Chapter Twenty-Nine

Theories about Mr Crouch

Amara tore down towards the entrance hall and out of the doors. She had a massive stitch, but she pressed on until she reached the place she'd seen Harry and Cedric first disappear.

She stopped running, gasping for breath, but trying to be silent. She edged her way forwards and stopped as she saw a body on the floor. Running over, she found Cedric lying, obviously unconscious, on the forest floor. Amara gasped and knelt down, but she whipped out her wand and pointed it at the trees.

His attacker could be close, ready to strike at any moment. She stayed there, kneeling for a good five minutes before there were noises behind her and a flash of wandlight and she whipped around, a curse on the tip of her tongue.

"Harry," she breathed a sigh of relief. "Professor Dumbledore!"

"Amara?" Harry looked confused, though his face was pale.

"Miss Matthews?" Dumbledore looked confused as well. "May I ask what you are doing here?"

"I was in the Owlery and lost track of time," said Amara. "But I saw Harry and Cedric go here and saw Harry running out again. And then I saw a flash of a spell and then another, so I decided to run down here to see if Cedric was alright – but he's not and I don't know what to do!"

Dumbledore nodded and swept passed her to see Cedric

"Stunned," he said softly. His half-moon glasses glittered in the wandlight as he peered around at the surrounding trees. Amara breathed a sigh of relief.

"Should I go and get someone?" said Harry. "Madam Pomfrey?"

"No," said Dumbledore swiftly. "Stay here."

He raised his wand into the air and pointed it in the direction of Hagrid's cabin. Amara and Harry saw something silvery dart out of it and streak away through the trees like a ghostly bird. Then Dumbledore bent over Cedric again, pointed his wand at him, and muttered, "Rennervate."

Amara went round to the other side of him and waited for Cedric to wake up. When he did open his eyes, he looked dazed, and confused at what Amara was doing there.

He tried to get up, but Dumbledore pushed him gently down.

"Amara?" Cedric muttered. "What are you doing here? It's not exactly safe …"

"We know," said Dumbledore. "What happened?"

"He attacked me, I think," said Cedric. "Mr Crouch – he was speaking to the tree, so I turned to see if Harry had returned, but then there was a flash and he stunned me!"

"Lie still for a moment," Dumbledore said.

The sound of thunderous footfalls reached them, and Hagrid came panting into sight with Fang at his heels. He was carrying his crossbow.

"Professor Dumbledore!" he said, his eyes widening. "Harry — Amara – what the — ?"

"Hagrid, I need you to fetch Professor Moody," said Dumbledore. "He needs to know that a student has been attacked."

"No need, Dumbledore," said a wheezy growl. "I'm here."

Moody was limping toward them, leaning on his staff, his wand lit. "Damn leg," he said furiously. "Would've been here quicker . . . what's happened? Snape said something about Crouch —"

"Crouch?" said Hagrid blankly.

"Hagrid, please ask Madame Maxime if there was anything she saw peculiar, and report back to me immediately," said Dumbledore sharply.

"Rig' – okay," said Hagrid and he went off, with Fang trotting next to him.

"I don't know where Barty Crouch is," Dumbledore told Moody, "but it is essential that we find him."

"I'm onto it," growled Moody, and he pulled out his wand and limped off into the forest.

Neither Dumbledore, Harry, Amara or Cedric spoke again until they heard the unmistakable sounds of Hagrid and Fang returning.

"What's the news?" said Dumbledore sharply.

"She didn't see anything'," said Hagrid. "Jus' saw Harry 'n' Cedric goin' in teh the forest and Harry runnin' outta again."

"Thank you," said Dumbledore. "Can you please escort Harry up to school, Hagrid? Take him right up to Gryffindor Tower. And Harry — I want you to stay there. Anything you might want to do — any owls you might want to send — they can wait until morning, do you understand me?"

"Er — yes," said Harry, staring at him.

"I'll leave Fang with yeh, Headmaster," Hagrid said, staring around the trees, as though something would pop out, and Amara decided, it probably could. "Stay, Fang. C'mon, Harry."

Harry and Hagrid disappeared into the darkness and Amara regretted ever going to the Owlery.

"Amara, what did you see from the Owlery window?" said Dumbledore.

Amara turned to look at him. His eyes were looking full of worry, but fiery too, and Amara was slightly scared. Cedric was still lying on the floor.

"I was watching the grounds and saw two figures walking around the edge of the forest," Amara said. "I saw that they were Harry and Cedric, and that's when I realised the time, and I wondered why they were around here -"

"We heard a noise whilst we were talking," Cedric interjected. "That's why, because we knew it wasn't an animal, but it was footsteps."

"Right," said Amara. "So they disappeared where the noise obviously came from and stayed there for about five minutes. I was wondering what they were doing so I stayed watching them, and then Harry came running out of the forest and went in the direction of the castle. Not two minutes after there was a flash of light -"

"What colour?" Dumbledore asked.

"Red," said Amara. "But the second was green."

"Green?" Dumbledore looked very panicked then, and Amara nearly freaked out. "In the same place?"

"Yeah," said Amara. "I wanted to see if Cedric was alright because Harry had run."

"Thank you for your help, Amara," Dumbledore said gently, for Amara seemed rather panicked. "I am going to let you off for being out after curfew because of what happened, but after tonight I do not want you out again, especially alone like you were tonight."

Amara nodded.

"Now," Dumbledore said. "We should take Mr Diggory up to the Hospital Wing, and see if you can have a calming drought before you go back to Gryffindor Tower."

Amara nodded and helped him get Cedric to his feet. She was quite tired now, but very alert, and jumped at a twig snapping. Cedric gripped her hand the entire way up to the castle and into the hospital wing. He was ushered of a bed by a bemused Madam Pomfrey, who gave Amara a calming drought to take.

Dumbledore himself escorted Amara back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Tell Harry not to leave after curfew as well," said Dumbledore at the portrait of the Fat Lady. "It seems whoever did this to Cedric - if it was, in fact, Mr Crouch, seemed to vanish as soon as you got there, so please be careful."

Swallowing, Amara nodded and went into the Gryffindor common room, where Harry, Ron and Hermione were waiting.

"Amara!" Hermione ran over. "Are you alright? Harry told us you were down there, and when you didn't come back to the common room –"

"I'm fine," said Amara. "We took Cedric to the hospital wing, because I had to tell Professor Dumbledore exactly what I saw."

"What did you see, Amara?" said Harry. "I don't know what happened after I went to get Dumbledore."

So Amara had to explain her story to the three of them whilst they listened. They were impressed by her story, and Harry filled her in of his story and why they were in the forest in the first place.

"But why was he talking to you?" said Ron. "At such an odd time?"

"Er," Harry looked at Amara. "He wanted to talk about Amara and me and you."

"And what did you say –"

"There's a time and place," said Hermione. "We don't need this now, we need to think of what happened after Harry ran off, and how it links to what Amara saw through the Owlery window."

Amara's hopes of going to sleep were soon gone as they settled for a night of talking.

"It comes down to this," said Hermione, rubbing her forehead. "Either Mr. Crouch attacked Cedric, or somebody else attacked both of them when Viktor wasn't looking."

"It must've been Crouch," said Ron at once. "That's why he was gone when Harry and Dumbledore got there. He'd done a runner."

"Nah," said Amara. "That doesn't explain the second spell …"

"Maybe he did a spell to transport himself …"

"Don't be stupid Ron," said Hermione.

"And Dumbledore looked horrified when I said the flash was green," said Amara. "It was like – oh my!"

They were in the Owlery at daybreak, sending an owl to Sirius about the events of the previous night. Amara had just had a horrible thought.

"What?"

Amara started pacing the Owlery floor, rubbing her puffy eyes.

"The flash of light first was red – that was the spell to knock Cedric unconscious," Amara said. "But the second, the second was green, right? And it was just the same flash as – as Avada Kedavra – the killing curse that Moody showed us!"

Hermione gasped out loud. "No!" she said.

"Someone else must've been there!" said Amara, her heart beating fast. "And they must've wanted Crouch to stop talking – so they made Cedric unconscious – what could he do all alone? And then … then …"

"They killed Crouch?" Ron said, his face pale.

"Must have," Amara said hoarsely.

"But how would they get the body away and themselves in the time it took for you to get there?" said Hermione, obviously trying to think of way out.

"There's loads of ways to make a body invisible, Hermione," said Harry.

"Or they could transfigure them," said Amara. "And they could have walked off … into the forest …"

There was a pregnant pause.

"If Snape hadn't held me up," Harry said bitterly, "we might've got there in time to see who it was. 'The headmaster is busy, Potter . . . what's this rubbish, Potter?' Why couldn't he have just got out of the way?"

"You don't seriously think someone killed Crouch, do you?" Hermione said to him.

"Amara saw a flash of light, Hermione, I think it could make sense …"

"Maybe he didn't want you to get there!" said Ron, not listening to their words. "Maybe — hang on — how fast d'you reckon he could've gotten down to the forest? D'you reckon he could've beaten you and Dumbledore there?"

"Not unless he can turn himself into a bat or something," said Harry.

"Wouldn't put it past him," Ron muttered.

"We need to see Professor Moody," said Hermione. "We need to find out whether he found Mr Crouch – alive or dead."

"If he had the Marauder's Map on him, it would've been easy," said Harry.

"Unless the other person and Crouch were already outside the grounds," said Ron, "because it only shows up to the boundaries, doesn't —"

"Shh!" said Hermione suddenly.

Somebody was climbing the steps up to the Owlery. Amara could hear two voices arguing, coming closer and closer.

"— that's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that —"

"— we've tried being polite; it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did —"

"I'm telling you, if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat payoff, will you?"

The Owlery door banged open. Fred and George came over the threshold, then froze at the sight of Amara, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"What're you doing here?" Ron and Fred said at the same time.

"Sending a letter," said Harry and George in unison.

"What, at this time?" said Amara and Fred. Amara tried to avoid his eyes but couldn't help it. He was looking straight at her, taking in her puffy eyes and pale face. Amara stared him down, and he looked away first, grinning at the others.

"Fine — we won't ask you what you're doing, if you don't ask us," he said.

He was holding a sealed envelope in his hands. The name was covered by Fred's hand, rather conveniently.

"Well, don't let us hold you up," Fred said, making a mock bow and pointing at the door.

Ron didn't move. "Who're you blackmailing?" he said.

The grin vanished from Fred's face. Amara saw George half glance at Fred, before smiling at Ron.

"Don't be stupid, I was only joking," he said easily.

"Didn't sound like that," said Ron.

Fred and George looked at each other. Then Fred said abruptly,

"I've told you before, Ron, keep your nose out if you like it the shape it is. Can't see why you would, but —"

"It's my business if you're blackmailing someone," said Ron. "George's right, you could end up in serious trouble for that."

"Told you, I was joking," said George. He walked over to Fred, pulled the letter out of his hands, and began attaching it to the leg of the nearest barn owl. "You're starting to sound a bit like our dear older brother, you are, Ron. Carry on like this and you'll be made a prefect."

"No, I won't!" said Ron hotly.

George carried the barn owl over to the window and it took off. George turned around and grinned at Ron.

"Well, stop telling people what to do then. See you later."

He and Fred left the Owlery. Amara, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at one another.

"You don't think they know something about all this, do you?" Hermione whispered. "About Crouch and everything?"

"Of course not," said Amara. "It's probably something else."

"They'd tell Dumbledore if it was important," Harry added.

Ron, however, was looking uncomfortable.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked him.

"Well . . ." said Ron slowly, "I dunno if they would. They're . . . they're obsessed with making money lately, I noticed it when I was hanging around with them — when — you know —"

"We weren't talking." Harry finished the sentence for him. "Yeah, but blackmail . . ."

"It's this joke shop idea they've got," said Ron. "I thought they were only saying it to annoy Mum, but they really mean it, they want to start one. They've only got a year left at Hogwarts, they keep going on about how it's time to think about their future, and Dad can't help them, and they need gold to get started."

Hermione was looking uncomfortable now.

"Yes, but . . . they wouldn't do anything against the law to get gold."

"Wouldn't they?" said Ron, looking sceptical. "I dunno . . . they don't exactly mind breaking rules, do they?"

"Yes, but this is the law," said Hermione, looking scared. "This isn't some silly school rule. . . . They'll get a lot more than detention for blackmail! Ron . . . maybe you'd better tell Percy. . . ."

"Are you crazy Hermione?" Amara said, shocked. "Tell Percy? He'd do them in! This isn't a school rule that they would get detention for. D'you want them to be in serious trouble?"

"No," said Hermione uncomfortably.

"And anyway, why on earth would they go to stupid measures to get gold? If they sell their products right, they could definitely get the gold needed!"

There was another pause.

"Come on, let's get some breakfast," said Ron.

"D'you think it's too early to go and see Professor Moody?" Hermione said as they went down the spiral staircase.

"Yes," said Harry. "He'd probably blast us through the door if we wake him at the crack of dawn; he'll think we're trying to attack him while he's asleep. Let's give it till break."

Amara fell asleep in History of Magic. She was so tired, and Professor Binns was extra boring that day, so she couldn't help but put her head on the desk and close her eyes. Even Hermione wasn't taking notes, instead, she was looking at Professor Binns with her eyes out of focus. Harry was just checking Ron's watch every few seconds and Ron was slumped onto the desk.

She felt slightly better after her snooze, and was able to hurry along with Harry, Ron and Hermione to the Dark Arts classroom. Professor Moody was just leaving it, looking tired and pale too.

"Professor Moody?" Harry called as they made their way toward him through the crowd.

"Hello, Potter," growled Moody. His magical eye followed a couple of passing first years, who sped up, looking nervous; it rolled into the back of Moody's head and watched them around the corner before he spoke again.

"Come in here."

He stood back to let them into his empty classroom, limped in after them, and closed the door.

"Did you find him?" Harry asked without preamble. "Mr Crouch?"

"No," said Moody. He moved over to his desk, sat down, stretched out his wooden leg with a slight groan, and pulled out his hip flask. Amara, Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, looking scared

"Did you use the map?" Harry said, trying to look hopeful.

"Of course," said Moody, taking a swig from his flask. "Took a leaf out of your book, Potter. Summoned it from my office into the forest. He wasn't anywhere on there."

Amara, Harry, Ron and Hermione blanched at him.

"Amara was at the Owlery window …" Harry started.

"Oh yes, apparently you saw the flash of light?" Moody growled.

"Yeah," said Amara. "But I saw a second one too, and it was green –"

"D'you think someone could've killed Crouch?" Harry said quickly.

Moody's magical eye was fixed on Amara, and she was feeling very uncomfortable.

"Did you think of that, Miss Matthews?" he asked her. Amara nodded. "Think about a career as an Auror, you have the right mind. But I don't think that happened in this case. There are other spells that go green after all."

Amara nodded, but couldn't help but think his normal eye looked wary.

"Well if he didn't die …" said Harry. "He wasn't invisible, the map shows invisible people. He must've left the grounds."

"But under his own steam?" said Hermione eagerly, as though she too wanted to be complemented. "or because someone made him?"

She wasn't disappointed.

"Same goes to you, Granger," said Moody. "Good mind."

"Someone could've — could've pulled him onto a broom and flown off with him, couldn't they?" said Ron quickly, looking hopefully at Moody as if he too wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"We can't rule out kidnap," growled Moody.

"So," said Ron, "d'you reckon he's somewhere in Hogsmeade?"

"Could be anywhere," said Moody, shaking his head. "Only thing we know for sure is that he's not here."

He yawned widely, so that his scars stretched, and his lopsided mouth revealed a number of missing teeth. Then he said, "Now, Dumbledore's told me you four fancy yourselves as investigators, but there's nothing you can do for Crouch. The Ministry'll be looking for him now, Dumbledore's notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."

"What?" said Harry. "Oh yeah . . ."

"Should be right up your street, this one," said Moody, looking up at Harry and scratching his scarred and stubbly chin. "From what Dumbledore's said, you've managed to get through stuff like this plenty of times. Broke your way through a series of obstacles guarding the Philospher's Stone in your first year, didn't you?"

"We helped," Ron said quickly. "Me, Amara and Hermione helped." Moody grinned.

"Well, help him practice for this one, and I'll be very surprised if he doesn't win," said Moody. "In the meantime . . . constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance." He took another long draw from his hip flask, and his magical eye swivelled onto the window. The topmost sail of the Durmstrang ship was visible through it.

"You two," counselled Moody, his normal eye on Amara, Ron and Hermione, "you stick close to Potter, all right? I'm keeping an eye on things, but all the same . . . you can never have too many eyes out."

As they left, Amara couldn't help but feel Moody's magical eye on her the entire way down the corridor.

-OOOOO-

Sirius sent their owl back the very next morning. It fluttered down beside Harry at the same moment that a tawny owl landed in front of Hermione, clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet in its beak. She took the newspaper, scanned the first few pages, said, "Ha! She hasn't got wind of Crouch!" then joined Amara, Ron and Harry in reading what Sirius had to say on the mysterious events of the night before last.

Harry — what do you think you are playing at, walking off into the Forbidden Forest with no one but Diggory with you? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking anywhere else at night. There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It is clear to me that they wanted to stop Crouch from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You could have been killed.
Your name didn't get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. If someone's trying to attack you, they're on their last chance. Stay close to Amara, Ron and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn't go amiss either. There's nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I'm waiting for your letter giving me your word you won't stray out-of-bounds again.

Sirius

"Who's he, to lecture me about being out-of-bounds?" said Harry in mild indignation as he folded up Sirius's letter and put it inside his robes. "After all the stuff he did at school!"

"He's worried about you!" said Hermione sharply. "Just like Moody and Hagrid! So listen to them!"

"No one's tried to attack me all year," said Harry. "No one's done anything to me at all —"

"Except put your name in the Goblet of Fire," said Hermione. "And they must've done that for a reason, Harry. Snuffles is right. Maybe they've been biding their time. Maybe this is the task they're going to get you."

"Look," said Harry impatiently, "let's say Sirius is right, and someone Stunned Cedric to kidnap Crouch. Well, they would've been in the trees near us, wouldn't they? But they waited till I was out of the way until they acted, didn't they? So it doesn't look like I'm their target, does it?"

"They couldn't have made it look like an accident if they'd murdered you in the forest!" said Hermione. "But if you die during a task —"

"They didn't care about attacking Cedric, did they?" said Harry. "Why didn't they just polish me off at the same time? They could've made it look like Cedric and I had a duel or something."

"Harry, I don't understand it either," said Hermione desperately. "I just know there are a lot of odd things going on, and I don't like it. . . . Moody's right — Sirius is right — you've got to get in training for the third task, straight away. And you make sure you write back to Sirius and promise him you're not going to go sneaking off alone again."

When Amara had to stay indoors with Harry, Ron and Hermione, the grounds decided to get more inviting. However, instead, they went into the library to look up lots and lots of different hexes. They had found the Stunning Spell, which Amara decided was the spell used to make Cedric unconscious in the forest.

Cedric had apologised the next day about his behaviour, and everything between them was alright again, which Amara was very pleased about. But she had more worries with Harry, and she still spent most of her time with him instead, helping him practise the Stunning spell.

They used a lot of empty classrooms to practise the spells, but it also meant Ron, Hermione and Amara had to make sacrifices, like being the person to be stunned, for example.

"Can't we kidnap Mrs Norris?" Ron suggested on Monday lunchtime as he lay flat on his back in the middle of their Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and reawoken by Harry for the fifth time in a row. "Let's Stun her for a bit. Or you could use Dobby, Harry, I bet he'd do anything to help you. I'm not complaining or anything" — he got gingerly to his feet, rubbing his backside — "but I'm aching all over. . . ."

"Well, you keep missing the cushions, don't you!" said Hermione impatiently, rearranging the pile of cushions they had used for the Banishing Spell, which Flitwick had left in a cabinet. "Just try and fall backward!"

"Once you're Stunned, you can't aim too well, Hermione!" said Ron angrily. "Why don't you take a turn?"

"Well, I think Harry's got it now, anyway," said Hermione hastily. "And we don't have to worry about Disarming, because he's been able to do that for ages. . . . I think we ought to start on some of these hexes this evening."

She looked down the list they had made in the library. Amara was snorting, leaning against the wall at Hermione's unwillingness to get stunned. Amara had just been the victim, and had hobbled over to the wall so that Ron could have a go.

"I like the look of this one," she said, "this Impediment Jinx. Should slow down anything that's trying to attack you, Harry. We'll start with that one."

The bell rang. They hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwick's cupboard and slipped out of the classroom. "See you at dinner!" said Hermione, and she set off for Arithmancy, while Amara headed to the sixth floor to Ancient Runes with Cedric (who insisted on accompanying her, and Harry and Ron headed toward North Tower, for their Divination lesson.. Broad strips of dazzling gold sunlight fell across the corridor from the high windows. The sky outside was so brightly blue it looked as though it had been enamelled, but Amara wasn't paying attention, she had decided to ask Cedric why he hadn't asked her about Harry and Ron.

"Why didn't you come to be first about the article?" she asked him straight away, as soon as Harry, Ron and Hermione had disappeared. "Instead of ignoring me and asking Harry?"

"I didn't want to upset you," said Cedric.

"Upset me?" said Amara. "You did upset me, you idiot. That was the worst thing you could've done!"

"I know," said Cedric. "But I didn't want you thinking I doubted you."

"You did doubt me," said Amara.

"Yeah," said Cedric and he paused. "I really messed up that bit didn't I?"

"Yeah you did," Amara giggled as they stopped outside the Ancient Runes classroom. "You'd better go."

Cedric kissed her once and smiled, before leaving for his Charms lesson.

"You are so lucky to be going out with him," said Padma Patil as Amara turned and saw the whole class looking at her. She blushed.

"Er," she said, not knowing what to say. Instead, the class shook their heads (the girls did) and acted as though she should be the happiest girl alive.