"No curses, no Dark Magic, no hidden tricks that might trigger other spells…"
Only after analyzing the entire golden egg from beginning to end with painstaking care did Avada finally let out a small sigh of relief. "Looks like they don't intend to tamper with this golden egg. In other words, it should be safe until the third task begins, and I still have half a year to prepare…"
"And as for the golden egg itself—it basically has three functions."
Avada pulled a small notebook over from the side and opened it. He set down his wand, picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and began writing rapid notes.
"First, there's a spell that seems to be used to locate some object, but it hasn't been activated yet. And even if it were activated now, it would be useless—the source it's supposed to track probably hasn't been delivered here yet…"
"Once that spell is activated, part of the eggshell will begin to glow, and the direction the glowing section points in will be the direction of the item being tracked. Isn't that design a bit…"
This thing was a standard egg-shaped object the size of a human head, and it was not light either. Under normal circumstances, he could still use a Levitation Charm to make it float by his side, but the environment this golden egg was meant to face was the perilous Triwizard Tournament. And judging by its material, it did not seem sturdy at all—probably the kind of thing that would crack if dropped hard once, and shatter completely after a few more impacts.
Yet such a large lump, something that had nothing at all to do with the word portable, was apparently meant to be carried around as a guide?
He rather doubtfully imagined what using this golden egg would look like: he would need to keep one hand free at all times to carry this heavy egg while moving quickly through some dangerous setting, and every so often he would also have to lower his head to check whether the glowing section of the egg was pointing in exactly the same direction he was moving.
"But at the very least, one thing can be confirmed: in the third stage, the champions will need something to guide their direction… a maze?"
Thinking of the scene of the third task in the original story, Avada wrote down that guess.
"Carrying the golden egg is basically equivalent to losing the use of one hand. Even if I use magic to reduce its weight, it'll still be hard to free up the hand holding it. And I'll have to keep part of my attention on protecting this fragile golden egg in a dangerous environment at all times… which is basically a disguised way of weakening the champion."
"And judging by the magical structure, it seems there can be several glowing regions on the eggshell at the same time. That means there may be more than one destination. If that's the case, then the grounds needed for the third task must also be much larger—at least several times the size of the arena used in the second task…"
After pausing for a moment, he dipped the quill in ink again and continued writing.
"Then, once the bottom of the eggshell receives some kind of signal, its tracking function will shut off on its own. After that, the entire golden egg will open from the inside and begin collecting the surrounding images and sounds to transmit them back… which means the place where the golden egg opens is very likely to be some kind of enclosed setting, one the audience can't see?"
"But that doesn't quite make sense either. The organizers of this Tournament clearly have large-scale scene-recording magic, don't they? Otherwise Hogwarts wouldn't have been able to watch the first and second tasks live either… If it's an enclosed space, then wouldn't it be enough to just install the same kind of magic in that room directly? Why go to all the trouble of stuffing that magic into the golden egg and making it coexist with several other spells?"
"The more spells attached to a magical item at the same time, the harder it is to craft… and that all adds to the cost, doesn't it?"
"Or is it that placing a recording spell inside that enclosed space would actually be harder than putting it inside the golden egg? Under what circumstances would that happen?"
"Could it be that the magical density inside that space is even higher than in this golden egg…? Uh, that actually is possible. After all, it's a challenge the champions are supposed to face, so having more magic in it would be normal enough… But then why insist on making it an enclosed space?"
Since the information he had at the moment was still too limited, Avada could only bury those questions in his heart for the time being and stop dwelling on them. Instead, he kept writing.
"And the third function of the golden egg… is as a 'key.'"
"Once the bottom of the eggshell receives a signal—that is, once it is placed into some specific position—it can open the golden egg itself while simultaneously forming a channel for transmission magic, allowing certain spells to be guided out through the opened egg. Those spells definitely exist inside that enclosed space, but there's no way for me to know what they are yet. However, judging in reverse from the structure at the bottom of the shell… it seems to contain the characteristics of Transfiguration?"
"In other words, whatever magic comes out through the golden egg will at least carry the characteristics of Transfiguration, and most likely it's intended to provide the champion with certain items…"
Avada stopped writing and slowly sorted through everything he had just recorded on the page. At last, he put down the quill.
"Taken as a whole, that means that in the third task, I first need to use the golden egg's directional guidance function to locate one or more enclosed spaces, and those spaces have a great many spells placed on them. Then I need to install the golden egg into some sort of device inside that space. In doing so, I'll activate the recording function so the audience can see what's happening, while at the same time triggering some kind of spell. That spell is at least related to Transfiguration, and may very well include more than that…"
"That's all I can confirm for now."
He closed the notebook, turned out the light, and lay back down on the bed. But his mind was still active, keeping him in that exhausted yet wakeful state that made it impossible to fall asleep.
"Overall, this third task should probably be similar to the original one—a maze-type challenge. But instead of directly finding the Triwizard Cup, the target is that enclosed space… Right, and according to the tracking spell on the golden egg, there are multiple enclosed spaces. Which means it's possible that each champion has to enter one enclosed space of their own?"
"If that's the case, then there won't be direct conflict between the champions. Instead, they'll be competing separately inside their respective enclosed spaces… So where will the Triwizard Cup be placed? Could it be that this time, unlike the original, the third task will still use a points system?"
"That doesn't seem right either. Karkaroff said before that the third task would directly determine the champion. The points accumulated in the first two tasks are only meant to give an advantage in the third task—that part is the same as in the original… So the enclosed space isn't the end point of the maze?"
"And more importantly, where exactly will the pure-blood families' long-prepared conspiracy begin to take effect?"
The moment he thought of that, Avada felt even less sleepy.
"Unlike in the original, this Tournament is being broadcast live in front of all the spectators. Even if little Barty wanted to make a move, there's no way he could just sneak into the maze and knock out a champion…"
"In other words, if I'm right and the third task really is the opportunity they intend to use, then there has to be something wrong with the competition grounds—and among all the suspicious elements, that enclosed space is the most likely!"
"I need to warn Krum and Fleur, and while I'm at it, inspect their golden eggs too—just in case little Barty is planning to go after the easier targets."