In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter
Chapter 407: The First Person Out (2 in 1)

Figuring that out wasn't a big deal, because Jon still hadn't figured out the most crucial question.

"Do you know why the Dark Lord wants Hogwarts Castle to be in his own hands so badly?"

But apparently, this was a question that even the Sorting Hat itself had no explanation to offer.

"I'm not sure about that, it's only logical that he shouldn't have cared so much about the castle in the first place, because even if he did own it, it wouldn't give him half the benefits and promotions, at most it would allow him to stay inside the castle for a long time."

This question did not only bother Jon, but also the whole group of headmasters, including Dumbledore, who were all wizards who had once owned the castle, and each of them had failed to figure out exactly what Voldemort's purpose was in wanting to acquire the castle.

But even if they couldn't figure it out, it didn't really stop Jon from doing what he was doing right now; the more the enemy wanted to do something, the more it would be necessary to make it impossible for him to do it.

As long as he could win this tournament, it wouldn't matter if he knew the answer to that question.

So Jon stopped thinking about Voldemort and focused on how to find the Triwizard Cup.

As he entered the great hall, he didn't notice any significant difference in this place from his previous visit. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The flames from the candles were dancing, illuminating the shadowy areas where the sun did not shine, the tables and chairs around him were clean, nothing was placed on them, and only the ceiling, which reflected the sky outside, could give a hint of daylight deflection.

It was now a little over 11 o'clock and almost noon, with just over an hour to go before Emil and the others entered the castle to compete, and if Jon didn't find any further clues within that hour, it would be a waste of all the advantages he had got in the first two tasks.

Jon checked the hall out first along the perimeter of the great hall, and after finding nothing, he walked up to the long table on the high platform where only professors were normally allowed to sit and saw the seat where only Voldemort himself was allowed to sit.

There didn't seem to be anything wrong here either, but Jon was keen to notice that just behind this long table, a lit candle was hovering in place.

At first glance, there was nothing wrong with having a candle here, quite a few identical candles were floating up in other parts of the great hall, but Jon noticed that this one was hovering under the rays of the sun.

And all the other candles were used to illuminate areas where the sun did not shine, to enhance the brightness.

Of course, this candle might have flown into the wrong place, but Jon preferred that it was, in fact, a clue that Matthew and the others had deliberately left behind.

After observing the candle and not finding anything on the surface, Jon raised his wand and tapped it against the wick of the candle.

The next moment, the candle's flame surged up, and the flame rose more than half a metre high, but eventually, the flame soon declined, and the whole candle was half shortened straight away.

It was also at this moment that he discovered the real difference in this candle.

Although the wax on the surface of the candle was half burned dry, the wick inside was still not burned even a little bit, and it was on this wick that was standing that Jon saw a small line of words in a vertical column.

[The nature of the school is what makes it a school].

Just after Jon had finished reading this vertical line, the whole candle suddenly lit up, and then the candle was completely burned out, leaving only an extinguished wick on the ground, and on the wick, the small line of words had also disappeared.

Jon picked the wick up, not finding anything more special on it, and then he spoke softly and asked the Sorting Hat.

"So what's the nature of the school?"

With the Sorting Hat following him, Jon certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to not use this aid and try to solve the mystery himself; the Sorting Hat certainly knew a lot more than he did about this castle.

"That depends on whether the school referred to here is a narrow proxy for Hogwarts or a broad representation of all the schools."

"What if it just stands for Hogwarts?"

"If it's just a proxy for Hogwarts, well, actually the four wizards at the time created the castle itself only to allow the young wizards to escape the oppression of the muggles, so they could control the magic in their bodies."

Jon cupped his chin as he continued.

"So, if it's a proxy for the range of schools, then the nature of a school is to teach and impart knowledge? One to escape oppression and one to impart knowledge, and if this clue is meant to lead to where the Triwizard Cup is"

Jon looked down at the ground.

"Do Graves and the others honestly use this kind of dark sarcasm to make riddles?"

The sorting hat didn't offer any answer to that question.

If the riddle was a proxy for Hogwarts, then, in fact, this castle under Voldemort's rule had defied its very nature, as the place that freed the oppressors became the slavery field used to oppress, and the key place used to enslave the muggle students is in the underground floor.

But the problem is that, by now, Jon could actually almost read the position of the judge Matthew himself, who, judging by the attitude he had shown from the beginning of the tournament until now could indeed be said to be unbiased, so when it came to the last task, would the task designed by him would present in such a more biased stance towards Dumbledore's side?

But if the school was meant to be a whole range of schools, then the concept of teaching and education was so big that all the classrooms in the castle would fit into this concept of the nature of the school, and it would be basically not possible to search every classroom within two or three days without finding the exact clues in the search.

Jon felt that it would be better not to leave such a broad concept as a clue, as it would only take a little more effort to search the whole castle compared to just the classrooms.

In the end, he decided to go to the underground floor where the muggle-borns lived daily, maybe Matthew really wanted to help Dumbledore, but was just not in a position to express it clearly because of the Wizarding Congress standpoint itself?

He soon found his way to the stairway to the basement, which was located at the very edge of the castle, but it was the place Jon knew best.

It was here that he had spent more than half a year two years ago, and it was not possible for him to feel unfamiliar.

Down the stairs, the place was still no different from when Jon had departed, still as dark, damp and cold as ever, and it was deserted.

Dumbledore and his team had been here for so long without seeing a single muggle student in the castle, obviously, it was the result of Snape and Crouch's vigilance.

Walking through the gloomy basement corridors, surrounded by the dormitories of the muggle students, it was assumed that none of the participating students would be more familiar with this place than Jon.

He didn't stop, but of course, the first room he came to was the one he used to live in as "Randy Smith".

The old, damp bed was fully organized, with a linen robe hanging on a hanger beside it. Jon didn't touch the things in the dormitory, as it was obvious from a quick glance that there was no place to hide the trophy, as there were so few items in it.

Jon spent another half hour quickly checking the rest of the dormitories, each of which had no locks on the doors, so his progress wasn't really slow, but until he had checked all the rooms in this basement, he hadn't got anything.

This didn't disappoint Jon much; if things were really going so well, then he would have been suspicious.

After making sure that nothing more could be found here, Jon decisively left the basement, and he started looking through the classrooms on the ground floor to see if he could take his chances with the concept of a school in the broad sense of the word.

There weren't many classrooms on the ground floor, and it only took him an hour to reach the first floor, and just as he had walked up the easternmost stairs of the castle to the first floor.

1 pm had arrived.

Outside the castle, Matthew let Diane, as well as Emil, inside on time.

But with all eyes on them, neither Diane nor Emil made the first move, and they watched each other from the front door of the castle, both clearly on guard.

No one would waste their time staggering around the door instead of searching for the trophy, as a failure to do so would be a complete waste of all the advantages and effort they had put into their first two tasks, but it was a different story when they both had the same score and entered the castle together.

Both Diane and Emil knew in their hearts that there was no way to guarantee that the one who entered the castle first would not launch a surprise attack on the other and eliminate one of them on the spot.

And so it was in this way that they stalled in front of the door for a full five minutes before it was Emil who finally gritted his teeth knowing that it would not be in his best interests to continue to drag on like this, as every additional second delayed was tantamount to giving an added advantage to Jon who was already inside the castle.

"Get in together."

He said, staring intently at Diane.

Diane didn't want to stall here any longer either, not that she didn't see that by holding Emil here now she was actually indirectly aiding Jon, but holding her wand up like this all the time was starting to make her arms feel distinctly sore and numb, and with so many people watching, she couldn't stay up here any longer either.

So she nodded and agreed to Emil's proposal.

A large door like this was certainly more than enough for two people to enter at the same time, and they stared at each other, neither lowering their aimed wands and together they slowly took steps towards the castle until they were completely inside.

It was also just after they had entered the castle that the open door closed again, separating the castle from the space outside the grounds.

Diane didn't relax for a moment, even after she had entered the castle, she kept her eyes on Emil, calculating in her mind what her chances of success would be if she made her move as soon as the doors were closed.

Even if they were both disqualified here, it would still be a victory for her, and Draco, who was left to wait until sunset to enter the castle, would not be able to make any impact on Jon.

And just as the doors of the castle closed, and the entrance hall began to grow dark, Emil, who was also facing Diane with his wand raised, suddenly had a sarcastic smile on his face.

In that instant, Diane's heart jolted with a sudden sense of foreboding, but before she could recite the incantation, a scarlet beam of light had silently struck her in the back!

"Poof."

Diane, who had been struck by the Stunning Spell, just fell to the ground, her bare forehead knocked on the ground with blood.

"Should we leave her right here, or just throw her out?" Emil asked.

The sneaky wizard was modifying Diane's memories.

"Throw her out, not only are we trying to get the championship, but we also always need to show that you eliminated them by your absolute hard work."

At these words, Emil's face did not show any sign of shame, instead, he simply grabbed one of Diane's arms, who had already passed out from the memory alteration, and proceeded to push open the closed castle door, throwing the competitor, who had walked in with him in public only half a minute earlier, out of the castle.

When the castle door was reopened from the inside, many people outside noticed the scene.

They saw that the person pushing the door open was Emil, and they also saw him throw Diane, who had passed out and was bleeding from the head, out, and then Emile slammed the door shut again without saying anything, with a smile on his face.

There was a brief moment of silence among the students of the castle before a loud cheer erupted the next second.

Other than that, the fact that Emil had eliminated an opponent like that not even three minutes after he had entered the castle was definitely encouraging for the castle students who had been depressed from the first task until now.

While the faces of the students at Durmstrang were certainly sombre, Rosier on the other hand was calm as she walked forward and helped Diane, who had fainted in front of the castle door, to her feet while removing the Stunning Spell on her.

Diane opened her eyes in some confusion, and it was only after seeing Rosier that her pupils gradually began to come into focus.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I didn't beat him in a duel."

Rosier just shook her head.

"You've done all you need to do, the rest is none of our business."

She assisted Diane, who hadn't fully regained her strength, back to the audience, and it was at this point that Matthew made his announcement about Diane's elimination.

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