The Calm Before the Final

William found it hard to believe, because according to the map's location... Astoria was in Crouch's tent.

Ah, this...

Crouch... you definitely have a big problem.

We've already discussed the imprisonment of adult wizards, but now they're targeting little girls?

You beast!

However, judging from the map, there was no one else in the tent, not even the House-elf Winky.

Since the last fire, Crouch has moved to a new tent, but he hasn't been at the campsite.

William sensed a peculiar conspiracy.

Twenty minutes later, the Auror had surrounded the tent.

On the sofa in the room, William found Astoria, who was unharmed but had been unconscious for some time.

He pointed his wand at the girl and whispered, "Rennervate."

The little girl woke up quickly, and when she saw William, tears streamed down her face. She then reached out and grabbed his collar tightly, refusing to let go.

Her face was unhealthy and flushed, and she coughed a few times.

Daphne quickly hugged Astoria from behind, comforting her, "It's alright, we found you."

William suddenly reached out, pressing his left hand against Astoria's chest and his right hand to pinch her chin, forcing her to open her mouth and peering into it.

After a moment, he frowned and said:

"Daphne, I've always wanted to ask... is your sister sick?"

Although it sounds like an insult, it's definitely not.

Daphne hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said in a trembling voice, "She suffers from Blood Malediction."

"No wonder." William looked at Astoria and felt a pang of pity.

Blood Malediction is a curse carried by blood and only appears in Pure-blood families.

This curse is a recessive genetic condition; in this generation of the Greengrass family, only Astoria suffers from it.

This illness also led to her physical weakness, causing her to fall ill from time to time.

This disease will haunt her for the rest of her life, especially her inability to have children, otherwise it will cause great damage to her body and lead to an early death.

"William, can you heal my sister?" Daphne asked softly. "If you can cure her, I'll do anything for you."

"This kind of curse is not my area of expertise," William shook his head apologetically. "There's nothing I can do about it."

A flicker of disappointment crossed Daphne's eyes.

"But I have a friend who might be able to help," William said uncertainly. "Let's take her away first."

Actually, Astoria's problem wasn't too bad.

She's just physically weak and prone to illness. As long as she doesn't have children and focuses on recuperation, she can live comfortably for decades without any premature death.

But if you absolutely must have a child...

The solution is even simpler... it doesn't even require involving the magical realm.

Just find a surrogate mother, it's no big deal.

Stepping out of the tent, Scrimgeour, the Head of the Auror Office, waved to William.

Upon receiving the news, Mrs. Greengrass rushed over and took Astoria away.

Mr. Greengrass also came over, wanting to express his gratitude.

William waved politely and walked calmly toward Hermione and Phoebe.

The Greengrass family doesn't have Death Eaters, but they could potentially recruit them as members of their own family.

However, it's also difficult, as these wealthy, old-established Pure-blood families have always been weak in class and unable to shoulder the heavy responsibility of resisting Voldemort.

"How is Greengrass?" Hermione asked in a low voice.

"She wasn't injured, but she doesn't know who captured her; she's been given Memory Charm."

That's strange.

This matter does indeed have a strange air about it.

Crouch himself wasn't at the camp, so it probably wasn't him.

But Astoria was in Crouch's tent... This was a setup.

Now, the only person William can recall who has a grudge against Crouch is the imprisoned wizard.

Crouch was also after him.

Because although Winky claimed to have gone home, she actually kept wandering around the camp.

This is Dobby said.

It's quite difficult for a House-elf to conduct an investigation in the camp without the knowledge of a group of House-elf.

But here's the strange thing.

The escapee's attempt to frame Crouch was far too crude and could hardly have any impact on him.

This shows that when the man first captured Astoria, he didn't intend to frame Crouch.

However, for some unknown reason, Astoria was released.

They couldn't just release him directly, so they simply pinned the blame on Crouch.

Why did he capture Astoria?

The little girl has a very limited circle of friends. The other person probably doesn't know her; they likely just saw a lone little wizard and grabbed him randomly.

So, there must be more than one wizard missing from the camp.

Just like cockroaches, when you see one, it means there are already thousands of them in the house.

William wrote a letter to Fudge, giving him a heads-up.

But Fudge didn't care, because no one had reported it to the police yet, and he couldn't be bothered with such a thing.

As long as no one reports it, then all is well.

Besides, it's a camp of 100,000 people, many of whom are foreign tourists. Who knows if a wizard will suddenly disappear?

William was speechless. If Minister Fudge didn't care, why bother investigating?

In this atmosphere, the semi-finals came to an end.

The result was not unexpected:

Ireland defeated Peruvian Team, Bulgaria narrowly beat Madagascar team.

Their mascot, a penguin, attacked Miss Veela during the game and was subsequently expelled from the arena.

The camp was teeming with people, filled with wizards, and its population far exceeded 100,000.

Those wizards who managed to buy tickets to the finals are a given, but those who didn't are even less willing to leave.

They also wanted to take the opportunity to sneak into the stadium.

The Auror found many such wizards.

After the semi-finals, many wizards did not leave the stadium but instead hid inside.

They can simply hide for half a month and then reappear during the finals.

The results for the Hogwarts Owners competition were finally released before the finals.

Unfortunately, the owl sent the results home, not to the camp.

So the twins were unlucky; each of them only received three certificates, a pitifully small number.

It is said that Mrs. Weasley was cooking at home that morning.

She was in a terrible mood because Ron was sitting at the table, complaining that he was hungry.

Enraged, she opened the letter and nearly fainted from anger.

Ron was the first to get hit. With the twins out, Mrs. Weasley could only take her anger out on Ron, who was constantly pushing her temper to the limit.

After that, twelve Howler were sent to the camp every day, lined up and delivered by Mrs. Weasley.

The twins were a little scared; the school was so insidious, actually sending their grades home.

They had even considered falsifying their grades, but luckily William dissuaded them.

Otherwise, this wave of casualties will be dire.

Cedric was as outstanding as ever, and despite not choosing Divination or Arithmancy, he received ten O's.

William also received a letter from the school listing the reading list for the new school year.

Inside the envelope was a sky-blue badge with a prominent "P" on it.

However, no one cared; everyone remained calm. It was only natural for William to become Prefect.

It would be strange if he weren't the Prefect.

Aki also received the female Prefect Badge.

Cedric was delighted because Cho had become Prefect, which meant he could use the Prefect's bathroom with Cho.

He's dreaming of eating peaches!

In addition to the Prefect Badge, William received another piece of news: he had been chosen as the captain of the Quidditch team.

This was quite commonplace, because although William wasn't the captain before, he had always exercised the captain's authority.

After all, this is his team, not someone he's there to support.

Moreover, there are no competitions this year, only Triwizard Tournament.

On the eve of the Quidditch World Cup final, the camp was unusually quiet.

Neither Little Tom nor the hidden guy made a move.

But this was just the calm before the storm; William knew... they were sure to make headlines in the final.

(Please vote for me, everyone.)

(Thanks to "Yun, Duan" and "Telus9" for their generous donations.)