In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter
Chapter 420: Who Are the Prisoners of War? (2 in 1)

Jon's words made the crowd erupt in an even bigger uproar.

There was really too much information in it, not to mention the later thing about Lestrange's father and son cheating in the castle as a team, but just the fact that Jon had said earlier about Emil's death being caused by Voldemort himself, was beyond absurd to all the students.

That their Mr Headmaster would show up in the castle in person not to kill Jon, but to kill Emil, who was competing on his behalf.

It was simply nonsense, something that no one would possibly believe, no matter who had brought it to their attention.

The students didn't believe it, and there was no way that Crouch and Snape, who were professors, would believe it.

"Do you think everyone here is a fool?" Crouch's face was cold, "Lord killed Emil? Even if you wanted to make an excuse to get away with murder, you should have thought of a more plausible lie, right? If you had just said that the Lestrange father and son had cheated and attacked you in the castle, and you were forced to fight back, then perhaps that reason would have been believable!"

As Crouch was speaking, Snape glared at several of the professors and castle caretakers on the lawn.

In response, these men immediately understood and instantly stepped up the steps, trying to enter the castle in front of Dumbledore and Jon.

"We need to investigate the truth of the third tournament before we can determine if we can recognize the outcome of this tournament or not."

Snape said flatly as he fixed his gaze on Dumbledore.

Yet Dumbledore and Jon both just stood in front of the castle doors, not even remotely trying to move out of the way.

"I'm sorry, Severus." Dumbledore said calmly as well, "This castle has not been yours from the moment the pact went into effect, and you certainly have no right to enter it now." S~ᴇaʀᴄh the ɴovᴇlꜰirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

His words certainly made Barty Jr. even angrier; hardly any of the students on the lawn had ever seen their Charms class Professor lose his temper like that.

"The final result of this tournament has yet to be approved by our lord! This castle will still be ours! Or do you want to start another war!"

With such unbelievably strong words and stances, Barty Jr. caused all those students in the crowd behind him to boil up even more!

They shouted even louder, trying to intimidate Dumbledore and Jon, shouting chaotically for them to get the hell out of there, and now that the result of the tournament had not been approved by anyone, the castle would remain as it was before!

However, Jon just exchanged a glance with Dumbledore, otherwise, there was no intention of making any movement at all.

Dumbledore just looked down at the rowdy students below him in a bland manner, then at Barty Jr. who was already glaring at him angrily, and at Snape.

"Perhaps you could try and snatch it away from me one more time?"

Such words from him ignited the anger of the students below even more.

Young people were the most prone to be hot-blooded and emotionally aroused, combined with the fact that these pure and half-blooded students had been taught that Dumbledore had always been the defeated enemy of their Mr Headmaster and that Jon and the rest of the students were bereaved.

If they had met them alone in private, then most of them would probably have been like Draco who looked too scared to say anything excessive to Jon.

But now, in public, with the professors around and Mr Headmaster likely to arrive at any moment, everyone's nerves were all up.

They vented their anger and emotions, and some of the more radical ones even raised their wands, waiting to help out in the background once Barty and Snape had started their fight.

Seeing this look on their faces, Jon finally felt ridiculous.

In fact, he and Dumbledore didn't even need to explain this after this tournament was over, the castle was already theirs both legally and substantively, and there was no chance of these people making waves at the moment.

The only reason why they continued to waste time here was that Dumbledore and Jon self-evidently both wanted to maximize their gains in battle together.

One bet to avoid war was over, and that meant another war could begin!

Just as the commotion below grew louder and louder, and Dumbledore and Jon showed no sign of moving away from the castle doors, the professors who had made it to the main doors were forced to mount a tiger by the command and raise their wands against Dumbledore.

Suddenly, the night sky was covered by a white shadow.

Countless wizards in white robes with the Witching Horizon insignia embroidered on their chests rode on flying broomsticks over the lawn in front of Hogwarts Castle!

Sirius with a cruel, quick smile on his face, Lupin with a deep look on his face, Moody with a serious one-eyed gaze, and Kingsley, who was commanding this large Witching Horizons' force to begin landing, and so on, the vast majority of wizards who had been members of the Order of the Phoenix before the formation of the Witching Horizon, came together in this long-lost school grounds.

Such a scene caused all the students below to become flustered.

The former students of the castle, who had been screaming that they would make Dumbledore and Jon suffer and that this would be the place where they would be buried once their Headmaster arrived, lost all blood on their faces when they saw that all those criminals who were wanted by the Ministry of Magic at the top of the list arrived.

Most of them were spoilt young lords and ladies who dared to shout along in the heat of the moment, but, when the big show came, when the war was about to begin, when they have to fight with their lives, they all became terrified of the situation.

The purebloods had a bright future ahead of them if they graduated from school honestly, and two whole classes of half-bloods and mudbloods were at their service.

And just as they were feeling scared, Kingsley and the others didn't let that stop their movements.

Soon their trained men encircled all the students gathered on the lawn and the professors of the castle, and although the circle did not look very dense, and they were obviously not as numerous as the students, wars between wizards were never won by the one with the most numbers, and even without them, they could not win with Dumbledore being here.

It was just that now that Kingsley and the others had formed an encirclement with their men, coupled with the fact that Hogwarts itself had been enchanted with an extremely strong anti-apparition charm, it was unlikely that anyone else would be able to kill their way out of here.

Barty's face had turned completely grim, he had never expected that Dumbledore would really dare to tear apart the whole thing like this and call his own people over like this.

But he was no fool either, and knew that as long as Dumbledore wasn't senile, he would never do something that he wasn't sure of unless he was sure that Voldemort wasn't going to show up tonight!

What had happened in the castle at today's tournament?

The uneasiness inside Barty grew stronger and stronger, while Kingsley, Sirius and Lupin raised their wands together and aimed them at Barty and Snape, who were standing at the front of the crowd.

As long as they were killed at the first opportunity, the rest of the students and faculty would not be able to do much more than jump around.

The situation had changed in just a minute.

Those newspaper journalists who remained behind were equally panicked, they had a feeling that something dangerous was going to happen, and now that the confrontation had taken place, they were both scared and excited.

Matthew had become extremely Buddhist about the situation.

Whether or not Snape and the others acknowledged the results he announced, the work of the judges of the Confederation had been completely finished with this task.

In this visit to Europe, apart from coming to organise this tournament to complete his task as a member of the Confederation, he would also have to make a trip to Northern Europe afterwards as a member of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, to complete his task as a member with a higher status in Congress as well.

Just as the atmosphere had dropped to a freezing point for a moment, and after Kingsley and Dumbledore had locked eyes, he raised his wand in his hand ready to start leading the charge against all the adult wizards in the encirclement, a black mist suddenly swept in from the sky not far away!

Voldemort, who was visibly a little pale, with a cold, vicious expression and not half as calm and relaxed as usual, appeared in front of the castle.

He was followed by a group of black-robed wizards on flying broomsticks, all Death Eaters also descended from the sky with their lord!

At the sight of Voldemort's still handsome young face, the students, who had been worried and scared, instantly erupted in loud cheers!

They were confident that Dumbledore had only dared to be so arrogant because he was betting that their Mr Headmaster was too involved in other matters to show up, and once he did, there would be no chance for Dumbledore to run amok!

All the pure and half-blood wizards in Britain knew that it was their great sir who had defeated the Dark Wizard Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts more than ten years ago.

It had been so long, and Dumbledore was getting older, while their Sir still looked younger!

As for the defeat in France earlier, everyone knew that Dumbledore had used some dishonourable means of backstabbing and sneak attack, which further proved that in fact Dumbledore could not beat the great sir at all and had to use such underhanded means.

Looking at Voldemort's appearance, Barty's face, which was already hard to watch, finally soothed completely at this time.

For him, winning or losing the tournament and winning Hogwarts was not important at all, what was important was that nothing happened to his spiritual pillar!

Like him, the faces of the other professors around him also became more relaxed.

Voldemort's name had an excellent morale-boosting effect, his name had been synonymous with invincibility for years, otherwise, he would not have been able to take over France and Britain so smoothly without a hitch.

Voldemort, with a group of Death Eaters behind him, and a group of people who could not be seen from the outside, arrived outside the encirclement where Kingsley had surrounded the former castle students and the professor.

He looked at Dumbledore, who was still standing in front of the castle, but such a gaze lasted only a few seconds before turning to Jon.

Jon didn't half bother to avoid it, he knew what this Voldemort in front of him was trying to do with such a gaze at this time.

He was examining, examining whether there was anything strange about Jon at the moment or not.

The other Voldemort would certainly not have told the current master of the body about his plans, but the two souls had lived together for so long that some things would surely reveal themselves even if they tried to hide them.

Voldemort at the moment must have known that his other self had prepared so much, hoping to bet on this Triwizard Tournament and this Hogwarts castle, and now that Jon had walked out and won the tournament just like that, it made Voldemort at this moment even more suspicious as to what kind of plan his other self had prepared and whether it had succeeded or not.

He scrutinised him in such a manner, it caused the others in the crowd to get the wrong idea.

Those former students of the castle thought it was their Mr Headmaster putting pressure on Dumbledore with a glare!

He was about to speak up and force Dumbledore to let them all go, or he would make everyone here today suffer!

And as they thought so, the next moment, Voldemort did speak up, only what he said was slightly different from what the students had thought.

"I admit it was you who won this one Dumbledore."

Voldemort's face was still as cold and stern as ever, but he simply admitted his defeat like that, causing the students who were still surrounded to look at each other together.

How could he admit defeat just like that!

If they lost, they would lose the castle, and the name of Hogwarts would only be used by Dumbledore, the most wanted man, and what would they do in the future? Where would they go to school and what would it be called?

Dumbledore stood on the steps and looked down at Voldemort.

"Of course, the bet was yours to lose, but that would equally mean that the short-lived peace would be over, the liberation of France would only be the beginning, and now it is time for us to reclaim Britain."

His voice was not loud, but it was loud enough for all present to hear.

Everyone except the wizards of the Witching Horizon looked at Dumbledore in shock, whether it was the former students or the faculty of the castle, or even the journalists who still had the audacity not to leave, all stared at Dumbledore with wide eyes.

Then, they immediately shifted their gaze towards Voldemort again.

How would Voldemort respond to the fact that Dumbledore had declared war in such an open manner, in his former home base, against his base?

The students were desperate for their Headmaster to immediately wake up this mad old man with unrivalled strength and show him what nonsense he was talking about and what foolishness he was trying to pull.

But Voldemort simply opened his mouth once more, and this time, it nearly caused almost all the students to nearly break down.

"So, before the war starts, do we need to talk about exchanging prisoners of war?"

Prisoners of war?

Who were the prisoners of war that Dumbledore had?

Could it be them?

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#Mathias Zink, Thanks for all your love and support.

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