#426 - Chapter 426: Crazy and Meticulous Little Barty

The howling wind roared in his ears, the colors around him constantly spinning, like a dizzying dream. Under the effect of the Portkey, Harry and Crouch were flying forward incessantly.

As his feet landed, the spinning world came to an abrupt halt. Harry fell to the ground with a thud, his numb body making it impossible for him to maintain his balance.

This was a dilapidated courtyard, overgrown with weeds, the walls riddled with cracks, seemingly on the verge of collapse.

In the center of the courtyard, dozens of figures lay there silently. Their eyes were tightly closed, their faces pale, as if they were dead.

Judging by their clothes, these people were all Muggles. Had Crouch killed them?

Harry's heart sank. He tried hard to see clearly, and found that none of these people had any consciousness, but their chests still had a faint rise and fall, indicating that they were still alive.

Crouch wasn't idle either. This place wasn't safe enough. Dumbledore could catch up at any moment. So, the instant he landed, he waved his wand, controlling a large number of Portkeys that had been prepared in advance, accurately touching each Muggle.

In an instant, all the Muggles disappeared, while he himself controlled Harry, quickly vaulting over the courtyard wall and entering the Knight Bus that had been waiting there.

With a whoosh, the Knight Bus disappeared from the spot. In less than ten seconds, the entire courtyard became completely silent.

Looking at the familiar Stan Shunpike, the conductor, and Ernie Prang, the bus driver, Harry was momentarily unable to react.

What was going on? Had these two also joined the Dark Lord?

Before he could figure out the answer, Crouch's sneering voice rang out from behind him.

"How does it feel to go from heaven to hell? Harry Potter, the legendary Boy Who Lived. Don't bother looking at these two fools. They're under my Imperius Curse and won't pay you any attention."

Completely relaxed, Crouch came in front of Harry, staring at him fiercely.

"You should be grateful that your life belongs to the Dark Lord, otherwise I would definitely torture you properly."

"Are you terrified? After all, just a moment ago you were enjoying the cheers of the crowd, the glorious champion in everyone's eyes, and now you've directly become a prisoner whose life can't even be guaranteed. Soon you'll witness a despair you've never imagined."

"Hahahaha," Crouch laughed maniacally. "Don't think about anyone coming to save you. Not even Dumbledore. He and those foolish Aurors are probably already dizzy from the traces of so many Portkeys."

"I prepared 45 Muggles in advance, enough to keep them busy for a while. By the time they figure it out, the great Dark Lord will have been resurrected and returned, hahahaha."

Just as Crouch had expected, a dozen Aurors had already arrived at the abandoned courtyard, along with Fudge, Dumbledore, Sebastian, and a worried-looking Mia and Sirius.

"Minister," an Auror said in a deep voice, "there are traces of Portkeys everywhere. It's impossible to tell how Crouch left."

"Then search one by one!" Fudge roared. "Call in more people from the Ministry if we don't have enough. I don't believe we can't find that bastard Crouch."

Then he looked at Dumbledore and his group and made a request: "Please help too. After all, we don't want to see anything happen to Harry Potter."

Seeing this, Sirius and Mia could no longer restrain themselves, each choosing a trace and chasing after it.

Sebastian stopped Dumbledore, who wanted to take action: "Headmaster, why don't you go back to school first? Leave this to me. You just forcefully subdued Karkaroff, and several headmasters are feeling insecure. You need to be there at the school."

"Yes, Dumbledore," Fudge said with a splitting headache. Dumbledore's suppression of Karkaroff just now had also startled him. "Why don't you go back to Hogwarts first, otherwise it will be bad if it causes an international dispute."

"Alright," Dumbledore calmly looked at Sebastian. "Then I'll leave this to you."

With that, he grabbed Fawkes, and with a flash of fire, disappeared from the spot.

"Minister, there's trouble!" With a whoosh, an Auror appeared beside Fudge. "We found that one of the people taken away by the Portkey was a Muggle, but he seems to have been hungry for two days, is very weak, and doesn't know what happened."

Hearing this, Fudge staggered. Muggles were involved! So many Portkeys, how many Muggles must be involved? Damn Barty Crouch!

"Call in all the Obliviators! They're going to be busy today!"

"Minister, a Knight Bus is missing. The time of disappearance is very suspicious, also this afternoon."

One piece of information after another was gathered, making Fudge dizzy.

"Investigate! Where's Scrimgeour? Call him over too."

As soon as he finished speaking, another Auror appeared beside Fudge: "Minister, we found Crouch at the Crouch's house, but he's already dead."

"According to our deductions, his time of death should be this afternoon. In addition, his body has signs of long-term abuse, and a piece of his hair is missing. We suspect that someone has been using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Mr. Crouch for a long time."

Dead?

Impersonated?

The amount of information in this sentence was too much, making Fudge's head spin.

So, a Death Eater has been impersonating Crouch and working in the Ministry of Magic openly? And this person also released the Dark Mark, trampling the Ministry of Magic's face under his feet.

Finally, the Savior was also kidnapped by this person!

If something happened to the Savior... then his position as Minister...

Just thinking about this possibility made Fudge's face turn pale, without a trace of blood.

"Sebastian," he pleaded tremblingly, "you must help. You're the most capable here. You must find the Savior and rescue him."

Sebastian nodded and gently chanted: "Apparate!"

After a sense of squeezing, he appeared in Little Hangleton.

However, to his surprise, under his magical perception, there was no movement at the Little Hangleton cemetery.

He came to the cemetery and found that Old Riddle's tomb had cracked open, the inside was a mess, with only some broken bones remaining.

Interesting...

The Dark Lord didn't choose to be reborn here.

Fortunately, he had other preparations, otherwise things would have really gone wrong.

On the other side, after the Knight Bus drove a distance, Barty Crouch Jr. took Harry off the bus and instructed the driver to continue driving the bus.

Then, he created another Portkey, taking Harry together to their final destination.