Chapter 7: Bay Harbor, Lake Horror?
Scratch Alastor Moody off the list. He's definitely dead. I was not the one to kill him, though, and I'm pretty sure now that he wouldn't have fit the Code anyway. Shortly after the discovery of Karkaroff in, and all over the upstairs girls' bathroom, both Professor Alastor Moody and Bartemius Crouch were found murdered, obviously victims of the Killing Curse. Large quantities of polyjuice potion in the professor's office indicated that someone had been impersonating Professor Moody.
This also explained the second scrap of paper with my name on it. Moody was the one assigned the duty of preparing the Goblet of Fire for the tournament. Somehow, whoever was impersonating Professor Moody had gotten the magical artifact to accept me as a fourth contestant using a confundus charm. He had no way of knowing the cup would naturally select me, so wanted to ensure I would be chosen. The only question was why would he want to do that?
The death of Mr. Crouch helped shed some light on who was responsible. After some investigation it was revealed that Mr. Crouch's son, Bartemius Crouch Jr., or Barty for short, was a staunch Death Eater before Voldemort's defeat and destruction. Karkaroff had disclosed Barty's allegiance in return for release from Azkaban prison. It was thought that Barty Crouch Jr. had been sent to that prison, but upon inspection it was found that the tormented prisoner locked up there was actually his mother transfigured to look like him. An inspection of Mr. Crouch's wand revealed that he had cast the Imeperius curse on his son in order to control him and covered up his crime through his position in the Ministry of Magic.
What amazed me was that he had gotten away with this for more than a decade. It was only when Barty turned the tables on his father that something happened to reveal his dark nature. There was a lesson in this for me. The best way for me to avoid detection was to be the one responsible for finding myself. When I graduated from Hogwarts I was going to go into Magical Law Enforcement, perhaps as an auror.
Unfortunately, there was still this distraction of a Tri-Wizard Tournament to deal with. I had wanted to break away to go looking for Pettigrew and seek for signs of Barty Crouch Jr., but I was under such constant scrutiny as a champion for the school I couldn't risk it. If I were caught using advanced magic or circumventing Hogwarts security I would be watched even more carefully afterwards, perhaps even after graduating. The first law of Albus: Don't get caught. I had to bide my time.
The press, as annoying as Rita Skeeter of the Quibbler could be, was not my only concern. Since my initial results in the tournament apparently removed all doubt from anyone of my worthiness to be champion, the "romantic" machinations of the witches at the school had only increased. One particular worry was a girl by the name of Romilda Vane who was constantly spreading rumors about Cho in an attempt to get us to quarrel, and had at one point even attempted to get me to take a love potion.
Despite Cho Chang's recent desire for more intimacy, she was still much better than the attention seekers, especially the ones from Beauxbatons and Romilda Vane. Ok, honestly, the recent intimacy with Cho was something I was enjoying, and she didn't seem to notice anything odd or off about me when we were close. The only real downside to this was that Cho did not want as much distance between us as she had wanted before. It was not any more demanding of my time than Ron or Hermione's friendship, but with all the other scrutiny going on it really left me with no chance for hunting and killing.
"Um, Harry?" It was Neville Longbottom. He was in Gryffindor, but had never displayed much in the way of aptitude or courage. Still, he was a decent sort, certainly not someone I'd really want to kill. "Have you considered using gillyweed for the next challenge?" Odd that Neville would know about that, especially with this challenge being in the water. He was fairly good at herbology, but he was no Hermione Granger when it came to studying.
"Thanks, Neville, that may come in handy," I said after I let Neville explain the idea to me. The problem with using gillyweed was that it would provide too much of an advantage. Not only would a person using the rare magical Mediterranean plant gain the ability to breathe underwater, they'd also have an enhanced swimming ability. That would be great if I wanted to win the tournament. Not so great if I wanted to come in a close second or third. "Say, Neville, where did you hear about this?" I asked.
"Oh, I found out about it from a book Professor Moody lent me…" Neville trailed off, thinking about the wizard who had been found dead locked in a trunk in his own office. I said something I thought was suitably sensitive, and apparently it was since Neville seemed to feel better about the connection of his information to Alastor Moody's death after I said it. He was comforted, but my mind was whirling.
Barty Crouch Jr. had wanted me to not only enter the tournament, but also win it. He had given me advice on how to deal with the dragon, though I had the idea of flying already since it was something everyone already knew about. But now I find he tried to provide me with a solution to the second challenge using Neville. Why?
Then there was Igor Karkaroff's death. He had been sliced up, each part of his body carefully cut into individual pieces. Each cut was clean and precise, almost the same as how I would do it, but without signs of a knife being used. Aside from the obvious use of magic to make the cuts, the resemblance to my own work was uncanny. Each body part was severed at the same points and joints I would use and wrapped up in plastic in the exact same fashion. Whoever was doing this obviously had access to the remains of my victims.
Either that or they had witnessed one of my kills.
Despite these murders, the Tri-Wizard Tournament continued. There was really no choice about that for the three champions, the magical bindings of the contract made its cancellation quite… problematic. As for the rest of the students, the Ministry of Magic claimed the death of Bartemius Crouch was the obvious goal of the murderer and now that the goal was accomplished the murderer had fled the school, posing no further particular danger to Hogwarts. Moody's death was judged the means to the end, while Karkaroff's was considered a murder of opportunity.
Of course they were wrong about Karkaroff and Crouch Sr. While Barty Crouch Jr. had almost certainly killed his father partly out of revenge, Crouch Sr. was also just a means to an end: Me. Karkaroff was an entirely different sort of death. Igor Karkaroff, while certainly an obvious target for Barty Crouch Jr.'s vengeance, had been killed in a way that bespoke a more intimate murder. It was as if the killings had been performed by two different people. One of them was like me.
The time finally arrived for the second challenge. The three schools and their supporters all gathered around at the lake by Hogwarts grounds. I had thoroughly explored this lake with Albus while growing up, my foster father and former Headmaster of the school introducing me to the magical merfolk indigenous to the area. Later I had contemplated using the lake as a means to dispose of body parts, but came to the conclusion it would be far too risky. If any of the merfolk discovered human remains they would alert the Headmaster of Hogwarts or perhaps another of the teachers.
Strangely, I found myself without any of my friends before the start of the challenge until Ron showed up with a worried expression. Interesting that I would notice their absence. Perhaps I was becoming more sensitive and perceptive of human emotions and relationships. For example, I noticed that Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour were also in a somewhat panicked state. Something was definitely wrong.
"Harry, have you seen Hermione anywhere? We were supposed to watch you in the tournament together, but I haven't seen her all day." Hermione was missing? "She was hanging around with that git, Viktor Krum the night before, probably snogging his face off…" Ron sounded incredibly bitter. Hang on, Hermione was dating Krum? "But of course, Harry, she was still gonna pull for you in the tournament, even if that creep has his meat-hooks in her," Ron quickly added. So much for the theory I was becoming more sensitive.
"No, Ron, I haven't seen Hermione. I haven't seen either her or Cho since…" Oh. That was it. In the meeting for all the champions I was told that something had been taken from me, something that I would miss. I figured it would be best to tell Ron what was going on before he became too upset. Of course, when I told him that merfolk had taken Hermione and Cho and had them trapped underwater, it did little to comfort him.
Soon enough it was time to begin the challenge. I noted that Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion, was using the Bubble Head Charm, the same charm that I would be using. Viktor Krum transfigured himself partly into a shark, managing to give himself the creature's head, but the rest of his body remained mostly human. He would have some difficulty swimming. I enacted my Bubble Head Charm and dived in after the two.
As long as they steered clear of the grindylow and the giant squid, they would be fine. The grindylow were a sort of scaly water demon that enjoyed drowning those involved in shipwrecks. I hoped the other champions would know which direction to swim. Unfortunately, though, I noticed that the other two contestants were swimming the wrong way, away from the merfolk village where our friends were undoubtedly being held. The village was really the safest place in the lake.
Of course, if the others knew that Albus had taken me below the lake to meet the merfolk several times and that I had learned to swim around the lake long before I officially started studies at Hogwarts, they might have chosen another challenge. If anyone knew what an advantage I had here they would surely question how I could possibly do other than finish first. Luckily for me, only Definitely Deceased Dumbledore knew about that, and I had a hunch he wouldn't be telling.
Hmm, Fleur Delacour was about to be drowned by a group of grindylow. I considered watching to see if there were any safeguards put on the contestants, but the part of me that thought I should save her from the water demons was surprisingly strong. I whipped out my wand and stunned them off of her. She recovered from her panic and then I motioned for her to follow me.
We arrived at the village together, swimming past the underwater dwellings of the grey-scaled, yellow-eyed merfolk. In what was the equivalent of the town square, all three of the captives were tied together with thick seaweed. A ring of the merfolk, obvious spectators, filled the area, many carrying sharp spears.
I quickly dove to the lake bottom and found some sharp rocks and went up to free Cho. Fleur quickly cut her sister, the treasure she would miss most, free from the seaweed and began swimming up to the surface without a moment's hesitation. I, on the other hand, made an attempt to free Hermione once I had cut Cho loose. Of course, the merfolk prevented me as Hermione was not my stolen treasure to rescue. I knew she was in no danger, but the delay allowed Viktor Krum enough time to arrive and rescue her ahead of me.
Satisfied that I would be outperformed by the other two and not draw too much attention to myself, I grabbed Cho Chang and towed her back up to the surface of the lake. There was a great cheer and then I was being helped out of the water. Cho was revived from her magical slumber along with Fleur's sister and Hermione. I finished in third place, but because the merfolk chief took it upon himself to explain that I refused to leave Hermione behind the judges conferred and I was given greater marks, increasing my performance to second place. I was satisfied with that.
Then I was surprised by Fleur Delacour coming up to me and giving me a massive hug. I thought I was going to be in trouble with Cho until Fleur explained in her thick French accent how I had helped her when she was in trouble. By the time we had all dried off the story had spread to the whole school. I soon found myself greeted by warm smiles by all the Beauxbatons students and my reputation among the Hogwarts students had gotten a huge boost as well. Not exactly how I planned it, but a reputation like this would work in my favor.
Serial Dark Wizard Killer with a heart of gold.
Author's Note: This was originally intended to be the final chapter (one chapter for each book in the HP series), the last chapter including both the 2nd and 3rd challenges in the tournament leading up to the conclusion, but I haven't had the time to really work on it. So, rather than make you wait longer, I decided to go ahead and post what I've done so far as separate chapter.
