the void like a ghost, staring at the old man in front of him with gritted teeth.
"Good evening, Tom." Dumbledore greeted Tom Riddle cheerfully, as if he had met a familiar friend by chance along the way.
"How did you find me?" Voldemort asked through gritted teeth, staring at Dumbledore.
"I have been following the Muggle newspapers. You killed a Muggle named Frank Bryce here in August, right?" Dumbledore said casually, "And this is old Tom's home. I am not surprised that you would hide here."
As he spoke, Dumbledore waved his wand and fired a golden spell at Voldemort's remaining soul, trying to destroy Voldemort humanely.
He did not do nothing during this period of time. He read many ancient books, looking for magic to deal with ghosts, wandering spirits and souls.
Dumbledore certainly knew that it would be difficult to kill Voldemort without destroying the Horcruxes, but everything is possible, and one has to try to know.
That's why he took so much trouble to test the weaknesses of Voldemort's remaining soul. Even if he failed, it didn't matter, as he could still mislead Voldemort.
As expected, Voldemort's remaining spirit was oblivious to magic. The spell passed through Voldemort's body and blew a big hole in the wall.
Voldemort floated directly in front of the huge hole blasted by the spell and sneered: "You can't kill me, Dumbledore."
Two more spells flew over, but all of them were ineffective against Voldemort, as if Voldemort was just a phantom.
"Perhaps, you need a stronger spell than this."
Voldemort looked down at Dumbledore coldly and sneered, "But I remember that you don't like using dark magic. Why don't you give it a try? Haven't you always wanted to kill me? Don't tell me you don't know how to use dark magic?"
As soon as he finished speaking, more spells flew towards Voldemort who was floating in the air, but all of those spells passed through Voldemort and could not really hurt him.
"It's useless, Dumbledore, it's useless. I know you are looking for my weakness, but it's useless..." Voldemort laughed wildly, as if all the frustration accumulated in the past few days was vented at this moment.
There was no way. Voldemort had been feeling very depressed these days. He needed to vent his anger, otherwise he would be ruined by it.
"I'm curious, what exactly are you now?" Dumbledore was not angry, but looked at Voldemort with interest, "Ghost, ghost? Or neither?"
"What am I?" Voldemort was silent for a moment, and suddenly showed a strange expression, "Actually, I don't know, but I know I'm still alive, that's enough."
"Alive? Are you sure you are?" Dumbledore looked at Voldemort with pity and said softly, "Few people want this, Tom, very few. It would be easier to die."
"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" Voldemort roared.
"Death is just another great adventure." Dumbledore waved his wand, and a large barrier was erected to cover the hall.
"That's easy to say, but why don't you just die now?" Voldemort sneered. "If you do, I will agree with you."
"Someone once told me that you should never try to convince anyone. It's too difficult and you will never be able to convince the other person." Dumbledore said calmly, "So, I never expect to convince you. I just tell you the facts."
"Hahaha, hypocritical guy." Voldemort glanced at Dumbledore with contempt and left the house directly through the magic barrier. When Voldemort came out through the roof, he found that the whole house was surrounded by a magic barrier.
At this moment, Voldemort understood.
Dumbledore didn't come to find him, but to catch Wormtail, and they obviously realized their dire situation.
After losing his physical body, Voldemort was unable to save himself, as every spell that could help him required the use of a wand.
Therefore, loyal servants are very important. As long as he has a loyal servant, he can let the other party use the magic he has researched to help him rebuild a physical body.
If he lost his loyal servant again, he would lose the chance to make a comeback again.
Fortunately, Wormtail escaped because he went out to deliver a message to Barty. Otherwise, Arthur, Sirius and Kingsley would have set up a barrier outside to cover the entire house, and even Peter would not have been able to escape.
"Hahaha, you're probably going to be disappointed. Wormtail is not here." Voldemort glanced at Dumbledore, rushed towards the dark sky, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Is that Voldemort?"
Sirius looked in the direction where Voldemort disappeared with a very ugly expression.
"I feel like he is a ghost." Arthur's face turned pale. This was the first time he had come into such close contact with Voldemort. The guy was so ugly.
"It's not a ghost. Ghosts can't pass through here easily." Kingsley lowered his voice, "It feels a bit like a wandering spirit. Maybe we can consider Dementors."
"Dementors?"
Arthur and Sirius were stunned.
"Dementors can suck the souls of humans. Perhaps they can also suck the soul of Voldemort." Kingsley explained to the two. "That form should be very weak. If we are lucky enough, we may succeed."
"It's a good idea, but I think it's difficult." Dumbledore was not optimistic about Kingsley's idea. "Not to mention that we haven't found any effective magic to restrain Voldemort yet. Even if we want the Dementors to absorb Voldemort's soul, I'm afraid we have to wait until he recovers his body."
"Perhaps, we can start with Peter. I dare say Peter will definitely return to Voldemort. If we use the Imperius Curse to control Peter, maybe we can... subdue Voldemort. After all, he needs to be taken care of after becoming a baby." Sirius' eyes flashed dangerously, "We can use potions to enchant Voldemort, and then let the Dementors suck away Voldemort's soul and destroy him completely.
"Voldemort is a master of telepathy. Few people can deceive him, and it is not easy to find Peter Pettigrew now." Dumbledore still did not look favorably upon this seemingly promising plan.
"Should I tell the Ministry of Magic and ask them to send Aurors to keep an eye on this place?" Kingsley asked Dumbledore for advice.
"I don't think they'll come back." Arthur didn't think this was a good idea, and if Voldemort really came back, the people watching here would probably be in danger.
Faced with dark wizards, and even the more dangerous Death Eaters, the wizards of the Ministry of Magic are no match at all, not even the Death Eaters are no exception.
"He just said that Peter Pettigrew isn't here." Kingsley got to the point again. "I suspect that Peter Pettigrew left not long ago."
"Perhaps Voldemort has some way to notify their subordinates?" Sirius was also not optimistic about having someone stay here to ambush Peter.
However, Sirius didn't mind leaving the job to the Ministry of Magic.
"Where do you think the final cemetery will be?" Sirius was more concerned about the prophecy. "Will it be the public cemetery of this village?"
"But why a cemetery?" Arthur asked. "What could be in a cemetery?"
"Coffin, bones, tombstone, ashes?" Kingsley didn't understand. He decided to go back and report this to the Ministry of Magic, asking them to send someone to monitor this place.
"It seems that our luck is not very good!"
Dumbledore was also helpless. If they could meet Peter, they wouldn't have to make such random guesses. As long as they gave Peter Pettigrew some truth serum, they could easily obtain information.
At the same time, Peter Pettigrew, who had just got food from the Muggle supermarket, suddenly shivered with his hands on his shoulders. An inexplicable feeling of anxiety surged in his heart. He looked around nervously, and quietly turned into a mouse and hid.
I don't know how long it was, but after making sure the surroundings were safe, Peter couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, hurriedly picked up the food he had thrown away, Apparated and left the supermarket.
Before returning to Riddle Mansion, Peter deliberately detoured to several places to shake off possible tails and appeared outside the village of Little Hangleton. He found signs of wizard activities around Riddle Mansion, which scared Peter Pettigrew.
Moreover, as soon as Peter appeared in the Apparition, he triggered the wizard's alarm mechanism, which almost scared it to death, and it immediately Apparated and ran away.
Fortunately, Peter was quite decisive when he ran away, otherwise he would have been blocked by the Aurors.
"Peter Pettigrew is actually hiding here."
The two Aurors looked at each other and saw the annoyance in each other's eyes. They actually missed this good opportunity and let Peter Pettigrew escape.
This is not good news.
In order to prevent being tracked by the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, Peter Pettigrew Apparated several times and finally escaped to a remote coast, where he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Peter's mind was still blank, he couldn't figure out where the Auror was.
Where is the Dark Lord
He regretted leaving the Dark Lord at Riddle House instead of carrying him in his pocket.
What to do now
Peter Pettigrew's mind was in a mess and he had no idea what to do.
Finally, after hesitating again and again, Peter turned into a mouse and sneaked back to Riddle Mansion. He believed that after seeing him run away, the Aurors would no longer monitor him, or at least relax their surveillance.
The dark magic that the Dark Lord used to restore his body obviously required his father's bones. Peter believed that the Dark Lord would definitely not give up. Perhaps the Dark Lord was hiding somewhere in that house.
Peter was right in his guess. After being driven away by Dumbledore, Voldemort quietly returned and possessed a mouse, hiding in the house. Waiting for Peter's arrival, Voldemort could not lose contact with his most loyal servant. He still needed the other's power to restore his body. That feeling of frustration came back again.
Barty Crouch Jr., who was affected by this incident, was actually very upset.
Because old Barty's family was kicked out by Dumbledore, all the medicinal materials they had stockpiled were confiscated by the Ministry of Magic. Barty Jr., who lost his supply of raw materials, is now running out of materials.
Although the compound potion stored by Little Barty was still enough for him to use for two months, what should he do after two months
The preparation of compound medicine takes a long time. You can't just run away early just because you have used up all the compound medicine, right
That's just ridiculous.
Moreover, he himself was now being targeted by Dumbledore and had no time to get those herbs. Peter had originally promised to prepare the raw materials for him to make the compound potion, but something went wrong on the same day. It was really a big rip-off.
The only good news is probably that Peter is still alive, but as for where that guy is hiding, Little Batty doesn't know.
Little Barty is now considering whether to leave Hogwarts. If the Dark Lord cannot make complete arrangements before the Triwizard Tournament, it will be useless even if he takes Harry Potter there in the end, and he will only put himself in danger.
Besides, Dumbledore had begun to doubt him.
Barty knew very well that if he ever revealed a flaw, Dumbledore would be the first to notice it, and he would not even have a chance to escape.
"We must prepare in advance." Moody put down the Daily Prophet in his hand and muttered.