In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 390: Voldemort's Attitude (2 in 1)

Hearing this question from Snape, Barty Jr. froze for a moment, then whispered with a grim look on his face.

"Do you think all that investigation I did earlier about him at the orphanage was for nothing? That his biological father, who had abandoned him would not have known whether he was a male or a female?"

Barty Jr. certainly had a point; Snape had only made a hypothesis, and he wasn't certain about it.

"So since there is nothing went wrong with your plan, my potion is also perfectly fine, and Jon Green's gender can be fully confirmed, what is the problem now?"

His question once again brought a moment of silence to the conversation, and after a long moment, the two men suddenly looked up at each other as if they had thought of something possible at the same time.

***

The huge explosion shattered the armour that held the sword in one hand, and the magic that kept the dead thing moving could no longer be maintained, the knight's sword fell to the ground, and the armour that had been put together fell apart.

Only the broken glove was still moving its fingers slightly, dead but not rigid, but that alone was no longer a threat to Hermione.

The other two suits of armour, as if stunned by Hermione's outrageous behaviour, stopped their charge with their weapons in hand and stood facing her instead.

Hermione's breathing became noticeably more rapid and the bun on her head was scattered by the aftermath of the blast, with her long chestnut hair flowing right over her back.

Tiny cracks like spider webs had appeared above the pale blue shield charm, but the charm had not been completely destroyed in that downward slash of the armour, retaining its basic effect.

The blast from earlier was clearly not small, but it couldn't do much harm to the armour; this blasting curse alchemical bomb that the Weasley twins had developed had actually lost much of its power compared to the actual blasting curse, and if it continued to diminish its effect any further, there would be no way to make an effective attack.

It was precisely that bomb that Hermione had managed to throw into the inside of the armour. Internally this magical armour certainly didn't have any overly strong defences, and if it was just thrown at it randomly and the bomb was allowed to explode on the outside, it would basically do little effective damage to this incredibly defensive armour.

And the sound of such a commotion had actually been damped down considerably by the Slowing charm Hermione had cast on the armour in advance by slowing the velocity, otherwise, it would have been louder and attracted more attention.

Soon the two remaining armours did not remain silent for long, and they resumed their attack with a new burst.

Hermione was certainly no match for Jon in terms of mastery of advanced spells and dark magic, but she had the advantage of having learned the basic spells extremely well.

In a scenario where everyone was compressing their time outside of school and studying as hard as they could, given the danger that accompanied the Hogwarts wagon, Hermione was also good enough to be called a rightful king of the grind.

Even though she had a year and a half less schooling, she had managed to keep up with the pace of the normal fourth-year students on the wagon and was even at the top of them all.

It was only Hermione's low profile on the wagon and lack of activity in the classroom, combined with the fact that there were no proper exams on the wagon due to the ups and downs of the past few years, that gave many people the false impression that she wasn't actually all that good.

Freezing Charm, Incarcerous Spell, Slowing Charm, Transfiguration Spells.

Hermione had clearly decided that her offensive direction should only aim to limit the movement of the two suits of armour as much as possible, and after blowing up one suit of armour to relieve her defensive pressure, the rest required minimal offensive control on her part, as long as she delayed until the shorthand quill had completely copied the runes on the desk, it would be fine.

Things went smoothly after that.

The two suits of armour hadn't even touched a corner of Hermione's robes, and the Aurors were clearly moving much slower than she had previously predicted; they had only just made it to the third floor from the ground floor in about two minutes.

They had only heard the sound of movement from the upper floors of the castle, but could not tell exactly which room on which floor the sound was from, so it was extremely time-consuming to go from floor to floor.

After the shorthand quill had come to a complete stop and lay quietly on the parchment where the ink hadn't quite dried, Hermione didn't half stop, she instantly dodged the armour's raised axe once more and then grabbed the parchment on the desk.

"Fawkes."

Ever reliable, Fawkes flashed golden-red light at the same time Hermione called out his name.

That golden flash illuminated the window panes of the Headmaster's office, and Lee, who had been watching this window on the seventh floor, was inevitably able to see it.

"Well, well, Hermione's signal has arrived, her mission at the castle is over, come on, we're going back to the wagon!"

Lee instantly had no intention of pretending with Jon any longer, and Jon was well aware that the moment they started pretending was also the countdown to things falling apart.

So Jon didn't hesitate, he got up from the bench as soon as he heard Lee's words, and the two of them didn't stay any longer, they just walked straight away in the direction of the exit of the garden which was near the edge of the forbidden forest.

Barty Jr. was no fool, without having to question Jon's gender at all, just from the way they were now rushing to get ready to leave, even if he really was a fool at this point he knew exactly what was wrong.

"Do you think it's possible that it was actually your plan that had failed from the very beginning, and they're now playing us from start to finish?"

Snape's words were full of sarcasm, he didn't seem to have much empathy for Barty's failure, he had only played a supporting role in this scheme, doing what he had to do as Voldemort's second in command and fulfilling his duty, the only person who would benefit and be responsible for this, whether it succeeded or failed, would be Barty Jr.

Barty's face was blue, and he had also obviously thought of that.

"What are you gloating about? Haven't you considered why they're putting on a show for us like this? There must be something went wrong in the castle if they were drawing our attention to them!"

"Whatever went wrong doesn't it stem from your arrogance, 'Mr.' Crouch." Snape said scornfully, "I just did what you have asked me to do, and all the consequences are of course yours to bear alone."

Barty Jr. knew this of course and without any notice he had pulled his wand out of his own sleeve at this point and stood up from the shadows with his eyes fixed on Jon and Lee's backs.

"If they're using themselves as bait, why can't we just attack and keep them behind, even without a poison?"

The mockery on Snape's face remained the same.

"If you could have thought of that five minutes earlier maybe that would have been possible, but now, look carefully ahead, do you think you have a chance?"

It was only at this point that Barty Jr. looked in the direction Snape was indicating, and there, at some point, in the direction of the end of the garden path, stood an old man with crescent-shaped glasses and dark purple robes and grey-white hair and beard.

He was right next to the lamp, in the shadows where the light didn't reach, and Jon and Lee obviously saw him too, as they called aloud for Professor Dumbledore and then walked quickly towards the old man.

Dumbledore still had his gentle smile on his face, as if he was looking at Jon and the other, and his gaze looked past them to meet Barty Jr.'s eyes.

Barty's expression grew grimmer and gloomier than ever before, but at the same time he had the sense to drop his half-raised wand and, without another word, turn around and walk towards the castle.

Snape did not leave with Barty Jr. right away, he stayed where he was and looked deeply at Dumbledore, and there were a lot of thoughts passing through his eyes before he turned around again and returned to Hogwarts Castle.

Jon's mood, which had been slightly tense after seeing Dumbledore, relaxed completely.

"Has Hermione gone back already? Professor."

Dumbledore walked beside them as the three returned side by side in the direction of the wagon.

"Of course, I came over just as she got back to the wagon, to pick you up and take a walk at the same time, and to be honest, it's quite a nice setting they've decorated in that place."

He sounded relaxed, not bothering at all to mention the encounter he had just had with Barty Jr. and Snape as they ran to meet him.

"By the way, Jon, I also left you a secret Christmas present that I think you'll really like, Lee ate a chunk of it before he came looking for you."

"You'll have to give me a break Professor, I shudder to think of the thought of shoving that thing in my mouth, really you might as well have me have a one-on-one bout with some Death Eater."

"You'll really regret it if you don't try it, Jon! That's really a rare delicacy!"

"Thanks to you, I've already indirectly felt the potency of that thing from you earlier, so it's better to leave such a delicacy to you to enjoy alone."

The three figures faded into the light, and finally, only a snippet of Dumbledore's happy laughter came from the direction of the Hogwarts wagon.

At midnight, in the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore looked at the copy of ancient runes on his desk that had been brought by Hermione from the castle.

"He's actually completed it."

The Slytherin's voice came over the wall, he had obviously read what was on that parchment.

Dumbledore didn't look up, there was actually a lot that could be gleaned from these runes.

"Leaving aside the question of whether he completed it or not, what I'm thinking is that Hermione's entry into that Headmaster's office was so obvious, and he didn't really notice it at all?"

His fingers tapped lightly on the desktop in his office.

"I don't think he noticed it at all, Hermione said a snake was guarding that office, with lots of portraits and three suits of armour, it may seem like a perfect setup, but there's really no need to go to all that trouble, if he really cared about that office he could have had one or two of the castle house elves stationed there, and at the first sign of anyone breaking in they would have immediately gone to him, then no one could possibly get a clue about what's going on there at all."

Dumbledore's words caused the entire wall of portraits of the Headmasters to look at each other, they were clearly a little confused by this speculation of Dumbledore's.

"But if he doesn't care about the office, then why all these preparations? Aren't these just all pointless?" Dilys asked.

There was silence in the Headmaster's office for a few seconds before Dumbledore suddenly said.

"Is it possible that he did it on purpose, that he deliberately gave us the illusion that he actually cared about that office and was actually covering up something else?"

"But he's about to finish his progress isn't he?" Phineas argued loudly, "You and Slytherin both verified these ancient runes and determined that if he had actually managed to finish this entire process as per the magic based on these runes, he would in fact have completed his control over this castle, so what's the point of him making this demonstration, purposely trying to trick us for fun?"

His words sparked a debate among the many Headmasters, each of them seemed to have their own opinion, but in the end, no one could quite put their finger on it.

It was Dumbledore who eventually put a stop to their bickering and said in a quiet voice.

"Actually, there are only two crucial questions about Riddle that we have right now, namely why he must start this Triwizard Tournament, and then what exactly he wants when he is about to seize this castle."

"Our demands are quite simple themselves, one is to get the castle back in its entirety rather than just gaining only nominal ownership through a blood pact, and two is to win this Triwizard Tournament and establish our foundational roots in France."

"The first and most important thing that we have to do is to satisfy our own demands first, I trust Jon in the matter of the Triwizard Tournament and with him competing, there is no need for anyone else to interfere too much. So for now all we have to work on is figuring out how to get this castle back intact that has been tossed around by Riddle, which is the aim of my decisive promise to him to hold the Triwizard Tournament in the first place."

Dumbledore turned to look at the group of Headmasters on the wall.

"I think you all know better than I do that this castle may not even be worth anything to Riddle, it's just a sign to show off his reign in Britain, but to us, it's the root of everything."

At this, the headmasters in the portrait, all nodded solemnly, agreeing strongly with Dumbledore's words.

Then, Slytherin's voice rang out.

"Taking back the castle intact is not really a problem for us. For this castle has never been subservient to Riddle from the beginning, it belonged to us in the first place, and all we have to do is remove all the heavy influences that have been inflicted upon it now, and then Hogwarts can become Hogwarts castle that it once was."

Dumbledore's gaze deepened as he looked like he was contemplating something.

"If that's all, it is of course wouldn't be that difficult for us, but the first thing we need to make sure of is, that the influence he exerts on this castle can't be allowed to go any further, or I always feel that it would lead to a consequence that no one, no matter who it might be, would be able to bear."

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