Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 465 Neville's Parents

Harry was visibly in a much better mood after receiving Tyrell's Christmas present.

Of course, Harry's subjective factors accounted for only a small part of this. The main reason was that Voldemort was eager to test the newly obtained Heris potion and had no time or desire to deal with Harry.

After all, even before this semester, Tyrell had used the demonic avatar she had implanted within Voldemort to gradually induce him to split into another Horcrux. However, Voldemort's soul had already split to the point where it could not be divided any further, so Tyrell had no choice but to give Voldemort a potion that could enhance his soul.

because--

Voldemort's Horcruxes are really not enough.

Voldemort's soul now has five pieces remaining—

One piece is Voldemort himself, one is inside Tyrell's belly, one is on Harry, one is on Nagini the snake, and another is in Hefpatch's golden cup.

Frankly, this amount of Horcruxes is far from enough. Besides the one inside her own stomach, Tiera needs at least three more fragments of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and—

Voldemort himself cannot be touched as a reserve food source, and Tyrell currently needs a major villain as an external threat to help Tyrell gather wizards.

And the soul inside Tiera's belly, which served as a template, could not be taken out.

That leaves Nagini, the giant serpent, but she's a living Horcrux, violent and difficult to control, and Tiera has other plans for her—

Tyella believed that no matter how loyal Nagini was to Voldemort, she would betray him if Tyella offered to help her regain her human form.

Harry, on the other hand, served as a stable channel for sending false information to Voldemort. Through Harry and the clone she had planted inside Voldemort, Tyella could make Voldemort act entirely according to her will.

As for the last one, the Hefpact Cup, it's currently the only Horcrux that Tiera can freely use, but that's far from enough—

Tierra needs at least two more Horcruxes, which means Voldemort will need to put in more effort and create two more Horcruxes.

Of course, Tyrell only used Voldemort as a tool, not to mold him into a stronger Dark Lord, so the Horcrux Tyrell potion she gave Voldemort wasn't complete—

To be precise, this is not the final Herith potion that Tiera took, but rather an experimental version of the potion recorded in Merlin's notes, which was created before Merlin successfully produced the Herith potion. It was more effective at enhancing the soul or spiritual dimension, but it could not build a spiritual wall for the drinker.

Fifth-grade Christmas passed quickly. Harry had a peaceful Christmas; he didn't have any similar nightmares or see any strange phenomena that Christmas or in the days that followed. Harry thought it was thanks to the potion Tyrell had given him, but Tyrell knew—

The main reason was that Voldemort was busy testing the effects of the potion and didn't have time to pay attention to Harry.

After all, the potion Tyrell gave Harry was an experimental version of the Hercules potion, which could only enhance mental strength and could not build a spiritual wall.

As for the difference between Harry and Voldemort, the slight increase in mental strength from a single potion is really insignificant.

On the day after Christmas, Harry, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasley family went to St. Mungo's Magical Injuries to visit the injured Mr. Weasley.

There, they happened to run into Neville and his grandmother, who were visiting their parents.

She was an old witch with a stern, almost frightening expression, wearing a green robe, a worm-eaten fox fur cloak, and a pointed hat clearly decorated with a specimen of a vulture.

Every time Harry sees this outfit, he is reminded of the Boggart in Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class in his third year.

The face that had once been Snape's, Neville's clothes—this was the only time Harry ever smiled at Snape's face. Harry suddenly realized who the patients on the two beds over there were.

He desperately tried to pull the others away from the ward before Neville noticed him, but Ron, quick-witted and sharp-tongued, called out before Harry could stop him: "Neville!"

Neville flinched, flinching as if a bullet had just grazed past him.

“It’s us, Neville!” Ron waved happily. “Long time no see! It’s so nice to see you. Who did you come to see?”

"Is he your friend, Neville, my little darling?" Neville's grandmother turned her head, put on a slightly kinder expression, and walked towards them with a friendly tone.

Neville seemed to prefer being anywhere in the world to being here; his round face flushed a purplish-red, and he avoided their gaze.

“Oh, right.” His grandmother looked Harry up and down, then extended a withered, eagle-claw-like hand for him to shake. “Yes, yes, of course I know who you are, Harry Potter, right? Neville thinks very highly of you.”

“Uh… thank you.” Harry shook hands with him, but Neville didn’t look at him, only staring at his feet, his face growing increasingly red.

“You are obviously from the Weasleys.” Mrs. Longbottom extended her hand gracefully to Ron. “Yes, I know your parents…not very well, of course…they are good people, very good people. You must be Hermione Granger, right?”

Hermione seemed surprised to hear Mrs. Longbottom know her name, but she still shook hands with her.

“Yes, Neville told me about you. You helped him through some difficult times, didn’t you… It’s a pity… It’s a pity, Tiera was so young… I’ve often heard Neville mention him before…” she said regretfully, “I hope you can find solace in this difficult time…”

After saying this, Neville's grandmother, Mrs. Longbottom, scrutinized Neville with a stern gaze, looking down his pointed nose. Then she gestured towards the two beds inside, causing the vulture on her hat to tremble menacingly. "Tiera is a Muggle-born child, but she's done better than children from other wizarding families. It's a pity our Neville didn't inherit his father's talent..."

"What?" Ron asked in surprise. Harry and Hermione, upon hearing what Ron had said, almost simultaneously reached out to cover his mouth, but—

"Is that your father over there, Neville?" But it was too late; Ron had already asked.

"What?" Old Mrs. Longbottom's face instantly turned terrifyingly serious, and she asked sharply, "Haven't you told your friends about your parents, Neville?"

Neville took a deep breath, looked up at the ceiling, and shook his head.

Harry couldn't remember ever feeling this bad for anyone, but he couldn't think of any way to help Neville out of this predicament.

“Hmph, there’s nothing shameful about it!” Mrs. Longbottom said angrily. “You should be proud, Neville, proud! They sacrificed their health and sanity, not so that their only son would be ashamed of them!”

“I don’t feel ashamed,” Neville weakly argued.

“But the way you’re behaving is very strange!” said Mrs. Longbottom. “My son and daughter-in-law have been driven mad by the mysterious man’s men.”

She turned haughtily to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and spoke.

Hermione covered her mouth, while Ron craned his neck to look at Neville's parents, his face turning pale and then flushed, as if he regretted his inappropriate words.

"They are Aurors, highly respected in the wizarding world. During the last Wizarding War, they followed Dumbledore into battle, charging at the forefront of the fight against the Dark Lord..." Mrs. Longbottom continued her rambling.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione then learned that Neville's parents had been driven insane by a Death Eater named Bellatrix Rustrange using the Crucifixion Curse.

(End of this chapter)