Chapter 255 End of May
Saturday, May 29th.
Harry received a letter from Sirius.
In the letter, Sirius severely criticized Harry's behavior of walking to the Forbidden Forest alone with Sherrin. He believed that there were some very dangerous people in Hogwarts trying to prevent Crouch from meeting Dumbledore.
In fact, Dumbledore was already on high alert the moment Harry's name was thrown into the Goblet of Fire. If you want to successfully put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, you need to deceive two lines of defense: the magical awareness of the Goblet of Fire and your own age. It must be carefully planned by a very powerful wizard. In theory, underage wizards are It's difficult to accomplish this without concealing the truth.
So at this time Dumbledore realized that there were very dangerous people lurking in Hogwarts, and they must be the extra adult wizards due to the Triwizard Tournament. This has narrowed the scope to a few visiting Ministry of Magic Officials and two principals, including Igor Karkaroff, Olim Maxim, Ludovic Bagman, and Barty Crouch Sr.
Ms. Maxim is the person the Ministry of Magic is most willing to suspect because she is a hybrid giant, but Dumbledore himself is not a racist person, and he also sent that stupid guy Hagrid to deliberately approach her and monitor her. Of course, the fact that Hagrid, a straight man who only liked raising monsters, suddenly developed an inexplicable affection for her was beyond his control.
In any case, Ms. Maxim’s suspicion can be ruled out.
Karkaroff was once a proven Death Eater. After the fall of Voldemort, he betrayed a large number of Death Eaters to save himself. He was a complete villain. According to Snape's intelligence, he was very panicked about Voldemort's return, because as a traitor, he would definitely be severely punished. Although he didn't seem to have the motive to insist on Harry's death, if he knew that Voldemort was about to return, it would not be unreasonable for him to quickly kill Harry to atone for his sins.
So he was Dumbledore's first suspect.
Bagman was once accused of being a Death Eater, but he pretended to be stupid during the interrogation and used his star popularity to escape the charge. He is not really as silly as he appears. He is very good at disguising himself and using this silly image and the star's popularity to benefit himself. In the original book, Rita Skeeter once said, "He is a veteran liar", and also said this meaningful sentence to Hermione -
"You silly little girl, don't talk nonsense about things you don't understand. I know some things about Ludo Bagman, enough to make your hair curl-" (Note: make your hair curl means enough Scare you. Rita is making a pun here, also making fun of Hermione's loose curls)
In Dumbledore's view, Bagman was no less suspicious than Karkaroff. Jorkins, a subordinate of his department, had been missing in Albania for so long, but Bagman didn't care at all. Then, Bagman is one of the few people who knows all the events of the Triwizard Tournament (for the sake of fairness, the three headmasters should not know). When Harry became the fourth warrior, Bagman was too happy. How could he not realize how dangerous the Triwizard Tournament was to a 14-year-old boy?
Bagman was probably the second object of suspicion in Dumbledore's heart.
Barty Crouch Sr. was originally a very upright man who hated black magic, but his suspicion was that he was too abnormal. He was originally a workaholic, but as a result, he went to work less and less at this time and took vacation at home every day. It felt like he was secretly plotting and carrying out some unknown plan.
Dumbledore, who is well versed in people's hearts, dare not rule out the possibility of Old Barty turning dark. After all, he was an anti-Black pioneer and ended up losing the election for Minister of Magic. On the surface, it was an even vote, but in fact, no one knew that he was being favored. The forgiving Fudge was ostracized and demoted. Then his wife and son died, and the family became a mess. It would not be unreasonable to say that these experiences caused his dark side to explode.
You can't blame Dumbledore for not thinking that Crazy Eyes Moody was pretending. These three people were really suspicious.
Sirius, like Dumbledore, was the most suspicious of these three people. He believed that the ultimate goal of the mastermind was to kill Harry.
So, after scolding Harry severely in the first paragraph of the letter, he asked Harry in the second paragraph of the letter to stay with Ron and Hermione at all times and not to leave Gryffindor after school. Tower, prepare for the third project, practice stun spells and disarming spells, there is no harm in learning one or two poison spells.
In the next few days, Harry was either looking up poison spells with Hermione and Ron in the library, or sneaking into empty classrooms with them to practice. Harry concentrated on practicing the Stunning Charm, which he had never used before. It's just that Ron and Hermione have to make some sacrifices.
Ron was very loyal. During the sparring process, he had to be knocked unconscious and woken up by Harry at least five times a day. Although he had arranged a mat behind him in advance, sometimes he could not fall on the mat accurately when he was unconscious, resulting in his death. He fell all over himself and was in pain all over.
Yes, he did complain a bit and asked Harry to find a house elf or kidnap Mrs. Norris to replace him, but at least he actually practiced with Harry.
When Hermione criticized Ron for always not falling on the mat, Ron couldn't help but explode——
"You can't aim so accurately after being knocked unconscious, Hermione!" Ron said angrily, "Why don't you try it yourself?"
Hermione stuck out her tongue and quickly changed the subject: "Oh, I think Harry has already mastered the Stunning Spell. Don't worry about the Disarming Spell, he has already used it. I think we should practice some poison spells tonight. . I think the barrier charm will stop anything that tries to attack you. Harry, let's start with this."
Ron: "..."
While the Harry trio were busy preparing for the third project, Schelling was not idle here either.
Xie Lin's Sleeping Dragon Society was on the right track. After he made a new wand for Susan, the six girls he trusted most each found their own way to become stronger. They did not disappoint Xie Lin. With diligent training, everyone's strength is growing rapidly, and he no longer needs to worry about it.
As for the intelligence network, after Dobby drank the new and improved version of the "Bafe Brain Refresher" given by Schelling, his intelligence greatly increased and he became more able to do things. After he added two new subordinates, Dobby and Benben, Dobby already had five house elves under his command, which was more than enough to support the information delivery and transfer of the current scale of the intelligence network.
Therefore, Xie Lin can finally calm down and study his magic——
Mainly the "Phantom Clone" secretly passed down by the Zhang family, and the "Weaponless Flight" given to him by Snape.
The days passed in such a dull and uneventful time, until the day of June 5th.
Schelling celebrated his 15th birthday.
On this day, not only did he successfully advance to the level of "Junior Auror" (due to reaching the age threshold), but also through the accumulation of hard work in the past few days, he finally mastered "Phantom Clone" and "Flying without Weapons".
In other words, if he uses the snake ring to share Sulf's magic power, he will most likely reach the level of a "quasi-mage"!
[Acquisition of "Phantom Clone"! 】
【"Flying without weapons" acquired! 】
Dumbledore suspected that Karkaroff, Bagman, and Crouch were government agencies. Harry met Dumbledore for the last time before the last project. Dumbledore's Pensieve contained memories of these three people. This is the best evidence.