Hogwarts: I graduated before the system came

"Convinced? Then why don't you close that leaky 'rat hole' behind you?"

Upon hearing this, Wormtail quickly bent down to check, and saw a cunning brown gaze from the hole, which made him sweat profusely and his heart tremble with fear.

Voldemort ignored Wormtail's frightened reaction and continued to whisper:

"If they didn't know that the great Lord Voldemort was coming back, then this was undoubtedly a bait targeting you. That place is also of great significance to you, right? I believe that Dumbledore would not do anything meaningless. What do you think?"

Wormtail nodded in agreement, his mind racing. He responded flatteringly:

"Yes, Master, they probably thought I would capture the boy and give him to you.

But I had no chance at Hogwarts, so they planned this event and gave me plenty of time to find out... It must have been the idea of ​​that despicable Sherlock Holmes, who has a good relationship with Dumbledore. Yes, they must have wanted to lure me out. Of course, if I could leave now, I would definitely bring the boy to the master.

Wormtail's eyes flashed with greed and seduction, as if he had really captured Harry Potter and was ready to sacrifice him.

Chapter 316 Target: Little Hangleton

Voldemort stroked his wand, a strange smile on his face: "My friend, we must find a way to get that boy. We can't miss this opportunity."

Then they changed their strategy.

Wormtail sneaks into a Muggle neighborhood and steals a car.

And so they began their escape.

They first rushed towards Serbia in the north. Along the way, the Serbian region they passed through was ravaged by war, and the wizarding world had almost no foothold, which allowed them to advance recklessly and quickly.

Then they headed towards Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is an open and tolerant city, and Wormtail quickly found a human smuggler there who could help them smuggle themselves to the UK.

In the dark corners of Amsterdam, Wormtail found a snakehead named "Jack". Jack was a short and fat Muggle with yellow teeth and sinister eyes. He was famous for his mastery of various underground transactions.

Wormtail temporarily controlled Jack with the Imperius Curse and asked him to arrange for them to be smuggled back to England.

In order to prevent surprise inspections by the Ministry of Magic, they even mixed in with some Muggle stowaways.

Jack took them to the port of Amsterdam, where a dilapidated cargo ship was anchored. The cabin was filled with all kinds of debris, and it smelled of mold and the sea. Jack whispered to them that the cargo ship would set sail at night, bound for London, England.

As night fell, they sneaked into the cargo ship's cabin.

Wormtail leaned against a corner holding Voldemort. Thanks to Jack's arrangement, no Muggles came to trouble the old man with a child.

Voldemort had his eyes closed, as if in meditation, but occasionally opened them to scan his surroundings with a cold gaze. Wormtail, on the other hand, moved his small eyes anxiously, fearing that they would be discovered and that their plan would fail.

The cargo ship sailed in the night, the sea breeze was howling, and the waves hit the hull, making bursts of roaring sounds.

Fortunately, the journey was safe.

As the first rays of sunlight came in, they finally landed on the outskirts of the small town of Cromer in western England.

Based on the information obtained along the way, Voldemort judged that at this time the Aurors of the British Ministry of Magic were mainly concentrated in Devon in the south of England (the venue of the Quidditch World Cup) and near Cardiff in the southwest (Godric's Hollow).

They were now in the eastern part of England. Initially, their target was the Lovegood family (editor-in-chief of "The Quibbler"), but now, taking advantage of the gap in the Auror defense, Voldemort changed his route and headed towards Great Hangleton in the north of England.

As the two of them walked, Voldemort scoffed at the so-called heroic commemoration:

"Those so-called heroes, their bravery? It's nothing but ignorance and stupidity.

Their deaths were not due to their heroic resistance, but to a fate they could not foresee.

A true hero should be able to foresee and overcome all challenges, and they cannot even control their own destiny.

Their reputation is nothing more than the world's sympathy and illusion for the weak. In my eyes, they are just losers, not worth mentioning.

However, their deaths were not in vain, because they allowed me and my friends to sneak into Britain again under heavy siege, and they once again helped the great Dark Lord to be resurrected under the arrangement of fate...

My friend, I will conquer death, and you will conquer fate."

In the early morning of the day before the Hogwarts team arrived at Godric's Hollow, when Wormtail entered British territory, Douglas's magic radar issued an early warning.

Watching where Wormtail landed and where he was heading.

In the office, Dumbledore handed the Deluminator to the complacent Douglas with some reluctance.

Dumbledore looked at the slowly moving trajectory of the radar, picked up a piece of dragon beard candy and said with a little reluctance:

"Douglas, maybe this is just a feint by Tom."

Douglas fiddled with Dumbledore's Deluminator, and the lights in the office went out and then lit up again.

"Impossible. With Senior Tom's current abilities, he probably wouldn't dare go to Mr. Lovegood. He probably knows that anyone who knows his hidden secret and spreads it so discreetly must be someone extraordinary. He won't take the risk."

Dumbledore looked at Douglas with satisfaction, thought for a while and said:

"I won't be attending tomorrow's commemorative meeting. You can give the speech in my place. I think Cornelius (Minister of Magic: Cornelius Fudge) would be more happy to deal with you."

Seeing Douglas looking at him doubtfully, Dumbledore said with a slightly sad expression:

"Those are old friends, Doug. I hope you can understand the fragile heart of an old man..."

Douglas looked Dumbledore up and down:

"So, you're not planning to go to Little Hangleton tomorrow?"

Dumbledore waved his hand and said casually:

"Don't worry, I know there's no point in destroying him before all the Horcruxes are found. I just want to go and take a look and say hello if possible. After all, he was once my student, your senior, isn't he?

And don’t you want to go and see it? According to your novel, many murderers will return to the scene to admire their masterpiece after committing the crime. Don’t you…”

DouglasΣ(っ°Д°;)っ

Chapter 317: The Despicable Wormtail

Inside the Muggle train carriage, the scenery outside the window slowly unfolds like a picture scroll, with lush green mountains, golden wheat fields, and beautiful scenes spread out before your eyes.

However, the atmosphere in the car was as tense as the frozen air.

Wormtail hugged Voldemort, who had just finished his liquid food, tightly. Both of them were keenly aware of the strange looks from the Muggles around them, as if they could see through their disguises and see their true identities.

Voldemort's eyes were as cold as ice, and a hint of helplessness appeared at the corner of his mouth:

"My friend, can't you just act normal? You're always peeking around in a lewd way, and it's hard not to attract the attention of these lowly Muggles."

His voice was low and authoritative, yet it could hardly conceal a hint of fatigue.

Although Voldemort thought Wormtail was becoming smart and could think of using Muggle transportation as a cover to blend in with the Muggles and reach his destination quietly.

He even dressed himself to suit the Muggle aesthetics and fabricated a perfect persona - an uncle who spent all his family fortune to treat a deformed child.

During this period, he was questioned by the train police three or four times, and he used this as an excuse to get by.

However, his sneaky little eyes always made him look out of place, like an uninvited guest ready to steal children at any time.

The air in the carriage seemed to be frozen. The whispers and occasional curious glances from the Muggles around made the journey seem unusually long.

During the long and painful time, Voldemort, who had eaten his fill, had other thoughts. He secretly pondered Wormtail's unusual behavior, and a sense of unease welled up in his heart.

Ever since deciding to travel to the destination via the Muggle train, Wormtail's behavior has become unusually mature, and he seems to be very familiar with the arrangements for the trip.

A man who had been a mouse in the wizarding world for more than ten years was able to skillfully find a Muggle disguise for himself, determine his character, and even skillfully get a Muggle train ticket.

If he had not followed him the entire time, Voldemort would have suspected that Wormtail was some Muggle expert who had drunk Polyjuice Potion.

This sudden maturity and proficiency gave him an ominous premonition. Could this be a trap set by Dumbledore?

Thinking of this, Voldemort could not help but tighten his grip on the wand in his hand. He could not let any accidents happen, especially not trusting Wormtail, who had betrayed his friends before.

But now that it has come to this, Voldemort doesn't want to give up Wormtail easily without getting new helpers.

The wand in the package was quietly pointed at Wormtail's heart, and if he did anything wrong, he would be taken away directly.

Wormtail also felt strange along the way. When he heard Voldemort say that they were going to Little Hangleton, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity. He always felt as if he had heard of this place and had been there more than once.

Because when he first heard it, he already had several plans to go to this place in his mind, but considering safety and Voldemort's physical condition, he chose to use the safest way, Muggle transportation.

He hesitated several times about this and did not dare to tell Voldemort.

He knew the other person very well. If he raised this doubt, his memory would be extracted by the other person without hesitation, even though he himself began to suspect that his memory had been tampered with.

Moreover, Little Hangleton himself had just learned about it from the Dark Lord. If someone really knew in advance that the Dark Lord was going to Little Hangleton,

Then the Dark Lord would have been captured long ago.

If he can't figure it out, then forget it. Now he has nowhere else to go except to follow the Dark Lord closely.

He simply ignored it all the way. A kind Muggle lady called the conductor, but the conductor had already asked about it when the other party got on the bus, so he comforted the passengers around him and kindly gave Wormtail a cup of hot water.

At this moment, the carriage broadcast suddenly sounded:

"Attention, passengers! This train is about to reach its final destination."

This news made the atmosphere in the car even more tense.

Voldemort and Wormtail looked at each other, and each could see the vigilance and uneasiness in the other's eyes.

They all knew that the real test was about to come.

Wormtail hurriedly got off the train amidst a crowd of strangely concerned gazes.

It was already eight or nine in the evening and it was dark.

It was still some distance from Little Hangleton, and he didn't dare to take the car anymore. He left the bustling little city with Voldemort in his arms and walked towards his destination.

Wormtail did not dare to take the main road. Following Voldemort's guidance, he went into the dark bushes beside the road.

At Voldemort's request, he advanced slowly.

Until a rustling sound was heard, and then Voldemort let out a strange cry.

Wormtail could clearly feel in the moonlight that his master's expression seemed to relax.

He looked around but didn't see any trace of the snake.

In this way, accompanied by the constant rustling sound of changing positions from time to time, Wormtail walked for four hours, and stopped halfway to feed Voldemort a bottle of cold milk.

He didn't understand why Voldemort never let him use magic.

As they stepped into a Muggle village, Voldemort said in a voice that was slightly excited but still cold:

"My friend, do you see that house? Let's go over there and stay there tonight."

Wormtail looked up and saw, in the moonlight, a large, single-family house on a hillside in the village.

Wormtail felt an inexplicable chill in his heart. He felt as if he had seen this house somewhere before.

As they gazed at the house, a strange light seemed to shone through the gap in the attic window of the dilapidated house...

A person shrouded in the Disillusionment Charm, with a pair of deep eyes that seemed to see through the mist, seemed to sense Wormtail's gaze and muttered to himself:

"Tom, you're finally here!"

Wormtail: (ノへ￣、) Don't I exist?

Chapter 318: Welcoming Mr. Tom Riddle

Riddle Mansion.

Wormtail hugged Voldemort tightly, carefully hiding behind a towering tree, and peeking at the mansion in front of him.

The more he looked at the house, the more fear surged in his heart, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.

Voldemort first spoke in a whispered Parseltongue, then placed his wand against Wormtail's heart. The cold, deep voice reached directly into his ears:

"Wormtail, what are you afraid of? You seem to know something about this place?"

The Parseltongue he uttered made Wormtail clearly feel that he was not only intimidated by Voldemort's wand, but also closely watched by the giant snake. When he thought of the snake, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind and he blurted out:

"Master, my master, I remember the Gaunt family... that ancient family of Slytherin descendants seems to be nearby. Could this be the Gaunt family's house? Why is it so dilapidated? Also, I don't sense any magical aura around here..."

Wormtail, in his panic, quickly told everything he could think of.

At the same time, he hugged Voldemort tighter, his eyes never leaving the house, in short, avoiding direct eye contact with Voldemort.

After saying these words, he suddenly felt that everything made sense.

Almost no one in the wizarding world knows which family the Dark Lord comes from. Based solely on his Parseltongue, people judge him to be a descendant of Slytherin and a staunch supporter of the pure-blood theory.

But no one connected him to the now-deceased House of Gaunt. By the time the Dark Lord rose to power, Morfin Gaunt had been in Azkaban for years, and his sister had long since disappeared.

Since the outbreak of the war, in order to fight the Dark Lord, Wormtail had heard Potter say that he and Sirius had gone to the Gaunt family to look for clues, but they did not find any evidence that the Dark Lord came from the Gaunt family.