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They walked into the Quidditch pitch, which was different from what they had seen before. The hedges surrounding the pitch had grown to twenty feet long, leaving only a dark gap in front of them.
"You guys take a rest first and get yourself in shape." Bagman took them to a nearby locker room and left.
After that, Fleur and Krum each found a place to sit down. Kyle originally wanted to chat with Fleur for a while to pass the time.
But she didn't look like she wanted to talk at the moment, so Kyle said nothing and also found a place to sit down, quietly waiting for the game to begin.
Ten minutes later, people started to enter the stands. The surroundings were filled with excited voices and noisy footsteps. For a moment, Kyle thought he had returned to the start of the first event.
He was also in the locker room at that time, listening to the crowd outside entering and taking their seats.
At this moment, the door of the locker room suddenly moved, and everyone immediately looked up.
A head quickly slipped away from the crack in the door.
"Who's there?"
Kyle, who was closest, walked over and opened the half-open door, just in time to see the backs of Hermione and Ron as they were about to sneak away.
"Sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you." Hermione said awkwardly, "We just wanted to check on Harry and make him feel less nervous."
"Harry?" Kyle frowned.
"Yes, he was taken away by Filch. He said it was for the third competition." Ron said with envy, "How lucky he is to be able to participate in the Triwizard Tournament."
"But he doesn't seem to be here," said Hermione. "We'll go now. Good luck, Kyle."
"Wait..." Kyle hurriedly stopped them, "When was Harry taken away?"
"Just now," Hermione said, "Filch came over not long after you left... He said he was taking Harry to the Quidditch field to play with him as requested by Professor Dumbledore."
"After we leave?" Kyle felt something was wrong.
During dinner, Fred and George talked about why Filch took Harry away anyway since the plan to add more hostages to the maze had been cancelled.
wrong!
Under the surprised eyes of Hermione and Ron, Kyle ran quickly towards the referee's place.
"Is there anything strange about this?" Ron scratched his hair, not quite understanding what Kyle meant.
How come he suddenly ran away when we were having a good chat?
"Oh no, he's not going to report us... You know, according to the rules, we are not allowed to come to the Warriors' rest room."
"Don't be silly, Ron, Kyle is not that kind of person." Hermione said, her expression a little serious. "Let's go to Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to see if they are missing anyone."
"Why go there?" Ron was a little reluctant, "The game is about to start."
But Hermione ignored him and ran towards the middle stands.
On the other side, when Kyle arrived at the place where the judge was, Dumbledore was talking to several professors with star symbols on their heads.
"Oh, Kyle?" He looked at Kyle and asked in confusion, "The game is about to start, what are you doing here?"
"Something's going on, Professor." Kyle glanced at the others.
Dumbledore immediately understood and took a few steps forward. "Tell me, what's the matter?"
"Do we need to rescue hostages in this game?"
"You are really well-informed." Dumbledore smiled and said, "We did have this idea, but later rejected it, so you don't need to..."
"Harry has been taken away."
Dumbledore was interrupted by Kyle before he could finish his words.
"Just now, after dinner, Ron said that Filch took Harry away, saying that he wanted to cooperate with the competition."
Dumbledore's expression gradually became solemn.
"That's impossible. The proposal to add hostages was rejected before dinner even started."
"But Harry was taken away," said Kyle. "Ron and Hermione saw it with their own eyes."
The smile on Dumbledore's face completely disappeared. He turned his head and looked around. His eyes paused on Karkaroff's face for a moment, then looked at Kyle again.
"I understand." He said in a deep voice: "The game is about to start, you should go back quickly."
"Okay," Kyle said, and left the stands.
To be honest, this incident was indeed a bit unexpected for him...especially, he never expected that it was Filch who took Harry away.
The Imperius Curse? Or Polyjuice Potion?
Kyle couldn't be sure either, because in the past month, in order to better understand Ludo Bagman's movements, the Marauder's Map had been in the hands of Fred and George.
But even if Kyle had the Marauder's Map, he probably wouldn't pay attention to Filch.
An annoying janitor who is also a dud is the best disguise.
He could appear anywhere in the castle openly without arousing anyone's suspicion.
Even if he drank the Polyjuice Potion in front of his students, no one would think there was anything wrong with it. Or he could deliberately find a place where no one was around to drink the Polyjuice Potion.
Kyle thought about it carefully. When he returned the Marauder's Map to Fred and George, he took one last look at it... but Filch seemed to be fine at that time.
If Kyle remembered correctly, he was in his office with Mrs. Norris, and there was no "Barty Crouch" in the castle.
Kyle thought as he returned to the entrance of the maze.
By this time, Fleur and Krum had come out of the room, as well as Ludo Bagman, and everyone was waiting for him.
"Luckily, you would have missed the game in just one minute." Bagman hurried over and pulled Kyle into the team.
Although he said that, there was a flash of disappointment in his eyes, as if he was willing to see Kyle miss this game.
……
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 572 Vulcan clears the way
When Kyle returned to the warrior team, the four professors who were responsible for patrolling the maze and ensuring the safety of the warriors had already arrived.
"We will patrol the maze," Professor McGonagall said to the warriors, "If you get into trouble and want help, just shoot red sparks into the sky and we will come to help you. Do you understand?"
Everyone nodded together.
After that, she, Hagrid, Professor Moody, and Professor Flitwick walked in different directions and dispersed around the maze.
But what no one noticed was that a tiny Billywig worm flew into the maze along Hagrid's wide robe.
Maybe some people saw it but didn't care... After all, this place has been transformed into a maze full of hedges, so it is normal to have one or two Billywigs or Bowtruckles.
Bagman then pointed his wand at his throat as usual and said "loud voice".
"Ladies and gentlemen, the final competition of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin!" His voice echoed in the stands.
He was responded with thunderous applause and cheers.
Then Bagman loudly announced the current scores... Kyle, with 98 points, was undisputedly in first place, followed by Krum. Fleur had to come in last because she lost too many points in the second event.
But Kyle didn't care about these. He couldn't help but look at where the referee was.
By this time Dumbledore had disappeared, and in his place was Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic who came to watch the game.
The minister looked quite happy and was clapping happily along with everyone else.
At this moment, a short whistle brought Kyle back to his senses.
Realizing that this was the signal to set off, Kyle immediately ran into the maze.
The tall hedges cast dark shadows on the path, and the sky above the maze seemed to be cast under some kind of magic. When Kyle walked in, the voices of the audience disappeared immediately.
When they came to the first fork in the road, Kyle held his wand flat on his palm.
"Show me the way!"
The wand twirled, pointing toward the hedge to his right, but that was not part of the passage.
"Thunderbolt explosion!"
A big hole was blown out in the dense hedge in an instant.
Kyle didn't stop, but continued to run forward quickly after passing through.
Further ahead is a golden mist.
"Whirlwind Sweep!"
A strong gust of wind blew by, and the fog was immediately blown away. Several red hats hidden in the hedges jumped out carrying wooden sticks.
But before they could make any move, they all fell backwards at an even faster speed.
As Kyle ran, he thought about what had just happened. There was no doubt that Harry had been abducted by Death Eaters.
If they haven't left the castle yet, it would be fine. Dumbledore would definitely be able to find him, but if they are out of the castle...all it would take is a simple Apparition to leave Dumbledore helpless.
Kyle originally thought that since Harry's name did not appear in the Goblet of Fire and Professor Moody was not replaced, everything would be fine. He did not expect that such a mistake would happen in the end.
It goes without saying that the Death Eaters took Harry away in order to resurrect Voldemort, but the problem was that Kyle didn't know where the resurrection ceremony was held.
He had tried to look for him during this period, but old Riddle was just an ordinary person with no sense of existence at all, and there was no information recording his deeds.
Would it be at the old Riddle house in Little Hangleton?
Kyle wasn't sure, but he had no other goal now. He had to get out as soon as possible and tell Dumbledore about this place.
And there is an even more important point.
Someone wanted to bring Harry into the game as a "hostage". This was definitely not a coincidence, nor was it just to make the game more interesting as Ludo Bagman said.
Maybe there was something here that could take Harry away from school... like making a Portkey out of the Goblet of Fire.
It was only because the three referees rejected the proposal to add "hostages" that they were forced to change their approach and choose to take Harry away directly.
If that's the case, then they must have tampered with the Goblet of Fire in advance...
This proposal was rejected before the start of the competition. At that time, the Goblet of Fire had been placed in the middle of the maze and no one could touch it... In other words, the portkey magic on it should still be there.
Although this is just a possibility, Kyle still feels it is necessary to give it a try. This is the fastest and most reliable way to find Harry...
Little Hangleton was just Kyle's guess, just like Professor Moody was not replaced and Harry's name did not appear in the Goblet of Fire. No one knew whether Voldemort was there or not.
If there's no one there, that would be really troublesome.