Checking His Trump Cards
June 25th, the day after the end of the Goblet of Fire.
Throughout the corridors and corners of Hogwarts, students could be seen in groups of three or five, still enthusiastically discussing the Goblet of Goblet of Fire.
At breakfast time, in the Great Hall Hogwarts, Dumbledore addressed the entire school. He simply asked everyone not to disturb Harry, and not to ask him any questions or pester him to recount what had happened in the maze that day.
However, many observant students have noticed that two people are missing from the faculty seats—one is Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Alastor Moody, and the other is Ludo Bagman, one of the referees of the Triwizard Tournament.
As a result, various versions of speculation gradually emerged and circulated among the students.
Of course, Harry himself, Hermione, and Skylar were not present.
Although Harry had woken up from his coma, he spent most of his time hiding in his dormitory. Although Ron hadn't mentioned anything about what had happened while he was unconscious, Harry could easily guess that many students—or rather, most of his Hogwarts classmates—were probably gloating over his misfortune, because they all felt they had tried to steal the glory that belonged to Skylar.
Hateful!
This was clearly not my intention.
Harry went up to receive the award as instructed by the judges, and besides, he didn't know that Skylar had touched the Goblet of Fire!
"Skylar Malfoy!" Harry thought bitterly, "It's all your fault, you're the one who ruined me! You lying liar, I'll expose you one day!"
As for Hermione, she woke up immediately after drinking the potion prepared for her by Madam Pomfrey.
According to her, she had absolutely no memory of what happened that night. She only vaguely remembered that she was looking up information in the library, and then, half an hour before the start of the Triwizard Tournament, she was about to leave the library to go to the sports field to watch the competition, and then... and then she had no memory of it.
This experience of "memory fragmentation" greatly distressed her—but no matter what she tried, she couldn't recall the lost memories.
According to Madam Pomfrey, her memories were erased by some kind of unprecedented high-level Memory Charm.
Although Hermione insisted that she was fine, Madam Pomfrey insisted that she stay in the hospital for another day of observation.
As for why Skylar didn't attend, as mentioned earlier, Skylar was simply lying in his comfortable bed, doing nothing, and even his breakfast was delivered to his room by his House Elf.
As various versions of rumors began to circulate more and more widely, the atmosphere inside Hogwarts also began to change.
Although the news of Voldemort's return was not announced, a strange tension arose in the castle after that day.
All the students had the same feeling as if they had returned to two years ago, to the days when the Basilisk ravaged the castle.
Panic and distrust spread throughout the campus, and rumors spread at breakneck speed. Hundreds of versions of what happened after Skylar and Harry disappeared inside the maze had emerged, each sounding incredibly plausible.
Harry noticed that most people walked around him in the hallway, avoiding his gaze.
Some people covered their mouths and whispered among themselves as he walked by. He guessed that many of them believed Rita Skeeter's article and thought he was mentally unstable and likely a dangerous person.
The distrust from everyone exacerbated his already extremely bad mood caused by Voldemort's resurrection and his embarrassing moment of being knocked unconscious by the Goblet of Fire —it is said that he finally lost control of his emotions in the Gryffindor Tower and had a serious argument with his roommates Seamus and Dean.
The incident eventually required the intervention of several Prefect to mediate and successfully quell the conflict, but it sowed the seeds of discord within Gryffindor.
Harry now always has a "keep away" expression, and only Ron and Hermione can get close to him and keep him company—usually Ron and Hermione play chess and chat while Harry sits quietly by himself.
Of course, none of this concerns Skylar.
That's right, because of Skylar's appearance, Harry's personality in this world is very different from that in the original book.
The original Harry would have matured due to Cedric's death, so the rumors and gossip targeting him wouldn't hurt him. Instead, they would have taught him to silently shoulder the burden of fighting Voldemort, which was a crucial turning point in his journey towards becoming the hero he was in the original books.
The Harry we know today is vastly different from the one in the original books, whether in terms of courage, resourcefulness, or mental maturity.
But this wasn't Skylar's fault—ultimately, while Skylar was keen to win the Triwizard Tournament, it wasn't Skylar intention for Harry to be embarrassed by the Goblet of Fire. If Harry hadn't insisted on touching the Goblet of Fire, he wouldn't have suffered the backlash from its Goblet of Fire.
Skylar had a lot of things to do and time was running out, so he simply didn't have time to worry about the impact of his plans on Harry, Harry, and his friends.
With seven days left until the end of the term, he didn't intend to just idly waste his time at Hogwarts.
The first thing he had to do was examine his hand.
This experience of fighting against three quasi- Grand Sorcerer was indeed very beneficial to him, but it also exposed many of his Killer cards—the "Moon Shifts, Stars Move" that can transfer spells, the "Hypergravity Domain" that can be cast over a wide area, the "Perfect Fiendfyre Blaze" that has evolved into black, the "Nether Night Wand" that was sealed, and various treasures that he had collected over the years, etc.
Although he successfully capitalized on his opponent's misjudgment to gain the upper hand this time, it won't be so easy next time if his opponent is on guard.
Not to mention, the human puppets he damaged were not easy alchemical creations to make. Even the Hohenheim Family, a renowned alchemical clan, would probably need a year or two to rebuild a batch. Thinking about Eleanor's reaction after she found out he had damaged the human puppets, Skylar couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
And also...
Demon Hunter... my partner...
As a vessel for magic, the Demon Hunter was materialized through Skylar's magical ritual, gaining a real physical form. After enduring damage exceeding its limits, while not completely annihilated, it was essentially reduced to a spirit form composed of pure magical energy.
Rebuilding up strength to achieve resurrection will likely not be something that can be done in a short time.
It can be said that with the loss of two trump cards and the exposure of his hidden strength, Skylar's overall combat strength has been significantly affected.
Thinking of this, Skylar sighed, finally shaking off his languid mood, and got up to leave the dormitory.
Skylar arrived at the Secret Passage behind the large mirror on the fifth floor and entered the secret base of the Sleeping Dragon Society.
A commotion arose at the end of the long, Secret Passage.
After a moment's thought, Skylar roughly guessed what it was about. He quickened his pace and walked to the end of the Secret Passage.