Chapter 225: The War Never Stops
Voldemort's appearance quickly caught Dumbledore's attention.
He had been out of the school for several days, busy with something. After receiving the message, he returned to the school looking travel-worn. Listening to Lupin's account, he sat there in silence, his forehead twitching.
After Professor Kettleburn had finished his exaggerated and lengthy story, the office fell silent again for a while. Dumbledore finally exhaled deeply, took off his glasses wearily, and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking quite troubled.
"You..."
He looked intently at Lockhart and Grindelwald, who were sitting quietly beside him, full of heartache. "Do you know how difficult it was for me to finally find an opportunity to seal him completely inside the body of the werewolf Fenrir Greyback?"
Voldemort was like a venomous snake or a loach in a swamp; no matter what you did, you couldn't catch him. After all that effort to put him in a cage, now these two had let him out!
Just then, Snape came up the spiral staircase, holding a large glass jar that seemed to be full of fragments of flesh and bone. "The werewolf Fenrir Greyback is completely dead, Professor Dumbledore." Snape placed the jar on the desk, glanced at everyone, and went to stand in a corner.
Dumbledore pointed at the jar. "Gilderoy Lockhart!"
"Yes, Professor, I'm here." Lockhart grinned, trying his best to look harmless.
"You should know how important this is. You lived through that difficult time with me, and I believe you must have a deep understanding of it."
"When we went to look for his踪迹, the Death Eater Alecto Carrow was so brutally murdered and hung up in front of us..."
"After that, you encountered him alone, and you barely escaped from him. You were almost killed by his curse and only survived by sheer luck after casting a Patronus Charm..."
"..."
One instance after another, each one explained how difficult it was to deal with the cunning Voldemort. It wasn't about whether you could beat him; it was about whether you could even find him!
"I'm very sorry, Professor Dumbledore," Lockhart apologized, lowering his head.
"I'm also very sorry," Grindelwald followed Lockhart's lead, admitting their mistake to avoid being lectured further.
When people are speechless, they truly just laugh.
Dumbledore was so exasperated that he laughed. He felt a lump in his throat and looked at the two of them helplessly. "I've been leading the International Confederation of Wizards and the Ministries of Magic in various countries in an investigation for some time now, and we've found nothing."
"The Muggle who used the pranksters to attack Muggle buildings in London before seems to have been an isolated case."
"But I smell a conspiracy."
"This matter seems to involve too many people, so much so that some forces are trying to cover something up, both overtly and covertly."
"What I'm most worried about now is whether Tom has truly become involved in this."
Dumbledore's eyes were sharp. "I will be very busy for a while. I hope you will look after the school. No matter how cunning Tom is, he will always have his eyes on Hogwarts and will always try to find Harry..."
Snape, standing to the side, narrowed his eyes and looked at Dumbledore.
In fact, everyone present was quick-witted and knew what Dumbledore was trying to say. And he probably wanted to convey different messages to different people.
For example, to Snape, Dumbledore undoubtedly wanted him to provide some help to Voldemort. Temporary victory or sacrifice was irrelevant. To defeat Voldemort, Snape had to return to his side and win his trust.
This was a cruel thing. Snape himself longed for light and recognition, but he had to genuinely do evil things, things that people of justice would despise and resent, in order to gain Voldemort's complete trust.
Dumbledore didn't even need to discuss such a plan in depth with Snape. Because Snape knew that the bait for Voldemort, the so-called 'Chosen One' who had been talked about for more than ten years, Harry Potter, was precisely the person he cared about the most.
That was enough, wasn't it?
Dumbledore didn't need to force Snape to do anything; he simply gave Snape the opportunity to do it and get his revenge. Snape would naturally distance himself from Harry Potter and become his opposite. And he would have to make it known to everyone to prove to Voldemort that he didn't actually care much for his unrequited love for his white moonlight, that his feelings had long since faded with time, and that his heart was full of thorns because of James Potter's existence.
Voldemort wasn't an idiot. It wouldn't be easy to make such an extremely clever, cunning, and malicious person believe this story.
If all goes well, the final outcome of the story is that Snape finally gets his revenge, and Snape finally pays the price for his past sins. The villain will, after all, live on with a bad reputation.
Being righteous, going with the flow, not needing a plan—everything happens naturally. In this way, there is no obstacle.
Righteous, yet evil.
Otherwise, why would someone nickname Dumbledore the 'White Dark Lord'?
This kind of White Dark Lord tormented himself and others.
Trapped in the mire of war, no one was truly free.
Dumbledore had experienced too many betrayals and betrayals in his life, and he would never completely trust anyone in his heart.
For example, Lupin.
He was willing to be good to Lupin, willing to give him a chance, and willing to give him trust because he was a good man. But he also had to maintain a certain level of vigilance towards Lupin because he had to be responsible for all his comrades on the front line.
Dumbledore was aware of how great his influence was. He approved of Snape, so everyone put aside their mortal hatred and were willing to stop targeting Snape, willing to try to tolerate such a person. This was a terrifying state of affairs. This meant that he could not trust Lupin without reservation, or he would be irresponsible to everyone else.
Lupin clearly felt this, so he kept his distance from Harry. For more than ten years, he never dared to go near Privet Drive, and when he came to the school, he didn't dare to show too much affection. But he still gave Harry enough kindness and tried his best to help him, because he knew that this was not only the true nature of his feelings, but also the way he needed to appear.
From Dumbledore's perspective, the world was a chessboard, and everyone was playing their own role, following the rules of conduct they should, unable to overstep the boundaries.
With this understanding, Lockhart could guess what Dumbledore thought of Sirius Black.
Sirius was undoubtedly a rule-breaker who didn't see Dumbledore as his leader.
When Voldemort was about to kill the Potters, Sirius was more willing to trust his own wisdom and judgment than Dumbledore. When he found out that Peter Pettigrew had betrayed them and hadn't died, he was more willing to trust his own actions than Dumbledore's.
Unfortunately, Sirius was not someone capable of playing chess. He was just a pawn in the mighty current of the great trend, completely unaware of it.
So he sat in Azkaban for over ten years, and when he escaped, he was like a stray dog, hiding everywhere.
He wasn't willing to trust Dumbledore, so Dumbledore couldn't fully trust him either. Because their interests were not fundamentally aligned, if Dumbledore were to give him his trust, this person's thoughts and actions would bring terrible disaster to all his comrades.
See? Sometimes, when you explain things clearly, it's that simple.
Dumbledore was willing to give anyone a chance, but he never looked at what they said; he only looked at what they did. Lupin was doing it, but Sirius was never willing to do it.
Lockhart believed that after finding out about Sirius's escape, Dumbledore had been waiting for Sirius to show up, or at least send a letter. But sadly, it would never come.
There were thousands of paths in the world; not everyone had to stand with Dumbledore. He also allowed others not to stand with him, but he also had no obligation to go to great lengths to take on their lives.
So Lockhart was smart.
He always went to Dumbledore with his problems. The most rebellious he got was when he wrote about Dumbledore and Grindelwald's magical philosophies in his book, "Voldemort: A Pureblood Supremacist With a Muggle Father?" But even then, he brought it to Dumbledore before it was published to ask for the old man's opinion.
Dumbledore agreed.
So even Grindelwald could only grumble a bit at most; he would not raise any more objections or blame.
Who was Dumbledore? The most powerful wizard in the magical world, bar none, and the most influential one. He defeated Grindelwald and took over as the Chief Warlock of the International Confederation of Wizards.
It was necessary to show such a person full respect.
Lockhart had to admit that he had indeed messed up. He had foiled Dumbledore's plan to contain Voldemort in the werewolf's body.
But thankfully, it wasn't too big of a deal. Everyone makes mistakes in judgment sometimes, and this was an acceptable range of error.
Dumbledore called in Deputy Headmistress McGonagall and the other two heads of house and solemnly gave them their instructions.
"The Aurors will all withdraw from Hogwarts. They don't have enough people. There are more important things to do than to capture an escaped convict."
This was a decision Dumbledore had to make. He had initially allowed Aurors to be stationed at Hogwarts in the hope of giving Sirius a chance to catch Peter Pettigrew and clear his name, with more people witnessing it. But Sirius was willing to hide, and he couldn't catch Pettigrew without him. The situation was changing rapidly, and he had to make a choice.
"The Dementors will remain at Hogwarts. Without the Aurors' control, I hope you will pay close attention to their movements."
If bringing in the Aurors was a chance Dumbledore wanted to give to Sirius, then bringing in the Dementors was a chance he wanted to give to Voldemort.
Dumbledore was fully aware that if Voldemort, this person without a bottom line, was still at Hogwarts or sneaked in again, he would definitely try to collude with the Dementor community. And then Dumbledore would have a chance to completely eliminate this evil species.
Dementors were not at all suitable as jailers. They would only create more criminals. Everyone who was locked up in Azkaban would suffer from some degree of psychological distortion, or even die there.
Dumbledore's father was like this, Voldemort's grandfather was like this, and now, that group of Death Eaters was also like this.
The war never stops.
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