Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 382 Crouch's Game
Voldemort did not return to the castle on Christmas Eve.
This surprised Jon a little, but he also felt it was natural.
After all, this ball is not as important as the competition that is about to start. Voldemort did not come in person for the first event, let alone this ball.
In addition, Dumbledore was not there, and the two most powerful people who organized this event did not show up at the ball, which allowed the students present to be more relaxed.
Except for the two of them, all the professors in the castle, including Snape and Crouch, and the three referees of the Federation were present.
There are also those newspaper reporters who have been staying in the castle. They certainly will not miss this great opportunity.
Of course, newspapers cannot report major news all day long. Sometimes, some gossips about the participating warriors will be more eye-catching.
So when Hermione, led by Rosier and holding John's arm, entered the hall, countless flashes of light lit up in their direction.
Almost no students in the castle recognized the beautiful girl standing next to Jon. Hermione had changed so much compared to two years ago. Even if 80% of the people in the hall had seen her hanging in front of the entrance hall, no one would be able to recognize her now.
For a while, the castle was full of whispers, but few people would do anything rude, even those proud pure-blood students. Jon was notorious, and every pure-blood student was severely warned by their family before coming to school this year that they were not allowed to provoke Jon unless they encountered a situation where they could beat the dog when it was down.
After Jon and his friends entered the auditorium, there was still some time before the dance officially began, so a professor from the Mixed-Blood Academy who was responsible for receiving them guided them to sit in a separately designated area.
Hermione was sitting next to Jon. Daisy had helped to style her long chestnut hair, which was tied into an elegant bun at the back of her head. She was wearing a robe made of flowing light purple-blue fabric, which was chosen for her by Professor McGonagall in Lyon after she learned that she had become Jon's dance partner.
Jon looked up at the starry sky.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
"This should be a very advanced transmission magic. I have read the history of Hogwarts and heard Mr. Slytherin's portrait and Ms. Grey talk about it. They said that this starry sky ceiling was actually created by the founder of Ravenclaw College - Ronay Ravenclaw."
"Shouldn't a normal girl praise this for its beauty when seeing it?"
"Would you like normal girls?"
Jon was frightened by her sudden question and swallowed hard , turning to look at her with wide eyes.
Hermione seemed amused by his reaction and laughed out loud with her hands covering her mouth.
"In fact, if I had not been brought to this castle, and had not been rescued by you, would you have had to find someone else to dance with at tonight's ball?"
"Why do you ask this suddenly?" Jon felt that Hermione was acting strange today, as if she was hiding something.
"I'm actually thinking that, from another perspective, the experience of being brought to this castle isn't such a painful memory."
She looked quietly at the starry sky, then turned to the smiling faces of the students around her, most of whom were laughing and talking happily.
"If I had not been enslaved here, I might have really thought that this castle was a good place now. There are some things that you will only know what the world is like after you have truly experienced them."
Jon suddenly noticed the white bracelet on Hermione's hand that he had never seen before.
"Is this also given to you by Professor McGonagall? It's quite nice. "
Hermione raised the hand where she was wearing the bracelet. The candlelight illuminated her slender, white wrist, as well as the bracelet. The surface of the bracelet reflected a flowing halo, which was extremely beautiful.
She said softly.
"Not Professor McGonagall, but someone who has been forgotten by this castle."
…
On the podium in the auditorium, Snape was sitting next to Crouch, which was rare.
The feud between the two was well-known not only in Hogwarts but also in the entire wizarding world.
They never greeted each other when they met in meetings, and never sat together at dinners. Unless they were summoned by Voldemort himself, there was almost no chance for them to run into each other at any other time.
And at this Christmas dinner, these two, who were the highest-ranking decision-makers in the entire Hogwarts Castle when Voldemort was away, actually sat together at the very beginning!
This not only surprised the other professors, but even Lucius, who was leading the Aurors to maintain order in the auditorium and keep an eye on John and the others to prevent them from making any unusual movements, found it a little hard to believe.
The seats around Snape and Crouch were also empty. They seemed to be having a secret conversation. The other professors all came over without noticing.
"I thought you would just let the student named Conrad get close to Jon Green."
Snape glanced at Jon, who was chatting with Hermione in his seat, and said expressionlessly.
Little Barty still had that gentle and approachable smile on his face.
"Who do you think you can fool with such a cheap trick? What is the most perfect plan? Let nature take its course and let things proceed according to their own trajectory. All we need to do is to make a slight progress at the most critical node."
"Until her death, Conrad believed that the bracelet was given to her by her mother, and she always believed that it was her most precious thing. The Mudblood Granger was first attracted to this girl because she saw that the bracelet was exactly the same as the one her mother had worn. You see, it only takes a simple little thing to closely connect two people who were originally unrelated."
Snape turned his head and glanced at the man beside him who was secretly rumored in the wizarding world to be a lunatic even crazier than Bella.
"So what is that bracelet?"
"Don't forget who brought that little Mudblood named Hermione Granger to this castle. I've met her parents, a pair of stinky dentists. I disguised myself as a professor from a well-known university and tried to trick them into ordering their daughter to sign the contract. The disgusting Muggle woman was wearing that bracelet at the time. In order to find a bracelet exactly like this one, I recently had someone search all of London and used some of our connections in the Muggle government. Finally, I found it in a second-hand grocery store."
Barty Jr.'s voice was calm, but Snape clearly heard a hint of pride in it. He knew that this man was deliberately showing off in front of him, showing off how he shared his master's worries.
But Snape was not disgusted by his bragging. On the contrary, he was very curious about whether Barty's arrangements would be effective and what means he used to deceive the cunning Dumbledore and the extremely weird student Jon Green.
"Then you chose Conrad, who was being bullied by Floyd and Flint, and gave her a string of carefully compiled memories and the bracelet that I had transformed, making her think that this was a birthday gift from her mother and her most precious thing?"
Hearing Snape's question, the smile on Barty's face grew wider.
"To be honest, it's not easy to find such a suitable candidate, but Asia Conrad is tailor-made for my plan. She is a mixed-blood, a bastard, and naturally close to the lower-class Mudbloods. She has a weak character, and has been coerced and threatened by Flint for so long that she almost chose to give up her life to accept it, which makes it easier for that group of people to sympathize with her. What a good choice! After I spent time looking through the information of all the mixed-blood students, I determined that this was the final piece of the puzzle for my entire plan."
"So you never thought of starting with Jon Green himself?"
"If he is really just an ordinary 15-year-old boy, then of course it would be the simplest and most effective to attack him directly. I don't need to spend so much energy and means. I can just control a beautiful female student to throw herself into his arms. But that is obviously unrealistic. Since this boy has caused so much trouble to his master, and Dumbledore has high hopes for him, then such a straightforward plan that can be seen through at a glance will not work. Let's not talk about others, just talk about you, Severus, would you be fascinated by a Gryffindor girl when you were 15?"
In an instant, Snape's face fell and his voice turned cold.
"Given our relationship, you are not yet at the point where you can call me by my name. And don't think that I will be cautious and not dare to do anything because we are in the auditorium now."
Little Batty raised his hands with a smile on his face, as if in surrender.
"Look at you. I didn't say which girl from Gryffindor it was. Excluding her, if any other girl comes to you, as long as you look at her, you are not worthy of being called Severus Snape, right? Even you can't be fooled by such a simple beauty trap, let alone Jon Greene who is in the limelight now. Although he is a lowly and damned mudblood, since he can cause so much trouble to his master, it means that he still has some outstanding qualities. So if we use the means to deal with ordinary people to deal with him, we can only end up like the Lestrange family."
