Chapter 384 382 Crouch's Game

Chapter 384 382. Crouch's Game

Voldemort did not return to the castle on Christmas Eve.

This surprised Jon, but he also felt that it was natural.

This ball was not as important as the normal competition. Voldemort did not come in person during the first event, let alone this ball.

In addition, Dumbledore was not there, and the two people with the highest status and strength who organized this event did not show up at the ball, which made the students present more relaxed.

Except for the two of them, all the professors in the castle, including Snape and Crouch, and the three referees of the Federation were all present.

There were also those newspaper reporters who had been staying in the castle. Of course, they would not miss this great opportunity.

Of course, newspapers cannot report some major news all day long. Some gossips about the participating warriors are sometimes more eye-catching.

Therefore, when Hermione, led by Rosier, entered the auditorium with Jon's arm around her, countless flashes lit up in their direction.

Almost no one in the castle recognized the beautiful girl standing next to Jon. Hermione had changed so much compared to two years ago that even if 80% of the people in the hall had seen her hanging in front of the entrance hall, no one could recognize her now.

For a while, everyone in the castle was whispering, but few people would do anything rude in public, even those proud pure-blood students. Jon was notorious outside, and every pure-blood student was severely warned by their family before coming to school this year that they were not allowed to provoke Jon unless they encountered a situation where they could beat the dog when it was down.

After Jon and his friends entered the hall, there was still some time before the ball officially started, and the professor of the Half-Blood Academy who was responsible for receiving them guided them to sit in a separate area.

Hermione sat next to Jon, her long chestnut hair was meticulously groomed by Daisy, and tied into an elegant bun at the back of her head. She was wearing a robe made of flowing light purple-blue fabric, which was chosen for her by Professor McGonagall in Lyon after she knew that she had become Jon's dance partner.

Jon looked at the starry sky ceiling.

"It's beautiful, right?"

"This should be a very advanced transmission magic. I have read the history of Hogwarts, and heard Mr. Slytherin's portrait and Ms. Grey talk about it. It is said that this starry sky ceiling was actually created by the founder of Ravenclaw College, Ronay Ravenclaw."

"Shouldn't normal girls praise its beauty when they see this?"

"Would you like normal girls?"

Jon was frightened by her sudden question and swallowed hard, turning his head to look at her with his eyes wide open.

Hermione seemed to be amused by his reaction, and laughed out loud with her mouth covered.

"In fact, if I had not been brought to this castle, I would not have been rescued by you. Would you have found someone else to be your partner for the dance tonight?"

"Why do you suddenly ask this?" Jon felt that Hermione was strange today, as if she was hiding something.

"I was actually thinking that from another perspective, the experience of being brought to this castle was not a painful memory."

She looked at the starry sky quietly, and then turned to the smiling faces of the students around her who were mostly laughing and talking.

"If I had not been enslaved here, I might have really thought that this castle was a good place now. Some things can only be known after you have really experienced them. What the world is like."

Jon suddenly noticed the white bracelet on Hermione's hand that he had never seen before.

"Is this also given to you by Professor McGonagall? It's pretty."

Hermione raised her hand with the bracelet, the candlelight illuminated her slender white wrist, and also illuminated the bracelet, the surface of the bracelet reflected the flowing halo, which was extremely beautiful.

She said softly.

"It's not Professor McGonagall, but a person who has been forgotten by this castle."

On the high platform of the auditorium, Snape sat next to Crouch, which was rare.

The two of them were notorious for their incompatibility in the entire Hogwarts, even in the entire wizarding world.

They never greeted each other actively when they met in meetings, and never sat together at dinners. Except when they were summoned by Voldemort himself, they almost never had the opportunity to meet each other at any other time.

And at this Christmas dinner, these two people who were the highest-ranking decision-makers in the entire Hogwarts Castle when Voldemort was not there actually sat together at the beginning!

This not only surprised the other professors, but even Lucius, who was leading the Aurors to maintain order in the auditorium and watch over Jon and the others to prevent them from making any unusual movements, was a little bit unbelievable.

The seats around Snape and Crouch were also empty. They seemed to be having a secret conversation. The other professors approached them without any hesitation.

"I thought you would directly let the student named Conrad approach Jon Green."

Snape glanced at Jon, who was chatting with Hermione in his seat, and said expressionlessly.

Barty Jr. still had that gentle and approachable smile on his face.

"Who do you think you can fool with such a cheap trick? What is the most perfect plan? Let things go their own way, and let things proceed according to their own trajectory. What we need to do is to push forward a little at the most critical node."

"Conrad thought that the bracelet was given to her by her mother until her death, and she always believed that it was her most precious thing. The mudblood named Granger was attracted to this girl for the first time because she saw that the bracelet was exactly the same as the one her mother had worn. You see, it only takes a simple little thing to closely connect two people who were originally unrelated."

Snape turned his head and glanced at the man beside him who had been secretly rumored in the magic world to be a lunatic even crazier than Bella.

"So what is that bracelet?"

"Don't forget who brought that little mudblood named Hermione Granger to this castle. I have met her parents, a pair of smelly dentists. I disguised myself as a professor of a well-known university and wanted to trick them directly into ordering their daughter to sign the contract. The disgusting Muggle woman was wearing that bracelet at the time. In order to find a bracelet exactly like this one, I recently sent someone to search all over London, and also used some of our connections in the Muggle government. Finally, I found it in a second-hand grocery store."

Little Barty's voice was calm, but Snape obviously heard a hint of pride from it. He knew that this man was deliberately showing off in front of him, showing off how he shared his master's worries.

But Snape was not disgusted by his showing off. On the contrary, he was also very curious about whether Little Barty's arrangements would be effective, and what methods he used to deceive the cunning Dumbledore and the extremely weird student Jon Green.

"Then you chose Conrad, who was being bullied by Floyd and Flint, and gave her a string of carefully compiled memories and the bracelet that I had transformed, so that she would think that this was a birthday gift from her mother and her most precious thing?"

Hearing Snape's question, the smile on Little Barty's face became even bigger.

"To be honest, it's not easy to find such a suitable object, but Asia Conrad is just like tailor-made for my plan. She is a mixed-blood, a bastard, and is naturally close to the lower-class mudbloods. She is weak in character, and has been coerced and threatened by Flint for so long that she almost chose to give up her life to accept it, which makes it easier for that group of people to sympathize with her. What a good choice. After I spent time looking at the information of all the mixed-blood students, I determined that this was the last puzzle of my entire plan."

"So you didn't think of starting directly from Jon Green himself at the beginning?"

"If he is really just an ordinary 15-year-old boy, then of course it is the simplest and most effective to attack him directly. I don't need to spend so much energy and means. I can just control a beautiful female student to throw herself into his arms. But that is obviously unrealistic. Since this boy has caused so much trouble to his master, and Dumbledore has high hopes for him, then such a straightforward plan that can be seen through at a glance will not work. Let's not talk about others, let's talk about you, Severus, will you be fascinated by a Gryffindor girl when you are 15?"

Instantly, Snape's face fell and his voice turned cold.

"With the relationship between us, it's not to the extent that you can call me by my name directly, and don't think that I will be afraid to take action now that we are in the hall."

Little Barty raised his two hands with a smile on his face, making a surrender gesture.

"Look at you. I didn't say which girl from Gryffindor it was. Excluding her, if any other girl comes to you, as long as you look at her, you are not worthy of being called Severus Snape, right? Even you can't be fooled by such a simple beauty trap, let alone Jon Greene who is in the limelight now. Although he is a lowly and damned mudblood, since he can cause so much trouble to his master, it means that he still has some outstanding qualities. So if we use the means to deal with ordinary people to deal with him, we can only end up like the Lestrange family."