In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 422: Give up

Jon's words brought a look of elation to the faces of all of them, whether it was Kingsley, Moody or Lupin.

Of course, they could hear that Jon was seemingly giving Voldemort a choice, but in fact, it was a disguised way of asking for Severus Snape outright, or asking Voldemort to give him up himself!

Between the pureblood, absolutely die-hard Barty Crouch Jr. and the half-blood Snape, whose loyalty must not be as high as Barty Jr.'s, there was actually no need to guess who Voldemort would choose between the two.

Plus they could now see that Barty Crouch Jr. had clearly developed some misplaced suspicions and opinions about the current Voldemort, and by letting the current Voldemort take him away, it would be like bringing back a time bomb which no one knew whether it would blow up or not.

In addition, keeping these former Castle students as Jon had said would pretty much involve all the purebloods and half-bloods that Britain would produce in the next seven years, and if they were all taken away, it's not clear what the families behind them would think of the current Voldemort, although it's true that Dumbledore was the one who broke up their families, but is there really no one that would blame Voldemort for that?

Sirius was the only one who was slightly unhappy with this suggestion from Jon, he had a deep hatred for everyone on Voldemort's side and didn't want to let go of even a single Death Eater, especially the sinful Barty Crouch Jr. among them. But he also knew that this idea of his was simply not going to happen, and Jon was now offering the best solution.

And what they could consider now was whether or not Voldemort would accept the offer.

Jon had a feeling that Voldemort one would accept it.

Because he simply didn't have the same long-term vision as number two, just like in the original where he burned, looted and terrorized Britain, he would only look at the immediate benefits and not even think about the future.

And he was bound to know that Snape wasn't that loyal to him, and probably would have thanked them for helping to clear up the internal unrest after learning that all Jon and the others needed was taking Snape alone.

As for these students, that was even less of a big deal.

People all over the world believed in Dumbledore's character, and this was analogous even in Britain, as when Lucius believed Dumbledore more than Voldemort, and if one were to look at it from Voldemort's point of view, Dumbledore taking only the students away like this might as well be a way to help him raise his children in disguise, and with his arrogance and cocky conviction that he would be able to do what Voldemort Two had done and ultimately defeat Dumbledore after getting used to his body so that he would have no rival in all of Europe.

Dumbledore then turned to Voldemort and requested the offer that Jon had stated.

"Among all these students, professors and Aurors you have left in this school, you can only bring along the adult wizards in exchange for those captives, we want all the students to stay."

The crowd was quiet, everyone knew that the only two people who could make terms and demands at this negotiation talk were just Dumbledore and Voldemort.

And after hearing the offer from Dumbledore, as Jon had expected, Voldemort didn't hesitate much at all.

"You can keep the students."

Behind him, some movement arose from some masked Death Eaters who had their children among the group of students that were surrounded at the moment.

And some of those former Castle students who had been gathered together burst into tears on the spot after hearing Dumbledore's terms and Voldemort's words of agreement!

Mostly because Voldemort Two had just left no stone unturned in his smear campaign against Dumbledore's side in the castle, almost coming close to describing the group from the Order of the Phoenix as demons crawling out of hell.

So when they heard what they were about to face, there was a look of horror and unease on everyone's faces, some of them even cried out to their Headmaster and pleaded.

But Voldemort was unmoved by this, except that he was not foolish enough to abandon the students' hearts and minds completely, and stared at Dumbledore and said coldly.

"You have to make sure that they can live in your place properly, and for every one of them that I find missing in the future, I will take ten of your men on your side to pay for their lives!"

In Voldemort's mind at the moment, even if he gave up these students in their presence, he would not lose their loyalty afterwards.

This was not only because of his confidence in his own prestige and strength but also because he was sure that these pure and half-blood students would be tortured after being taken away by Dumbledore and the others.

Even if Dumbledore didn't want to do such a thing, the other mudblood wizards would force him to do it. The mudbloods had been oppressed so badly over the years that there was bound to be a retaliatory backlash, and when he finally rescued them from France, the hearts of these students would still be turned towards Voldemort.

Dumbledore didn't care at all about Voldemort's completely pretentious show of threats, and he then slowly stated his second condition.

"You should know how much damage your men have done to us Riddle, the two most sinful of these are now in our hands, there is no way I can explain to the others by letting them all go, so all the other Death Eaters are free to go, but you can only choose one of them to take, Barty Crouch or Severus Snape."

His words certainly silenced the scene even more, even those students who were still crying and sobbing froze one by one.

All eyes turned to the two people standing together right now in the middle of the group - Barty Jr. and Snape.

The journalists from the far side of the crowd were shocked and turned their cameras to focus on the two wizards whose names were mentioned, tempted to press the shutter, but too wary of Voldemort's presence to letting the sound of the shutter and the exposure of the flash disturb the silence.

The two parties involved, on the other hand, acted differently after they heard Dumbledore's words.

Snape's face remained like that of a dead zombie, cold, pale and stiff, without the slightest change; he didn't even shift his gaze, even when the crowd turned their attention to them, he continued to look straight ahead with a blank gaze, and there was no hint of emotion in those eyes.

In contrast to him, Barty turned his gaze to Voldemort once he had heard Dumbledore's request.

To the others, it looked like he was pleading to his lord for mercy at first, but when someone actually met Barty Jr.'s eyes now, they realised that there was no trace of pleading in his eyes.

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