Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 390 Lost Contact
Inside Hogwarts Castle, the dance in the hall is still going on.
But after Jon and Lee seduced Barty Jr. and Snape to leave the castle, the carriages and Durmstrang students who were originally attending the ball had already left early under the leadership of Rosier.
Lucius also received reports from his men about unusual movements in the upper levels of the castle, but he did not take the matter too seriously. He just sent a team of Aurors to check the detention room where Selwyn was imprisoned, thinking that the young lady was having a bad temper.
However, when little Barty returned to the auditorium and found him with a grim look on his face, Lucius felt something was wrong.
"Send someone back to the Ministry of Magic immediately and notify the Death Eaters who remain in the Ministry to come to Hogwarts to meet up immediately! Then seal the entrance and exit of the Great Hall for me, but do not disturb the students, referees and newspaper reporters here. Tell them that routine inspections are ongoing in the castle and they are required to cooperate and stay here. Send out all other Aurors to search the entire castle and report any abnormalities immediately!"
Snape stood calmly beside Barty Jr., and when he gave orders, he acted indifferent, as if he was an irrelevant person.
After hearing Barty Jr.'s order, Lucius first turned his head to look at Snape, and when he found that the vice-headmaster, who had always been at odds with Barty Jr., did not say anything, he did not stay and arranged for his Aurors to carry out the arrangements according to his words.
After giving Lucius the order, Barty Jr. turned to look at Snape again and lowered his voice.
"This matter must be reported to the master, and I will bear all the consequences."
Snape just glanced at him calmly.
"You don't need to emphasize this to me. Whether you admit it or not, you should bear the consequences yourself. And why did you tell me specifically about notifying the master? You could have done it yourself."
Little Barty pursed his lips tightly. It was obvious that Snape's words were like adding fuel to his already burning anger.
"Don't play dumb with me at this time! I can't contact the master at all! After the first project was over, I reported my plan to him, and I never received any instructions from him again."
Hearing him say this, Snape frowned slightly and looked deeply at little Barty.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure that during this period I tried to contact the master twice, but I didn't receive any response. I thought the master was dealing with something else important and had no time to communicate with me!"
Snape did not continue to say anything sarcastic. He obviously noticed the big problem involved.
"Come with me."
After he left these words, Barty Jr. did not hesitate and left Lucius to organize the Aurors to make arrangements for the entire castle, while he followed Snape to his office.
Snape selected a book with a black cover and no markings on it from the bookshelf, then spread it out on the desk, sprinkled some Floo powder on the pages, and finally tapped the book with his wand.
The next moment, the Floo powder on the pages of the book ignited with green flames. The flame was not strong, just like a small flame burning on a candle.
However, nothing . The green light reflected on the faces of Snape and Little Barty, making their expressions look so ugly.
"The master has lost contact with us."
Barty Jr.'s voice was trembling. He rarely showed such emotions, especially in front of Snape.
Snape didn't say anything. He just stared at the pale green flames quietly. His already pale face looked even paler.
"When was the first time you couldn't contact your master?"
“The second week of October.”
"It's been almost two months now. You've contacted me twice, and this is my first time. It's definitely not a coincidence that I haven't been able to contact you in three times in total."
After Snape finished speaking, the office fell into deathly silence.
After a long while, Little Batty spoke again in his terrifyingly calm voice.
"This matter must never be known to anyone else."
Snape didn't say anything. He still looked at the green fire and just nodded heavily.
In the castle, Little Barty's arrangements were quickly implemented.
Voldemort gave him and Snape great power, which previously also included the Lestrange couple. But now that the Lestrange couple were killed in public by John, the two of them are second to none in the entire British wizarding world.
After the Death Eaters who stayed in the Ministry of Magic arrived at the castle, they naturally took over the job of commanding the Aurors. Each Death Eater led a team of Aurors to conduct a carpet search of the entire castle.
The students who were still partying in the auditorium had not noticed anything wrong. It was still early and no one wanted to go back to the dormitory for the time being. After staying in the auditorium for long enough, they went to the garden in pairs. The Aurors did not stop them from doing so.
Thanks to having enough manpower, in about an hour, the Death Eaters and the Aurors had searched all the places that could be searched in the castle, but none of them found anything unusual.
After coming out of the vice-headmaster's office, Barty Jr. and Snape, who had been staying in front of the castle lobby, soon received the news.
Little Batty's face did not look as ugly as when he just returned to the auditorium. Instead, he showed enough calmness at this time.
"Are you sure all locations in the castle have been searched?"
"There's only one place we know of that we haven't entered yet." Lucius said, staring into Little Barty's eyes.
Even if he didn't say directly where it was, Barty Jr. and Snape both knew where the Death Eaters and Aurors knew but dared not search.
Snape stood up at this time and looked at Lucius with a cold face.
"The master left me this power. I will take you to the principal's office."
Lucius frowned.
"I have never heard of this. Besides, even if you really have the power, don't we need to report to the master before making a decision?"
At this time, Barty Jr. showed sufficient tacit understanding with Snape.
"You don't have to doubt his words. I can prove this. And the master is doing something very important right now. He has warned us that no one can disturb him."
Voldemort divided most of his power equally between Snape and Barty Jr. for this kind of situation.
If everything went smoothly, Barty Jr. would definitely target Snape, who was clearly of half-blood origin but occupied a high position, and compete with him for power.
But if a special situation arises, Barty's loyalty to him will definitely make him abandon all previous disputes with Snape and unite to deal with the situation.
And in the absence of Voldemort himself, as long as Barty Jr. and Snape's voices were unified, even if Minister of Magic Fudge was present, his words would not be as effective as theirs.
Therefore, after hearing Barty Jr. support Snape, Lucius had no objection.
They brought a group of people to the door of the principal's office on the seventh floor, and then Snape pushed open the door in front of everyone.
There were broken and damaged portraits everywhere, a giant snake corpse lying in a pool of blood with a hole in its head, armor fragments scattered all over the ground, and two sets of magic armor guarding both sides of the desk!
Anyone who sees this scene will know what has happened in this office.
Snape took the lead and stepped into the headmaster's office. He came to Nagini's body and gently touched some scarlet snake blood with his fingers.
"He died not long ago, at most two hours ago."
As he said this, his eyes were looking at Little Batty, and they both knew very well what they were paying attention to two hours ago.
Little Barty avoided Snape's gaze. He came to the desk and looked at the four relics placed on it and the table covered with magic runes that could not be noticed without paying attention.
Soon he made a discovery in the grooves of the magic runes.
Those were a few drops of dark green ink, left behind when the sword, shield and armor hit the sword of Gryffindor when the shorthand quill was copying the runes.
Seeing these traces of ink and looking at the magic runes on the table, little Batty easily thought of some things.
But he did not speak of these findings, but turned to look at the broken portraits around him.
"Put these portraits back together for me right away, and then find their portraits in other locations to see if you can find anything."
Soon an Auror carried out his orders and returned to the Ministry of Magic with the shattered portraits to try to repair them and find a job.
At this time, a Death Eater finally raised an objection.
"In this situation, should we report what happened here to the master first?"
It was the first time for them to enter the headmaster's office, so no one knew what it looked like before it was destroyed, and no one knew if anything precious had been stolen, so someone suggested that the best option was to report to Voldemort first.
But Little Batty just said it lightly.
"The master is doing something that he cannot be distracted from. Even if there is an accident like this in the principal's office, we cannot disturb him."
Snape, the only one who could question his remarks, did not speak, so the others wisely chose to believe it.
At this time, Lucius continued to ask new questions.
"So how do we track down the murderer now?"
"There's no need to track down the murderer. The only person who has the opportunity, the ability, and the idea to enter the principal's office for this matter is right here in this school!"
