Chapter 572: Chapter 570: Harry Taken Away
Tonight’s dinner was much more lavish than usual, just as the judges stepped onto the teacher’s dais from the side door, golden plates filled with delicious food magically appeared.
Kael picked up a piece of smoked at and glanced toward the teacher’s dais.
Ms. Maxi appeared very pleased, beaming with a smile, yet Karkaroff, sitting next to her, had a stern expression.
Ludo Bagman too, usually so cheerful, seed oddly anxious, speaking quietly to Dumbledore.
But Dumbledore just shook his head.
"His front-page dream is shattered," a voice suddenly murmured nearby. Kael turned to see it was Fred and George.
At so point they’d co into the auditorium and were sitting at the Hufflepuff table.
"Don’t be too surprised, we’re worried you might be too tense, so we ca to cheer you on," George said with a grin.
"Thanks a lot, really," Kael replied, "but what do you an about Bagman’s front-page dream?"
"This is our second piece of news," Fred whispered, "The plan to increase the hostages has been canceled."
"What?"
"Literal aning," George shrugged, "we went to Headmaster Dumbledore, volunteering to be hostages..."
"But the headmaster refused..."
"He said the maze was too dangerous and didn’t want students outside of the champions to risk themselves, so before they entered the auditorium..."
"Dumbledore, Maxi, and your father, the three judges, voted to cancel the plan."
"Karkaroff seems quite upset." Fred glanced at the teacher’s dais, "He thinks everyone’s too cowardly; he shouted at everyone in the foyer, saying this isn’t the Triwizard Tournant he envisioned."
"Does it matter?" Cedric asked.
"Not at all," George said, "The original Triwizard Tournant stopped because of too many casualties, and now that it’s being restarted, most people don’t want students to face too much danger."
Kael instinctively looked towards the teacher’s dais, Bagman was still talking to Dumbledore, clearly he sided with Karkaroff.
But that didn’t matter.
Canceling the hostages naturally couldn’t be better, at least it would save him trouble during the competition.
Soon, dinner ended, the enchanted ceiling gradually transford from blue to a heavy twilight.
Dumbledore stood up, silence fell imdiately.
"Ladies and gentlen, in ten minutes, I will invite you all to the Quidditch Pitch to witness the final event of the Triwizard Tournant, and now the champions please follow Mr. Bagman to the sports field."
Kael stood up, the surrounding Hufflepuff students all applauded, accompanying him, Fleur, and Krum as they left the auditorium.
Fleur looked a little nervous, constantly taking deep breaths. Krum wasn’t much better, walking crookedly several tis.
They entered the Quidditch Pitch, which seed different from what they saw before; hedges surrounded the pitch, growing to twenty feet tall, only leaving a dark opening before them.
"Rest a bit, and adjust your condition." Bagman led them to a changing room nearby and then left.
After that, Fleur and Krum each found a place to sit, Kael originally wanted to chat with Fleur for a while to pass the ti.
But she didn’t appear to want to talk, so Kael also remained silent, finding a place to sit and quietly waiting for the competition to begin.
Ten minutes later, people began entering the stands, filled with excited chatter and the sound of rushed footsteps, montarily making Kael feel like he had returned to before the start of the first event.
Back then, he was also in the locker room, listening to the crowd outside filing in and taking their seats.
Just then, the locker room door suddenly moved, everyone imdiately looked up.
A head quickly slipped away from the crack.
"Who’s there."
Being the closest, Kael walked over, opening the ajar door, just in ti to see Hermione and Ron sneaking away.
"Sorry, we didn’t an to interrupt." Hermione said a bit embarrassed, "We just wanted to see Harry, make sure he wasn’t nervous."
"Harry?" Kael frowned.
"Yeah, Filch took him away, said it was to cooperate with the third event." Ron said enviously, "So lucky, being part of the Triwizard Tournant."
"But he doesn’t seem to be here though." Hermione said, "We’ll be off then, good luck, Kael."
"Wait..." Kael hurriedly stopped them, "When was Harry taken away?"
"Just now." Hermione said, "Shortly after you all left, Filch ca... He said it was on Professor Dumbledore’s instructions, to take Harry to the Quidditch Pitch for the event."
"After we left?" Kael felt sothing was off.
During dinner, Fred and George ntioned the plan to add hostages to the maze was canceled, why would Filch take Harry away?
Sothing’s wrong!
Under Hermione and Ron’s puzzled expressions, Kael quickly ran towards where the judges were.
"What’s so strange about it?" Ron scratched his head, not getting what Kael ant.
Things seed fine then suddenly he dashed off.
"Darn, do you think he’s going to report us... you know, according to the rules, we aren’t allowed in the champions’ resting room."
"Don’t be silly, Ron, Kael isn’t like that." Hermione said, her expression sowhat serious. "Co, let’s head to Beauxbatons and Durmstrang’s positions, see if anyone’s missing."
"Why go there?" Ron grumbled a bit unwillingly, "The event is starting soon."
But Hermione ignored him, running toward the center stands on her own.
On the other side, when Kael reached the judges’ spot, Dumbledore was in conversation with several star-badged professors.
"Oh, Kael?" He looked at Kael, puzzled, "The event is about to start, what are you doing here."
"There’s sothing, Professor." Kael glanced at the others.
Dumbledore imdiately understood, stepping forward, "Go on, what’s wrong?"
"Do we need to rescue hostages for this event?"
"You’re well inford." Dumbledore chuckled, "We did consider sothing like that, but then overturned it, so you won’t need to..."
"Harry’s been taken away."
Kael interrupted before Dumbledore finished speaking.
"Just now, after dinner, Ron said Filch took Harry away, claiming it was for the event."
Dumbledore’s expression gradually turned solemn.
"That’s impossible, before dinner started, the proposal to add hostages was already rejected."
"But Harry was indeed taken away." Kael said, "Ron and Hermione saw it with their own eyes."
Dumbledore’s smile vanished entirely; he turned, scanning around, montarily pausing his gaze on Karkaroff’s face before returning to Kael.
"I understand." He said seriously, "The event is starting soon, you should head back."
"Alright." Kael responded, then left the stands.
Truthfully, the matter was quite unexpected... especially that Filch was the one who took Harry.
Imperio? Or Polyjuice Potion?
Kael wasn’t sure, since for the past month, to better monitor Ludo Bagman’s movents, the Marauder’s Map stayed with Fred and George.
Even if Kael had the Marauder’s Map, he probably wouldn’t pay attention to Filch.
A detestable Squib caretaker is the perfect disguise.
He could appear openly anywhere in the castle while avoiding suspicion.
Even if he drank a bit of Polyjuice Potion in front of students, probably no one would notice anything amiss, or he could specifically find a deserted area to drink the potion.
Kael carefully recalled. When he returned the Marauder’s Map to Fred and George, he took one last look... although Filch seed fine then.
If Kael rembered correctly, at that ti he was in his office with Mrs. Norris, and the na "Barty Crouch" did not appear anywhere inside the castle.
As Kael pondered, he returned once more to the entrance of the maze.
By then, Fleur and Krum were out from the room, alongside Ludo Bagman, everyone waiting for him.
"Luckily, just one more minute and you’d miss the event." Bagman hurriedly ran over, pulling Kael into the group.
Though he said so, his eyes briefly showed a hint of disappointnt, seemingly he’d have preferred if Kael indeed missed the event.
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