Chapter 128 The Mysterious Forces Targeting Voldemort

Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office.

"Snape, how much do you know about what happened at Gringotts last night?"

Dumbledore sat in his chair, looked at Snape in front of him, touched his beard, and asked gently.

"Don't let me know which dark wizard did it. If I catch him, I'll make him wish he had never been born."

Upon hearing Dumbledore's question, Snape cursed fiercely. He was in a terrible mood. He received a notification from the goblins this morning. The fierce fire in Gringotts last night caused damage to many vaults, and his vault was one of them. Some items inside were damaged to varying degrees. Now, he wanted to kill the dark wizard who sneaked into Gringotts last night a thousand times over.

Of course, the same goes for the goblins of Gringotts. These goblins, citing an accident as an excuse, did not intend to compensate him for his losses. This made Snape very angry.

Dumbledore didn't react much when he heard Snape's curse. He had already collected all the information about what happened at Gringotts. Of course, he knew about Snape's vault.

"Do you know where the fire started?" Dumbledore asked.

"Headmaster, just tell me what you know without going around in circles," Snape, who was in a bad mood, said calmly. "If you know who infiltrated the bank last night, tell me, and I'll make him regret coming into this world."

Dumbledore shook his head and said, "Snape, there are Aurors to arrest people. However, I believe you can't guess the source of the fierce fire."

Looking at Snape's frown and dissatisfaction, Dumbledore said with a serious face, "It's Bellatrix's vault."

"Bellatrix?" Snape muttered, confused.

"Yes, her," Dumbledore nodded slightly.

Looking at Snape who was deep in thought, Dumbledore suddenly asked, "Snape, has anyone from the pure-blood families been in contact with you recently?"

Regarding Dumbledore's question, Snape pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head and said, "No, there has been no contact recently."

Then he couldn't help but ask, "Headmaster, are you saying that this matter has something to do with the Dark Lord?"

Dumbledore did not answer directly but asked an irrelevant question, "Has Lockhart behaved strangely recently? You went to the auction with him yesterday, right?"

"Yes, what's wrong? Everything has been normal with Lockhart recently," Snape replied, dissatisfied. "Headmaster, don't change the subject. Tell me, is Bellatrix's matter related to the Dark Lord?"

Facing Snape's question, Dumbledore sighed and said slowly, "Bellatrix is the Dark Lord's right hand and his most loyal subordinate. Do you know what I saw in her vault?"

Without waiting for Snape to ask questions, he continued regretfully, "The looted treasury, the replica of the Hufflepuff Cup, and the fierce fire. Obviously, this definitely has something to do with the Dark Lord."

At this point, Dumbledore stopped speaking, and Snape seemed to be pondering something, full of confusion.

Is this action by Voldemort, or is it an action directed at Voldemort?

If it is Voldemort's action, doesn't it mean that Voldemort is making some moves? But that's not possible because he hasn't received any relevant news.

And if it is an action against Voldemort, then who, or which force, dares to target Voldemort?

After thinking for a while, Snape shook his head slightly. The amount of information was too little to make an effective judgment.

"Headmaster, what do you think?" Snape, who couldn't think of an answer, asked Dumbledore directly, "Do you think it was done by the Dark Lord, or was it done by other forces?"

"I'm not sure," Dumbledore hesitated, "However, I am more inclined to think that there are other forces targeting the Dark Lord. After all, these traps have all been triggered. If they were the Dark Lord's people, they shouldn't be so reckless."

At the end, Dumbledore also hesitated. Because as far as he knew, there were quite a few fools among the Death Eaters. Especially when faced with so much treasure, it is possible for them to trigger the trap with their greed. However, after all, it is other forces that may be the greater threat.

"Other unknown forces?" Snape murmured to himself. For some reason, Lockhart suddenly came to mind. A lot of wealth, unknown magical materials, mysterious magic, buying potions in large quantities, buying house-elves. It would be more reasonable to say that a mysterious force owned these.

Shaking his head slightly, Snape suppressed the suspicion in his heart because he had no evidence to support his thoughts. And he worked so closely with Lockhart. When he thought of Lockhart's latest large order and the large amount of unknown magical materials, Snape did not study it in detail. Just targeting the Dark Lord, he wished that the Dark Lord would be besieged by all the wizards.

Although he was on Dumbledore's side, he was only cooperating and not his servant.

Afterwards, Snape chatted with Dumbledore for a few more words and then said goodbye.

Dumbledore looked at Snape's leaving figure, then withdrew his gaze and rubbed his temples in distress. The reason why he mentioned Lockhart just now was because the goblins had provided him with a piece of news. It was Lockhart who took away all the treasures from his vault on the day the fire burned. This was such a coincidence. That was why he asked Snape if Lockhart was attending the auction with him. If it was because participating in the auction would cost a lot of gold galleons, this reason would make sense.

Wednesday night, Defense Against the Dark Arts office.

Click!

With the slight sound of the door opening, Harry walked out of the office and walked briskly towards the Gryffindor lounge. Harry had been in a nervous mood when he arrived at Lockhart's office on Sunday. However, as he walked out of the office, his attitude suddenly changed, and after some exchanges with Professor Lockhart, he had been thinking about how to translate the evil language "Parseltongue" for the past few days. He even thought that he was making a contribution to the entire wizarding world.

When he thought about it, Professor Lockhart said that he would write a research paper on Parseltongue in a while, and his name would also be written on the paper, and it would be published in the top journals in the wizarding world. Harry felt very excited.

Suddenly!

Meow!

Harry, who had just reached the top of the stairs, suddenly spotted a small figure. Taking a closer look, it was Filch's pet cat, Mrs. Norris.

"Students over there, stop!" Along with the cat's meow, a figure holding an oil lamp suddenly appeared.

"Mr. Filch, this is my permission slip. I just went to Professor Lockhart's office."

Harry held up the note in his hand proudly. He had often heard from Ron that Filch liked to catch young wizards wandering at night and punish them by wiping trophies and mopping floors. However, this time he was not wandering at night. To be precise, with the note in his hand, Filch had no reason to capture him.

"Oh."

Seeing the note in Harry's hand, Filch sighed with regret.

"Go back to the lounge quickly. Don't let me catch you in the future," Filch said viciously.

Harry obviously didn't care about Filch's attitude. However, when he thought of Professor Lockhart's previous instructions, Harry thought about it and said to Filch, "Mr. Filch, Professor Lockhart said that if I meet you, you should go find him. Because Professor Lockhart said that he has an experiment that, if successful, may allow you to gain certain magical abilities."

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