In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 434: Plan (2 in 1)

Voldemort looked indifferently at the fallen corpse before him and slowly withdrew his wand.

The high-ranking purebloods all stood trembling on either side, peeking at the corpse in the middle that had lost all its breath and its temperature had begun to turn cold, and some of them had suppressed panic running across their faces.

"I don't care what kind of agreement I had with you before, and what kind of benefits I divided up."

Voldemort's voice was not loud, but it reached the ears of every person present.

"From now on, the only thing I want is obedience! Unreserved obedience! I have brought you to a lofty position, then you must be prepared to offer me everything at any time, no matter what it is, your wealth or your life, it will all be part of the deal. Now is there anyone else who does not understand?"

There was silence in the large hall, and no one made a single sound, as if everyone had become mute.

Voldemort seemed satisfied with the reaction of his men, he did not demand absolute loyalty from all of them, because very often when one is strong enough, then one can forcibly command the loyalty of all.

Just as the meeting was about to end, a Death Eater suddenly hurried from outside and whispered something to Voldemort.

Only a few people had the guts to look at Voldemort's face now at this time, and those people could obviously notice that Voldemort's face turned a little strange after he heard the news.

Yes, very strange.

After that, he didn't bother to say anything to this Death Eater right away but turned his head to the man who had replaced Lucius, the newly appointed head of the Auror office - Igor Karkaroff.

That's right, not only had he not been reprimanded in any way after he had fled back from France after abandoning Beauxbatons, but he had been given an important responsibility by Voldemort to take over the position held by Lucius after his dismissal, in charge of basic policing throughout Britain.

"What about the things I asked you to look into?"

Karkaroff bowed his head, not daring to look Voldemort in the eye.

"I looked into the name Prince, as you had instructed, and found that a wizard in a particularly high position within the Ministry of Magic did previously hold a position within the Department of Mysteries and that you had given him permission to enter and leave any room within the Department of Mysteries. We then discovered that he once had a special room within the Department of Mysteries that was used for making potions, and we traced some of the remnants of the materials and things in that room to a shop in Knockturn Alley, and we just sent someone there today, and I was going to wait until the results from Knockturn Alley were known before I reported them to you."

Voldemort, however, sneered.

"Report back? What else is there to report? The so-called Prince is Snape."

His comment left everyone in the room puzzled, and it was not clear what Snape could do even if he had used the alias of Prince.

But Voldemort didn't look like he wanted to explain it to them, he just talked about something else.

"Just this morning, in Snape's home in Cokeworth, Selwyn and Travers died, one from the Killing Curse and the other from a lethal weapon made using Transfiguration, and in the very house where Snape used to live, signs were found that the Floo network had been privately connected and used that day. They traced the network to a potion shop in Knockturn Alley, the owner of which had been memory tampered with this morning, concealing the memory of a wizard named Prince who had been in contact with him and had suddenly appeared to withdraw a sum of money from him, and had used the fireplace in his shop to leave, after which a mother and son claiming to be Nott broke into his shop and extracted all his memories of this Prince."

After hearing Voldemort's statement, an older, genuine Death Eater with the family name Nott looked up in a panic.

"My lord! This is certainly not someone from my family!"

"Do you think I'm stupid, or are you too clever?" Voldemort looked at him with gloomy eyes, "I would not even be aware that this was just a false identity?"

"No, no, my lord, I"

"If you think you are that clever, can you tell me why I should bother talking more about this?"

Nott stammered, his head and back covered in cold sweat, ever since the Triwizard Tournament their lord's temper had started to become more and more volatile, and he had started to kill more freely, so it wasn't because he couldn't guess, but his mind was running wild, would he die if he answered the question, or would he die if he didn't?

"Snape got away from Dumbledore!" Voldemort looked at him coldly, looking like he had had enough killing for the day and was not prepared to carry on looking for someone to kill, "Dumbledore's men are after him and have located his home and met up with Selwyn and Travers!"

Even though many had guessed this possibility before Voldemort spoke, it still came as a shock to many when Voldemort said it himself!

Was it really possible that a captive of Snape's calibre could have escaped?

Was it possible that Dumbledore was plotting something?

Or had Snape been controlled or even surrendered?

After all, everyone knew that this outwardly aloof guy was actually a dog licker (simp), and if Lily could really put aside her former hatred to be with him, it was absolutely possible that Snape would surrender.

As for the reason why Snape didn't contact the Death Eaters and return to Voldemort immediately after he escaped back to Britain, no one asked.

For everyone knew how he had been captured by Dumbledore in the first place.

After a long moment of silence on the scene, Voldemort suddenly said.

"Find him! Everyone go and find him for me! I don't care what method you use, you must bring Snape back alive! Remember, bring him back alive!"

Together, the Death Eaters knelt around his feet and answered in the affirmative.

Voldemort's gaze then turned to the Nott who was also on his knees as well.

"That person who went after him into Britain is nine times out of ten that filthy woman, I remember she has a sister and her family still staying in Britain, you take a few men and go and get her sister and her family."

Nott raised his head tremblingly.

"Lord, Lord, what do we do if, what do we do if we run into Lily Potter again now?"

Voldemort was silent.

Since no one but Nott looked up to see his face at this time, no one but Nott noticed the real thoughtful expression crossing his face at this point in time.

After a few seconds, he spoke again in a faint voice.

"What you did before, you will do it again now, and bring her back alive too!"

The moment he said this, it brought bitterness to the faces of many Death Eaters around him.

Over the years, Lily had acted recklessly in every siege against the Order of the Phoenix just because of the special treatment she had received from the Death Eaters, causing significant casualties to the Death Eaters.

And now just when they thought that Snape was gone, and they could finally be relieved from such a constriction, they actually still couldn't do anything to the woman at all.

Soon Voldemort was out of the room, and the Death Eaters were finally able to take a breather from their lord's recently growing oppression and get up off the ground.

Some glanced pityingly at the corpse lying on the ground, just before this meeting had begun, they were all still fellow comrades.

The vast majority of them then used Apparition to leave, not daring to delay the orders Voldemort had given them, while others dawdled, watching the others around them as they gathered in the direction of Barty Jr.

These were all people who were not on the list of the Sacred Twenty-Eight but were still standing here, which meant that they were the new purebloods who had benefited from the bloodline reform over a decade ago.

"Crouch, have you considered the matter?"

Someone spoke up and asked Barty Jr. and the new school purebloods around them all looked up at the male wizard who had maintained his position even after the failure in the Triwizard Tournament when Snape had been abandoned and Lucius had been discharged.

Barty Jr.'s face was calm.

"Consider it? Why should I bother to consider anything about this?"

The purebloods around him froze, they had thought that this was something that Barty Jr. would basically not refuse, as a number of them had seen the change in his face in front of Hogwarts castle back then.

And now that Voldemort had changed so much, the little moves and preparations they had made in private afterwards had allowed them to "anticipate" some of Barty's thoughts.

But now, the result was the opposite of what they had thought.

"Why? Do you really think that the current lord is the same as the previous one?" Someone lowered his voice and said, "What do we gain by working for this madman? A killing curse that will appear out of nowhere? We need to find our true lord! Only he can lead us, and only he can bring the purebloods forward!"

Yet Barty Jr. remained unmoved as he simply looked faintly at the man who had spoken.

"I will not tell the lord what you have said today, but you should know very well exactly what you are talking about. If you want to go and find whatever true lord you are talking about, then do it yourselves and don't drag me along, my loyalty will not be given to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about."

With those words he disappeared from the crowd, leaving behind the new school purebloods to stare at each other in disbelief.

***

"You're a student?" Petunia's real surprise at Jon's words was this, "Doesn't Hogwarts only accept students who are at least eleven years old for admission?"

Jon couldn't help but ruffle his blonde hair at the question.

"How can you assume my age based on looks alone? To introduce myself, my name is Jon Green, a fourth-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 15 years old now, but you can count it as 16 years old."

With this comment not only Petunia but even Vernon, who was sitting in the back calming Dudley, couldn't help but stare with those small eyes.

Petunia even looked at Jon from top to bottom.

"Excuse me, is there something special about you? Or have you always been like this since you were a kid."

"It's magic that turned me this way temporarily, I'll be back to my old self in a month or two at the most."

Not wanting to dwell too much on the subject, Jon changed the subject and said.

"After I drop you off in France, you'll probably have to wait a little longer to see Professor Potter, who won't be able to return until she's done with her latest task."

Petunia was silent for a moment before she suddenly said.

"She's looking for Snape isn't she?"

There was nothing to hide since Petunia had agreed to follow him, Jon was sure not to let them fall back into the hands of the Death Eaters.

"Yes, that's why the Professor is back in Britain, otherwise she would be in France right now clearing out the scum." Jon said as he took a sip of the tea.

The new Ministry of Magic that Iniesta had formed promoted equality for all, but the wounds suffered by the muggle wizards during Voldemort's reign in France had to be paid for by someone, and at an internal meeting of the Witching Horizon, at Jon's suggestion, the extent to which these people would have to atone for this would have to be decided in a public trial (show trial).

Even the former students of Hogwarts Castle who had been brought to Lyons had a small public trial within the school, the vast majority of whom were certainly not guilty, but would still be punished to varying degrees for all the crimes they had previously committed.

As the initiator, Jon was actually quite interested in this public trial, but unfortunately, he couldn't attend it now.

The conversation with Petunia didn't last long before the Dursleys started packing up their home. As for Vernon's job, Jon assured him that someone would help him with the end of his hand later on, even if he came back from France to rejoin afterwards.

As for their lives once they were in France, of course, Witching Horizon would take care of that.

And so Jon waited at Dursleys until the sun was setting, just as he was looking out at the clear yellow sky, the little bit of sun that remained was about to set completely, and thinking that the whole day had been a waste of time.

An owl suddenly streaked across the sky and then landed in front of the Dursleys' window, carrying a letter in its talons.

Jon's spirits lifted as he pulled open the window and took the parchment from the owl's talons, and with a mere scan, he finished reading the letter, which had neither an addressee nor a sender.

Then his eyes narrowed, and he turned his head to look at the Dursleys.

"Is everything packed?"

Petunia nodded with a nervous look on her face.

"Then hurry up, we're leaving now!"

And the very next moment Jon said those words, a different kind of spell suddenly enveloped the part of the compound where the Dursleys now reside!

Muggle-Repelling Charm!

And then the door to the living room shattered with a bang!

Three figures in black robes and iron masks appeared outside the door!

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