Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 305 The Flaw That Decides the Final Decision!

"...Just as Ken guessed, Ludo Bagman bought Krum."

In Avada's room, Fleur repeated what she had overheard at noon to the other two verbatim, then frowned and concluded, "In other words, the previous reasoning was correct. Bagman did indeed deliberately create conflict with Krum, lowering his chances of winning in the eyes of the audience, thereby raising his odds, and he spent a lot of money on this... three hundred Galleons."

"As for why he appeared at Durmstrang, that can probably be explained now. It's likely that he fought for this position after learning about the Triwizard Tournament—he's the Director of the Department of Magical Sports, and the Triwizard Tournament was originally scheduled to be held in England. If he could fully utilize his influence, he might actually be able to influence Durmstrang to give him a referee position. And since the number of referees had to be odd, Barty Crouch was also invited to join..."

"This also proves that Bagman's death had nothing to do with the fairy. And in that case, the investigation team that released these rumors probably does have a problem..."

"If we want to continue investigating Bagman's cause of death, we'll probably have to start with the investigation team, or even Crouch's side."

Krum's expression also turned somewhat somber: "But our time may be running out."

"Although our actions at noon didn't reveal our weaknesses at the time, they will definitely discover the problem later. Ken's magic might buy us some time, but it's only a matter of time—if we're unlucky, they'll probably have already realized the anomaly at noon and started to be on high alert against us, not to mention we had a gathering before..."

"That's right."

Furong nodded seriously: "After the investigation team realizes that we may be cooperating in secret, they will probably put us under stricter supervision—we may not have much room for free action anymore."

"I suggest that we hand over the current results to a trustworthy person."

Krum said, "It's already difficult for us to continue fighting against the forces lurking in the shadows, and besides, it doesn't seem like something we should be doing in the first place. We just want our innocence and our wands back... Perhaps we should tell Maxim and Dumbledore that of the four judges, only they are uninvolved in this matter..."

"Don't think about that yet, Krum."

Avada, who had been silent as if deep in thought, suddenly interrupted Krum's suggestion: "Actually, I found out some things today that might be of direct help to the investigation..."

"What's wrong?"

Fleur and Krum raised their eyebrows in unison, looking at Avada with some anticipation—after working together for the past day or two, they could vaguely sense the youngest warrior's ability to cause trouble.

"Rumors about Karkaroff and Crouch."

Avada adjusted his posture, his voice involuntarily lowering: "Someone told me that Igor Karkaroff was originally Voldemort's henchman—a British criminal—who later fled after Voldemort's downfall. He was pursued by Aurors for six months before being captured, and then escaped punishment by betraying his accomplices..."

He briefly reiterated his previous deductions and then added, "Then this morning at breakfast, I specifically observed Crouch for a while, and indeed I found marks on his wrists!"

"An unbreakable oath?"

Krum's face darkened further. After all, this was dirt on their headmaster, and if it were exposed, it would be a disgrace to the entire Durmstrang. "If you're not mistaken, this is probably irrefutable evidence of his conspiracy with Karkaroff... But are you sure Bagman was really killed for this reason? And were they really the two murderers?"

"And even if that were true, why would they know Bagman knew about their plot? And why did they wait until now to kill Bagman?"

Fleur followed up, asking, "If it really is just because of August Lukewood, then shouldn't Bagman have suspected Crouch and Karkaroff more than a decade ago?"

"...There are too many possibilities; it's too early to draw a conclusion."

Avada slowly shook his head, then said, "Perhaps Bagman slipped up, or maybe something happened while he was trying to get the referee position that we don't know yet... But that's not why I suspected Barty Crouch in the first place. What I said before was just some supporting evidence—do you remember when Bagman was first murdered, Crouch contacted me much faster than you did?"

"……really."

After a moment's thought, Krum replied, "Fleur and I were called over together, and you seemed to have been in the principal's office for a while when we were taken there..."

"To be precise, no more than two or three minutes after I said goodbye to Bagman, Crouch suddenly approached me and took me to the principal's office."

Avada said seriously, "Even if I had just left Bagman and died, it would have taken quite some time from when his death was discovered to when the students reported it to the professor, and then for the news to reach his ears... He came too quickly, as if he had been waiting there from the very beginning."

"..."

Silence fell in the room once again.

"...then,"

Finally, Krum was the first to speak again: "There are only two unresolved issues now—one is whether Crouch actually killed Bagman, and his motive for doing so; the other is what we mentioned before… how exactly did Bagman die?"

"A fairy dagger? Or a killing curse? If it's a dagger, why didn't Bagman notice anything? And if it's a killing curse, why didn't anyone hear the incantation?"

"And what role did Karkaroff play in all this—if Crouch really was behind this, I don't believe Karkaroff was completely unaware," Fleur added.

"Yes, and Karkaroff too."

Krum nodded decisively, showing no intention of protecting his own principal whatsoever.

"Kakalov..."

Avada's brow furrowed as well—he had been so focused on analyzing Bagman and Crouch that he hadn't paid much attention to Durmstrang's current principal, which was an oversight on his part.

So he carefully recalled everything he had observed Karkaroff do since he entered Durmstrang, from his initial speech, hosting the banquet, announcing the names of the heroes, inspecting the wands, and even Karkaroff's reaction when Crouch inspected the three of their wands...

"!!!"

He suddenly shuddered, then asked the other two warriors with extreme urgency, "Since the day before Bagman was murdered... have you seen Karkaroff use a wand?!"

(End of this chapter)