Chapter 314 If It Wasn’t You, Why Did You Run Away?

After reading Rita's article, Karkaroff broke into a cold sweat.

He wanted to shout loudly and announce to everyone in the auditorium that Rita's article was a vicious slander and a naked slander, and that he was going to sue Rita at the Ministry of Magic.

But Karkaroff always felt that his legs were weak and he could not stand up.

His voice also became hoarse inexplicably, as if it was blocked by something, and he couldn't spit out a word.

Because more than 85% of what Rita wrote in the newspaper was true.

He was indeed a former Death Eater, he did have no remorse, and he did get away with betraying his former colleagues.

Most of the news in this newspaper is true, and only two pieces of news are false——

The news that accused him of being a core member of the Death Eaters was fabricated. He was just an insignificant gangster at the beginning, not even a team leader;

Another fabricated accusation is that the article believed that Karkaroff threw the two pieces of parchment into the Goblet of Fire.

But Karkaroff also knows that he is guilty of these two fabricated slanders, especially the interference in the Six Wizards Tournament, and the malicious input of two notes against Hogwarts and Harry Potter. up.

There are so many pieces of information in the entire article that are true. If I insist that these two are false, who would believe it?

Based on the simplest logical inference, with so much real information in front of me, I have full motivation and ability, and there is no way to clear my name.

Even if the Ministry of Magic really pursues him for this matter and finds out that no evidence can be found, ordinary wizards will not believe it.

After all, he couldn't produce any evidence.

Karkaroff couldn't help but glance at Professor Snape, but Professor Snape was sitting far away and seemed not to want to pay attention to him at all.

He turned around and caught Professor Moody's gaze.

For the first time, Professor Moody's magic eyes didn't move around, to guard against someone attacking from behind, and looked in the same direction as his normal eyes——

Both eyes stared at Karkaroff at the same time, staring at Karkaroff.

The sky-blue demonic eyes were cold and stiff, and were supposed to be emotionless, but now they looked even more ferocious;

Professor Moody's normal eye was shining with excitement.

A terrifying smile appeared on the corner of Professor Moody's incomplete mouth, and he nodded towards Karkaroff.

Then he gestured to Karkaroff with his jug-shaped hip flask without moving his lips, but Karkaroff understood what he meant.

"You're done! This pot of wine is for you, and I wish you a happy journey."

Karkaroff trembled, his face turned pale, and he subconsciously touched that special spot on his left arm. There was a hint of gloom in his eyes, but more of it was deep fear.

The Dark Mark is becoming more and more visible, which means that the former master he betrayed is gradually regaining his strength;

Snape looked confident and unwilling to reply to him at all;

Now this thing happened again...

At this moment, Karkaroff made up his mind.

…………

After breakfast that morning, Karkaroff disappeared.

According to reports from Durmstrang students, Karkaroff was supposed to teach them a lesson, and even Krum, who had the right to study competition events by himself, was called away by him.

But before the class started, Karkaroff sneaked out of the classroom on the pretext that he had a stomachache.

But his goal was not to use the bathroom, but to get away while no one was paying attention to him.

The news seemed to have grown wings and spread throughout Hogwarts throughout the morning.

The next morning, the "Daily Prophet" directly wrote about Karkaroff's escape, not afraid that Karkaroff would suddenly appear again and slap him in the face.

Rita struck directly while the iron was hot and began to intensify Karkaroff's strength from the news headline——

"Shock! A certain Durmstrang Death Eater headmaster escaped early in the morning, leaving his students behind! Is it the distortion of human nature or the loss of morality? 》

In the report, Rita wrote the much-talked-about Rita formula:

"Before you were there, the previous tournaments were safe. After you came, this tournament was not safe. After you left, the next few tournaments will become safe again."

"So the question is, whose problem is it that the competition is not safe? I won't go into details here, but I think readers have a strong idea in their hearts."

Durmstrang's classmates were almost indifferent to this matter. After all, Principal Karkaroff's reputation in Durmstrang was not good.

He has always despised those classmates who came from ordinary families, and often scolded them in various ways, even insulting them or using magic spells to punish them.

On the contrary, Karkaroff is very much after those wizards who come from pure-blood noble families, or from ordinary families like Krum, but who are famous.

This caused ordinary Durmsrang students to hate him, and high-born students to look down on him.

Regarding the principal's escape, everyone simply sent a long-distance letter to the school and their home, and did not think about making emergency contact.

But things didn't end here, something happened that made Durmstrang students feel headache.

It wasn't until night that they discovered that Karkaroff had shamelessly taken away all the funds Durmstrang had prepared for the Six-wizard Tournament before escaping.

Many students, including Krum, even noticed that the layout in their dormitory seemed to have been tampered with.

Combined with the door of his own cabin, there are no signs of damage.

Obviously, Karkaroff used his principal authority and captain authority to easily invade their dormitory, trying to make more money before leaving.

Fortunately, taking into account Durmstrang's own atmosphere of the jungle and Principal Karkaroff's usual teaching of "please keep your valuables on your own, students will not be held responsible if they are lost in school."

Therefore, the students of Durmstrang have always been very vigilant, and they basically carry their valuables with them.

I don't know if Karkaroff will get so angry when he gets nothing, and he can't wait to go back to the past and give a big mouth to his former self who didn't want to take responsibility.

In order not to be found out about his bad behavior, Karkaroff deliberately restored the arrangement of the students' cabins to their original state as much as possible.

He even cut off the emergency contact between Durmstrang's school and the ship, so as to delay himself for more time.

Durmstrang's classmates could only go to Professor Dumbledore together, and after finding that Professor Dumbledore was not there, they turned to look for the vice-principal.

When receiving the request from Durmstrang students, hoping to help contact Durmstrang's main school, Vice Principal McGonagall couldn't believe it.

Could this be something the headmaster of a famous magic school could do? It's appalling!

But after thinking about Karkaroff's identity, it seems reasonable.

All I can say is that he is indeed the original Death Eater!

There is no doubt that Karkaroff's behavior added fuel to the fire. Now it was not just the British wizards who scolded him, but also the magical newspapers and ordinary wizards in the Nordic countries.

After all, the reporter only suspected you in the newspaper, and the evidence hasn't been presented yet, and the official hasn't said anything, so you just ran away.

And before he left, he deliberately took the money away, and even wanted to steal some money from the students, but unfortunately he failed to steal it.

If you say you have no problem, who will believe you?

Durmstrang Magic School urgently published a statement in the magical newspapers of various Nordic countries, stating that the school's board of directors jointly fired Karkaroff from his position as principal.

He is also wanted by the Ministry of Magic in several Nordic countries for "violating his own pledge, re-engaging in terrorist activities, framing students from other schools in the Six Wizards Tournament" and "stealing funds from Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" money and property".

The newspapers of various countries reported these news overwhelmingly, wishing to let the whole world know about it.

"Karkarov will take the blame for this."

Hallie was alone in the Room of Requirement, reading the latest issue of newspapers from various countries that she had specially ordered.

"Ever since he escaped, he has been unable to take off the pot."

Hedwig was watching Rita's emotions more carefully than Harry, but she was mainly studying Rita's emotional manipulation techniques.

"Did you learn anything?" Harry asked after finishing reading the entire article while helping Hedwig comb her feathers.

"I feel like I have a deeper understanding of the psychology of ordinary wizards."

Hedwig narrowed her eyes, raised her neck, exposed the feathers under her beak, and deliberately used it to rub Harry's free hand.

"There is a big mountain of prejudice in people's minds. When a wizard has a bad impression of Karkaroff, no matter what other people throw dirty water on Karkaroff's head, ordinary wizards will think that this is the truth."

"After all, Karkaroff has done so many bad things as a Death Eater, and returning to his old profession now fits well with people's inherent impression of him."

"I have to say that wizards are really intrigued and have complicated relationships. They are not as simple as our owls."

"There's no way, this is human, this is wizard." Harley stood up,

"It seems that you have a better understanding of the complexity of the human heart, and the psychiatrist's potion has almost been digested."

"When the auxiliary materials ordered from the potion shop arrive, I will start preparing the Sequence Six Hypnotist's potion for you."

"Are you going back to the common room now, or are you staying alone in the Room of Requirement?"

"Hermione's Arithmancy class is about to end, and we are about to go to the Ancient Runes class."

"Go to the Owlery." Hedwig flew off Harley's body,

"I want to continue to practice the various abilities of a psychologist and enlighten other owls."

…………

As the calendar pages turned over, it was almost two weeks since school started.

Professor Dumbledore is finally back.

When Harry received the parchment from Professor Dumbledore and rushed to the headmaster's office, Professor Dumbledore was leaning on a chair and meditating with his eyes closed.

"Good morning, Professor. Are you back from Austria?" Harry greeted proactively while looking up and down Professor Dumbledore.

Unexpectedly, Professor Dumbledore didn't see much change.

Is this the state that an old man who has been with his old lover...friend for three weeks should be?

This is not reasonable!

All irrationality aside, there is only one explanation for this phenomenon.

But Harry didn't dare to ask or think about it.

She is just an innocent, pitiful and weak ordinary little girl. How can she have the ability to care about the rich and fantastic emotional life of the greatest white wizard in the world?

But Professor Dumbledore rolled his eyes blankly:

"Harry, you're talking like I've been in Austria the whole time."

"Actually, I only stayed in Austria for six days, and I was mainly preparing for the upcoming International Conference of Wizards during the summer vacation."

"During the remaining ten days or so, I went to visit Sirius and the others, and then went to Azkaban for almost a week."

"So I really didn't spend as much Christmas with Gellert as you might think."

"It can be seen that your life experience is very rich." Harley's expression did not change at all,

"So Professor, what do you want me to do tonight?"

Professor Dumbledore coughed twice, and followed Harry's topic to turn things around:

"I heard from Dai Lisi that you came to see me during the Christmas vacation, right?"

"Yes, I have been to the principal's office." Harry nodded,

"But didn't you ask me to come? You left a message in the Christmas gift you gave me, telling me to go there when I have time."

"So Professor, what is that special Christmas gift you mentioned on the parchment that can only be given to me by you?"

Professor Dumbledore did not answer immediately, but clasped his fingers together and held his chin.

There was a strange atmosphere brewing in the room. Even Fox, who was eating herbs, noticed what was unusual in the room and poked his little head out of his lair, still holding herbs in his mouth.

After a while, Professor Dumbledore seemed to have made up his mind before he said slowly:

"Harley, do you remember when we talked about the Animagus, the magical form of animals?"

"Of course I remember." Harley raised her eyebrows slightly, "Could it be..."

"Yes, the second Christmas gift I prepared for you has something to do with this."

Professor Dumbledore confirmed Harry's guess,

"And in a way, it's also related to the key location of the second event."

Harry gave Professor Dumbledore a suspicious look, always feeling that this bad old man was going to have some trouble.

As she expected, Professor Dumbledore coughed twice:

"In order to match the prompt method given in the second competition event, I won't tell you the answer directly."

"I'm going to give you some key information, and you need to figure it out for yourself."

"I once mentioned that Gellert, Tom and I all have our own unique understanding of 'life' or 'death'."

"But the difference is that Gellert realized his own death rules through certain special items and in the process of chasing certain wizard myths."

"As for Tom, I'm not sure. After all, he has had too many mysterious and dark experiences in his life, and I can't completely trace their origins."

"But I can probably guess that his unique understanding of death is inseparable from his own division of the soul, and it may also involve some secrets deep in Azkaban."

"I went to Azkaban this time to explore those secrets. But I haven't completely cracked it yet, so I won't tell you yet."

"As for myself..."

Professor Dumbledore paused for a moment and then continued,

"Through certain objects and places related to 'death', as well as the phenomenon of Fox's Nirvana, I reversely understood the opposite of 'death', that is, about my own rules in the field of 'life' .”

"You can find that we all relied on some external forces."

"And your understanding of death must be very special. After all, your situation is not normal. The broken soul fragments in the Horcrux have led to you gaining so many special abilities and special insights."

"So I am going to provide you with the locations I found, hoping to help you."

"As for the locations about 'death', they completely coincide with the three most important locations in the second event of the competition."

"As for the key to finding and opening them, I won't tell you."

"But I have given you the keys. You have at least two keys, and each key will open the door."

"When you complete the second project of the competition, you can explore it and see if you can gain something new."

…………

Professor Dumbledore is probably used to being a riddler, so he likes to hide it at all times.

Harley was speechless about this method, wouldn't it be good to say it directly?

As for the key that Professor Dumbledore mentioned, Harry also had a guess.

One of the keys was probably a Christmas gift given to him by Professor Dumbledore, which was the former Riddle senior's Horcrux and the Resurrection Stone in the Gaunt family's ancestral ring.

The other key should be the invisibility cloak that I threw at the bottom of the box for three years.

These two items happen to be two of the legendary three Deathly Hallows, which are related to death, and it is reasonable to say that they are keys to those special places.

After returning to the dormitory, Harley dug out the invisibility cloak she had kept.

Although it hasn't been used for three years, the invisible clothes are still spotless, holding them like a handful of silver liquid.

Harry took it and the resurrection stone in his hand and studied it over and over again, but couldn't see anything.

"What role do you play..."

Just as Harry pulled out the magic mirror and was about to conduct further research, Hermione's voice suddenly came:

"Harry, are you in the dormitory?"

Without waiting for Harry to reply, Hermione pushed the door open and walked in:

"Should we leave for Black Lake now? We agreed to continue training. Fleur has probably been waiting for a while."

"Okay, I'll go right away." Harley put the items in her hands back into her pockets and grabbed the special sportswear on the bedside.

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