Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 316 The storm is coming
Bagman was taken away, and the Aurors also took away Mr. Crouch's body. The Aurors will perform an autopsy on his body at the Ministry of Magic in the hope of obtaining some other information.

Unfortunately, not everyone wanted Crouch's body to be autopsied.

You have to know that Mr. Crouch is an official with a very good relationship with others. His former subordinates and friends jumped out at this time and stopped the autopsy on the grounds that the corpse should not be desecrated.

In desperation, the Ministry of Magic had to bury Mr. Crouch's body.

Fudge, the then Minister of Magic of England, also appeared at the funeral. He announced that since Mr. Crouch had no other relatives, the funeral would be held by the Ministry of Magic and all expenses would be borne by it.

He said that this was a reward for outstanding officials like Crouch who had served the Ministry of Magic all their lives, and that in the future this would become a routine, be written into a bill and a foundation would be established to ensure that every Ministry of Magic staff member who had no relatives could have a decent funeral after death.

As soon as this statement was made, there was an immediate round of applause from all over the country. According to statistics, after the major mainstream media reported on this matter, Minister Fudge's vote share increased significantly and has reached more than 40%. If nothing unexpected happens, Minister Fudge should be able to be re-elected as minister in the future.

Of course, there were also some tabloids claiming that Fudge was a hypocritical villain. They even used a picture of Fudge wiping tears at Crouch's funeral as the cover and named it Crocodile Tears.

They discovered the truth to a large extent, but the reality is that their power is too small, and that weak voice was quickly drowned out by the praises of the mainstream media.

At this point, not many people actually care about how Mr. Crouch died.

Everyone has gotten what they wanted.

According to Mike's idea, Fudge's next step should be to quickly make Bagman admit that he killed Crouch, and then execute Bagman to boost his reputation.

As for whether Bagman is the real murderer, it really doesn’t matter at all.

Michael didn't believe that politicians like Fudge would care about boring things like the truth. People like them should only care about one thing.

That is the benefit, the greater and huge benefit!

In this way, Mike can rest assured. No matter whether Bagman is actually disguised as Barty Jr., as long as he is executed or thrown into Azkaban, Mike can eliminate one option.

Unfortunately, Fudge made another stupid mistake. Instead of doing what Mike had expected, he released Bagman on the same day after conducting some basic questioning on him.

After being released, Bagman did not rush back to Hogwarts. Instead, he returned to Hogwarts a month later, after Mr. Crouch's funeral.

Perhaps he thought that this would draw less attention to him, but he clearly underestimated the gossipy nature of the Hogwarts students.

When he appeared in the Hogwarts Great Hall again, the originally bustling hall immediately became silent. Everyone held their breath instinctively and looked curiously at the man in front of them who still looked energetic.

Bagman obviously didn't care much about the students' gazes. He said nothing and walked silently across the hall towards the stairs. Judging from the direction he was heading, he should be going to find Dumbledore.

When Bagman disappeared from everyone's sight, bursts of intensive whispers broke out in the auditorium.

The murder of Mr. Crouch during this period was a big shock to these students. Many of them were trying their best to find out or make up inside information about Bagman and Crouch in order to show off to their classmates.

The heat of this incident should have cooled down a month later, but the sudden appearance of Bagman, the protagonist, immediately made the students' hearts, which had already cooled down, hot again.

"To be honest, I'm not surprised at all that Bagman wants to kill Crouch!" Draco said excitedly, "My father told me that they have been enemies for a long time. That was when the You-Know-Who just disappeared, and Bagman leaked a piece of information to a Death Eater, and Crouch wanted to use this incident to put Bagman in Azkaban. It's a pity that Bagman was a Quidditch star at the time, and many people on the jury were his fans, so Crouch's proposal was not passed."

There were not many people present, only Mike, Penelope, Hermione and Ron.

None of the four responded after hearing this, and Ron and Hermione showed disgust on their faces.

Mike shook his head. He came to find Harry, but just as he met Hermione and Ron, he was harassed by Draco.

Draco didn't get annoyed when no one responded, and continued:

"And Mr. Crouch's son, Barty Crouch Jr., is also a remarkable man. He achieved excellent results in twelve subjects in the Ultimate Wizarding Level Exam! After graduation, he joined the You-Know-Who and became one of His most capable assistants. It's a pity that after the fall of the You-Know-Who, he was imprisoned in Azkaban by his biological father, Mr. Crouch, and eventually died there. My father said that if he hadn't died and been imprisoned in Azkaban, he might have replaced his father by now."

"You mean the twelve are excellent?"

Hermione exclaimed, and there was a hint of surprise in Mike and Penelope's eyes.

They all have a very clear understanding of how difficult the Ultimate Wizarding Level Examination is. The knowledge of each of these twelve courses is extremely advanced and requires a lot of energy or extremely outstanding talent to learn well. Therefore, most students will only choose a few of the twelve subjects.

But even so, it is extremely difficult to get an "excellent" evaluation in the exams of the subjects they have chosen. Take Alchemy for example. To get an excellent evaluation at the ultimate wizard level in Alchemy, one needs to be able to skillfully make a variety of high-level potions including Felixir, and the success rate must exceed the dividing line drawn by the invigilator.

This shows that young Barty was definitely a genius who dominated all subjects at Hogwarts, and he most likely had the help of a time-turner, otherwise even if he was a genius it would be impossible for him to study the twelve ultimate courses at the same time.

Just when everyone was lamenting that little Barty was so terrifying, Ron suddenly said disdainfully:
“What’s so great about this!”

As soon as these words came out, everyone present looked at him. Drake even showed contempt on his face and said sarcastically:

"Mr. Weasley, although I have long known that you are an ignorant and stupid person, you have just exceeded my expectations of you. I really can't imagine that a person can be so stupid. Don't you even know what the Ultimate Wizarding Level Examination is?"

"Get out of here! Malfoy! You are not welcome here! Why are you sticking here like a dog-skin plaster?"

Looking at Ron with a red face and thick neck, the contempt on Draco's face became even stronger.

He curled his lips, put on a gentle and elegant look and said to Mike:

"It seems that it is not up to you to decide whether you welcome me or not? I came here to find Mike, and he should be the one to chase me away!"

Hearing this, Ron immediately looked at Mike with expectation, but Mike said nothing. Instead, he looked at Ron as if he was a fool.

They had a feud over Zhou Hong before, so why did Ron think he would help him for no reason?

Seeing that Mike remained silent and had no intention of driving him away, Draco smiled, and smiled happily.

In contrast, Ron felt very uncomfortable.

His face once again turned as red as his hair, and he ran away with an urgent roar.

"Ron!" Hermione called Ron's name anxiously, but it was of no use. Ron ran away without looking back.

The angry Hermione first glared at Draco fiercely and then looked at Mike, as if she wanted to blame Mike for his previous inaction.

At this time, Draco also felt something was wrong. Now he dared not underestimate Hermione, the Mudblood. Rita Skeeter's article described her as a scheming and evil woman. Young Draco naturally believed the report. Coupled with the rumors among classmates that Hermione and Mike were having an affair, Draco quickly said:

"Oh! Mike, I suddenly remembered that there are some things, so I'll leave first!"

After saying this, he left without looking back, just like Ron did before, leaving Mike and the others speechless.

Hermione really had no good feelings towards Draco. Even though Draco had already fled in panic, she was still staring fiercely in the direction he left.

"Hermione, so where the hell is Harry?"

Hearing this, Hermione finally turned her head. She glared at Mike and said:

"He's started having nightmares again and is now receiving treatment in the principal's office."

"Huh? Didn't he say last time that his headache had healed? Why did he start having nightmares again?"

"I don't know either." Hermione looked worried. "This morning he suddenly said that he had a terrible dream last night, and then he went to see Dumbledore!"

Mike nodded but said nothing.

At this moment, a familiar voice came from the side.

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?"

When everyone looked over, they saw Harry walking towards them as if nothing had happened.

"Harry, what did Dumbledore say? Can he cure you of your illness?"

Facing Hermione's eager inquiry, Harry smiled awkwardly and replied:

"It's nothing serious."

"is it?"

Hermione's brows furrowed.

"Harry, can you tell us what kind of dream you had?" Mike asked, "You know, we are all worried about you."

Harry lowered his head and remained silent. After a long time, he raised his head, exhaled deeply as if he had made up his mind, and said:
"I dreamed about Voldemort, and Peter Pettigrew. Oh, and there was a big snake! In my dream, Voldemort was torturing Peter Pettigrew, using the Cruciatus Curse (Harry's voice began to tremble when he said this spell)!"

Hermione and Penelope couldn't help but get nervous when they heard this.

"It's nothing serious, it's just a dream." Harry forced a smile to comfort her, "Maybe it's just because I dream about what I think about during the day. As you know, there have been rumors in school these days that Mr. Crouch was killed because he exposed Voldemort's return plan. I may have heard this dream because I heard it too much."

Hermione nodded when she heard this. What Harry said did make sense.

But Mike frowned. He was the only one among the people present who knew that there was still a piece of Voldemort's soul hidden in Harry's soul, and there was a spiritual bridge between him and Voldemort.

This means that there is a high probability that Harry's dream about Voldemort was true.

And if Harry's dream really happened, then it means that Voldemort has really returned.

Seeing that Mike still looked worried, Harry smiled.

He was very happy that he had such a group of close friends. This joy even washed away the fear and worry caused by the nightmare.

But even though Harry was happy that his friend was worried about him, he still comforted him:

"It's okay Mike, really. Oh! By the way! Dumbledore told me some information about the third project just now in the office."

Harry paused here, looked around cautiously, and when he saw that no one was paying attention to them, he leaned over to Mike's ear and whispered:

"The third event will be held on the evening of June 24th. After dinner that day, we will be taken to the Quidditch field. A large maze is being built there, and we will enter the maze. Whoever reaches the end first will be the final champion. But it is not so easy to reach the end. They have placed many dangerous mechanisms and magical creatures in the maze, which will prevent the warriors from reaching the end!"

Even though he already knew these things, Mike still thanked Harry, but Harry waved his hands and said that this was just normal help between friends.

Afterwards, they chatted for a while before Mike and Penelope said goodbye to the two and returned to the Ravenclaw common room.

On the way, Penelope suddenly leaned close to Mike's ear and asked softly:
"What's wrong with Draco today? Why is he trying to please us so suddenly? It's obvious that our relationship isn't good."

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Mike's mouth.

"Isn't it obvious?" Mike said, "The Malfoys are looking for cooperation."

"But... why?"

"Need I say that? The Malfoy family must be in some trouble."

Penelope nodded and frowned as she heard this.
“So do we really want to cooperate with them?”

This time the smile on Mike's face became even brighter.

"Of course, there's money to be made, so why can't we cooperate?"

(End of this chapter)