Hannah's mind was adrift with concerns, and the least of them was the Tournament. Of course, it would be better if Fleur or Cedric won, but the gold mattered little and the glory of winning even less. The next full moon was almost upon them, Malfoy had not made a move in the last few days, but likely would soon, and there was a substantial chance of dementors being on their way to Hogwarts. They'll say they're here for the prisoners, but they're not seriously going to lead them through the school. There will probably just be an 'accident' and they'll roam free for as long as possible.

She imagined she was wearing something of a glum expression on the way to Hogsmeade, on a spring day full of fog. Hermione had sounded a measure desperate, reassuring herself that Terry had already set himself to the task of the Patronus Charm, something that should be effective against dementors. For her own part, the blonde witch had difficulty seeing how it would work long term. Could they consume a patronus eventually? How many of them could it protect?

Justin Finch-Fletchey stopped her in on the path.

"Hi, Hannah."

"Hi, Justin."

"I'd like to join your group," he offered.

Why?

"That's great," she responded, somewhat uncertain. He was never front and center of anything. He's the closest thing to what Terry would call a fence-sitter in Hufflepuff. Well, apart from Neville, that is. He's kind of an outlier.

"I understand if you don't trust me," he explained curtly after a moment of silence. She had honestly not known how to react. "You might also have expected someone more capable, more well-known-"

"Well, it's not anything like that, it's just that it'd really be up to- well, it wouldn't be up to me. I can't just make a final decision for everyone."

"That's alright. I expected that, actually. A lot of the Hufflepuffs have been discussing the proper response for people who are neutral to blood purism, and the short of it is that it doesn't look good for me. I've been neutral to blood purism for years; when I hear something I've consistently turned a deaf ear, and I'm sure someone's caught me by now."

"I see. So now that we have dirt on you, we can trust you?" she asked. He's not calling them the conspirators. He's calling them the Hufflepuffs, which is what they claim to be. "I'll pass along what you told me," she offered, hoping he had no idea of Legilimency as she walked past. Occlumency was difficult to so much as understand, and she imagined that Malfoy had started on it before ever studying how to go on the offensive.

They had arranged to meet by the Shrieking Shack. From what she had seen, from a distance at least, there was no direct way in, but Hermione would likely figure something out. When she arrived, having had to trek through the brush a ways, it seemed a ladder up to a window had been conjured out of rope. Oh. That's pretty simple. I had thought it would be something absurdly elaborate, like polyjuicing into a teacher and asking to be allowed in for a conference, then obliviating everyone.

Ron and the others were already there, sans Mafalda. If anyone should be learning this curse... no, she's probably bogged down with assignments.

"We're all here, then," the red-haired wizard stated. "Well, the basic challenge of the killing curse isn't the theory, and it gets easier with practice, because it's basically something everyone understands. Not really killing people itself, but wanting someone dead, enough you'd do it yourself." He drew his wand. "That's actually something that makes it a bit harder. Your target has to be someone you really hate, and you can't just cast one at Malfoy and get away with it. Made me wonder how the Death Eaters got good at it."

"What did you end up doing?" Terry asked.

"Serpensortia," the Gryffindor incanted, a twisting black snake appearing on the floor. "Spell came from India, 's why I think old Salazar or someone must've went there at some point. D'you reckon it's a real animal?"

"No, I believe conjured snakes are animated by the intent of the caster," Hermione explained. "It's a spell most fourth-years can manage. It's important that I understand how this works," she continued. "How exactly did you decide you hate snakes?"

"Well, I don't, so I had to make one I didn't like. That's where it gets complicated again."

Everyone stared a moment.

"How did you manage to make one you did not like?" the Ravenclaw wizard asked.

"Couldn't tell you. Just do your best at it, I guess. Tell you what, have a go at this one."

As Terry rose and attempted the spell a few times unsuccessfully, Hannah could not help but wondering what Ron had meant by making a snake he hated. She stared at the reptile, its head moving around on a swivel. It tried to get out of the way of the spells, but could not seem to find a way out, or even settle on a direction. I can't help but feel like it's confused.

"I can't do this. I don't hate the damn snake."

"Try summoning one," the other witch suggested, already attempting it herself. Unfortunately, it seemed hearing the incantation and knowing the effect was not enough for the conjuration. "Avifors," she incanted simply, conjuring a small, white bird. Pointing her wand at it appeared easy enough, but the spell would not come out. I suppose that's why Ron suggested making something you don't like.

"You can't kill it without the intent to kill it," the red-haired wizard obviated, extinguishing the snake he had conjured.

"I should hope not," Hermione responded, glowering. "I could do it with a flame charm."

"Well, start there."

Everyone was watching her as she incinerated the bird with a wave of blue flames. Conjuration was difficult for Hannah, as it required a lot of theory, but she had some idea that casting the killing curse at a proper target would not be impossible for her.

"Was that the first time you ever killed something?" Ron asked.

"Well, yes, but I'm not so naive that I didn't understand the implications-"

"Well, 's all right. Have another go at it."

The bushy-haired witch rolled her eyes and tried it again with a new bird, but it appeared she was having no greater success.

"If I might."

"Do you have a suggestion, Terry?" Her tone is still not that impolite. She's got a bit to go before she starts shrieking.

"Well, we're all new to this dark magic matter. If you knew any dark spells, I would suggest-"

"Oh, so it's easier because I'm using light spells." Giving it a thought, the Hufflepuff quietly decided it actually might be true. Using a light spell is like flipping a switch on a machine.

Hermione grabbed the bird and wrung its neck.

Without saying a word, she conjured a new one, an overlarge crow, and pointed her wand at it.

"For the record, I don't see how that was necessary," she explained, her eyes somewhat narrowed. "Avada Kedavra."

The bird died in a green flash.

"Brilliant, Hermione," Terry said after a moment. "Perhaps you can explain it to me in a manner we would understand."

"The bird looked differrent than the others," Hannah volunteered. "You didn't use a different incantation, though." She made a bird she didn't like.

"The caster is the one animating the bird, Hannah. There's no way to just create a living thing," the Ravenclaw witch explained, sighing. "Snapping the bird's neck didn't make it easier for me to kill things. It reminded me of a coldly practical part of myself that... well, it's not important."

She and Terry attempted the curse a few times, though he managed it first, deciding to move on to the conjured snake after that. He might want to see if it gets easier.

The blonde witch managed a green light on the bird her friend conjured for her, but it was not a complete spell. If you get hit with that do you die?

"Maybe I just need to try a few more times..." she started.

"We need to be out of here. The Third Task is starting and we could be expelled for skiving off," Terry explained.

"If they expel us for something like that and they'll have no one here inside a fortnight," Ron muttered.

"We should at least see what happens," Hermione returned. "I for one would not like to risk expulsion on your suspicions."

"Alright, then. Tell us what happened when you get back," he proposed.

"We can't leave the two of you alone and we'd really rather have you with us," the witch said, waving away the mess they had made of birds and snakes. That seems like a useful spell.

"Well, stay here with us," Hannah decided. "After what happened last time we went to a Task, they'll probably be glad to be rid of us."

After a moment Terry sighed, adopting a diplomatic tone.

"Perhaps you could tell us why you don't want to go. Then we would know more about whether or not we wanted to go."

"Well, I'm just frustrated by our attempts to cheat all failing," she responded honestly. "There's no way we can change the outcome. There's just no point to going and we should really be focusing on our spellwork."

"Then we'll have to have some way of covering for our absence," the Ravenclaw wizard insisted.

"Don't worry 'bout that mate," the Gryffindor countered. "When something goes wrong, they'll blame it on us, and we couldn't have done it if we weren't there."

"It may be even more likely than you think that something will go wrong," Hermione argued. "Our disinterest in the result is not an acceptable excuse-"

"I don't care about that because it's a distraction!" Ron shouted. "The Ministry's moving whatever kind of dementors they have to the Chamber and they know that we're all going to be out on the Quidditch Pitch when it happens- I can't prove it, but it's where they want us to be."

"Okay, how do we know they won't just feed on the prisoners as agreed?" Terry asked. "If they're feeding on prisoners, they're not feeding on muggles, and if they're a problem, the teachers can deal with them."

"That won't work," Hannah objected. "Even if it's just a few of them, all they have to do is spread out and then the teachers won't be teaching class when they're dealing with dementors and they'll get sacked- it was one thing when they were outside the school and we all ran out like idiots, but having them inside is basically a death sentence for some first-year walking down the wrong corridor. We can completely eliminate the possibility of good will here- if they were trying to help, or even creating a problem for us with only the best of intentions, there would have been an article in the Prophet."

"You don't read the Prophet!" Hermione shrieked.

"Neither do I!" Ron argued. "If there'd been an article, it'd have been all over the school!"

"So what are they going to do, then?" Terry asked, leaning forward. "If they don't intend to put dementors in the school, since they would be easily noticed, and if they were going to be noticed the Ministry might as well have told us-"

"I don't know," Hannah responded, forcing her face into a determined expression. "I don't know exactly what their intentions are because I wasn't listening when they were discussing the plan. I can guess, and I can guess something else, and we can all wonder which it is, and then both of those things will be wrong. What I know is we have to do something about the dementor transport."

She knew that there was no conclusive evidence that such a transport was taken place, only that there was some motive, and this would be the last opportunity. Everyone else knows it too. They're just trying to make sure we do the right thing. The four of them silently walked through a dark passage leading out of the tall, dilapidated building, most likely to somewhere near the school. It was clearly the real entrance, and the direction of the tunnel matched what she had seen out the window.

That's all we really can do, of course. We can't do anything that works, we can't make informed decisions, so we do the right thing.

As they reached what appeared to be the end of the passage, they heard twisting wood above them, branches popping as a nearly felled tree.

"It's the Whomping Willow," she guessed.

"How does anyone get out of here?" Ron asked, growling a bit.

"It most likely goes both ways, so it should be around here..." Hermione speculated, going out a narrow, earthen tunnel with a faint light filtering down. "Here it is-" The sound stopped and she looked down the hole at them. "There was a ward on a knot in the tree; it seems to be entirely immobilized."

"Good enough for me," the Gryffindor muttered back. She must have some way of detecting wards. I imagine that kind of thing would not just be visible.

The four of them were out of the hole and making their way to the school when they heard a sound.

"Expecto Patronum!"

"Sounds like it's far away," Hannah guessed.

"What are they doing casting it now?" Terry asked, starting off at a run. She and Ron were a touch quicker picking up on his lead than Hermione. "Why- did- they- not-already-" he trailed off, shaking his head from the front of the pack. They followed him to the castle itself, where he slowed down. "We wouldn't have heard if if they were inside..." he tried to explain. "We have to be quiet..."

They crept around the sides of the castle, looking around corners carefully. It helped little that the corners were immense, rounded, towers. When at last they were nearly opposite the way they came, Ron described a group of wizards with a few active patroni and a flat cart of some sort, a glowing yellow ward on its surface that seemed to be containing the dementors. That won't work for any length of time. They wouldn't need to feed them-

"Death Eaters? Unspeakables?" Terry asked at a whisper.

"No idea," Ron muttered back. "Can't do anything yet, there'r too many of 'em. They'll just kill us on sight."

"Can we ward the area and lead them through it?" Hannah asked.

"That kind of thing works with a tosser like Evan," he answered. "They aren't stupid enough." The blonde witch turned to Hermione, but she shook her head.

"Even if I knew more wards, they can get past them if they know anything about them," the Ravenclaw witch explained. "Ward breaking is easier than curse breaking, and they can be shown as easily as they can be hidden."

"It's better we know what's going on here than jump in and die over it," Terry decided.

"But-"

"I'm deciding this as leader," he announced at a hiss. "We have to stay quiet. I'm not promising there's going to be an opening."

He's never invoked his authority before. I suppose there wouldn't be a point in having it if he didn't, though. Somewhere in the back of her mind Ron was describing what the wizards and dementors were doing.

"Not a word out of them so far- must've planned this for months- looks like they're going to go inside- dammit, what are we getting out of this?"

"Maybe nothing. Keep watching," Terry ordered. Loath though she might have been to believe it, Hannah had to remember he was right. It would not be the first time they risked their lives on a wasted effort.

"Wait a minute- that's Crouch- if it's not, it's someone who looks a hell of a lot like him." In either case the other men accept his appearance. They're not Death Eaters, unless they know he's polyjuiced.

"He wouldn't be, though..." Hermione looked at her. "He wouldn't be disguising himself if he didn't expect to be seen. That's the real one."

"Bit faster on his feet than I thought he'd be..." Ron muttered. "I still don't get it, I mean it's something he'd do, but isn't he supposed to be at the Task?"

"He could have easily had someone cover for him," the dark-haired wizard contended. "He needed an alibi- the schools gave him the perfect one."

"We can't stop them... do we tell the teachers about this?" the witch next to him asked. "Professor Snape would be furious..."

"They could get the dementors out..." Terry started, visibly thinking. He started back the way they came. I suppose we really can't do anything... nothing we would survive, anyway...

"Crouch could get in deep shit over this, you mean," Ron interjected. "We can't say we were here-"

"You can't convict someone on an anonymous tip," Hermione explained. "The law says a wizard has the right to face his accuser. Anyone we told would ask us to substantiate our claim-"

"Then we'll prove it's not really Crouch on the Quidditch Pitch," Terry decided.

The next few minutes were a blur, a blur of running and hushed voices where they might have been shouting had they not been afraid of being heard. Ron was insisting that it was faster to go the normal way while the Ravenclaws seemed to be saying they had gone too far back in the tower's direction already. He might have convinced them or he might have only won by his boldness, running across the grounds as Hannah followed him, forcing the other two to follow or go by themselves. For the life of her, she could not say, and she did not care. Whether they reached the pitch in minutes or seconds she had no idea.

The next thing she knew they were standing in the box reserved for the Headmasters, Headmistress, and Ministry officials including Crouch and Ludo Bagman of all people. What the hell does he even do here? Ignoring whatever the Champions seemed to be doing behind them, Terry was facing Snape, trying to catch his breath.

"Professor Snape... in the interest of... justice and possibly a threat to... the school-"

"Spit it out, Boot."

"I need you to confirm... the identity of Department Head Crouch," he requested, looking one last time back to Ron.

"It was either Crouch or a damn ringer."

Some momentary wave of discontent passed over the old wizard's face as Hannah looked at him, but it was gone as the school heads turned to him, one by one. Perhaps there were students watching them, but she failed to see how. Anyone here would be looking at the Champions behind us. I don't remember giving the box a second look.

"This is absurd," Crouch started as Snape turned to him, shaking his head after only a moment. "I might have thought the grand and sanctimonious Albus Dumbledore would never leave his school in the care of a Legilimens."

"My predecessor was skilled in the mind arts as well, but... no matter," the Headmaster muttered. "That he chose to waste his abilities is no concern of mine. Weasley, for what reason do you suspect-" he started to ask, his tone growing infinitesimally more hostile by the word. Karkaroff magically cut off an objection from Madame Maxine, but Hannah doubted anyone else noticed. "-that the wizard you see before you is not Crouch?"

"There's a man who looks just like him- he's putting dementors in the school. There were loads of other-" Snape waved his wand, silencing him.

"Before you hypocritically fly off the broom handle with accusations a second time, be sure to... open... a book. Have you even an inkling that Crouch has a-"

"No!" the Department Head growled. Hannah looked around frantically, not trusting herself to speak. She could feel what was coming. "This has gone on long enough. The independence of this school and the utter anarchy it has allowed must come to an end."

In the chaotic stillness, the one thing she saw clearly was the amused smile Karkaroff wore, if only for a moment.