"He might have called you for Daphne's matter," Ron speculated.
"It seems the Greengrass surname is also about to become a dangerous title."
Weilan put down The Daily Prophet in his hand and began to eat the bacon on his plate heartily.
"You read The Daily Prophet every day now."
Hermione scanned the headline and found it was a report by Rita Skeeter—
"Mr. Potter's Statement: To Appease the Public, or to Cover Up Auror Incompetence?"
"Is there any news worth noting?"
"Yes," Weilan nodded. "Another pure-blood noble murder case occurred, and this time a broken diadem was found at the crime scene."
"But Mr. Potter said that they found important clues at the scene this time."
"The Aurors are now fully investigating along this clue—"
"—The above are the parts I believe to be largely true."
Weilan stuffed the last piece of bacon into his mouth and gulped down the orange juice in his cup.
"Let's go."
They put on their backpacks and walked towards the classroom.
"The Daily Prophet says that You-Know-Who is about to be resurrected," Ron stared blankly at the newspaper tucked under Weilan's arm. "You guys say—"
"Fake."
Whenever the topic of those reporters came up, Weilan couldn't help but snort:
"Besides, Ron, you can totally call him by his full name, Lord Voldemort, or even Tom, it's fine."
"He's dead, completely dead, and he won't be coming back."
Ron didn't understand the basis for Weilan's statement:
"How do you know? What if he still has a trump card..."
Weilan shook his head with great certainty: "There are no more trump cards. Professor Dumbledore said he's dead, he's dead. No one can resurrect him."
In today's class, they met Daphne again. Her porcelain doll-like beautiful face was still shrouded in lingering sadness.
But at lunchtime, Weilan saw many Slytherins sending her greetings, and she also received many gifts from boys.
With each gift she unwrapped, the sadness on Daphne's face lessened, as if the satisfaction of vanity brought by the hero's halo was gradually healing her wounded heart.
Daphne noticed Weilan's scrutinizing gaze and returned a look of disdain. Weilan, seeing this, turned his head away, no longer observing the girl.
After the afternoon classes ended, Weilan went to the Principal's office.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Come in."
Weilan pushed the door open and saw Professor Dumbledore sitting behind the desk, holding a piece of parchment in each hand.
Professor Dumbledore raised his sky-blue eyes behind his half-moon spectacles, beckoned to him, and told Weilan to come over.
After Weilan walked over, he laid the two pieces of parchment flat on the desk and pushed them to Weilan so that the latter could see the contents clearly.
On the left parchment was a large name written in elegant script:
Daphne Greengrass
On the right parchment was a Potion Class assignment. The content of this assignment was not important; what was important was the name circled in the upper right corner, plain and without fancy writing:
Daphne Greengrass
"This is the name Daphne put into the Goblet of Fire," Professor Dumbledore pointed to the left.
"This is Daphne's signature on her Potion Class assignment," Professor Dumbledore pointed to the right.
"Compare them," Professor Dumbledore stated his request, "and then tell me your judgment."
Weilan did not directly follow Professor Dumbledore's instructions. He asked:
"Professor Dumbledore, you want to find out who put Daphne's name into the Goblet of Fire?"
Professor Dumbledore sighed helplessly.
He paced to the bookshelf, where a birdcage was placed, and the Phoenix Fawkes was sound asleep inside.
"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch, they both represent the Ministry of Magic, but their attitude towards this matter is very strange."
"I can still understand Mr. Crouch; he has always been indifferent to everyone."
"But Mr. Bagman, facing this matter, apart from the initial brief panic, was very eager to... gloss over this matter."
"Mr. Bagman doesn't want me to investigate who put the name into the Goblet of Fire. So he desperately tried to prove that the name on the slip was written by Daphne herself."
"This is very unusual. So I wanted to compare the handwriting to prove that the name on the slip was not written by Daphne, and then find out who wanted to sabotage the competition."
"But I failed... Although the fonts are different, the fancy script used for registration was still written by Daphne herself."
"I can't prove anything, so child, I'd like to ask you to take a look and see if you can find anything new."
Fawkes yawned in the cage, woke up, and flapped his fiery red wings to stretch his body.
Professor Dumbledore's face held no smile. He returned from the birdcage to behind the desk, hands clasped on the tabletop:
"This matter is not as dramatic as it appears on the surface."
"Mr. Crouch's cold reaction is as consistent as ever. But Mr. Bagman is clearly desperately trying to conceal something."
"Layer by layer, link by link... Someone is pushing things towards a predetermined outcome, and we must figure out if such an outcome will harm all of us."
Upon hearing this, Weilan picked up the two pieces of parchment on the table with understanding:
"Alright, Professor Dumbledore, I think I understand the stakes involved."
Activating 【Subtle Observation】, Weilan observed the two signatures on the parchment.
Although different fonts were intentionally used, the same person's writing posture and habits cannot be easily changed.
With the help of 【Subtle Observation】, Weilan quickly determined that both names were written by Daphne.
Not only that, 【Subtle Observation】 also brought a lot of unexpected information to Weilan—
He actually saw several magic traces on the left parchment!
Weilan glanced at Professor Dumbledore, found that the old man was still patiently waiting for him, and then concentrated all his attention on the parchment with the fancy script on the left.
Weilan didn't recognize the first magic trace, guessing it might be Goblet of Fire magic naturally carried after being washed by the Goblet of Fire. So he skipped it directly.
The second magic trace was a very powerful Confundo. Weilan believed that Daphne might have been chosen as Hogwarts's champion because of it.
The third magic trace was very faint. Weilan distinguished it for a long time before realizing that it was actually a trace left by Accio.
Moreover, according to 【Subtle Observation】's recreation of the trace, this Accio spell acted directly on the parchment itself, and the flying distance was very short.
Someone deliberately used Accio to quickly move the parchment and change its position?
But what was the purpose of doing so? To steal the parchment with Daphne's signature? Quite possible, after all, to make Daphne a champion, a personal signature of hers is first needed...
Weilan turned the parchment over and over, examining it.
Some traces of dirt and grass juice on it were captured by 【Subtle Observation】, which then recreated an outdoor scene.
Daphne, outdoors under the bright sun, happily wrote her name on this parchment with her own hand.
But what was still missing?
Weilan frowned, staring at the beautiful, large fancy script, lost in thought for a long time.
Finally, he realized the most unusual oversight, which 【Subtle Observation】 did not directly provide to him—
"School."
Weilan's eyes widened, and he sought Professor Dumbledore's confirmation:
"If this is the parchment Daphne put into the Goblet of Fire, then did she not write the school name?"
"Like 'Viktor Krum — Durmstrang,' 'Fleur Delacour — Beauxbatons.'"
"Shouldn't the correct format be 'Daphne Greengrass — Hogwarts'?"