Chapter 874 Conspiracy
“I really didn’t throw my name into the Goblet of Fire.”
On the way back to the Gryffindor common room, Harry finally couldn't help but confide in Albert.
"You have said so," said Albert gently, "I believe you did not do that."
"Why?"
Actually, Harry didn't know why he said that. Maybe he was too irritable, or maybe he wanted to find someone to chat with.
"what why?"
“Sorry.” Harry looked embarrassed and apologized to Albert in a low voice.
“What do you want to know from me?”
Albert looked at Harry's embarrassed look and felt a little funny.
"I want to know...why you believe me." After Harry finished speaking, he looked even more embarrassed.
"Then I'll tell you. I hope it won't make you uncomfortable." Albert paused in front of the secret passage. He stretched out his hand to push aside the tapestry in front of him and walked in. "Your magic power is indeed better than other students of the same grade. You must be stronger, but in my opinion, you are not a powerful wizard."
“What do you mean?” Harry felt inexplicably irritated.
"If you want to deceive a magic item with strong magic power like the Goblet of Fire, you can't do it with your current magic skills." Albert explained to Harry: "That requires a particularly powerful confusion spell. I dare Bet your piece of parchment only has your name on it, not the school's name."
“How do you know?” Harry couldn't help asking. He always felt that Albert knew a lot of things.
Since a long time ago, the other party has given him this feeling, as if he knows something about everything.
"The guy who threw your name into the Goblet of Fire couldn't actually interfere with the Goblet of Fire's selection of warriors, so he could only take the simplest way, using a confusion spell to cause confusion in the Goblet of Fire, making it mistakenly think that there were four schools participating in the third round. The Strong Tournament means that the Goblet of Fire regards you as a player from the fourth school. Since you are the only one in the fourth school, you will naturally become the warrior of the fourth school. This is why your parchment does not include The reason for the name of the school, and the fact that you are a student at Hogwarts, means there are two warriors at Hogwarts."
“How do you know these things?”
Harry stared at Albert dumbfounded, he never expected that the real situation would be like this.
"Guess, most people can guess something, just not as detailed as what I said." Albert reminded, "Dumbledore can definitely guess the things I said."
“But, they...”
"That's adult intrigue." Albert said contemptuously, "You'll know after you leave Hogwarts."
"But why would he give me such a benefit?" Harry realized that he had said the wrong thing and corrected himself again: "I mean, why did the other party want to sign up for me?"
"You are really confident in yourself!" Albert said softly: "Although it is a good thing to be confident, I think if no one helps you, it may be difficult for you to pass all three competitions smoothly. Although cheating is a problem, It's a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament, but don't expect Dumbledore to help you cheat, and Professor McGonagall can't help you. At most, she will help you provide some conveniences, such as opening the restricted book area for us."
Harry felt that he had been slighted and was a little annoyed.
“You probably didn’t understand the hint given by Mr. Crouch!” Albert added.
"What hint?" Harry looked at Albert's back in confusion.
"The courage to face the unknown." Albert recalled: "There are related records in the Triwizard Tournament in 1792. The warriors wanted to catch a cockatrice monster. Our first project needed to face the estimate It’s these dangerous magical creatures.”
Harry opened his mouth and stared at Albert blankly. He could not imagine how he could subdue a monster alone.
"Looking for cases from the Triwizard Tournaments of the past, it is not difficult to guess the content of the warrior's project." Albert explained, "If you want to subdue a dangerous monster, what are you going to do?"
Harry's face turned slightly pale. He knew why Albert said that, and he didn't feel that Albert was playing a trick on him.
"Of course, that is the worst case scenario. Maybe the Ministry of Magic will capture a few Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest to serve as our opponents. Or, they will get a monster to guard a certain treasure, and then let us steal the treasure from the monster. Ancient wizards liked to use large and dangerous magical creatures such as Acromantulas to guard their homes or treasure troves. Well, there are troll security guards and dragons in Gringotts."
"You're right." A bitter smile appeared on Harry's face, "If that's really the case, it would be an impossible task for me."
"Don't worry, you still have good friends. If it doesn't work, let Sirius and Lupine help you find a way." Albert patted Harry on the shoulder and comforted, "Cheating in the Triwizard Tournament is normal. I bet other warriors will cheat too."
“What about you?” Harry looked at Albert.
"Me? I think I don't need to cheat. Although it sounds a bit arrogant, I think the Triwizard Tournament shouldn't be too difficult for me." Albert said confidently.
Harry was choked and asked the question he wanted to know most at the moment: "Who do you think threw my name into the Goblet of Fire?"
“You know, don’t you?” Albert reminded with a smile.
“I know?” Harry was even more confused.
“Yeah, you know.”
"I..., wait, you mean Voldemort?" Harry seemed to remember something and couldn't help but say this taboo name.
“I think something like that.”
However, how can Voldemort guarantee that I will throw my name into the Goblet of Fire?
He should be far away, weak and alone... No, Voldemort is not alone... Harry dreamed that Voldemort was talking to Wormtail... They were probably plotting to kill him.
"Wormtail?" Harry suddenly said, "Wormtail is one of the makers of the Marauder's Map. He must know many secret passages. Moreover, Wormtail can also turn into a mouse and can easily hide it from everyone, quietly. Sneak into Hogwarts Castle."
"Well, it must be Voldemort's minions. You'd better be careful." Albert nodded in agreement.
"But why did Wormtail attack you and prevent you from participating in the competition?" Harry asked doubtfully.
“First, the guy who attacked me may not be the same person as the one who voted for you. He just wanted to prevent me from participating in the Triwizard Tournament and preventing Hogwarts from winning the championship.”
“Second, the person who attacked me was Wormtail. The reason why he didn’t want me to participate in the Triwizard Tournament was probably to prevent me from winning the championship..."
"Why would he do this to prevent you from winning the championship?" Harry was even more confused.
Harry was silent for a long time. Although he was a little unconvinced, he still agreed with Albert's words. The opponent's record was the best proof. So many world-class champions were Albert's confidence.
The two were walking and chatting, and before they knew it, they were outside the Gryffindor common room.
"I just heard that someone was selected as the school's warrior." The fat lady looked at the two people in front of her with wide eyes.
“Nonsense,” Harry said.
“Oh, it’s true.” The fat lady opened the door and let the two of them in.
When Harry walked into the common room, Albert had no intention of moving his feet.
"Aren't you going in?" The fat lady looked at Albert standing outside in surprise.
"The Gryffindor students are too enthusiastic. I think it's better for me to wait a while before going in." Albert said helplessly to the Fat Lady, listening to the noise coming from behind the portrait.
“So, what Violet said is true, you two have really become the warriors of Hogwarts.” The Fat Lady asked.
"of course it's true."
A pale witch intrudes into the portrait of the Fat Lady.
“Yeah, someone signed up for Harry and me.”
“Has someone signed up for you?” the fat lady asked gossiping.
"The person who helped me register should be Professor Moody." Albert directly put the blame on Moody's head. When this matter spread, no matter whether it was Professor Moody who did it or not, everyone Everyone will assume that it was him who did it, and ask him if he is angry.
“As for who helped Porter register, I’m not sure.”
“I think even if no one signs you up, you will definitely be able to become a Hogwarts warrior. Many portraits are guessing that the Hogwarts warrior will be you.” Violet said to Albert.
“Nonsense.” Albert cast a disguise spell on himself and asked the fat woman to open the door and prepare to sneak in.
“Absolutely not!” said the witch angrily.
"This is the password." The Fat Lady patted the witch's shoulder to comfort her, and then she turned forward to let Albert into the common room.
When the portrait opened, the noise filled Albert's ears again. Everyone was swirling around Harry, the poor savior surrounded by crazy Gryffindor students.
No one wanted to hear Harry say it, no one wanted to hear Harry's excuse, everyone just wanted to celebrate it themselves.
Seeing this scene, Albert couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, quietly passed through the crowd, went upstairs along the stairs and returned to the dormitory for supper.
"Sure enough, I still have foresight." Albert was very satisfied with his wit.
Luckily, Harry was allowed to draw the firepower from the front, otherwise he would be surrounded by Gryffindor students and would be annoyed to death. The unlucky Mr. Potter learned from his mistakes.
At the same time, after returning to his office, little Barty used the anti-disturbance spell and the whispering spell in his room, and then began to smash things to vent his anger and depression. After smashing all the looking glasses on the table, he Still not satisfied, every time he thought of Albert's sincere gratitude, he wanted to tear the other person's face into pieces. In the end, Barty, who was so angry that he used the Cruciatus Curse on the real Professor Moody who was locked in the box.
After torturing the other party, and after his anger subsided a little, Barty Jr. began to write a letter to the Dark Lord, informing him of what happened tonight.
This was all Wormtail's fault. He suspected that Wormtail had not controlled Albert at all, and that the guy's disappearance was completely faked by himself.
Barty Jr. is not blaming the blame, because even if others vote for Albert, it will be difficult to ensure that Albert becomes a warrior.
In fact, at the moment of voting, if the person and the name are different, the contract will not be established, and you will not be selected by the Goblet of Fire, unless like him, you use a powerful confusion spell to cause confusion in the Goblet of Fire and make things wrong. .
However, ordinary students obviously do not have that ability, and other professors obviously will not do that without knowing that Albert is missing.
So, there is only one truth, and that is that Albert Anderson signed himself up to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. Only in this way can the previous events be explained.
It was Wormtail's mission to prevent this from happening, and he failed in his mission.
There is no doubt that some of Wormtail's stupid actions made Anderson suspicious, so he conducted the test like that
Furthermore, this incident has aroused Dumbledore's vigilance. Barty Jr. can't do anything for the time being, and he must start a preparatory plan.
It is indeed risky to abduct Harry in the third project. You must find a way to slow down Dumbledore. The method is actually not difficult. Barty Jr. has already decided to let someone die unexpectedly in the third round.
This matter is too simple for him. He only needs to use Avada Kedavra to kill someone, then throw the body to the monster and let the monster destroy his body, so he can pretend to be killed by the monster. .
Presumably the death of a warrior can divert Dumbledore's attention and buy the Dark Lord more time.
Little Barty wrote his plan in a letter and sent it to the Dark Lord. However, this letter directly caused Wormtail's misfortune.
“Wormtail, you are such a disappointment.”
In Old Crouch's house, Voldemort was looking indifferently at the twitching servant lying on the ground with his scarlet eyes.
"Master, I'm sure that mudblood is under control." Wormtail argued. "After he drank the love potion, he had no time to sign up, unless someone else secretly signed up for him."
"Lie." Voldemort raised his wand again and gave Wormtail the Cruciatus Curse. "You were not even there at the time, and you didn't see the Mudblood drink the love potion with your own eyes. I dare say that the Mudblood saw through your little trick. , don’t make excuses for your incompetence.”
Peter fell to the ground groaning in pain.
At this moment, Wormtail regretted returning to Voldemort. He did not get much benefit at all. He was more running for Voldemort and had to be tortured by the Cruciatus Curse.
After Voldemort tortured Wormtail, he finally stopped feeding Peter to the snakes. This may be because he needed someone to help brew the potion and conduct the resurrection ceremony. Barty himself was too busy to do it, so Voldemort Wormtail needs to be left behind as a helper.
Of course, the more important reason is that they still have a backup plan. Even if Albert participates in the Triwizard Tournament, it will not affect the final result.
The whole incident was actually not bad luck for Peter, one of the victims. If he could borrow Barty's hand to kill Albert, it would not be unbearable to be tortured by Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse.
As for the death threat from the Dark Lord, Peter is not afraid. He knows very well that before Voldemort is resurrected, the other party will never kill him and feed it to snakes. Otherwise, where will the Dark Lord find a reliable person like him to help preside over the resurrection ceremony.
Little Barty may be loyal enough to the Dark Lord, but Peter knows that the other person cannot escape temporarily, let alone help the Dark Lord recover his body.
Revised
(End of this chapter)