Chapter 383: Chapter 382 Crouch's game
Voldemort did not return to the castle on Christmas night.
This was somewhat surprising to Jon and at the same time somewhat understandable.
The Ball wasn't nearly as important as the tournament task that was held at the start of the tournament, and Voldemort hadn't even been present during the first task other than start and end, to begin with, let alone this one.
Combined with the absence of Dumbledore, the two men of the highest power who had organised the tournament were not present at the ball, which allowed the students present to let loose a little more.
Apart from them, all the professors in the Castle, including Snape and Crouch, and the three judges of the Confederation, were all present.
And the newspaper reporters, who had been in the castle all along, didn't miss the opportunity to be a part of it.
Of course, newspapers can't cover the big stories all day, and sometimes it's more interesting to read about the gossip surrounding the champions.
So as soon as they entered the great hall, led by Rosier and with Hermione taking Jon's arm, numerous flashing lights lit up in their direction.
Almost none of the students in the Castle recognised the pretty girl standing next to Jon, Hermione had changed so much since two years ago that even if 80% of the people in the hall had seen her hanging in front of the entrance hall, no one was able to recognise her now.
There were whispers throughout the hall for a while, but very few people acted disrespectfully, even the haughty pureblood students. Jon had a reputation for being vicious out there, and every pureblood student had been sternly warned by their families before coming to school this year that they should not mess with Jon unless they were in a situation where they could beat the shit out of him.
As they entered the great hall, sometime before the Ball was officially due to begin, Jon was guided to his seat in a special section by a Professor from the Half-Blood House who had come to receive them.
Hermione was sitting next to Jon, her long chestnut hair meticulously tended by Diane and pulled back into an elegant bun at the back of her head, wearing a gown made of a wispy light purplish-blue fabric that Professor McGonagall had chosen for her when she found out she was Jon's date in Lyons.
Jon looked at the starry sky ceiling.
"It's beautiful isn't it."
"It's a very advanced form of projection magic, I've read the history of Hogwarts and also heard from Mr Slytherin's portrait as well as Lady Grey that this Enchanted Ceiling was actually bewitched by the founder of Ravenclaw House - Rowena Ravenclaw "
"Shouldn't a normal girl see this and compliment it on how pretty it is?"
"Would you like a normal girl?"
Jon swallowed hard at her sudden question and turned his head to look at her with wide eyes.
Hermione looked like she was amused by his reaction like that and covered her mouth to laugh out loud.
"Actually, if I hadn't been brought to this castle back then, and I hadn't had the experience of being rescued by you, wouldn't that mean you might have had to go and find someone else to be your date for this Ball tonight?"
"Why are you suddenly asking questions like this?" Jon found Hermione odd today like she was hiding something on her mind.
"I was actually thinking, from a different perspective, about how the experience of being brought to this Castle in the first place isn't exactly a traumatic memory."
She looked quietly at the starry sky ceiling, then turned to the mostly smiling faces of the surrounding students.
"If I hadn't been enslaved here, I might actually think this Castle was some kind of a good place to be right now. Sometimes you only know what the world is really like when you've actually experienced it."
Jon suddenly noticed the white string that Hermione was wearing on her hand that he had never seen before.
"Is that one also from Professor McGonagall? It's quite pretty."
Hermione held up the hand in which she was wearing the bracelet, the candlelight reflecting on her slender white wrist and on the string, which reflected a flowing glow on its surface in a beautiful way.
She whispered.
"Not Professor McGonagall, but a person who has been forgotten by this castle."
On the raised platform in the great hall, Snape, in a rare occurrence, was actually sitting right next to Crouch.
The two were notorious for their incompatibility with each other not to mention throughout Hogwarts, but even throughout the entire British wizarding world.
They never greeted each other at meetings, they never sat together at meals, and apart from being summoned by Voldemort personally, they were hardly ever seen together at any other time.
At this Yule Ball, these two people, who were among the highest ranking decision makers in the whole of Hogwarts Castle in Voldemort's absence, were actually sitting together from the very beginning!
This not only surprised the other Professors, but even Lucius, who was keeping order in the great hall with Aurors and watching over Jon and the others to prevent them from doing anything abnormal, found it a little hard to believe.
The seats around both Snape and Crouch were also empty as if they were having some sort of secret conversation between them, and no other professor moved over at this juncture after a glance from them a while ago.
"I thought you'd just let that Konrad girl get close to Jon Green."
Snape said expressionlessly as he glanced out of the corner of his eye at Jon who was chatting idly with Hermione in his seat.
Barty Jr. still had his gentle and approachable smile on his face.
"Who do you think that kind of cheap trick is going to fool? The perfect plan is something that goes with the flow and lets things move forward on their own trajectory, and all we need to do is to go a little further at one of the most crucial points."
"Konrad thought till the day she died that the string was a gift from her mother and was firmly convinced that it was her most precious possession, and that mudblood called Granger was first noticed and attracted to the girl because she saw that it was exactly the same as the one her mother had once worn. You see, it only takes a very simple little thing to bind two otherwise unrelated people together."
Snape turned his head to look at the man beside him who had been secretly rumoured in the British magical community to be an even crazier lunatic than Bella.
"So that bracelet is?"
"Don't forget who got that little mudblood named Hermione Granger into this Castle in the first place, I met her parents, a pair of rotting dentists, and I disguised myself as a Professor from a prestigious University to get them to order their daughter to sign the pact straight away, and at the time that disgusting muggle woman was wearing that string on her hand. I had someone go and search the whole of London a while ago to find the exact same string, and used some of our connections on the Muggle side of the government before I finally found it in a second-hand variety shop."
Barty's voice was calm, but Snape clearly heard a hint of smugness in it, and he knew this man was deliberately showing off in front of him, bragging about how he had shared his lord's concern.
But Snape was not offended by his bragging, instead, he was curious as to whether these set-ups of Barty Jr. would be effective or not, and what methods had been used to conceal this from that cunning and scheming Dumbledore and that weird as-hell student, Jon Green.
"And then you chose Konrad, who was in the midst of being cornered and bullied by Floyd and Flint, and gave her an elaborate string of memories, along with the bracelet that I had finished modifying so that she would think it was a birthday present from her mother and the most precious thing she had?"
The smile on Barty's face grew even wider at Snape's question.
"Honestly, it was not easy to find such a suitable candidate; Assia Konrad was practically tailor-made for my plans. She comes from a half-breed background, so she's naturally bonded to the even lower mudblood bunch, and she's so weak that she's been coerced and intimidated by Flint for so long that she's nearly about to choose to give up her life than accept it, and more likely to make that bunch sympathetic. What a great fit, I decided she would be the final piece of the puzzle for my entire plan after I had taken the time to look into all the half-breed students' profiles."
"So it never occurred to you to go straight for Jon Green himself in the first place?"
"If he really was just an ordinary 15-year-old boy, then, of course, it would be easiest and most effective to go straight for him personally, and I wouldn't even need to expend so much effort and means to just control a beautiful, young schoolgirl instead of throwing her at him. But that would obviously be impractical since the boy has caused our lord so much trouble, and Dumbledore has such high hopes for him, that such a straightforward and instantly recognisable scheme could not possibly work. Not to mention others, but you, Severus, would you have been charmed by a Gryffindor girl when you were fifteen?"
Instantly, Snape's countenance darkened, and his voice turned cold.
"Given our relationship, we're not close enough for you to call my name directly, and don't you ever think that because we're in a great hall now that I'll be considerate enough not to attack."
Barty Jr. smiled and raised both his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Look at you, I didn't say which Gryffindor girl it was, excluding her, if any other girl approached you, would you even look at her, you wouldn't deserve to be called Severus Snape if you do that right? Not even you would fall for such a simple beauty trick, let alone Jon Green who is making a big noise these days. Although he's a lowly bloody mudblood, the fact that he has caused our lord so much trouble means that he nevertheless has some special qualities, so we'll just end up like the Lestrange family if we use the same tactics we use against ordinary people to deal with him."
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