Chapter 392 390. Lost contact
In Hogwarts Castle, the ball in the auditorium is still going on.
Just after Jon and Lee lured Barty Jr. and Snape out of the castle, the carriage and Durmstrang's students who were still attending the ball had already left early under the leadership of Rozier.
And Lucius also got a report from his subordinates about the changes in the upper floors of the castle, but he didn't take it too seriously, and just asked a team of Aurors to go to the confinement room where Selwyn was held. , thought it was the eldest lady who was having a bad temper.
However, when Barty Jr. returned to the auditorium with an ugly face and found him, Lucius felt something was wrong.
"Immediately send someone back to the Ministry of Magic, and inform the Death Eaters staying in the Ministry to meet up at Hogwarts immediately! Then seal the entrance and exit of the auditorium for me now, but don't disturb the students, referees and newspaper reporters here, tell them The castle is undergoing a routine investigation, and they need their cooperation to stay here. All the other Aurors are sent out to search the entire castle, and report any abnormalities immediately!"
The old **** Snape was standing beside Barty Jr., and when he was giving orders, he acted indifferently like an irrelevant person.
After hearing Barty Jr.'s order, Lucius turned his head and glanced at Snape, and found that the vice-principal, who had always been at odds with Barty Jr., did not make a sound. Luo unfolded the arrangement according to his words.
After commanding Lucius, Barty Jr. turned his head to look at Snape again, and lowered his voice.
"This matter must be reported to the master, and all consequences will be borne by me."
Snape just glanced at him lightly.
"Don't stress to me, whether you admit it or not, the consequences should be borne by you, and why did you tell me about notifying the master? You can do it yourself."
Little Barty pursed his lips tightly. Obviously, Snape's words undoubtedly added fuel to his already burning anger.
"Don't play tricks on me at this time! I can't contact the master at all! After the first project ended, I reported my plan to him, and I never received any instructions from him."
Hearing what he said, Snape frowned slightly, and he took a deep look at little Barty.
"you sure?"
"I'm sure, I tried to contact the owner twice during this period, but I didn't receive any reply. I thought the owner was dealing with other important matters and didn't have time to communicate with me!"
Snape didn't continue to say anything strange, he obviously noticed the big problem involved.
"follow me."
He left this sentence, and Barty Jr. did not hesitate, leaving Lucius to organize the Aurors to arrange the entire castle, while he followed Snape to his office.
Snape selected a book with a black cover and no mark on it from the bookshelf, spread it out on the desk, sprinkled some Floo powder on the pages, and finally tapped the book with his wand.
The next moment, the floo powder on the page ignited a green flame. The flame was not violent, just like a small flame burning on a candle.
However, after the green flames lit up, nothing happened. The green light reflected on the faces of Snape and Barty Jr., making their faces look so ugly.
"The master has lost contact with us."
Little Barty's voice was trembling, and he rarely showed such emotion, especially in front of Snape.
Snape didn't speak, he knew that he was staring at the miserable green flame quietly, his already pale face looked even more bleak at this moment.
"When was the first time you couldn't contact the owner?"
"Second week of October."
"It has been almost two months now. You have contacted twice. This is the first time for me. It is definitely not a coincidence that I have not been contacted three times."
After Snape's words fell, the office fell into a deathly silence.
After a long time, Barty Jr. said in a voice that returned to that terrifyingly calm voice.
"This matter must absolutely, absolutely not let others know."
Snape didn't make a sound, he still looked at the green fire, but nodded heavily.
In the castle, Barty Jr.'s arrangement was quickly implemented.
Voldemort gave him and Snape a lot of power, including the Lestrange couple before, but now that the Lestrange couple are killed by Jon in public, they are the entire British wizarding world An existence below one person and above ten thousand people.
After the Death Eaters who stayed in the Ministry of Magic came to the castle, they took over the job of commanding the Aurors as a matter of course. Each Death Eater led a team of Aurors to conduct a carpet search of the entire castle.
The students who were still in the carnival in the auditorium have not found anything wrong. It is still early, and no one wants to go back to the dormitory for the time being. After staying in the auditorium enough, they will go to the garden in pairs. The Aurors did not stop the move.
Thanks to enough manpower, that is, within an hour or so, the Death Eaters led the Aurors to search all the places that could be searched up and down the castle, but none of them found anything unusual. place.
Little Barty's face didn't look as ugly as when he just returned to the auditorium. Instead, he showed enough composure at this time.
"Are you sure you have searched all the places in the castle?"
"There's only one place we know we haven't gone in." Lucius said, looking into Barty Jr.'s eyes.
Even if he didn't directly say where it was, Barty Jr. and Snape both knew where Death Eaters and Aurors knew but didn't dare to search.
Snape stood up at this moment, and he looked at Lucius with a cold face.
"The master left me this power, I will take you into the principal's office."
Lucius frowned.
"I've never heard of this matter, and even if you really have this power, don't we need to report to the master first before making a decision?"
At this time, Barty Jr. showed a sufficient tacit understanding with Snape.
"You don't have to doubt his words. I can fully prove this. And now the master is doing a very important thing. He warned us that no one should disturb him."
Voldemort divided most of the power in his hands between Snape and Barty Jr. just for this situation.
If everything goes well, Barty Jr. will definitely target Snape, who is clearly from a mixed race but occupies a high position, and fight for power and profit with him.
But if there is a special situation, Barty Jr.'s loyalty to him will definitely abandon all the previous disputes with Snape, and unite together to deal with the situation.
In the absence of Voldemort himself, as long as the voices of Barty Jr. and Snape are unified, it is considered that the Minister of Magic, Fudge, is not as effective as the two of them.
So after hearing that Barty Jr. gave Snape a platform, Lucius didn't have any objections.
They brought a group of people to the door of the principal's office on the seventh floor, and then, under the witness of everyone, Snape pushed open the door.
There are fragmented and damaged portraits everywhere, a huge snake corpse with a hole in its head lying in a pool of blood, armor fragments scattered all over the floor, and two pairs of magic armor guarding both sides of the desk together!
The scene in front of you, no matter who looks at it, knows what happened in this office.
Snape took the lead to step into the principal's office. He came to Nagini's body and lightly stained some scarlet snake blood with his fingers.
"Not long after he died, at most two hours ago."
When he said this, he was looking at Barty Jr. Both of them knew very well what they were paying attention to two hours ago.
Little Barty avoided Snape's gaze. He came to the desk and looked at the four relics placed on it and the desktop full of runes that could not be noticed without paying attention.
Soon he found it in the grooves of the runes.
It was a few drops of dark green ink marks, which were left behind when the runes were copied with the shorthand quill pen, and when the sword and shield armor hit the Gryffindor sword.
Seeing the traces of these inks, and looking at the runes on the table, Barty Jr. could easily think of something.
But he didn't say these findings, but turned his head to look at the fragmented portraits around him.
"Reassemble these portraits for me immediately, and then find their portraits in other locations to see if I can find anything."
Soon an Auror carried out his orders, returning to the Ministry of Magic with the shattered portraits, trying to mend and find work.
At this time, a Death Eater finally raised an objection.
"If this happens, should we report the matter to the master first?"
It was the first time for them to enter the principal's room, so no one knew what it was like before it was destroyed, and no one knew whether any precious things had been stolen, so it is most correct for someone to propose to report to Voldemort first s Choice.
But Barty Jr. just said lightly.
"The master is doing something that can't be distracted. Even if there is such an accident in the principal's office, he can't be disturbed."
The only Snape who could question his statement like this did not open his mouth, so the others wisely chose to believe it.
At this time, Lucius continued to ask new questions.
"Then how do we track down the murderer now?"
"There is no need to track down the murderer. The only person who has the opportunity to enter the principal's office is in this school!"
(end of this chapter)