The Seer in the Dark Lord's Eyes

After ten years of silence, the former Dark Lord returned to the United Kingdom from distant Albania, near Greece. His primary goal was to restore his strength.

Having once led the Death Eaters and turned the British wizarding world upside down, he knew very well what was in people's hearts.

There were indeed Death Eaters who were utterly loyal to him. But there were even more opportunists who bent with the wind, Pure-blood family factions seeking to use him to achieve their political aims, and Dark wizards with no moral limits who wanted to profit from the chaos.

If those latter three types discovered how weak he was now, they certainly would not come to his aid in his hour of need!

After his downfall, the tree had fallen and the monkeys scattered. Some of his former subordinates had been arrested, some had died, some had gone into hiding, some had switched sides and cleansed their names, and some had even been spies from the start... He had watched it all.

Ha ha, wizards really were good at putting on an act.

Even Voldemort sometimes could not tell who was truly loyal to him and who was merely another dormant trap waiting to be sprung.

Voldemort could not be bothered to distinguish between them.

He knew only one thing: as long as he regained his power, everything would return.

The sycophantic scum, the families harboring ulterior motives, the profit-driven Dark wizards—as long as his banner could still stand, those who loved to prey on the weak would gather around him like hyenas, forming a vast force and waiting for him to lead them into the next...

Hunt!

As long as he remained powerful and continued winning.

Did it matter whether his subordinates were truly loyal or merely greedy fools pretending to be respectful...?

Heh heh, they were all loyal subjects.

So, after learning of the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort began his operation.

If he succeeded this time, he could save himself a great deal of trouble.

But unfortunately, he had been one move too late. The most promising opportunity had slipped through his fingers.

When he opened the Gringotts vault, it was completely empty. The Philosopher's Stone had long since been taken away.

Yet he could still follow the traces. The Philosopher's Stone was now at Hogwarts! Voldemort also knew that the useless wizard he possessed had long been under suspicion.

Severus Snape had once been his subordinate, and in Voldemort's eyes, Snape's strange behavior was practically an open admission.

But it did not matter.

People only suspected that Quirrell had a problem. Even if they guessed that Quirrell was after the Philosopher's Stone, it would not cause much trouble.

Since Quirrell was the one they suspected, their security measures would only be sufficient to guard against a professor who had taught Muggle Studies at Hogwarts last year and had suddenly transferred to Defense Against the Dark Arts this year.

As long as he was careful and did not reveal any clues that he was actually Voldemort.

It would instead make things more convenient for him.

...That was how it should have been.

But life was always full of the surprises Voldemort hated.

A seer!

After several decades, the world had actually produced another powerful seer capable of repeatedly making accurate predictions of the future! And this seer was entering Hogwarts this year, coming into close contact with him.

Merlin's beard! He still had many Horcruxes and quite a few chances to resurrect, but who wanted to die even once if they could avoid it?

For the first few days after term began, he remained on edge, prepared for the worst at any moment.

But in the end, it seemed he had merely scared himself.

Nothing happened at all.

Of course, that did not mean he was safe. Who knew when a seer might suddenly have a flash of inspiration and do something unexpected?

After deciding that nothing was likely to go wrong in the short term, Voldemort ordered Quirrell to continue monitoring matters concerning the Philosopher's Stone. As for himself, he intended to probe this seer's true nature.

He had discovered quite a few problems once he began investigating! By observing Roger's studies between classes and his spellcasting, Voldemort reached a conclusion.

This newly enrolled young wizard possessed Mental Power far greater than that of many Death Eaters!

His magical techniques were simply too immature, and he knew too few spells. Otherwise, based on the strength of his spellcasting alone, he would already be a formidable asset under Voldemort's command.

His learning ability was also exceptional.

He appeared to have already formed the beginnings of his own system of magical understanding. He possessed highly precise control over his Mental Power and could quickly grasp spells as he learned them.

Moreover, he had no pride to speak of. Whenever there was something he did not understand, he would stop professors after class and ask them in detail. Sometimes, he even went to their offices to ask about questions that troubled him.

...According to the Little Seer, most of his questions concerned material outside the textbooks. Asking them in class would take up his classmates' study time, while professors had a duty to teach, so naturally he should seek them out when he had questions.

Asking after class was just right.

And most professors welcomed Roger's questions.

On one hand, they were decent teachers who did not dislike eager students. On the other, who would not want to build a good relationship with a seer who might become a guiding light at a critical turning point in their lives? Every day, the Little Seer traveled between the many professors and the library, absorbing the nourishment of Hogwarts like a sponge.

Voldemort could sense that he was growing at an alarming pace every day. Voldemort believed that Roger would soon bring his magical ability up to the level his Mental Power deserved.

And this was by no means the end.

He was only eleven years old! How strong had Voldemort been at eleven? Roger still had a very long period of growth ahead of him. As long as he did not die prematurely, once he reached Voldemort's age, this seer's strength would be...

Unimaginable!

Yet even more alarming than watching this "monster" lodge itself in Hogwarts and ravenously absorb its nourishment as it grew before his very eyes was something else.

Everyone knew that Roger was a young wizard who often lost himself in thought.

For instance, during classes like History of Magic, where the teacher was nothing more than a textbook-reading machine and self-study would have been better, or classes where the teacher covered material he had already learned in advance, he would immerse himself in his own world and ponder the difficult problems he had yet to resolve.

What exactly was he thinking about? Voldemort chose to have Quirrell ask this question that many people had wondered about. After all, it was perfectly normal for a professor to ask a student who was not paying attention in class what he was doing, and it would not arouse suspicion.

Roger's answer was, "Immortality."

Roger did not elaborate, merely saying that he was researching related subjects.

But his words stirred up waves in Voldemort's heart.

Immortality?

Was that something a first-year Hogwarts student should be researching?!

If Roger truly was researching immortality, then by Voldemort's standards, that was utterly absurd.

And if he was lying...

"Is this Little Seer trying to hint at something to me?" Voldemort, clinging to the back of Quirrell's head, frowned.

Among the wizards who had pursued immortality in modern times, who was the most famous?

Aside from Nicolas Flamel, the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, who was publicly known to be over six hundred years old, who else could it be but Voldemort himself?!

Unable to make sense of Roger's intentions for the moment, Voldemort decided to investigate further.

At that moment, he happened to see Harry Potter having a small conflict with his friends... What perfect timing.

But in Harry Potter's eyes, the person who truly seemed suspicious was Snape.

When he had looked toward Snape during the opening feast, a terrible feeling had suddenly risen within him. And Snape had inexplicably targeted him relentlessly in Potions class.

"Heh heh heh, Potter, famous for nothing..." Harry sometimes even dreamed of that voice.

The resentment Snape had earned through his own actions made Harry overlook Quirrell, who had been seated beside Snape during the opening feast.

Since Quirrell still seemed like a trustworthy professor to Harry, he naturally had no objection to telling Quirrell everything he knew about Roger.

"Roger..." Harry pondered for a moment. Though he did not mind speaking, he believed Roger was a good person, so he decided to filter out his classmates' prejudices and mention only the good things.