The stretch of grass before them was about a hundred meters away from Durmstrang Castle, though it still lay within the range of Durmstrang's protective magic. While it did not have a massive ecological region like the Forbidden Forest, Durmstrang had still marked out quite a large area as its campus. Most of it, however, consisted of open grasslands and lakes, and this secretly enchanted field was one part of it.
"It really doesn't look like there's any hidden trick here..."
Like Baron, Avada crouched halfway down, drew his wand, and touched the tip lightly to the ground, carefully sensing the magic contained within the area. He first confirmed the types of magic present, and only after ruling out every possibility of hidden traps did he begin probing more actively and in greater detail.
Overall, the enchanted area formed a circle, with a total size roughly equal to two football fields put together. The reinforced ground—and even the grass growing on top of it—had become extraordinarily tough and difficult to damage, while also displaying extremely strong resistance to most forms of magic.
At the very least, when Avada secretly tried casting Transfiguration on the patch of ground beneath his feet, he immediately felt enormous resistance. It seemed the effort required to transform matter here was several times greater than it would be for ordinary material, and as for more basic spells like the Severing Charm, there was even less need to mention them...
"To reinforce such a huge area to this degree in a single night... that definitely goes beyond what a wizard with a wand alone could accomplish. They must have spent quite a lot of magical materials and potions on this too."
Cedric also took out his wand and sensed the magic underground. After taking much longer than Avada had, he finally raised his head and murmured, "Spending that kind of price to reinforce a completely empty stretch of land... what could it be for?"
"Possibly to contain some highly destructive magical creature, or to conduct large-scale magical experiments."
Avada plucked at a slightly yellowed blade of dried grass, feeling the toughness transmitted through his fingers as he analyzed the situation. "If this really is the venue for the second task... then it might be some sort of beast battle? Dragons, maybe, or a Chimaera. That would count as a classic Triwizard Tournament event."
"Or it could be some kind of challenge that requires a large area?"
Baron swept his gaze across the wide, empty field. "A place this big would be enough to create some special environment—like a complicated maze?"
"That's possible."
Cedric seemed to agree more with Baron's guess. "Hardening the ground would also make sense if the goal is to stop contestants from tunneling underneath and taking shortcuts, and to preserve the integrity of the maze during whatever fighting happens inside. Making students directly face dragons would be a bit too radical..."
"..."
Avada and Baron exchanged a silent look and curled their lips at the same time—they happened to be exactly the type who most loved burrowing underground and sneaking about.
"Not necessarily. After all, the organizers already managed to pull off something like a murder case this time. Making the champions face dragons directly doesn't seem that surprising by comparison..."
As he spoke, Avada recalled the dragon task from the original Triwizard Tournament.
If he remembered correctly, that task had not required the champions to defeat the dragons or deal significant damage. They had only needed to take away the golden egg guarded by the dragon—and for his current self, that would be far too easy. He would not even need to use one of his trump cards like the Horizon-at-Arm's-Reach Spell. A simple Disillusionment Charm paired with his stealth toolkit would let him slip past the dragon unnoticed, take the golden egg, and clear the task with ease.
'Wait, the Disillusionment Charm is still considered restricted magic, isn't it? In theory, I shouldn't know it. If I show it publicly, that could bring me some trouble...'
Only then did he remember that the strongest techniques he had mastered—and generally the ones he used most often—were almost all magic that could not really be brought into the light. The Disillusionment Charm, the Imperius Curse, Apparition that ignored magical restrictions, spiritual magic, spatial magic, and the soul magic in which he had only recently made modest progress...
Especially the latter two—restriction-ignoring Apparition and soul magic. If either of those were exposed at this stage, then by his conservative estimate, he probably would not enjoy a single moment of peace for the next ten years.
"In any case, there's still no way to confirm things completely... let's watch it for a few more days. There's still a week left, after all."
Avada carefully sensed the underground magic once more, and after some consideration, ultimately decided against secretly leaving himself a few hidden back doors. "Besides, this place is also close to the Hogwarts Express. If there's any major commotion, we'll be among the first to see it. There's no need to waste brainpower on this now."
"That's true."
Baron and Cedric both nodded in agreement. So after chatting with Avada for a while longer, they returned with him to the Hogwarts Express. During the time Avada had been absent, house-elves had continued cleaning his compartment, and since he had never brought much luggage to begin with, the days of surveillance had not caused him any inconvenience now.
'A huge reinforced arena, plus a large number of staff... it feels more like a structure-based challenge, like a maze or something similar to the final task in the original story.'
Lying in his compartment, watching the little points of light outside—lights that had originally been embedded in the walls of Durmstrang Castle—gradually go dark row by row, Avada's thoughts remained lively. 'But this is only the second task... Compared to the original, the difficulty of this Triwizard Tournament is on a completely different level... what caused all these changes?'
'Forget it, I should be used to this by now. Ever since the diary managed to drive Dumbledore straight out and nearly take over Hogwarts, I should have realized that the enemies I'd be facing this time were completely different from the original in terms of intelligence, methods, and scope. But if I really had to name a reason... maybe it's because I dealt with Voldemort right from the start and forced them into a corner?'
'So Voldemort was the one dragging down the IQ of the entire pure-blood faction? The moment I took him out, everyone else's brain seal got lifted?'
'...'
That absurd conclusion, which had suddenly popped into his head, brought Avada's train of thought to a halt for a moment.
'Forget it.'
He simply extinguished the light. While staring into the darkness and gradually drawing out the drowsiness hidden deep within his mind, he used what little energy he had left to continue planning around the second task of the Triwizard Tournament and the possible conspiracies Barty Jr. might put in place after entering the stage...
'No, this time there's another difference—in the original story, Barty Crouch Jr. was the mastermind behind the whole thing, but this time he's only a powerful enforcer who got rescued along the way. That's probably one of the reasons the difficulty of this tournament has changed so drastically. As for Ludo Bagman himself, the one Barty replaced... he's definitely not dead. Otherwise there'd be no way to supply ingredients for Polyjuice Potion. No idea where he's being imprisoned now...'
'...Then again, if a magical murder-case scenario of this difficulty had been used in the original story, I wonder how Harry Potter would have handled it?'
...
(End of Chapter)