The next morning Harry woke up and found that Ron had got up and left. He got up and dressed and made his way down to the common room. As he arrived, he found Colin Creevey sitting by the fire place reading one of Ron's discarded Martin Miggs comics. "Hiya Harry," said Colin.
"Hello Colin," said Harry. "Have you seen Ron?"
"Yes, he and Lavender just left for the great hall," said Colin.
"Oh," said Harry. "Has Hermione come down yet?"
"She did," said Colin . "She's in the hospital wing."
"What's she doing there?" asked Harry
"She tried to hex Lavender, said Colin. But Ron sent her hex back and it caused her to get burns all over her face. Dennis and I had to take her to the hospital wing. They're both still there."
"Why's Dennis there?" asked Harry.
"Hermione hexed him when he told Madame Pomfrey how she got the burns on her face," said Colin. "Do you know why she's so mad at Lavender and Ron?"
"I have a pretty good idea," said Harry. "I'll see you later Colin."
"See you," said Colin.
As Harry headed out of the common room, he saw the Gryffindor Hour glass and saw that the house points, which had been at three hundred the previous day was now at ten. Harry quickly ran through the corridors towards the Hospital wing. "Potter!" yelled a voice. Harry turned around and saw Professor Snape walking towards him.
"Yes?" asked Harry
"Where are you going?" asked Professor Snape.
"I was going to the hospital wing to see Hermione," said Harry
"I suggest you go to the Great Hall," said Snape. "We're dealing with a situation there right now."?
"What is it?" asked Harry.
"Minus ten points for arguing with a professor," said Snape. "Now go to breakfast before I give you a detention."
Harry turned and headed off to the Great Hall. As he arrived, he found Ron surrounded by Dean, Neville, Lavender and Parvati as he was telling dirty story about a Polish Wizard that was causing them all to howl with laughter. "Where did you hear this?" asked Dean as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes.
"I made it up ," said Ron as he saw Harry walking up. "Well look who it is, the man of the hour," said Ron. "How are you doing, Harry?"
"Ron, I'd like to speak with you" said Harry.
"About what?" asked Ron.
"In private," said Harry.
"Okay," said Ron. "I'll be back"
"We'll be waiting," said Lavender as she kissed him.
Ron got up and followed Harry out. "What do you want to talk about asked Ron?"
"You and Hermione," said Harry. "Did you have to send the hex back?"
"If she hadn't tried to use that burn hex on Lavender, I wouldn't have had to repel it," said Ron. "Besides, she has her beloved Vickie, why can't she leave me alone?"
"Because she doesn't think Lavender is a good girl for you," said Harry.
"Who'd she rather have?" asked Ron.
"You," said Harry.
"Thanks, but no thanks," said Ron.
"Ron," said Harry as he tried to keep his temper in check. "Do you mean to tell me that you would rather have goofy Lavender Brown who loves Divination over Hermione who is the smartest witch we know and is quite brave and calm?"
Who's the one who had to be reminded she could use magic to start a fire when we went after the philosopher's stone?" asked Ron. "I don't think it was Lavender."
"Well she's smarter than you'll ever be," said Harry as he finally lost his temper.
"Are you calling me stupid?" asked Ron
"Yes," said Harry as Professor McGonagall came running up. "Something the matter Professor?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Weasley go back to the Great Hall. Mr. Potter come with me, the Headmaster wants to see you. "
Ron gave Harry a look and headed back into the Great Hall.
Harry followed Professor McGonagall to the headmaster's office. He had never seen her move that fast. "Professor, what's going on?" he asked
"We've had a breach of security," said Professor McGonagall. "The Headmaster will tell you more when we get to his office."
Harry and Professor McGonagall arrived at the staircase. After Professor McGongall gave the password Acid Pops, Harry and Professor McGonagall made their way into the office. Inside, Harry was surprised to find Professor Dumbledore and a shaken Draco Malfoy. "What's going on?" asked Harry
"Mr. Malfoy here has just earned himself an award for special services to the school," said Dumbledore. "Though I doubt he planned it that way."
Malfoy didn't even speak, instead he took another swig from his bottle of butter beer. "What did he do?" asked Harry.
"He caught an imposter," said Dumbledore. "The man we have thought to be Professor Moody was really Barty Crouch Junior who was using Polyjuice potion/ The real Allister Moody was found in his trunk and is now in the hospital wing.
"Where's Barty Crouch Junior?" asked Harry.
"He is no longer with us," said Dumbledore. "The spell Mr. Malfoy used on him interacted negatively with the polyjuice potion and caused Barty Crouch Junior's organs to fail all at once as well as cause the polyjuice potion to wear off, causing him to go back to his original form. Now," he said as he looked over at Profess McGonagall. "Minerva, please take Mr. Malfoy to the hospital wing. He needs a calming draught."
"Right," said Professor McGonagall. She helped Draco, who looked like he had been through a tough battle.
"How did he defeat Barty Crouch Junior?" asked Harry.
"By a lucky coincidence," said Dumbledore. "After the Ferret incident, Draco decided to get revenge. He heard from a sixth year that Moody was always going to Snape's office in the early morning. So Draco decided to plan his revenge. He taught himself Occulmency and he also taught himself how to use a leathal non-verbal spell."
"What spell is that?" asked Harry
"Quod ignis aeternus," said Dumbledore. "It's a spell that was used by a few death eaters to show off their style. The spell causes the victim's insides to catch fire and the victim burns from the inside out, with the killing being painful. The only real difficulty is the spell has to be performed non-verbally.
So Draco did it this morning asked Harry.
"He did," said Dumbledore "And due to Barty Crouch Junior having Polyjuice potion in his system, the spell caused his blood and internal organs to be violently expelled from his various orifices and the polyjuicfe potion to fail resulting in him changing back to his usual forms. We also found out that he was the one responsible for bewitching the goblet of fire and had he lived longer, was going to turn the Triwizard cup into a portkey to get you to a meeting of Death Eaters for the purpose of bringing Voldemort back to life."
"Oh," said Harry.
"However, I do have some good news," said Dumbledore. "The rules of the triwizard tournament state that should the head of the school be killed or become incapacitated in someway, the student has the ability to drop out of the tournament. Since Barty Crouch made himself the master of the fourth school that you didn't know you were attending, you no longer have to compete in the Triwizard tournament."
"Okay," said Harry.
Dumbledore reached into the desk. "To make up for the fact that you no longer will be competing Professor McGonagall and I have decided to exempt you from the final exams this year and give you a hundred Galleons."
"Thank you sir," said Harry as Dumbledore pulled out a stack of money.
"Spend them well," he said.
Harry walked back to the Gryffindor Common Room. As he walked, he found Padma and Javier in the courtyard. Javier was rubbing his foot on the ground. "What's going on?" asked Harry.
"There was a beetle walking over here," said Padma. "Javier squashed it for me."
"I don't want any bug hurting my lady," he said.
"Well that's good," said Harry.
He continued walking as he saw an angry Lavender Brown approaching him. "Harry Potter," she said.
"Yes?" Harry asked.
"Tell Hermione Granger that if she doesn't stop transfiguring things into spiders in front of Ron, I'll do worse than making her break out in boils."
"Where's Ron?" asked Harry.
"In the hospital wing with a cracked skull," said Lavender. "The bitch caused him to fall down a staircase because she transfigured a paper into a spider."
"I'll talk with her," said Harry.
Harry walked to the dormitory, as he did, he saw Krum walking out of the portrait. Harry kept to the shadows as Krum left. Then he made his way through the hole after giving the password.
Inside he found Hermione in a much more cheerful mood. "Viktor was here," she said.
"What happened to your boils?" asked Harry.
"Madame Pomfrey got rid of them in a minute," said Hermione. "They had to turn Lavender away because she tried to attack me."
"Well you transfigured something into a spider," said Harry. "You know Ron doesn't like them."
"Well he deserves it," said Hermione. She looked at the bag. "What's in there?"
"My consolation prize to drop out of the Triwizard tournament," said Harry. "I also don't have to take the exams this year."
"Well I'm glad you're no longer a part of it," said Hermione.
"Yeah," said Harry as he wondered how the year was going to go on.
