The first rain that Ning An experienced in Durmstrang fell for a long time, and it didn't stop until noon, and when he looked out from the castle, he could see that the endless grass was dyed with a layer of ink, as if such a large field was about to melt into the water.

Durmstrang's great ship was moored in the middle of the lake, its tall masts and folded sails wet with rain, like a bath, and the mountains in the distance were hidden in a misty cloud, and the rising white air was like a paradise.

Ning An did not choose to eat in the principal's office, he went to the cold lobby on the first floor and dined with the other teachers who stayed at the school.

Durmstrlong's faculty members last year have changed almost half of this year, and Ning An, as the principal, of course, has the right to decide who to hire, except for Ingrid, the professor of divination, almost all of the other professors have been replaced by members of the snake letter that Ning An is familiar with, and Ingrid is not here at the moment, she went to Gran Canaria for a vacation and enjoyed the vacation.

A few sparse torches, burning quietly on the hard walls, Ning An pulled the stinky dried fish on the plate, mixed with onion yogurt, at first he was not used to the taste, but after two meals, he had fallen in love with this "strange food" that he had never eaten in England or Germany.

"I bet the Hogwarts house-elves won't be able to cook this dish." Ning An did not hesitate to praise the stinky dried fish, forked a piece of stinky dried fish stained with yogurt, put it in his mouth, and chewed it gently.

"The house-elves here have been serving in the castle since the Middle Ages, and they have been passed down from generation to generation and are very good at cooking local specialties."

Karkaroff stopped his knife and fork and introduced with a little pride, only then would he regain an aura that belonged to the former headmaster.

"Of course, my favorite thing is—"

He gently took a small spoonful of sparkling red caviar, put it in his mouth, and after tasting it carefully, he picked up the wine glass on the table and took a few sips of cold wine, and everyone else at the table looked at him with different expressions.

"What should this cured ham go with, Professor Karkaroff?"

Barbara's son, the new professor of magic spells, Adrian? Schoen seemed a little unprepared for the side dish in front of him, and on his plate was a palm-sized piece of red ham topped with a thin layer of sauce, which looked very tempting.

"Oh, that—" Karkaroff seemed to be intrigued, "this cured ham should of course be served with crispy dough and sour cream, and of course a big sip of aquavit, and of course it will be even more flavorful." ”

Adrian nodded, reaching for the dough and cream in the small saucer, and a shrill sneer rang out from the table:

"I've heard, Karkaroff, you have some treasured aquavet, haven't you?"

Samantha tore at the lamb chops on her fork fiercely, her wild eating appearance was so far removed from his beautiful face that it was really twisted.

"Why don't you take it out and let everyone share it together!"

Karkarov's face darkened, he looked at Samantha with a little anger, and took another spoonful of fish roe, without answering his words, the atmosphere on the table became silent, and Ning An coughed lightly, which was regarded as passing the topic.

"Come with me later, Mr. Crouch."

Whatever happens at the dinner table, Barty? Crouch didn't seem to care much, he just ate one bite at a time mechanically, and only when Ning An spoke to him did he have a hint of reaction.

"There's no need to call me sir, Principal Ning'an—" He put down the knife and fork in his hand and looked up at Ning'an, "The former Crouch is dead......

When he said this, the gray hair that had grown to his ears trembled and trembled, and the hairstyle that had been combed in a mess had long since changed, and the two mustaches above his lips had also grown into goatees, and the whole person was more than ten percent thinner than before.

"Ha, how easy—" Samantha sneered again, "a graceful farewell to the past—I've heard many people in Azkaban chanting your name day and night, Mr. Crouch!" ”

"Samantha—"

Ning An frowned, Samantha immediately stopped speaking, he raised his hands to make a surrender gesture, his face changed to a smiling face, and apologized to Crouch with a smile, as if the words just now were not from his mouth, Ning An rubbed his eyebrows helplessly, but Crouch turned a deaf ear to Samantha's words, still taking care of himself, and mechanically eating the food on the plate.

The noisy lunch was finally over with a few discordant notes, and Ning An returned to his office, he had been trapped here for a day, and if it wasn't for the rain outside, he really wanted to go to the pasture for a while.

Although it shouldn't be a big problem to use a waterproof charm on himself, he can't do that, because the appointment time of the British Ministry of Magic is coming soon, and Ning An wants to get Pani over and ask why he is almost too busy to schedule these appointments in one day.

"I wonder how many of your die-hard henchmen have in the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation in the past?"

Ning An leaned back on the leather chair behind the desk, let out a long breath, rubbed his forehead, and asked Barty who was standing in front of the desk a little tiredly? Crouch.

"Henchman?"

Crouch Sr. sighed, "After I lost the opportunity to compete for the Minister of Magic, those people were basically scattered, if it was a year ago, maybe ...... But now, ......"

He straightened his collar and shook his head vicissitudes.

Ning An supported his chin with his hands, and in his usual posture, he was half-lying on the table, looking at Crouch and saying with a little distress: "Then for the employees, do you still know them?" ”

"Of course, I know that very well." Crouch looked up instead, his tense expression half soothing, as if he had touched something he was good at.

"Taylor? Brusino, the greedy fellow, thinks about the big prize in the Daily Prophet every day, and the Ministry of Magic salary may not be enough for him to spend. He said,

"Julian? Paige is a coward, and although he has a talent for calculating the trade volume of imported and exported magic items, he is naturally ...... of timidity. ”

Ning An didn't know when there was a blank piece of paper in front of him, he held a light quill in his hand, listened carefully to what Crouch said, and from time to time drew a stroke on the paper and wrote something.

“…… Percy? Weatherby, or Weasley? Crouch Sr. scratched his head, "Ah, Weasley, for that red-haired family, he and his family are really not like that, ambitious, like to deal with powerful people, but have no sense of humor......"

Ning An stopped writing, slapped the pestle's head with a feather and said, "Hmm...... Percy? Weasley is most likely no longer working in the Ministry. ”

Crouch didn't have a surprised expression, just looked at Ning An with a little puzzlement.

"He's suspected of having something to do with your disappearance, and it seems that he's under investigation by the Ministry of Magic, and I'm very skeptical that he'll be able to keep his job after the investigation is over."

Crouch nodded, apparently not caring about his former subordinates, and continued to count:

"Torion? Birds ...... Well, the old pure-bloods, the Birds, if there are no accidents, he should take over the position of our director......"

Ning An nodded, this kind of thing will be known in a while, the British Ministry of Magic has not made a decision for the time being, but Barty? Crouch clearly knew more about it than he knew there.

"Bang bang bang-"

There was a knock on the door, and old Crouch had almost finished speaking, and when he heard the knock, he silently retreated to the edge of the office, and went up to the chairs in a circle, and sat in the shadow of the wall, and it was difficult to see that there was a person sitting here without looking closely, especially when it was a dark and rainy day outside.

"Please come in—"

Ning An cleared his throat and shouted, after about three seconds, the door was gently pushed open, Pani? Starr was followed by a wizard in a top hat, dressed in a suit and wearing a conspicuous red printed tie on his chest, and as soon as he entered, he first bent down to thank Pani behind him, and then stepped on the marble floor in three steps and two steps to Ning'an's desk.

"Julian? Page - British Ministry of Magic, Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation - "

A look of surprise flashed across his face, as if he was shocked by Ning An's age, and then hurriedly changed to a flattering smile, "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Headmaster—"

Ning An's eyes glanced downward, glanced at the white paper on the table, and slowly stood up from the chair.

"Ah, me too—Mr. Page."

He stepped forward, shook hands with Page, looked at him with interest, and before Ning An could speak, Page hurriedly said:

"Fudge / Zhang attended the dinner a few days ago, and it is said that Mr. Leohard mentioned you more than once, and I regret that you were not able to come in the first place, and we all feel that those accusations in the past are inevitably suspected of being bewitched by Dumbledore......"

"Oh, I know, you see, sooner or later it's going to be clear, I know." Ning An nodded, took out his wand, and shook it slightly, two transparent glasses appeared on the table, he opened the bottle of Aquavit wine that had only been opened in the morning, and poured two glasses shallowly.

"Come on, don't be in a hurry, we can talk about this slowly, Mr. Page."

"That's so thankful." Page excitedly closed the wine glass, took a sip and was obviously choked, he coughed twice, looked at Ning An embarrassedly, Ning An smiled with relief, and stretched out his hand to ask him if he was okay.

"So...... In order to drop the charges against you, you will also need to go to the Ministry of Magic for a simple questioning, you know...... This is the process of the Ministry of Magic...... It has always been a rule. ”

"Ah, of course I understand, Mr. Page, please tell Minister Fudge," Ning An waved the wine glass in his hand, "I'll be there on time, and I don't think there's a problem with the funding of the British Ministry of Magic, the German Ministry of Magic, and the Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he can tell Leohhard Ministry/Zhang, which is what I mean." ”

Julian? Paige couldn't believe what he heard, and he was stunned for more than ten seconds before he suddenly came back to his senses.

"That's great—I mean, thank you for your trust, Mr. Headmaster, and I agree with Mr. Fudge, that a genius wizard like you should be an asset to the wizarding world, and I look forward to—look forward to the glory and contribution you will bring to this school, and to the wizarding world......"

He seemed to be a little too excited to speak, Ning An shook his finger in front of his eyes, and said to him with a chuckle:

"Mr. Page, I wonder if you can tell me which honorable wizard will be questioning me?"

Julian? Paige had a look of embarrassment on his face, and he instantly became hesitant and hesitated, "I don't know much about this, maybe ...... I haven't been able to decide yet......"

"Then I have a request."

Ning An put down the wine glass, leaned against the edge of the table, and rhythmically overlapped and put his ten fingers together repeatedly, as if he was playing some finger game.

"What...... What request? ”

Page suddenly felt a chill down his spine, and the hairs on his body seemed to stand on end, as if something invisible was staring at him in this room, and he even faintly heard the sound of walking footsteps behind him.

He turned his head abruptly and saw that there was really someone behind him.

The emaciated figure in a gray-black robe, slowly came out of the shadows under the wall, he held a slender wand in his hand, his head was lowered, his hair covered his forehead, Page couldn't see who it was, he asked Ning An with a knotted tongue

"School ...... Mr. Principal? He...... Who is he? ”

"Oh, he," Ning An dragged out a long voice, "you should know him, he's your old friend, right?" ”

Buddy? Crouch approached and looked up with a blank face, which startled Page

"Gram...... Mr. Crouch! Why are you here! He exclaimed, his voice echoing through the wide headmaster's office, "You...... You don't know, the people in the ministry...... I'm anxious to find you......"

Seeing that Crouch Sr. was not reacting right, still staring at himself with a blank face, Page felt a little panicked, and his tone trembled with every word he spit out.

"Alright, Mr. Page." Ning An interrupted him, and Page took a step back, he was sandwiched between Ning An and Crouch, unable to face both of them at the same time, so he had to retreat and let himself face the two of them, and his hand involuntarily reached into the suit.

"Well, it won't do you any good to pull out your wand here." Ning An sighed, spread his hands at Page and said, "Why don't you listen to our conditions first?" ”

"You...... What do you want to do......" Page seemed to lose control of his feet, and he was still moving backwards step by step, small and slow, even though everyone understood that such a retreat was pointless.

"I told you, please do me a small favor," Ning An stopped fiddling with his fingers, and he looked at Paige and smiled.

"I think you'll figure out who's going to be inquiring about it, and then ask you to help me get him under control, what do you think?"

Page swallowed hard, his legs seemed to tremble, just like when he first entered the door, "You...... What are you talking about...... Control...... Be...... Miscellaneous...... What does it mean......"

"Well, I still have to say this," Ning An shook his head, staring at Page and opening his mouth word by word

"You get the idea, I mean—the Imperius Curse."