Chapter 233 - 233 Quidditch World Cup
Chapter 233: Quidditch World Cup
After leaving Desiree's house, Sirius took Harry along on his flying broom to a suburban villa.
"You bought a house in the Little Whinging District?!"
Seeing such a big luxurious detached house in front of him, Harry looked at Sirius beside him in surprise.
"Yeah, I was going to buy a house on Maiden Road, but I couldn't find any tenants willing to sell." Sirius said casually as he jumped off his flying broom.
"Come to think of it it's actually kind of nice to be wanted, at least I'll be able to use the confusion spell on those muggles without any mental barriers, that'll be a lot easier."
He rummaged through his pockets, then shrugged, "Can't find the key, never mind ..."
"Alohomora (Aloha Cave Open)."
Harry watched Sirius's movements dumbfounded and lowered his voice to ask, "Sirius ... Tell me the truth, did you really buy this cottage yourself?"
"What are you thinking?" Sirius lost his smile, "I was just released from the warrant, so I'm not that thoughtful yet. What's more, I don't even lack this much money!"
Saying that, he turned his head towards the inside of the house and shouted, "Kreacher, is this house packed up yet?"
A house elf with a bald head and a mean-looking face walked out of the house.
"It's already packed, Young Master Sirius." Kreacher replied, and then muttered in a small voice, "Defeated young master Sirius, he has only just returned for a short while and he has to use the family property that young master Regulus has managed to recover with great difficulty ..."
"Not only did he buy an expensive but useless broken broom for an outsider, he also bought an old muggle house at a premium, sooner or later the Breck family fortune will be lost to him ..."
Though Kreacher was mumbling in a low voice, he was mumbling just loud enough to maintain a level that both Sirius and Harry could hear.
Harry's expression stiffened a little and he gave Sirius an awkward look, contemplating whether or not to give Sirius back his fire crossbow arrows ... But he really liked that broom and was a little reluctant to part with it.
And Sirius' face darkened for a moment.
"Kreacher, I'm the ultimate heir to all of the Blake family fortune!" He said to Kreacher with a stern face, "Is there anything wrong with me spending my own money on something for my godson?"
"Yes there is nothing wrong with it." Kreacher glanced at Sirius, then both muttered, "Just because of that I am worried that sooner or later, the Breck family fortune will be lost to this indifferent mentality of young master Sirius."
"Uh ... Sirius, I'm not sure about your family's situation, or else I'd better return the fire crossbow arrows, right?" Harry asked in a small voice.
"Just ignore him, this house elf is just against me all day!" Sirius felt a bit disgraced and gritted his teeth as he shooed Kreacher out, "Leave as soon as you're done cleaning up and go find your Master Regulus!"
After Kreacher's Phantom Shift departure, it wasn't until the two of them, Harry and Sirius, were inside the living room together that Harry was still struggling with whether or not to persuade Sirius to return the house and broom.
"Sirius, I don't actually have to use the fire crossbow arrows, I can get the Quidditch Cup with the Sweeper as well ...," Harry said to Sirius with determination as he finally came to a decision.
"You really don't have to care what Kreacher is talking about ..." Sirius gave Harry a somewhat helpless look, "I'm really not short of money, it's just that that house elf grew up with my mother, just as she was. never saw me as a traitor to the Breck family."
"You know Harry, I was the only Gryffindor in the Breck family and that was tantamount to betrayal in their eyes. If I hadn't ended up being the only heir left in our family, how come those family estates wouldn't have passed into my hands ..."
"But didn't that house elf just say ... that you have a brother?" Harry queried.
Sirius fell silent.
"It's a bit complicated, in short, it's just that everyone thinks Regulus is dead ... or that he really is dead." He said softly, "With Dracula's help, he came back to life, but the family fortune has been passed on to me."
"Back from the dead?!" Harry's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Not quite back from the dead, but not too far off." Sirius' haughty eyes also had a vaguely convincing look mixed in, "I have to say, that Professor Dracula of yours really is a very powerful man."
Harry nodded heartily.
Professor Dracula, despite his unreliable appearance of looking around for fun, loafing around and doing nothing all day long, many of his unintentional gestures were a great shock to the students.
"Okay, enough with the complicated stuff." Sirius shook his head and brought up the subject, "Instead of discussing those things, let's think about who will win the Quidditch World Cup this year."
"Arthur and I have already talked about it, and the two of us will go to the Weasleys' house together when the time comes, and travel with them to the Quidditch World Cup final."
Harry, being a Quidditch fan, did immediately divert his attention.
"That would be awesome!" He jumped up expectantly, "I've been thinking about it all summer, Ron told me ages ago that Mr. Weasley could get tickets to the site from the Ministry of Magic."
"Yeah, or the top box!" Sirius looked but a little regretful, "I was going to get you some tickets myself, looks like I won't have to ..."
"Good thing too, saves Kreacher from complaining about you spending money." Harry laughed.
"Forget it, he'll find a way to troll me anyway." Sirius shrugged.
"By the way," he asked with a sudden twinkle in his eye, "does that Professor Dracula of yours like Quidditch? He's done me and my brother a lot of favors, I think I should get him some gifts."
"Erm ... probably not a big fan?" Harry thought hard for a moment and then shook his head, "It seems like Professor Dracula doesn't go to the Quidditch pitch every time he's there to watch the game, he just wants to watch the fun that's made during our games."
"Is that so ..." Sirius was deep in thought.
...
Meanwhile, Dracula, who was being read to by Sirius and Harry, was in the White Flying Dragon pub in Tumble Alley, sitting in the most luxurious of the exclusive cubicles, sipping his drink leisurely.
Across from Dracula sat a pale, tantalizingly blonde-haired man with an extraordinarily anxious expression.
"Professor Dracula, I'm completely on your side, you must help me!" Lucius' body moved around, fidgeting as if there were thorns sticking out of the soft, luxurious cushions in the cubicle.
"Don't fidget here, I'm looking distracted." Dracula raised his eyes and glared at him for a moment, turning to continue savoring the wine in the goblet he held.
Lucius did quieten down, not daring to fidget, but his breathing still seemed a little rapid.
Only after he had leisurely finished tasting the liquor in his glass did Dracula then gently set his goblet down on the table and looked squarely at Lucius.
"Tell me, Lucius, what is the reason for this rush to get me over here?" Dracula asked absently.
Lucius didn't say much, but as soon as he did, he pulled open the sleeve of his left arm, revealing a red skull marking, and a large boa constrictor emerging from the skull's mouth as if it had a tongue sticking out.
"Professor Dracula, the black magic mark has become clear again in recent times." He said uneasily, "I thought it was an illusion when I first noticed it a few days ago, but just in the past two days, the mark has even shown signs of heat ..."
"You should know what this means!"
Dracula's expression became slightly more solemn as he looked towards the mark that had caused countless storms in the magic world and brought about endless fear.
"As I recall, didn't Voldemort voluntarily burn his soul the last time he was in the bunker you Death Eaters built for him?" He asked softly.
"It was, and I had thought that was the end of the Dark Lord's time." Lucius' lips trembled and a few drops of cold sweat dripped down his forehead, "And it was true for a while at the very beginning, the Dark Mark almost disappeared into thin air ..."
"But every day since the beginning of this summer, the markings have become a few points clearer. By today, it's not much worse than it was during the war!"
Looking at Lucius' cold sweaty head, and looking at the incomparably clear black magic mark on his left arm, Dracula's eyes also flashed with a touch of gravity.
Voldemort had already burned his soul voluntarily, and even though there was a soul weapon present that could retain a residual soul that was even worse than a wandering soul, his power was indeed weakened to the limit.
By now, less than two years had passed since Voldemort's spontaneous combustion, so theoretically it was still far from the time when he would be able to revive.
If it had been a few months ago, Dracula might still have felt puzzled.
But nowadays, he was able to determine one thing with great certainty: Voldemort had truly borrowed the power of that so-called God of Death!
"So you've come to me now because you already have something in mind?" Dracula asked.
"Yes, I do have an idea ... but but need to ask your opinion." Lucius said in a rushed voice.
"Tell me." Dracula said.
"Ahem ..." Lucius dryly coughed twice and carefully said, "Professor Dracula, in fact, you know ... that the Dark Lord is now treating me. Even to us Death Eaters who are not imprisoned in Azkaban are not very trusting."
"That's natural, it would be strange for him to trust you guys." Dracula snorted, "Voldemort's a bit of a fool, but he's not exactly a fool either."
Lucius didn't dare say anything more to Dracula's comment about Voldemort, so he could only lower his head as if he hadn't heard it and proceeded to explain his thoughts backwards.
"Yes, it is true that we are not trustworthy, so we must make moves that will gain trust." He said, "We all know that the most nagging thing about the Dark Lord is that after he lost his power, we Death Eaters who had preserved our freedom didn't do anything to look for him ..."
"So, while the Dark Lord hasn't summoned us with the Dark Mark yet, we can make some appearances ahead of time to show that the Death Eaters are still active, that we haven't forgotten him, and that we haven't stopped looking for him."
Lucius looked at Dracula a little sheepishly after he had finished speaking, afraid that he would think he was taking advantage of the situation to do something small.
"You think that's all it took to regain Voldemort's trust?" Dracula didn't count on Lucius being up to no good, he just thought his plan was rather self-defeating and glanced at him with slanted eyes.
"Of course not, but at least we'll be able to have something to talk about when we face the Dark Lord." Lucius said, "He must be in a hurry right now, and won't make a move against us without a good reason."
"That's an interesting argument." Dracula thought about it briefly, then quirked a corner of his mouth, "Are you sure you can convince the other Death Eaters to join you?"
"Their thoughts should be similar to mine." Lucius said, "All that's missing now is someone to take the lead, and I think I can get the position, and then I'll have a bit more confidence in front of the Dark Lord."
"Looks like you've already thought about it." Dracula laughed softly, picking up the flask and refilling himself with a glass of wine, "And exactly how?"
"I want to start a riot in the name of the Death Eaters at the upcoming Quidditch World Cup." Lucius took a deep breath and gritted his teeth.
"If things get out of control by then, Professor Dracula, I want you to help me control the scene!"
...
Obviously, the Weasleys and Harry and Sirius were unaware of the upcoming 'planned' disturbance.
On the day of the Quidditch World Cup final, they woke up early and made their way through the door keys to the campgrounds around the Quidditch pitch.
There were hundreds of oddly shaped tents, and they were set up on the gentle slope of a large expanse of ground that stretched out into the dark woods above the horizon.
There were so many wizards coming to watch the Quidditch World Cup finals that the Ministry had had to "manage the door key landing in batches" to prevent teams with different door keys from crashing into each other and creating major traffic accidents.
The Weasleys had been unlucky enough to be assigned the 5:07 a.m. door key landing time, so they would have to wait at the campsite for a few hours until the Quidditch match officially started.
Of course, there were more people who were even earlier than the Weasleys, and some of them had already been at the campsite all night.
Mr. Weasley had proudly explained to the young wizards about this year's Quidditch World Cup, telling them that the stadium could hold up to 100,000 spectators.
The price, of course, was that the five hundred staff members of the Ministry of Magic had been busy all year with this!
"Fudge has received so many complaints about how badly he handled things regarding Sirius and Buckbeak, plus he's so desperate to get rid of his early image as a Dumbledore Answering Machine that he's been trying to make a big splash for a long time."
Mr. Weasley said this.
He then looked mysteriously at several young wizards who were still in school, "Not only this matter, but there is another event that is equally significant and closely related to you!"