"Can you be sure?"
Dumbledore's brows furrowed slightly—a rare expression on his face. "The Ludo Bagman who reappeared is a fake?"
"I'm sure."
Avada nodded decisively. "The sense of dissonance I got from that Ludo Bagman was exactly the same as what I got from Moody before."
"...I see."
Dumbledore stroked his beard and pondered for a while. The faintly troubled look he had worn earlier gradually faded away, and he once again appeared completely unruffled, as though what he had just heard was merely some trivial matter that could be resolved at will. "Thank you for telling me this, Ken. That is extremely important information."
"I'm afraid this replacement of Ludo Bagman is probably the crucial final step in the plan to kill me. If that person's disguise is flawless enough, and their own strength is not to be underestimated, then they would indeed be a threat to an unguarded me."
"Professor,"
Avada hesitated for a moment, but in the end he still asked, "The one who replaced Bagman... could it be the Barty Crouch Jr. you mentioned before?"
To be honest, the moment he realized the returned Ludo Bagman was an imposter, he had more or less figured out what was going on—Barty Crouch Jr. had never actually been released from the beginning. He had been kept obediently under the control of his father and the house-elf the whole time. After all, this time there was no Voldemort to rescue him, and with old Barty's methods, there was naturally no chance of letting him escape on his own.
That was why the Quidditch World Cup earlier had been so calm and uneventful, with none of the original wizarding riot or Dark Mark incident. And one of the important purposes of this Triwizard Tournament was, in fact, to rescue the long-imprisoned Barty Jr.
As for the fake Moody at Hogwarts... there was no need to think about it. It had to be Peter Pettigrew in disguise. Otherwise, Dumbledore would never have felt so comfortable leaving.
Though now that he thought about it, that made the whereabouts of the real Moody rather worth paying attention to—he refused to believe Moody would do nothing at such a critical moment.
"...It would seem so."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "Since Barty Crouch entered the highly sealed environment that is Durmstrang, then his son was naturally very likely brought in with him as well—or at the very least, he would have left behind some stable means of contact to conveniently renew the spell on a regular basis. As long as someone was paying close attention to Crouch's movements, it would not have been hard to notice clues pointing to Barty Jr."
"But who would that someone be?"
This time, it was Avada who was baffled. Throughout all of Durmstrang, there didn't seem to be anyone whose interests aligned with Barty Crouch Jr.'s.
In fact, Durmstrang's headmaster, Igor Karkaroff—a man with a former Death Eater background—was probably the last person who would want to see Barty Jr. escape. Back then, he had escaped punishment by betraying other Death Eaters, while Barty Jr. was one of Voldemort's most fanatical followers. It would already be a blessing if the two of them weren't trying to kill each other. How could they possibly be helping one another?
If Voldemort were still alive, Avada might have considered the possibility that Karkaroff would willingly help resurrect him in order to atone for his past. But under the current circumstances, unless Karkaroff had gone mad, there was no way he would want to tie himself in the slightest to Voldemort, the Death Eaters, or even the power of the old British pure-blood families.
But aside from him, who else could it be?
"That is what I need to investigate next."
Dumbledore also seemed somewhat perplexed, but he quickly relaxed again. "At the very least, we are no longer completely in the dark. Since we now know Barty Jr.'s identity, the initiative in what follows is, to a large extent, in our hands. The pressure we need to bear will also be much lighter... Fortunately, you discovered this in time."
"Just doing my part."
Avada accepted Dumbledore's praise with perfect ease, then brought up another matter. "By the way, Professor, there's something else I want to confirm with you."
"What is it?"
"Do you have any way to secretly take me out of Durmstrang without anyone noticing, and then secretly bring me back after some time has passed?"
"Why do you ask?"
Dumbledore froze for a moment, then quickly realized what he meant. A sudden glimmer of excitement appeared in his eyes. "The Horcrux separation plan is finished?!"
"Not quite, but it should probably be completed during Christmas."
Avada nodded, then continued, "And the reason I need to leave Durmstrang to do this is because I have another suspicion... Tell me, do you think Harry Potter—the one who survived the Killing Curse and somehow can speak Parseltongue—might actually be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes as well?"
He had never brought this matter up to Dumbledore on his own before. One reason was to conceal his true level while he was still relatively weak, so as to avoid unnecessary trouble. The other reason was to show Harry himself a bit of consideration—if Dumbledore learned that Harry was a Horcrux before he was fully convinced that Avada had the ability to destroy a Horcrux without harming its host, then who knew what this deeply calculating headmaster might do behind his back...
Honestly, he should have told Dumbledore about this back when he had just woken up. But at the time his mind really had not fully recovered yet, and there had simply been too many things to think about. The matter had thus been tossed to the back of his mind, only to resurface now during this conversation with Dumbledore...
"...I have suspected as much."
As expected, the moment this matter came up, Dumbledore immediately became serious. "But I still cannot be completely certain. A living person becoming another wizard's Horcrux is something that has never appeared in either theory or practice. On top of that, the field of the soul is far too profound, and the coexistence of two souls is much too complicated... So for the time being, I have not attempted to verify that suspicion."
"Then perhaps this time we can."
Avada's expression relaxed a little. "The method I've developed this time is based on the repentance effect and is specifically targeted at Voldemort's soul. It will not affect anyone else's soul in any other way. When the time comes, we can first test it on two or three Horcruxes. Once we confirm it's safe, then we can go explain the situation to Harry..."
"In other words, we need to make a trip back to Hogwarts?"
"That's right, and Christmas would be best. If Harry really is a Horcrux as well, then the fewer people who know about it, the better."
"...Leave the matter of getting out of Durmstrang to me."
After a brief silence, Dumbledore finally settled on the plan. "Strictly speaking, it should not be difficult. I can propose returning to Hogwarts during Christmas, which is hardly an unreasonable request. Bringing you along would merely be incidental... And all you need to do is make sure that before then, you fully and reliably complete your research on that method."
(End of Chapter)