The Butcher of Hogsmeade

In war, there are two things that generally do not act alone: ​​one is the supreme commander and his command post, and the other is the most powerful fighting force.

What do you do when a commander leaves his post to act alone, and his subordinates encounter situations requiring your approval but can't find you? What do you do when you easily send out your strongest troops to deal with scattered soldiers, but then encounter the enemy's main force in other directions?

Coincidentally, Voldemort was both the "Supreme Commander" of the Death Eaters and their most powerful individual. In other words, any target that Voldemort would personally deal with and act on alone must be worth the price.

Shen Hou had been pondering just one thing: was he worth that much in Voldemort's eyes?

"When Voldemort saw me just now, he wasn't in a hurry to kill me. Instead, he talked about time travelers. But when the Portkey broke and Fawkes rushed out to save us, I saw through the firelight that he used the Killing Curse without hesitation, only to have it blocked by Fawkes. The whole process felt to me like... how should I put it, completely capricious? If Gideon, Fabian, and I were like three mice, then Voldemort was the cat toying with them."

"A cat playing with a mouse? That's exactly what Voldemort would do. He's always been arrogant and conceited, regarding the vast majority of people as mediocre trash." Dumbledore seemed to be lost in memories as well. "He used to be able to hide these emotions very well, disguising himself as another polite and elegant person; but the more time passed, the more his true nature was exposed."

"So, based on your understanding of him, is he always like this in the face of everything? Even with extremely important people and matters, he'll joke around before dealing with them, without caring about priorities?"

"Of course not! When necessary, he can be extremely decisive and swift," Dumbledore said. "I understand what you mean. You mean Voldemort doesn't seem to value you that much, and it doesn't seem like he made this trip specifically to deal with you?"

"I can't say for sure. We all think Voldemort is mentally unstable; who knows what he's thinking? He didn't take me seriously before; when the underground gambling rings opened, he only had his Death Eaters hunt me down. Do you think he'll suddenly change his mind?"

Dumbledore understood. What seemed like a casual question, "Do you think it's possible?", was actually a question of "Does your spy have any information on this?"

So the old wizard shook his head: "I don't think it should be in the short term."

Shen Hou nodded: "Then my intuition might be right. Throughout the entire encounter with him, Voldemort's attitude towards me was basically that he would talk if he could, and kill me if he couldn't. How should I put it... it doesn't seem like he would make a special trip to Somerset for me. It's more like he just happened to meet someone or something interesting on his way out and stopped to take a look."

"That's just your guess, pure subjective conjecture," Fabian interjected, expressing his skepticism.

Shen Hou wasn't annoyed. Instead, he nodded and began counting on his fingers: "Then let's stick to the facts and break down Voldemort's actions one by one. In the first scenario, if he knows we're bait and guesses it's a trap set by the Ministry of Magic, what would he do to launch the strongest counterattack?"

"Kill us?" Fabian said.

"Is it really that simple? Just eat a few baits and that's it? Given Voldemort's usual methods, shouldn't he have tried to dismantle the entire trap? Dig out all the people the Ministry of Magic sent, kill them one by one, and ideally, throw their corpses at the Ministry's entrance with a Dark Mark—that's their style, isn't it?"

Dumbledore and Gideon nodded silently, acknowledging Shen Hou's assessment.

"In other words, he wasn't there today because he saw through the trap," Fabian added.

"Then what about the second scenario?" Shen Hou held up a second finger. "Voldemort didn't realize this was a Ministry of Magic trap, and the Ministry's lies did indeed contain some truths—the Infernal army really is hidden on the coast of Somerset. What will he do? Will he personally go there, or will he give orders to his loyal Death Eaters to move the Infernals, leaving the job to his subordinates?"

Dumbledore smiled and said, "As far as I know, Tom is not a man who does everything himself or is considerate of his subordinates; and the Death Eaters are not his subordinates, but his servants, and servants are meant to do dirty work like moving corpses."

"But he didn't bring a single dirty worker with him, which at least shows that he didn't go to Somerset because of the Infernals." Gideon tried to keep up with Dumbledore and Shen Hou's train of thought.

"Even if we consider a coincidence with an extremely slim probability: Voldemort did indeed take a group of Death Eaters to some secret location, and after he had dealt with the matter, he sent the others back while he himself strolled along the beach and happened to run into us, and on a whim, he chased after us from the sky..." Shen Hou's so-called "coincidences" made Fabian's face turn pale.

"A dark wizard who wanders around aimlessly? That's probably the most terrifying joke the wizarding world has heard this year."

"I told you, the possibility is extremely slim, it's purely hypothetical." Shen Hou waved his hand dismissively. "Even if this coincidence were true, it would mean that Voldemort's hidden secrets are far more complex than just a bunch of Infernals, otherwise there's no way to explain why he would personally come to the scene."

"So you believe that the Mystic did indeed hide a secret on the Somerset coast, and that it was far more important than the army of the Infernals, so much so that he rushed over to verify the situation as soon as he heard the false information from the Ministry of Magic?" Fabian suddenly realized what was going on.

Gideon added in a deep voice, "If so, it's highly likely that it's a secret that a mysterious figure doesn't want to handle through the Death Eaters, or even that he doesn't want the Death Eaters to know. Is it possible that he's already moved the secret? Or perhaps he did so after today's encounter? After all, he certainly didn't expect to run into Professor Dumbledore beforehand."

"Perhaps that's why he kept mentioning time travelers to Professor Dumbledore; he wanted to shift the focus to me and make everyone think he was specifically targeting me."

Shen Hou seemed to be deep in thought;

"At first, he didn't expect Professor Dumbledore to arrive in time to save people, so when he first saw me, he didn't show any particular respect for time travelers; he probably thought he could just chat for a few minutes and then kill me to cover it up! As long as I died, there would be no witnesses at the scene, and everyone would naturally be more likely to believe that he made a special trip just to kill me."

Fabian said excitedly, "If you guessed correctly, then we should intensify our search of the Somerset coast and find the secret before the mysterious man moves it."

"No, I think the most urgent thing right now isn't to intensify the search, but to stop it immediately." Shen Hou paused, as if he had thought of something interesting, a strange smile appearing on his face. "I think I was genuinely frightened by today's unexpected encounter. I request to withdraw from the search operation, and I hope the Ministry of Magic can understand the difficulties faced by its lower-level staff and temporarily suspend this dangerous, highly vulnerable squad search mode. What do you think, Professor?"