421 Chapter 420 Must leave one (2 in 1)

Once again, the scene went completely silent.

The former castle students all stared blankly at Mr Headmaster, on whom they had placed so much hope, for a moment they simply couldn't figure out what the hell he was talking about.

Why was there talk of a prisoner exchange?

Leaving aside the question as to who the captives were, there was a big question as to why they were being exchanged in the first place.

Hadn't Dumbledore always been their Mr Headmaster's defeated enemy?

Even if the final outcome of the Triwizard Tournament was acknowledged, the other side had declared war at their own doorstep!

Shouldn't there be a tough response at a time like this?

While the students could not see the problem, the other adult wizards could hear a lot from Voldemort's words.

The journalists who remained behind cast a meaningful glance at Voldemort, who looked no different from before but always gave the impression of being a different person.

That statement was in itself a sign of weakness.

The enemy had declared war, and here you were talking about exchanging prisoners, and who was this so-called prisoner, those students couldn't see it, but they, the outsiders, could still not see it?

It was obvious that these students, surrounded by the Order of the Phoenix, had been treated by Voldemort as Dumbledore's captives by default.

In other words, Voldemort himself believed that if he took the forceful approach, there was no way he could safely rescue these people from this ongoing mess under Dumbledore's watch.

Not only them but also Barty and Snape, the professors, had found out about the situation.

The adult Death Eaters were much more nervous than the bewildered students, and while only Snape's face remained as cold as ever, Barty's gaze turned to Voldemort as soon as he spoke.

That look and expression, like he was having doubts about something.

None of the Witching Horizon men spoke either, but Jon was able to sense the obvious difference between this Voldemort in front of him, and the one who had just tried to kill him in the castle.

No wonder that Voldemort in the castle had been cursing his other self for being such a fool; this version one Voldemort now clearly seemed to have quite a bit of scruple against Dumbledore, but was acting as if he wanted to preserve his forces from excessive loss.

But when you think about it, the Voldemort Two who had confronted him in the castle was clearly the one who had recovered the split soul in the Horcrux, and he was the one who appeared to be more sensible and powerful.

The one in front of him was a mutilated soul, the same one as the original madman who was addicted to killing and wanted to kill Harry Potter without regard for anything else!

Now that he has regained control of his body, and has suddenly gained a high position he hasn't held since being squeezed out by his other self, and with no more prophetic dangers, there is only one threat in the form of an exhausted, winded Dumbledore.

The other Voldemort had already laid a solid foundation by adopting the ideas of the original Voldemort, and in this Voldemort's mind, as long as he was himself again, he would already attain more than half of what he once wanted.

To gain authority over the whole of Britain!

Compared to the other Voldemort Two, it could be said to be ideal with no great ambition.

Of course, what Jon didn't know yet was that this Voldemort One actually wanted to keep France, after all, the blood pact was signed by the other Voldemort Two with his own soul and had nothing to do with him at all, which was something the current Voldemort One had no intention of honouring.

It was just that Dumbledore's strength at the French Ministry of Magic had woken Voldemort One up a little, making it clear to him that the previous him being able to crush Dumbledore in strength was the result of the two of himself working together, and now that he was the only one left, he wouldn't be able to get much of an advantage in a one-on-one fight.

So Voldemort One, who was originally full of greed and who also thought that his other self was wasting time and that he hadn't been able to devour France after planning for so long, chose to slow himself down a bit.

Intending to first sort out the other mess his other self had left behind, after which he would take his time to deal with Dumbledore, who had regained his momentum.

Now that the situation in France was sure to be irreversible, the biggest remaining problem was the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Now that he had decided to slow down, Voldemort One had already given up the idea of fighting Dumbledore immediately and wanted to preserve his maximum strength for the time being, then restore himself to his peak condition and finally fight Dumbledore.

It is precisely because of such thoughts that he has come to Hogwarts Castle with so many people in tow, but he does not really have much intention of confronting them face to face, but rather to rescue the professors and students who are now surrounded by them.

Of course, Voldemort was a little bit more crazy now, but not really that much of a fool.

If Dumbledore refused to make a deal and was going to fight him here, Voldemort wouldn't just give in.

There was no guarantee that he would beat Dumbledore, but the two had fought to a draw at the French Ministry of Magic for a while, so he was not bound to lose badly.

Dumbledore looked over at Voldemort as well, as though he had seen the people enclosed by the Death Eaters.

"So where are your captives?"

Voldemort waved his hand coldly at his men behind him and the Death Eaters in their black robes and iron masks on their faces scattered at that, revealing the people they had been encircling in the middle since they had arrived.

It was a group of young boys and girls in ragged linen robes, all of them looking around as if they had been under a Confundus Charm, their faces looking terrified and unsettled.

They are the muggle students from the castle who were moved out of the school directly after the start of the Triwizard Tournament, that is, Voldemort Two had removed these students in case Dumbledore and the others would make private contact with them and then replicate what Jon had once done by rescuing these students.

And this now gave Voldemort One suitable hostage, while in addition to these students, there were also some of the Witching Horizons' wizards who had been captured by Voldemort's side during the previous battle in France.

There were not many of them, although many had died in the battle, less than ten were captured and left alive.

They were the ones that Voldemort wanted to trade with Dumbledore at this time.

They were fighting to free the muggle wizards and restore equality, and it was unlikely that they would sit idly by in front of a large crowd.

There appeared to be prisoners, but after realising that the prisoners in Dumbledore's hands were themselves, the former Hogwarts students looked humiliated when they saw that the prisoners their Headmaster had used in exchange were the "mudbloods" they had previously despised with contempt.

They had been taught to hold purebloods and half-bloods in high esteem over mudbloods, but now that their headmaster, who had put forward this theory, had used such a lowly group of "mudbloods" to exchange for them one for one, they certainly felt humiliated.

But even if they all felt humiliated, seeing the captives Voldemort had presented, Dumbledore's men, Sirius, Lupin and Kingsley, were all full of disapproval of the exchange.

"If we release these men back, then we are bound to sacrifice many more for this in future wars."

Moody looked solemnly at Dumbledore.

"We can't give up more human lives just because of some kindness." Kingsley, who had been known to be gentle and kind, was also in opposition, "These pureblood students don't matter, but both Barty Crouch Jr. and Severus Snape must be kept behind!"

Their voices were not loud, but Voldemort in the distance could still guess exactly what they were talking about now, and he simply said in a cold voice.

"I hope you consider this carefully Dumbledore, if you are not willing to accept this proposition of mine, then, of course, these men are of little use, for the greatest value that I can find in a useless mudblood is death. Whereas would you kill these students of mine? As in kill them all?"

Such a vulgar and despicable statement just came out of his mouth, which was a great contrast to the bare and magnificent persona that Voldemort Two had been presenting himself in Britain before.

Not only did this statement make these already humiliated former Castle students turn pale, but the group of Death Eaters that Voldemort was leading behind him also seemed to be in slight turmoil, their faces were covered in iron masks, and it was impossible to see their expressions underneath them, but it was clear that Voldemort's statement had caused some concern in their minds as well.

When Jon saw this display from Voldemort One, he looked at Barty Crouch Jr. who had a slightly wrong expression on his face since this Voldemort had spoken, and suddenly turned his head to Dumbledore and whispered.

"Professor, how sure are you of defeating this Voldemort?"

Dumbledore had fought this Voldemort only an hour before, so he knew the difference in strength between the two today.

"In a real fight, I'm 60% sure I could kill him, but I remember you mentioning that there's still a piece of his Horcrux in Hogwarts castle now?"

The matter of that Resurrection Stone ring had certainly been communicated to Dumbledore by Jon.

"Yes. If one is left behind, we can't guarantee he won't have a second one behind, which means there's no way we can put an end to the mess tonight no matter what?"

"It seems like that."

"Then give him what he wants, Professor." Jon said decisively, only his words were clearly not finished, "But only a part of the men can be agreed in exchange, it's obvious that the value of the prisoners they have is not equal to what we have, so, of course, we can't let all of them go."

Off to the side Kingsley and Moody, both of whom had also heard Jon's words, Moody spoke up and asked.

"We should only agree to trade students for students? Are we going to insist on leaving Crouch and Snape, the Death Eaters, behind?"

At this, Jon just shook his head.

"Voldemort isn't stupid, surely he wouldn't agree to such a deal. What I'm saying is that, instead, we're going to keep these students and trade them for just these Death Eaters, Crouch, Malfoy, and Snape."

Hearing his words, Kingsley and the others, including Lupin and Sirius, all frowned.

"What's the point in that? What's the difference between letting all of them go, and just leaving the students, and letting all the Death Eaters go for us?"

Jon side-stepped, using Sirius' tall stature to block the smile that was gradually tickling his face.

"This Voldemort now is very different from before, do you think these Death Eaters won't notice?"

The change between the previous Voldemort and the current Voldemort was too great, not to mention the big strategic decisions, but the personal style alone was a huge contrast, and these Death Eaters were no fools, it would be a joke if they didn't notice anything.

"So if they find out, what kind of changes are going to happen within Britain? Fence-sitters like Malfoy aside, what about the diehards who were once loyal to Voldemort because of his policies? How will they choose when they find out that there are actually two lords? Or how will this current Voldemort force them to choose?"

Jon's question had Lupin pondering.

"You mean that without us doing anything behind the scenes, the Dark Lord will mess up on his own internally? But the Dark Lord himself is still exceptionally powerful, and even if these people have grievances, will they really dare to resist?"

"Then we'll send him a former Voldemort die-hard who has the guts to rebel and is equally influential."

Jon said softly, while turning his gaze to Barty Crouch Jr. who had fixed his deadly eyes on his lord from the moment Voldemort had appeared.

The people around them, including Dumbledore, had also noticed Jon's gaze, and they all saw the unusual reaction of Crouch at this moment.

"Besides, these students seem to me to be a lot more useful than these Death Eaters." Jon continued, "The kids of all the Pureblood and Half-Blood wizards in their prime in the British magical community are all here, so if they learn that their lord has abandoned them, and we have captured them as prisoners, what will they think?"

The consequences were easy to see, and after being reminded of this by Jon, Kingsley and the others could see the value of these former Castle students.

By releasing Voldemort's adult Death Eaters as a destabilizing factor and keeping these pureblood and half-blood offspring to continue to expand that destabilizing factor, then as long as Britain itself messed up first, it would undoubtedly be much easier for them later on when they started their counter-attack.

Finally, Jon continued.

"And we'll add one last condition, all the other Death Eaters can be released, but the two, Barty Crouch Jr. and Severus Snape, one of them must be left behind!"

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