Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 316: Did Voldemort limit the intelligence of purebloods?

The meadow in front of us is about a hundred meters away from Durmstrang Castle, but it is still under the protection of Durmstrang's magic. Although it does not have a large ecological area like the Forbidden Forest, Durmstrang has still designated a considerable area as its campus, most of which is open meadow and lake, and this secretly enchanted meadow is one of them.

"It seems they weren't hiding any dirty tricks..."

Like Baron, Avada crouched down, drew his wand, and lightly touched the ground with the tip, carefully sensing the magic contained in the area. He first confirmed the types of magic, and after ruling out any possible hidden traps, he began to investigate more proactively and meticulously.

The enchanted area is roughly circular, about the size of two football fields combined. The magically reinforced ground, including the grass at the top, has become extremely tough and difficult to destroy, while also possessing considerable resistance to most forms of magic.

At least, when Avada secretly tried to use a transformation spell on the ground beneath his feet, he immediately felt tremendous resistance. He felt that transforming the matter here required at least several times the effort of normal matter, not to mention more basic spells like the Earth Splitter...

"To reinforce such a large area to this extent in just one night... this must be more than just a wizard casting spells with his wand. They must have used a lot of magical materials and potions."

Cedric also took out his wand and sensed the magic underground. It took him quite a while to look up and mutter, "What could be the purpose of spending so much to reinforce an empty piece of land?"

"It might be to keep some kind of highly destructive magical creature in captivity, or to conduct powerful magical experiments."

Avada casually plucked a slightly yellowed blade of grass, feeling the resilient strength traveling through his fingers as he analyzed the situation: "If this really is the venue for the second competition... it might be a beast fight? Like a Rathalos or a Chimeramon, which is a classic event in the Triwizard Tournament."

"Could it be that it's a level that requires a large area?"

Baron surveyed the vast, empty area: "This size is large enough to create some special environments—like a complex maze?"

"Possibly."

Cedric seemed to agree more with Baron's guess: "The hardening of the ground was probably to prevent contestants from digging tunnels to take shortcuts, and to protect the integrity of the maze during some battles inside. Letting students directly face the fire dragon is a bit too radical..."

"..."

Avada and Baron exchanged a silent glance and simultaneously pursed their lips—they were the type who loved to burrow underground and lurk.

"Not necessarily. After all, the organizers this time even pulled off a murder case, so it wouldn't be surprising if the warriors were to face the fire dragon head-on..."

As Avada spoke, he recalled the fire dragon challenge in the Triwizard Tournament from the original story.

He remembered that the competition didn't seem to require defeating the fire dragon or causing much damage; all that was needed was to retrieve the golden egg guarded by the dragon—which seemed far too easy for him now. He didn't even need to use his trump card, the "Close to the Ends of the Earth" spell; a simple illusion spell combined with stealth would allow him to sneak past the dragon unnoticed, take the golden egg, and easily complete the challenge.

"Wait, the Disillusionment Charm is supposed to be a controlled spell, so theoretically I shouldn't have it. Showing it publicly might cause some trouble..."

He then realized that the most powerful and commonly used techniques he possessed were almost all forms of magic that rarely saw light—the Disillusionment Curse, the Imperius Curse, Apparition that ignores restrictions, mental magic, spatial magic, and the soul magic he had recently begun to master…

Especially the two abilities of Apparition and Soul Magic, which ignore restrictions. If they were exposed at this stage, he conservatively estimated that he would not have a moment of peace for the next ten years or so.

"In short, we can't be completely sure yet... Let's observe for a few more days, there's still a week left."

Avada carefully sensed the underground magic again, and after some consideration, finally decided not to secretly leave himself a few backdoors: "Besides, this place is close to the Hogwarts Express, so if there's any big commotion, we'll be among the first to see it—let's not waste our time thinking about these things now."

"That's true."

Baron and Cedric nodded in agreement, and after chatting with Avada for a while longer, they returned to the Hogwarts Express with him. During the time Avada was away, his room had been cleaned by house-elves, and since he didn't have much luggage, the supervision he received during those few days hadn't caused him any trouble.

"A huge, solid enclosure, and a large number of staff... it feels more like a maze-like obstacle course, similar to the final level in the original story."

Lying in his room, watching the scattered lights that had been embedded in the walls of Durmstrang Castle gradually dim, row by row, Avada's thoughts remained active: 'But this is only the second stage... Compared to the original story, the difficulty of this Triwizard Tournament is on a completely different level... What caused this?'

"Well, I should get used to it—ever since the diary drove Dumbledore out and almost took over Hogwarts, I should have realized that the enemy I'm facing this time is completely different from the one in the original stories in terms of strategy, methods, and overall scale. But if I had to pinpoint a reason… maybe it's because I dealt with Voldemort from the very beginning, pushing them to the edge?"

"So Voldemort is the one dragging down the intelligence of the entire pure-blood faction? I took down Voldemort, and the seal on their brains was broken?"

"..."

This absurd conclusion that suddenly popped into his head made Avada pause for a moment of thought.

"never mind."

He simply turned off the light, staring into the darkness as he gradually succumbed to sleepiness, while using his remaining energy to continue plotting the second stage of the Triwizard Tournament, and the possible schemes that Barty might devise after entering the arena...

"No, this time it's a little different—Barty Crouch Jr. in the original story was the mastermind behind the whole thing, but this time he's just a powerful henchman who was rescued incidentally. That's probably one of the reasons why the difficulty of this competition has changed so drastically. As for Ludo Bagman, whom he replaced… he's definitely not dead, otherwise he wouldn't be able to provide the ingredients for Polyjuice Potion. I wonder where he's being held captive now…"

"...But then again, if a scenario as complex as a magical murder mystery were used in the original stories, I wonder how Harry Potter would handle it?"

……

Things were handled a bit faster than I expected. Updates will resume starting today. Thank you all for your concern and support!

(End of this chapter)