"Dark magic items left behind by Voldemort!?" Hermione exclaimed in a suppressed voice.
Coming from the Muggle world, Hermione's fear of Voldemort wasn't as deep as those in the magic world. To Hermione, Voldemort was more like a fairy tale arch-villain.
He might be evil, but he wasn't real.
But no matter what, a dark magic item left behind by a big bad guy had to be something very evil.
The little witch looked at Andy with some worry.
She didn't expect Andy to be involved in such a terrible event.
Andy spread his hands and explained, "Lucius Malfoy ... also the father of Draco Malfoy, was a Death Eater who escaped the trial."
"What!?" Hermione's eyes widened incredulously.
Andy ignored Hermione and continued, "This summer, the Ministry of Magic, at Dumbledore's behest, launched an operation to search for Dark Magic items. Er...and incidentally a search for illegally modified Muggle items as well."
"According to the information I know, Voldemort supposedly left something behind with the Death Eaters loyal to him."
Hermione quickly responded, "That something is in Lucius Malfoy's possession!"
"That's right!"
Andy nodded, "Maybe it was for revenge! From what I can guess, Malfoy would have taken advantage of the fight with Mr Weasley to sneak that dark magic item to one of the Weasleys' young wizards."
"And then have them bring it into Hogwarts!" Realisation dawned on Hermione.
Frowning, Hermione asked with some confusion, "But ... how did you know all this?"
It was unlikely that Dumbledore would tell a young wizard about his plans.
Furthermore, Andy was only twelve years old this year, and even if Andy was very smart, he couldn't analyse Dumbledore and Malfoy's movements without any clues.
Especially ...
Looking at Snape's reaction last night, Andy should have conferred with them a long time ago.
This was also unbelievable.
"I know someone at the Ministry of Magic ..."
Seeing Hermione's expression of disbelief, Andy could only confess, "Well, my dad works at the Ministry of Magic, and he has pretty good connections."
"You probably don't know that the current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, is actually someone recommended up by Dumbledore. But those pureblood families have been trying to solicit Fudge, coupled with the fact that Fudge and Dumbledore are also gradually having conflicts ..."
Andy explained the current political situation in the magic world in general.
"In terms of benefits, this action of Dumbledore's can't bring him any benefits at all."
"So he must have another purpose."
"And think about who Dumbledore cares most about right now."
"That's not hard to surmise."
"Dumbledore's actions must have something to do with Voldemort, and the dark magic items he wants to search for ... must have been left behind by Voldemort."
Andy raised an eyebrow and continued, "During the last month of the summer holidays, Harry went to stay at the Weasley's house. He said that all the letters we wrote to him were intercepted by a house elf called Dobby."
"And Dobby did this to stop Harry from returning to Hogwarts - Dobby told Harry that something horrible was going to happen at Hogwarts."
"After learning this from Harry, I wrote to Professor Snape for confirmation that Dobby was none other than the Malfoys' house elf."
Hermione looked at Andy with admiration, "I didn't realise there was such a twist in the tale. But...Andy, you're really good. Just from the analysis of interests, you can guess that Dumbledore's purpose is to investigate the dark magic items left behind by Voldemort."
After listening to Andy's explanation, Hermione had already believed eight or nine layers.
As for the remaining one or two layers ...
Hermione felt that Andy must still be hiding something from her.
"Did Professor Dumbledore find out about the dark magic item?" Hermione pressed.
"How should I know?"
Andy said helplessly, "How could Dumbledore tell such an important matter to me, a second-year wizard? But we have a clue now, the greatest wizard of the twentieth century can't possibly not have anything at all, right?"
Hermione nodded, she too believed Dumbledore.
"Well, I've explained it all."
Andy shrugged and teased, "Miss Know-It-All, any more questions?"
"Andy!!!"
Hermione screamed, looking at Andy with a pout.
Before the little witch could get mad, Andy hurriedly said, "It's almost time for class! Hermione, we have to hurry up, or we're going to be late for our afternoon class."
Hearing the word 'late', the little witch's face panicked, and she couldn't be bothered to get angry with Andy, and hurriedly ran towards the castle, "Not good! Andy, this is all your fault!"
***
Headmaster's office.
Snape looked at Dumbledore with a gloomy face, "I searched the luggage of those few Weasleys last night ... Unfortunately, nothing was found."
"Huh?"
Dumbledore looked at Snape with a surprised expression, "Severus, didn't I tell you?"
"What?" Snape froze, with a vague bad feeling in his heart.
Dumbledore said with an apologetic look on his face, "I visited Arthur in his Burrow the day Lucius and Arthur fought."
Snape: "..."
So?
"I've found it!"
Dumbledore looked to be in a good mood, "Yes! I have learnt the secret of Voldemort's immortality."
Snape, not bothering to get angry, pressed on, "We can kill him now?"
"I'm sorry!"
Dumbledore was silent for a moment and said slowly, "Tom is the most brilliant student I have ever met, he always brings surprises."
Snape could barely catch his breath.
What on earth did this old fool mean?
Dumbledore continued, "It was expected, wasn't it? Voldemort never trusted anyone, including his trusted confidant Bellatrix."
Snape looked at Dumbledore with a vague suspicion in his mind.
"Yes! There is never just one such thing." Dumbledore affirmed.
Snape looked at Dumbledore with a grim expression on his face, "Then what the hell is it?"
"Sorry! Severus. I can't say right now."
Dumbledore said with an apologetic look on his face, "That thing is so evil that few can resist its temptations. Perhaps ... when the time is right, I will tell you."
"So that means we failed again this time?" At that, Snape recoiled and calmed down.
If Voldemort was really that easy to deal with, it wouldn't be so bad that he could still be a great danger to the wizarding world despite his loss of power.
"No. We were successful this time. This time ... we now have a clue."
Dumbledore calmly said, "We've got one now, and as long as we find the remaining ones, Voldemort will be completely turned into flesh and blood."
----
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