章 387: Chapter 386 Armour (2 in 1)
Jon didn't know exactly what rude things Crouch and Snape were saying, but what was clear to him was that since they had made so many preparations, they wouldn't let anyone interfere with him and Hermione at the Ball tonight.
This meant that when it came to these things, the two of them simply walking away would be the best solution, and those Aurors around would certainly not come after them.
And that was indeed the case; after he had dragged Lee away from the great hall at a brisk pace, Lucius had been given instructions by Barty Jr. and those Aurors around did not come after them.
This couldn't help but make Selwyn, who was lying on the ground having not only received a slap on the wrist but also a kick from Jon on his way out, even more vociferous.
"Why don't you go get him! My father is a Death Eater! My mother is head of the department in the French Ministry of Magic! Does nobody care in Hogwarts castle when the glory of the pureblood is tarnished!"
Before she could get up from the ground, however, the Aurors at the command of Barty Jr. went over and brought Selwyn to her feet.
This left the proud pureblood female student with a shocked and bewildered look on her face as she turned her head to look at Barty Crouch Jr. who had approached her, not being British and having grown up in Beauxbatons had left her with little to no fear towards the notorious number one thug under Voldemort.
She was just about to open her mouth to issue a question when Crouch raised the wand in his hand and her mouth was instantly sealed.
"Shouting and acting in such a vulgar manner in such a formal setting, the glory of the supposed pureblood is truly disgraced because of you."
His voice was cold, and his face was devoid of the gentleness that had always been there in the past, and then he waved his hand, signalling the two Aurors who had held her up to take her out of the great hall.
"Send her to the confinement room, and let her stay there tonight to reflect."
The two Aurors faithfully carried out his order, while everyone in the great hall watched the scene in incredulity.
If they didn't know exactly what kind of things Crouch had once done to serve Voldemort, then for his behaviour now some people would probably believe him for being a second-rate pureblood and a spy.
But in Voldemort's absence, without Snape speaking out against him, Hogwarts was now a place where Crouch had a say.
Among those present, only that deputy headmaster of Beauxbatons, Bonnesante, had a bit of a hard face, because the Selwyn who was taken away is his student, and this was almost equal to Crouch ignoring him now, and as a professor of Hogwarts directly interfering in the disciplinary actions of the Beauxbatons, which made Bonnesante's face a bit ugly.
Voldemort's power was huge, and a large power could certainly not avoid having factions within it.
In addition to the new school of purebloods and the old school of purebloods that Voldemort had artificially divided; after France was occupied by him, the factions within his ranks were further divided into two large frameworks, the British purebloods and the French purebloods.
This division became more and more apparent after the Witching Horizon counter-attacked France and most of the French purebloods took refuge in Britain to escape liquidation.
But now the French Purebloods remain as outsiders in Britain, and the British Isles are the home of the British Purebloods, so with the active tolerance and restraint of the French wizards, the conflict between the two sides has not been stirred up.
So, even now, Bonnesante, who felt Crouch's impudence, chose to hold back and not let his discontent and anger out.
He knew very well that there was nothing he could do on such an occasion, and that breaking out into internal conflict would only make others see him as a joke, and Voldemort would be even less likely to speak up for him afterwards.
As Selwyn was dealt with, the atmosphere in the great hall gradually returned to what it had been before.
A piece of more upbeat dance music was played compared to before, and the students re-entered the centre of the dance floor to begin the night's revelry.
But there were still quite a few students discussing the scene that had just taken place, all of them believing that as long as their Mr Headmaster was not in the castle, then no one could control Jon, even Barty Crouch Jr. who had always been known as a kind and loving son of his parents, had chosen to set things straight when he was so rampant, not to mention others who were not capable of pulling strings.
Jon, of course, didn't care what the students in the castle thought; together with Lee, he had arrived at the temporary garden outside the castle that had been created for this Yule ball.
It looked secluded, but many students were hiding in the little bushes around, and as soon as Jon and Lee walked in they bumped into a young couple who were in the middle of a love affair.
It was only halfway through the dance, but for some people, the time when everyone was engrossed in the dance was their best chance.
Jon looked at the nymphs that were fluttering on a bush of roses and said, somewhat breathlessly.
"Honestly, I suppose this garden was built to facilitate student rendezvous?"
"Ahem, or else for what?"
Taking this opportunity, Lee had already drunk the voice-changing potion, which scraped his throat somewhat when he first drank it, so his voice was still a little strange because of its hoarseness, although it had already produced a partial change.
But such a transformation would be quick, plus there were no longer a lot of people around after arriving in the garden, so Lee didn't have to be particularly careful.
"Aren't those professors in the castle afraid they'll make a mess of things by doing this?"
Jon remembered that the couple he had met on the way in were about his age, how would they explain to their parents if they didn't control themselves and created a baby?
Or is there no need to explain at all and the parents are happy to see it happen?
Even though he had lived here for many years, Jon still didn't know much about the deep culture of Great Britain, but he didn't need to find out about it now.
Lee, of course, didn't catch the meaning of Jon's words, and he said, with disinterest.
"How can a normal Yule ball possibly cause a fuss? It's not like we're at war now, you're thinking too much Jon, instead of thinking about that we should be thinking about how we're going to cope with the rest of the day later."
This time the plan didn't really put that much pressure on Hermione in terms of infiltration.
Dumbledore wasn't thinking about possibly completely hiding their movements in the castle from Voldemort, even if he didn't have full control of the castle yet, he had been managing it for over a decade.
Hermione's mission would be a 120% success as long as the four relics could be safely retrieved from the Headmaster's office and the runes could be copied; as to whether Voldemort himself would be alerted or discovered by him was a matter for Dumbledore to consider.
But the first thing that had to be ensured was that the runes had to be copied in full so that Dumbledore and Slytherin could determine exactly how far Voldemort had reached in his infestation upon the castle so that they could decide what to do next.
So Hermione moved quickly, this time with all her preparations, and without even having to do it herself, the shorthand quill that had been sent to her from France was already fluttering on the parchment.
Hermione didn't stay still at this time, she raised her wand and tapped it against the four relics on the desk itself.
There was nothing special about these relics from the outside, apart from the fact that the desk that held them was covered in dense, tiny and unnoticeable magic runes, it looked like an ordinary desk with a few ordinary ornaments.
When Hermione's wand landed on the Ravenclaw diadem, the blue jewel-encrusted diadem glowed faintly but did not budge in any way.
Her levitation charm did not appear to be as effective as it should have been.
This did not surprise Hermione, she thought the same as Jon, since Voldemort had dared to place the four relics here so openly, he must have had something to fall back on, and obviously, they were not that easy to take.
The plan that Dumbledore had given her did not say that the four relics should be taken away now, they were basically connected to the whole Hogwarts castle, and from the moment Voldemort chose to use them as a medium to penetrate into the castle, the four relics couldn't leave the castle.
Hermione was only attempting for the sake of the promise made to Lady Grey; the diadem was found, but there was no way to take it out, so that was considered a fulfilment of the promise on her part.
And just as the battle between Fawkes and Nagini had reached a fever pitch, with the shorthand quill still scribbling rapidly on the desk, and Hermione was about to assist Fawkes by ganging up on the snake with two spells, there was a sudden heavy footfall at the staircase that separated the Headmaster's office through the tower that formerly held the Book of Admittance and the Quill of Acceptance!
Hermione instantly tightened her grip on her wand, and Fawkes, who had already managed to make a bloody hole in Nagini's head, raised his head alertly!
She didn't take the parchment and leave right away, as she hadn't copied the whole thing and her visit would become much less worthwhile, so she kept her eyes on the corner of the tower stairs and listened to the heavy footsteps getting closer and closer.
Then a metal armour reflecting the bright moonlight from the window came down the stairs!
The armour held a sharp knight's sword in its hand, and although it had survived hundreds of years, the surface of the armour was still smooth and shiny, and the limbs moved without any sense of rigidity, but rather with a coordinated beauty.
It turned towards Hermione when it stepped out of the staircase and raised the sleek, gleaming knight's sword in its hand!
Hermione was slightly relieved to see that it was not a living person, but an enchanted suit of armour, but her heart still did not drop its guard, and before the suit of armour could make its next move, she took the lead and used a spell!
"Repello!"
Instead of a bright spell beam, a stream of air that created a ripple in the air surged out, and then the armour was sent flying violently as if it had been struck hard by a sledgehammer, and then crashed heavily against the solid stone wall of the Headmaster's office.
It seemed that Hermione's spell had had an excellent effect, but in reality, it had only partially restricted the armour's movements and had not done any substantial damage.
"Incarcerous! Immobulus!"
After two consecutive incantations of the Incarcerous Spell plus the Freezing Charm were used by Hermione, a rope that appeared out of thin air steeply bound the armour that was planning to stand up from the ground all over its body, and at the same time, a cold frost was on the surface of its body, which soon completely sealed all the parts of its joints that could move.
Having done this, Hermione didn't stop what she was doing, she instantly turned to the Nagini, who was lying in a pool of blood and still flopping around, and swung her wand down in her hand.
"Incendio!"
The flames scorched the snake's blood while illuminating the entire Headmaster's office with a dazzling light, and just as the flames were engulfing Nagini, another heavy footstep came from around the corner of the stairs.
Hermione was acutely certain that it was a thump from many, not a single one, for it was clear that the sound was definitely not from one suit of armour, at least two more had come to life and made their way to the Headmaster's office!
She glanced at the progress of the parchment on the desk, the shorthand quill was quick to copy, or at least much quicker than normal human writing by hand, but even so it was only half done now, and Hermione would need to stall for a short while to finish copying all those magic runes on the desk.
As Hermione had guessed from the sound of footsteps, two pairs of armour appeared, one with a shield and a heavier armour than the previous one, and the other with a long axe in both hands.
Upon arriving at the headmaster's office, the armour with the shield and sword in its hands rushed towards Hermione without hesitation, it was fast and did not show any sign of clumsiness, as if a real live human was being inside.
The more she got into this kind of situation, the more collected and rational Hermione became, and she waved her wand quickly in her hand.
"Impedimenta!"
Instantly, the air began to become sticky for a distance of about five metres in front of her, and the armour with the sword and shield acted as if it had fallen into the water, and its movements visibly began to slow down.
But this slowdown lasted only a second before a light red light flashed from the shield it was holding, and then Hermione's Impediment Jinx was broken through, and the sprint reverted to its initial speed, raising the knight's sword in its hand and slashing violently towards Hermione's position!
Even if it was only a second's delay, it gave Hermione enough time to react, and as the armour brought the sword up in its hand, she darted backwards to give herself enough distance.
The sword that the armour slashed down finally struck the Gryffindor sword that had been placed on the desk, and the moment the two swords met, there was a sound of metallic clanging!
----
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Crazy_DarkSide_Cat
Crazy_DarkSide_Cat Thanks for all your love and support.
Read advance chapters on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!
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