Moody Rescued

Even Fudge realized something was wrong this time—ancient plants appearing at Hogwarts, what did that mean?

"Dumbledore..." Fudge's voice trembled. "They can't be telling the truth, can they? How could that be? How could ancient plants still exist now?" He chuckled dryly a few times. "You're all joking, aren't you? I must say, it's not funny at all..."

Ignoring Fudge's reaction, Dumbledore continued, "Besides that, what else have you discovered, Filius?"

"In the center of the arena," Flitwick said, "It seems a great battle once took place between two wizards..."

"You mean..." McGonagall had already guessed what Flitwick meant. Since Miss Monroe and Miss Hohenheim had been eliminated early on, the only ones who could fight in the maze were Skylar and Moody, and Harry was automatically ignored by her.

Besides, Harry hadn't mentioned this at all, and even if he were involved, he wouldn't qualify for Flitwick to call it a "great battle."

"Hmm, it must be a duel between Malfoy and Moody..." Flitwick recalled the traces of the tracking spells and various footprints, and said softly, "Moody must have struck first. I detected at least ten... no, more than twenty kinds of attack spells, and most of them were dangerous spells that could be fatal... I'm certain he cast the spells with the intention of killing his opponent..."

"How could this be?" Fudge couldn't understand. Although the House of Malfoy, as a faction that advocated Pure-blood Supremacy, had always been at odds with Moody, who was of Auror descent, Moody was an adult and a professor. For him to choose to use heavy-handedness, or even kill, against his student, who was an underage wizard, was highly illogical, even if there was some conflict between them.

No one paid any attention to Fudge's question.

Flitwick frowned, seemingly puzzled. "Strangely, Moody's attacks were scattered in all directions, and according to my investigation, almost all of them ended up hitting the hedge... Since the opponent is only one person, it can only mean..." Flitwick pondered, then uttered a conclusion that even he found unbelievable, "Moody can't see Malfoy?"

"That's impossible!" Not only Fudge, but McGonagall agreed. They both knew what level of alchemical equipment Moody's Alchemical Eye was; even an elite Auror- level Disillusionment Charm couldn't conceal its presence from him, let alone Disillusionment Charm cast by an underage wizard.

"Actually, that's not so strange..." Dumbledore interjected. "Skylar knows many spells that even I don't know about, such as the Human Transfiguration he performed in the last project... If you really want to say he knows some kind of magical invisibility spell, that wouldn't be surprising..."

"Even so," McGonagall said urgently, "Then why did Moody's attacks all ultimately miss?"

Before Dumbledore could explain, Flitwick spoke first, "I have a rough idea... Malfoy is in the air... because I saw traces of destroyed wands at the scene... reasoning backwards from the angle of the explosion, the Blasting Curse must have come from above... which means Malfoy knows how to Unsupported Flight?"

Unsupported Flight isn't some mysterious magic; it's just easy to understand but difficult to master. The principle is clear to everyone: you cast a flight spell on your body. However, actual control is extremely difficult—it requires incredibly precise magical control and exceptionally sharp reflexes. Even the slightest mistake can lead to tragedy.

Therefore, few wizards would bother to learn this skill of flight; they preferred to use alchemically crafted flying machines, such as brooms and blankets. In the global wizarding world, wizards who could master Unsupported Flight were extremely rare. (At this point, no one knew that Snape actually knew how to Unsupported Flight.)

Flitwick shrugged and said, "That's all I can detect. After that, the two completely disappeared... I have no way of knowing where they went, nor how they broke through the anti- Apparition barrier to leave..."

Fudge glanced at Scrimgeour, who immediately understood and pulled out a small, conch-shaped object from his pocket. It was a communication device exclusive to Auror, only available to the core high-ranking members of the Auror, such as Scrimgeour and his confidant Robards. Even Moody was not assigned this equipment when he was young.

Scrimgeour spoke a few strange sounds into the communicator, the kind of code used by Auror to communicate, and the communicator immediately responded with a strange sound.

Scrimgeour nodded, clearly understanding the reply from the other end of the communicator, and said to Fudge, "The Department of Magical Transportation hasn't detected the Portkey Charm, and there's no sign that Hogwarts' anti- Apparition has been broken."

The group fell into deep thought, and a moment of silence ensued.

Scrimgeour was worried about Skylar's safety. His relationship with Skylar was not just a simple friendship; they had also secretly formed many alliances of interests. He had high hopes for Skylar, and in his mind, once Skylar matured, his achievements would be comparable to Dumbledore's.

Flitwick and McGonagall were certainly worried about Skylar, but they were more concerned with the truth behind the events—why was Moody fighting Skylar? How did they escape from Hogwarts? And what about Voldemort's resurrection that Harry had just mentioned?

Fudge hadn't recovered from Grindelwald's escape, and now this happened. What troubled him was whether these events would affect his re-election. He was self-aware; he knew very well that he was the Minister for Magic elected in peacetime, and people valued his ability to maintain the Wizarding World's normal functioning, not his ability to handle crises.

No matter how terrifying Grindelwald was back then, it was 50 years ago. During his years of imprisonment, his body must have aged considerably, and his life of isolation would have made his magical knowledge and spellcasting skills rusty.

As far as he knew, after Grindelwald's rebellion failed, most of his followers had abandoned him, and of the seven core "Acolytes," only two were still alive. It was even more unbelievable than Voldemort being killed by an infant.

Besides, this isn't just a problem for the Britain Ministry of Magic. Even if the sky falls, the International Confederation of Wizards and the Ministry of Magic from various countries will hold it up together!

(Note: Grindelwald's faction is not "Acolytes" Acolyte, but "The Wizard Purity Party". The Wizard Purity Party's members are somewhat similar to the structure of Christianity, with Grindelwald being equivalent to Christ, and the Acolytes being similar to the twelve disciples of Christ, forming the core group. Other members can only be considered followers, equivalent to believers.)

Dumbledore wasn't worried about Skylar's safety—putting aside Skylar's strength, he had taken a Skylar Phoenix Tail Feather before leaving, so unless he was hit by the Killing Curse, it would be almost impossible to trap him if he wanted to escape.

As the most intelligent character in the original work, Dumbledore had already figured out the general outline of the whole matter in a short period of time—this was not difficult. He had always suspected that Voldemort's influence had infiltrated Hogwarts, but he had only focused his suspicions on Karkaroff, Bagman, and Crouch.

Now that he knew Moody was acting strangely, he immediately recalled Crouch and the House Elf Winky's unusual behavior at the Quidditch World Cup, and then remembered the commotion at Moody's house before the start of the school year that had alarmed the Muggle police...

So, the real Moody isn't dead... If he isn't dead, he must be hiding in Hogwarts, so Barty Crouch Jr. can always get his hair to make Polyjuice Potion...

Thinking of this, a cold anger appeared on his face. He raised his wand, pointed it towards the castle, and shouted, "Moody's stash, Accio!"

With a whooshing sound, a tattered wooden box flew rapidly through the air and arrived in front of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore didn't have the key, but in his eagerness to save lives, he used "Alohomora-predecessor spell" to blast open all seven locks on the chest.

He opened the box, and inside was a pile of spellbooks... He closed the box, then opened it again. The box no longer contained spellbooks, but various broken Sneakoscope, some parchment and quills, and a silver Invisibility Cloak... Dumbledore closed the box again... This was repeated six times. Finally, on the seventh time he opened the lid, McGonagall covered her mouth and gasped in shock.

At the bottom of the box was a large pit, like a basement. On the floor, about three meters deep, lay a person, emaciated, as if asleep. It was the real Mad-Eye Moody. His wooden legs were gone, the eyelids of his Magic Eye eyes were hollow, and several clumps of his gray hair were missing.

Dumbledore climbed into the box, gently landed beside the sleeping Moody, and leaned down to look at him.

"Knocked unconscious—cursed by the Imperius Curse —very weak," he said. "Of course, they need to keep him alive. Hagrid, throw down the Fake Moody's cloak—he's frozen. He needs to be handed over to Madam Pomfrey, but he's not in mortal danger yet."

Only seven Acolytes appear in the film: Vinda Rosier, Ms. Carrow, Macduff, Kenraford, Zabini, and Najer.