Just as the friends from Cabin leaped into the sea and raced toward its depths, an Owl was flapping for all it was worth, flying toward the heart of the Black Sea.
It was carrying earth-shattering news, news that would sweep across the globe.
Today. Today, of all days!
Freya Avery, Speaker of the Magical Congress of the Americas, had resigned from her position due to illness, and in a speech on "How the Magical Congress Can Maintain Its Advantage in the New Era," she had nominated her successor.
Tom Riddle!
In her speech, she had said that the Magical Congress was facing the greatest opportunity in its history—His Excellency, the great Tom Riddle, had arrived in their land.
From then on, the Magical Congress would no longer be on the fringes of the Wizarding World's politics, economy, and culture. It would no longer be kept busy fending off Muggle Witch Hunt organizations. It would no longer be ignored by the International Confederation of Wizards or looked down on by the European Ministries of Magic. It would change the status quo in which the Magical Congress had no voice in international wizarding affairs.
In short, the Dark Lord Voldemort, reviled across Europe, seemed to have become their Chosen One here!
Speaker Avery had not lied. No one even suspected that she had been threatened. Everyone knew how much this respected Witch had sacrificed for the Magical Congress, and how deeply she cared about it.
One man's villain is another man's hero.
The wizards of the Americas found it hard to empathize with the pain of Voldemort's rampage and the many deaths he had caused in Europe, just as European wizards found it hard to empathize with the pain they had suffered through the Muggle Witch Hunt for so long. (The