Followers-Most-Loyal [Chapter 198]

~~Nott Manor~~

“My Lord, I have received a message from Yaxley” A young recruit stuttered out as he held out a note. Voldemort stared at the trembling Pureblood heir and internally nodded his head in satisfaction. He always wanted to put Purebloods in their rightful place since he met them for the first time and in that regard, he felt he had succeeded.

He accepted the note from the boy as he was worried that the boy might soil his pants if he kept the boy waiting anymore and no matter how amusing it would be to make the boy clean his mess with his own hands, Voldemort didn’t want anyone to sully his throne room… He opened the note to read its contents and if had eyebrows, they would have climbed on top of his head in surprise…

According to Yaxley, Hogwarts was under attack by Gellert Grindelwald… For a moment he felt his temper flare. Hogwarts was like a home to him and he couldn’t accept the prospect of anyone attacking his home and the attacker being a washed-up Dark Lord angered him even more… Only he was allowed to attack Hogwarts, but he quickly calmed down.

It was not the time to lose his temper… A plan quickly started to take form inside his mind. He looked down at the boy still kneeling in front of him and the boy whimpered in fear. “Send a word to the Vampires… They are free to hunt and turn” Voldemort said as he stood up from his throne and the note in his hand caught fire. “And tell Nott to prepare a couple of healers” Voldemort added and the boy practically ran out of the room after frantically nodding his head.

Voldemort turned toward Nagini and after a brief conversation, he walked out of his throne room like he owned the whole place… Voldemort didn’t want to draw any attention this soon as he was certain that Dumbledore was already aware of his return since he was regularly having Order meetings. Then thanks to Lucius, he also knew that Harry Potter was also somehow aware of his return, and now his actions were going to alert the Ministry too.

To be honest, he was quite surprised and impressed by the boy’s cruelty and ruthlessness… He might have lost his Potion Master to the boy, but he had to admit, it was a fitting end for the man. Severus was nothing but an opportunist coward… Severus didn’t care for anyone other than himself, and probably that Mudblood woman, and that made him quite dangerous.

He had killed the Mudblood when she refused to move aside, so he wasn’t sure if could trust the dour man not to stab him in the back… Voldemort would have killed Severus after regaining his body, but Severus’ expertise when it came to Potions was simply invaluable… Though he would have killed Severus the moment he found Horace Slughorn. Alas, it was a moot point now… He wasn’t delusional enough to think that Harry would spare Severus.

While he grudgingly respected Harry for dealing with Severus in such a manner, he was going to punish the boy appropriately for ridding him of his Potions Master before killing the boy… Right now, he was going to break into Azkaban as he wasn’t going to get another opportunity like this. Even if the Azkaban guards manage to raise an alarm, nobody would come to save them or help them and Severus could have helped his incarcerated followers recuperate with his potions.

He decided to whip the boy senseless before killing him… Yes, that would be a fitting punishment for him. After grabbing a few pieces of tableware from the dining hall for Portkeys, Voldemort turned on his heel and disappeared with a crack… The next moment, he found himself floating outside the old and dreary castle of Azkaban. He could see a few Dementors flying around the fortress, but he didn’t bother to pay them any mind as he started to float down toward the shore.

Anyone in his place would have been terrified of Dementors, but he wasn’t afraid of them… He knew how to control them and he was planning to bring them under his control, just like they were during the last war, but not yet… They would have to wait. If he took them right now, then the Ministry would be on high alert and he would also need to arrange a feeding ground for them. Though… maybe, he could get them to attack a nearby Muggle town or something.

Well… He could plan that later. Right now, he has some followers to break out of prison… He walked up to the massive imposing gates of Azkaban and decided to go gung-ho from the get-go… He simply flicked his Wand and blasted the gates… Since he wasn’t planning to leave any of the guards alive, he decided to forgo any posturing or dramatics. “Avada Kedavra” Voldemort crowed in delight before the Spell struck a groaning guard.

He saw another guard trying to run away and with a flick of his Wand, he flattened the said guard with one of the gates… He internally grinned when he heard the wet squelch and the mental grin widened when he noticed that another guard was crushed right by the gates when he blew them apart at first. Feeling quite satisfied with his actions he started to climb the stairs, and his pace didn’t falter even when he felt the temperature lower around him by several degrees.

“Voldemort…” A voice hissed as a Dementor glided down the stairs. Dementors were not known to speak and they didn’t, but they could speak in their own language and Voldemort who knew almost everything about them, also knew their language. The Dementor might have recognized Voldemort, but he didn’t as all the Dementors looked the same except for some minor differences in their sizes and to be honest, Voldemort couldn’t bring himself to bother to recognize them.

“Forsaken will join me just like they joined me the last time” Voldemort declared without bothering to negotiate. Dementor was a term given to these creatures by the Wizarding Community, but in reality, they are known as Forsaken. The Forsaken used to be humans, and all of them belonged to a single tribe. Some thousands of years ago, the said tribe made some sort of deal with a Devil in desperation and after they started to prosper, they foolishly tried to betray the Devil.

In retaliation, the Devil ripped off their Souls from their bodies, leaving behind empty husks… The Forsaken were left behind to roam the world, spreading misery as they would try to consume what they lost in an attempt to replace what they lost, but that was never going to happen. Forsaken were just that… Forsaken. They would spend the rest of eternity suffering unless someone decided to track down every last one of them and put them out of their misery.

“We will…” The Forsaken answered back. They were not that smart, which was a good thing from Voldemort’s perspective. “We leave now?” The Forsaken asked demurely.

“No, all of you will stay here for the time being, but I will allow you to feed on the rest of the guards” Voldemort grinned cruelly. He mentally thanked the Devil for leaving such nice attack dogs for him to use and he would have thanked the Devil more only if he knew how to summon them… For whatever reason, he couldn’t find a way to summon Devils. He knew that they could be summoned, after all, the Forsaken were all the proof he needed.

Herpo the Foul was the one who discovered the truth behind the Forsaken as he wanted to learn the secret behind their immortality and maybe create some more of them on the way, but even he wasn’t able to find anything about how to summon Devils. It was like someone intentionally removed all the records related to Devil summoning…

“We will follow” The Forsaken declared before he started to glide back toward the upper floor, leaving behind Voldemort, who started to climb the stairs at his own pace. He finally arrived outside the high-security wing and blasted apart the metal gate with a quick jab of his Wand. “My Lord!!” A feminine voice screamed from inside one of the cells and a smile made its way to his face. “My Lord, I knew you would come!!” The same voice exclaimed fanatically.

Voldemort strode toward the cell, ignoring the other cells that came before. “I knew you would return! I told them! I kept telling them! Your most loyal follower knew you would return!!” The woman crowed fanatically.

‘My most loyal follower’ Voldemort admitted inside his head as he finally arrived in front of the cell and stared at the woman pressing her face into the steel bars. The woman no longer carried the same beauty she did before, but Voldemort could still see the same devotion in her eyes… No, he was wrong. She was a lot more devoted to him than she was before… Voldemort honestly believed her to be his most loyal follower as there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for him.

“Step back, Bella” Voldemort said softly and the woman hurriedly followed his command. Bellatrix Black was not a paragon of sanity even before she was sent to Azkaban, and from the look in her eyes, he was certain that now she was certainly insane. Not that he couldn’t use that. He blasted away the cell door and the woman threw herself down to her knees in front of him. “Bella, if you don’t mind, there are others I must free” Voldemort softly reminded her…