However, before the witch could say anything, it was already her turn to meet the Minister.
Kasenhis remained seated there, holding the obsidian coffin.
To be fair, carrying around something this huge in such hot weather was actually pretty cooling.
Comfortable...
Before long, the witch came back out, and Kasenhis carried the coffin into the Minister's office.
Barty Crouch wasn't fond of unnecessary ceremony.
Work was work.
It didn't matter who came in, including Kasenhis.
He simply took the application form, looked it over, and signed it without any fuss.
After handing the form back, he said, "Take that thing away. We don't do that sort of thing here."
Kasenhis raised an eyebrow.
"This isn't an ordinary gift."
Then he pulled away the black cloth covering the top of the coffin.
Barty Crouch Jr.'s face appeared directly in front of Barty Crouch Sr.
"...You caught him," Barty Crouch said hesitantly.
"Yeah. Mm, what I mean is, since we're currently comrades on the same united front, I can understand that you might have some personal feelings involved. But I'm not going to say anything polite or roundabout. I'll just be direct."
Kasenhis rubbed his chin as he spoke.
"I've never trusted any Ministry of Magic. It doesn't matter who's in charge. I don't trust the Ministry."
"So why did you bring him here?" Barty Crouch asked.
"Like I said, I don't trust the Ministry. But I have to admit, you're probably the most human Minister I've seen. So I want you to keep fighting alongside the Order of the Phoenix and continue making Voldemort miserable."
"But asking you to keep hammering away at the faction your only son belongs to... that makes it difficult for us to trust you completely. What if this is some kind of inside-and-outside coordination..."
Kasenhis was interrupted halfway through.
"I absolutely have not done anything like that!" Barty Crouch shouted.
"People aren't made of wood or stone. They have feelings. You're being asked to fight Voldemort selflessly, while one day the Aurors may end up killing your only son. Or perhaps the Order of the Phoenix will."
"In any case, every inch Voldemort falls brings your son one step closer to death."
"You can say I'm judging a gentleman by the standards of a petty man if you want, but I still think some problems should be discovered and dealt with early, rather than left hidden in the dark until they suddenly explode."
"So now I'm giving you the choice."
"Do you want this son of yours alive, or dead?"
"If you want him alive, I can find a way to suppress his magic so he can only use ordinary household spells. Or I can find someone to erase every memory in his head related to Voldemort."
Barty Crouch frowned as he looked at Kasenhis.
"That doesn't sound like you. You've always hated evil with a passion."
Kasenhis sat down on the sofa and nodded.
"Yeah. So you should be grateful that, up to now, he hasn't actually killed anyone himself."
"The main things he did wrong were helping resurrect Voldemort and torturing the Longbottoms. But the Longbottoms don't seem to have much of an opinion about him. Maybe because of their memory treatment, quite a lot of their memories were erased, including memories of him."
"So in my eyes... he still, barely, qualifies to stay alive."
"At least by my standards, just barely."
Barty Crouch leaned back in his chair and looked at Barty Crouch Jr., imprisoned inside the coffin.
He looked exactly like a father staring at a son who had brought home terrible final exam results.
"You've disappointed me," Barty Crouch sighed.
"Instead of saying that kind of worthless crap... you'd be better off killing me!" Barty Crouch Jr. roared.
"You're not worth me dirtying my hands over, and you're not worth any Auror dirtying theirs either. I think you should stop going out from now on. Just stay at home and become a house-elf. Clean the house. Or maybe I'll find you a job. How about ticket collector? Stan Shunpike has been doing that for years. It's about time he got promoted. You can take over his position."
"You wouldn't dare! I'll kill you!" Barty Crouch Jr. roared.
"A Squib can't kill me."
After saying that in front of Barty Crouch Jr., Barty Crouch Sr. turned to Kasenhis.
"Make him a Squib. Someone like him would still be a terrorist threatening other people's safety even if all he knew was household magic."
Kasenhis shrugged.
"Sure. I'll owl you the device later."
"Take that approval slip and go straight to the Department of Mysteries. Find any Unspeakable and they'll give you what you want," Barty Crouch said.
Kasenhis nodded.
"No problem. I'll be going, then."
After leaving the office, Kasenhis glanced at the old wizard who had originally been behind him in line.
The man was now hugging an enormous golden pharaoh's coffin.
When it came to catering to someone's tastes, nobody could beat him.
Kasenhis entered the lift and went straight to the Department of Mysteries.
He found a black-robed wizard at random and handed over the approval slip.
The man checked it, nodded, then reached into his trousers.
Eventually, he pulled out a USB drive.
"??? Is the technological gap within the magical world really this huge?" Kasenhis asked blankly as he took the USB drive.
"The Department of Mysteries has electromagnetic shielding, so magic doesn't interfere with electronics. And this thing has a high information density. It's more convenient than books," the Unspeakable explained.
Kasenhis nodded.
"Very good reasoning. It makes my brain rotate."
With that, he Ender Blinked back to Black's old house.
"Sirius, do you have electricity and wireless internet here?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Kasenhis painfully closed his eyes.
He had come back to the wrong place.
So he Ender Blinked again, this time returning to his home on Baker Street.
He dug out his computer and plugged in the USB drive.
Hmm...
"Why is this so slow?"
Kasenhis stared helplessly at the progress bar frozen on the final segment.
Then he picked up the computer and rotated it ninety degrees.
Maybe gravity could pull the progress bar down and make it finish faster.
Ding...
"Holy shit, it worked!"
The moment Kasenhis heard the loading-complete sound, his eyes lit up.
...
(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:
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