Dumbledore Lost Control of the Game

Dumbledore took a crystal bottle from the drawer, which contained a swirling, floating, silvery-white substance.

He poured the silvery substance from the bottle into the Pensieve, where it slowly swirled and emitted a faint glow.

William leaned forward and plunged headfirst into the silvery substance. His feet left the office floor, and he plummeted downwards into the swirling darkness.

Soon, he found himself standing on a flat cement road, with neat houses on both sides.

This should be a Muggle neighborhood. William saw signs for Yorkshire and Cleveland, but they were on the ground, broken in two.

Despite the bright moon in the sky, the surroundings were shrouded in darkness, with Dark Mark floating in the air, and the sounds of people crying and explosions everywhere.

Two fiery dragons were flying in the sky— the Peruvian Vipertooth!

After unleashing their scorching dragon breath and wreaking havoc, the "Dragon Rider Shaman" gave the order to retreat and flew off into the distant sky.

"A fire dragon?" William was slightly taken aback, somewhat astonished.

"That's right, a dragon." Dumbledore gazed calmly at the sky, as if telling a story from long ago.

"The Wizarding Wars... Voldemort has a host of Pure-blood families behind him. He not only has dragons, but he has also won over dark creatures such as Werewolf and vampires."

Voldemort further exploited the hatred between wizards and Giant, drawing many Giant to his side and perpetrating some of the most brutal Muggle massacres.

According to Dumbledore's descriptions, the Wizarding Wars were far more brutal than imagined.

As the fire dragon departed, the Death Eaters Apparition.

About ten paces away from William and Dumbledore stood a man dressed in tattered clothes, holding a wand and pointing it at a Werewolf not far away.

The Werewolf lunged at him with even greater speed, causing the man's spell to miss, and the Werewolf pounced on him.

The man fell backward, a huge claw pressing down on his head. The stench of sweat and blood filled his mouth and nose, and greedy hot breath filled his throat...

"Reducto!"

A beam of light shot out, and the Werewolf tumbled sideways, crashing into the wall.

William saw a red-haired witch dancing like firelight. She was very beautiful, dressed in light blue, with striking green eyes that stood out in the darkness.

"Are you alright, Remus?"

"Thanks, Lily!" Remus Lupin stood up, grabbed his wand, and charged at the Werewolf again.

Lily, on the other hand, charged toward another Death Eaters.

The battle gradually came to an end, and the Death Eaters gradually retreated.

Lupin sat alone on the ground, applying hemostatic agent to his shoulder.

"Hey, Moony, are you hurt?" A man walked over; he was a bespectacled, dark-haired man, almost a giant version of Harry.

"Moony?" William was slightly taken aback.

So... James and his three companions were the Marauders, and they were the ones who created the Marauder's Map!

Isn't that a coincidence?

William and the twins had always wondered who had made the map hundreds of years ago.

"I heard from Lily that Greyback wanted to kiss you?" James sat down next to Lupin and took the Potions to treat him.

"Ha, he's got the wrong idea. I was about to shove my wand in his mouth," Lupin chuckled.

The two punched each other in the chest.

"Where's Padfoot?" James asked.

"Sirius went after Dolohov! The Death Eaters killed the Prewett brothers," Lupin said.

James was silent for a moment, then said sadly, "Don't say anything more, I don't even know how to tell Molly about this."

"Fabian Prewett and Gideon Prewett are both Molly's brothers; they were attacked by Death Eaters," Dumbledore explained from the side.

William nodded; he had never heard the Weasley family mention this before.

"Hey, James, Remus, I think you two should come in and take a look," a shout came from inside the house.

The two went inside. Several corpses lay stiff, their faces contorted in horrific expressions.

The two continued walking into the house and saw Lily.

She was helping someone to their feet.

"Gideon, you're not dead?" James said in surprise.

Lupin also took out Potions from his pocket, preparing to give it to Gideon.

Gideon swayed for a moment, then took the Potions from Lupin and mechanically drank it.

"Did you see clearly Death Eaters attacked you were? Who else was there besides Dolohov?" James asked impatiently.

Gideon sat in the chair, seemingly contemplating how to... speak.

He pointed to a corner not far away, gesturing for the three of them to walk over.

James and Lily raised their wands and walked over, where they could vaguely see a huge box under the window with the curtains drawn.

"What is this?" James asked.

"Is there anything unusual?" Lily opened the box, but found nothing.

"Watch out!" Lupin suddenly shouted.

James turned around in horror and saw Gideon's body fall to the ground, a large snake shooting out from his neck and biting at Lily.

James grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her behind him, raising his wand at the same time.

The giant snake crashed into him, biting his forearm. The wand tumbled towards the ceiling, and the glowing light spun dizzily around the walls before going out.

Immediately afterwards, the snake's tail struck James hard in the abdomen, sending the two crashing into the wall and smashing the box.

Lupin transformed into a giant Werewolf, charged forward, grabbed the giant python, and bit off its neck, splattering blood everywhere.

Gideon lay on the ground, his shriveled corpse and grotesque face a truly horrifying sight.

The three of them stared silently at the dead snake, seemingly still reeling from their shock.

"Let's go, William," Dumbledore said softly.

The two returned to the Headmaster's Office.

"What happened?" William asked, sitting in his chair.

"According to the examination of the body, Gideon had actually been dead for some time."

The snake burrowed into his body and then manipulated Gideon's corpse, allowing him to move like a normal person.

How did you do that?

"The Dark Magic invented by Voldemort requires Parseltongue as its foundation."

"He himself is a Parseltongue, capable of remotely controlling snakes, and thus manipulating wizards," Dumbledore sighed.

William suppressed his horror. "So Filch and those other students who were attacked all had... a snake hidden inside them?!"

Dumbledore nodded.

William felt nauseous.

He remembered a movie he had seen in his previous life—"Deranged".

In the movie, horsehair worms control human consciousness and cause death by parasitizing and reproducing inside the human body.

"So they're all dead too?"

"No." Dumbledore shook his head. "The Diary doesn't want to kill these students, or rather... he needs them to live."

Besides framing Harry, he must have had other motives.

"Could you remove those snakes?"

"It's difficult! The other party is constantly controlling it. If it senses anything amiss, it will directly control the snake to kill its host. This is also a way for it to protect itself!"

"Then what can we do?"

"We can only wait... wait for it to take the snake out on its own."

William remained silent.

He suddenly realized that this diary seemed to be even smarter than Voldemort himself.

Their styles of doing things are also completely different.

William looked at Dumbledore, who still appeared calm and collected, showing no sign of panic.

But William always felt that

headmaster,

They've gone too far!

Don't be fooled by his calm and collected exterior; inside he's... terribly panicked.

(Thanks to "Hell Cat" and "Daoyou Qing Liubu You" for their generous donations.)