On the other side, earlier.
At the edge of the Quidditch field at Hogwarts, Snape, who had not paid much attention to the game, suddenly stood up, hurriedly pulled Dumbledore away from the judges' seat, and came to an empty corner outside the maze.
"Do you know what happened in the maze?" he asked anxiously.
"What's wrong, Severus?" Dumbledore asked curiously, "Did you find any problem?"
Snape suddenly rolled up the wide sleeve of his left arm, revealing the hot and red Dark Mark.
"This is..." Dumbledore's expression also became solemn.
"This is the Dark Lord summoning his servants!" Snape said heavily, with an undisguised irritation on his face, "He's back, Headmaster, at this time! When no one knows whether Potter is in trouble or not!"
Dumbledore's expression finally changed.
"Where is Professor Dracula?" he asked quickly. "Isn't he always staying on the maze? If he is there, the chances of Harry getting into trouble are not very high..."
"Also, when Voldemort summons the Death Eaters, you should respond immediately... After what happened to Tom, he should trust you more than other Death Eaters. Don't waste this trust in vain."
"No, it was he who told me to stay in Hogwarts. I can say that I have no way to get rid of your attention..." Snape said with a grim expression, "I want to know what happened in the maze."
At this moment, a strange little girl with half white and half black hair suddenly fell from the sky.
"You are the headmaster of this school, right?" she asked, looking up and down at Dumbledore's long white hair and beard.
"Yes, you are...?" Dumbledore asked doubtfully.
He could clearly feel that the girl in front of him had a different magic from the wizard's, and the dark undertones were very obvious. She looked like a... vampire.
"It doesn't matter who I am. Anyway, he asked me to be a temporary security guard, so I came here." Selina said casually, "I wanted to go to the judges' table to talk to the principal, but I couldn't find him. Fortunately, I heard someone talking over here and came over."
"Excuse me, this 'he' is Professor Dracula, right?" Dumbledore asked politely.
"Who else could it be but him?" Selina curled her lips. "I was thrown here as a temporary security guard without even being told clearly, and I was given such a heavy workload right from the start..."
"Wait, you mean, Dracula is not here now?" Snape's expression suddenly froze.
"Well, he suddenly had other things to do," Selina said as a matter of course.
As she spoke, she clapped her hands.
Dumbledore and Snape then noticed that the two people who were originally floating behind Selina were now placed on the ground in front of them.
"I picked up these two little guys in that maze. Now I'm handing them over to you," said Selena.
Judging from appearance alone, Selina is younger than Fleur and John, but she called the two warriors "little guys", which made Snape feel awkward.
"Who are these two... Miss Delacour and Mr. Kowalski?" Dumbledore didn't care about Selina's age. He looked at the two people on the ground and asked Selina, "After Mr. Krum, did they also get into trouble..."
Dumbledore frowned deeply.
"I'm afraid there's something wrong here... I don't think there's anything in the maze that would prevent Mr. Kowalski from even having time to cast the red spark."
Then, he looked at Serena with a serious expression and asked, "Madam, when you saw these two warriors, what was their condition?"
"This girl must have been unconscious for quite a while. She was already like this when I got there." Selina said thoughtfully, "As for this boy, he was attacking two other boys..."
"Don't worry, wait until I finish... I guess his mind was controlled by the Imperius Curse, so I knocked him out and brought him out."
"How could they be controlled by the Imperius Curse when they were playing the game?" Dumbledore asked solemnly, "Where are the other two warriors? How are they?"
"They were not far from the trophy. After I help them get rid of the boy under the Imperius Curse, they should be able to finish the game soon." Selina said.
Then, she was suddenly stunned for a moment, "Hey, why isn't the game over yet? I remember it took a long time to find you guys... Does it take so long to tell who got the trophy?"
Dumbledore and Snape looked at each other, and the same words were clearly written in their eyes -
problem occurs!
"Why did Dracula leave at this time?" Snape suddenly looked at Selina and asked word by word, "Wasn't he the one who said he would take good care of the contestants?"
"I don't know what he said to you." Serena put her hands on her hips and said unhappily, "And what do you mean? Do you think I'm not a good enough safety guard for him?"
"You may take it that this is what I meant," said Snape coldly.
Selina is not someone who is easy to mess with. She is used to being the acting leader of the vampire clan, and is used to being strong and taking revenge. Naturally, she would not allow Snape to question her.
Then, her eyes turned cold, and in the blink of an eye, a bat burning with white flames quietly attacked Snape.
"Severus, now is not the time to argue." Dumbledore suddenly stepped forward to break the tense atmosphere. "I think your mark should come in handy. We need to meet the Dark Lord."
He moved half a step inconspicuously, raised his hand lightly to extinguish the fire on the bat, and handed it back to Selina.
Serena's eyes widened in shock as she saw her magic being easily wiped out.
She had always known that the headmaster of Hogwarts was very powerful, but she had never expected him to be this powerful... Just from what Xiaolu had just done, it was clear that he was at least on the same level as Dracula.
"Nice to meet you, unknown lady." Dumbledore smiled gently and said to Selina, "We are sorry for not hosting you well today, but we really have other urgent matters to attend to. I hope you can understand."
Dumbledore didn't say anything more, and when he looked at Snape again, his expression returned to seriousness.
Snape nodded, feeling the call of the Dark Mark on the inside of his left arm, and took Dumbledore out of the corner outside the maze.
Just as Dumbledore was about to call Fawkes the Phoenix to take them to the place where Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters, a sound of wind suddenly came from high in the sky.
Dumbledore looked up and saw the Quartet carrying Harry and Cedric flying towards him rapidly, landing on the lawn in the center surrounded by the audience seats.
A wave of cheers came from the audience. They thought the final champion had finally appeared and burst into cheers.
But when the first person spotted Cedric lying motionless on the ground with his eyes blank, the cheers faded and turned into an uproar.
Snape and Dumbledore walked quickly forward and came to the side of Harry and Cedric.
"Harry, Harry!"
Dumbledore helped Harry up from the lawn, looked down at him through his semicircular glasses, and was slightly relieved to see that he seemed to have no other problems except the wound on his leg.
Harry opened his eyes.
He saw the starry night sky and Headmaster Dumbledore in front of him.
He was surrounded by a sea of figures, all pressing towards him, and the ground beneath them seemed to be vibrating slightly with their footsteps.
Harry let go of the Cup but tightened his grip on Cedric, and with his free hand he grasped Dumbledore's wrist, whose face was now blurred and now indistinct through his tears.
"Professor, hurry up, Cedric may not be dead!" He choked and said, "It was Voldemort who did it... Voldemort is back."
"What's wrong? What happened?" At this moment, the upside-down face of Cornelius Fudge, the British Minister of Magic, appeared in front of Harry. His face was pale and his expression was terrified.
The Minister of Magic had originally planned to come here to present the final award and give an impassioned speech, but the scene before him cast a shadow on his originally good mood.
This semi-final tournament was specially organized by Fudge in order to consolidate his political position. If someone unexpectedly died in the tournament... Fudge couldn't imagine what kind of setbacks his political career would encounter.
"Merlin... Diggory!" he said, his face pale. "Dumbledore, is he... is he dead?"
Dumbledore said nothing, but pulled Cedric over with a serious expression and reached out to feel his pulse.
"His heart has stopped." Dumbledore's face became increasingly serious.
He took out his wand and cast several complex and powerful healing spells on Cedric, but none of them worked.
"Severus, do you have any ideas?"
Dumbledore looked at Snape who came with him and asked softly.
"You should have figured it out... He's dead." Snape said expressionlessly, but his eyes seemed a little dim. "I don't know why his soul hasn't dissipated, but his body is completely dead."
"No... How is that possible!" Harry still held Cedric's wrist tightly, tears filling his eyes. "He is clearly wearing the amulet made by Professor Dracula. The amulet can protect me from the Cruciatus Curse, so it should also be able to protect me from the Killing Curse..."
Dumbledore's eyes moved, and sure enough, he found two identical inverted cross pendants on Cedric's neck.
Both pendants are bright red like blood.
"They have both taken effect. They should have each resisted a powerful dark magic." Dumbledore said softly.
"Two amulets..." Harry muttered, "Yes, Cho Chang should have given her share of the pendant to Cedric. How could anything happen to Cedric?"
"Harry, the Killing Curse is different from any other dark magic." Dumbledore said in a sad tone, "The Killing Curse is a spell that works at the level of rules. It cannot be completely resisted by any defensive spell."
"But... Professor Dracula..." Harry still refused to accept his fate.
This glimmer of hope had just arisen, how could it be extinguished so easily
"That's enough, Harry, let him go." Fudge said standing nearby, "Amos Diggory is coming, let his father take another look at him."
Fudge began to twist Harry's fingers, trying to get him to let go of Cedric's "corpse", but Harry still held on tightly.
Then Dumbledore's face came closer, still blurry.
"Harry, you can't help him, it's over. Let go," he said.
"It was clearly a trap for me..." Harry murmured in a low voice, "Why did Cedric get hurt... It's all my fault, I shouldn't have suggested that we win together..."
"It's okay, Harry, I don't blame you." Dumbledore said softly, "Let go..."
Dumbledore leaned over and, with unusual strength for a thin old man, helped Harry to his feet. Harry staggered, as if a hammer was hitting his head, and his injured leg could not support his body weight.
He vaguely saw Amos Diggory, whom he had met twice, falling down beside Cedric, and a witch burst into tears... and many girls from Hogwarts were also sobbing quietly.
…
When Dracula solved the trouble with Andros and dealt with the despicable Herpo, he came back to see a scene full of sadness.
"Who can tell me what happened?" Dracula grabbed a girl who was sobbing in a deserted place and asked with a frown.
"Professor Dracula, where have you been?" The girl who was held back sobbed and cried to Dracula, "Cedric... Cedric... he's dead! I had already put my amulet on him before the game. I just hope nothing happens to him..."
Dracula then noticed that the girl he had casually grabbed was actually Cedric's girlfriend, Qiu Zhang, a fifth-year student in Ravenclaw.
"Where is he?" Dracula's face darkened and became extremely terrifying. "Tell me, where is Cedric now!"
Qiu Zhang wiped away his tears and pointed his finger towards the center of the lawn.
Dracula's figure disappeared from the spot and instantly appeared on the grass surrounded by the crowd.
"Get out of my way!"
As his cold words fell, the dense crowd was suddenly pushed aside by an irresistible force, leaving a wide passage for Dracula.
Dracula walked over to Cedric and looked at Amos Diggory and Mrs. Diggory who were crying bitterly.
"Let him go first, both of you." He took a deep breath and said in a low voice.
"He's not dead yet."
…
…