For a moment, Luofu thought he heard wrongly. He was stunned for a moment and asked:
"Who broke out of jail?"
"Barty Crouch," said Fudge.
In an uncertain tone, Rove asked again: "You mean... Barty Crouch Jr.?"
"No, it's Old Barty Crouch." Fudge confirmed: "He escaped from Azkaban."
Luofu's expression suddenly became very strange. He looked at Fudge with eyes that showed that the joke was not funny.
Fudge sighed. He could understand Rove's mood. He had the same reaction when he first heard the news.
"Rolf, Barty Crouch really escaped from prison. I just got the news this morning and went to Azkaban to confirm it myself."
Rolf fell silent.
If Barty Jr. escaped from prison, he would not have many emotional fluctuations, but if his father escaped from prison, it would be false no matter how hard he heard it.
It's not that Rove doubted Barty Crouch's ability to escape from prison, but that he had no need to escape.
Barty Crouch is not a good person, but he is definitely not a bad person. To describe him, he is a person who strictly abides by the law.
He even complied to the point of being inhumane, otherwise he would not have imprisoned his son in Azkaban without hesitation after discovering that he was a Death Eater.
Of course, Crouch did break the law later and secretly exchanged his son, but it was his beloved wife's last plea before her death that forced him to make a change.
Now, Crouch is imprisoned in Azkaban, and Rove still doesn't think that he will break the law and escape from Azkaban.
Unless...he has a reason to cross.
Of course, there is another possibility, that is, the whole thing was directed and acted by Fudge. He killed political enemy Crouch and then slandered him for escaping from prison.
But Rove quickly dismissed the idea.
Since Azkaban became a prison, no criminal has escaped from it. Once the first wizard appears, it will be a huge scandal for Fudge.
If the public learns about it, his prestige will inevitably be shaken.
If he really wanted to kill Crouch, he could just let the dementors do it. No one would know, let alone care, anyway.
So, Crouch probably really escaped from prison, but how did he do it?
Hearing Rolf's doubts, Fudge sighed:
"According to the description of the dementors, they were sure that Barty was dead and threw him into the tomb of Azkaban."
"After the Auror Office learned about this, they went to Azkaban to check the body, but found that the body was gone."
"This doesn't confirm that Barty Crouch is still alive?" Rove asked.
"While Aurors were searching the North Sea, they found a Muggle fishing boat. The owner of that boat rescued Barty and brought him to shore." Fudge explained:
"Barty didn't have a wand, so he didn't erase the captain's memory."
Rolf narrowed his eyes. If you put it this way, Barty Crouch used some kind of magic of suspended animation to deceive the dementors.
After a long silence, he asked again: "Did Crouch do anything strange before escaping from prison? For example, did he come into contact with anything?"
In the original time and space, Sirius suddenly escaped from prison because he saw the photo of Peter Pettigrew in the Daily Prophet, otherwise he would not have escaped from prison at all.
Crouch may have been stimulated in some way.
Fudge said solemnly: "He once spoke to the Auror and said he wanted to see you or Dumbledore."
"See me?" Luofu raised his eyebrows.
"Yes." Fudge said seriously: "Rolf, you exposed Barty's criminal facts and personally sent him to Azkaban.
He may come to Hogwarts to seek revenge on you, so you must be careful!"
"..."
…
…
Crouch's prison escape did not trigger a frenzy of public opinion. It was not that people did not want to criticize Fudge, but that he directly blocked the news.
The escape of Peter Pettigrew the year before last made Fudge sweat profusely; the disaster at the Quidditch World Cup last year almost made him step down...
If there is another prison break incident this year, how many more days can he, as a minister, remain in office?
Therefore, Fudge strictly blocked the news and only let the Aurors secretly hunt for Crouch.
The security of Hogwarts has also been increased a lot. After all, Fudge insisted that Crouch must have escaped from prison to take revenge on Rove.
In the name of the outside world, the second event of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin. This is to protect the lives and safety of the students!
Speaking of life safety, Harry and Ron now feel that their lives are constantly under threat.
Of course, it wasn't the threat from the second item, but from Snape.
Because the two of them planned to steal the potion under Snape's nose, this was obviously an act seeking death!
But there is no other way. If you want to participate in the competition, you can only take risks.
During Potions class on Monday, Harry and Ron decided to take action.
At this time, in the underground classroom, dozens of crucibles were lined up side by side, and the students were all concentrating on brewing endurance potions.
Snape walked back and forth in the smoke. He quickly walked to Harry and asked, "Potter, what are you brewing?"
"Stamina potion, Professor," Harry said.
"Then why is it so thick? I thought you were making porridge for yourself." Snape said.
All the Slytherin students laughed, especially Malfoy, who laughed proudly.
"Zero points, Potter." Snape said viciously, and with a wave of his wand, Harry's cauldron was emptied.
"Write me an article on the correct preparation of this medicine, indicate where you went wrong and why. Submit it in the next class. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Harry said angrily.
When Snape turned around to look at Ron's cauldron, Harry suddenly took out a string of hard-drawn fireworks from his pocket and clicked them quickly with his wand.
The firework began to hiss and sparks burst out. Harry took aim and threw the firework, and it landed accurately in Malfoy's pot.
Malfoy's potion exploded and showered the entire class.
Everyone screamed under the attack of the splashing potion, and Malfoy was even splashed in the face. His nose was swollen like a watermelon. He covered his cheeks with his hands and stumbled around.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In this chaos, Ron took out the invisibility cloak from his backpack, quickly put it on his body, and ran towards the storage cabinet.
"Quiet! Quiet!" Snape roared, "Everyone who was splashed by the potion should come to me to get the burn ointment."
Half the class crowded towards Snape's desk.
After everyone drank the antidote and the various burns subsided, Ron successfully obtained the potion.
Snape quickly walked to Malfoy's cauldron and scooped out the twisted black pyrotechnic ashes with a spoon. The classroom suddenly fell silent.
"Once I find out who threw this," Snape said in a low voice, "I will definitely fire that person."
Snape stared at Harry intently, and Harry tried his best to keep a confused expression on his face.
Soon the bell rang, and Harry and Ron immediately packed up their textbooks and hurried out of the classroom.
"Snape knows it was me." Harry whispered, "I can see that."
"It's okay, he has no evidence to prove it's you." Ron comforted Harry and said, "What can he do?"
"Snape will not give up. He will definitely find other ways to torture me." Harry sighed and said, "Did you steal the scuba potion?"
"I got it." Ron happily opened his schoolbag and took out two bottles of potion. There were small labels on them with the names of Rolf and Hermione respectively.
"I didn't dare to take other people's potions because I was afraid that the potions they brewed wouldn't be effective, so I took the potions from Rolf and Hermione."
"Great." Harry said ecstatically: "Now we can easily get through the second project."
"I think so too." Ron said proudly: "As long as we have better luck, we might be able to take the top two spots!"
"Hey hey hey hey!"
At this time, in the potions classroom, Snape opened the medicine storage cabinet. After counting the medicines, he found that two bottles of water breathing potion were missing.