harry potter book of crimes

In the darkness, a figure kept moving back and forth in the Potions Professor's office, seeming to be rummaging for something.

Although the other party paid great attention to it, after all, time was tight, and Snape's potion storage cabinet and material box were still messed up.

"What are you looking for? Polyjuice Potion?"

A voice suddenly sounded from behind the desk behind the man, making him tremble in fright.

"Avada Kedavra!"

With a "crash" sound, a teacup was hit by the green light and suddenly turned into a cloud of powder in mid-air. Behind the desk, a white hand waved casually, slightly dispersing the powder mist.

.

"Barty Crouch Jr., right?" the voice sounded again, calmly with a hint of laziness, "Why, why didn't you come to me when you got to Hogwarts? What are you hiding?"

"Maka McClain..."

There were no lights in the room, and the two of them were hidden in the darkness, and they couldn't even see their faces clearly.

"Hmph..." Little Barty smiled evilly, but held the wand in his hand tighter, "As expected of the wizard that the Dark Lord often mentioned... Even Dumbledore didn't notice me, but you did

Being able to stay here accurately..."

"Stop talking nonsense, are you ready?" Maka said in an impatient tone, "The Dark Lord should have told you the plan, but look, the first competition event has passed

...If I don’t come to you, are you planning to carry it out alone?”

"This is also what the Dark Lord meant... Haha..." Little Barty grinned and stretched out his tongue like a snake, "This plan is very important to the Dark Lord, and nothing can happen.

Mistake...do you understand?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?"

In the dark environment, a sharp invisible blade suddenly passed by Barty Crouch Jr.'s ear. He was startled at first, shrank his head and touched his auricle, feeling a belated tingling sensation.

Then it spread all of a sudden.

"You-" He lowered his voice and let out an angry roar.

"I think I have to warn you first... If you dare to delay my plan, I will let you experience the soul magic that is more terrifying than the Cruciatus Curse."

Before he finished speaking, a black fog skull rushed towards Barty Crouch Jr. at extremely fast speeds.

He couldn't understand why he could clearly "see" the same black skull in the dark. He only knew that the skull was moving at an alarming speed and appeared so suddenly that he had no time to avoid it.

Immediately afterwards, he felt his vision blurred for a while, and then there was a pain in his body that drove him almost crazy.

The feeling was very similar to the pain when being punished by one's master with the Cruciatus Curse, but what was different from the Cruciatus Curse was that this pain came very quickly, as if the power of the Cruciatus Curse had been maximized all at once.

He could even feel that his soul was being pushed out of the body bit by bit by the black skull...

"Isn't this magic fascinating?"

Maka waved her magic wand, and the skull turned into black mist and dispersed again. He was still sitting on the armchair behind his desk, and said in a calm tone: "It's not like the Cruciatus Curse, which will cause permanent soul damage over time."

——As long as I control the intensity, it can continue until my magic power is exhausted."

"How about it? Isn't it cool?" He paused and said to himself, "Anyway, I think it's cool..."

Little Barty had no energy to speak anymore. He was half-kneeling on the cold floor, breathing heavily, but he was extremely conscious.

"Polyjuice is at the bottom of the penultimate cabinet, the biggest bottle..." Maka said suddenly, "Keep what needs to be left behind, take away what needs to be taken away, and then return it where it came from.

go."

"……I see."

Little Barty said weakly, and honestly picked up a potion bottle from the cabinet, then took out an envelope from his arms and carefully placed it on the desk.

"Then I'll leave first..."

Maka didn't say anything, and little Barty didn't care - now he just wanted to leave here as quickly as possible, away from this guy who was as scary as the Dark Lord in front of him.

"correct……"

Little Barty's whole body froze suddenly, and he froze in place with his mouth half open.

"Don't stick your tongue out in front of me from now on," Maka's voice was lazier than before, but what he said sent a chill down Barty's back, "If you stick it out one more time, I'll

You will never be able to open your mouth for the rest of your life."

"……yes."

He quickly shut his mouth and left the office as if running away.

But little Barty didn't know that at the moment he closed the door, another person walked out gently from the inner room of the office.

"Are you really planning to cooperate with the mysterious man now?" A smooth and frivolous voice suddenly sounded.

"What I just did is what you are going to do." Maka did not look back, he just spread his hands and said casually, "To be honest, I thought you would not respond to my invitation. After all, you know

, Hogwarts is very dangerous these days.”

"I am more courageous now than before." The man smiled, "Besides, it is a rare opportunity to show off my skills, and I don't want to miss it!"

"I'm still wondering if you've had such a good time in the Muggle world that you don't want to return to the magical world..." Maka said easily, "I heard that you are now a Muggle."

Sir Melon—this is rare among wizards."

"I can't hang out with Muggles all the time. It's too boring..." He looked very proud and said in a brisk tone, "I took advantage of this period of time to practice my magic skills. Now, I am

A thrilling adventure full of dangers is needed!”

"Then it's up to you," Maka nodded, "leaving aside your magic level, at least I can trust your acting skills... Take this, before the second event of the Triwizard Competition begins,

Let’s get used to it first!”

"how about you?"

Maka didn't say anything more, because there seemed to be some movement outside - the sound was a bit far away from here, but it was very obvious in the silent night.

"You go first! Professor Snape will be back soon..." He waved his hand and said, "I have prepared the script for you. You only need to perform your play well then, and the script will be yours."

is you."

"no problem!"

The man patted his chest, opened the door and left quickly.

On the other side, on a certain staircase where the noise had just been made, Filch was shouting angrily.

"What are you doing with all the noise here? Do you want to wake up everyone in the castle? I must catch you, Peeves, I must catch you, you... Hey, what is this?"

Filch stopped.

There was only a soft "click" sound, which was the sound of mechanisms snapping together - Filch picked up a box and closed it.

"The box?" Filch whispered from the bottom of the stairs, "My precious cat! This is a clue to the Triwizard Tournament! A warrior who belongs to the school...whose is it?"

"Peeves!" Filch shouted happily, "You stole something!"

His terrifying, flabby face and bulging light-colored eyes were staring upward. It was a dark, deserted staircase.

"Hiding, right?" He whispered, "I'm going to catch you, Peeves... You actually stole the clues to the Triwizard Tournament, Peeves... Dumbledore will never take it lightly this time.

Spare you, you dirty, sneaky, mischievous wild ghost..."

Filch began to climb the stairs, followed by his scrawny, dull gray cat.

That was Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat - she was very intelligent and was staring straight ahead of Filch, as if she had discovered something.

"Filch? What happened?"

Filch stopped and turned around.

There was a person standing at the bottom of the stairs... It was Snape. He was currently wearing a gray shirt-style pajamas, but on his feet he was still wearing a pair of muddy boots.

It's just that the trousers of his pajamas seem to be too long, making it difficult for people to see clearly what shoes he is wearing.

"It's Peeves, Professor," Filch whispered viciously, "and he threw the box down the stairs."

Snape hurried upstairs and stopped beside Filch.

"Peeves?" Snape said softly, staring at the box in Filch's hand, "This is Potter's..."

He said, squinting his eyes and looking around sharply, with a trace of hesitation on his face.

"Professor, what brings you here?"

"Of course not," Snape said sharply, "I just heard a banging noise and screams -"

"Yes, Professor, that was the sound of the box falling -"

"I'll just come over and investigate—"

"—thrown it by Peeves, Professor!"

Filch kept talking, which made Snape click his tongue impatiently.

"Okay..." he said unhappily, "I have to go to the office, you can keep looking, if-"

Kick, kick, kick...

An unpleasant knocking sound on wood made Snape stop abruptly.

Both he and Filch looked down at the bottom of the stairs. Not long after, Mad-Eye Moody appeared limping. Moody was wearing his old traveling cloak over his shirt-style pajamas, leaning on his hand as usual.

Wearing a cane.

"Slumber party, huh?" he said gruffly toward the top of the stairs.

"Professor Snape and I heard some noises, Professor," Filch said immediately, "and it was Peeves, the prankster, throwing things around as usual -"

Moody took another step towards the stairs, his magical eye glanced at Snape, and then, without a doubt, landed on a certain position beside the stairs.

Suddenly, his incomplete eyebrows jumped slightly.