The End of May

Saturday, May 29th.

Harry received a letter from Sirius Black.

In the letter, Sirius Black harshly criticized Harry's decision to go into the Forbidden Forest alone with Skylar, believing that there were some very dangerous figures at Hogwarts trying to prevent Crouch from seeing Dumbledore.

In fact, Dumbledore was already on high alert the moment Harry's name was placed in the Goblet of Fire of Fire. To successfully place Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, one would need to deceive both the Goblet of Fire's magical consciousness and one's own Age Line. This would require a very powerful wizard with meticulous planning, and theoretically, it would be very difficult for an underage wizard to accomplish this.

So at this point Dumbledore realized that there were very dangerous people lurking in Hogwarts, and that these were adult wizards who had appeared because of the Triwizard Tournament. This narrowed down the possibilities to a few visiting Ministry of Magic officials and the two headmasters, including Igor Karkaroff, Olympe Maxime, Ludovic Bagman, and Barty Crouch Barty Crouch Sr..

Madame Maxime is the person the Ministry of Magic most wants to suspect because she is a Half-Giant, but Dumbledore himself is not a racist, and he also sent Hagrid, that big oaf, to deliberately approach her and monitor her. Of course, it is beyond Hagrid's control that this straight man who only likes to raise magical beasts suddenly develops feelings for her for no reason.

In any case, Madame Maxime's suspicion can be ruled out.

Karkaroff was a confirmed Death Eaters; he betrayed a large number of Death Eaters to save himself after Voldemort's downfall, making him a complete villain. According to Snape's intelligence, he was terrified of Voldemort's return because he, as a traitor, would certainly be severely punished. Although he didn't seem to have a motive to kill Harry, if he knew Voldemort was about to return, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to kill Harry to atone for his sins.

Therefore, he was Dumbledore's first suspect.

Bagman was once accused of Death Eaters, but during his interrogation, he feigned stupidity and used his popularity as a football star to escape punishment. He wasn't truly as foolish as he appeared; he was extremely adept at disguising himself, using this image of foolishness combined with his football star status to his advantage. In the original books, Rita Skeeter once said, "He's a seasoned liar," and also made a rather cryptic remark to Hermione—

"You silly little girl, don't talk nonsense about things you don't understand. I know Ludo Bagman to make your hair curl—" (Note: "Make your hair curl" means enough to scare you. Rita is using a double entendre here, also mocking Hermione's fluffy curls.)

In Dumbledore's eyes, Bagman was no less suspicious than Karkaroff. Bertha Jorkins, a subordinate of his, had been missing in Albania for so long, yet Bagman showed no concern whatsoever. Furthermore, Bagman was one of the few who knew all the events of the Triwizard Tournament (to be fair, the three headmasters probably didn't). When Harry became the fourth Champion, Bagman was far too overjoyed; how could he not have realized how dangerous the Triwizard Tournament events were for a 14-year-old?

Bagman was probably the second suspect in Dumbledore's mind.

Barty Crouch the Barty Crouch Sr. was originally a very upright man who deeply abhorred Dark Arts, but his suspicious behavior also lay in his extreme abnormality. He was originally a workaholic, but at this time he was going to work less and less, and was on vacation at home every day, which made it seem like he was secretly plotting and carrying out some unknown plan.

Dumbledore was well-versed in human nature, dared not rule out the possibility that Barty Crouch Sr. had turned to the dark side. After all, he had been a vanguard in the fight against the Dark Side, but he lost the election for Minister for Magic. On the surface, he was transferred to a lateral move, but in reality, everyone knew that he had been sidelined and demoted by the ruthless Fudge. Then his wife and son died, and his family was in complete disarray. It wouldn't be unreasonable for these experiences to cause his dark side to erupt.

It's no wonder Dumbledore didn't consider the possibility that Mad-Eye Moody was an imposter; all three of them were simply too suspicious.

Dumbledore Sirius Black was also the most suspicious of the three. He believed that the mastermind's ultimate goal was to kill Harry.

So, after severely reprimanding Harry in the first paragraph of the letter, he then demanded in the second paragraph that Harry stay with Ron and Hermione, not leave the Gryffindor Tower after school, and prepare well for the Third Task: practicing the Stupefy and the Expelliarmus. He added that learning one or two poison spells wouldn't hurt.

In the following days, Harry spent his time either researching poison spells in the library with Hermione and Ron, or sneaking into empty classrooms to practice. Harry focused on practicing the Stupefy, a spell he had never used before. It was just that Ron and Hermione had to make some sacrifices.

Ron was incredibly loyal. During sparring sessions, he would be knocked unconscious and woken up by Harry at least five times a day. Although he had prepared a mat behind him beforehand, sometimes when he was unconscious, he couldn't land accurately on the mat, resulting in him falling and getting injured all over his body and in pain.

Yes, he did complain a bit, asking Harry to find a House Elf or kidnap Mrs Norris to replace him, but at least he genuinely practiced with Harry.

When Hermione criticized Ron for never falling onto the mat, Ron finally snapped.

"You can't aim that accurately after being knocked unconscious, Hermione!" Ron said angrily. "Why don't you try it yourself?"

Hermione stuck out her tongue and quickly changed the subject, saying, "Oh, I think Harry already knows the Stunning Spell, and there's no need to worry about the Expelliarmus; he already knows that. I think we should practice a few poison spells tonight. I think the Impediment Jinx is good; it can intercept anything that tries to attack you. Harry, let's start with that."

Ron: "..."

While Harry, Harry, and his trio were busy preparing for their Third Task, Skylar wasn't idle either.

Skylar's Sleeping Dragon Society is on the right track. After he made a new wand for Susan, his six most trusted girls have each found their own way to become stronger. They have not disappointed Skylar. They train diligently every day, and each of their strength is increasing rapidly. He no longer needs to worry about them.

As for the intelligence network, Dobby's intelligence has Dobby increased after drinking the improved version of "Baruffio's Brain Elixir" given to him by Skylar, making him even more efficient. With the addition of Dazed and Dum-Dum as his two new subordinates, Dobby now has five House Elf under his command, which is more Dobby enough to support the information delivery and transfer of the current-sized intelligence network.

Therefore, Skylar was finally able to calm down and delve into his own magic.

The main techniques are the Zhang Family's secret "Illusory Clone" and the "Unsupported Flight" that Snape taught him.

The days passed uneventfully until June 5th.

Skylar celebrated his 15th birthday.

On this day, he not only successfully advanced to the level of "Beginner Auror" (due to reaching the age threshold), but also, through his hard work in the past few days, finally mastered "Illusory Clone" and "Unsupported Flight".

In other words, if he were to share Sarf's magic power using the Serpent Ring, he would very likely reach the level of a "quasi-magician"!

["Illusory Clone" skill learned!]

[Learned "Unsupported Flight"!]