Hogwarts: I, Tom, am not the Dark Lord

"Mr. Riddle, no member of the Etienne family will see the sun tomorrow."

"Do it cleanly."

"Yes."

During the interrogation just now, Tom also learned that the Etienne family still has considerable influence in France, similar to Malfoy's position in the UK, or even stronger than Malfoy.

Because Etienne's family is large, there are more than ten family members from three generations.

But just one word from him was enough to bring about the destruction of this old family.

"Is this the charm of power?" Tom murmured in his heart, a hint of joy appeared in his eyes, but he soon became silent again.

"Do not."

The young man denied himself softly, "This is a right, but it is not your power."

"That is Grindelwald's right."

In the study space, the rebellious first generation Dark Lord smiled.

"Tom, from now on, this is yours."

Chapter 131: The current situation of disunity, Tom's notebook

After the only traitor was found, the magic flame protection was no longer effective.

"All curses end!"

The magic wand was pointed downwards and inserted into the ground. Golden light began to spread, suppressing the blue flames. When the golden light completely covered the entire area, the blue flames were extinguished.

"As expected of you, the master's student, you can actually cast the End of All Spells by yourself. What an exaggerated magic power..." Vogel complimented, drawing a wave of agreement.

The "All Mantras End" actually means "the mantra stops immediately", a basic ending mantra.

But with the combined efforts of several powerful wizards, the spell's power can be transformed, and even dark magic like Fiendfyre and the Killing Curse can be stopped.

Being able to cast this spell alone once again demonstrates the power of Tom's magic.

"Enough of the small talk," Tom waved his hand. "Tell me about your current situation. Are you the only ones left among the Saints?"

“Although it no longer has the grandeur of the 100,000 saints it once had, it has not declined to this extent.”

Vogel sighed and began to introduce the current situation of the Saints to Tom.

After witnessing Etienne's betrayal, Vogel's mentality also changed.

It turns out that not everyone is like them and remains loyal to Grindelwald. Perhaps it is for the sake of family or future generations, but betrayal is betrayal.

After the defeat four or five years later, under a series of punishments from the Ministries of Magic and the Wizarding Federation of various countries, the most stubborn saints were basically locked up, and the saints who had escaped by chance were all dispersed. The Ministry of Magic strictly monitored them and cut off the communication between the saints.

This situation did not improve until the 1990s, because the original group of people had basically all retired from politics.

But so many years have passed, and many of the old saints have died. Although many people in the new generation have inherited the ideas of the old generation, they only worship Grindelwald and do not submit to anyone else.

So now the saints are basically fighting on their own and are a loose group.

There are about ten families gathered on Vogel's side, mainly pure-blooded people from Germany, France, and Poland.

So it is difficult for him to answer Tom's question. He can only say that many people are still alive, but they live very frustrating lives.

"Mr. Riddle," Vogel said cautiously, "You said before that you could contact Lord Grindelwald..."

"I possess a gift that allows me to communicate with Grindelwald's prophetic vision." Tom made up an excuse. "He also saw when MacDowell ambushed Newt Scamander and asked for my help. So even if Newt doesn't let them go, I will find a chance to let him go."

McDowell and several of the ambushers at the time were immediately moved.

"Is the lord going to come out again?" Vogel said excitedly, "Let's go to Nurmengard now..."

"What nonsense!" Tom scolded. "With a bunch of old and weak people like you, you still want to rush into Nurmengard to rescue people? Do you really think Dumbledore is just a decoration?"

A basin of cold water was poured down, and Vogel and the other saints immediately calmed down, even showing a look of fear on their faces.

To be honest, Dumbledore's reputation in the Saints' Direction is no different from Voldemort's in the British wizarding world. Both are to the point of being feared.

Tom snorted.

"You've become a mess, and you're still thinking about saving people?"

"What we need to do now is to gather all our strength and recover our vitality. Don't think about those unnecessary things."

Several old men and women, who were almost 500 years old in total, were scolded respectfully, and the young descendants of the saints were even more afraid to get angry.

In particular, they noticed that Tom addressed Grindelwald with respect, but not too much, making it sound like they were on equal footing.

Seeing that they had all calmed down, Tom continued, "Where is Wenda Rosier? I need the replica wand she has."

Vogel's face turned serious, and he completely believed in the relationship between Tom and Grindelwald.

During the heyday of the Saints, Grindelwald was only responsible for the general direction and for containing Dumbledore. The scheduling of so many people was actually handled by Wenda (dabh) Rosier, the Black Rose of France.

In order to make her actions legitimate and to gain the trust of his superiors and subordinates, Grindelwald used the original Elder Wand to make an imitation Elder Wand, and also taught Wenda Rosier a special method that could outline the mark of the Deathly Hallows with Grindelwald's special aura.

To put it bluntly, this is a seal of approval, with which one can legitimately represent Grindelwald.

At that time, many people in the core of the Saints knew about the existence of this thing. This was the last trump card Grindelwald gave to Tom to prove his identity.

Vogel said respectfully, "Mr. Riddle, Ms. Rosier is currently imprisoned in the deepest part of the Bastille. However, due to the Rosier family's enormous influence in France, her current condition is quite good. Although she is imprisoned, it can only be considered house arrest."

"Oh, you're a cellmate with your dad." Tom smiled at McDouff. He didn't know how to respond to this hellish joke. The expressions of the other people were also a little strange. They wanted to laugh but didn't dare to.

Britain had Azkaban and France had the Bastille.

Although the Muggle Bastille was demolished in 1791, the magical Bastille is still in operation deeper in the old site.

The guards of the Bastille are a terrifying army of magical creatures consisting of civet cats, fire dragons, and even five-legged man-eating monsters. They are no less dangerous than Dementors, and even French wizards are terrified of them.

"Since Ms. Rozier is still incarcerated, it's not convenient for me to see her."

Tom thought for a moment and said, "You guys can handle the rest first. Whether it's getting her to work or having her hand over her wand to me, I only care about the results, not the process."

"Also, go back and carefully screen the people around you. Don't bring any spies around me. Got it?"

"Yes." Vogel nodded in shame, and a red light flashed in his eyes when he looked at Etienne who had been tortured to death.

"If you need to contact me, please send the letter to the Greengrass family in England. I'm leaving now. That's not right."

Tom finished speaking and looked at MacDowell again. "Don't bother Newt Scamander anymore. It will only make people think that the Saints can't afford to lose. You don't dare to bother Dumbledore so you only bother Newt. Is this how Grindelwald taught you to bully the weak and fear the strong?"

McDouffe's face turned red, but he couldn't utter a word for a long time.

Tom glanced at him, then Disapparated away.

Vogel and others did not stay for too long. The commotion they had just made was quite loud. It would probably not be long before people from the Ministry of Magic would arrive. It was not advisable to stay in this place for long.

Besides, we have to deal with Etienne's family, and some things need to be prepared quickly.

He had just promised Tom that he would have it all taken care of by the evening and that he couldn't be careless.

As for how to meet Rozier, neither side mentioned such a trivial matter.

If they can't even do this, then these saints are of no use.

Sure enough, less than an hour after Tom and the Saint left, a group of Aurors followed the magical fluctuations to find the quarry. After taking out several instruments to check it, their faces changed drastically.

"Someone unleashed Fiendfyre here!"

Fiery Flame is the eternal pain of the Parisian wizards. Their homes were almost burned down by Fiery Flame, and they are still experiencing stress reactions.

The Auror did not dare to delay and immediately returned to the Ministry of Magic to report.

The Ministry of Magic responded quickly and sent a large number of wizards to search for suspicious people. Under such circumstances, the Etienne family was wiped out that night!

More than a dozen tribesmen were poisoned to death. According to the inspection, there should be a problem in the process of boiling the potion, which produced the poisonous gas.

But the incident happened at such a sensitive time, and several senior officials in the Ministry of Magic knew the identity of the Etienne family, which could not help but arouse suspicion.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the French magical community became tense.

From this perspective, the French Minister of Magic is much stronger than the British Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. If Fudge were put in this position, his first thought would definitely be to cover up the incident.

Anyway, it hasn't happened yet, and what we are saying is just speculation. If there are no serious consequences, just pretend you know nothing and continue playing music and dancing!

But these have nothing to do with Tom. In the short term, he will have no contact with the saints. When he returns to England, he won't have to be as cautious as he is today when he contacts them again. Because of Dumbledore's protection, the British actually have no idea how terrible the saints are.

Back at Nicolas Flamel's estate, Tom got the address book he had been longing for and began to study it.

In the original novel, Nico communicated with Lali Hicks, who was on the other side of the ocean, through this communication book. It was one of the few long-distance and instant communication methods in the wizarding world.

However, this address book is not without its shortcomings. At first, Nico wanted to contact Dumbledore, but he couldn't find him, so he had no choice but to go to Hicks.

Tom studied it for two days and finally figured out how the address book worked.

Each page of paper is actually a picture frame. In certain situations, the contact person will enter the picture frame and become an "alternative portrait". After Nico opens the storybook, he will also appear in the other party's picture frame. In this way, it is like talking to each person through a portrait. However, if the person is not in the picture frame, then he cannot be contacted.

Tom asked Nico about the specific production techniques and found that there were still many flaws.

Not to mention the materials, Nicolas Flamel was a wealthy man and used the best things. He never considered the cost issue.

The second is the limitation. The address book in Nicolas Flamel's hand is equivalent to the main machine, and the picture frames in the hands of others are equivalent to the slave machines. Only the main machine and the slave machine can communicate in a two-way manner, and the slave machines cannot communicate with each other.

However, some of the signal conversion methods gave Tom a lot of inspiration.

After Nicolas Flamel knew Tom's idea, he also gave him some advice, which helped him gain something.

During these days at the end of August, Tom kept a fixed routine of studying for two and a half days and going out to relax with Fleur for the remaining half day. Although they could not go to far places, they had also visited many classic places in the city of Paris.

Tom also went to Diagon Alley in France - the "Hidden Square of Montmartre", which is even more prosperous than Diagon Alley, more than twice as large, with a wide variety of shops and magical items.

Only now did Tom realize that Britain was just a rural place. If it weren't for Dumbledore, it would have become a second-rate magical country.

...

Time passed quickly. Tom didn't realize how long he had been in France before it was already the end of August and school was about to start.

On his last day in France, Tom came to Delacour's house with gifts.

Fleur was not in a very good mood, and Gabrielle was equally dejected. Both of them knew that Tom was going back, and of course they were unhappy.

"It's not like we can't contact each other after we go back, it won't be that serious."

Furong retorted, "Writing letters is so troublesome. It takes two or three days to receive one. It's so inefficient."

Gabrielle nodded repeatedly: "That's right, Gabrielle still can't write many words, and always has to ask her sister for help."

"Then you should study hard." Tom nodded the little girl's head.