Tver glanced at the giants. Even after Percy had taken the chance to sever their tendons and bones, they still remained wholly focused on carrying out their demolition mission.
Logically speaking, that bizarre behavior from the giants could only be explained by one thing.
The normal giants that had been deployed from time to time before, combined with these Inferi giants who were focused purely on smashing buildings and widening the area of destruction, really would make it very easy to expose the wizarding world.
There was just one tiny problem.
If Tver had not begun laying the groundwork for the Joint Operations Office as early as last summer.
If this incident were being handled only by Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic.
If Tver had not been scheming all this time to abolish the Statute of Secrecy.
Then Voldemort's plan would have been vicious beyond words. It might even have been called the greatest crisis the wizarding world had faced since the Statute of Secrecy had first been implemented.
But reality was just that dramatic...
Watching Voldemort standing there with a smug face, laughing wildly, Tver suddenly felt a trace of guilt.
Had he pushed Voldemort too far and somehow driven the poor man into this state?
Tver hurriedly coughed twice, but his mouth still held a smile that was difficult to suppress.
"Er... I..."
For the first time, he discovered that for all his usual eloquence, he had no idea how to answer Voldemort.
"Well. I'm terrified. Please don't do this," he finally said dryly.
Voldemort's arrogance immediately stalled. He did not know why, but Tver's utterly flat tone made the mockery hit even harder.
"Just wait and see, Tver. The rotten order of the wizarding world will collapse sooner or later. Wizards are the true masters of this world!"
"..."
Even though he had started the topic himself, Tver had the distinct feeling that if he let Voldemort keep rambling like this, he was eventually going to laugh out loud...
Still, in one sense, it was only natural that Voldemort would think this way.
Many young wizards, and not only Muggle-born children, came into contact with Muggles who knew nothing about magic, just as Voldemort once had, or as Dumbledore's sister Ariana had.
Misunderstandings and conflict were bound to happen. And the tragedies that followed would naturally go on shaping the wizarding world, as they had once shaped Dumbledore when he lost his way, and now shaped Voldemort.
The birth of a Dark Lord was never simply because someone was born wanting to conquer the world. It was because the stifling environment of the wizarding world would always give rise to one Dark Lord after another who wanted to break that environment apart.
For Voldemort, his rise was an accident. But for the wizarding world, it was an inevitability written into its fate...
The pity of it was that, unlike Tver, Voldemort did not possess twenty extra years of perspective beyond the world itself, so he had been forced down the wrong path.
At that thought, Tver finally understood why he had inexplicably felt that Voldemort was a little pathetic.
Hateful people always had something pitiable about them.
"So this is your justification for slaughtering so many lives and dragging innocent people into your war?"
Dumbledore appeared abruptly, as if he were simply walking up the stairs at Hogwarts, rising one step at a time until he stood level with Tver and faced Voldemort.
Unusually, however, he did not refute Voldemort's words.
Faced with Dumbledore's grim expression, Tver had no choice but to lighten the mood a little.
"I thought Fudge and his people would keep you occupied a while longer..."
"As long as I am still alive, no Death Eater will run rampant at Hogwarts!"
Tver caught the look Dumbledore shot him and immediately understood what the Headmaster meant.
When Voldemort ran wild across the wizarding world, that still counted as a conflict between opposing sides, and Dumbledore could hardly condemn him for that alone.
But Hogwarts was different. It was full of young students. If Voldemort had really let Death Eaters into the castle to slaughter freely, that would truly have crossed Dumbledore's bottom line.
So Tver wisely chose not to ask what had become of those Death Eaters. Instead, he stepped back and left the battlefield to Dumbledore.
Since Dumbledore wanted to vent his anger on Voldemort, Tver had no reason to stop him. Besides, even though Voldemort was in much stronger shape now, Dumbledore with the Elder Wand was no easy opponent either.
And Tver was not going far. If anything unexpected happened, he could always step in.
The moment Tver moved away, Dumbledore gave Voldemort no chance to speak and silently sent several spells flying at him.
Voldemort, however, wore a strangely displeased expression, as though he were annoyed that Fudge had failed to hold Dumbledore back longer.
Even after dodging the spells, Voldemort's counterattacks were casual. Every now and then he would Apparate elsewhere, using the buildings as cover and fighting Dumbledore in a kind of guerrilla battle.
Percy had just managed to save several buildings that were already on the verge of collapse. Looking at the new holes that Dumbledore and Voldemort had blasted through them, he could only stare in exhausted silence.
So the moment he saw Tver finally focusing fully on the giants, he hurried over and asked, "Professor, shouldn't you and the Headmaster be able to kill Voldemort outright?"
"Voldemort can't die yet. After Dumbledore gives him a proper beating, he'll still let him go."
Tver casually sent a Severing Charm slashing across a giant's neck, opening up a huge gash. The giant only swayed a little, and the club in its hand still landed solidly against the building.
It looked as though Voldemort was completely determined to make these giants do as much damage as possible.
So Tver had no choice but to drop back down to the ground and switch to attacking the giants' ankles, preventing them from moving freely and forcing them to destroy only the buildings nearest them.
And so Tver and Percy worked together, one attacking the giants, the other shielding the buildings.
On top of that, Crystal and Viktor were racing everywhere, rescuing Muggles from tottering buildings, while Evans directed the police and doctors in maintaining order and treating the injured.
And opposite them, the giants pounded buildings like machines, while overhead Voldemort and Dumbledore exchanged spells like fireworks in the sky.
Altogether, it created a strange sort of harmony.
"But Professor, if Voldemort's purpose was destruction and exposing magic, then in a way you could say he's already succeeded."
Percy stared at one of the huge holes Dumbledore had blasted through a building and said in confusion, "Then why is he still here dragging things out with Dumbledore?"
Tver's wand hand paused.
That was right. The disturbance here was already enormous. Tver had long since stopped believing it could still be covered up.
And as for the battle with Dumbledore, with Tver present, Voldemort had no chance of seriously harming him.
So why was Voldemort still here, stalling for time?
Tver's thoughts immediately turned to the other two battlefields.
The pure-blood families, or Azkaban?