A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 569 An Irresistible Reward

A suffocating sense of oppression permeated Malfoy Manor.

Today's Daily Prophet was spread out on the long table, and the front page featured a shocking photo of Charles being tortured in a hanging cage.

All the Death Eaters present held their breath, their eyes involuntarily glancing cautiously towards the head seat at the end of the long table.

Voldemort looked at the photo in the newspaper, his scarlet pupils slightly contracting.

The air in the entire hall seemed to freeze, and the temperature plummeted.

The Death Eaters felt a chill run down their spines and lowered their heads, unable to look directly at each other.

Bellatrix Lestrange stared at her master with a fanatical gaze, her eyes filled with twisted adoration and righteous rage.

Voldemort didn't speak, but stared silently at the photograph, his fingers tapping lightly on the smooth tabletop, producing a faint yet unsettling "tap...tap..." sound.

This silence was more terrifying than any roar. The Death Eaters were seething with turmoil.

They recalled a rumor—Charles Smith was very likely the son of the Dark Lord!

Under this premise, it makes sense that Karkaroff was secretly sent to protect Charles and that the Dark Lord is now burning with rage.

This thought instantly soaked the Death Eaters' backs in cold sweat.

If that's the case, then the Dark Lord's successor being imprisoned and tortured by fairies... that's the ultimate insult to the Dark Lord!
He could almost foresee the terrifying retribution the fairies were about to face from the Dark Lord!
Rodolphus Lestrange stared intently at one of the last two photographs on the next page: a warehouse, with a golden cup half-hidden in the shadows in the corner, bearing a blurred but distinctive raven emblem…

He would never admit his mistake. The tiny scratches on the edge of the golden cup were from when he dropped it on the ground as a child. He thought he would be punished by his father, but his father said that he would fix it himself when he grew up and learned the magic of repair.

Although he was too busy with his master's business to repair the golden cup, this incident, along with other memories related to his father, remained deeply etched in his heart.

Voldemort stared at the same photograph in silence, deep in thought.

When he was searching for the Hufflepuff Cup, he mistakenly thought that the Lestrange Cup was the one he was looking for. He later found out that it wasn't, but he still remembered it.

Later, he handed over the Hufflepuff Cup to Bellatrix, partly out of loyalty, but also because the cup could serve as cover.

Now it seems that the goblins' goal might be the Hufflepuff Cup, which should be in their hands now.

If that's the case, how can we find it from the fairy's hands?

He couldn't help but think of Charles, who had broken into Gringotts vaults, and realized he would probably have to ask him for help.

“Master!” Rodolphs said in a deep voice, trembling with excitement and anger, “Look, that golden cup is from our vault, a treasure of the Lestrange family!”

"Those filthy demons, they actually stole from their own posts!"

He then said to Malfoy, "Lucius, I'm sorry, I wronged you before."

Previously, because Bellatrix insisted that Lucius had asked about the Lestrange family's vault in Azkaban, the couple believed that Lucius had emptied the vault, which caused the relationship between the two families to plummet, and they even gave Draco a severe beating.

Now I understand, this was a fairy's conspiracy.

Lucius's face was even more grim than his. Another photo, though blurry, showed unique shapes that perfectly matched the treasures they remembered being kept in the manor's secret vault, stolen by unknown individuals last Christmas.

In particular, there is a cage at the bottom of the photo, which does not contain Charles, but a white peacock whose beautiful tail feathers have been completely plucked!

Fairies! They were those wicked fairies!
Lucius said to Rodolphus, "No need to apologize, my friend."

"Now we all know who the real murderer is."

He stood up, waved his wand in a complex pattern, and then raised it diagonally upwards.

Rodolphus also rose, his wand flashing the same pattern, the two wands crossing each other in the air above the long table.

The clash of wands emitted a blinding light, and an ancient spell was cast, establishing a pact between two families for a common enemy.

At the same time, Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Draco's wands lit up.

In the Potions classroom at Hogwarts, Draco was raising his wand to cast a spell on a potion in the cauldron when, without warning, the wand burst into a bright light. He had made a mistake; the cauldron had leaked, the potion spilled onto the floor, and a plume of smoke rose.

Harry was in a bad mood today, but seeing Malfoy's misfortune brought a rare smile to his face.

He turned to Ron and said, "Heh heh, Malfoy's going to get points deducted this time!"

He noticed that Ron didn't respond, his expression as serious as any Slytherin student's, as were Neville and Lavender's. "What's wrong?" Harry asked, puzzled. "What happened?"

Lavender covered his mouth and said, "The Malfoy family and other families have formed an alliance for a common enemy!"

Ron said in a deep voice, "The war is about to begin."

The Slytherin students were already whispering amongst themselves, buzzing like bees in a hive, and many were linking the incident to the Daily Prophet's report this morning.

Snape was taken aback by the situation, but he didn't say anything. He silently led Malfoy to the headmaster's office and waited for Dumbledore to return.

When the Slytherin students saw that the Headmaster had left, they all took out their communication notebooks and reported the situation to their families.

"Beep beep..."

Voldemort's communication notebook rang, and the Death Eaters fell silent.

Late at night, along the Thames, a cold wind carrying moisture blew across the riverbank.

Jack, wearing a gray-black trench coat, stood on the path along the riverbank, the river flowing eastward in front of him.

Voldemort emerged from the darkness, wearing a large, tattered black sack and the hat Jack had given him.

Jack's lips curled slightly upward when he saw the hat, but then his lips fell downward when he saw the hat's tattered, sack-like clothes.

"Looks like the hat suits you quite well, but the clothes aren't so great." He said, taking off his trench coat and handing it to him. "You're a leader, so don't dress casually. This trench coat was bought for me by Charles. You'll definitely look much more presentable in it."

The Death Eaters, including Lestrange, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were lurking in the shadows, watched as the Dark Lord casually took the trench coat from the Muggle and put it on, which indeed changed his appearance considerably.

None of the Death Eaters present paid any attention.

Firstly, Jack was in charge of cooking when he was "captured" at Malfoy Manor, and his cooking skills were much better than the Malfoys'. Everyone misses him now.

Secondly, Jack has a pleasant voice that makes people feel comfortable. Even the Dark Lord likes to chat with him during afternoon tea time, and they even added each other as friends on their communication laptops. No one was too surprised by their relationship.

Thirdly, the trench coat was bought by Charles, so it's only natural for the Dark Lord to wear it.

Today, as soon as the Dark Lord received the message that Jack wanted to talk to him about Charles, he risked everything to come over, confirming Charles's identity in the Death Eaters' minds.

Voldemort put on the trench coat and felt an unprecedented warmth once again behind the hood.

But Jack's voice was colder than liquid nitrogen: "I want you to rescue Charles from the goblins."

He pointed to the right pocket of Voldemort's trench coat and said, "I asked Mr. Grindelwald for help. He used a spell to control a goblin, and that goblin found Charles in the Gringotts dungeons. The map is in the pocket."

"The fairies are interrogating Charles about the magic he used to sneak into the vault. They have no intention of releasing him and will only keep giving him excuses, even using a fake, unconscious Charles to fool them."

"Dumbledore only knows how to follow the rules, so I have no choice but to ask you for help."

“If you rescue Charles, I will pay you a reward that you will definitely not be able to refuse.”

Voldemort knew that Jack knew Grindelwald and that they had drunk together in Azkaban, so he did not doubt Grindelwald's claim that he controlled the goblins to find Charles and gather information. Logically speaking, Grindelwald had already done enough.

Now he needed Charles to go to Gringotts to retrieve Hufflepuff's golden cup, and being curious about what Jack meant by reward, he asked, "What reward?"

Jack said, "I heard from Grindelwald that you need that man's blood. Charles has prepared it using Muggle methods, and I can give you the blood."

A small group of core Death Eaters knew that the Dark Lord had been planning to kidnap Harry Potter to extract his blood, and sent a special undercover agent to investigate, who has not been exposed so far.

Unexpectedly, the Dark Lord was so resourceful and made several preparations that he secretly arranged for Charles's arrest, and he succeeded.

As for why Charles didn't give it to the Dark Lord immediately, any Death Eater with children knows that children sometimes try to curry favor by bringing gifts.

Voldemort had no doubt that Charles would prepare Harry's blood.

First, Charles knew what that magic required.

Secondly, he is not a good person. What decent person would be on friendly terms with a Dementor or be close friends with Grindelwald?

Third, Charles is a businessman. He could probably get his hands on Harry's blood, or even Dumbledore's. He's just keeping the blood for future transactions.

So Voldemort said without hesitation, "Deal."

(End of this chapter)