I Have a Bold Idea

The Wizarding Charitable Association founded by the Wallop family was extremely efficient under Lupin's management. Even though it was late at night, the information that Sean needed was already on the table in no time.

"All the statistics have been compiled. Except for two team members who are on missions outside and did not send back information in time, the other data has been compiled and verified. According to the original mission distribution, the enrollment situation of the two team members who are on missions outside is not much different from that of the others. The data should fluctuate within the range of five students above and below," Lupin said.

"Thank you for your hard work, Remus."

Sean thanked him and quickly began reading the statistical data.

A moment later, he frowned; sure enough, there was a problem.

According to the information he obtained from Durmstrang students, Durmstrang currently has only about sixty first and second-year students combined. However, based on the information he obtained from his own people's statistics, Durmstrang poached more than forty students from Hogwarts ' student body during the emergency recruitment in the year of the Time Disappearance Incident alone.

This is just the recruitment situation for one year. In addition, there are some Pure-blood families who will definitely study at Durmstrang. That is to say, there should be at least fifty second-year students at Durmstrang now.

Even with Sean's interference the following year, Durmstrang couldn't have recruited only ten freshmen. According to other people's statistics, Durmstrang should have had at least thirty first-year students.

In other words, at least twenty to thirty first- and second-year students at Durmstrang are missing and have not appeared in the classrooms they were supposed to be in.

"What happened?" Lupin's voice became tense as he looked at Sean's serious expression.

Sean shook his head and told Lupin what had happened.

The usually mild-mannered Werewolf was immediately shocked, and then anger surged within him.

"How dare they do such a thing to the future of the Wizarding World! This is an outrage against all reason! Good heavens, what are they doing? Are they conducting some kind of horrific magical experiment on the children?!"

Sean said in a low voice, "Durmstrang's true purpose is still unclear. I need to find a way to rescue the students who are imprisoned on the Durmstrang ship first."

Lupin finally calmed his anger, and he frowned as he said, "But if we demand a search of the ship, the young wizards will definitely be moved quickly. If we force our way in at night, the result will be the same. Moreover, we must consider whether, even if we manage to rescue the young wizards on the ship, those who remain in Durmstrang Castle will face... will meet with bad consequences..."

Sean frowned. "That's exactly what I was worried about, which is why I rushed over to you to confirm the situation. I just didn't expect there to be so many young wizards being illegally imprisoned..."

"This matter must be reported to Professor Dumbledore," Lupin said immediately.

Sean nodded. "I've sent someone to inform Professor McGonagall and the others. Professor Dumbledore isn't at Hogwarts Castle right now, and the problem is, Mr. Grindelwald is also difficult to contact at the moment."

Lupin paced back and forth in his office. "The Ministry of Magic has been corrupted and is no longer trustworthy... Sean, should I go and inform other trustworthy people, such as James and the Weasley family? This is not a small matter that can be handled by two or three people. We need more allies."

After thinking for a moment, Sean nodded. "Okay, notify the people you trust. I have a feeling that it won't be long before we're facing Durmstrang's people head-on."

"Okay." With that, Lupin quickly left.

Sean didn't linger any longer. He sprinkled Floo Powder back to Newmontgard and returned to Hogwarts once more through the Vanishing Cabinet.

After glancing at the time, Sean estimated that Edmund should have finished informing everyone, so he opened the wooden door of the Room of Requirement in the stone wall inside Professor McGonagall 'Professor's Office.

"Sean!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed when she saw the wooden door that suddenly appeared and Sean behind it, but she only glanced at him in surprise without asking any questions before walking through the door.

A short while later, several professors from Hogwarts gathered in the Room of Requirement.

He explained in detail what he had discovered, and the professors all stared wide-eyed, followed by angry accusations. Professor Flitwick even jumped onto the table and started cursing at Durmstrang.

Only Snape, who maintained a somber expression, spoke coldly after the professors' anger subsided slightly, "This is a difficult matter to handle; we must inform Dumbledore."

Professor McGonagall's hair was disheveled. She adjusted her crooked glasses and frowned, saying, "I'll inform him. The priority now is to rescue those poor children—good heavens, it's a disgrace that Hogwarts is competing with a school like Durmstrang, a school of criminals!"

Sean began, "On one hand, we need to find a plausible reason to enter the ship without alerting them, and then rescue the children without giving them a chance to use the Portkey to teleport away. On the other hand, we also need to consider the young wizards left behind in Durmstrang Castle, after all..."

Seeing Sean's serious expression, and the professors' expressions not looking too good either, it was clear that everyone had thought of something.

If Durmstrang's men discover that their scheme has been exposed and there is no chance of redemption, the children they did not rescue will likely face a very terrible situation.

Sean took a deep breath and continued, "Another point we must consider is how many people in Durmstrang actually know about this."

"What I can confirm right now is that the vast majority of students are probably unaware of this. They only know that there are suddenly restricted areas in their school, which means they are actually innocent. Karkaroff is definitely an accomplice of the criminals, but it is impossible to determine how many professors have already joined in."

Snape scoffed, slowly scanning the others before saying, "Those of you here should all know... about the Returners..."

The other professors exchanged glances; clearly, they already knew of the Returners ' existence, and it seemed someone had informed them.

Sean probably got it hinted at by Dumbledore. Although he was bound by Unbreakable Vow, it wouldn't be difficult for him to simply reveal the news of the Returners, especially since the professors present were all highly capable and trustworthy.

Snape continued slowly, "This is obviously related to the Returners... To be honest, I don't understand why we're holding this year's Triwizard Cup and competing against Durmstrang. To me, it's tantamount to letting them infiltrate our school."

Professor McGonagall frowned and said, "We haven't known about the Returners for very long, and since Albus agreed to hold the Triwizard Cup as scheduled, he must have his reasons—besides, most of Durmstrang's children are innocent."

"But that's like letting wolves into the house. We have no idea how many scoundrels with ulterior motives are in Durmstrang. Our Champion were even attacked during the game!" Snape was particularly angry when he said this.

Clearly, he had never gotten over the fact that Daisy was ambushed at the bottom of the Black Lake.

Professor Sprout Hufflepuff Headmaster who had been silent until now, finally spoke up, "It is indeed troublesome. Now we even have to rely on Sean to get together and discuss this matter. But, boy, how did you discover this secret of Hogwarts? Oh, that's quite impressive."

"Luckily, Sean found out, and he's not the kind of person who abuses things," Professor McGonagall added.

"But we still need to come up with a suitable solution," Sean said.

The professors fell silent for a while before Professor Flitwick spoke up, "Could we set up an additional Magic Barrier to prevent the Portkey from being teleported? Combined with the magical restrictions that already exist at Hogwarts, I think that should be able to block the teleportation of those strange Portkey that Sean mentioned."

"But setting up a barrier of this level isn't something you can do with a wave of a wand. I'm afraid we'll need to ask the Babbling for help—" Professor McGonagall said, frowning. "It should be possible to do this with the help of the Ancient Runes, but the problem is that it will take a lot of time and make a lot of noise. It'll be easy for them to find out during this time. And, as Sean just said, even if we rescue the children imprisoned on the ship, what will happen to the remaining poor children in Durmstrang Castle?"

Professor Sprout also sighed and said, "Moreover, the Ministry of Magic is not trustworthy now. The Ministry should have many people who can help and Magical Item that can be used."

For a time, the proposed solutions reached a stalemate.

Then, Sean raised his hand.

"Sean?"

Looking at the handsome boy in front of them, the professors suddenly felt a sense of anticipation.

"I do have a bold idea..." Sean said carefully.

"Sean, tell me, young people are always more creative than old folks like us," Newt said, his brow furrowed.

Sean began by asking a question, "Professors, are you familiar with Durmstrang's personnel structure?"

Professor McGonagall pondered for a moment before saying, "The schools don't know each other's full details, but the personnel composition of each school is quite similar. Considering that Durmstrang's student population has been decreasing in recent decades, their faculty and staff should be slightly fewer Hogwarts's —I mean, the number of professors should be about the same, but there should be very few teaching assistants, and the other staff are probably less than half of Hogwarts's. Oh, right, there are the House-elves. That shouldn't be a problem; House-elves can communicate with each other. I can have Boris inquire about it later."

Snape added from the side, "But we have to take into account the existence of the Returners. Although Durmstrang is not the Returners ' stronghold, there are definitely many Returners members there."

Sean pondered for a moment, "Then let's assume for now that their numbers are slightly more than the Hogwarts faculty and staff, and we need to take into account some additional uncertainties, since they may possess some kind of dark magic."

"Sean, what exactly are you trying to say?" Professor Flitwick asked impatiently.

Sean stood up. "What we've been thinking about is how to save the young wizards on the big ship while ensuring their safety inside Durmstrang Castle. These two things are conflicting, because regardless of whether we rescue the young wizards on the big ship or not, the people left behind at Durmstrang Castle will definitely get the news while we're on our way—unless we can split into two groups, one to deal with the big ship and the other to infiltrate Durmstrang."

Newt stroked his chin and said, "But that's not realistic. Durmstrang is a prestigious magic school with a long history, and infiltrating it would be extremely difficult. We would also have to spare some manpower at Hogwarts, which would make it even more impractical."

Sean nodded. "That's right, that's what I was thinking. It's simply unrealistic to try to split up and try to do both things at once, to try to save both sides."

Professor McGonagall's mouth dropped open, then she quickly looked dejected. "But they are innocent children. They may be suffering inhuman torture and horrific magical experiments... I may not be able to say this, but as a teacher, seeing innocent students suffer like this, even if they are not my students, I simply cannot stand idly by..."

"No, Professor, you've misunderstood me," Sean said softly.

The others all looked over.

Sean shrugged. "Why should we split up? We could rescue all the children together."

Snape's eyes narrowed. "You're planning to..."

Sean nodded. "That's right. Once Durmstrang's ship returns to Durmstrang's castle, the young wizards on board will definitely be transferred back. The two groups will naturally merge into one, and then we can rescue them together without worrying about the safety of the rest."

Professor McGonagall's eyes widened immediately. "Sean, you mean?"

"It may sound unrealistic, but I think it's the best way—" Sean licked his lips, "We'll gather our forces and storm Durmstrang's castle."

Sean's audacious plan left the professors looking at each other in bewilderment, and then another idea popped into their heads.

It seems that Sean's method is indeed the best option?

Professor Flitwick paced back and forth on the table, saying, "You're insane! You actually want to attack a centuries-old magic school!"

After he stopped, he said, "We don't know Durmstrang's exact location and defenses. Moreover, we are fighting on their home turf, and we are likely to be short-handed. To break through the gates of a school, we would need at least three times the number of wizards defending it."

Sean blinked. "I do have a way to get into Durmstrang, and as for manpower, I have some rough ideas..."