I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 253 The Real and Fake Moody

After lunch, Louis planned to go to the principal's office first, and then go to the library to take a look.

The first thing to solve is the problem of the real and fake Moody. Secondly, we need to take care of Patchouli, since she is a vulnerable young girl who is unfamiliar with the place and should be given more care.

Before that, however, he planned to go to the Gryffindor common room to borrow the Marauder's Map from Harry. Harry, of course, readily agreed to Lewis's request and lent him the precious map.

It's just a Marauder's Map, Harry is very generous.

However, out of curiosity, he still asked Louis what he was planning to do, only to be met with Louis's reply: "It's a secret. Can you keep it a secret?"

Harry immediately nodded his head like a sewing machine, almost knocking his glasses to the ground.

Louis carefully tucked the Marauder's Map into his pocket, patted Harry on the shoulder, and said earnestly, "I can do it too."

He then left the Gryffindor common room amidst Harry's astonished gaze.

That was such a clever move! Harry exclaimed that he'd learned it.

Ron was trying hard to suppress his laughter. Although he was very curious about what Louise wanted to do with the Marauder's Map, he was clearly more amused to see Harry get his comeuppance.

He had barely chuckled a few times when Harry kicked him in the butt.

Meanwhile, Louis, holding the Marauder's Map, walked around the castle. Just as Louis had expected, Alastor Moody on the Marauder's Map was indeed shown as "Barty Crouch Jr."

Right now, Barty is still in the office, doing who knows what. He's probably training Moody, trying to extract some information from him to prepare compound remedies.

However, it must be said that Snape will have a tough time this semester, since Barty Jr. gets all the ingredients for Polyjuice Potion from Snape.

Yes, can you call what the Death Eaters did theft? That's called taking advantage of someone's position...

Louis was only carrying the Marauder's Map to confirm something. However, he couldn't help but criticize Rowling's lack of rigor in his mind. Theoretically speaking, Harry liked to wander around with the Marauder's Map, and he would definitely notice if a teacher suddenly appeared who didn't match up. After all, even Peter Pettigrew of Animagus could notice, so there was no reason why he wouldn't see through a wizard disguised as Polyjuice Potion.

All I can say is that the Marauder's Map disappeared in the wrong place.

"Sizzle honey!" Louis recited the command for the principal's office in front of the gargoyle, but the gargoyle didn't budge.

"What a disrespect..." Louis felt a little embarrassed, and in his heart he was also annoyed that Dumbledore hadn't informed him before changing the password for the Headmaster's office.

Louis tried several more commands, but received no response. Then he drew his wand and pointed it at the two gargoyles: "Reducto?"

This wasn't a spell; Louis wasn't so depraved as to destroy the principal's office. He was simply asking a question.

To step aside or to be shattered to pieces—that is the serious question.

The gargoyle tactfully stepped aside, and a spiral staircase appeared before him.

Why didn't you just listen to me from the beginning? Why did you have to make me recite some kind of incantation? Really... Louis muttered to himself as he lifted his leg and started climbing the steps.

In the headmaster's office, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were enjoying tea. The two old men looked very content, chatting idly. Fawkes was taking a nap on his bird's perch, and the Sorting Hat seemed to be dozing off as well, completely unaware that the little devil Louis had walked in.

Seeing Louis, Dumbledore looked up and asked with a smile, "Oh, you seem to have some free time today, thinking of coming to sit in my office?"

"I have something important to discuss with you," Louis said casually, sitting down on the other side of the table.

Dumbledore put down his teacup, smiled, and asked, "Don't rush into business. Would you like some tea? Would you like a cup?"

As he spoke, Dumbledore poured Louis half a cup of black tea, then took out a honey jar and, in front of Louis, added half a cup of honey to his cup.

Louis's eyelids twitched. Good heavens, Principal, aren't you afraid of getting diabetes from drinking so much?

But our headmaster clearly didn't care much about these details; he handed the teacup to Louis, indicating that he could enjoy it.

"I've been having cavities lately, Headmaster," Louis politely declined Dumbledore's offer of tea.

"Well, then you're really out of luck," Dumbledore said, shrugging slightly with a hint of regret.

Louis looked at Dumbledore speechlessly, thinking that this kind of good fortune was not what he wanted.

Grindelwald chuckled beside him, saying nothing, but watched as he secretly used magic to separate the honey from his tea, then drank it all in one gulp.

It seems he's also someone who doesn't like adding sugar.

It's alright, as long as it's not just dry coffee without sugar—but judging from what this grandpa did, he's much more impressive than Gao Qiqiang.

Hmph, Europe won't allow such an awesome person to exist!

"Well, Headmaster Dumbledore," Lewis put his teacup aside and got down to business—mainly because he felt that constantly harping on the honey tea issue would easily lead to endless arguments—he glanced at Dumbledore and continued, "That Mad-Eye at yesterday's freshman dinner, who's he?"

"You mean Alastor Moody?" Dumbledore glanced at Louis and smiled. "One of ours."

Dumbledore's words are quite straightforward: the deeper meaning of "our people" is "reliable people."

"Are they really one of ours?" Louis looked at Dumbledore with a half-smile.

Dumbledore nodded, then frowned and asked, "What's wrong? Did he offend you? Well, maybe he's a bit crazy and has a strange temper sometimes, but he's actually a reliable person."

Then, Dumbledore, still worried, added, "He doesn't have many missing limbs left. Take my advice, don't go too far. Just beat him half to death..."

Louis glared at Dumbledore, his face darkening. "What do you take me for, Professor? Do you think I'm Grindelwald?"

Grindelwald was happily sipping his tea when he heard Louis call his name. He almost choked, instantly transforming into a giant sponge of Nurmengard, spraying the entire table.

"Why are you dragging me into this? I'm warning you, Louis, I'm not like you, beating people half to death for no reason..." Grindelwald defended himself with an unfriendly expression, but his words sounded somewhat unconvincing.

"Yes, you certainly wouldn't beat someone half to death," Louis retorted mercilessly. "Headmaster Dumbledore told me that you love using Fiendfyre..."

Grindelwald coughed twice and sat down without saying anything more.

Lewis didn't press his advantage, but looked at Dumbledore seriously: "You're mistaken, Professor. Mr. Moody didn't offend me; someone else did."

"Oh? Who is it?" Dumbledore asked with some interest. As for why he was interested, well... no one had dared to offend Louis for three years, and he was curious to know who was so greedy as to eat poison—asking for living too long.

Just to be on the safe side, he asked again, "You're not a student of Beauxbatons or Durmstrang, are you?"

"Of course not, he's from Hogwarts," Louis said with a chuckle. "I'm sure you know him; you even met his father during the Quidditch World Cup in the summer."

"Oh?" Dumbledore's interest was piqued. He broke off a piece of chocolate bar, took a bite, and said slowly, "Now I'm quite interested in who this person might be..."

"Barty Crouch Jr." Lewis said calmly, uttering the name of someone who caused a slight change in Dumbledore's expression.

"Barty Crouch Jr.?" Dumbledore repeated, then shook his head and said with a smile, "How could that be? Barty Crouch Jr. is dead in Azkaban..."

"Are you so sure?" Louis asked with a chuckle.

Dumbledore sat up straight, looked at Louis, and said with a light laugh, "Speaking of which, this is a long time ago, when you were still very young..."

"Barty Crouch Jr. was a Death Eater, accused of torturing the Longbottoms, yes, Neville's parents..." A look of reminiscence flashed across Dumbledore's face. "This was also the ultimate reason why Fudge rose to power. Barty Crouch Sr. was originally a hot candidate for Minister of Magic, but ever since this incident... sigh."

"Almost overnight, his wife died, his son was accused and imprisoned in Azkaban, and died soon after. The family's reputation was ruined, and people began to sympathize more with his son, wondering why such a boy from a noble family would become a Death Eater. They concluded that he, as a father, had never cared about his son. And so, Fudge took the top position, and Crouch was transferred to the International Department of Magical Cooperation." Dumbledore shrugged, as if talking about something completely unrelated to himself.

This wasn't exactly a secret; in fact, everyone in the wizarding world knew about this mess in the Crouch family. Old Crouch was a man with a strong desire for power, and the fact that his good-for-nothing son had committed such a heinous act was a minor matter compared to the fact that it affected his own career—that would be truly unforgivable.

Louis sighed and looked up at Dumbledore, saying, "Headmaster, you may not know this, but due to Barty Crouch Jr.'s imprisonment, his mother Mrs. Crouch's health has deteriorated rapidly. As is well known, Barty Crouch Sr. holds a high position in the Ministry of Magic, so Mrs. Crouch asked him to take her to visit her son."

"She convinced old Barty to take the Polyjuice Potion herself, taking Barty Crouch's place to smuggle her eldest son out of Azkaban. She died soon after due to her deteriorating condition and was buried outside the castle as Barty Crouch Jr." Louis sighed. "That's the story."

Dumbledore paused for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "From what you're saying, there's more to this story?"

"You truly are my good headmaster." Louis chuckled and pulled out the Marauder's Map. "Of course, to make you believe what I just said, I specially brought you the Marauder's Map—the very map Harry used to find Peter Pettigrew."

"Oh, I know this map." Dumbledore twitched his beard. "I even helped a bit when James and the others made this map."

"Really?" Louis raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself, "Principal, you're really neglecting your duties..."

"If this is the map, then it must be the right one." Dumbledore picked up the map and searched carefully. Sure enough, he found Barty Crouch Jr.'s figure on the map.

He paused for a moment, then immediately remembered that it must have been Moody's seat.

"Now you know why I brought up Alastor Moody, right?" Louis shrugged. "Obviously, I discovered through this Marauder's Map that he used Compound Potion to transform into Moody's likeness."

“If I’m not mistaken, Headmaster,” Lewis continued, “what happened at the Quidditch World Cup this summer must be related to Barty Crouch Jr. Think about it, all we found at the scene was Sparky, Crouch’s house-elf…”

"This means that at least Barty Crouch knew about this." Dumbledore nodded slightly, then posed another question: "What I don't understand is why Barty Crouch the elder would play dumb, why he would protect his son. Logically speaking, he should hate him. Besides, given his personality, keeping Barty Crouch the younger under house arrest was already the limit. He would never do something like protecting him after Barty Crouch the younger summoned the Dark Mark..."

"Mr. Crouch was acting very strangely that night," Louis said pointedly. "Think about it, what was he doing that night...?"

Dumbledore thought for a moment and then said, "Yes, very unusual. You mean... he's been hit by the Imperius Curse?"

“Yes!” Louis nodded with a smile. “I suspect this matter is related to Voldemort, and Peter Pettigrew, who escaped from Azkaban, must be involved with both of them. Voldemort needs someone who is not in Azkaban, is somewhat clever, and is loyal to him to do his bidding. Without a doubt, Barty Crouch Jr. is the perfect candidate.”

Dumbledore nodded and looked at the Marauder's Map again.

The little dot representing Barty Crouch Jr. is moving outwards.

"What is he going to do?" Dumbledore asked, frowning.

Louis shrugged. "Maybe something's up. I think we should go and check it out."

Then, Dumbledore suddenly saw a small dot representing Barty Crouch the Elder appear on the Marauder's Map.

"Barty the Elder? What's he doing here?" Dumbledore asked, frowning. "Wasn't he under the Imperius Curse? How come he's at Hogwarts...?"

Louis suddenly said, "Oh no! We have to go! Old Barty has definitely broken free of the Imperius Curse and is trying to report this to you. He's in danger!"

(End of this chapter)