Voldemort had fled, but the Giants had not.
So, at Hagrid's suggestion, Tver bandaged his wounds while having the black Dragon search the snowy mountains for any trace of the Giants.
An avalanche was certainly powerful, but with the Giants' sturdy bodies, if they had found decent cover, it was entirely possible they had not suffered fatal injuries.
Their speed would definitely have been affected, though.
So Tver did not even need to use magic. The black Dragon, rarely allowed out, spotted Giants struggling in the snowdrifts and simply blasted them with a mouthful of dragon fire.
As for whether any of the Giants could still survive after that double blow, Tver did not care.
They were not worth the trouble of finishing off personally, and besides...
"These Giants were only Golgomath's trusted followers. There are still plenty of Giants in the tribe, not far from here..."
Maxime could not help feeling some pity, but she knew very well that those brutal Giants who had followed Golgomath would never obey them.
Once Voldemort returned, any survivors would become fresh fighting strength for the enemy.
So she calmly guided the black Dragon onward, heading toward the Giant tribe.
Hagrid also knew Tver's approach was the right one. He could only sit there on the Dragon's back with a sorrowful expression, silently staring at the beautiful patterns unique to dragonhide.
As half-Giants, they had suffered almost more prejudice in the wizarding world than any other mixed-blood group.
Because no wizard dared openly provoke a true Giant. Simple-minded as they were, they really would flatten a wizard on the spot.
So half-Giants could only bear that hostility in the Giants' place, while also having to admit that they truly were the children of Giants.
That complicated feeling had always lingered in Hagrid's and Maxime's hearts, making them both sympathetic toward Giants and frustrated by them, pitying them for their misfortune while resenting their refusal to improve.
"These Giants followed Golgomath, so we can't let them go. But the Giants in the tribe may be another matter," Tver said, offering the two of them some comfort, even though he had no particular fondness for Giants himself.
In truth, winning over the Giants had never really been part of the Order of the Phoenix's plan. The Giants' violent temperament simply could not mesh with theirs, and all Dumbledore had really hoped for was that the Giants would not join Voldemort's side.
Now that Voldemort had intervened personally, whatever he was offering the Giants was something Tver's side could neither provide nor was willing to provide.
Still, the fact that Voldemort's first move after his return was to win over the Giants left Tver unable to quite make sense of him.
"As long as the Giants in the tribe agree not to take part in the wizarding war, I could even..."
But when Tver saw the chaos in the Giant camp, he suddenly could not finish the sentence.
The Giants knew how to find a relatively safe place to set up camp, so this area had not been affected by the successive avalanches just now.
But what met their eyes was even worse than if an avalanche had torn through it.
Pools of blood had been splashed all over the ground, staining the white snow red.
The Giants' supplies had been thrown carelessly all over the place. Even the bonfires they had deliberately cleared out and built had been destroyed, with only a few sparks still flickering on the firewood, as if accusing fate itself of what had happened.
But the real problem was that the Giants were gone.
"Did they leave to avoid the avalanche?" Maxime guessed, but she quickly shook her head and rejected the idea herself.
"No. They've lived here for a long time. They know this is the safest place when an avalanche comes down."
"And besides..." She paused. "There shouldn't be this much blood on the ground."
Tver also found the scene extremely strange, so he patted the black Dragon on the head and had it land.
But before the Dragon had even steadied itself, Hagrid jumped straight off its back.
"Grawp... where's Grawp..."
He looked around wildly, searching the camp in a panic for any sign of a Giant.
Seeing Tver's confusion, Maxime explained, "Grawp is Hagrid's brother, his younger half-brother."
"When we first came here, we found the boy. But compared to the other Giants, he's small, so he has always been bullied by the rest of the tribe."
"Hagrid was planning to find a chance to bring him back to England. Until then, he could only stay here in the camp."
"But now..."
Maxime watched with aching sympathy as Hagrid shouted Grawp's name and searched through most of the camp at high speed, including the cave not far away.
Clearly, there were no Giants left here.
Looking at the blood on the ground, Tver was reminded of one of the few pieces of intelligence Snape had managed to obtain.
Among those Voldemort was trying to recruit were Vampires.
If it really had been those Vampires who attacked the Giants, then after hiding in secrecy for so long, they certainly would not have turned up their noses at Giant blood.
That would make the scene here much easier to explain.
"Hagrid, come here. I think we may have found the Giants' trail!"
Tver quickly called him back. Otherwise, Hagrid was about to start searching deeper into the valley.
Hearing Tver's voice, Hagrid hurried back as if he had just seized a lifeline.
"Did... did you find something?" he asked, panting heavily, the panic on his face easing a little.
In Hagrid's heart, Tver was already second only to Dumbledore in the Order of the Phoenix, and indeed in the entire wizarding world.
"Voldemort was probably leading Golgomath and the others to track you down, while at the same time sending the newly recruited Vampires here to take away the Giants from the tribe."
"And these bloodstains were most likely caused by the Vampires attacking the Giants..."
Maxime's expression changed instantly.
Compared with the Werewolves causing trouble all across Britain, it was Vampires that ran rampant in France.
"But, forgive me for asking, wouldn't Vampires leave bodies behind?"
"Don't forget," Tver said, hesitating as he looked at Hagrid, who seemed to have realized something, "Voldemort is very skilled at creating Inferius."
"If all he wants is for the Giants to cause destruction, then Giants turned into Inferius would obviously be even more suitable..."
At that, Hagrid, a burly man through and through, suddenly went black before the eyes and collapsed weakly onto the ground.
"Grawp..."
"No, Grawp is very likely still alive!" Maxime immediately thought of another possibility. "There actually isn't that much blood on the ground, certainly not enough for all the Giants in the camp."
"And to deal with so many bodies that quickly, even if every Vampire in Europe were here, they still couldn't manage it. They would need other Giants left alive to help them."
Seeing the light return to Hagrid's eyes, Tver nodded in approval.
"Exactly. So next, we need to figure out where those Vampires, or Voldemort, have gone. Then before they can harm Grawp, we'll rescue the Giants."