Chapter 338

"You should have been to Crouch's house, right?" Solim asked Sirius, "and did you find nothing?"

"That's right, there's no one in Crouch's house, not even the house elves. "

"Twilight has been swept away by Crouch! she's in the Hogwarts kitchen right now!" Hermione was angry at the mention of it.

Harry looked at Hermione in amazement, he was there when Solim persuaded Hermione to give up her unrealistic ideas, and Harry thought Hermione had given up on those ideas.

"You haven't given up on your naïve ideas?" said Solim, looking at Hermione in surprise.

"I just want to know more about them...... situation. Hermione was a little downcast.

"Alright, let's not talk about house-elves. Solim clapped his hands, then looked at Sirius, "I can tell you right now that Barty Jr. has escaped his father's Imperius Curse, presumably at the Quidditch World Cup." "

"Dumbledore told me this!" Harry said, "and he said the last time he showed me his memories that Barty Jr. was probably out of his father's grasp. And Sirius......" Harry looked at his godfather, "the man I saw in my holiday dreams was him, exactly the same as the one I saw in Dumbledore's memory." "

"But why didn't Dumbledore tell me?" Sirius tagged his chin in confusion.

"Dumbledore must have given you a few addresses for you to check out, right?" Solim thought for a moment, "Crouch's house, the two houses in Little Hangleton, and even Malfoy Manor...... I'm not wrong, am I?"

"You guessed again?" Sirius asked.

Then he shook his head, "Little Hangleston Dumbledore didn't let me go. "

"Solim, do you know something?" Hermione was familiar with this kind of scene, and at a glance she knew what news Solim had again.

"Crouch may well have been killed. "If he hadn't shown up before the last fight, he'd probably been dead." "

Harry and Hermione's eyes widened.

"Yes, that's our judgment as well. Sirius's tone was a little heavy, "Something bad is going to happen, or is happening, or even has already happened. I'm coming to you today to give you a heads-up call in person. "

Harry looked at his godfather, waiting for his next words.

"Triwizard Tournament isn't safe anymore, you have to be vigilant!" Sirius looked at Harry solemnly, "Try not to get near strangers, especially Karkaroff! stay away from him! "

Harry nodded, indicating that he remembered.

"But—" Harry stopped talking.

"Say it. "

"The last time Professor Dumbledore spoke to me, he said 'Karkaroff is unlikely to be back among them'. Harry looked left and right, "Now that Karkaroff has betrayed ......"

"It's 'unlikely', it's still possible. Sirius interrupted Harry directly, "Anyway, Karkaroff was once a Death Eater, so it's always right to stay away from him. "

This is true, just like a murderer who has just been released from prison, even if he reforms his ways, no one will want to approach him.

"If that's all there is to it...... I think we can leave. Solim stood up, "Our main goal today is to catch insects. "

Solim just wants to get this done as quickly as possible, and he still has a lot of things to do—like continuing to keep an eye on the live map. The main reason he hadn't lent the map to Harry was because he had to rely on the map to keep track of the development of some things, such as when a missing Ministry of Magic official stepped into Hogwarts area, he wanted to be the first to know.

Crouch is a key figure. But the treatment he is getting now is not like the treatment that a key person deserves. Crouch is the director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry of Magic, which oversees the International Magical Trade Standards Association, the International Magical Law Office, and the British Department of the International Confederation of Wizards. But what did the Ministry of Magic do after his disappearance? Yes, the Ministry of Magic did organize a search, but the intensity and attention of the search did not show that it was a powerful Director of the Ministry of Magic who disappeared, but rather a dispensable clerk.

The head of the Ministry of Magic had inexplicably disappeared, but the Daily Prophet had only a handful of stories in the space of months, and the pages had been squeezed into the corners. The information revealed here made Solim a little uneasy.

Fudge, the minister of the Ministry of Magic, had eased relations with Dumbledore last year, which was of course due to Solim, and Dumbledore did say to Solim that Fudge had been writing more with him recently than before, which showed that Fudge was now on their side, but there were some problems with Fudge's performance in the matter of Crouch.

He's deliberately evasive. This situation gave Solim a bad guess. Fudge's wall-to-wall grass won't ...... again But Solim didn't have any good way to solve this matter now, he decided to ask Dumbledore, if Fudge really started to continue to be his ostrich under the bewitchment of some people, and continued to be selectively blind, then the original plan of Dumbledore and Solim would be disrupted, that is, it was very likely that there would be no Auror support at that time, and the news of Voldemort's return was also likely to be suppressed, and it was more likely that there would be another conflict between Dumbledore and Fudge.

After all, although Dumbledore's status is high, his power in various departments of the Ministry of Magic is still not as strong as those of the deep-rooted pure-blood families, and it is much easier for these people to influence Fudge than Dumbledore.

That is, if things are really as Solim guessed: Fudge is ready to be an ostrich again, then the life and death of Crouch will become very important. First of all, Crouch is very influential, and will have a decisive influence in revealing Voldemort's return, which is much more effective than Dumbledore's hidden hints or two. After all, he has an official status.

Solim decided that it would be better for him to keep an eye on the map twenty-four hours a day, and as soon as Crouch's name appeared on it, he would have to act immediately.

Solim can only hope that Crouch is still alive and that he escapes like in the original book.