Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 381 Behind the Scenes of the Triwizard Tournament

"……so,"

Avada quickly realized: "So, when school started last year, you told me that the third plan for the pure-blood family involved taking Harry away was?"

"That's right."

Dumbledore nodded approvingly: "They sent someone to impersonate Professor Moody and infiltrate Hogwarts. Their plan was to secretly take Harry out of Europe on the day the third event of the Triwizard Tournament began, when everyone at Hogwarts was distracted by that incident. Then they would erase his memories, alter his appearance, and completely transform him into someone else..."

"...That's really ruthless."

Avada couldn't help but shudder—if Barty from the original story had used this method and then deleted his memories of Harry afterward, Voldemort might have truly become immortal...

"Fortunately, the person impersonating Professor Moody was one of my men from the very beginning."

Dumbledore seemed about to laugh, but then suddenly his expression vanished, as if he had remembered something unpleasant: "And that man, named Peter Pettigrew, you may have heard of him—he's the one who gave me the surprise that sealed the victory... and of course, the doubts I have now."

"Confused? What happened?"

Avada asked curiously—he had personally altered Peter's memories and witnessed him and Dumbledore make an oath. With such strict measures in place, what kind of accident could possibly happen?

"He's dead."

"..."

Dumbledore frowned slightly: "I only received the news this afternoon that he died from the backlash of an unbreakable oath—an oath he voluntarily made with me."

For some reason, Avada wasn't surprised at all by this.

"Let's talk about what he did first."

Seeing that Avada remained silent for a long time, Dumbledore sighed softly and then explained, "This person is believed to have died thirteen years ago, right after Voldemort's downfall... The story in between is somewhat complicated, and its authenticity is yet to be confirmed, so I'll skip over it for now... You just need to know that this person actually joined the Death Eaters thirteen years ago, and suddenly returned last year, bringing a lot of information about Voldemort and the Death Eaters, including the location of that Horcrux cave. He also swore an oath to me, expressing his willingness to infiltrate the Purebloods again, lure them into revealing their weaknesses, and then completely annihilate them."

"Then, not long after, he contacted me again and told me he had come up with a daring plan..."

"So, this year's three-way championship?"

"That's right."

Dumbledore nodded and said, "At that time, the pure-blood faction already knew that Harry was Voldemort's Horcrux and was planning how to secretly take him away. Peter Pettigrew, who had just provided them with a lot of secret information in exchange for their full trust, thought that rather than letting them continue their plan and increasing the variables, it would be better to take the initiative and directly formulate a known and controllable plan for them... This is the origin of this year's Triwizard Tournament."

To be honest, the truth that Dumbledore revealed was somewhat unexpected for Avada—it wasn't part of the story he created for Pettigrew.

At the time, the task he subconsciously assigned to Pettigrew was not clear; he simply wanted to find a way to reactivate the temporarily dormant pure-blood faction, expose their weaknesses to Dumbledore, and shorten their demise period... However, unexpectedly, Pettigrew actually came up with the idea without any instruction and brought up the Triwizard Tournament that already existed in the original work again.

However, upon closer examination, this makes sense – firstly, restoring the tournament has always been something the three schools have been doing, and in recent years, with the stabilization of society, the time has indeed come to a good one; moreover, the pure-blood faction's goal this time is exactly the same as in the original story – to take Harry Potter away and to resurrect Voldemort.

However, in the original story, only Barty and Pettigrew were involved, but this time the entire die-hard pure-blood faction was involved, so the scale, investment, and goals of the plan were naturally on two different levels—this time they even planned to kill Dumbledore!

"Then, through their efforts, the Triwizard Tournament was successfully resumed this year, but the location was changed from Hogwarts to Durmstrang, and the age limit was removed, unlike in previous years."

Dumbledore said in a deep voice, "Because they need to lure out of Hogwarts the two most troublesome people, me and you who have the ability to foresee the future, so that they can't detect or hinder their actions at the crucial moment—my initial estimate was wrong, you are indeed in their calculations."

"Moreover, the way they got you into the Triwizard Tournament was by influencing Ludo Bagman. He had already been chosen as a referee and owed a lot of money from betting, so the pure-blood families approached him and made a suggestion—they suggested that the student who had defeated Voldemort twice join the Triwizard Tournament, and then bet on him to win. The pure-blood families would then cooperate with him to adjust the odds, and he himself could act as the referee and manipulate the system, making a fortune together in the end... As you saw, under his influence, you were successfully drawn into the game, and Bagman was kidnapped by Barty Jr. and became his disguise."

"...And what about Mr. Crouch? How did he get the job as a referee?"

"His son has been by his side all along, controlled by the Imperius Curse—this is something Little Star has discovered over the past ten years, and rescuing Barty Jr. to cooperate with their operations has become a key part of their plan."

Dumbledore replied, "So, at Karkaroff's invitation, Crouch agreed to come to Durmstrang as a judge and cooperated with them in devising the script for the 'Bagman Murder Case.' Then, during Bagman's 'death,' Karkaroff secretly swapped the real Bagman's appearance with that of Barty Jr., changing their positions so that Bagman would be controlled by Crouch's Imperius Curse in Barty Jr.'"

"……so,"

Avada thought for a moment before realizing what was happening, and asked with a strange expression, "Bagman just watched Crouch use the Imperius Curse on him for months??"

"That's right."

Dumbledore seemed somewhat amused and exasperated: "His magical abilities weren't enough to break free of Crouch's Imperius Curse for even a second. And Crouch's Imperius Curse command was simple: stay obediently in the room, don't speak, don't make any noise, and don't act on your own… So, poor Bagman was controlled by Crouch for over three months without him noticing. It wasn't until two months ago, when we told Crouch about the plan, that he realized his son had been switched…"

"..."

Avada was unsure what kind of expression to make.

"So, for the next two months, Crouch worked on Bagmaner's memory, trying to make him forget the experience naturally—he didn't want any more people to know about this incriminating piece of evidence that could ruin his reputation."

(End of this chapter)