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Chapter 237: Buddy Crouch

"As far as I know, tracking down black wizards who violate the law should have been the job of the Ministry of Magic. For this kind of emergencies, we can't use a Hogwarts professor to intervene."

"Mr. Crouch, your question makes no sense." Dracula sneered, "As a professor of Defense Against Black Magic, isn't it normal for me to come to the scene to investigate when I see traces of black magic?"

"What's more, those who helped maintain order at the scene just now weren't all from your Ministry of Magic, I saw Bill and Charlie from the Weasley family and many other wizards contributing their share, yet I didn't see any of you refusing their help."

The light flowed in Dracula's eyes and he gazed coldly into Crouch's eyes.

"It doesn't take a great deal of expertise to maintain order at the scene, but the Dark Mark is different, and every wizard who comes near here is suspect." Crouch said with the same cold face.

"As the director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation, as well as the former director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I have the ability, as well as the obligation, to come and arrest the suspects. But you are different, not only will a non-professional not be of any help, they may even damage the scene!"

"That's quite a good reason." Dracula snorted, "So, Mr. Crouch, tell us exactly what you saw when you came to the scene. As the first person to come here, you should have found something, right?"

As a matter of fact, the reason why Dracula was skeptical of this Director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation was also because his efficiency in arriving at the scene was just too high.

Dracula had originally stayed near the group of Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy, always ready to control the scene and clean up the situation, while at the same time, incidentally protecting Lucius, such a pawn that he had placed by Voldemort's side, from being easily captured by the Ministry of Magic's people.

And the sudden appearance of the black magic mark in the night sky was completely unplanned -

Lucius' group of Death Eaters actually didn't want to completely expose their identity, but just wanted to make certain movements to show Voldemort, who was now hiding somewhere, that they hadn't forgotten the glory and prestige of the Death Eaters as an organization, so that they could have some backbone when they were summoned by Voldemort again.

However, the dark magic mark completely sort of tore their masks apart, making everyone present realize the true identity of the troublemaking gang.

In this way, the employees of the Ministry of Magic would definitely increase their efforts to arrest them, and several purebloods such as Lucius who held a tacit agreement with the Ministry of Magic would also be questioned and suspected.

Because of this, the first moment Dracula saw the black magic mark that appeared in the night sky, he phantom shifted to the scene. Yet he found no dark wizard here, only a Barty Crouch standing frozen in place.

Then there were only two possibilities left:

One was that the wizard who had cast the black magic marker was Barty Crouch; the other was that Crouch was standing in a nearby place not far away before the black magic marker rose into the air.

If it was the latter case, Crouch was bound to have found something.

"I do have something to discover." Crouch nodded resolutely, "There was indeed a figure standing in my position before the Black Demon Marker was cast, and I was not far away from the vicinity at the time, and clearly heard that his voice, though somewhat hoarse in disguise, was still young overall."

"Is that so?" Dracula frowned slightly, his gaze on Crouch deepening, "Then how come Mr. Crouch didn't capture the dark wizard?"

"He was so cautious that he didn't even bother to look at the mark in the sky after the spell was recited, and immediately phantom shifted away from the spot." Crouch shook his head and said, "Although I had come quickly, I was still a little bit short."

Just after the words were said, Crouch suddenly felt a sudden pain in his brow, as if images were about to emerge from the middle of his mind.

He subconsciously closed his eyes and his face sank.

"Professor Dracula, are you using Regard for Thought on a Ministry of Magic official?" Crouch sternly questioned, "Do you realize what you are actually doing?!"

"Empty words, Mr. Crouch." Dracula laughed softly, "You don't want to slander someone's innocence out of thin air."

Crouch opened his eyes again, his face a little hard to see.

Just then, a group of men hurried over, led by none other than Mr. Weasley and Cedric's father, Amos Diggory.

"What happened here? Who released the Dark Mark?" Mr. Weasley asked as he ran, panting.

He stopped and saw that two men were facing each other here, "Ah, Professor Dracula, and Crouch, there you are!"

"Arthur, Amos, what's the situation on your end?" Crouch glanced at Dracula once again, and then he quickly adjusted his emotions and turned his head to Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggory and asked.

"Oh, things are going well on our side, those Death Eaters are all soft bones, and they don't have much of a fight in mind after seeing our people restore order." Mr. Weasley said, "But I didn't figure it out, not only did they not become excited when the Black Magic Marker went up, but instead, they ran away one by one with phantom shifts."

"Originally they couldn't run away." Mr. Diggory added from the side, "But there was a very strong guy inside the Death Eaters who didn't know when, and I almost managed to take care of the leader among them several times, but it was easily dissolved by a force."

"If it wasn't for the fact that that guy doesn't seem to have much aggression, I'm afraid that the few of us wouldn't be enough for him to fight alone ..."

Hearing this, the corners of Dracula's mouth twitched without a trace.

The "very strong guy" who had dissolved Mr. Diggory's spell was obviously Dracula himself.

He originally knew that Lucius had always been pampered and would definitely not be too strong in a fight, but he had never thought that Lucius's actual combat ability could be as bad as this.

Dracula had to step in several times to block Mr. Diggory's attacks for Lucius, preventing him from being caught by the Ministry of Magic and then spoiling his fun.

"Mr. Crouch, did you find the Death Eater who cast the Dark Mark?" Mr. Diggory opened his mouth and asked Crouch.

"Unfortunately, I let him get away." Crouch shook his head and said in a deep voice.

He then looked at Dracula, "Professor Dracula, it is now time for the Ministry of Magic to investigate, if you do not wish to be investigated, please leave the Eucalyptus discovery site for the time being."

"I would like to know, how are you going to conduct the investigation?" Dracula looked at Crouch, the corner of his mouth hooked up with a smile if nothing else, "Or is it that he is prepared to do a perfunctory job, to bring this matter hastily, then let the Daily Prophet avoid making some remarks, and finally divert the attention of the civilians with other messy things?"

Obviously, Crouch's face sank instantly.

"Ahem ... Mr. Crouch, I need to go back to my family first." Seeing that the atmosphere between the two was not right, Mr. Weasley hurriedly stepped forward to change the topic, "They are still alone in the forest, I'm not too worried."

He then pulled Dracula out of the area without saying a word and walked towards the other side.

"Professor Dracula, although Crouch is usually a bit strict, he's actually quite nice." Walking on the road, Mr. Weasley advised, "If you guys have any conflicts, there's a high possibility that it's a misunderstanding, there's no need to intensify it further."

"We don't have any conflicts." Dracula laughed lightly and shook his head, then looked to the other side and said, "Sirius, it's just the three of us here now, we can come out."

In the next moment, Sirius lifted the Phantom Body spell, and his figure emerged in front of Dracula and Mr. Weasley.

"I don't know how you could tell, I thought I was getting pretty good with the illusionary body spell." Sirius all but muttered.

"Sirius?!" Mr. Weasley was startled by the sudden appearance of Sirius, "Why are you here, where are Ron and Harry and the others?"

"Don't worry, their location is quite safe." Sirius said, "I just rushed over here after I saw the Dark Mark, but Dracula found me and hasn't been letting me undo the Disillusionment Spell."

He then looked at Dracula and asked, "Professor Dracula, do you suspect that Crouch is the one who cast the Black Magic Mark? I heard him say ... that you just used Regard and Take Thoughts on him."

"Well, I do kind of suspect him." Dracula nodded softly, "He arrived so quickly and coincidentally that he had to make me suspicious. He's not bad at brain closure though, can't see anything concrete."

"This ... this can't be right?" Mr. Weasley said with some bewilderment, "Crouch was an absolute hardliner when he was the head of the Division of Magical Law Enforcement before, and he's one of the most unlikely wizards to use the Black Magic Marker yet. He even passed the temporary rule that the Unforgivable Spell could be used on Death Eaters ..."

"If it weren't for the fact that his son, Barty Crouch Jr. later became a Death Eater and brought a stain on his reputation, I'm afraid this term as Minister of Magic wouldn't even be Fudge's turn."

"His son was a Death Eater?" Dracula suddenly hooked the corners of his mouth, a rakish look on his face.

"Was." Mr. Weasley corrected, "Buddy Sr. himself pronounced his son guilty and locked him up inside Azkaban for life. Then Barty Crouch Jr. died in prison."

"Already dead?" Dracula's brow furrowed again.

"Professor Dracula, just stop doubting Barty Sr. There's no way he's a Death Eater." Mr. Weasley said helplessly, "He has too much Death Eater blood on his hands for even Voldemort to accept his subservience anymore."

...

Meanwhile, a group of figures in black robes, hoods and masks sat around the parlor of Malfoy Manor.

This parlor had again gone from a brightly lit décor to dim and gloomy, as if it couldn't afford to light a lamp.

Every now and then, an occasional apparition or two of similarly costumed wizards would move into the parlor and take their seats.

Only when all the seats were filled did the wizard sitting in the top seat speak in a cold voice.

"Admit it to yourself, which fool released the Black Magic Marker?" The man slowly removed the mask from his face, revealing Lucius' pale visage as he scanned everyone present in exasperation.

"I remember I made it clear before the operation not to do anything that might reveal our identities to prevent attracting the attention of the Ministry of Magic." Lucius said coldly, "We're here to have something to say in front of our master in the future, not to attract Aurora to come and capture us!"

"Lucius, don't be so serious, it's not like no one has been arrested!" A Death Eater next to him patted Lucius' shoulder with a big grin.

"From the looks of it no one did get caught." Lucius' fist slammed heavily on the tabletop, "But that's only because I found a powerful wizard in advance to look after us for a moment or two, if he wasn't there, we would've long since been captured by those people from the Ministry of Magic!"

That Death Eater couldn't speak.

Even if he was even more obtuse, he could see that there was indeed a powerful existence secretly helping them before.

However, at this time there was another Death Eater who was dissatisfied.

"Lucius, we didn't agree to you being the leader because we were convinced, it's just that you were the first one to propose this operation-" he said in a conspiratorial manner, "So don't put up that leadership in front of us! I don't like it!"

"If you don't like it, you can be the leader yourself, Yaxley!" Lucius responded with a sneer, "I'm finding out what's wrong now, and finding out just who's not following orders."

"No one is not following arrangements, Lucius, and none of us here are fools!" Yaxley stood up with a fierce slap on the table and pointed at the Death Eaters present, "Haven't you noticed? Everyone here gathered together when the Black Demon Marker rose into the air!"

"That's impossible!" Lucius retorted flatly, "If everyone was there, then who cast the Black Magic Mark? Is it hard to believe that those officials from the Ministry of Magic put it there?!"

Just at this moment, another Death Eater suddenly raised his hand to interrupt the arguing two.

"You guys, could there be other fellow Death Eaters drifting around undetected?" He asked thoughtfully, "Is it possible that he's in the middle of some sort of predicament and cast the Black Magic Mark just to make contact with us?"

Lucius and Yaxley both froze.

"Or what if that person casting the Black Demon Mark is simply the Black Demon Lord who has yet to completely recover ..."

The air steeply quieted down.

The Death Eaters present unanimously thought of their actions of immediately choosing to flee away when they saw the Black Demon Mark.

Everyone's mood suddenly sank to the bottom.