Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 529 As a teacher, it's reasonable for him to give advice.

Hearing that Professor Lu Ping seemed to have no intention of helping them, the group of friends immediately became anxious.

Everyone's eyes turned to Sherlock without prior arrangement.

Noticing their gazes, Professor Lupin also looked at Sherlock with interest, as if wanting to see what he would say.

Just then, Sherlock stepped forward and asked:
"Professor, I don't think you can just tell us how to get past the fire dragon, right?"

"Oh, I won't tell you."

Lu Ping said stiffly, "I can't be biased, right?"

Sherlock smiled slightly: "But as far as I know, cheating has always been a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament."

"Oh?"

Lupin, upon hearing Sherlock's words, suddenly became even more interested:
"Why do you say that?"

"Of course, it's observation and reasonable inference."

Sherlock simply recounted what had happened to him and Harry on Saturday night.

“I have absolute faith that Mr. Dumbledore will live up to his noble character—after all, that is who he is.”

However, Professor Karkaroff and Ms. Maxim were not as detached as he was.

It is obvious, based solely on my observations of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang this morning, that they have already told their warriors everything.

I noticed this even earlier, when they had just arrived at the school.

Sherlock said, word by word:

"They want to win."

Professor Lu Ping couldn't help but feel a little emotional upon hearing this.

"Yes, now that we've entered the competition, who wouldn't want to win?"
Not just them, but even our school's teachers and students are probably all hoping you can win this game.

However, after expressing his feelings, he immediately became serious and said:

"Sherlock, you're absolutely right."

They wanted to defeat Dumbledore; they wanted to prove he was just a mortal, especially… Karkaroff.

The others were fine, but Sherlock immediately understood:
“Excellent—it seems there’s some past we don’t know about.”

Is it due to a conflict with Moody's?

Lupin looked at Sherlock in surprise.

It seems that the other party's statement about "observation and reasonable inference" was anything but modest.

"How did you find out?"

"On the day they came to the school, Karkaroff had a brief conversation with Moody."

Sherlock looked at Harry as he spoke.

Harry suddenly realized.

Karkaroff was surprised to see his own appearance, and then Moody stepped in to help him out.

Because of this incident, he had a pretty good impression of Moody's.

"Now that you've said that, I can be even more certain that Karkaroff had some connection with Voldemort in the past."

"You guessed right again."

Lupin seemed somewhat helpless:

"Kakalov was once a Death Eater."

It was Moody who personally captured him and imprisoned him in Azkaban.

Apart from Sherlock, who had expected it, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all stunned.

A Death Eater actually managed to become the headmaster of Durmstrang, one of the three largest magic schools in Europe!

Is there no one left in the magical world?
"Yes, it sounds absurd, but it happened."

Seeing the surprised looks on the children's faces, Lupin slowly said:
"Karkaroff cooperated with the Ministry of Magic in order to leave... mainly Barty Crouch did a lot of the work."

He said he realized his mistakes and decided to mend his ways, so he named many people.

The end result was that he sent a large number of people to Azkaban to take his place, thus securing his own release.

Harry was utterly speechless when he heard this.

He had previously thought it was a bit much for a wizard like Snape, who came from the Death Eater background, to become a professor at Hogwarts, or even the head of one of the four houses.

But compared to Karkarov, who became the principal without any real power, it's nothing.

To make a simple horizontal comparison, there's simply no way to compare them.

He simply couldn't imagine what Hogwarts would be like now if Dumbledore had been a Death Eater.

Moreover, judging from Lupin's description, Karkaroff is not quite the same as Snape.

Snape had already defected before Voldemort fell from power.

Karkaroff, however, waited until Voldemort fell from power and saw that his influence was waning before he began to repent.

In other words, he didn't know he was wrong, but rather that he knew he was doomed.

Sherlock chuckled softly.

Unexpectedly, this person was also a tainted witness.

"I mentioned this to Sirius when I met him at Hogsmeade yesterday."

He wasn't planning on telling you this, but you unexpectedly ran into him that night..."

Lupin's expression turned serious:
"Fortunately, he didn't discover you. Although he wouldn't dare to do anything to you openly, if you had encountered him under those circumstances, he might have made some underhanded moves. You know, ever since he left Azkaban, he's been teaching dark magic to Durmstrang's students."

"So, Sherlock and Harry should also be wary of Durmstrang's warriors, right?"

Hermione, Krum isn't that kind of person!

“Ronald, you talk like you know him all the time—you only watched him play one game, you didn’t even speak to him!”

"You don't understand Quidditch! How could someone like that be a bad person!"

"Come on, if he hadn't pulled that sneaky, fake trick—"

"It was a feint by Lansky."

Even under these circumstances, Harry still didn't want others to use Quidditch terminology indiscriminately, so he interjected.

When Ron heard Hermione talking about the fake chicken-stealing contraption, his face looked like he'd eaten a pile of dung.

Lupin interrupted their argument with a smile:

"The only one to watch out for is Karkaroff; he has little to do with Durmstrang's students."

Furthermore, Dumbledore's suggestion to have Moody serve on the referee panel is also related to this matter.

"Is Moody very strong?" Sherlock suddenly asked.

Yes, very strong.

He is the most outstanding Auror in the history of the Ministry of Magic, and he is not even in the same league as that guy who was ambushed and then kidnapped Crouch.

Although he frequently heard rumors of being harassed after his retirement, this didn't mean he couldn't recognize suspicious situations.

Sherlock nodded, then steered the conversation back on track:

"This gives me another reason."

Professor Lupin, you wouldn't want to lose the Triwizard Tournament to someone like that, would you?

"Sherlock, why do you say that—"

"Of course, even though the Triwizard Tournament has this tradition, we still don't expect you to tell us the answer directly."

But what if we have already devised a preliminary response plan, a prototype of a collaborative teamwork solution?
To be precise, what we want to know is—given the current limits of our magical knowledge and abilities, is this line of thinking feasible?
And are there any fundamental, unrecognized, and insurmountable obstacles at the level of magical practice?

Lupin laughed, a very happy laugh.

"Alright, Sherlock, I admit I'm convinced by you."

As a responsible teacher, it is reasonable to exclude some wrong answers from students, and it is normal to give some well-intentioned and general advice.

So my first piece of advice is, don't succumb to temptation and recite any kind of spell to induce unconsciousness.

The fire dragon is incredibly strong and possesses immense magical power; it is impossible for it to be defeated by a mere stun spell.

It takes nearly ten adult wizards chanting spells simultaneously to subdue a dragon.

So, let's talk about your plans first.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron all stared intently at Sherlock.

Sherlock had previously only said that he had a plan, but had not told them the specifics of the plan.

Now the answer is finally about to be revealed.

"Although the specific details of the mission are not yet fully clear, the core issue remains how to get past the fire dragon."

The key challenge of this project lies in the huge gap in strength between us and the Fire Dragon.

Also, we can only use our own wands and cannot rely on additional props.

In this situation, if we could use a simple yet effective spell, we could obtain what we need.

Sherlock paused for a moment, then said directly:
"Summoning spell."

It allows us to summon flying brooms to the competition arena.

Once we have flying brooms, we will have the advantage of speed and flight.

Fortunately, the three of us have a fairly good talent for this.

Everyone laughed when they heard Sherlock say that.

Harry and Cedric were both Seekers for their respective Quidditch teams, with Harry being the youngest Seeker in a century.

Their flying skills are among the best in the entire school.

Sherlock then looked at Harry:
"Judging from the current situation, a speed of 150 miles per hour is enough for you to fly past the fire dragon."

At that moment, Harry almost burst out laughing.

It's not just enough, it's more than enough.

Although the Firebolt was advertised as being able to accelerate from a standstill to 150 miles per hour in ten seconds, Harry, who knew it all too well, knew very well that this was not the Firebolt's maximum speed.

Its speed can be increased again if necessary.

If he possessed the same flying advantage and speed as the fire dragon, the quest to "pass through the fire dragon" would no longer seem so unattainable.

He should have thought of this long ago.

Sherlock had already used this spell when they went to the Philosopher's Stone room in their first year.

Although Sherlock, then a first-year student, was not yet proficient in the summoning technique, it was the phrase "The Portkey is flying here" that confirmed his target.

Ultimately, they managed to catch the target item using the flying broom.

They are now in their fourth year and have been learning to use summoning spells during this time.

Honestly, how come I didn't think of that?

(End of this chapter)