"The Triwizard Tournant was proposed by the Dark Lord?"
Jon asked with wide eyes.
It wasn't surprising that Jon was shocked; he happened to have finished reading the first four books of the original story for the second ti just before he crossed over, that is until the Goblet of Fire one, in which the Triwizard Tournant ended.
And the Triwizard Tournant had been held during the last year of peace in the magical world.
But now that Europe seed to be in turmoil after Voldemort took over France, Jon had never even considered that the Triwizard Tournant could be held as it was in the original, not to ntion the fact that history had changed dramatically.
Not only did the tournant going to be held like the original, but Voldemort himself initiated it.
Dumbledore gave Jon an overview of what had happened at the ti when Witching Horizons was attacking the French Ministry of Magic, and as Jon listened, he fell into a mont of contemplation.
"He shouldn't have recovered that quickly." Jon said suspiciously, "At the ti he had gone to such lengths to abandon everything he had in Britain to go to sea, and from what it seed the most fundantal reason to do so was to resolve the trouble in his soul. It should have affected him greatly to have recovered so quickly after I left Starr's High Tower and tore up that pact, which is sowhat out of the norm."
"But what's even more out of character is that he's actually going to organize a Triwizard Tournant?"
Jon frowned.
"According to what you said, Professor, at that ti, if he had recovered his strength to its fullest extent, the advantage should have been in his favour and the odds would have been in his favour. But instead, he intended to solve the problem by ans other than war in the na of trying to preserve the French Ministry of Magic"
"I don't think he would give up recovering the reputation he lost during his previous public defeat by you just to preserve the French Ministry of Magic."
Dumbledore crossed his arms and placed them on his stomach as he chuckled lightly.
"That's not really a hard question to guess at all, Jon. When a man gives up what is seemingly best for him and goes for the other option, it ans that he knows exactly which one brings more benefit to himself."
"The fact that he has now chosen to solve the issue with a Triwizard Tournant ans that he believes that organising the tournant will bring him greater benefits, including the issues that are now reflected in this newspaper that he has ordered to be published."
"He wants to stabilise the situation and make everything work out for the Triwizard Tournant that will be held next. And all we have to think about is what kind of huge benefits could be brought to him by organising this Triwizard Tournant."
His expression was serious, and he was obviously discussing this seriously with Jon.
Wizards all lacked the ability to think rationally and logically to an extre degree because they were in a state of emotional spell casting for so long, but Dumbledore was clearly distinguished from normal wizards in that although he had reached the peak of his emotional capacity, as he likewise did not lack rationality either.
"We can think in reverse about his most pressing needs at present to see what it is that this tournant has to offer him that could be of such great benefit."
"The first is the damage done to his soul after you destroyed the pact."
"He has recovered his strength strangely, and let's assu for a mont that this state of his recovery is temporary, unique, and cannot be maintained for long, then his most pressing need right now for him is a ans to bring himself back to full strength."
"Secondly, the pact is unique enough that once it is destroyed it cannot be repaired, but he has left another backhand to ensure that it can be replaced if sothing goes wrong."
"Assuming that the reason he didn't want to fight in the French Ministry of Magic was that his subsequent pact to stabilise his soul was not as stable as the first one, but still ensured that his power would be maintained, then the problem he had to face at that mont was what to do to turn back his defeat in France."
"Thirdly, the precondition is the sa as the first, the pact has been destroyed, and he has used a special thod to temporarily restore his state, but he has also confird that when that ti is over, he will never be able to return to his peak strength."
"Then all he has to do now is to deal with , by either bringing down to the sa level as him or by killing outright, that would still satisfy his needs."
These three scenarios that Dumbledore deduced basically encompassed the full range of possibilities.
It is said to be three, but at the crux of each of them, there is actually a question of what state Voldemort's personal strength is in right now.
But what kind of transformation or change could the Triwizard Tournant offer Voldemort if it is held?
Jon mused and looked up.
"Could there be a fourth possibility, Professor, that the recovery of strength he showed in front of you was actually an illusion, that the offer to organise the Triwizard Tournant was just a way of stalling for ti, and that he is still looking for so other way to recover his strength?"
Dumbledore nodded lightly.
"Don't rule out the possibility of anything without careful investigation, but first of all if he did manage to conceal it from , it would an that he would have been at the peak beyond at the mont he did unless he used so ans that are unknown to ."
It was only after hearing him say this that Jon suddenly rembered exactly the purpose for which he had co to see Dumbledore.
He had forgotten the main business just now after reading that Daily Prophet.
With haste, Jon brought out the portrait of the Slytherin and unfolded it in front of Dumbledore.
"Professor, I almost forgot, I visited that last point at the North Pole according to Headmaster Bagshot, where I entered an underground labyrinth and then found this magical portrait of Mr Slytherin, and from him, I learned what the Dark Lord had done after he found him in the past."
After giving Dumbledore his introduction, Jon looked down and apologized to the Slytherin in the portrait.
"I'm sorry sir, I forgot about you earlier."
On the wall behind Dumbledore where portraits of all the headmasters of Hogwarts hung, the headmasters, who had all been faking their sleep, saw the portrait Jon had pulled out and couldn't help but let out a soft gasp.
Slytherin, grumpy as he was, didn't care much about this little problem of Jon's.
As soon as the portrait had spread out on the table, he looked over at Dumbledore, who looked at him with a surprised look at the sa ti, greeting the old man in the portrait with so strange emotion.
"Hello, Mr Salazar Slytherin."
Slytherin gave him a slight nod in response.
"I have heard two different versions of you from two different students of yours, but I suppose I should be able to roughly make my own judgent now, as to who I should really believe."
A glint of gloom appeared on his old, monkey-like face.
"Tom Riddle has deceived !"
Dumbledore and Jon looked at each other, he had obviously only just learned that Voldemort's last stop on his sea voyage was actually to see the portrait left behind by his ancestor at the North Pole.
Slytherin looked at Dumbledore and the wall of portraits of past Headmasters behind him as he said in a hoarse and angry voice.
"I know you all want to know exactly what he gained from after he found back then."
His gaze carried a gloomy and reminiscent look.
"That labyrinth in the Arctic was once a chamber that I created under the ice for magical research after I had left Hogwarts. There were many magical creatures sealed in the ice that hadn't lted in millions of years, that were different from the ones that exist at that ti, and I travelled there to look for certain inspirations."
"This portrait was also left there at that ti, and I used so small tricks to keep the portrait while I was alive as an ordinary portrait, but after my death, the potion that was prepared would be sprinkled on ti on the ordinary portrait, so that it would beco who I am now, to monitor the research I left behind in the Arctic and to control Hass... -a basilisk."
"Riddle ca to that labyrinth fourteen years ago and found , he said he had found my place through clues passed down in Slytherin House and that he needed my help as the magical world was in darkness at that ti."
"He told a story, a story of wizards who were suffering from muggle oppression, and purebloods hiding out in the middle of nowhere. In the story, Albus Dumbledore was a wizard traitor who had defected to the Muggles, he was the headmaster of Hogwarts and had implented policies in the castle where the Muggles are the absolute core and the wizards suffer oppression. Moreover, he united with the Muggle kings and enslaved all the wizards, and the entire world was in a more miserable state than it had been a thousand years ago."
"Except for the wizards born in Muggle families themselves, all other children born from wizarding families are all tad into slaves to serve the Muggles, and the wizards who have defected to the Muggles have created a pact to make the wizards' infants a slave from their birth, just like the house elves, to forever and ever serve only the Muggles, and even beco tools of war for the Muggles. "
Dumbledore and Jon were both listening intently, and the successive Headmasters' portraits on the wall were all frowning and whispering.
"He said that the line of Slytherins had changed their na into the House of Gaunt and had been in constant hiding with several other ancient pureblood houses like rats, trying to escape the impending fate of being enslaved by Muggles. His mother was fooled by a vile muggle and fell into a trap, not only bringing calamity to her own family as a result but also birthing him as a half-blood and ending up depressed after his birth when that muggle father of his abandoned his wife and son."
"After he grew up and learned the real reason Hogwarts was founded in the first place, and to save the wizarding world from being completely enslaved by muggles, a second Hogwarts was established and every year he fought to raise wizard babies that had just been born and not yet discovered by muggles, educating the next generation of wizards while wandering to resist Dumbledore's hunting."
After hearing what the Slytherins had to say, the successive Headmasters burst out in a fit of anger.
"Shaless! Truly shaless!" The benevolent Headmistress Dilys' face was filled with indignation and anger.
Sirius' ancestor Phineas kept shaking his head, "To think that he could make up a story like that, even I didn't have such thick skin back then"
Dumbledore's predecessor, Armando, also sighed, "He can act, he fooled a whole school at that ti, I have even always felt sure he would make the most outstanding contribution to the wizarding world in the future."
The headmasters in the portraits scorned, lanted and regretted this, while Dumbledore shook his head helplessly with a resigned look on his face.
"There is no better liar in the world than him, and all those things he told you have indeed beco true now, but it is not the pureblood wizards who are being oppressed, but the muggle-born who have no heritage. He hadn't yet seized Hogwarts castle at the ti he t you, nor did he rule the whole of Britain as he does now, but he could think of the idea of turning Hogwarts into a slavery farm, and presumably had already planned for the future at that ti."
Jon had learned about how Slytherin was being deceived while he was in the Labyrinth, what he really wanted to know was what exactly Voldemort ultimately wanted from Slytherin that would help him.
"So sir, what did he want you to give him when he told you this then?"
Slytherin didn't hold back much this ti as he continued with a grimace on his face.
"At the ti he told that he had no choice but to use dark magic on himself that would allow him to live forever in order to escape Dumbledore who was leading Muggles, and to continue to protect the seeds of the next generation of wizards."
Hearing this Jon and Dumbledore looked at each other, and they instantly thought of what dark magic he talked about.
"He had split his soul many tis and made them into Horcruxes. He told he was aware that it was evil dark magic, but he had run out of options, and after successfully making the Horcruxes, he did get through many crises with the help of it, but afterwards, he felt the harm it was doing to his soul."
"He beca more and more irritable and emotional, almost losing his original reasoning. It was at this point that he sensed that sothing was wrong with his situation and that if he continued to rely on the Horcruxes in this way, then he would beco another person, completely controlled by dark magic."
"So he thought of reclaiming all the remnants of his soul that had split and made into Horcruxes so that he could beco whole again. But after the soul is split, it is not sothing that could be brought back again so easily. He literally stuffed the remnants of his soul into his body, but there was no way to connect the souls into a whole."
"In the old Slytherin family house, he read through so remnants of books about how I had researched the soul very much a thousand years ago, and then found under that ice in the Arctic, wanting my help to provide him with a way to perfectly repair his soul."
Jon looked at the Slytherin in the portrait.
"You told him the thod?"
"That's right, I believed him and helped him define a plan to make his split soul whole again, based on what he had described!"
Jon froze, and only now did he suddenly beco certain of sothing.
The soul-separation pact that Voldemort had coaxed Sir Stoker into signing for him on Starr's High Tower was not aid at the sa soul problem as the one he had found Slytherin to carry out a patching up of his split soul!
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