Professor Vampire.

Chapter 267: Dance tonight

"Do you want to know about Mr. Crouch?" Percy was stunned.

"Yes." Dracula nodded and went straight to the point, "Let's talk about Crouch's family first. How did his wife and son die?"

"Ah, isn't this a good idea?" Percy hesitated.

He always felt that it was not appropriate to tell others about his boss's family situation directly, but the person who asked this question was the professor he respected and feared, so Percy was embarrassed to refuse.

"Why, as a personal assistant, don't you know the specific situation of your boss?" Dracula saw Percy's hesitation, so he added fuel to the fire, "You are not doing a good job. Weiss, don't say you are my student when you go out in the future."

"How could it be?" Percy said loudly, "I asked many colleagues in the Ministry of Magic, did sufficient research, and carefully understood Mr. Crouch's situation! I can definitely become a qualified assistant!"

As expected, Percy took the bait at once. In order to prove his work ability, he told the outside world about Crouch's situation like pouring beans.

Harry was a little embarrassed, feeling that this newcomer to the Ministry of Magic who thought he was very capable was completely played around by Professor Dracula.

"Mr. Crouch is actually quite pitiful," Percy sighed and told Dracula, "During the wizard war against the mysterious man, he might have been too busy with work and neglected to teach his son..."

"Later, Barty Crouch Jr. became a Death Eater..."

"This is the first time I've heard of this," Dracula's eyes moved, "Since his son is a Death Eater, is it possible that Crouch himself was also bewitched and became a pawn of Voldemort in secret?"

"That's impossible!" Percy denied flatly, "Anyone in the Ministry of Magic could be a Death Eater, but Mr. Crouch definitely can't be!"

He explained, "Professor Dracula, you may not know... After the mysterious man left, Mr. Crouch personally tried his son, ignored Barty's sophistry, and personally locked him up in Azkaban."

"Is that so?" Dracula said. Gula said thoughtfully, "So... he is a righteous person who sacrifices his relatives for the greater good?"

"There is no one more righteous than Mr. Crouch in the Ministry of Magic." Percy said seriously with a look of admiration in his eyes, "Mr. Crouch was the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time. Many of his tough measures actually provided great help to the Ministry of Magic in fighting against the Death Eaters..."

"For example, Aurors were allowed to use the Unforgivable Curse on Death Eaters, and Death Eaters with conclusive evidence could be directly imprisoned in Azkaban..."

"But his measures were not necessarily correct," Dracula shook his head, "Wasn't Sirius Black misunderstood by wizards for more than ten years because he was directly imprisoned in Azkaban without interrogation?"

Harry, who was listening to their conversation with relish, suddenly changed his face when he heard about Sirius, and his mood became much darker.

Because of this incident, he couldn't appreciate the senior official of the Ministry of Magic.

"That... that's just an example." Percy said stubbornly, "Those measures are generally beneficial, as can be seen from the fact that Mr. Crouch has gained a lot of prestige with those measures."

"So why didn't he become the Minister of Magic?" Dracula asked, "Just because his son is a Death Eater?"

"Professor, this is actually a big stain." Percy shook his head helplessly, "So the later Minister Fudge made an excellent performance and was elected as the Minister of Magic this time."

"There is no need to be so euphemistic, Weiss." Dracula sneered, "Fudge didn't have any excellent performance. Didn't he just take the opportunity to unite other members to exclude Crouch, and then write letters to Dumbledore every day, using Dumbledore's reputation as the 'pillar of the magic world' to create a humble and stable personality for himself?"

"Hehe, now that his position is almost stable, he wants to get rid of Dumbledore's influence."

Dracula did not restrain his contempt for people like Fudge at all.

"Ah, that's not right..." Percy's sweat dripped down his forehead, and he picked up the napkin on the table and kept wiping his forehead.

"But it's understandable. After all, in politics, it's no big deal to use dirty means." Dracula changed the subject.

"Crouch is not necessarily a selfless good man. He put his son in Azkaban, and it is very likely that he struggled for his hope of becoming a minister."

"Professor, you may have some misunderstanding about Mr. Crouch..." Percy wiped his sweat more frequently.

From time to time, he turned his head to look at Bagman, the director of the Department of Magical Sports and Magic, hoping that another Ministry of Magic official present did not notice this.

He was worrying too much. Bagman was happily chatting with Krum and trying to pull this professional Quidditch player into his gambling game.

"You are still too young, Weiss." Dracula chuckled, "Many things are not as simple as you think, nor as fair as they seem on the surface."

Seeing that Percy still looked a little unconvinced, he shook his head, "Forget it, you may not have completely integrated into their politicians. You will know it naturally when you see more."

"Now tell me about other things. What's the matter with Crouch's wife?"

Seeing that Professor Dracula did not press step by step, Percy breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is actually known to everyone," he said, "Mrs. Crouch's health has not been good for a long time. When she learned that Barty Crouch Jr. became a Death Eater and was imprisoned in Azkaban for life by Mr. Crouch himself, her health condition deteriorated."

"Later, for some unknown reason, Barty Crouch Jr. died in Azkaban. Mrs. Crouch could not bear the shock of the news and left soon after."

"Wait," Dracula suddenly frowned, "You said that Barty Crouch Jr. and Mrs. Crouch died at the same time, right?"

"Yes, Mrs. Crouch can't bear the pain of losing her son. This is a normal thing, right?" Percy asked doubtfully.

"Maybe." Dracula didn't say much, just nodded gently.

Percy and those slow-witted officials of the Ministry of Magic may not realize any problems, but Dracula is different. He looks at things from a preconceived standpoint of suspicion of Crouch.

It might be normal to single out Mrs. Crouch's death from excessive grief and serious illness, but why did Barty Crouch Jr. die in Azkaban?

It can be learned from many places that Barty Jr. was a young man who joined the Death Eaters shortly after graduation. His body would never be so weak that he could not withstand the torture of the Dementors in just a few months - Sirius was tortured for a full thirteen years!

Not only that, since Barty Jr. chose to quibble during the trial, it means that he has no intention of dying, which can also rule out the possibility of suicide.

Then the question is, why did an excellent, young wizard who did not intend to commit suicide die in Azkaban for no reason?

Dracula is going to take time to go to Azkaban again to see if he can find other evidence...

Unknowingly, everyone present had eaten and drunk enough, and the banquet came to an end.

Dumbledore stood up first and smiled at the laughing and talking little wizards.

"It looks like everyone has finished eating," he said with a smile, "Then, the next step is to move on to the part we are most looking forward to - the dance!"

"Everyone stand up!"

The students stood up excitedly, carefully tidying up their messed-up clothes and hairstyles at the banquet, and the witches hurriedly took out small mirrors to touch up their makeup.

After seeing everyone stand up from their chairs, Dumbledore raised his hand and waved his wand -

All the tables flew to the wall with a "whoosh" sound, and were neatly arranged close to the wall, leaving a large open space in the center of the auditorium.

Then, he conjured up a high stage, attached to the right wall, on which was placed a set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello and several organs.

At this time, the top streamers in the magic entertainment circle, the members of the Weird Sisters Wizard Band, rushed onto the stage while screaming, and the audience immediately burst into thunderous applause.

Most of the members of this group are witches. They have long, thick hair, wear black robes that are deliberately torn and tattered, and pick up their own instruments.

"Oh, that's their lead singer, Myron Wagtail!" Ginny looked at the band on the stage and patted Harry's back excitedly, "Mom usually likes to listen to her singing on the magic radio!"

"And Donaghan Temlit, he is the only wizard in the Weird Sisters, he plays the bass, I heard that he is too good at playing, so the band made an exception and invited him in..."

Obviously, Ginny loves this band in the magic world very much, and can call out the names of every wizard in the band.

Harry also watched the band on the stage with great interest, almost forgetting what to do next.

At this moment, he suddenly found that the lanterns on other tables were extinguished, and several other warriors and their dance partners stood up.

"Harry, Ginny, hurry up!" Hermione came over and reminded kindly, "You should start dancing too!"

After saying this, she blushed and handed her hand to Krum who was looking at her expectantly.

Harry stood up quickly and walked into the brightly lit dance floor with Ginny, carefully avoiding the eyes of his friends - he could see Seamus and Dean waving at him, secretly making fun of his stiff movements.

Then, Ginny took the initiative to grab his two hands, put one of his hands on her waist, and held the other tightly in her hand.

It was the first time for Harry to hold a girl's hand. He felt a heat in his heart rushing straight to his forehead. His palms suddenly sweated a little, as if half of his body had lost strength. How could he remember the dance moves taught by Professor McGonagall?

He accidentally stepped on Ginny's toes.

"I'm sorry, I..." Harry apologized quickly and looked at Ginny's eyes with a guilty conscience, but found that her eyes were full of smiles, smiling foolishly, without any intention of blaming him.

Harry's mood slowly relaxed.

In a slow and gentle song played by the weird sisters, Harry's performance was not as bad as expected.

While slowly turning in circles under the guidance of Ginny, he silently recited the steps and frequency taught by Professor McGonagall. The cooperation between the two became more and more tacit, and the viewing of the dance was getting better and better.

Gradually, Harry had the energy to look at other spectators who had not started dancing yet. They were watching the warriors' leading dance with envy, surprise, or appreciation.

He was very glad that he had passed another test and did not make a fool of himself in public.

Soon, many people entered the dance floor, and the warriors were no longer the center of attention.

Neville and Hannah Abbott were dancing nearby. Hannah frowned and dodged frequently because Neville stepped on her foot clumsily. Fortunately, Hannah was very considerate and deliberately slowed down her steps and kept comforting him;

Dumbledore was dancing the waltz with Ms. Maxime. Compared with Ms. Maxime, Dumbledore, who was originally very tall, was almost a dwarf. The top of his pointed hat just touched her chin.

However, for such a big woman, her dance steps were very elegant, and there was no sign of clumsiness like Hagrid;

On the other side, Professor McGonagall invited Professor Dracula to enter the dance floor to dance together.

Professor McGonagall's dancing posture is needless to say. After all, she is the "dance teacher" who personally taught the warriors to dance before the Christmas ball and has a professional level of dancing.

But to the surprise of all the little wizards, Professor Dracula, who had always been low-key, actually had a good dancing level. He cooperated with Professor McGonagall, who was at a professional level, surprisingly perfectly, and almost took up most of the limelight of the dance.

"I said Professor Dracula could dance!" When the weird sisters switched songs, Harry heard Fred showing off to his dance partner Angelina,

"When he asked us to experience the Imperius Curse, I knew that Professor Dracula must have done special research on dancing to control me and George to do such difficult movements!"

Soon, the second song sounded, and the rhythm was much more cheerful than before.

Fred and Angelina immediately began to dance unrestrainedly-

Fred tried to recall the perfect dance posture under the control of Professor Dracula's Imperius Curse, but it looked a mess to outsiders, as if he was pulling Angelina to learn to play with the Chinese Fireball Dragon...

Harry and Ginny looked at his performance with amusement, then looked at each other and laughed easily.

"Want another dance?" Harry asked, blushing.

Ginny nodded heavily.