"Forget it, let's ignore this ugly stubborn thing and go straight over there."
Dracula didn't bother to pay attention to the gargoyles and rushed to the Forbidden Forest to find Barty Crouch who had disappeared for several months.
So he grabbed Harry's hood and they disappeared down the third floor corridor.
The next moment, Dracula and Harry appeared in the principal's office together.
Dumbledore, wearing a long green nightgown, was drinking tea and reading some letters. When he saw Dracula and Harry coming, he looked up in surprise.
"It's rare to see you two come to me together. Is something wrong?" Dumbledore looked at Dracula, then at Harry, and asked in surprise.
"Professor!" Harry took a quick step forward and said to Dumbledore, "Mr. Crouch has appeared - in the forest, and he has something to tell you!"
Harry thought Dumbledore would ask some questions, but he was relieved that Dumbledore didn't ask anything - Dracula had told Dumbledore about Crouch's problem long before he found the conclusive evidence.
Now, Dumbledore was as anxious as Dracula to meet the Director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation who had disappeared for several months.
"Lead the way." Dumbledore frowned slightly and said without hesitation.
"Don't lead the way. It's a waste of time." Dracula grabbed Harry's hood again. "I'll wait for you at the Quidditch stadium. It won't be too late to consider leading the way when we get there."
After that, Dracula and Harry disappeared again.
Dumbledore shook his head helplessly and looked at the big golden-red bird on the shelf beside him:
"Excuse me, Fox."
Then, the Phoenix Fawkes landed on Dumbledore's shoulder and disappeared with him in a golden-red flame.
…
The three of them appeared at the edge of the Quidditch pitch in an instant.
Harry was no longer surprised by Dracula's ability to Apparate in Hogwarts. As soon as his feet landed on the ground, he hurriedly took the two professors in the direction where Crouch had appeared before.
"What did Mr Crouch say, Harry?" asked Dumbledore, as they hurried down a winding path.
"He said he wanted to remind you that he had done something terrible..." Harry said thoughtfully, "Mr. Crouch also mentioned his son, and... and Voldemort, and it seemed that Voldemort had recovered..."
Harry hadn't noticed the meaning of Crouch's words just now, but after he repeated them, he was suddenly shocked.
"Is it true?" Dumbledore said solemnly, quickening his pace and hurried into the dark and gloomy woods.
"His behavior is very unusual," Harry said.
Harry walked quickly beside Dumbledore, while Dracula was on the other side of Dumbledore. He didn't move his steps, but he followed them like a ghost, keeping pace with the two of them.
"Mr. Crouch didn't seem to know where he was. He kept talking and seemed to think Percy was there... Then he suddenly changed, became very scary, and said he wanted to see you..."
Harry said with some concern, "I asked Mr. Bagman to keep an eye on him in the Forbidden Forest."
"Really?" Dumbledore's eyes gradually became particularly deep.
He and Dracula looked at each other and they nodded to each other.
"It must be the Imperius Curse." Dracula said softly.
"Professor Dracula, I remember that you had examined Crouch's mind before." Dumbledore asked, "Although you have always suspected Crouch, you have never been sure that he was controlled by the Imperius Curse..."
"Voldemort should have found a way to prevent the Imperius Curse from being discovered," Dracula said thoughtfully, "but I'm a little confused. His power is far from his peak... So, with that level of power, how could he deceive me?"
"In short, I'm afraid we have to prepare for another war." Dumbledore said in a deep voice.
Then Dumbledore turned his gaze to Harry: "Do you know who else has seen Mr. Crouch?"
His steps became longer, and Harry had to run to keep up.
"No more." Harry was a little breathless and said intermittently, "Mr. Bagman was talking to me at the time... He had just finished telling the warriors about the content of the third task, and then he dragged me to the Forbidden Forest."
"Later, we saw Mr. Crouch coming out from deep in the Forbidden Forest—"
"Where is it?" asked Dumbledore.
At this time, the lights of Hagrid's hut and the Beauxbatons carriage in the distance had almost disappeared in the darkness. Only the faint starlight in the sky shone on the ground through the scattered branches and leaves, and the flames emanating from Fawkes on Dumbledore's shoulder allowed Harry to identify the direction of travel.
"Over there." Harry raised his hand and pointed forward, strode in front of Dumbledore and Dracula, and led them through the bushes.
As a young Gryffindor wizard who often came to the Forbidden Forest, Harry was quite familiar with the area and was confident that he would not go wrong.
"Mr. Bagman?" Harry called into the Forbidden Forest. "Mr. Crouch? I've brought Professor Dumbledore over to see you!"
No one answered.
"They were here just now." Harry said to Dumbledore in a panic, "They must be nearby. I wonder what went wrong..."
Dumbledore suddenly raised his wand -
“Lumos.”
A narrow beam of light shone from the tip of the wand, moving back and forth between the dark tree trunks, illuminating the land below.
However, before Dumbledore and Harry found Crouch and Bagman with the help of the fluorescent light, the silver-haired figure beside them discovered the traces of the two Ministry of Magic officials first.
Dracula's figure disappeared beside Dumbledore, and then flashed behind a thick tree.
"Here." He snapped his fingers softly.
A bright white flame appeared in Dracula's palm and immediately began to rotate around him, illuminating a large area of the surrounding forest.
Harry and Dumbledore quickly ran forward and looked at the roots of the tree where Dracula was.
There, at the foot of a tree, Bagman lay huddled, looking quite unconscious - and there was no sign of Mr. Crouch.
Dumbledore bent down and gently lifted one of Bagman's eyelids.
"He has fainted," Dumbledore said quietly.
He peered out toward the surrounding trees, his half-moon lenses gleaming in the dim light of his wand.
"Should I go get someone?" Harry asked worriedly. "Madam Pomfrey?"
"No," said Dumbledore quickly. "Stay here."
As he said this, he looked at Dracula beside him.
Dracula nodded, and his figure suddenly took off into the air, flying above the Forbidden Forest to a place higher than all the trees.
The next moment, a silver-white blade of light swept across the entire Forbidden Forest, and Harry felt cold all over, as if something had scanned his entire body.
Dumbledore raised his wand high and pointed in the direction of Hagrid's hut.
A silver phoenix flew out of the wand and flashed through the trees. Then Dumbledore leaned over to Bagman again, pointed his wand at him, and whispered:
"Recover quickly (Ee)."
The resuscitation spell worked well, and Bagman soon opened his eyes with a dazed look on his face.
As soon as he saw Dumbledore he struggled to sit up, but Dumbledore placed a hand on his shoulder and told him to lie still.
"Mr. Crouch has gone completely crazy!" Bagman muttered, covering his head with his hands. "He suddenly attacked me... Even in this state, I was no match for him, and then he knocked me out."
"Well, lie down for a while." Dumbledore said, his voice getting lower and lower. "I hope we still have a chance to find Crouch again."
Then Dracula also fell from the sky.
"How is it, any gains?" Dumbledore asked.
"I have searched the area covered by the Anti-Apparition Spell, and there is no one there." Dracula said softly, "Of course, it is possible that there will be a way to bypass my perception, just like the Imperius Curse on Crouch."
"It's not easy to bypass your perception, Professor Dracula." Dumbledore shook his head slightly. "I am more inclined to believe that Crouch has left the area of Hogwarts and Apparated away... Can the spatial fluctuations of Apparition be captured?"
"You are probably making things difficult for me," Dracula said, folding his arms and leaning against the tree trunk next to him. "Tell me, how can I find a spatial fluctuation that has dissipated a few minutes ago in such a large area?"
Just then, a thunderous sound of footsteps reached their ears, and Hagrid appeared panting, followed by Fang.
He held his bow and arrow in his hand and looked around vigilantly.
"Professor Dumbledore!" After seeing the people present, his eyes widened, "Professor Dracula, Harry... why are you all here?"
"Hagrid, please help take Mr. Bagman to the school infirmary," Dumbledore interrupted his question and quickly arranged, "He has been hit by a very powerful Stunning Spell and will be weak for a while."
"Then, tell Minerva and the others to keep a close eye on the students in each academy and not let anyone leave the common room!"
"Oh, okay... no problem, Professor..." Hagrid was a little dazed, but he still carried out Dumbledore's instructions as quickly as possible.
With that he picked up Bagman and disappeared into the dark trees, with Fang trotting after him.
From a distance, Harry seemed to hear Hagrid meet someone at the exit of the Forbidden Forest and greeted him: "Oh, good evening, Mr. Filch... I don't need any help, just take care of your own things... Oh! Thank you very much!"
After Hagrid left, Dumbledore breathed a sigh of relief.
"Professor Dracula," he said softly, "Please take Harry back to his common room... I want to look for him again. Mr. Crouch's escape from the Imperius Curse must have been known to Voldemort. He should be in danger now."
"Let's look for it together." Dracula was silent for a moment, then said, "Anyway, I'm also very interested in what Crouch has been through."
He snapped his fingers lightly.
A dark moon appeared beside Harry. Dracula reached out and pushed Harry into the dark moon, teleporting him directly back to the Gryffindor common room.
…
If word of what happened that night were to spread, it would probably shock most wizards in the magical world.
It is rare that two great wizards joined forces and failed to find a mentally ill person...
The sun rose again from the end of the Black Lake. In the Hogwarts headmaster's office, Dracula and Dumbledore sat on the sofa and chair in silence. Both of them looked unhappy.
"Professor Dracula, do you still remember how long it took Harry to get to the castle from the Forbidden Forest?" Dumbledore asked, breaking the silence.
"I know what you want to say," Dracula nodded and said, "I asked Potter, he ran back from the Forbidden Forest almost non-stop. At his speed, he could finish the journey in less than ten minutes..."
"Even if we take into account the time wasted in the castle, it took no more than twenty minutes from the time Potter left Crouch to the time we entered the Forbidden Forest... I don't believe he could get out of the range of the Anti-Apparition Spell in twenty minutes."
Dracula took out the deed to Hogwarts and looked at the vast forest northeast of the castle.
He knew the grounds of Hogwarts very well, and was fully aware of how vast the area covered by the Anti-Apparition Spell was... This was definitely not a distance that could be covered in twenty minutes using only his own legs.
"What if Crouch rode on a flying broom?" Dumbledore frowned and speculated.
"If it's a broom as fast as the Nimbus 2000, twenty minutes is enough for him to leave Hogwarts..." Dracula said, "But do you really think a person who is struggling with the Imperius Curse and is extremely unconscious can control a flying broom?"
Dumbledore's frown deepened.
He stood up from his chair and paced back and forth in the office, thinking about Crouch.
"If we rule out the possibility that Crouch left on his own, then..." Dumbledore suddenly turned his head and looked at Dracula, "There was probably another person in the Forbidden Forest at the time, and he hid Crouch!"
"That's right, and that person is most likely Barty Crouch Jr. who faked his death on the island of Azkaban." Dracula added in a deep voice.
Dumbledore's eyes moved, and then he sighed.
"Unfortunately, Voldemort seems to have learned his lesson this time and did not ask his former subordinates for help." He said helplessly, "Severus did not get any information... Professor Dracula, do you have any news?"
"Lucius has never been trusted by Voldemort, so it is impossible for him to be driven by this situation." Dracula shook his head. "Voldemort probably only trusts his followers who are imprisoned in Azkaban now."
He then looked at Dumbledore and asked, "You should know your former student. What kind of person is Barty Crouch Jr."
…
…