Adrian looked up at the face appearing in his office doorway and couldn't prevent one eyebrow from rising with surprise at the unexpected visitor's identity.
He genuinely hadn't anticipated that the person visiting him would be Viktor Krum, the famous Bulgarian Seeker and Durmstrang champion who typically maintained considerable social distance from Hogwarts faculty.
"This is quite a rare occurrence indeed," Adrian observed while carefully setting down his grading quill and giving the young man his complete attention. "What can I do for you, Mr. Krum?"
Krum stepped fully into the office with obvious hesitation evident in his posture, closing the door behind him before approaching Adrian's desk. His typically confident manner appeared somewhat weakened by uncertainty and concern.
"Professor Westeros," He began with noticeably halting speech that showed considerable internal struggle about how to say his inquiry, "do you know Headmaster Karkaroff's current whereabouts? And furthermore... are those rumors circulating among students actually true?"
Adrian felt genuinely taken aback by this question.
"Didn't Professor Dumbledore inform you about recent developments?" He asked with obvious puzzlement. "I would have assumed the headmaster would brief all champion representatives about situations affecting tournament direction."
Krum shook his head with visible embarrassment about his lack of information.
"I tried to find Professor Dumbledore immediately after hearing the first rumors," He explained with palpable frustration. "However..."
He paused, looking distinctly uncomfortable before continuing with reluctant admission. "No one had previously informed me that gaining entry to the headmaster's office needs a password….."
Adrian found himself momentarily speechless at this.
Krum had obviously tried to obtain accurate information through Dumbledore immediately upon learning about the crisis. However, he couldn't reasonably have guessed that Dumbledore's office security password rotated through the names of various desserts and sweets.
For a school's champion representative to remain unclear about his own lost headmaster's fate and location was indeed rather inappropriate.
In truth, several factors had influenced Krum's decision to seek information from Adrian specifically rather than approaching other faculty members.
Adrian had been physically present at the garden confrontation according to student rumors, he was one of the very few Hogwarts professors who had engaged in pleasant conversation with Krum, and Hermione also held Professor Westeros in high regard; all of which went to Krum developing a certain favorable impression and trust toward Adrian.
After briefly considering, Adrian made a decisive gesture with his wand to summon an armchair from its position near the fireplace. He indicated that Krum should sit down.
Once the young man was settled, Adrian provided a detailed and complete account of the last evening's events without concealment.
"You're telling me that Headmaster Karkaroff was plotting to manipulate circumstances to harm Harry Potter, was subsequently discovered and confronted by Professor Moody during this conspiracy, and was ultimately silenced by Voldemort through some curse, leaving him with catastrophic brain damage?" Krum summarized with obvious difficulty processing such shocking information.
His voice had tones of both disbelief and horror.
"That is a reasonably accurate summary of events, yes," Adrian confirmed with a slight nod.
The entire situation was honestly quite surreal when summarized so concisely.
After receiving Adrian's second explicit confirmation of these disturbing facts, Krum's expression visibly darkened with complex emotions that mixed anger, shame, and deep concern. His heavy brows drew together in a furrow of troubled pondering.
He knew their headmaster had once been a Death Eater. However, Krum had genuinely believed that his headmaster had completely severed all connections with that dark organization years ago when he had cooperated with British Ministry to avoid Azkaban imprisonment.
To be entirely honest about his feelings, although Karkaroff held the official position of his headmaster, Krum didn't personally think very highly of the man and had even developed a certain disapproving attitude toward him over the years.
The headmaster's cowardice, his clear self-interest, and his occasionally cruel treatment of students had all merged to form widespread disrespect among Durmstrang's students.
Or rather, Krum felt genuine disgust and moral opposition toward anyone who served the Dark Lord.
Now that Karkaroff had created this international incident, the scandal was a major catastrophic blow to all of Durmstrang Institute's reputation and would inevitably affect Krum personally to a considerable degree as well, regardless of his personal innocence.
Think about it: when a prestigious school's headmaster was publicly exposed as Voldemort's servant, still working to advance the Dark Lord's agenda even decades after his supposed defeat, how would other people throughout the magical world view that institution's students and graduates?
The stain of association would prove difficult if not impossible to completely remove from anyone connected to Durmstrang.
"I imagine Mr. Bagman will make some form of official public announcement about this situation within the next few days," Adrian continued while observing Krum's troubled reactions with sympathy.
"What about the Triwizard Tournament itself?" Krum asked with obvious concern about whether this scandal would terminate the competition. "Will it be canceled?"
"The tournament will continue according to schedule," Adrian assured him with confidence.
Krum nodded slightly to indicate his understanding and acceptance of this information.
Then he asked another question with careful consideration: "May I disclose this information to the other Durmstrang students?"
"That decision is entirely up to you, Mr. Krum," Adrian replied with an accommodating smile. "I have no objection to accurate information being shared. The truth will become public knowledge shortly anyway."
The next morning arrived with fresh snowfall obscuring Hogwarts' grounds in additional layers of white that sparkled radiantly in the weak winter sunlight.
Ludo Bagman returned to the castle from St. Mungo's Hospital, where he had been consulting with healers and attempting to evaluate whether Karkaroff might recover sufficiently to provide useful testimony about Death Eater activities.
Adrian learned from Bagman's somewhat depressed report that Karkaroff's condition remained essentially unchanged from the previous assessment.
The only marginal difference was that the brain-damaged former headmaster now seemed capable of recalling his own name when asked, though this minor recovery was filled by a significant problem.
Karkaroff kept pronouncing his own name as "Igor Karagoff" with absolute insistence, despite all attempts to correct this obvious error.
According to the professional healers' speculation, this mispronunciation might denote an ingrained habit from his early childhood years, suggesting that his damaged memory was trying to reconstruct itself by reaching back to his earliest formation of identity.
In other words, Karkaroff's shattered memory was gradually attempting some form of recovery and reconstruction, but the process was proceeding with agonizing slowness and uncertain ultimate success.
His complete restoration to functional consciousness and full memory might not occur until some indefinite future date, possibly years or even decades away, if ever.
According to the healers at St. Mungo's Hospital who dealt regularly with magical brain trauma, they found Karkaroff's specific condition particularly challenging and unprecedented in several aspects.
They had encountered somewhat similar cases before, but those had resulted from improperly performed Memory Charms or Obliviation accidents rather than targeted dark curse damage transmitted through branded flesh.
What Karkaroff had suffered was a curse specifically designed to destroy.
As for other changes resulting from this crisis, there were relatively few instant visible adjustments despite the scandal's scale.
After Percy dutifully reported the entire situation to Bartemius Crouch Senior through detailed written letter, he eventually received a terse reply through return owl post.
However, Crouch's response was disappointingly minimal: he merely instructed his temporary assistant to proceed with directing the Triwizard Tournament according to normal established procedures and protocols.
Most remarkably, Crouch still refused to appear in person despite the obvious significance of these developments.
In Crouch's absence, Percy was temporarily promoted to accept his superior's position and decision-making authority regarding tournament matters.
This unexpected promotion made him excited, causing him to walk with a noticeable spring in his step throughout the castle corridors; he interpreted this responsibility as finally earning his superior's recognition and trust.
Most significantly from Percy's perspective, Barty Crouch had actually addressed him by his correct name: Percy Weasley rather than continuing to call him "Weatherby" as had been the pattern during all previous communications.
Of course, the Triwizard Tournament happening without representation from one participating school's headmaster ultimately created various impacts on Durmstrang's student delegation beyond simple embarrassment.
Dumbledore sent a formal letter to Durmstrang Institute requesting guidance about student arrangements and supervision, but the institution's response was remarkably casual. They simply said that Viktor Krum should temporarily assume responsibility for managing and supervising his fellow students during their stay at Hogwarts.
Although Adrian had no detailed knowledge about Durmstrang's internal faculty composition or structure, this response clearly showed that Karkaroff had been rather unrecognized by his own school as well.
Besides these tournament-related administrative adjustments, Moody took the initiative to inform his former Auror colleagues at the Ministry about the confirmed presence of active Death Eater activity connected to Hogwarts.
The Auror Office took these warnings extremely seriously given Moody's legendary reputation and proven track record.
Even Rufus Scrimgeour, the head of the Auror Office who rarely left London, came personally to Hogwarts to understand the complete situation through direct conversation with Dumbledore.
In short, dangerous undercurrents were surging through the wizarding world.
By early January, as students returned from their Christmas holidays and settled back into normal academic routines, the intensive discussion and wild speculation about Karkaroff's fate had weakened considerably among the students.
However, just when the scandal seemed to be fading into background noise, a incident occurred that escalated the entire matter once again with new intensity.
Several moving photographs clearly depicting Karkaroff clutching the glowing Dark Mark on his exposed arm began circulating wildly throughout the Hogwarts students, passing from hand to hand with remarkable speed.
According to various accounts, these images had originally spread from the third-year students before rapidly flooding through all year levels.
Now the previously unconfirmed rumor received definitive visual verification: Karkaroff was indeed an active Death Eater bearing Voldemort's brand.
Eventually, the photographs spread beyond Hogwarts' walls to reach the wizarding public.
One Saturday morning, Colin sat happily eating his breakfast in the Great Hall, completely unaware of the storm his photography had created throughout magical Britain.
He had recently finally managed to learn the complete significance of that mysterious mark visible on Karkaroff's arm in his photographs.
It was the Dark Mark, the terrifying symbol that had struck fear into the hearts of an entire generation throughout the wizarding world during Voldemort's reign of terror.
Although Colin wasn't entirely clear about the specific atrocities that Voldemort had committed to generate such widespread fear and horror, he now understood that the Death Eaters were a terrorist organization within magical society comparable to the worst extremist groups from Muggle history.
Soon, a brown barn owl came swooping down from the ceiling and dropped a rolled newspaper package directly above Colin's head. It was the Daily Prophet that his roommate had ordered through regular subscription.
Colin casually reached up to catch the falling newspaper and unrolled it with negligible interest, expecting the usual mixture of political commentary and advertising that filled most issues.
A prominently highlighted, enlarged, and extremely sensational headline immediately caught his attention:
"Igor Karkaroff: Confirmed Working Toward Voldemort's Resurrection, Now Under Auror Custody at St. Mungo's."
Below this provocative headline were several photographs that made Colin's heart skip several beats.
He nearly choked on his mouthful of pumpkin juice, coughing violently as he stared wide-eyed at the photographic evidence displayed prominently in the newspaper. The central image was unmistakably the exact photograph he himself had captured that evening in the gardens.
Karkaroff stood frozen in terror, the glowing mark on his arm somewhat blurred by his frantic movement but still clearly recognizable in its serpentine outline.
Adjacent to Colin's contributed photograph was a more recent image of Karkaroff confined to a hospital bed at St. Mungo's. Karkaroff now showed a completely vacant gaze, with drool hanging embarrassingly from the corner of his loose mouth.
Colin read through the article's specific content several times with growing amazement, absorbing every sensational detail.
The general summary reported that Karkaroff had been arrested following his exposure as an active Death Eater, had suffered temporary but severe memory loss through circumstances that remained somewhat mysterious, and was currently being kept under guard at St. Mungo's Hospital for both medical treatment and security purposes.
The article's byline indicated authorship by Rita Skeeter, that controversial journalist whose name appeared on nearly every major scandal and sensational story.
Colin knew of her well, practically every important investigative report published in the Daily Prophet seemed to be her exclusive work, and her reputation for aggressive journalism was legendary throughout magical Britain.
After spending several minutes marveling at Karkaroff's downfall and disastrous fate, Colin precisely folded the newspaper and set it aside on the table, then resumed eating his meat pie.
What did any of this drama have to do with him anyway? He was just a young student studying at Hogwarts.
The rise and fall of Death Eaters and dark conspiracies were problems for Ministry officials and famous Aurors to handle, Colin's responsibility was simply to attend his classes, complete his homework, and perhaps capture a few more memorable photographs of Harry Potter.
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