Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

After getting the content of Trelawney's prophecy, the Ministry of Magic is on the verge of an enemy.

In order not to make the same mistake, the Ministry of Magic not only doubled the number of dementors as guards for Azkaban, but also took the risk of apparating a few Aurors to assist the guards. Don’t let the flies fly over”

However, after a night of tension at the Ministry of Magic, nothing happened.

Not to mention Peter Pettigrew, the Lestrange couple, even ordinary criminals didn't make trouble tonight, which made the Aurors who were sent there complaining.

"It turns out that even Sybill Trelawney, not every prophecy can come true." Kingsley Shacklebolt said to Dumbledore, yawning.

"Thank you." Dumbledore nodded to him.

To be honest, this result was a bit unexpected for Dumbledore, because in his opinion, Trelawney's true prophecy should not be wrong.

If it was an ordinary person, it might be time to give up his trust in Trelawney at this time, but Dumbledore was not an ordinary person, so his thoughts turned to other aspects.

"In other words, the most loyal servant of the Dark Lord is not in Azkaban, and has already escaped." Dumbledore muttered to himself.

Regarding Dumbledore's conjecture, Kingsley Shacklebolt said nothing on the surface, but he didn't take it seriously in his heart.

Like many others, he believes that the so-called "true prophecy" is just a trick of the old gods.

The reason why those guys became famous is because they used a set of vague words in their predictions, which made people puzzled, and they were too late.

It is loud and footy, and many people with stinky feet are cheering for them, so they can be bluffed and deceived so far.

But the person who said this was Dumbledore, so it was not easy for him to refute.

Fortunately, his skin is indeed darker, so Dumbledore can't detect the subtle expressions on his face.

"In this case, I'll go back to the Ministry of Magic and check again to see if there are any omissions." Shaker said.

Dumbledore nodded: "Excuse me then."

As a result, at this moment, the fireplace in the principal's room suddenly ignited a mass of green flames, and a paper airplane came out of the fire, flying all the way to Dumbledore's table before stopping.

Dumbledore reached for the paper airplane, opened it, looked at it for a while, and then sighed heavily.

"Kingsley, I don't think you need to check."

Kingsley Shacklebolt: ?

Lockhart looked a little restless sitting at a long desk in the Auror's office, while several Aurors were sitting across from the desk.

"Gidero, take it easy..." Robards reassured him. "You have no responsibility in this matter."

"No, I think I have, I should have found out sooner," Lockhart replied bitterly.

Several Aurors looked at each other, then nodded slightly.

"Don't be like this... If you are even responsible, aren't those of us who have worked with Crouch for many years more responsible? And you have been in Hogsmeade for more than a year, everyone knows that." Robards offered to excuse him.

At this moment, the door was opened, and the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore walked slowly into the office.

Bing Meilin's beard, what's going on? "

As soon as he stepped into the office door, Fudge started yelling, with an unconcealable look of joy on his face.

Just a while ago, because he shot too rashly, he was defeated by Crouch in the political struggle.

Just as he was thinking about how to decently give himself a step down, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement came to the office with a serious face and told him the great news... no, the bad news.

Something happened to Barty Crouch!

Just this morning, Crouch did not show up for work at the Ministry without informing anyone.

You must know that the entire Ministry of Magic is at full capacity, and as a well-known workaholic, it is really unreasonable for Crouch not to come to work.

Even Lockhart who came to his office to discuss the resort was a little surprised, because this had never happened before.

So he asked others about the address of Crouch's residence, and then went to his residence at noon.

then…

"Gidero, I hope you can tell us about the situation at that time." Dumbledore found a seat and sat down.

Fudge hurriedly nodded and agreed: "Yeah, tell it again quickly, so that I can go back... er, review it again, otherwise, if the publicity goes wrong, I will also take responsibility."

"All right…"

Lockhart had no choice but to repeat what he had said twice.

"That happened this morning, and it was almost noon. Because of the resort, I came to the Ministry to discuss with Mr. Crouch, but everyone in the office told me that Mr. Crouch did not come to work.

I would have liked to go straight to his house, but I was told by my colleagues that Mr. Crouch didn't like people visiting him at his house, so I was advised to wait.

But the matter was urgent, because I wanted to make an itinerary for the first batch of tourists in the resort, so I asked someone for the address of Mr. Crouch's house, and I was going to visit him, and I left after talking.

But walking through the gardens of Mr. Crouch's house, I noticed something was wrong—the front door of the mansion was wide open and unguarded.

I was wary then, and took out my wand, and walked in cautiously.Immediately, I found that the living room on the first floor was extremely messy, and there was even a chair that fell to the ground, as if it had been knocked down by someone.

I knew something was wrong, so I listened carefully for a while, and after I didn't find any movement, I sent a letter to the Auror office with a paper airplane, and then followed the traces on the ground to find behind the sofa——I found a house elf lying on the ground. got there.

I was afraid that the house elf was just a "booby trap" placed there, so I didn't approach it hastily. Instead, I used a few detection magics, and then used protective magic to cover myself, and then approached carefully.

I soon discovered that it should have just been stunned, so I put it down temporarily and continued to search.Then I found Mr. Crouch in the bedroom—he was in his pajamas, lying on his side in front of the bedside table, bleeding from his head.

I hurried over to check it out, and after finding out that his life was in danger, I made my own decision and first took his entourage to appear and go to St. Mungo...you will know the next thing. "

Robards took Lockhart's words: "Yes, Mr. Crouch has been rescued and is alive. And the house-elf has also revived under our control, but because he refused to say What happened then we used Veritaserum and got some pretty amazing news..."

While the unauthorized use of Veritaserum on humans is illegal, house-elves are clearly not "people", so the Auror Office can make its own decisions.

Dumbledore looked as usual after hearing this, and he didn't mean to stand up for the house elves at all. As for what he thought, only he knew.

"So, may I know what happened?" He looked at Fudge.

Fudge seemed impatient: "Amazing news! Terrifying! I really didn't expect that a senior official of the Ministry of Magic would be so selfish and perverted, secretly using his poor wife to exchange his son from Azkaban, and Controlled him with the Imperius Curse - he definitely broke at least 300 laws!"

Dumbledore showed a surprised expression for the first time: "You mean, Barty Crouch Jr.? He's not dead yet, is he?"

"Yes! It was his wife who died in prison... this is insane!" Fudge's face was filled with righteous indignation, "As a result, for some reason last night, his son suddenly got rid of Crouch's Imperius Curse and waited for an opportunity He attacked the house elf who guarded him. If nothing unexpected happened, Crouch was also attacked by his son... More importantly, his wand was also stolen by his son!"

Fudge was there denouncing Crouch hoarsely, but Dumbledore was unusually quiet.

It turned out to be like this... It seems that Trelawney's record of never missing a prophecy may continue to be maintained for a while.

P.So Dad told me very seriously at noon that the plot I wrote has no suspense at all

, anyone can guess.

I didn't believe it at first, but after reading the post in the morning chapter, I believed it.Damn, you force me to write an O'Henry reversal, don't you?

Chapter 230 VII Umbridge's Reward

Before the next day, what happened at Crouch's house spread throughout the Ministry of Magic at an explosive speed.

With the gradual deepening of the investigation and the continuous inquiring of interested people, the truth of the matter gradually became clear:

At the cost of his dying wife, Barty Crouch secretly replaced the only heir of his family, Barty Crouch Jr., from Azkaban.After that, old Crouch has been using the Imperius Curse to control his son, and has been looking for ways to make him obedient.

He was going to look for a chance to transfer his son to Hogsmeade, but had an accident before he could do so.

The reason why this matter can spread so fast is not only because it has too much impact on people, but also because of Fudge's intentional connivance.He waited until the matter was completely spread, and then he pretended to call the person in charge of the news media office and asked them to control the spread of public opinion.

The result is naturally that this matter spread like wildfire one by one

"Have you heard? About Crouch?"

"I heard that the entire Ministry of Magic is talking about it now...I really can't imagine that he would do such a thing, such a well-behaved person..."

There were such discussions everywhere in the Ministry of Magic, even when walking in the corridor with Lockhart as a "supporting role", he also enjoyed a "welcome welcome".

Although this treatment Lockhart did not like.

Although the Auror office unanimously believes that Lockhart is not responsible for this matter, politics does not hold you responsible. If Crouch loses power, then these policies that have been halfway through are likely to end up with one person Take the tea cold ending.

He had to find a way to save himself.

In addition, for the sudden escape of Little Crouch, Lockhart felt that he was actually responsible.

As Dumbledore said, he once again fell into his inertial thinking, always thinking that after so many changes, things would still go on the track he knew, which in itself was a very absurd idea.

Because Bertha Jorkins has not been transferred to Crouch's department (condition A), Pettigrew Peter has not gone to Albania (condition B, he thinks it does not constitute result C (Jr. Barty's escape), but carefully Think about it, the conditions that can trigger C are actually far more than that line.

This is the only thing Lockhart can't figure out—why little Crouch regained his self-control and got rid of the Imperius Curse so early.

After the incident broke out now, Barty Crouch was unlikely to continue to hold public office in the Ministry of Magic, and Lockhart should cut him off.

But he felt that he had to figure this out no matter what, otherwise he would have trouble sleeping and eating.

So he came to St. Mungo's Hospital alone the next day and found Crouch's ward.

Because Crouch is now a "suspect", there are two Aurors waiting in the ward besides Crouch, and no matter what Lockhart and Crouch say, they must record it.

Barty Crouch looked haggard and had a lot more gray hair. It seemed that his son's escape had hit him hard.

"I really didn't expect you to come." He looked at Lockhart. "I thought you would be busy cleaning things up."

Lockhart forced himself to smile: "How could that be? These are two different things... To be fair, I must condemn your actions more violently than anyone else. But never

From a personal point of view, there is nothing wrong with taking a look at an old superior you have known for a long time

As he spoke, he put the fruit basket in his hand on Crouch's bedside table.

The two Aurors next to him were not polite when they saw this, and immediately separated a person to open the fruit basket and examine it carefully.

Crouch lying on the bed was a little surprised: "Are you such a person who distinguishes between public and private?"

■

"As you can see now," Lockhart replied.

In order to show that he was a man of words and deeds, when the Auror finished checking, Lockhart took out an apple from the middle of the fruit basket and began to peel it.

Crouch knew that he must have something to come to him, but in this situation, people have to learn to pretend to be confused, not to mention that he just happened to have something to tell Lockhart.

"...You know about me now, and I have explained the details to the Ministry of Magic. If you want to ask for details, then you can go back now." Crouch said tentatively.

"No, although I'm somewhat interested in the details of what happened, I'm not very interested. On the contrary, I'm more concerned about your future plans." Lockhart said seriously.

A plan to come down with a concubine? Crouch asked self-deprecatingly, "Do you think I have any plans for the future?" "

But Lockhart's expression looked very serious: "Things can't be left halfway, I believe you think so too."

As he spoke, he handed over the peeled apple.

Crouch took the apple, and then glanced at the whole apple peel on the ground: "It seems that you are a perfectionist."

That's not true, I just want to have a beginning and an end. "Lockhart "modestly"

sentence.

Crouch sighed: "I knew you wouldn't admit defeat... Don't worry, although I can't stay in the Ministry of Magic, the contract I've negotiated won't change, and I've already bet on it People, they will not change course because of this small accident."

"So?" Some hope sprouted in Lockhart's heart.

"Don't worry, you are not the first person to see me." Crouch said with a yawn.

"I'm relieved." Lockhart was determined.

Since Crouch's contacts have not been damaged too much, and the political climate has not changed, the so-called loss of power is only temporary.

"Besides... I guess I can't keep this from you for a long time, so I'll just say it." Crouch took a bite of the apple, and then said the rest slowly, "Dolores Umbridge one by one I know you may not like her very much, but I hope you can take good care of her in the next period of time."

"What? Who?" Lockhart thought he had heard wrong.

"Umbridge, Minister's Office, don't tell me you've forgotten her," Crouch repeated.

"I know who she is, but... why?" Lockhart asked incredulously, "Why did she get your favor?"

"Because she already has the blood of the Crouch family." Barty Crouch gave the answer.

This time, Lockhart couldn't hold back any longer.

He stood up in fright, and was dumbfounded.

"I... I always thought that the reason why you didn't leave a new blood was because of your body!" Because he was too shocked, Lockhart couldn't care less about the city, and said simply

Out of the mind.

Crouch coughed twice, reminding Lockhart to pay attention to his wording.

""It turns out that it's because...Of course...Everyone has their own unique aesthetics, and we should be tolerant of it..." Lockhart quickly retracted the words.

Unexpectedly, Crouch's taste is so unique that even a woman like Umbridge can talk to her. No wonder he swore at the beginning that except Umbridge "has been settled".