In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 311: Lies (2 in 1)

"The Triwizard Tournament was proposed by the Dark Lord?"

Jon asked with wide eyes.

It wasn't surprising that Jon was shocked; he happened to have finished reading the first four books of the original story for the second time just before he crossed over, that is until the Goblet of Fire one, in which the Triwizard Tournament ended.

And the Triwizard Tournament had been held during the last year of peace in the magical world.

But now that Europe seemed to be in turmoil after Voldemort took over France, Jon had never even considered that the Triwizard Tournament could be held as it was in the original, not to mention the fact that history had changed dramatically.

Not only did the tournament going to be held like the original, but Voldemort himself initiated it.

Dumbledore gave Jon an overview of what had happened at the time when Witching Horizons was attacking the French Ministry of Magic, and as Jon listened, he fell into a moment of contemplation.

"He shouldn't have recovered that quickly." Jon said suspiciously, "At the time he had gone to such lengths to abandon everything he had in Britain to go to sea, and from what it seemed the most fundamental reason to do so was to resolve the trouble in his soul. It should have affected him greatly to have recovered so quickly after I left Starr's High Tower and tore up that pact, which is somewhat out of the norm."

"But what's even more out of character is that he's actually going to organize a Triwizard Tournament?"

Jon frowned.

"According to what you said, Professor, at that time, if he had recovered his strength to its fullest extent, the advantage should have been in his favour and the odds would have been in his favour. But instead, he intended to solve the problem by means other than war in the name of trying to preserve the French Ministry of Magic"

"I don't think he would give up recovering the reputation he lost during his previous public defeat by you just to preserve the French Ministry of Magic."

Dumbledore crossed his arms and placed them on his stomach as he chuckled lightly.

"That's not really a hard question to guess at all, Jon. When a man gives up what is seemingly best for him and goes for the other option, it means that he knows exactly which one brings more benefit to himself."

"The fact that he has now chosen to solve the issue with a Triwizard Tournament means that he believes that organising the tournament will bring him greater benefits, including the issues that are now reflected in this newspaper that he has ordered to be published."

"He wants to stabilise the situation and make everything work out for the Triwizard Tournament that will be held next. And all we have to think about is what kind of huge benefits could be brought to him by organising this Triwizard Tournament."

His expression was serious, and he was obviously discussing this seriously with Jon.

Wizards all lacked the ability to think rationally and logically to an extreme degree because they were in a state of emotional spell casting for so long, but Dumbledore was clearly distinguished from normal wizards in that although he had reached the peak of his emotional capacity, as he likewise did not lack rationality either.

"We can think in reverse about his most pressing needs at present to see what it is that this tournament has to offer him that could be of such great benefit."

"The first is the damage done to his soul after you destroyed the pact."

"He has recovered his strength strangely, and let's assume for a moment that this state of his recovery is temporary, unique, and cannot be maintained for long, then his most pressing need right now for him is a means to bring himself back to full strength."

"Secondly, the pact is unique enough that once it is destroyed it cannot be repaired, but he has left another backhand to ensure that it can be replaced if something goes wrong."

"Assuming that the reason he didn't want to fight me in the French Ministry of Magic was that his subsequent pact to stabilise his soul was not as stable as the first one, but still ensured that his power would be maintained, then the problem he had to face at that moment was what to do to turn back his defeat in France."

"Thirdly, the precondition is the same as the first, the pact has been destroyed, and he has used a special method to temporarily restore his state, but he has also confirmed that when that time is over, he will never be able to return to his peak strength."

"Then all he has to do now is to deal with me, by either bringing me down to the same level as him or by killing me outright, that would still satisfy his needs."

These three scenarios that Dumbledore deduced basically encompassed the full range of possibilities.

It is said to be three, but at the crux of each of them, there is actually a question of what state Voldemort's personal strength is in right now.

But what kind of transformation or change could the Triwizard Tournament offer Voldemort if it is held?

Jon mused and looked up.

"Could there be a fourth possibility, Professor, that the recovery of strength he showed in front of you was actually an illusion, that the offer to organise the Triwizard Tournament was just a way of stalling for time, and that he is still looking for some other way to recover his strength?"

Dumbledore nodded lightly.

"Don't rule out the possibility of anything without careful investigation, but first of all if he did manage to conceal it from me, it would mean that he would have been at the peak beyond me at the moment he did unless he used some means that are unknown to me."

It was only after hearing him say this that Jon suddenly remembered exactly the purpose for which he had come to see Dumbledore.

He had forgotten the main business just now after reading that Daily Prophet.

With haste, Jon brought out the portrait of the Slytherin and unfolded it in front of Dumbledore.

"Professor, I almost forgot, I visited that last point at the North Pole according to Headmaster Bagshot, where I entered an underground labyrinth and then found this magical portrait of Mr Slytherin, and from him, I learned what the Dark Lord had done after he found him in the past."

After giving Dumbledore his introduction, Jon looked down and apologized to the Slytherin in the portrait.

"I'm sorry sir, I forgot about you earlier."

On the wall behind Dumbledore where portraits of all the headmasters of Hogwarts hung, the headmasters, who had all been faking their sleep, saw the portrait Jon had pulled out and couldn't help but let out a soft gasp.

Slytherin, grumpy as he was, didn't care much about this little problem of Jon's.

As soon as the portrait had spread out on the table, he looked over at Dumbledore, who looked at him with a surprised look at the same time, greeting the old man in the portrait with some strange emotion.

"Hello, Mr Salazar Slytherin."

Slytherin gave him a slight nod in response.

"I have heard two different versions of you from two different students of yours, but I suppose I should be able to roughly make my own judgement now, as to who I should really believe."

A glint of gloom appeared on his old, monkey-like face.

"Tom Riddle has deceived me!"

Dumbledore and Jon looked at each other, he had obviously only just learned that Voldemort's last stop on his sea voyage was actually to see the portrait left behind by his ancestor at the North Pole.

Slytherin looked at Dumbledore and the wall of portraits of past Headmasters behind him as he said in a hoarse and angry voice.

"I know you all want to know exactly what he gained from me after he found me back then."

His gaze carried a gloomy and reminiscent look.

"That labyrinth in the Arctic was once a chamber that I created under the ice for magical research after I had left Hogwarts. There were many magical creatures sealed in the ice that hadn't melted in millions of years, that were different from the ones that exist at that time, and I travelled there to look for certain inspirations."

"This portrait was also left there at that time, and I used some small tricks to keep the portrait while I was alive as an ordinary portrait, but after my death, the potion that was prepared would be sprinkled on time on the ordinary portrait, so that it would become who I am now, to monitor the research I left behind in the Arctic and to control Hass... -a basilisk."

"Riddle came to that labyrinth fourteen years ago and found me, he said he had found my place through clues passed down in Slytherin House and that he needed my help as the magical world was in darkness at that time."

"He told me a story, a story of wizards who were suffering from muggle oppression, and purebloods hiding out in the middle of nowhere. In the story, Albus Dumbledore was a wizard traitor who had defected to the Muggles, he was the headmaster of Hogwarts and had implemented policies in the castle where the Muggles are the absolute core and the wizards suffer oppression. Moreover, he united with the Muggle kings and enslaved all the wizards, and the entire world was in a more miserable state than it had been a thousand years ago."

"Except for the wizards born in Muggle families themselves, all other children born from wizarding families are all tamed into slaves to serve the Muggles, and the wizards who have defected to the Muggles have created a pact to make the wizards' infants a slave from their birth, just like the house elves, to forever and ever serve only the Muggles, and even become tools of war for the Muggles. "

Dumbledore and Jon were both listening intently, and the successive Headmasters' portraits on the wall were all frowning and whispering.

"He said that the line of Slytherins had changed their name into the House of Gaunt and had been in constant hiding with several other ancient pureblood houses like rats, trying to escape the impending fate of being enslaved by Muggles. His mother was fooled by a vile muggle and fell into a trap, not only bringing calamity to her own family as a result but also birthing him as a half-blood and ending up depressed after his birth when that muggle father of his abandoned his wife and son."

"After he grew up and learned the real reason Hogwarts was founded in the first place, and to save the wizarding world from being completely enslaved by muggles, a second Hogwarts was established and every year he fought to raise wizard babies that had just been born and not yet discovered by muggles, educating the next generation of wizards while wandering to resist Dumbledore's hunting."

After hearing what the Slytherins had to say, the successive Headmasters burst out in a fit of anger.

"Shameless! Truly shameless!" The benevolent Headmistress Dilys' face was filled with indignation and anger.

Sirius' ancestor Phineas kept shaking his head, "To think that he could make up a story like that, even I didn't have such thick skin back then"

Dumbledore's predecessor, Armando, also sighed, "He can act, he fooled a whole school at that time, I have even always felt sure he would make the most outstanding contribution to the wizarding world in the future."

The headmasters in the portraits scorned, lamented and regretted this, while Dumbledore shook his head helplessly with a resigned look on his face.

"There is no better liar in the world than him, and all those things he told you have indeed become true now, but it is not the pureblood wizards who are being oppressed, but the muggle-born who have no heritage. He hadn't yet seized Hogwarts castle at the time he met you, nor did he rule the whole of Britain as he does now, but he could think of the idea of turning Hogwarts into a slavery farm, and presumably had already planned for the future at that time."

Jon had learned about how Slytherin was being deceived while he was in the Labyrinth, what he really wanted to know was what exactly Voldemort ultimately wanted from Slytherin that would help him.

"So sir, what did he want you to give him when he told you this then?"

Slytherin didn't hold back much this time as he continued with a grimace on his face.

"At the time he told me that he had no choice but to use dark magic on himself that would allow him to live forever in order to escape Dumbledore who was leading Muggles, and to continue to protect the seeds of the next generation of wizards."

Hearing this Jon and Dumbledore looked at each other, and they instantly thought of what dark magic he talked about.

"He had split his soul many times and made them into Horcruxes. He told me he was aware that it was evil dark magic, but he had run out of options, and after successfully making the Horcruxes, he did get through many crises with the help of it, but afterwards, he felt the harm it was doing to his soul."

"He became more and more irritable and emotional, almost losing his original reasoning. It was at this point that he sensed that something was wrong with his situation and that if he continued to rely on the Horcruxes in this way, then he would become another person, completely controlled by dark magic."

"So he thought of reclaiming all the remnants of his soul that had split and made into Horcruxes so that he could become whole again. But after the soul is split, it is not something that could be brought back again so easily. He literally stuffed the remnants of his soul into his body, but there was no way to connect the souls into a whole."

"In the old Slytherin family house, he read through some remnants of books about how I had researched the soul very much a thousand years ago, and then found me under that ice in the Arctic, wanting my help to provide him with a way to perfectly repair his soul."

Jon looked at the Slytherin in the portrait.

"You told him the method?"

"That's right, I believed him and helped him define a plan to make his split soul whole again, based on what he had described!"

Jon froze, and only now did he suddenly become certain of something.

The soul-separation pact that Voldemort had coaxed Sir Stoker into signing for him on Starr's High Tower was not aimed at the same soul problem as the one he had found Slytherin to carry out a patching up of his split soul!

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