Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 864 235: Braun

Behind the brown-haired youth, a gray tide stood in utter silence.

In the night, countless figures in gray robes bowed their heads slightly; the shadows of their cloaks completely obscured their faces, and even their height and build all looked eerily uniform.

This was a very sophisticated Confusion Spell.

In the crowd, there was no whispering, no swaying bodies; even the rise and fall of their breathing was barely perceptible.

They were like statues standing on tomb slabs in a graveyard, like messengers of the God of Death crawling out of Hell, carrying a deathly stillness and oppressive aura that did not belong to the living.

The people in the courtyard were in fact no strangers to this group. They had all seen the gray-robed figures storm Muggle bases, rescue imprisoned underage Wizards or Muggle children, and sometimes execute famous villains.

Some had cursed them as "bottomless butchers," "executioners in mourning clothes," and some had mockingly called them "meddlesome wizard police," "hypocrites who dress up slaughter as justice."

But only now, facing this army head-on, did the Death Eaters finally understand that those edited clips could never transmit this kind of oppressive force—when they appeared in front of you, even the air itself seemed to solidify.

The crowd began to tremble.

MacNeil's legs were shaking, Goyle almost couldn't hold his Magic Wand, and people like Yaxley and Selwyn had already started looking for directions they could escape to.

At this moment they were overwhelmed with regret—regret that they had not, like some of their colleagues, stayed far away from this, and instead, afraid of punishment from the Dark Lord, had risked the live broadcast to rush to the place where the Dark Mark had summoned them.

...

Shock, rare and stark, appeared on Voldemort's pale face.

—Impossible.

This Monastery was shrouded in the Fidelius Charm, and the Secret Keeper was him, and him alone!

Back then, he had broken into the Potter Family's house which was protected by the same Spell, but that was only because the Secret Keeper, Peter, had already defected to Voldemort in secret.

Otherwise, even if he ruled the entire United Kingdom, he would never have been able to dig that couple out of their rat hole!

He knew clearly that he had only told a limited number of people the Monastery's address, and they had all been under his watchful eye; none of them had ever left! Except…

An unbelievable notion rose to the surface of his mind. Voldemort jerked his head around and swept his gaze across the battlefield, his scarlet eyes drawing a bloody arc through the night.

"Barty Crouch!"

Voldemort shouted.

No response.

Barty Crouch Jr, who should have been among the Death Eaters' ranks, had vanished without a trace. Voldemort's pupils trembled violently.

He thought of…that scrap of parchment with the address, the thing he had personally handed to Barty Crouch Jr…

Voldemort was flooded with immense fury, yet the corner of his mouth twisted upward, baring white teeth in a feral grin.

"Traitor…"

When this word was squeezed out from between his teeth, the surrounding Death Eaters shivered in unison.

"You dare—betray me!"

Voldemort's roar erupted. He swung his arm in a wide arc, his Magic Wand whistling through the air, carving a circular trajectory; overwhelming Magic Power sliced through the scorched air like wind blades.

The Death Eaters turned pale with fright and dropped to their knees like a field of wheat being harvested. Goyle, however, reacted half a beat too slow, and his massive body made his movements clumsy—

"Aaaah!!!"

The man screamed in agony as blood spurted like a fountain; an entire arm, along with half a shoulder, was sliced clean off and went spinning through the air!

When the severed limb hit the ground, several thick fingers were still twitching reflexively.

The brown-haired youth was also within the area of effect, yet his eyelashes did not even flicker.

"Iron Armor Protection!"

Several people behind the youth raised their Magic Wands in unison, overlapping invisible suits of armor into a wall of solid metal. Spells collided, sparks exploded, and when the smoke and dust dispersed, the youth was completely unharmed.

He suddenly let out a soft chuckle and, unhurriedly, took a crumpled, folded piece of parchment from his robe.

"Betrayal?"

His final syllable rose, bright with amusement.

"Who do you think deliberately leaked the address? In fact, no one did… As a leader, I'd suggest you place a bit more trust in your followers' loyalty."

As he spoke, he strolled forward as if walking through a garden path, even stepping on Goyle's arm as he passed. Then, as though he had only just noticed it, he shook his head and sighed.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…how pitiful. All we did was catch a little rat who tried to sneak away, and then we found a scrap of parchment on him, that's all."

He flicked his hand. The parchment ignited instantly; he released it and, before it hit the ground, it had already turned to ash.

"See? Gone. Now you don't have to worry anymore, do you?"

The youth spoke in a teasing tone, his peripheral vision catching the trembling hem of a robe in the shadows beyond the doorway.

The real leaker, Malfoy, was hiding within the Witch Pure Party's formation. Just as the brown-haired youth had said, he had barely made it out of the Monastery when he was captured by Witch Pure Party members lying in ambush nearby.

But the youth deliberately refrained from mentioning his name, making it sound as though the one who had tried to flee really was Barty Crouch Jr, and then took the opportunity to wink in Lucius's direction.

Lucius's body gave a tiny jolt, and he hastily hid his trembling fingers inside his sleeve.

"I know you…" Voldemort narrowed his eyes, his voice hoarse. "Braun—Grindelwald's heir, the Witch Pure Party's carefully nurtured…rising star."

"Ah, and I've long heard of your illustrious reputation as well, Mr. Voldemort."

The brown-haired youth, Braun, inclined his head with polished grace, a perfectly measured smile at the corner of his lips.

"For us to meet here today, it seems heroes do indeed think alike. But you really are far too cruel to children."

Smiling with narrowed eyes, he stepped over the charred remains of the destroyed Poppets on the ground and walked toward Vid, saying, "More than these exquisite creations, I care about the genius who made them."

Vid, who had been named, jerked his head up. The six-year-old's body looked particularly frail, even surrounded by the enormous jellyfish.

Voldemort's narrow eyes squinted a fraction, his face betraying nothing, only the tip of his Magic Wand flickering faintly green.

He very much wanted to kill this young man, who still dared to flaunt himself in front of him, on the spot. But Braun was only the Witch Pure Party's new star; behind him stood over a hundred gray-robed Wizards, and…Grindelwald.

In the face of such an overwhelming disparity of power, even someone as self-assured as Voldemort had to admit that his forces now could not begin to compare to the ever-expanding Witch Pure Party.

And the Death Eaters kneeling on the ground did not know whether they should get up. They glanced at the brown-haired youth's completely unguarded back, holding their breath and quietly beginning to hope—

Did he really think those Poppets were so easy to deal with? Just those unremarkable little "ants" on the ground could easily finish off this careless Wizard!

The Death Eater with the Mother Mirror Badge pinned to his collar even adjusted the angle of the lens, making sure that the scene of the youth being torn apart by Poppets would be transmitted in full to Wizards all over the world.

"Tap, tap, tap!"

The youth stepped into the dense swarm of Poppets.

Everyone was utterly silent, as if the whole world were waiting for some inevitable thunderous crash to arrive.

Yet everything remained as quiet as before.