Chapter 976: An Unreliable Assassination
Chapter 976: An Unreliable Assassination
"Still can't find him?" Lucius Malfoy's voice was cold, and his eyes held a barely restrained anger. He glared at the diminutive Peter Pettigrew, wishing he could just draw his wand and teach this worthless creature a lesson.
Peter Pettigrew was utterly useless; he couldn't even accomplish the simple task of locating someone.
"This really isn't my fault," Peter continued to defend himself. "The journalists from the Spanish Ministry of Magic all want to interview him, but no one knows where he's temporarily staying. Plus, we've just arrived, and we've had very little time. Those methods you suggested for finding people are simply not feasible."
Peter had been busy for half a day, and the fact that he couldn't find the Mudblood's residence was truly not his fault! "...Useless!"
Lucius Malfoy was so angry that his teeth clenched. He pointed his wand at Peter, and a spark shot out, burning a hole in Peter's clothes.
"It's truly not our fault. The plan was rushed, and we didn't even have time to understand the situation, let alone set up a proper plan," Selwyn added, also trying to defend himself. He didn't want to be blamed for this failure.
Lucius Malfoy's inability to fulfill the Dark Lord's task didn't mean that he and Selwyn were incompetent; it only proved how difficult their target was.
"The language barrier is also a big problem," Peter muttered softly.
The best option they had at the moment was to locate the Mudblood's temporary residence and then sneak in to assassinate him. After the deed was done, they could leave Spain and consider the mission accomplished.
While this approach was crude, it was the best they could come up with for now. However, the problem they faced was that they couldn't seem to find the Mudblood's temporary residence, and no one seemed to know where he was staying.
Since the simplest and most effective method wasn't working, they had to think of something else.
Following this line of thought, if they couldn't find where Albert was hiding, they would have to ambush him at the competition venue. As long as Albert intended to continue participating in the International Wizard Dueling Competition, he would have to show up at the venue. Once he appeared, they would have their chance.
However, there were quite a few Aurors at the dueling grounds to maintain order, and assassinating a competitor would be challenging.
Unless... they staged a suicidal attack without regard for their lives.
But they had no idea when Albert would appear, and there wouldn't be many opportunities for interaction between the competitors and the audience. So, the likelihood of success for this so-called assassination plan was still low.
"I think we should ambush him on the day of the finals," Peter suggested. "That would give us more time to make arrangements..."
"What if the Mudblood loses the competition or simply doesn't show up on the third day?" Lucius countered. "Didn't you hear what Severus said? Dumbledore could convince him to drop out at any moment."
Malfoy didn't understand Albert, and wizards who dared to participate in the International Wizard Dueling Competition were no pushovers. Moreover, with Dumbledore in the picture, he felt that the probability of the Mudblood being persuaded was quite high.
That old man was indeed very skilled at convincing people.
"I don't think he'll lose," Peter muttered softly.
Although he was reluctant to admit it, Peter believed that Albert had a chance to win the dueling competition. Even if he had used underhanded means to defeat Barty, anyone who could subdue a dragon on their own was no weakling.
At the very least, Peter thought that none of them could have accomplished that feat, and whether they even had the courage to attempt it was questionable.
"We need more help," Selwyn suddenly proposed. "Spain is too unfamiliar to us. We need to make contact with local Dark Wizards and see if we can recruit them. Perhaps they'll be interested in the Dark Lord. Or, we can hire them to serve us if necessary. We can offer them some Galleons."
"You handle this," Lucius said, fixing his gaze on Selwyn for a moment before finally agreeing to the plan. "It's best to find a local who speaks English to help us; it will save us a lot of trouble. You can offer him 50 or even 100 Galleons a day."
Malfoy suspected that Selwyn had already found someone but was just trying to get some funds from him. He didn't really mind, though.
They had just arrived in Spain and had no time to gather intelligence, so they were essentially operating blind. Therefore, he readily agreed to Selwyn's suggestion of cooperating with a local leader and even offered a substantial amount of money.
As long as the person was worth the price, Malfoy didn't care about a few Galleons. If they could help them succeed, those Galleons would be well spent.
Hello to me, hello to you, and hello to everyone.
If the person wasn't worth it, then they could make them disappear without a trace.
In fact, Lucius Malfoy had also considered offering a bounty for Albert's head on the black market, but he felt that this approach wasn't very reliable, and he didn't see a high chance of success in the short term.
"If you ask me, let's not make it so complicated," Peter suggested before Selwyn left. "Just find a way to get into the stadium, and then look for an opportunity to use the Avada Kedavra curse on that Mudblood."
A simple suggestion.
And if the plan failed?
Lucius would take the fall for it, and it wouldn't affect them much. They would probably just face some punishment.
In truth, neither Selwyn nor Peter wanted to continue causing trouble for Albert, as everything indicated that he was even more troublesome than they had anticipated.
"Who will assassinate him? Are you volunteering?"
Lucius Malfoy saw right through their little scheme and sneered. "What about the tickets? I just inquired, and they're all sold out. Even if we wanted to buy some, they wouldn't be cheap, and it's uncertain if we could get seats up front."
This lousy idea was doomed to fail from the start and would only expose their intentions and alert their target.
Or perhaps they never really expected it to succeed in the first place.
"We can get those Dark Wizards to do it," Peter said without hesitation. "We can offer them a sum of Galleons. Then, we'll create a distraction to help that guy escape using the Portkey."
"Creating a distraction, you make it sound so easy!" Malfoy's face was twisting with frustration. He had made inquiries, and every year, the security at the International Wizard Dueling Competition was tight, with numerous Aurors patrolling the area. Creating a distraction would be no easy feat.
These guys were being far too optimistic! Furthermore, this kind of opportunity would only present itself once. If they failed, it would be gone forever.
Lucius Malfoy suddenly understood how Selwyn and Peter had failed in their previous attempts.
"It would be a miracle if this plan actually worked."
"Do you have a better idea?"
Selwyn and Peter looked at Malfoy, waiting for his suggestion.
"Let's wait for news first. If we're lucky, Avery might bring us some good news. Also, go find your local connections; we need more help." Malfoy was frustrated; this group of people was more unreliable than the last.
Avery, too, was unreliable and didn't bring them any good news.
It was the guy Selwyn hired who turned out to be reliable, informing them of the other competitors' and audience members' residence: Barnabas Bar.
Well, for wizards settled in Spain, this was never much of a secret. Outsiders liked to temporarily stay at Barnabas Bar because it was clean and safe.
"If we disguise ourselves as contestants and sneak in, there's still no guarantee we'll run into that Mudblood." Avery didn't agree with this unreliable plan. "Also, I doubt we can beat him in a duel."
After all, he had heard about Barty Crouch Jr.'s exploits from Snape himself.
"What I mean is that we can use the Imperius Curse to control them and make them use Avada Kedavra on that Mudblood," Goyle suggested. "Even though the chances of failure are still high, at least... we can kill him. After all, our task is to kill that Mudblood." Goyle's suggestion was equally unreliable, and he only spoke up because Malfoy had asked him for his ideas.
"We can all go together. Anyway, it's not unusual for Dark Wizards to suddenly kill people." Crabbe also thought the plan should be kept simple to minimize unexpected mishaps.
As long as they killed that Mudblood, it didn't matter how they did it, as long as it wasn't them taking the fall.
"We should have more backup plans in place." Malfoy agreed. "But I think the Imperius Curse is too unreliable. Generally, wizards who can participate in the Dueling Competition are quite powerful, especially those Dark Wizards. It won't be easy to control one of them..."
After much discussion, they finally settled on an assassination plan, mainly because time was running out.
At this moment, Lucius Malfoy felt he must have gone mad to agree to such an unreliable plan.
The group set off in batches to Barnabas Bar to search for their target.
The plan was not successful, and it could only be said that any wizard bold enough to participate in the Dueling Competition was no simple opponent, especially when it came to self-preservation.
When Malfoy and his crew burst into the room, attempting to subdue their target, a chaotic battle ensued. A large hole was blasted into the wall of the guest room, and the commotion attracted even more attention. Two of Malfoy's companions were knocked out, and they could only flee in embarrassment before others arrived to surround them.
However, the strangest thing was that the plan didn't completely fail.
Taking advantage of the chaos caused by Malfoy's group, the small dwarf, Peter Pettigrew, quietly controlled one of the contestants.
It could only be said that Peter had performed such deeds too many times over the years.
Although the controlled wizard was not a Dark Wizard, it was better than nothing.
At least they salvaged some face at the last moment.
"I think this guy is resisting my Imperius Curse," Peter Pettigrew said, staring at the middle-aged male wizard in front of him. He reminded his companions, "We can't let him go to the competition like this, or the plan will most likely..."
Peter didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear. It would be best to find someone to disguise themselves as the controlled wizard, sneak into the competition, and then ambush Anderson.
"No one wants to take the risk," Malfoy sneered. "Or do you want to give it a try?"
"We can offer a reward in Galleons," Peter suggested. "Also, we can make him carry a Portkey. After the deed is done, he can escape using the Portkey, which will be set to activate at a predetermined time." Peter came up with this idea, as he had no intention of taking any risks himself.
This was an idea conceived by Barty Crouch Jr., who had reportedly used this method to slip away from under the Dark Lord's nose. The success rate was evidently high.
Finally, a greedy fool willing to take the risk of assassinating the Mudblood was found, but he demanded a high price of five thousand Galleons, half of which was to be paid upfront.
Malfoy haggled the price down to three thousand Galleons, as the risk to life was high, and the chances of successfully obtaining the full payment were low.
Of course, compared to the price the Dark Lord paid to bribe the giants, three thousand Galleons was quite a bargain, and the plan's success rate was not low.
...
At the same time, the members of the Order of the Phoenix were also in action. They had received a message from Snape and rushed to Spain to try and stop the Death Eaters from harming Albert.
With Dumbledore's help, the Order of the Phoenix managed to obtain three tickets.
"Is Mr. Anderson really not going to give up?"
Kingsley's face was grim as he couldn't understand why Albert was so stubborn. Didn't he value his life?
"He told us not to worry and that he would become the Dueling Champion as foretold by the prophecy," Lupin said with a bitter smile to the others in the room.
"I don't think we need to worry about him," Sirius said with a smile. "By the way, who wants to place a bet? This is a great opportunity to make a fortune."
"What opportunity?" Arthur thought he had misheard.
"Don't joke around, Sirius," Lupin said.
"Of course, I'm talking about betting on Albert to win the Dueling Championship!" Sirius said matter-of-factly.
"Sirius," Mad-Eye fixed his gaze on Black.
"Who's joking with you?" Sirius shrugged. "Albert values his life more than any of you. How could he possibly risk his life like this? If he dares to participate in the Dueling Competition, he must be confident in his ability to protect himself. I dare say that even without our help, he could handle all the troubles on his own. Otherwise, he would have run away by now. Do you really think he would stay here and wait for death?"
Sirius was confident because Albert had just asked his house-elf to deliver 1500 Galleons to him, asking him to bet on himself to win the championship.
As a reward for placing the bet, Albert informed him that Peter Pettigrew was also in Spain, which was undoubtedly a good opportunity to deal with the little rat.
"You seem to know him well," Tonks asked curiously.
"Not really, but I've worked with him, and that guy is more cunning than you think," Sirius replied.
"Who's going?"
"Not me. Let Tonks and Kingsley go. They're Aurors, so they must be better at disguising themselves," Sirius said quickly.
"You come with me, Remus. We can go cause some trouble for the Death Eaters," Mad-Eye said.
"Do you know where the Death Eaters are?" Mad-Eye looked at Sirius doubtfully.
"No, but I know where Peter is," Sirius said with a brilliant smile. The people around him shivered as they felt a chill in his smile, and they could sense the cold murderous intent within it. "I think he must be with the Death Eaters. If we're lucky, we might be able to get rid of that rat. This time, don't stop me from killing him."
(End of Chapter)
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