Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 302 There's Only One Truth!

Why did this happen...?

In Durmstrang's underground level, the three warriors who had reached an agreement, decided to cooperate, and finalized their action plan had already finished their conversation. Fleur and Krum had also returned to their respective rooms, and Avada no longer needed to hide his emotions—he lay sprawled on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, feeling completely bewildered.

"There's absolutely no record of Kakarov in the Legal Enforcement Division's archives... Doesn't that mean he was never arrested or tried in the first place?"

"So, is he still a Death Eater or not? And how did he come into contact with Crouch? It can't be that he was a perfectly good Death Eater blocking the way, and then suddenly had a change of heart and went to Crouch to expose all the information about his accomplices, right?"

"Or...did his contact with Crouch not follow standard procedures? Was Crouch's act of letting Karkaroff go illegal?"

He blinked suddenly, a plausible possibility flashing through his mind, but he immediately dismissed it: "But there's no need for that, is there? For Crouch, who was then the head of the Enforcement Division, every Death Eater he captured would be a significant achievement. And Karkaroff, who knew so many undercover agents, must have been of high rank; this should have been a major accomplishment... How could he possibly secretly alter a file just for a list of Death Eaters?"

"Kakarov didn't even get a trial... Couldn't he at least have been acquitted?"

He scratched his head vigorously, rolling around on the bed in frustration: "Logically speaking, shouldn't we have just forced him to vomit with a True Vomiting Potion or cast a Cruciatus Curse after capturing him, extracting all the information he had, and then thrown him into Azkaban for life imprisonment? Even if Karkaroff behaves well and cooperates willingly, at most it would be considered making amends and getting a shorter sentence..."

"Calm down, calm down, think about it carefully."

He threw off the covers and stood up, went to the washroom and washed his face with cold water. Then, without even drying it, he started walking around the room: "Let's think about what we can be sure of right now—first and foremost, Karkarov's personal experience."

"He was originally a high-ranking Death Eater, the kind who knew a lot about undercover agents. Then, after Voldemort's downfall, he ran away and was chased by Mad-Eye Moody for a full six months before being caught... So his strength and intelligence must have been top-notch. In a one-on-one fight, he wouldn't be much weaker than a legendary Auror like Moody. No wonder he was able to become the headmaster of Durmstrang, on par with Dumbledore..."

"No, that's getting ahead of itself... Then, he made a deal with Barty Crouch, revealing the names of other lurking Death Eaters in exchange for avoiding punishment, and even had his file erased in the end—that's a given fact, but it's also the most illogical part."

"Why wasn't he interrogated after being caught, but instead allowed to make a deal? Why did the list he revealed lead to his immediate acquittal instead of a reduced sentence? Why didn't he even face trial, and why did someone in the Ministry of Magic—presumably Crouch—voluntarily erase his records?"

"If Crouch were ruthless enough, he could simply turn his back on them after getting the intelligence and throw Karkaroff into Azkaban anyway, since he doesn't have any means of retaliation!"

"..."

He suddenly paused, then asked, "...Countermeasures?"

"Yes... Karkaroff had countermeasures against the Ministry of Magic at the time, otherwise he would never have been able to exonerate himself to that extent!"

"But what could it be... like an unbreakable oath? He could force Crouch to swear an unbreakable oath to guarantee he would carry out the agreement, or he would never hand over the list of Death Eaters to him... but that doesn't explain the torture and truth serum."

"While Veritaserum and Legilimency might be ineffective against a powerful wizard like Karkaroff, they wouldn't withstand the torture of the Cruciatus Curse—back then, Aurors were qualified to use the Unforgivable Curse. Once in their hands, they'd always find a way to extract information from someone's mind, unless that person didn't know that information at all..."

"Oh, right!"

Avada suddenly clapped his hands, feeling that his previous face wash hadn't been in vain. Not only was his mind clearer, but his face had also become much paler, allowing him to easily find the right line of thought: "Karkaroff has been on the run for a full six months. He could have easily extracted those memories during that time and hidden them somewhere no one could find them! Didn't Slughorn use a similar method back then!"

"Furthermore, he can set up several spells at the hiding place that will immediately destroy the memories if it's discovered that it's not him. That way, he won't have to worry about the Aurors interrogating him to find out the location of the memories and then retrieving them himself!"

"So the truth is..."

He pulled out a chair and plopped down, then pulled out a pen and paper and quickly listed all the previous clues. He then carefully sorted out the relationships between all the clues, and finally smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the complete and tightly-knit logical chain.

"Karkaroff anticipated that he might eventually be captured, so he extracted crucial information about the Death Eaters from his mind and hid it somewhere. During the subsequent Auror interrogation, he could use those memories as leverage to negotiate with Barty Crouch, even forcing him to sign a magical pact—most likely an unbreakable oath…"

"However, given that Karkaroff had been hunted for six months, releasing him without authorization was absolutely illegal, but Karkaroff insisted on it, and the information in his mind was too important... So Crouch had no choice but to reach an agreement with Moody and then use his authority to destroy all of Karkaroff's files, thus allowing Karkaroff to escape trial unscathed!"

"In this way, Karkaroff not only avoided immediate risk, but also eliminated the possibility of future repercussions—because Crouch had also broken the rules, so even without the constraint of an oath, he would do everything in his power to prevent the matter from leaking out!"

"Moreover, this reasoning is easy to prove—if I can find matching contractual marks on Crouch and Karkaroff, then it's 99% likely true!"

"And could Ludo Bagman's death... be related to this?!"

The moment Avada realized this, he felt his heart skip a beat: "Yes! He has a close relationship with August Lukewood, the Death Eater who was exposed by Karkaroff... He most likely has some guesses about the inside story of this matter, plus they are colleagues this year, their relationship has become even closer, and Bagman needs to keep a close eye on the other referees if he wants to pull any dirty tricks in the game..."

"Tomorrow...we must find the evidence by tomorrow!"

(End of this chapter)