As with all real-life stories, Wizarding Britain had to temporarily unite in the face of a common and powerful external enemy, and even the conflict between Albus Dumbledore and Tom seemed to be dispensable.

As Harry had guessed, Voldemort's return soon set off an even more bloody storm.

Voldemort summoned his men again to show his power, the graveyard was full of the Dark Lord's men, and the second time, looking at the speed at which the Dementors fled, it was clear that they didn't have to be eyewitnesses - Harry estimated that the eyeless Dementors probably only felt something darker than their own.

If Voldemort's plan had gone well, the Ministry of Magic should have been completely controlled by the Dark Lord a long time ago. However, although the Ministry of Magic is in full shape, the major forces are well aware that the Minister is still sober, he is not controlled by any force, he is not controlled by the Imperius Curse - the Ministry of Magic has become a great variable - Andrew informed Dumbledore of the news as soon as possible, and Dumbledore immediately reconvened the Order of the Phoenix and alerted people to it.

The Headmaster's goal is to raise the vigilance of the people in order to prevent the Dark Lord from gathering his men and re-elevating, however, the Ministry of Magic becomes the biggest obstacle -

The Minister of Magic asked Dumbledore to cooperate with the Ministry's actions, and it was clear that the existence of the Order of the Phoenix was no longer a secret, and the Minister knew about the existence of this force, and he took a fancy to it.

After ordering everyone in the Ministry, including Dumbledore, to comply with the Ministry's arrangement, he manipulated the Ministry of Magic to put pressure on the Daily Prophet to prevent them from reporting any news about it, and called rumors that the mysterious man had been resurrected as Dumbledore. Harry's treatment wasn't much better, and he spent a semester persuaded by various lobbyists sent by the Minister to endorse the Ministry.

In this environment, Dumbledore's position as the president of the International Confederation of Wizards, the chief magician of the Wizengamot, and the winner of the knight medal of the Order of Merlin is more embarrassing, and he seems to have to ensure that he is politically correct first, otherwise he is likely to be attacked by the Ministry of Magic.

“…… I guess Voldemort must have loved the Ministry of Magic to death, because he didn't need the Imperius Curse, and the Minister was already desperately trying to help him. Sirius concluded, a wry smile mixed with mockery.

"And what is he doing now?" Harry quickly continued, not paying attention to Ron and Hermione's small shudder, "If he was going to recruit more men, wouldn't people find out?"

"You know, Voldemort didn't go door-to-door knocking to get them to join the Death Eaters. He has a secret method. Sirius shook his head, "Plus, he has a lot of other plans besides gathering his men. Dumbledore believed that he had recently wanted a weapon, and that all his attention seemed to be on it. ”

Somehow, Harry suddenly saw Voldemort standing in the alleyway, and although this kind of image had started to appear occasionally recently, Harry still couldn't figure out what was going on, as if the connection between him and the Dark Lord had become stronger. "The weapon he didn't have before, is it powerful?"

Sirius didn't answer immediately. He looked at Harry cautiously, and Harry caught Peter Pettigrew and cleared Blake's name, which of course made Sirius happy, but on the other hand, Blake also began to look at Harry--- he seemed to be too impulsive, too eager to do everything on his own, and nothing good would come of it.

Just as Harry was about to ask further, the door was pushed open and Mrs. Weasley entered. "It's lunchtime, Harry, do you want to ......" She noticed that there were far more people in the room, and asked sensitively, "What were you just talking about?"

"It's nothing, Mom, we'll just take care of Harry's body. Ron said immediately. He got up and motioned for Hermione to go down with him, "Let's go, we can bring one for Harry." ”

Ron may have done this to give Sirius and Harry more time to talk, but Sirius was no more. When the godfather also came downstairs, Harry sat at the head of the bed, thinking about the precious news he had just got-

What weapon was Voldemort looking for?

The answer to this question is hard to find. Leaving aside Harry's pending Ministry of Magic trial, Mrs. Weasley herself was already difficult to deal with - to prevent them from sitting around the room and talking in secret again, she asked everyone who lived in the house to join in the clean-up.

An old mansion that has been abandoned for many years, not to mention the dust, foxes are everywhere, and the dark magic items that have never been seen at every turn - seemingly ordinary snuffboxes can bite people - are almost life-threatening to clean.

After the novelty of the beginning wore off, Harry didn't find it so exciting to live in the anti-Voldemort headquarters, except for being able to watch the Weasleys' twin brothers start their joke shop business.

The main reason, of course, is that the members of the Order of the Phoenix are still coming in and out, and Harry has no idea what they are doing. The secondary reason may be that the scar has not moved.

This made Harry very upset to discover what Dumbledore and Voldemort had in common - he had never thought this thing existed before, even one-

Don't let him know anything!

**

Voldemort wasn't in a good mood either. His earliest Horcruxes were destroyed, and one was missing, not to mention that his Death Eaters were once again unable to do what he was asking for.

"You're talking ...... You can't find the elf?" he asked, his voice low and soft, but undoubtedly dangerous.

The kneeling man's forehead was almost touching the ground, and his whole body trembled. "Kreacher hasn't left the Black house in years...... Sissi tried to summon it, but it didn't respond, which wasn't normal...... Someone was in that house, Cialis Black, and he must have ordered Kreacher not to leave...... Sissi couldn't get past her cousin, the direct heir to the Black family......"

Voldemort had no interest in reason, all he wanted was results. "So," he snorted, "are you ready for punishment, Lucius?"

The head of the Malfoy family trembled even more. "It was indeed my negligence to give away what you asked me to do as I pleased, master. But I just thought I was doing what you told me to do. Please give me another chance, master, the Malfoys will always be your most faithful servant!"

Voldemort sneered, his pale, slender fingers clenching his yew wand in his sleeve. He could see in the head of the long-haired blond man the details that the other party was trying to avoid, and those details made him angry. "The Dark Lord ordered you to stuff something into a bucket of pure-blood scum girls?" he asked softly, almost whispering.

"Master, I ......" Malfoy's face turned completely white, but he still tried to exonerate himself.

"Dig into the heart!" Voldemort lost his patience.

The man's cry of pain instantly echoed throughout the gloomy room, sharp and terrifying. After a long time, the four sides regained their composure, and the rest of them were short and heavy gasps.

"The Dark Lord doesn't want to listen to rhetorical excuses, Lucius, you should know that. Voldemort spoke again, his voice frighteningly cold.

Malfoy got up and knelt again, covered in cold sweat, his long hair stained into messy strands on his forehead. "It's my fault, master. ”

This made Voldemort reluctantly satisfied. "Let Narcissa continue to summon the elf. He quickly commanded, "I know Cialis Black, he's far from a man who has no loopholes. ”

"Yes, master. Malfoy immediately said, "Sissi and I will definitely seize the time and not let any opportunity slip ......."

"I've heard enough," Voldemort waved his hand impatiently, and Malfoy immediately shut his mouth. "You can't tell anyone about these things," the Dark Lord hissed, "and there's another time...... You know the Dark Lord's methods, my cunning friend. ”

Malfoy shivered in fear, then nodded heavily. "The Malfoy family will never fail to live up to your expectations, hosts. ”

Voldemort didn't even bother to hum. Malfoy saw the sign that he could leave, and staggered out the door.

After a while, another person entered the house. His face was pale, slightly freckled, and his short hair was as messy as dry straw. "Master," said Barty Crouch Jr., bowing deeply, "I think you may have a new command. ”

Voldemort glanced at Crouch - the Death Eater noticed Malfoy's embarrassment. "You are undoubtedly loyal," he said, his tone softening, "but Lucius must make amends for his own wrongs." ”

"I work for my master, and not for any other reason. Crouch replied quickly.

Voldemort's brow furrowed slightly. "Very good. He said, muttering slightly, "Maybe you can help...... I remember you had a house-elf?"

Just as Malfoy didn't know why Voldemort suddenly became interested in Kreacher, Crouch didn't know why Voldemort asked about Twilight. "Yes, indeed. But Twinkle is so old that she doesn't know if she can help her master. He told the truth.

It doesn't matter if you're old or not, as long as it's a house-elf...... All house-elves should have the same magic, right?

Voldemort thought uncertainly, his mind tumbling through the phrase he had just heard, "Sissi can't get past her cousin, the fugitive is the direct heir to the Black family." He seemed to guess why Kreacher was able to leave the cave......

"Call her here at once," he commanded, "the Dark Lord has something to ask her." ”

It took less than ten minutes to call Sparkle and ask questions. After he was left alone in the room again, Voldemort sat down, his thin nose fluttering as he gasped—

He actually made a big mistake, in the most important thing. He thought that if he drove the boat back to shore, Kreacher would die on the island in the middle of the lake, but Regulus apparently gave Kreacher an order to go home.

The master's orders were the basis for all the house-elves' actions, so Kreacher went back. Regulus knew from its mouth what he had done, and decided to destroy the Locket Horcrux.

"In that case, the locket must still be at Black's house. A voice suddenly rang out, coming from the small portrait on the wall, "I've never heard of the Black family having Parseltongue blood, let alone house-elves. ”

If you want to destroy the locket, you must first use the Parseltongue to open it. Voldemort knew this, of course, but he was even more upset. "The question is, how do I get in? I guess there's a secrecy spell in that place. ”

"There's a big secret, obvious. The portrait agreed, "Otherwise, Blake would not have been able to restrict the movements of house-elves so strictly." ”

"That house has a more important purpose than the ancestral home......" muttered Voldemort, who thought of the Order of the Phoenix. If the Black family is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix – fitting that the ancestral homes of ancient magical families often have many protections – meaning that the house's secret is Dumbledore, the problem is even greater.

The portrait thought in the same direction. "But we don't need to go toe-to-toe with that old bee, or even with the Order of the Phoenix. "Regulus didn't tell anyone about it, or we would have known." ”

This is exactly the same as Voldemort's earlier assumption. "No one knew the locket was there, and no one knew it was a Horcrux. "All I have to do is cast a small Imperius Curse on a member of the Order of the Phoenix—maybe not even a Reimper—and he'll be able to take it out for me." ”

Voldemort and the portrait looked at each other, and they both thought of the same person—the same person who had left his post last time, Mundungus Fletsch. Fletch has been in the company of thieves and crooks, and the Dark Lord is very good at dealing with such people when he can do a good job in the Borgin Burke store.

"No more people know about this, and the sooner it is resolved, the better. Voldemort was convinced, "I'll find him." ”

There is no objection to the portrait. "So, Jinbei?" was a question, but he said in an affirmative tone.

Voldemort waved his hand, unimpressed by the question of how to remove the keys to the family vault from the Lestrange brothers. "The Lestrange brothers are two mad dogs, but they still retain the instinct of fear, and mad dogs can't stop the Dark Lord. As for the goblins," he snorted contemptuously, "it's not worth mentioning. ”

The portrait nodded. "There's only one last one left. For the first time, there was hesitation in his tone, "What is the boy going to do?"

There is a reason for this hesitation. In addition to Harry being an unsuccessful Horcrux for Voldemort, Voldemort used Harry's blood to bring them a deeper bond when he was resurrected - sharing life force.

What an embarrassing situation, when the two ends of this life and soul connection are the Savior and the Dark Lord.

After all his research, Voldemort had to begin to realize that he had overlooked too many important things and made too many mistakes that he should not have made that he was in the dilemma he was in. He couldn't kill Harry because Harry was the carrier of his soul, and he probably couldn't kill Harry because they had the same blood in their bodies.

Of course, Dumbledore would have been happy with the latter. But for him, does he have to take back the boy's soul first, create a new body for himself, and then kill the boy?

Voldemort fell into deep thought. He never realized that he had made an extra Horcrux, and it never occurred to him that he needed to recover the Soul Tablet......

The portrait is clearly free of operational trouble. "You said Potter didn't know anything. Dumbledore was apparently aware of the existence of the soul link and kept it a secret from Potter. Dumbledore was afraid of what you saw in Potter's eyes. This was either out of secrecy from the Order of the Phoenix, or out of love for the boy. ”

Hearing the last sentence, Voldemort jerked his head. "What do you mean......"

"You see, for more than a month, we have wanted to find out what the prophecy is really about, because knowing that the future can be a weapon of victory. "We all know that you can't go to the Ministry of Magic to pick up the orb that only the prophesied can pick up. The boy had to do it for us. Now—" He paused slightly, speaking quicker, "whatever Dumbledore's reason for keeping Potter secret, Potter would be eager to know the situation and the progress. The more Dumbledore wanted to isolate the boy, then—"

"The more he can become our new weapon. The two Voldemorts – or rather, Tom Riddle and his own portrait of his youth – came to the final conclusion in unison.