the Gambler

"Oh, what an honor, Potter boy." Voldemort said coldly, holding Harry's arm. "I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time."

Harry froze and stood there motionless.He couldn't believe his luck, running straight into Voldemort's hands, nothing could be more unfortunate.He was beginning to believe that fate did like to play with him, that the damned evil Dark Lord had caught him on the territory of the Ministry of Magic!

"Give me the Prophecy Ball." Voldemort's cold voice entered Harry's ears.

"it's been--"

"I tried my best, really," Bellatrix, who had just rushed here, was obviously startled by Voldemort's appearance. She lay trembling at Voldemort's feet and tried to kiss the man's robe. open.The witch raised her head tremblingly, muttering words of apology, and finally those terrified murmurs turned into a high-pitched scream, "Master! Potter smashed the orb of prophecy! I tried my best, and the brat just smashed it! I Do your best, master, don't punish me—"

"Shut up your poor pleas, Bella. I'm not in the mood to deal with you."

"Thank you master, thank you." Bellatrix hastily stepped back into the shadows.

"You smashed my prophecy ball." Voldemort tilted his head, raised his wand and circled Harry's eyebrows, as if weighing how to deal with the boy, "you disrupted my plan again, I want Why are you so angry?"

"A duel!" Harry blurted out without thinking.

Voldemort let out a goosebump-sharp laugh, and all the Death Eaters froze on the spot. Harry's scar was in so much pain that tears were already swirling and threatening to fall, not to mention the force with which Voldemort squeezed his arm.He knew he had said the wrong thing, and it only made the other party's already high anger even more high, and the burning sensation made Harry's head go blank.

"Do I need to throw my white gloves at you?" Voldemort curled his lips, as if hearing a funny joke, "I need a deputy, Potter, don't you bring young Tom with you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Harry turned his head away from Voldemort's eyes, whom he knew were masters of Legilimency.It looked like Voldemort and Tom hadn't met yet, the Slytherin boy was a wild card at the moment, and Harry wasn't sure which side he'd choose.

"I don't like people lying to my face—" Voldemort tightened his hand, "I can sense his just as he senses my existence. Let him out!"

Harry's scar was burning again, especially so close to Voldemort that he could barely breathe.

"Potter, let him out!" Voldemort repeated again, his wand shot red light, and the next moment, Harry curled up on the floor, the dense pain spread all over his body, and a miserable scream came out of his throat, He wasn't even sure it was from himself.Just when Harry thought he was going to die, the pain suddenly stopped.He gasped, and the holly wand dropped beside his uncurl fingers.

"It's almost time for you to come out, then," said Voldemort quietly. "Or should I cast the Cruciatus Curse on Potter again?"

Harry struggled to open his heavy eyelids, and the sound of steady footsteps slowly came from the darkness. He pressed his cheek against the cold floor tile surface, and the burning sensation in his throat seemed to be a little better.Harry blinked for a few seconds, and a pair of black leather shoes appeared in his field of vision.

"Everyone else get out of here," Voldemort yelled, and the rustle of fabric told Harry that all the Death Eaters had left the room.

"Young me," greeted Voldemort cheerfully, his mouth curled up in a welcome arc, but the smile without lips looked rather eerie.

Tom's brow twitched.

"Don't take me for you, that old, bald, noseless face has nothing to do with me." Tom's sarcasm sounded in the quiet space, and Harry's momentary stupefaction was overshadowed by the sudden pain, and he glared angrily. He glanced at Voldemort, who was expressionless but furious.

"It seems that you already know that we are the same person, why don't you leave those disgusting caterpillars?" Voldemort said with suppressed anger.

"Your Death Eaters aren't much better." Tom twirled the ring on his finger nonchalantly. "And Harry is much more attractive than you."

"Couple rings?" Voldemort narrowed his eyes to observe the silver ring, then fixed his eyes on Harry's, and he burst out into a high-pitched laugh like fingernails across glass.After half a minute, Voldemort stopped laughing horribly, raised his non-existent eyebrows, and said in a disgusted tone, "I didn't know you were the type who likes wine at the player's house. Is this some kind of silly joke?"

"Feeling jealous, Voldemort?" Tom was completely unaffected, and he gave a cruel smile, "Because no one wants to be paired with that ugly snake face? I can completely understand, you are almost seventy, really Pitiful."

Harry stared at Tom with crazy eyes, whether he was hallucinating or something, Tom was laughing at his future self, which was too funny.If the scene didn't allow it, he would be rolling on the ground laughing.Harry opened his mouth, but before he could speak in response, it was as if someone had pressed a red-hot iron on his scar suddenly, and the severe pain made the boy almost faint.Harry curled up.

He needed to do something, Tom seemed to be better at provoking Voldemort than he was.

"Jealous of you being with Potter?" Voldemort sneered at the boy in front of him. "He's just a worthless brat."

"You can't even deal with little ghosts." Tom stroked the wand in his hand indifferently. He looked like he didn't care about Voldemort at all. "Actually, I think Harry's dear is a very potential partner."

"I don't even remember a time when I had such bad taste." Voldemort grabbed Harry by the collar and lifted him in front of him. Harry could even feel the hot air coming out of the two thin slits where his nose should be. Hit him in the face.Harry turned his head in disgust.

"You disgusted him." Tom's statement made Voldemort forcefully throw Harry back to the ground.

It couldn't have been worse, thought Harry sullenly, now that he was the victim of a quarrel between Voldemort and Voldemort.

Tom delivered vicious sarcasm in a bland manner: "Can't you hold back your emotions a little bit? It's fluctuating so I can't help but suspect that you have a little girl driven by hormones living inside you. Seriously, your appearance is the most Enough to play the man-eating monsters under their beds—”

"Shut up!" Harry and Voldemort yelled at the same time, the former gritted his teeth in pain to spit out this sentence, God knows his vision had already turned white.Noticing the synchronization rate with their mortal enemy, the two stared at each other fiercely again.

Tom finally gave up on continuing to provoke Voldemort under Harry's stare, allowing the boy to catch his breath.The only Gryffindor closed his eyes and listened carefully. In addition to the shallow breathing of the other two, there were also faint whispers coming from the room.Harry lifted his head to look in the direction of the sound. A black curtain was fluttering, but he was sure there was no wind in the room.For some reason, the more he stared at the curtain, the more panicked he became.

"Who's there?" Harry asked aloud, his voice still hoarse from the ordeal.

Tom and Voldemort quickly turned their attention from the arguing to the boy lying on the floor, then followed their gaze to the curtain.

"No one's here, Potter," said Voldemort angrily. "Are you really out of your mind?"

Harry ignored his sarcasm, and the unease became more and more obvious. He seemed to see a translucent substance protruding from the curtain, beckoning to him.Harry thought he should go, yes, he belonged there -

"Harry!" Tom's voice suddenly came from beside him, and then a hand grabbed his upper arm hard, and Harry blinked his eyes a few times.

"What are you doing?" Voldemort frowned, and Harry realized that he had appeared on the stone platform at some point, less than a meter away from the curtain.He looked suspiciously at the place where he had been lying down before, and he actually dragged his trembling legs across the entire room!

"Someone's talking inside." Harry stared fascinatedly at the curtain before him, and his outstretched hand was slapped away by Tom, who had a serious expression on his face.

"There's no one here." Tom put his body between the curtain and Harry. This behavior made Harry very uncomfortable. He was eager to know what those mysterious beings said. Yes, just get a little closer.

"But there are people behind the curtain, and I want to know what they're talking about! Can't you all hear?" Harry said, taking a step forward, and this time it was Voldemort who grabbed him, much harder than Tom.

"We didn't hear anything, no, there's nothing here, there's just an arch over the fabric." Tom turned his head and looked carefully at the curtain, he could see the obvious arch, and his instinct told him to stay away from the ghost thing .Harry's unusual behavior further deepened this speculation.

"This is the Department of Mysteries. No one knows what the curtain is for." Voldemort didn't even look at the bewildered boy. He spoke to Tom, who nodded to show that he understood.Tom raised his wand and cast a Stunning Charm on Harry, and the next moment, the boy fell limply in his arms.

Tom carried Harry to the corner farthest from the curtain and put it away. In the wizarding world, it is not a good sign to hear or see things that others cannot realize. He had a vague premonition of what Harry heard.Just like thestrals, perhaps only those who truly understand death can see it.Tom looked up at Voldemort, really understanding that death was a vague concept, the Dark Lord must have killed many people, but he obviously couldn't see what was behind the veil.If this is my future self, the lack of certain emotions may actually have such results.

A call from the realm of the dead?Tom frowned, no matter what the meaning of the curtain hanging here was, anyway, he had no intention of getting close, and Harry had to get away from that weird thing.

By the time Tom had settled the unconscious boy, Voldemort was getting impatient.

"I need to talk to you." Voldemort broke the silence.