Some of Professor McGonagall's bewilderment found answers the next day.

As everyone was eating in the Great Hall that morning, owl messengers brought the latest issue of *The Daily Prophet* as usual.

Many students opened the newspaper, ready to search for news about Voldemort and Dumbledore—then, everyone stared at the front page in shock.

"This is impossible?! How could this happen!"

Professor McGonagall said in shock, not even noticing that her goblet had been knocked over.

The other professors around her also looked over, but when they saw their respective copies of *The Daily Prophet*, they also showed the same shocked expression.

At the same time, a dense murmur arose in the Great Hall, and an atmosphere of unease quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.

"What's wrong?" Madam Pomfrey turned her head, looking at Professor McGonagall in confusion.

And Snape put down his knife and fork, silently turning his head to look over.

Professor McGonagall spread the newspaper on the long table, pointing to the disturbing pictures on the front page:

Some were ruins after a battle, some were magical battlefields in the midst of fighting, and some were busy and noisy press conferences…

Each photo had simple notes written beneath it, indicating the time, location, and event.

"Ministries of Magic across countries attacked. The empty offices of the Ministry of Magic present a ghastly ruin. Information on all wizarding residences falls into the hands of a mysterious person."

"European werewolves purged. Hundreds of werewolves revert to human form amidst howling. International magical government arrests nearly a thousand werewolves overnight."

However, what truly caught everyone's attention were the other three photos, placed in the very last corner.

Three… extremely frightening and uncomfortable magical photographs.

Two corpses, and a scene of a fleeing man being struck by the Killing Curse and collapsing.

The first time Professor McGonagall looked at the newspaper, her eyes were drawn to those images—the "protagonist" of all three pictures was the same wizard.

An invariably pale, skull-like snake face, scarlet eyes, and barely visible nostrils.

The wizard seemed to be enduring some kind of pain, his features twisted together with a mixture of terrible anger, despair, and pain.

But Professor McGonagall had seen them in a more cruel, cold-blooded state. More precisely, almost all older wizards would recognize the identity of the wizard in the newspaper.

—Tom Marvolo Riddle (Voldemort).

And below the three pictures were small captions:

"Voldemort Body #2, found at the Lestrange family manor, destroyed by Dumbledore."

"Voldemort Body #3, found in the Lestrange family backyard, destroyed by Grindelwald."

"Lestrange family backyard, Grindelwald killed 'Voldemort #3' on the spot."

"Wait? Gr-Grindelwald?! What's the number after Vol—the Dark Lord..."

Madam Pomfrey looked at the photos in confusion, various questions exploding in her mind, not even knowing what to focus on for a moment.

McGonagall took a deep breath, shifted the newspaper, and signaled Madam Pomfrey to look at the title at the top of all the photos.

[Dark Magic Forces Officially Declare War on the Magical Society]

[Ministry of Magic Bails Out Grindelwald to Jointly Suppress the "Dark Magic Creature" Tom Riddle]

"Dark Magic... creature?!"

Madam Pomfrey repeated in confusion, "How is the Dark Lord—"

"Yes."

McGonagall nodded solemnly.

"It's still that person—look down."

"Ministries of Magic across countries suffered a large-scale attack by Dark Magic forces the night before last."

"British Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed in an interview in his office that the Ministry of Magic had been temporarily captured but has now been successfully retaken."

"'Unfortunately, a new round of magical warfare has broken out,' Fudge admitted. 'With the joint efforts of multiple national Ministries of Magic, we successfully annihilated the European werewolf legion, but due to the Auror Headquarters' impetuous decision-making, the Dark Magic forces took the opportunity to break through the Ministry of Magic building—the entire European Ministry of Magic government—and steal a large amount of important information.'"

Auror Headquarters... impetuous decision-making?

Professor McGonagall's eyebrows twitched, she now understood the official reason for Rufus Scrimgeour's dismissal.

Obviously, if the head of the Auror Headquarters wasn't there to take the blame, Cornelius Fudge wouldn't be able to continue serving as Minister based on this alone.

For no reason, Professor McGonagall suddenly recalled Xenophilius Lovegood's classic metaphor in *The Quibbler*.

Cornelius Fudge... that Inferius has completely corrupted your heart.

She shook her head with complex emotions and continued to read on.

"With the assistance of Gringotts and other righteous forces, after a day and night of fighting, the Ministry of Magic successfully expelled the Dark Wizards who occupied the Ministry of Magic and confirmed and locked onto their leader... Tom Riddle, the Dark Lord who had disappeared for many years and has now made a comeback, launching a war. In order to prevent the Dark Magic forces from taking the opportunity to attack ordinary citizens, the International Confederation of Wizards, after an emergency vote that night, decided to temporarily 'bail out' Gellert Grindelwald to jointly suppress the Dark Lord Tom Riddle with Dumbledore."

"Release a Dark Lord to suppress... another Dark Lord?"

Madam Pomfrey said with a strange expression, "Has the International Confederation of Wizards gone mad? Aren't they worried that..."

"Grindelwald won't mess around, and he won't harm Dumbledore either, at least not now."

Professor McGonagall replied, subconsciously glanced towards the Hufflepuff table at the bottom of the Great Hall, and said meaningfully in a low voice.

"We should trust Professor Dumbledore and the gentlemen of the Confederation, after all, they have the most and most comprehensive information and resources, so naturally they can make more appropriate and wise decisions than we can, and from the results, it has indeed worked, hasn't it?"

"Yes, I looked at the back—I roughly understand the concerns of the Confederation and those wizards..."

Just then, Snape suddenly interjected, looking coldly at the contents of the newspaper.

"The Dark Lord... I mean Tom Riddle—he is no longer a human wizard in the true sense of the word."

"The International Confederation of Wizards writes here that Tom Riddle has undergone some kind of terrible Dark Magic transformation, making himself a Dark Magic monster that cannot be truly killed. If the magical world cannot continuously kill him and destroy his Dark Magic legion, once he fully unleashes his terrifying magical properties of immortality, then no one in the entire magical world will be able to live safely."

"You've all seen, Dumbledore and Grindelwald each killed him once, but the Ministry of Magic has not announced the end of the war."

"This is an endless magical war... and Dumbledore is on the front line of the battlefield."