In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 392: Betting Every Second

Barty Jr. knew exactly what he had to do next.

The biggest problem now was no longer the invasion of the Headmaster's office by Dumbledore's men, but how should he keep the fact that they had lost contact with Voldemort under wraps.

Both Barty and Snape understood the reason why the Purebloods had been able to fight against Dumbledore's men for so long and still have the upper hand most of the time because they relied on the superior strength of their lord.

And now, especially with Dumbledore still inside Hogwarts, there was no guarantee of what Dumbledore would do if he learned that no one in the castle or the Ministry of Magic could contact Voldemort.

But while Barty was alarmed by this, he was not afraid.

They had experienced such a month more than a decade ago when everyone had learned of his disappearance and the Death Eaters got nearly wiped out, and the fence sitters began to turn towards the former Ministry of Magic and the loyalists were taken into Azkaban.

But then, Voldemort showed up in time and became even more powerful than before making it possible to recover all the losses of that month.

This time, the only two people who knew what the situation was, Barty Jr. and Snape, were not going to let such a thing happen again.

Soon after the Yule Ball, Barty and Snape gathered all the newspaper reporters currently in Hogwarts Castle, as well as the three judges of the Confederation, and informed them of the intrusion of a burglar into Hogwarts Castle last night.

"The castle is heavily guarded, I think those of you who have lived here during this time know that better than anyone, and the real answer to the question of to what side the person with both the ability and purpose to infiltrate the school at this time belongs, even if there is no clear answer yet, the real answer is actually in the back of your minds."

Barty Jr's face was serious as he stared intently at Matthew, who was sitting in front of everyone.

"This is undoubtedly a blatant breach of the rules and order of the Triwizard Tournament; we graciously invited certain people inside for this tournament, but by doing so we have been unable to probate those people's wolfish ambitions, just as if the host had opened the door wide to warmly entertain a group of thieves who, while appearing to sit honestly in the seats we had prepared for them, had actually long since wandered the entire room and stolen the possessions belonging to the host."

He didn't explicitly name anyone, but one only had to look closely at who was missing from the scene to know who Barty Jr. was calling out.

"As the most impartial judge of this tournament, I think you should say something, Mr Graves."

As Batty Jr.'s words fell, all eyes turned to Matthew.

Matthew frowned as he was baffled by the incident.

"I am the judge of the Triwizard Tournament, not the judge for the feud between your two sides, and there are still four days to go before the start of the second task, and anything that happens in between, between you two, has nothing to do with us."

"But they are doing this vile and evil act with the help of a Ball that is being held for this tournament!"

Barty Jr.'s voice echoed through the great hall, and he spoke with a voice that silenced all the whispers below.

"I have explained this incident to my lord, and he does not care what these thieves have done, but while my lord may not care, we, his people, cannot ignore it."

He lowered his head to look at Matthew.

"I won't make it hard for you either, Mr Graves, just help take a word to that man and tell him that what he has done is not unnoticed by us, and we can wait and see how it goes on when the final accounting will be made later."

With those words, Barty Jr. left from the great hall, Snape following right beside him, frowning a little bit.

"You can hide it from Dumbledore by doing this?"

"What do you think we should do about this?" Barty Jr. said coldly, "Pretend we don't know anything, that nothing had happened? That would be the stupidest thing to do, telling them plainly that we've lost our footing, what we need to do now is to speak up about it, let the whole wizarding world know, let them know that we know too, that would be the best thing to do."

Snape, however, was clearly not much in agreement with this.

"But what's the point of doing nothing after you've said it out loud like that? Doesn't it make it look even more like we're lacking in strength and are just barking?"

"That's only because you already know our lord is out of touch with us. Let's make a hypothetical, if our lord was still in contact with us, then what do you think he would have done to Dumbledore's group after learning of this?"

Snape was silent for a moment as he brought into the perspective of that happening.

"Our lord wouldn't have done anything to Dumbledore or those students of his either."

Barty Jr. spared Snape a glance of interest.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Our lord takes this Triwizard Tournament very seriously, all he has done before is make way for this tournament, and now that there are no more than a few days before the second task begins, as long as nothing happens that touches his bottom line, then he will just pretend not to see it and let the tournament proceed."

Snape's response allowed Barty Jr. to verify that he wasn't some mindless idiot.

"So our reaction now is the right one, to say things out loud and let everyone know so that Dumbledore will at least suffer in terms of public opinion, but then we won't do anything definite against them afterwards, only we will know that it's because we can't contact our lord anymore, and it won't even occur to anyone else, they will just think that our lord is still the same as before, swallowing his breath to keep the Triwizard Tournament going."

"Are you so sure that what Dumbledore had let his man do in the Headmaster's office didn't touch our lord's bottom line?"

Barty Jr. said softly.

"I'm betting on it. We started the planning for this whole incident, and all that Dumbledore and the others did was to go along with it, and I'm betting that they had no way to make a more crucial plan at the Ball yesterday than to make an extension of what we had planned. And we didn't lose any of those four things in the Headmaster's office, did we?"

"You're taking a chance." Snape gave him a deep look.

But Barty Jr. spoke with disinterest.

"Every second from now on, the moment we know that our contact with our lord is lost, we're taking a risk, it makes no difference."

***

With what had happened in the castle, Matthew soon found his way to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore listened intently as Matthew finished his account of what Barty Jr. had said in the great hall and had a very surprised look on his face.

"I had absolutely no idea what happened last night."

Matthew expressed full confidence in Dumbledore's words in response.

"I certainly do trust you not to provoke them into doing anything at this time, it would be the best possible outcome for you if you could carry on the Triwizard Tournament in peace and win it."

Dumbledore nodded with deep agreement, and behind him, a group of headmasters all nodded in agreement.

"So what did Crouch mean by that, did someone really take the opportunity of last night's Ball to break into the castle, or did he just want an excuse to come after us before the second task?"

Matthew gave his opinion in response to Dumbledore's question.

"No matter what it is, I don't think they would do anything to affect the upcoming Tournament task, you know, Albus, he's that serious about the Triwizard Tournament, surely he wouldn't just stop halfway."

Dumbledore showed a thoughtful expression.

"Probably not before, but now that both Beauxbatons and the Castle's champions are falling behind on the scoreboard overall, there's no way to guarantee if he has changed his mind."

Hearing him say that, Matthew had a solemn look on his face.

"I can assure you, Albus, that I will make sure the rest of the tournament goes properly, and as long as the blood pact between you and him is not broken, then nothing will go wrong."

"I certainly trust your assurance."

Dumbledore gave a timely smile.

They then exchanged a few more pleasantries, and after a final reminder from Matthew to get them ready for the start of the second task on the first of January, he excused himself and left.

The office fell back into silence.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and frowned slightly.

"Is this what we've been waiting for?"

The Slytherin calmly picked up on his words.

"As we predicted, if Riddle came to see you in person today, it means he still cares about the arrangements in the Headmaster's office, and if he didn't, it means he doesn't care if we know about his progress."

"But he has sent someone here at the moment, still Matthew Graves."

Dumbledore said, lost in thought.

"So what exactly is he trying to do? To claim the castle and after that? To win the Triwizard Tournament? But does he truly want to win?"

No one could answer his question, and silence fell back into the room.

Whenever there was news, the magical newspaper reporters were there, so of course they reported the news, and soon Barty's statement appeared in the next day's major newspapers.

But this unconfirmed information didn't make much of a splash in the wizarding world, as it was already December 27th the day the papers were distributed, just three days before the start of the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.

More people were still more concerned with the progress of the tournament than with the intrusion of someone into Hogwarts Castle.

And it was in this environment that the first day of 1995 arrived and the second task of the Triwizard Tournament was officially announced by Matthew on the lawn by the Black Lake.

----

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