Vilan hesitated repeatedly, finally choosing Hermione as his dance partner.
On one hand, he didn't want to bother inviting other girls.
On the other hand, she was the girl Vilan was most familiar with—rational and steady, she wouldn't cause any trouble during the ball.
On the day Ron met with Ms. Brown, Vilan and Hermione acted as his male and female advisors, helping Ron strategize.
“Take this rose, spray some of Hermione’s perfume on it, and comb your hair nicely.”
Vilan instructed Ron to pay attention to his appearance.
Hermione then reviewed the key points with him:
“If Lavender says she wants to go out to eat or for a walk with you, it means she hopes, you know? At that moment, you must seize the opportunity…”
They pushed the nervous Ron down the long staircase and peered their heads around the corner of the wall, observing Ron as he walked towards Lavender in the common room.
The Weasley brothers were in the common room, selling their canary creams.
These prank biscuits, which looked no different from ordinary custard creams, could actually turn a person into a large canary.
As they continued to sell them, people in the common room would occasionally fall for the trick, turning into large canaries of various colors, making a lot of noise.
Vilan couldn't hear what Ron and Lavender were saying because of this.
But he saw Lavender laughing heartily, taking Ron's rose, sniffing it gently, and leaving the common room with him.
“A sure thing!”
Vilan and Hermione came down the staircase.
Vilan packed his schoolbag, preparing to take advantage of the quiet before Christmas to find an empty classroom and study the Potion recipe Dumbledore had given him.
As he walked to the exit, Dean suddenly grabbed him and handed him a custard cream.
“No thanks.”
How could Dean’s biscuit fool Vilan? George and Fred were still peddling canary creams!
“Please,” Dean said pitifully to him, “I can’t trick anyone by myself.”
Vilan sighed helplessly.
“Oh, the biscuit Dean handed over looks absolutely delicious!”
Vilan made exaggerated gestures and tone, putting the canary cream into his mouth.
With a whoosh, Vilan turned into a canary covered in silver-grey feathers.
“Thanks, brother, it’ll be back to normal in a minute.”
Dean burst into laughter and left.
Vilan patiently waited for the one-minute effect to pass.
I have to say, turning into a giant canary was truly a wonderful feeling.
Vilan moved his two thick bird claws, feeling the feathers covering his whole body tremble from the disturbed airflow.
A bold idea spontaneously arose—he was a canary now, could he fly?
Driven by this thought, Vilan spread his fully feathered wings, creating a huge gust of wind with a whoosh.
For a moment, Vilan felt his feet had almost left the ground. However, the heavy gravity quickly pulled him back to reality.
“What are you doing, Vilan?” Fred laughed so hard he couldn’t stand straight. “If our canary creams could make people fly, they’d cost more than 7 sickles.”
Time was up, and Vilan returned to human form.
He scratched his head awkwardly, finding the biscuit quite interesting.
“canary creams, only 7 sickles a piece, very cheap.”
Vilan withdrew his interest.
Yes, everyone in Gryffindor knew that Weilan Costa had no sense of humor—
Vilan put down his schoolbag in an empty classroom and took out the equipment for brewing Potions.
He and Dumbledore had discussed dividing the total of 64 Potion brewing steps into 4 major stages.
Dumbledore first provided him with all the necessary equipment for the first stage. If Vilan completed the first stage and reported to Dumbledore, he would procure the items needed for the second stage for Vilan.
Vilan followed Dumbledore’s brewing steps, one by one.
Vilan believed he had some talent in Potion, and even Snape could never criticize him in Potion Class.
But this time, he felt a clear difficulty.
The sun outside the window set, and Vilan wiped the sweat from his temples. This was the third time, and he still hadn’t managed to turn the Potion bright yellow in the 10th step.
But this time, Vilan finally found the reason.
The classroom he was in had been uninhabited for some time. Fine dust occasionally fell from the ceiling, affecting the Potion brewing.
“Does one really need to be so meticulous?”
It was Vilan’s first time delving into the deep end of Potion, and he clicked his tongue in admiration.
It was getting late. Vilan packed his things, returned them to the dormitory, and then went to dinner.
At the dinner table, Vilan heard many people discussing a piece of gossip:
Mr. Crouch’s younger son was missing!
Mr. Crouch’s son? Barty Crouch Jr.? The Death Eater who impersonated Moody in the original story?
Vilan repeatedly confirmed the details of the matter with Ginny, as well as the situation of Barty Crouch Jr..
Ginny told Vilan that things were not as Vilan imagined.
Mr. Crouch’s eldest son—Barty Crouch—was a Death Eater.
During Lord Voldemort’s rampant era, he loyally served Lord Voldemort, helping him brutally murder several Aurors.
Since Lord Voldemort’s downfall, Barty Crouch Jr. was reported and stood trial with the Lestrange couple.
At that hastily convened trial, Barty Crouch Jr. denied all charges against him.
However, Mr. Crouch ignored his son’s wails and, without even a full trial, directly sent him to Azkaban prison.
At the end of the trial, he even shouted, “I don’t have a son like you!”
From then on, Mr. Crouch’s relationship with his eldest son completely broke down.
Then, the unbelievable plot came—
As a pure-blood Wizard noble, once Barty Crouch Jr. died in Azkaban, the Crouch family would be cut off.
So, Mr. Crouch remarried and, still vigorous in old age, had a younger son, Bader Crouch, who was five years old this year and was the protagonist of this disappearance.
The disappearance occurred last Thursday, and Mr. Crouch took the matter very seriously.
He even, for the first time, gave up work for it, dedicating all his energy to the search for his son.
In fact, at this point, Vilan already felt that Mr. Crouch was very off.
But Ginny continued speaking, and Vilan, out of politeness, did not interrupt her.
According to different people’s accounts, Ginny told Vilan that the most reliable version of Bader’s disappearance process was this—
Mr. Crouch’s second wife, with their just five-year-old son, followed her busy husband and temporarily resided in a large house in Upper Hogsmeade Village during the Triwizard Tournament.
While walking last Thursday evening, Bader and his mother reached the edge of the village.
The little boy was completely fascinated by the various plants and insects in the countryside. He chased an insect, he didn’t know what it was, and disappeared at the end of the road ahead.
Mrs. Crouch wanted to chase him back but could no longer find her son.
The mother was frantic and immediately informed her husband of her son’s disappearance, asking him to find their son as soon as possible.
Mr. Crouch was unusually concerned about this matter. He wanted to contact the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, asking them to send Aurors to rescue his son.
However, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, citing insufficient severity of the case, passed the matter down to the Magical Enforcement Team.
This back and forth, approval notices, and procedures had already taken three days. After the Magical Enforcement Team searched for two days without success, it was heard that Mr. Crouch was now collecting reliable private detective information…
At this point, Ginny winked mischievously at Vilan:
“Mr. Detective of Hogwarts, perhaps tomorrow you will receive a letter of commission from Mr. Crouch.”
“But, just from what you’ve told me, there are many contradictions in this matter.”
Vilan looked up at the Great Hall ceiling.
The starry sky was clear tonight, and Orion was drawing his bowstring overhead, poised to strike.
“Firstly, Barty Crouch Jr. was sent to Azkaban by Mr. Crouch himself back then.”
“Indeed, for a Death Eater son who committed a grave mistake, Mr. Crouch’s ability to uphold justice by sacrificing his own kin and enforcing the law impartially should be beyond reproach.”
“But the problem is that the trial Mr. Crouch held back then was very hasty, and Barty Crouch Jr. was sent to Azkaban without a full trial.”
“Think about it, if Mr. Crouch truly cared about the issue of his family line ending, then facing his only son, Mr. Crouch should at least give his son a complete and compliant trial process, right?”
“But Mr. Crouch didn’t do that; he didn’t care about this son of his at all, so how could he care about the issue of his family line ending?”