"Mr. Dracula... is he in this room?" Lucius opened his eyes wide and looked at the waiter next to him and asked in a low voice.
"Mr. Dracula is in this compartment, Mr. Malfoy," the waiter smiled.
Lucius swallowed his saliva, raised his hand several times to knock on the door, and then put it down again. He still couldn't believe that this door would really be opened one day, and that he would have the opportunity to step through it...
"Come in, Lucius."
At this moment, Dracula's unique mellow voice came from inside the door, and the luxurious and dazzling door opened.
Lucius then breathed a sigh of relief, pushed open the door, and walked into the compartment quietly.
Although as the current head of the Malfoy family, Lucius believed that he had seen many big scenes, but when he entered this compartment, he still took a breath and couldn't help looking around.
"Tell me, is there something important that you want to meet me for?"
Dracula took a sip of the golden-red wine in the crystal glass and smiled with satisfaction.
However, Lucius was still in shock at this time, and he seemed to be deaf and did not hear what Dracula said.
He hesitated for a long time, but finally couldn't help but ask out of curiosity: "Mr. Dracula, why are you here?"
"Hmm?" Dracula put down his glass and turned to look at Lucius. "Mr. Malfoy, if my memory is correct... didn't you stay after the board meeting and ask me to meet you at the White Dragon Bar without telling the other board members?"
"No, no, no, what I mean is, why are you in this compartment?" Lucius said quickly, "I heard that this door has never been opened for more than a hundred years..."
"Because this compartment was originally reserved for me." Dracula picked up the wine glass again and leaned comfortably on the soft cushion. "Do you have any other questions?"
Although Lucius appeared calm on the surface, a huge wave of emotions had already surged in his heart.
As far as he knew, this luxurious compartment had a history of at least a hundred years. If the reason why the door had not been opened for more than a hundred years was really because of Dracula in front of him, then how old was this man who looked no more than thirty years old
Thinking of this, Lucius completely lowered his mentality, lowered his head and replied:
"No further questions, Mr. Dracula."
"In that case, you should tell me what's going on." Dracula poured himself a glass of wine without any intention of giving Lucius a drink. "Is there anything that can't be said directly at the school board meeting?"
Lucius carefully placed his cane beside him, looked around, and found that the compartment was tightly sealed. He lowered his voice and said:
"Mr. Dracula, the Dark Lord is back!"
Dracula paused for a moment as he raised the glass to his lips, then he chuckled and put the glass down.
"How did you think of telling me such a secret news?" he laughed.
"You don't look surprised at all?" Lucius was stunned. He thought Dracula would at least be a little surprised.
"I've known this news for a long time." Dracula looked at the faintly exposed Dark Mark on Lucius' left arm and said casually, "Fenrir Greyback, as a fellow Death Eater, you should know this werewolf, right?"
"He is a werewolf who defected to the Dark Lord during the last wizard war." Lucius's identity was exposed by Dracula, and his expression was a little unnatural. "But he is not a Death Eater at all, just a tool used by the Dark Lord. Could it be that this idiot has leaked the news?"
Lucius felt a little unhappy. If Dracula already knew about the Dark Lord's return, the value of his information would be greatly reduced.
"No, he didn't tell anyone about it," Dracula said. "The werewolf got the Inferi created by Voldemort and was sent to trouble me. But now he has been captured, and I can easily find the news from his memory."
"But the information Fenrir received must not be comprehensive." Lucius gritted his teeth and went further, "He was sent out on a mission by the Dark Lord several months ago. The latest information must not exist in his memory."
Originally, Lucius really wanted to be a fence-sitter like he did before, and jump to whichever side had a better situation.
But after arriving at the Bai Feilong Bar today, he saw that the arrogant proprietress had reserved a luxurious compartment for Dracula that was hundreds of years old. This incident really shocked Lucius.
So he thought that Dracula was worth him telling more information.
"Well... it's normal that the information about werewolves is not comprehensive." Dracula nodded and looked deeply into Lucius's gray eyes. "But that's not important. I'm more curious about... why did you tell me the information about Voldemort?"
"Is it because you are tired of being a Death Eater, or because you have done something wrong and fallen out of favor with Voldemort? Or is it because your Malfoy family is used to being fence-sitters, and you want to find a few more backup ways out?"
Cold sweat dripped down Lucius' forehead.
"Mr. Dracula, I don't mean to be a fence-sitter..." He said with all his might, "It's just that I did something wrong and I can't stay in the Dark Lord's team any longer. In order to prevent the Ministry of Magic from inspecting me, I sold the Dark Lord an extremely important dark magic device."
"The Dark Lord was extremely dissatisfied with me and seemed to be ready to kill me at any time. From my impression, I could only think of you as someone who had the ability to fight against Voldemort. So I immediately came to you."
"Very important dark magic equipment?"
Originally, Dracula had no interest in Lucius's defense, but when he heard these words, he instantly became interested.
If the dark magic equipment that Lucius took out was really something that Voldemort valued very much, it might be another Horcrux of his!
After learning about Regulus stealing the Horcrux, Dracula has realized that Voldemort does not seem to attach as much importance to the secret of his immortality as ordinary people imagine.
Otherwise, the Horcrux would have been with him all the time, or he would have hidden it alone in a place where no one could find it.
However, Slytherin's locket was discovered by a house-elf, which indirectly allowed his subordinate Regulus to know the location of the Horcrux.
Although this was partly due to Voldemort's overconfidence, there was also the factor that he did not attach the utmost importance to it.
So Dracula guessed that Voldemort must have created more than one Horcrux!
In this way, if Lucius lost a Horcrux and was not killed by Voldemort, it can roughly prove that Voldemort has more than one Horcrux.
"What kind of black magic device did you use?" Dracula asked Lucius with interest.
"Uh..." Lucius froze in his tracks. "Is this important? The main reason is that when the Ministry of Magic conducted a surprise inspection, there were quite a few dark magic items in my house. I sold too many things at that time, and I can't remember exactly what they were..."
"And the Dark Lord... He didn't even ask me what I lost, as if he already knew it..."
"Okay, I understand." Dracula nodded. "Next time we meet, you should count the black magic items you sold. It would be best if you could make a list and give it to me."
"But... it's been half a year since this happened, and I've almost forgotten all about it..." Lucius looked a little bitter.
"Some things are not forgotten at all, but are deeply buried in your mind." Dracula's expression was quite malicious. "Make a choice. Do you want me to use Legilimency to help you dig out your memory, or do you think carefully and make a list for me?"
"To be honest, Mr. Dracula, I seem to have suddenly remembered what I sold at that time!" Lucius' expression changed instantly, and he said righteously, "For the sake of your career, even if I rack my brains, I will search for those black magic supplies for you!"
"Tsk, there's no need to pretend in front of me." Dracula sneered, "How about this, as compensation for providing this information, you just stay on the fence and be a good fence-sitter."
"Mr. Dracula, you don't have to test me like this." Lucius stood up suddenly, stabbed the ground heavily with his cane, and continued to speak righteously, "How could I, Lucius Malfoy, be the kind of person who would act in two directions and betray his friends? The Dark Lord and I will never reconcile!"
"Okay, Lucius." Looking at Lucius's exaggerated expression, Dracula curled his lips, "In that case, help me assassinate Voldemort. The wizarding world will remember your righteous behavior."
Lucius's expression froze.
"You... You are such a joke, Mr. Dracula." He sat back on the sofa awkwardly.
"Okay, don't play those tricks with me." Dracula sat up straight, resting his elbows on the luxurious table, crossing his hands to support his chin, and staring straight into Lucius' eyes, "Lucius, what I need is just a fence-sitter."
"You continue to stay with Voldemort. You only need to tell me a few words about the situation there every time you hold a board meeting. This should not be difficult for you, right?"
A surrendered Lucius Malfoy was of no use to Dracula—
He didn't lack such a weak fighting force, nor did he lack the wealth of the Malfoy family, which they thought was very rich. He just lacked an insider who could report Voldemort's movements to him frequently.
A traitor riding on the wall just fits his needs.
Lucius was also ecstatic at this time. He thought he would have to choose a side today, but who knew that Dracula would allow him to continue to be a fence-sitter who was looked down upon by everyone!
"There is such a good thing..." Lucius blurted out, then he realized that something was wrong and quickly changed his words, "... No, I mean, I am happy to serve you, Mr. Dracula."
After getting Dracula's promise, Lucius carefully recounted what had happened to the Death Eaters recently -
It turned out that one day when the summer vacation of the Hogwarts students just began, all the Death Eaters with the Dark Mark tattooed on their left arms felt waves of strange sensations in their arms.
They all quietly found a place where there were no one else and secretly looked at the mark on their arms - the originally light red Dark Mark gradually turned scarlet, and as time went on, the scarlet color gradually changed to a burnt black color.
Seeing this situation, some people felt panic and fear, some felt confused and at a loss, and some were ecstatic.
But all former Death Eaters know one thing -
The Dark Lord is back!
Due to the terrifying deterrent power of the Dark Lord, no matter what their mentality was about the Dark Lord's return, all the Death Eaters still active in the British wizarding world Apparated and rushed to the Riddle family cemetery in Little Hangleton and where Voldemort was.
Among them are Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Antoninus Dolohov, August Rookwood and many other wizards who escaped from Azkaban imprisonment during the Wizarding War more than ten years ago. Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy are among them!
Voldemort successfully fooled everyone with his body created from the bones of old Tom Riddle. In other words, even if he only had an incomplete body, he was stronger than all the Death Eaters!
Facing the still large army of Death Eaters after more than a decade, Voldemort expressed his satisfaction to them, regardless of whether they were sincere or not.
As for why he was eager to show up before he fully recovered his strength, it was actually because he was worried that the former Death Eaters would be gradually divided and devoured by Dumbledore and Dracula.
In fact, what Voldemort was worried about was never the most powerful wizard Dumbledore, but the Count Dracula of the vampire clan!
Voldemort knew that Dracula did not have a strong enough moral bottom line like Dumbledore. If he was determined to weaken the power of the Death Eaters, he would probably use any means to force, threaten, or even kill the Death Eaters.
This will have a huge impact on Voldemort, who has not appeared for more than ten years.
So Voldemort appeared, summoned his Death Eaters, and told them in person - "I am immortal, no one can kill me, all of you don't even think about escaping from my control!"
At the same time, he also reiterated his philosophy of pure-blood supremacy, allowing these wizards who wanted their families to gain more benefits to see the pure-blood future they dreamed of from his words!
Voldemort's cruel and promising words were also very effective. Many wavering wizards gave up the idea of turning to the Ministry of Magic or Dumbledore, and instead returned to the arms of the Death Eaters.
After all, they all thought that Dumbledore was old, but Voldemort was immortal!
Lucius originally wanted to regain his once glorious identity as a Death Eater and gain benefits in the pure-blood society for the Malfoy family.
It was not until Voldemort praised Snape's contribution as an undercover agent in Hogwarts that he severely reprimanded him for losing his important things. Lucius was even hit with a painful Cruciatus Curse on the first day when Voldemort announced his return.
For this, Lucius changed.
He knew that he had fallen out of favor among the Death Eaters and there was no future for him if he continued on this path.
However, in Lucius's heart, Dumbledore, the only one who can fight Voldemort, will not make a dirty deal with him.
So he thought of Dracula.
After witnessing Dracula's actions at the board meeting and hearing his son Draco's flattery of the professor, Lucius realized that Dracula's strength was definitely not weak!
In his opinion, even if Dracula is not as good as great wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore, he is not too far behind them. Most importantly, the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts has a flexible moral bottom line, which meets his cooperation needs.
So he took advantage of the school board meeting before the start of the semester to invite Dracula to the White Dragon Bar in Knockturn Alley, hoping to discuss cooperation in such a highly confidential place.
When Lucius came to the White Dragon Bar and saw Dracula sitting in the cubicle that had been closed for a hundred years, he thought of the parchment in Dracula's hand that could expel the members of the school board.
Lucius suddenly realized that Dracula's identity might be more complicated and profound than he had imagined!
…
"Interesting." After listening to Lucius's story, Dracula raised his lips with interest. "I was thinking, when Voldemort summons you with the Dark Mark next time... I will Apparate with you and get rid of his new body, what do you think?"
Lucius was horrified.
"Mr. Dracula, don't do that!" He hastily advised, "Even if you can defeat the Dark Lord, as long as you don't kill him completely, he will suspect me when he comes back next time!"
"I hope you will spare my life for the information I provided you..."
"Well, it seems that we can't bully him for a while." Dracula curled his lips and said in a bored tone, "You can go now. Remember to send me a list of the black magic equipment you used."
"Of course!" Lucius wiped the cold sweat from his head and hurriedly left the luxurious compartment.
Talking to someone who always said "bullying the Dark Lord", he was really under a lot of pressure...
After Lucius left, Dracula poured himself another glass of red wine, but he suddenly lost interest in drinking.
"School is about to start, why haven't I found a tool... um... a teaching assistant..." Dracula collapsed on the soft sofa and looked out the window with some worry.
Through the crystal window, he looked at the unserious-looking wizards and various dark creatures on the narrow streets of Knockturn Alley.
"Huh?" Dracula suddenly let out a light exclamation.
He saw a thin figure wearing round-framed glasses.
…
…