329 Chapter 328 Graves ( 2 in 1)

Such an arrangement was a humiliation according to Rosier's words.

But in fact, both Jon and Dumbledore had anticipated such a situation in their minds before arriving here, and it was evident that the people in this castle were being deliberately cautious from the fact that they had not seen the enslaved muggle students since they had arrived at Hogwarts Castle.

According to Hermione's information, a large percentage of the muggle students who remained in the castle had been completely enslaved from the bottom of their minds, but there was a small percentage that had been forced into slavery by having their memories altered because of the association they had once organised.

The Memory Charm is powerful, but it is not an Unforgivable Curse. The key to the Unforgivable Curse's special status in the magical world is that there is no counter for any of the three curses.

The Memory Charm, on the other hand, can apparently be countered, but the difficulty and method of countering it vary according to the means used to cast it.

It is also part of the reason that Hogwarts Castle deliberately kept the muggle students out of the presence of Dumbledore and his team, and made Snape emphasise that they were not allowed to enter Hogwarts Castle privately, partly because they did not want them to come into contact with them.

Last year's rescue of the first and second years from the castle had cut off the school's "slave" population, and Voldemort was certainly not going to give them the chance to rescue the rest of the students.

But in truth, neither Jon nor Dumbledore had any such ideas.

They certainly had no intentions of leaving the castle again from the moment they decided to come here, rather than simply saving those who deserved to be saved.

Snape's words did reveal something though, and when he had left and everyone returned to the wagon, Jon followed Dumbledore to the Headmaster's office alone.

"The first tournament has anything to do with the Forbidden Forest?"

Dumbledore simply shook his head at this.

"Concerning the development of the tournament tasks, it was a three-way discussion between us, Riddle, and the International Confederation of Wizards, with each party deciding on a task, which was then finally given to the Confederation for coordination and adjustment. But apart from the Confederation, it is only possible to know information about the task which we had proposed from our side, and it is also the same on Riddle's side. And the task we proposed will supposedly be in the second round, so we don't even know what and where the first task will be competed."

"But from what Snape said, it does sound like the first tournament task should have something to do with the Forbidden Forest."

Hearing him say this, Jon rubbed his chin and asked in an appropriate context.

"You knew this Snape well before, Professor?"

Dumbledore froze for a moment, then a somewhat emotional look crossed his face.

"He, don't judge him just by the way he is, he's a very pure man, just a little too pure"

With that, Dumbledore shook his head.

"Don't mention him for now, I happen to have another favour to ask you for."

Jon, who was still analysing what Dumbledore meant by these words, looked back with a puzzled look.

Dumbledore looked at him with a solemn expression.

"I need you to lend me that cloak of invisibility Lily gave you for the time being."

***

The students on the wagon didn't just stay honestly on the wagon all afternoon.

Anyway, the only things they were warned not to enter are the Forbidden Forest and the castle, and Hogwarts is far more than just those two places.

After a few words of caution from Dumbledore in the wagon, some of the students stepped off the wagon and wandered along the Black Lake.

"I heard from Bill that the new students at Hogwarts used to take a small boat to cross this lake before entering the castle at the start of each academic year, and Hagrid was the one in charge of guiding the new students at that time."

George crouched by the lake, watching the quiet mirror-like surface of the lake and ruffling the water, making small talk to Lee Jordan who was beside him.

"There's also a giant squid in the lake, but Charlie said it's friendly to the students, and once when their team was practising Quidditch, a Quaffle accidentally fell into the lake, and they didn't even expect to get it back, but the big squid helped by bring it back from the depths."

Lee looked at the lake as if trying to find the legendary friendly squid from within, but even if he made his eyes sore, he couldn't find even a small squid at all.

"Speaking of Hagrid, I just saw him heading in the direction of the Forbidden Forest, and he was moving carefully like he was deliberately avoiding people."

George shrugged.

"Hagrid has a special affection for this forest that we don't have, I heard Dad say he was a gamekeeper here for over forty years, the Forbidden Forest was his home, and now that he's back again he must be feeling more deeply than we do."

"Will he sneak in?"

"That wouldn't be surprising, I hear he has a lot of magical creature friends in there."

"I've seen Hagrid talking to himself at a fire before like he was apologising to someone called Fang."

"Maybe that's not a person, he likes to name every creature he can recognise."

"Ah, let me guess, that sounds like the name of a mutt."

They were chatting away by the lake when a male wizard approached them at some point.

The expressions on George and Lee's faces became instantly alert.

They were well aware that this place was in Britain and still the home base of the Dark Lord, so there is a good chance that any stranger would be hostile to their group.

"Hello sir, may I ask what can I do for you?"

Lee didn't hide his wariness as he asked politely and distantly.

The middle-aged male wizard wore a grey bowler hat on his head and a long, open-collared trench coat, his black hair showing under the hat was meticulously tended, and he had a gentle smile on his face, not looking like someone who harboured any malice.

"Hello, my name is Matthew Graves, a member of the International Confederation of Wizards, are you a student of Headmaster Dumbledore?"

His English accent was distinctive, a version neither Lee nor George had ever heard before.

George looked him in the eye and nodded, but did not lower his guard.

"What do you want?"

"Can you take me to your headmaster? We've been friends for a long time, back when he was Supreme Mugwump of the Confederation."

The male wizard named Matthew smiled and winked at George as he spoke.

George and Lee looked at each other and after some eye contact, the two made a quick decision.

George didn't move while Lee turned and trotted over in the direction of the wagon, Matthew saw their movements, but the smile on his face remained the same, knowing that the black boy had gone looking for an adult, he looked over at George as if he was in the mood for small talk.

"I have heard that during all these years, Headmaster Dumbledore has never actually taken you all out of Britain. That you were in a wagon attending classes while in a state of hiding?"

George glanced at him.

"Aren't you a friend of Professor Dumbledore's?"

The male wizard smiled broadly.

"No need to be so cautious, boy, even if this is the home base of your enemies, they won't make a move on you during the Triwizard Tournament."

His words did not half lighten the mood, and George continued to look at him with the same suspicious gaze.

"Your Headmaster and I were indeed old friends, but that was when he was still Supreme Mugwump of the Confederation, and I had quite a few dealings with him as a diplomat of the Congress, only after the change of masters in Britain, we had little to no contact with each other. This is the perfect opportunity to come and visit him."

After hearing Matthew's explanation, George looked as if he had noticed something.

"You're a wizard from the United States?"

"Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, and Head of the American Branch of the International Confederation of Wizards".

Matthew said as he pulled an ID out of his trench coat pocket and handed it to George.

George confirmed his identity, such documents could certainly be forged, but with Lee having gone to inform Dumbledore, there is no point in him faking anything at all.

"You're one of the judges for this Triwizard Tournament."

George had obviously heard about the fact that among the judges, there would be someone from the International Confederation of Wizards present.

"The Confederation takes this tournament very seriously, and we all hope that the conflict is something that can be resolved peacefully, so they sent three people over, the other two have gone to the castle first while I came over to meet an old friend."

Matthew didn't seem to mind George's wariness of himself just then, his manner remained calm.

George looked at the middle-aged male wizard who seemed to be quite sociable and asked tentatively.

"So you'll lean more towards us when it comes to being a judge?"

Matthew smiled.

"I will only make the fairest judgement."

Just then, Lee had trotted down from the wagon and waved at George from a long distance as he approached them.

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to invite this gentleman to be a guest in the wagon."

Matthew said goodbye to George and then followed Lee to the wagon.

Dumbledore, while not getting out of the wagon to greet him himself, was taking it upon himself to wait at the office door as a sign of his regard for his old friend.

As soon as they met, they hugged each other.

"It's been many years since we've seen each other, Albus."

"Ha, Matthew, you're still wearing this same perfume, I can't help but sneeze every time I smell it."

Dumbledore rubbed his nose as he led the diplomat of the Magical Congress of America into his office.

"I actually anticipated before that the person representing the American side could be you, but it turned out that they did send you here."

The steaming teapot automatically poured tea into the teacup in front of Matthew.

Matthew didn't hide his gaze as he looked behind Dumbledore, at the wall covered with portraits of past headmasters, and said with a shrug.

"It shows that my fairness is known to all, doesn't it?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"That's right, the Confederation knows exactly what we need, and since we want to avoid war, we need to maintain a minimum of fairness. Who are the other two judges that have come?"

"Both old friends of yours as well, the Asian wizard is Abdul Rahman, the Arabian magical diplomat who had always offered to give you an emerald, and the African wizard is Imran Kamil, the Deputy Headmistress of the Uagadou School of Magic, the old witch who had offered a mutual student exchange with Hogwarts at the time but was rejected by you."

Dumbledore crossed his arms in front of him, the smile on his face didn't change much with the two names.

"The Confederation did put enough thought into it, all three of you will only be unbiased in whatever decisions you make. All of you have some friendships with me and all of you have had conflicts with me."

Matthew stretched his hands.

"It took two whole months of discussion within the Confederation to finalise the candidates, and you know that although I am a diplomat, I have very little history of lying to anyone, and the Confederation does not want to see war happen, so we also all know that only the fairest judges can prevent it."

"So why did you come to see me first?"

Dumbledore was not baffled by his seemingly reasonable words, but blinked and looked at him with a calm gaze.

"Both Rahman and Imran knew it would be best to see that student of mine first to avoid any unnecessary suspicion on his part towards you and for the tournament to proceed properly afterwards, so what did you come to see me early, all by yourself, specifically?"

Matthew didn't touch the cup of black tea in front of him that was already losing its heat, he stared at Dumbledore's face, his originally soft expression gradually faded and became somewhat cold and serious.

"Because I got to know a somewhat unanticipated matter in America by accident, even if I am not the judge arranged by the Confederation this time, I will make a special trip to Britain to see you to confirm one thing from you."

A look of surprise crossed Dumbledore's face.

"Yes, I should have thought of that, and there can only be one thing you are so anxious to see me about."

Matthew Graves kept his eyes locked on his.

"So, is that news true or false?"

"It's true."

There was no deliberate change of subject or any lies, Dumbledore just answered the truth that he wanted to know with such a blunt and calm response.

The atmosphere in the Headmaster's office suddenly fell silent, and only the faint snoring of the portrait could be heard.

It was only after a long time that Matthew seemed to compose himself and spoke again, asking in a voice that had become unbearably cold.

"So, who has the authority to set him free? The Confederation's sentence for him back then was life imprisonment!"

"What prison in the world do you think could hold him if he didn't want to be in himself, Matthew?" Dumbledore asked softly.

"He should have just been put to death in the first place!"

His voice grew colder and colder, while his emotions grew more and more intense.

Dumbledore looked at him and shook his head.

"I assumed that after all these years, you would have forgotten about it long ago."

Matthew picked up the cup of black tea that had cooled in front of him and drank it down in one go as if he was drinking plain water, his voice becoming slightly raspy at some point.

"Not everyone wants to be as big-hearted as you. He killed my father and disgraced my family in Congress by stealing his identity, do you think I should forget that?"

----

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