[HP Doujin] 1943

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot provides an academic and objective description of the famous historical event "August Siege":

"From the evening of August 8th to the evening of August 24th, after a day and night of fierce fighting, the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic of Britain and France have successfully surrounded and blocked the entire Bernard Valley, and put Tom Riddle and his team in The black wizard group was besieged on the mountain highland. From August 8 to August 25, the Ministry of Magic launched four raids on the mountain, all of which failed. The black wizard launched five breakouts, but also failed. The people generally believed that the war When the stalemate would continue, at 8 o'clock in the middle of the night on August 25, the ministers of the Ministry of Magic of Britain and France suddenly announced an unconditional surrender and evacuated all Aurors. Tom Riddle and his men safely evacuated Bernard's Valley. August The siege time is over."

"Historians from various countries have put forward different theories about the 'August Siege', but have never reached any consensus. 'August Siege' will eventually become an unresolved mystery in the history of magic. Although the reason is still unknown, but one thing is Undisputed: The "August Siege" event determined the rise of Tom Riddle's (Voldemort) extremely dark forces in Britain, and was a turning point for the dark wizard forces to turn defeat into victory in the battle against Auror, marking the beginning of the British magic world. The beginning of a 1955-year dark period between 1981 and 20."

"After the 'August Siege' ended, the British Ministry of Magic suffered the biggest crisis of confidence in decades. In response to the voice of the public, Mr. Benjamin Rivers, then Minister of Magic, stepped down. Richard, the former Director of Law Enforcement, Mr. De Higgins became the new minister. Senior officials who were implicated and resigned also included Mr. George Hart, Director of the Auror Office, and Mr. Francis Stuart, Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. George Hart Returning to the Law Enforcement Division in 1965, Francis Stuart never returned to politics. It is widely believed that, had there not been for the 'August Siege', Mr Stuart would have been undisputedly the next A Minister for Magic. They expressed their deep regret, but also relentlessly attacked Mr Stuart for his wrongful actions in the 'August Siege'."

As time goes by, let us go back to 1955 o'clock in the morning on August 8, 30.

******

Elizabeth Stuart was walking on a desolate mountain road, the morning sun shone on her thin figure, and a cool wind blew through the hair on her forehead.As far as the eye can see, the valley is full of scorched trees and crumbling houses, and the former resort has become a hell of black magic.

The green dress on her body was already filthy, and there were many bloodstains on her face and arms, and her pale face looked like a child's.The heels of the black leather shoes she was wearing had fallen off, and the soles of her feet were blistered, causing severe pain with every step she took.

In front of the white holiday villa that originally belonged to the Malfoy family stood two Death Eaters in black cloaks and hoods.Behind the wrought-iron gate is a stone-paved courtyard.Although this is just a holiday villa where few people live, the courtyard is still full of Malfoy's family characteristics - decorated with a luxurious marble fountain, and a peacock is pacing around the fountain with its head held high.

When the Death Eaters saw the woman approaching from a distance, they all raised their wands and shouted fiercely, "Who is it!"

Elizabeth didn't seem to feel scared. She stopped in place and raised her hands. Her calm voice broke the silence of the morning.

"I am Elizabeth Stuart, a friend of Sylvia Black. Please inform me, thank you."

She knew that Sylvia must have taken care of these Death Eaters at the gate, and if she heard her name, she would be let in.

The two Death Eaters whispered to each other for a while, one of them gave her a suspicious look, turned around and walked through the wrought iron gate, raised his hand, walked into the yard as if walking through smoke, and disappeared into the Roman palace-style porch of the house.

After more than half an hour, two burly men followed him out and said in a rough voice, "Come in with us."

Elizabeth entered the courtyard, entered the gate, and entered a high hall with plaster and solid wood ceiling.A dark corridor led to a narrow black wooden door, flanked by somber portraits, dark green draperies, and snakes adorning candlesticks.There was a hissing sound, and a black python with thick arms swam up to Elizabeth's ankle, spitting out a black letter dangerously.

Elizabeth didn't feel scared, she knew the snake must remember her.

The Death Eater reached out and knocked the iron ring on the door, and the door melted like mist. Inside the door was a cold and narrow stone staircase leading to the basement, and a blazing torch was burning on the damp stone wall.

As they went down, the air grew colder and colder.Elizabeth folded her arms across her chest, and the stone ladder spun and extended underground. After walking for about five minutes, they passed seven or eight brass iron doors decorated with snake heads before they reached a circular room at the bottom. .A black door was ajar, and from within came a heated argument—

"I said, Boss, we are finished. None of the ways you proposed to break out of the siege was successful! If we continue to consume, we will starve to death here!"

"Spineless and weak reptile," Elizabeth recognized Lestrange's voice, "If you want to escape, I can give you the Avada Kedavra Curse first!"

"Wait here," said the Death Eater who was leading Elizabeth gruffly, the first words he had said to her.

After a while, Sylvia, who was wearing a black robe, hurried out of the door. She looked Elizabeth up and down, and was silent for a few seconds. She didn't ask why it took so many days for her to appear, and she didn't ask about the scars on her body. Where did they all come from.

She just gently shook Elizabeth's hand, and the black eyes of the two women looked at each other, with the same determination and determination in their eyes.

"He doesn't know yet," Sylvia whispered, "Come with me."

Elizabeth followed her and turned around and walked towards the conference room. When the door was opened, a loud quarrel rushed over.It was a rectangular room, with ugly dark green and silver draperies adorning the damp walls. Serpentine silver candlesticks floated in mid-air, illuminating a dozen or so people in uniform sitting on long wooden tables. Death Eaters in black robes.There were wine glasses and plates with food scraps on the table. Topographical maps, strategic maps, and piles of parchment documents were scattered all over the table.

She saw him immediately.

He was sitting at the top of the table, wearing a simple black robe, leaning back against the chair calmly, watching the fierce dispute on the table, immersed in his own thoughts.His hair has grown a little longer, his face has a somewhat unfamiliar vicissitudes and sharpness, and his deep-set dark eyes are more cold and gloomy than before.

She hadn't seen him for nearly six years.She stood at the door, motionless, unable to move her eyes, unable to speak a word, as if petrified.She didn't even notice that the room full of Death Eaters were all looking at her in shock, and the sudden silence flooded the room like a flood.

She had drafted what she was going to say hundreds of times in her mind, but the first time she saw him, she knew that she couldn't say a single word.After noticing the unusual silence in the room, he looked up and saw her standing at the door of the room.

He was visibly stunned.After several seconds, he supported the table with his hands and stood up very slowly. The chair receded back, making a harsh friction sound on the stone floor.

He looked at Sylvia who was standing next to Elizabeth, as if he understood something, the corner of his mouth curled up, revealing a mocking faint smile.

"You lied to me?" He didn't look at Elizabeth again, but at Sylvia, and said in a calm and soft but creepy voice.

Sylvia's face was so pale that there was no trace of blood, but her voice was still steady: "This is our only way out."

"What makes you think I need you to save me, you stupid woman?"

Sylvia opened her mouth, but before she could make a sound, he raised his wand and split the entire table in half before everyone could react. He stayed in the house when he was angry, and fled to the door one after another. This behavior seemed to anger him even more. He swung his wand and struck at him. Several Death Eaters who were running slower screamed. With a sound, he fell to the ground.

Sylvia's legs went limp, and she fell to her knees on the ground, her whole body twitching.

Elizabeth didn't seem to be frightened. She raised her face, showing a familiar smile, and her voice was unusually calm: "Tom."

When she called his name, he froze for a moment, and the yew wand in his hand dropped limply.He looked at the void in front of him, and after a while, he slowly sank into the chair behind him.

Elizabeth hesitated, then walked softly towards him, knelt down beside him, took his hand very tenderly, and said in a whisper, "Tom, look at me. Look at me." Eye."

Tom raised his eyes, his face was extremely pale, there was an unhealthy blue color under his eyelids, and the long and thick black eyelashes cast a shadow on his face.His face is so familiar, yet so strange.Six years of time have polished him into a tough and indifferent man. The lines on his face are no longer as delicate and handsome as before, but full of vicissitudes, melancholy and a kind of incomparable loneliness.

They stared at each other for a long time, Elizabeth's lips were bloodless, chapped, and there were several ugly scratches on her face. She looked at him closely and said in a nervous voice: "Tom , you will not die here, and I will not die here. Francis will not attack me."

After a long, long time, Tom stood up slowly, put his wand into his robe, walked out very slowly without saying a word, he didn't look at Elizabeth or Sylvia, just like this The person walked out of the door and disappeared into the endless darkness outside the door.

Elizabeth walked over trembling all over, and pulled Sylvia to stand up.

"Thank you." Sylvia said with trembling lips, "I'll send a message to Auror and Francis immediately. My room is upstairs, so you go and rest for a while. Take a shower and change clothes."

"Let me deliver the letter to him," said Elizabeth.

The morning of August 8th was extremely hot, and everyone in Malfoy's holiday home could feel the weird, tense, and explosive atmosphere in the air.They knew that a strange woman came to find Riddle, and something big might happen today.

In the afternoon, black clouds rushed over from the direction of the harbor, and with thunderstorms, torrential rain poured down, the entire Bernard Valley was submerged in the vast rain curtain, the heat in the air dissipated, and the strong wind blew Across the valley, blowing the beeches and pines to the ground.After night fell, the atmosphere in the house became more tense and dignified. The Death Eater at the door commented privately: "Someone said that Mr. Riddle sent a dozen letters this afternoon, and he is negotiating with the Ministry of Magic. .”

But no one knows what happened.At 10:[-] in the evening, Tom and the pale woman came out of the basement, and fifty or sixty people gathered in the cold hall, watching him in silence.

Tom Riddle was wearing a black waterproof cloak, and the woman beside him was also wrapped in a black cloak. Her long dark chestnut hair fell to her shoulders, her face was pale and silent.

"The Ministry of Magic has surrendered." Tom announced calmly, and the Death Eaters in the entire hall burst into deafening cheers, but neither Tom nor the woman beside him showed the slightest joy on their faces. A car drove up to the gate and stopped.

Tom's eyes swept across the hall coldly, and he said, "Apparition and Floo powder are still not allowed to enter and leave Bernard's Valley. Before dawn tomorrow morning, you all evacuate, so as not to disturb the nearby Muggles."

"Should we continue to evacuate to Northern Europe?" asked a Death Eater.

"No," said Tom flatly, "it's time we went back to England."

Another burst of cheers erupted from the Death Eaters, and Elizabeth glanced at Tom with a pale, apprehensive expression.Immediately, Tom took Elizabeth into the car, and disappeared on the winding mountain road in the torrential rain.

The mountain road was full of shocking ruins, but the car was not hindered. It slid freely over the road that was blown into a deep pit, flew over the intersection blocked by the rolling trees, and drove smoothly all the way to the valley. exit.

The car drove to the outskirts of Monte Carlo, and Tom asked the driver to stop the car.

"Mr. Riddle, where should I go now?"

Tom said lightly: "The world is so big, you can go wherever you want."

After hearing this completely clueless words, the driver turned his head inexplicably, but Mr. Riddle had already got out of the car with the woman and left.Holding hands tightly, they turned around in the rain curtain and disappeared with a snap.

******

Elizabeth had just recovered from the suffocation and squeeze brought by Apparation when she felt a burst of warm breath and pleasant music coming towards her.

She looked around in surprise, and found that she was standing in the bright lights. The obelisk of the Concorde Square stood tall in the clear night. It was almost midnight, but the road was still full of traffic and full of laughter. The opera had just ended, and men and women in costumes came out of the high marble steps arm in arm, walked to the street with laughter, and stopped taxis.

She turned to Tom and asked, "How did we come to Paris?"

Tom took off his cloak and said with a smile, "Why not?"

Elizabeth thought for a while: "Are you planning to return to London from Paris?"

"I don't want to go back to London."

"But you sent all your men back to London."

Tom smiled and sat down on a chair by the side of the road. At this time, many people who had just come out of the opera house passed by them. Seeing the weird outfits of Tom and Elizabeth, they all laughed and whistled at them. Someone even said loudly: "The costumes are very good!"

"I told them to go back, but I don't want to go back," Tom explained patiently.Elizabeth sat down beside him.His side face looked mature and melancholy, with a trace of determination: "You have two choices now. You can go back to England, or you can go with me."

"Where are you going?"

Tom shrugged indifferently: "I haven't thought about it yet, as long as it's not a rainy place. Australia, New Zealand, the United States...it's all fine. When I was a child, I didn't know that I was a wizard. I thought about it in the future." Could be a farmer, but then I was so busy with Stuart, Randall, Malfoy, I forgot a lot of things."

Elizabeth sat beside him, looked at him, and said, "Well, let's go to Australia. Then?"

"Then... let's change our name and live quietly. For example, I can be called Arnold, and you can be called Bell."

"Well, then what?"

"And then..." Tom had a weary smile on his lips, "then we planted rye in the spring, corn and cotton in the fall, a herd of cows, and a field of sunflowers around our house."

Elizabeth stared at him, smiled and said, "And then?"

"Then..." Tom took a deep breath, turned his head, and kissed her on the forehead, "Then Arnold and Bell lived their lives peacefully on their farm."

"We'll find a Muggle hotel for one night, and then we'll go on a Muggle boat the next day," Elizabeth said, "so that no wizard will recognize us."

"it is good."

Just then a taxi passed them and the driver slowed down hopefully. Elizabeth shook his hand and said, "Come on, I don't want to Apparate on Muggle streets."

They got into the back seat of the car.

"The Ritz," Elizabeth said to the driver, and for some reason it was the first Muggle hotel name to pop into her head.

Paris at midnight is so gentle, the lights on the banks of the Seine are reflected in the river, passing through the dark car windows one by one.She felt that there were so many things in her heart that she wanted to say to Tom, but she could not utter a word.

Half lying in Tom's arms, she closed her eyes and thought, They still have a lifetime.Maybe on a sunny afternoon many years from now, they can drink tea outside the house and talk about all the things of these years.

The car drove into the tunnel, the driver turned on the CD player, and a song came out——

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?

Aren't your feet cold in winter?

The sky won't now and the sun won't shine.

The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine

It's hard to tell the night time from the day.

Indistinguishable between day and night

You're losin' all your highs and lows.

You are losing the ability to feel happy and down

Ain'tit funny how the feeling goes away?

Don't you think it's weird to lose that feeling?

Elizabeth felt very tired.She was leaning against his chest, her hair was scattered behind her head in a mess, and the street lights shone through the windows of the back seat of the taxi, falling into her pale face and black clear eyes in pieces.

It feels like coming home.

Long ago they rode in a red Muggle double-decker bus on the Strand, and the soft night outside the window seemed to be a silent old time.She remembered that there were neat rows of orange street lamps on the Strand Street ten years ago, the bells of the evening mass in the church and the sound of trams were ringing, and her cheek was pressed against his chest, feeling cool On the cloth, the tip of the nose is surrounded by the faint smell of ink and wood on his body.

Ten years later, at midnight in Paris, the night is like water and the lights are like a sea of ​​stars. She feels like a melancholy deep-sea fish walking through the vast ocean of night. Everything is as peaceful as the silent world under the water. Fights, lies, and hypocrisy are all far away from her, and it seems that this taxi will continue to move forward in the gentle night like this, arriving at an unknown and beautiful place, and never turning back.

She closed her eyes, feeling drowsy.She needs a good rest, she doesn't want to think about anything.She was really, really tired.Tom also half-closed his eyes. No one noticed that since they entered the tunnel, two dark cars followed, keeping a leisurely distance from them.

The lights in the tunnel reflected on the surface of the car, shining brightly, and the end of the tunnel had already appeared. The driver saw the bright lights at the exit of the tunnel, and happily hummed along with the melody of the song.

At the end of every dark tunnel, there is always a warm yellow light outside.He likes that feeling.

In the side mirror he saw a car speeding up from the passing lane, coming in front of him, and slamming on the brakes.Immediately after a harsh sound of engine explosion and emergency braking, the taxi lost control, spun and crashed into the railing in the middle of the road, and slid into the opposite lane. With a huge explosion, the car crashed into the tunnel the top, disappearing into a raging flame.

Two black cars left the tunnel peacefully, a window closed silently, and a magic wand disappeared behind the window.Before reaching the tunnel entrance, the two cars suddenly disappeared into the air and became without a trace.

In the tunnel, the wreckage of the taxi was still burning, and a watch flew out of the car window. The quartz surface was charred and shattered, and the pointer stayed forever at 8:31 am on August 5.

The burning flames were crackling, and the radio in the car was still playing——

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?

Desperado ~ why are you awake?

Youbeen outriding fences for so long now.

You have been on the sidelines for a long time.

Oh, you're hard one,

Ah, you are really hard to persuade,

but I know that you've got your reasons.

But I know you have your reasons.

These things that are pleasing you

can hurt you some how.

Those happy things can always hurt you.

Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy!

Do not please the shining queen,

She'll beat you, if she's able.

She'll shatter your hopes and make your life worse than death,

You know the queen of heart is always your best bet.

You know the Queen of Hearts is your best bet.

Nowitseemstomesomefinethings

have been laid upon your table,

You obviously have a good choice,

but you only want the ones that you can't get.

But you have to go after those things that you can't get.

Desperado, ah, youain't gettin' no younger.

Desperado, you are no longer young,

Your pain and your hunger, they'redrivin' you home.

Your pain and hunger, they are driving you back to square one.

Freedom, oh, freedom. That's just some people talkin'

Liberty, oh freedom, that's just another word,

You'reaprisioner walking through this world all alone.

You have been a prisoner of emotion for the rest of your life, and you have walked the long road of life alone.

There was a hiss, a snap, and the radio fell silent.It was like a candle placed in the window flickered and went out with a snap.