Chapter 329: Plan - Part 2
Chapter 329: Plan - Part 2
"This is the material someone gave me this morning." Dumbledore picked up a stack of papers from the desk and handed them to Liam. Liam took the documents and began flipping through them. He discovered that after Voldemort's escape yesterday, Harry had immediately released a spark of Magic. Rescue personnel quickly found him through the trace on his wand and discovered the bodies of Barty Crouch Jr. and Peter on the island.
After reuniting with Harry, the rescue team also heard about the castle and a young girl named Leanna. However, everyone believed that Harry's story about a seven or eight-year-old girl driving Voldemort away was just a hallucination.
Fortunately, Dumbledore believed Harry and was the first to arrive at the castle ruins to extinguish the flames. During the subsequent search, he found the ledger and a large amount of information Liam had left in the basement. Soon, he and several faculty members, along with Transylvania Ministry of Magic officials, searched and rescued the captives. It was at this time that Mad-Eye Moody found Liam and the others.
The materials seized from the castle had been handed over to the Transylvania Ministry of Magic, but Professor Dumbledore had obtained a copy. Among these documents were numerous pieces of evidence of vampire activities in Britain.
"I think that young girl might be a wizard who took Polyjuice Potion to transform. We just haven't figured out why such a powerful individual would choose to become a child", Dumbledore said as Liam continued to read through the files.
"Perhaps to lower others' guard", Liam replied, not about to admit that he hadn't been prepared and only had that disguise available. "After all, most people tend to let their guard down around children."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement, and Liam quickly finished reading the documents before addressing everyone in the office. "I think I have a way to raise everyone's awareness."
"What way?" Harry asked eagerly.
"It's simple. The kidnapping of the three students and the illegal activities recorded in these documents can prove that Dark Wizards and criminal behavior, which had been dormant in the British wizarding world after the war, are now resurging. In this situation, as a leader in the wizarding world, Professor Dumbledore, you need to call on everyone to unite and maintain the stability of the British wizarding world."
"Shouldn't we inform the public about his return?" Professor Mcgonagall questioned.
"No, Professor Mcgonagall", Liam shook his head. "After all, the Ministry of Magic controls the information flow. Given that the public is unwilling to believe Voldemort has returned, and the Ministry of Magic is not cooperating, forcing this information would be futile and might even backfire. So, we should take a different approach and squeeze the Dark Wizards' survival space from another angle."
"Liam's idea is feasible. Harry's report from yesterday suggests that the Elixirs Voldemort used to resurrect might have issues, causing his body to collapse. At this time, he should be focusing on fixing this problem and won't have much time to cause trouble in the wizarding world", Dumbledore explained. "If I announce Voldemort's return now, and there are no immediate attacks, I might be labeled as a liar, which would hinder efforts to unite everyone against him."
"Body collapse?" Liam and Hermione asked in unison. Dumbledore smiled and said, "Since you're here, you have the right to know. Yes, the Elixirs Voldemort used to reconstruct his body had issues, and we have you to thank for that, Liam."
"What?" Liam was puzzled. He had been there yesterday and had seen Harry and Barty Crouch Jr. wrestling, but he couldn't figure out how his potion was involved.
"Yesterday, Barty Crouch Jr. bit my face and spat my blood into the cauldron", Harry explained. Liam finally understood why the man had lifted his head yesterday. "But he bit me twice. The first bite broke the glass vial you gave me, so part of your Elixir was also spit into the cauldron."
"So, this is better than I imagined", Dumbledore continued, following Harry's words. "Severus just told us that the Elixirs used to recast the body require a very high level of precision. Due to various coincidences, the final ingredients for this Elixir were contaminated with a lot of impurities. Besides Harry's blood, which was required, there was Dragon Blood, Unicorn Blood, liquefied Sunlight, and a series of other Elixirs. Even Barty Crouch Jr.'s blood and saliva were mixed in."
Furthermore, each step of this Dark Magic ritual required very precise timing and execution. Voldemort's ritual not only took longer than it should have at the final step, but the most crucial cauldron was also damaged by a magical attack. All these factors combined resulted in Voldemort not appearing in a fully restored state after the ritual. In fact, he was in worse condition than his previous ghostly state, where he could at least avoid attacks. Now, he had to hide with a fragile body caused by multiple errors.
"To save his collapsing body, Voldemort may have to do something even more troublesome than a resurrection. Sometimes, removing impurities from the whole is even more difficult than starting over."
"We can take this opportunity to organize a team to hunt him down. We can also follow Liam's suggestion and put everyone on high alert. To remove the impurities from his body, Voldemort will need some very rare Potions and magical materials, which are not commonly available. Once we mobilize everyone, we can monitor the flow of these Potions to slow down his recovery."
No wonder Dumbledore, who had experienced two Wizarding wars, came up with the best plan right away. From the look on his face, it seemed he had been considering these strategies for a long time.
It made sense. When Liam handed over that notebook Horcrux to Dumbledore in second year, Dumbledore must have already anticipated Voldemort's return and made the necessary preparations. Now, the returning Voldemort was severely weakened, which was much better than what Dumbledore had initially expected. No wonder Dumbledore showed a hint of relief.
"Now I'm glad that I only had an argument with Fudge and didn't completely fall out with him", Dumbledore said. "So, I can now request the Ministry of Magic to help monitor the abnormal flow of magical materials."
"Are we not going to make this public?" Professor Mcgonagall asked.
"We will, but not now", Dumbledore replied. "For now, we need to keep this information hidden from the public, just like the Ministry of Magic. This will prevent a panic-driven rush to buy these materials, which could obscure what we truly need to focus on. I'm willing to make concessions to Fudge and the Ministry for these more important matters."
"How do we explain this to the students?" Professor Mcgonagall asked again. The alert from yesterday had filled the school with all sorts of rumors, and even foreign students knew someone had been kidnapped. In this situation, they needed a plausible excuse to calm everyone down.
"We'll say that two escaped prisoners from Azkaban attempted to kidnap the Triwizard Tournament Champion to negotiate with the Ministry of Magic. They also enlisted the help of foreign Vampires. However, a passing, righteous Wizard intervened and stopped them. The hostage has been rescued, and the two kidnappers committed suicide in desperation. We will also publicly thank the unnamed, righteous Wizard."
Dumbledore was quite skilled at making up stories. At least, Liam couldn't detect any holes in this explanation.
Finally, Dumbledore instructed Harry and the other two students to keep the news of Voldemort's return a secret and then dismissed them. He likely needed to work with Professor Mcgonagall to arrange the Order of the Phoenix members to prepare for the hunt for Voldemort.
(End of Chapter)
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