Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 279 The Pleasure of Fear

With the addition of the Auror regulars, the battle quickly came to an end.

Seeing that things were not going well, the wizards wearing hoods immediately teleported away.

The sounds of fighting gradually subsided, and the Roberts family had been rescued by the Aurors and were undergoing treatment and memory erasure.

Just when everyone breathed a sigh of relief—

"The bones reappear!"

A sudden sound pierced the silent night sky.

Immediately afterwards, a huge, shimmering green object appeared in the dark night sky.

It leaped up to the treetop and flew into the sky.

It eventually transformed into an enormous skeleton, composed of countless emerald green star-like things, with a large python emerging from its mouth like a tongue.

The skull rose higher and higher, emitting a dazzling light in a cloud of green smoke, standing out like a new constellation against the dark night sky.

The Aurors, along with other Ministry of Magic workers, exchanged glances and immediately started running towards the direction from which the green smoke had emerged.

Meanwhile, after capturing another hooded wizard, Tyra quietly left the battlefield cloaked in "darkness." However, instead of seeking reunion with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Tyra quietly ran to the outskirts of the grove to meet up with the Weasley twins and Ginny.

“The Dark Lord’s Mark!” George Weasley shouted.

When Tierra joined them, a huge mark appeared in the sky—

It is the mark of the Dark Lord.

Ginny's face also turned deathly pale.

"Where's Harry?" Ginny asked worriedly. "Where is Harry?"

“Don’t worry, Harry will be fine,” Tierra said, then shook her head.

Because Ginny still looked worried.

Tiera wasn't sure if Ginny heard his words of comfort, or if she did but didn't take them to heart.

after awhile--

Maybe ten minutes, maybe twenty minutes, Tyella saw the Weasley twins' father, Arthur Weasley, emerge from the edge of the woods with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

But before the Weasley twins could reunite with Ginny, Tyrell, and Mr. Weasley, a large group of terrified wizards stood between them and Mr. Weasley.

"What's going on over there?"

"Who conjured that mark?"

"Arthur—could it be—him?"

A large group of terrified wizards asked in a flurry of questions.

“No! Of course not him!” Mr. Weasley said impatiently. “We don’t know who it is either. It looks like they Apparated… Alright, alright, please make way, please, I want to go back to sleep.”

He led Harry, Ron, and Hermione through the crowd to meet Tyella, the Weasley twins, and others, and together they walked back to the camp.

When they reached their tents, everything was quiet. The masked wizards were nowhere to be seen, and only a few destroyed tents were still smoking.

A head popped out of Charlie's tent. Bill sat at the small table, a sheet pressed against his arm, from which blood was gushing. Charlie's shirt was ripped open, and Percy flaunted his bleeding nose—

Clearly, all the men in the Weasley family who fought in the war suffered injuries of varying degrees. The Weasleys were a family of loyal martyrs.

For some reason, this sentence suddenly flashed through Tierra's mind.

"Did you catch them, Dad?" Bill breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Mr. Weasley return with the others, then immediately asked, "The ones who conjured that mark?"

“No,” Mr. Weasley said. “We found that Barty Crouch’s house-elf was carrying Harry’s wand, but we have no idea who conjured the mark.”

“What?” Bill, Charlie, and Percy asked almost in unison.

"With Harry's wand?" Fred asked in shock.

"Mr. Crouch's house-elf?" Percy asked, his tone equally shocked.

With the help of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Mr. Weasley told everyone exactly what had happened in the woods.

"Where did you go just now?" Harry asked with a worried look after he finished speaking. "Are you alright?"

“No, don’t worry, Harry,” Tyella said with a smile. “I’m fine.”

Harry seemed relieved.

“It’s been thirteen years since we’ve seen it,” Mr. Weasley said with lingering fear after explaining. “People are naturally very nervous…it’s like seeing the Mystic again.”

“I don’t understand,” Ron said, frowning. “I mean… in the end, it’s just a shadow in mid-air…”

“Ron, every time the Dark Lord and his followers kill someone, they display the Dark Mark in the sky,” Mr. Weasley said softly. “The fear it brings… you don’t know… you’re too young. Imagine you come home and find the Dark Mark hovering above your house. Do you know what you’d see if you went inside…”

Mr. Weasley shuddered. "This...this is...this is what everyone fears most...the most terrifying thing..."

Then came a moment of silence.

Tyrell, watching the fearful expression on Mr. Weasley's face despite his usual witty and humorous demeanor, fell into deep thought—

He suddenly understood why Voldemort had cultivated the image of a crazed terrorist; the feeling of being feared and inspiring terror was indeed very satisfying.

This reminded Tierra of her animal anatomy class during her master's studies.

Tierra herself is a person who loves animals very much.

But when he dissected the first mouse, when he saw the mouse he was holding in his hand, screaming and struggling incessantly—

Tierra had to admit that a sense of satisfaction rose within him.

Staring blankly at the fearful expression on Mr. Weasley's face, Tyella's fingers twitched involuntarily.

The screams and struggles of the white mouse seemed to reappear in Tiera's mind.

“Sigh…” Bill Weasley sighed, then removed the sheet from his arm, examined the wound, and said, “Whoever created this mark, it really got us in trouble tonight. The Death Eaters ran away as soon as they saw it. They all Apparated so fast we didn’t even have a chance to get close enough to remove their masks. Luckily, we caught the Roginz family and prevented them from falling to the ground. Now their memories are being altered.”

"Death Eaters?" Harry asked. "What are Death Eaters?"

“That’s what the followers of Mystic call themselves,” Bill said. “I think we saw remnants of these people tonight, and I don’t know why they weren’t imprisoned in Azkaban.”

“We can’t prove it’s them, Bill,” Mr. Weasley said, “but it’s very possible.”

Mr. Weasley sighed helplessly, and then said:
"Alright, you guys should go back to sleep. This isn't something you can worry about."

(End of this chapter)