Chapter 568: Preparations from both sides (2 in 1)

Harry narrowed his eyes slightly; the broom room was pitch black, with only a faint light radiating from a few wands.

There were three people standing close to them - Angelina, the captain of the Quidditch team, and two others who looked familiar to Harry, and he carefully tried to recall and recognized them as the odd couple he had seen in the great hall at lunchtime. Harry couldn't figure out how they knew Angelina and why they were hiding with her between the brooms and tried to drag them in.

"Angelina, what the hell is going on? And - who are they?"

Harry asked as Hermione poked him quietly with her finger from behind him, which made him notice that there are still three or four people standing in the corner in shadow, whose faces and bodies blended amongst the wooden crates, brooms, and cleaning tools, leaving only the outline of some of their limbs showing, making them look like monsters with multiple limbs and weapons.

'Angelina' opened her mouth to explain when Ron suddenly interjected, "Beware she's not real, she might have used a polyjuice potion." Harry thought Ron had a point and his heart started to race.

Someone chuckled lightly in the darkness and Harry noticed that one of the large figures was looking down at them at some point.

"Don't be paranoid, boys." The tall student who had lowered his head stood upright and approached them, Harry gripped his wand tightly, he generally only had seen this type of body stature in the Slytherin team. If Ron hadn't just warned him that Angelina might be a fake, he would have linked it as a collusion between the captains of the two teams.

In the darkness, the silhouette of the speaker bent slightly to place something on the floor, Harry realized it is a magic lamp and the next second the room lit up.

The bright, gentle glow illuminated the tiny broom room completely.

It was then Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally got a glimpse of the room in its entirety.

Counting them, there are eight people. Three on their side ... Harry unconsciously started to consider how they could win if a fight broke out, and although at the moment it appeared that the other side showed no hostility, Harry is certain that the 'Angelina' in front of him is by no means the team captain he is familiar with.

"It's me, Tonks." 'Angelina' said, closing her eyes and assuming a thoughtful expression, as her face gradually transformed into a different appearance, with her hair turning pink.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione's mouths dropped open.

"It's really you! Then, then they-" Harry stammered.

Tonks seemed to be in a good mood as she pointed to the two people that Harry found familiar and said, "This is Frank and Alice, you've met them before at the Order of the Phoenix base, although they're in different faces now ..." and she pointed to the people in the corner "Alastor and Kingsley."

They all greeted them.

"I'm sorry, I might have scared you guys." Alice Longbottom said, "But you guys are really something." She pointed to the bruise on her wrist, then swiped her wand over the scratch, and it instantly healed.

Harry felt that the events that had happened today were unbelievable, but he had at least solved one mystery: the two people across the table during the day were the Longbottoms, and they weren't looking at him, but at Neville ... who was next to him, but more questions arose as to why they had shown up at the school in a group and disguised as students.

Hermione drew a cold breath and hissed, "You guys are following Umbridge and Avery?"

Realization dawned on both Harry and Ron.

"What a sharp girl." The huge student in a long green Slytherin robe said, and Harry caught a shadow of Professor Moody in the way he walked, the tall student lifted a parchment, with dense lines and flickering black dots in his hand.

"Marauder's Map?" Harry uttered in surprise.

"You recognize it? Ah, I remember you have a similar one, or the original version - this one's made by Felix," Moody said, his voice sounded younger and there is no fake blue eye darting around his eye sockets to make Harry feel uncomfortable, but the next second his intact, much younger eyes fixed on them with a deadly stare, "You nearly messed up the plan, little ones."

The trio immediately tensed up.

"Don't scare them, Mad-Eye." Kingsley said with a smile, he still had the same dark complexion with lots of dreadlocks tied on his head, at first glance he looked a bit like Quidditch commentator Lee Jordan. But Harry knew that he is usually bald.

Harry felt like he is attending a fancy dress party.

Kingsley said gently, "It's true that our visit to the school has something to do with Umbridge and Avery, but there are other tasks on our shoulders."

"What task is it?" Ron pressed impatiently.

Kingsley shook his head slightly.

"Involving Voldemort? Do you guys need help?" Harry offered testingly, he figured it out in context with what he had just heard in the abandoned girls' lavatory.

Kingsley stared blankly at him.

"Okay, well, there's plenty of time to catch up later - let's get down to business first." Moody said, his gaze settled on Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who subconsciously felt a gush of pressure despite the fact that he had a completely different face before their eyes, which looked considerably more well-defined than Moody's.

"Well, I saw it on the map, the ghost named Myrtle led you all to the girls' lavatory, didn't she?" He waved the Marauder's map in his hand, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded dully. Moody grunted and paced back and forth in a small circle, "It looks like you guys having a colourful school life, but you really shouldn't have disturbed them."

"But they were forcing Malfoy to make a Vow-" Hermione snapped sharply.

" Still an Unbreakable Vow!" Ron said, "That stuff literally costs life."

"Yeah, we can't just stand by and watch ..." Harry muttered.

Moody stopped pacing while everyone showed a surprised look on their faces.

"That's rather a surprise," Moody said as he glared at them, a look of disbelief still visible on his face, "Tell us what you know, and we'll try to analyse it. Granger, you speak." He called Hermione's name.

"Oh, okay, Professor Moody." Hermione was somewhat surprised.

Moody grinned wordlessly, and Harry concluded that this grin looked intimidating regardless of the face it appeared on.

"I was your professor for only six months, but I was extremely impressed with your paper. To be honest, I wish I had an assistant like you when I was working, at least I didn't have to worry about reports."

"Professor Hap probably thought the same thing." Ron muttered in a small voice.

"I helped you write a few reports too, Alastor." Tonks reminded kindly, "But you only gave me my usual score."

"Yeah." Moody said, "And I wonder why I didn't look you up afterward."

After all the jokes ended, Hermione cleared her throat and began to describe their experience. "Well -- we came back from the library, it was about eight o'clock -- and then we met 'Moaning Myrtle' halfway through, and she told us --"

Hermione finished her story.

The people in the broom room didn't speak for a moment, each in their own thoughts. This left the trio somewhat unsure of their attitudes, and Hermione asked softly, "Did that - did we do something wrong?" She thought about the 'plan' Moody had mentioned at the beginning and worried that she had inadvertently ruined it.

"No, you guys made a good choice." Kingsley reassured her, "We targeted Umbridge and Avery early on, but we also suspected there might be another mole in the school, so we've been using the map to monitor their movements for the past few days, hoping to follow their trail, as we did tonight. But we couldn't possibly crouch under their noses and figure out what they were actually talking about, let alone realize that they had gone to the extent of forcing a student to make an Unbreakable Vow ... It was you guys who saved that boy."

"Death Eaters' little brat." Moody scornfully commented.

"But also a student of the school." Kingsley stated with a nod.

"He is likely to be a Death Eater in the future, just like his father, aunt, and uncle." Moody growled in a low voice.

"You better make it clear that it's the aunt who married Lestrange," Tonks said cheerfully, "to avoid a misunderstanding."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Moody said under his breath.

Harry wanted to laugh a little, he thought about the 'Pureblood's Dilemma' that Sirius had mentioned to him, catching one means pulling a bunch of them ... but right now it is not the time to laugh, the atmosphere in the broom room was a little serious, and Frank interjected from the side, " But the boy isn't a Death Eater, at least not yet. If we try hard enough, he won't be able to inherit the 'family business' even if he wanted to."

"Let's hope so." Moody's young face wavered a bit.

"Alastor's just saying empty words, in reality, he's more righteous than any of us when it comes to this kind of thing." Kingsley reassured a somewhat dazed Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "He would have made the same choice in your position, so don't feel pressured, you've done a good job today. I heard you guys aren't exactly on good terms with Malfoy? That's even more impressive, so go back and get a good night's sleep-"

At that moment there was a knock at the door and the golden trio turned back in alarm, "Do you excepting someone?"

"It's probably Emmeline." Moody muttered, as he picked up his wand and gestured for the rest to be quiet.

The door opened and a girl with straw-coloured hair and a round face walked in, carrying a cloth bag, "There's quite a bit more food in the kitchen than I thought there would be." She said cheerfully, Harry got the feeling that he had seen that face somewhere, he guessed it might be one of the upperclassmen like 'Angelina'.

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"Huh, you guys here too? Want some?" Emmeline Vance asked, taking the food out of her bag and handing it out to the others as she did so.

"No, thanks," Harry said, and Ron and Hermione also shook their heads. "By the way," Harry turned his head to Tonks, "where's the real Angelina?"

" Of course, she's in her own dorm room now," Tonks said as she took a hard bite of the pie in her hand, "she agreed immediately when I asked her, saying that she can freely use this time to think up a game plan while I borrow her identity, you know, I'm Metamorphmagus, so it's easy for me to disguise. Everyone is relying on a Polyjuice potion to disguise, Alastor, Frank, and Alice are using normal human hair, you know, the school is so big that no one can guarantee to know everyone ... Emmeline has a relative in the school. It's usually just two of us that are hanging outside to collect information."

Harry nodded as Emmeline spun around and came back to him, holding up a bag in her hand, Ron and Hermione each holding a chocolate muffin and grinning cheekily at him.

" Kinda hungry after a night of extra work." Ron whispered.

"Have some, I asked the house-elf in the kitchen for some extra dessert." Emmeline Vance said kindly.

Harry relented to her hospitality and randomly picked up a fried jam doughnut and ate it in silence.

"Why are you back so late?" Moody asked.

Emmeline Vance sighed, "There was a club having an event in the kitchen, and they were having a great time exchanging cooking tips with the house-elves, and I had a hard time until I found a lone one and asked for his help ... It was very novel, we didn't have anything like this back in our day."

" Well, can I ask a question?" Ron asked.

The guys looked at him and Kingsley smiled, "What do you want to ask? We won't reveal anything that needs to be kept secret."

"What are they doing at the school - I mean Umbridge and Avery?"

" The question you should ask is, what the You-Know-Who want them to do, Death Eaters don't make their own decisions. Wreaking havoc, stealing things, snooping for information ... are all possibilities, but the possibility of creating havoc is low."

"Why do you say that?" Ron asked, wiping the crumbs of cake from his mouth.

The guys looked at each other and Frank Longbottom answered with careful deliberation, "Because it's not worth the effort. Based on our judgement - those two should be one of the few undercover agents that the You-Know-Who have in the Ministry of Magic; After all, we have the upper hand now and not many people are willing to surrender to the losing side. Besides, unlike the last war - with Thief's Downfall, any attempt to use bewitching magic like the Imperius Curse would no longer work. Headmaster Dumbledore also confirmed this point."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione took the moment to exchange meaningful glances with each other as they lowered their heads to eat. They probably knew what Voldemort is up to, the Horcrux ... but Harry's mind wondered why Headmaster Dumbledore hadn't destroyed it as soon as he could if he had one intact in his possession.

"Um, I'd like to ask a question too, may I?" Hermione asked.

"Alright, one question each. Then you guys should behave and go back to your beds." Kingsley said in a coaxing tone.

"How long are you all going to stay?" Hermione asked. Harry looked up and around excitedly, while mentally fighting the urge to applaud Hermione.

" It won't be too long." Tonks said with regret, "Whatever they plan to do, they have to act in the next few days. That's why Ministry decided to send us here, to keep a few more pairs of eyes on them... If they drag it any longer the Ministry of Magic will take us back."

"Okay, enough talk," Moody said interrupting her as he looked at Harry, " The final question."

Harry shoved the last bit of fried jam doughnut into his mouth and asked, politely, "Professor Moody, did you see Professor Snape on the map? What's he doing? And Sirius?" He added Sirius for the sake of it.

"Snape's name isn't on it, Felix mentioned that his name was erased when he gave me the map." Moody said calmly as if he didn't catch the undertone of targeting in Harry's question. " As for Sirius, he was a little pissed off that we didn't tell him first, and now-" he lowered his head and stared at the Marauder's map, "he's going back and forth in his office, probably thinking things over. "

He claps his hands to end today's conversation.

"Boys, I have to thank you for your noble behaviour today, but you need to hurry back because the lights will be turned off pretty soon outside. Keep it a secret, you know quite a lot of the inner story because we see you as one of our own," he continued with a wave of his hand when he saw Harry trying to respond, " Not as juniors, but as future companions and comrades in arms, I've heard about the club you've been running for the past two days, the Frontline Lookout club... . And that's pretty impressive."

"Remember, there's no such thing as a shortage of dark wizards to catch, and there will be plenty of opportunities for you to flex your muscles in the future. But that's not now."

Harry looked a little disappointed and mumbled, "So we don't have to do anything?"

The question made Moody hesitate for a moment. He looked at Ron and Hermione, who also looked expectant, and said, "If there's a ruckus in the school in the next two days, you guys can help to maintain the order. But it's likely you'll not feel anything as it passes."

" Provided it's not a threat to your own safety." Kingsley added.

"Okay." Harry said. And then the three of them walked out of the broom room.

Hundreds of kilometres away, Voldemort walked down a long, eerily dim underground passage, with green torches on either side, and he was followed by Bellatrix Lestrange.

" My lord, will they make it?" Bellatrix asked in a low voice.

"Whether they succeed or not is irrelevant." Voldemort said coldly, so much time had passed that he had completely calmed down, but his desire for his Horcruxes had been growing with each passing day.

Especially after his attempts to make a new Horcrux had failed.

After the Battle of Hogsmeade, Voldemort realized that old man Dumbledore knew the secret of the Horcruxes. Although he was shocked, he was not overly frightened. He calmed down and figured out that Dumbledore was cursed and would die sooner or later after a few years. At that time only Felix Hap could stand against him, and he firmly believed after a period of time he would not lose. When it comes to the critical point of the fight, it would not be impossible to trade one life for another; after all, he still had a Horcrux with him and could continue to make Horcruxes.

But when he intended to use the death of Headmaster Ilvermorny to create a new Horcrux, a violent tremor ran through his soul, as if he was going to disappear in the next instant.

Voldemort realized the possibility that he would no longer be able to split his soul.

Not being able to split his soul meant that he would not be able to make a new Horcrux, and it also implied that every single Horcrux that still remained would be incredibly valuable.

Every extra Horcrux in existence counted as more than one life.

Severus brought back mixed news - he failed to retrieve the remains of the locket from Black's old mansion, but the house-elf did survive, suggesting that the servant he had thought loyal had truly betrayed him and dealt him a fatal blow.

But combined with the information that Regulus Black was dead, he could probably guess that Regulus had not had time to destroy the Horcrux, since he had exchanged his own life for that of the house-elf.

He had enough confidence in the curse trap he had arranged.

"That was idiotic." He said through clenched teeth.

"Master?" Bellatrix looked at him in confusion.

Voldemort ignored her and continued walking down the eerily deep corridor, heading deeper and deeper into the ground, with a faint rustling coming from the other end.

House-elves do have some tricks up their sleeves, and he had failed to consider those ... tricks, but house-elves are too weak and incapable of destroying a Horcrux. If Severus failed to retrieve the locket from the old mansion, it probably means it had ended up in the hands of old man Dumbledore.

The fate of two complete Horcruxes remained unknown ... Voldemort clenched his fists furiously, as a dangerous red glint flashed in his eyes.

Just as Dumbledore knew Voldemort, Voldemort also thought he saw through Dumbledore, and he knew one thing: whether or not the two Horcruxes survived to this day, they would all be destroyed before Dumbledore dies ...

Voldemort took a deep breath, "Bella." He said softly and Bellatrix looked up at him respectfully.

"Gather all the forces."

"But-"

Voldemort glanced at her coldly, and she immediately stopped talking.

As far as Voldemort is concerned, he would not be distressed even if all his servants died, provided their deaths are worthwhile. And in his mind, if they could slightly stumble his opponents and buy a little time for his plan, they would be considered to have died for a good cause.

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