Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

"That's right...then let's get started, please listen to something that starts with"T

Starts with J, ends with T', and there's something in between?"

Probably because of the relationship at the beginning, the riddles posed by the Sphinx were not very difficult, at least Harry thought they were puzzle-level riddles for children.

But then Harry was surprised to see that Cedric had a puzzled look on his face.

""No way? ' Harry couldn't help blurting out.

Cedric misunderstood Harry's meaning: "Yeah, it's really hard to guess, it's worthy of the legendary "Sphinx Riddle""

Harry's mouth fell open in surprise - honestly, if he hadn't spent too much time with Cedric, he might have thought Cedric was joking.

After confirming that Cedric was not joking, Harry had to use a method that would not hurt the other party's self-esteem as much as possible to remind Cedric.

"Uh... I think it's an anagram," he said.

"An anagram?" Cedric was taken aback. "I thought he was saying 'troll (Trll factory), but trolls don't have 'tails: so something seems wrong."

Harry found that he didn't know how to evaluate the preschool education of wizards-even if Aunt Petunia devoted almost all her energy to Dudley, the preschool education Harry received was better than Cedric's.

"There are usually traps in this kind of word play." Harry could only continue to prompt, "Maybe...it doesn't mean what it says literally."

Cedric pondered for a moment, and finally realized that Harry was trying to remind himself

"Time is running out, Harry, only 5 minutes... oh no, there are only 3 minutes left, if you think of something, you can just say it."

"Ok."

Harry was not hypocritical, he walked straight up to the Sphinx and began to question it.

"How many times can I guess?"

"As many times as you want, little guy, as long as you answer within the time limit." Sphinx seemed very talkative.

"So, 'tortise'? ' Harry asked tentatively.

"Unfortunately, the answer is wrong." Sphinx lit up his paw: "You still have 2 minutes, my dear."

Harry no longer hesitated after hearing the words: "Then, the answer must be 'Teapt'. "

When Harry gave the correct answer, both Hermione in the audience and the officials of the Ministry of Magic who knew the game all heaved a sigh of relief.

"The answer is correct, congratulations, you can take this door key and go to room 6."

The Sphinx smiled at Harry, and took out a silver teapot from nowhere and placed it in front of the two of them.

"Here, this is your reward, it may help you." Cedric hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took the teapot.

"Why 'teapot'?" He asked Harry, even if it is just an anagram, there are only two T's at the beginning and the end, and the T' in the middle?"

Harry shrugged: "Because we also use it for 'tea (Tea)'" Cedric suddenly realized.

It's not that he is uneducated, but his brain really can't turn this corner.

According to Fudge's instructions, the two warriors put their hands on the portkey made of ten-sided dice together.

"Number 5... Your destination is Dean Forest, good luck!" Fudge waved to them.

A blue light flashed, and the two disappeared from the scene of the movie theater.

Chapter 360 Whose Trap

Although the Hogwarts warriors have disappeared from the scene of the game, it does not mean that the organizers of the tournament have lost their ability to track them.

They had set up surveillance devices at the other end of the Portkey early on, waiting for the Warriors to come to the door.

When Harry and Cedric got up from the ground in a daze, they found that they had come to a place like a forest, and they had been stared at by something.

Cedric was more vigilant, so when a huge bird and snake fell from the sky and attacked Harry, he immediately took out his wand and cast an expulsion spell on it, which prevented Harry from being "falling from a height" Give him a hemiplegia.

And this attack also let the two warriors know what they were going to face, and what the teapot the Sphinx gave them was for.

The organizers actually let us face dangerous wild creatures directly!

Even knowing that the Ministry of Magic must have sent people around to protect them, Harry was still a little unhappy, which may have something to do with the fact that he almost made a fool of himself just now.

He guessed right, someone at the Ministry of Magic was protecting him, and it wasn't even just the Ministry.

In the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office at Hogwarts, Moody and Lockhart are watching Harry's every move on the screen.

This small screen has been permanently transformed like the screens of Jack Pea and the Three Broomsticks. It is connected to the one in the movie theater and can be broadcast simultaneously in real time.

Seeing that the two of them dealt with the bird and snake on the screen according to the Scamander textbook, Moody's face was a little dignified.

"I really don't know why you have to use the Portkey." He said to Lockhart rather displeasedly, "Dumbledore is not here, there are too many places in the middle that are prone to accidents."

Unlike Moody's worried, Lockhart on the opposite side seemed much more relaxed

"If it wasn't like this, the Death Eaters would have no chance to get close to him." Lockhart sneered and looked at the broadcast screen: "Passive defense is not my style, once the World Cup is enough."

Of course Moody understood what he was talking about, but he still couldn't accept it. Even the magic eye kept turning to express its owner's uneasiness.

"Compared to your daring plan, I'm more surprised that Dumbledore approved it." Moody said in a low voice, "I can't imagine Voldemort following your steps."

"He has no choice if he still wants Harry's blood." Lockhart looked confident.

"We had no choice, because we didn't want to take any chances," Moody muttered. "It never hurts to try anyway."

"Yes, there's no harm anyway," Lockhart agreed.

After going to Little Hangleton last time, Dumbledore made a special trip to Riddle's mansion, the cemetery, and Gaunt's old house.

After confirming that the bones of Voldemort's father had been dug up, Dumbledore also roughly determined the way Voldemort wanted to be resurrected.

Although Voldemort may have thought that Dumbledore would not know about it, Dumbledore's research on black magic was no less in-depth than Voldemort's when he was young. He almost guessed the resurrection magic the moment he discovered that the old Riddle's bones were gone... The bones of the father, the flesh of the servant and the blood of the enemy.

If Voldemort wanted to use that magic, he drank unicorn blood three years ago

There is an explanation for his behavior—he originally planned to make a new body, so he didn't care about Professor Quirrell's dying body.

But what puzzled Dumbledore was that because old Riddle was a Muggle, the body made of his bones would definitely lack in magic power. Even if Harry's blood was used, Voldemort's once huge magic power would not be enough It is impossible to come back, how does Voldemort plan to copy the changes of his original body into the new body?

So Dumbledore thought of the Resurrection Stone in the Deathly Hallows.

Through the memory of an old employee of the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore saw the simple ring on Mr. Gaunt's hand.

As the person holding the elderberry wand and guarding the Invisibility Cloak for ten years, Dumbledore easily recognized the origin of the ring—the last of the Deathly Hallows and the most mysterious resurrection stone.

After thinking of this, Dumbledore almost couldn't help himself.

Compared with the Elder Wand and the Invisibility Cloak, the Deathly Hallows that Dumbledore wants most is the Resurrection Stone. He has seen the scene of reuniting with his family from the Mirror of Erised many times.

Dumbledore's sister, Arianna, lost control and became a silent person because of the bullying of Muggle children; his father used magic to teach those Muggles in order to avenge his daughter, but he also entered Azkaban because of this , never came out again; his mother died because of Ariana's silent outburst, and he accidentally killed his sister in a dispute with his younger brother because of his friendship with Grindelwald...

If Dumbledore was a person who was not strong enough, he would have more reasons to hate Muggles than anyone else, but in the end he didn't let himself become a person like Grindelwald, even if he The same goes for having more power, which is what makes him the greatest.

But even such a great person was still shaken when he learned that he might have the resurrection stone.

Dumbledore felt that if he had the resurrection stone, maybe he could redeem some of the mistakes he had made, and this idea has been circling in his mind for almost 100 years.

It is difficult for people who have not experienced all this to understand why a person like Dumbledore would fall into such an obvious trap, but if he understands this, he will probably understand Dumbledore better than anyone else. Emotions.

As the saying goes, don't be afraid of a thousand tricks, but be afraid of a poisonous trick. Many divorces and counter-measures in history are actually quite clumsy in terms of tactics, but they have caught the suspicion of the opponent's monarchs and ministers, so they have been tried and tested repeatedly. unfavorable.

Dumbledore didn't tell anyone after discovering the traces of the Resurrection Stone, but kept this information firmly in his heart.

Regarding Voldemort's resurrection, Dumbledore only said that it might use "the blood of the enemy", but he concealed the existence of the resurrection stone from them, and only said that the members of the Order of the Phoenix should protect Harry.

This is the fundamental reason why Dumbledore agreed when Lockhart suggested using the Tournament to take a risk to find out where Voldemort was.

If Voldemort had turned the Resurrection Stone into a Horcrux as well, then Voldemort's resurrection would have been almost unstoppable - Dumbledore was pretty sure of that.

Although the resurrection stone has a high probability of resurrecting only a walking dead, but Voldemort's soul is still alive, so all he needs is a walking dead.

Since Voldemort's resurrection is unstoppable, the best way to deal with it at this time is to destroy as many Horcruxes as possible before his resurrection, and use some small means to "add some ingredients" to Voldemort's resurrected new body

And this "material" is naturally Harry's blood.

So, how can Harry's blood be handed over to Voldemort without anyone knowing, and let him use it without suspicion, while keeping Harry safe?

This requires taking risks.

Although, as Moody said, Dumbledore is indeed not around the school now, but he still keeps an eye on Hogwarts, waiting for Voldemort to take the initiative to come to the door.

On the other hand, Lockhart behaved quite leisurely. Of course it would be the best if he could trick Voldemort or little Crouch to come to his door. If he couldn't, at least he wouldn't lose. As long as Harry was still alive, Old Deng wouldn't go berserk.

Relatively speaking, it is more important to continue to improve one's magical strength.Because in the coming war, the Death Eaters will not believe in tricks, they will only submit to the fist

Fortunately, after learning the mutated version of Soul Torrent, Lockhart felt that although his combat power was still far from T-level, and he could not catch up with the "top-level Professor Flitwick", at least he could be regarded as a "level-level wizard" , and the way of fighting is quite unique. It should be possible to fight Dolohov, depending on when Voldemort returns.

Seeing Lockhart so calm, Moody somewhat felt relieved.

For the next war, Moody has already made up his mind to die, because he knows that his level is no longer what it used to be.But the only thing that worried him was that the combat power of the Order of the Phoenix might be torn apart by his death.

This is not a joke. Although Dumbledore is the spiritual banner of the Order of the Phoenix in the original book, even after Dumbledore's death, the Order of the Phoenix can still organize the defense of the Ministry of Magic and the transfer of Harry Potter.

But when Moody fell in the "Battle of the Seven Potters", the Order of the Phoenix collapsed faster than Dumbledore's death. After that, the Order of the Phoenix never organized any effective attack on the Death Eaters. To resist, Kingsley obviously does not have the ability and prestige to take on this responsibility.

This can explain some issues, such as who is the backbone and combat commander of the Order of the Phoenix.

Dumbledore set up another command center outside of Moody, and it seems that Moody has been separated.

Di's authority, but isn't this protecting him?

After thinking it over, Moody stopped commenting on it.

Don't play it off. ' he whispered to Lockhart.

Lockhart misunderstood him. He thought Moody was talking about the two Harrys wrestling with the bird and snake.

"Don't worry." He assured, "The venue we chose is the Quidditch pitch in the Forest of Dean, which has a constant feather fall spell, and we have also hinted in the consciousness of the bird and snake that it will not kill you .”

Moody saw that Lockhart had misunderstood, but he didn't correct him because he didn't want others to

people know his vulnerability

Instead, he has to appear tougher.

"Anyway, idle is idle, why don't we take advantage of this time to compete again?" Moody suggested, "Let me see what new tricks you have learned recently

my pleasure. ' replied Lockhart.

Chapter 360 The Four Real Cheats

If he didn't know that Moody's current weakness was mental, maybe Lockhart might still lose, but now he definitely won't.

Even if the overly eye-catching Confusion Spell cannot be used, Lockhart can still set up the Iron Armor Curse, and set up patterns with enraged and chaotic effects around him, which is enough to make Moody unable to wake up again. to think.

After half an hour of training and sparring, Lockhart sat down again with a record of two victories, and poured a cup of tea for Moody.

Moody didn't stick to the rule of never drinking drinks poured by outsiders, took the teacup and took a big sip.

"You kid really has a way... You have improved again." He said in a low voice.

Lockhart is also not humble: "True, I happen to be very good at this aspect of magic

Now his confidence is indeed somewhat inflated, except for Dumbledore, Voldemort and Professor Flitwick, he dares to touch everyone else.

Moody is simply puzzled: "How on earth did you do it? I don't think you are a talented person."

Lockhart resolutely refuted this statement—if a master of fighting the black arts who has taken countless risks cannot be regarded as "talented and intelligent", then there are not many intelligent people in this world.

Moody sneered twice when he boasted that he had "adventured countless times", obviously thinking differently about it.

"Your book is full of wrong cognitions. Although the approach to dealing with dark creatures is correct, it is more like a mistake, because you don't understand the principle of doing that at all... To be honest, you It's time to strengthen the study of magic theory.

He said.

Lockhart understood two meanings from his words -- one was that Dumbledore did not tell others that his original owner was a liar; the other was that the original owner's book was full of flaws in the eyes of professionals.

Fortunately, his performance in the past two years has finally supported the personality of this "adventurer master", so Moody thought he was just not good at theory.

However, Moody's doubts are not unreasonable - the reason why Lockhart was able to make his magic level surpass a vote of the Order of the Phoenix bosses in more than two years was of course not by any normal means, but by a few "plug-in"

The first "cheat" is naturally money. With sufficient money and the backing of the Extraordinary Apothecary Association, Lockhart has no shortage of all kinds of potions, potions for restoring magic power and improving mental power. He can pour all the medicines without money, and practicing the spell will naturally get twice the result with half the effort.

The second plug-in is Ravenclaw's crown. After getting rid of Voldemort's soul, it becomes a real "intelligence enhancer". Understand quickly and make the training method that suits you best.

Although I feel very embarrassed to Professor Flitwick, Lockhart does not intend to return this crown.