"He ran off fast... He probably knew how deep these waters were and didn't want to stay any longer."
Watching the last few sparks slowly fade into the air, Avada shrugged. "Mundungus Fletcher... Dumbledore actually had that first-generation Order of the Phoenix member who specializes in petty theft and shady dealings impersonate me?"
"I remember he's scammed quite a few people before... Let's just hope he didn't do anything disgraceful while wearing my face. But judging from his mental state just now, there wasn't any sign of guilt. So Dumbledore probably warned him in advance how important this matter was, or Baron and the others were keeping a close eye on him the whole time..."
As he recalled all the various jobs and schemes Mundungus Fletcher had gotten involved in over the years, Avada unfolded the parchment and began reading through the record Mundungus had made of everything "Mr. Ken" had done throughout the day. Folded up, the parchment didn't look like much, but once spread open, it nearly covered the entire table.
And to be fair, Mundungus really was impressively professional when it came to gathering intelligence and passing along information. The parchment recorded nearly every word and action he had taken while impersonating Avada, down to the minute. It even included a few rough sketches noting the appearance of "Mr. Ken's" dance partner that evening.
Following the principle that fewer complications meant fewer problems, Mundungus had chosen to directly invite a seventh-year Hogwarts senior who had come along for the event and who happened to be on fairly good terms with Avada in daily life—someone he could actually talk to with ease. According to Mundungus's note, he had done this mainly to prevent Avada from unknowingly forming ties with some stranger and creating an unnecessary weak point out of thin air. The sketches only recorded the senior's hairstyle and clothing from that night as well, so Avada would not slip up in future conversations.
Such meticulous and thoughtful recordkeeping genuinely surprised Avada. In his impression, Mundungus was supposed to be a slippery, light-fingered man who couldn't keep his hands to himself and rarely took responsibility seriously. And yet now he had handled a matter this well?
Who knew whether it was because Dumbledore had paid him generously, or because Moody had been watching him too closely?
...
As the festive atmosphere of Christmas gradually faded, and with the third task of the Triwizard Tournament still far away, the champions slowly slipped out of the center of attention among the Durmstrang crowd. Life returned to its normal rhythm, and they were finally able to resume their usual routines while spending the month-long Christmas holiday in a foreign land.
No one knew that, on the day of that utterly ordinary Christmas Ball, something of immense historical significance had taken place—something that, if the technical details were ever fully made public, would be enough to transform the entire magical world. That eased Avada's mind considerably.
So on the very next day after the ball, he found an opportunity to hand those two phoenix feathers to Krum and Fleur, along with instructions on how to use them. The information inside had definitely been delivered. As for what expressions they would have after reading it... that was another matter.
Then, two or three days after Christmas break began, he finally succeeded in craking Durmstrang's blocking mechanism, sneaking beyond the boundaries of the school before controlling Nathan Clarke to come meet up with his main body and place that admission letter and enrollment contract into his hands, thereby settling one more matter that had been weighing on his mind.
As for Leach University, according to Headmistress Miranda Goshawk, Grindelwald was still forbidding anyone from going to visit him. But now that Avada already knew what Grindelwald was planning, there was naturally no need for him to worry anymore. He was only mildly curious what Grindelwald had been doing lately with Dumbledore—or perhaps with someone else.
And with Christmas break arriving, the students at Leach University had also all left campus one after another, leaving the entire school feeling empty. There were no classes to teach and no particularly demanding assignments either. Universities were still fairly humane when it came to holidays. Even while bearing a mission that amounted to standing against half of society, a break was still a break. Unless something truly urgent happened, absolutely no overtime.
What was more, during this time there had also been tremendous good news.
At the university, aside from teaching, Avada's primary long-term task had always been working with Belby to research a cure for lycanthropy—and half a month ago, that project had achieved an enormously significant breakthrough. Through a variety of complicated methods, they had preliminarily managed to suppress lycanthropy to the absolute limit.
The volunteer who underwent the trial had not only permanently lost all infectiousness, but was also able to remain completely rational on the night of the full moon. In fact, aside from growing a bit more body hair, they no longer even needed to go through the process of transforming into a werewolf at all.
And the result was permanent. It could be achieved with just a single operation.
It was not that they did not want to eradicate the curse completely and remove even that final trace of werewolf characteristics. But with their current technology, the cost of eliminating that last remnant of the curse had already reached a level no ordinary person could possibly bear. And patients who had been treated to this stage were already almost indistinguishable from normal people. After discussing it thoroughly, the entire team agreed that the current results were already practical enough for real-world application.
There was even one more benefit. Because treated patients still retained a trace of the curse inside their bodies, they were still, in essence, werewolves—meaning they could no longer be infected by another werewolf. It was not especially useful, perhaps, but at least it offered some psychological comfort. After all, anyone bitten by a werewolf was bound to carry some lingering trauma.
To celebrate the result, the entire project team—including Avada and Belby—threw a banquet that lasted for more than two full days, and only after exhausting themselves completely did they finally welcome their utterly idle Christmas holiday.
The only slight regret was that, according to the school's requirements, the result still could not be announced immediately. They had to wait for the "most suitable opportunity." Avada guessed that would probably be when the university officially stepped into the spotlight under the banner of the Tournament.
Thus, for the first time ever, both Avada's main body and the duplicate he had left at the university wound up on vacation at the same time, with absolutely nothing to do. The situation left him feeling unbearably idle, to the point that even when he wanted to do something, he realized there was simply nothing that needed doing.
Voldemort had been dealt with. The pure-blood families were not something he needed to worry about for the time being, and the timing still had not arrived. There were no classes and no tasks waiting for him at the university. And during the Tournament, his wand still could not be upgraded for the moment...
It was not until the holiday ended, and both sides once again needed him to teach, that he finally felt a little more fulfilled, as though he had, after a long time, once again gotten to experience a normal campus life.
And so, time quietly flowed onward until May.
(End of Chapter)