bioinnovel Chapter 287 Attempting to Cover Up the Truth
Chapter 287 Attempting to Cover Up the Truth
Chapter 287 Attempting to Cover Up the Truth
It was midnight, and all was quiet.
Hogwarts drifted off to sleep peacefully and slept soundly.
The sailboats moored on the shore of Black Lake no longer shimmered with the misty light, and the giant, pale blue carriages were silent.
Belvina sat at her desk, took out a quill and parchment, and wrote "Hogwarts" and "Harry Potter" on the paper.
She then folded the parchment in half, stuffed it into her pocket, put on her coat, and left the office.
The castle was empty at midnight, and the long corridors amplified the sound of Belvina's footsteps, drowning out the snoring and breathing from the portrait.
The moonlight outside the window, the embers in the brazier, and the dim light demonized everything around, making each sculpture seem like an attacker lurking in the shadows.
Belvina descended the stairs without encountering Lady Lorris or the mischievous Peeves, and successfully reached the marble staircase on the first floor of the castle.
She paused at the corner of the stairs, and after confirming that the foyer was empty, she nimbly leaped down the marble stairs.
Arriving at the auditorium door without incident, Belvina slowly pushed the door open a crack, slipped inside, and then closed the door again.
The Great Hall was deserted and empty at night, with only the Goblet of Fire emitting a blue and white light. The emblems and college flags hanging on the walls seemed to be watching the intruder.
Belvina walked through the aisles between the house tables and soon reached the vicinity of the Goblet of Fire, her toes almost touching the age line drawn by Dumbledore.
The blue-white flames of the Goblet of Fire flickered and danced, casting an odd light on Belvina's face.
She drew her wand and pressed the tip against the rough surface of the Goblet of Fire—everything in the Goblet of Fire was as before; the seals left behind were still in place.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with the Goblet of Fire, Belvina took out a slip of paper with Harry's name written on it from her pocket, preparing to throw Harry's name into the burning Goblet of Fire.
The next step is simple: erase the restrictions you left behind, and then use the Confusion Charm to modify the criteria for selecting Hogwarts heroes from the Goblet of Fire.
For example, the age requirement for Hogwarts champions was changed from seventeen to fourteen.
However, this change is not very meaningful; it merely adds Harry's name to the shortlist but does not guarantee that he will become a champion.
Belvina could be even bolder and change the criteria for selecting Hogwarts champions to be only fourteen years old.
In this way, Harry, a single talent from a vast land, will inevitably be chosen to become Hogwarts' only champion.
Just as Belvina was about to erase the restriction she had left behind and prepare to cast the Confusion Spell, an alarm bell suddenly went off in her mind.
Without the slightest hesitation, Belvina, like a guilty little thief, tiptoed but quickly hid herself, slipping into the temporary lounge on one side of the auditorium.
She leaned against the door of the temporary lounge, holding the wand handle to her ear, the tip of the wand turning into a trumpet shape and pointing towards the Great Hall outside the door.
All the sounds from the auditorium reached Belvina's ears: first the sound of the door being pushed open, then the sound of footsteps approaching, and the rustling of clothes being torn apart.
As expected, there was an unexpected gain; they really came for the three-way championship!
At this moment, the acacia wood wand transformed again, and the trumpet-shaped tip suddenly turned into a soft rubber tube that stretched and extended, reaching down to the ground and probing into the auditorium through the gap between the wooden door and the ground.
Belvina, leaning against the door, closed her eyes and carefully sensed the information transmitted back from the tip of the wand that extended into the Great Hall.
The image she perceived was extremely blurry, with such poor quality that it was unbearable to look at.
At this moment, a tall and thin figure was standing in front of the Goblet of Fire. Judging from his size, he should be a man.
The man held a slender magic wand in one hand and gently brushed the blue-white flames of the Goblet of Fire with the other, as if he were caressing gold and silver treasures.
Although it was difficult to see the person's face clearly, one could still make a general guess from his build. He was tall and thin, with short hair, and looked very familiar.
Belvina slowly opened her eyes, her thoughts not "It really was him," but "It was actually him."
Just as she was wondering what was going on, the wand that had been extending out of the door like a rubber tube slowly retracted, returning to its original shape.
Then, the handle of the acacia wand was pressed against his ear again, and the tip of the wand once again turned into a trumpet shape, still pointing towards the chapel outside the door.
Belvina then heard a faint sound of a wand being waved, followed by the sound of flames burning.
Shortly after, clear footsteps echoed through the auditorium again, and then the double doors of the auditorium were opened once more.
Belvina leaned against the door of the temporary lounge, silently counted to five, then pushed the door open and quietly returned to the auditorium. The flames dancing in the Goblet of Fire were still blue-white, but unlike before, they were not as gentle; instead, they became exceptionally dazzling, with sparks popping out.
The sparks shooting out were so bright they hurt the eyes. Belvina glanced at them and immediately looked away. With a wave of her wand, the blue-white flames turned into an eerie dark red.
A few seconds later, the dark red flames disappeared, and the flames dancing in the goblet of fire returned to their blue-white color.
Then, Belvina raised her wand, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground, and a series of footprints shimmering with a faint light appeared, extending all the way to the doorway before disappearing.
Following the direction the footprints led, Belvina chased them all the way out of the hall, and then from the empty foyer to the dark ground outside the castle.
Fortunately, the moon was bright and the stars were few tonight, and the traces and footprints were clearly visible. Standing on the stone steps at the castle gate, one could still see a figure in the distance, walking towards the Black Lake.
Belvina raised her wand and tapped it on her head. A cool sensation spread from her head to her entire body, making her appear to blend into the castle behind her.
It's the Disguise Charm, a spell that can make a person or thing disguised appear like a chameleon.
Under the cover of the Disillusionment Charm, Belvina braved the cold night wind and quietly followed the man all the way to the shore of the Black Lake.
Under the moonlight, the Black Lake shimmered, and Durmstrang's three-comb sailboat was moored in the shallows, looking like a shipwreck just salvaged from the lake bottom, creating an indescribably eerie scene.
The figure moved quickly, without stopping, and stepped directly onto the plank of the three-masted sailboat that was placed on the shore.
Huang Ye sneaked into the castle, slipped into the Great Hall to cast a spell on the Goblet of Fire, and then returned to Durmstrang's three-comb ship. The answer was already obvious—Igor Karkaroff.
This answer also confirms Dumbledore's earlier concerns; the headmaster's invitation to Alastor Moody to return to the helm was to guard against Karkaroff.
However, Belvina was very dissatisfied with this answer because Karkaroff was far from the answer she had in mind.
Igor Karkaroff, a former Death Eater and now Principal Durmstrang, is indeed suspicious, but he is the one Belvina suspects the least.
When Voldemort lost power, Karkaroff, in order to avoid imprisonment, denounced a group of Death Eaters to the Ministry of Magic in exchange for his freedom.
This shows that his loyalty to Voldemort was not high; he was more interested in power and was merely using Voldemort's authority as a pretext.
Now, Voldemort is truly Voldemort in name only, no longer the intimidating dark lord of the Three Islands. Would Karkaroff still pledge his loyalty to the Dark Lord?
Even if Karkaroff had a momentary lapse of judgment and wanted to abandon the light for the dark, or offer help in times of need, could Voldemort forgive his betrayal?
No matter how you look at it, Mr. Tom Riddle doesn't seem like a magnanimous person.
Voldemort could not forgive the betrayal, the Death Eaters hated him to the core, and the danger of returning to the darkness was obvious; it was impossible for them not to see or think of it.
That's why Belvina exclaimed, "It was him!" She didn't believe Karkaroff would risk his life to gamble on Voldemort's mercy.
The night wind was biting, ruffling the surface of Black Lake and tousling Belvina's long hair.
While keeping a close eye on Karkaroff, Belvina raised her hand and tucked her long hair behind her ear.
Just then, she suddenly felt a blur before her eyes, and Karkarov on the wooden board vanished as if he had never stepped onto the board at all.
The shore of Black Lake was deserted; the wooden planks lay empty, and there wasn't a soul on the deck of the sailboat, as if Karkaroff could Apparate at Hogwarts.
Belvina was completely bewildered when she lost track of her target. She was always the one performing the magic trick, and this was the first time someone had disappeared right under her nose.
Belvina scratched her head, grinned, and peeked out from behind the boulder where she was hiding.
Under the bright moon high in the sky, Belvina carefully examined the wooden plank connecting the sailboat to the lake shore.
The faintly glowing footprints stopped abruptly in the middle of the wooden plank; that was the last place Karkaroff was seen, and the place where he vanished in an instant.
Logically speaking, although Karkaroff sneaked into the castle late at night, he made almost no attempt to conceal himself.
From Durmstrang's ship to Hogwarts Castle, and back from Hogwarts Castle to Durmstrang's ship, he went straight there, without making any attempt to conceal his whereabouts.
However, just as Karkaroff stepped safely onto the wooden plank, he suddenly disappeared, as if he had suddenly remembered to conceal his whereabouts. Belvina couldn't help but ask: You're already at your doorstep, is it still necessary to hide your whereabouts?
Although Belvina looked down on Karkaroff from the bottom of her heart, she didn't think that a school principal could be so stupid as to do such a meaningless thing.
Something unusual must be going on.
Igor Karkarov's motives are unclear and his behavior is abnormal. What exactly happened to him?
Also, was the Karkaroff we saw tonight really Karkaroff himself?
The night wind whistled, and Belvina, hiding behind the boulder, shivered. She didn't dwell too much on the strangeness of the night, but instead, under the cover of the Disillusionment Charm, she returned the way she came.
Rather than shivering in the cold wind, racking your brains for the reason for Karkaroff's "disappearance," it would be better to return to the castle to check the Goblet of Fire again and confirm whether Barty Crouch and Alastor Moody had made any unusual moves tonight.
Tonight, Belvina seemed to have wasted her night, but she didn't show the slightest displeasure. Instead, she was as excited as a child who had found a treasure.
In her view, although she missed out, she successfully eliminated a wrong answer.
Igor Karkaroff, this traitor among the Death Eaters, is most likely not the mastermind that Belvina is looking for.