Chapter 511: The Disappearance of Crouch (Edited)

"..."

"..."

After an awkward silence, Snape narrowed his eyes and twitched his thin lips in mockery, "What? Did you learn Fish's cat language in addition to speaking Parseltongue, Potter?"

"I want to see Professor Dumbledore!" Harry, grumpily, flatly ignoring Snape's taunt. "It's Mr. Crouch...he's turned up...he's in the Forbidden Forest...he asked..."

"What a load of nonsense!" Snape said, both dark eyes gleaming, "What are you talking about?"

Seeing Snape's mischievous look, Harry knew the other would not be easily defeated.

And given what he had heard earlier, the conversation between Karkaroff and Snape, Harry had no intention of telling Snape what Crouch had said.

So he could only shout at Snape, "Mr. Crouch! The Ministry official! He's sick or something... in the Forbidden Forest, and he wants to see Dumbledore! Give me the password quickly..."

As Harry expected, however, Snape ignored his shouts and instead twisted his thin lips into an ugly smile. "The Headmaster is busy, Potter."

Just as Harry gritted his teeth, trying to reveal a bit of Barty Crouch's condition, the stone wall behind Snape opened once more and Dumbledore in his green robes appeared in front of Harry.

"Is something wrong?"

Dumbledore asked, looking at Harry and then at Snape.

"Professor!" Harry didn't wait for Snape to say anything, he crossed to avoid him and approached Dumbledore, "Mr. Crouch is...."

Just then, someone else's voice sounded around the corner, interrupting Harry's words.

"What are they playing here? Fish wants to play too."

?(?ΦωΦ?)?

Shortly after returning to the dormitory, Fish, who took Hermione on an evening tour, heard the commotion and came over.

"Good evening, Professor."

Hermione followed Fish, shyly greeting him.

Although she had been out many nights with Fish, Hermione still felt a little nervous when it came to teachers, especially the Headmaster.

Harry said to Dumbledore, "Mr. Crouch is in the Forbidden Forest and wants to talk to you!"

"Show us the way." said Dumbledore to Harry without wasting any time.

And with a sigh of relief, Harry walked quickly down the corridor towards the outside of the castle.

"What's wrong? What happened nya?"

(??ω??)

It was obvious at a glance that something strange had happened, Fish quickly grabbed Hermione's hand and asked with bright eyes.

Snape stood with a grimace, watching the backs of the group for a moment, then followed suit.

Glancing at Snape, who had caught up with him, Harry said, "I thought I'd stop by and see Hagrid when I got back from the Quidditch pitch..."

He hurried down the marble staircase as he told the story of what had happened, which everyone present already knew about the Marauder's Map anyway.

"... Then I accidentally found Mr. Crouch's name in the Forbidden Forest..." added Harry about Barty Crouch's strange state after finding it.

Dumbledore's face instantly turned serious.

And Hermione, the know-it-all, couldn't help but say, "Is he under a confusion spell, I think... Or did someone attack Mr. Crouch?"

"Or maybe he's drunk nya."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Said the cat with a serious countenance.

"There's another possibility," grimaced Snape, "That he's under the Imperius Curse and hasn't quite broken free."

Everyone quickened their pace.

"Did Mr. Crouch say anything in particular, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry looked at Snape again, hesitated, and answered truthfully, "He said he wanted to warn you... that he had done something terrible... and he mentioned his son... and Bertha Jorkins... and... and Voldemort... seemed to say that Voldemort had grown strong..."

Dumbledore and Snape's faces hardened, and once again they quickened their pace, Harry and Hermione having to run to keep up.

"Is it a fight with Voldemort nya? Is it a fight with Voldemort nya?"

?(??ω??)?

Only Fish was excited, he should have gone to Hagrid's earlier with Harry.

"Where is he now?" Dumbledore didn't answer Fish, but kept asking Harry; now they could already see the silhouette of Hagrid's hut and the Beauxbatons carriage.

"That way." said Harry, stepping ahead of Dumbledore and leading the group through the trees. He couldn't hear Crouch's voice, but he knew he was on the right path, it was just beyond the Beauxbatons carriage... almost there....

"Mr. Crouch?" Harry shouted.

No one answered.

"He was here before," Harry said to Dumbledore, "He must be around here somewhere...".

"Lumos." Dumbledore recited the spell and raised his wand in his hand; Snape and Hermione did the same, and the darkness in the area quickly dissipated with three glowing white lights.

"My wand!" Harry, also trying to do the same, noticed that his wand seemed to have disappeared again. "I must have dropped it around here when I got tangled up with Crouch!".

"Is this nya?"

(?ΦωΦ?)つ━

The Fish with the best eyes jumped under a tree and picked up a wand.

"Yes, that's my wand! Thanks, Fish!"

Harry rushed forward and grabbed his wand, then wiped it twice with his robes.

"But Crouch isn't here," Snape looked at Harry, who had also used the Lumos charm on his wand, "Perhaps our Mr. Potter is lying again?"

"Harry is not lying nya." Fish wiggled his nose twice, confirming it to Harry, "Indeed, there is Crouch smell here, it must be coming from that direction."

(?ΦωΦ?)?

The cat pointed further into the Forbidden Forest.

"Harry, where's your Marauder's Map?" reminded Dumbledore suddenly.

"It's gone too..." replied Harry bitterly, fumbling in his pockets, "I think it fell in here with my wand too."

Then he looked hopefully at Fish. The Marauder's Map was a very useful object that Harry's father and godfather had made together, so he didn't want it to get lost.

However, Fish shook his head and said, "Fish didn't see it either."

(`ω′′≡`ω′)

"Severus," Dumbledore said after a moment of silence, "Could you escort Harry and Hermione back to the castle first, and take them directly to Gryffindor Tower?"

He then looked at Harry and Hermione and said, "Once you are both back in your dormitory, stay there and don't go anywhere, even if you want to send a letter to someone by owl, you can wait until tomorrow morning."

Harry knew that Dumbledore was saying these words mostly to himself.

"Er... I see." He nodded, and followed obediently with Hermione behind Snape, towards the castle.

"Next, Fish, you will help find Mr. Crouch's trail."

Confronting Fish, Dumbledore finally smiled.

"Yes nya!"

?(?ΦωΦ?)?

Fish led Dumbledore, following Mr. Crouch's scent further into the Forbidden Forest, they had only gone three or four hundred yards when Fish stopped dead in his tracks.

"What is it?" asked Dumbledore curiously.

"No..." said Fish, shrugging his nose and shaking his head thoughtfully, "The smell is getting faint up ahead, this must be the way meow came."

With that, he turned back to where he had been, sniffing with his mouth slightly open, even as he shifted into his cat-man form with a cat's head.

"This is where Crouch disappeared to."

Fish said to Dumbledore confidently, after a careful search.