Chapter 248 Future Plans
Let’s not mention the story of Harry’s trio for now.
Old Barty left the campus hospital at midnight. At this time, Hogwarts Castle was under curfew, and no one was seen. Little Barty, the only one who had mastered the Marauder's Map, had also relaxed his vigilance and been injured. Because he fell asleep, no one discovered the whereabouts of old Batty.
The next difficulty is how to get in touch with the young Malfoy. He was also a member of Slytherin House. He knew the location of the Slytherin common room, but he couldn't get in without the password. If he mistakenly touched some warning magic and attracted the professors, it would be more costly than gain.
There was no hesitation in his eyes, but a shrewd look flashed from time to time.
Since the young Malfoy had planned to restore his memory at 12 midnight, he would not have failed to think of this.
"Can this be... a test of my ability?" This ridiculous thought flashed through old Batty's mind, as if he suddenly became a young man who had just entered society, and Schelling was a newbie. The scheming old guy asked, "If I couldn't even think of this, wouldn't my own value be significantly reduced in Malfoy's eyes?" Thinking of this, the mood of old Barty, who is used to seeing wind and rain, was like that. , and couldn't help but feel a chill.
Old Barty calmed down and silently came to the entrance of the Slytherin common room.
Sure enough, he had just arrived about ten steps away from the entrance, and the stone wall at the entrance to the Slytherin common room automatically opened from the inside.
The person standing at the door was none other than the platinum-haired boy, Sherlyn Malfoy. There was a calm and peaceful smile on his face, as if he had anticipated Old Batty's arrival.
Xie Lin naturally knew the purpose of Old Batty's visit.
The new memory that suddenly popped up in Old Barty's mind was his masterpiece. Not only that, he also used the absolute dominance to rewrite Old Barty's inner personality, and brought his ambitions and desires that had been deeply buried in the past to the extreme of family love. The impact of disappointment was dug out again and sprouted.
In fact, part of what Ron deduced last night was correct. Although Xie Lin did not direct or act the attacker, Xie Lin caused so much trouble. Naturally, it was not because he was full and had nothing to do. , his goal is just as Ron speculated——
It's Barty Crouch Sr.
Old Batty is a man who is resourceful, ambitious, capable, courageous, shrewd and courageous in making decisions. He is a useful talent. Judging from his ability to resist the Imperius Curse planted by Voldemort himself, as well as the Oblivion Curse he cast on Bertha Jorkins, his magic level is not low and he also has a quite strong personality. strength. This was what Xie Lin valued most about him - his talent. In comparison, his status as the head of the pure-blood family and his position as director of the International Cooperation Department were just icing on the cake.
Xie Lin looked at the alchemy watch on his wrist. After he improved this watch, many functions were added to it.
The dial of the watch originally had twelve hands and various stars rotating along the edge of the dial. Xie Lin just lightly swept his fingers across the watch mirror, and there was no sign of any magic being cast by him. The picture on the dial suddenly changed——
There are still twelve hands, but each hand is engraved with a name——
Daphne Greengrass, Maury McDougal, Astoria Greengrass, Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Susan Bones, Draco Malfoy, Lu Hughes Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Dobby, Silver Fang, Barty Crouch Jr.
The edge of the dial is no longer a variety of stars, but descriptions of different states or behaviors.
At this moment, most of the hands are pointing to the "sleeping" state, including Barty Crouch Jr. That's why Schelling looked at his watch.
After defeating and capturing Barty Jr. with a stun spell in the Forbidden Forest, Schelling first modified Barty Little's memory, and then buried the "suppression" command in his mind, which would make him feel very tired. , drowsy, and then put him back to continue to act as his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. According to Schelling's prediction, at this point in time, the instructions in Barty's mind should have been activated, and logically speaking, he should have fallen into a deep sleep.
But Schelling, who was cautious by nature, never did anything he was unsure of. He knew that little Barty had the Marauder's Map, and most of the secret passages in Hogwarts, including the secret passages on the fifth floor, could not be hidden from him. So he had to make sure that little Barty was really asleep at this moment.
Almost all the pointers were pointing as he expected, which made him feel relieved. There were only two people who exceeded his expectations and surprised him——
Luna and Susan's pointers were pointing at the item "Practice Magic." Are you still practicing magic after 12 midnight? What an effort!
Regardless of why Luna and Susan are working so hard, let's focus on the meeting between Schelling and Old Barty!
Xie Lin put his finger on his lips and made a silent gesture. Although all the humans in Hogwarts had fallen asleep, it did not mean that the meeting between the two of them was absolutely secret. The portraits, statues, armor, and ghosts in the castle may all become Dumbledore's spies.
Xie Lin first cast an invisible phantom spell and a silent spell on the two of them, and then quietly directed Old Barty and him to slowly walk towards the secret mirror passage on the fifth floor. The two walked through the mirror and walked all the way to the secret room on the underground floor of the Miracle Alchemy Workshop, and then unlocked the invisibility magic.
"Sir, have you made up your mind?" Xie Ling sacrificed his sleep time late at night, and didn't want to waste too much time here, so he went straight to the point.
Old Barty fully understood what Xie Ling meant. This was asking him whether he was willing to represent all the forces of the Crouch family, join Xie Ling's camp, and follow his lead. Since he had made a decision in the school hospital, he would not regret it at this moment. He nodded and said, "I have one condition..."
"You want me to kill your son?" Xie Ling didn't find it difficult to guess what he meant.
Old Barty frowned at first. To be honest, he was a little frightened by Xie Ling's ability to see through people's hearts. This boy really didn't look like a boy. In some ways, he was more like a dark lord who was good at manipulating people's hearts. But then he quickly relaxed his frown. The more powerful Xie Ling was, the more beneficial it would be for his bet. At this moment, he was more determined to follow Xie Ling.
"Yes," he said in a deep voice, without any emotion in his tone, as if he was not discussing killing his son, but a beast. "As long as he can be killed and my secret is wiped out from the world, I am willing to swear allegiance to you on behalf of the Crouch family and all its affiliated families, even if it means signing a magic contract."
"Okay." Sherin agreed readily, "So what are your plans now? The mysterious man is still in Crouch House, right? It's not safe for you to go back."
Old Barty thought for a moment and asked, "Is this your safe house?"
"No, this is one of my outer bases, specially used for students who follow me to gather and practice magic here, mainly for greed The location is convenient. Because of the existence of the secret passage, the forces inside and outside the school can contact each other here, but it is actually a base that can be abandoned at any time. If you want to stay here, I have to cast a shielding magic on your name to prevent others from finding you with an owl. "
Xellin thought for a while, "I do have a real safe house outside the school, and it's okay for you to hide there. The highest level of defense magic is cast there, and even the mysterious man can't find you."
What Xielin was thinking about was the Ella hut inherited from his grandmother, where he cast the most complete "Loyalty Spell". If old Barty was determined to hide there and didn't come out, no one would think of finding him.
Old Barty pondered for a while. If he was replaced by the cowardly Karkaroff at this moment, I'm afraid he would rush to agree without thinking, as if he was afraid that Xielin would suddenly regret it. However, old Barty didn't think so--
Although old Barty had lost his ambition after experiencing the pain of losing his wife. But he did not give up. From the fact that he still holds the power of the head of a department and takes his work too seriously, we can see that he still has an inseparable attachment to power and career in his heart.
When he worked at the Ministry of Magic, he was not just muddling around. Instead, he had a clear mind about everything around him. At that time, he was discouraged by the pursuit of power and just felt that all this was no longer important to him. Since it had nothing to do with him, he was too lazy to pay attention to it.
Last summer, when Sherin was awarded the Order of Merlin, the third class medal at the Wizengamot, Fudge's prestige was greatly hit by the Black prison escape incident. Fudge tried to win over Sherin to get close to the Ministry of Magic and improve the image of the Ministry of Magic in the public's eyes, just like how he was elected Minister of Magic under the banner of Dumbledore. Old Barty knew about this.
Later, Schelling took this opportunity to visit the Ministry of Magic frequently, talking with the staff of each department and asking questions. On the surface, he was learning and understanding the operation of the Ministry of Magic, but in fact, he used Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimminger as a bridge to start building connections in the Ministry of Magic, and built a close and extensive interest alliance by various means of coercion and inducement.
Fudge probably didn't know what kind of existence he had introduced to the Ministry of Magic, and was still foolishly happy there to improve his image!
On the contrary, it was old Barty who was far away from the power center and watched from the sidelines and succeeded in seeing the fire. He watched Schelling infiltrate one department after another, and several departments suddenly had small but frequent personnel changes. First, the captain of the Law Enforcement Reconnaissance Team was suddenly replaced, then the intelligence chief of the Auror Logistics Corps, and then the two directors of the Animal Division and the Alien Division of the Department of Biological Management and Control...
He knew that behind Schelling, there was not only the Malfoy family standing.
According to what he observed in the Ministry of Magic, he was more than 90% sure that the Bones, Vankanda, Osbert, Runcorn, and McLaggen families had already stood behind Schelling. This did not include those high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Magic whose families were unknown but who held real power, such as Rufus Scrimminger, Arnold Peasegood, Bernie Pearceworth, Bertie Higgs, etc.
As for the forces outside the Ministry of Magic, as the head of one of the 28 holy pure-blood families, he had his own intelligence network. Although he was not keen on hanging out with those supporters of the pure-blood supremacy faction, it did not mean that he had no intersection with them at all.
He had heard that the Greengrass and Nott families had an extraordinary relationship with Schelling. He was also sure that it was definitely not just these two families that were secretly befriending Schelling.
It can be seen that Schelling has no shortage of allies and followers. What he lacks and desires is just—
Talent.
Excellent people.
People who can do things for him.
Not just mediocre people who make up numbers for the sake of momentum.
Old Barty can be sure that if he so easily agrees to the suggestion of hiding in a safe house, then his evaluation in Schelling's heart will most likely drop by at least one rating, or it may be worse, and he will directly lose the value of being recruited by him. .