Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

"Oh—of course not," Dumbledore shook his head. "I had no idea what the Dark Mark was until I saw it with my own eyes..."

Snape curled up a satisfied smile and turned back to give Lycos a mocking look.

However, before Snape could feel proud for long, Dumbledore continued:

"But when I saw Bertha Jorkins and Rita Skeeter appear in Hogsmeade one after another, I understood what Lycos was planning... I don't know how he discovered it, but it's undoubtedly a brilliant plan."

Lecos noticed that Dumbledore looked at him with deep eyes, which seemed to have some deep meaning.

"What kind of riddle are you talking about?!" Snape asked impatiently, "I think I need an explanation. Hayden's act of casting the Dark Mark without authorization has clearly exposed himself to the public. His purpose is even just to cover up a suspicious waste!"

"You misunderstood Lycos, Severus." Dumbledore chuckled softly and stood up calmly. "Lycos's actions yesterday were not just to cover Sirius's retreat..."

"I thought maybe you could take a look at this newspaper first."

He picked up a newspaper from the table and handed it to Snape.

When Lycos saw the headline in the newspaper, he froze in his tracks - he had seen this newspaper before, it was the tabloid that Draco brought with him for breakfast!

……

Chapter 233 What are your other purposes?

"That's ridiculous! When did you start believing in these tabloids?"

Snape glanced at the newspaper casually and couldn't help but sneer.

"I'm not interested in these ridiculous little things. I came here to ask you, is there really a need for an undercover agent like Lecos Hayden, who disregards the overall situation and could be exposed at any time?"

"Let's not talk about this for now, Severus. Some things cannot be judged by appearances alone." Dumbledore shook his head and chuckled. "Take a look at this newspaper first—"

"Although Rita Skeeter's wording is not very... well, rigorous. But some of the content can still be used as a reference."

He walked out from behind the desk and stood in front of Snape and Lycos.

"On the day of the incident, I happened to go to Crouch Manor with Fudge and others and witnessed the entire incident—"

"You're not trying to say... that what Rita Skeeter said is true?" Snape's eyebrows suddenly frowned.

"That's not the case." Dumbledore sighed softly, "But Barty Crouch Jr. is indeed still alive. Didn't many people ask Barty Sr. why there was no funeral when Mrs. Crouch died?"

Snape was stunned for a moment, and then his pupils suddenly shrank.

"Mrs. Crouch had been seriously ill for a long time. In order to prevent her son from spending the rest of his life in Azkaban, she drank the Polyjuice Potion and asked old Barty to use her body to replace her son."

Dumbledore said quietly.

"He was locked up at home by old Barty and controlled by the Imperius Curse for more than ten years. It was only yesterday afternoon that Ms. Jorkins accidentally discovered the curse..."

"That's not right." Snape suddenly said coldly, "If Bertha Jorkins discovered it yesterday at noon, then how could Lecus Hayden cast the Dark Mark in the morning?"

He turned to look at Lycos, his black eyes particularly deep.

"I don't believe there would be such a coincidence that he could find a suitable person to blame." He seemed to be talking to Dumbledore, but his eyes were fixed on Lycos for a long time.

"Unless... he already knew Barty Crouch Jr. was there!"

Lycos glanced at Snape indifferently, but did not intend to refute at all.

"So what?" He curled his lips and asked casually, "Of course I have my own information channels..."

"Professor Snape, you are no longer the Dark Lord's confidant. As a former undercover agent, the information you can obtain is extremely limited. I am now the Dark Lord's most trusted person, so naturally I can know more secrets."

"Then you shouldn't have acted on your own," Snape said with a rather grim expression, "You should at least consult with us before you act..."

"Who should I consult?" Lycos interrupted his headmaster rudely. "Dumbledore was not in school at the time. Should I find you during class and tell you that I want to help Sirius?"

Snape's expression became even uglier.

He couldn't argue.

Snape and Sirius had an old grudge, and anyone could find out with a little inquiry. If he knew that Lycos was going to take the risk to rescue Sirius, he would be the first to disagree!

Besides, Snape had just been mocking Lycos for skipping classes for quite some time, and now he was asking Lycos to discuss the matter with him during class time. It was indeed a bit ironic...

"So, Professor Snape..." Lycos's expression suddenly changed, and he seemed much more sincere. "Please don't treat me like a student, okay?"

"Like you, I'm a double undercover agent for Dumbledore and the Dark Lord. The pressure I'm under is no less than yours... Besides, I have my own plans, and sometimes it's not convenient for me to explain everything to you in detail."

"I just thought about it, and I think it's better for you and me to reach a tacit understanding - as the head of Slytherin, you don't ask me what I'm doing or where I've been; and as the Dark Lord's most trusted confidant, I will also cover for you as much as possible..."

“The best of both worlds, isn’t it?”

Lycos gave Snape a pleasant smile and held out a hand.

Snape pursed his thin lips tightly and stared at Lycos's outstretched right hand, his whole face seemed to be tense.

The next moment, he snorted coldly, flicked his sleeves, turned around and left, and walked straight out of the principal's office.

"Professor Snape, does this mean you agree?" Lycos was not embarrassed. He casually retracted his outstretched right hand and turned to look at Dumbledore.

"Based on my understanding of Severus, yes." Dumbledore watched Snape's departing back with interest and chuckled. "Since he didn't explicitly object, it means he acquiesced..."

Then he turned his interested eyes to Lycos, with a look behind his half-moon glasses that seemed to be smiling but not smiling.

"You are probably the only student in all these years who can make Severus speechless."

"That's not the case," Lycos said with a self-deprecating smile, "After all, it's hard to find another student who can serve as an undercover agent for the Dark Lord."

"You're right." Dumbledore also showed a self-deprecating smile and patted Lycos's shoulder gently. "You've worked really hard these past few years, Lycos."

Lycos just shook his head.

"How's the matter with Sirius?" He changed the subject lightly.

"I filed a complaint with the Wizengamot Court, requesting a retrial of Sirius's case," Dumbledore said. "With Barty Crouch Jr. as a negative example and the resurrected Peter Pettigrew as evidence, the retrial went smoothly."

"Thanks to your help, Sirius should be able to regain his innocence in no time."

"That's good." Lycos smiled.

Just as he was thinking about how to start his next words, Dumbledore's expression suddenly straightened up and he looked Lex straight in the eyes.

"So, Lycos, is it time to tell me what you want?" Dumbledore asked softly, adjusting his half-moon glasses. "What do you want? Or rather... what do you want to do?"

Lycos was stunned on the spot.

"What do you mean?" He took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

"You don't have to hide it from me. I can roughly guess what you want to do." Dumbledore said softly, "After all, with your style of doing things, you rarely take such a big risk."

"Besides, you and Sirius have only known each other for a month or so. You shouldn't be at the point where you can risk being exposed or even hurt by Barty Crouch Jr. to help him out of danger, right?"

"But since you've done this, there must be some other purpose."

……

Chapter 234 Time Converter?

"I do have some things to do," Lycos let out a long breath, "and I've had this idea for a while..."

Dumbledore stared down at Lycos, then shook his head with a smile.

"It's not hard to guess... You must be thinking about Cassandra?" he asked softly.

"I should know. Nothing can be hidden from you." Lycos laughed dumbly.

Accustomed to the brain-blocking technique he maintained spontaneously at all times, he almost forgot that Dumbledore also had a less popular title - Master of Legilimency.

The old headmaster only had to glance at Bertha Jorkins to see all that had happened to her from morning till night yesterday.

Then how could Dumbledore not guess... that the Malfoy family's business manager yesterday was actually Lycos in disguise?

"Perhaps Miss Vorley told you that there is some tacit understanding between her and me..." Dumbledore seemed to understand what Lex was thinking and chuckled softly, "Just like there is enough tacit understanding between you and me."

"Actually, Cassandra rarely mentioned these things to me, nor did she tell me about her family." Lycos shook his head slightly. "She just made an appointment with me before the holiday to take me to visit the Volley family... She said she would tell me some things then."

"But she never came back, did she?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, even the contact between us was cut off." Lycos nodded, "Then on the train, Draco told me that he had sealed off the house and even gave up the business he was running..."

Dumbledore fell silent for a moment.

He thought for a moment, then turned around and looked at the rippling Black Lake outside the window.

"In fact, Minerva personally visited the Volley family and has now brought back the latest news."

Lycos suddenly froze in place.

"But Professor McGonagall didn't tell me..."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Lycos understood.

Obviously, Professor McGonagall did not bring good news, but instead brought back very bad news, so bad that she didn't know how to explain it to Lycos.

He was a little confused for a moment, but didn't know where to start, so he could only follow Dumbledore's gaze and look out the window.

On the surface of Black Lake, the autumn wind seems particularly cold.

In the autumn wind, the lake water stirred up layers of ripples, reflecting the sun in the sky, so bright that it hurt people's eyes.

Lycos narrowed his eyes slightly, not caring about the annoying reflections, and just stared along Dumbledore's line of sight, but he still couldn't figure out what the old headmaster was looking at.

"The Volley family is in this direction," Dumbledore said suddenly.

Lycos was stunned for a moment.

He was about to ask a question when Dumbledore went on with his own conversation.

"Just like Malfoy and Crouch Manor, the Wally family also has a manor of their own—it's very large, even larger than Malfoy and Crouch Manor combined. But for such a large manor, no one knows how it was built..."

Having said that, Dumbledore paused for a moment, looked at Lycos with his deep eyes, and then looked out the window again.

“Not only that, but such a large manor disappeared not long ago.”

He looked at the ripples on the lake and slowly told Professor McGonagall the shocking news she had brought back.

"But no one knows how it disappeared... just like no one cares about the disappearing splashes on the surface of the water, it just dissipates into the lake."

Upon hearing the news, Lycos was surprised but not overly surprised.

After all, he had already prepared for the worst after losing contact with Cassandra...

The Volley family simply disappeared, but the entire family was not wiped out by dark wizards or some magical organization. This means that there is still room for improvement.