"Professor Karkaroff,"
he first took a deep breath before letting his voice ring out clearly,
"when you cast the projection spell on that sheet of parchment on the night before Bagman was killed, why didn't you use a wand?"
"And not just that one time. In fact, throughout that entire afternoon, and all the way up until Mr. Bagman was killed the next day, no one saw you use a wand at all. Yet after Mr. Bagman's death, when you projected the new tournament schedule, you started using a wand again… may I ask why that was?"
"…That is my freedom."
Karkaroff answered stiffly.
"No. It was because your wand was not in your hand at the time. It was on Barty Crouch's person, wasn't it?"
Avada stared at Karkaroff. A faint trace of puzzlement once again flashed deep in his eyes, but he continued in a clear voice anyway.
"So may I draw this conclusion: the thing that killed Mr. Bagman was not just a Killing Curse. There was actually another spell involved as well…"
"The Reverse Spell."
"What?"
The students, who had still been whispering among themselves, froze.
What did the Reverse Spell have to do with murder? With the Killing Curse?
But as that answer was revealed, the expressions of quite a few quick-witted students had already changed. And the trace of delight that had been on Karkaroff's face vanished without a trace in an instant.
"It was Mr. Crouch himself who demonstrated this answer to me. That's right—Avada Kedavra is a profound spell, one that is almost impossible to cast silently. But the Reverse Spell is different. All it does is make a wand release one of the spells it cast before. Any wizard who is even a little practiced can cast it silently."
Avada turned toward Barty Crouch. The confusion in his eyes deepened a little, but his expression remained unchanged as he went on.
"So the truth of Mr. Bagman's death is this: Karkaroff first cast the Killing Curse once with his own wand, then handed it over to Crouch a day in advance. The purpose was to dilute the trace of the Killing Curse in the wand as much as possible, making it easier to cover up later without affecting the result."
"Then, after my interview with Bagman ended the next day, Crouch could slip into the still-open office under an Invisibility Cloak. While aiming Karkaroff's wand at Bagman, he used his own wand to cast the Reverse Spell!"
"That way, Bagman would be killed directly by the replayed Killing Curse, producing that kind of death where the victim has no awareness of the attack at all. After that, Crouch only needed to cover Bagman's chest with the Invisibility Cloak, stab in the goblin dagger, turn around, and leave. Then once the students outside noticed something was wrong, he could immediately rush over… The whole process was silent, and it could be completed in seconds. That is why Bagman died almost immediately after I left, and why no one noticed anything even though the door was open!"
"And after that, all you had to do was shift the blame onto the entirely unrelated champions and goblins, muddying the waters. After all, the authority to examine the body was in your hands, and almost no one could expose your lies. And even if someone did, the matter of the Killing Curse would only make the whole thing even more baffling, and then—"
"What you're saying is nothing but baseless speculation."
Crouch suddenly cut Avada off.
"Do you have any evidence you can actually produce?!"
"…Yes."
Avada frowned slightly. He could only postpone exposing the conspiracy against Dumbledore for the moment and instead focus on bringing this case to its decisive conclusion.
"Professor Karkaroff, could you roll up your left sleeve completely?"
"All Death Eaters are branded by Voldemort with the Dark Mark in that position, a mark that cannot be erased. And since the weather is cold now, you normally go out in winter clothing, so you probably haven't had time to disguise it. And while we're at it, that Unbreakable Vow can be verified too…"
"And more than that, I know that after you got your wand back, you must have cast a large number of spells to bury the trace of the Killing Curse. Combined with the nearly full day of delay, an ordinary Reverse Spell almost certainly wouldn't be able to replay that Killing Curse from your wand anymore… But do you dare let Professor Dumbledore perform a Reverse Spell on your wand?"
"You've surely heard that Dumbledore is not only powerful himself, but also possesses a wand of immense power, capable of things other wands simply cannot do. If Dumbledore used that wand to cast the Reverse Spell, might it be possible for him to uncover that Killing Curse?"
"I'm finished. Answer me, Professor Karkaroff, Mr. Crouch!"
"…Finished?"
Karkaroff leaned back in his chair, visibly relaxing, as if he had completely given up and resigned himself to fate…
"Then let us begin announcing the scores for the first task!"
Ludo Bagman walked out smiling from the side door. In the midst of utter silence, he stepped onto the teachers' platform and sat down in the seat that had always belonged to him. Beside him, Karkaroff, Crouch, Dumbledore, and Maxime, looking at the students below—stiff as statues—could finally no longer suppress their amusement.
"!!!"
Between the equally stunned Krum and Fleur, the moment he saw Ludo Bagman reappear, all of Avada's confusion instantly turned into shock and utter disbelief.
At least on the surface, his reaction looked exactly the same as everyone else's.
"Let me explain this to everyone first,"
Karkaroff seemed like a different man now. All traces of the "gloom," "rage," and other expressions from before had vanished. Smiling broadly, he raised his voice and explained:
"We said from the very beginning that only when facing the unknown could a person's true ability be seen. So we unanimously decided to make the first task take this form, and its theme was—solving the murder of Ludo Bagman. So please, everyone, set your minds at ease. Mr. Ludo Bagman was never dead to begin with. Everything that happened over the past few days was merely part of the first task…"
"And in order to make it as realistic as possible, we made many special preparations. In constructing the case, we even referenced some long-circulating conspiracy theories, and we also made slight adjustments to the memories of certain participants… For the specific details, please read the Triwizard Tournament section in next week's Daily Prophet, where we will reveal the fascinating behind-the-scenes story of the entire task."
The whole hall remained utterly silent. It seemed that no one had yet recovered from this enormous reversal.
So Karkaroff simply stood up and took a sheet of parchment from Bagman's hand.
"Now then, let us announce the scores of the three champions for the first task."
"First, Miss Fleur Delacour. She displayed extraordinary courage and initiative, daring to put herself in danger in order to obtain key intelligence, and her skilled use of her innate gift was highly commendable. However, she showed a slight unwillingness to cooperate at the start… Taking all of that into account, and adding together the scores from the five judges, Miss Delacour's score is—forty-five points!"
Fleur stiffly shook her head.
"Viktor Krum—he displayed admirable tolerance and judgment, playing an indispensable role in the team. Convincing Miss Delacour to join the cooperation was his achievement; and in the end, when revealing the truth, faced with the fact that both he and his alma mater might be disgraced because of it, he made a strong and correct choice, fearlessly standing against his own headmaster… His final score is forty-seven points!"
"And lastly, Mr. Ken—he possesses astonishing intelligence and powers of logic, uncovering nearly every clue almost by himself. He was also the first to actively seek to unite the strength of the three champions, and throughout the three of them, he displayed the greatest initiative… His final score is forty-nine points!"
(End of Chapter)
TL Note: I totally didn't see this coming xD