I, Hogwarts Week Two

Chapter 520: Unraveling the Truth

"From the information I learned later, Riddle kept them under strict control. This group of people had never been found to be doing bad things openly. Although many vicious incidents occurred in Hogwarts during the seven years they were at school, none of them could be conclusively linked to them. The most serious incident was of course the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of this case..."

"Why, it's Myrtle," said Owen.

Myrtle's death is an important part of Tom's transformation into Voldemort.

Before that, he was just a little wizard with ancient blood. After that, the dark side of his heart was truly revealed. Voldemort was truly born from Tom's personality.

Owen could imagine how excited Tom Riddle would be when he discovered the basilisk in that dank underground chamber.

Perhaps it was this excitement that caused him to temporarily lose control of the basilisk.

Perhaps his magic level was not high enough to control the basilisk.

Perhaps it was to fulfill the promise of his ancestor Slytherin to cleanse those who were not worthy of learning magic.

To summarize, in fifth grade, Tom releases the Basilisk, which ultimately leads to Myrtle's death.

By killing a man and putting the blame on Hagrid, Tom could avoid punishment. Tom should have felt very superior at that time, laughing at the wizard's stupidity countless times behind his back.

It was this superiority, coupled with the "nobleness" of his bloodline, that truly opened up Voldemort's life.

"Yes, that poor girl," Dumbledore went to the Pensieve and continued, "I did not find many memories of Riddle at Hogwarts. Few who knew him at the time were willing to talk about him. They were too scared. What I know now was learned after he left Hogwarts, after much effort, by interviewing those who could be elicited to talk, searching old records, and questioning Muggles and wizards."

He said no more, but from the cabinet above the Pensieve he retrieved some crystal vials filled with swirling, pearly memories.

Dumbledore poured the memories into the Pensieve, then asked Owen to relive them with him.

The first memory was only a minute long. It was a conversation between Voldemort and his uncle Morfin. Both sides used Parseltongue, a language Owen could not understand.

But he could also guess that Morfin was introducing Tom to his mother and the Muggle family that lived not far from their home, namely Tom's father and grandparents.

The scene ends with Tom leaving angrily.

Everyone knows the story of the loving father and filial son that happened next.

Tom killed his father's family and put the blame on his mother's uncle, who was foul-mouthed and kept cursing, just because his mother married a Muggle.

Of course, the point of Dumbledore showing him this memory was not the 'plot', but the Gaunt ring on Morfin's right hand.

He seemed to want to connect the owners of the Gaunt Ring into a logical line, so as to predict where Voldemort would hide the last Horcrux.

After the first memory ended, Dumbledore immediately poured the memory in the second crystal bottle into the Pensieve.

This time the scene is even shorter than the previous one.

Only a few tens of seconds.

It is based on the memories of an Auror, depicting the scene when they stormed Riddle House.

From this memory, it can be seen that it should be the summer of 1994.

After the Battle of Hogsmeade, the Aurors calmed down and planned a raid on Riddle House in Little Hangleton, arresting dozens of dark wizards at one time.

Although most of those people were not Death Eaters, this was still an achievement, as it reversed the public opinion of the wizarding world, which had been in a slump since the Battle of Hogsmeade.

It also established Barty Crouch's position as Minister of Magic.

After the memory ended, Dumbledore looked at the shimmering water and asked, "In this memory, the Gaunt family mansion was still intact."

"The old house of the Gaunt family." Owen murmured. Indeed, because the old house of the Gaunt family was not far from the Riddle Mansion, the mansion had appeared in the wizard's memory.

However, after the war, the old house of the Gaunt family was affected by magic and became a ruin, and the Gaunt ring hidden inside disappeared.

"You think the ring was originally here?"

"Tom is that kind of person," Dumbledore said calmly, with a trace of regret flashing behind his blue eyes. "Although the ring is a relic of the Gaunt family, his uncle, the last heir of the Gaunt family, left a very bad impression on him. In the memory just now, he has been insulting Tom's mother and used some ugly words.

So he would not take the ring with him, and his disgust and anger would make him hide where he was after killing his father and creating the Horcrux. "

"But now the ring is not there," Irving said.

"That's right." Dumbledore nodded. "It's already a ruin. I've searched for it many times but to no avail. But in this memory, the ring should still be there, at least before the summer vacation of 1994. So who took it away afterwards?"

"Hmm?" Owen frowned. "Shouldn't it be Voldemort himself?"

Upon hearing this, Dumbledore neither agreed nor denied it. Instead, he said, "The Ministry of Magic had closely monitored Little Hangleton during that period. Any action there might have alerted the Aurors. Of course, with Voldemort's level of magic, it would have been easy for him to evade the Aurors' eyes, but I always thought that the ring was taken away too easily - suppose, what if he didn't take it away himself?"

"Not him?" Owen was silent for a moment, and suddenly understood what Dumbledore meant. "Are you trying to say that there are Death Eaters among the Aurors? He took the ring easily while the two sides were fighting, so that no one would notice?"

"That's possible," Dumbledore responded. "But I checked almost everyone, and none of the Aurors responsible for the attack on Riddle House that day were suspects."

"Ok?"

"Only a few people have been in and out of the Gaunt mansion. This can be seen from the memories of several Aurors."

"." Owen glanced at the old principal and asked, "Can you please not breathe too hard?"

"Who?"

"Moody, Theseus, the then Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Stringer, and the Minister of Magic." Dumbledore looked up at Owen, "Barty Crouch himself."

"Barty Crouch?" Owen widened his eyes and suddenly remembered someone.

Someone he had almost forgotten.

"Barty Crouch Jr.!"

"Barty Crouch Jr?" said Dumbledore. "That was his son, as I recall. He died in Azkaban a few years ago."

"Wait!" Owen took a step back and rubbed his eyebrows.

If - he meant if.

<divclass="contentadv">In the beginning, Barty Crouch was actually his son pretending to be him.

Is this possible?

No—impossible! Owen shook his head.

Barty Crouch appeared in front of Dumbledore countless times, but the old headmaster didn't notice anything unusual. Even after the goblins invaded Hogwarts and Hufflepuffs appeared in the world, the old headmaster had already begun to secretly use Legilimency on the people around him.

And after the Goblet of Fire, he had an argument with the headmaster and even met with him alone in the headmaster's office.

Owen never believed that Barty Crouch Jr. had such powerful magic that was enough to conceal his true identity.

If Barty Crouch has always been himself.

Bella once told him that they had their people in the Ministry of Magic, and they were Death Eaters who were trying to rebel against Voldemort and return to Tom Riddle.

Could this person be Barty Crouch Jr.?

"Huh..." Owen felt his head was a little hot, his thoughts had reached a dead end. There were some key points that he couldn't figure out.

"Professor," he said, "Barty Crouch Jr. is not dead."

"In 1982, Mrs. Crouch's condition worsened. Before she died, she found her husband, hoping to take the Polyjuice Potion herself, take her son's place, and smuggle him out of Azkaban."

"Old Barty probably felt he owed her because he had sent his own son to Azkaban, so he finally agreed to the plan. Over the years, Barty Crouch Jr. has been hiding in the Crouch family's ancestral home."

"Where did you know all this?" Dumbledore asked with a frown.

"Their elf is called Shining." Owen lied. "During the World Cup, I noticed that it was talking to an empty chair, so I quietly invaded its memory."

This excuse was very crude, and he immediately changed the subject, saying, "But I don't think the former minister was actually Barty in disguise. He has talked to you alone many times, and even if he imitated you, it would be impossible for him to be flawless. Nearly three years! Where did he get so many Polyjuice Potions? Large-scale purchases of magic potions would definitely arouse suspicion."

Hearing this, Dumbledore fell into a brief silence.

After a few minutes of hearing the strange jingling noises of the ornaments in the principal's office, he suddenly asked, "What if that's him?"

"Um - you -" Owen didn't quite understand what he meant.

"If he's on his son's side, Tom's side."

"What?" Owen's eyes widened in disbelief.

Wait - although with this explanation, a lot of things can be explained.

But - Barty Crouch! That's Barty Crouch!

With his hatred of evil and his attitude towards dark wizards as enemies, how could he possibly submit to Senior Tom?

Even if Dumbledore said that it was actually Barty Crouch Jr. who controlled his father with the Imperius Curse, Owen would believe it, at least this reason sounded more reliable.

“His character.”

"Anyone's appearance is just an appearance." Dumbledore looked at Owen and said, "For example, yourself - would anyone outside think you were a boy?"

"Uh" what he said made so much sense that I couldn't refute it.

"So-called loyalty is just not enough to betray. What if Tom can come up with something that can move Barty Crouch?

Well - your information is very important, and we have found a direction. "

"Okay, next I need to go talk to the former minister in person. Owen, you go back first."

"Okay, professor," he responded, then turned and left the principal's office.

------

The next day, he told Harry and Hermione about his conversation with Dumbledore.

The little witch's advice to him was to contact Bella now.

Ask her the truth.

But Irving disagreed.

Since I know that this woman has rebellious intentions, she might fulfill the contract and tell me other information, but she will definitely disobey me when it comes to the Horcruxes, and I won't get any results from her.

And if the Gaunt ring was really in the hands of Barty Crouch Jr., then she would definitely not tell herself.

The reason was that he didn't want to see all the Horcruxes destroyed.

Now, all we have to do is wait - wait for Dumbledore's negotiation with Barty Crouch.

Besides this, Harry also began to busy himself with the task of conquering Slughorn.

In the afternoon potions class, as usual, Harry stood out with his knowledge of Advanced Potion Making...

"Please be quiet, be quiet!" Slughorn walked up to the podium. "Unconsciously, the happy Christmas holiday has passed. I hope you don't play too much during this holiday and forget to study, because the tasks we face in the next semester will be very heavy. Now, who can tell me about the third law of Gorbarot... Of course, our magic princess!"

Hermione stood up awkwardly and recited as quickly as possible, "Gorbarot's Third Law states that the antidote to a mixed poison is greater than the sum of the antidotes for each individual ingredient." After that, she sat down again as quickly as possible. Even so, countless eyes were still on her.

"Absolutely!" smiled Slughorn. "Absolutely! Ten points to Gryffindor! Now, if we accept that Gorbarot's Third Law holds true..."

Slughorn's voice was incessant in the classroom, but almost all eyes were on Hermione, and a little on Harry.

The others seemed to be air, he was just lecturing these two people.

"Of course, this means that, assuming we have correctly analysed the potion's ingredients using Scapin's Revealing Charm, our first aim is not simply to select the antidote for each individual ingredient, but to find the additional ingredient, which is a more difficult process," said Slughorn. "It can transform various unrelated ingredients through a process that is almost alchemical..."

Everyone was taking notes quickly in their notebooks.

It sucks knowledge like the sea.

"Well, dry words can't teach you how to brew potions." Slughorn said finally, "Now, I want each of you to come to my podium and take a bottle. You must prepare the antidote to the contents of the bottle before the end of get out of class. Good luck to you, and don't forget to wear protective gloves!"

Hermione immediately left her stool and walked towards the podium, taking back the bottles from Harry, Ron, and Owen.

"It's a pity, Harry." She straightened her back as she passed in front of Harry. "This time, your prince can't help you. I've already read the book. You must understand the principle of Barlot's Third Law in order to create an antidote. There's no way to cut corners."

"Then Your Highness, can you help me?" Harry said seriously.