Snape paid no attention to Tver's resentful glare and went on in his usual flat tone, recounting what he had managed to uncover.
"You-Know-Who refused to deal with me directly, but from the little moves he's been making, I can tell his attention is currently focused on the Giants…"
"Giants?" Sirius's eyes widened in surprise. "What use could a bunch of brainless Giants possibly be?"
"Sirius, You-Know-Who used Giants in the last war too, and they caused us plenty of trouble," Lupin said grimly.
"That's right. Even brainless Giants are more useful than certain people. At least they can stir up some trouble." Snape shot Sirius a glance. It was obvious who he meant.
Before the two of them could start bickering again, Bill asked curiously, "Then why is You-Know-Who personally trying to rally the Giants? To start a war?"
"There are signs that You-Know-Who may be planning something. Right now, he needs the Giants to draw our attention away."
At that, even Snape's expression turned more severe.
His intelligence had always served as the basis for many of the Order of the Phoenix's and Dumbledore's actions against Voldemort, but now, for the first time, the Dark Lord had refused to reveal anything at all to him, his double agent.
Either his identity had been exposed...
Or Voldemort was plotting something extremely dangerous.
Tver couldn't help sitting up straighter, his face turning serious for the first time as well.
"Do you know what You-Know-Who is planning?"
"Not exactly," Snape said with hesitation.
"All I know is that he seems to be trying to contact the Dementors in Azkaban, as well as the Vampires hiding across Europe."
Vampires are the only beings that belong to both humanity and the living dead.
Unlike Werewolves, although they have the ability to drink blood, they do not depend on it to survive, and their human reason allows them to restrain that urge.
So while they still attract some strange looks, Vampires can usually live in the wizarding world as wizards, and their circumstances are far better than those of Werewolves.
Even so, many Vampires still prefer a life without restraint. They actively attack humans and take pleasure in drinking their blood.
That group of Vampires had naturally become a target of the various Ministries of Magic. They were the hidden Vampires Snape was referring to.
Once everyone had absorbed that, Snape continued, "But I can't be sure whether he's deliberately feeding me false information to mislead us, or whether he really let this slip by accident…"
In truth, what Snape feared even more was that Voldemort might be using this information to test his loyalty.
If the Order of the Phoenix issued a warning ahead of time, then as the only person who had access to all of that information, he would undoubtedly be the most obvious suspect.
Tver could hear the concern in his words. In fact, this was also why Dumbledore, even with an undercover agent like Snape, did not dare act too aggressively against Voldemort.
So Tver did not dwell on that point.
The Dementors' betrayal was practically a foregone conclusion. Adding the uncontrollable factor of the Vampires changed things, but their advantage was still considerable.
More importantly, Voldemort was the root of all these problems.
"Can you get any other information? For example, which Giant tribe You-Know-Who is planning to recruit?"
"No." Snape shook his head, no longer in the mood for sarcasm. "For now, all I know is that he should be somewhere in Central Europe, moving eastward."
"Isn't that the same direction Hagrid and the others went?!" Mrs. Weasley cried out.
Lupin nodded. One bad piece of news after another had left his face so grim it was almost frosted over.
"That's right. In Europe, the only place where the Giants can still really be called a tribe is in that region…"
Giants were even more hot-tempered than Dragons.
Most Dragons could live in groups, and with their fairly decent intelligence, they could even maintain relatively friendly relations with wizards.
Giants were different. They were moody, violent, and not very bright.
If they took a dislike to each other, it could easily erupt into a fight, or even a full-scale brawl. Killing members of their own tribe was nothing unusual for them.
That was why Giants had never been under wizard control, and wizards had never wanted to control them. Usually, they were simply driven deep into remote mountain ranges and left to fend for themselves.
And in Europe, there were not many such places. The place Hagrid had gone to was precisely the largest Giant tribal settlement in Europe that Dumbledore had been able to identify.
"Can we contact Hagrid? We need to warn him to be careful…"
Before Sirius could finish, a dazzling silver flash suddenly swept past the doorway. Then a beautiful silver-white Phoenix passed straight through the closed door and flew above their heads in an instant.
"I've lost contact with Hagrid and the others, Tver. I need you to go to the Giant settlement."
Dumbledore's voice came from the hovering Phoenix.
"Then..." Tver looked up at it. "Where exactly is the Giant settlement?"
"..."
The Phoenix fell silent for a moment before Dumbledore's voice sounded again.
"According to Ministry records, it should be in the Carpathian Mountains and the Sudeten Mountains, around the border where Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia meet."
Tver stared in disbelief. "But those two mountain ranges together run for over a thousand miles!"
"To be precise, 1,100 miles, or 1,800 kilometers," Dumbledore said solemnly.
"Then I'll leave it to you to find the two of them. As far as I know, they entered through Poland and then felt their way onward from there…"
As the Phoenix faded away, Dumbledore's voice gradually disappeared with it, leaving everyone in the kitchen staring at one another.
Sirius looked toward Tver, whose face was full of helpless resignation.
"Ahem. Since it's such an important mission, Tver, you should get going as soon as possible. After all, that's more than a thousand miles. It would take a month just to walk it…"
Tver shot him an expressionless glance.
There was no way he could cover it all on foot. No matter how strong his body was, it still had to obey the basic limits of the human body.
But even with his magical ability, covering such a vast area would be difficult.
Unless he could first find some kind of useful means of transportation...
"There's no need to be in such a hurry!"
Mrs. Weasley smacked Sirius disapprovingly, then looked at the deep-in-thought Tver with concern.
"Finish breakfast before you leave."
Tver: "..."
...
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