"My dear Cornelius Fudge, I heard that you told everyone that I was dead?"

Voldemort stepped out of the darkness, and his cold gaze cut into Fudge's body like a knife. Fudge was so frightened that he almost lost his balance and fell to the ground.

At this moment, Fudge wanted to slap himself a few times.

At the same time, the tall "Madame Maxime"'s body shape was also changing. There was no need to disguise herself at this point. Barty knew that Dumbledore and others had already known his identity. Moreover, even the Dark Lord himself had already appeared, so why should he hide it? "God, the You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters... Dumbledore..."

The distinguished Minister of Magic was like a frightened piglet at this moment, calling out Dumbledore's name in a pitiful voice.

But Voldemort didn't seem to take Dumbledore seriously:

"You should address me respectfully as Lord Dark Lord!"

His eyes swept across the entire hall, and in an instant, the place was in complete chaos. The young wizards were all scared half to death, screaming and not knowing what to do. Many of them had already crawled under the dining table in fear, as if Voldemort would not be able to see them that way.

The moment Voldemort appeared, McGonagall and the other four deans rushed to the front of the students of their own colleges, and showed a vigilant attitude towards a ferocious snake like a female leopard protecting her cubs.

Of course, Voldemort paid them no mind.

"Quiet!" Dumbledore put the Elder Wand against his neck and emitted a loud and soothing sound wave from his throat, which calmed everyone down immediately.

"You frightened the children, Tom."

Dumbledore's voice was calm, as if he was not talking to a demon king, but rather speaking kindly and gently to one of his students.

The usual Voldemort probably wouldn't have bought into this, but the current Voldemort seemed to have regained some of his schoolboy self, pretending to be polite to Dumbledore in front of so many people.

"Just call me Voldemort, Professor. You know I don't like that name very much. It's a bit too common." Voldemort looked at Cyrus and laughed. "I'm not the only one who has this idea, right, Cyrus?"

"But I don't think your new name is very good."

His few words put the focus back on Cyrus. In other words, a powerful person like Voldemort could easily attract everyone's attention no matter what he said.

Magic is both violence and public opinion! It can make people obey! But the premise is that others do not have the same power.

At this moment, in response to Voldemort's provocation, Cyrus, who was sitting in his seat, just smiled and said the most sarcastic words with the most enthusiastic attitude: "It's indeed not as perfect as your name."

Cyrus sneered, "Voldemort, stealing death, isn't that wonderful? Such a name not only shows your cowardly nature, but also vividly describes the appearance of a petty thief."

He stood up, walked across the table to Voldemort, his red-gold eyes facing Voldemort's snake-like cold eyes. He looked at Voldemort aggressively, his face full of sadness.

"Tell me, defeated general, how dare you appear before me when you are so afraid of death?"

Everyone who saw this scene was stunned.

Although they had heard that Cyrus had defeated the mysterious man, they had never seen the battle in person. At this moment, Cyrus actually used words to ridicule Voldemort in front of so many people, which made them feel absurd and scared.

Voldemort did not seem to expect Cyrus to respond in this way, and for a moment he did not know how to respond, but he was not too angry. After a few seconds, he replied: "I hope you can be as quiet as your name. You talked much more today than you did in the Department of Mysteries. Is it Dumbledore who gave you the courage?" Voldemort laughed.

He reversed his disadvantage with just one sentence, and it sounded as if he was saying that without Dumbledore around, Cyrus didn't even dare to speak.

But Cyrus was really aggressive today, which reminded Voldemort of Harry Potter, whose words were tougher than anything else. Even if that kid was about to die, he would still choke him.

Speaking of Harry, Voldemort's eyes searched the crowd inconspicuously.

Soon, he found his target at the Gryffindor table.

Harry noticed his gaze, and as if he was hesitant about something, he immediately dodged and avoided his sight.

Such a simple little action immediately made Voldemort understand. He knew that his guess was right. The ownership of the Elder Wand was indeed in the hands of Harry Potter, otherwise he would never dodge with his character.

Voldemort was almost impatient to get back what was his!

However, just as this thought came to his mind, a powerful voice came from behind him:

"You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters, put down your wands and surrender immediately!"

He turned his head and saw a dozen Aurors holding wands, surrounding him from every corner of the hall. Their wands were ready to go, all pointing at Voldemort's heart. Voldemort also knew the leader, Rufus Scrimgeour, a tough Auror.

"All the Aurors are on the way, you have nowhere to escape!" Scrimgeour had a limp in one leg, but was still tough.

only……

"escape?"

Voldemort seemed to have heard a funny joke. He tilted his head and almost laughed out loud: "It seems that I have been away for too long, so you have all forgotten how terrifying I am."

It seemed like he was about to demonstrate his magic in person at the next moment, but in fact he didn't. It was not worth it for these trash and small fry.

The ones who actually took fighting stances were the Death Eaters!

Dozens of Death Eaters gathered around Voldemort and drew their wands at the same time, as solid as a black wall! During this period of time in France, Voldemort had obviously absorbed some fresh black blood for the Death Eaters. Only a small number of these people were original Death Eaters, and most of them were French wizards.

"Don't come near, sir!" Barty Crouch Jr. warned with a sneer. He was also handsome, but unfortunately his heart was as evil as a devil.

The two sides were in a stalemate.

At this moment, Babajide, the vice president of the International Confederation of Wizards, frowned and shouted in this tense atmosphere.

"Voldemort," he walked out of the crowd, and there seemed to be considerable magical power in his old body.

He walked up to the Death Eaters with great force and looked directly into Voldemort's eyes. This move obviously angered the Death Eaters, and some of them were ready to attack, with sparks coming out of the front of their wands, but Voldemort just waved his arm lightly and the wand was silenced.

"Don't get excited, friends, remember, we should respect the elderly and love the young." Voldemort seemed to have forgotten that he was actually old.

At his signal, Babajide got the chance to speak.

The righteous old wizard immediately asked with concern: "I want to know how Ms. Maxime is doing now?"

As the vice president of the International Confederation of Wizards, Babajide was more concerned about international affairs. Now that little Barty had torn off his disguise in public, he obviously had a bad feeling.

I'm afraid that not only Maxime, but even the French magical world is in danger.

And the fact turned out to be just as he worried.

At the same time, the students from Beauxbatons were completely surrounded by fear. Who would have thought that Ms. Maxime during this period was actually someone else's fake. If the Death Eaters intended to kill them, none of them would survive.

After sending Babajid away, Barty Crouch Jr. looked at Scrimgeour again.

"How about we put down our wands, Head of Auror Office? I remember my father saying you were a kind man," he said nonsense, "Or are you planning to declare war on the French Ministry of Magic on behalf of the British wizarding community?"

Controlling the power of a country is also the capital that Voldemort dares to appear.

He knew that Dumbledore would be cautious and would prefer to solve the problem through a tournament rather than a large-scale war.

"Okay, Rufus, let the Aurors withdraw." Dumbledore waved his hand.

At this moment he looked more like the Minister of Magic. As for Fudge, he had long been unable to utter a word.

From the moment Voldemort appeared, all the lard on Fudge's body came out as if he had been put into a frying pan. At this moment, he looked like he had lost several pounds due to fear. He looked smaller and huddled in the corner.

Scrimgeour at least did not have the courage to disobey Dumbledore yet, but he simply gestured to the Aurors present to step back, but no one put away their wands.

——Even if Scrimgeour gave such an order, I believe no Auror would be stupid enough to put away his wand.

"Voldemort, since you are here, come and sit down." Dumbledore waved at him. He conjured up a chair next to his seat and invited Voldemort to sit down. He was as enthusiastic as an old principal who saw an outstanding graduate come back to visit his alma mater.

So the dinner ended with Voldemort's participation.

Dinner time is actually very short, but it seems extremely long to everyone.

Everyone felt like they were sitting on a chair covered with spikes, and every second they stayed in the auditorium was torture.

During this time, Harry kept his head down, covering the scar on his head.

At night, under the escort of McGonagall, Harry returned safely to the Gryffindor dormitory. He thought he was safe after returning to the dormitory, but no one noticed a fire ash snake that disappeared in the flames in the burning fireplace.

Ron and others sat beside him with concern.

"Are you okay?"

"The scar has been hurting since the moment he showed up," Harry said, sweating. "I bet he has some plan."

"Do you think it's aimed at you?" Hermione asked. "But that's unlikely. Cyrus and Dumbledore will be prepared. They won't let Voldemort take you away from Hogwarts."

"In fact, this is not the first or second time that I have been taken away from Hogwarts."

Harry complained, but that wasn't actually what he cared about.

It didn't really matter whether Voldemort would attack him or not, because he was supposed to fight Voldemort in the third task.

"I'm just worried that Voldemort has something else planned."

But he seemed to be worrying too much.

In fact, until the end of the semester, Harry did not encounter any danger, as if Voldemort had never been targeting him from the beginning.

"In fact, he probably doesn't care about you anymore," said Ron. "Don't be angry when I say this. After all, you are nothing compared to Cyrus."

"That's a good thing." Harry nodded with a forced smile.

The closer the game got, the heavier Harry's mood became.

Because he was getting closer and closer to death.

But what made Harry feel even more sad was that in his last summer vacation - or half of his life - Dumbledore actually wanted him to return to Privet Drive and live with the worst person in the world! "I want to live with Sirius!" Harry was angry at Cyrus and Dumbledore in the headmaster's office.

This was also the first time he felt angry with Cyrus, even more than when he thought Cyrus wanted him to die.

"No, you have to go back to Privet Drive. Remember, I told you last year that you have to stay at the Dursleys for at least a month. The spell your mother left behind will protect you." Dumbledore said without letting anyone refuse.

"The spell has worn off, he could have touched me!" Harry roared angrily.

When Voldemort was resurrected for the first time, he also used Harry's blood, and this time he broke the ancient magic. But this time, Voldemort resurrected without using his father's bones or the blood of his enemies, and he could still touch Harry.

"Privet Drive is safer, Harry," said Dumbledore earnestly.

In other words, Sirius was too dangerous.

He was not a quiet guy. During the summer vacation, Dumbledore didn't think he would stay at 12 Grimmauld Place with Harry and not go anywhere.

"I'm going to die soon, can't I enjoy the last days of my life?"

Harry's anger and sadness were not without reason.

He thought he would die, and who would want to spend the rest of his life in pain?

"But we have to be absolutely sure, Harry," said Cyrus. "Remember what we told you about the Elder Wand?"

"If you want to defeat Voldemort, you have to be the one, but the gap in magical power between you is too great. Only the Elder Wand can help you. Dumbledore and I will consume Voldemort's power in the third task, and you will give him the final blow.

"During this time, Voldemort has been watching you. His spies are everywhere. Only the Dursleys are safe."

Sellers stressed.

"Well, in that case, forget it!" Harry obviously realized that he had no ability to change Cyrus and Dumbledore's decision, so he left the headmaster's office angrily.

He accepted his fate, but still felt it was unfair.

But no one knew that after Harry left, another person walked in.

——Severus Snape.

Cyrus smiled and looked at Snape with an unprecedented sense of pride: "The plan can begin now, Severus."

(End of this chapter)