Chapter 278: Mental Disorder

Mr. Crouch looked like he had been wandering outside for many days. The knees of his robe were torn and stained with blood. His face was also covered with scars, his beard was unkempt, and his face was gray and haggard.

His hair and beard, which had been neatly combed, were messy and looked like they hadn't been washed or trimmed for a while.

However, although his image is very different from usual, his behavior seems even weirder than the image.

Mr. Crouch seemed to be talking to someone whom only he could see. He kept mumbling and gesticulating from time to time. His mood was sometimes calm and sometimes excited. Harry and Bagman couldn't understand what he was doing.

When Harry saw him, he remembered an old tramp he met when he went shopping with the Dursleys before he entered Hogwarts... The mentally disturbed tramp also said this to the air crazily. Non-stop.

At that moment, Aunt Petunia grabbed Dudley's hand and pulled him across the street to get away from the madman. Uncle Vernon took advantage of the situation and babbled endlessly to the whole family about how he planned to deal with beggars and homeless people...

"Mr. Crouch, what's wrong with you?" Bagman looked startled and walked up to Mr. Crouch at a loss.

Crouch didn't seem to see him at all, and just kept talking to a tree next to him.

"...Wetherby, after you finish this matter, send an owl to deliver a message to Dumbledore to confirm the number of Durmstrang students participating in the tournament. Karkaroff sent a message saying that there are twelve indivual……"

Harry also remembered that Weatherby was Percy's name that Crouch had mistakenly remembered, and Fred and George laughed at Percy for a long time.

"Mr. Crouch?" Bagman asked cautiously again.

"...Then send an owl to deliver a message to Madam Maxime. She may also want to increase the number of students, since Karkaroff's number has increased to twelve..." Crouch still seemed not to have heard anything, saying that he Gu Zi said, "Let's do it like this, Weatherby, okay? Okay..."

Bagman: "..."

"Why is Mr. Crouch here?" Harry walked up to Bagman and asked with some confusion, "Didn't Percy say he wasn't feeling well and had been staying at home to rest?"

"I don't know either." Bagman shook his head blankly, "Is it possible that he was under too much pressure at work and that he lost his mind?"

Crouch still didn't hear the discussion between the two people. He stood there stiffly with protruding eyes, staring straight at a tree in front of him, muttering silently.

Then, he suddenly staggered a few steps to the side and fell to his knees with a "plop".

"Mr. Crouch?" Harry shouted, "Are you okay?"

Crouch's eyes rolled up, and most of the whites of his eyes were exposed.

Harry turned to look at Bagman, who gritted his teeth and rushed into the bushes with Harry, looking down at Crouch who was kneeling on the ground in panic.

"There must be something wrong with him... What should we do?" Bagman didn't look like a Ministry of Magic official when faced with this situation. He completely lost his opinion and was like an ant on a hot pot. The ground was pacing.

"I think we'd better call someone quickly," Harry saw that Bagman was unreliable, so he had to think of a way on his own and whispered to him, "Listen, Mr. Bagman, we'd better call Madam Pomfrey over. …”

"Dumbledore!" At this moment, Crouch suddenly shouted.

Panting heavily, he lunged at Harry, grabbed hold of his Hogwarts robes, and pulled him to him.

But Crouch's eyes were staring directly at the top of Harry's head, as if there was something there.

"I want to... see... Dumbledore..." he said harshly.

"Okay," Harry said quickly, "As long as you get up, Mr. Crouch, we will go to Dumbledore right away..."

"I did...a...stupid thing..." Crouch said as if he didn't hear Harry's words, still panting.

He looked completely crazy, with his eyes protruding outwards and turning strangely, and drool dripping down his chin, "You must... tell Dumbledore about this!"

Crouch's eyes suddenly turned around and glared at Harry.

"Who...are you?" he whispered.

"Oh my God, Mr. Crouch, how can you not know who this is?" Bagman said in a fuss, "Are you out of your mind?"

Harry glared back at Bagman, raised his hand to signal him not to interrupt them, and then turned to Crouch again.

"I'm a student at Hogwarts," Harry said carefully.

At the same time, he looked very nervous and his brain was spinning rapidly, trying to find a way to find the professors quickly.

"You're not...his?" Crouch asked softly, his mouth drooping.

"No." Harry said following Crouch's words.

In fact, he had no idea what Crouch was talking about.

"Is that Dumbledore's person?" Crouch asked again.

"Yes," said Harry.

Now he somewhat understands that the "him" Crouch just mentioned should be opposite to Dumbledore's camp, that is to say... that "him" represents Voldemort!

Crouch relaxed slightly and pulled Harry closer.

Harry tried to pry away Crouch's grip on his robes, but his grip was too tight and he couldn't break it free.

"Just a heads up for Dumbledore..." Crouch said.

"If you let me go, I'll go find Dumbledore." Harry said impatiently, "Let me go, Mr. Crouch, and I'll go find him..."

"Thank you, Weatherby, I'd like a cup of tea after you've done that. My wife and son will be here soon, and we're going to a concert tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge."

Suddenly, Crouch let go of Harry and started talking to a tree again, seemingly forgetting about Harry.

Harry was extremely surprised, and Bagman also stared at him dumbfounded, feeling that the image of Crouch in his heart was impacted.

"Yes, my son recently passed the twelve ordinary wizard level examinations with very satisfactory results. Thank you..." Crouch's words became coherent again, but they became confusing again.

"Yes, I am indeed very proud of him... But don't let this delay our work. If you can give me the memorandum from the Minister of Magic in Andorra, I will probably have time to draft a reply... …”

"You watch him here!" Harry took a deep breath, turned to Bagman and said, "I'm going to find Dumbledore. I know the password to his office. I can hurry up -"

"But he's crazy..." Bagman said hesitantly, turning to look at Crouch, "How about we put him here with a binding spell, and then go find Dumbledore together?"

Crouch was still chattering to the tree, seemingly convinced it was Percy.

"But are you sure you can trap Mr. Crouch with just a binding spell?" Harry asked, "At least one person must stay here to prevent him from running around in Hogwarts... Are you planning to let one Do students stay here?”

Bagman was convinced.

He nodded helplessly, then carefully cast an iron armor spell on himself, and stood several trees away from Crouch.

Upon seeing this, Harry was about to leave, but his actions seemed to stimulate Mr. Crouch, causing him to suddenly change his posture, hugged Harry's knees, and dragged him to the ground again.

"Don't...leave...me!" He whispered, his eyes popping out again, "I...escaped...I must remind...Dumbledore...he is back...broke into...the house ...Controlled..."

"It's all my fault...my son...it's all my fault...tell Dumbledore...Harry Potter...the Dark Lord...recovered..."

"As long as you let me go, I will go find Dumbledore, Mr. Crouch!" Harry said irritably.

He didn't pay any attention to what Crouch was saying, and just thought he was still talking nonsense.

"Help me, Mr. Bagman!" Harry looked at Bagman and said distractedly.

Bagman hesitated and raised his wand towards Crouch.

"Relashio."

Crouch finally lost strength and let go of Harry's knees.

Harry took the opportunity to break free from Crouch's grasp and ran quickly out of the Forbidden Forest and across the dark Quidditch pitch.

At this time, the Quidditch pitch was empty, John, Krum, Cedric and Fleur were all missing.

Harry ran back to the castle as fast as he could, climbed the stone steps in three and two steps, passed through the two oak doors, jumped up the marble stairs, and ran towards the third floor——

There is an empty corridor on the third floor with a gargoyle stone beast standing in the middle. Behind the stone beast is a spiral staircase that leads directly to the principal's office on the eighth floor.

"Ice...ice lemon juice!" he breathlessly told it.

This was the password to the secret staircase that led to Dumbledore's office - at least two years ago.

However, the password had obviously been changed. The stone monster did not move and jump to the side. Instead, it stood motionless and glared at Harry fiercely.

"Get out of the way!" Harry shouted urgently at it, "I'm in a hurry, hurry up!"

However, this stone monster obviously would not let the door open just because of the threat of a young wizard, and the look he stared at Harry became even more fierce.

Harry looked around anxiously in the corridor, trying to see if any passing professor could tell him the password to the Headmaster's Office.

Before other professors could pass by, Harry's eyes suddenly lit up.

It suddenly occurred to him that Professor Dracula's office was also on the third floor of the castle, not too far from here... If he made some noise here, he would surely appear in an instant at Professor Dracula's speed.

So Harry took out an explosive wand produced by Fred and George from his pocket... Before going to find Bagman, he was fooling around with Ron in the Transfiguration classroom using this new joke product.

This wand is like a firecracker. It makes a lot of noise when broken, but does no harm to the user.

Sure enough, the moment the explosion sounded, a silver-haired figure suddenly appeared in front of the gargoyle stone beast.

"Potter?" Dracula looked a little surprised to see Harry here.

He heard the explosion in the corridor from a distance in the office.

Dracula originally thought that the two troublemakers playing with explosions in the corridor were Fred and George, thinking that those two guys wanted to commit suicide in front of him again.

He originally wanted to catch the two troublemakers and teach them a lesson... However, unexpectedly, the one who made such explosions turned out to be Harry, who had always been quite honest in front of Dracula.

Dracula squinted his eyes and looked around, but did not find the Weslay twins around.

"So...are you planning to inherit the mantle of those two Weisses?" Dracula looked at Harry and said with a sneer.

"No, Professor!" Harry explained quickly, "I am really in a hurry this time, so I urgently need to find you, so I came up with this idea..."

"Professor, Crouch...the referee of the Four Wizards Tournament, Mr. Barty Crouch is crazy!"

Dracula's eyes suddenly condensed.

"A few months have passed...Is Barty Crouch finally willing to show up?"

Ever since the remnant soul of Barty Crouch Jr.'s mother was discovered on the island of Azkaban, Dracula has determined one thing -

There's something very wrong with Barty Crouch, and Barty Jr., a Death Eater, is probably not dead yet!

However, Barty Crouch seemed to have disappeared from the world during this period, and he could not be found anywhere or by any means.

It wasn't until today that Dracula learned about Crouch's appearance from Harry.

"Where is he now?!" Dracula asked in a deep voice.

"On the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Mr. Bagman is looking after him there." Harry said hurriedly.

"Tell me the specific location and I'll take you there directly." Dracula grabbed Harry's hood and said quickly.

"Wait a minute, Professor!" Harry said quickly, "Mr. Crouch said he wanted to find Principal Dumbledore and tell him something important... He's already at the door anyway, why don't we go up and call him first?"

"It's really troublesome..." Dracula curled his lips and stood in front of the gargoyle stone beast.

Harry looked at him expectantly, wanting to hear what password Dumbledore had changed recently.

Dracula: "..."

Gargoyle: "..."

The air suddenly became quiet.

"Professor?" Harry asked tremblingly.

"Ahem." Dracula coughed twice, "I don't seem to know the password here..."

"But... I remember you often go to the principal's office, don't you?" Harry was stunned for a moment.

"Yes, I often go to him..." Dracula's mouth twitched a little, "But I always enter through the window... Who is a serious person who uses the door?"

Harry: "..."

Professor, you are really unconventional.

"Um...Professor Dracula, why don't you go through the window?" At this moment, the Gargoyle looked at Dracula's increasingly dangerous eyes and panicked, "I really can't help it. I took it upon myself to open the door for you!"

It was afraid that the professor in front of him would dismantle its body because he felt embarrassed...

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