Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Eight-Four

Mad-Eye Moody

Harry had been excited to see what Mad-Eye Moody's class was going to be like. He was expecting something interesting, but even with that he was shocked with what happened. The ex-Auror showed them the three Unforgivable Cures, demonstrating them on spiders. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about this as he watched Moody control one of the spiders, making it do all kinds of tricks. He didn't laugh along with his classmates as the spider did its tricks and he could feel Moody's mad eye on him.

"You should all take from Potter's example," Moody said, his gnarled face looking even grimmer than normal. "This is no laughing matter. During the last war countless people were placed under the Imperius Curse and forced to do horrible things. It was also hard for us to sort out who was under the curse and who was acting on their own free will."

Moody didn't seemed to realize that what he has said had affected the others in the room as he continued with his demonstration. As he preformed the Cruciatus Curse, Harry couldn't take his eyes off of the spider as it showed obvious signs of being in pain. He couldn't help but be reminded about the Tom Riddle that had come out of the diary and how that curse was used on him.

However, what had caused him the most troubled thoughts was when the final curse was shown and he saw for the first time the curse that had been used on him when he was just a baby. He hardly heard what Moody had said about the curses, or even what he said afterwards as he turned over thoughts about these curses that where the worst that had been invented.

"That was amazing," Seamus said as everyone left the Defense classroom. "Did you see how he controlled that spider?"

"And how the other one just stuffed it like that," Dean added. "That was …"

"You really think it was amazing," Harry said looking at them frowning, his hand absentmindedly rubbing the scar on his forehead.

Dean and Seamus looked at each other and then back at Harry, now looking uncomfortable.

"Maybe it wasn't amazing, but you have to admit it was interesting," Dean said. "We've never seen anything like that."

"You're lucky," Harry said with a dark look in his eyes that made the other two wonder if Harry had actually seen something like that.

"Ha …"

"We better get to the Great Hall," Hermione said, cutting off Seamus and dragging Harry allow with her. "Are you okay?" she asked in a whisper when she was far enough away from the others.

"Yeah," Harry said automatically and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why do you always insist on lying to me," she grumbled to herself.

"Because I don't want to talk about this," Harry said huffily. "I don't have to share everything, you know."

"I know that Harry," Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry … I didn't mean you had to talk to me, I just wanted to know if you were okay."

"And if I had said that I wasn't okay," Harry said. "You would have just let me sulk."

Hermione smiled sheepishly, "no, of course not. Sorry."

"You're always doing that, you know," Ron said, he had been walking behind the other two trying not to talk. He could tell from the moment the spiders were put away, and he could think of something other than those blasted arachnids, that Harry was bothered by this presentation as well (and he knew it had nothing to do with the spiders). He was also sure that Harry didn't want to talk about it. "You're always butting in."

"Well forgive me for caring about my friends," Hermione said turning back to glare at Ron.

"That's nice and all, but people don't always want to talk about things like that," Ron pointed out. "It's not like it's going to make a difference anyway."

"You don't know if that's true," Hermione said. "Harry could have wanted to talk …"

"Yeah, sure," Ron said sarcastically.

Harry tuned the others out as they continued to argue through dinner. He had the vague feeling that his friends where actually forcing themselves to argue because it seemed halfhearted on both their parts. If that was the case he was glad that they were giving him more time to work through his thoughts. He couldn't really understand why he was thinking about this and he wasn't even sure why he was letting this bother him at all. It was just that this lesson seemed to enhance the fear that had been building since his dream about Voldemort.

The dream … The Dark Mark at the Quidditch Cup … Having Moody show him and his classmates the Unforgivable Curses … It all seemed to scream that something big was coming and it was going to be bad.

"Harry, we're going to go," Hermione said, shaking him from his thoughts again, this time she didn't ask him about his feelings, which was nice.

"Okay," Harry said, realizing that he had just finished his treacle tart and he didn't even remember picking it up.

"Do you want to work on … you know what … tonight?" Ron asked as they started walking back to the common room.

"You have homework to finish," Hermione pointed out clearly upset. "You shouldn't waste your time on that stupid project of yours."

"Yeah, that might be nice," Harry said grinning along with Ron as Hermione rolled her eyes at them. "Come with us, Hermione."

"I'm not helping you," she glared.

"I know, but you can still come and work on your homework," Harry pointed out and Hermione sighed, realizing that it would be nice to go to the Room of Requirement.

"Fine," Hermione agreed.

After they got in the room Ron and Harry walked over to the couch that had been conjured and talked about the few ideas that they had come up with.

"You know, I was thinking that maybe Polyjuice Potion would work," Harry said. "As long as we pick someone that's older it should have a chance."

"Yeah, that might work … Merlin I wish we didn't get rid of the extra we had after second year," Ron said excitedly and then glared at Hermione as she snorted. "What's wrong with the Polyjuice Potion? I bet you just doubt that Harry and I can make it."

"No, that's not it," Hermione said. "I just don't think it's going to work."

"And why don't you think it will work?" Harry asked.

"Never mind," Hermione grimaced. "Just pretend I didn't say anything."

"No," Ron said. "Tell us."

"I'm not helping you," Hermione said.

"Yeah, we got that," Ron huffed. "But if you bring something up, you better finish your thought."

"Come on Hermione, just tell us why the potion won't work," Harry added.

"Because if the Polyjuice Potion work then you could have simply given your name to an older student and have them enter you in the tournament," Hermione said.

"I can see your point," Harry sighed, looking thoughtful. "Obviously Dumbledore isn't going to allow another student to add our names."

"But we won't really be that person …" Ron started to say but Harry shook his head.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I wish we knew what Dumbledore's protection was going to be and how you entered the tournament. It would make this a lot easier to plan something."

"Which is probably why Dumbledore didn't say," Hermione said and Harry had to agree with that.

He turned his attention back to Ron and started talking about other options that they could use. Most of Ron's attention was on Hermione however, this was part of their plan. Ron was supposed to watch Hermione as she looked through the bookcase and called forth the books that she needed to work with.

"Hey Hermione," Harry said getting up, "I was wondering if you could help me with something …"

"I told you …"

"No, it's not about this," Harry said. "It was about something that Terry Boot said about this rune in class the other day and I was wondering if you knew what it might be."

Hermione's eye widened in her excitement and she came over to the couch as Harry pulled out a parchment with the rune on it.

"I've never seen this before," Hermione said excitedly.

"Yeah, I looked through our textbook but it wasn't there," Harry said. "I was wondering what it was."

"Didn't Terry say?" Hermione questioned and Harry shook his head.

"Nah, he was kind of wondering if anyone could translate it," Harry said.

"Hmph," Hermione said thoughtfully, no longer seeming to notice that the others were in the room. "It looks like it might be Scandinavian in nature … seems to be at least a few centuries old if I recall correctly …"

"What are you doing?" Harry questioned as Hermione walked back to the bookshelf.

"Huh … oh, I'm just going to check to see if this rune is in a book," Hermione said. "It probably had to be one form the tenth century …"

"And Scandinavian," Harry said looking amused.

"Yes," Hermione nodded her head turned back to the bookshelf and there were three books on it. She picked up the largest book and started searching through it. As she did this Ron smiled, just like they had planned, Hermione had shown them a secret about how to get the books that they needed. He just wished that Hermione would leave now so that he could work on this right now. "Ah, here it is."

"Let's see," Harry said getting up and looking at the book that he himself had used to find this particularly rune in the library several hours before. It had taken him ages to pick the perfect rune, and Hermione was able to find it in a matter of minutes. "Cool. It's a symbol that identified someone as a friend."

"Yeah," Hermione said. "It seems that it was used by the Viking so that they wouldn't attack a village that they made a pact with. There seems to be a ritual that can be done to make sure if the rune is authentic or not."

"Wow, that's kind of cool," Harry said and Hermione looked up from her book frowning. "What?"

"This doesn't seem like a rune that Terry would have asked about," Hermione said narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, trying to look confused and hide his fear.

"This seems more like a rune that you would find interesting," Hermione said watching Harry's expression closely and then she looked at Ron, who wasn't looking at them.

"Well, it is something I find interesting," Harry said, still trying to play his part.

"Be honest with me Harry," Hermione said.

"I don't understand what you're asking for," Harry said.

Hermione didn't say anything this time, she just gave him a piercing look and Harry bowed his head. He knew there was no use in lying to her now, because she would find out somehow.

"I found that rune earlier today and I thought it was pretty cool," he admitted as Ron groaned.

"Why did you have me look it up?" Hermione demanded to know.

"First off, I wanted you to see the rune … I thought maybe we could incorporate into our group somehow," Harry started.

"And the other reason," Hermione prompted when Harry paused.

"Was so I can see how you get the book you want to appear on that shelf," Harry said quietly, feeling like he was a misbehaving child as he pointed to the shelf.

"So you only wanted me to come here so you could figure out how to use the bookcase," Hermione said grumpily walking over to pick up her bag.

"No, that's not the only reason," Harry tried to defend himself but Hermione wasn't listening. She left the room without another word.

"You really messed that up Harry," Ron pointed out to him uselessly. "Why did you use a rune that you were so interested in? You practically shouted at her that this was all a set up."

"I don't know," Harry said. "I wasn't really thinking straight at the time."

"This isn't going to be fix by a simply apology you know," Ron said. "I really don't think she liked being used like that."

"This was all your bloody idea," Harry growled at him.

"Not the part where you tell her the truth," Ron argued back. "Besides, you were the one that said if we asked her directly about the shelf, she wouldn't have told us how to work it. At least not until the champion was picked."

"I still think that's true," Harry shrugged his shoulder. "We shouldn't have tried to trick her though," he added as he sat back down on the couch. Ron was right about one thing, Hermione wasn't going to accept a simple apology for this.

"I don't really feel like working on this anymore," Ron said, though it was the perfect time to see if he could make a more useful book come to the shelf, he lost his drive to actually do that when Hermione walked out the door.

"Yeah, me neither," Harry sighed, feeling similarly as Ron did. The boys walked back to the Gryffindor Tower in a subdue mood that only became worse when they got into the common room and only to have Hermione glare at them before she went to the girls' dormitory.

"Yep, this is really bad," Ron sighed, "She's probably going to ignore us for a while."

"Maybe," Harry sighed, not liking the sound of that at all.