Voldemort Really Never Rests!

"Hales, have you and Miss Granger told anyone about Barty Junior?" Dumbledore asked.

Yvonne shook her head hesitantly. He was very aware of the importance of secrecy, and was usually very cautious about it. She would probably keep it to herself.

Harry and Ron both learned about Barty Crouch Junior only today, and were previously semi-informed.

"It can't be the children, Albus!" Moody said grimly, frowning. "It's only been a week since Barty Junior died, and even if one of the students did happen to hear about it, it would never have reached his ears so quickly."

Lord Voldemort was a loner these days, and his sources of information were very limited, so someone must have passed the information on to him.

"Could the Ministry have leaked it?" Yvonne asked, thinking of this immediately.

The Ministry of Magic's intelligence network was like a sieve to him. For example, this year's Triwizard Cup was supposed to be a secret, but many people knew about it before the start of the school year.

Ivan therefore suspected that a high-ranking member of that department had defected to Lord Voldemort and was acting as a spy for the Dark Lord.

However, even as Ivan was thinking this, Dumbledore shot down his guess. "There is no such possibility; I only told Fudge about Barty Junior tonight."

"That's odd, considering we're the only ones who should know…" Moody raised his eyebrows, glancing from Ivan to Harry and back to Dumbledore before speaking again. "Could it be Barty? Or someone he told?"

Yvonne agreed that it was possible. The only people who knew about this were Dumbledore, Moody, Hermione, Crouch, and herself, and if they had not revealed it, it would have been Crouch!

"I don't think Barty would talk about it so easily! Perhaps Voldemort put some sort of warning spell on Barty Junior that made him aware of all of this…" Dumbledore interrupted their conjectures. The situation was urgent, and they needed to be as united as possible, rather than suspicious!

"In short, the most important thing is to find out where the village is and stop the tragedy," Dumbledore added.

"But England is so big, how are we going to find out where exactly You-Know-Who is going to attack?" Ron asked, puzzled.

All Harry knew was that You-Know-Who was planning to attack, but he had no idea where the village was, not even a clue.

"With Voldemort's mobility impaired and his powers not yet fully restored, it will not be easy for him to wipe out a Muggle village… so a suitable location must be chosen to avoid a large-scale riot interrupting the ceremony!" Ivan muttered to himself.

Muggles are not stupid; it's not like they don't know how to fight and run from danger. Even a thousand pigs thrown into a village would take days to kill, let alone humans.

Moody thought this made sense, so he went along with Ivan's reasoning. "So Voldemort would try to choose a small village in the middle of nowhere, and there certainly wouldn't be too many Muggles living there, probably dozens or hundreds of people, so we could rule out the vast majority!"

Dumbledore nodded. "It should also be noted that Tom is a very nostalgic man, so we should be able to get a lock on where he wants to attack!"

"You mean the village near the cave?" Yvonne was impressed. She could guess where Dumbledore was referring to.

However, it was precisely because they knew that they were shocked. No one with a shred of conscience would be crazy enough to direct their conflict at the place where they had played as children.

However, Voldemort was apparently an exception, as he attempted to murder his childhood playmates near the village.

"That's right, it's the most likely place if Voldemort really is planning a massacre!" Dumbledore rumbled.

Some time ago, he visited the village while investigating Horcruxes. It was sparsely populated, faced the sea, and was surrounded by mountains and cliffs. Even if something terrible were to happen, the Muggle government would not be able to support them in time.

With this in mind, Dumbledore turned to Moody. "Alasto, since we can no longer count on Cornelius, I'm afraid we will have to do this ourselves."

"Should have done it earlier, Albus!" Moody grinned. "Should I go get them all?"

"No, I'll put Fox in charge of informing them…" Dumbledore shook his head. Moody was still a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, so he usually had to prepare for lessons, and Phoenix was the one who handled small matters like liaising.

"What about us, Professor Dumbledore? What should we do?" Harry, who had not been able to get a word in edgewise, asked.

"All you have to do is stay in school and protect yourselves!" Dumbledore replied earnestly.

"But…" Harry opened his mouth to retort.

"Your safety is as important as the protection of the village, Harry!" Dumbledore interrupted. "We cannot be certain that Lord Voldemort was really planning a massacre, or that it was a ruse, so we must be prepared for both…"

Without waiting for Harry's response, Dumbledore instructed Ivan and the others to keep the events of the night to themselves for the time being, so as not to reveal them again.

"Professor, may I share this information with Hermione?" Yvonne asked suddenly, thinking that Hermione would be clever enough to get information out of Harry and Ron, and would find it difficult to keep it from her.

"Of course, Miss Granger is equally trustworthy!" Dumbledore nodded.

… .

Ten minutes later, Ivan, Harry and Ron emerged from the Headmaster's office and headed for the Gryffindor Lounge.

The journey was fraught with worry, and Harry and Ron were consumed by the shocking news that Voldemort was planning to bring back the village.

Ivan, on the other hand, sighed helplessly. He understood that his leisurely school life was about to end before it had even begun. Voldemort really did not stop for a moment!