She's So Smart, She Wouldn't Have Thought Of It

Leaving the Headmaster's office, Ivan said goodbye to Moody and walked alone through the castle, his mind occupied with thoughts of Barty Junior.

The raid on Crouch was not a complete failure, but it was far from a success, as they did not get much useful information from Crouch.

Ivan slowly pulled out the copy of the Daily Prophet he had obtained from Crouch's office and read through it, while mentally summarising all the information he had gathered so far.

First, he confirmed that Barty Junior was not pretending to be his father, Crouch.

There was no doubt about it, as he had previously searched Crouch's mind with Legilimency, and was certain that it was Crouch himself, and that there was no sign of the Imperius Curse, nor any memory alteration.

Second, judging from the handwriting of the note and the testimony given by Crouch, it was Barty Junior who threw Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire!

He must have sneaked into the castle to cast the powerful Confunding Charm on the Goblet of Fire.

But the question is, how did he manage to sneak into Hogwarts, where he was hiding all this time, and how did he get past the Marauder's Map?

Questions filled Ivan's mind.

"What would I do?" Yvonne asked, trying to put herself in his shoes.

He was well aware of the effects of the Marauder's Map, which was a very useful magical tool that showed the names of all the wizards in the castle, even Dumbledore!

However, in other words, no matter how practical it was, it was just a powerful alchemy tool. It was impossible for it not to have a way of restraining itself.

In his second year, he found that the map did not show the Room of Requirement or the Slytherin Chamber.

This meant that if an individual used magic to create a separate space, they would be able to bypass the limitations of the Marauder's Map.

Also, as an alchemist, Ivan believed that the use of Isolation Runes would have the same effect, as long as the entire body was covered.

Avoiding the Marauder's Map was therefore a viable option, although the problems that followed were not trivial. What if Barty Junior stayed in one place and did not come out?

Nobody can actually make food out of thin air,

A day or two would be tolerable, but Barty the Younger would starve to death! And there would be no way of getting accurate information on the outside world to help Harry get into the third match and to get his hands on the trophy that had been turned into a Portkey.

It must be noted that during the first match of the season, he was able to pull away from Harry, and if he continues to do so, the gap will only continue to grow. Barty Crouch Junior will never hide away and let this happen!

Ivan tried his best to analyse where Barty Junior might be hiding, but he couldn't come up with much. He still didn't have enough information. He had to wait for Barty to give himself away before he could catch him…

With that in mind, Ivan rubbed his forehead and pushed Barty Junior's matter to the back of his mind. As long as Barty wanted to help Harry clear the dungeon, he would give himself away.

Ivan was more troubled by another problem at hand, which was how to resolve the misunderstanding with Hermione.

It won't be long before the ball…

Ivan wandered aimlessly around the castle, and instead of heading to the Great Hall to enjoy the evening's meal, as Dumbledore had suggested, he subconsciously followed a secluded path.

He was accustomed to practising magic with Luna regularly every evening, so much so that he was able to switch on the finder's mechanism whenever he was distracted.

By the time Ivan realised this, he had come to an end.

A short distance ahead, Luna sat on the windowsill, looking out at the Forbidden Forest, her legs moving slowly as if she had been there for a long time.

She must have heard Ivan's footsteps because she slowly turned her head and jumped down from the high windowsill.

"You're late … that's rare …" Luna said airily, without much blame.

"I'm sorry, Luna, but Professor Dumbledore had to see me about something, and I was held up…" Yvonne explained apologetically.

"I see…" Luna drawled, staring at Ivan with her beautiful pale blue eyes for a long time. When Ivan tried to ask a question, she interrupted him abruptly. "Harassment cricket…"

"What?" For a moment Ivan was unable to respond.

"So many harassing tadpoles…" Luna muttered to herself. "I think they must be circling you, trying to float into your ears and mess with your head."

As she spoke, Luna took her wand out from behind her ear, to Ivan's surprise, and waved it at a peculiar frequency.

"Try this…Scourgify ~(cleaning)," Luna said, pointing her wand at Ivan.

A gentle magical wind swirled around Ivan, wiping the dust from the corners of his robes, and Ivan, in the centre, felt as if he were being surrounded by many blowers.

"How are you? Feeling better?" Luna asked when the spell stopped.

"No, I don't think it's going to work!" Yvonne said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Cleaning spells obviously couldn't overcome one's troubles. A Memory Charm or a bottle of Joy Potion would do the trick.

"But I think it's working…" Luna said earnestly, her magic having blown away a lot of the Harassers.

Yvonne was speechless. The little witch's wild ideas were so unexpected, she didn't know whether to call her clever or eccentric.

"So, are you in trouble again?" Luna asked, skipping the part about harassing Dottie.

"Yes…it's about the ball…" Yvonne began, then hesitated.

He had a lot on his mind lately, but he had no one to talk to about it, and he thought Luna might be a good listener. She was very tight-lipped, never gave away anything she said, and was trustworthy.

Luna seemed very interested in the dance and pretended to listen carefully.

Yvonne made no attempt to hide the truth and gave him a brief account of what had happened, including Hermione's misunderstanding of seeing them walking together.

"Each person can only invite one person to the ball, and since I asked her again, there's no way she invited anyone else. She's too clever not to think of it," Ivan added at the end, recalling the complicated look on Hermione's face when he first invited her and her questioning words.

This was one of the reasons why he did not immediately rush to explain himself, not only because of Moody's urgent request, but also because he realised that he had not really known what Hermione was thinking all these years.

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