The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 218 An Upset

Three minutes later, news of England's shutout victory over Bulgaria spread throughout Hyprose.

Five minutes later, a wail of agony erupted from the underground gambling exchange; the betting operations of the Foley and Flint families had gone on a rampage!

Ten minutes later, major newspapers put the news of the British team's clean sheet victory over the Bulgarian team on their front page.

The Daily Prophet: "Britain advances to the semi-finals, Moriarty completely outclasses Krum!"

"Singing the Quibble": "Unveiling the secrets of the World Cup you never knew: The real reason Moriarty won: Latest evidence, Krum is gay!"

Witch Weekly: "The Everlasting Shining Series: Moriarty Crushes Bulgaria."

"Two consecutive clean sheets, who can stop Moriarty?" (from the newspaper "Thoughts")

Even the Paris Times, which has always been at odds with Britain, had to admit Moriarty's excellence, and made a fancy headline.

The article was full of criticisms of the Bulgarian team. Just when the wizards thought that Moriarty was about to be praised, the article suddenly changed its tone and exaggerated how brave and serious the French team was.

They even presented evidence, saying that the French team was the first to play against the British team, providing valuable experience for the teams that followed in dealing with the flying broomsticks, which is a rare spirit of dedication!

The wizards suddenly realized that it was a case of praising one while belittling the other. Well, never mind then, they simply crumpled the newspaper into a ball and threw it into the trash can!

Many French fans did the same, and Mr. Delacour even announced that he would no longer subscribe to the Paris Times.

"If the Paris Times continues to be biased, Les Depths will eventually surpass it," Mr. Delacour said.

In conclusion, the British team successfully advanced to the semi-finals with two clean sheets, and Moriarty also established his image as a genius athlete in the minds of the audience through these two matches.

Two weeks after the match, the second game of the semi-finals began, and Moriarty led his team to watch the game.

The stands were packed with people. As Moriarty looked around for a seat, a pleasant voice rang out.

"Mr. Moriarty? Over here~"

The sound came from the upper stands. Moriarty looked up and saw Fleur waving her right hand and smiling at him with her eyes narrowed.

"Here~ I've saved a spot for you!" Fleur said loudly, and all the wizards around her looked at her, making her feel embarrassed and her face turn bright red.

Her shy demeanor made the male wizards drool, and a hint of panic flashed in Hibiscus's eyes.

Every time she saw Moriarty, her allure would involuntarily emanate as if an automatic power switch had been flipped.

No one could resist Fleur's charm; it was the pride of her as a beauty with the blood of a Werewolf. But Moriarty remained unaffected.

These two points left Furong both puzzled and ashamed.

So for the past two weeks, she has been studying the teams in the semifinals day and night, hoping to find their weaknesses and then tell Moriarty.

Hibiscus's intentions were simple: she wanted to help Moriarty achieve victory.

Moriarty led the main players up to the upper stands, and Fleur led them to a row of empty seats, waving her little hand.

"Poland and Peru are evenly matched, and they both have a chance to advance and become Great Britain's next opponent! So I guessed you would come to watch the game, so I saved you seven seats in advance. Please sit down."

The players looked at Moriarty, who nodded slightly. Roman and his six teammates sat down with smiles on their faces, took out several panoramic binoculars, and put them on.

Fleur had something to say to Moriarty, and she pulled a small silver bag from her pocket—today she was wearing a pair of blue and white jeans that simply outlined her long, slender legs.

The small silver bag was enchanted with a seamless stretching and shrinking spell. As Hibiscus enlarged the bag, she pulled out a purple notebook from inside.

"Here you go, it contains the latest information on six teams."

Furong emphasized the word "latest," and Moriarty took the notebook with interest, flipped through a few pages, and his eyes lit up.

"You summarized it?"

"Ugh~"

Furong smiled and raised her little face, put her hands behind her back, and leisurely drew circles on the ground with one leg raised.

"Some top-secret intelligence—Max from Team USA is in talks with the Nimbus Corporation to purchase seven Nimbus 1990S rockets. How did you find out about this?"

Moriarty spoke slowly, scrutinizing Fleur with a critical eye as he spoke.

"Of course, it was a player from the American team who told me," Fleur said, oblivious to Moriarty's change in expression. She was slightly smug. "I pretended to be a die-hard American fan and went to their training ground to ask for autographs. I chatted with a player who was captivated by me, and with a little trickery, I managed to extract the American team's secrets."

"That's how it is..."

Moriarty's eyes were deep and unfathomable; no one knew what he was thinking.

"Moriarty?" Fleur noticed Moriarty's sudden coldness, and her heart stopped for a moment.

"Are you... are you...?"

Furong bit her lip, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to say the last half of the sentence, "You despise me."

She suddenly realized that in Moriarty's eyes, her actions might be seen as a despicable act of using her beauty to extract information.

Hibiscus was already insecure because of her bloodline, and now she was even more upset—in Moriarty's eyes, I was an unclean woman!

Just then, the whistle blew, and the match between Poland and Peru began, with cheers from the audience surrounding Moriarty and Fleur.

Moriarty pulled Fleur to their seats and they began to watch the match.

Throughout the match, Furong was absent-minded and her mind was in turmoil; she didn't even hear the referee blow the whistle to end the game.

But when Moriarty stood up and said to Roman and the others, "Back in the meeting room, I have a feeling Poland will be our next opponent!"

"What?" Furong exclaimed in surprise, "Poland won?"

Ignoring her, Moriarty led the British team away triumphantly.

Roman turned to look at Fleur several times. He felt that he should thank Fleur for saving them seats, but seeing Moriarty's expression, Roman decided to let it go.

"Honestly, if the captain allows it, Miss Hibiscus would be a good wife for him," Roman whispered in the afro's ear.

"Come on," the man with the afro rolled his eyes. "Have you forgotten about Tonks from the Hogwarts Dream Team? We don't get involved in this kind of thing."

As the British team gradually walked away, Fleur watched Moriarty's departing figure with a forlorn expression, tears streaming down her face.

Back in the meeting room, Moriarty and his teammates began studying the Polish team.

They studied for a week, and each player had a plan in mind to deal with the Polish team.

Even if the next opponent is Poland, the British team can still win the game, but Moriarty has a vague feeling about it.

Maxi once said that the symbol of the Deathly Hallows appeared openly on the door key from Poland to Canada.

It's not hard to see that the Saints seem to be plotting something. Moriarty originally thought that this organization had disappeared after Grindelwald went to prison, but he didn't expect that they were still organizing activities.

But Moriarty knew nothing about the saints and could not find anything suspicious. Just when he was at his wit's end, he stumbled upon Fleur's notebook.

Looking at the notebook, Moriarty pictured Hibiscus staying up all night taking notes, and a ripple of emotion swept through his mind.

Just thinking about how Furong would run around to the training grounds of various teams, attracting a bunch of men to fawn over her, made Moriarty snort coldly.

"This girl, what does she think she is?"

Moriarty shook his head, casually flipped through the notebook, and happened to turn to the page with the photos.

"Magic Photo..."

Moriarty was surprised that Furong had taken photos, some of which were cut from local newspapers and were all recent.

"Splash, splash."

Moriarty flipped through several photos, his eyes suddenly narrowed, and his gaze fixed on one photo.

The photo shows a man dressed in a wizard's robe, holding a large wine bottle, drinking happily with a group of women.

Moriarty recognized the man as Gabriel, the Polish player who chases the ball.

Gabriel was wearing a silver necklace with the pendant hidden inside his wizard's robe, but because he had drunk too much, the robe had come loose, revealing the necklace pendant around his neck.

It was a circle, looking like a triangular eye, with a vertical line in the middle of the pupil.

The symbol of the Deathly Hallows!

Moriarty's eyes lit up; he had finally found the part that didn't fit.

It's not that the saints are planning to do something in Poland, but that the Polish players themselves are saints!

Just then, the conference room door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

One after another, players like Roman, the one with the afro, and the one with the red nose ran in.

Seeing their incredulous expressions, Moriarty asked, "What happened? Judging from your looks, I thought a tsunami had swept through the Pacific and submerged Hyprose."

"team leader……"

Roman's voice was trembling!

"Team America...lost!"

Moriarty's eyes flashed, and he glared at Roman: "Where's Max? Who caught the Golden Snitch?!"

"Maxie, he... the Golden Snitch was betrayed by the Japanese team... the Magician, that traitor!"

Roman was so emotional he couldn't speak, finally shouting as if in anger, "The entire American team was equipped with Nimbus 1990S, but they still lost! They were crushed by the Japanese team! That team has Nimbus 1990S!"

Moriarty suddenly stood up and rushed out of the conference room, with Red Nose following behind him, recounting the match results.

"In the third qualifying match of the semifinals that just ended, the Japanese team upset the American team!"

The score is 300:60, an undeniably large score!

The entire American team was equipped with Nimbus 1990S, which they intended to use as a secret weapon, but the Japanese team seemed to have known all along and had made ample preparations.

The Magician—now the Magician of the Japanese team, he scored 24 goals! He swept the American team!

As for the Golden Snitch, it was caught by Kogoro Tsukamura, the Seeker for the Japanese team.

Max... fell off Nimbus 1990S during the final battle for the Golden Snitch and is currently unconscious...

In the end, Red Nose couldn't continue.

That's terrible, so terrible, the American team is in such a terrible state.

Moriarty stopped abruptly. "Japan!"

Family members, do you still remember the surname Tsukamura?

(End of this chapter)