Chapter 548 Influence

Late at night, when the Hogsmeade village became quiet, Felix suddenly moved.

He rose from his chair and took a step out, and appeared on a huge rock high in the mountain behind Hogwarts, at night the mountains and the forest echoed with the howling of unknown beasts. Felix turned and looked at the large hollow space in the rock wall, there is already a man inside, he is wearing a hood and blended with the darkness.

The wizard lifted the hood to reveal the pale, lean face of Lucius Malfoy.

Felix watched Malfoy's expression carefully, and after a short while, he asked softly, "Voldemort lost his temper?"

"Got hit by a few Cruciatus Curses." Lucius tried his best to sound unconcerned, " It was the best possible outcome, I barely managed to hold myself from blowing my cover. That would have been the end of everything."

"What excuse did you use to fool him?" Felix asked curiously, "To be honest, you turned out to be much tougher than I thought. A full ten hours have passed since I delivered the message to you. I've been waiting for you to summon me to your rescue or to receive your request to move your family."

Lucius Malfoy gave him a sharp look.

"I knew that diary is very important to him and when he handed it to me, he instructed me to keep it safe and wait for him to give a word before acting as he ordered ... tonight I told him that I remained loyal to him and three years ago I received an information about his suspectable return in Hogwarts, but he never showed up, so I bit the bullet and sent the diary to Hogwarts, hoping that the news of the Chamber of Secrets being opened would draw his attention ..."

Felix speculated on Voldemort's psychology.

At that time, Voldemort had already made several Horcruxes and did not think too highly of the diary, he actually saw it more as a weapon than the Horcrux with a life preservation function.

So judging from what Lucius has revealed, this would be one of his unfulfilled plans. Perhaps Voldemort wanted to use the diary to open the chamber, kill a few students and take down Dumbledore from his Headmaster position, thus allowing him to infiltrate the ancient wizarding school.

The task was most appropriate to hand it to Lucius Malfoy, who was a school board member of Hogwarts at that time, but the timing had to be subtle enough, so Voldemort handed the diary to Malfoy and told him to go home and wait for news in peace. Then ... er, it didn't take long for Voldemort to die without peace.

"Voldemort summoned you alone?"

"Yes ..."

" Did he also summon Bellatrix?"

Lucius was taken aback, " Yes that's right, we were called in no particular order." After a few moments of reflection, he said, "I didn't realize the anomaly until you mentioned it, because he has always been secretive in his movements these days, summoning us individually. It is rare to have other people present ..."

Felix nodded, "You would be first, Bellatrix second, and after that ... it looks like Voldemort will be busy tonight, and of course, his temper will grow even worse ... Lucius? "

Lucius looked at him.

"If Voldemort suddenly summons you again in the next couple of days, grab your bags and run. But if he tolerates further, it's fine to stay on."

"Why?"

"Because I can't guarantee he won't vent his anger on you." Felix said in a spooky voice.

In the next two days, some of the wizards who had attended the ancient rune exchange left early. Most of them were tourists who had simply come to see the birth and development of a new discipline, but the events that took place at the venue were simply too much for them to handle, and they chose to leave with their hearts in their throats.

When the Ministry of Magic re-registered the participants, there were about two hundred tents left vacant.

But many more people chose to stay.

These people simply assumed that they had seen a thrilling battle as an extra for free. To be honest, they had actually long-anticipated Dumbledore's strength - after all, there is more than half a century of fame stacked up. From the looks of the scene, Dumbledore lived up to his title " The Greatest White Wizard".

The surprise was Felix Hap.

He had already been well-known in many countries, but of course, people knew him for different reasons. Some knew him through the books he wrote, some through Future World, and some knew Felix's name because they had experienced the Quidditch World Cup final camp riots personally.

But if they were asked to give him a precise identification, they would be at a loss for words. Is he a Muggle researcher? A brilliant businessman? A professor of ancient runes? Or an expert in memory healing? Probably they would argue among themselves.

Only when this Ancient Rune Exchange was over did wizards around the world gain a unified view about the person named Felix Hap: he is a Legendary Warlock who stands on the same level as Dumbledore.

When the journalists who attended the event sent the news back to their countries, everyone was stunned, and a steady stream of people came over afterward, trying to gather first-hand information.

Historians, Ministry of Magic officials, Journalists from newspapers and magazines, Members of the Dark Force Defence League and the Alchemy Society applied for entry and then rushed to Hogsmeade, eager to see and photograph the scorched earth outside the village, then listen to Felix Hap himself explaining his understanding of the runes, and interview random people at their leisure to learn about the two thrilling battles from those who had witnessed them.

And long before that, the newspapers in the British wizarding community first had exploded.

The journalists and photographers who had rushed over on the first day were incredibly busy, each with ten articles to catch up on at the same time, in addition to developing photographs. Once again, Rita Skeeter showed an extremely professional ability to make up nonsense, with a vividly graphic article that only took her about ten minutes to write, without losing her usual style of writing, which increasingly moved in the direction of sensationalism.

The new editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet was left with a headache.

" Look, 'the three men who stand at the top of the world' - how can they include Voldemort?" In the library, Hermione read the title of the article with a disgusted look on her face.

"In a way, she's right." Ron said with an odd expression, "I remember another article titled - 'The Power of Love Awakens The Boy Who Lived', sheesh."

Harry turned his head in embarrassment, he didn't know how to explain his relationship with Ginny to Ron, he can't say they are close, as they haven't spoken much since the start of the school year except at the Frontline Lookout Club, but he can't also say they are far ... Harry's heart raced as he remembered that kiss in the underground training room at Black's ancestral house once again.

"Is Mafalda pestering you again?" Ron asked.

"What?" Harry followed the direction of his eyes and was surprised to find Mafalda, hiding behind a thick stack of books, looking like a replica of Hermione in her first year, but Harry could guarantee that Hermione only shared her in her desire to win at schoolwork, and in other areas - such as her sickly snooping and vindictiveness - Mafalda would be superior.

"Another Rita Skeeter." Ron said.

"You said she would be another Gilderoy Lockhart a while back." Hermione threw a jab at him.

"Is there a difference between the two of them?" Ron muttered.

At that moment, Harry saw Draco Malfoy come into the library looking weak, sitting alone at a table and looking dazed.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked, he hadn't seen Malfoy for the past two days.

" I suppose he is sick, I saw him when Lee Jordan went to the hospital wing to stop his nosebleed." Ron said vaguely and Harry instantly understood that Lee Jordan must have tried out the Skiving Snackbox that Fred and George had developed, he remembered one of the candies being named as Nosebleed Nougat.

Ron at this point seemed to have forgotten about Harry's love case as he came over and whispered in a hushed tone, " It is probably to cover up the fact that he had left the school," he gave a meaningful look, "Professor Hap forced us to swear not to tell anyone that he was there, or he would use magic to seal our lips."

"The Professor didn't say that!" Hermione yelled in annoyance.

"Well, I assumed," Ron shrugged, "he had a pretty serious look on his face at the time anyway."

This time Hermione didn't retort.

Harry looked at the distraught Draco with mixed emotions. He had kept his agreement and didn't tell Ron and Hermione the truth about the Diary Horcrux, which made Harry feel that his relationship with Malfoy had changed subtly, whether it's for the better or the worse Harry couldn't say, but it seemed that Malfoy had once again gone invisible on important matters.

Once when he had voluntarily handed in his diary Horcrux; once when he had personally visited the Hogsmeade battlefield.

Both times it involved Professor Hap ...

Draco looked up from the table, revealing two distinct dark circles under his eyes, and turned his head away quickly when his eyes met with Harry.

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