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Chapter 109: The confrontation between Riddle and Voldemort

However, the mansion\'s owner was groveling in the living room, which was covered in purple wallpaper, bowing and scraping before a man with a bald head and a twisted, grotesque face.

"Lucius, how are the things I asked you to handle coming along?" The twisted-faced man, sitting in the foremost chair in the living room, rasped.

"It has been taken care of, Master," Lucius said, bending deeply and almost burying his head in the floor in a respectful manner. "I have used a substantial amount of money and the connections retained by the Malfoy family to pave the way for Alecto\'s promotion."

"According to reliable sources, he will soon become the third in command of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Lucius bowed so low that his face was hidden from view, showing no hint of the dissatisfaction and resentment he felt.

Once a prominent Death Eater with considerable influence and resources, Lucius had lost his standing after losing an unknown dark magical artifact of Voldemort. Now, he felt like a pawn ready to be discarded as soon as Voldemort had drained all his resources and wealth.

Feeling deeply resentful and even contemplating betrayal, Lucius was unsettled by the recent list he had sent to Dracula detailing the sale of dark magical artifacts. Despite his attempt to suppress his anxiety with anger and bitterness, he remained on edge.

"You have done well, Lucius," Voldemort\'s raspy voice came from the front of the living room. Though his tone was encouraging, his eyes were blood-red and cold, like a frigid, bloodthirsty serpent. "You have dedicated yourself to providing the manor and contributing considerable wealth to pave the way for Alecto in the Ministry of Magic."

"I am always fair with rewards and punishments. Tell me, is there any reward you desire?"

"Being able to serve you is my greatest reward!" Lucius said, his tone ingratiating.

However, his deeply bowed face was full of resentment, showing no hint of flattery.

"Do you think I don\'t know you, Lucius?" Voldemort\'s long, spider-like fingers intertwined as he looked at Lucius\'s lowered eyes with his crimson gaze. "If I don\'t give you the reward you deserve, you\'ll probably start thinking about how to betray me, won\'t you?"

Hearing Voldemort\'s sinister words, Lucius panic-strickenly raised his head, fearing that Voldemort had discovered his appeal for help to Dracula.

"Master, I—" Lucius almost revealed his meeting with Dracula in his panic.

Fortunately, he was interrupted by Voldemort before he could speak.

"Let me think about what kind of reward would be appropriate..." Voldemort said with a sinister smile, causing Lucius to feel increasingly anxious.

"I\'ve just thought of an interesting idea," Voldemort suddenly grinned, showing a terrifyingly hideous smile. "Lucius, you must have a son, right? I see he is not at your manor, so he must be starting his education at Hogwarts?"

Lucius\'s face changed drastically.

He had specifically waited until the start of the Hogwarts term to offer the Malfoy manor to Voldemort, intending to keep his son Draco out of the Death Eaters\' mess.

But Lucius never anticipated that Voldemort would suddenly mention Draco.

The Dark Lord seemed to want to use his son as a hostage to ensure his loyalty!

"What\'s the matter? Aren\'t you willing?" Voldemort looked at Lucius\'s panicked expression, coldly extending his pale, skeletal wand towards his face and tapping his pale cheek with it.

Lucius\'s mind went blank as he struggled to refuse Voldemort\'s so-called "reward," but despite several attempts, he couldn\'t bring himself to say the words of refusal.

At that moment, a voice from the other side of the long table, under the grand chandelier, spoke up and discreetly intervened to save Lucius.

"Master, Draco is my student. He is still too young and unruly, and could hinder your plans," Snape said calmly. "If you need Draco to join the Death Eaters, I can pay closer attention to him over the next two years and train him into the talent you require."

Snape sat in the first seat to Voldemort\'s right, indicating his high status in Voldemort\'s eyes.

"Very well," Voldemort said, glancing at Snape and nodding. "Since Severus has said so, we\'ll postpone this \'reward\' for another two years."

He gestured for Lucius to return to his original seat.

However, Voldemort gets along very well with the Dementors.

Since Dementors can only feed on the happiness of wizards, which is a chaotic emotion in these eerie creatures, they only harm others.

Yet Voldemort, being a product of a love potion and a human devoid of any feelings, offers no positive emotions for the Dementors to feed on in his mind.

Because of this, Dementors have no leverage over Voldemort.

During his research on Dementors around Azkaban, young Voldemort discovered that the Ministry of Magic had not truly controlled the Dementor species. They had merely established a hasty cooperative relationship—

The Ministry continuously sent prisoners to Azkaban, and the Dementors fed on the prisoners\' happiness while assisting the wizards, or rather, helping themselves guard the delectable "dishes" and prevent their escape.

Voldemort quickly realized that this cooperation was extremely flimsy and fragile.

If one day Voldemort established his own regime and promised the Dementor population freedom beyond Azkaban, allowing them to feed on the happiness of people across the entire world, these creatures would inevitably abandon the Ministry\'s control and side with Voldemort.

Although Voldemort\'s power had not yet fully recovered and he had not yet established his own dark regime, negotiating with Dementors was still feasible.

Even if Dementors were suspected of neglecting their duties by the Ministry, they would face no real consequences.

This is because such diligent and free labor as Dementors is a rare and valuable resource! The Ministry would have to continue using Dementors if they did not want to increase their spending on prisoner supervision.

"If some strong minister were in office, perhaps there would be slight concern about whether the Dementors\' work would be abolished by the Ministry," Voldemort thought coldly, "But now that that fool Fudge is the Minister of Magic, that coward who only wishes to retreat clearly does not have the courage to abolish the Dementors!"

With this thought, Voldemort was completely unconcerned about attacking Azkaban and casually waved his hand to the Death Eaters surrounding the long table.

"You may leave now and complete the tasks I assigned at this meeting," he said. "Anyone who fails to complete their task knows the consequences."

In the living room of Malfoy Manor, the Death Eaters stood up from their seats, bowing respectfully to Voldemort before Disapparating out of the room.

Death Eaters like Lucius, who lived at Malfoy Manor, also carefully exited the room, leaving the space for the Dark Lord and his rebellious Horcrux...

Soon, only Voldemort and Riddle remained in the spacious living room.

"You arrived just in time. If I had obtained that item, attacking Azkaban would be a sure thing!" Voldemort, suppressing the heat in his eyes, turned to Riddle and asked, "Have you brought the item I requested?"

Under Voldemort\'s intense gaze, Riddle\'s handsome face slightly changed color, and he solemnly shook his head.

"What—did—you—say—?!"

Voldemort\'s intense gaze turned cold instantly, his crimson eyes flashing with a bloodthirsty light, "It\'s been half a year! Since I left you at Hogwarts, half a year has passed, and you can\'t even collect the blood of a first-year student?!"

He stood up and stepped forward, pressing his wand against Riddle\'s forehead.

"You should know, my memory container? By obtaining Potter\'s blood, I could restore my power to its peak, which would be immensely beneficial to both you and me!" Voldemort said coldly. "Why are you unwilling to make an effort in this matter? Do you really think I can\'t do anything with my own Horcruxes?"

"I have tried my best." Riddle, showing little change in his mood, looked at his main soul nearby and explained his efforts, "During my time at Hogwarts, with Dumbledore and Dracula keeping watch, I couldn\'t overtly take Harry Potter\'s blood."

"So I wrote Harry\'s name on the first page of the diary, lurked near him, and gained his trust through conversations and tutoring his coursework. I even found him alone and completely unguarded."

"But I did not anticipate that Harry\'s blood contained a powerful protective magic that counteracts us. I couldn\'t collect his blood with normal methods and had to seek other ways."

Voldemort withdrew his wand from Riddle\'s forehead, frowning deeply without any eyebrows.

"Indeed? I had suspected as much. When I possessed Quirrell, he couldn\'t make physical contact with Potter\'s skin. That\'s the effect of this protective magic!" he said grimly. "Lily Potter left a spell in Harry Potter\'s blood specifically targeting me!"

"Is this why you\'re willing to delay gaining power just to use Potter\'s blood to restore your body?" Riddle asked.

"Of course." Voldemort sneered, "I look forward to seeing Potter\'s expression when he realizes that the protective magic his mother sacrificed her life for flows in his enemy\'s veins."

"I understand." Riddle bowed his head and said softly, "I will obtain it for you as soon as possible."

"Even if you can\'t directly obtain Potter\'s blood, can\'t you use the Imperius Curse to control him and bring him to me?" Voldemort was not ready to let Riddle off the hook so easily and asked coldly, "During those two months of summer vacation, you must have had many opportunities to do so, right?"

"I have tried." Riddle said calmly, "But Harry has a talisman made by Dracula that absorbs almost all dark magic. With my diary, which has little remaining magical power, I couldn\'t break Dracula\'s talisman."

Ironically, the talisman was most likely to be acquired by the high-achieving Hermione.

Without the talisman, Harry would have been easily controlled by Riddle\'s Imperius Curse, and Voldemort might have already obtained Harry\'s blood and fully restored his body.

However, to gain Harry\'s trust, Riddle patiently explained various aspects of Dark Arts defense to him. Moreover, Harry was indeed very talented in Dark Arts defense.

Thus, Harry surpassed Hermione to become the top of the Defense Against the Dark Arts final exam, and successfully obtained the talisman made by Professor Dracula.

Because of this talisman, Riddle could no longer control Harry with the Imperius Curse.

"I didn\'t expect you to be so useless!" Voldemort slammed his hand on the long table, causing a crack to appear on the smooth surface. "I\'m giving you another month and a half. Before the stroke of midnight on Halloween, I must see Potter\'s blood in front of me!"

After saying this harshly, Voldemort turned and left the spacious living room of Malfoy Manor without looking back.

He feared he would lose control and destroy this useless Horcrux!

Riddle watched Voldemort leave the living room and let out a long sigh, relaxing his tense body.

Attending the Death Eater meeting this time was very risky for him.

Riddle had absorbed the Horcrux crown left by Voldemort in the Room of Requirement. Now, his soul power was several times stronger than when Voldemort first found him in the Malfoy house.

However, if he chose not to attend the meeting out of fear of being discovered, Voldemort would immediately become suspicious—

Even if Voldemort did not believe that a Horcrux would betray him, he would at least doubt whether he could fully control such a Horcrux with self-awareness.

Fortunately, Voldemort seemed not to have noticed his problem.

Whether due to Voldemort\'s excessive confidence and lack of attention to him, or Riddle\'s special nature allowing him to hide well and making Voldemort believe this was a normal power level for a Horcrux with self-awareness, it was uncertain.

In any case, Riddle was still alive and had not been absorbed by his main soul.

"Do I need to collect the blood before Halloween?" Setting aside concerns for his life, Riddle began to consider Voldemort\'s plans to attack Azkaban. "Does he intend to attack Azkaban on Halloween?"

Riddle knew that from sunset on Halloween night until sunrise on Halloween day, the entire night would be the time when dark magic was most intense in the magical world.

During such a period of intense dark magic, Voldemort\'s resurrection using dark magic rituals would be smoother; furthermore, it would be the most active time for Dementors.

If Voldemort could negotiate with the Dementors and carry out the rescue on Halloween night, it would be the most difficult time for the Ministry\'s wizards to resist.

"But those who thrive in intense dark magic are not only dark wizards and Dementors..." Riddle thought with a hint of concern and muttered to himself, "Such a night is also the domain of vampires, right?"

He thought of Dracula, surrounded by dark power, and pondered for a moment but decided not to warn Voldemort about this.

The next moment, Riddle and the diary in his hand disappeared from the spot.