A friendly day at Hogwarts

"Barty Crouch?" Glenn was startled and repeated the familiar name, "Where did the news come from?"

Mr. Carmichael saw that he seemed to be very interested in the news about Crouch, and said: "That is a thief more courageous than that guy Mundungus Fletcher. He was in the trading area of ​​the store at noon today." When he was drunk, he bragged that he had sneaked into Crouch's house a few days ago."

"Although Crouch was removed from the International Confederation of Wizards because of Blake's unjust case, he is still a senior official in the Ministry of Magic after all, and the Crouch family is one of the 28 Holy Families, so it shouldn't be so easy to break in. Go?" Glenn frowned and said, "Is the authenticity of this news reliable?"

As Glenn said, although Crouch's political career was completely ruined at this time, a skinny camel was bigger than a horse, and the manor's defenses should not be so weak that a thief could come in and out at will.

If this news comes from a year later, that is, after Wormtail controlled Old Barty with the Imperius Curse, it would be somewhat credible.But now, Voldemort probably doesn't know that little Barty is alive.

"No one believed him at first, including me. These guys can brag and say all kinds of crazy things," Mr. Carmichael said, "until he took this out of his arms."

He touched his pocket, took out a golden pocket watch and handed it to Glenn.

The pocket watch was heavy when I got it. It looked like it was from two or three hundred years ago, but the surface was only slightly darkened, but not rusty at all. It was most likely made of pure gold.

There is a fine relief on the front cover, which is a capital letter "M" with a wand in the middle and a circle of small letters around it - Ministry of Magic (Ministry of Magic) 1707.

There should be a circular family crest on the shell on the back, with a floral letter "C" engraved in the center, in a winding shape, like a river.

"Is this... something he stole?" Glenn returned the pocket watch and asked.

Mr. Carmichael nodded and said: "Yes, if my vision is correct, this is definitely a real thing, and it is because of this thing that I am sure that his news is probably true."

"Isn't it possible that he bought it from someone else?" Glenn was still a little skeptical.

"Theoretically speaking, even if the value of this thing is one hundred, he can't afford it. If this guy didn't know the goods, I wouldn't be able to afford it even if I sold the store." Mr. Carmichael said firmly. , "Based on my professional level, this is a commemorative pocket watch customized for each important family in 1707 when the Ministry of Magic was first established. Each family only has one. Your family should also have one."

"Memorial pocket watch?"

"Look at the logo of the Ministry of Magic." Mr. Carmichael pointed to the capital letter "M". "This logo is different from now. If you look carefully, you will find that the wand does not shine on the relief as it does now. The image. This is the first version of the logo designed by the Ministry of Magic, and there is a little bit of the 'Wizards' Council' logo."

"What's on the back? Is it the coat of arms of the Crouch family?"

"Yes, the letter 'C' stands for Crouch. This river-like design is the birthplace of the Crouch family and represents the Crouch River that flows through Essex and eventually flows into the North Sea."

Glenn took another careful look and asked, "Is it possible it's a fake?"

"The original form is established!"

Mr. Carmichael took out his wand and tapped twice on the pocket watch. A faint light flashed, but there was no change in the pocket watch.

"According to records, these pocket watches were all handmade without using any magic, so the spell did not respond." He explained, "Theoretically, if someone could make an exact copy of it by hand without using magic at all, Even the degree of oxidation is two to three hundred years old, so the difficulty is definitely no less difficult than directly stealing the real thing."

"But by the way, how did this thief sneak into Crouch Manor?"

"The guy said that he heard that Crouch has been very busy recently, probably handing over work or something, and is often away from home. You know, because of the Blake incident, Crouch's recent situation is not good. Fudge may have planned to force him to retire early. So the guy went to Crouch Manor with a try mentality, intending to try it out and run away if something went wrong. "

Mr. Carmichael wiped off the fingerprints on his pocket watch, carefully put it into his pocket, and continued.

"Even he didn't expect that except for the house elves, there was not even a single servant in the manor, let alone the patrolling security personnel. The whole house was dark and only the kitchen was lit. He dodged a few The spell of detection and early warning slipped in casually.”

Glenn narrowed his eyes slightly. He knew a little about the situation of the Crouch family.Because of the shady little Barty, Crouch naturally couldn't let anyone except house elves stay in his home.

"He found this pocket watch in the living room. He originally wanted to find something valuable to steal, but he didn't expect that the house elf suddenly came out of the kitchen, still mumbling something."

"What are you talking about?" Although Glenn could roughly guess what Twinkle said, he still followed the words and asked.

Mr. Carmichael frowned and said: "He said that he was a little far away at the time. The house elf spoke in a shrill and soft voice. He couldn't hear clearly. He could only roughly hear something like "Master, dinner. What a good boy." Category."

"Master..." Glenn repeated in a low voice.Although this is just a title, it contains a considerable amount of information.

"If I remember correctly, Barty Crouch Jr. should have died in Azkaban a long time ago, right?" Mr. Carmichael said. "It seems that the Daily Prophet also reported this matter at that time. He His son died just a few days ago, and his wife also passed away due to excessive sadness. Speaking of which, Crouch Sr. was also quite miserable. He was originally a hero in people's eyes, ambitious to become the Minister of Magic, but in the blink of an eye, he... The son is dead, the wife is dead, the family's reputation has been tarnished, and now something like Blake has happened, life is really unpredictable..."

"What else did that guy see?" Glenn asked again.

"He said that the elf walked twitching and looked crazy. He might have secretly drank while the owner was away. For safety's sake, he didn't stay any longer and slipped out directly. Press According to his statement, he had only been out for a few seconds when the lights upstairs turned on, which meant that Crouch must have apparated back. If he hadn't been lucky, he might have been caught."