Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 389 Voldemort's Attitude
When Little Barty heard the question from Snape, he was stunned for a moment, then spoke in a low voice with a gloomy face.
"Do you think that all my previous investigations on him in the orphanage were in vain? Would his biological father not know whether it was a man or a woman who abandoned him?"
What Barty Jr. said certainly made sense. Snape had only put forward a hypothesis and he had not confirmed it.
"So since there's nothing wrong with you, there's nothing wrong with my medicine, and Jon Green's gender can be completely confirmed, what's the problem now?"
His question once again caused the atmosphere to fall into silence. After a long time, the two of them suddenly raised their heads and looked at each other, as if they had thought of a possibility together.
…
The huge explosion shattered the armor that held the sword in one hand on the spot. The magic that maintained the movement of inanimate objects could no longer be maintained. The knight's sword fell to the ground, and the armor that had been pieced together also scattered to the ground.
Only the glove with a hole in it was still moving the fingers slightly, but this alone no longer posed a major threat to Hermione.
The other two suits of armor seemed to be frightened by Hermione's brutality. They stopped charging with their weapons in hand and stood facing her.
Hermione's breathing became noticeably faster, and the bun on her head was blown away , leaving her long chestnut hair scattered behind her.
Tiny cracks like spider webs had appeared on the light blue armor spell, but the spell was not completely destroyed by the sword that chopped down on the armor, and still retained its basic effectiveness.
The explosion just now was obviously quite loud, but there was nothing that could be done about it. The power of the blasting spell alchemical bomb developed by the Weasley twins was actually much lower than that of the original blasting spell. If the effect continued to weaken, there would be no way to launch an effective attack.
In other words, Hermione successfully threw the bomb into the interior of the armor. Of course, this kind of magic armor does not have any strong defense inside. If it is just thrown at it casually and the bomb explodes outside, it will basically not cause any effective damage to this kind of armor with amazing defense.
Moreover, the noise had actually been greatly reduced by the slowing and anti-shock spell Hermione had cast on the armor in advance. Otherwise, the noise would have been louder and attracted more people's attention.
Soon the remaining two suits of armor did not remain silent for long before they launched a new round of attacks.
But the strength of such attack is much lower than that of the three sets of armor just now. Hermione is certainly not as proficient in advanced spells and dark magic as John, but her advantage lies in her extremely solid learning of basic spells .
With the Hogwarts carriage already carrying danger and everyone squeezing their spare time to study desperately, Hermione can be called the undisputed queen of papers.
Even though she had studied for one and a half years less, she managed to catch up with the normal fourth-grade students on the carriage through her own efforts, and even ranked among the top.
It's just that Hermione's performance in the carriage was rather low-key, and she was not very active in class. In addition, due to her displacement in the past few years, she had not taken any serious exams in the carriage, which gave many people the illusion that she was not that outstanding .
Freezing spell, binding spell, slowing spell, transformation spell...
Hermione was very clear that the direction of her attack was to try to limit the movements of the two sets of armor. After she blew up one set of armor and relieved her defensive pressure, she didn't need to have any offensive pressure for the rest. She just had to drag it out until the shorthand quill pen completely copied the magic runes on the desk.
Things went smoothly after that.
The two suits of armor didn't even touch the corner of Hermione's robe, and the Aurors' movements were obviously much slower than she had expected. It took them about two minutes to get from the second floor to the third floor.
Because they only heard the noise coming from the upper floors of the castle, but could not accurately know which room on which floor the sound came from, so it was extremely time-consuming to check each floor one by one.
After the tip of the shorthand quill completely stopped and lay quietly on the parchment where the ink had not yet completely dried, Hermione did not stop at all. She immediately dodged the axe raised by the armor again, and then grabbed the parchment on the desk.
"Fox."
Fawkes was always reliable, and when Hermione called out his name, he began to glow with golden and red light.
The flash of golden light illuminated the window of the principal's office, and Li Biran, who had been staring at the window on the seventh floor, could see it.
"Alright, alright, Hermione's signal has arrived. Her mission in the castle is over. Come on, we need to get back to the carriage!"
Li immediately gave up the intention of pretending with Jon, and Jon knew very well that the moment they started pretending was the countdown to the truth being revealed.
So Jon did not hesitate. After hearing Li's words, he immediately stood up from the bench. The two of them did not stop and walked quickly towards the exit of the garden near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Little Batty is not a fool. There is no need to doubt John's gender. In addition, they are now in a hurry to leave. Even if he is really a fool, he knows what is wrong at this time.
"Tell me, is it possible that your plan failed from the beginning, and they have been pretending to us all along?"
Snape's words were full of sarcasm. He didn't seem to have much empathy for Barty Jr.'s failure. Originally, he was just playing a supporting role in this plan. He had done what he was supposed to do as Voldemort's second-in-command and considered that he had fulfilled his duties. Regardless of whether this matter succeeded or failed, the biggest beneficiary and person responsible was only Barty Jr.
Little Barty's face turned pale, and he had obviously thought of this.
"Why are you gloating? Have you ever thought about why they are putting on such a show for us? To attract our attention, there must be something wrong in the castle!"
"No matter what the problem is, isn't it all due to your arrogance, Mr. Crouch?" Snape said contemptuously, "I just did what I should do. Of course, all the consequences are borne by you alone."
Little Barty knew this of course, but he didn't know that at this time he had already pulled out his wand from his sleeve, staring at Jon and Lee's backs as he stood up from the shadows.
"Since they are using themselves as bait, even if there is no poison, why can't we just do it and keep them here?"
The sneer on Snape's face remained unchanged.
"If you could have thought of this five minutes in advance, maybe there would still be a chance, but now, look ahead carefully, do you think you still have a chance?"
Only then did Little Barty look in the direction Snape had pointed. At the end of the garden path, there suddenly appeared an old man with crescent-shaped glasses, a dark purple robe, and gray hair and beard standing there.
He was right next to the street lamp, in the shadow where the light didn't reach. Jon and Li Ming also saw him. They shouted "Professor Dumbledore" loudly, and then walked quickly towards the old man.
Dumbledore still had that gentle smile on his face. He seemed to be looking at John and the others, but it also seemed as if his eyes were looking past them and into the eyes of little Barty.
Little Barty's expression became even uglier, gloomier than ever before, but at the same time, he rationally put down the half-raised wand in his hand, and without saying a word, turned around and walked towards the castle.
Snape did not leave with Barty Jr. He stayed where he was and looked deeply at Dumbledore. There seemed to be a lot of things mixed in their eyes. Then he turned around and returned to Hogwarts Castle.
After seeing Dumbledore, John's slightly nervous mood completely relaxed.
"Hermione has gone back yet, Professor?"
Dumbledore walked beside them, and the three of them walked side by side back in the direction of the carriage.
"Of course, I came over as soon as she got back to the carriage. I'll take a walk while picking you up. To be honest, they've decorated this place really well."
His tone was very relaxed, and he didn't mention the encounter he had just had with Barty Jr. and Snape.
"By the way, Jon, I left you a secret Christmas present. I think you will like it very much. Lee ate a big piece of it before he came to see you."
"Please spare me, Professor. I can't bear to think of putting that thing in my mouth. If that's the case, you might as well let me fight some Death Eater in a one-on-one duel."
"If you don't try it, you will really regret it, Jon! It's really a rare delicacy!"
"Thanks to you, I have already indirectly felt the power of that thing from you just now. I'd better let you enjoy this delicacy alone."
The figures of the three people gradually disappeared under the light and shadow, and finally only Dumbledore's happy laughter came from the direction of the Hogwarts carriage.
…
At midnight, in the headmaster's office, Dumbledore looked at the magic text on his desk that Hermione had brought from the castle.
"He's actually done it."
Slytherin's voice came from the wall. He had obviously read the contents of the parchment.
Dumbledore didn't look up. This magic rune actually revealed a lot of things.
"Putting aside the question of whether he has finished it or not, what I'm wondering is that Hermione's actions of entering the headmaster's office were so obvious, did he really not notice anything?"
His fingers tapped lightly on the surface of his desk.
"I don't believe he really didn't notice anything. Hermione said there was a snake guarding that office, and there were many portraits and three suits of armor. It seemed that the arrangements were very complete, but in fact, there was no need to be so troublesome. If he really cared about that office, he could have let one or two house-elves in the castle stay there permanently, and report to him immediately if there were any signs of anyone breaking in. No one would have any idea about that place."
Dumbledore's words made the headmaster portraits on the entire wall look at each other in confusion. They were obviously a little confused about Dumbledore's speculation.
"But if he doesn't care about the office, then why all these preparations? Aren't they all meaningless?" Dai Lisi asked.
There was silence in the headmaster's office for a few seconds, and then Dumbledore suddenly spoke.
"Is it possible that he did this on purpose, that he was deliberately giving us the illusion that he actually attached great importance to that office, but was actually covering up something else?"
"But he's almost done, isn't he?" Phoenix shouted. "You and Slytherin have both verified the rune and confirmed that if he really follows the progress on the rune, he will have already completed control of the castle. So what's the point of him making such a demonstration? Is he deliberately deceiving us for fun?"
His words sparked debate among many principals. Each of them seemed to have his own opinion, but in the end no one could come to a conclusion.
Finally, it was Dumbledore who stopped their quarrel and said in a deep voice.
"In fact, regarding Riddle's doubts, we only have two most critical questions now. That is, why he must start this Triwizard Tournament, and what exactly he wants to do by seizing this castle."
"Our demands are also very simple. First, we want to take back the castle intact, rather than just obtaining nominal ownership through a blood oath. Second, we want to win the Triwizard Tournament and establish our foundation in France."
"First and foremost, we must satisfy our own demands. I trust Jon in the Triwizard Tournament. With him participating, there is no need for other people to interfere too much. So what we have to do now is to completely take back this castle that has been torn into pieces by Riddle. This is also the reason why I decisively agreed to hold the Triwizard Tournament from the beginning."
Dumbledore turned and looked at the headmasters on the wall.
"I think you all know better than me that this castle may not be worth mentioning to Riddle. It is just a sign to show his rule in Britain, but it is the root of everything for us."
In response to this, the headmasters in the portraits all nodded solemnly, agreeing with what Dumbledore said.
Then, Slytherin's voice rang out.
"It is not a difficult task for us to completely recapture the castle. This is because the castle has never succumbed to Riddle from the beginning. It has always belonged to us. All we have to do is to remove all the influences that are now imposed on it, and then Hogwarts can return to its original Hogwarts Castle."
Dumbledore's eyes became deep, as if he was thinking about something.
"If it were just this, it wouldn't be difficult for us, but we must first ensure that we don't allow him to exert any further influence on this castle. Otherwise, I always feel that that would be a consequence that no one would be able to bear..."
