bacchusnovels Chapter 511 The End of the Triumph Tournament
Chapter 511 The End of the Triumph Tournament
Chapter 511 The End of the Triwizard Tournament (1)
Meanwhile, the construction of the maze used in the third project was also proceeding smoothly.
The once-flat lawns of Hogwarts have been completely transformed, with intricate low walls winding and crisscrossing, covered with moss and vines.
On the day of the competition—
The maze was finally declared complete, and the families of all the warriors who participated in the third project were invited to Hogwarts to watch the competition.
"Do you think the Dursleys will come?" Harry asked suddenly, looking at the lawn in the distance.
"The Dursleys?" Ron looked at Harry, somewhat puzzled. "You mean your—well, strange relatives?"
"Well, although I don't really expect them to come," Harry sighed, "but the feeling of being all alone—"
"Harry, Ron!"
Suddenly, a call came from afar.
The two looked up and saw Molly and several other people standing not far away, smiling at them.
"Mom!" Ron jumped to his feet. "What are you doing here?"
Molly smiled and waved, with her husband Arthur and Bill by her side.
"You didn't expect that, did you!" she said. "We came to watch your game, Harry!"
"Are you alright?" Bill smiled and shook hands with Harry. "Charlie wanted to come too, but he couldn't get away. He said your fight with the horned dragon was amazing, absolutely incredible."
"I'm fine. When did you guys arrive?" Harry asked the group with a broad smile. "Are you all doing well?"
"Just arrived." Arthur continued, "You're about to face such an important competition, of course I had to come in person. Getting to the third event isn't an easy thing."
"It's definitely not easy," Harry said with a wry smile. "Especially that maze—I wonder what kind of trouble it will cause."
"There will definitely be troubles," Arthur said, "but you have the courage and the ability to handle them."
Harry looked at them, a warmth spreading through his heart. "Thank you for your support."
"You'll always be the best, Harry," Molly said with pride. "We'll always be there for you."
"6
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Not only Harry's family and friends have arrived at Hogwarts, but also the parents of Cedric, Selena, and Krum.
Of course... there were also Qiu Zhang's parents, the Zhang couple.
"Don't be nervous, Cho Jang, just do your best."
"I will, Mom and Dad—I'll show you both around Hogwarts."
"Where is Professor Phillips? I brought him two bottles of good wine this time."
The mention of alcohol reminded Qiu Zhang of what had happened that day, and a blush crept onto his face.
Right, where is Professor Phillips?
I haven't seen him much these past couple of days.
Meanwhile, Sean, accompanied by his loyal subordinate, Bertha Jorkins, the Auror's Chief of Staff, is visiting Dumbledore's office.
"Please have a seat, Phillips."
"Please sit down, Johansson. It's been a long time."
"Would you like something to drink?"
Coincidentally, they both ordered a hot honey lemon black tea.
As steam rose from his teacup, Sean began the most crucial step in his semester plan—closing the net.
What kind of website are you looking for?
Of course, it was to reveal Barty Jr. and Voldemort's plan.
Otherwise, why would he keep Barty Jr. at Hogwarts?
We can't let Fudge continue to bury his head in the sand.
Only by making the news of Voldemort's return public, allowing more people to witness his resurrection, will the situation in Europe change dramatically, and his plan to completely replace Voldemort with Riddle will be further promoted.
"Phillips, what brings you here today?"
"Professor Dumbledore, I am not speaking to you here as a Hogwarts professor, but as the Director of the Department of Law and Enforcement of the British Ministry of Magic."
What I'm trying to say is—the wizarding world is doomed.
Right off the bat, Sean dropped a bombshell.
Dumbledore narrowed his eyes slightly, remaining silent and waiting quietly for Sean to speak next.
"Voldemort is about to return... Europe is about to face war again... Voldemort's henchmen have been planted in Hogwarts... Project Three has been infiltrated... Mr. Barty Crouch has been killed..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dumbledore's expression became incredibly interesting.
If you are lucky enough to be here, you can clearly see the old man's face turning from blue to purple, just like the colorful candies in the Honey Duke shop.
Indeed, Dumbledore had long anticipated the possibility of Voldemort's return.
However, the timing of Voldemort's arrival was far from clear, not to mention the other explosive pieces of news.
For a moment, I didn't know which of these questions to ask.
Seeing this, Sean gestured for Bertha Joggins to speak and begin telling the story from her perspective.
“I remember it was a few years ago,” Bertha began to recall. “I was working in the Department of Magical Sports at the time, and I was instructed by Director Ludo Bagman to take some documents to Mr. Crouch’s house for his signature.”
"I remember it was a document about Quidditch, discussing whether to divide Quidditch into men's and women's leagues—" She paused, seemingly considering whether to go on to describe the document's contents in more detail, but ultimately said briefly, "In short, when I arrived at Mr. Crouch's house, he wasn't home."
She paused for a moment, then continued, "He probably went out to handle some business, and I didn't know how long it would take him to come back. So I sat in the living room for a long time, thinking that if he didn't come back, I would leave early."
"But just as I was about to leave," Bertha's eyes suddenly turned strange, and her tone lowered slightly, "I suddenly heard sounds coming from the basement. The sounds were very strange, like whispers, sometimes pausing, sometimes excited, and they didn't sound like ordinary household chores."
"I thought a thief had broken into the house," she continued. "So I decided to take my wand and sneak over to check. But as I got closer to the basement door, I overheard a conversation that made me extremely uneasy."
"A conversation?" Sean took a sip of tea, acting as Bertha's straight man. "What conversation? Who's talking to whom?"
""
“Yes, a conversation,” Bertha said. “It was a conversation between Sparky, Crouch’s house-elf, and a strange man. The man’s voice was very hoarse. Although I couldn’t see where he was, he was probably wearing an invisibility cloak. His voice sounded like it was coming from the air, muffled, but I could hear every word clearly. I even guessed his identity from the conversation… He was someone who shouldn’t have been there.”
"So who is this man?" Sean asked again.
This time, Bertha didn't answer; instead, she stared intently at Dumbledore.
"Professor, can you guess who he is?"
Dumbledore had a vague idea, but shook his head and didn't respond.
Perhaps he has passed the age of finding a sense of accomplishment in answering questions—a fundamental difference from Miss Granger—who, even as she grew up, still had a deep passion for answering questions.
"He is—" Bertha paused, "He is Barty Crouch Jr., who was supposed to go to Azkaban, the son of Chief Crouch, that Death Eater."
This answer made Dumbledore's eyes flicker slightly.
"Barty Crouch Jr.?" he repeated. "Is he still alive?"
"Yes, Professor," Bertha nodded. "I was also very shocked at the time. Just as I was about to leave, a wand was silently pointed at the back of my head. Now, can you guess who the owner of this wand is?"
This time, Bertha had already given her answer before Dumbledore could even reply.
"It was Chief Crouch," she murmured to herself, her eyes unfocused. "He came back early. When he saw that I knew his secret, he turned pale. To prevent this secret from being revealed, he... he..."
At this point, Bertha recalled the years before she met Sean.
Due to the side effects of the Forgetfulness Charm, she suffered severe memory impairment, rendering her unable to complete any work properly—she would often forget even simple tasks like eating. This led to her being ostracized and isolated by her colleagues in the Ministry of Magic.
If... without Sean, she couldn't imagine what her future life would be like.
Is it possible for someone to work alone in the Ministry of Magic until old age?
Carrying another person's secret, until entering the cemetery and being buried with them?
That was never something she should have had to endure!
"It was the Forgetfulness Curse." Seeing Bertha choke up, Sean met Dumbledore's eyes and said clearly, "Director Crouch used the Forgetfulness Curse on her to keep the secret. If Jockins hadn't been a member of the Ministry of Magic, if Jockins' disappearance hadn't aroused other suspicions, if no one else knew that Jockins had come to his house, I think what he was going to cast was definitely not the Forgetfulness Curse."
Dumbledore didn't speak, but simply watched Bertha, who remained silent to the side.
"After I joined the Ministry of Magic, I discovered that Bertha had some memory problems."
Sean sighed softly, paused, and continued.
"That's similar to the feeling I get from Neville."
"As far as I know, Neville also suffered from memory problems as a child due to a forgetting spell."
"In addition to the inspiration I got from Lockhart's story two years ago, I guessed that Bertha's memory problems were caused by the Oblivion Curse."
"So all these years I've been trying to find a way to treat Bertha's problem."
"A few days ago, I successfully broke the effect of the forgetting spell on her, and she remembered everything she had experienced and told me the truth."
"After that, the Auror Office officially opened a case and began a secret investigation into Mr. Barty Crouch."
"During the investigation, we discovered—"
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"What did you discover?" Perhaps Sean's story was too convoluted and gripping, for Dumbledore finally spoke, and more importantly—he only realized he had spoken after he had spoken.
"No wonder he's a bestselling author," Dumbledore thought to himself.
However, what caused Dumbledore to lose his composure was not the story of Sean that he had imagined.
Sean's story only accounts for part of the reason... The most important reason is the reward given by the system a while ago, the effect of that title—it can make people lower their vigilance without them realizing it.
"After launching an investigation, we discovered that Mr. Barty Crouch had mysteriously disappeared."
Bertha took over the conversation again, her expression now back to normal.
"That period was roughly after the first event of the Triwizard Tournament, when we were very puzzled by Crouch's disappearance."
"First, we began to consider the possibility that he had fled to avoid punishment."
"But this possibility was quickly refuted."
"First of all, the fact that he cast the forgetting spell on me dates back several years. If he wanted to escape, he would have done so years ago. Why would he run away now? Unless... he already knows about the possibility of me regaining my memories."
"However, this point is excluded."
"The details of my memory recovery, and the whole story behind it, are known only to myself and Director Phillips, who treated me. No one else knows about it. So there is absolutely no possibility of a leak."
"Furthermore, the investigation into Crouch is a top-secret mission of the Auror Office. Only a few people were assigned to this mission, and they didn't know the reasons behind it. They only knew that they had to conduct a secret investigation into Crouch, so... this assumption is not valid."
"Then the answer is clear."
Seeing Bertha speaking eloquently before him, Dumbledore finally understood why Phillips had put her in charge of the Auror office after leaving the Ministry of Magic.
Bertha was completely different from the timid and mischievous witch he remembered at Hogwarts.
In other words, a qualitative transformation has already occurred.
In this respect, he is similar to Phillips in that the two share a common trait.
"He disappeared, either voluntarily or involuntarily, because of some event." Of course, for the latter, we can use "kidnapping" instead.
"Crouch has disappeared, so how do we proceed with the case?"
"The breakthrough point naturally lies with Crouch Jr."
"So we raided Mr. Crouch's house and found the basement empty."
"Little Crouch has vanished without a trace."
"Wait a mininute--
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Dumbledore abruptly interrupted Bertha's statement, frowning.
"I want to confirm again, Crouch Jr. entered Azkaban right under our noses, so how did he get out? As far as I know, only two people have escaped from Azkaban in recent years..."
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