"You seem to admire Potter very much, right?" Dracula slowed down his tone and asked softly.
"It's not just me... all of us house-elves adore him." Dobby groaned, more tears rolling down his tattered pillowcase.
"If only he knew what he meant to us lowly, enslaved people in the wizarding world! Dobby has not forgotten what He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was like at the height of his power, Professor!"
"Back then, people treated us house-elves like vermin... and of course, they still treat Dobby like that now."
Dobby wiped his face with his dirty pillowcase as he spoke. "But overall, the lives of us elves have improved a lot since Harry Potter defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
"Harry Potter survived, the reign of evil was broken, and a new beginning began. For us humble house-elves who thought the dark days would never end, Harry Potter shone like a beacon of hope..."
"I understand this a little bit." Dracula nodded thoughtfully. "I met a house-elf named Kreacher some time ago. Voldemort didn't treat him as a human being at all, not even as a living creature. He was just used as a tool to experiment with magic."
"Ah!" Dobby suddenly covered his ears and groaned, "Don't say that name, sir! It's too scary!"
"Well, go on." Dracula shrugged noncommittally, "Why do you admire Harry Potter so much, but want to use a Bludger to knock him off his broom and kill him?"
Dobby's behavior aroused Dracula's curiosity.
As a house-elf, it was strange for him to act without his master's permission... even stranger was that he was actually controlling the Bludger to hit Harry on the head while verbally expressing his gratitude to him.
"No, that's not it! Dobby never wanted Harry Potter to fall off his broom and die!" Dobby said emotionally, "Dobby wanted to save Harry Potter's life! It's better to be sent home with serious injuries than to stay here! Dobby just wanted him to be slightly injured and then go back home to rest!"
"But this doesn't seem reasonable, does it?" Dracula raised his eyebrows. "I think Madam Pomfrey can easily treat the minor injuries you mentioned. She won't give Potter a chance to go home and recuperate."
"But... but Dobby couldn't think of any other way... It wasn't until today that he had a little idea, but was stopped by the professor..." Dobby murmured with a sad face, "The devil who can't even be named has returned, and it won't be long before he will completely recover to his previous strength..."
"The first thing he did after regaining his strength was to come to Hogwarts to seek revenge on Harry Potter... Dobby couldn't let Harry Potter stay here, because history is about to repeat itself, and this time the big evil will never make the same mistake as last time—"
At this point, Dobby's words suddenly stopped.
He froze in horror, then grabbed Dracula's bottle of red wine from the desk in front of him and banged it hard on his head, muttering in pain:
"Bad Dobby, very bad Dobby... He actually revealed the secret that his master wanted to keep strictly..."
However, just as the red wine bottle was about to hit Dobby's wrinkled, bald head, his entire body suddenly froze.
"Professor, please don't stop Dobby anymore! Dobby has revealed a secret that cannot be told, and he must punish himself!" Dobby thought Dracula was stopping him from punishing himself.
The corners of Dracula's mouth twitched, and several black lines appeared on his face.
"I don't mean to stop you from punishing yourself, Dobby," he said unhappily, "but when you punish yourself, can you please not use my precious wine as a weapon?"
Dracula took the bottle of red wine from Dobby's hand with a casual move, and took out a wine glass to pour himself a glass of bright red wine.
After tasting the wine gracefully, Dracula calmed down a little and turned his attention back to this special house-elf.
"Your identity does not seem to be simple, Dobby." The corners of his mouth curled up into an intriguing smile, "You know about Voldemort's resurrection, and you also know the place where Voldemort wants to go most after his resurrection—"
"In that case, the answer to the question of whose house-elf you are... is very narrow."
Dracula stared into Dobby's eyes with a half-smile.
"Stop talking... Wuuuuu, stop talking..." Dobby's tears fell down in big drops, "Dobby betrayed his master, Dobby is a very bad house-elf..."
However, Dracula didn't care about Dobby's sadness at all, and then said in a positive tone:
"If I'm not mistaken...your master is Lucius Malfoy, right?"
Dobby's crying suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes wide, as big as copper bells, in horror. He stammered for a long time without uttering a complete word.
Seeing Dobby's performance, Dracula knew that he was right.
"The only ones who could have known the details of Voldemort's recovery of strength were probably the Death Eaters who attended the meeting in the bunker. This is not difficult to guess." He said nonchalantly, "Moreover, most of those Death Eaters only knew the details of Voldemort's situation after attending the meeting. Naturally, it was impossible for you to overhear the news before that."
"Besides, they are already trying their best to distance themselves from Voldemort. It is impossible for them to talk about Voldemort's recovery at home, let alone reveal the news to the house-elves."
"So this backward news of yours must not have been overheard from your master."
Dracula chuckled and stared into Dobby's eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit face-blind to house-elves. I didn't realize you were the elf who appeared in the bunker meeting room carrying a cauldron. I was wondering why I felt that a house-elf looked familiar!"
It turned out that when Dobby was called aside by Lucius and Voldemort to punish himself, before Voldemort finished making the potion -
Dobby couldn't bear to see Voldemort's resurrection, so he quietly left the meeting room and punished himself somewhere else.
Therefore, Dobby also missed the situation where Dracula and Riddle joined forces to trick Voldemort, and thought that Voldemort, who was sure to win, had completely returned, and his heart was in chaos.
In order to protect Harry Potter, whom he admired, he gritted his teeth and ran away from Malfoy Manor.
Dobby was completely stunned after listening to Dracula's long speech. He swallowed stiffly after a long time and felt completely hopeless.
"Dobby... Dobby can't save Harry Potter. I didn't expect that the professor at Hogwarts is also a core Death Eater..." Dobby murmured in despair, "Only the core Death Eaters can join that meeting, and that person is actually a dark wizard disguised as a professor."
"I suggest you put it another way, Dobby." Dracula glanced at him, "If you say I'm a professor disguised as a dark wizard, I might feel better."
"Dobby... Dobby will never compromise with a lackey like you!" Dobby showed a fearless expression.
"… You are amazing, Dobby. You even scolded your master." Dracula sneered.
"Oh no!" Dobby's tears, which had finally stopped, immediately began to fall again, "Dobby is a very bad house-elf..."
"Forget it, I always feel it's a bit difficult to communicate with you..." Dracula finally lost his patience and stood up from his chair.
"Come on, let's go straight to your master and let him explain to you!"
…
At the same time, Malfoy Manor was decorated with lights and colors—
On the bushes in the garden, on the walls outside the house, on the left and right of the exquisite pillars... every corner of the manor was hung with bright, luxurious colored lights and colorful ribbons full of festive atmosphere. Even the colorful peacocks that often wandered around the gate of Malfoy Manor had a string of small light bulbs hung around their necks.
If someone who doesn’t know the situation saw this, they would probably think that what just passed this month was not the spooky Halloween, but the lively Christmas!
"Lucius, the Dark Lord just left... Is it really appropriate for us to decorate the house like this?" Lucius' wife, Narcissa Malfoy, asked worriedly, "If other Death Eaters see it and leak it out, your position in the Dark Lord's heart will probably be even more disadvantageous, right?"
"Don't worry, Narcissa." Lucius was walking comfortably in the spacious back garden, leaning on his cane. "The Dark Lord is gone. I watched him burn himself to ashes with my own eyes! He will never come back without a few years."
"Besides, I'm not worried about being seen by other Death Eaters. After all... my position is already irreversible."
Lucius laughed at himself, then unconsciously stared at the Dark Mark on the inside of his left arm and fell silent.
If Lucius is a fence-sitter, he decides which way to lean depending on the wind.
So the original wind was actually blowing towards Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and Lucius was also slightly inclined towards Voldemort. After all, he was an extremely terrifying wizard, an extremely outstanding magic genius, and he also had the complete power of the entire Death Eaters.
Compared to a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts who is apparently weak and alone, even a fool would not choose the wrong side!
However, on Halloween Eve, in the underground fortress, Dracula's crushing performance against Voldemort really dumbfounded Lucius.
The wind direction on the wall changed immediately.
Lucius immediately turned from Voldemort to Dracula, and decided to create a new faction in addition to the different factions in the Ministry of Magic that were formed due to policies, namely "Pro-Dracula", "Pro-Voldemort", and "Self-Strengthening". The name of the faction was -
"Dracula's lackey 'Pie'!"
Of course, "lackey" was just a word that suddenly popped up in Lucius's mind when he was a Death Eater and was responsible for almost all the aftermath, paying the bills, smoothing relations, etc., but did not find any benefits.
He felt that if he continued to do this dangerous job as a Death Eater, the head of a pure-blood family would really become a lackey of Voldemort, lying on the ground kissing Voldemort's toes all day long, and would not get what he deserved at all...
Now, thinking about the additional faction related to Dracula that he wanted to open up, Lucius immediately thought of the word "lackey".
However, for the sake of his own face, he would still uncreatively call this faction "Pro-Dracula Faction". He is the only one in this faction of the Ministry of Magic...
"Lucius, I don't quite understand." Narcissa Malfoy asked doubtfully, "Since you have chosen to leave the Death Eaters, why do you always keep in touch with other Death Eaters and even plan to respond to the Dark Lord's call at any time?"
"Wouldn't it be safer for you, me, and Draco if we just went and sought refuge with Professor Dracula?"
"You don't understand, Narcissa. It's not easy for me to leave the Death Eaters, nor is it easy for me to seek protection from Professor Dracula." Lucius sighed and poked the ground with his cane in a depressed mood. "No matter where we go, we need corresponding value!"
"Isn't the head of the Malfoy family valuable enough?" Narcissa Malfoy frowned.
"No, the head of the Malfoy family is indeed very valuable to the Dark Lord, but it is still far from enough for Professor Dracula." Lucius shook his head. "What the Dark Lord wants is to conquer pure blood, to rule the wizarding world, and to gain greater power! So the identity of the head of the Malfoy family is very valuable to him."
"But Professor Dracula is different. Dracula has no lack of wealth. To him, the wealth accumulated by the Malfoy family over hundreds of years may be no different from the pocket money of a poor man. Moreover, he has no interest in power. He only thinks these things are troublesome..."
"All Dracula wants is tons of fun!"
Lucius said in a deep voice, "So far, his greatest pleasure is to get rid of the Dark Lord who has no taste for him... Because of this, I can only be worthy of being protected if I can continue to provide him with information about the Dark Lord!"
"But that's too dangerous... isn't it?" Narcissa said worriedly.
"It's better than staying under the Dark Lord. I don't want the Malfoy family to fall in my hands." Lucius changed his cane to another hand and put his arm around his wife's shoulders. "Well, the Dark Lord is gone. It's time to celebrate. Don't talk about those tense topics!"
"Be happy, Narcissa. At least this manor that has been occupied by them for so long is finally back in our arms!"
…
…