“Yes, that’s also what I find strange.” Cold white light reflected off Dumbledore’s lenses.
“I believe someone tricked Daphne into signing something, then threw it into the Goblet of Fire.”
“The parchment with the signature had a powerful Confundo on it, which confused the individual the name referred to, making Daphne mistakenly appear as Hogwarts’ top choice for Champion.”
“However, I don’t have direct, strong evidence to prove these deductions are correct. It’s also plausible that Daphne herself sought someone to cast this Confundo to become Champion.”
“Unless we can find direct evidence pointing to the culprit, Mr. Bagman can still easily gloss over this matter.”
Weilan listened carefully and noticed that Dumbledore hadn’t mentioned the existence of Accio.
“Professor, besides the Confundo, did you find any other spells on it?”
Dumbledore was silent for a moment, then replied to him: “I have only found this one additional spell for now. There’s also the magic inherent to the Goblet of Fire itself. Why, have you found something else?”
Just as Weilan was considering how to appropriately mention the Accio he had seen, Dumbledore proactively offered an opening:
“It’s alright, just say it. I know you have some unique magical talents.”
Weilan exhaled and revealed the spell:
“There are also faint traces of Accio on the parchment, but they are very weak.”
“Someone used Accio to move the parchment to a specific area, changing its position.”
Weilan thought for a moment, then added:
“Compared to Daphne’s signature on her Potion homework, the cursive signature on the parchment is indeed Daphne’s own, there’s no dispute about that.”
“But I found traces of dirt and grass stains, and the parchment had been exposed to direct sunlight for a long time, its surface was even somewhat bleached—”
“This indicates that the parchment had been left outdoors for a long time.”
Dumbledore took off his half-moon spectacles, muttering as he wiped them:
“But, Weilan, this doesn’t directly prove anything. Perhaps someone lost this parchment, so they simply used Accio to make it fly into their hand?”
“Perhaps during transport, this parchment was placed on top and exposed to the sun?”
“In any case, the traces of Accio are too faint. I need to conduct a detailed appraisal of it to restore the parchment’s state when Accio was used.”
Weilan thought this was good, after all, he couldn’t expose the existence of his golden finger. Dumbledore’s appraisal results could be used directly as evidence.
“However, before my appraisal results are out—Weilan, I hope you will keep a close eye on this matter for me.”
Dumbledore reached into his robe pocket, his slender fingers pulling out two Galleons, which he pushed towards Weilan: “Thank you for your trouble, this is an advance payment. If you can find out who the culprit is, my little detective, I will pay you a final sum.”
Dumbledore’s smile invigorated Weilan, and his promised reward made Weilan decide to temporarily set aside their past grievances and give Dumbledore face by investigating what happened to Daphne.
Taking the Galleons, he had dinner in the Great Hall. In the Gryffindor common room, he reunited with Hermione and Ron.
After explaining Dumbledore’s commission, he further explained to his friends Dumbledore’s promised reward and the unavoidable implications behind this matter.
“Alright, I understand.” Hermione nodded sagely. “But where do you plan to start with this?”
“Let’s go back to sleep tonight,” Weilan thought no new progress was possible tonight. “Tomorrow, we’ll go see Daphne.”
Everyone knew they had to go see the person involved, Daphne, but when Weilan actually said it aloud, all three of their expressions were as if they had tasted something sour.
That night, Weilan returned to his dormitory but was not in a hurry to sleep.
He meticulously formulated a divination question, a question that could be divined by the Seer.
“Did the intelligent being who designed Daphne to be Champion ever have thoughts of harming me?”
Regardless, Weilan had to ensure his absolute safety.
Unlike 【Subtle Observation】, whether the 【Seer】 skill takes effect is not necessarily immediately felt.
So, to test this skill, Weilan had used it for 7 consecutive nights to divine whether he had eaten eggs that morning and whether he would eat eggs the next morning.
As a result, all divinations concerning the past were correct, while for divinations concerning the future, all coins landed on their sides, refusing to give any answer.
Therefore, the divination results of 【Seer】, in Weilan’s view, were highly credible.
He took a Knut from his pocket, held it tightly in the palm of his right hand, and after consuming 15 points of magic, began to divine.
He silently recited the divination question three times, then tossed the coin.
The copper coin leaped in the dim dormitory, then fell.
Clink—
The copper coin landed on the hard, solid floor, emitting a crisp sound.
Ron turned over in his bed curtains, muttering a few words in his sleep. Neville’s snores were deafening; in comparison, the sound of the copper coin landing was almost imperceptible.
Weilan held his glowing wand, leaned closer to the copper coin, and observed that the upward-facing side was a Wizard’s head.
The Knut landed with the numerical side down and the head side up.
The divination yielded a 【Yes】 result.
Weilan frowned deeply, quickly and silently put away his wand and the Knut, and climbed into bed.
That night, he fell asleep very late.
Around noon the next day, he and Ron intercepted Daphne outside the Great Hall.
To prevent Daphne from being disrespectful to Hermione, Weilan simply didn’t bring Hermione this time.
“Miss Greengrass.” Weilan, as usual, performed a gentleman’s bow. “May I trouble you for a moment?”
“What do you want?” Daphne’s good friend, Pansy, was accompanying Daphne. “I’m telling you, the Champion has already been chosen! With the Goblet of Fire’s magical contract, no one can change Daphne’s Champion status.”
In just two days, Daphne and her best friend had transitioned from resisting the dangers of the Triwizard Tournament to enjoying the glory that being a Champion brought.
Seeing this, Weilan awkwardly stopped Ron from flaring up and immediately changed the topic’s entry point.
He then pulled out a quill and parchment from his pocket and respectfully handed them to Daphne:
“You misunderstand, Miss Greengrass, we admire you greatly for becoming Hogwarts’ Champion.”
“So, may we trouble you for an autograph?”
“Hmph!” On Daphne’s high, swan-like neck, her half-closed eyes showed disdain, but also triumph.
“You play with mudbloods, I won’t give you an autograph.”
Weilan’s right hand, clenched into a fist, trembled slightly. He desperately suppressed the urge to punch this woman.
“We will stay away from her in the future.”
“That’s more like it.” Triumph and vanity consumed everything in her heart. She picked up the quill and signed a large, beautiful cursive signature on the parchment—
“Daphne Greengrass.”
It was exactly the same as the name spat out by the Goblet of Fire.
“Oh dear.” Seeing that he had obtained the signature, Weilan immediately moved to the next step of his plan. “Miss Greengrass, your signature looks a bit familiar.”
“Before you were chosen as Champion, who else did you sign for?”
“No one,” Daphne blinked in confusion. “How could I casually sign for others like that?”
“Really no one? Think hard.” Weilan subtly guided her. “I saw a parchment with the same beautiful cursive writing, also with only your name on it.”
“Oh, you mean that. It seems I did write it about a week ago… No, how could you have seen that parchment?”
Daphne’s arrogance became aggressive:
“A week ago, I only left my cursive signature for that Witch at the Lucky Star Bottle stall in Hogsmeade.”
“That Witch rolled up the parchment with my signature and put it into a Lucky Star Bottle, and that bottle is still on my bedside table to this day.”
“Why would you have seen my signature?”