Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 236: This is worse than going to Azkaban
Self-proving paradox...

Cohen remembered the prophecy he had read last semester, in which Sirius was "taken advantage of" by the Dementors... He was already rejecting the prospect of this future.

Will it cause this future to arrive faster?

Or maybe I should just do it myself—the prophecy only showed the Dementors sucking Sirius' soul, but it didn't specify which Dementor it was...

Fudge certainly couldn't tell the difference between Coin's Dementor form and the other Dementors.

But this is not what Cohen should do now. He has two things to do during this holiday. The first is to find Barty Crouch Jr., because Voldemort said that Barty Crouch Jr. knows where Riddle House is and the destination of the portkey should be placed there. The second is to go to Nicolas Flamel's studio at the end of the holiday, because Nico has something to give to Cohen.

The first event was scheduled by Cohen on Christmas Eve.

Old Crouch must be at home, which makes it easier for Cohen to attribute the "credit" of killing young Batty to old Crouch.

I can't go back and tell Voldemort, "I accidentally killed your loyal men."

After spending the remaining half of Christmas Day, Cohen opened the window at nine o'clock and left the "fake Cohen" in bed.

It is easy to be exposed when pretending to be alive, but it is much easier to pretend to be a sleeping person.

Flying out of the window again, Cohen flew towards Wiltshire, taking his suitcase with him.

This was found in Edward's telephone book. Of course, there were no telephones in the wizarding world, only addresses - and the Crouch family's address was on the edge of the Wiltshire moors.

As one of the oldest pure-blood wizarding families in Britain, the Crouch family also has a manor with profound heritage, and due to the glorious political achievements of Barty Crouch Sr., it has been renovated many times with high quality.

The manor was wrapped in layers of Muggle-repelling spells and concealing spells cast by the Ministry of Magic, and there was also a circle of howling warnings around it to prevent intruders.

It is in the same county as Malfoy Manor, but at a certain distance.

Inside the manor is a gloomy Gothic stone castle, with the Crouch family's "Supremacy of Law" emblem, which shows a sword piercing the code, suspended on the outer iron railings.

Cohen couldn't get in physically yet - old Crouch had set up a Dementor detection spell outside the manor to prevent the Dementors from discovering his son's whereabouts.

Even though Barty Crouch Jr. was considered a "dead Death Eater" by everyone in the wizarding world, Crouch Sr. was still extremely worried about it.

Then we can only rely on the soul.

As long as Coin did not actively materialize his soul into a pure-blooded Dementor, his soul could easily bypass these common protective spells.

Fortunately, Cohen had the box with him, so he didn't have to abandon his body in the nearby wasteland.

Leaving his body in the cabin, Cohen's soul floated out of the box, crossed the Crouch family's fence without triggering any spells, and entered the "castle" that looked very old.

The corridor of the Crouch family's house was filled with portraits of family members who had served as officials in the Ministry of Magic, but Cohen noticed that they all kept their mouths shut. It was possible that Barty Crouch hated the portraits talking about family scandals and had used some kind of silencing spell on them.

It was strange why Sirius Black couldn't use this spell on the noisy portrait of his mother.

Cohen passed by some rooms that had been carefully renovated.

A reception room with hidden monitoring magic patterns; a library filled with revised drafts of the International Statute of Secrecy and trial records, with books on various professions everywhere but not a single children's book... There was even a dusty miniature courtroom, complete with a witness stand, an iron chair for the defendant, and restraint chains. The hall was hidden at the back, with a long table and a crackling fire. Old Crouch, dressed in pajamas, looked like he should have gone to bed early, but he still sat there alone, staring blankly at the end of the table in the deserted hall.

Behind a door in the hall was the kitchen, from which came the sounds of Winky, the Crouch family's house-elf, preparing food - it was unclear whether it was for old Crouch or young Barty.

Since Batistuta wasn't here, Cohen chose to continue floating upwards.

Cohen remembered that Crouch Sr. had kept his son under the Imperius Curse to prevent him from escaping.

So now little Barty is probably in his original bedroom.

But even after Cohen had walked through the two upper floors, he still didn't find any other living people - Barty Crouch Jr.'s bedroom still remained the same as it had been more than ten years ago. Winky had been cleaning it according to old Crouch's wishes, but Cohen could not see any signs of anyone living there.

It was as if old Crouch lived alone there. Cohen even went to the attic, which was full of junk, but there was no sign of young Barty.

Does a father need to hide his son so deeply? The Ministry of Magic is not going to suddenly search his house without a word - especially under the premise that there are a lot of protective spells outside.

Besides, little Barty "died in Azkaban" many years ago...

But Cohen found something interesting in the attic.

A box of letters from Barty Crouch Sr. to his son.

Out of curiosity, Cohen materialized his soul and secretly read a few of the letters.

Inside was a "confession." It was hard to imagine that a man like Crouch Sr. would write a confession to his Death Eater son. However, in the letters that Cohen saw, the end of each letter was heavily crossed out in black ink, and replaced with a sharp sentence:
"You deserve it."

This family is better at producing madmen than Azkaban.

After stuffing all the letters back into the box, Cohen turned around, dematerialized his soul, and continued searching for Little Batty's location.

If it's not on the floors above ground, then it can only be underground.

Cohen dived down. No matter what kind of concealing spell was cast on the basement entrance, as long as it existed, Cohen would always be able to find it.

After passing through several layers of thick floorboards, Cohen found a dim basement cell.

This place was built just for one person. The square cell had only one door and a bowl-sized ventilation hole.

Barty Crouch Jr. was chained to a corner, looking drowsy.

In another corner, scattered about were several rotting copies of the Daily Prophet. Cohen could see the headline: "Secretary Crouch Kills His Own Family for the Righteous."

The wall near little Batty was covered with crooked scratches of "I will be free", and there were also some shoe prints that were left on it later, as if old Batty had kicked it in anger.

This is worse than Azkaban.

(End of this chapter)