Facing the former Dark Lord, the werewolves showed every bit of the caution he warranted, even if he now had the body of a child.
As for supposedly staying behind to help with the preparations...
How could a "prospective elementary student" who had never even completed a basic education in the wizarding world help an "academician" with his experiments?
He simply intended to stay and watch Resurrection Stone Voldemort, making sure he did not try anything funny.
Yes, the werewolves professed allegiance and loyalty. But when it came to guarding against Voldemort, they certainly did not treat him as their master.
They were not even willing to call him Master.
The Dark Lord...
Tsk, tsk.
Voldemort did not mind having someone watch while he set up his magical ritual, just as Tony Stark had dared to build the Mark I by hand right under the terrorists' noses.
They were simply taking advantage of the uneducated.
If Resurrection Stone Voldemort currently had the body of a ten-year-old or so, he would have charged outside and fought the Ministry of Magic's Aurors without hesitation.
After killing a few Aurors, he would have swaggered away. Unfortunately, he only had the body of a two- or three-year-old now.
That made ritual magic his best option.
Lockhart's Sacrificial Ritual was a textbook example of ritual magic: the person conducting the ritual paid a price, then received a reward from magic.
Resurrection Stone Voldemort now needed some outside assistance as well.
Magical sparks occasionally flashed from Resurrection Stone Voldemort's wand. He glanced at the wand in his hand, which had come from Lockhart.
Without question, this wand was a very poor match for Voldemort.
There were no other wands available for him to use, so he could only make do with this ill-fitting one.
For a