Chapter 381: The Legend of Azkaban and Slytherin

Ivan wrote to his parents as he listened to Mr. Weasley and Sirius speak.

"I still remember Jorkins. She was at Hogwarts when I was, two years above me." Sirius remembered, "Idiot, very nosy, but no brains, none at all - not a good combination!"

"She could drive one crazy; she'd been working with me for a while!" Mr. Weasley said, frowning. "She wasn't bad, she just wasn't much help. As you can see from the report, she causes more problems than she solves."

"What department are you in now?" asked Sirius.

"I've been in the Department of International Magical Cooperation for many years, and then I don't know why, suddenly Barty...." Mr. Weasley paused and realized he shouldn't mention the name in front of Ivan, and quickly changed the subject, "She moved to the Department of Magical Games and Sports not too long ago. In short, over the years, she's been shuttled from one department to another, and only Ludo Bagman was willing to have her. Ludo is a good man. He helped me get tickets for the World Cup."

"Where is she now?" Ivan interrupted. "I want to see her."

"What have you got to do with Jorkins?" Sirius frowned, and when he saw Ivan's expression, he immediately understood what it was. He said seriously. "Well, I know you suspect Crouch. No problem with your reasoning. But now we should concentrate on removing the curse from your wrist. After we break it, I'll help you investigate it, I promise!"

"You don't get a chance to see her now!" Mr. Weasley said, "After this biting cactus event, she went on vacation overseas, and probably won't be back for a few weeks. Ludo thinks she needs to breathe more fresh air and wake up."

Ivan's heart was pounding, if Bertha Jorkins went on vacation in the forests of Albania, then she could have been captured by Voldemort.

This was not good. Now she could be being tortured by Voldemort.

It was only a matter of time before Voldemort knew that his most devoted follower was still alive and had successfully fled Azkaban.

But without Peter Pettigrew's help, and without Quirrell to share his body with him, Voldemort should have great difficulty saving Barty Crouch Jr. again.

Just as Ivan was pondering, a memo came through the open door, falling slowly in front of Sirius. He opened it inadvertently.

"Dumbledore has spoken to Fudge, and has permission to enter Azkaban!" Sirius said, "He's waiting for us downstairs."

Ivan hastened to write the letter to his parents, and also a letter to Professor Lupin, specifically asking him to pay attention to Barty Crouch's movements.

He handed the letters to Mr. Weasley and, after saying goodbye, returned to the elevator.

"How can we get to Azkaban?" asked Ivan curiously. "With an apparition?"

"Like Hogwarts, that place forbids apparitions and any other spells that might sneak in." Sirius said, "Many spells have been cast on Azkaban to prevent prisoners from escaping and being found by others, but the Ministry of Magic has a portkey for that place."

"Where the hell is Azkaban?" asked Ivan.

"No one knows," said Sirius. "Although I've been there for over a decade and managed to escape, all I know is that it's on an island in the North Sea."

He paused for a while and continued. "It was floating in the sea with a piece of wood. I could only recognize the approximate direction and swam for a long time before returning to land."

The history of Azkaban, the Prison for Wizards, goes back half a millennium.

There were many stories about this famous prison that could not all be told in just one day or night. Because of the many Dark wizards who had been imprisoned, and the large number of Dementors gathered, it had played a very important role in the history of magic and had been repeatedly mentioned.

After the incident in the subway ruins, Ivan searched for many historical materials about Slytherin himself a few days ago.

Among them, he found a very interesting scroll!

Surprisingly, it mentioned that the founder of Azkaban was probably Salazar Slytherin himself.

A thousand years ago, he proposed to the then Presbyterian Church (the predecessor of the Ministry of Magic) to build a prison for the detention of dark wizards, and then led the prison construction project.

Slytherin personally did a lot of magic to Azkaban, and also provided a large amount of galleons to maintain the daily operation of the prison.

Of course, these were not the main points. What interested Ivan was that, according to legend, Slytherin had traveled the European continent after leaving Hogwarts, but it was likely that he spent his last years there.

According to the information from the subway relics, Slytherin left with the body and brain of the nightmare he had hacked to pieces. If that prison mentioned in the records was indeed Azkaban, and if he had lived in seclusion there in his later years, would there be a body part of the evil god?

(Translator's note: Azkaban was mentioned by J.K. Rowling in Pottermore as having existed since the 15th century, and as originally being the home of a little-known wizard who called himself Ekrizdis. Here, the author could be skipping all the Pottermore information, basing his work solely on the books, or considering the author's words vague enough to introduce a hidden story behind them).

Ivan touched the locket on his chest. If he had left any trace there, he might find clues to the Key to the Secret Treasure of Slytherin.

Even if not, he might be able to improve his magic as he had last time.

Secondly, he was now very interested in evil spirits. According to the evil god he had seen in the illusion of the centaur colony, he had many companions.

Ivan wanted to study these horrible creatures of the void, looking for ways to deal with them. The evil spirits were summoned and imprisoned by ancient wizards, but this guy who had been defeated and studied by Slytherin was the best goal.

He didn't come from the void, and was probably created by Herpo the Mad himself. He wasn't that powerful, and he wouldn't make Ivan feel powerless!

Ivan and Sirius rode down in the elevator and quickly returned to the main hall.

Now, since it was well past rush hour, there weren't many people there.

The golden grates opened and Ivan saw the golden statues of the fountain in the distance. No one came in and they continued downstairs.

"Department of Mysteries!" said the cold female voice, and left it at that.

"This way, Ivan!" Sirius pushed him out of the elevator. "This is the most mysterious department in the Ministry of Magic. We have to keep going down. I've only been here once, thirteen years ago, to be tried and sent to Azkaban."