Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 376 The Whole Story

"I know that what happened today may be a bit too bizarre for you all."

None of the four referees showed any surprise at the arrival of these uninvited guests. Karkaroff even seemed to smile: "Whether it's Mr. Ludo Bagman's betrayal, Professor Dumbledore disguised as Grindelwald, those dark wizards who appeared before, Voldemort, or the guests who have arrived now... Yes, in every sense, today will be an extraordinary day."

"What I mean by extraordinary is far more than just the conclusion of the Triwizard Tournament or the capture of Voldemort's remaining followers—I'm referring to something truly epoch-making, an event whose impact rivals that of the invention of the wand or the signing of the Act of Secrecy. And we, all of you here, and those watching remotely at Hogwarts and Beauxbatons… we are the luckiest people to witness this moment firsthand. And everything that has happened before is merely a prelude to this event…"

"Its influence is no less than that of the secrecy law?!"

Everyone was taken aback by Karkaroff’s exaggerated claims—the invention of the wand was undoubtedly the most important event in the entire history of magic, and the signing of the Act of Secrecy was also a real event that changed the lifestyle of wizards all over the world, having a fundamental impact on social changes and the development of magic in later generations!

While the exact nature of this impact remains controversial, it cannot change the fact that the signing of the Secrecy Act is one of the most important milestones in the history of magic!

An event with an impact comparable to these two things suddenly happened right before my eyes without any warning?

"...What else could have happened? Weren't all those dark wizards arrested?"

The students looked around, exchanging glances with their classmates, but all saw the same bewilderment in each other's eyes: "Voldemort's organization is completely wiped out? That's certainly important now, but it can't compare to the Secrecy Act... Or is the Ministry of Magic going to introduce some revolutionary law? Or are the three magic schools going to jointly publish some groundbreaking academic achievement?"

"Or perhaps...it's related to that university that suddenly appeared?"

"So,"

After the buzzing murmurs in the crowd gradually subsided, Karkaroff continued triumphantly, "Let's invite Professor Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts and a key figure in this incident, to explain the ins and outs of this whole affair."

As he spoke, he patted Dumbledore on the shoulder and sat down. Dumbledore, however, stood up, solemnly pointed his wand at his throat, and his voice echoed throughout the room:

"If I want to explain everything clearly, I might need to ask Beauxbatons and the people at Durmstrang about a few things that happened in England, and these are the source of all the changes that have occurred today..."

"Voldemort—I think many people have heard of this name and know what he did, so I'll just give a brief overview—he was defeated once thirteen years ago, and that defeat should have killed him outright, but due to some ancient and evil dark magic, his soul has left his body and remains in the world, constantly searching for a way to be resurrected..."

In a few minutes, Dumbledore quickly and clearly recounted the entire sequence of events leading to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, from Voldemort's death to his being lured by the Philosopher's Stone and sealed away three years prior, to his subordinates delivering "a sentient dark magic item" to Hogwarts two years ago.

"After that, those guys who used the banner of pure-blood glory to wreak havoc on the entire magical society for their own selfish interests temporarily fell into silence. But there are rumors that they were not idle during the so-called 'silence' period. For example, the werewolf attack that shocked Britain last year was suspected to be orchestrated by them... And their apparent silence ended in the first half of last year, which is when the plan for this year's Triwizard Tournament was born."

Dumbledore paused, as if organizing his thoughts, before continuing, "At that time, they were fully aware that without Voldemort as their backer, it would be almost impossible for them to achieve their goals. The staunch opposition from the entire magical community, as well as my small contribution, also put them under tremendous pressure... In order to solve the problem at hand, they came up with a plan."

"In this absurd plan, they intend to achieve two goals simultaneously—one is to regain their patron, namely, to completely resurrect Voldemort, and the other is to eliminate what they see as their biggest obstacle, namely myself. To be honest, this is also a manifestation of short-sightedness. If they could think a little deeper, they would not have found that among all the forces hindering them, those from Albus Dumbledore are only the most insignificant bit..."

After his habitual self-deprecation, Dumbledore continued, "But since Voldemort's soul is now under my control, resurrecting him is almost the same as killing me... So, in order to deal with me, they plan to bring back my old adversary, Gellert Grindelwald, to work with their trap to completely eliminate me."

"A pure-blood family would actually ask Grindelwald to deal with Dumbledore?"

Standing behind Dumbledore, Avada raised an eyebrow: "Don't they know what their relationship is?"

"Besides, thanks to Toluius, didn't they still think I was some kind of person to Grindelwald? They know perfectly well that I'm still studying under Dumbledore, and even have some kind of working relationship with him, yet they dare to just go and ask Grindelwald to come out of retirement like that?!"

There must be something else going on...

"Fortunately, one of my spies among them discovered their plot in time. So I took advantage of the fact that Nurmengard Prison was hard to find, and successfully built a fake Nurmengard. I then led them in and they made a deal with the fake Grindelwald that I had arranged. The next step is to figure out how to lure me into a trap."

"Coincidentally, the plan to restart the Triwizard Tournament had been almost finalized by then, so they used their influence to smoothly set the tournament for this year. At the same time, they seduced Mr. Ludo Bagman, who was struggling with debt, and got him to agree to play the victim in the first project—and then used this opportunity to have their people replace Mr. Bagman with Compound Potion and plant a pawn next to me."

"That's right. The Bagman who betrayed us before was an imposter, and the real Mr. Bagman has now been rescued. He is currently resting due to health reasons, and you should be able to see news about him in the newspapers in a few days... In addition to him, Professor Karkaroff has also become one of their targets."

"As you may have heard, there have always been some unsavory rumors surrounding Professor Karkaroff, falsely claiming he was once Voldemort's servant—and it was precisely because of this that some of the Death Eaters believed it and tried to recruit him. Karkaroff feigned agreement to the recruitment and secretly collaborated with me, Mrs. Maxime, and Mr. Crouch to lure them out with a false victory and wipe them all out in one fell swoop… which is what happened today."

"...Is this an attempt to completely exonerate Karkaroff?"

Avada was stunned: "What is this? Is it one of the conditions for their cooperation? And while this explanation is barely plausible, there are still too many unclear details, and who knows how much they're hiding..."

"Alright, that's all for today."

Suddenly, Dumbledore's expression changed from serious to cheerful, and he clapped his hands: "Now, please allow me to briefly introduce the matter that is about to change the entire magical society..."

"The world's first magic university, Norbridge University, will be accepting applications today from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang."

(End of this chapter)