HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 121 Little Barty

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A black package fell to the ground. Dumbledore went over and poked it, discovering that there was a living creature inside. He looked at the lady next to him with curiosity in his eyes.

"Barty Crouch Jr." Wenda said the most frightening thing in a flat tone. She stuffed Barty Jr. into a black burlap sack and just stole it out and threw it on the ground.

"Sir, I have not failed you."

"Thank you, Vinda, for letting us hear what Mr. Barty Crouch Jr. has been through all these years?"

Gellert waved his wand, and the tightly bound bundle untied, revealing a dazed-looking Barty the Younger. Dumbledore wondered if Vinda had knocked him senseless; otherwise, a normal person would have struggled long ago.

"Something's wrong with him, Gellert, don't move." Dumbledore stopped Gellert's hand, afraid that two drops of truth serum would cripple the man, making it pointless to capture him.

"He's been locked up for too long and has gone insane," a woman next to Wenda explained to Dumbledore.

They found him in a closed room with no windows, nothing in the room except a bed and a ceiling light, and the bathroom had nothing but a shower, toilet and sink.

"A normal person would go crazy in this situation, let alone someone with a soul-capturing curse on him."

"I forgot to introduce myself. I am Loyna Dubois, a psychiatrist. Young Master Emeric has recently assigned me to work with Ms. Rozier."

After saying that, Loyna stepped aside and observed Gellert and Dumbledore with great interest. This was both a task assigned by Emeric and her own interest.

She was very curious about how these two wizards of the century went from lovers to enemies and back again. In addition, Emeric asked her to provide psychological counseling for the two of them, which is why she agreed to stay with Wenda.

As she observed, she noticed something interesting: Dumbledore was wary of Gellert and always stood to the side, while Gellert avoided Dumbledore's gaze, not daring to meet his eyes. Neither of them realized they had this problem.

Loina silently kept it in mind, planning to find some time to talk to the two of them separately to see if she could improve the situation, and also to find out about their love history.

While she was deep in thought, the three people in the room, mainly Dumbledore and Gellert, barely came up with a solution: to keep Barty Jr. here for now and interrogate him when he was in better spirits, while keeping an eye on Barty Sr.'s actions in the meantime.

"This child is also a pitiful one. Although he did wrong, what his father did was even more heartbreaking." Dumbledore sighed. When Barty was sentenced, he had tried to stop him and wanted to wait until everything was investigated before making a decision, but things didn't go as planned.

"Let's wait until he wakes up and see what he says before deciding whether to send him to Azkaban." Dumbledore found an empty room and locked himself in. This time, the room had a large window, and sunlight could illuminate the entire room during the day.

Little Barty, locked up again, blinked. His gaze fell on the window, where he saw the stars and the moon. Tears streamed down his face and fell onto the pillow, as years of pent-up frustration suddenly erupted. His tears soaked the pillow, his eyes burned, and he completely relaxed before fainting.

The next morning, as sunlight filled the room and his vision was illuminated, he felt as if he had been transported to another world. Because he had cried for so long the night before, he even felt a slight stinging pain when he opened his eyes. It was this pain that finally confirmed to him that he wasn't dreaming and that he had really left that awful place.

Hearing the sound at the door, he subconsciously closed his eyes, hiding the fact that he had regained consciousness. His body was indeed unable to move, but his mind was. Years of experience had taught him that forbearance was the best approach.

"Gail, keep your voice down. This kid probably hasn't had a good night's sleep in years. Maybe he fell asleep last night. Let him sleep a little longer. These things aren't urgent. Anyway, he's here with us. It's the same whether we ask him or not." Dumbledore pulled Gellert back, telling him to walk quietly so as not to wake Barty.

"Alright, alright, I know. Stop poking my waist, you're poking the spot you pinched a couple of days ago." Gellert restrained Dumbledore's hand, afraid that he would pinch out another bruise.

The two of them tugged and pulled as they left Little Barty's room, and no one bothered him until noon. His stiff body gradually warmed in the sunlight, and the birds flying by outside the window chirped and sang. Little Barty's eyes followed the birds; that was the freedom he longed for.

"Knock knock".

Dumbledore knocked on the door before realizing that Barty might not yet understand that knocking was useless. He waited a while before pushing the door open; he was there to deliver lunch. Judging from Barty's health, he hadn't had a proper meal in a long time, and as an old man, he couldn't bear to see such a thing happen.

As soon as Dumbledore entered, he started rambling on and on, "I didn't know what you liked to eat, so I made something simple. I was afraid your body couldn't handle it, so I made it all bland. Please eat a little bit." As he spoke, he fed the soup to Barty, wiping away the soup that spilled out from time to time.

Barty's tense body relaxed again amidst the rambling, and he couldn't help but wonder if Dumbledore had listened to his explanation and gone to catch the real murderer if he had been the one to deliver the verdict.

The bowl of soup wasn't much, and Dumbledore finished feeding him quickly. He noticed the wall was a bit too hot, so he reached out and turned the controller down. He then covered Barty with another thin blanket before picking up the bowl and leaving the room.

Dumbledore went to the study to find Gellert. He had just seen Barty the Bone and felt a little uneasy. He wanted to talk to someone.

Loyna appeared in front of him at this moment, blocking Dumbledore's path and indicating that she wanted to talk about something.

"How about we go to the garden to chat? The weather is lovely today, perfect for sunbathing," Loina suggested. Besides the weather, the garden was also under Gellert's watchful eye, preventing any potential trouble later. She wouldn't want to leave herself with any problems.

"sure."

The two walked into the garden one after the other and sat down. Not far from them was the study on the second floor, where Gellert was standing at the window looking at them.

"Mr. Dumbledore, please promise me you won't get angry no matter what you hear. My intention is not to do anything bad." Sometimes she really hated talking to people who were so guarded, having to think things through several times before saying anything.

Dumbledore reluctantly nodded in agreement; he was no longer as suspicious of everyone as he had been in his youth.

"Have you noticed that you've always been wary of Mr. Grindelwald?"

"I wasn't on guard against Gale."

Loyna started off with a bombshell, leaving Dumbledore completely bewildered, feeling utterly unprepared.

"But your body doesn't say that. No matter which side of your body is closer to Mr. Grindelwald, that side of your hand is always slightly raised, which is a very typical defensive posture." She gave a very simple example, which was laid out directly in front of Dumbledore.