What a miscalculation!
Tver had actually expected Dumbledore to use the Giant Squid in the Black Lake to interfere with him.
That was why he had chosen a slightly tricky approach, bypassing the most dangerous weed-choked parts of the lakebed and heading straight for the merpeople village, where the Giant Squid had a hostile relationship with them.
But just when he thought he had outsmarted him, Dumbledore, that old... old Headmaster, had gone and tied Draco directly to the Giant Squid, forcing Tver to go after it himself!
After inwardly "admiring" Dumbledore's deep scheming for a moment, Tver had no choice but to pull out his wand and steer the vortex after the Giant Squid.
As if it had sensed his movement, the Giant Squid stopped circling the village and slowly swam toward the deeper parts of the Black Lake.
But compared to Tver, the squid's enormous body gave it a clear advantage. Each jet-propelled surge sent it a great distance forward, while also driving a current backward to hinder Tver's pursuit.
Left with no better option, Tver had to avoid the squid's wake while speeding himself up at the same time.
But the squid seemed to be getting a little too into it!
The moment it realized Tver was accelerating, it blasted out an even greater surge of water, enough to whip up a raging undercurrent across the lakebed!
Normally, only the constantly roiling sea had undercurrents with that kind of force. Even the Black Lake, despite being connected to the outside world, had never seen such violent turbulence.
The plants at the bottom were uprooted at once. Even Tver had to pause his advance and reinforce the vortex around himself to keep it from being torn apart.
The truly unlucky ones were the fish and shrimp that failed to dodge in time. They were knocked senseless by the current and swept along, tumbling helplessly across the lakebed.
Fortunately, they were already far from the merpeople settlement. Otherwise, those crude houses would never have survived a current like this.
The only question was how Draco was doing...
But since Dumbledore had cast the spell himself, he was probably still drowsily asleep, unable to feel anything happening around him.
Otherwise, Tver really would have thought the boy was absurdly unlucky.
He had finally gotten to take part in the Triwizard Tournament, only to end up tied to a Giant Squid and swung around like some little toy...
For Draco's sake, Tver strengthened the vortex around himself and in turn made use of the current path opened up by the Giant Squid's rapid movement, cutting down his own resistance and quickly catching up.
He was even starting to close the gap!
But strangely, the squid did not keep accelerating. Instead, as if it had resigned itself, it slowed down and gradually descended to the lakebed.
Only then did Tver notice that the terrain here was different from the rest of the lake floor.
A massive hemispherical depression, even larger than the squid itself, sank deep into the bottom of the lake. Scattered throughout it were stone pillars, some horizontal, some vertical, arranged in what looked like complete disorder, yet together they cleverly formed a word in Ancient Runes.
Courage.
The instant he saw that word, a satisfied smile spread across Tver's face.
At Hogwarts, any student who saw that word would immediately think of Gryffindor.
And if someone had set up Ancient Runes like this beneath the Black Lake, Tver could think of only one person.
Godric Gryffindor!
But what was the point of leaving behind a single word like this?
Tver slowly descended into the center of the hollow and carefully examined the pillars above him.
Ancient Runes were usually rather fragile, so ancient wizards often layered protective magic over them, much like they did with old books. Otherwise, they would have weathered away long ago.
But the protective magic on these stone pillars seemed to have run out, leaving them marked by varying degrees of water erosion.
There were patches of aquatic weeds growing over them, and little fish living among...
Wait. The magic had been completely used up...
Tver's eyes lit up at once.
Ancient Runes were not just a writing system. They were actually one of the mediums ancient wizards used for spellcasting!
And the rune here, though it was only the strange word courage, could still bring out the magic Godric had left behind once it was infused with power again!
Still, this rune really was strange, strange enough that even after realizing that, Tver still hesitated a little.
Ancient magic formed from a single rune was rare. Normally, the more complex the ancient magic, the more runes were needed to build it.
That was one of the reasons ancient magic had gradually been replaced by modern magic.
But courage... what kind of effect could that possibly have?
After thinking it over for a moment, Tver stopped dwelling on it.
It was rare enough to find a clue left by Godric. There was no way he was going to give up just like that.
Besides, he was bold because he had the skill to back it up. Even if this was part of the protective system Godric had left for Hogwarts, Tver was confident he could still walk away unscathed!
Once he made up his mind, magic burst out from Tver's whole body. The sheer volume of it pushed the lake water outward layer by layer, sweeping the peacefully living fish and shrimp toward the outer edges!
As the runes received his magic, they began to glow with a faint light, just as he had expected.
What he had not expected was that lighting up just one stone pillar consumed one percent of his magic!
That might not sound like much for Tver, but considering how enormous his magical reserves were, that one percent alone already equaled the full magic power of an ordinary wizard!
And there were dozens of stone pillars here!
Judging from the cost alone, there were probably only a handful of people in the entire wizarding world capable of activating this magic, people on Tver's level, true Dark Lord-class figures.
Still, it was not without results. As more and more pillars lit up, the effect of the rune gradually began to reveal itself.
Teleportation?
Tver frowned, immediately sensing that something was wrong.
This ancient magic seemed far less simple than it looked on the surface. It was as bizarre as casting "Expelliarmus" and having it produce the Killing Curse instead.
Before he could think further, a gentle but irresistible pulling force suddenly appeared in the space around him, as though it intended to drag him somewhere.
That was another hallmark of ancient magic: a compulsory effect that worked almost like a rule.
Of course, given Tver's current strength, resisting it would have been effortless.
But there was no need.
Because he had already seen where he was about to arrive.
The Headmaster's Office!
With a flash, Tver appeared in that incomparably familiar room, though something about it was different.
He looked around carefully, and at last understood what felt so strange.
The walls no longer held the portraits of the many former headmasters. The desk no longer displayed those peculiar alchemical tools. Even the books on the shelves had changed. There were fewer of them now, but each gave off a stronger magical aura.
It was as if every single book there contained the life's work of some legendary figure.
The overall layout was almost exactly the same as the Headmaster's Office Tver usually saw, with hardly any major changes.
But the details were completely different. There were no portraits, no Dumbledore's Pensieve, no Sorti...
Wait, why was the Sorting Hat still here?!