The Most Loyal Servant

The second round of qualifiers for the Quidditch World Cup regions officially began. The teams that advanced would earn a place in the semifinals to be held in France at the beginning of next month.

Britain's Quidditch hooligans had finally quieted down, not only because there had been no recent matches involving British teams, but also because Peter Pettigrew's execution date was drawing near.

On the morning of July 21,

the woman finally emerged from the Albanian Black Forest and arrived in Britain, two thousand kilometers away.

She seemed terribly afraid of sunlight. She wore a tattered black cloak and carried a swaddled infant in her arms.

She wandered aimlessly until a deep, hoarse voice sounded.

"Go find my most loyal servant first... Jorkins..."

This woman, who looked like a walking corpse, was Bertha Jorkins, who had gone traveling in Albania.

But she was completely different now. She had become skin and bones, and a terrifying aura of Dark Magic even radiated from her body.

No, that aura came from the source of the voice—the infant in the swaddling clothes.

Jorkins stiffly drew her wand and used Side-Along Apparition to appear before an old manor.

She walked straight toward the tightly shut gates when a female House-elf suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Please stop. This is the Crouch residence. Winky cannot allow strangers to approach."

Jorkins did not pause in the slightest, forcing the elf named Winky to spread her arms and block the gates.

"Please stop immediately. Mr. Crouch will be back soon."

"Get rid of it..."

Jorkins slowly raised her wand and aimed it at Winky before her.

A red spell blasted the gates apart, but Winky vanished from sight.

"Heh... leave it for now..."

Jorkins carried the infant into the manor.

She climbed the stairs and