Ok, Listen. I've noticed a few comments, yes from different chapters, but I am going to answer them anyway.

1. Poseidon was just trying to explore. He wanted to be different for once, so he made the phoenix and dragon. Yes, they are creatures of fire, but I am really surprised if you guys forgot about horses being land animals. Also, not all phoenixes are fire. There are also some water ones, like Romeda.

2. The profit is from the many different potions he is making. Also, the books on the historical findings he has made. He gave away the potion to the Longbottoms because it was really easy to make, not to mention his inventions. He got the tears for free, and the bezoar is cheap for him. Also, do you think Percy is really that stupid? Of course he already patented it. The large amount of money is because the company is worldwide.

3. Hecate didn't know that the phoenix egg wasn't a rock because it was funny (To me and to her). She made no attention to the 'rock', so she didn't realize it was a phoenix egg. I kindly ask you, get the joke people.

4. Percy is strong enough as a demigod that stupefy doesn't affect him much. If it was any other wizard, he would just be forced to take a step back. The reason it worked on him, albeit partly, is because of how powerful Hecate is. Percy is still the most powerful demigod in history though, so it didn't work fully.

I think that covers it all. Here's to the next chapter!

"How do you do it?" Cedric asked me. We just played a game of Quidditch with the rest of the Hufflepuff team.

"What?" I replied, smirking at the bruises all over him.

"How do you play all of the positions spectacularly? You are incredible at being a Chaser, a Seeker, a Keeper, and a Beater..." He grumbled at that last one.

"Sorry, Cedric. I guess this what happens when I am the Beater of the opposite team. You get beat!" I laughed.

"Whatever," said Cedric.

Life had been great over the past few days. Harry, Cedric, and I were completely chilling. It was forever until the last Task, so I just enjoyed myself to the fullest.

"Hey, I just realized something," I suddenly said.

"And what would that be?" Cedric inquired.

"Why brooms?" I proclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Cedric asked bemused.

"Of all things, why do we use brooms?" I repeated.

"Er, I don't know," Cedric answered.

I knew that I had to make something. Something that will beat the broomstick. I decided to use a skateboard without the wheels. I started planning in my head what I could use for runes. The sticking charm for sure so that we won't fall off. Cedric kept asking me what I was smiling for, but I just gave home a complete Olympian-God-Kind of answer.

"All will be revealed in due time, child," Then I laughed maniacally.

— — —

I also realized another solution to something the next day. I could use a rune to make me write my homework faster. It didn't give me the answers, but it just made me go faster. I realized that in Arithmancy when I began grumbling about how I knew all the stuff.

"I don't need to study this more, so why must I have homework?" I asked Professor Vector.

She decided to give me a stupid answer, "More practice doesn't hurt."

Then, the idea came to me. I wrote the speed rune on my quill, and then my hand began flying over the page. 1 inch, 2 inch, 3 inch, 4 inch. Soon I finished the 2 foot essay.

Professor Vector was going to confiscate it, scold me, and punish me for cheating before I explained to her how it worked.

"It doesn't give me answers, Professor! It only speeds up my hand. Just give it a try, and you'll see!" I pleaded with her.

She decided to 'humor' me. She used it to write about Arithmancy since her brain could work fast enough to compete with her hand on that subject.

"This is an amazing invention Mr. Jackson! I can't believe others haven't thought of it already! I'm going to show this to the Runes Teacher, Professor Bathsheda. 20 points to Hufflepuff!"

My day was a little chipper after that. March was great. I decided to create a tradition with the Weasleys, but I decided to not go overboard. Instead of the whole month being 'March Madness' I would make it 3, hilariously devastating days.

They were awesome. Some of the Professors were quite miffed about their bright popping colors on all of their robes.

After the three days of laughs in March, it was Hogsmeade weekend. It was great until Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to suddenly drop the bomb on me that Sirius was visiting.

I found out when I asked about the bag Harry was carrying. "What's in the bag?"

"Food for Sirius, of course," Harry replied without batting an eye.

"Hold your flying horses," I said. The trio turned back when they saw that I'd stopped walking. "I'm only going to say this once. What in Apollo's holy red cows are you talking about?!"

Sorry, Fates. Guess even your super magic can't stop me from swearing Greek terms' when I'm angry.

"Weird choice for cuss words, and didn't we tell you? Sirius is going to meet us," Hermione answered me.

"Of course I knew, I only yelled because I felt like it," Ooh! There came that sarcastic flare that got me in trouble with so many deities.

"No need to get angry, mate. You know now. Now let's go get some socks for Dobby!" Ron declared.

I'll admit this, I had fun picking socks for Dobby. My anger died down. Soon, I was excited at half past one where we went to the edge of the village to meet a great, big black dog. We headed to the cave that Sirius was staying at. We climbed some rough terrain to get there. It was easy for Sirius, being a dog. I trained for these kinds of things, so I made it with little difficulty. I can't say the same for the others.

"That was an nearly a hour's climb up a mountain. How are you not tired, Percy?" Harry complained once we got there. There was Buckbeak in a corner, with his fiery orange eyes. Sirius transformed. He looked good, but his hair was long like he hadn't cut it in a while.

As soon as he finished transforming, Sirius let out a cheer. "Chicken!"

Harry gave him the bag and he began eating the food in a very dog like manor.

They began talking about this and that, but I didn't really find it to interesting. I only really spoke up when Sirius got a dark look after Harry asked a question.

"D'you know Crouch, then?" said Harry.

Sirius's face darkened. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when Harry first met him, the night when Harry still believed Sirius to be a murderer.

"Oh I know Crouch all right," he said quietly. "He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban - without a trial."

"S'cuse me?" I shouted.

"What?" said Ron and Hermione together.

"You're kidding!" said Harry.

"No, I'm not," said Sirius, taking another great bite of chicken. "Crouch used to be Head of theDepartment of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know?"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I shook our heads.

"He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic," said Sirius. "He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical - and power-hungry. Oh never a Voldemort supporter," he said, reading the look on Harry's face. "No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But then a lot of people who were against the Dark Side…well, you wouldn't understand…you're too young.…"

"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," said Ron, with a trace of irritation in his voice. "Try us, why don't you?"

"Yeah. You'd be surprised," I told him.

A grin flashed across Sirius's thin face.

"All right, I'll try you.…" He walked once up the cave, back again, and then said, "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing…the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere…panic…confusion…that's how it used to be."

That reminded me too much of the Second Titan War. Kronos has a body, you don't know who the spy was (Silena), we get knews of death and enemies (Beckondorf and extra monsters), the gods are gone fighting Typhon, so you're alone. I remember being so terrified that when Dionysus told me about what would happen if the Titans won during his 'Party time' or whatever (The Heart of the west being destroyed. Art, wine, architecture. You name it, Kronos will destroy it.) that I didn't even get more scared. It's like I got as scared as I possibly could, so I couldn't be even more scared.

"Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning - I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers - powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you - plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened.…" Sirius smiled grimly. "Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power."

"PLOT TWIST!" I yelled. The others looked at me strangely. "What? It sounds like a good story."

"Crouch's son was caught?" gasped Hermione.

"Yep," said Sirius, throwing his chicken bone to Buckbeak, flinging himself back down on the ground beside the loaf of bread, and tearing it in half. "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd I magine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while…gotten to know his own son."

He began to wolf down large pieces of bread.

"Was his son a Death Eater?" said Harry.

"No idea," said Sirius, still stuffing down bread. "I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death Eaters - but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf."

"Did Crouch try and get his son off?" Hermione whispered.

Sirius let out a laugh that was much more like a bark.

"Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione! Anything that threatened 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 just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy…then he sent him straight to Azkaban."

"S'cuse me, but WHAT?!"

"He gave his own son to the dementors?" asked Harry quietly.

"That's right," said Sirius, and he didn't look remotely amused now. "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 after a few days, though…they all went quiet in the end…except when they shrieked in their sleep.…"

For a moment, the deadened look in Sirius's eyes became more pronounced than ever, as though shutters had closed behind them.

"So he's still in Azkaban?" Harry said.

"No," said Sirius dully. "No, he's not in there anymore. He died about a year after they brought him in."

"He died?"

"He wasn't the only one," said Sirius bitterly. "Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the 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 arrived. 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. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched them do it."

Sirius threw aside the bread he had just lifted to his mouth and instead picked up the flask of pumpkin juice and drained it.

"So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he had it made," he continued, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister of Magic…next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name dishonored, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him. So Cornelius Fudge got the top job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

There was a long silence. Harry was thinking of the way Crouch's eyes had bulged as he'd looked down at his disobedient house-elf back in the wood at the Quidditch World Cup. This, then, must have been why Crouch had overreacted to Winky being found beneath the Dark Mark. It had brought back memories of his son, and the old scandal, and his fall from grace at the Ministry.

"Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards," Harry told Sirius.

"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him," said Sirius, nodding. "If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater."

"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" said Ron triumphantly, looking at Hermione.

"Yes, and that doesn't make sense at all," said Sirius.

"Yeah, it does!" said Ron excitedly, but Sirius shook his head.

"Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge the tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts and keep an eye on him."

"So you think Snape could be up to something, then?" asked Harry, but Hermione broke in.

"Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape -"

"Oh give it a rest, Hermione," said Ron impatiently. "I know Dumbledores brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn't fool him -"

"Why did Snape save Harry's life in the first year, then? Why didn't he just let him die?"

"I dunno - maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out-"

"What d'you think, Sirius?" Harry said loudly, and Ron and Hermione stopped bickering to listen.

"I think they've both got a point," said Sirius, looking thoughtfully at Ron and Hermione. "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was," Sirius added, and Harry and "Ron grinned at each other. Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters."

Sirius held up his fingers and began ticking off names.

"Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges - they're a married couple - they're in Azkaban. Avery - from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse - he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater - not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape's certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble."

If Crouch's son was a plot twist, then the last 45 minutes have been exposition.

We chatted a bit more, but we then left at half past 3.

The time to the third task went by nicely. There was that great niffler lesson with Hagrid, the whole Sha-bang with Crouch at the forest (Wasn't there, but I was still told about the maze. Apparently Harry has been accidentally finding a lot of things out. In fact, he coincidentally watched Crouch's son trial. There was also the time his scar got real painful, apparently Wormtail's 'blunder' was fixed. I bet you anything that the 'blunder' was Crouch escaping.

Harry finally began practicing some spells like the Stunning Spell (FINALLY), the Impediment Curse (real useful), and a number of other great hexes.

He was also using the sheild charm, protego. It isn't as useful as my sheild charm, contego, but he's still having trouble with it.

For once, Harry seemed confident. Cedric seemed more cool about the Final Task as well. I wasn't as sure as Tasks 1 2, but I still felt confident. I was ready for the Third Task.

Or so I thought.

AN:

BOOM SHAKALAKA! BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH THE WHITE VANS! Or should I say, chapter!

I hope you guys enjoyed. I'm personally hyped for 5th year, since 4th year is like the beginning point of the war. That's where things start getting real.