“Actually, Professor Dumbledore, investigating these Ministry of Magic officials is quite simple.”
Weilan shared the trick he knew with Dumbledore: “You just need to grasp… two things.”
“Money and women!”
The former was Weilan’s valuable experience gleaned from his predecessors through extensive reading in his previous life.
The latter was Weilan suddenly remembering his divination result—that behind Daphne becoming a champion, there were Veela at play.
“Go to Gringotts Bank and check their accounts, then investigate their social connections.”
“If these Ministry of Magic officials have indeed been bribed to abet evil,”
“Then their Gringotts accounts will show large sums of money from unknown sources.”
“If there’s no money transferred into Gringotts, then either the money is hidden in their homes, or it’s a… transaction of that kind with women.”
After Weilan finished speaking, he looked at Dumbledore expectantly. No matter how suspicious Mr. Bagman was, Weilan didn't have the power to investigate the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
The final decision-making power for this matter rested in Dumbledore’s hands.
Dumbledore’s blue eyes, under his half-moon spectacles, were now as sharp and resolute as an eagle’s: “Your idea is very good, Weilan, and I will adopt it.”
“I will find a way to go to Gringotts Bank as soon as possible to check Mr. Bagman’s accounts, and then inquire about Mr. Bagman’s social interactions during this period.”
“You don’t need to interfere with this matter.”
Dumbledore seemed to be afraid that Weilan would be disappointed, so he rubbed his head and explained, “This is for your protection.”
No matter who it was, daring to extend their poisonous hands into Hogwarts, Dumbledore would not tolerate them continuing to be so brazen.
Walking out of the tent, Ron and Weilan squatted at the edge of the enclosure, watching the trainers use a herbal juice to clean the scales of the Hungarian Horntail.
The other two Dragons were nestled in the Dragon nests prepared for them by the trainers, Stupefy had put them into a temporary slumber.
“Charlie!”
Ron spread his arms, calling out to his brother.
Charlie put down the tin bucket full of dark green juice and walked towards Ron.
“How is it?” He asked impatiently, “Can you determine who exactly secretly drugged and cursed the Dragons?”
“We have a lead, but this matter is difficult to investigate further.” Weilan subtly reminded Charlie, “Think about the group of people who stopped you before the competition.”
The atmosphere was silent for a moment. Charlie looked back at the two sickly Dragons, lowered his red ponytail, and whispered to them:
“Investigating is one thing, finding the culprit is another. What I want to know is, who exactly attacked the Dragons last night.”
“I understand what you mean.”
Weilan, seeing that he was Ron’s brother, decided to help him solve this puzzle.
Opening Minute Observation, Weilan observed the Dragon enclosure.
In his right eye’s vision, the three Dragons were covered in protective magic, and it was this magic that made the Dragons so terrifyingly powerful.
However, those protective magics were not impregnable.
Weilan could see that the Dragon’s abdominal magical defense was relatively weak, and their eyes simply had no magical coverage.
On that Hungarian Horntail, the protective magic on his body showed faint cracks, and wisps of dark green Dark Arts were slowly emanating from within.
The Chinese Fireball was a bit better; the trainers were prying open its mouth to feed it meat—its mouth had been filled with a fire-extinguishing Potion.
Weilan was completely unfamiliar with Dark Arts.
He could not identify the type and origin of the Dark Arts, but could only infer from the residual traces of the Dark Arts that it must have been cast last night.
The part of the Dragon’s body hit by the Dark Arts, it should be…
“Charlie, can I observe the Hungarian Horntail up close?”
“Yes.” Charlie let him into the enclosure, “We put it to sleep, and the other two Dragons are not aggressive now either.”
Weilan approached the Hungarian Horntail, starting from its spiky tail and moving upwards, his gaze stopping at the Dragon’s soft underbelly, close to the ground.
This was an extremely tricky casting position.
The Dragons were in a state of slumber before the start of the competition. No one could cast a spell from underground to hit the Dragon's belly.
And in Weilan’s memory, only Madam Maxime touched the Hungarian Horntail’s tail and told Fleur the information overnight.
Mr. Bagman, that night… did not touch this Hungarian Horntail.
Weilan was surprised to find that although Mr. Bagman acted very suspiciously,
He actually had no evidence to prove that Mr. Bagman was the one who did it.
“Let me see the other two Dragons.”
Weilan remembered that Mr. Bagman had touched the other two Dragons.
This time, Weilan made a new discovery.
Near the enclosure fence where the Chinese Fireball was, there were traces of magic flickering.
The fences at the edge of these enclosures were all made of metal (because wood would burn), and to prevent the Dragons from climbing over, the metal was also entwined with iron thorns.
Now, Weilan saw that someone had splashed a sleeping Potion on the place where the fence met the soil.
And Minute Observation provided him with even more details.
This small patch of land had not only been splashed with a sleeping Potion, but strange things were mixed into the dust.
Those things were very small particles, but they glittered in the sunlight.
Weilan identified these as very fine glass shards.
Besides this, someone had cast a simple cleaning spell here.
And on the iron thorns of the fence, there were a few strands of silvery-white animal fur hanging.
“Karkaroff…”
Weilan uttered this name. Because Weilan clearly remembered that Karkaroff habitually wore a silvery-white fur coat.
Tiptoeing, he looked outside the fence.
Sure enough, Minute Observation helped Weilan clearly see the shallow footprints outside the fence, and also the scattered stones on the ground.
The footprints came from deep within the Forbidden Forest. Weilan guessed that to avoid the Dragon trainers, Karkaroff had taken a detour through the Forbidden Forest.
In the reconstructed scene from the broken clues, Karkaroff, holding multiple Potions, walked outside the fence, used a few stones to step on, and with extreme difficulty, climbed over the fence entwined with iron thorns.
His smooth, silvery-white fur was snagged by the iron thorns, losing a few strands of hair. When he jumped down from the fence, he accidentally broke a bottle of sleeping Potion.
After he simply cleaned up the mess on the ground with magic, he silently walked towards the Chinese Fireball.
The Chinese Fireball had only been given a small amount of sleeping Potion by the trainers, but it was still sleeping soundly. Karkaroff gave it an additional bottle of sleeping Potion, as well as a bottle of fire-extinguishing Potion.
He slowly poured those liquid medicines into its mouth, along the long teeth that the Chinese Fireball had exposed.
After doing all this, Karkaroff confidently climbed out of the Dragon enclosure.
To ensure everything was foolproof, Weilan took out the coin from his pocket again. He used Seer to confirm that Karkaroff had indeed visited the Dragon enclosure last night and administered Potions to this Chinese Fireball.
Weilan stood up from the ground.
“I remember, Fleur drew number 3, the Swedish Short-Snout, right?”
No one could answer him. But Weilan was still very sure that when he and Fleur escaped into the tent together, Fleur had mentioned to him once that she drew number 3, the Swedish Short-Snout.
Then the number 2 left for Krum was exactly this Chinese Fireball.
Before Krum drew number 2, his Principal, Karkaroff, accurately predicted the number he would “randomly” draw.
And on the night before, Karkaroff secretly snuck into the Dragon enclosure and administered sleeping Potion and fire-extinguishing Potion to this Chinese Fireball.