Suddenly, a sharp explosion sounded in the quiet night, and a cloaked black figure appeared out of nowhere. He seemed to be holding something in his arms. He strolled along the path and finally stopped in front of a big house.
Ding Dong!
The doorbell rang.
"Who the hell is knocking on the door so late at night?"
Crouch was woken up in the middle of the night and was in a very bad mood. The moment the door was opened, the look of astonishment on Crouch's face froze completely, because he saw a dead person holding an ugly baby in his arms, and the baby was pointing a magic wand at him.
"The soul is out of the body!"
A hoarse voice sounded in the night.
Crouch, who was under the Imperius Curse, restrained the expression on his face, turned to the side as if nothing had happened, and let the person outside come in, as if he was entertaining a guest he hadn't seen for a long time.
Peter soon found the unconscious little Batty, who was hidden in a very secret place, covered with a very good quality invisibility cloak.
Voldemort raised his wand, awakened the still unconscious man in front of him, and removed the Imperius Curse from him.
Little Batty opened his eyes and looked at the strange man in front of him in confusion. His gaze fell on his father beside him and he was startled. Then his gaze fell on the baby in the man's arms and his mind was in a mess.
"It's me. I'm back."
"Master, you came to save me, to save your most loyal servant." Little Batty showed a bright smile on his face: "I knew that the master was not dead, it's really great, really great."
"Okay little Barty, sit down."
Voldemort asked Old Barty to leave the living room. He looked at the loyal servant in front of him and said hoarsely, "I have not yet fully recovered my original strength. Now I have a plan. I need a loyal and reliable servant to help me carry out the plan so that I can completely take back my power."
"I am willing." Little Barty said without any hesitation, "I am willing to take all risks for my master."
"I need you to bring Harry Potter to me." Voldemort stated the ultimate goal of the mission.
"Master, what should I do to bring Harry Potter to you?" Little Barty had naturally heard of the name of the Savior Potter.
"I want you to disguise yourself as the old Auror Moody and venture to Hogwarts." Voldemort began to tell his plan.
"Wormtail captured Bertha Jorkins in Arnia, and that's how we got the news about you. I also learned a lot from her, including that the old Auror Moody is going to teach at Hogwarts, and that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament this year." Voldemort paused and continued, "I want Harry Potter to become a warrior. You need to monitor and guide Harry Potter during the Triwizard Tournament. I need to ensure that Harry Potter gets the Triwizard Cup, and I need you to exchange the trophy for a portkey so that the first person who catches it can bring him to me."
"Ahem, sorry, Master." Wormtail coughed and reminded, "There is something I must remind you. Harry Potter may be considered outstanding among his peers, but with the genius named Albert Anderson around, it is almost impossible for Harry Potter to get the Triwizard Cup first, unless we get rid of that Mudblood first."
As if to strengthen Voldemort's determination, Peter reminded him, "Albert Anderson has already won several world-class championship titles and is known as the most talented wizard of this century. I am sure he will become a champion of Hogwarts."
"Albert Anderson?" Voldemort recalled the name for a moment.
He remembered that when he possessed Quirrell, there seemed to be a student named Albert Anderson who always liked to ask Quirrell questions about Defense Against the Dark Arts, and finally made Quirrell want to avoid him whenever he saw him.
"Wormtail, I know you hate that Mudblood." Voldemort looked at Peter and sneered, "He was the one who put you in Azkaban prison, right?"
"Yes, that's him." Peter shrank his neck, gritted his teeth, and seemed to have spent a lot of effort to muster up the courage to say: "But what I said is also true. Albert Anderson may be the biggest obstacle to the whole plan."
"It's not appropriate to have the Mudblood disappear now, especially when he is at the top of his game. It would attract a lot of attention, and with Harry Potter becoming the champion of Hogwarts, Dumbledore would start to become suspicious of the whole thing."
To Voldemort, he was a smarter Mudblood. Rather than risking the plan being exposed in advance due to the chain reaction caused by his disappearance, Voldemort would rather believe in Crouch Jr.'s ability and believe that he could handle the matter, rather than ruin the entire plan because of Wormtail's selfishness.
Of course, even if there are problems, the plan can still be readjusted. For example, at a critical moment, Crouch Jr. can even use the door key directly to bring Harry Potter to himself.
"Master, I will take care of this matter." Little Barty showed a confident smile: "I will not let that mudblood affect this great plan."
Yes, in Barty Jr.'s opinion, the truly powerful wizards are all pure-blooded, and the Mudbloods are just at that level, so there is no need to worry about them at all.
Wormtail mentioned this matter simply because he wanted to take this opportunity to avenge himself.
Peter saw that Voldemort had made a decision, so he didn't dare to mention it again, for fear of causing the other party to be unhappy and use the Cruciatus Curse to torture him. However, deep down, Peter still thought that Voldemort had made a stupid decision.
Peter admitted that he did have selfish motives, but having dealt with Albert Anderson before, he understood better than anyone how terrifying that guy was.
Do you really think that winning so many world-class championships is fake
Damn pureblood arrogance.
"We need to deal with old Auror Moody first. Before that, we need to prepare the Polyjuice Potion." Voldemort said and looked at Wormtail, who took out a bottle of pre-prepared Polyjuice Potion, which they bought from the black market.
"This bottle of compound potion can probably last for a few days, but we need to buy more compound potions, but doing so will easily attract the attention of certain people." Peter lowered his voice and said, "It's best for us to make it ourselves, which can avoid a lot of trouble."
"Don't worry about that. My potion skills are pretty good, so brewing a compound potion shouldn't be a problem." Little Barty is very confident in his potion.
"I have already purchased some materials, which should be enough for you to make the first pot. However, the horns of two-horned beasts and the skin of African tree snakes are difficult to obtain. You have to find time to purchase more materials from the black market to ensure that you have enough compound potion."
"Then we have to subdue Moody, which is a bit difficult. We need him to be alive, not to kill him." Voldemort continued: "Wormtail will help you. Before that, you have to restore yourself to normal and prepare for the next plan."
In the next few days, Voldemort controlled Crouch to buy common herbs for compound potions from the pharmacy, while Peter disguised himself as a foreign wizard and bought bicorn horns and African tree snake skins on the black market.
Boomslang skins are a staple in polyjuice potions, and are not commonly used in magical potions, making them a banned item.
After Barty and Peter had made all the preparations, they quietly came to Moody's house. As a former Auror, Alastor Moody was very vigilant, and it was not easy to subdue him.
Of course, Barty Jr. and Peter had already made preparations for today. They even used the Disillusionment Charm on themselves, intending to take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack on the other party.
However, plans always fail to keep up with changes.
Little Barty and Peter didn't know that Moody was blind in one eye and had a magic eye installed. So when Peter rang the doorbell, Moody had already seen Peter who had cast the Disillusionment Spell on him through the magic eye.
How is that possible!
When Moody saw Peter, he was very surprised. He never expected that Peter Pettigrew, who was supposed to be dead, would appear at his doorstep.
Peter's target is obviously himself.
However, Moody did not attempt to flee, and Peter Pettigrew did not allow himself to be frightened to the point of needing to flee.
He now wanted to catch Peter and find out what was going on.
What's more, Moody had a huge advantage because Peter didn't know that he had discovered him through the perspective of the magic eye.
The doorbell rang for a long time, but Moody showed no sign of opening the door.
Seeing no response from inside, Peter used magic to unlock the door and broke in. He obviously realized that Moody had discovered him, or was he still sleeping
The former is more likely.
Moody might have some kind of alarm, and they had to catch him before he escaped, otherwise all their plans would fail.
As soon as he entered the house, Peter was attacked. Although Moody was old and had some inconvenience in his legs and feet, he still made Peter miserable with his rich combat experience.
An explosion sounded in the room, and Peter hid behind a wall in embarrassment.
"Damn it, Barty, come and help!" Peter shouted. They had to subdue Moody as soon as possible before others arrived.
Of course, Peter called out to Batty just to distract Moody, and his opponent was an elderly man who couldn't fight as flexibly as before.
Peter's shout made Moody stunned. His intuition told him that there might be another enemy around.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Moody prepared to retreat, but Batty Jr. did not give him a chance. He quickly surrounded Moody from another corner and trapped him in the room.
"We must subdue Moody as soon as possible." Peter shouted to Little Barty, "We can't let him escape like this. We must stop him."
"Shut up." Barty Jr. waved his wand to blast open the wall, rushed into the room fearlessly, and used a stunning spell to knock down Moody who was about to Apparate.
"This guy is really troublesome. I almost let him run away." Peter couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. If Moody really ran away, the consequences would be disastrous.
"Hurry up and get this place back to normal, the guys from the Ministry of Magic will be here soon." Barty glanced at the useless guy who could only yell, pulled out a few strands of Moody's hair, and added them to the compound potion. He drank a sip of the potion and turned into Moody.
Then, he took Moody's wooden leg and magical eye and installed them on himself.
"What should we do with this guy?"
While using a repair spell to fix the damage in the house caused by the battle, Peter asked Barty Jr. what he was going to do with Moody. They had to keep this guy alive.
If Barty Jr. wants to hide the truth from Dumbledore, he must know Moody's past and habits in order to hide it from Dumbledore. Moreover, he needs to use Moody's hair to make the compound potion.
Finally, they turned Moody into a mouse and temporarily locked him in a cage created by magic, planning to deal with the Ministry of Magic before returning to deal with him.
After helping to restore the traces of battle in the house, Peter hurried away.
According to the original plan, Barty Jr. took Moody's wand and made the trash can in the yard explode, sending garbage flying everywhere to deal with the upcoming Ministry of Magic employees.
In fact, the plan went so smoothly that there was even a bin spewing rubbish when the Muggle police arrived.
The expressions on the faces of the Muggle police officers were quite interesting.
Finally, it was him, or rather Moody's old friend Arthur, who came to deal with the matter.
Arthur had to modify the memories of those policemen before he could put an end to the incident and let them leave.
"What's going on?" Arthur asked wearily.
"I heard the alarm go off." Moody looked around vigilantly. "I couldn't see the other party, but I could hear the sound of someone breaking into the yard. The other party was quietly walking towards the house, but he didn't succeed. He probably didn't expect that the garbage can would ambush him. As a result, he had to retreat temporarily because of the noise. I suspect that the other party might be someone who wants to seek revenge on me."
"I'm glad you're okay. At least the situation isn't too bad. I think you'll just get a warning from the Ministry of Magic at most." Arthur breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. Although he suspected that Moody was being suspicious, he also knew that he had many enemies, especially in the current situation. God knows if those dark wizards at the Quidditch World Cup would get carried away and come and cause trouble for Moody.
"Thanks to you, otherwise I would be in trouble."
"I remember you were going to take up your post at Hogwarts today," asked Mr. Weasley.
"Yes, today."
"Well, to be honest... it's not auspicious to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"I'll only teach for a year, to help Dumbledore, so he can find a suitable Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." Moody muttered, "Then I can go back to my peaceful retirement life."
"I have to go and help you deal with the people from the Improper Use of Magic Office." Arthur reminded before leaving, "If Rita Skeeter comes to interview you, it's best to ignore her. It would be even better if you can avoid her."
After Arthur Weasley left, Barty Jr. returned to the house to take inventory of Moody's clothing and Dark Arts Detector.
Finally, Barty Jr. discovered that there was a secret chamber in Moody's magic box, so he used the Imperius Curse to control Moody and put him in the secret chamber of the magic box before setting off for Hogwarts.