I'm so happy I got this out so soon!
White Alchemist Taya: Yep, Rita got all the info from the hospital part, why do you think I put it in there? By the way, thanks for reviewing so many times!
Why would that bastard want to activate my curse seal right now? Doesn't he know that he can't control me? After all, he already tried to control so many times ever since he put on the seal, Aimaru thought.
--Flashback--
"Kukuku! I must admit, I never thought that I would have been able to have such a wonderful fight again. And by a 11-year-old too! You would do good with me. I'll give you a Heaven Seal, and you can be my new body when I need it!" Orochimaru laughed. I had many injuries, most of the major ones healed by Nekinu, but I barely had enough chakra to defend myself.
"I'm never going to go with you!" I shouted panting, clutching my bloody left arm.
"I'm sure you will once you realize the power that I have," Orochimaru said as he clapped his hands together and his neck elongated. His face sped toward me and he bit my left shoulder.
"AAAAH!" I cried out. The pain was unbearable. I gasped,
"What did you just do?"
"Kukuku, I must say that I am quite impressed, no one yet has been able to stay conscious after I've given them a cursed seal. It will boost your chakra, and give you powers, and I know that you will come to me one day to be able to control it. Kukuku..." Orochimaru laughed.
--Flashback--
Aimaru transported to the Gryffindor common room where the Golden Trio was doing their homework.
"Hiya!" Aimaru grinned.
"Whoa! Don't do that!" Hermione gasped.
"So what did Karkaroff and Snape talk about?" Harry asked eagerly.
"Not much, Karkaroff just said something like said something like it is getting stronger," Aimaru shrugged.
"Are you absolutely sure that that's what Snape and Karkaroff said?" Ron asked.
"What, are you doubting my ears?" Aimaru hissed.
"No, no, not at all," Ron quickly said.
"Good. But anyway, that's what they said, and there was something on Karkaroff's arm that he showed Snape. It looked like a skull with a snake coming out of it," Aimaru said, remembering the tattoo.
"Why didn't you mention that earlier?" Hermione shouted, "That means that he is one of You-Know-Who's followers."
"What's wrong with just saying Voldemort? Try it. Vol-de-mort. It's kinda stupid to be scared of a name," Aimaru said.
"Never mind that, but you know what this means, don't you? It means that Karkaroff is the one who put your name into the cup!" Hermione said excitedly.
"That's a no go. He really was mad at Dumbledore and Harry and he did think that Harry somehow bewitched the cup," Aimaru said shaking her head.
"But that also means that Snape was on their side, if Karkaroff showed it to him," Ron said, determined to find a way to blame everything on Snape.
"Well, yeah, that was before. Maybe they both wanted to leave? Besides, trust Dumbledore, he's just like old man Hokage, they both know everything that's going on around," Aimaru said.
The Golden Trio left the next day at noon from the castle to go to Hogsmeade. They sneaked a dozen chicken legs, a loaf of bread, and a flask of pumpkin juice from the lunch table for Sirius. First they went to Gladrags Wizardwear to buy a present for Dobby, where they had fun selecting the most lurid socks they could find. Around half past one, they went up past High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out toward the edge of the village.
"Hello, Sirius," Harry said. A black dog sniffed Harry's bag eagerly and began to trot away from them to the foot of the rocky mountains.
They climbed over the rocky mountains envious of Aimaru and Sirius's ability to climb the rocks. For nearly half an hour theywere climbing a steep, winding, and stony path. At last, Sirius slipped out of sight and when they reached the place where Sirius vanished, they saw a narrow fissure in the rock. They squeezed into it and found themselves in a cool, dimly lit cave. Tethered at the end of it, one end of his rope around a large rock, was Buckbeak the hippogriff. Half gray horse, half giant eagle, Buckbeak's fierce orange eye flashed at the sight of them. The three of them bowed low to him, and after regarding them imperiously for a moment, Buckbeak bent his scaly front knees and allowed Hermione to rush forward and stroke his feathery neck. Aimaru, meanwhile, was looking through the old Daily Prophets that were in Sirius's mouth.
"Chicken!" Sirius said hoarsely. Harry pulled open his bag and handed over the bundle of chicken legs and break.
"Thanks," Sirius said, tearing it open, grabbing a drumstick, sitting down on the cave floor, and tearing off a a large chunk.
"I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself," Sirius grinned. But Harry returned the grin only reluctantly.
"What're you doing here, Sirius?" he asked.
"Fulfilling my duty as godfather," said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very dogylike way, "Don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray."
"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?"
"You four and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," Sirius shrugged, continuing to devour the chicken leg. Aimaru nudged Harry and passed him the Daily Prophets. There were two: The first bore the headline mystery Illness of Bartemius Crouch, the second, Ministry Witch Still Missing--Ministry of Magic Now Personally Involved. Harry scanned the story.
"They're making it sound like he's dying," Harry said slowly. "But he can't be that ill if he managed to get up here..."
"My brother's Crouch's personal assistant. HE says Crouch is suffering from overwork," Ron informed Sirius.
"Mind you, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close," Harry said, still reading the article.
"Getting his comeuppance for sacking Winky, isn't he?" said Hermione, an edge to her voice. She was stroking Buckbeak, sho was crunching up Sirius's chicken bones. "I bet he wishes he hadn't done it now --bet he feels the difference now she's not there to look after him."
"Hermione's obsessed with house-elves," Ron muttered to Sirius.
"Crouch sacked his house-elf?"
"Yeah, at the Quidditch World Cup," Harry said, and he launched into the story of the Dark Mark's appearance, and Winky being found with Harry's wand clutched in her hand, and Mr. Crouch's fury. When Harry had finished, Sirius was on his feet, pacing up and down the cave.
"Wait, so you first saw the elf in the Top Box. She was saving a seat for Crouch?" Aimaru asked.
"Yeah," said Harry, Ron, and Hermione together.
"But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?" Sirius asked.
"No, I think he said he'd been too busy," Harry said.
"Harry did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box?" Sirius asked.
"Erm...no. I didn't need to use it before we got in the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was in there were my Omnioculars. Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?" Harry said, staring at Sirius.
"It's possible," Aimaru said thoughtfully.
"Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione insisted.
"The elf wasn't the only one in that box," Sirius said, as he continued to pace.
"Who was sitting behind you guys in the Box?" Aimaru asked.
"Loads of people, some Bulgarian ministers...Cornelius Fudge...the Malfoys..." Harry said.
"The Malfoys!" Ron said suddenly, so loudly that his voice echoed all around the cave, and Buckbeak tossed his head, and Aimaru winced.
"Ron, tone it down a little?" she groaned.
"Sorry, but I bet it was Lucius Malfoy,"
"Anyone else?" Sirius asked.
"No one."
"Yes there was, there was Ludo Bagman," Hermione reminded him.
"I didn't know anything about Bagman except that he used to be the Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," Sirius said. "What's he like?"
"I guess he's okay, but he keeps helping me with the Triwizard Tournament," Harry said.
"He doesn't help anyone else as far as I know, and I caught a bit of what he was saying to those goblins, something about, paying something off," Aimaru said.
"Did he, now? I wonder why he would help Harry though." Sirius said, frowning.
"Say's he taken a liking to me,"
"Hmm,"
"We saw him in the forest just before the Dark Mark appeared, remember?" Hermione reminded them. They continued to talk about Bagman for a little longer before shifting the topic on to Crouch. Sirius explained what had happened back when Crouch lost his power.
Kind of like Dad, he was all powerful and everything, and then Itachi went along and disgraced the family name, Aimaru thought.
"Was his son a Death Eater?" she asked.
"No idea, I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. But the boy was caught in the company of people that were Death Eaters, but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time," Sirius said, stuffing some bread in to his face.
"Did Crouch even try to get his son off?" Hermione whispered.
"Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione! Anything that threatened to to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again. Doesn't that tell you what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched far enough to give his son a trail, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show that he hated the boy...then he sent his son straight to Azkaban," Sirius said with a laugh that sounded more like a bark.
"So he gave his own son to the dementors?" asked Harry quietly.
"That's right, I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet for a few days, though...they all went quiet in the end...except when they shrieked in their sleep..."
"So he's still in Azkaban?" Harry asked.
"It's obvious he's not. Physical torture, a man can go through, he'll learn to be more tough. Mental torture, on the other hand, a man will break down on his knees weeping. Remember the article Rita Skeeter wrote? Well, that's one of the things the Mangekyou can do, it's called the Tsukiyomi. It allows the user to make up a whole new world and torture their victim in it for what feels like 3 days, but is only lasts for one second," Aimaru said quietly.
Sirius nodded, agreeing with her.
"Most in Azkaban go mad and plenty stop eating. They lost their will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming, because the dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he came in. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently shortly afterward. So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he made. One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister of Magic, next, his family dead, family name dishonored, and big drop in popularity," Sirius said, taking a swig of pumpkin juice.
There was a long silence.
"Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards," Harry said.
"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him. If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater." Sirius said.
"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" Ron said triumphantly.
"It doesn't make sense at all, why would he sneak up here when he could judge at the Triwizard Tournament? He could keep an eye on him during the whole day, every day, if he decided to stay here, after all. He could do that to anybody, so there's another reason why he's here," Aimaru said.
"Dumbledore trusts Snape. That's all that matters," Sirius said.
"Besides, you said that last year the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher was a werewolf. How many people would hire a werewolf? And didn't it turn out alright?" Aimaru asked.
"Yeah, but...Why are Moody and Crouch so keen on getting into Snape's office then" Ron changing the subject.
"I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to search every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts. But Crouch, he's a different matter. Is he really ill? If he is, why did he make the effort to drag himself up to Snape's office? And if he's not...what's he up to?"
"What's the time?" Sirius asked
"It's half past three," Hermione answered.
"You'd better get back to school. Now listen, I don't want you to sneak out of school to see me, if you got anything important that might be intercepted, send Aimaru to me, she can get rid of anyone following her easier, and she's allowed to get off school grounds, I still want to hear about anything odd. I'll walk to the edge of the village with you," Sirius said, transforming into a large black dog.
The Golden Trio plus Aimaru made their way back into Hogsmeade and up toward Hogwarts.
"Poor old Snuffles, he must really like you, Harry...Imagine having to live off of rats," Ron said.
