Chapter 316: Chapter 315 Cursing battle (2 in 1)
"Nick? What are you doing in the boys' lavatory? Do ghosts have to go to the toilet too?"
"What? You want to know about the story of me taking 17 shots of a killing curse all by myself too! Well! I don't think there's really anything to brag about, but since so many people want to know, it doesn't matter if I tell it again!"
"No did you hear my question, I don't want to hear it! Nick, you've been telling it to everyone for almost a week now! Don't say it."
"It was Jon who inadvertently found out when he blocked the first killing curse using me! He had me on his back at the time and the naughty Gabrielle tried to draw something on my handsome face, to stop her Jon switched me to his front and because of that, in return, I saved his life"
What was the most painful thing for Hogwarts students during this time?
That would be listening to Nick's relentless bragging about how he had blocked 17 shots of killing curse.
This one glorious experience surpassed even his previous bragging about his knighthood, which he would talk about ten times whenever he met someone.
The students were happy to listen at first because the shock Jon gave them that night was so great.
He had killed two of the Dark Lord's best men with his own hands in front of the dark lord and left him helpless, so many of them wanted to know about Jon's experiences in the Arctic.
But even if they wanted to know more, they couldn't stand Nick's bragging about it to everyone he met, like an external megaphone.
Of course, this didn't make much difference to Jon.
It wasn't as if his experience in the Arctic labyrinth was a secret, and he didn't mind if Nick didn't keep it to himself.
He had been keeping an eye on the leaf of mandrake in his mouth all these days, and it had certainly gone a lot smoother this time than the last time when he had accidentally swallowed it down with the milk due to his inexperience.
It had lasted for over twenty days with no problems, and just as Jon was waiting for the end of the month-long cycle, to take the leaf out of his mouth on the night of the full moon and begin the next step.
An early summer drizzle blanketed the whole of Lyon.
The clear night sky was obscured, and the moonlight was hidden behind thick, dark clouds, signifying another failure for Jon.
The night he took the leaf out of his mouth had to be a clear night sky, and the same had to be true for the full moonlight, and only if such conditions were met could Jon put the leaf into the crystal vial and then fill it with saliva.
And even if he thought of leaving Lyon for the time being and going to another area where there would be moonlight, he could not do that. The location where he placed the leaf into his mouth and where he took it out on the night in question had to be the same, and the deviation could not be too great, otherwise, it would also lead to the failure of the final potion.
Such a harsh and very luck-dependent condition left Jon with no choice but to ask for another leaf of mandrake from Lily and put it in his mouth again.
During this month, many things happened in the magical world.
Firstly, the existence of the Slytherin portrait was reported by the Witching Horizons' Starlight newspaper.
Although there is now a bet on the Triwizard Tournament to determine Hogwarts' orthodoxy, the existence of the portrait of Salazar Slytherin himself could now be used to effectively combat Voldemort's theory of pureblood supremacy which is the basis of his rule.
After all, even the ancestors who once insisted on the pureblood school of thought openly declaring that purebloods are never supposed to be superior is a fatal blow to public opinion against the very basis on which purebloods occupy the high ground.
And as soon as the newspaper article was published, most of the newspapers throughout Europe followed suit and quoted it.
Although a number of magical governments were a little more inclined towards Voldemort on the day of the Triwizard Tournament champions selection, the majority of the wizarding public was still overwhelmingly against the policies that are now being implemented in Britain.
Needless to say, there is no way that muggle wizards would support it, and as for the half-bloods, they are not blind, it may seem that they are the beneficiaries once a muggle wizard group has become slaves, but the purebloods have also become superior, and no matter how much they are whitewashed, the half-bloods are also the targets of oppression.
Who would want to go from being equal to unequal unless they faced the same situation as the half-bloods in Britain and France, where they succumbed to the personal power of Voldemort and had to hold their noses and accept the status of being second-class citizens?
So even though most of the higher echelons of the magical government leaned towards Voldemort, among the wizarding populace, no one would be willing to admit that purebloods are inherently noble as long as the war had not yet reached their country and there was no violent intimidation.
Still, even more, explosive revelations have yet to be made public in regard to Slytherin's comments at that time.
As an ancestor of the Slytherins, Salazar himself admitted that Voldemort is in fact his descendant who carries his own blood, but the pureblood leader, whose real name is Tom Riddle, is in fact a half-blood, to begin with!
No other proof is needed for this, just finding out where Voldemort came from would be enough to count as hard evidence.
Because although there were more than twenty-eight recognized pureblood wizard families in Europe back then, there was no such family name as Riddle who still exist or had been destroyed!
The purebloods who had followed Voldemort since he was a student had always believed that Riddle was not Tom's real family name and that he must have come from a more noble and distinguished family.
Even Voldemort himself always believed this until he later found his Muggle father's family.
This news caused even more controversy.
The man who had taken the theory of pureblood supremacy to the next level, who had rallied a large number of pureblood families to this cause, and who they revered as their Lord, is actually a half-blood?
If this were to be proven, it would be tantamount to putting Voldemort's theory to shame.
If purebloods are truly superior, who are you to be their leader?
The issue of Slytherin siding with Dumbledore and the question of Voldemort's bloodline was a raging debate throughout Europe.
And Dumbledore had deliberately chosen this time to ignite such a public outcry and had specifically sought out the perfect opportunity to do so.
As in his and Jon's analysis, Voldemort's actions from the start of the year looked like a desperate attempt to maintain the normal hosting of the Triwizard Tournament.
In such a situation, using the Slytherin portrait to directly sack him would be tantamount to forcing him to make a choice.
Whether he wanted to tear his face off again, or continue to bear the anger and insist on waiting for the start of the Triwizard Tournament.
If he couldn't bear the anger and tore the face-off, then he would have to suffer the consequences of breaking the Blood Pact.
If he chooses to hold his breath, then this public opinion is like a sharp blade stabbed into his waist, with the bloodline in question, how is he going to maintain his ruling foundation next?
In fact, the issue of Voldemort's bloodline has always been a key tool held by Dumbledore's side.
But such information would have been mostly useless to expose during the previous period when Hogwarts was still in exile in Britain because at that time Voldemort equated to a total crushing victory.
The Order of the Phoenix also had no outlet to speak out, and even if they did, they lacked evidence, and even if some of Voldemort's own people knew that their Lord had a problem with his bloodline, they would just keep that knowledge to themselves.
But now the situation was completely different.
The war between Dumbledore and Voldemort had reached a turning point on the night of the Witching Horizon's attack on the re-educational camp.
Voldemort, who had used absolute force to enforce his oppressive policies, had experienced a defeat that began to reveal all the flaws in his rule.
On that night, after Jon had plunged the Basilisk's fang into Bella's chest in front of so many people in Europe, he also smacked Voldemort hard right in the face.
Under such circumstances, it is, of course, necessary to beat up the drowning dog, exposing all the problems Voldemort had previously kept under wraps, and further forcing him into a corner.
As for Voldemort's side, after the issues concerning Slytherin and his own bloodline were brought to light, they also quickly responded with a counter-attack.
As Dumbledore had guessed at first, Voldemort certainly wasn't thinking of ruining anything; he had maintained the hosting of the Triwizard Tournament just as he had before, and given his current nature, he wouldn't discard all his previous set-ups by being so cranky.
But he didn't just sit back in silence and wait for the pressure of public opinion to get to him either.
While Dumbledore now had a propaganda outlet, Voldemort, who had been operating in Britain for over a decade, could of course use public opinion to counteract it.
He used the simplest and most effective method, denying directly in the Daily Prophet the authenticity of the Slytherin portrait that Jon had brought back from the Arctic Labyrinth, saying that it had been forged by Dumbledore himself and was a hoax.
On that note, the authenticity of the Slytherin portrait really isn't that easy to prove - after all, it's not like it's Slytherin himself or the ghost he left behind or anything.
There is certainly the possibility of a forged magical portrait, and as long as the Daily Prophet is convinced that the portrait in Witching Horizons' hands is a forgery, no matter what Dumbledore's side says, they won't be able to come up with any better evidence.
As for Voldemort's own bloodline, it is not easy to find hard evidence for that. The Gaunt family members were not all dead, and before Voldemort ruled Britain, he had an uncle who was imprisoned in Azkaban.
But after he had taken over the British Ministry of Magic himself, the last direct male member of the Gaunt family had simply disappeared.
Whether Voldemort killed him off as he had killed his own father's family or hid him privately is unknown, and the orphanage where he had previously lived was also shut down long ago.
The only person who knows Voldemort's true identity, apart from Dumbledore, who took him out of the orphanage, is the portrait of Slytherin himself.
Now that the Daily Prophet had bitten off more than they could chew by saying that the portrait is fake, they of course went along with it and stressed that everything that had come out of the Slytherin portrait's mouth was a lie!
In this way, the Starlight and the Daily Prophet bickered against each other, with the editors of both papers scrapping their quill pens and cursing each other's lack of honesty.
One side denounced Voldemort for forgetting his ancestry, for lying even to his own ancestor, and for leading a pack of unscrupulous villains from top to bottom in the ranks of the purebloods.
One side cursed Dumbledore for making up everything, even faking the portrait of Salazar Slytherin. If the real Salazar knew about this, he would have crawled out of his coffin and killed him with a killing curse.
The article in the Daily Prophet would inevitably reach Slytherin's portrait who was already hanging on the wall of Dumbledore's office.
He was not a very good-tempered old man, or he would not have got into that mess with his best friend Gryffindor a thousand years ago over bloodlines.
After hearing that his identity had been judged to be a fake, he cursed Voldemort directly, making even Phoenix, who had never been very clean-mouthed either, crane his neck a little.
Public opinion in the magical world was also in complete disarray.
It was not a question of who had cursed who in the Daily Prophet or the Starlight, but which side the rest of Europe's wizards were willing to believe.
But even as the two sides were cursing each other in the newspapers, in reality, the preparations for the Triwizard Tournament had always proceeded in an orderly manner.
Firstly, there was the question of who would be the judges for the tournament.
In the past, the referees for the Triwizard Tournament have always been the Headmasters of the three magical schools and the local Ministry of Magic officials who are responsible for organising the tournament.
In the current situation, even if the tournament would be held in Britain, there would definitely be no chance of having someone from the British Ministry of Magic on the judging panel, which would be tantamount to handing over the title to Voldemort's side.
After much bickering and mutual concessions, the panel of judges was determined to be one from each of the two Hogwarts schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, plus three wizards nominated by the International Confederation of Wizards, making a total of seven judges.
Having the International Confederation of Wizards send few people to be judges was also an acceptable outcome for both sides.
Ever since Dumbledore was defeated by Voldemort ten years ago, the position of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards had remained vacant.
This organisation normally didn't really have much actual power, but merely provided a platform for various magical governments around the world to exchange ideas.
It was also because there were all kinds of wizards within the organisation's structure that it was very difficult to reach a unified opinion, and most of them were still in the mindset of watching the dispute that was happening in Europe right now.
The choice to have them send out three people to act as judges this time was also limited in terms of the identity of the wizards sent.
Voldemort and Dumbledore both agreed that the International Confederation of Wizards could not send any European wizards as judges, but only wizards from other continents.
Once the judges had been decided, the question of the tournament tasks would naturally be resolved.
Normally, there would only be three events in the Triwizard Tournament, and at present, there are three forces on the judging panel, counting those from the International Confederation of Wizards.
Each of them will choose one task for the tournament, and then the people from the International Confederation of Wizards will make some modifications and adaptations before finalising the entire tournament.
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