Chapter 747: Voldemort's Request (Edited)

"Fish didn't like the story, meow..."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish said with a frown as he returned to the headmaster's office, instead of immediately pouring new memories into the Pensieve.

What had happened to Hokey, the house-elf, had also displeased Fish, and he suddenly felt that Hermione's entrance into the Ministry of Magic was necessary because everyone in that place was very annoying.

But Fish always regained his humor quickly, so after a few moments, he picked up the glass bottle with Dumbledore's name on it and poured the memories it contained into the Pensieve.

"Eh? Albus? When did you come back?"

(?ω?)

After a whirlwind, Fish landed back in the headmaster's office and then saw Dumbledore sitting behind his desk.

But soon Fish realized that the Dumbledore in front of him was not his real body, but the image from the memory bottle.

Although the office was almost identical, it was snowing outside, and it was nighttime. In the darkness, pale green flakes slid down the window and piled up on the windowsill.

Furthermore, upon closer inspection, it became clear that the Dumbledore in front of him seemed slightly younger, that his right index finger was intact, and, most importantly, Fish could not feel his life force at all.

Hermione and the others froze for a moment upon entering the memory, before realizing they were in the memory.

The young Dumbledore looked at his papers, but occasionally turned his head to look at the closed oak door, obviously expecting something.

Indeed, after a while, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," Dumbledore said to the visitor, setting aside the papers he held in his hand.

The door swung open, and Voldemort entered.

It wasn't really Voldemort's appearance that surprised Harry and the others; it was Voldemort's condition that truly startled them.

His face had changed significantly, becoming less handsome, as if it had been burned, his features blurred and twisted like the wax in a strange manner.

The whites of his eyes were now as scarlet as if they were filled with blood, but his pupils were not yet two slits like a snake's. He wore a long black cloak, and his face was as white as the snowflakes on his shoulders.

Dumbledore, behind the desk, showed no surprise, as if he had known that Voldemort was coming and understood the change that had occurred in him.

"Good evening, Tom," Dumbledore said casually. "Please, have a seat."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two of them began what seemed like a very dull conversation to Fish, and after listening for a while, Fish started to yawn...

And Fish didn't know if it was because of the conversation with Riddle in the diary, but he felt that there was something more to what they were saying than the surface meaning; there was a deeper significance.

The thing is...

Fish wasn't interested in analyzing what those two guys were talking about.

Whether Dumbledore was the Headmaster or Minister of Magic, whether he should be called Tom Riddle or Voldemort, whether the Death Eaters were Voldemort's servants or friends or whatever...

Fish isn't interested in any of that!

Those boring things aren't as interesting as Voldemort's love story with that fat old lady!

Impatiently, Fish observed how the two men rambled on and on about a bunch of nonsense before things finally took a slight turn.

When Dumbledore rejected Voldemort's request to teach at Hogwarts, Voldemort stood up with an angry expression on his face.

"Is this your final decision?" Voldemort asked with a cold voice, his scarlet eyes narrowed.

"Yes," Dumbledore also stood up.

"Then we have nothing more to discuss." Voldemort reached into his pocket where he kept his wand.

"Fight! Duel!" Fish jumped with excitement, urging the two men loudly.

However, Fish was disappointed to see that Voldemort's hand only tightened around his pocket, and he didn't draw his wand.

Dumbledore also had no intention of fighting Voldemort; he didn't even attempt to reach for his wand.

"I could frighten you with a flaming wardrobe, but the moment to force you to redeem yourself has long passed." A deep sadness crossed his face, and for the first time, he said to Voldemort in a more subdued tone, "But I wish I could, Tom... I wish I could..."

But Voldemort remained unfazed, looking at Dumbledore with indifference. After a few moments of eerie silence, Voldemort sneered, then turned around and stormed out of the headmaster's office, slamming the oak door shut.

"Yawn! By this point, Voldemort was already a coward. Albus didn't have much desire to fight, and he was too scared to do so!"

Fish looked disapprovingly at the closed oak door, expressing his sincere disdain for the departing Voldemort.

Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh as he sat back down in his chair after Voldemort had left.

Here ended the memories, followed by the familiar darkness, the familiar ascension, and the familiar spinning of the skies.

When Fish returned to the Headmaster's office, they were almost in the same place as before, but in the real world, snow didn't fall on the windowsill, and the sun was shining outside, an unusual day.

"Fish has been fooled by Albus again!"

Fish pouted as they left, saying, "Those two memories he left behind are not fun, meow!"

Unlike the carefree Fish, Hermione, Harry, and Ron, who had a lot to discuss about those two memories, whispered among themselves as they grabbed Fish and left the Headmaster's office.

"Voldemort wanted to come teach at Hogwarts, by Gryffindor's sword, I suppose," Ron said gratefully. "Thank goodness Dumbledore rejected him, otherwise the treasures of our house would have been in danger... but those Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers aren't lucky! I would dare say that from the moment Voldemort was rejected, he cursed the position."

"Not just the sword," Hermione added, "But Uroboros, he didn't take the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets in the first place."

"Hmph~"

Fish tilted their head and wagged their tail in triumph. "Now, even if Voldemort wanted to take Uroboros, he could never do it, meow! Uroboros is free from his contract with Voldemort!"

As for how the basilisk freed itself from the contract... Uroboros himself doesn't know.

One day, Uroboros suddenly found himself free from Voldemort's commands, but due to its Slytherin blood, Uroboros couldn't harm him.

But that meant nothing to Fish. They didn't want Uroboros stealing their prey!