The Muggle ranger's face was twisted with greed and hunger.
It was not the expression of a normal man.
He stared fixedly at Harry Potter, his whole body already trembling with excitement.
Harry shot him a look of disgust. Under the Full Body-Bind Curse, he couldn't move at all, couldn't even look away. But beneath that plain, ordinary Muggle face, he could clearly feel the foul, rotten presence that belonged to Voldemort.
"Well done, Severus," Voldemort praised softly.
Perfect.
It had been a very long time since a plan had gone this perfectly. Everything had unfolded so smoothly, without a single flaw.
He, Tom Riddle, had wandered through the forests of Albania for months.
And now, at last, his life had turned again.
The Dark Lord would return once more.
This plan had begun many days ago.
Severus Snape, one of the very few servants who had remained loyal to him, had found this forest.
Had found him.
At first, Voldemort had not even wanted to trust Severus. After everything that had happened, trusting anyone had become nearly impossible for him.
But in the end, he chose to gamble one last time.
So although he had not met Severus face-to-face, he had still made contact with him.
And now the facts were right in front of him. The moment Severus Snape delivered Harry Potter to him, Voldemort knew he had won that gamble.
Severus had proposed a plan.
A perfect plan to capture Harry Potter.
At its core, it relied on the Daily Prophet, arranging for the Weasley family to be given the chance to travel in Greece.
And with Harry Potter being so close to the Weasleys, there was every chance he would join the trip.
Then Severus would use the Imperius Curse to control employees in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Transportation, specifically the Portkey Office, and have them tamper with the Portkey the Weasleys would use.
That way, Potter would be stranded alone in a land completely unfamiliar to him.
As long as Harry Potter could be captured, everything would be worth it.
Voldemort knew perfectly well that Harry Potter was most likely his seventh Horcrux. That was why he had been able to cling to life until now.
And with one Horcrux still remaining, Harry Potter could serve as the means for his return, letting him descend upon the wizarding world once again and make it taste pain and cruelty.
"Bring the boy over here!" Voldemort cried excitedly.
He had already decided that once he was resurrected this time, he would never be merciful again.
...
A pathetic Death Eater lay unconscious on the ground.
Jon Hart lowered his wand and looked over the Death Eater at his feet.
It was an unfamiliar face. Perhaps he had been placed under the Imperius Curse. Perhaps he was simply a newly recruited Death Eater.
Either way, his combat ability had been pitifully weak. Jon had subdued him without the slightest effort.
The only question was how things were going on the other side.
Jon conjured a golden rope, tied the unlucky man to a nearby oak tree, then pointed his wand at the sky and sent up a streak of red light.
After that, he started back the way he had come.
His pace was not hurried at all. He looked calm and completely unruffled.
More than ten minutes later, he finally saw a silver stag.
A Patronus.
And one that rare could only belong to one person. Jon knew at once who had sent it.
The stag bounded swiftly to his side. Jon lowered his head and listened carefully to the message its master had sent.
"So that Death Eater found Severus Snape?" A faint smile touched Jon's lips. It seemed everything was proceeding smoothly.
The silver stag began to fade into the air.
Just as Jon was about to keep moving, a disturbance came from up ahead.
He frowned slightly, his right hand closing around his wand as his eyes sharpened with alertness.
But when he saw a large black dog, the tension eased from his body at once.
"Mr. Black," he said softly.
The big black dog slowly rose, then transformed into a tall, strikingly handsome middle-aged man.
"Headmaster Hart," Sirius Black asked urgently, "what just happened? I saw a red flare over here."
"Just a Death Eater," Jon replied calmly. "I tied him up. If I hadn't sent up a signal for him, he probably would've been eaten by the wolves in this forest."
"Where's Harry?" Black looked around anxiously, trying to find Harry Potter among the trees.
But he found nothing.
"I heard from those two girls that Harry was with you."
"Yes, he was with me earlier," Jon said.
Then he told Sirius Black everything, how he and Harry Potter had separated, and what Harry had relayed through his Patronus.
"You're saying Harry ran into that bastard Snape and followed him?" Sirius Black's face changed instantly, panic flashing across it. "Damn it. Harry's no match for Snivellus..."
As they spoke, several more members of the Order of the Phoenix arrived.
Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody, and Arthur Weasley.
The three men gathered around Jon and Black, and Jon had no choice but to repeat everything all over again.
"We have to catch up to them," Black said urgently.
"Stay calm," Jon said evenly, his expression as steady as ever. "If Harry finds anything, he'll definitely send his Patronus to me again."
He paused, then added, "Besides, Harry isn't some green kid anymore. If something happens, he'll know how to handle it."
But as Jon spoke, his face suddenly changed.
Everyone saw it.
The silver stag, Harry Potter's Patronus, was racing toward them at full speed.
It was rare for a Patronus to look so agitated. That alone made it clear that something unusual had happened.
At first, everyone assumed the Patronus had come carrying another message from Harry.
But the stag could not speak. It only leaped frantically in place, urging them onward as if trying to drag them with it.
"It looks like..." Jon muttered. "Something happened to Harry."
Everyone's expressions changed at once.
"Black, can you track Harry by scent?"
"I'll try... but the ground's too wet. It's interfering badly..." Sirius Black had barely finished speaking before he transformed back into the massive black dog.
Then the whole group broke into a run, racing after him through the forest.