Hogwarts.
John looked at the owl cowering at the other end of the table.
Then he looked at Basil as it slowly walked over, even stepping on Crabbe's hand along the way.
"Don't you think those owls are getting more and more afraid of it?" Malfoy always felt that this owl was even more domineering than he was.
John remained silent.
Basil walked up to the newspaper-delivering owl. Just by lifting its head, it frightened the owl into hooting in panic.
The delivery owl dropped the newspaper and flew away without daring to look back.
It even bumped into the glass on the way.
Basil picked up the newspaper and walked back, stepping on Goyle's hand along the way.
It delivered the newspaper to John.
Malfoy fed Basil some bacon.
Basil looked at him disdainfully, then turned away and accepted Astoria's head pats.
"I won't allow anyone in Hogwarts to be more arrogant than me!" Malfoy was furious, slamming the table as he stood up.
A few minutes later, Malfoy, his hair a mess, fell into deep thought.
"Is that owl of yours a proper owl, John?"
John ignored Malfoy's mysterious antics.
He stared at the news in the paper.
"Acolytes? Breaking into the Ministry of Magic?"
His intuition told him that the authenticity of this news was questionable.
John read through the newspapers one by one, then set down the last paper, which contained news about the approaching election.
When he looked up, he saw Riddle flying over.
Riddle delivered Tommy's letter.
John opened it and glanced at it, then said to Malfoy and the others, "I'll leave for a while."
He stood up and left.
Daphne watched his departing back, worry in her beautiful grey-blue eyes.
...
John walked into an empty corridor and opened the letter.
"Lippi Korbel..."
Several photographs unfolded in his hand.
John muttered to himself, "She discovered something."
Since she had infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, she must have discovered something before being hunted.
John burned the letter and sighed.
"I had a fairly good impression of that woman."
As one of the contributors to John's operations in the Ministry of Magic, John had a very good impression of Lippi.
She was a clever person who knew how to judge the situation.
Back then, it had also been she who helped change Barty Crouch Jr.'s identity.
It could be said that Lippi had played a huge role in that matter.
Barty Crouch Sr. had also intended to cultivate her and make her part of his core team.
Her originally bright future had ended just like that.
He stared at the wand in the photograph.
"Someone needs to go to Poland."
...
Poland.
A group of people entered the country through illegal means.
They were Aurors. To be precise, they were Aurors from the British Ministry of Magic.
After appearing here, they immediately began their investigation.
In the magical world, there was no lack of methods for capturing traces of the past.
Among the Aurors, there were people skilled in this field.
Because the lift shaft had been destroyed, the Polish Ministry of Magic was especially quiet today.
"Remember, we need to find Lippi Korbel."
The leading Auror said solemnly, "Don't let anyone discover us. We are currently here illegally, and that will be difficult to explain."
"Understood."
A total of five Aurors had come this time.
Their first stop was the hotel where Lippi had previously stayed.
After disguising themselves, they went to the hotel to ask for information.
From the hotel owner, they learned that Lippi had not returned since leaving yesterday.
This made their hearts heavy.
They began to split up, heading to different places to search for clues.
And all of this was being watched by someone.
...
A week had passed since the Polish Ministry of Magic was invaded.
Slytherin and Hufflepuff played a match. Malfoy and Astoria, the couple duo, stole the show and slaughtered Hufflepuff with a 250-point lead.
This nearly made the little badgers of Hufflepuff shut themselves away.
Last time, they had just had 200 points taken from them by Gryffindor. Now, they had been brutally beaten down by Slytherin as well.
Most importantly, the combinations on both sides were almost the same.
Ginny and Harry.
Astoria and Malfoy.
One was a Chaser scoring points, while the other was a Seeker securing victory.
At the same time, both sides were backed by Firebolts, making the other houses cry out that they were cheating.
Gryffindor was also following close behind, actively preparing for their next match against Ravenclaw.
The next holiday was approaching, which also meant that exams were drawing near.
They only had one Easter holiday left.
After the holiday ended, it would mean exams were about to arrive.
So they had to properly cherish this final holiday.
Pansy had been very close to Daphne recently.
This did not match her love-struck character setting.
The main reason was that Theodore had hurriedly left school. It was said that something had happened to his father in Azkaban.
Pansy was extremely worried about this, but there was nothing else she could do.
Malfoy, on the other hand, was about to suffer a cerebral haemorrhage.
Those two great fools, like trolls, were challenging the limits of his tolerance at every moment.
"If you can't take part in training because you fail, I will absolutely throw you out."
Malfoy released a cold aura, making Goyle and Crabbe cower.
There was nothing they could do. They had already been given a final warning.
And it had come from Snape. He could not tolerate such idiots in Slytherin.
In the seventh-year tests, their terrible performance was simply like two deformed trolls attending school.
With Theodore gone, the job of teaching the trolls fell to Malfoy.
Because of Theodore's status, whenever he taught the two of them, he was often the one mocked.
But now that it had been changed to Malfoy, he would strike the moment they disagreed.
At the very least, Goyle's left buttock looked much larger than the right.
Malfoy really did use Dark curses when he had them.
During those few days, Malfoy's gloomy pressure was so intense that even Blaise did not dare approach him.
John had not appeared for the past few days.
Neville had seen John several times in the Constellation Society, where he was studying the Star Spirit Divine Guards.
Compared to Slytherin's troubles with remedial lessons, Gryffindor was full of enthusiasm toward them.
"Dumbledore is teaching you personally?" Ron Weasley cried out in surprise.
Hermione quickly smacked him, telling him to keep his voice down.
Ron also realised how foolish he had been. He lowered his voice and asked, "What's going on? You've been away these past few days, and you were with Dumbledore?"
"Not just Dumbledore." Harry glanced around and replied, "Sirius and the others too."
"Isn't Voldemort dead?" Hermione asked in confusion. "Why are they suddenly training you?"
Harry said, "Dumbledore asked me about Grindelwald. I think they believe Grindelwald isn't dead."
"Impossible. The newspapers all said so," Hermione instinctively refuted.
"There are some things you can't judge only by the newspapers," Harry complained. "The newspapers once said I was a lying little boy starved of attention."
"All right." Hermione felt that made sense.
"But if Grindelwald isn't dead, then who did the Polish Minister for Magic kill?" Ron asked.
Harry had no answer to that either. He had only picked up from Dumbledore's words that he believed Grindelwald might still be alive. He did not know the details.
However, the fact that Harry was being taught by Dumbledore still made Ron extremely envious.
"That's brilliant. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard in the world," he said enviously.
"Dumbledore isn't the one teaching me all the time," Harry said, shaking his head. "Yesterday's Occlumency lesson was with Snape."
"Snape?" Ron immediately stopped being envious and said with deep sympathy, "Then you're doomed."
They had never had any good feelings toward someone as harsh as Snape.
Thinking of that lesson, Harry also felt extremely gloomy.
He would rather not learn that magic at all than stay together with Snape.
Even though he knew Snape was not a Death Eater, the man was still hateful.
"Don't think about it too much. We still need to prepare for the match against Ravenclaw."
Katie Bell had graduated and left last year, and the vacant Chaser position had been filled by Ron.
He rubbed his hands together and said, "This year, we're going to win the championship."
Their victory against Hufflepuff had reignited their fighting spirit. As long as they beat Ravenclaw, they would only need to face Slytherin in the final battle.
Harry also set aside the matter of remedial lessons and prepared to get himself into the best state to win the match.
Hermione was not on the team, so she could only cheer them on.
At that moment, an owl appeared and dropped a newspaper.
Hermione picked it up and glanced at it.
"Five Aurors Missing"
In the image, Barty Crouch Sr.'s expression was gloomy.
The Aurors who had gone to Poland had sent back no news, which made some people sense that something was wrong.
Aurors were an important combat force of the Ministry of Magic. The disappearance of even one would be enough to draw attention, let alone five of them.
Barty Crouch Sr.'s vigilance toward Poland rose another level.
He made a decision.
____
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