My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 516, Section 513: The Tampered Trophy

Old John's letter did not reveal what allegory was contained in the crystal ball.

Although he had some influence in the Americas, it was clearly not as powerful as in Europe. The information he could access was mostly widely circulated, but he had no way of finding out such core secrets.

Of all the prophecies, this was the only one Lynn could guess was related to him, because the timing was perfect and it was unknown to outsiders.

However, these prophetic messages are not actually of much decisive use in the progress of events.

Regardless of their reasons, the Magical Congress of America and Lynn have forged an irreconcilable feud.

Lynn collected these prophecies simply to find out why he had done something so outrageous that the Ministry of Magic was relentlessly pursuing him.

However, even without a result, it no longer hinders the progress of the matter.

After the second competition of the Triwizard Tournament concluded, although the third competition has not yet been officially announced, the venue for the third competition has already begun construction.

The final trophy of the tournament lay peacefully in the trophy room of Hogwarts Castle for nearly a month before being moved to the third project site, which was under construction at the time.

During this month, no other outsiders entered the trophy showroom, and the trophy looked no different from before.

But even as the trophy was moved to the middle of the third competition area, Lynn did not stop monitoring it.

His persistence paid off.

On the weekend of the first week after the trophy was moved here, a furtive figure crept up to the side of the Goblet of Fire trophy.

He stayed here for a long time, seemingly tampering with the trophy, but it wasn't just some simple spell; he completely transformed the trophy itself.

This scene unfolded in the darkness of night, seemingly unnoticed by anyone, except for the crows perched on the branches, who witnessed it through their scarlet eyes.

The very next day, Lynn and Dumbledore went together without notifying or letting anyone see them and arrived at the trophy.

Instead of reaching out to touch the trophy, they stood to the side and let Dumbledore study it using spells.

He quickly came to a conclusion.

"Just like you said, this trophy has been modified; it has become a key that can teleport people to another place."

Lynn was not surprised by the result, or rather, he had expected it.

"Is there a way to figure out where this key ultimately leads?"

"Of course there is a way to do it, but it requires a professional to solve, and we happen to have such a professional in our school," Dumbledore said mysteriously.

Soon, the professionals he mentioned were also summoned to the trophy.

It's Moody, this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

During his years as an Auror, he studied countless strange and wonderful spells.

For him, reverse-engineering the location the key is meant to teleport him to is a piece of cake.

"Someone turned the Triwizard Tournament trophy into a door key." Moody was clearly very surprised by this.

He couldn't imagine anyone daring to tamper with the Triwizard Tournament trophy right under Dumbledore's and the other three headmasters' noses.

Moreover, the purpose of this tampering was clearly to target Lynn.

Because by now, almost no one believes that anyone can defeat Lynn in this match.

Basically, Lynn was the ultimate winner.

Even though students from other schools are not willing to admit it openly, they are already able to accept the defeat of their own school's warriors in private.

After all, Lynn's performance was fair and square, and he was indeed much better than the other three warriors.

"Others wouldn't dare, but if it were one of the principals of the other three schools, nothing would be impossible," Lynn said with a sneer.

If Moody was surprised that the trophy had been made into a door key before, he was now shocked by Lynn's words.

"Let's figure out where this door key ends up first, then we can talk about other things." Dumbledore stopped Moody from asking any more questions, indicating that he should first break the curse on the trophy.

The process of reverse-engineering the destination of the door key was not complicated. Moody completed all the preparations in just one morning and had already obtained the result.

"It is an island in the ocean, located in the North Sea, not far from the island where Azkaban is located."

Moody couldn't pinpoint the island's location just by verbal description, but after Lynn showed him a world map, he clearly pointed to an island in the northern ocean of Europe that wasn't marked on the map.

"Right here, the island where Azkaban prison is located is less than 30 miles to the west of this island."

Having spotted the exact location, Lynn and Dumbledore exchanged a glance.

They could clearly see why the person who wanted to turn the trophy into a door key chose this island.

"It seems they really did find the ring," Lynn said in a deep voice.

Dumbledore also narrowed his eyes.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing. By joining forces, they won't have to worry about finding that Horcrux later."

"But are they really sure that those people in Azkaban will defect again?"

"Don't doubt Voldemort's standing in their hearts, even though his true loyalists can no longer support him. But even these servants who once betrayed him will surely submit to him again after learning that he has truly returned. This doesn't mean they are particularly loyal, but rather that their fear of him is ingrained in their very bones."

Lynn and Dumbledore's conversation did not shy away from Moody, and the more Moody heard, the more horrified he became.

"What do you mean, Dumbledore! You mean the Mystic is coming back?"

Dumbledore silently shook his head.

"The mysterious man will never return. What has appeared now is only a fragment of his soul, and he is not the main enemy."

He stared intently at the trophy before him, and after a moment of silence, he suddenly spoke.

"I remember that after Voldemort fell, the Order of the Phoenix went into a period of silence. Now is the time for it to be revived."

When Moody heard Dumbledore's words, his shocked eyes, besides being filled with astonishment, also shone with delight.

(End of this chapter)