In the depths of the Connacht Mountains in western Ireland, inside a stone peak undetectable by any Muggle method—
Sizzle~~!!
A large basin of potion was poured into a stone bath carved into the ground. The murky surface immediately released thick white smoke and an overpowering stench of decay.
The woman pouring the potion frowned in disgust. She had a Zodiac title—why was she suffering in a place like this?
This woman was none other than Aries, the one who previously infiltrated Azkaban to investigate Voldemort's Horcruxes and attacked Gringotts. And the figure soaking in the "bath" was, unmistakably, Voldemort himself.
After the four of them stole Voldemort's Horcrux from Gringotts, they hid in a remote location. They had expected to become the top criminals in the British wizarding world, but to their surprise, the next day's Daily Prophet pinned all the blame on the dragon hidden inside Gringotts.
Relieved, they allowed themselves to relax, and under Taurus's lead, began preparing for Voldemort's resurrection.
The plan itself was simple—only three stages in total.
The first stage: cultivate Voldemort's Horcrux, allowing the soul fragment within it to absorb enough power to regain the ability to move and cast spells.
The second stage was to find a way to reconstruct Voldemort's body, allowing him to fully return to life.
The third stage was to hand over some of the organization's hidden "foundations" to Voldemort, granting him the power needed to defeat Dumbledore—these foundations were far too dangerous for the organization to use on their carefully cultivated elites, but for an expendable outsider like Voldemort, they could be used freely.
After Voldemort used them once, those foundations might even become more stable, allowing the organization to repurpose them afterward.
"Refrigeratio! Venti Velocitas!" Taurus entered the cavern, immediately frowning at the unbearable stench filling the cramped space.
He cast two spells, making the air somewhat more tolerable.
After that, he carefully examined Voldemort's spirit form inside the bath. To his delight, he realized that the first stage of the plan had already been achieved. Voldemort's current spiritual strength was even sufficient for independent movement.
"Voldemort, your state has recovered quite well," he said toward the pool.
Gurgle, gurgle—!
A string of bubbles rose from the depths, followed by a wave of stench so foul it would make any ordinary person faint. Then, from the murky surface, a human-shaped figure emerged.
From his appearance, the figure looked like a handsome young man—but deep in his eyes flickered a frightening shade of blood-red.
This was Tom Riddle in his youth.
"Is it time to begin the second stage?" Young Riddle's lips curled into a faint smile. "I have a splendid idea. An ancient and mysterious magical ritual can help me regain my body."
"Oh?" Taurus immediately became interested. Voldemort then explained that he only needed "the father's bone," "the servant's flesh," and "the enemy's blood" to resurrect himself and return to his peak.
Taurus's brows instantly furrowed. The father's bone—that wasn't hard; Voldemort should know where his father's grave was. The enemy's blood was even easier—Voldemort had enemies everywhere. But the servant's flesh…
Was he implying that they were his servants? The thought alone made Taurus bristle with anger. He rejected Voldemort's suggestion outright.
A flicker of displeasure flashed in Voldemort's crimson eyes, but he concealed it well. After suppressing his irritation, he politely asked if Taurus had a better method.
"We can procure a fresh wizard's body for you and use the organization's secret techniques to allow your soul to take possession of it. Once your soul fully merges with the new body, it will be equivalent to resurrection."
Voldemort pondered for a moment before agreeing to Taurus's proposal.
"Make sure the body is an attractive one."
"Fine," Taurus replied with a nod. He then instructed Gemini and Pisces to go find an appropriate vessel for Voldemort—specifically, a handsome wizard.
The two who had been assigned the task did not dare slack off and set out immediately.
After leaving the stone mountain, Gemini glanced at Pisces and offered a suggestion.
"There's a fellow named Lockhart—quite handsome—and currently imprisoned in Azkaban. Why don't we use him as a substitute?"
Pisces thought for a moment and agreed. Using a prisoner as Voldemort's new body was convenient, discreet, and wouldn't attract attention.
Having come to a decision, the two mounted their broomsticks and flew toward the North Sea.
However, along the way, they encountered someone—an exceptionally handsome young wizard riding a broom.
Their plan changed instantly.
...
Running into two wizards on broomsticks in the middle of the night left Cedric completely bewildered.
What were the odds?
The wizarding population wasn't large to begin with—meeting two people in the sky at night was practically a miracle.
Since he didn't know who they were, Cedric silently raised his guard.
"Excuse me, is that the direction toward Hogsmeade—" Pisces saw the wariness on Cedric's face and took the initiative to speak, hoping to lower his vigilance. He had recognized the model of Cedric's broom—it was the top-of-the-line Firebolt.
If they startled him, neither he nor Gemini excelled in speed; they'd never catch up.
But before Cedric could answer, Gemini suddenly shouted, "Holy crap, are you riding a Firebolt?!"
Pisces smacked his own forehead. He must've been out of his mind to agree to team up with someone like this.
If Pisces put himself in Taurus's shoes for a second, he would understand immediately why Gemini had been assigned the job—Taurus simply didn't want to share a cramped cave with him.
Still, Gemini's ridiculous outburst washed away Cedric's suspicions. He smiled, nodded, and confirmed that he was indeed riding a Firebolt.
Envy flashed across Gemini's eyes. He had wanted a broom like that for a very long time, but he'd been too busy with missions lately…
Whoosh—!!
Gemini still wanted to chat with Cedric, but Pisces had already run out of patience. He suddenly raised his wand and fired a spell at Cedric—who dodged it easily.
As expected, these two aren't friendly! Cedric instantly understood. He assumed the pair—wherever they came from—had spotted his Firebolt and wanted to steal it.
A perfectly reasonable guess. Who would imagine they were actually trying to steal him?
Although the sneak attack failed, Pisces didn't look frustrated. With a flick of his left hand, the stray spell in midair made a sudden one-eighty turn, heading straight for Cedric's broom. It struck the Firebolt like a falling star.
Caught off guard this time, Cedric could not avoid it. The moment the Firebolt was hit, it lost all stability and plunged downward.
"Hey!" Gemini yelped in distress. To him, Pisces's move was simply sacrilege.
"Relax, it's not damaged." Pisces knew his partner far too well. His spell only disrupted the Firebolt's ability to fly—it wouldn't harm it. If Gemini wanted it, he could pick it up after the fight.
"Don't let the kid turn into mince. We need his body intact." Now reassured the broom was fine, Gemini shifted his focus back to their task.
"I know," Pisces replied impatiently. "I'll just use the Killing Curse—it doesn't leave external injuries."
Falling rapidly, Cedric tried to restart the Firebolt, but nothing happened. Realizing it was hopeless, he immediately prepared to use other methods to save himself.
The terrifying weightlessness and the increasingly sharp whistle of the wind didn't shake Cedric in the slightest. As a Quidditch player with three years of experience, this little situation was hardly worth worrying about.
The speed at which he dove after the Golden Snitch during a match was several times faster than this.
He immediately began trying to commune with the soil in the surrounding area, and casually cast a cushioning and feather charm on his broom, greatly slowing his descent.
Fortunately, his luck hadn't completely run dry today—the soil nearby carried no lingering magical traces from others, meaning he could draw on it freely. Though the level of control wasn't as good as when he was in the underground tunnels, it was enough for Cedric to feel confident.
"You see? He knows what he's doing." Pisces grinned as he watched Cedric skillfully handle the disabled broom. "Gemini, now you don't need to worry about only picking up splintered firewood."
"Hurry up and finish him off. The sooner we get back, the better. I want to try out that legendary Firebolt." Gemini glanced at Pisces, then dove straight toward the ground.
Pisces curled his lip. Gemini only gets motivated at times like this.
Cedric finally landed lightly, placed the disabled Firebolt aside, then gripped his wand and stared coldly at the two figures who had landed several dozen feet away.
"Gentlemen, wealth should be earned through effort and hard work."
Pisces: "?"
Gemini: "?"
Gemini cleared his throat and very seriously informed Cedric that what the two of them were after was actually his body—the broom was just incidental.
"Don't lump us in with common thieves. If we must be categorized, we should fall under dark wizards!" Gemini said proudly.
At that, not only Cedric but even his companion Pisces fell silent.
The atmosphere instantly became awkward. Neither Cedric nor the Gemini–Pisces duo said a word.
Cedric quietly took the opportunity to animate the soil beneath and around them. He needed time to prepare—and unbelievably, these two strange men were actually giving him that precious time.
Gemini's brow furrowed as he sensed something unusual. He looked up in surprise. "You actually have a domain?!"
Cedric did not answer, but Pisces examined him closely and realized there really were domain-like ripples radiating from Cedric's surroundings.
"Very good. Since you possess a domain, you're no nameless nobody. I am Pisces of the Arcane Constellation Secret Order, and this is Gemini. Boy, state your name!"
Cedric replied in a low, steady voice, "Hogwarts. Cedric Diggory."
He still held a faint hope that simply stating his Hogwarts origin would make the pair back off. Cedric had no way of knowing that hearing Hogwarts only made Gemini and Pisces even more determined to capture him.
Hogwarts already had one Dumbledore to worry about—if they let this boy escape tonight, then in a few years Hogwarts would have two wizards awakened to the domain! And this one was far younger than Dumbledore. That made it even more necessary to kill him here. It was truly divine providence that they had stumbled upon such a great catch!
"Volans Arena! Saxa!"
"Phantom Binding!"
"Protego—!"
Gemini and Pisces launched probing attacks at Cedric, but he dispelled them with ease. The three exchanged seven or eight spells, beams of magic streaking across the night sky—yet none of them managed to gain an advantage.
However, Gemini and Pisces were two people, and numbers mattered. Cedric was soon finding it hard to keep up.
He narrowly dodged one of Gemini's Blasting Curses, only for a sickly green curse from Pisces to shoot straight toward him. With no other choice, Cedric summoned the earth under his feet, raising a wave of soil that pushed him one foot to the side—barely avoiding Pisces's spell.
"So that's all it is—fake domain." After witnessing Cedric's method of manipulating the soil, Pisces laughed. "Bahahah! Maybe if we met 10 years from now, you'd have a real one. Too bad you'll die today!"
"In my current state, I can deal with the two of you just fine!"
After being hit with several deadly attacks in a row, Cedric was already burning with fury. He stopped conserving his magic and fully unleashed the animated earth around him.
_____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI
Also check out Marvel's Reality Editor. Be warned: it contains SMUT, but the story is highly plot-driven. (^///^)