From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 340 Infiltration failed
"So, the Marauder's Map is yours, Harry." Fred turned on a faucet that kept spurting out blue bellflower bubbles and said to Harry nonchalantly.

"No, I can't have it." This was Harry's first reaction.

"The Marauder's Map has taught us a lot over the past few years. It's almost like half of our teacher." George put a lot of pink foam on his head and tried to shape it into the style of a wig on the judge's head. "But we all know that it doesn't belong to us. Now that I give it to you, it can be regarded as a return of the property to its original owner in an orderly manner."

"Anyway, Sirius and the others didn't take the Marauder's Map away from Hogwarts. Maybe they hoped it could help people like you..." Harry stopped studying the Marauder's Map with Ron, took off his clothes, and prepared to enjoy the privileges of being the prefects.

"We found it in Filch's office, in a locker with a 'Highly Dangerous' sign on it." Fred imitated a mermaid swimming in the pool. "So I guess Sirius and the others didn't give up the Marauder's Map voluntarily."

"The court declares that you have the ownership of the Marauder's Map! Harry Potter!" George pretended to knock the non-existent gavel in front of him, causing only a large splash of water. "Besides, you still need to find an opportunity to test Karkaroff. The Marauder's Map will definitely help. Add to that your invisibility cloak, and there will be no place in the entire castle that you cannot go to!"

Harry turned on a faucet that sprayed purple mist. The mist floated on the surface of the bath water, making people feel like they were in a fairyland. He nodded in agreement with George: "Well, maybe I can really use it..."

"That's right! We have already figured out all the secret passages in this castle!" Fred changed to backstroke and called his brother who was still on the shore, "Come down quickly, little Ronnie!"

"This map actually shows the ghost ship on the Black Lake and the giant carriage parked next to Hagrid's hut!" Ron shouted in surprise, "Look, there's a man named Barty Crouch in the captain's cabin of the ghost ship! Have you heard of this man? Is he a student at Durmstrang?"

Fred and George looked at each other. "Uh... I heard that there was an official in the Ministry of Magic named Barty Crouch, but he seems to have quit..."

"I know him!" said Harry. "He presided over Sirius' trial, and he was also one of the judges in Peter Pettigrew's trial! The Minister of Magic held him responsible for the wrongful conviction of Sirius, so he has now resigned from the Ministry of Magic... His previous position seemed to be Lucius Malfoy's Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"How on earth did a former official of the British Ministry of Magic get mixed up with Karkaroff?" Ron scratched his head. "No matter how he got into Hogwarts, I guess Dumbledore didn't give him permission, otherwise he wouldn't have to hide in Durmstrang's ghost ship."

"Maybe Barty Crouch is a Death Eater like Karkaroff!" Harry expressed his own opinion, "I think it's very likely that my name was thrown into the Goblet of Fire by him!"

"Anyway, why not go and take a look?" Fred shrugged. "Now that you have the Marauder's Map and the Invisibility Cloak, no one can catch you. If you find evidence that they are Death Eaters, just tell Dumbledore about it, and these guys will find it difficult to escape from Hogwarts even if they have wings."

"That makes sense!" Harry nodded. "Now let's take a look at the secret of the golden egg! Once I figure it out, I'll put on my invisibility cloak and go to Durmstrang's ship. Ron! Help throw the golden egg over here."

"Go ahead!" Ron picked up the golden egg from a pile of clothes and threw it into the swimming pool with all his strength, splashing a large amount of water like a depth charge.

"Hey!" George looked angrily at the foam wig on his head flowing down his cheeks into the swimming pool, and suddenly splashed a handful of water at Ron.

"I haven't taken off my clothes yet!" Ron dodged backwards and stripped himself naked as quickly as possible, "Watch out!"

He curled his legs up to his chest and threw himself into the water in the same position as the golden egg, splashing water heavily into the faces of the other three people in the pool.

Suddenly, the prefects' bathroom turned into a battlefield, and a fierce battle broke out between four Gryffindor students.

It was not known who used the bubble attack first. Later, the four people each occupied a faucet by the swimming pool, blocked the water outlet with their fingers to change the flow rate and direction of the water, and started attacking each other.

The faucet in Harry's hand could spray out a stream of blue hot water, and once it collided with other surfaces, countless bubbles would immediately appear. Fred even started to have bubbles coming out of his ears.

But the faucets near him either sprayed or only produced some harmless pretty bubbles, with no ability to fight back at all.

Seeing his brother being attacked, George immediately chose to add insult to injury. He also blocked a faucet beside him and launched an attack on Fred, but the pressure in the faucet was not enough, so he could only create a wall of pink bubbles on the water surface, which in turn blocked Harry's attack vision to a certain extent.

"Well done, George!" Fred blew out several giant bubbles and gave his brother a thumbs up. "I won't ask what you were going to do to me with that faucet!"

Ron emerged from the water and immediately became Harry's next target. But Ron, who came from a family of six children, had amazing fighting power. He protected his head with one hand and launched a suicidal charge towards Harry.

In order to avoid Ron's shark-like charge, Harry had to hide under the water.

However, just as he buried his head in the water, he heard a pleasant singing voice coming from beneath the water. The voice sounded like a choir, but everyone in the choir had a strong accent, which sounded quite awkward.

Harry discovered that the sound came from the golden egg. The previous battle was so intense that it somehow caused it to open its eggshell.

This breath was not enough, so Harry did not continue diving. Instead, he jumped out of the water and shouted to stop the fight: "Hermione is right! The sound in the golden egg is indeed the song of mermaids! Go down and listen!"

"Don't try to fool me, Harry!" Fred still remembered the previous grudge, and with both hands he held up a particularly large bubble, which contained purple smoke and blue foam, and smashed it towards Harry's head.

The giant bubble hit Harry's messy hair, but did not burst immediately. Instead, it covered his head directly, like a fish tank.

After choking on the foam and smoke twice, Harry popped the bubble on his head. He coughed and stopped the war: "What I said is true! You will know when you go down and listen!"

The other three people kept a distance from Harry with suspicion to prevent his possible sudden attack, and then dived their heads into the water.

The mermaid's song came clearly to their ears:
"Seek us where our voices are heard,"

"We can't sing on the ground."

“As you search, consider:”

"We have taken away your most beloved treasure."

"You only have an hour,"

"To find and recover what we have taken,"

"After an hour all hope is lost,"

"It has completely disappeared and will never appear again." "It's really a mermaid!" Fred was the first to emerge from the water. "It seems to want you to go down and find some stolen treasure! Harry!"

"And there's only an hour." George shook his head, feeling it was ridiculous. "How can a person move underwater for an hour? You'll suffocate to death!"

"Nonsense! He's a wizard!" Ron shouted back. "There must be magic that can help Harry!"

"At least I can guarantee that it's not in the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook." Fred wiped the foam off his face. "We've almost torn it apart!"

"I don't know when you fell in love with Defense Against the Dark Arts." Ron obviously didn't believe it. He still remembered how annoyed his mother was when the twins received their OWLs report cards during the summer vacation.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is indeed an advanced course, and many of the dark magic creatures in the textbook are the source of our inspiration!" George explained.

"Gentlemen! Let's get back to our question! How can I breathe underwater?" Harry had to stop the topic from going any further. He began to regret discussing how to breathe underwater with the three Weasleys, because this was a question that should obviously be consulted with Hermione, but she couldn't enter the prefect's bathroom which was full of boys, even if she loved them like a mother bird.

The three Weasleys looked at each other and said in unison: "Ask Hermione! She must know, otherwise all your reading would have been in vain!"

"I knew you would answer like that." Harry shook his head and decided to leave this question to his mother bird. "But now, I'm going to go back and get the invisibility cloak and go see what Barty Crouch and Karkaroff are up to. I'll leave the questioning of Hermione to you, Ron."

After saying that, Harry climbed down the ladder and left the swimming pool, standing under the shower head to rinse off all the foam on his body.

"Don't try to be brave! And don't take off your Invisibility Cloak! Dumbledore and Ivy would be happy to deal with a few Death Eaters!" Ron shouted behind him. "Remember, their target is you, Harry!"

"Got it!" Harry had already put on his robes and was tucking his feet into clean socks.

By the time he stepped into his shoes and put away the Marauder's Map, a new round of war broke out in the swimming pool.

----

It is not easy to walk in a busy corridor wearing an invisibility cloak. Harry has begun to regret why he put on the invisibility cloak directly in the dormitory.

He should have put it on when he got outside the school. He only needed to find a corner where no one would notice him and then put the invisible cloak over his head. It would be quick and easy, instead of being afraid of bumping into someone and causing unnecessary suspicion and misunderstanding like now.

Although the new year has begun, the Christmas holiday is still not over. The corridors are full of students who stayed in school because of the Triwizard Tournament. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to attend the dance at Hogwarts...

Although Harry suffered a setback at the dance, it did not prevent him from guessing what other classmates were thinking.

Harry let a third-year student covered in snow pass. He should be someone's dance partner, otherwise there was no reason for him to stay in the castle for Christmas. But it was also possible that he just wanted to watch the fun.

There was a lot of water in the hallway, but there were even more muddy footprints from students and professors. If Filch saw this, he would be furious.

But he certainly wouldn't dare to do that in front of the professor. The most he could do was stare at every student who left a mark in the hallway.

Professor McGonagall and Moody were chatting, which meant that Lucius Malfoy must be nearby, because Harry knew that although the two Aurors were nominally here to monitor the werewolves in the Forbidden Forest, they would rather spend their energy monitoring possible Death Eaters.

Otherwise they wouldn't have run into Moody and Percy at the Yule Ball, hiding behind Lucius Malfoy.

Harry carefully slipped under Professor McGonagall's nose, leaving only a hint of the Prefects' bathroom shampoo.

"…Is it the smell of bluebells?" Professor McGonagall sneezed. "I'm a little allergic to that stuff. Fortunately, Pomona didn't leave any colored bluebells in the greenhouse."

"There won't be bluebells blooming in this kind of weather. I guess it smells like someone's shampoo." Moody grinned with an indecent smile and said goodbye to Professor McGonagall. "Oh! I have to go on patrol. I don't know what has Fudge gone crazy for! I heard that he ran out of the headmaster's office in a rage the night before yesterday - it must be because of something in the Forbidden Forest!"

Professor McGonagall used her eyes to drive away several students who were interested in Moody's words, and then said, "We don't usually discuss politics in front of students, Moody. Where did you get it from... well, it must be those talkative portraits."

"You're right, Professor McGonagall. Well, bye then!" Moody took out his hip flask and took a sip, then turned and walked towards the Forbidden Forest and the Black Lake. The fork in the road split beside Hagrid's hut, and Harry took one of them.

The ghost ship of Durmstrang was as spooky as it looked, not to mention that it was still on the water. Harry had just confirmed the location of Barty Crouch from the Marauder's Map. He was still alone in the captain's room, with no intention of moving. And the students of Durmstrang did not go to the captain's room to disturb him.

Harry's goal was clear, he just needed to find the captain's room under the steering wheel. It wouldn't be too difficult as he only had to go through two flights of stairs.

Perhaps because the cabin was too cold, the students of Durmstrang wearing fur coats were hiding in their rooms and had no intention of going outside, so Harry's infiltration was unusually smooth and he easily approached the door of the captain's room.

There was a crack in the doorway, and dim light shone through it.

Harry leaned closer and immediately saw the back of a figure wearing a silver-white fur coat. It must be Karkaroff.

"Why is he back?" Harry whispered to himself. "Where is Barty Crouch?"

"Right behind you, Harry Potter!"

Harry jumped at the sound behind him, and when he pulled his wand out he could already hear the spell being cast.

"Collapse!"

In the last second before Harry lost consciousness, he saw Moody's fake eye spinning wildly.

(End of this chapter)