The Association founded by the Wallup family was extremely efficient under Lupin's management. Even though it was already midnight, the information Sean needed was on the table quickly.
"All the reports have been made. Except for the two team members who were performing missions outside and did not send back the information in time, the other has been checked. According to the distribution, the enrollment is not much different from that of the rest. The numbers should be within the range of those students." Lupin said.
"Thank you, Remus."
Sean thanked him and quickly read the reports. After a while, he frowned; sure enough, there was a problem.
According to the information he got, there are only about 60 students in the first and second grades in Durmstrang. Still, according to the information obtained by his report, it was different. During the emergency recruitment in the year of the time incident, Durmstrang snatched more than forty students from Hogwarts.
This is just in one year, plus some pure-blooded families who choose to go to school in Durmstrang, which means Durmstrang currently has at least fifty second-year students.
In other words, at least 20 to 30 freshmen in the first and second grades of Durmstrang were missing, and they did not appear in the classroom where they were supposed to appear.
"What happened?" Seeing Sean's expression, Lupin became curious.
Sean shook his head and told Lupin about it. He was shocked immediately.
"How dare they do such a thing? That is a disgrace to the world. My God, what are they doing? Are they conducting some kind of terrible magical experiment on children?"
Sean said in a low voice, "Durmstrang's true purpose is not yet known. I must first find a way to rescue those on the ship."
Lupin managed to calm down. He frowned and said, "But if a request is made to search the ship, the children will definitely be moved away quickly. If they forcefully break into it in the middle of the night, the result will be the same, and we must consider that, even if we find a way to rescue them on board, there will be bad things happening."
Sean frowned, "This is exactly what I was worried about, so I came to you to confirm the situation, but I didn't expect that there would be so many children who were locked up."
"Professor Dumbledore must be informed about this." Lupin said immediately.
Sean nodded, "I'll ask someone to inform Professor McGonagall first. Professor Dumbledore is not in Hogwarts at the moment. Grindelwald is not easy to contact at the moment."
Lupin paced back and forth in the office. "Some group of people has infiltrated the Ministry of Magic for a long time, and they are not trustworthy at all. Why don't I inform other trustworthy people, such as James and the Weasley family? This is not a small matter that two or three people can handle; we need more people."
Sean nodded for a moment, "Okay, inform those people. I have a hunch that it may not be long before we face Durmstrang's people head-on."
"Okay." After saying that, Lupin left quickly.
Sean didn't stay any longer, sprinkled Floo powder, returned to Nurmengard, and returned to Hogwarts through the Vanishing Cabinet again.
Looking at the time, it was estimated that it was almost time for Edmund to notify the others. Sean opened the door of the Room of Requirement directly in Professor McGonagall's office.
"Sean?" Professor McGonagall was surprised when she saw the door suddenly appearing, but she just gave him a surprised look and walked in without asking any further questions.
After a while, several professors from Hogwarts gathered in the Room of Requirement. After explaining the situation he had found, the professors all were shocked. Professor Flitwick even jumped and cursed at Durmstrang.
Only Snape waited until the anger of the professors subsided a little and said, "This matter is quite difficult to handle, and Dumbledore must be told about it."
Professor McGonagall frowned and said, "I will inform him. The first priority now is to save those children. What a disgrace to compete with a school of criminals like Durmstrang."
Sean said, "We have to find a reasonable reason to enter the ship without alarming them and not give them a chance to use the Portkey to run away with the children. On the other hand, we also have to consider those children in Durmstrang."
Seeing Sean's expression, the professors' expressions were also not good. Obviously, everyone thought of something. If Durmstrangs find out that their secret is known, there is no chance of cleaning their name.
Sean took a deep breath and continued, "In addition, we must consider how many insiders there are in Durmstrang."
"What I can confirm at the moment is that most of the students should be unaware. They only know that there are forbidden areas in their school. Karkaroff must have people supporting him in doing this, and we can't tell how many of the professors were working together on this plan."
Snape looked at others slowly and said, "Everyone here should know about the Returners' existence."
The rest of the professors looked at each other. Obviously, they had already learned of the existence of the Returners, and it seemed that someone had told them about it. It was probably because of Dumbledore. Although he has the Unbreakable Vow, it is not difficult to reveal the news of the Returners to all the professors present.
Snape continued, "This looked like something to do with the Returners. To be honest, I don't even understand why this tournament is held and Durmstrang is on stage. In my opinion, this is akin to letting them infiltrate our school."
Professor McGonagall frowned and said, "It hasn't been long since we knew about the Returners, and since Albus agreed to hold the tournament as usual, there must be something in his plan. Besides, most of Durmstrang's children are all innocent."
"We don't even know how many of those people are in Durmstrang. Our students were even attacked during the game." When he said this, Snape looked angry.
Obviously, he had never let go of the fact that Daisy was attacked at the bottom of the Black Lake.
Professor Sprout, who had been silent all this time, also said, "It's really troublesome. We have to rely on Sean to discuss this matter together. But, boy, how did you find out about this room?"
"It was a good thing that Sean found out about it and not use it for other things." Professor McGonagall added.
"We still need to discuss a plan to handle this." Sean said.
Several professors went silent, and after a while, Professor Flitwick said, "Can you place an additional barrier to prevent the Portkey? Just like the Jinx that exists in Hogwarts, I think it should be possible to stop those weird portkeys that Sean told us about."
"But setting up a magic of that level is not something that can be done with a wave of a magic wand. I'm afraid we need to ask Babbling for help." Professor McGonagall said with a frown, "It should be possible to do this with ancient runes, but the problem is that it will take quite some time, and they will easily discover it when we're doing it. Moreover, as Sean said just now, even if we rescue the imprisoned children on the ship, how about the others in Durmstrang castle?"
Professor Sprout said, "The Ministry of Magic is not trustworthy. The Ministry should have a lot of people who can help and magical items that can alleviate this situation."
For a while, the plan discussed were dead ends. But then, Sean raised his hand.
"Sean?"
Looking at the boy, the professors suddenly felt a sense of anticipation.
"I do have an idea..." Sean said after thinking about it.
"Tell me, young people are always more creative than old people like us." said Newt.
Sean first asked a question, "Professors, do you know how many people in Durmstrang?"
After thinking for a while, Professor McGonagall said, "The schools don't know much about each other's details, but each school is almost the same. Considering that the number of students in Durmstrang has increased in recent decades, they should have a little less people than Hogwarts."
"The number of professors should be about the same, but there should be few teaching assistants, and the rest of the staff is probably half what Hogwarts has. There are also house elves, which is not a big problem; house elves can communicate with each other. I can ask Polis to find out when the time comes."
Snape added next, "But we must consider the existence of the Returners. Although Durmstrang is not the headquarters of the Returners, there must be many of them there."
Sean thought for a moment, "We can temporarily speculate that their number is slightly larger than the Hogwarts faculty members, and some additional uncertain factors must be taken into account. After all, they may have some kind of something hidden."
"Sean, what exactly do you want to say?" Professor Flitwick asked impatiently.
Sean stood up, "What we have been thinking about is how to save the children on the ship and, at the same time, ensure the safety of the children in Durmstrang. When we act, the people in Durmstrang castle will definitely get the news. Unless we can divide our hands into two groups, one group will deal with things on the ship, and the other will sneak into Durmstrang."
Newt rubbed his chin and said, "But that's impossible. After all, Durmstrang is a school with a long history, and it is difficult to get inside."
Sean nodded, "That's right, that's what I thought too. It's a bit bold to divide us into two groups. Grab with both hands and rescue both sides."
Professor McGonagall replied, "But those are innocent children. They may be suffering from torture and terrible magic experiments. Although I probably shouldn't say that, as a teacher, I just couldn't stand by and watch innocent students go through these things, even if they weren't my students."
"No, professor, you misunderstood me." Sean said softly.
Sean spread his hands, "Why do we need to divide into two groups while we can rescue those children together?"
Snape's eyes narrowed, "You mean?"
Sean nodded, "That's right. When Durmstrang's ship returns to Durmstrang's castle, the children on board will definitely be put back into the castle, and the two groups will become one. We can rescue them together at that time without worrying about the safety of the rest."
Professor McGonagall's eyes widened all of a sudden, "So that's what you mean by your bold idea?"
"It may sound unrealistic, but I think this is the best way. Let's gather our forces and infiltrate Durmstrang's directly." Sean's bold plan made the professors look at each other in dismay.
Professor Flitwick said, "Crazy, you want to infiltrate a famous school that has been around for hundreds of years."
After he stopped, he said, "We don't know the specific location and defense mechanism Durmstrang have, and we probably don't have enough manpower to fight them on their territory. If we want to break through the gate of the school, we must at least It needs three times as many wizards on the other side."
Sean blinked. "I have a way to get into Durmstrang. Regarding manpower, I also have a solution."
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