Just as a decisive battle to determine who was "more insidious and cunning" broke out deep in the maze, the bored spectators outside the maze were whispering to each other. Just like the second event, everyone could only stay outside and wait patiently for the result of the competition.
Not being able to see what is happening in the maze at the moment has undoubtedly greatly reduced the audience's enthusiasm for the finals, because there is no viewing experience at all.
Isobel and Nia were sitting in the family seats waiting patiently. As if to hide her anxiety, Isobel was combing Tom's hair. The fat cat, who knew nothing, was yawning carefree and enjoying the food Nia gave him.
In the referee's seat not far away, Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and looked above the maze, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Just now, green sparks rose above the maze.
This is not a good sign.
"What's wrong?"
Amelia Bones asked in confusion, noticing Dumbledore's reaction.
"There was a green spark," said Dumbledore suddenly.
"What's wrong with the green spark?" Scrimgeour, as an Auror, was more perceptive than others in many ways.
"The signal for help is a red spark." Dumbledore didn't think the warriors would make such a small mistake.
“Nothing signaled by green sparks?” Scrimgeour asked, frowning.
"No." Dumbledore shook his head.
"Is there something wrong with the green spark?" Fudge felt that the conversation between the two was incomprehensible.
Just as everyone was waiting until they were drowsy, a silver monster flew across the night sky, circled gracefully above everyone's heads, and landed near the podium.
"What is that?"
There was a whisper in the stands, and the audience's attention was all drawn to the silver griffin.
"Guardian?"
Amelia Bones looked at the patronus in front of her with interest. Just as she was about to ask, the patronus suddenly opened its mouth and spoke in Albert's calm voice.
"I was attacked. Moody was an imposter. Everyone was controlled. Harry might be in big trouble. I was not hurt."
After delivering the message, the silver eagle completely disappeared. It took the audience in the stands a long time to realize what had happened.
Dumbledore drew his wand and stood up.
"Whose patronus is that?"
Scrimgeour also drew his wand. The Auror's experience told him that something bad had happened in the maze.
"Mr. Anderson's patron saint."
Dumbledore pointed his wand at his throat and shouted, "Silence, everyone please keep quiet, professors, keep order."
"Scrimgeour, Madame Maxime, Severus, do you mind accompanying me into the maze?" Dumbledore greeted the three of them and walked quickly into the depths of the maze.
Fudge and Amelia Bones looked at each other and ultimately decided not to follow into the maze. They knew very well that someone was needed outside to help maintain order.
"this… "
Scrimgeour frowned deeply as he looked at the Grindylow that was stabbed to death by the earth spike, the solid stone bridge in front of him, and the red hats swallowed by the hedge.
"It must be Mr. Anderson who did it. Only he would do such an exaggerated thing." Snape didn't think that other warriors had this ability.
"Do you know which way to go?" Madame Maxime asked Dumbledore who was leading the way.
"I don't know. I think it shouldn't be difficult to find him if we follow Mr. Anderson's footsteps."
At this moment, a red spark suddenly rose into the sky.
"It seems that Mr. Anderson is also worried that we can't find the right way." Dumbledore walked quickly in the direction of the red sparks.
On the way, they saw a burnt tunnel and a charred skrewt with a hole in its head.
"He did this too?"
Although Scrimgeour didn't recognize the blasting-tailed skrewt, he could tell that it was very dangerous, yet it was burned to death.
"It should be the devil's fire." Snape glanced at Dumbledore and reminded, "It seems that guy has learned a lot of dark magic recently."
Everyone became more alert, but they soon realized that their vigilance was completely unnecessary because all the dangers had been resolved by Albert.
They found three professors who were bound by a spell.
"If I were you, I wouldn't easily remove the restraints from them."
A voice suddenly rang out, causing Snape, who was about to go over to check, to stop. He glanced at a plant in the corner, and his face trembled slightly.
"Then Moody is an imposter. He is most likely Peter Pettigrew or Barty Crouch Jr."
"Mr. Anderson?" Dumbledore asked loudly, raising his wand.
"Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall are under the Imperius Curse. Of course, the same goes for Mr. Krum and Miss Delacour. As soon as they saw me, they cast Avada Kedavra on them. So it's best not to let them go until you are sure they are free of the Imperius Curse. Also, I didn't see Harry Potter. I suspect he has disappeared. As for Hagrid, he probably hasn't figured out what happened yet."
"Do you have evidence? Why are you hiding?"
Scrimgeour pointed his wand cautiously toward the sound.
There's no way, the situation in front of me is a bit weird.
"You'd better find some time to look for Harry Potter. He may not be in Hogwarts School. He should have been sent away by that impostor in some way. I suspect that the Death Eaters captured him because they need something similar to Harry Potter to revive the You-Know-Who. You'd better wake up that impostor as soon as possible and knock out from him where Potter was taken. Otherwise, it will be too late and you may only be able to help Harry Potter collect his body."
"Severus, please bring the most powerful truth serum and a strong restorative potion." Dumbledore's face became extremely gloomy.
"You just said that other warriors were also under the Imperius Curse?" Madame Maxime frowned and asked, "Where is Fleur?"
"If you follow the passage ahead, you will see Miss Delacour and Mr. Krum. However, you'd better not wake them up before they are free from the Imperius Curse." Albert's voice sounded again.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Scrimgeour frowned, very dissatisfied with Albert's hiding his true intentions.
As the only person who knows the truth, he obviously needs to explain the matter to everyone.
"I'm going to get the trophy first. I think the students at Hogwarts will probably want me to take that thing back. We can meet outside to discuss what happened here."
"Wait! And how can we believe what you say when you are like this?"
Just as Scrimgeour was about to walk in the direction where the sound came from, he saw a spell flying towards him. He quickly waved his wand to deflect the spell, but as a result, magic continued to fly towards him, leaving him with only the front to support him.
After Scrimgeour blocked all the spells, he was thrown out by a force and hit the hedge behind him hard. His hands and feet were immediately entangled by countless vines, and even his mouth was sealed. Then another stunning spell flew out from the dark passage and hit Scrimgeour who was still struggling, completely eliminating his threat.
The most astonishing thing was that the moment Scrimgeour's wand fell from his hand, it was pulled by a force and flew towards the dark passage.
"Ah, this..."
Madame Maxime looked at Scrimgeour who was pressed against the wall by a series of spells, with a strange expression on her face. She knew before that Albert Anderson was a very powerful wizard, and now she knew how powerful this guy was.
No wonder a group of people wanted to kill him, but they were all knocked down by Albert Anderson.
"Of course you don't have to believe it, because I don't believe you either."
"I've had enough attacks tonight, enough people throwing Avada Kedavra at me, so don't do anything that makes me feel suspicious, otherwise I can only temporarily regard you as unlucky bugs controlled by the Imperius Curse and temporarily eliminate your threat."
The voice sounded a little cold, obviously dissatisfied with Scrimgeour's rash behavior.
"Be careful, we'll meet outside. Get out as soon as possible to avoid worrying others." Dumbledore did not blame Albert for his excessive behavior. He tilted his head and said, "Madam Maxime, please go find Mr. Krum and Miss Delacour and take them out of the maze first. We can talk about other things outside."
"Okay." Madame Maxime agreed and walked quickly towards the passage ahead.
After Madame Maxime left, Dumbledore waved his wand, lowered the subdued Scrimgeour from the hedge, and reawakened him.
"What the hell!" Scrimgeour's face looked extremely ugly.
"Well, Mr. Scrimgeour, you'd better not continue to provoke Mr. Anderson. He has been attacked one after another, and now everyone thinks he is suspicious. It is not wise to rashly provoke him." Dumbledore sighed and warned, "Believe me, no one wants to stay in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for several months."
Dumbledore naturally didn't believe that Albert would be provoked. He probably hated the formalities of the Ministry of Magic and had no intention of even accepting the investigation.
"Where's my wand?" Scrimgeour asked grimly.
"It was taken away by Mr. Anderson using the Summoning Charm. I think it will be returned to you." Dumbledore comforted him.
"You actually believed what he said." Scrimgeour glared at Dumbledore in dissatisfaction.
"No questions asked." Dumbledore waved his wand and floated several professors up. "He actually sensed a long time ago that the third project would be life-threatening, but I didn't take it seriously at the time."
"He had a presentiment?" Scrimgeour asked, frowning.
"Fortune tellers are always particularly perceptive in certain aspects, so he is safe and sound now, while our impostor is unlucky and got a head-on blow and is bleeding." Dumbledore paused and his eyes fell on Moody's wrist.
He used magic to levitate the wristband.
"What's this?"
"I think this thing could be... a Portkey."
Dumbledore had a slightly strange expression on his face. "This should be the escape route he left for himself. Obviously, this imposter also knew that Mr. Anderson was not easy to deal with. We almost let him escape right under our noses."
"Will this help us find Harry Potter?" demanded Scrimgeour.
"I'm afraid not. If it were me, I would probably teleport to a temporary base somewhere and then Apparate there. This would prevent me from being easily tracked." Seeing how cautious the fake Professor Moody was, Dumbledore didn't expect to find Harry through the portkey.
"This guy is unlucky," Scrimgeour said suddenly.
"Yes, that's unfortunate." Dumbledore agreed. "He obviously picked the wrong opponent."
If it were someone else, this counterfeit would have succeeded and run away, and would not be lying here.
…
…
When Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick and Professor Moody were carried out of the maze horizontally, the students in the stands were really scared. Everyone thought that the three professors died in the maze.
"They just fainted temporarily."
Dumbledore's voice rang out above the Quidditch pitch so that everyone could hear it clearly, so as to avoid their wild guesses and causing unnecessary panic.
"What about the others?"
Amelia Bones looked at Scrimgeour, who looked gloomy.
"Still inside, Madame Maxime will lead the warriors out of the maze."
"Can anyone tell me what happened? Who attacked the patrol?"
Fudge looked at the three professors being carried out of the maze horizontally, his face turned extremely pale. He looked at Dumbledore uneasily, and then at Scrimgeour with a gloomy face.
"You'll have to ask Mr. Anderson about this," Scrimgeour said, almost gritting his teeth. "I'm afraid he's the only one who knows the details."
"Where's Mr. Anderson?" Fudge demanded.
"Mr. Anderson went to get the trophy."
Dumbledore handed Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick over to Madam Pomfrey who had hurried over, and reminded them: "Minerva and Filius are likely under the Imperius Curse. Don't wake them up for now."
"The Imperius Curse?" Fudge's voice rose a few notches.
"That's impossible."
Amelia Bones knew very well the true abilities of Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Moody. It was difficult to control them using the Imperius Curse, let alone under Dumbledore's nose.
"Professor Moody is a fake. I'm afraid the real Moody is hidden by him." Dumbledore's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was about to come out of it.
"Impostor?"
Fudge was confused.
"That guy should be Barty Crouch Jr." Albert's voice came from the entrance of the maze.
"Who is where..."
Fudge was startled and almost instinctively pointed his wand towards the entrance of the maze.
However, he clearly set a wrong example.
A red light suddenly hit Fudge, knocking him flying. The wand in Fudge's hand drew an arc in the air and fell into Albert's hand.
"Peter Pettigrew is not as smart and cunning as this guy, let alone his strength and courage." Albert put Fudge's wand into his pocket and reminded him in a cold tone, "Also, don't point your wand at me, thank you. I hate being pointed at with a wand. It will make me think you want to use the Avada Kedavra curse on me."
The audience was stunned by how cleanly Albert disarmed the Minister of Magic's wand.
"What the hell are you doing!"
"Don't point your wand at me."
Amelia Bones was also thrown backwards like Fudge and was disarmed. The clean and neat movement made people wonder how many times Albert had done it, five, six or more times
"You have no enemies here, Mr. Anderson," Dumbledore reminded with a raised eyebrow.
"Does anyone know if they are under the Imperius Curse?"
Everyone was stunned. The Minister of Magic was under the Imperius Curse
"It's easy, isn't it? Barty Crouch Sr. is a good example."
"If you were ambushed and had Avada Kedavra thrown at you, you would be as paranoid as I am. At least, I'm still alive, and the others are lying on the ground. Obviously, I did the right thing, otherwise you would have been talking to my corpse."
Albert looked at the people who were hostile to him with a scrutinizing gaze, as if he was considering whether to let them sleep for a while.
"I suggest you give them some truth serum later. It will be easy to find out whether they are in the same group or not."
Albert's eyes were so cold that Fudge swallowed all his anger back into his stomach. That was not the look of looking at a person, but the look of looking at a bug.
Scrimgeour looked at Fudge, who was almost mad, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. Just as Dumbledore said, this man was now a little nervous towards anyone who was hostile to him.
"What on earth is going on?"
"What's going on?" Albert repeated, "Maybe it's a conspiracy against Harry Potter!"
"A plot against Harry?"
At this moment, Hagrid and Madame Maxime walked out of the maze carrying the unconscious Krum and Fleur respectively. They happened to hear Albert's words, and their tone of voice couldn't help but rise a few degrees.
"Harry Potter has disappeared. I don't know where the other party has taken him. You can use the truth serum to torture the impostor yourself."
"I'm so glad you're okay."
Isobel and Nia trotted towards Albert and gave him a big hug. The Triwizard Tournament trophy that was floating next to Albert was thrown to the ground like garbage by him without even looking at it.
"Don't worry, it's just a nasty bug." After giving Nia a hug, Albert looked at Isobel, who was relieved, and gave her a long kiss with a smile.
"If I were you, I wouldn't touch that trophy. It was turned into a portkey by Barty Crouch Jr. and God knows where it will be taken."
However, it was too late.
When Amelia Bones bent down to pick up the trophy in front of her, she was teleported away.
"Bones, damn it, what the hell is going on?"
Fudge looked at the place where Amelia Bones disappeared, his mouth open in shock.
"I don't know, but Ms. Bones should be fine."
"Nothing? But she..."
"This should be a trap prepared for me or Dumbledore." Albert explained impatiently: "Only an idiot would release a lion into a flock of sheep. Barty Crouch Jr. is obviously not such an idiot, otherwise he would have been exposed long ago instead of hiding until now."
"A flock of sheep."
Scrimgeour found the analogy ridiculous. He actually heard someone compare the Death Eaters to a herd of sheep
However, looking at the five people lying on the ground, Scrimgeour did not intend to make any comment.
"Notify the Auror Office and have them send people to look for Bones. If this man is really Barty Crouch Jr., we'd better send him to where the scum belongs." Fudge left in a rage. He didn't even ask Albert to return his wand. It was obvious that he felt very insecure here.
"I helped you catch a fugitive. Remember to give me his reward." Albert reminded.
"If he's the fugitive you say he is," said Scrimgeour.
"If you use the Flashback Charm to check wands, you will find that many wands have been used with the Avada Kedavra curse." Albert used the Flashback Charm on Professor McGonagall's wand.
The captivating green light that continued to shine from the wand frightened everyone present. It was obvious that it had been used more than once.
Albert took out another wand and proved that this wand had also been used with Avada Kedavra, and the third wand was in a similar situation.
Well, even Dumbledore was silent, because both Barty Jr. and Professor McGonagall used the Avada Kedavra almost as an ordinary spell.
No wonder Albert reacted so strongly.
If it were him, the situation probably wouldn't be much better.
"I don't blame Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, but... I think the Ministry of Magic will definitely not keep him for the summer vacation after squeezing out all the information from that impostor. To be honest, I'm not a particularly tolerant person, especially when someone is trying so hard to take my life. You can't expect me to be tolerant of him, do you understand me?"
"We will soon find out his true identity and have the Aurors search for him in the maze." Scrimgeour took the three wands thrown by Albert and added: "If this guy is a fugitive, I don't think he will even have the chance to rot in Azkaban prison."
"I need to find a place to rest. I hope you can rescue Potter. Good luck, professor." Albert took Isobel and Nia towards the castle, leaving the group stunned.
As for the champion of the Triwizard Tournament, no one cares.
"Aren't you going to the hospital wing?" Madam Pomfrey called to Albert.
"No, I plan to find a place where no one will disturb me and rest."
"You're pretending to be serious?"
After leaving the Quidditch pitch, Isobel asked in confusion, "What the hell are you doing?"
"We must act strong, otherwise they will harass us and interrogate us about the maze," Albert said helplessly. "They are just a bunch of bullies. As for offending Fudge, it doesn't matter. He will be out of office soon anyway. Amelia Bones will probably die in two years, and Scrimgeour won't live for many more years."
"How do you know?" Nia asked curiously.
"The wizarding world will be in turmoil in the next few years, and the Minister of Magic is a bunch of unlucky people." Albert said to Nia with a smile, "Come on, I'll take you to the airport. It's safest to leave tonight."