Chapter 249: The Great Terror
"Are you saying that whoever conjured the Dark Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?" said Harry.
"It's just a hypothesis," said Lupin, smiling weakly.
"Loads of people," said Harry. "Some Bulgarian ministers… Cornelius Fudge… the Malfoys…"
"I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!" said Ron suddenly.
"No, he was sitting way at the front," said Oleandra. "I remember because I saw the invisible man behind Harry right after coming back from the first row, where the Malfoy family was sitting…"
"Anyone else?" said Sirius.
"No one else," Harry confirmed.
"Yes, there was," Hermione corrected him. "Ludo Bagman was doing the commentary from our Box, behind us."
"Oh, yeah…"
"And he was with us in the forest right before the Dark Mark appeared…" Hermione continued.
"And he keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament," Harry added, remembering how Sirius had told him to report anything he found strange.
"Huh?" said Oleandra in surprise. "But he's one of the organizers— that's not fair!"
Sirius fell deeply in thought once again.
"Strange things keep happening to and around Crouch," said Sirius. "It's just not like him… making his Elf save him a seat at the World Cup, and then not going… Working hard to organize the Triwizard Tournament, and then not going to that either… It's just not like him."
"You might be a little biased against him," Oleandra cautioned him. "Are you certain you're not just holding a grudge against him? I know first-hand, because he's caused me no end of trouble…"
"I'm not saying he's behind all these strange events, just that he's at the centre of them," said Sirius. "Crouch hates the Dark side more than anything, more than he loves work, and more than he loves power."
"Sounds like you know him well," said Hermione.
"After a man sends you to Azkaban for a lifetime," said Sirius grimly, "you tend to remember things about them. He was infamous for his brutal measures against the Dark side during the war, like allowing Aurors to use the Unforgivables… It was a different time then, you wouldn't understand… you're too young…"
"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," said Ron, a hint of irritation creeping into his voice. "Try us, why don't you?"
"All right then," said Sirius, a grin flashing across his face. "I know old Mad-Eye's shown you the three Unforgivables in class, so let me paint you a picture. Imagine that Voldemort's at the height of his power; you don't know what he looks like; all you know is that his followers have infiltrated the entire Wizarding World, but you don't know who they are either."
"It was a time of terror," said Lupin quietly, while Sirius tore off a chunk of chicken from the bone. "You never knew whom to trust; Voldemort and his Death Eaters used the Imperius Curse to great effect: overnight, your next-door neighbour could instantly become an assassin in the night. Your wife or your husband could turn on you just like that."
"Voldemort's ascension was marked by disappearances," Sirius continued. "Just like what's been happening lately; more and more people began disappearing in the dead of night, to be tortured and interrogated with the Cruciatus Curse, no doubt. And Muggles weren't spared; torture, mass killings, they got the worst of it; they're powerless before magic, and they didn't even know what was happening going on."
"And all the while, the Ministry desperately tried to keep Muggles from learning about us, despite more and more of them dying, and more and more of us going missing by the day," Lupin added. "Desperately trying to maintain the Statute of Secrecy, despite our world collapsing around our ears."
"It was a period of panic and terror, and despite Crouch and his Aurors' best efforts, Voldemort was untouchable," Sirius said. "Spies, assassins, the best duellists; they would all fail to bring back even a single picture of the man, much less his head."
"Nobody even knew what Voldemort looked like, except his closest followers," he continued. "The man was an enigma; he'd appeared out of nowhere, rapidly gaining support before plunging society into chaos; but there was one place he wouldn't touch: Hogwarts, which was and still is under Dumbledore's protection."
"Nobody knew what he looked like?" said Harry, startled. "I mean, he's pretty easy to spot in a crowd; he's got no nose, pale white skin and red eyes, with slits for pupils."
"Hm," said Viviane, who hadn't spoken to Oleandra up until this point. "That sounds rather familiar."
"Is that right?" said Sirius, intrigued. "Well, you're probably one of his only enemies to ever see his face and live to tell the tale, apart from Dumbledore and some of the more elite Aurors who managed to narrowly escape from him, I suppose. The Daily Prophet never dared to publish his photograph, if one was ever taken of him in the first place. At any rate, his appearance wasn't widely known."
"Nobody ever thought that Voldemort would fall before Lily and James, and their little baby boy," said Lupin, looking at Harry. "Without their master, the Death Eaters fell into disarray, and we quickly took back control. Moody arrested most of them after Voldemort lost his powers."
"I've got a question," said Oleandra. "Why does everybody keep saying that? He lost his powers. Why isn't he dead?"
"I've even heard Fudge say it, now that I think about it," said Harry. "And that's also a good question; why isn't he dead? He doesn't even have his own body any more."
"The general consensus among the Wizarding population is that Voldemort perished," said Lupin. "But Dumbledore doesn't think that's the case. And Harry just answered your question, Oleandra; he's lost his magic, because he's lost his body. As for why he hasn't died, well, that is the question, isn't it?"
Oleandra remembered good old Adalbert Waffling's book; at some point in human evolution, some people adapted to magic, gaining Magic Circuits throughout their body, which allowed them to tap into the ambient magic that permeates this world, and channel it to great effect. No body equals no Magic Circuits, which means no magic!
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