Yorkshire, England, two months ago -
An extremely weak life appeared outside the village of Little Hangleton. It was worse than a ghost and weaker than the humblest wandering spirit.
This is a remnant of Voldemort's soul.
On the day when he stole the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's soul power, which he had spent eleven years to accumulate, was completely destroyed by Dracula's bloody water prison. Now he can only rely on the existence of the Horcrux to barely ensure the survival of his soul.
Now, Voldemort's existence is like a bubble that is so transparent that it is almost indistinguishable with the naked eye. His facial features are blurry, and he has no hands or feet. It flutters in the cold wind that blows from time to time, and it seems that it may collapse at any time.
His mind was a little unclear, but he was still mumbling unconsciously:
“I haven’t lost… I haven’t lost yet… I still have other cards that I haven’t used yet… I will definitely come back…”
As he muttered to himself, he tried to float against the wind towards Little Hangleton in Yorkshire.
In fact, he did want to return to the Albanian forest where he had stayed for eleven years. At least he was familiar with that place, and there was a viper named Nagini to accompany him, so that he would not be completely alone.
But after using his Horcrux diary to restore his power, he had discovered a more efficient and faster way to recover. He didn't want to wait another eleven years of torment.
So he chose Little Hangleton, where the ancestral home of the Gaunt family was located.
After an unknown amount of time, Voldemort floated weakly to the edge of a valley outside Little Hangleton.
In the dense woods at the edge of the valley, there is a dilapidated shack half hidden in a pile of crisscrossing tree trunks. The disorderly trees growing near the shack block all the light and the view of the valley below, adding a bit of gloom to the building in the woods.
The walls of the shed were covered with green moss, and so many of the tiles on the roof had fallen off that the rafters could be seen in places. Unknown vines grew around it, their tips reaching up to the small, thick, grimy windows.
Voldemort's bubble of energy expressed anticipation and ecstasy as it slipped through the cracks in the grime-covered glass and floated into the interior of the shed.
The shed was dilapidated, filled with rusty pots and pans, moldy furniture, and all kinds of garbage, just like it had been when Voldemort first came here at the age of sixteen.
The dilapidated state of the Gaunt ancestral home at the time made young Riddle feel only disgust and disappointment towards this pathetic family, and also gave him a new understanding of those so-called pure-blood supremacists.
However, this time he returned in a disgrace, like a dog that had lost its home.
He had no thoughts of reminiscing about the past or criticizing this corrupt family. All he had in mind was one thing -
Get back the Horcrux he hid under the floorboards!
The bubble that Voldemort transformed into flowed along the raised, tattered wooden floor all the way to the dark bottom layer of the floor.
A ring lay quietly in the crack of the muddy floor.
The ring was gold, with a large, dark stone inlaid on it. The workmanship of the ring didn't seem very fine, and it even looked a little ugly, with the gold ring material looking a little clumsy and uncoordinated.
The black stone on the ring is engraved with a striking symbol - a triangle containing a circle, both of which are bisected by a vertical line.
According to Marvolo Gaunt, the emblem was called the Peverell Crest.
And if Dumbledore saw this symbol, he would probably involuntarily say its real name - Deathly Hallows!
However, Voldemort did not know that this was the legendary Deathly Hallows.
In the past, he only knew that this ring could be used to control corpses and create an army of zombies, but now he only knows that this ring can bring him a more efficient recovery speed and help him in his resurrection.
After seeing the ring clearly, a look of relief emerged on Voldemort's illusory face, and then he quickly threw his entire body into the black stone on the ring.
This Horcrux did not absorb Voldemort's knowledge and personality, so it did not have its own consciousness like the diary. In addition, Voldemort also imposed a curse on the Horcrux ring that was completely controlled by him and powerful enough to harm the great wizard.
Under these two conditions, even when extremely weak, Voldemort was still able to forcibly absorb the soul fragments in the Horcrux back into his own soul.
A light suddenly flashed from beneath the rotten floorboards—
The already fragile wooden floor was blown into pieces, and countless broken tiles fell down and piled up on the ground.
Then, an illusory figure with an ugly face stood up from the debris.
"My strength is not enough, I need a real body!" Voldemort muttered hoarsely and in a horrible voice.
The next moment, he instantly appeared in an extremely dark, overgrown cemetery.
To the right of the cemetery there is a tall yew tree, and behind it is the dark outline of a small church.
On a hillside on the left there was an exquisite old house - the Riddle House, an extremely luxurious and bright building that was in stark contrast to the Gaunt shed.
Voldemort just glanced over there and didn't pay any further attention to it. After all, most of the people there had been killed by him decades ago.
Walking along the path in the cemetery, he looked at each headstone one by one until he found a well-maintained marble headstone with a name written on it -
"Tom Riddle".
Voldemort looked at the tombstone with his name engraved on it, without any sadness or joy in his heart. He had long since abandoned everything that belonged to this name.
He raised his hand and pointed the black stone on the ring in his hand at the cemetery.
The grave suddenly cracked open, and a corpse with only bones left floated up from the grave and drifted towards Voldemort's illusory figure.
Under the effect of the resurrection stone, a white light enveloped the corpse, separating all the dirt and filth attached to the skeleton, gradually removing all impurities, leaving only a complete skeleton that was pure white without a trace of dust.
Then, old Tom Riddle's skeleton suddenly accelerated and crashed straight into Voldemort's illusory figure.
White light emanated from the bones, covering Voldemort's entire body.
In a moment, the light slowly dissipated.
A man with a horrible face appeared in front of the gaping grave—
He had bone-white skin, a shriveled body, and scarlet eyes. His face, paler than chalk, looked like a skull, his nose was sunken, and his fingers were unnaturally thin and long, like a few deformed spider legs...
Voldemort clenched his fists, feeling the sensation of having a body which he had not experienced for a long time, his deformed face full of intoxication.
"It's wonderful, the feeling of having a body—" He took a deep breath of the stale smell in the cemetery and whispered to himself.
"A father's bones, accidentally donated, can give his son a new life... Oh, this damn old thing is still somewhat useful!" Voldemort sneered, showing no regrets for digging up his own father's grave, "What is left below, the flesh of servants, the blood of enemies?"
In fact, Voldemort does not have a complete body now.
He just borrowed the power of the resurrection stone in his hand, which he himself did not recognize, and used his father's bones as a framework to construct a simple but practical body. However, the flesh and blood on this body was still not real, but a fiction created by magic.
"The flesh of servants is easy for me to obtain, but as for the blood of enemies... it depends on whether my diary can take away Potter's blood under the noses of Dracula and Dumbledore."
Thinking of the scene when Dracula completely destroyed the essence of his soul, Voldemort's scarlet eyes flashed with resentment.
"Heh, doesn't Dracula like to have fun?" He sneered, "In that case, I might as well find some fun for him first, I hope he can have fun..."
Voldemort put the ring on his middle finger and clenched his fist suddenly.
The next moment, all the graves in the cemetery split in half, and long-dead skeletons crawled out stiffly from the graves. Their bodies were rotting, their hair was falling off, their eyes were cloudy, and they gathered towards Voldemort with twisted and strange steps.
Voldemort smiled an evil smile.
Then, a cloud of black smoke covered the newly created Inferi, and he Disapparated with these Inferi to the outside of a dark cave.
Inside the cave lay many half-naked humans, all of them ragged and covered in mud, their eyes filled with hatred and despair.
The sudden visit of Voldemort, with his deformed face, led a large group of extremely strange-looking Inferi, made these people look vigilant, and they blocked him at the entrance of the cave with bared teeth.
"What are you doing here? Outsiders are not welcome here!" A leading man who was obviously dressed more decently than the others walked up and said in a bad tone.
"boom!"
Without seeing Voldemort make any move, the leading man flew up immediately, hit the rock above the cave hard, and fell down heavily, fainting.
"Remember to speak nicely to me next time you see me!" Voldemort said coldly.
The many ragged people did not seem to be afraid when they saw the beating, as if they had already been used to it.
They crowded together and rushed towards Voldemort, trying to bite and scratch his body with their teeth and long nails.
Voldemort had a cold look on his face and waved his wand.
A large number of people were cleared out of the cave entrance in an instant, leaving a wide space for Voldemort and the Inferi behind him to walk through.
As they went deeper into the cave, they saw more and more people inside, all of whom looked ferocious and vicious. They looked at Voldemort and the many Inferi eagerly, as if they would rush up and bite them to their heart's content at the command.
"Who dares to cause trouble here?" A tall man walked out from the deepest part of the cave aggressively, "Is there anyone in this area who doesn't know whose territory this is?"
This tall man had gray hair and a beard, a ferocious expression, sharp teeth showing when he spoke, and long yellow nails on his fingers, making him look almost like a wild animal.
However, when he saw the person coming, he froze in place for a moment and lost his momentum.
"You...you...you are..." His voice trembled, and then he knelt on one knee on the ground, "Lord Dark Lord, you...you are not dead!"
"Long time no see, Fenrir Greyback." Voldemort said coldly, "Is this how you welcome my return?"
"I failed to manage my men well. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you." Fenrir Greyback lowered his head, his eyes sharpened, and then he jumped to the side of the leader at the beginning.
A bloodthirsty light flashed in his eyes. He opened his bloody mouth and suddenly bit the man's neck, biting it in two.
"My Lord Dark Lord, will this make you feel better?" Greyback raised his bloody face from the pool of blood and looked at Voldemort.
"Very good." Voldemort laughed. "Since you are so sensible, I have an important opportunity for you."
"Haven't you always wanted to subdue the large number of werewolves in Romania? No problem, these Inferi will be your most capable subordinates. If you think these are not enough, I have hidden an endless amount of Inferi in a cave on the seaside of London, which you can use at will..."
"... My request is that all the werewolves over there must be subdued under your command within two months!"
…
In contrast to the scene where Voldemort was, there was a peaceful and joyful atmosphere in Hogwarts Castle.
The tormenting exam week is finally over, and the little wizards are freed from the pain of reviewing and the worries about the exams. Moreover, the results will not be officially announced until a week later, which means that before that, even the little wizards who did the worst on the exam will have a whole week of worry-free time.
The weather in June was still very hot, but this did not dampen the joyful atmosphere in the castle.
At the edge of Black Lake, a giant octopus lay in the warm shallow water, basking in the sun, while the Wesley twins and their roommate Lee Jordan gently stroked its tentacles.
"Professor, I haven't seen you go out for a while. Have you finished grading the test papers?" George scratched the suction cup on the giant octopus's tentacles and looked back at a big tree next to the Black Lake.
It was a very tall Chinese larch tree. In the hot summer, it cast a large shade with its lush branches and leaves, shrouding the silver-haired figure leaning against the trunk in the cool shade.
Dracula leaned quietly against the trunk of the larch tree, ignoring George's questions and staring at the crystal ball in his hand in a trance.
The dark moon in the crystal ball has gone from dim to bright, and is now rotating quietly in the center of the sphere.
This is the signal from Romania.
When the dark moon becomes bright, it means that the vampire community in Romania has encountered a special situation, but it is not a big deal and Dracula does not have to go over to support and help.
Only when the dark moon turns into a bright red blood moon, it means that the tribe over there has encountered an uncontrollable emergency and needs the rescue of the Vampire Count.
Dracula waited for a week at Hogwarts, and even after the exam week had passed, the moon in the crystal ball showed no signs of turning into a blood moon, which meant that they could handle this special situation perfectly.
Or maybe they just wanted to meet Dracula.
This is actually normal. After all, it has only been less than a year since Dracula sent the crystal ball over. This year is just a short moment for the vampire clan, and they will not encounter any particularly serious situations in this moment.
However, they haven't seen Dracula for a hundred years, so it's inevitable that they miss him.
Thinking of this, Dracula sighed softly.
He didn't want to go back to Romania because he knew that there would be a lot of troubles waiting for him to deal with after returning to Bran Castle.
As early as the beginning of this school year, he was very curious about the current situation of the Romanian vampire community and questioned Quirrell at that time.
However, for Dracula, going to Romania to learn about the vampire community in person was not complicated. It was just a matter of using a dark moon teleportation magic.
As for why he didn't do this, the fundamental reason was still the same: he didn't want to go back to Romania.
Looking at the bright dark moon still rotating in the sphere in the same way, Dracula curled his lips and put the crystal ball back into his pocket.
"Professor, can you hear us?"
After regaining his senses, Dracula suddenly heard Fred's voice coming from the lakeside.
Dracula looked towards the lake and found that the twins had left the giant octopus basking in the sun and ran towards the larch where he was.
"What's the matter with you two?" Dracula got a headache when he saw these two guys and asked unhappily.
"Professor, since you have time to go out today, I guess you have finished grading the test papers?" George blinked and looked at him expectantly.
Fred also looked over with his piercing eyes, "Yes, Professor, are you sure who can get the three amulets?"
"It's none of your business anyway, what are you looking forward to?" Dracula raised his eyebrows.
These two people are not usually so ignorant.
At this time, the twins' roommate Lee Jordan ran over panting.
"Professor, I'm reporting this! Fred and George have started another gambling game." Lee Jordan wiped the sweat off his dark face and complained, "They're betting that Cedric and Hermione Granger will get the amulet you made, and they're going to make a fortune."
"Hey, Lee, how could you betray us?" The twins looked at Lee Jordan with dissatisfaction, "We agreed to make money together."
"How dare you say that?" Lee Jordan protested loudly. "Last time, you agreed to give me half of the profits, but what did you do in the end? You didn't sort the coins by type, but only divided them according to the total number of coins. The half I got was all copper knuts!"
"… "
Dracula looked at Fred and George, who were never idle, and shook his head speechlessly.
"If you are really too free, then come and help me mark the papers." He opened an umbrella and walked out of the shade of the trees. "You are disappointed. I actually didn't plan to mark the papers myself."
…
…