Chapter 279 Crouch disappeared out of thin air
"Forget it, forget about this stupid ugly thing, let's go directly."
Dracula was too lazy to pay attention to the gargoyles and rushed to the Forbidden Forest to find Barty Crouch, who had disappeared for several months.
So he grabbed Harry's hood, and the two of them disappeared into the corridor on the third floor.
The next moment, Dracula appeared in the principal's office with Harry.
Dumbledore, wearing a long green nightgown, was drinking tea and reading some letters. When he saw Dracula and Harry arriving, he raised his head in surprise.
"It's rare to see you two come to me together. Is there something wrong?" Dumbledore looked at Dracula and then at Harry, and asked in surprise.
"Professor!" Harry quickly took a step forward and said to Dumbledore, "Mr. Crouch has appeared - in the forest. He has something to tell you!"
Harry thought that Dumbledore would ask some questions, but Dumbledore asked nothing, which made him relieved. Dracula had told Dumbledore about Crouch's problem long after he found the conclusive evidence. Bullido.
Now, Dumbledore is as eager as Dracula to see the Director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation who has disappeared for several months.
"Lead the way." Dumbledore frowned slightly and said without hesitation.
"Stop leading the way, it's a waste of time." Dracula grabbed Harry's hood again, "I'll wait for you at the Quidditch pitch. It won't be too late to think about leading the way when you get there."
After that, Dracula and Harry disappeared again.
Dumbledore shook his head helplessly and looked at the big golden-red bird on the shelf next to him:
"Excuse me, Fox."
Immediately, Fawkes, the phoenix, landed on Dumbledore's shoulders and disappeared in a sea of golden and red flames.
…
The three of them instantly appeared on the edge of the Quidditch pitch.
Harry was already familiar with Dracula's ability to apparate in Hogwarts. As soon as his feet landed on the ground, he hurriedly led the two professors towards the direction where Crouch had appeared before.
"What did Mr. Crouch say, Harry?" Dumbledore asked as they quickly reached a winding path.
"He said he wanted to remind you that he had done something terrible..." Harry said thoughtfully, "Mr. Crouch also mentioned his son, and... and Voldemort, as if Voldemort had recovered. coming……"
Harry hadn't noticed the meaning of Crouch's words just now, but after repeating them again, Harry was suddenly shocked.
"Is it true?" Dumbledore said solemnly, speeding up his pace and hurried into the dark and gloomy forest.
"His behavior was unusual," Harry said.
Harry walked quickly beside Dumbledore, and Dracula was on the other side of Dumbledore. He didn't even see him move, but he followed them like a ghost, keeping pace with the pace of the two men's strides.
"Mr. Crouch didn't seem to know where he was. He kept talking, as if he thought Percy was there... Then he suddenly changed and became scary, saying he wanted to see you..."
Harry said with some worry: "I asked Mr. Bagman to keep an eye on him in the Forbidden Forest."
"Really?" Dumbledore's eyes gradually became extraordinarily deep.
He and Dracula looked at each other and nodded to each other.
"It must be the Imperius Curse." Dracula said softly.
"Professor Dracula, I remember that you specifically checked Crouch's mind before." Dumbledore asked, "Although you have always suspected Crouch, you have never confirmed that he was controlled by the Imperius Curse... …”
"Voldemort should have found some way to prevent the Imperius Curse from being discovered." Dracula said thoughtfully, "But I'm a little confused. His power is far from its peak... So, what can he do with that level of power? How can you deceive me?"
"In short, we are probably going to be ready for another war." Dumbledore said solemnly.
Then, Dumbledore looked at Harry: "Do you know who else saw Mr. Crouch?"
His steps took longer and Harry had to run to keep up.
"No more." Harry said intermittently, a little breathless, "Mr. Bagman was talking to me at the time... He had just finished explaining the content of the third project to the warriors, and then pulled me to the Forbidden Forest."
"Later, we saw Mr. Crouch coming out of the depths of the Forbidden Forest——"
"Where?" Dumbledore asked.
At this time, the lights of Hagrid's hut and Beauxbatons' carriage in the distance had almost disappeared into the darkness, leaving only the faint starlight in the sky shining on the ground through the scattered branches and leaves, and Fawkes on Dumbledore's shoulder. There were patches of fire emanating from the body, allowing Harry to identify the direction of travel.
"Over there." Harry raised his hand and pointed forward, stepped forward in front of Dumbledore and Dracula, and led them through the trees.
As a young Gryffindor wizard who often visits the Forbidden Forest, Harry is quite familiar with this area and is confident that he will not go wrong.
"Mr. Bagman?" Harry shouted into the Forbidden Forest, "Mr. Crouch? I brought Professor Dumbledore to see you!"
No one answered.
"They were here just now." Harry said to Dumbledore in a panic, "They must be nearby. I don't know what went wrong..."
Dumbledore suddenly raised his wand——
"Lumos."
A narrow beam of light shone from the tip of the wand, moving back and forth between the dark tree trunks, illuminating the land below.
However, before Dumbledore and Harry found Crouch and Bagman through fluorescence, the silver-haired figures beside them discovered the traces of two Ministry of Magic officials.
Dracula's figure disappeared beside Dumbledore, and then flashed behind a thick tree.
"Here." He snapped his fingers lightly.
A white, bright flame appeared in the palm of Dracula's hand, and immediately began to rotate around him, illuminating a large space in the surrounding forest.
Harry and Dumbledore hurried forward and looked at the roots of the big tree where Dracula was.
There, Bagman lay curled up at the foot of a big tree, looking delirious - and there was no sign of Mr. Crouch around.
Dumbledore bent down and gently opened one of Bagman's eyelids.
"He passed out," Dumbledore said softly.
He peered into the surrounding trees, his half-moon lenses glinting in the dim light of his wand.
"Do you want me to call someone?" Harry asked worriedly, "Should I call Madam Pomfrey over?"
"No," Dumbledore said quickly, "Stay here and don't move."
As he spoke, he looked at Dracula aside.
Dracula nodded, and his figure suddenly rose into the air, flying to a place higher than all the trees in the Forbidden Forest.
The next moment, a silver-white light blade swept across the entire Forbidden Forest, and Harry felt a chill all over his body, as if something had scanned his whole body.
Dumbledore raised his wand high and pointed in the direction of Hagrid's hut.
A silver phoenix flew out of the wand and flashed through the trees. Then Dumbledore leaned towards Bagman again, pointed his wand at him, and whispered:
"Resume quickly (Ee)."
The effect of the resuscitation spell was very good, and Bagman quickly opened his eyes with a blank look on his face.
As soon as he saw Dumbledore he struggled to sit up, but Dumbledore put a hand on his shoulder and told him to lie still.
"Mr. Crouch is completely crazy!" Bagman murmured, covering his head with his hands. "He suddenly attacked me... Even in this state, I was no match for him, and then I was beaten by him. fainted."
"Okay, you lie down for a while." Dumbledore said, his voice getting deeper and deeper, "I hope we have a chance to find Crouch again."
Then, Dracula also fell from the sky.
"How is it? Did you gain anything?" Dumbledore asked.
"We have searched the area covered by the Anti-Apparition Curse, but there is no one there." Dracula said softly, "Of course, we cannot rule out that there will be ways to bypass my perception like the Imperius Curse in Crouch. "
"It's not easy to bypass your perception, Professor Dracula." Dumbledore shook his head slightly, "I am more inclined to believe that Crouch has left the scope of Hogwarts and apparated away... …Can you catch the spatial fluctuations of the Apparition?”
"I'm afraid you're not making things difficult for me," Dracula said, crossing his arms and leaning against the tree trunk next to him, "Tell me, how can I find a spatial fluctuation in such a large range that has dissipated a few minutes ago? "
Just then, a burst of thunderous footsteps reached their ears, and Hagrid appeared panting, followed by Fang.
He held his bow and arrow in his hand and looked around him warily.
"Professor Dumbledore!" After seeing several people present, his eyes widened, "Professor Dracula, Harry... why are you all here?"
"Hagrid, please help send Mr. Bagman to the school infirmary," Dumbledore interrupted his question and quickly arranged, "He has been hit by a very powerful coma spell and his body will be weak for a while. "
"Then, tell Minerva and the others that they must take care of the students in each college. No one should come out of the common room!"
"Oh, okay... no problem, Professor..." Hagrid was a little dazed, but he still carried out Dumbledore's instructions as quickly as possible.
After saying that, he picked up Bagman on his back, turned around and disappeared into the dark trees, with Yaya trotting behind him.
From a distance, Harry seemed to hear Hagrid meeting someone at the exit of the Forbidden Forest and saying hello to him: "Oh, good evening, Mr. Filch... I don't need to help, you can just do your own thing." ...Oh! Thank you so much!"
After Hagrid left, Dumbledore took a deep breath.
"Professor Dracula," he said softly, "please send Harry back to his common room... I want to look for it again. Mr. Crouch's escape from the Imperius Curse will definitely be reported to Voldemort." Bian knows that he should be in danger now."
"Let's look for it together." Dracula was silent for a moment, and then said, "Anyway, I'm quite interested in what Crouch went through."
He snapped his fingers lightly.
A dark moon appeared next to Harry, and Dracula reached out and pushed Harry into the dark moon, teleporting him directly back to the Gryffindor common room.
…
If what happened that night were to spread, it would probably shock most of the wizards in the magical world——
It's rare in the world for two great wizards to join forces, but they didn't even find a single unconscious person...
The sun rose again from the end of the Black Lake. In the Hogwarts principal's office, Dracula and Dumbledore were sitting on the sofa and chairs in silence. Both of them looked unhappy.
"Professor Dracula, do you still remember? How long did it take Harry to get from the Forbidden Forest to the castle?" Dumbledore asked, breaking the silence.
"I know what you want to say," Dracula nodded and said, "I asked Potter. He ran back from the Forbidden Forest almost without stopping. According to his speed, he can finish it in about ten minutes. Run the entire distance…”
"Even including the time spent in the castle, the time from Potter leaving Crouch to the time we entered the Forbidden Forest was only twenty minutes at most... I don't quite believe that he could get out of the range of the anti-Apparition Curse in twenty minutes. .”
Dracula took out the title deed to Hogwarts and looked at the vast forest northeast of the castle.
He knows the boundaries of Hogwarts very well, and he also fully knows how vast the area covered by the anti-Apparition curse here is... This is definitely not a distance that can be covered in twenty minutes with just two legs. .
"What if Crouch rides on a broomstick?" Dumbledore frowned and guessed.
"If it's a broom that's about as fast as Nimbus 2000, twenty minutes is indeed enough for him to leave Hogwarts..." Dracula said, "But a person who is fighting the Imperius Curse and is extremely unconscious Do you really think he can control a broomstick?"
Dumbledore's eyebrows furrowed further.
He stood up from his chair and paced back and forth in his office, thinking about Crouch.
"If we rule out the possibility that Crouch could leave on his own, that is to say..." Dumbledore suddenly turned his head and looked at Dracula, "There was probably another person in the Forbidden Forest at that time. He Hide Crouch!"
"Yes, and that person is probably Barty Crouch Jr. who faked his death on the Azkaban island." Dracula added in a deep voice.
Dumbledore's eyes moved, and then he sighed again.
"It's a pity that Voldemort seems to have lost his memory this time and didn't ask his former subordinates to help him." He said helplessly, "Severus didn't get any information... Professor Dracula, what do you have there? News?"
"Lucius has never gained Voldemort's trust, and naturally he is even less likely to be driven under such circumstances." Dracula shook his head, "Voldemort probably only trusts those who were imprisoned in Azkaban. A fan."
He then looked at Dumbledore and asked, "You should know something about your former student, right? What kind of person is Barty Crouch Jr.?"
…
…
