In the evening, a black figure fell from the sky like a dead leaf at Riddle House.
After briefly adjusting his appearance in front of the door, Snape pushed it open and went straight in.
Nagini, the serpent in the sleeping room, woke up the moment she heard the sound of the door being pushed open.
Snape turned his head to look at her, but quickly turned his attention back to her.
"You summoned me, master?"
From the head of the living room, Lord Voldemort's body emerged from the shadows, his serpentine red eyes fixed on Snape, his face strangely pale.
"I have heard the rumour that Dumbledore is dead?" Voldemort asked bluntly, with no attempt at small talk.
"Yes, Master!" Snape said cautiously. "I gave the Nott to Dumbledore, as you ordered, and then, as you might expect, they had an argument and ended up fighting…"
"But as far as I know, Ivan Hals was incapable of killing him!" Lord Voldemort interrupted, his voice confident.
He was well aware of Dumbledore's strength. In a life-and-death battle, even he might not be a match for Dumbledore. It would be nearly impossible to kill such a powerful wizard head-on!
Even if he is defeated in battle, no one can stop Dumbledore from escaping…
Unless…unless Ivan Hals's strength had grown again, perhaps to an unbelievable degree, in the past six months.
Voldemort felt a little fear at this possibility.
Normally, it is not easy for a wizard to raise the limit of his or her powers, usually over a long period of time or through extremely dangerous magical transformations.
He himself was a good example.
As the most talented wizard in British wizarding history, it often took him only a few minutes to master most of the dark charms.
In his fifth year, he received Slytherin's legacy, and after his first blood bond with Slytherin, he became even more powerful than an adult wizard.
Even so, he was only able to dominate Britain at the age of twenty-five.
In order to obtain such power, he had sacrificed everything, even going so far as to carry out numerous magical transfiguration experiments at great risk, transforming himself into a complete monster!
In contrast, Ivan Hals's growth path could only be described as unbelievable… at the age of fifteen or sixteen, he had the strength to rival or even surpass her.
What made him even more envious and jealous was that the other party seemed to have mastered a risk-free way to fuse bloodlines. This might be the reason why the other party's strength had improved so quickly.
Snape had no idea what Voldemort was thinking, but he understood that he could not allow the Dark Lord to sink into complete despair, so he replied, "Master, I think as you do. Ivan Hals would never have been able to kill Dumbledore, so he could only have used unscrupulous means."
"Tell me more…" Voldemort's eyes narrowed with sudden interest.
"When I examined Dumbledore's body, I was surprised to find signs that it had been corrupted by Dark Magic…" Snape gave a half-hearted account of his examination of Dumbledore's body.
Hearing this, Lord Voldemort's tense expression relaxed considerably. He was also aware of this strange Dark Magic, one of the many legacies he had acquired from Slytherin's library in his fifth year. There was no known way to break it, and even powerful wizards like them would not be immune to it.
Of course, the conditions for the release of such powerful dark magic were also very harsh. Under normal circumstances, it could only be attached to a magical item as a trap. When activated, the other party had to touch the magical item and inject magic into it to activate it.
Because of this, he did not use the Dark Arts against Dumbledore.
After all, this white wizard was quite accomplished in the field of Alchemy, and Voldemort did not think that he would be able to fool him by tampering with a magical object.
It was hard to say how Ivan Harris managed to pull this off.
Voldemort's face darkened as he realised that, despite his young age, the damned brat was even more cunning than he was…
The attack on the Ministry a few months ago nearly drove him to his grave…
More than seventy loyal Death Eaters were killed in the Ministry!
Crucially, he was branded with the infamy of attacking the Ministry of Magic and abandoning his own men…
Voldemort's heart was bleeding, but he looked at Snape and said reassuringly, "Your information is valuable, Severus. The Dark Lord does not mistreat those who are loyal to him!"
"Thank you, Master!" Snape exclaimed. "I'm afraid I can't go back to Hogwarts now…"
"So you've been compromised?" Voldemort snapped, frowning. "It was Lucius Malfoy who revealed your identity?"
"Yes, Master." Snape nodded, then continued. "But Ivan Hals didn't trust the traitors very much, so I told him that I was actually working for Dumbledore, passing information about you to the Order of the Phoenix…"
"And then you sold out a lot of Dumbledore's information to convince him that you had switched sides again?" Voldemort asked with a sneer.
"Ivan Hals thinks he's in control of the wizarding community, and I'm a man who knows what's good for me!" Snape nodded hesitantly, then added eagerly.
"Of course, I'm loyal to you, Master! I'm afraid this won't go unnoticed for long… If Ivan Hals finds out that I was behind Dumbledore's plot against him, he'll never let me go!"
"Don't look so worried, Severus!" Voldemort interrupted Snape. "I know Dumbledore, and I don't think he would have told Ivan Hals about you, or you wouldn't be alive today!"
"So you're safe, safer than anyone else! Don't forget, Ivan Hals probably used the information you gave him to kill a major enemy, and he's probably pretty sure by now that you've turned your back on Dumbledore and taken his side!"
Voldemort slowly sorted out Snape's current situation. "That is to say, you have earned his trust and are fully capable of continuing with your duties!"
"I'm sure you have the talent, Severus…as you once did with Dumbledore."
"If you can get me more information, I will give you anything you want in return! Reputation, power, or—"
"Eternal life!" Lord Voldemort said, his voice thick with conviction. "This is something that Ivan-Hals would never share with you!"
There was fear and greed in Snape's eyes, but also hesitation.
Voldemort did not mind Snape's hesitation, as there was no longer any chance of him turning back…
"Do you have anything to report to me other than Dumbledore's death?" Voldemort continued.
Snape hesitated for a long moment, trying to decide if he should tell her, and when Voldemort grew impatient, he replied cautiously.
"Ivan Hals seems to be trying to pin the murder of Dumbledore on you, and Minister for Magic Pierce is about to order you wanted all over Britain…"