On December 26, the suburbs of London.

It's just 0:30 am now. Although Christmas has passed, Christmas songs are still ringing everywhere in this suburban town.

Three or four young men and women wearing Christmas hats on their heads, holding a few fireworks that had not been lit in their hands, and laughed and walked through the snowy road.

The neon lights hanging on the pine and cypress trees on the roadside were constantly flashing with various colors of light, and some passers-by had noticed the old and young who were walking into the town along the road.

The old man was a lame old man. He had a wooden leg that was not convenient and limped when walking on the snow.

But looking at him, normal people cannot feel any sympathy of pity.

His long gray hair was scattered behind him, with a few scars on his face that were not obvious, his face was vicissitudes, and his back was slightly hunched, but under his solemn expression, he exuded a terrifying aura.

Walking side by side with him was a young man who looked only in his early twenties.

Compared with the old man with a lame body, this young man looks much more handsome and pleasing to the eye, but the two of them are all the same weird, they are all black, like a robe that is popular in the Middle Ages.

"If you accept my proposal and change into normal clothes before you come out, maybe we won't be stared at by so many eyes."

Sherlock complained, not that he had reminded Moody, but the retired Auror, nicknamed "Crazy Eyes", was a bit too stubborn in some aspects.

Moody didn't care about the gazes around him at all, and he said in a rough voice.

"Muggle clothes are so inconvenient, and even the wands are not suitable for hiding. Besides, for this trip, I have been wearing this outfit at the dance."

"Professor Sinista is your dance partner tonight, right? She didn't complain about your outfit?"

"Do you think those of us older people care about this? But when dancing, she was always worried that my wooden prosthetics would step on her feet. Humph, she didn't know that when I was young, I was all very popular dance partners at the Ministry of Magic."

"She doesn't care about your dress, but she will definitely care about what you said just now that she's older."

"Shut up! I will only talk privately, and mention her age in front of the lady is not a gentleman's behavior!"

The two walked and chatted, and soon arrived at the edge of the town.

There are not many houses here, and there are not many wheat fields, but the trees are lush.

Even if they left the town, they didn't stop and kept walking deep into the woods.

"Crouch's manor is here?" Sherlock couldn't help asking curiously.

Moody shook his head.

"The pure blood family's manors are usually built in remote places, so as to prevent being disturbed by Muggles. As a wizard family with a long history, the Crouch family certainly would not build their own manor next to a small Muggle town."

"This is just Barty Crouch's own residence. In order to deal with magical things in London, he specially prepared a house when he was the boss. Later, he lived here. The Crouch's ancestral home was uninhabited."

Moody certainly has enough voice to understand the former director of the Magic Law Enforcement Department.

Sherlock frowned after learning this information.

"Where is the Crouch family's ancestral home? Does anyone know?"

"No one knows this. Old Bati has never mentioned it himself, and there is no record of this in the ministry." Moody's expression was solemn. "Because of the history of the witch hunting movement, some pure-blood families have a high level of confidentiality about their own estates. They only contact the outside world through the fireplace. The untrusted wizards do not know where the ancestral homes of these families are located."

Hearing his words, Sherlock felt a little dark, his face looked a little bad, and he always had some bad premonitions in his heart.

As Moody led the way in front, they quickly passed through the woods and came to a clearing, where a two-story building stood.

The snowflakes piled up very thickly around them, much thicker than those on the streets of the town.

Obviously, the snowfalls before the Christmas snow fell, so there was no cleanup here, so this kind of snow appeared.

The same is true for the two-story building, with no Christmas atmosphere at all. The roof and window ridges are covered with snow, making it look like an abandoned outdoor house.

After getting close to here, Sherlock and Moody quietly pulled out their wands.

"There is news from Kingsley that it's been a long time since Crouch has been to the Ministry of Magic?" Sherlock asked in a deep voice.

Moody's magical fake eye stared at the building in front of him, and kept turning around.

"On December 23, he promoted the position of the third son of the Weasley family in the department, made him an assistant to the director, and appointed most of the positions to him. He has never appeared since then. According to the Weasley family's child, he had a very serious cold and needed rest."

"It's been three days." Sherlock said softly, "He hasn't appeared in three days, so it's hard not to doubt what he is in now."

At this time, they had already walked to the two-story building. The area of ​​the house was not large. Sherlock directly unfolded his magic of control and could see the situation inside without entering the door.

"No one inside."

Moody's fake eyes were also turning. Without hesitation, he waved his wand and opened the door of Crouch's house without hesitation.

The door was not locked and no protective measures were taken, so it was simply pushed open.

The scene inside the house was also revealed in front of them at this time.

The living room was in a mess, with all kinds of furniture being roughly overturned to the ground, and the room was filled with stuffing in pillows. It was obvious that there had been a fierce conflict here.

Moody limped in. Instead of studying anything else, he squatted on the ground and gently wiped the floating dust on the floor with his fingers.

"No one has been here for at least three months."

Sherlock also walked past the messy furniture. He walked to the fireplace with clear aim, bent down, and picked up a gray ring from an inconspicuous corner.

"Do you know this?" he raised the ring and asked Moody.

Moody walked closer and stared at the strange bird carved on the ring, with two heads.

"This is the clan emblem of the Crouch family, and it should be the family ring that Old Bati often wears on his hands."
Chapter completed!