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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 191: Voldemort's Concern
Malfoy Manor
A man with slick short black hair and equally black eyes, a short mustache, and a cruel look was pacing around the hall of the fancy manor while rubbing the scar on his face. "Someone will have to pay for this…"
"Edwin… someone will." Abraxas Malfoy glanced at his old friend. He could understand his anger. After all, the man had just lost his last son, leaving him with no heirs.
"But who? The damn witch who killed my boy is already dead. The only one I can murder is that Potter boy, but that won't be enough!" Edwin Lestrange exclaimed and took another sip of his drink.
"I know," Abraxas said. He didn't want to mention that he had almost lost his only heir as well.
The ones they really wanted to target were the House of Black, but after their last encounter, Pollux Black had increased the security in their ancient home, and they couldn't even find it anymore.
At that moment, the doors of his hall opened up and two large individuals came inside, moving out of the way as a third one walked in.
Crabbe and Goyle lowered their heads as Lord Voldemort made his entrance.
"My Lord." Malfoy hurried to stand up so he could bow.
Lestrange turned around to glance at the Dark Lord. "My Lord…" His tone denoted the man's anguish.
Voldemort addressed him first. "Lestrange… I'm sorry for your loss. I can assure you that we will make everyone involved in this nasty matter pay with interest."
"Thank you, My Lord," responded Lestrange.
"Abraxas, have one of the house-elves bring your Pensieve here,"
Voldemort ordered as he made his way to the seat of honor at the table.
Malfoy did as told without question, as he knew how little their Lord liked that, but he was still very curious about what he wanted to show them.
A couple of minutes later, a little elf was levitating a stone basin into the middle of the hall.
Voldemort pulled a small glass vial from his robes. "Today I had a very interesting conversation with one of the Aurors who worked on the case of the Hogsmeade Witch, as they have called it."
"Travers?" Lestrange asked.
"Jones," Voldemort responded.
"Oh, that little guy," Lestrange said.
They already had several individuals in their outer circle who held important positions at the Ministry, but none of them had thought much of Lord Jones.
The short man had been an Auror for over twenty years and had never managed to get a single promotion.
They all considered that magical house as something of little importance, despite it being a very old one.
"So, Jones has finally done something useful. And those memories?" Malfoy asked.
"I already watched them… several times," Voldemort said. "I want you to watch them with attention and tell me what you think of them."
Just then, he used his wand to levitate the vial over the basin and emptied the silver liquid inside.
Malfoy and Lestrange glanced at each other. It was very unusual for Lord Voldemort to ask for someone else's opinion.
The man always seemed to have everything planned out and didn't even like to hear suggestions when he spoke about one of his plans.
As Malfoy was walking towards the Pensieve, he noticed a strange look on the Dark Lord's face, one he had never seen before and couldn't quite place. But if it were someone else, he would think that the person was showing… concern.
He and Lestrange stood in front of the Pensieve and looked at their Lord one more time, waiting for approval. When he gave them a gesture to go ahead, the two of them sank their faces into the water.
Images started to form. They depicted a scene where James Potter and Lily Evans were walking near the end of the Hogsmeade village when they were suddenly ambushed by many older boys from Slytherin.
Abraxas and Edwin recognized their sons when they appeared and began threatening Potter with cruel smirks on their faces.
Then the witch arrived, and everything became chaotic.
Edwin almost pulled his face out of the basin when he witnessed his son being decapitated by the old monster, but he managed to push through and maintain his composure.
Their Lord thought of this memory as extremely important, and he would not take lightly if they couldn't offer an insightful opinion about it.
They watched in shock as Potter summoned three creatures who helped him in the fight.
The two of them became horrified when they saw the inhuman feats that this witch was capable of. This went far beyond what they thought was even possible.
But despite all of that, James Potter defeated her with a show of overwhelming force by calling upon some extremely powerful alchemy flames.
Abraxas removed his face from the basin first. His face had become ashen. "That was…" He didn't know what the Dark Lord wanted them to say after seeing this.
Edwin Lestrange came next and looked just as shocked as Malfoy. "My Lord, these memories… are they real?" Lestrange asked.
"They are real," Voldemort assured them. Although he did notice a couple of parts where the memories had been manipulated, hiding some information, the magical showcase during the fight had no indications of forgery.
"I have also questioned Auror Jones in great detail when he brought me this. He never lied to me."
"Very well, so…" Malfoy started. "The Potter boy seems like he is going to be a much bigger threat than we thought." He was really downplaying it, but he could not imagine James being defeated by their forces at this point, if he was capable of something like what they saw. In fact, he had to make sure to send his son a letter and warn him to stay away from Potter and overlook any plans he may have had.
"Yes, maybe we should put more focus on that family instead of the Black House," Lestrange said.
Voldemort sighed. 'A bigger threat than we thought, they say'.
He knew these two didn't completely understand the level of magic being used in that duel, but he did. So they were not going to be of much help.
"I am going on a trip," the Dark Lord suddenly said. "There is someone I must find."
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