A magical journey that begins in Azkaban.

Chapter 518 Crouch's Destruction (5K)

The power of the rain became weaker, no longer as strong and powerful as it was half an hour ago. Just hitting the walls and glass could stir up bursts of water mist.

Several boots stepped through puddles of varying sizes, and their owners' trouser legs and hems were stained by the splashing mud.

"Sirius, you can't escape!" Bella waved her wand wildly. A green Cruciatus Curse shot out from the tip of the wand and rushed towards Black who had regained his human form.

He struggled to carry the seriously injured old Batty, his steps were heavy and clumsy. The curse behind him was like a thorn in the flesh, coming at him quickly and steadily.

"Sirius, go away! Leave me alone!" Old Barty groaned in a low voice, and a powerful force surged out of his body. He used up his last bit of strength to push Sirius away.

The terrifying green light hit his back directly, and severe pain immediately erupted in his body. Old Batty collapsed to the ground, hunched over in the puddle. His neatly-knit hair had long been a mess, soaked in sewage, and hung crookedly like waterweed.

He clenched his teeth tightly, and his facial muscles trembled from the excessive force. His palms were like stiff eagle claws, grabbing the collar of his chest fiercely to relieve the piercing pain.

"My dear father, where are you going?" A gloomy sound of footsteps came from the front. Little Barty approached step by step with a weird smile, looking at Old Barty and Black with ferocious eyes, "Mrs. Lestrange..."

"Little Barty, how many times have I told you to call me Bella?" Bella walked slowly over the puddles, staring at Blake with the bright light under her black eye makeup.

"Okay, Bella." Little Barty smiled, then tapped his wand rhythmically, as if he was thinking about something.

"Bella said there were a few rats hiding in her territory and asked me to help get rid of them. Who knows, before I even started, you would crawl out of the sewer by yourself." He looked at old Batty's wrinkled face and gray hair, and said with a hint of mockery and emotion, "Father, you are old."

"The whole world will bow down to you, my master. I will fulfill your expectations of me...honor, power, status, the respect of the wizarding world for Crouch..."

Sirius realized that this was a good opportunity to launch a surprise attack, and he wanted to take advantage of Barty's distraction to suddenly attack, but Bella's eyes were locked on him, as if she had already seen through his intentions.

"Sirius, give me back my wand." Bella bent the wand in her hand and said sarcastically, "It's just like you, stupid and impulsive, and it's not easy to use."

"Don't even think about it!" Blake remained tough and courageous in the face of desperation.

He raised his wand and pointed it back and forth at Bella and Little Barty. He stared at them warily to prevent them from attacking him, and slowly bent down to pull Old Barty.

"Old Barty, cheer up! I'll take you back, I promise Merlin!"

"You should have walked by yourself... Saving me is not worth it..." The old man leaned weakly in his arms, his legs shaking uncontrollably and he was unable to gain any strength to stand.

"I will not abandon my companions. Even if I lose the battle, I will not lose my character and bottom line."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, personality and bottom line, what wonderful words." Little Batty walked up slowly, he seemed to have a lot to say to Old Batty, "Isn't this the principle you have always been proud of and adhered to throughout your life, father?"

"Barty Crouch, my dear father, the most upright Auror in the wizarding world! Now tell me, are you ashamed of what your companion said?"

Sirius looked at everything in front of him in confusion, his eyes still containing endless anger and hostility towards Barty Jr. and Bella.

Originally, he successfully led Bella away as planned, leaving Fleck and his team to deal with Rodolphus and the snakemen he controlled. Everything went smoothly, and Bella fell into the second encirclement of him and Old Batty.

But no one expected that when Bella was about to lose, Barty Jr. suddenly appeared and severely injured Barty Sr., and the situation was reversed in an instant.

"You insidious Death Eater..." Sirius glared at Barty Jr., whose wand shot out a spinning beam of light and came straight towards him, completely teasing and humiliating him.

Sirius barely used an armor to protect himself and tried to defend himself, but he had been running for too long and was now exhausted. His shaking arms made it difficult to control the wand accurately.

The spell hit him hard, and he spun several times in the air before finally falling heavily to the ground. The moonlight shattered from the puddle, and scattered drops of water splashed into the sky, sparkling.

Blake raised his head stubbornly in the cesspool and pointed to the direction where old Batty fell with his lips: "Drag!"

"Of course I am an insidious Death Eater, and a cunning one at that." Barty Jr. leaned back slightly and pointed at himself arrogantly.

Then he turned his finger and pointed at his father who was struggling in the mud: "But if you want to blame someone, blame old Batty."

"Oh, maybe you don't know." He seemed to be lost in memory, smiling and narrating calmly: "The great Barty Crouch, the most upright Director of the Law Department in the history of our Ministry of Magic, used Polyjuice Potion to help his son - that is, me, escape from prison."

The corners of his mouth curled up even more, he was so excited that his body even wanted to dance.

Sirius opened his eyes wide, and turned to look at old Crouch in disbelief. He thought the old man would deny the accusation, but he just lowered his head in shame.

"You... Old Barty, are you the same as Diggory? Both want to save their sons?" Sirius muttered to himself, unable to hide his shock in his tone.

"Don't you know that Death Eaters are hopelessly depraved?"

Old Batty bit his lower lip tightly, and he was silent and unable to refute. Suddenly, he raised his head, struggled, and crawled towards his son, as if asking him to kill him.

"Get out of here!" Barty Jr.'s wand shot out a light beam of light, slamming him heavily onto the wrecked vehicle next to him. "I want you to be alive! Return to the British wizarding world alive, with Sirius's head, and perhaps others'."

"I will let everyone know your ugly and hypocritical face. My dear father, they will all die because of you."

After that, he slowly raised his wand, the tip of which shone with the green light of the Killing Curse. He wanted old Barty to slowly, slowly witness Sirius' death.

boom!
Just as the fatal green light was about to hit, a rusty car door suddenly blocked Sirius and blocked the fatal blow for him.

Little Barty looked at Bella in confusion and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Little Barty, mind your own business. He is my prey." Bella glared at him coldly and picked up her wand from the puddle.

As soon as the walnut wand returned to its owner's hand, it couldn't wait to emit brilliant sparks.

"I know, I know..." Little Barty grinned and said in a mean tone, "Do you need my help? I'm very good at the Cruciatus Curse. Before you kill him yourself, let me have some fun."

His eyes wandered between Sirius and Bella, vaguely wondering if their brother-sister relationship was pure, or if there was some hidden secret.

"I thought those snake people in your territory were enough for you to torture and play with." Bella said disdainfully.

"A bunch of weapons without the sense of pain, even worse than Muggles. If I had known this earlier, I would have raised some Muggles in advance like Cedric did..." Little Barty showed a morbid smile.

Just when Bella was about to say something to Sirius, Rodolphus covered his left shoulder where his arm was missing and howled in pain: "Bella... Bella! Save me! Save me!"

"Now I finally understand why you don't let me call you Mrs. Lestrange." Little Barty looked at the pursuers behind Rodolphus and felt helpless about the other party's incompetence.

"Pure-blood wizards have no choice in their marriage." Bella was very calm. She turned around and knocked out the struggling Sirius.

Not long ago, she was Voldemort's most loyal believer, willing to sacrifice her life and loyalty for him. However, when she learned of Voldemort's half-blood identity in Azkaban, she was shaken deep in her heart.

When Roger told the wizarding world about Regulus's deeds through the Dragon Crystal Mirror and revealed that Voldemort's father was a Muggle, her fragile and sensitive heart became shriveled and weak.

As a crazy purist, Bella was fanatically devoted to her master. However, she did not lose her basic thinking ability.

She could have played the ostrich and treated Roger and the Ministry of Magic's propaganda as rumors and chose to turn a blind eye.

But now, among Voldemort's Death Eaters, there are werewolves, vampires and other "filthy" creatures in her eyes.

Voldemort's power had indeed grown, but it had also further taken away what Bella valued most, further tarnishing the Black family motto: forever pure.

Her master was a half-blood, which made her feel physically uncomfortable. At this moment, she even felt that Rodolphus's panicked face was more vivid and beautiful than Voldemort's. "All this is Roger Travis' fault!" Bella roared in her heart.

That's right, it was that hateful Travis who subverted her loyalty to Voldemort.

After getting her wand back, Bella cast spells faster and more gracefully. Beams of magic light were like antelopes hanging on horns, cleverly avoiding Rodolphus and attacking the pursuers directly.

Bella then glared at him and scolded, "Get behind me..."

"Avada Kedavra!" At this moment, a hateful incantation sounded from behind them.

"careful!"

Rodolphus put his weight on his left foot, rotated his upper body, and used his only remaining arm to desperately push his wife away.

It was a dazzling green light, which shot out from the dark corner of the street, piercing through space and life. Bella watched helplessly as this green light of death shot straight at her, and Rodolphus pushed himself away with all his might...

The raindrops fell, crystal clear, cold and transparent. The remaining green light in the air mercilessly reflected the complex and distorted expression on Bella's face.

She had never loved this man, and their marriage was just an alliance between two pure-blood families. But Rodolphus loved her deeply...

Rodolphus's already pale face looked even more bloodless, his pupils dilated rapidly, losing their former vicious and cruel light. His knees suddenly landed on the ground, his body lost control, and he fell sideways into the puddle.

In the last moments of his life, he loosened his wand, turned his wrist, and showed Bella the back of his hand. It was a diamond ring, the gift they exchanged when they got married.

It was on his ring finger, and he never threw it away, even though it only had symbolic meaning.

Everything happened in a flash, from the appearance of the green light to the death of Rodolphus, it was only 1 second. The rain could fall slowly, but they had no time to grieve.

Bella understood that the wizard who cast the Killing Curse had a deep hatred for her, so that the curse was so powerful and extraordinary.

"Alice Longbottom?" Barty Jr.'s face froze, and he glanced in another direction. "Flake Longbottom? Is that you?"

The madness in Bella's eyes became even more intense, and the corners of her mouth curled up in a crescent shape, cold and sharp.

"Let's go!" She took one look at her husband's body and spoke the word "Apparation" without any reluctance.

The next moment, before the spells from the front and back hit them, Bella and Little Batty teleported away safely.

"Bella's eyes are so cold." Tonks shuddered uncontrollably and hurried forward to check on Sirius.

"Padfoot, are you okay? You almost died, didn't you know that?"

Sirius took a deep breath and corrected helplessly: "Call me uncle, or Sirius..."

"Drink the potion, Padfoot." Tonks did not indulge him and poured the potion into his mouth a little roughly.

The mouth of the potion bottle hit his lips directly, and his teeth broke them immediately. Sirius glanced at her. He didn't bleed in the previous battle, but now she made up for it.

The wizards present had no sympathy for Rodolphus' death. When he followed Voldemort and slaughtered Muggles and wizards for fun, he should have anticipated this fate.

"How are the werewolves and vampires doing?" Fleck looked at his wife and patted her shoulder gently.

Arya finally came to her senses and turned her angry eyes away from the corpses. "Only one third of them were killed. The rest were rescued by the Dementors."

She looked at the place where Bella had just stood with a lingering look, and sighed softly, "Just a little bit more."

After Sirius drank a whole bottle of potion, his cold body gradually warmed up. He slowly stood up, staring at Old Barty who was supported by Mad-Eye not far away.

He looked straight into old Batty's gloomy face and said word by word, "Crouch, is what he said true?" He bluntly called him by his last name instead of his first name.

"What's wrong?" The people around looked at them in confusion. Could it be that the failure of the plan was due to old Batty?

"He let Barty Crouch Jr., his son, go!"

"Just now……"

"No! Not just now!" Blake narrowed his eyes, shooting out two sharp cold rays of light, "More than a decade ago, after Barty Jr. was put on trial, he used the Polyjuice Potion to help Barty Jr. escape from prison!"

"His son, little Batty, who committed countless crimes, never spent a day in jail!"

A strange laugh came from his throat. He was imprisoned by the Ministry of Magic for 12 years despite being innocent. However, the son of the Director of the Law Department of the Ministry of Magic, a genuine Death Eater, was able to get away with it through his father's operation.

Mad-Eye Moody immediately stared at Old Batty with a stern look, as if he was guarding a prisoner. "Polyjuice Potion, no wonder, it all makes sense!"

"Your wife fell seriously ill and died the year Barty Jr. was imprisoned... Yes, news of Barty Jr.'s death also came from Azkaban at that time." He said coldly, "In fact, it was your wife who died in Azkaban. They used Polyjuice Potion to exchange identities."

"And your son, Barty Jr., has been hiding in the wizarding world. He even continues to serve the Dark Lord. His resurrection is also closely related to Barty Jr., right?"

Except for Diggory, everyone else stared at old Crouch with hatred, as if they were looking at a criminal who had committed a heinous crime. Old Barty trembled and lowered his head, his eyes dull and staring at the ground.

Drops of water fell from the windowsills and eaves on both sides of the street, making a dripping sound, as if an aging heart was bleeding.

"He's a father," Digory murmured involuntarily.

He joined the Order of the Phoenix and came to the dangerous Death Eater territory just for his son Cedric. He didn't believe that Cedric would become a complete Death Eater.

He must have a reason, he must!
Diggory's whisper pierced the dull and severe atmosphere, and the eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom gradually softened. As parents, they could feel the pain of Crouch and Diggory, and they could understand the sympathy of Amos and old Barty.

"This is neither a reason nor an excuse!" Sirius roared hoarsely like a wolf: "Your kindness has caused irreparable consequences!"

Mad-Eye didn't say anything, but he had the same attitude. Tonks was a little embarrassed, not knowing how to treat this former head of the Legal Department who was highly respected by the Aurors.

"The plan is temporarily suspended. Let's go back first." After a moment of silence, Flack calmed down and made a decision. "After this rainstorm, the Magical Congress of the United States will be free to fight back. What to do next, we still have to listen to Dumbledore's arrangements."

The others said nothing and acquiesced to Fleck's decision. Mad-Eye picked up Crouch with one hand, rode on his broom and flew eastward.

"Oh, this is really big news." Bellingrum couldn't help cheering on the airship. "It turns out that poker-faced Crouch is not so fair and selfless. He is just pretending!"

"Humph, I knew that a wizard who doesn't accept the friendship of goblins is definitely not a good wizard."

"Let's go! It's time to set sail!" Rogge was in high spirits and his tone sounded quite cheerful.

He hummed a little tune and waved his wand to make the airship fly towards Cedric's territory.

"How are you doing now, old friend?"

Roger was very curious about Cedric's position, after all, he was forced to become a Death Eater, not because of crazy pure-blood ideals or ardent loyalty to Voldemort.

Moreover, in today's Death Eater circle, he is the weakest one in terms of strength and influence.

(End of this chapter)