"Kid, do you have a team you want to support?" Seeing that the Greengrass sisters were only willing to bet one Galleon, Bagman was a little disappointed. After hastily recording their choices, he turned his attention to Rhys, who had been standing by the side the whole time.
"Let me divine it first." With a thought, Rhys decided to try out his Divination skills.
"Oh?" Ludo immediately became interested, but at that moment Fred and George came over and pulled him aside.
Rhys knew his tea-leaf reading skills were rather unreliable, so he split his divination into several parts.
First, he divined his own luck for the day and found that it seemed fairly good. In the midst of danger, there might even be unexpected gains. Then he divined the condition of the two teams and found that they were evenly matched.
Rhys thought for a moment and roughly came to a conclusion. Just then, he heard Fred's voice..
"I bet on Ireland to win—but Viktor Krum will catch the Golden Snitch."
An interesting betting method, and quite bold.
Bagman was also taken aback by Fred's way of betting. Before he could react, the boy named Rhys stepped forward as well, saying he would place the same bet as Fred and George, though he would only wager one Galleon.
"Fine." Bagman shrugged. In his mind, since they were willing to burn money like this, he had no reason to stop them. He only mentioned verbally that he would give them very high odds.
After Ludo recorded the three names on the parchment, the bet was complete.
Watching Fred hand over all the money they had just earned along with their entire savings to Bagman, Astoria couldn't help but ask after he left, "That's all your savings. Is it really okay to gamble it all on such a high-risk bet?"
"If you don't take risks, how can you make more money?" Fred made a very Gryffindor-like remark.
Astoria tried her best to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. In her opinion, this was simply wasting money.
Perhaps guessing what the young witch was thinking, Fred took the initiative to explain.
"We've actually thought this through carefully. Krum is a rare genius, and the probability of him catching the Golden Snitch is extremely high. But Bulgaria's overall strength is far inferior to Ireland's. Without Krum, they wouldn't even have a tenth of a chance of winning, so we believe the probability of Ireland gaining an overwhelming advantage is also very high. Putting the two together, it becomes Ireland winning, but Krum still catching the Snitch.
"Our chances of losing aren't as high as they look. On the contrary, I'd say we have at least a fifty percent chance of winning." Fred spread his hands, indicating that while they were bold, they weren't reckless fools without brains.
Astoria: "…"
She wanted to refute him, but his reasoning sounded so convincing that she didn't know what to say.
As the afternoon passed, the entire campsite gradually became enveloped in excitement. By nightfall, no one bothered to keep up appearances anymore. Traces of magic sprang up everywhere like mushrooms after rain, and the Statute of Secrecy was thoroughly cast aside.
On the way to the stadium, every few steps there would be vendors Apparating out of thin air, carrying trays or pushing carts, peddling goods to the visitors: glowing rose-shaped badges, miniature Firebolt models that could fly, tiny player figurines that walked around in your palm…
Rhys's Galleons disappeared like flowing water, exchanged for all sorts of trinkets. Daphne and Astoria were left dumbfounded and couldn't help but buy quite a few things as well.
By the time they reached the stadium entrance, all three of their small bags were stuffed with various little items.
"Come on, our seats are at the very top—it's the best box." Daphne took out the tickets and pulled her sister and Rhys quickly toward the upper levels.
Quite a few important figures also poured into the top-tier box. Rhys observed coldly: there were Britain's Minister for Magic, Bones, and Bulgaria's Minister for Magic; the Malfoy family; Jamison was there as well. More out of place were the Weasley family and Harry—their presence here was somewhat unexpected.
The match soon began.
…
Voldemort stood in the forest, coldly staring at the half of the sky illuminated by the lights of the Quidditch World Cup stadium.
Aries stood behind him, head lowered in silence. Beside her, Taurus—who had disappeared during the previous resurrection ritual—had appeared once again, his face deathly pale, without a trace of color.
According to him, that night he sensed something was wrong and used Apparition to leave the cave, but still ended up seriously injured, only just recovering in the past few days.
Aries said she believed him on the surface, but inside, a storm was raging. She knew Taurus was lying, because they had cast an Anti-Apparition Charm in that cave—there was no way anyone could have Apparated out.
But she truly didn't dare expose Taurus in front of Voldemort. Her instincts told her that something was very wrong with the Taurus in front of her, and Voldemort himself harbored ill intentions toward her. Every time he looked at her, his gaze carried undisguised greed, like a snake staring at a mouse. It made her deeply uncomfortable.
Taurus's problems went far beyond simple lying. He had also disobeyed the organization's orders, allowing Voldemort to leave their sight and act alone for a period of time.
This was a very serious dereliction of duty. If the organization found out, he might even lose the title of "Taurus."
All of this pushed Aries's vigilance to its peak, making these past days extremely tormenting for her.
Fortunately, it would all be over soon. The highest-ranking figure in the secret society would be meeting Voldemort tonight. She could take this opportunity to request a transfer and report the situation to the organization.
At that moment, a voice sounded from behind the three of them...
"We finally meet, Mr. Voldemort."
All three turned around at once. There was no emotion in Taurus's eyes, while Voldemort's face was filled with disbelief—before the man spoke, he had not sensed his presence at all. A trace of hope appeared in Aries's eyes: that voice belonged to that person!
She turned her head, and what came into view was a tall man in robes, his face concealed by a hood and a mask made of bull bone.
As expected, the most powerful and most mysterious figure in the secret society—Polaris—had arrived.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI