Mr. Crouch looked like he had been wandering outside for many days. The knees of his robe were torn and stained with blood. His face was covered with scars, his beard was unshaven, and his face looked gray and haggard.
His hair and beard, which had been neatly combed, were now messy, and looked like they had not been washed or trimmed for some time.
However, although his appearance was very different from usual, his behavior seemed even more bizarre than his image.
Mr. Crouch seemed to be talking to someone who only he could see, and he was mumbling something and gesticulating, with alternating calm and agitated expressions that Harry and Bagman had no idea what he was doing.
When Harry saw him, he remembered an old tramp he met when he went out shopping with the Dursleys before he entered Hogwarts... That mentally ill tramp also kept talking crazily to the air.
At that time, Aunt Petunia grabbed Dudley's hand and pulled him across the street to avoid the lunatic. Uncle Vernon took the opportunity to talk endlessly to the whole family about how he was going to deal with beggars and tramps...
"Mr. Crouch, what's wrong with you?" Bagman looked startled as well, and walked up to Mr. Crouch at a loss as to what to do.
Crouch seemed not to notice him at all and was just talking to a nearby tree.
"… Weatherby, when you're done with this, send an owl to Dumbledore to confirm the number of students from Durmstrang who will be participating in the tournament. Karkaroff reported that there are twelve…"
Harry also remembered that Weatherby was Percy's name that Crouch remembered incorrectly, and Fred and George laughed at Percy for a long time for this.
"Mr. Crouch?" Bagman asked again carefully.
"... and then send an owl to Madam Maxime. She may also want to increase the number of students, since Karkaroff's number has increased to twelve..." Crouch still acted as if he didn't hear anything and kept talking to himself, "Let's do it, Weatherby, okay? Okay..."
Bagman: "..."
"Why is Mr. Crouch here?" Harry walked up to Bagman and asked in confusion, "Didn't Percy say he wasn't feeling well and had been staying at home to rest?"
"I don't know." Bagman shook his head blankly. "Could it be that he has gone insane due to the stress of work?"
Crouch still didn't hear the two people's discussion. He stood there stiffly with his eyes bulging, staring at a tree in front of him, muttering silently.
Then, he suddenly staggered a few steps to the side and fell to his knees with a thump.
"Mr. Crouch?" Harry called out. "Are you all right?"
Crouch's eyes rolled upwards, with most of the whites showing.
Harry turned to look at Bagman, who gritted his teeth and rushed into the bushes with Harry, looking down in panic at Crouch who was kneeling on the ground.
"Something must have happened to him... What should we do?" Faced with such a situation, Bagman did not behave like a Ministry of Magic official at all. He was completely at a loss and paced around like an ant on hot pot.
"I think we'd better go and call for help," Harry whispered to Bagman, seeing that he was unreliable and had to think of a solution himself. "Listen, Mr. Bagman, we'd better call Madam Pomfrey over..."
"Dumbledore!" At this moment, Crouch suddenly shouted loudly.
He gasped for air and lunged at Harry, grabbing him by the Hogwarts robes and pulling him to him.
But Crouch's eyes were fixed directly above Harry's head, as if there was something there.
"I want to... see... Dumbledore..." he said roughly.
"All right," said Harry quickly, "as soon as you get up, Mr. Crouch, we'll go find Dumbledore right away..."
"I did... a... stupid thing..." Crouch continued panting, ignoring Harry's words.
He looked completely crazy, his eyes bulged out and rolled around in strange ways, saliva dripping down his chin. "You must... tell Dumbledore about this!"
Crouch's eyes suddenly turned and glared at Harry.
"Who... are you?" he whispered.
"Good Lord, Mr. Crouch, how could you not recognize this?" Bagman said in a fuss. "Are you out of your mind?"
Harry glared back at Bagman, raised his hand to signal him not to interrupt, then turned back to Crouch.
"I'm a student at Hogwarts," Harry said carefully.
At the same time, he looked very nervous, and his brain was working rapidly, trying to find a way to quickly get the professors here.
"You're not...his?" Crouch asked quietly, his mouth drooping.
"No," Harry echoed Crouch.
In fact, he had no idea what Crouch was talking about.
"That's Dumbledore's man?" Crouch asked again.
"Yes," said Harry.
Now he understood a little bit. The "he" that Crouch just mentioned should be the opposite of Dumbledore's camp, that is to say... that "he" represents Voldemort!
Crouch relaxed slightly and pulled Harry closer.
Harry tried to pry Crouch's hands free of his robes, but his grip was too tight to be loosened.
"Give Dumbledore a heads-up..." said Crouch.
"If you let me go, I'll go find Dumbledore," said Harry impatiently. "Let me go, Mr. Crouch, and I'll go find him..."
"Thank you, Weatherby, I'd like a cup of tea when you've finished that. My wife and son will be here soon, and we're going to a concert tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge."
Suddenly, Crouch let go of Harry and began talking to a tree again, seeming to have forgotten Harry for the moment.
Harry was utterly amazed, and Bagman gaped at him, feeling his own mental image of Crouch take a hit.
"Yes, my son recently passed his twelve Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations with very satisfactory results. Thank you..." Crouch's words became coherent again, but became confusing again.
"Yes, I am very proud of him... But don't let this matter delay our work. If you can give me the memo from the Andorran Minister of Magic, I may have time to draft a reply..."
"You stay here and watch him!" Harry took a deep breath, turned his head and said to Bagman, "I'll go find Dumbledore. I know the password to his office, so it will be quicker-"
"But he's mad..." Bagman said hesitantly, turning to look at Crouch. "How about we put him here with a Binding Charm, and then go find Dumbledore together?"
Crouch was still chattering at the tree, seemingly convinced that it was Percy.
"But are you sure you can trap Mr. Crouch with just a binding spell?" Harry asked, "At least one person should stay here to prevent him from running around Hogwarts... Are you planning to leave a student here?"
Bagman was convinced.
He nodded helplessly, then carefully cast an armor spell on himself and stood several trees away from Crouch.
Harry was about to leave when he saw this, but his action seemed to provoke Mr. Crouch, causing him to suddenly change his posture, grab Harry's knees, and drag him to the ground again.
"Don't... leave... me!" he whispered, his eyes bulging again. "I... escaped... had to alert... Dumbledore... he's back... broke into... the house... and has taken control..."
"It's all my fault... my son... it's all my fault... telling Dumbledore... Harry Potter... the Dark Lord... has recovered..."
"I'll go find Dumbledore if you let me go, Mr. Crouch!" said Harry irritably.
He didn't pay any attention to what Crouch was saying, just thought he was still talking nonsense.
"Help me, Mr. Bagman!" Harry said distractedly, looking at Bagman.
Bagman hesitated, then raised his wand towards Crouch.
"Relashio."
Crouch finally lost his strength and released Harry's knees.
Harry took the opportunity to break free from Crouch's grasp and ran quickly out of the Forbidden Forest and across the dark Quidditch pitch.
By this time, the Quidditch pitch was empty, John, Krum, Cedric and Fleur were all gone.
Harry ran back to the castle as fast as he could, climbed up the stone steps in two steps, passed through two oak doors, jumped up the marble stairs, and ran to the third floor -
There is an empty corridor on the third floor with a gargoyle in the middle. Behind the gargoyle is a spiral staircase that leads directly to the principal's office on the eighth floor.
"Ice... iced lemonade!" he gasped at it.
This was the password to the secret staircase leading to Dumbledore's office - at least it had been like that until two years ago.
However, it was obvious that the command had changed, for instead of moving and jumping aside, the stone monster stood still, glaring at Harry fiercely.
"Get out of the way!" Harry shouted at it anxiously, "I'm in a hurry, hurry up!"
However, this stone monster obviously would not open the door just because of the threat from a little wizard, and its glare at Harry became even more ferocious.
Harry looked around the corridor anxiously, trying to see if there was a professor passing by who could tell him the password to the principal's office.
Before other professors passed by, Harry's eyes suddenly lit up.
He suddenly thought that Professor Dracula's office was also on the third floor of the castle, not too far from here... If he made some noise here, Professor Dracula would surely appear in an instant with his speed.
So Harry pulled a Fred and George exploding wand from his pocket... and he had been using this new joke item with Ron in the Transfiguration classroom before he went to find Bagman.
This wand is like a firecracker. It can make a lot of noise when broken, but it will not cause any harm to the user.
Sure enough, the moment the explosion sounded, a silver-haired figure suddenly appeared in front of the gargoyle stone beast.
"Potter?" Dracula looked a little surprised when he saw Harry here.
He heard the explosion in the corridor from far away in his office.
Dracula originally thought that the people playing with explosions in the corridor were the two troublemakers Fred and George, and that the two guys were trying to commit suicide in front of him again.
He originally wanted to catch the two troublemakers in the act and teach them a lesson... However, to his surprise, the one who made the explosion was Harry, who had always been honest and well-behaved in front of Dracula.
Dracula narrowed his eyes and looked around, but did not see the Wesley twins around.
"So... are you planning to inherit the legacy of those two Weisslais?" Dracula looked at Harry and sneered.
"No, Professor!" Harry explained quickly, "I really have something urgent this time, so I need to find you urgently, so I thought of this idea..."
"Professor, Crouch... Mr. Barty Crouch, the referee of the Final Four, has gone crazy!"
Dracula's eyes suddenly froze.
"A few months have passed... Has Barty Crouch finally shown up?"
Ever since he found the ghost of Barty Crouch Jr.'s mother on the island of Azkaban, Dracula has been certain of one thing -
There's something very wrong with Barty Crouch, and as a Death Eater, Barty Jr. is probably not dead yet!
However, Barty Crouch seemed to have disappeared during this period, and he could not be found anywhere or by any means.
It was not until today that Dracula learned about Crouch's appearance from Harry.
"Where is he now?!" Dracula asked in a deep voice.
"Just over the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Mr. Bagman is watching over him over there," said Harry hastily.
"Tell me the exact location and I'll take you there." Dracula grabbed Harry's hood and said quickly.
"Wait a minute, Professor!" Harry said hurriedly, "Mr. Crouch said he wanted to find Headmaster Dumbledore and told him something important... He's already at the door, why don't we go up and call him first?"
"What a trouble..." Dracula curled his lips and stood in front of the gargoyle.
Harry looked at him expectantly, wanting to hear what new password Dumbledore had recently changed.
Dracula: “…”
Gargoyles: "..."
The air suddenly became quiet.
"Professor?" Harry asked timidly.
"Ahem." Dracula coughed twice, "I don't think I know the password here..."
"But... I remember you often go to the principal's office?" Harry was stunned.
"Yes, I often go to see him..." Dracula's mouth twitched a little, "but I always go in through the window... Who would go in through the front door?"
Harry: “…”
Professor, you really don't follow the beaten path.
"Um... Professor Dracula, why don't you go through the window?" At this moment, the gargoyle looked at Dracula's increasingly dangerous eyes and suddenly panicked, "I really can't open the door for you on my own initiative!"
It was afraid that the professor in front of it would tear its body apart out of shame...
…
…