Chapter 385: Chapter 384 Hermione and 'Hermione' (2 in 1)
"I saved Assia the very day she gave me this bracelet, she thought she was hiding well enough, but I could tell exactly how low-spirited and desperate she was, and then I asked for one of Fawkes' feathers from Professor Dumbledore, I didn't tell her what it was and how it needed to be used, it was just used as an anchor point to use as an Apparition positioner just in case."
"But actually that feather didn't end up coming in handy because I happened to be in the secret passage when I saw her being taken by those pureblood students from the Marauder's Map. The purebloods were totally ignorant and did not know how to perform the curse, but they thought they had succeeded and left smugly. Assia also thought their curse had worked at the time, she was actually ready to kill herself and had a potion of Deadfire on her and was going to set herself on fire, I stopped her and got her out of the Castle and returned to the wagon and asked Professor Dumbledore to help find a dead body and burn it with the Potion of Deadfire before returning it to that classroom."
The melancholy music began to grow grander and higher as the surrounding students began to leave their seats and move into the centre of the great hall.
Jon felt his ear tickle a little as Hermione whispered in his ear, exhaling hot breath that tingled his nerves.
"You're taking a risk, if Auror or Crouch had investigated a little more carefully, they would have found out that those ashes didn't belong to Assia at all."
Hermione was nonchalant about it.
"It's a gamble, and my leverage lies in the fact that I know Crouch and his contempt for half-bloods and muggle-borns. He's certainly an extremely capable man to be given such trust by the Dark Lord, but equally, he's completely lost in his lord's lies about pureblood supremacy and has contempt for all non-pureblood wizards, plus he's high and mighty, to begin with, and thinks everything is within his control as far as the plan goes. So I'm just betting that he won't bother to look into Assia's ashes so thoroughly because she's done her whole job, the bracelet was handed over to me, and she eventually ended up taking her own life as he expected, so why would he bother to observe the ashes?"
Gutsy, Hermione had done almost everything she could have done, she hadn't just watched Assia go through her miserable fate, nor had she backed down in the face of difficulty and danger, leaving Jon feeling impressed.
"So what exactly does this bracelet do? What effect will it have on me when it is on your hand?" Jon asked, puzzled by this most crucial question.
A mysterious smile appeared at the corner of Hermione's mouth, and there was actually an unexpectedly playful note in her voice.
"Guess."
"Couldn't it be that Crouch actually cast some sort of vile curse in it, and as soon as he saw me come into contact with this bracelet at the Ball he would trigger the curse and have me die a violent death in public?"
"Wouldn't that make it even more risky for him to do that? Assia delivered the bracelet to me so early in the morning, if Professor Dumbledore finds out that something is wrong with it on the wagon, then all his preparations will go down the drain."
"Then I can't guess."
Jon said bluntly, it wasn't that he didn't have enough brains, it was that he hadn't been involved in this whole thing from start to finish, it was all Hermione and Dumbledore plotting together, he was just fishing at the Black Lake these days.
"No more guesses huh."
The smile on Hermione's lips never faded, like there was some interesting secret hidden in this bracelet.
Jon couldn't help but feel a sense of breathlessness, not only did he feel like Hermione was learning to talk like he usually would, but she had also picked up the bad habit of being a riddler from Dumbledore.
"What are you going to do later? Coming up with all these ruses just to get both Crouch and Snape's attention all over us?"
About this Hermione didn't hide it from Jon as she said softly.
"While you were working on the first tournament task, I was looking for the chamber that Mr Slytherin left behind, the one that hid the secret of the Dark Lord's intention to kill this castle, but if that was all it was for, then it was completely pointless for him to do so. According to Mr Slytherin's speculation, he must have wanted to kill the castle while also wanting to imbue his 'will' into the entire Hogwarts castle, which means he would have two sets of preparations, one being the chamber, and one elsewhere."
"And you have determined where that place is?"
"It's an easy thing to figure out, isn't it? It was obviously more important to him to imbue the castle with his 'will' than to his set-up in the chamber of secrets to killing it, plus he only gets to return to the castle twice a year, so surely he would check such a key place on his return to make sure the set-up in it was firmly in place, and there's only one place in the whole school that he goes to every time he returns."
Jon held his breath slightly and whispered.
"The Headmaster's office."
"Yes, and because you entered the Headmaster's office once before and brought back information that there were relics of the four founders on the table in that office, it was all the more reason for Professor Dumbledore and Mr Slytherin to be certain of this, that his greatest setup must be in the Headmaster's office."
Jon thought deeply about this, he had felt something was wrong with those four relics lying there when he first entered the Headmaster's office at the time, so he hadn't taken it lightly then, and now something was definitely wrong.
"But I remember that after I killed the basilisk guarding the front of the entrance hall in that Headmaster's office, there were no more guards inside, so it has been re-arranged with new ones now?"
"That's right, Fawkes tried going in there once before while searching for the entrance to the chamber of secrets and I heard from Professor Dumbledore that he saw a snake in there, a snake that was different from the basilisk and didn't feel as threatening to him."
"So you're trying to use this Yule Ball to draw Crouch's and Snape's attention to me by using their own setup against me and then get into the Headmaster's office to sabotage the Dark Lord's preparations in there?"
"Those things aren't that easy to sabotage, this time like the last time I went to the Chamber of Secrets, I just need to copy the ancient runes on the table that holds those four relics, the snake will be dealt with by Fawkes."
"Why does this plan always feel a little familiar to me."
"Of course, it should feel familiar to you, don't forget who covered for you when you first entered the headmaster's office to kill the basilisk when you infiltrated the castle, now our identities have swapped, and it's your turn to cover for me."
"You stole my idea."
Hermione's eyes curled into a crescent moon.
"And how do you want me to pay for the loss?"
"Forget it, I'm a generous person, take whatever you want. And one last question, who's going to pretend to be you to tag along with me later?"
"Lee Jordan, I originally wanted to find a girl, but you know there are only so many students who come along to Hogwarts castle, and it was difficult to find the right one. So Professor Dumbledore, also in a sign of respect to me, decided to just forgo the use of the polyjuice potion, and instead, he personally used the Transfiguration spell on Lee, which would be a little more secure at the same time. You should do as he says later, Professor Dumbledore should have said everything that needs to be explained to him."
Jon was certainly happy to do so, he finally didn't have to use his head this time, he just had to go through the steps and do a few things they had planned to do.
Halfway through the Ball, he and Hermione left the centre of the great hall and returned to their seats, Jon didn't keep his eyes on Crouch and Snape, but whenever he pretended to glance up at the raised platform inadvertently, he always noticed a hidden and clear line of gaps in the hall for those two men to observe him whenever they tried to, which was obviously no coincidence.
"Wish me luck."
Hermione got up from Jon's side and Jon looked up at her without giving his blessing, just saying in all seriousness.
"Make sure to keep your safety as your main priority."
"Remember what you promised us every time you went on an adventure? I'm just like you, Jon, I'm afraid of dying too."
Jon looked helpless.
"But I've never felt you were afraid of death for as long as I've known you."
"And that goes back to you as well."
Their mouths looked like they were bickering, but they acted as if they had just exchanged some funny joke.
On the raised platform, leaning back in his chair, Barty looked at Hermione who stood up and walked over in the direction of the lavatory, the smile on his face looking a little grim.
"Why is the potion taking so slow to take effect?"
Snape remained as expressionless as ever.
"You haven't given me an exact time at all, so I don't know exactly when the first whiff of the potion will take effect, but what is certain is that by eight o'clock at the very slowest all the potion in that bracelet will be evaporated."
"That's all the guarantee you can give."
Barty Jr. said coldly, then he beckoned to a female professor from the Pureblood House and whispered something in her ear, after which the female professor also walked towards the girls' lavatory.
In the middle of the great hall, the Ball was still going on, or rather the students in the castle were only now getting into the swing of things, and Emil had already kissed his partner after the end of the first song, in front of a large crowd, causing a lot of commotion.
At the sight of this, a feeling of irritation rose in Barty's mind for some reason, a vague unease in his mind, but he could not tell where it was coming from.
Soon Hermione re-emerged from the lavatory, followed by the female professor he had arranged for, who shook her head implicitly at Barty from a distance.
This made him drop some of his restlessness and set his eyes on 'Hermione', who had regrouped with Jon.
Jon also looked at 'Hermione' who looked exactly the same as she had left a moment ago, one could not feel any difference, the expression on his face did not change much, but he could not resist a wave of oddness flooding his mind.
"This is a nice dress, Jon! To be honest, I was a little resistant to it at first when Professor Dumbledore brought it to me, but after I put it on I couldn't get enough of it, am I gorgeous!"
'Hermione's' duck-like voice spoke and Jon almost couldn't resist puking on the spot, barely managing to hold out the juice he had just drank into his mouth.
"How come you didn't change your voice too?" He asked, lowering the volume of his voice and turning his back in the direction where Crouch and Snape were staring at them from.
'Hermione', who was still the same on the outside but in fact, Lee Jordan on the inside, helplessly spread her hands.
"There was a professor from the castle following Hermione when she went in just now, the voice changing potion has a time limit and the plan was to drink it when I took over her identity, but since someone was following her along, there was no time to drink it, so I had to just come out like this."
"Well, you can still drink the potion when you get the chance, but can you stop saying such disgusting things! And asking me if you're gorgeous!"
"Hey, you're treating me differently, I'm sure if Hermione had asked you that herself, you would have complimented her on her beauty by now!"
"Shut up! Since your voice hasn't changed, keep it down! How much longer do we have to stay in the great hall?"
"Twenty minutes, counting from the time I sit next to you, in twenty minutes I'm going to take your arm and then share a romantic outing in the garden~ Also, we have to act like we're bantering all the time, so I can't shut up."
"Can you please stop grossing me out with that kind of accent?"
"I thought you'd like it, George obviously told me originally you were going to find a male dance partner, he said you were actually a hidden gay."
"Thanks for conveying that, and don't worry, I'll blow his mouth off with a blasting curse when tomorrow comes!"
"Ho! Make sure you call me over to watch then, I've wanted to do that for a long time!"
Suddenly, Jon watched as Lee narrowed his eyes and stared at the slightly bulging chest area in front of him.
"How much of Professor Dumbledore's Transfiguration affected you? The same effect as the polyjuice potion?"
"Of course not, it would have been more appropriate to get a girl for this actually, but there was really no suitable candidate, so Professor Dumbledore had to let me do it. To protect the privacy of the lady, the professor has only altered my face and the parts of me that are exposed, if you don't believe me you can lift my robe and look inside, it's still healthy dark skin!"
"And what's going on with your chest?"
A look of "I know what's going on in your mind" appeared on Lee's face.
"A kind of enlargement spell, wanna feel it? It's soft."
"Fuck off! You're grossing me out!"
They were talking in hushed tones and there was no one else around, so even if someone else had looked over at their location, they would have just thought they were talking about some funny and obnoxious joke.
Crouch saw the scene from afar, and his mouth curved in a somewhat shady arc as Lee and Jon exchanged insults which he saw as more of a "flirting".
"I have a feeling your potion has taken effect."
Snape, however, shook his glass of cider and took a sip from it.
"It's obvious that he's become much more relaxed than before, he hasn't taken his eyes off the girl's breasts since earlier."
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