While the Death Eaters were still holding a secret meeting in Malfoy Manor, there was a different atmosphere in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts.
"Dumbledore, hasn't the person you're waiting for come yet?" Dracula leaned back on the sofa in boredom and yawned lazily, "You've already added a few handfuls of Floo powder into the fireplace. Do you really think Floo powder is free?"
He glanced at the fireplace, which had been keeping a green flame, with a strange expression on his face.
Although the price of Floo powder has remained the same for a hundred years, and has long been sold at two Sickles per spoon, it is really nothing for a wizard like Dumbledore who is not short of money... But Dumbledore's behavior of adding Floo powder every once in a while does seem a bit unwise...
"Ahem... maybe something went wrong." Dumbledore's hand was about to reach for the jar of Floo powder, but he froze in mid-air when he heard Dracula's question.
Without the replenishment of Floo powder, the flame in the fireplace finally could no longer maintain its green form and turned back to its original red.
"Professor Dracula, hasn't Tom Riddle's Horcrux returned?" Dumbledore turned to look at Dracula and asked, "That doesn't make sense... Hasn't the Death Eaters' meeting ended yet?"
"So you are waiting for Snape, right?" Dracula curled his lips and looked at Dumbledore with disdain. "Riddle left the Death Eater meeting early to prevent his identity from being exposed. The others should have to wait for a while. After all, he is Voldemort's Horcrux, so it's normal for him to receive some special treatment."
Dracula thought Dumbledore was waiting for some important wizard, so he spoke in a mysterious tone.
Unexpectedly, Dumbledore just sensed Riddle's return and thought that the undercover agent he had placed in the Death Eater camp was also about to return, so he used special Floo powder to open direct access to the Hogwarts principal's office.
"Ah, I see!" Dumbledore smiled awkwardly and retracted his hand that was reaching for the Floo powder jar. "It looks like we have to wait a little longer. Hmm... I wonder if Professor Dracula is interested in wizard chess?"
He casually took out a wizard chess board and started to kill time by making small talk.
"You want to play wizard chess with me?" Dracula showed a very strange expression, "Are you sure?"
"Is there any problem, Professor Dracula?" Dumbledore looked at Dracula strangely, feeling that his expression was inexplicably weird.
"It's okay, come." Dracula slowly curled the corners of his mouth and stood up from the sofa.
He sat down in front of Dumbledore's desk, looking at the wizard chess board on the table, and his interest quietly grew.
five minutes later-
Dumbledore looked at the situation on the chessboard in front of him and fell into deep self-doubt.
He believed that with his high intelligence and judgment, as well as his experience in participating in wizard chess competitions when he was young, he was at least a pretty good chess player.
Although I have become increasingly busy since the outbreak of the Global Wizarding War started by Grindelwald, and have had few opportunities to play games like Wizard Chess, I should not be completely defeated by others...
"Professor Dracula, I didn't know you were a professional chess player." Dumbledore looked at the silver-haired man in front of him with a playful expression and said helplessly, "No wonder you look so confident. It's my own fault."
"I'm not interested in becoming a professional chess player." Dracula shook his head happily, "But I do have some experience in killing time with games like wizard chess."
During the more than a thousand years that Dracula had experienced, he was bored for a long time, trying to find various things to pass the time.
Wizard's chess, a game that originated in India a long time ago, is one of the things he has studied.
In fact, during his thousand-year life, Dracula had already grown tired of playing games like Wizard's Chess. He had studied all the ideas and ways of playing and was too lazy to play chess with others anymore.
But Dumbledore's sudden invitation suddenly aroused Dracula's interest.
It sounds like a lot of fun to be able to defeat a great wizard in such a unique way using Wizard Chess!
Seeing that Dumbledore hadn't made any movement for a long time, the magic chess pieces on the chessboard began to make noises -
Queen: "Why don't you point out the next step? I've been waiting for a long time."
King: "Why don't you just give up voting? It's boring!"
Knight: "We are ready to fight to the death, why did your Majesty surrender first?"
Soldier:"… "
Dumbledore looked at the chattering chess pieces on the board with a frown on his face. He raised his hand and put it down again, wondering if he still had any chance of turning the tables.
At this moment, the flame in the fireplace in the principal's office suddenly swayed rhythmically.
"Ah, it looks like Severus is coming back." Dumbledore immediately noticed the movement of the fire and stood up as if he had been pardoned.
He collected the wizard chess pieces extremely quickly, and with lightning speed, he covered up the chess game which had no chance of winning.
"Ahem, Professor Dracula, it seems we don't have time to decide the winner today. Why don't we fight again another day!" Dumbledore coughed lightly and said to Dracula who had not yet reacted.
Dracula: “?”
He was just enjoying the old principal's embarrassed expression with great interest, but how come the chess piece was gone without him noticing
However, Dumbledore did not give Dracula any chance to protest. He reached out and grabbed a handful of special Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. The flame in the fireplace immediately burned with a green light.
A greasy-haired wizard walked out of the flames. He had a cold expression and long black hair draped on both sides like curtains. In the middle was a grayish-yellow face, a hooked nose and a pair of dark eyes.
"Welcome back, Severus!" Dumbledore asked enthusiastically, "Did you learn anything from today's Death Eater meeting?"
Snape looked at Dumbledore with his dark eyes and slightly raised eyebrows, as if wondering why the old headmaster was suddenly so enthusiastic today.
Of course, what Snape didn't know was that Dumbledore was a little embarrassed by the situation in the wizard chess game just now, and now he was just using him as a tool to reasonably change the topic...
"Dracula, why are you here too?" Snape did not answer Dumbledore's question, but turned his head to look at Dracula who was sitting at the desk.
"Why, you don't welcome me?" Dracula stood up from his chair, chuckled and walked in front of Snape, looking deeply into his eyes, "It seems that your undercover operation was very successful, Professor Snape!"
"I'm very curious about how you managed to deceive Voldemort so perfectly. Even Voldemort's clone told me that you are definitely on the side of the Death Eaters."
Dracula showed a meaningful expression and raised the corner of his mouth slightly. "Also, how did you manage to hide deeply in the Death Eater camp and gain such deep trust from Headmaster Dumbledore?"
Snape looked at the wine-red light in Dracula's eyes, pursed his lips tightly, and fell silent. No emotion could be seen on his face.
The situation now became a little complicated. Not only did Snape not trust Dracula, thinking that he was just an outsider who had only been in Hogwarts for a year; similarly, Dracula also did not trust Snape very much because his identity as a Death Eater was confirmed by Riddle himself!
"Severus, Professor Dracula, you two don't need to question each other like this." Just as the air fell into silence, Dumbledore suddenly spoke.
"Severus, Professor Dracula is absolutely trustworthy. You can safely tell him what happened at today's Death Eater meeting." Dumbledore looked at Snape and nodded slightly to him.
After choosing to use Dracula's plan to eliminate Voldemort instead of his own plan, Dumbledore knew that he could no longer hide any information from the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Otherwise, there would only be more information gaps between the two, and even more rifts.
So Dumbledore told Snape without hesitation that he could tell Dracula the information he had learned at the Death Eater meeting.
Then Dumbledore turned his head and looked at Dracula.
"Professor Dracula, I also fully trust Severus." He said softly, "The fact that Severus was recognized by Voldemort is not a reason for us to doubt him. Instead, it should be used as our capital to fight against Voldemort!"
"Excuse me, but what is the reason why the headmaster fully trusts Professor Snape?" Dracula asked directly with interest, regardless of whether Dumbledore was willing to answer or not. "I have been curious about this for a long time."
After asking this question, Dracula noticed that Snape's expression changed slightly.
"As far as I know, Professor Snape was a die-hard Death Eater..." Dracula raised his lips and stared into Snape's eyes, which were as deep as a dark corridor. "Why did he betray Voldemort so suddenly, and then gain the trust of Headmaster Dumbledore so suddenly?"
“There must be something I don’t know about this!”
Dracula looked deeply into Snape's eyes, then sighed with some regret.
Snape's brain block technique was indeed very good, and there was nothing useful to be found in his eyes. No wonder he could be an excellent undercover agent deep into the Death Eater camp.
"These things have nothing to do with you, Dracula!" Snape finally couldn't help it, gritted his teeth, and said word by word, "If I were you, I would definitely take care of my own business first!"
"What a pity, Professor Snape... but you are not me." Dracula did not take it as an offense at all. Instead, he smiled and said, "If you were me, you would understand how boring I am. It's rare to find something interesting, so of course I have to get to the bottom of it!"
Snape's face became even gloomier, and he clenched the wand tightly in his hand, as if he wanted to strike Dracula in the face with an invisible blow at any time.
But then he remembered the several times he was defeated by Dracula, so he turned his head with a stiff expression, choosing not to look at Dracula's annoying face. Out of sight, out of mind.
"Albus, I think we should be prepared." Snape looked at Dumbledore and said in a deep voice.
"Has Voldemort decided on his next course of action?" Dumbledore's expression also became serious.
"Yes, the Dark Lord asked us to take action on Halloween." Snape said seriously, "Almost all the elite Death Eaters will be dispatched to break through the defenses of Azkaban and rescue the Dark Lord's most loyal servants!"
Then, Snape told Dumbledore in detail about Voldemort's plan.
Snape himself held back two professors from Hogwarts, Yaxley bribed officials from the Ministry of Magic, and Lucius used his connections and money to gain connections...
"In fact, after learning the detailed plan, the Death Eaters' action can be easily disrupted." Snape said, "As long as the two of you can arrive in time, the Dark Lord will not have enough power to break the defense of Azkaban."
"No!" Dumbledore flatly rejected Snape's statement.
"Voldemort's plan can indeed be easily broken, but the gain does not outweigh the loss." He looked deeply at Snape and said in a very serious tone, "If Voldemort's plan is destroyed so easily by us, he will easily discover that there are undercover agents in the Death Eaters' camp!"
"Severus, the premise of all our actions is to protect your own identity first!"
"I know." Snape said softly, "I can't stop the Death Eaters' other actions for the time being, but I can pretend that I didn't hold you back and prevent the news of the Dark Lord from being leaked a little later."
"Even the Dark Lord knows that few things can be hidden from Dumbledore. He can't blame me for this."
"But even so, it will reduce his trust in you." Dumbledore frowned and shook his head slightly.
He looked at Dracula who was bored beside him and said, "Perhaps we can find a better way. What do you think, Professor Dracula?"
Dracula crossed his arms and sat back in the chair in front of his desk nonchalantly, looking nonchalant.
"You're worried about the exposure of the undercover agent!" He crossed his legs and raised the corners of his mouth happily, "Actually... we don't have only one undercover agent!"
"You mean..." Dumbledore adjusted his glasses thoughtfully.
“Do what needs to be done!” Dracula waved his hand and said decisively, “Notify the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic and the Head of the Auror Office... The same goes for the Aurors and observers stationed in Azkaban, replace those who have accepted bribes!”
"Anyway, according to the original plan, Riddle's joining our camp will be exposed soon, so why not expose him more thoroughly?"
"And since Voldemort has learned of a confirmed undercover agent, he will probably be more relaxed in his investigation of other undercover agents, which can be regarded as making the best use of Riddle."
"That's the benefit of having many undercover agents!"
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