Hearing Marvolio's words, Tver followed his gaze and looked down into the hole in the floor.
A beautiful twelve-foot-long serpent was tightly bound by magically conjured ropes. No matter how violently it twisted its body, it was pinned in place, unable to move.
In front of it lay a pile of bones. The stench of blood was so heavy it made Tver nauseous, yet not a shred of flesh remained on them.
"This wasn't eaten by the snake," Marvolio said solemnly. "The flesh was stripped away by magic."
He seemed to truly realize, in that moment, just how deeply the original had sunk into the path of darkness, to a degree even he found hard to accept.
"So Voldemort's vitality is sustained by the flesh and blood of these Muggles?" Tver asked.
"Yes. Simply draining life force would only leave him with a fabricated body like mine. Only by consuming flesh and blood can he barely be considered truly alive."
Only then did the full weight of the scene strike Tver.
There were no fewer than ten skeletons here. That meant that in the few days since arriving, just to maintain this useless body, Voldemort had slaughtered at least ten Muggles.
What angered Tver most wasn't the number itself, but Voldemort's utter disregard for life.
"Why?" Tver frowned. "I never sensed this level of brutality in your memories, or even in the Diadem."
During the last wizarding war, Voldemort had indeed killed many people. The Inferius they had dealt with days earlier had claimed even more lives.
But back then, his killings had purpose.
Now, he no longer seemed to care about purpose at all, like a feral beast indulging in slaughter for its own sake.
This level of madness was far worse than anything Tver had seen in the original story.
"Do you think something happened to him over the past few years that we don't know about?"
"Very likely," Marvolio nodded. "Unfortunately, absorbing Horcruxes doesn't allow us to read the original soul's memories."
"But there's no need to dwell on it. No matter how strong the original becomes, the two of us, plus Dumbledore, are more than enough to crush him."
"This is different, Marvolio."
For the first time, a trace of uncertainty crept into Tver's usually unwavering gaze.
"There are things I know will harm innocent people. Yet if they benefit me, if they help me achieve my goals, I find myself tempted to indulge in them, or even deliberately ignore what's wrong about them."
"Then I turn around and tell myself I'm just going with the flow. I didn't kill them with my own hands, so what does it have to do with me?"
"In that case, how am I any different from my former teacher, or from Voldemort himself?"
"When did you become this naïve?" Marvolio looked at him oddly. "Our cause was never something you could accomplish by giving speeches on a stage. Bloodshed and sacrifice are inevitable."
"This isn't moral grandstanding. It's reflection."
Tver withdrew his gaze. After that brief moment of wavering, his eyes became even firmer than before.
"To those in power, these people might be nothing more than a series of '1's in a ledger. But to their families and friends, they are living, breathing lives."
"I also know that the integration of wizards and Muggles will inevitably bring immeasurable pain. But if we wait until that integration happens passively, the pain will be far worse."
"So I have to become stronger. My plans have to be more perfect, so that this process can unfold as peacefully as possible."
"I want those who should never be harmed to stay far away from danger. I want every enemy to be left without the slightest ability to fight back."
Truthfully, his earlier desire to overturn the Statute of Secrecy had been more of a byproduct of self-preservation. After the curse incident, he had simply become more protective of his own life.
But now, standing in the sunlight that slipped in through the window, his resolve truly settled.
What he wanted wasn't just to protect himself, but to protect everyone who longed for a peaceful life.
Tragedies like Regulus's were something he would never allow to happen again.
Tver suddenly shook his head with a quiet laugh.
If he said this out loud, no one would believe him anyway.
But he didn't care how others understood him. In this life, all that mattered was having a clear conscience.
I want to protect them. Whether they understand it or not has nothing to do with them.
Marvolio, unaware of the storm of thoughts running through Tver's mind, could only stare at him in silence.
"Right now, the only people the original can rally, aside from that bunch of fanatics in Azkaban, is a deranged Barty Crouch Jr. What kind of resistance does he even have?"
Marvolio genuinely felt Tver was being overly cautious. The plans laid out so far were already meticulous beyond measure, accounting even for every imaginable failure scenario.
Honestly, a large part of why Marvolio now followed Tver without hesitation was precisely because, under such airtight planning, he couldn't see any realistic way this could fail.
"Hurry up and move. Once I absorb the Horcrux from Nagini, I'll be almost on par with the original."
"At that point, no matter how strong the enemy is, they won't be able to interfere with us."
"Oh, right. Nagini was formed by a Blood Curse. Her original form was actually a wizard. What do you think? Interested in studying it?"
He flicked his wand and yanked the dazed Nagini into the air.
From the snake's simple perception, all she could sense was that the two masters had suddenly come together, one had fled, and the other had tied her up.
"We'll see," Tver said after a moment's thought.
"The Blood Curse is indeed an interesting subject, but our top priority right now is finding Godric Gryffindor and ensuring your successful resurrection."
"Then after dealing with this Horcrux, if we eliminate the one in Potter's head, can we just erase the original outright?" Marvolio asked curiously.
He genuinely didn't understand why Tver insisted on letting Voldemort revive. After all, once the Horcruxes were gone, dealing with a soul-only original would clearly be easier.
"We could, but there's no need," Tver said with a grin, all traces of his earlier seriousness gone.
"I need Voldemort. Or rather, our plan needs a dirty hand."
"Marvolio, I originally planned to have you play that role, stirring chaos between the wizarding world and the Muggle world. But now that Voldemort is already this ruthless, I don't mind nailing him to the pillar of shame in history."
Marvolio teased as he grabbed hold of the massive serpent. "What's this? Not feeling sorry about Muggle casualties anymore?"
"Petty kindness breeds great evil, while true kindness often appears ruthless, Marvolio…" Tver's voice grew indistinct as he Apparated away.
But even if it had been clear, it wouldn't have helped. He'd said it in Chinese.
Left behind, Marvolio scratched his head and hurried after him.
"Do Dark Lords have to learn foreign languages now too?!"