Chapter 214
Throughout the week, Hagrid had begun to recover, although he did not appear in front of everyone, nor did he see them at all. He did not appear at the teachers' table during meals, nor did he carry out his responsibilities as Gamekeeper in the courtyard, and Professor Grubbly-Plank continued to teach the Care of Magical Creatures subject, and of course, Malfoy did not stop with the silly comments the whole time.
There was a visit to the village of Hogsmeade in mid-January, and Hermione was very surprised that Albert intended to go, so she said, "I thought you would take advantage of the quietness of the place to deal with that egg."
Albert replied, "I told you about the solution to the riddle. All that matters is that I don't have the mood to go solve it. Let's leave that until its time comes!"
Albert knew that he had five weeks to solve the mystery of this egg, which is a long period, meaning he had enough time to hear what was in the egg.
On Saturday, they set off to visit Hogsmeade, and all the way, Harry was looking for Hagrid, so he suggested visiting the Three Broomsticks pub after making sure that Hagrid was not in any other shop, and the pub was crowded as usual, but Hagrid was not there. So, he and Ron went to order drinks, and as soon as they returned, Hermione said, pointing to the woman on the other side of the pub: "Look."
Harry and Albert saw a reflection of Ludo Bagman sitting in a far corner with a group of goblins, and he was talking to them very quickly and in a low voice.
This was strange because there were no events related to the Triwizard Tournament, and Ludo Bagman was in Hogsmeade, and as soon as he saw Albert, he stood up and headed towards him, with the same smile on his face, saying, "Albert... how are you?! Is everything alright?!"
"Yes... thank you!"
"Say, can I talk to you for a moment privately, Albert?"
Ron, Harry, and Hermione left the table so that Bagman could say, "I wanted to congratulate you on your excellent performance with the dragon, Albert, it was a truly wonderful performance!"
Albert replied, knowing that the matter could not end there, "Thank you."
Bagman returned, saying, pointing to the goblins, "Their language is not clear... they remind me of those Bulgarians at the World Cup."
Albert asked, "And what do they want?"
A sudden nervousness appeared on Bagman's face, then he said, "They... they are looking for Barty Crouch."
Albert asked, "And why are they looking for him here?! Isn't he at the Ministry headquarters in London?"
Bagman replied, "Uh... in fact, I don't know where he is... he stopped coming to work two weeks ago, and his young assistant Percy says he is sick and it seems he sends him instructions via owl, but... please don't tell anyone about that, Albert... because Rita Skeeter is still roaming everywhere, and I'm sure she will interpret Crouch's absence with strange reasons, and she will probably say he is lost like Bertha Jorkins."
After Albert heard the journalist's name, he felt intense anger, especially since she had previously provoked him inside the school after mentioning his father's name in a bad way, and now with Hagrid, but he calmed his anger and asked quietly, "Is there any news about Bertha?"
Albert naturally knew that Mrs. Bertha had died with her son in the forest because of Voldemort, but he wanted not to look suspicious, so he initiated the question in front of Ludo so that Ludo would not doubt his knowledge of what happened to her.
He replied: "No... some people are looking for her, of course, she definitely reached Albania, she met her cousins there, and then she headed south near the existing forest, and there all trace of her disappeared... and what is this? Are we talking about goblins and Bertha Jorkins!... I want to ask you, what news about your golden egg?!"
Albert said, "Well... I found a way to figure out the riddle!"
Bagman seemed surprised by that, as he had passed by the rest of the champions and they told him that they had not found a solution to this riddle yet.
Ludo Bagman replied, saying, "Are you really saying that?!... This means you have a great chance to be in first place for the next task!"
Albert smiled slightly at him in order to go along with this atmosphere in front of Ludo, as he had no purpose for this tournament basically, but this tournament is the only solution that will lead to Peter in order to eliminate him and also eliminate the evil that will appear at his hand, which is Voldemort.
Albert replied in a calm voice so that it would not seem that he was accusing the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports of breaking the rules, "We are supposed to solve those riddles alone, aren't we?"
Bagman replied impatiently, "Well... yes, but... Albert... we all aspire for the winning champion to be you!"
Albert told him, "Thank you... in two days, I will finish this matter, don't worry about that!"
Bagman was about to say something new had Fred and George not arrived at this time!
The first said, "Hello, Mr. Bagman, would you allow us to offer you a drink?"
Bagman said, looking at Albert, "Uh... no... thank you, boys..."
Disappointment appeared on Fred and George's faces, especially after Bagman stood up, saying, "Well... I have to go now... good luck, Albert."
He rushed to leave with those goblins, while Fred began to ask Albert for something.
Fred spoke, saying, "Albert... we are a few steps away from finishing our invention, but... after our long search, we faced a tough problem!"
Fred turned towards George, thinking about what he would say, but George gave him a signal to say it directly without beating around the bush.
Fred spoke, "We discovered that the smartphone we want to make needs a substance, or in other words, it needs a resource that generates heat and makes the movement of ions that come from electricity through charging to the phone, and also this resource makes even the phone screen, which will be large, consume this resource. This means that we need a lot of this resource!!"
Albert was silent for a few seconds until he suddenly said, "What is the name of this resource?"
Fred spoke quickly, saying, "Uranium!!"
Albert glanced quickly at Fred, smiling, but Fred was the opposite of that, Albert's quick look surprised him, making him think that Albert was shocked by that!!
Albert thought well to himself until he discovered something that made him very happy.
Albert to himself: ^Well... in my world, meaning in the year 2030, the natural resource Uranium for one kilogram cost about $780. The reason for its high price to this number is because it was a very important resource in industries such as nuclear energy, cars, and also smartphones, which makes it the most important element in making such things, but before the emergence of these industries, approximately in the nineties, the price of this resource was not this price. At that time, I was not yet living in life, but through my research inside sites like Google, this resource had already appeared, and scientists did not know how to exploit this element! Perhaps at that time, it was not even half the price of what it was in the last years I lived in my previous life!!"
After Albert finished his thinking, he gestured with his hand towards Fred, saying, "Well, I will give you 1,000 gold Galleons. With this amount, you can acquire everything necessary for this project. Well, when you finish this matter, tell me the result of this project before anyone else, agreed?"
Both Fred and George almost shouted for joy after they heard the amount that Albert told them he would give them for this project.
Albert spoke, saying, "And I do not forget, we must finish close to more than 50 original experimental smartphone products. With the amount I will give you, you can buy close to 15 kilograms!! Agreed?"
George spoke quickly, saying, "Yes, sir, immediately!!"
Albert headed to sit with Ron, Hermione, and Harry, and as soon as he sat down, Ron asked, "What did Ludo Bagman want?"
He replied, "He wanted to help me with the golden egg matter!"
Hermione said, "He is one of the judges... so how does he offer you that?... Anyway, you have finished that matter, haven't you?"
Albert replied, "Yes... tomorrow I will solve the riddle of the egg!"
She replied, "I don't think Dumbledore will be pleased with that... I mean if he knew that Bagman was trying to convince you of the idea of cheating... I hope he tries to help Fleur as well!"
Albert said, "No... I asked him!"
Ron said, "And who cares about Fleur getting help?"
Harry spoke, asking, "Those goblins are uncomfortable, what were they doing here?"
Albert replied, "They are looking for Crouch, as Bagman says he is still sick and does not go to work!"
Ron said sarcastically, "Maybe Percy poisoned him and thinks that the length of his illness will make him head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation!"
Hermione looked at him, meaning that this talk was not funny, then she said, "What a strange matter... Goblins looking for Mr. Crouch, they usually deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
Albert replied, "Crouch can speak several languages, and perhaps they were looking for him for translation, Bagman told me that their language is very bad."
Ron returned, saying, "Do you care about goblins too? Are you thinking of establishing a group for the defense of goblin rights as well? Under the slogan of a new society for the protection of goblins... huh?"
Hermione shouted sarcastically, "Ha... ha... ha... Goblins don't need protection, didn't you hear what Professor Binns said about the goblin rebellions?"
Harry and Ron answered in one voice, "No."
She said, "Well... they are able to contact wizards, and they are very skilled, but not like house-elves who don't care about their condition."
Ron looked towards the door to say, "Hello... look who is there?"
It was Rita Skeeter wearing a yellow dress, and her long nails were painted with pink polish, and she entered the place accompanied by her strange-looking photographer, so she bought some drinks before heading with her photographer to a table next to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Albert.
As soon as Albert saw Rita Skeeter's face, he headed towards her, feeling intense anger with his magic wand in his hand!!
To be continued...