Newt only stayed at Hogwarts for a single weekend.
Dumbledore had originally wanted to invite him to watch the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament, but by sheer coincidence, Newt's birthday fell on the very same day as the event.
Not wanting the birthday dinner his wife had prepared for him to go to waste, Newt arranged to keep in touch with Tver by letter and left Hogwarts on Sunday evening.
That also meant February 24 was only a few days away.
The students in the castle were swept up in excitement once again.
At first, none of them had expected a creature as dangerous as a Dragon to appear in the tournament. But not only had one appeared, they had also witnessed the spectacular sight of Tver bringing it down in a single strike.
That made them instantly realize just how dangerous the tournament really was.
A lot of people began reflecting on how unfairly they had treated Harry.
After all, Harry was only a fourth-year student, yet he had still dared to fight a Dragon.
Even Draco had to admit that took courage... well, admit it quietly, at least.
After all, if one of them had been made a champion, it would not have been a matter of showing off. At that level of danger, one careless mistake and you would be heading straight for a funeral.
So the mockery aimed at Harry around the castle had died down quite a bit, and everyone's attention had shifted to the upcoming task.
Especially after the thrill of the First Task, they could hardly wait for what came next.
What? It was extremely dangerous?
Come on, they were not the ones stepping into the arena. Of course the more dangerous it was, the better~
"Professor, I heard the champions already know what the Second Task is, right?"
In the office, Draco looked up from the mountain of papers piled before him, while Neville also quietly paid attention to the conversation.
At first, after Tver had been chosen as a champion, the two of them had thoughtfully said they would stop coming over to study for a while so he could focus on preparing for the tournament.
But the professor could knock out even a Dragon with ease, so why would teaching them cost him any meaningful time or energy?
"Isn't it obvious? Harry and the others have been hanging around the Black Lake lately," Tver said without even looking up.
According to Peter's intelligence, Voldemort had probably achieved satisfactory results with the clay jar, or rather, with Herpo the Foul.
As for this one variable that had not been created by his own actions, Tver was keeping a cautious eye on Voldemort's every move.
At the same time, he was also searching for clues related to Godric Gryffindor.
Honestly, things had gone more or less smoothly with the other three founders, or rather, there had been fairly obvious clues guiding him along.
That had left Tver with the sense that everything had followed naturally.
But now, more than half a year had passed, and he still had not found a single clue connected to Godric.
He had even considered running to the Chamber of Secrets and trying to resurrect Salazar Slytherin again, just so he could get some direction for his research.
"So the Second Task really is in the Black Lake?" Draco said excitedly.
Everyone had already been guessing as much, and the champions' behavior had only made it more obvious.
But because Harry and the others were "following the rules of the tournament," they had not shared the information they had received.
So all anyone could do was speculate.
Now that Tver had admitted it, though, that was a different matter.
"You could say that. What, do you want to give it a try too?" Tver asked, looking up at Draco, who was clearly itching to do just that.
His little scheme exposed, Draco did not care in the slightest.
He had long been jealous, no, dismissive, of Potter riding around on a broom and toying with the Dragon during the First Task.
Now that he knew the Second Task would take place in the Black Lake, he immediately wanted to get into the lake ahead of everyone else and prove he was no worse than Potter.
"I should remind you that the Hebridean Black in the First Task was specially arranged by Dumbledore for me."
"If I'm not mistaken, then there must be another dangerous creature in the Black Lake right now, one Dumbledore arranged there as well."
"Uh..."
The moment Draco thought of the black dragon's enormous size, his excitement was cut short.
"Then how are you planning to deal with it, Professor?" Neville suddenly asked with concern.
"Why ask that all of a sudden?" Tver looked at him curiously.
Neville hesitated for a moment, but when he thought of how troubled his roommate Harry had looked, he still gathered the courage to speak.
"It's actually Harry."
"He's thought of several methods, but he doesn't seem satisfied with any of them. He's still agonizing over it."
"So I wanted to ask if you had any good ideas that could help him."
"Longbottom, champions are not allowed to ask other people for help," Draco quickly pointed out.
"But Professor is also a champion. Isn't it perfectly normal for champions to talk to each other about the tasks?" Neville's face looked as honest and guileless as ever, but there was a hint of playful slyness in his eyes.
Even Tver was surprised for a moment.
"All right, all right. Harry's problem will be solved, so there's no need for us to worry about it. Besides, your current task is to build a solid foundation for the Cruciatus Curse, so that you don't lose control again!"
Tver was referring to their earlier practice with the Cruciatus Curse. Both of them, especially Draco, had felt a twisted sense of pleasure at the idea of punishing others, and their hearts had unconsciously been stirred by dark magic.
This was practically an unavoidable stage in learning dark magic.
Dark wizards either never noticed it, or noticed it and simply did not care, allowing their minds to keep twisting further and further.
For wizards who studied dark magic purely for research, however, the appearance of this sort of reaction meant their minds were not yet mature enough and their foundation was not stable enough.
So Tver immediately suspended the pace of their practical training and switched them over to theory.
And what they were studying was not just the Cruciatus Curse, but the basic knowledge of dark magic Tver had prepared for them.
When Percy had studied under him, he had gone through the same process.
It was just that Percy, back then, had been more mentally mature than Draco and Neville, and his magical ability had also been stronger, so he had completed this stage of study very quickly.
Draco and Neville, however, could not.
Fortunately, most of what Barty Jr. was teaching the students now was also evil dark magic.
So Tver assigning one or two papers on dark magic was really not that strange at all...
And the papers Draco and Neville were grading now were exactly that kind.
Knock knock.
"Tver," Professor McGonagall said as her face and voice appeared through the open door, "I have a question I want to ask..."
"What are you two doing?"
She looked at Draco and Neville with a very odd expression.
"They're studying," Tver said shamelessly. "What was your question?"
Only then did Professor McGonagall pull her gaze away from the half-graded papers, though she still shot Tver a rather displeased look.
"The task begins tomorrow. I wanted to ask who you think could be called your most beloved treasure. Aside from your dance partner, Miss Cynthia, of course. She needs to score the champions' performances."
Hearing that, Tver instinctively looked at the jug full of pumpkin juice in front of him.
"Ahem, I mean your most beloved person!" Professor McGonagall hurriedly corrected herself.
Tver truly found himself at a loss.
There were actually quite a few people he cared about, like the two students in front of him who had received the most private instruction from him, the mischievous Weasley twins, Hermione, who worked hard for equality for intelligent beings, and so on.
But if he had to choose the one he cared about most, he honestly did not know who to pick.
As if realizing something, Draco immediately pointed at himself, afraid Tver might somehow fail to notice him.
"All right then, Draco it is."
Tver shook his head with an amused smile. This was not exactly a good assignment, child.