Chapter 522: Open and honest

After class, Ivan and Colin went to the Great Hall for lunch.

Ivan had decided to talk to Caresius who was disguised as Moody. After what happened this morning, he could no longer pretend in front of Ivan.

By the second day of his arrival, he had already made a lot of noise. Despite his power, Caresius was not a good actor, to say the least.

They reached the second floor when they saw Moody limping out of the classroom.

Ivan asked Colin to go first, then turned and greeted Moody.

"Hello, Professor, do you have some time?" Ivan said with a smile. "I'd like to talk to you about what had happened earlier."

Moody turned around, his long gray hair hanging down the length of the twisted, scarred face. His normal eye looked coldly at Ivan, while his magical eye turned the other way, watching the young wizards coming down the stairs closely.

Everyone watched them curiously, wondering what Ivan was saying to Moody.

"Of course, if you don't have time, I can ask Professor Dumbledore." Ivan continued. "A wizard as powerful as he is must have experience in dealing with vampires..."

"Go ahead!" said Moody hoarsely, a grim expression on his face.

Ivan followed Moody into his office. When they both entered, Moody closed the door.

He turned to look at Ivan, both his magical eye and his normal eye fixed on him.

"What do you have to say?" he asked quietly.

"I'm just here to chat about things, like the horrible monster I saw in your memory, or the purpose of your coming here; whatever you want to talk about." Ivan put his hand behind his back, "But before that, Professor, I think it would be best if you removed your hand from your wand first. You know it won't work. You just proved it. The Imperius curse doesn't affect me."

"That's hard to say!" Moody looked at Ivan sharply. "It's not the only curse in the world..."

"Of course, vampires have a lot of special and very effective magic, but it would be so obvious that Dumbledore would easily perceive their magical fluctuations." Ivan looked at him with interest, "You don't want to be discovered by the Headmaster, do you?"

Moody did not answer, but his right hand did not move from the wand at his waist.

"I think I have shown my sincerity by coming to you instead of going directly to the Headmaster's office," Ivan said, "I am very grateful for your help at the ruins of the fallen centaurs in Albania a few months ago, and I have a very good relationship with Elaine. In fact, considering, you must be my eldest. You've said the same thing before, unless you want to follow Voldemort wholeheartedly, cooperation would be the wiser choice for both of us. "

"I don't understand what you're talking about." said Moody, but his right hand dropped his wand.

"Come on, going on like this is too boring! I recognize your magic, Caresius!" said Ivan bluntly, turning and looking around. "You're using the Multijuice potion to turn you into Mad-Eye Moody. It's a very handy potion that works even under the protection of the castle's ancient protective spell. The only drawback is probably that you need to have Moody by your side to get 'source material' from him for the transformation. Let me see... Where are you hiding it?"

Ivan had been in this office many times before under the watchful eye of three of its previous occupants.

In Professor Lockhart's days, the walls were often filled with glowing images and winks from the professor himself.

When Lupin moved in here, he was more likely to come across a specimen of some fascinating new dark creature he had procured for his students to study in class.

As for Sirius, he kept Lupin's style, but it was much more cluttered; with interesting contraptions in every corner.

Now, however, the office was filled with a number of exceptionally odd objects that Ivan supposed Moody had used in the past when he was an Auror. Caresius must have moved them around unscrupulously.

On his desk was what looked like a large broken glass top; it was a Sneakoscope.

In one corner, on a small table, was an object that looked like a gold, extra-flat television antenna. It was buzzing slightly.

What appeared to be a mirror hung in front of Ivan on the wall, but it did not reflect the room. Dark figures moved within it, none of them clearly in focus.

"Looks like you broke all this!" said Ivan softly. "Whether it's this Sneakoscope, the secrecy sensor, or the Foe-Glass on the wall, they're all very useful magical objects that can clearly detect dangers around you. No wonder they always react to you if you keep their owner, Moody, inside this trunk."

Under the window was a large trunk with seven keyholes in a row.

"I hated these things, they're too sensitive!" Moody, or more precisely, Caresius, replied quietly.

As he held the stares, he left Moody's tone and manner of speaking behind, and dripped his act.

"Ivan, you really surprised me. At the last World Cup, I thought you and that girl were dead. I didn't think you'd use the power of the Philosopher's Stone." He took out his flask and poured two cups of hot tea. "It was the same this time; you found out my identity so fast! Well, I was too careless; I should have guessed you wouldn't be so easily controlled by the Imperius Curse. I thought I was well disguised, and even Dumbledore didn't notice."

"It's hard to say. The headmaster may have noticed, and said nothing." Ivan got down from the chair across the table and said slowly, "There's nothing at Hogwarts that can remain hidden from him!"

"Clever human wizards," Caresius muttered under his breath and looked at Ivan with great interest. "What are you going to do now that you've figured out who I am?"

"As I said, I hope to cooperate with you. In a sense, our goals are the same."

"Our goals are the same?!" Caresius repeated with a smile on his face. "Well, my people and I have no reason to refuse goodwill!"

"Before we cooperate, I have several questions I hope you can answer first. First of all, what was the monster I just saw in your memory? Is that the 'dilemma' you must face?" said Ivan, "I've said before that I could help you. You know, I meet the conditions set forth in that prophecy!"