Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Chapter 44 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

After the three chatted for a while, Cho Chang, as expected, found the private room and, at Cedric's invitation, sat down. After a token inquiry about his vacation, Avada's misfortune began—

They were all talking about Quidditch.

While Avada might have some interest in the flying broomstick technique itself, he had absolutely no interest in Quidditch: putting aside his less-than-stellar athletic talent, the absurd rules and even more absurd regulations of Quidditch alone were enough to make him keep his distance from the sport.

Have you ever seen a sport where a player who barely participates in the physical confrontation can end the game at any time?

Have you ever seen a sport where overtime is unlimited and the cost of fouls is ridiculously low?

Quidditch is one of them.

So even though this kind of sport, which involves competition and confrontation in three-dimensional space, is indeed very entertaining and dramatic, Avada Kedavra is at most something to watch for fun. As for personally experiencing it or becoming a fervent supporter of a particular team, forget about it.

However, during their conversation, he heard that Baron and Cho, now that they were in their second year, both planned to sign up for the school's Quidditch team tryouts, and he would definitely have to go and check it out.

"Oh my god, Baron, I just remembered, you said you have a Nimbus 2000 at home, right... You probably didn't bring it with you, did you?"

While they were talking about the Quidditch team selection, Cho suddenly turned around and looked at Baron with a horrified expression.

What kind of expression is that?

Baron was amused by Qiu's expression: "Don't worry, I'm not so outrageous as to use the latest world-class broom in a school competition, that would be too unfair... Besides, with my skills, it would be difficult to bring out the full potential of the Nimbus 2000, even if I had it, it would be a waste."

Avada smirked: It seems a certain savior has been subtly mocked.

"Thank you so much."

Qiu chuckled wryly, "Even the richest players only come with a Nimbus 1700 at most. If you actually pull out a Nimbus 2000, I'm afraid... wow!!"

She suddenly screamed and jumped up, startling the other three.

"What's wrong?!"

Avada and Baron almost instantly created distance and drew their wands, looking warily at Cho, who was already standing in her seat, looking utterly shaken.

Cedric glanced at the two of them, hesitated for a moment before reaching for his wand, but didn't pull it out immediately. Instead, he moved a little closer to Qiu: "What's wrong, Qiu?"

"have no idea,"

Qiu's voice was still a bit sharp: "Just now, I suddenly felt a cold and slippery sensation on my ankle..."

The three of them frowned in unison, then bent down to look under the seats for anything that might have caused that sensation. They found a large toad under Qiu's seat, which was lying quietly in the corner, motionless.

"It's probably someone's pet toad that wandered here."

Avada was distracted, which is why he noticed a red life force under the feet of the magical senses. He then cast a levitation spell to send the toad hovering in front of him—he didn't want to touch it.

While manipulating the levitation spell to make the toad follow him, he opened the door to the private room: "You guys chat for a bit, I'll go see if I can find the owner of this toad, and if not, I'll hand it over to the prefect."

"Okay, please."

Avada nodded, turned and left the private room.

"If I'm not mistaken, this must be Neville Longbottom's toad. I never expected to run into it."

After sighing inwardly, he controlled the toad and entered the corridor, knocking on the doors of each private room to inquire, while the toad looked on in a daze—he didn't know where Neville was, so this was the only way he could do it.

"Excuse me, has anyone lost a toad...? Oh, Shabi, you're here too?"

"You're going to participate in the Quidditch selection too? That's great! I'll definitely come to watch. Good luck!"

"Excuse me, has anyone lost a toad here? ...Sorry to bother you."

"Excuse me, is this toad yours...? Hey, what are you doing?"

In the box he was knocking on, two boys were sitting facing each other, while a girl stood in the doorway, her back to him. One of the boys, with red hair, was placing a mouse on a table piled high with snacks and pointing his wand at it…

Pilgrimage to sacred sites.

Avada thought to himself, he never imagined he would have the chance to participate in this scene.

However, he remembered that Neville had arrived before Hermione met Harry and Ron, but he hadn't run into Neville before... they probably missed each other outside some box.

"Oh, this must be Neville's toad! Thank you."

The girl with the fluffy brown hair, Hermione Granger, happily accepted the toad floating in the sky, nodded her thanks to Avada, and then explained to him, "Those two are demonstrating how to change the color of a mouse, and I was just about to watch..."

Avada Kedavra glanced at the rat, a cold glint in his eyes, then turned to the two boys without changing his expression, smiling slightly. "Unexpectedly, Harry. And this gentleman, you're Ronald Weasley, Ron, right?"

"Hello there."

Ron naturally remembered Avada's face and the name his brothers had mentioned, so he turned and greeted him, "I'm about to cast a spell on this rat, do you want to come and watch?"

"I would be delighted."

Avada Kedavra smiled and sat down in the seat next to Harry, while Hermione sat down next to Ron. Then Ron waved his wand, cleared his throat, and said:

"Sunshine, daisies, sweet cream—turn this silly, fat mouse yellow!"

Unsurprisingly, there was no response.

"Are you sure this really is a spell?" Hermione asked. "It doesn't seem very good, does it? I've tried a few simple spells at home, just for practice, and they all worked. At home..."

"etc,"

Avada Kedavra, unusually, interrupted Hermione and said to Ron with a smile, "Don't be discouraged, it's just that there's something wrong with how you're chanting the spell. I'll demonstrate the correct way for you."

Then, under the curious gazes of Hermione, Harry, and Ron, he took out his wand, pointed it at the mouse, and recited in a solemn tone:

"Holy sunlight, beautiful daisies, sweet cream, please bestow your power upon this silly, fat mouse, and let it be stained with your colors!"

A moment later, under the expectant or astonished gazes of the three, the rat's body actually turned yellow!

"How is this possible?!"

While Harry and Ron marveled at Avada Kedavra's ingenious color-changing charm, Hermione frowned, pondering this scene that almost overturned her newly established magical worldview. It took her a long time to react before she exclaimed, "I get it!"

"The time interval between when you finished reciting the spell and when it took effect was too long, so what turned the rat yellow wasn't that nonsensical phrase at all!"

"You must have used a silent spell! Right?"

She looked at Avada with a smug expression, as if to say, "I've seen through your trick."

"They actually found out?"

Avada was genuinely surprised this time—he knew Hermione was knowledgeable, but he hadn't expected that she would already know about the Silent Charm before even enrolling in school!

He turned back to look at Ron, who seemed a little resentful, and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, just kidding. You can't master the color-changing spell right now; you'll have to wait until the second semester of your first year. And your mouse will probably revert to normal in about five minutes—alright, I have to go now, my friends are waiting for me."

He got up, said goodbye to the three of them, opened the door and walked out of the private room, and then the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up.

Hermione Granger is intelligent, but unfortunately not intelligent enough.

While reciting that string of "prayer", he secretly cast a location spell on Peter Pettigrew, and then cast the silent color-changing spell.

The location spell's effect lasts for three months, and it can be maintained indefinitely by simply approaching it and replenishing the spell. This ensures that Peter's whereabouts remain under his surveillance. Even if Peter leaves Hogwarts and the Marauder's Map becomes ineffective, he can still sense Peter's location.

Although he longed to tell him his real name, Peter had another purpose in Avada's plan.

Thank you to "Serious Profiteer" for the donation!

(End of this chapter)