"I, too, have been looking for you," Antonio muttered, his voice turning ice-cold. "Voldemort."
The entire Wizengamot stared at the scene unfolding in front of them in a horrified and stunned silence.
Voldemort, the Dark Lord himself, was standing in front of them. The legs of the Lords of Wizengamot and spectators alike almost started to shake and tremble. Voldemort was inducing no additional pressure to whatever they had already been facing, but his mere presence was making their knees buckle. His presence was more than enough to pressurise them.
Whatever courage the few of the Lords had gathered to stand up to the Death Eaters vanished in an instant. The moment Voldemort's face had been unveiled, every planning, every strategic calculation they had been making up in their mind to fight against the Death Eaters had evaporated. They had completely lost the plot.
By all common sense and rational logic, Voldemort could have been overpowered and overwhelmed by the sheer number of people present in the hall. And it was still possible, even if every secretive Death Eater among the Lords of Wizengamot were to throw away their cloak and come out in open support of Voldemort.
But the horror and the fear which Voldemort induced made it impossible. Let alone rally and raise their wand against Voldemort, it was hard for them to even stand in front of Voldemort. No one had that courage.
"I did not know," Voldemort hissed in response to Antonio's remark, "that you also had been getting impatient to meet me. If I had known, I would have come a bit earlier. Only to fulfill your desire.."
As the verbal confrontation between Antonio and Voldemort began, the Lords that had been standing between the duo scurried and parted away, leaving them to face each other directly. Voldemort's mere presence was daunting enough, but to stay in his line of sight, especially when someone was going to piss him off, was deadly and horrifying. No one was brave enough to face that risk.
"Interesting," Voldemort's cold voice echoed in the hall. "This is really interesting."
"I had thought that all that courage to drag my name, insult my stature, and mock my ideology had been an act committed out of pure foolishness and false arrogance," he said.
"I had been expecting that my presence before you would shatter all that arrogance and foolishness. That you would tremble and whimper and beg for forgiveness before my presence. But here you are, standing tall and defiant before me. Talking audacious to me. Still challenging me. Impressive. Truly impressive."
"You are certainly courageous," he continued. "Even if it makes you a bigger fool than I had previously assumed you to be, you are surely brave. But this bravery of yours is not really going to take you anywhere."
Antonio remained as unfazed as ever. His eyes remained unmoving, fixed directly on Voldemort. His body posture was straight and looming, and there was a small smirk plastered on his face, as if the situation he was in was not serious at all. And that was infatuating Voldemort, even if he did not show upon his face.
"Voldemort," Antonio's voice boomed in the hall. "You are the last person in the world who should be giving a lecture on courage. You are unqualified to teach someone what courage and bravery is."
"The coward you are," Antonio's voice cut through the tense and suffocating atmosphere of the Wizengamot. "How are you even qualified to talk about courage?"
A couple of startled gasps echoed in the hall at the audacity shown to the Dark Lord.
The last time, during his induction speech, when Antonio had insulted Voldemort and took his name and called him a coward, people had considered him to be a madman.
And now that he was doing the same thing in front of Voldemort, people could hardly believe their eyes. They could not help but wonder from where Antonio got this much guts. Did he really have that much confidence in his own strength? Or was he foolish?
Voldemort narrowed his eyes and fury flashed within them, though he did not speak. He had already spoken more than he should have. Great people like him spoke less and acted more mysterious. Even if there were things that he wanted to say, he needed to keep it within himself.
"Tell me," Antonio almost roared, pointing his finger towards him and his Death Eaters. "Tell me one single act of bravery and courage you have done, or even your slaves have done."
"Attacking inns full of innocents? Invading someone's house in a group when that person is alone? Or attacking school aged children? What act of yours makes you brave?"
"You know," he continued, and this time his eyes roamed across the entire Wizengamot. "You and your cronies will make this act of yours, this intrusion of the ministry of magic of yours, out to be an act of bravery, but is it truly a brave act?"
"I do not think so," Antonio said, shaking his head. "Look at the timing you have selected. It is a very convenient day, is it not?"
"A day on which Albus Dumbledore is very conveniently absent from the Wizengamot," Antonio said with a mocking smile. "I had mocked you, challenged you to attack Albus Dumbledore. And look at your response. You are running away from him, are you not?"
"Voldemort?" Antonio boomed. "You are afraid of him are you not?"
This did not come as a shock to Voldemort. Before coming here, he had known that the question of whether he was consciously running from Dumbledore would appear in the minds of a lot of people. But he did not care. He was going to give such an overwhelming response that any kind of question about his power and greatness would vanish from the minds of everyone.
He shook his head.
"Do not worry about Albus Dumbledore," he said, or rather hissed. "I will deal with him when the time is right. But for now, I will deal with you."
Antonio shook his head, his smile still mocking.
"You made a great plan and chose a great day for this action of yours," he said. "But you made a mistake. You thought that without Albus Dumbledore there is no one stopping you. And this was the mistake you made…"
He had not even finished when Antonio let loose all his magic. For the first time since he had arrived in this world, Antonio let loose every bit of power that had been raging inside him.
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