Chapter 379: Moody Crazy Eye

Ivan told the terrible truth, but it was obvious that Sirius and Mr. Weasley didn't believe it.

"Barty helped your son escape from Azkaban?" Mr. Weasley said in surprise, "How could that be possible? he wouldn't do such a thing!"

He looked anxiously at Ivan and then turned to Sirius.

Mr. Weasley had a panicked look on his face and had no idea what to do.

He looked like he wished the two of them would yell a happy April Fool's Day to him.

"Ivan, I thought you knew Crouch's nature!" Sirius continued trying to persuade him, "Believe me, he refused to excuse his son at the Wizengamot, let alone break the law to help him escape from prison. Anything that threatened his reputation should be set aside; he had no parental love."

"But you also said Crouch was ruthless. If he could save his son without being found out, why wouldn't he?"

"That's Azkaban, the most defended wizarding prison!" Sirius said impatiently, "If you see it, you'll know what it's like. How did Crouch get a man out alive under the guard of thousands of Dementors?"

"Dementors don't have eyes, they can't see around them, they can only sense the breath of living things, which is the main reason you were able to successfully escape in the first place," Ivan persevered, "Crouch could fool the Dementors with a little trick."

"What trick?" Sirius asked, frowning sharply.

"Multijuice potion!" Ivan whispered. "He used the multijuice potion to make his wife look like his son. The Dementors couldn't see it. They could only sense a healthy person and a dying person going in, and a healthy person and a dying person coming out."

When Ivan finished, neither Mr. Weasley nor Sirius spoke.

They were terribly shocked and seemed to want to discover a loophole in the plan, but after thinking for a long time, they found that there was no way to disprove Ivan's theory. However, there was one thing he was missing!

"Is there any proof?" asked Sirius.

"No!" Ivan shook his head. He really had no proof. "If you're willing to search Crouch's house, use Veritaserum on him, or check his wife's grave, there might be some results."

"That's madness, total madness!" Mr. Weasley said, "If anyone dares to ask the most powerful official in the Ministry of Magic to do these things, they will immediately be sent home or to the hospital for inspection. With all due respect, I think you should go and have a look as well, out of prudence."

"That's enough, Arthur!" Sirius said heavily, "Ivan is under too much pressure. If we were under the same curse, we might be worse off than he is."

"But...," Ivan said.

"This is imagination, crazy imagination!" Sirius said, looking seriously at Ivan, as if he had seen him for the first time. "Ivan, if I didn't know you very well, I'd think you've been mentally frustrated by the Voldemort Curse."

"We'd better not talk about it!" Mr. Weasley whispered, "Barty Crouch helped your son escape from prison? That's crazy to think about."

"But what I just said, it really happened!" Ivan said.

In fact, he was somewhat depressed.

There was no way to convince Sirius, Mr. Weasley and others. The positive image of Barty Crouch was too ingrained in their minds.

If he continued to talk like this, it would make them doubt him.

To reveal all this beforehand was only asking for trouble. He could only let time prove everything.

Since he could not nip everything in the bud, he could only think of ways to do so in the next semester.

By then, with the help of the Marauder's Map, things would be easier.

"It's possible that what you said will happen, but I still say you don't know Barty Crouch. He wouldn't. I'm sure..." said Sirius.

"Don't let your guard down - anything is possible!" At that moment, a growling voice echoed from the cubicle behind Ivan.

The door opened, and Sirius held Ivan behind him, drew his wand at the fastest speed, looked ahead vigilantly, and quickly released him.

Ivan peeked his head out and saw an old man standing in the doorway.

He carried a long cane and was wrapped in a black traveling cloak.

Seeing his face, Ivan was startled and unconsciously took a step back.

His face looked as if it had been carved from aged wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces were supposed to look like, and was not overly skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin looked scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal cut, and a large chunk of the nose was missing.

But it was the man's eyes that made him terrifying. One was small, dark and bright. The other was large, round as a coin, and vivid electric blue.

The blue eye moved incessantly, unblinking, and swiveled up, down, and side to side, independent of the normal eye. And then it rolled over, pointing toward the back of the man's head, so that all that could be seen was the whiteness.

Ivan was stunned by this strange look, and stared at it.

Almost instantly, he knew who this guy, Mad Eye Moody, was.

Moody looked at Ivan and Sirius and approached with his cane.

"Black, I read your last report, so you're innocent!" Moody held out a hand that was as scarred as his face.

"Yes, I've been proven innocent!" Sirius shook his hand, and Moody stepped closer.

"Your family history isn't very good! Though Dumbledore is willing to believe in you, I may think otherwise." He said sharply and looked at Ivan.

"I'm sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation. If you want to say bad things about Ministry of Magic officials in secret next time, you'd better not choose this kind of place."

His normal eye was fixed on Ivan, but the blue eye still moved restlessly around his socket.

"But I have to say, I just heard some wonderful, very exciting reasoning - it's been a long time since I've heard such reasoning!" said Moody.

"Thank you!" Ivan subconsciously replied.

"Boy, you have the potential to be an Auror; I like you!" Moody reached into his traveling cloak, pulled out a hip flask, and took a long swig from it.

As he raised his arm to drink, his cloak was pulled a few inches off the ground, and Ivan saw several inches of carved wooden leg, ending in a clawed foot.