Not long after the ball ended, Barty Crouch quietly vanished, and his assistant, Percy Weasley, was originally slated to take his place as a judge. Yet, standing alongside heavyweights like Dumbledore, Percy simply failed to command respect, forcing Minister for Magic Fudge to step in instead.
In truth, it was Cyrus who had made Rita publish a protest refusing to recognize Percy as a judge. Fudge had been getting rather restless lately, secretly resisting her behind the scenes. Many of the corporations under her umbrella and pure-blood families supporting her had been raided and searched by the Ministry of Magic under various pretexts; it was high time she gave him a reminder.
All the champions had unlocked the secret of the golden egg. Anything involving water naturally pointed to the Black Lake, and over the last few days, Krum and the others had still been swimming in it. Cyrus hadn't set foot there since her spell explosion at the bottom of the Black Lake last time—she'd been quite far from the merpeople's settlement then, so they surely wouldn't hold a grudge against her, right? What on earth was Barty Jr. planning to pull off in the water this time?
Chapter 67