Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 311 Dumbledore: Huh?

Almost the instant after transmitting that message, Avada felt his feet lighten, and his entire body was suddenly lifted up by countless hands...

"I knew you could do it!"

"Well done, first place!"

"Haha, who would have thought the first challenge would be a crime-solving competition... This is practically walking into Ken's trap!"

"Exactly, they even cracked Voldemort's schemes, so everything else is child's play compared to that..."

And so, Avada was carried back to the Hogwarts Express, surrounded by her jubilant classmates. The dining car there was already laden with delicious food and drinks—before that, no one knew it was all a competition, nor did anyone know Avada would win. This was clearly something Dumbledore had arranged for the house-elves to prepare in advance…

No wonder his mental state was so subtle when he went to find Dumbledore with the two warriors this morning.

Even before Karkaroff revealed the truth, Avada had already vaguely sensed that everything that had happened before was likely part of the Triwizard Tournament. When he, Fleur, and Krum were analyzing the case and uncovering one astonishing "truth" after another, the behavior of the people in the classroom seats, such as Karkaroff's tension, Crouch's unease, Maxim's doubts, and Dumbledore's readiness, was basically all an act. In reality, they were quite relaxed.

However, Karkaroff and Crouch were genuinely nervous—after all, their secret deal and Crouch's erasure of the files were real. This was also one of the things Avada still couldn't understand—why would Karkaroff and Crouch be willing to expose this?

Isn't he afraid that some brave warrior might have extraordinary skills and actually uncover some irrefutable evidence on the spot?

Moreover, during this competition, Avada discovered something else extremely important, which gave him a greater sense of urgency...

"Knock knock knock".

The banquet on the Hogwarts Express lasted until late at night. Everyone, including Dumbledore and the house-elves, celebrated Avada's brilliant performance, marveling at the ingenious ideas of the tournament organizers. Of course, they also couldn't help but chatter about what the second event would be, and whether it would unfold in some unexpected way like this time...

Only after everyone was so exhausted that they were almost asleep in the restaurant did they disperse and return to their rooms to fall asleep...

Except for Avada.

He was now taking advantage of the fact that no one was around to secretly knock on the door of Dumbledore's temporary office.

"...I knew you'd have to come over."

Dumbledore, still wearing the clothes he'd worn at the banquet, sat behind the table, chuckling as he looked at Avada. On this trip, he'd practically packed his entire office into the Hogwarts train; everything—from the wondrous silver artifacts to the branch Fawkes had always lived on, and all the other odds and ends—was arranged exactly as Avada remembered…

"I still have some doubts, and I have indeed discovered some things..."

Avada slammed the door shut behind him, his voice low: "You know my abilities—if this match really was a charade from the very beginning, a performance, there's no way I wouldn't have noticed something amiss..."

"Because I arranged almost everything myself."

Dumbledore smiled and replied, "No matter how deep the waters are behind the scenes, on the surface this is just a safe, exciting, and historically significant international match—since you've finally become a warrior, I naturally have to find a way to let you enjoy the game as well."

"..."

Avada's expression froze.

"That……"

After a long silence, he cautiously probed, "Ludo Bagman's body?"

"I built it."

Dumbledore replied cheerfully, "All the materials used are real flesh and bones, and the shaping was done without any magic. After the life force was removed, it was exactly the same as a body that had been hit by the Killing Curse. In fact, if you look closely, you will find that the fake body is quite different from Bagman's appearance, which is why I deliberately drew the blockade line further away."

Avada's face darkened.

Principal, you tricked me!

"...Dirty stuff about Karkaroff and Bagman?"

"Oh, those are true, both Karkaroff's identity as a Death Eater and the agreement he made with Crouch."

Dumbledore's expression softened slightly, but he remained quite relaxed: "However, most people at the higher levels of the magical community have heard about these things, and with so many years having passed and Voldemort himself captured, nobody cares about these old stories anymore... To be honest, even if these things were exposed, Karkaroff and Crouch wouldn't be greatly affected—everyone can understand Crouch's choice back then; and Karkaroff... he's already firmly established in his position, and Durmstrang is very tolerant of dark wizards."

"That's why they dared to add this to the competition."

Avada stroked his chin: "And after this commotion, more people will believe that those previous rumors were just false conspiracy theories, which will have a positive publicity effect on Karkaroff and Crouch, since the parties involved dared to openly add them to entertainment without batting an eye..."

That's it.

Dumbledore nodded in satisfaction: "Oh, and also, to avoid being caught off guard by your and Miss Delacour's special talents in mental abilities, the rest of us deliberately altered some of our memories before the performance to make our acting more natural... It must be quite difficult for you to spot the traces of memory alteration right now, right?"

"...Those investigation teams?"

"They were actually staff members who came to set up the second project; they were just temporarily filling in."

Dumbledore chuckled, “Of course, their memories were also temporarily altered—since Durmstrang will eventually erase their memories of the school’s address anyway, they didn’t object to it, they just asked for double the payment.”

"I see."

Avada nodded thoughtfully: "So, the first competition was actually under your observation and control from beginning to end, and those conspiracies against you haven't been exposed yet?"

"You could say that."

Dumbledore smiled faintly and stroked his beard.

"In that case, you already knew that Ludo Bagman, who just returned, was actually a fake?"

"Of course... huh?"

Dumbledore's hand froze on his beard.

(End of this chapter)