54
Clues and 'Tudes
Time: The next day
Place: Common Room
"So how did the other champions do it?" asked Myrtle. "They didn't seem to need to eat anything nasty before they went in the lake." She sighed. "What I wouldn't give to eat something, no matter how nasty."
Susan was still a bit miffed at Myrtle for tricking her the day before. She had almost blown out the castle wall with Thrust before she realized Myrtle was laughing at her. However, she was interested in the answer.
"Bubble head charm," said Hermione. "But I can't figure out how they stayed down so long. They would have used up the oxygen right away in a space that small."
"Is there some kind of air freshening charm?" asked Ron.
Hermione looked over at him, stunned.
"What, have I got something on my face?"
"No, that's the answer. That's what we did wrong, Harry!" said Hermione excitedly. "We were looking for one spell to the job, not a combination. I feel like such an idiot now."
"I guess you both just got fixated on a single spell?" asked Ron.
Harry nodded. "Hermione wasn't the only one. I'm just as much to blame, to don't feel too bad. What I'd like to know is where Neville got that Gillyweed from. And for some bizarre reason I keep thinking Dobby got it for me. It's madness!"
"That would be pretty weird. A plant that can transform you into a version of yourself with gills. I'd like to try it sometime," said Susan.
"Too bad we didn't think to ask Fred and George how they make those Canary Creams, maybe you could have turned into a dolphin or something by eating one of those instead," suggested Ron with a laugh. This time everyone looked over him. "What?"
"Who are you, and what have you done with Ron?" Susan asked.
"I've just been trying to pay attention to things more, that's all. I'm trying to find my special talent."
"I approve of this," said Susan. "Carry on!"
"Good work, Ron," said Hermione, looking at him in a new light. Or in this case, a new shadow, as an older boy was now standing behind him.
"Hey chief," he said to Susan.
Chief is what they call me down at the paper, Susan found herself remembering.
"What's up, Dan?"
"You might want to read this- it's Rita's latest work." He passed a paper over to her, holding it up with two fingers, like it might bite him.
I'm going to regret reading this, aren't I?
"Thanks. You want this back when I'm-" She looked up, but he was already sprinting away. "Huh."
"I've got a theory," said Ron. "It involves you not reading that paper you've just been handed!"
"No, I better see what it's about." She looked down.
Massive Cheating Discovered at Triwizard Tournament
By Rita Skeeter
When your lovely reporter, Rita Skeeter, saw Susan Felben complete the first task for the Triwizard Tournament in record time, she was suspicious. Who ever heard of putting a dragon into a trance by singing to it? But the events there got stranger- the dragon that Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and everyone's favorite to win, was supposed to face "mysteriously" got loose.
"I checked those chains myself just moments before," said a young man with red hair. "There's no way it got loose by its own strength. I think someone tampered with the chain."
After this so called "accident" both Harry Potter and Susan flew off, with Harry returning moments later to claim his egg. This put his time at second fastest after Susan.
Susan and the dragon then returned later, with the dragon somehow being "carried" by her in one hand. We were shown her "subduing" the dragon far away from the field, where such events would be easier to fake. Obviously this "dragon" was also some sort of fake, made magically light so Susan could perform this "feat" of daring. Imagine trying to get us to believe that a forth year student, who many at the school describe as "quite useless, actually. I've never seen her in charms or potions class," could tackle a dragon herself. Also to note, when she zoomed off to "fight" this "dragon" she was not riding a broom, and sources tell me she was never seen in Broomstick Riding class her first year.
This event caused the judges to suspend scoring the events until some sort of baseline was created for dealing with Susan's antics. More realistically, the scoring was halted by Albus Dumbledore to put his school's champion, Harry Potter, ahead. Once it is determined that Susan's actions in the tournament are not her magic, she will be disqualified. That would mean Harry Potter would then go from second to first place. After all, with no numeric scores to keep track of, when Harry is declared the winner, no one will be able to dispute the announcement. Susan's helping him to win forgotten.
It is the second task where the Headmaster's deception shows through more strongly. He would now have you believe that Susan can walk on water, breathe underwater without any spells or special efforts, and, once shown the way with her glowing orb of cheating, descend directly to the banner she was to retrieve. Once again she had the fastest time by a wide margin, with Harry Potter and Viktor tying for last place. Or really, second place, if you keep the cheaters out of the game. I'm sure it was to the Headmaster's dismay that Fleur Delacore easily retrieved her banner and emerged before the others. That girl can swim!
The events surrounding the desperation of Albus Dumbledore to see his school win are easy to imagine. Take a person with little magical talent and bewitch the cup to give up her name. Then offer her an ultimatum- "Perform in the Tournament or you're expelled." She then has spells cast upon her by hidden wizards or witches, and performs seemingly impossible feats to distract everyone from the other performances. She is found out as a fake, the Headmaster claims no knowledge of the events, and Harry wins the Tournament. We can only hope Albus comes to his senses and dismisses Susan before any more damage to his reputation is done.
Everyone at the table waited for her eyes to start glowing or fire to shoot from her nostrils. She just sighed and handed the paper to Hermione.
"I warned him this would happen, too," she said.
"Almost as if you knew the plot before it actually happened," said Sparkle, looking off in the distance, past her. Susan tried to see where she was looking, but it was just another table of students. Sparkle was a picture of innocence.
"I'm just good at figuring things out. I have high mental stats for a reason, you know."
"Of course."
"This claims the Headmaster set you up! That he's using you to cheat!"
"I have to agree with her on this one, that's what it looks like."
"What?" Hermione was shocked.
"Think about it, I did things they didn't. They plunged right into the water, right? I cast some spells, walked across the water, and found the banner quite easily."
"How did you do that, actually?" asked Harry. "And what was that glowing thing all about?"
"I didn't want to get lost, I didn't realize there was so much plant life and stuff down there. I probably wouldn't have needed it. As for finding it so easily, I played a card on my LUCk check to succeed. Good thing I did, too. But maybe I shouldn't have, getting lost would have made it look more realistic. But then I would never have found it. I just made the thing glow so I could follow it to the bottom, as my No Sense of Direction weakness would have made me get lost otherwise."
"Yeah, you were the one that didn't care about the whole thing," said Ron. "Why not just come in last on purpose?"
"I said that months ago, that I would do my best because I was representing the school."
"Oh yeah. The old me probably wasn't paying attention."
"I'm glad the new you is."
There was a pause.
"Sorry, what?" Ron had been distracted by one of the Beauxbatons' girls walking where he could see, skirt swishing back and forth in a rather hypnotic manner.
"Never mind. I would like to know who is quoted saying I don't go to charms class. They might wake up naked, suspended from a tower somewhere having used my 'quite useless' magic for the job."
"They probably wanted to be anonymous for that very reason," said Harry.
"So what are you going to do?" asked Sparkle.
"The article is more aimed at the Headmaster than me. He's going to have to explain it, not me. Maybe he'll have me perform magic for the judges so they know it's coming from me? I don't know. I hope he doesn't, I would rather it remain as mysterious as the dark side of the moon."
"You and me both."
"Luckily the ministry already knew about your magic because of your work with the Longbottoms," said Albus when she went to speak to him about the article. Professors Moody and Snape were there also. "So they know you can do impossible things. They will issue a statement before the next task that says they are satisfied you're not cheating, or being helped by me somehow."
"So I won't have to demonstrate anything? That's a relief."
"Albus," said Severus, "The ease at which she completed the tasks suggests she was cheating somehow." He turned back to her. "Are you sure you got no advance notice about the tasks in any way?"
All three stared at her, and she felt herself making a RESolve check for some reason. She got a 16. She felt an odd presence in her mind.
Odd, I don't have Compulsive Honesty or Liar, why would I need to make RESolve checks?
"No. I didn't even try to work out the clue for the second task, and I had no idea what Harry and the others were working on in the library beforehand. As for the dragons, I think Harry and the others knew, but I wouldn't let him tell me, for this very reason. The spells I know are just general purpose spells, or suggested by others, or that I knew from years ago. I didn't learn any specifically for the challenges."
"And you still to do not have any knowledge about who put your name in that goblet?"
"No! How many times do I have to say it?" All three looked at each other. "What?"
"Nothing, we just had to be sure," said Albus wearily, waving them away. They both left.
I feel I'm missing something here.
"The question is, will that satisfy the general populous? All those people saw me doing those things, and they'll be wondering if Rita is actually right in this case."
"Ah, but that's the great thing about magic, Susan. No matter how many spells you know, there are always more you don't."
"I guess you're right." For now.
"All right, let's go over our clues again," said Susan, days later. The group was sitting in the common rooms after classes, and Hermione pulled out her "puzzle pieces."
"Months before we know anything about it, a witch from the ministry goes missing. No one cares to investigate. Susan's magic tells us she's dead," she started.
"Then, at the world cup, Death Eaters show up and have some fun," Susan said, getting it out. "There, someone sends the dark mark into the sky and a house elf gets blamed."
"Note there are no attacks since then by Death Eaters," remarked Susan. "And Peter escaped before that, don't forget."
"Mr Crouch initially accepts the explanation of why the elf, Winky, had a wand, but later gives her clothes and dismisses her."
"Where she comes to work here, if you can call sitting around drunk work," said Ron.
"My scar starts hurting and I have dreams about Voldi and Peter killing some guy," said Harry. "And don't forget, how did my wand get out in the forest to be the wand that sent the mark into the sky?"
"There's a disturbance at Professor Moody's house right before school begins, and he claims he was attacked. He seems to be teaching classes just fine though," said Hermione, pulling that card out.
"Next, the tournament begins here, and two names not put into the cup come out. Mine and Harry's."
"To our mutual dismay," said Harry seriously.
"Igor Karkoroff was a death eater years ago, but got off." Hermione put this card at the top.
They all stared at the pieces for a moment. Susan shook her head. "It's too nebulous, yet. I don't even know if some of these pieces do fit together. It's the last task in like a month, and we're still no closer to an answer about why we're in it. No one behaves oddly, and no new clues have been added in ages."
"There is one thing- Igor came to see Professor Snape. Showed him something on his arm, which he seemed terrified of. I caught a glimpse, it was some kind of tattoo."
"Can you take us back there, and do you know when this was?" asked Susan.
Harry's eyes lit up. "Yeah, I bet I could. Come on!"
So the group snuck down to the dungeons and stood before the locked classroom.
"I can open it," said Hermione, drawing her wand.
"No need," said Susan. "Your magic may trigger some kind of alarm if the door is unlock. Hold hands, everyone." They did. "Phase," she cast, and they stepped through the wall.
"Lumos," said Hermione, as she already had her wand out. "Where was he, Harry?"
"Over there," he pointed.
"Excellent!" said Susan, rubbing her hands together. "Time Window," she said, giving the date and time Harry had specified. The group saw Igor turn his sleeve up, and there was a dark mark, moving, on his arm.
"Do you see?" said Igor in the past. "It's never been this clear, never since-" Severus interrupted him, and Susan paused the playback.
"Well, well," said Susan. "A moving tattoo. That's got to be magical. I wonder, if I Imbued ink, and then had a tattoo done with that ink, would that allow me to hide a spell on myself, rather than rely on jewelry that could be lost? Furthermore could I use Conductive Displacement to create the tattoo rather than sitting there having ink injected into my skin for hours?"
"I think you're missing the point," said Hermione. "That Dark Mark getting clearer can't be a good sign."
"If Voldi has found someone to possess, as they got weaker and he got stronger, it might cause that to resurface as well," said Susan.
"And that's bad news any way you slice it," said Ron.
"Not as bad as the news is going to be for you," said Severus, stepping from the shadows. Susan, not seeing this room for years, forgot there was another door. "What are you all doing here after hours? And what is that?" He pointed to the Time Window Susan was maintaining.
"We wanted to see what Headmaster Karkoroff was showing you, that's all," said Susan. "And it was quite interesting, too." "It is good, after the thefts occurring in my office, that I took the additional measure of warding the classroom as well."
"What thefts?" asked Susan.
"Gillyweed, for one," he said, looking at Harry. "Boomslang skin, and mayfly wings for another."
"Do you guys know what that means?" Susan asked.
"It means you are brewing Polyjuice potion," said Snape angrily. "And I will know why before you leave this room!"
"Uh, I don't "brew potions" as you well know. And what does this potion do, anyway?"
"As if you didn't know. It transforms the drinker into someone else."
"Really? Sparkle, if you would?"
"Certainly," she said, touching Susan. "Shape-shift."
Suddenly there were two Severus Snapes in the room.
"Why would I need a potion to transform myself into someone when my magic can do it much more efficiently?" asked the second one.
"I- You- What?" Severus sputtered. "Is that really what I look like?"
The others nodded.
"I never realized- enough of this trickery! Put yourself back at once!"
"Fine. Being a man is kind of weird, anyway." She looked down, then gave a jiggly hop. "Huh. Is that what that feels like?"
"I command you-"
Susan was her own shape again. "So, as you can see, you'll have to look elsewhere for the thief. I have no use for your ingredients, as my Imbuing works differently. And Team Susan has no use for a potion when my magic does a better job anyway. Sorry, Professor."
"But you still did break in here, so I do get the pleasure of taking some points from your houses. Let's see, how many should I take from you?"
"Why don't you ask the Headmaster? He's right there." She pointed behind him.
"Do you really expect me to fall for that old trick?"
"I'm not sure I should be pleased or not that you didn't even glance this way," said Albus, who had obviously sipped in behind Severus. "Had I meant you harm, you would have been harmed."
"Headmaster!" said Severus. "I didn't hear you come in."
"I entered quietly. It was the oddest thing, me walking along and for no reason at all, deciding to check out the potions classroom. Strange how these things work, isn't it? Now, I think were about to take some points off for the investigative work done by," he smiled, "Team Susan?"
"They must not be above the rules, Headmaster!"
"I agree. They should be good little sheep, and never think of stepping out of bounds when they see or hear about something relating to dark wizardry. Because that will surely keep them safe."
"You are setting a bad precedent if you allow them to flaunt their actions."
He looked over at Susan. "She may show off a bit more than most, but I have never seen her do anything that I would call 'flaunting,' Severus. Harry obviously told them about Igor's behavior and they came to see what he was so afraid of." He pointed behind them, to the Time Window still hovering in the air. "Am I right?"
They all nodded.
"Susan, after all, does have incredible healing magic. If he was in distress, or cursed as Professor Lupin was, naturally she would want to help."
"And this so called Team Susan somehow getting into the tournament?"
"You were there when she verified she had nothing to do with it. And given the problems it's caused her, I'm sure she curses daily the person that made her go through all of this."
"I do, believe me."
"So it appears I am to be overridden yet again," said Severus, turning to leave. "But mark my words, one day you will regret all the leniency you showed with her and her friends."
"One moment, professor!" shouted Susan after him. "If I could just have a moment of your time, both of you. Could you just roll up your sleeves for me? It seems there's one headmaster who was a Death Eater, so why not two? Now, if you please, and no sudden movements towards your wands."
The others looked at Susan, glanced over at the Time Window, and started edging their wands out. Susan shook out her bracelet with a slight wave.
"How dare you!" said Severus, fury written across his face.
Susan pointed to Igor. "That makes me dare. If there's a convenient marking that shows who is and who is not a supporter of Voldemort, I think it's worth taking a little peak. For all I know, one of you put my name in that cup, under the order of your master, Voldemort himself."
"His lessons really are rubbing off on you, aren't they?" asked Albus. "But you haven't gone quite far enough, I'm afraid."
Susan thought for a moment, as Severus stood and trembled in rage.
"Ah!" she said at last. "How long does this jolly puce potion last, anyway? We should make sure neither of you are someone else. And of course you'll have to have Magic Immunity cast on you, to make sure you aren't under any controlling curses. Does that about cover it?"
"That gets the important points," said Albus.
"Actually, now that I think about it, a quick Magic Immunity would be enough, because it would make you immune to the potion, turning you back into yourself should you be someone else at the moment. If you both have no objections?"
"I do not. Severus?"
"Very well, if it will end this business."
"Fine." She held out an arm. "Both at once, I think. If you wouldn't mind touching my arm?"
Severus' eyes shot imaginary daggers of killing you forever but he stomped over and put a finger on her arm. Albus, smiling, did the same.
"Magic Immunity," Susan cast, taking 4 extra segments. Neither of them changed.
Susan breathed a sigh of relief. "It seems you are both who you say you are," she said. She let the spell go. "Now the arms, please."
Albus showed her both arms, but Severus stood with both his arms crossed.
"I'm going to have to ask you to trust me where Severus is concerned," he said.
"If you vouch for him, that's good enough for me," said Susan.
"Then I believe our business here is concluded?"
Susan looked over at the others, who looked like they wanted to cast Shrink on themselves and disappear from sight.
"I think we are. Thank you for your cooperation."
"Oh, any time. It was an interesting experience, being immune to magic, even for only a moment."
Severus just spun on his heel and stormed out.
"You know," said Susan, "It might be easier to trust that guy if he wasn't a total jerk to Harry, and three fourths of a jerk to everyone not in Slytherin."
"We all have our weaknesses," Albus said.
Yeah, and his is apparently Prejudice: Anyone Not In Slythern.
"I hope you learned an important lesson tonight."
"Yup," replied Susan. "If you're going to do some sneaking around, do it on the astral plane, not on this one."
"Uh, not exactly what I was going for, but, okay. Back to your dorms now."
"See you tomorrow, Headmaster."
"Where even stranger adventures await, no doubt."
