war and peace

Speaking of the Malfoy family recently, the Death Eaters have been whispering in private that Lucius Malfoy must have fallen out of favor.Not only were people sent to desolate and remote places, but even the Death Eater meetings that had always been held at Malfoy Manor were greatly reduced.All true, but no one except Lucius Malfoy himself knew exactly where he was.In fact, he is still in his own manor, but his wife and son don't know it, and even shy away from him-yes, he is not a husband or a father now, but a high-ranking ruler, their master-Lord Voldemort .

Old Malfoy really didn't think it was a good job.Of course, as Voldemort, all the treatment is very good, from the room to the food and beverages - he dare not treat his master badly in front of a real person.But when this treatment was applied to himself, he was apprehensive and didn't want to enjoy it, for fear that if something went wrong one day, his life would be lost.The Dark Lord is a high-risk profession. It is true that there are a lot of followers (whether loyal or not), but there are also groups of enemies.And he is not the real Dark Lord, how can a counterfeit have such powerful magic power as his master to protect himself?

Therefore, when Voldemort summoned him alone, he was still very happy; as soon as he heard the content, he withered, and had to bite the bullet and take on this task-playing Voldemort for the next four months, declaring to the outside world that he had Go to Transylvania, no one is allowed to tell.

To be honest, Malfoy didn't learn how to behave like Voldemort at all; fortunately, Voldemort didn't have high demands on this point, and he came back to preside over the few and few meetings.He only needs to stay in the luxurious room all day long, pretending to be deep, and the only time he needs to show up is in the evening—taking that big snake out for a walk.The so-called walking means walking around the manor meaningfully. Nagini wandered casually in the nearby woods, showing his tail from time to time.

But Malfoy was terrified at this little exposure time.Nagini is the Dark Lord's pet, not his!It is the Dark Lord who can speak Parseltongue, not him!He didn't know how many times he had seen the Dark Lord feed his incompetent subordinates to snakes!He used to think that the worst job was to work with that werewolf; but now he was sure that there was absolutely nothing more dangerous than pretending to be the Dark Lord and walking snakes!

To sum up the above reasons, Malfoy felt that he had good reason to be suspicious: if he couldn't even do this well, would there be only that bloody mouth waiting for him in the end?Obviously, since the Dark Lord regained his appearance, he hadn't given him a good look.How precarious is his situation!

So when Malfoy opened his eyes two mornings before New Years and saw the room clearly, he was on the verge of tears.The real Dark Lord was sitting on a settee in the room, absently fiddling with the flames in the fireplace.It's an air dial, no wand. "Master," he immediately rolled over from the bed, "You are back."

Voldemort's eyes were still on the flames. "Lucius, your alertness is too low." He raised a finger, "Someone appeared in the room where you slept, and you didn't realize it-I have to say, you can live until now What a miracle."

If that person was the Dark Lord, 1 minute would be enough for him to die ten or eight times.Malfoy wiped the cold sweat off his brow, knowing wisely that he shouldn't refute his master on this issue: "This subordinate is too careless." He paused, then asked again, with hidden hope in his tone: " Now that you are back, master, is this subordinate..."

"No, you continue." Voldemort blocked Malfoy with one sentence. "It's not over yet..." The Dark Lord seemed to be speaking to Flame, and also seemed to be talking to himself. Anyway, Malfoy definitely didn't want this part of the sentence to be said to him. "How about the concealment of Malfoy Manor?"

Malfoy was glad that Voldemort didn't continue with the "it's not over" just now, but changed to a separate question. "Please rest assured, Master, the Malfoy family is fully prepared. All defensive measures have been taken, and it must be very safe." His own life was at stake, and he would not take it lightly.

"Really?" Voldemort pondered for a while, his face neither happy nor angry.

Malfoy was not sure what he meant, and waited for him to speak in trepidation.

Finally Voldemort finally spoke: "That's all right, you go down."

Malfoy resigned.He turned to the Chamber of Secrets in the house. Since Voldemort said that he would continue, he could not appear in other people's eyes in his original appearance.Malfoy felt a shudder run down his spine at the thought of continuing to deal with the dozen-foot-long snake.It didn't matter if Voldemort wasn't there before, probably because he had something to do and he needed to stabilize the morale of the army.But now, why do I still want him to pretend when I come back?Malfoy didn't understand.

early March.Conical or oval inflorescences hang down from the tall ash trees, and the Populus euphratica forest also sprouts a piece of greenery, signaling the arrival of spring.Although in Wiltshire, west of London, the climate change is not obvious in the temperature, but people can detect the trend of warming up.

Harry and Hermione had been circling the area for two or three months.The map that Roald left them was very detailed, but it did not mark the various magical traps and barriers that the Malfoy family had set up outside the manor.In addition to the common Muggle repelling spell and anti-apparition spell, there is also the outermost apparition spell (at first glance, it looks like a large forest), and a large group of tree monkey frogs (they almost Just let the pustules in the middle of their heads light up for the alarm, and the razor-like fangs!), and finally there are extremely hidden sedge swamps in it (one after another densely distributed, the worst time, Harry fell Go in half the body).

At first, Harry and Hermione thought it must be as simple as the first two times, but they were stumped.Fortunately, one is well-informed and the other is not afraid of danger, so they slowly approached the manor from the outside to the inside one by one.In fact, Harry thought it was quite an achievement - he'd be happier if the last barrier wasn't impenetrable anyway.

"No way, no flaws." Hermione looked into Malfoy Manor through the invisible barrier.They could see several pointed houses rising in the falling twilight against a sky slowly gathering clouds in the background.

Harry poked tentatively at the black wrought-iron door in front of him.He could see it, he could see the straight driveway inside, the shadowy trees, and the light from the lozenge glass on the house—but he just couldn't touch the hedge, the wall, the gate, there seemed to be something An invisible layer of air separated him from them.

Just when they were helpless, someone's figure appeared on the path outside the manor.Grass was growing half a person's height on the side of the road, so Harry and Hermione heard the sound of the robe rubbing against the blades of grass, and hid in time.The two hurried over and didn't stop in front of the door.The door, which Harry could not deal with anyway, bent and deformed before them, and it seemed to be a thick but penetrable black mist.

After the two Death Eaters had passed, Hermione whispered, "I see—it must be the Dark Mark. Only people with that mark can walk in unimpeded."

Harry thought of that too. "They Apparated here directly, which means the anti-Apparition spell doesn't work on Death Eaters either."

After the two of them left Diagon Alley, they destroyed the Golden Cup Horcrux.In this way, of the six Horcruxes they knew, the ring, the locket, the diary, the gold cup, the crown, and the big snake, only the last two remained.And the crown is still not known where it is, they can only choose to deal with the snake first.To kill Nagini would be to get close to Voldemort, and the most frequent stop they knew of Voldemort was Malfoy Manor.After two or three months of struggle, they were finally close to their goal, but they couldn't complete the last step when they were so close.Where can they turn into a Dark Mark?Is it going to fall short at the last minute?

There are more and more dark clouds in the sky, and a heavy rainstorm is coming.After discussing with Hermione, Harry and Hermione decided to take a rest for the night and continue their research tomorrow.They picked a place outside the fence, next to a large bush of hydrangeas that had already sprouted buds.According to the rotation routine, Hermione was off tonight, but she didn't want to stay inside at all, but sat outside the tent with Harry to study the map.

"Yes, the location is very accurate." Harry just pointed in the direction with his wand, and they arrived at Malfoy Manor without any doubt.

Hermione raised her eyes from the map and looked at him hesitantly, as if she wanted to say something but dared not say it.

Harry turned his head to avoid meeting her eyes.He knew what she wanted to say: if Roald was still there, would there be a way to forcibly break through the last barrier.But it was futile to say that. Before the man disappeared, he didn't even say goodbye, and only left them this map.He had obviously left on his own, which he had planned to do, but hadn't told them.Harry couldn't help feeling that something was missing somewhere, and somehow feeling that it was to be expected.

After Roald disappeared, Harry was silent for a long time.He didn't know what to say, and he didn't know what to say.Seeing his abnormal reaction, Hermione's attitude changed from surprise to worry at the beginning, to very suspicious of the relationship between the two at the end.Because she tried to cheer Harry up, tried everything, but nothing worked.In the end, she couldn't help but exploded, angrily scolding him for being like a person in a state of lovelorn—and it was the one who was abandoned. Harry didn't refute her, and his mood was still low.

Just as the two of them were sitting silently, a faint voice came from the manor.Harry got up quickly and stuffed the map into his arms.Through a gap in the hedge he saw first the moving robe feet, then the steps.Harry could only see a small part of his profile, but that was enough - the unique posture when walking, and the nodding figure on the other side undoubtedly proved the identity of this person.

Harry immediately pulled out his wand, feeling his heart beating faster and faster.He was beginning to realize that they were so close... the latter had only one Death Eater next to him...he couldn't get over the barrier, but the spell could... Isn't this a great opportunity?If Voldemort himself was killed first, the Death Eaters would definitely be vulnerable... For many days, he had been facing all kinds of life-threatening threats, and his nerves were tense and exhausted.The weather is cold and food is scarce.He'd thought he'd get a night's rest and plan his next move, but that's when he saw Voldemort... his nerves were broken, and he desperately wanted to end it all.

"Hermione, hurry up and pack the tent." Harry's mouth was so dry that he didn't realize what he was doing.He bent down and aimed at the black figure from between the leaves.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A green light shot out, straight through the hedge.Voldemort still ordered the Death Eater with his face sideways, and he was about to hit it... Harry's palms were already sweating.

But just before that moment, a huge black figure sprang up from the ground, opened its mouth wide, and swallowed the green light.The spell hit its upper jaw, and it fell with its head upside down, making a loud crash when it landed.

Harry recognized the dark figure as Nagini.It had been nearby, but was blocked by low trees, so he didn't see it.He tried to apply another spell, but Voldemort had already turned his back.He looked past the falling snake and looked straight behind the hedge where Harry was hiding.

"No, let's go, go, Harry!" Hermione noticed that many people were coming towards them, and grabbed Harry who was about to rush up.Harry was struggling, when suddenly a large drop of water landed on his glasses, and a splash of water exploded, blurring his vision.The cold rain splashed on the tip of his nose, and Harry calmed down a little.Then he found that the sound they made had caused a commotion, and countless black figures quickly apparated towards this side.

The man turned a blind eye.He bent down slowly and looked at the snake lying upright on the ground in front of him.Suddenly there was a rumbling thunder in the gloomy sky.A bright zigzagging lightning pierced through the dark clouds, and the face was white with lightning.This was the last sight Harry saw before he was Apparated in a tight tug by Hermione.

At the same time, Harry felt a long-lost pain in the scar on his forehead.Scenes were changing before his eyes... The Black Lake... Gaunt's Hut... Bellatrix's face... Hogwarts Castle... Harry was in pain, his hands and feet were twitching, and his cold sweat was pouring like rain The ground dripped down, wishing to die immediately.But he realized that he saw the most critical place - "The castle...the crown is Hogwarts!"