Chapter 1079 Hermione Said the Murderer

"...Yes, old Batty is fine, but the child is probably the one with the problem."

In the Leaky Cauldron, Maca and Sirius sat at a table near the wall, while Hermione and the others sat around them.

Perhaps it was because of what Hermione said today, or maybe it was because everyone's strength had really improved tremendously, Maca finally stopped doing everything without telling them.

Of course, if something is directly related to Hai Erbo, and it is even very likely to meet that guy, Maca still can't just let them participate casually.

Hearing that Maca mentioned old Barty again after sitting down with Sirius, Hermione couldn't help being a little curious about it.

"What's the problem?" She wondered, "What did Mr. Crouch do?"

When Maca heard this, he couldn't help but shrugged and said:

"No, Mr. Crouch did almost nothing. He just went to the Muggle world to adopt two orphans with nostalgia for his son and a never-ending ambition in life."

After saying such a sentence with some emotion, he turned to explain:

"As you heard in the library just now, Mr. Crouch intends to use the matter of raising Muggle children in the wizarding world to explore the way for future coexistence between Muggles and wizards...and, perhaps by the way, he can also let him My old age is not so painful."

Up to here, in fact, it is all the content that Maca talked with old Batty before. But immediately afterwards, he pointed to Sirius again, and said in a slightly serious way:

"Originally, after Mr. Crouch opened the library in Diagon Alley... No, to be precise, after Mr. Crouch came to Diagon Alley with his two children, there were several scenes here in succession. Murder case. In this regard, Sirius and the others tried to temporarily eliminate the impact of the case in order to ensure that there would be no bad rumors..."

"However, based on this, he and Lupine also guessed that the one who secretly murdered was probably Barty Crouch who suddenly came to Diagon Alley to open a shop."

Hermione nodded immediately after hearing what he said, as she had a preliminary understanding of the current situation.

It turned out that Maca brought her here to play in Diagon Alley today, but she actually had a mission. And Hermione, Ron and the other four became the best cover when testing each other.

Thinking about it this way, if she hadn't expressed her thoughts in advance today, maybe Maca would have done this matter by herself again.

After thinking about it secretly, Hermione understood:

"So, you just confirmed that the man was not killed by Mr. Crouch?"

"Yes," Maca recalled the situation at that time, and then whispered, "I didn't think he would commit a murder, after all, he didn't do many illegal things in his life... Well, except back then, when he couldn’t resist the begging of his seriously ill wife, he entered Azkaban and replaced his son Barty Jr.”

Speaking of which,

He paused slightly, then shook his head.

"But for some reason, I can't guarantee that his temperament will not change drastically... So today's test is still necessary."

"Some reason?"

Ron, who had never said a word, finally couldn't help repeating it after hearing that Maca seemed to have deliberately skipped something.

"Ok."

Seeing that other people were either puzzled or curious, Maca didn't hide any more, nodded and said calmly:

"His son, Barty Crouch Jr., was killed by me."

No matter how well Maca understands human nature, it is impossible to easily see through people's hearts. Because of his son's death, he couldn't guess whether old Batty would hold a grudge.

Because he understands that the death of little Barty is equivalent to a seed buried in old Barty's heart, and no one knows whether that seed will germinate or rot.

Perhaps one day, Old Batty suddenly blamed all the pain of losing his son on his head, Maca McLean, then the other party would very likely take the initiative to help Hai Erbo.

However, amidst the surprised expressions of Hermione and others, Maca quickly said:

"Fortunately, I don't think old Batty killed anyone, because... I probably already guessed who the real murderer is."

When Hermione heard this, she frowned immediately, but then she seemed unable to accept her guess, she shook her head slightly and put aside the number one candidate in her heart.

"Is it... a certain guest in the library at that time?" She hesitated.

On the contrary, Neville next to him asked subconsciously after being slightly taken aback:

"That little girl? Oh, no... no way?"

Neville's almost blurted words were actually the answer that Hermione thought of at the first time. After all, it seems that the people Maca had the most contact with in the library at that time were old Batty and the little girl.

However, a child who is so young will kill others... This kind of thing is chilling to think about.

After Neville asked, Hermione couldn't help staring at Maca's head, as if afraid that he would nod in agreement with Neville's terrible guess.

And when Maca shook her head again, she unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sure enough... no!"

"Well, it's not her," Maca said, but sighed again, "but it still has something to do with her. Remember? As I mentioned, Old Barty adopted two Muggle orphans—girls We've met before, but don't forget, there's another boy!"

"But, even though we haven't seen the boy, it doesn't mean he—" Hermione couldn't help but said in the middle of her speech, "Maka, did you find something on that little girl?"

It can be seen that the kindness in Hermione's heart made her unwilling to doubt even the boy she had never met. But based on her understanding of Maca, she knew that the other party's words would never be aimless.

Thinking about it this way, the conclusion seems obvious.

Sure enough, a complicated smile appeared on Maca's face.

"You guessed it right," he picked up the cup at hand, took a sip of juice, and moistened his dry throat due to talking too much, "the child... has traces of black magic left on him, and the old man Batty doesn't seem to know yet."

"Then... isn't he dangerous?" Ron said immediately.

This time, before Maca answered, Hermione said to Ron first:

"No, on the contrary, maybe he is the safest one in Diagon Alley!"

"what?"

When Ron heard it, he couldn't help wondering.

"Is it difficult to understand?" Hermione said, "First, Maca has already said that there have been several murders in Diagon Alley recently, but if the murderer was really a child, would he kill the people around him? No, Even if that boy is smart enough to know that doing so can avoid suspicion. But without old Batty, he will be even more inconvenient to act as a child!"

As she was speaking, she paused for a while before continuing:

"Secondly, the fact that a child can kill is suspicious enough in itself, and I think there may be other people behind him. And if that person is familiar with the wizarding world, Mr. Crouch will inevitably be left— —His son was a Death Eater back then, so wouldn't he himself be a good person?"

"You mean, once the murder is exposed, they will use old Batty as a dead ghost?"

When Ron was stunned again, Maca also nodded.

"It made sense," he said. "I did think that the boy might be controlled, but it didn't occur to me that they might use old Barty as a shield."

After receiving Maca's appreciative gaze, Hermione obviously became more confident, so she immediately went on to say:

"And the third point—we all know that Mr. Crouch has adopted those two children for some time. If the boy wanted to lay hands on them, Mr. Crouch would be dead already, wouldn't he?"

Although Hermione was apparently answering Ron's doubts, she also took this opportunity to express some of her speculations.

To be honest, as expected of Hermione with quick thinking, there are some details that even Maca hasn't considered yet. And after listening to her analysis, everyone including Maca and Sirius fell silent for a moment.

In the final analysis, no matter how decently Hermione said it, these were just inferences. What is the fact, and how will the situation develop next, will inevitably require further investigation.

Not long after, Sirius suddenly spoke.

"Maca," he asked abruptly, recalling what Maca and Hermione said just now, "just now you said that you found 'traces of black magic' on the little girl adopted by old Barty? Then look What kind of black magic came out?"

If they could know the details of the black magic, it would not only provide them with a guarantee of safety to investigate afterwards, but they might also be able to learn more about the boy... and even the secrets of the person behind him.

It's a pity that Maca waved his hand casually without much hesitation and said:

"I don't know, the traces left on her body are quite rare, and it has probably been several hours... To be honest, it was luck to find this at that time!"

After hearing this, Sirius lowered his head regretfully and thought about other doubts.

So, after a while, he probably knew that he couldn't figure out more information, so he simply stood up.

"Maka, don't you have anything to say?" He said, "Then I'll take a step first—I have to change shifts with Dongge to monitor the library later, so that he can come over and eat something to fill his stomach .”

Maca glanced at Hermione first, seeing that she seemed to have nothing to say, then nodded at Sirius and said:

"Okay, you go! I have dinner here with everyone, and then I will go back to Hogwarts. If you find anything new, please let me know."