Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 491 Crouch and Fudge
Black's fingers slowly twirled on the steaming cup of coffee, causing a small vortex to appear in the cup of coffee, which spun rapidly, and the temperature became suitable for drinking in a short while.

The three of them couldn't help opening their mouths when they heard Harry describe the scene they had dreamed about on the court not long ago.

After Harry finished, no one spoke...

They thought carefully about the contents of the nightmare.

After a long silence, Black took a big sip of coffee, and then said.

"Don't worry, McGuffin should be fine. Didn't Mr. Weasley say nothing? If there is something wrong with McGuffin? He won't keep it from you." Seeing the anxious look on Harry's face, Black added.

Hermione nodded in agreement.

"That's right, that's a McGuffin! Think about all the bad things he's done at Hogwarts over the years... Besides, didn't Dumbledore go somewhere with him?" Hermione comforted Harry very reluctantly, and she didn't seem to believe her own words.

"I said... Didn't you hear what Harry said clearly? - The Mysterious Man is back!! The Dark Lord is back!" Ron said as his teeth chattered and chattered, trying to keep his voice down.

"Well, it seems to be..." Black drank his coffee and said, "I heard from Fudge... Dumbledore saw it with his own eyes and drove him away."

"By the way, Harry, you need to stay away from Barty Crouch!"

"what!"

"I feel that something is wrong with him! In that situation, he actually directly disrupted the order of the stadium and wanted to take you away... In short, he is more than Cornelius Fudge..."

"……Danger!"

Blake paused, as if stuck for a while, before saying again, "...This guy is a purely political animal...Cold-blooded and ruthless..."

"But Percy seems to adore him." Hermione asked a little puzzled.

"Hermione, if you want to understand a person's nature, you must know how he treats his family."

"You know Crouch?" Harry asked. "Then why didn't he recognize you?"

"It can't be said that we know each other... This guy ordered me to be sent to Azkaban." Black touched his plump chin and said with a gloomy face.

"What!" Ron and Hermione exclaimed in low voices at the same time.

"That rascal!"

"Barty Crouch used to be the director of the Department of Legal Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic. He personally ordered most of the dark wizards to be imprisoned in Azkaban 13 years ago... Almost all of them were without trial. This behavior was deeply loved by Aurors and most wizards at the time."

"Harry, you have also seen it... Just a single Dark Mark scared hundreds of thousands of wizards into such a state... One can imagine how turbulent and chaotic the wizarding world was at that time. At that time, bad news came every week, all bad news... People were tortured to the point of going crazy, missing, dying, and the Dark Mark kept appearing in various places... The Ministry of Magic was in chaos. They are still attacking Muggles... Not only in England, but under the influence of the mysterious man, dark forces all over the world, including some werewolves, vampires, wild wizards such as witches and voodoo priests, are rampant and arrogant. The wizarding world and Muggle society are in turmoil."

"All of this makes people yearn for a leader who is merciless against dark wizards...especially British wizards."

"Barty Crouch is such a political animal... powerful and power-hungry," Sirius said.

"Relying on his keen sense of smell, he made a gesture of showing no mercy to the black arts... So he quickly stood out and rose step by step... There are some diehard believers in the Ministry of Magic, most of them are Aurors..."

"When Voldemort fell, most people thought he would be the next Minister for Magic."

"Then what about him?"

"Didn't I say that? If you want to see a person's nature, you can see how he treats the closest people."

"His son is a Death Eater!"

"what!"

"That young man was imprisoned next door to me back then... He was a hot-headed little guy, I'm afraid he would never have thought that his father... would send himself into Azkaban with his own hands!"

"What did he do!" Hermione asked.

An inexplicable look appeared on Black's face, and he looked at Harry and said slowly, "After the Dark Lord fell, Little Crouch gathered a group of pure-blood wizards, wanting to find the mysterious man... wanting him to return."

"After being caught, this so-called friend of this fool immediately pushed everything on him..."

"I suspect—" Black's voice was a little low, "This is a conspiracy...a conspiracy against Crouch. It is very likely that it was done by Cornelius Fudge...after all, he is the biggest beneficiary."

Harry and the others opened their eyes wide, somewhat incomprehensible.

"That, that-that? ... what does that mean?" Hermione stammered.

"Let's put it this way... At that time, Connelly was competing with Barty Crouch for the seat of the Minister of Magic, and everyone was not optimistic about Fudge at the time. It happened that at that time, Crouch's son became a Death Eater...Think about it, Hermione...What a blow to the old Crouch who will become the Minister of Magic!"

"And do you know who Crouch's son's companions are?—these are some smooth-talking Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban."

"According to the situation at that time...the magic world liquidated the Dark Lord's henchmen and Death Eaters, if those Death Eaters did not have a great wizard like Dumbledore as a guarantee, and did not have an extremely prominent family status like Lucius Malfoy...or did not betray any valuable information...they would have been impossible to escape from Azkaban."

"But...it's just a coincidence...those Death Eaters said a few words...with statements that none of you would believe, and they were let out just like that."

"After they got out of prison, they immediately mixed with little Kraqi..."

"Harry, think about it carefully... Do you notice the suspiciousness in this? Who has gained the most benefit from this incident!"

"Could it be?—Is it true that Fudge...was the one who let all this out?"

"I suspect that poor silly boy... Little Kratch didn't know what he was involved in at all? And according to rumors... those Death Eaters who participated in this incident... have not appeared in front of others since then."

Black sneered and said, "I don't know if they are still alive..."

Harry, Ron and the three of them were stunned, gasping for air.

"That's why I told you, Harry, to stay away from Crouch and Cornelius Fudge. These guys are no better than Death Eaters and the Dark Lord! And I'm afraid the fight for power between the two of them...is far from over." Black said in a low voice, getting another cup of coffee.

"Although Crouch, this guy immediately sent his son into Azkaban to express his firm and uncompromising stance against black magic...but this instead aroused people's resentment towards him, and people doubted whether such a cold-blooded and ruthless wizard is really suitable to be a minister of magic."

"...At that time, all the magic newspapers were on the offensive, constantly attacking Crouch's personal character and family education. And after the boy died in Azkaban, people sympathized with the boy more and asked why a child from a good family would go on such an evil path? The conclusion is that his father never cared much about him....Guess who ordered the newspapers to do this."

"But... why didn't he start for his son, if he did..." Hermione asked in a low voice.

Sirius let out a strange laugh, much like a dog bark.

"Crouch excused his son? Hermione, I've just said so much, you still don't understand the nature of this guy! Anything that blocks his way forward, any food that damages his reputation, he will throw it aside without hesitation... Like Fudge, he dedicated his life and soul to the cause of the Minister of Magic. In this respect, the two of them are no different from You-Know-Who."

"Of course, if Kratch knew that his actions at the time... would push him off the throne of Minister of Magic, he would probably treat his son better and defend his direct son a little more, instead of being so cold-blooded and ruthless."

"Harry, Ron, you can understand what kind of person this is! So I said...he behaved very strange tonight."

There was a strange look of disbelief on Sirius' face.

"It's fine if you don't know me. Anyway, there are many guys I've met, except for Dumbledore and Snape, who didn't recognize me as myself. But even if he is old-fashioned, he shouldn't do this kind of behavior that doesn't conform to other people's designs... Especially at this time when Cornelius Fudge is putting pressure on him step by step. Even if he fights for power again, he almost destroys himself and wants to pull Fudge into the water...it's incomprehensible!"

"I really can't understand it!"

Sirius waved his wand, and a few square crystal ice cubes appeared on top of the steaming coffee, and the ice cubes fell into the cup with a plop.

"Therefore, you guys stay away from Cornelius Fudge and Crouch... No matter what reason they approach you, the farther the better, especially Harry... Your reputation in the wizarding world is widely circulated. For Crouch and Fudge... it is like a rare treasure like the Philosopher's Stone. Although I don't know why Dumbledore cooperated with those two guys, he definitely doesn't want you to have anything to do with them."

A long silence followed.

Harry thought about the information that Sirius had given them, no wonder he was so angry and afraid of Cornelius Fudge several times when he saw Crouch...and he refused to tear his face.And Black's re-reveal of Fudge... He was also very surprised, even a little frightened... Such an old wizard who was always amiable and smiling towards him, turned out to be such a person.

"V... I said why did the mysterious man invade the Ministry of Magic, and where is the room full of clocks and crystal balls I saw?" Harry asked Sirius.

"Probably [Department of Mysteries]!"

Hermione said, "Harry, didn't you see the [Time-Turner] in McGuffin's hand? This thing has been kept in the [Hall of Time] in the [Department of Mysteries]. As for the place full of crystal balls, it should be the [Hall of Prophecy]..."

"Yeah, I've heard... that's the most mysterious place in the Ministry of Magic. The wizards working there are called the Reticent Men... They all swear by a spell, and they won't tell any secrets about it anyway. It's the top secret of the Ministry of Magic." Sirius nodded and said, "No matter what the Dark Lord does there, it's probably very important to him."

Afterwards, Harry put forward his own guess. The envelopes mailed to Fudge, Dumbledore, and Mr. Wesley should have been mailed by McGuffin through [Time Turner].

Hermione nodded in agreement.

Then they speculated about Voldemort's motives for going there. Sirius told them that there are many secrets kept in the [Hall of Prophecy]... Those memories kept in the crystal ball have been kept since the establishment of the Ministry of Magic. It must be a certain crystal ball that caught Voldemort's attention.

As for [Time Converter], although it is magical, Black thinks that the use restrictions and side effects of that thing are too great, and both the Mysterious Man and the Ministry of Magic will treat it as a useless sundry.

"For [Time Turner], even Hogwarts students like Hermione can apply for it, which is enough to show the Ministry of Magic's attitude towards this kind of magic..."

Sirius sighed for a long time, rubbed his tired fat face with his hands, and ended the topic.

"What time is it?"

"Fifteen past three!" said Harry, looking at his watch.

"Okay, it's time for you to rest. There are still many things to deal with tomorrow morning? Tomorrow... Tomorrow, you will probably know what is going on with McGuffin Albert!"

"Listen to me...Harry!" Black stared at Harry with a very serious face,

"McGuffin Albert is right, you should learn [Occlumency] well... This connection between you and Voldemort makes me very disturbed! You'd better practice this spell... If McGuffin is okay, he can teach you... In case, in case he..."

After Sirius vaguely skipped over this extremely bad possibility, he said very clearly, "...Even if you ask Snape, you must learn this spell, Harry!"

The expression Black had expected appeared on Harry's face.

Looked like he was about to vomit.

"I know what it's like for you to be with Snape, trust me... I know it best. But even so, you'd better cut Voldemort off of you first."

"I..." Harry wanted to retort.

Sirius stood up from the stool, waved his hands, and stared at him very dissatisfied.

"Don't think this is some detective spy game...Harry, the opponent is Voldemort!"

After saying the name, Blake shuddered, "That monster...is very good at manipulating the mind and playing with the minds of other wizards. He can implant false memories through [Inspiriting], create nightmares for you, and torture you in your mind...Look at what happened to little Kratch, there are many examples of this! Harry!"

Black drank down the cup of iced coffee, chewed the ice cubes in it, and drove Harry, Ron and Hermione, who looked disconvinced, back to the tent bedroom and let them go to sleep.

(End of this chapter)