Time passed little by little, but no one came to join them. Lucius Malfoy, who was waiting patiently in the temporary base, only felt cold hands and feet.
Even if he used his knees to think, he knew that something must have happened over there, otherwise the others would have come to join him long ago.
Lucius Malfoy found it hard to imagine what kind of terrible punishment he would receive from the Dark Lord if he returned to England like this.
He couldn't help but shiver and didn't dare to think about it anymore.
I have to do something.
After much hesitation, Lucius Malfoy finally decided to return to Spain to find out what had happened tonight.
This was actually not a difficult task, as Snape still had some Polyjuice Potion left for them, and he spent some time getting the hair from a Muggle.
To be honest, Lucius Malfoy didn't want to turn into a Muggle. This was an indelible shame for him. But it was not easy to get a wizard's hair at the moment, and there was also the risk of being recognized by others. So turning into a Muggle and disguising himself as a foreign wizard was the best choice at the moment. Resisting the discomfort and disgust, Malfoy drank a small cup of compound potion. Under the effect of the potion, he soon turned into another appearance.
A few minutes later, Lucius Malfoy repacked his clothes and returned to Spain with a travel suitcase.
As long as you find the right way, it is not difficult to find someone to get information, at least it is not difficult for Malfoy. He pretended to be a spectator who came to Spain to watch the International Wizard Duel Competition and planned to stay at the Barnabus Bar. Both the owner and the waiter here are very good at various languages, so there is no need to worry about communication problems.
Malfoy walked into the busy bar and sat down at an empty seat at the counter, ordering himself a drink while chatting casually with the bartender.
During the seemingly casual chat, Malfoy learned that the Mudblood was not dead after all, and had entered the top 16, making him one of the most likely seeded players to compete for the championship.
"If you want to place a bet, you should do it early," the bartender at the counter kindly reminded, "but don't blame me if you lose."
Lucius Malfoy didn't pay attention to what the other person said, but cast his eyes on the Spanish newspaper thrown on the counter. He actually saw the news that Goyle and his gang had been arrested in the newspaper. Although Malfoy could not understand Spanish, it did not prevent him from understanding the content of the photo.
"It seems that another dark wizard has been arrested?" The bartender glanced at the newspaper on the table, and said with a smile while wiping the wine glass. "The newspaper said that the dark wizard arrested was from the UK, and seemed to be called a Death Eater. It seemed that he tried to assassinate a contestant, but was discovered and subdued by the patrolling Aurors. I really don't know what was going on in those people's minds. They actually caused trouble in a heavily guarded dueling competition? You don't look too good."
"I haven't had a good rest for two days and two nights." Lucius Malfoy drank the wine in the glass, paid the bill, took the key, took the suitcase and went back to the room to rest.
Of course, Lucius Malfoy had no mood to sleep. His mind was full of thoughts on how to exonerate himself. The Dark Lord would definitely not let him go easily, especially since the Dark Lord knew that he accidentally damaged the diary. Malfoy felt that the Dark Lord did not like him very much.
Now, the mission has failed again.
They absolutely could not fail just because they were useless. Their failure must be due to the Order of the Phoenix's trap, and also because that Mudblood was prepared.
"Yes, isn't it said that the Mudblood can predict the future?" Malfoy suddenly thought of a reason to defend himself.
The reason for their failure was more that the members of the Order of the Phoenix knew their plan in advance through the prophecy of the Mudblood, and secretly attacked and intercepted them. Even the assassination attempt on the Mudblood at close range was managed by that guy.
Isn’t this the best proof
That Mudblood is a threat!
If he shines at the International Wizarding Duel Tournament...
Lucius Malfoy stared at the newspaper in his hand and found that he actually sincerely hoped that the other party could enter the top four.
This is really ridiculous.
However, only when the opponent becomes stronger and displays more amazing strength, their failure will not seem so useless.
How does the saying go: It’s not that I didn’t work hard, but that the enemy is too strong.
…
In the gymnasium's athlete area, Albert suddenly sneezed. He rubbed his nose with his hand and walked to the counter to buy a refreshing hot drink to avoid catching a cold at night.
The number of remaining players is getting smaller and smaller, and the game time is getting longer and longer. Sometimes the battle cannot be ended in even a quarter of an hour.
Among the people who stayed, the young Albert was too conspicuous, especially after the last newspaper helped expose the halo above Albert's head, more people became interested in him.
Drinking a refreshing drink, Albert sat in the corner and waited quietly.
Even though the danger had passed, he still didn't dare relax. Tonight's duel wasn't over yet, and his opponent might be more dangerous than the Death Eaters.
There's no way, I encountered dark wizards in the first two rounds.
Although it was won without much effort, one still had to be extremely alert when facing the strange black magic. If one was hit by the black magic, God knows what terrible consequences would occur.
This time, Albert's opponent was a squinty-eyed man in his thirties, who seemed to be a dark wizard, because before the game, the referee had specifically reminded him that this was a unique treatment for dark wizards.
The squinty eyes and the love of smiling made Albert alert. As the saying goes, people with squinty eyes are monsters.
Albert took the initiative at the beginning of the duel. So far, he has not encountered a wizard who can cast spells faster than him. Perhaps knowing that he can't cast spells faster than Albert, the guy directly deployed a magic barrier and successfully blocked Albert's first two attacks.
In fact, it was normal for the attack to be blocked. After all, he had already played several times, and the routines he used had probably been sold to other players by intelligence dealers.
After obtaining intelligence about the opponent, one will certainly target his weaknesses.
For example, he seldom uses black magic, but relies more on skills and strength to defeat his opponents, and the magic barrier can easily block the first wave of attacks, so that he does not have to be in a panic.
However, incomplete intelligence can cause serious harm.
Mimiyan obviously realized this. The defensive barrier did block the enemy's attack. However, this situation did not last long. The magic barrier in front of him suddenly shattered, and a spell flew towards him.
"It's really annoying to be looked down upon!"
There was a sharp light flashing in the squinting eyes that suddenly opened, and he waved his wand to block the disarming spell flying towards him.
This guy's spell casting speed is really as fast as described in the intelligence, and it's not that he doesn't know how to use black magic, he just doesn't want to use it.
After blocking the opponent's six consecutive attacks, Squint-Eyes waved his wand, ready to knock the opponent down in one breath. It would be disadvantageous for him to drag it on, as there would always be loopholes if he kept defending.
"Don't die."
A large amount of black flame gushed out from the top of the magic wand, transforming into a firebird that pounced towards Albert with terrifying power.
"Devil's fire!"
At this moment, the audience in the stadium screamed in surprise. Everyone was frightened. Anyone with a little knowledge knew how dangerous this spell was. Even the Aurors guarding the audience felt something was wrong and clenched their wands. If the devil's flames got out of control, they would cast spells to extinguish them immediately.
“Oh my God!”
"careful!"
"Give up your defeat now!"
When the audience on the stage thought that Albert was about to be engulfed by the terrible devil's fire, Albert calmly waved his magic wand, and split the firebird in half like a knight swinging a sword. The rolling devil's fire suddenly soared into the sky, gathered into a ball in the sky, and then turned into a lion-headed eagle and pounced towards the black wizard in the opposite direction.
This scene shocked everyone present.
No one had expected that the young wizard in the audience would be able to control the raging devil's fire in the blink of an eye and quickly counterattack the enemy.
"Oh my god! How did he do that? Isn't that the devil's fire?"
Just now, Tonks thought Albert would be engulfed by the devil's flames, but the next moment, the other party actually shattered the devil's flames and gained control.
"No, Anderson is apparently also very good at using devil's fire." Kingsley looked at the griffin that pounced on the dark wizard and said in a low voice: "I heard that he once used the Fiendish Fire Curse to burn a blasting-tailed skrewt to death in the maze of the Triwizard Tournament."
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the griffin that was flying towards him, and suddenly felt something was wrong. It was not because of the devil's flames flying towards him, but because of the other party's attainments in black magic.
After successfully eliminating the devil's flames, Mimi Yan decisively raised his hands in surrender.
No black magic
Stop kidding!
This guy probably feels that there is no need to use dark magic!
If I piss off the other party, I might accidentally die here.
Mimiyan's quick surrender made the audience very unhappy. They had thought there would be a thrilling duel, but in the end he surrendered so quickly. Some angry audiences even threw bottles down.
"Congratulations, you win." The wizard said with a smile, "This is my business card. Maybe you have something that is inconvenient to do, or you need to use some illegal items. I can help you and give you a 95% discount."
"Well, maybe that day won't be too far away." Albert raised his hand and pointed at the business card, and the business card disappeared by itself.
"You are really cautious." Mimiyan was not angry, but smiled and said, "However, you'd better be cautious. I believe we can cooperate happily. By the way, I bet on you to win the championship, so do your best."
The expression on Albert's face twitched slightly. He looked at Mimi's eyes as she left, then turned around and returned to the contestant area. The next and final game would determine the final four.
However, there was no last game, because Albert's opponent was defeated by his opponent in the round of 16 and both sides were injured. Albert was no longer able to continue the game, so he was directly promoted to the next round.
This is not uncommon in duel competitions.
Albert is undoubtedly a dark horse!
The newspapers reported the incident extensively.
However, a certain gambling house held a meeting overnight to discuss the possibility of Anderson winning the prize.
There was no way around it. A large amount of money was placed on the bet at the beginning of the game, believing that Albert Anderson would win the final championship.
If the dark horse really becomes the final champion, I don’t know how much money I will have to pay.
Moreover, this scene seems, as if it were familiar.
"What now?"
"Don't ask me. Anyway, don't bet on anything related to this guy in the future." The man thought for a moment and said, "Collect the information about this guy and send it to the other three people. Tell them that as long as they can defeat the dark horse, they can get a sum of money. Remember, go in your personal name."
"Will this work?" someone asked anxiously.
"You have to do it even if you have to. There are some things you can't do. Don't expect that others won't know if you do them. Duel tournaments have to be relatively fair, at least on the surface. That's why those tournaments are held in Spain. If you mess up, there will be a bunch of people who want to kill you," the man warned.
On the other hand, after learning that Albert entered the top four, Lucius Malfoy was so excited that he trembled all over. He hurried back to England with the newspaper and told the Dark Lord this "good news".
After feeling Voldemort's increasingly cold gaze, Lucius Malfoy lowered his head even lower, however, this did not allow him to escape the Dark Lord's punishment.
There was no way. Voldemort was very unhappy. He didn't have many Death Eaters under his command to begin with, and now several of them were gone. It would be strange for him to be in a good mood. As for the dead Peter Pettigrew, Voldemort never cared about his life or death. Dead was dead.
"Lucius, you really disappoint me." Voldemort's tone was extremely cold.
"Master, that's really not my problem." Malfoy said anxiously, "Our plan was easily seen through. The members of the Order of the Phoenix caught us off guard. The mudblood seemed to know something through the prophecy. He knew that someone would assassinate him a long time ago."
"Don't make excuses for your incompetence." Voldemort looked even angrier and cast another Cruciatus Curse on Malfoy.
"Master, Severus is right. That Muggle is indeed a big trouble. We'd better kill him as soon as possible before he grows up." Lucius Malfoy gritted his teeth and endured the pain brought by the Cruciatus Curse, trying to divert the Dark Lord's attention to the Mudblood.
"That Mudblood... I will kill him myself."
Voldemort stared at Malfoy who was still lying on the ground, and ordered in a cold tone, "As for the group of captured guys, find a way to get them out. If you fail again, you should know what the consequences will be."
"I will," Malfoy said shakily, knowing that the Dark Lord's patience with him was almost at its limit.
However, they were not the only ones in a bad mood, the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was also in a bad mood. He had just fallen asleep when he was woken up by an urgent message from the Ministry of Magic. What made Fudge most angry was that the Spanish Ministry of Magic claimed to have captured a group of "Death Eaters" and was going to hand them over to Britain in exchange for a bounty.
The news of the capture of the Death Eaters was certainly a cause for celebration, but Fudge was not happy about the identities of those people.
"No, they can't be Death Eaters."
Fudge had made his decision, and he knew very well that if these people were defined as Death Eaters, they would definitely get into big trouble.