The Story Behind the Mad Eye
The Moody you might know is almost nothing like the Moody in this story. The Moody that got out of bed and began walking down his creaking, wooden stairs, had both legs, both eyes, and was a good deal younger then the Moody you are familiar with. Yet, despite his young age, he was the top Auror in the Ministry. After this younger, fitter Moody finished his breakfast and put on his robes, he Disapparated to the Ministry.
Immediately after his feet reached solid ground, he was greeted by his short, blonde intern, Ben. " Hi Moody! The big man has a good assignment for us today! The infamous, Polyjuice Killer! Man, if that doesn't sound sinister, jinx me!"
As Moody raised his wand to perform a silencing charm on his talkative, and in Moody's opinion, obnoxious co- worker, Rufus Scrimgeor walked up to Moody and shook his hand.
"Ah, Alastor, as I assume Ben has already informed you, today we are sending you on assignment. Now, I know you prefer to just go by your own means, but this is urgent. We have finally been able to predict where the Polyjuice Killer will be striking next. We have reliable evidence that he will be attempting to murder Heather Sharp, the owner of the Daily Prophet, and that his true identity is Felix Smith. Now, how Felix got his name is obvious. He is famous for his use of the Polyjuice Potion. He kidnaps someone close to the victim, impersonates them, then he strikes. Now, we don't know exactly who he will be impersonating in this murder, but we've found a way to beat him at his own game. This is where you come in Alastor: you will be impersonating Heather with the use of the Polyjuice Potion. Then, when Felix attacks, you can simply defeat him. Felix will not be expecting Heather Sharp to fight back."
As Rufus handed Moody a long hair in a plastic bag labeled: Heather Sharp, P.P ingredient, Ben piped up. "What about me? I can do stuff! I know this great Hex. It'll make him sneeze for like, ever!" .
"Ben, you can't go," Rufus said firmly.
"But...."
"No buts." As Rufus walked away, Ben mumbled some curses, but protested no more. As Moody walked past Ben into a large, golden lift, a thought crossed his mind."I'm bait."
"Yah, but your tough Al, you can take Felix."
"Ben? How did you-"
"I might not be the best fighter in the world, but I'm pretty good at Legilemens." Ben said matter o' factly.
"How often do you read my mind?"
"Oh, I'd say eight or nine times a day."
"Well, you need to stop. Its giving me the creeps."
"Sorry...." But before Ben's apologies' could go any further, the lift door opened and a cool, automated voice said: "Level two: Department of Magical Law Enforcement," and Ben and Moody got off the lift and started briskly walking down the hall.
As Moody reached his office, a large blue orb mounted in the middle of the door flashed and said," Who is visitor?"
"Visitor is Ben." Moody replied, and with that, the door swung open. Inside Moody's cluttered office there was only one thing that he grabbed: A bag labeled: Felix Assignment. He then went straight to the restroom, and when he came out he looked exactly like Heather Sharp, clothes and all. With a final wave to Ben, he turned on the spot and disapparated.
He appeared several seconds later inside a huge building filled with bustling people. Just looking around made him confused, people, presses, the building was packed. As he was looking around for what he should do next, a tall man wearing visor ran up.
" Mrs. Sharp! You must hurry, or you'll miss your meeting with Rufus Scrimgeor!" As the man walked away, shouting at people as he went, Moody was more confused than he had been before, until that is, Rufus walked up.
"Hey! You didn't think that I would leave you in the dark here?"
"Well...err..."
"That's okay. Sit in your office and if someone acting out of character shows up, stun 'um."
"But...," before Moody could ask how he would know when someone he didn't know was acting "out of character", Rufus had vanished into the crowd of frantic looking people. Moody wandered around a little bit before finally finding Heather's office. He walked in, and looked around. Besides the chair and about a square foot of room on the desk, everything was covered with stacks of papers and photos. As Moody carefully made his way to the chair, and sat down, he became extremely anxious. He couldn't help feeling boxed in, by the stacks of paper, and by the fact that Felix could walk in under any number of disguises.
He was so anxious, that when a short woman in a "Chudley Cannons" shirt opened the door, the curse that he cast would've blown her head off had she not stooped to pick something up that she'd dropped. When Moody realized what he had done, he quickly shoved his wand into his pocket, and pretended to be sorting some papers. "Mrs. Sharp, here's the interview from Rita Skeeter."
Moody couldn't help but compare her voice to that of a mouse's, and he was pretty sure Felix would want to disguise himself as a more imposing figure. As the woman walked away, Moody, remembering what a jerk Rita Skeeter was, crumpled up the interview and threw it into the deep abyss of paper that surrounded Heather's desk. Almost as soon as the door had closed, another short person walked in. A boy who couldn't be over seventeen quickly began jumping and hopping his way to the desk. Moody's Felix paranoia had subdued some, and he did not immediately strike out as he had done to the last visitor.
"Mrs. Sharp, here, a note from Rufus Scrimgeor," the young boy said as he jumped over the last stack of papers that separated him from Moody. "Did the meeting go well?"
"Err, yes, yes it did, umm...very, informative," Moody said, not knowing what else to say about his brief conversation with Rufus.
"Okay then, have a good day Mrs. Sharp!" With that, the enthusiastic boy ran out of the door.
Moody then remembered that the boy had actually come with a purpose besides to say hello, and he opened up the note. In scrawled writing it said: "Moody, I've done some snooping around, and I sent the person who I know is Felix to your office to deliver this note. Stun him now. Good job, see you at the Ministry with Felix." Moody was thinking loads of things at once. "If that was Felix, why didn't he kill me? I still gotta go get him though...Rufus said it was him..." and with that last thought he charged out the door. Knocking people out of his way, he ran towards someone he thought might know where the kid had went ,"Hey!" Moody yelled to the man in the visor he had talked to earlier, "Do you know where the that guy went?"
"Who? There are lots of guys here, Mrs. Sharp." The man in the visor replied.
"Umm...short, runs around...doesn't look very old, "said Moody, attempting to remember the appearance of the man who had just run into his office.
"You mean Ansul? Oh, I just sent him to fix the broken press down by Jill's office, Probably already apparated home though, it's about twenty past three you know."
"Thanks," Moody said as he started sprinting through the crowd in the direction that the man had pointed after he had finished talking. He had really just pointed at the large clock on the wall, but luckily it turned out that Ansul was walking by with grease on his hands and forehead. As soon as the man in front of him moved out of the way, Moody immediately fired a full body bind curse straight at the dirty young repair worker, but Ansul was quick, he dodged the curse and started to turn on the spot to disapparate. Just before he vanished, Moody dived and grabbed the escapee's ankle. Several seconds later they both appeared in a cozy looking house. "What do you think you're doing Heath-" but Ansul was cut off by the distortion of Moody's face. Moody felt like a strong coat of wax was being applied to his face, and then ripped to shreds. After a painful few seconds, Moody explained the whole situation to Ansul. "So you think that I'm Felix? How would Felix know how to fix an enchanted press? Ansul said, feeling kind of insulted.
"How do I know you fixed it?" Moody replied.
"Well...if I was under the influence of the polyjuice potion, it would've worn of like yours did." Ansul said.
"You could've taken another one after it started to wear off."
"Would Felix have known where my house was?"
"Who say's this is your house?"
"See that picture in the corner?" Said Ansul, sounding slightly annoyed now.
"Yah? So wh-" Moody stopped in the middle of his retort after he realized the shocking resemblance between the man in front of him and the middle-aged woman in the picture.
"That would be my Mum," said Ansul, breaking the awkward silence that had followed Moody's revelation.
" If it's not you, then...you got a fireplace I could use?"
"Certainly!" Said Ansul, glad to no longer be under suspicion.
After Ansul had created a good fire, he handed Moody some Floo Powder.
Just before Moody stuck his head in the bright green fire, he said: " Rufus Scrimgeor's office!"
And after a few hot, spinning seconds, he was in the office of Rufus Scrimgeor.
"Hello? Rufus? Rufus!" Yelled the head in the small hearth.
"Yes? Moody? I thought you would still be looking for Felix, what is it?" Rufus said as he swiveled around in his chair.
"Rufus, what was the first question you asked me when you were interviewing me for a job as an Auror?" Asked Moody.
"I believe I asked you if you would like a glass of water, correct? Why do you ask, Moody?"
"Good, it's you, now, have you been to the Daily Prophet Headquarters today?" The disembodied head asked.
"No, why do you ask Moody?"
"Rufus, where is the real Heather Sharp?" Moody asked, this time with a touch of urgency in his voice.
"She's at her home in California, if you need to go there, I can arrange for her house to be reconnected to the flu network." As he finished, he spun back around in his chair, picked up a piece of paper, scribbled something down on it, and at once the paper folded itself into a airplane, and flew off.
"Thanks Rufus, I owe you one." And with that, Moody pulled his head back to the home of Ansul. "Ansul, sorry for the inconvenience I've caused you, I'm sure I can pay you back sometime." As soon as the last word had left Moody's lips, he grabbed some Floo Powder out of the bag that was still lying open, hurled it into the fire, jumped in, and yelled, "The home of Heather Sharp!" Spinning overtook him, and after a short spurt of dizziness, appeared in a well kept fireplace. "Look out!" Yelled a woman who looked exactly like Moody had about two minutes earlier. The real Heather dived behind a recliner as Rufus Scrimgeor ran out of the kitchen and fired several curses. Moody retaliated with a spell that would've turned the Rufus imposter into a chickadee, had Felix not blocked it with a counter spell.
Felix pointed his wand at a painting on the wall, and with a poof of smoke, it turned into a large battle ax. The enchanted ax flew at Moody, but with a flick of Moody's wand, the ax was a enormous eagle. The eagle flew at Felix, but Felix countered with a serpent made of green fire that slithered from his wand. As the humongous eagle and the fiery snake battled it out, Moody was distracted. Felix did not waste this opportunity. "Expelliarmus!" Felix yelled, and Moody's wand flew out of his wand. "Avada-Kedav-" But before Felix could finish the incantation that would've killed Moody, Heather crawled out from behind the couch and shrieked, "Stupefy!" and Felix crumpled to the ground.
Almost as soon as he hit the ground, Moody scrambled across the carpet, grabbed his wand, and put out the fiery serpent with a gush of water. He then turned his wand to the stunned Felix, and soon ropes were totally wrapped around the would-be murderer. He then turned around and faced Heather.
"I-I can't thank you enough, I owe you my life."
"No, you saved me Moody, if you hadn't of come, I would've never made it." Heather said, getting up from the ground.
"Well...I guess th-" But Moody was interrupted by an all too familiar voice.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!! MOODY YOU ROCK SO HARD!!" Yelled Ben, whipping of Moody's invisibility cloak as he did.
"Ben? What are you doing here? And is that my invisibility cloak?" Moody said, with a lot more than just a touch of anger in his voice.
"Oh, Moody, look, you have a scratch on your face. Let me fix it." And as soon as Ben pointed his wand at Moody and muttered the incantation , Moody lost all consciousness.
"Moody, Moody, wake up!" The voice seemed to enter Moody's ear and rack his head from the inside. Moody opened his eyes. He was in a hospital bed, and another thing he realized was that he had really only opened one eye. He said the first thing that came to mind. "BEN!"
"Yes? Oh, sorry about the whole thing...I've never been very good at healing spells..." Said a small voice from the back of the room. Ben was sitting in a chair in the corner.
"BEN? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" Yelled Moody, running his fingers over the part of his face where his left eye used to be.
"Well...the healers were able re-grow your nose, ears, chin, spinal cord, and your femur bone, and don't worry, they're coming back for your eye tomorrow." Ben said, noticing Moody's repeated touching of his empty eye socket. Moody thought for a second about what had happened and what Ben had just said.
"Ben, call the doctors off, I got a better idea." Thrown of a little by Moody's sudden change of emotion, Ben stood there for a second, and then ran out of the room, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.