Upon hearing the question raised by Snape, Barty Jr. was stunned for a moment, and then whispered with a gloomy face.
"Do you think my previous investigations into him in the orphanage were all in vain? Doesn't his biological father know whether it was a man or a woman who abandoned him?"
Of course what Barty Jr. said makes sense. Snape just put forward a hypothesis, and he did not confirm the matter.
"So since there is no problem with you, there is no problem with my medicine, and Jon Green's gender can be fully confirmed, what is the problem now?"
His question once again caused the atmosphere to fall into silence for a while. After a long time, the two people suddenly raised their heads and looked at each other, as if they had thought of some possibility together.
...
The huge explosion caused the armor holding the sword in one hand to shatter on the spot. The magic that maintained the movement of the dead creature could no longer be maintained. The knight's sword fell to the ground, and the pieced together body of the armor was also scattered on the ground.
Only the torn glove was still moving its fingers slightly without stiffness, but this alone no longer posed a big threat to Hermione.
The other two armors seemed to be shocked by Hermione's atrocities. They held their weapons and stopped charging, but just stood facing her.
Hermione's breathing became obviously faster, and the bun on her head was also washed away by the aftermath of the explosion, and her long chestnut hair was spread out behind her.
Tiny cracks like spider webs have appeared on the light blue iron armor spell, but the spell was not completely destroyed by the sword that struck the armor, and it still retains its basic effectiveness.
The explosion just now was obviously loud, but there was nothing that could be done about it. The power of the alchemical bomb developed by the Weasley twins was already much less powerful than the original blasting spell. If the effect continued to be weakened, there would be no impact.
There is no way to carry out an effective attack.
That is to say, Hermione successfully threw the bomb into the inside of the armor. Of course, this kind of magic armor does not have a strong defense against the inside. If you just throw it at will and let the bomb explode outside, it will basically not deal with it.
What kind of effective damage does this amazingly defensive armor cause?
Moreover, the sound of such movement has actually been reduced a lot by the deceleration and anti-shock spell that Hermione released on the armor in advance, otherwise the sound would be louder and attract more people's attention.
Soon the remaining two pairs of armor did not remain silent for long, and they launched a new round of attack.
But this kind of attack strength is much lower than the three armors just now. Hermione is certainly not as good as Jon in mastering advanced spells and black magic, but her advantage lies in her extremely solid knowledge of basic spells.
In a situation like the Hogwarts carriage, which is already accompanied by danger and everyone is compressing their spare time and studying hard, Hermione can be regarded as a well-deserved king of papers.
Even though she missed a year and a half of study, she still managed to catch up with the normal pace of fourth grade students on the carriage through her own efforts, and was even among the best among them.
It's just that Hermione's performance on the carriage is relatively low-key, and she has no active performance in the classroom. In addition, due to the displacement in the past few years, she has not taken any serious examinations on the carriage, which has left many people with her.
Hermione was very clear that the direction of her attack was to limit the movements of these two pieces of armor as much as possible. After blowing up one piece of armor to relieve her defensive pressure, she did not need to put any offensive pressure on the rest, as long as she delayed it until
Just use the shorthand quill to completely copy the magic text on the desk.
Things went smoothly after that.
The two pieces of armor didn't even touch a corner of Hermione's robe, and the movements of the Aurors were obviously much slower than she had expected. They had just arrived from the second floor to the third floor in about two minutes.
.
Because they only heard the sound coming from the upper floors of the castle, but could not accurately know which room on which floor the sound was coming from, so it was extremely time-consuming to investigate layer by layer.
After the shorthand quill completely stopped and lay quietly on the parchment that the ink had not completely dried, Hermione did not stop for a moment. She immediately dodged the ax raised by the armor again, and then grabbed it
Lived the parchment on the desk.
"Fox."
Fawkes is always reliable, and when Hermione calls out his name, he flashes a golden-red light.
The flash of golden light illuminated the windowpane of the principal's office, and Li Bing, who had been staring at the window on the seventh floor, could see it.
"Okay, okay, Hermione's signal has arrived. Her mission in the castle is over. Come on, we are going back to the carriage!"
Li immediately had no intention of pretending with Jon anymore, and Jon knew very well that the moment they started pretending, it would be a countdown to the truth being revealed.
Therefore, Jon did not hesitate. After hearing Li's words, he immediately stood up from the bench. The two of them stopped staying and quickly left in the direction of the exit of the garden near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Little Barty is not a fool. There is no need to doubt Jon's gender at all, and coupled with their hurried preparations to leave, even if he is really a fool, he will know what is wrong at this time.
"Tell me, is it possible that your plan actually failed from the beginning, and they are now pretending to us from beginning to end?"
Snape's words were full of ridicule. He didn't seem to have much empathy for Barty Jr.'s failure. Originally, he only played a supporting role in this plan, doing everything he should do as Voldemort's second-in-command.
Even if you have done your duty, no matter whether it succeeds or fails, the biggest beneficiary and responsible person is only Barty Jr.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Little Barty's face was ashen, and he had obviously thought of this.
"Why are you gloating? Have you never thought about why they want to play such a show with us? To attract our attention, there must be something wrong in the castle!"
"No matter what kind of problems arise, aren't they all due to your arrogance, Mr. Crouch?" Snape said contemptuously, "I just did what I should do, and all the consequences are of course caused by
You bear it alone."
Of course little Barty knew this, but he didn't know that at this moment he had already pulled out the wand from his sleeve, stared at the backs of Jon and Lee, and stood up from the shadows.
"Since they use themselves as bait, even if there is no poison, why can't we just keep them here?"
The sarcasm on Snape's face remained unabated.
"If you could have thought of this five minutes in advance, it might still be possible, but now, if you look ahead carefully, do you think you still have a chance?"
Only then did little Barty look in the direction indicated by Snape. At the end of the garden path, there was an old man with crescent-shaped glasses and a dark purple robe with gray hair and beard standing there.
.
He was right next to the street lamp, in the shadow that was not illuminated by the light. Jon and Lee obviously saw him. They shouted to Professor Dumbledore and then walked quickly towards the old man.
Dumbledore still had that gentle smile on his face. He seemed to be looking at Jon and the others, and he seemed to be looking across them and looking directly at Barty.
Little Barty's face became more and more ugly, it was gloomier than ever before, but at the same time, he rationally put down the half-raised wand in his hand, and then without saying a word, he turned around and walked towards the castle.
Snape did not leave with Barty Jr. He stayed where he was and looked deeply at Dumbledore. Their eyes seemed to be filled with many things, and then he turned around and returned to Hogg.
Watts Castle.
After Jon saw Dumbledore, he was slightly nervous and completely relaxed.
"Has Hermione gone back yet? Professor."
Dumbledore walked beside them, and the three of them returned side by side in the direction of the carriage.
"Of course, I came over as soon as she returned to the carriage. I picked you up and took a walk at the same time. To be honest, they have decorated this place really well."
His tone was very relaxed, and he did not mention the scene where he had just met Barty Jr. and Snape.
"By the way, Jon, I also left you a secret Christmas gift. I think you will like it very much. Li ate a big piece before coming to you."
"Please forgive me, Professor, I really can't bear the thought of stuffing that thing into my mouth. If you really want to do this, why don't you let me have a one-on-one fight with some Death Eater?"
"You'll really regret it if you don't try it, Jon! It's really a rare delicacy!"
"Thanks to you, I have indirectly felt the power of that thing from you just now. I'd better leave this delicious food to you 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 principal'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 on the parchment.
Dumbledore didn't look up. This magic text could actually reveal a lot of things.
"Leaving aside the issue of whether he can finish it or not, what I'm thinking is, Hermione's move into the principal's office was so obvious, did he really not notice it at all?"
His fingers tapped lightly on the desk surface.
"I don't believe he really didn't notice it at all. Hermione said that there was a snake guarding that office, many portraits and three pairs of armor. It seemed that these arrangements were perfect, but in fact it didn't have to be so troublesome at all. If he really
If you care about that office, you can have one or two house elves from the castle permanently stationed there, and report to him immediately if there are any signs of intrusion, then no one will have any idea about it."
Dumbledore's words made the portraits of the principals on the entire wall look at each other. They were obviously confused about Dumbledore's speculation.
"But if he doesn't care about the office, then why are he making these preparations? Aren't these completely meaningless?" Dai Lisi asked.
The principal's office was quiet for a few seconds before Dumbledore suddenly said.
"Is it possible that he deliberately gave us the illusion that he actually valued that office, but was actually covering up other things?"
"But he's almost finished, isn't he?" Phoenix shouted, "Both you and Slytherin have appraised the magic text and determined that if he really follows the progress on the magic text, he has actually completed it.
If he has no control over this castle, then what’s the point of him making such a demonstration? Is it fun to deliberately deceive us?”
His words triggered a debate among many principals. Each of them seemed to have their own opinion, but in the end no one could tell the reason.
In the end, Dumbledore stopped their quarrel and said in a deep voice.
"Actually, there are only two most critical questions we have about Riddle right now, and that is why he must start the Triwizard Tournament, and then what exactly he wants to do to seize this castle."
"Our own demands are also very simple. First, we want to get the castle back in its entirety, not just obtain the nominal ownership rights through blood oaths. Second, we want to win the Triwizard Tournament and determine our foundation in France.
Foundation.”
"The first and most important thing is to satisfy our own demands first. I believe in Jon when it comes to 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 how to make it complete.
Bringing back this castle that has been riddled with holes by Riddle, this is also the purpose of my decisive promise to him to hold the Triwizard Tournament from the beginning."
Dumbledore turned and looked at the group of headmasters on the wall.
"I think you all know better than I do that this castle may not be worth mentioning at all to Riddle. It is just a sign to highlight his rule in Britain, but to us it is the source of everything."
In response, the principals in the portraits all nodded solemnly, fully agreeing with Dumbledore's words.
Then, Slytherin's voice sounded.
"Retaking the castle completely is actually not a problem for us. Because this castle has never succumbed to Riddle from the beginning. It originally belonged to us, and all we have to do is to take away what is being imposed on it now.
If all the influences are eliminated, Hogwarts can be transformed back into the original Hogwarts Castle."
Dumbledore's eyes became darker, as if he was thinking about something.
"Of course it won't be difficult for us if it's just like this, but the first thing we have to ensure is that we can't let him exert any further influence on this castle. Otherwise, I always feel that it is something that no one can bear.