As Tver's mouthpiece, Rita was gradually beginning to understand what they were really trying to do.
That meant that unless Rita chose to break away from them entirely, she would never publish anything that ran counter to their interests.
This was why Tver now felt completely at ease letting her decide the direction of her reporting. He only needed to set a few targets, and Rita would handle the rest perfectly, just as she always had.
Lucius, however, started to hesitate.
"Tver… well, about last night. We planned the march, right? But some of our people who weren't on the list were… accidentally caught by the Ministry."
Tver lifted his head and looked at Cynthia. She gave a firm nod before he turned his gaze back to Lucius.
"Accidentally? From where I'm standing, it looks more like they got carried away and forgot about our plan."
"I…"
Lucius felt wronged. He'd spent the entire night stuck in the little stone cottage. How was he supposed to keep those people under control?
Of course, they were all Death Eaters. He knew exactly what those harmless fools were thinking.
They'd been suppressed for too long and wanted to cut loose. Without his restraint, they were easily used by another group of Death Eaters with ulterior motives, and the situation spiraled out of control.
From that perspective, they weren't exactly innocent.
But as their leader, Lucius had no choice but to step in now and see if there was any way to reduce their punishment.
"But they're really just… a bit stupid. I've checked. Even back when the Dark Lord was running rampant, they were so useless he didn't even want them. They've never committed any serious crimes!"
Tver signaled Cynthia again. With years of unspoken understanding between them, she immediately grasped his intent.
"If we take the initiative to reduce their punishment, it could undermine Barty's tough stance on crime and weaken the pressure being put on Fudge instead."
Lucius's face went pale. He hurriedly looked to Tver.
"We can't let them be dealt with like that. Even a short stay in custody would weaken their loyalty to us!"
In truth, the loyalty most at risk was Lucius's own.
What Tver wanted was public opinion. It was nice if these Death Eaters supported him, but even if they didn't, he could simply use Voldemort's resurrection as an excuse to clean them up later.
Lucius was different.
As the leader of the Death Eaters, part of his power came from the Malfoy family, and the rest came from the pure-bloods under his command.
If this group became resentful after being thrown into Azkaban and stopped following his orders, his influence with Tver would be cut in half.
Realizing this, Tver's lips curved into a faint smile as he turned to Cynthia.
"Is there another option? They're still quite useful."
Lucius nodded repeatedly, his pleading gaze locked onto Cynthia.
Cynthia thought for a moment.
"Maybe we can make Fudge believe he's already under heavy criticism. Letting a few minor offenders go won't damage his image any further."
"But if he secures the support of these pure-blood families, his position might actually become more stable."
"That said, quite a few Ministry employees were injured. We'll need to find a way to appease them first."
"We'll pay," Lucius said at once, magnanimously.
At this point, he lacked many things, but money wasn't one of them.
Once the decision was made, Lucius and Barty left the manor in a hurry, not even stopping for lunch. Marvolio and Cynthia stayed behind to eat another meal with Tver.
In Tver's view, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were non-negotiable, even if he'd just finished eating breakfast.
Marvolio, however, still didn't have a physical body and couldn't eat.
"Lucius is really getting worse," Marvolio said, poking at the grilled fish in boredom, his face full of disdain. "He couldn't even see through something that simple?"
He was referring to how Tver and Cynthia had just played off each other, yet still managed to make Lucius panic.
"This affects his authority and his foundation on our side. Of course he'd be anxious," Tver replied calmly.
In fact, Lucius had been deliberately shaped this way.
As a masterful fence-sitter, Lucius had to be kept far from Tver's core planning circle. It was essentially a form of containment, minimizing the damage he could cause if he ever chose to betray them.
And compared to Lucius, Tver had far more faith in his son, Draco Malfoy.
Draco still possessed a sense of kindness. His prejudice against Muggles came from his upbringing, not his own beliefs.
Taken together, his personality and abilities made him well suited to a leadership role, perhaps even more so than Harry.
That was precisely why Tver had begun cultivating Draco.
Marvolio didn't dwell on the subject. Instead, his thoughts drifted back to the events of the previous night.
"But Voldemort has been acting strangely lately. I don't think you can afford to let him do whatever he wants anymore."
"Oh?" Tver paused, looking at Marvolio's unusually serious expression as he slowly set down his knife and fork.
"What happened last night to make you look this grim?"
Marvolio immediately began recounting what had happened.
After the match ended yesterday, he stayed with Fudge and the Bulgarian Minister for a while before they went their separate ways.
Fudge returned home. Marvolio went back to the campsite.
Tver had instructed him in advance to evacuate the campsite caretaker's family, so he headed straight for the small stone cottage where they usually stayed.
It was there that he happened to run into a frantic Peter Pettigrew, pacing back and forth in a panic.
After learning of Voldemort's plan, Marvolio quickly sent word to Cynthia. Then, following Peter's directions, he slipped into the forest.
Deep within the woods, Voldemort was already waiting for news from Peter and Barty Jr.
By the time Marvolio arrived, Barty Jr. was carrying an unconscious Potter and was about to leave.
Although Marvolio had planned to use Voldemort as an opportunity to resurrect himself, he knew that reviving at that moment would do him more harm than good.
With no time to hesitate, he didn't dare hold back and launched a full-force attack on Voldemort and Barty Jr.
What he hadn't expected was that Voldemort blocked the attack.
Marvolio remembered very clearly that not long ago, when he last encountered Voldemort, the man had been in a weakened state, barely managing to escape with Peter's help.
And yet now, Voldemort had formed a body. A real, physical body.
After his initial shock, Marvolio was able to discern Voldemort's condition.
In simple terms, Voldemort had fused the flesh and blood of others into his own shell, assembling a body he could barely control.
That realization was both reassuring and unsettling.
Such a body couldn't last long and placed an enormous burden on the soul. Voldemort had clearly been stockpiling strength, waiting for this very moment.
But even so, under those conditions, he had briefly regained power comparable to his peak.
As for Marvolio, although his soul had grown strong enough, the physical body formed from life force did nothing to help him and instead limited how much of his strength he could bring to bear.
Because of that, and to ensure Potter's safety, Marvolio had no choice but to reveal his full strength, using many spells originally created by Voldemort himself.
"So that's why you said last night that Voldemort had become aware of your existence?" Tver's expression turned serious as well.
"That's right. I've been thinking about it since early this morning," Marvolio said with a sigh.
"As the main body, Voldemort naturally holds the initiative. That's why our previous actions were always so cautious."
"But now, Voldemort has likely begun deliberately sensing the Horcruxes he created. Once he realizes they've almost all been absorbed by me, he won't continue draining his soul. Instead, he'll look for ways to make up for what he lost."
"When that happens, even if your resurrection plan succeeds, I might not be able to replace him…"
"In that case," Tver said slowly, deep in thought, "we really do need to keep a close eye on our dear Mr. Riddle."