Chapter 396 Incorrect Procedures and Correct Results

"Malfoy was arrested?"

Harry, who was originally standing in the corner wondering why the professor would take him along, was still acting as a backdrop, but at this moment he couldn't bear it anymore.

"He released the Dark Mark and was arrested?"

Harry couldn't believe it - he even had the urge to cheer.

If he had to identify who among the students in the school looked most like a Death Eater, Malfoy would undoubtedly be the first suspect.

"It's not him, at least that's what I think."

While Dumbledore was thinking, William responded.

However, in order not to disturb Dumbledore's thoughts, his voice was lowered a lot.

Therefore, Harry dared to ask in a low voice.

"How could it not be, Professor - you don't know how bad he is. Ron said that if Voldemort hadn't fallen, Malfoy would definitely be a Death Eater!"

"When doing things, you must analyze things based on common sense and facts, instead of relying on emotions to imagine a bunch of non-existent things. The Dark Lord is now in a state of collapse. You cannot act based on assumptions and then imagine things that have not happened. Set things up.”

"Harry, even though Malfoy has all the faults of being from a pure-blood family, he is not a fool."

William shook his head, "You regard him as your opponent, right? Then do you think the opponent you choose will be the kind of fool who will seek death even if he knows the consequences will be serious?"

"I still don't understand, Professor..."

Harry shook his head, obviously stuck on Malfoy again.

William spread his hands and felt that his head was a bit big - what on earth should he do to make a child with only a fourteen-year-old life experience understand the complexity of human beings?

"You should be more patient, Professor William."

Dumbledore suddenly smiled and spoke, "But we don't have much time. We have to get to Fudge quickly."

He stretched out his hand, took the door key that William and the others had used, and casually completed the production of the reverse port key. "If you don't go, I'm afraid the decision by the Ministry of Magic cannot be changed."

"Okay, Professor."

William nodded, stuffed the candy into his pocket, and then grabbed the small door key with Harry and began to activate it.

'correct! You can obviously come at school! What do I do when I go back after spreading the word? ’

But it was too late, the portkey activated.

With a sense of dizziness, he and Harry returned to the camp where they came from.

Before he could recover from the disgust, Dumbledore's figure had already appeared next to him.

‘Did you come here with the power of the Portkey? Or is it that Dumbledore can already ignore the rudimentary anti-Apparition spell? ’

He wasn't sure - but it wasn't a big problem. He had already obtained the authorization to study the portkey, and subsequent experiments were nothing compared to this authorization.

But before his random thoughts ended, Fudge's somewhat depressed face turned slightly happy.

He came to Dumbledore's side at almost a trot - William believed that if it weren't for his status as minister, he would have run over directly.

"As long as you're here, Albus."

Fudge's words sounded quite sincere, and even William could hear the sincerity.

"Where is Lucius?"

"I haven't contacted him yet. That's not good. You know, Albus, after all, he is too..."

Fudge shook his head hesitantly, causing William, who was watching, to almost curse out - how could he want to protect his sponsor, but be afraid of being dragged into trouble by this matter?

However, the expression on Dumbledore's face did not change. "Have someone tell him to come over. We need a secluded place."

"That's too late…"

Fudge delivered another piece of bad news. He said in a voice that William didn't know how to describe, "Barty Crouch already knows about this. He has come to the camp and is preparing to take over the follow-up events here. "

…

William now looked at Fudge like he was a pig teammate, and even Dumbledore's expression changed slightly.

Harry could feel the smell of embarrassment in the air, and asked another question in a low voice, "Professor, who is Barty Crouch?"

William lowered his voice and explained in a low voice - "Barty Crouch is the former Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Sirius was sent to Azkaban by him."

…

Harry didn't know what expression to show on his face for a moment. He even wondered if the professor was the same...

However, William was still busy recalling the information and did not notice his expression, "He was a tough figure recognized in the wizarding world. He was the first to support Aurors and strikers in hunting down Death Eaters. If we talk about Mad Eye If he is the Auror who has caught the most dark wizards, then he is the director who has tried the most Death Eaters."

"Who is Mad-Eye?"

"We'll talk about that later. The troublesome one now is Barty Crouch. If he is so strong that he wants to send Malfoy to Azkaban...then he will almost be admitted. Crouch personally put himself in Azkaban." The ruthless man who sent his son to Azkaban, although his prestige has suffered a bit due to this, but... if he demands forcefully, he will not be able to get through this matter."

When William was doing science popularization, Dumbledore had already begun to ask for details.

"Is it really the child's wand?"

"Confirmed, he admitted it himself. Although the record of purchasing the wand is still on the way to be transferred, it is estimated that there will be no change."

Fudge shook his head. He decided to give up on the Malfoy family - there was almost irrefutable evidence, and Barty Crouch had intervened. This matter... was hopeless.

——

"Lucius, good evening."

Crouch stood guard at the entrance of the camp, looking at Lucius Malfoy, smiling extremely happily.

"Good evening, Crouch."

Lucius responded with some surprise - but he was not afraid.

More than ten years ago, he escaped the fate of going to Azkaban from the former Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in front of him. Now more than ten years later, he once again became the guest of the Minister of Magic, and the other party, From being the most popular candidate for the Minister of Magic, he became a little old man manager of an unpopular department.

Although there was a riot tonight, he had witnesses throughout the whole process and had the Minister of Magic as a guarantee, so he had no worries about gunpowder burning his head.

However, the sudden greeting still made him a little nervous - it shouldn't be the case, Draco's bastard is not that stupid, could it be Crabbe and Goyle?

‘Didn’t I tell them not to get involved? Are those two idiots so stupid that they didn’t listen to the advice and went looking for trouble? Or were Draco's two playmates stupid? ’

'Another huge sum of galleons... you idiot! ’

He cursed in his mind, but before seeing Fudge, his whole body adjusted to the state of a successful person with a smile.

"Minister, are you looking for me?"

Before entering the tent, he greeted me warmly.

"I am very sorry for tonight's misfortune and if I could, I would like to make a donation to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Medicine to treat the injured tonight."

'Unfortunately...it's too late. ’

Fudge thought with sigh.

Lucius, who received no response, glanced and immediately discovered three people who shouldn't be in the tent - Dumbledore, Harry Potter, and the professor who stole the show this year.

If Fudge hadn't been there, he would have even wanted to turn around and leave, but now——

"Please take a seat, Lucius."

Dumbledore showed a rather kind smile. Old Malfoy hesitated, and finally sat next to Dumbledore, determined to listen to what he had to say - although the accident tonight had nothing to do with him, he still had A little uneasy.

The three people over there sat together, and William consciously pulled Harry further away - although this was useless, the three people would definitely not lower their voices to communicate, and Harry would definitely have a lot of questions. , the only useful thing is that he can be less careful when answering.

The three people sitting in the tent looked at each other, and finally Fudge, who still felt a little bit indebted, started talking.

He handed over a note that looked familiar to William and asked Lucius to read it himself.

The note only contained a few words and could be scanned at a glance. However, Lucius read it several times in disbelief. After being stuck for a while, an obvious look of panic appeared on his face. He never looked back. Calmness at the time.

"It's not him, it's not him - he won't do it at all!"

"Sorry, Lucius."

Fudge shook his head, "He was the only one at the scene, and we used the flashback spell to verify his wand..."

"Use Veritaserum!"

"You should know, that's useless."

Dumbledore caught on - yes, Veritaserum didn't work.

Unless he was raided and completely controlled, what Veritaserum said could not be used as evidence - if this rule had not been introduced, Lucius would not have been able to escape the Ministry of Magic's trial.

"The Imperius Curse! Legilimency! Divination! We have many ways to confirm that he is innocent!"

Lucius seemed to be a different person, his calm temperament completely disappeared. He quickly imagined ways to escape guilt, ways to prove Draco's innocence.

"You should know that none of those methods work..."

Dumbledore shook his head - Lucius had relied on refuting those methods to get rid of the Death Eater accusations, leaving them unable to prove guilt, so now they could not prove innocence.

"Barty Crouch knows?"

He suddenly thought of the guy he met at the door, and then felt a cold sweat break out on his back...

Little Barty was sent to Azkaban by his father. So, could he expect that father to be polite to his son?

"so…"

He tried to calm himself down - he was the only one who could save his child at this moment.

But his trembling hands betrayed him...

"I…"

"Can I come in for a moment, Minister?"

In the distance came Barty Crouch's voice, and the beater's subtle shout to intercept him.

Fudge's expression suddenly became tense.

Dumbledore was very relaxed, smiled at William and Harry, then walked over quickly, and with a tap of his wand, the Disillusionment Curse enveloped the three of them.

Before William could express his feelings about this clever disguise spell, Fudge nodded——

'Dumbledore signaled him? ’

While William was still thinking, Fudge had already shouted towards the door, "Please come in, Barty."

The tent door was opened again. Fortunately, the magic tent was incredibly spacious, so there was no need to worry about being exposed.

"Ah, a rare visitor indeed - good evening, Minister, and you, Mr. Lucius Malfoy."

"Our hard-working and brave strikers caught the guy who dared to put the Dark Mark. He is an acquaintance, Mr. Lucius."

William could clearly see that Malfoy's hands were shaking, but his face remained basically calm.

"Can I bring him up, Minister?"

Crouch obviously had no intention of settling the matter easily. When he seized this opportunity for more than ten years, he wanted to kill someone.

Fudge looked this way covertly, and then decisively agreed.

'Can't see Dumbledore's reaction...'

Taking advantage of the door being opened, William moved slightly.

Draco Malfoy was brought in, tied up tightly, along with his wand as evidence.

After seeing Lucius, he struggled wildly, "Help me, dad, I didn't! I didn't, it was a house elf that did it, and I was knocked unconscious by it!"

"Tsk tsk... Listen, he hasn't learned how good you are at frame-up. Even the wizard can't make it up. He keeps saying that he was wronged by the elf... But he probably doesn't know that it's not something that a house elf can release. .”

"I guess even among you Death Eaters, there aren't many people who can use the Dark Mark, right?"

Barty Crouch's tone was full of ridicule - he has been waiting for this day for more than ten years. The two greatest shames in his life are that his family raised a Death Eater, and the second is that Malfoy, who should be The Death Eater who entered had escaped from Azkaban, and he would fall out with anyone who stopped him today.

He has worked in the Ministry of Magic for many years and has a high position of authority. If he is angered, the minister will not even think about it.

"He said there were elves involved!"

Lucius struggled to suppress his anger and tried to distinguish.

"Ah - by the way, I forgot to mention it," Barty Crouch said with a smile, "Even if it is true, it is useless. You just used the elf to escape not long ago. That excuse is very useful. I am very happy." Like, thank you, Lucius."

"So we can only pretend that this is not the case, and I will send him to Azkaban properly."

William noticed what Dumbledore said, and then Fudge's expression changed, and so did Lucius's expression.

He showed a desperate look, his face kept moving and thinking, and then he made a painful decision.

"What if—what if I wanted to, like Karkaroff?"

"Who is Karkaroff?"

Harry asked quietly again.

But now was obviously not the time to answer. William shook his finger, indicating that he would talk later.

But Crouch knew very well that Karkaroff - in fact, it was the deal he made with Karkaroff that led to the digging up of several Death Eaters, so he had a look of ecstasy on his face.

One Malfoy for several Death Eaters, that's good, a very good deal.

"Maybe... we can discuss it."