Morning at Fawley Manor.
After getting up, Tver headed downstairs to the living room and immediately spotted the long-absent Cynthia glaring at Marvolio with undisguised disdain.
Since the start of summer break, his parents had only stayed home for a month before setting off on another round of travel. As a result, Marvolio made no attempt to disguise himself, maintaining his usual sinister, seductive air.
With Nagini sliding around beside him, the entire scene radiated an unmistakable sense of malevolence.
Unlike Harry, Nagini had become a Horcrux less than a day ago. The entanglement between the two souls had ended before it even truly began. Voldemort's soul within the serpent had already been absorbed by Marvolio, and the soul now inhabiting the snake belonged entirely to Nagini herself.
Hearing movement, Cynthia quickly turned around.
"Good morning."
"Morning. Any developments at the Ministry lately?" Tver greeted her as he sat down, casually grabbing a biscuit from the table for breakfast.
As she poured him some pumpkin juice, Cynthia replied lightly, "Progress on the anti-werewolf legislation has slowed a bit. I'm worried Umbridge might realize we're trying to win over the werewolves and go completely unhinged."
"So I deliberately reframed the bill as a way to attack Fudge instead, just to divert his attention."
Tver nodded in approval. Handing Ministry affairs over to Cynthia had been one of his earliest arrangements, and she had more than repaid that trust with results.
"The entire Ministry is busy with the Quidditch World Cup right now," she continued. "A lot of routine matters have been pushed back."
"Especially Barty Crouch. He's also responsible for the Triwizard Cup. If I hadn't taken on part of his workload, he wouldn't even have time to deal with Umbridge."
Cynthia sighed, then shot an annoyed sideways glance at Marvolio across the room.
"Especially a certain deputy head of the Auror Office, who not only refuses to help but spends all day here playing with snakes."
"This isn't a snake. Well, not an ordinary snake," Marvolio said, lifting Nagini off his shoulders.
"Both the original and I regard Nagini as a companion. It's a special bond you simply wouldn't understand."
Tver looked at him with a strange expression. If Marvolio were talking about any other snake, he might have understood. But Nagini was different. Even now, Tver had no solution for her Blood Curse.
After a period of research, he had confirmed that Nagini had completely become a snake, at least physically. There was no longer any possibility of her transforming back.
That, in itself, was deeply peculiar. With Tver's mastery of Transfiguration, not only could he not restore her human form, even simple spells like the Tickling Charm failed to work on her. It was as though any magic that tried to interfere with her body was instinctively repelled.
The phenomenon intrigued him, but for now, he had to set it aside.
"When does the match start?" Tver asked.
"In the evening. We can enter around dusk. As long as we arrive before then, we're fine," Cynthia answered briskly.
The match, of course, was the Quidditch World Cup, the event that kept the Ministry busy for an entire year. With August drawing to a close, the grand spectacle was finally approaching.
"What about Lucius? Are they ready?"
"They've been impatient for a while now," Marvolio said with a grin.
Despite Cynthia's complaints about him slacking off, anyone who thought the Dark Lord would truly waste his time on idle amusements was being naïve.
"Barty's also brought along a group of former Aurors to maintain order at the venue," Marvolio added. "They're all eager to make a name for themselves."
"But are you really set on doing this? There might still be people worth recruiting," he continued.
Tver knew he was referring to the Death Eaters he had already abandoned.
"There's no need," Tver said calmly. "Even if we brought them over, they wouldn't offer much help. Worse, it would only provoke dissatisfaction from the so-called righteous side."
"If balance is what we want, then those who should have been in Azkaban long ago must face punishment."
With plenty of time left, they went over the day's remaining matters.
First was the Muggle-world business. To be honest, Ian Russell had proven far more capable than Tver had expected, which was why this part of the plan had nearly slipped his mind.
The facial masks had now expanded into cosmetic counters across the entire world, generating daily profits enough to make anyone jealous.
But Ian's methods were even more impressive than his commercial success, though they could still be considered part of doing business.
After Tver guaranteed his personal safety, Ian boldly reached out to economic oligarchs, both official and unofficial, across various countries.
For now, those figures were content simply to enjoy the generous profits and weren't about to swear brotherhood. Still, friendly relations had been established, and at the very least, they had been given a taste of real benefits.
As for the profits left to the wizarding world, Tver had stopped bothering to count them.
Gringotts' reserves of Muggle currency and antiques, accumulated over three centuries, were already struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of gemstones and minerals Ian had purchased on Tver's behalf.
Overall, progress on all fronts had gone far more smoothly than Tver had anticipated. The only disappointment was that the Wizards' Union turned out to be far more conservative than expected.
Or rather, they had chosen not to voice any radical views publicly, seemingly preferring to shut their doors and handle everything internally. That ran somewhat counter to Tver's intention of pulling the entire magical world into the current.
But it didn't really matter. After all, he still had Professor Burbage.
Professor Burbage had become increasingly adept, her use of subtle phrasing and carefully slanted rhetoric now rivaling even Rita Skeeter's. Even without Rita's help, she could single-handedly withstand criticism aimed at her and then turn around and continue promoting the advancement of Muggle technology.
It was already noticeable that fewer people were openly refuting her. Of course, it was also possible they simply couldn't argue their way through it anymore.
Either way, the trend was encouraging. Back when summer break had just begun, Tver's parents had even discussed the issue with him.
Naturally, he had still played dumb, putting on a show of surprise at their increasingly pro-Muggle views…
"It's about time. Let's go," Tver said, setting down his cutlery after glancing at the dimming sky outside.
"Aren't we bringing tents or anything?" Cynthia asked curiously. "We could rest for a while. Lucius and the others won't start moving until after midnight."
"We can just borrow someone else's," Tver said with a laugh. "I hear Sirius bought a tent the size of a palace for this rare occasion."
Sirius had clearly been holding it in for a long time. Part of it was to distract himself from his grief over Regulus, and part of it was because Harry loved Quidditch. He took this World Cup seriously enough to ask Tver to secure several Top Box tickets.
By that logic, the entire box would probably end up filled with people close to Tver anyway…