Hearing Dumbledore's weak request, Snape remained silent, as if he was brewing some emotions.
He stared at Dumbledore for a moment, deep disgust and hatred emerging in the rough lines of his face, and all these emotions were revealed in Voldemort's eyes.
Then, Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore -
"Avada Kedavra!"
…
The green and white that filled the entire sky and earth disappeared.
Voldemort showed an ecstatic smile on his face, while Dumbledore widened his eyes, his expression seemed to be lonely, disappointed and unbelievable...
But only Snape could see that deep in Dumbledore's eyes was a sense of relief, satisfaction and liberation that Voldemort could never understand.
Snape's lips trembled as he tried hard to hold back the tears that were about to burst out, forcing himself to recall the deepest and heaviest pain he had felt when Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow to kill Lily, and not allowing the hatred and disgust on his face to change in the slightest.
Fortunately, Voldemort was caught up in boundless ecstasy and didn't notice Snape's pain at all. He just thought his trembling lips were the joy of revenge.
The flow of time seemed to become extremely slow. The three people present had different emotions, but their eyes were fixed on the killing curse beam that was strangely mixed with a little blue light, watching it like a hand reaching forward, climbing towards Dumbledore's heart inch by inch...
…
Before Voldemort's ecstatic expression faded, suddenly, a blue-black flame rose up around Dumbledore and formed a circle.
If you look down from a high place, you might think that this circle of blue-black flames looks like a gas stove invented by the Muggle society.
A skinny old man who looked as old as Dumbledore stood between Snape and Dumbledore, facing the killing curse mixed with a hint of blue...
Endless wildness and rebelliousness surged in his eyes, and he waved the wand in his hand with forceful movements that were totally disproportionate to his body shape.
The killing curse was suddenly picked up and disappeared silently into the messy bushes.
"Long time no see, Albus..."
The old man who suddenly blocked the killing curse looked towards Dumbledore, his eyes filled with slight anger, slight satisfaction, but mostly with endless longing.
"Gellert..." Dumbledore stared blankly at the figure in front of him, and for the first time, his eyes revealed an unexpected astonishment, "Why...why would you..."
"That's why I'm here, isn't it?" Grindelwald smiled faintly and asked softly, "Do you really think that my eyes can't see such an important moment?"
Dumbledore was silent for a while, then he also laughed.
"I should have thought of it earlier. Professor Dracula released you from Nurmengard for this reason." He said, "You are the only one who can see through my plan..."
Then, Dumbledore put on a pleasant smile, "But why didn't you return to your appearance fifty years ago as shown in the newspaper?"
"It's just to prevent an old man like you from losing face," Grindelwald sneered. "And if I come to see you in my younger form, wouldn't that mean I'm a generation younger than you?"
Dumbledore smiled and shook his head.
He knew that Grindelwald actually just wanted the two of them to look as harmonious as they were in the summer a hundred years ago, like a pair of inseparable friends at that time.
“You are... Gellert Grindelwald?!” Voldemort’s shocked voice rang out beside the two of them.
Grindelwald turned his head and looked at the ugly snake face without a nose.
"This is the Dark Lord kid you told me about in your letter, right?" He ignored Voldemort's words and looked at Dumbledore and asked.
"Yes." Dumbledore nodded slightly.
“You said… We have been fighting each other for a lifetime. Can we have a chance to fight together?” Grindelwald asked the old man beside him with great interest in his eyes.
Voldemort was suddenly startled and his face darkened.
Although he was somewhat inflated with his current strength, he had no confidence at all in dealing with two great wizards at the same time, especially since these two were the spiritual leaders who had once led an era.
"Severus, let's go!" Voldemort gritted his teeth and finally chose to retreat.
He swung his clothes, and a black mist enveloped Snape's figure, carrying him away from the top of the mountain which was full of traces of duels.
"Just wait for me, the two of you! I don't believe that you two old guys from the last century can survive for long!"
"I can wait!"
…
After Voldemort left, Dumbledore seemed to relax completely and fell to the side weakly.
After obtaining the power of the god of death, Voldemort's strength has finally reached a higher level, but Dumbledore is already very old and is far from having the strong body he had when he was young.
He held out against Voldemort until the end, and had almost exhausted all his strength.
Grindelwald held his shoulders and the wild and unruly expression on his face faded, becoming very gentle instead.
"You are still the same as before, always trying to take all the responsibilities on yourself." He chuckled and said, "So, have I delayed your plan?"
"In fact, it is half done... At least Severus' actions have completely won Voldemort's trust."
"Tsk, planting an undercover agent, an old trick."
“But it works just as well as always…”
"Let's not talk about that anymore. Do you want to go to that cafe we used to go to and have a couple of drinks?"
“I really miss it…Isn’t that store still closed?”
“It was closed, but I found the owner’s descendant and ‘kindly’ asked him to open the cafe again.”
"Well... let's go then."
"… "
…
At the foot of the mountain on the other side, the Death Eaters who came to attack the current Minister of Magic lost the support of Voldemort and have been firmly controlled by the Ministry of Magic, which has a huge advantage in strength.
Amelia Bones and the captain of the Auror team were pacing back and forth in front of the Death Eaters who were tied up, checking the number of Death Eaters.
"It seems someone is missing." Amelia frowned slowly, "Is Bellatrix Strange here?"
The Auror Captain was stunned for a moment, and quickly ordered his men to count again the list of Death Eaters who had participated in the attack, and concluded that Bellatrix was indeed not under the control of the Ministry of Magic.
"How could she escape in this situation?" Amelia glanced at the Aurors present and sternly rebuked, "How on earth did you pass the Auror assessment?!"
The Aurors knew they were in the wrong, so they all lowered their heads and accepted the scolding in silence.
"Ms. Bones, I found the Auror who let Bellatrix Strange escape." The Auror Captain stepped forward and said to Amelia.
"Let him come over!" Amelia said coldly.
The Auror Captain waved his hand behind him.
A young Auror walked tremblingly in front of Amelia, pinching the corner of his clothes nervously and stuttering.
"I remember you, an Auror who has just been employed for a year." Amelia glanced at the young Auror and said coldly, "But being young is not a reason for you to let the Death Eaters escape!"
"Explain it to me. Strange was clearly tied up by a binding spell when she first arrived. Why did you let her go?"
The young Auror's face turned red with anxiety and he kept shaking his head.
"I... I didn't mean to let her go. Someone saved her!" He stammered, "Just now, a man who looked a bit like Strange suddenly appeared next to me and attacked me with a disarming spell..."
"Then...then he took this opportunity to take Strange away. When I retrieved the wand, the two men had disappeared...I was afraid of the punishment from the Ministry, so...so I didn't dare to inform you right away..."
Hearing the young Auror's explanation, Amelia frowned and looked at the Auror Captain.
"Is there a man who looks similar to Strange on the Death Eaters' list?" she asked.
"I'm not sure either," the Auror Captain shook his head, "I only remember that Bellatrix Lestrange is from the Black family... Are there any other Death Eaters in the Black family?"
"It seems like there's nothing wrong with her." Amelia said, "Anyway, if there's nothing wrong with your arm, take half of the Aurors and search the area and bring her back as soon as possible!"
"She may be hiding a very important secret of the mysterious man. We can't just let her go..."
…
Deep in the mountains, in a dense forest, a handsome young man with black hair was running quickly with a woman who looked somewhat similar to him and had a crazy expression on her back, dodging the detection spells that flew over from time to time.
"Are you Regulus?" Bellatrix looked at the black-haired young man in front of her in astonishment, her eyes full of disbelief. "You disappeared for so many years, we all thought you were dead!"
"In fact, I am dead." Regulus took a few deep breaths and said quickly, "There was an accident at that time, and I was drowned in a lake... The Dark Lord found me some time ago and turned me into a thinking corpse, giving me the opportunity to serve him again."
Bellatrix reached out and touched the skin of Regulus' arm in surprise, and indeed, she felt a cold and dark breath.
She immediately believed Regulus's words.
Because in Bella's heart, Voldemort was the only one in the world who could use the necromancy of the Inferno to perfection.
However, Bella still had a question in her mind.
"But why don't you fight with us?" she asked a little angrily, "If we can add your fighting power, maybe we can still turn the situation around!"
"My mission is different from all of yours." Regulus shook his head, "I was specially assigned by the Dark Lord to protect you!"
"Protect me?" Bella opened her mouth wide, looking extremely surprised. Her face flushed with a sickly blush. "My master is so kind to me... Is he going to send someone to protect me?"
"To be precise, it is to protect what is in your hand." Regulus ruthlessly interrupted her fantasy and said stiffly, "The Dark Lord should have given you something 'incredibly important', am I right?"
The redness on Bella's face faded a little, but she was still very excited.
"Yes, the master entrusted me with that 'incredibly important' thing because he trusted me!" she said excitedly, "Even when I was in Azkaban, I kept it well!"
"That's no problem." Regulus said, "We can't let anything happen to the Dark Lord's things, so we have to protect the custodian of that thing!"
Regulus felt a little relieved.
Some time ago, Dracula called Lucius over to meet him, and they exchanged some information they had.
Regulus discovered that Voldemort had given one of his Horcruxes to Lucius Malfoy for safekeeping... and even when Lucius was most favored, he was not Voldemort's most trusted servant.
He immediately realized that there was probably another Horcrux that Voldemort had also given to his servants for safekeeping.
And that person is most likely Bellatrix Strange, the person whom Voldemort trusted the most from beginning to end and also Regulus' cousin.
So he thought of a way to infiltrate the Death Eater camp again, hoping to get Bella to talk and get another Horcrux.
It wasn't until today that Regulus finally found the perfect opportunity.
"To be on the safe side, let's go get the Dark Lord's thing out." Regulus said to Bella, "We need to find a more suitable place to store it to prevent any accidents."
"You can tell me where the thing is kept and I'll go get it back... You're too big a target now, and only I, the 'non-existent person', am the least conspicuous."
Despite the good reasons, Regulus' words still alerted Bellatrix.
"I kept it well, why would I take out the master's things?" she asked loudly, "What if something goes wrong during the transfer? Wouldn't that be even more dangerous!"
"Bella, I asked you to move that thing because I followed the Dark Lord's instructions." Regulus reacted quickly and made up an excuse immediately. "You should know that the Dark Lord's thoughts were connected to Harry Potter some time ago. The Dark Lord suspected that Potter had sensed the location of that thing..."
"He didn't even tell me this happened!" Bella relaxed her guard a little, but still didn't give in easily. "I must go and get what the master has given me in person!"
Then, she looked at Regulus, "Regulus, you must cover me while I go to get that thing."
Regulus completely relaxed when he heard Bella's plan.
…
…