Chapter 421: Must leave one (2 in 1)

Chapter 421: Must leave one (2 in 1)

Once again, the scene went completely silent.

The former castle students all stared blankly at Mr Headmaster, on whom they had placed so much hope, for a moment they simply couldn't figure out what the hell he was talking about.

Why was there talk of a prisoner exchange?

Leaving aside the question as to who the captives were, there was a big question as to why they were being exchanged in the first place.

Hadn't Dumbledore always been their Mr Headmaster's defeated enemy?

Even if the final outcome of the Triwizard Tournament was acknowledged, the other side had declared war at their own doorstep!

Shouldn't there be a tough response at a time like this?

While the students could not see the problem, the other adult wizards could hear a lot from Voldemort's words.

The journalists who remained behind cast a meaningful glance at Voldemort, who looked no different from before but always gave the impression of being a different person.

That statement was in itself a sign of weakness.

The enemy had declared war, and here you were talking about exchanging prisoners, and who was this so-called prisoner, those students couldn't see it, but they, the outsiders, could still not see it?

It was obvious that these students, surrounded by the Order of the Phoenix, had been treated by Voldemort as Dumbledore's captives by default.

In other words, Voldemort himself believed that if he took the forceful approach, there was no way he could safely rescue these people from this ongoing mess under Dumbledore's watch.

Not only them but also Barty and Snape, the professors, had found out about the situation.

The adult Death Eaters were much more nervous than the bewildered students, and while only Snape's face remained as cold as ever, Barty's gaze turned to Voldemort as soon as he spoke.

That look and expression, like he was having doubts about something.

None of the Witching Horizon men spoke either, but Jon was able to sense the obvious difference between this Voldemort in front of him, and the one who had just tried to kill him in the castle.

No wonder that Voldemort in the castle had been cursing his other self for being such a fool; this version one Voldemort now clearly seemed to have quite a bit of scruple against Dumbledore, but was acting as if he wanted to preserve his forces from excessive loss.

But when you think about it, the Voldemort Two who had confronted him in the castle was clearly the one who had recovered the split soul in the Horcrux, and he was the one who appeared to be more sensible and powerful.

The one in front of him was a mutilated soul, the same one as the original madman who was addicted to killing and wanted to kill Harry Potter without regard for anything else!

Now that he has regained control of his body, and has suddenly gained a high position he hasn't held since being squeezed out by his other self, and with no more prophetic dangers, there is only one threat in the form of an exhausted, winded Dumbledore. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

The other Voldemort had already laid a solid foundation by adopting the ideas of the original Voldemort, and in this Voldemort's mind, as long as he was himself again, he would already attain more than half of what he once wanted.

To gain authority over the whole of Britain!

Compared to the other Voldemort Two, it could be said to be ideal with no great ambition.

Of course, what Jon didn't know yet was that this Voldemort One actually wanted to keep France, after all, the blood pact was signed by the other Voldemort Two with his own soul and had nothing to do with him at all, which was something the current Voldemort One had no intention of honouring.

It was just that Dumbledore's strength at the French Ministry of Magic had woken Voldemort One up a little, making it clear to him that the previous him being able to crush Dumbledore in strength was the result of the two of himself working together, and now that he was the only one left, he wouldn't be able to get much of an advantage in a one-on-one fight.

So Voldemort One, who was originally full of greed and who also thought that his other self was wasting time and that he hadn't been able to devour France after planning for so long, chose to slow himself down a bit.

Intending to first sort out the other mess his other self had left behind, after which he would take his time to deal with Dumbledore, who had regained his momentum.

The matter of that Resurrection Stone ring had certainly been communicated to Dumbledore by Jon.

"Yes. If one is left behind, we can't guarantee he won't have a second one behind, which means there's no way we can put an end to the mess tonight no matter what?"

"It seems like that."

"Then give him what he wants, Professor." Jon said decisively, only his words were clearly not finished, "But only a part of the men can be agreed in exchange, it's obvious that the value of the prisoners they have is not equal to what we have, so, of course, we can't let all of them go."

Off to the side Kingsley and Moody, both of whom had also heard Jon's words, Moody spoke up and asked.

"We should only agree to trade students for students? Are we going to insist on leaving Crouch and Snape, the Death Eaters, behind?"

At this, Jon just shook his head.

"Voldemort isn't stupid, surely he wouldn't agree to such a deal. What I'm saying is that, instead, we're going to keep these students and trade them for just these Death Eaters, Crouch, Malfoy, and Snape."

Hearing his words, Kingsley and the others, including Lupin and Sirius, all frowned.

"What's the point in that? What's the difference between letting all of them go, and just leaving the students, and letting all the Death Eaters go for us?"

Jon side-stepped, using Sirius' tall stature to block the smile that was gradually tickling his face.

"This Voldemort now is very different from before, do you think these Death Eaters won't notice?"

The change between the previous Voldemort and the current Voldemort was too great, not to mention the big strategic decisions, but the personal style alone was a huge contrast, and these Death Eaters were no fools, it would be a joke if they didn't notice anything.

"So if they find out, what kind of changes are going to happen within Britain? Fence-sitters like Malfoy aside, what about the diehards who were once loyal to Voldemort because of his policies? How will they choose when they find out that there are actually two lords? Or how will this current Voldemort force them to choose?"

Jon's question had Lupin pondering.

"You mean that without us doing anything behind the scenes, the Dark Lord will mess up on his own internally? But the Dark Lord himself is still exceptionally powerful, and even if these people have grievances, will they really dare to resist?"

"Then we'll send him a former Voldemort die-hard who has the guts to rebel and is equally influential."

Jon said softly, while turning his gaze to Barty Crouch Jr. who had fixed his deadly eyes on his lord from the moment Voldemort had appeared.

The people around them, including Dumbledore, had also noticed Jon's gaze, and they all saw the unusual reaction of Crouch at this moment.

"Besides, these students seem to me to be a lot more useful than these Death Eaters." Jon continued, "The kids of all the Pureblood and Half-Blood wizards in their prime in the British magical community are all here, so if they learn that their lord has abandoned them, and we have captured them as prisoners, what will they think?"

The consequences were easy to see, and after being reminded of this by Jon, Kingsley and the others could see the value of these former Castle students.

By releasing Voldemort's adult Death Eaters as a destabilizing factor and keeping these pureblood and half-blood offspring to continue to expand that destabilizing factor, then as long as Britain itself messed up first, it would undoubtedly be much easier for them later on when they started their counter-attack.

Finally, Jon continued.

"And we'll add one last condition, all the other Death Eaters can be released, but the two, Barty Crouch Jr. and Severus Snape, one of them must be left behind!"

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