In the darkness, a figure kept moving back and forth in the Potions Professor's office, seeming to be rummaging for something.
Although the other party had paid great attention to it, after all, time was tight, and Snape's potion storage cabinet and material box were still messed up.
"What are you looking for? Polyjuice Potion?"
A voice suddenly sounded from behind the desk behind the man, making him tremble in fright.
"Avada Kedavra!"
With a "crash" sound, a teacup was hit by green light and suddenly turned into a cloud of powder in mid-air. Behind the desk, a white hand waved casually, slightly dispersing the pink mist.
"Barty Crouch Jr., right?" the voice sounded again, calmly with a hint of laziness, "Why, why didn't you come to me when you got to Hogwarts? What are you hiding?"
"Maka McClain..."
There were no lights in the room, and the two of them were hidden in the darkness, and they couldn't even see their faces clearly.
"Humph..." Little Barty smiled evilly, but held the wand in his hand tighter, "As expected of the wizard that the Dark Lord often mentioned... Even Dumbledore didn't notice me, but you can be so accurate The ground guard is here..."
"Stop talking nonsense, are you ready?" Maka said in an impatient tone, "The Dark Lord should have told you the plan, but look, the first competition event has passed … If I don’t come to you, are you going to carry it out by yourself?”
"This is also what the Dark Lord meant... Haha..." Little Barty grinned and stretched out his tongue like a snake, "This plan is very important to the Dark Lord, and there cannot be any mistakes... do you understand?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?"
In the pitch-black environment, a sharp invisible blade passed by Barty Crouch Jr.'s ear. He was startled at first, shrank his head and touched the shell of his ear, and then the belated tingling suddenly spread.
"You-" He lowered his voice and let out an angry roar.
"I think I have to warn you first... If you dare to delay my plan, I will let you experience the soul magic that is more terrifying than the Cruciatus Curse."
Before he finished speaking, a black fog skull rushed towards Barty Crouch Jr. at extremely fast speeds.
He couldn't understand why he could clearly "see" the same black skull in the dark. All he knew was that the skull was moving at an astonishing speed and appeared so suddenly that he had no time to avoid it.
Immediately afterwards, he felt a blur in front of his eyes, and then there was a pain in his body that drove him almost crazy.
The feeling was very similar to the pain when being punished by one's master with the Cruciatus Curse, but unlike the Cruciatus Curse, this pain came very quickly, as if the power of the Cruciatus Curse was maximized all at once.
He could even feel that his soul was being pushed out of his body bit by bit by the black skull...
"Isn't this magic fascinating?"
Maka waved her wand, and the skull turned into black mist again and dispersed. He was still sitting on the armchair behind his desk, and said in a calm tone: "It's not like the Cruciatus Curse, which will cause permanent soul damage over time - as long as I control the intensity, it can continue until I can magically Consumed."
"How about it, isn't it cool?" He paused and then said to himself, "Anyway, I think it's cool..."
Little Barty had no strength to speak. He was half-kneeling on the cold floor, breathing heavily, but he was extremely conscious.
"The polyjuice potion is at the bottom of the penultimate cabinet. The biggest bottle..." Maka suddenly said, "Keep what needs to be kept, take away what needs to be taken away, and then go back to where it came from. .”
"… I see."
Little Barty said weakly, and honestly picked up a potion bottle from the cabinet, then took out an envelope from his arms and carefully placed it on the desk.
"Then I'll leave first..."
Maka didn't say anything, and little Barty didn't care - now he just wanted to leave here as quickly as possible, away from this guy who was as scary as the Dark Lord in front of him.
"correct… "
Little Barty's whole body froze suddenly, and he froze in place with his mouth half open.
"Don't stick your tongue out in front of me from now on." Maka's voice was lazier at first, but what he said sent a chill down Barty's back. "If you stick it out one more time, I'll I won’t be able to open your mouth for the rest of your life.”
"… yes."
He quickly shut his mouth and left the office as if running away.
But little Barty didn't know that at the moment he closed the door, another person walked out gently from the inner room of the office.
"Are you really planning to cooperate with the mysterious man now?" A smooth and frivolous voice suddenly sounded.
"What I just did is what you are going to do." Maka did not look back. He just spread his hands and said casually, "To be honest, I thought you would not respond to my invitation. After all, you know , Hogwarts is very dangerous these days."
"I am more courageous now than before." The man smiled, "Besides, it is a rare opportunity to show off my skills, and I don't want to miss it!"
"I'm still wondering if you have been so prosperous in the Muggle world that you don't want to return to the magical world..." Maka said easily, "I heard that you are now a Muggle. Sir—that’s rare among wizards.”
"I can't hang out with Muggles all the time. It's too boring..." He looked very proud and said in a brisk tone, "I took advantage of this period to practice my magic skills. Now, I need it. A thrilling adventure full of dangers!"
"Then it's up to you," Maka nodded, "Let's not mention your magic level, at least I can trust your acting skills... Take this, before starting the second event of the Triwizard Competition, first Get used to it!”
"how about you?"
Maka didn't say anything more, because there seemed to be some movement outside - the sound was a bit far away from here, but it was very obvious in the silent night.
"You go ahead! Professor Snape will be back soon..." He waved his hand and said, "I have prepared the script for you. When the time comes, you only need to perform your play well, and the script will be yours. ”
"no problem!"
The man patted his chest, opened the door and left quickly.
On the other side, on a certain staircase where the noise had just been made, Filch was shouting angrily.
"What are you doing with all the noise here? Do you want to wake up everyone in the castle? I must catch you, Peeves, I must catch you, you... Hey, what is this?"
Filch stopped.
There was only a soft "click" sound, which was the sound of mechanisms snapping together - Filch picked up a box and closed it.
"The box?" Filch whispered at the bottom of the stairs, "My precious cat! This is a clue to the Triwizard Tournament! It belongs to a warrior in the school... Whose is it?"
"Peeves!" Filch shouted happily, "You stole something!"
His hideous, saggy face and bulging pale eyes stared upward. It was a dark, deserted staircase.
"Hiding, right?" he whispered, "I'm coming to catch you, Peeves... You actually stole the clues to the Triwizard Tournament, Peeves... Dumbledore will never let you go easy this time. You, you dirty, sneaky, prankster..."
Filch began to climb the stairs, followed by his scrawny, dull gray cat.
That was Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat. She was very intelligent and was staring straight ahead of Filch, as if she had discovered something.
"Filch? What happened?"
Filch stopped and turned around.
There was a man standing at the bottom of the stairs... it was Snape. He was currently wearing a gray shirt-style pajamas, but on his feet he was still wearing a pair of muddy boots.
It's just that the trousers of his pajamas seem to be too long, making it difficult for people to see clearly what shoes he is wearing.
"It's Peeves, Professor," Filch whispered viciously, "and he threw the box down the stairs."
Snape hurried up the stairs and stopped beside Filch.
"Peeves?" Snape said softly, staring at the box in Filch's hand, "This is Potter's..."
He said, squinting his eyes and looking around sharply, with a hesitant expression on his face.
"Professor, what brings you here?"
"Of course not," snapped Snape. "I just heard a loud bang and a scream—"
"Yes, Professor, that was the sound of the box falling—"
"I'll just come over and investigate—"
"—It was thrown by Peeves, Professor!"
Filch kept talking, which made Snape click his tongue impatiently.
"Okay..." he said unhappily, "I have to go to the office. You can keep looking. If-"
Kick, kick, kick…
An unpleasant knocking sound on wood caused Snape to stop abruptly.
Both he and Filch looked down at the bottom of the stairs, and moments later Mad-Eye Moody appeared limping. Moody was wearing his old traveling cloak over his nightgown and carrying his cane as usual.
"Slumber party, huh?" he said gruffly toward the top of the stairs.
"Professor Snape and I heard something, Professor," Filch said immediately, "It was Peeves, the prankster, throwing things around as usual -"
Moody took another step toward the stairs, his magical eye scanning Snape, and then, without a doubt, settling on a spot beside the stairs.
Suddenly, his incomplete eyebrows jumped slightly.