Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 287 Evil Plan
A glint flashed in Vivi's eyes.

“Very clever.” She raised her head slightly. “The truth is just as you guessed. Barty Crouch Jr.’s Imperius Curse was used on him by his son, Barty Crouch Jr.”

"It turned out to be like this..."

Harry didn't feel sorry for Barty the Elder and Barty the Younger; he just found it quite amusing.

Just then, there was another knock on the office door.

“Come in,” Vivi said.

The door was pushed open, and Harry saw that Sirius Black and Professor Lupin had walked in.

"Harry, are you alright?" Sirius opened his arms and went over to hug Harry.

"I'm fine," Harry said with a smile. "What brings you and Professor Lupin here? Is something wrong?"

“Of course,” Lupin said. “It’s about Mr. Crouch. Miss Grindelwald told me and Bigfoot to come to her office at Hogwarts. We were going to ask you to come with us, but Ron said you weren’t there, so we guessed you must have come to Miss Grindelwald’s office.”

"Haha." Sirius chuckled and said to Harry, "You'd never guess what happened at Crouch's house—"

"You found out too?" Harry asked, looking up.

Sirius Black immediately wilted.

“Oh, so you know,” he said listlessly. “I knew Miss Grindelwald would tell you about it. Honestly, I was planning to tell you about this interesting thing.”

However, he quickly recovered.

“That’s a good thing, you know, he’s the one who ordered me sent to Azkaban, without any trial at all—” Sirius sniffed and continued, “Back then, some people predicted he might be elected the next Minister of Magic. He’s a great wizard, Barty Crouch, with great magic power—and a strong desire for power… But everyone knows Crouch was a staunch opponent of Voldemort.”

"Now imagine this: when Voldemort's power was at its peak, you didn't know who his supporters were and who weren't, who served him and who didn't. You knew he could control people so tightly that they would do terrible things against their will. You were afraid for yourself, for your family, and for your friends. Every week there was bad news: more people were dying, more people were going missing, more people were being tortured... The Ministry of Magic was in chaos. They didn't know what to do, and they were trying their best to keep it from the Muggles, while at the same time, Muggles were dying. There was terror everywhere... tension... chaos... That's what it was like back then."

At this point, Sirius stood up and paced around the office.

"Alas, it is in times like these that the good people reveal their best qualities and the bad people expose their worst nature. Crouch's principles were probably good at first—I'm not so sure, but he quickly rose through the ranks and began to take some very tough measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors gained some new powers—for example, they had the right to kill, not just arrest."

“I wasn’t the only one who was handed over to the Dementors without trial, and Crouch used violence against violence, allowing unforgivable spells to be used on suspects—in my opinion, he became as ruthless and cold-blooded as many of the dark magic practitioners.”

“You know what? He also has his supporters—many people think he’s doing things the right way, and many wizards are clamoring for him to become Minister of Magic. And with Voldemort’s disappearance, it seems only a matter of time before Crouch becomes the top leader. But then, something very unfortunate happened…” Sirius Black grinned smugly. “Crouch’s own son was captured. He’s with a group of Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban with their smooth talk, and it seems they’re looking for Voldemort, hoping to bring him back to power.”

“I know about this,” Vivi said, propping her chin on her hand, her expression suggesting she was talking about something good. “Dumbledore showed me the relevant memories. Karkaroff, in an attempt to redeem himself, first reported Snape, but Snape had Dumbledore vouch for him, saying he was his spy—and then he reported Barty Crouch Jr.”

“Yes.” Sirius scratched his face. “I don’t know the details, but I do know that everyone was shocked when Barty Jr. was identified as a Death Eater. After all, Barty Jr. was a good student who got twelve ‘O’s in school. How could he be hanging out with Voldemort?”

“Sometimes, it’s very difficult to learn to be good, but it’s very easy to learn to be bad,” Lu Ping commented from the side.

“Yes, yes,” Vivi said with a slight smile. “Perhaps it’s because Old Barty had too high expectations for his son, which caused the child to develop a rebellious mentality. But that’s not something we need to worry about. All I know is that after this incident, his path to becoming Minister of Magic is completely cut off.”

“Sigh.” Sirius sighed. “I always thought Barty died in Azkaban… I saw the Dementors bring him in, and I watched him through the bars of the cell door… He looked no more than nineteen. They threw him into the cell next to mine. In the evening, he screamed for his mother, but a few days later, he was silent… They all eventually became silent… only occasionally letting out screams in their sleep… and then he died.”

“His mother switched him with someone else,” Vivi sighed softly, recounting the Crouch family’s story of the substitution to Sirius.

Harry had been gloating, but after hearing this, he couldn't laugh anymore.

“Mother’s love…” Sirius looked up, his eyes glistening with tears, “is truly great.”

“It is indeed a great mother’s love.” Vivi sighed as well. “So, this also became the reason why Old Barty could not refuse to cooperate with us.”

Harry and the others were still feeling sad when they heard Vivi's words and were momentarily speechless.

No, sis, is this appropriate?

"Why are you all looking at me?" Vivi said with a light laugh. "Motherly love is great, but what's even greater is that we can use this to make Old Barty one of us, isn't it?"

"You really are..." Sirius Black hesitated for a long time before finally finding an adjective, "a moral vacuum..."

"Thank you for the compliment." Vivi smiled, took off her tilted hat, and nodded to Sirius.

Sirius took a breath.

Okay, let's just assume I was praising you.

"Alas," he said again, "what a pity for this great mother..."

“So,” a mischievous glint flashed in Vivi’s eyes, “Godfather, your cool title is gone.”

"What title?" Sirius asked, puzzled.

“The first person to escape from Azkaban in recent years,” Vivi said with a smile, “is gone. It’s Barty Crouch Jr. now.”

"That bitch!" Sirius slammed his fist on the table in anger.

No, my cool title was just stolen like that!
“Of course,” Vivi said again. “If we can keep this a secret and use it to get Old Barty to join us, then… that title will still be yours, Mr. Godfather.”

Sirius sat in the chair, gazing at the sky with a somewhat vacant look in his eyes.

“Never mind, it’s just a hollow reputation,” he sighed. “So, have you found Barty? Lupin and I searched for ages, but found nothing.” “We found him. He’s at Hogwarts now.” Vivi reached into Harry’s pocket and pulled out the Marauder’s Map, spreading it out on the table. “Look, another Auror was attacked by Death Eaters. Can you guess who it is?”

“Who?” Harry raised an eyebrow.

“Could it be Alastor?” Sirius took a breath and pointed to the location of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office on the Marauder’s Map. “Look, this should be Alastor Moody’s, but it shows Barty Crouch… We can tell that Barty isn’t at Hogwarts right now, or if he were, he should be in the Headmaster’s office…”

"So the question is, did Barty use Polyjuice Potion to transform into Moody's appearance?" Lupin asked Sirius.

“It must be.” Sirius slammed his fist on the table. “Let’s catch him quickly. I want to know what kind of evil plans they have.”

“To arrest a teacher in the school, I think we need the headmaster’s approval,” Vivi said with a smile. “Although we are all Hogwarts graduates, we are no longer part of Hogwarts, especially since my identity is rather sensitive… So, it would be best to ask Dumbledore for permission first.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a flash of fire appeared beside her.

A moment later, the firelight reappeared, and Dumbledore appeared in his office.

"...That's basically the situation." Harry told Dumbledore about the real and fake Moody, as well as the fatherly love and filial piety between Barty the Elder and Barty the Younger.

"I knew it, old Barty..."

Dumbledore stopped mid-sentence, "But he deserved it. What do you think we should do now? Arrest the fake Alastor Moody directly?"

“Of course,” Vivi said. “How will we know their next plan if we don’t catch him? He didn’t cause any damage in the first two projects, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some evil plans for the last one.”

“You’re right,” Dumbledore nodded. “There’s no reason to spend a thousand days stealing from others, but a thousand days guarding against thieves.”

Having finalized the plan, Dumbledore immediately set off, arriving at the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office with Vivi and the others.

“Alastor?” Dumbledore knocked on the door, the Marauder’s Map unfolded in his hand, and a sign marked 'Barty Crouch' was moving in the Dark Arts office.

After a while, the door opened.

Seeing so many people standing at the door, Moody's expression was clearly one of surprise.

The next second, he flew up and landed on a chair that suddenly appeared behind him, his hands and feet tightly bound.

"Are you Alastor Moody?!" Dumbledore pointed his wand at him. "Who are you! Tell the truth!"

“Albus, I think this is a misunderstanding.” The fake Moody forced a smile.

However, Harry had no intention of giving him a chance and immediately cast a spell.

"Imperio (Astral projection)!"

He was immediately at a loss when faced with the fake Moody.

While he could resist Barty's Imperius Curse, his resistance to magic was negligible against Harry's level of power.

Just after Harry used the Imperius Curse, a green "X" mark suddenly appeared on the forehead of the fake Moody in his field of vision.

Under the influence of the Imperius Curse, the fake Moody explained their plan in detail.

Voldemort is preparing an evil spell that could resurrect him—but at the cost of using the blood of his enemies as a catalyst.

In fact, Voldemort had enemies everywhere, and he could have successfully resurrected anyone he could grab. But Voldemort wanted Harry's blood, not only the powerful ancient magic in Harry, but also the magical protection that Lily had placed on him.

“So you plan to turn the final target into a Portkey,” Dumbledore’s eyes gleamed behind his half-moon spectacles, “to teleport it into a trap you’ve already prepared, right?”

“Yes,” the fake Moody muttered.

Dumbledore opened his mouth, but before he could even ask a question, fake Moody began to convulse.

Gradually, the wounds on the fake Moody's face and body disappeared, his skin became smooth, and his broken nose grew back and shrank.

The long gray hair was shortening and turning pale yellow—suddenly, with a clang, the wooden leg fell to the side, and a real leg grew out.

Then, the magical eyeball jumped out of its socket, and a real eye took its place.

The magical eyes rolled on the floor, still darting around.

The fake Moody had transformed into a young man with pale skin, freckles, and messy light-yellow hair.

“Magic is truly amazing,” Harry said to Vivi. “I really didn’t expect Polyjuice Potion to be able to do this. I think he must have had a tough time when he turned into Moody, after all, he lost a leg out of nowhere…”

“If you want to know what it tastes like, you can try it yourself,” Vivi said without turning her head.

Harry shook his head; he didn't want to experience that feeling.

"So what should we do next?" Dumbledore turned to Harry and Vivi.

Whether it's about magical abilities or age, Dumbledore is always willing to listen to the opinions of his seniors.

(End of this chapter)