Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 545 Cause and Effect
"Bagman?"

Ludo Bagman's extremely unusual behavior aroused the suspicion of everyone present.

Everyone stared at this guy who had always been cheerful, but now he was sweating profusely, his face was pale, and his eyes were full of horror.

After a while, Bagman wiped the sweat from his forehead and said slowly tremblingly, "I seem to know where the goblins come from..."

"What! Ludo you!"

"You actually did it... Who ordered you, what good is it for you to murder Harry Potter? Is it true that the Dark Lord is back, and the Death Eaters are tempting you... Or are they manipulating you with the Imperius Curse?"

Fudge obviously didn't even believe what he said, he just pulled out an excuse right away, trying to get himself out of this mess.

Cornelius Fugui never expected... This guy Ludo would dare to stab himself in the back!

"Don't worry, Fudge. Let's ask Bagman to explain, I believe things are not as you imagined..." Dumbledore said calmly.

"I... I just borrowed some goblin money some time ago, and I've been trying to find a safe place to pay off that debt. Minister Fudge, Headmaster Dumbledore, you all know how difficult those goblins are. When it's time for you to repay the money, these guys will definitely tempt you to borrow more...or find new reasons to blackmail me. Only at Hogwarts will they restrain themselves..."

"But at the Ministry of Magic you can..." said Fudge in great surprise and disappointment.

"I don't want my colleagues in the Ministry of Magic to know about my private affairs, especially the fact that I owe money to the goblins... What's more, those goblins in the Ministry of Magic will even use my not wanting to expose this matter as an excuse to wantonly blackmail me..."

Ludo continued to swear, "Minister Fudge, I can assure you... I definitely did not bring those goblins to the school to do these things. When the goblins and my deal are completed, I will leave and let them leave here..."

"...this happened the night after ten warriors were spit out by the Goblet of Fire."

"Really?" Professor McGonagall asked suspiciously.

She looked at Jordan Lee.

Jordan swallowed, and replied obediently, "It should be, we were traveling in the castle that night... while avoiding Filch, we met those sneaky goblins..."

"What night tour!" Professor McGonagall immediately stared at Jordan with wide eyes.

Her face was very serious.

"Jordan, you have to tell me about this in a while... After that, what happened?"

"George and Fred threatened these goblins... saying that they would report them to you or Mr. Barty Crouch. So the goblins proposed a deal, saying that we could easily pass the test of the Big Four. Originally, those goblins only gave us one triangular amulet...but under the blackmail of George and Fred, they got three. I think the one in Harry's hand is one of them, so..."

"Stop talking!" Professor McGonagall covered her head with a headache. She had thought that McGuffin Albert would calm down and not make any troubles in the selection of warriors... so that Hogwarts could be kept stable and calm.

But she forgot that when McGuffin wasn't at school, the twins and Jordan Lee were the ones that bothered her the most.

"Okay, you can go, don't tell anyone what happened tonight, understand?" Professor McGonagall waved his hand in frustration, letting Jordan leave.

But Dumbledore prevented Jordan from leaving here.

"Wait, Jordan... You should finish this final test before leaving!"

"Professor Dumbledore!" Professor McGonagall raised his head and stared at the old wizard with a gray beard, and shouted in disbelief.

"It's all right. The two stimuli have been taken out...Professor Flitwick, can you call George Weasley and Fred Weasley together? Confirm the location of the remaining triangular talisman..."

"Severus, please check Jordan to see if there are any other dangerous dark magic items on him... that will interfere with the operation of the Goblet of Fire..."

"I guess... Now the Goblet of Fire (the magic mechanism tested by the Big Four) should be back to normal..."

"As for the hunting of those goblins and the interrogation of those behind the scenes..." Dumbledore looked at Cornelius Fudge.

Fudge squeezed the wizard's top hat in his hand, stared at Ludo Bagman with hatred, finally sighed heavily, and said to Dumbledore, "Well, leave these to me! Damn goblins, I will find out every one of these leeches..."

"As for Moody... Although this matter has been roughly resolved, I'm afraid that for Hogwarts... this special year requires some special treatment...Mad-Eye Moody will stay in Hogwarts Castle and use his experience to provide some special protection so that similar things don't happen again!"

When Snape heard this, his expression was obviously displeased, "Albus... that's not what we agreed at the beginning. I have to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts for at least one semester, and I will hand over the position of professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts to Moody at least after Christmas is over."

"I know, the things I promised have not changed. Moody is not taking this position now... But, after that... I do have some important things for you, Snape!"

Dumbledore didn't say much, and Snape knew well that he didn't ask Fudge directly what was going on.

With a cold face, he came to Jordan, and roughly tapped the tip of his wand on Jordan (for inspection), and nothing unexpected happened.

Snape: "Should be fine!"

"Okay, Jordan, let's end the last test of the Big Four!" Dumbledore said with a smile, and he waved his wand directly on Jordan's shirt, conjuring a Hogwarts emblem imprint (four animals surrounded by a capital H)

"Don't worry, it's all right! If there's really a problem, I'll bring you out through this thing too..." Dumbledore comforted.

Jordan looked at Professor McGonagall pitifully. Obviously, the scene of Harry's duel just now scared this guy a little.

But no one looked Jordan in the eye, as Barty Crouch and Fudge continued to encourage (and secretly threaten) Jordan to accept the challenge.

"Jordan Lee!... Are you tested by the Big Four?"

In the end, Jordan had no choice but to start his own warrior challenge under the auspices of Crouch, Professor McGonagall, and Minister Fudge.

Jordan's challenge was obviously very normal, just like his two good friends, George and Fred... He was directly thrown by the phantom of Gryffindor and thrown a few meters away from the duel venue.

This guy pouted his butt in the sky, his chin hit the ground heavily, and he moved five or six meters in inertial motion... It was only when he hit two visitors that he stopped.

It was George and Fred.

They were very uneasy about being called here alone by Professor Flitwick.

I thought it was Harry, and George's cheating was exposed, and the two of them were involved.

But as soon as he came and stayed, he saw Jordan in such a posture... defeating the test of the Big Four.

Both of them couldn't help but squeeze out smiles on their faces.

Obviously, after the two failed to challenge last time, Jordan suffered a lot of ridicule and ridicule.

"You two can still laugh..."

"I was hurt by you guys! It was you who provoked those goblins... It was you who wanted to cheat, which caused all this to happen!"

Ludo Bagman shouted angrily, his whole face was covered with sweat, it was like a tightly wrung sponge—moisture was squeezed out.

Others ignored the entanglement of these guys.

Dumbledore Fudge and the others are checking around the Goblet of Fire in the old classroom, (The blue and white flames in the Goblet of Fire have returned to their original state and are gradually starting to go out...)
"It seems that there is no problem, everything is normal... All the magic agreements are still being implemented according to the original procedures. It seems that the accident just now was just a loophole back door left by the goblins when they restored and renovated the old classroom, or some kind of goblin-specific spell that can interfere with magic rituals..."

Barty Crouch said stiffly.

"But I don't understand, goblins don't do things that don't benefit at all. What's the benefit of murdering Harry Potter and killing such a famous little wizard? Are those Death Eaters really coming back? Are they manipulating these goblins behind their backs..." Fudge said incoherently, and he couldn't believe anyone now.

Fudge couldn't make sense of the logic at all.

"No, no, Minister Connelly...the goblins can't guarantee that these talismans are in Harry's hands. I just got a piece of news from those two troublemakers. They gave the talismans to Harry on a whim."

Professor Flitwick's words made all the speculation fall into a dead end.

Everyone fell silent.

At this time, Ludo Bagman finally told the two Weasley brothers what had just happened,

The two were so frightened that they almost collapsed to the ground.

The twins probably thought of Mrs. Weasley's 'roaring dragon and roaring tiger' and 'storm and storm'.

When Ludo Bagman approached carefully, he just heard the end of the conversation between Fudge and the others. After hesitating for a long time,
Bagman said softly, "I seem to know what these goblins want to do..."

Fudge was full of impatience. He was very disappointed with Ludo Bagman now and didn't listen to this guy's nonsense.

Dumbledore asked curiously, "Tell me, Ludo!"

"I heard... I just heard... some of the goblins in Gringotts have set up a big gamble for this 'Top Ten Tournament', and are going to sit on the bank..."

"What!" Fudge stared and jumped.

Dumbledore signaled Bagman to continue,

"When I paid back the money that day, the goblins tempted me and asked me... to bet on which warrior will win the top ten trophy in the end? Who else will take the lead in the first event? Who will be the first to be injured?... There is even a gambling entry: when will the game be forced to end, just like in the Quidditch World Cup..."

"And this game table is not only in London... In Germany, Eastern Europe, the United States, Japan, New Zealand, Egypt, Africa, Brazil... almost everywhere there are wizards can be contacted..."

Bagman's answer made Fudge furious.

"Damn goblin... One day, I will send Aurors to seize Gringotts directly..." Fudge was furious, obviously he knew that there must be a part of Gringotts behind this... and he couldn't do anything about the underground casinos run by those goblins.

"You two come here!... After getting those amulets from the goblin, did they say anything!" Fudge asked with a very ugly face, pulling the two Weasley brothers over with a very bad temper.

The twins were also terrified when they knew the cause and effect of the incident.

The two of them cooperated very well in answering Fudge's question.

"The goblins did tell us these things... They want us to bet on who will win. Bet on which warriors will participate in the 'Top Ten Tournament'..." George said hastily.

"Yes, that's right." Fred nodded quickly in agreement.

Afterwards, the terrified twins, as well as Jordan Lee, who looked disturbed, were driven away by Professor McGonagall... together.

Cornelius Fudge and the others were left watching the chicken-feather duel arena, silent,
No one dared to break the eerie calm in the old classroom.

"It seems that these goblins have once again touched the bottom line of wizards for money and treasures."

Only Professor Flitwick, who has the blood of the goblin, tore away the current illusion without hesitation.

The atmosphere became extremely tense in an instant.

These words made Fudge, who was very angry, quickly regain his composure.

"That's right, the goblins are going too far. How dare they use this method to stimulate the Goblet of Fire... let the Phantom of the Big Four go out of control, hurt the students, and interfere with the 'Top Ten Tournament'... to control the progress of this competition."

"but……"

He said directly and affirmatively, "We'd better keep this matter in the dark, and don't reveal any news... After all, no one wants to trigger the third goblin rebellion war."

"What's more, after all, there was no serious accident in this incident, and it can be suppressed."

"As for the published investigation results...we said that when the fairies were repairing the old classrooms, the person in charge took bribes...using inferior magic materials and not really repairing and perfecting the old classrooms, which led to serious errors and loopholes in the magic ceremony."

"...That's why this accident happened." Fudge spoke more and more smoothly, showing the instinct of a qualified political animal, "Anyway, these damn goblins must pay for this."

"Don't worry! Everyone, I will give Harry an account of this matter." Fudge finally raised his head and looked at the others.

"By the way, I haven't congratulated you yet, Harry Potter seems to have become a warrior... No. 11 warrior!"

"Hey! I hope other magic principals don't object too much..."

Several people looked at the extinguished Goblet of Fire, and Dumbledore and the others knew that from now on... the troublesome things can be said to have just begun.

(End of this chapter)