DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Harry Potter. I do not want to own HP. LotR is a different matter, but I'm getting sidetracked. I own Mera. I definitely own Mera, even if I get that story finished and published under a name other than Lightning, I, Lightning, still own Mera.
Please review, I don't bite, though I might hiss a bit if I get flamed. I happen to have some magical power that makes me immune to fire.
Everyone knows about Potter's brilliant flying in the First Task, of course. And also about his brave rescue of two hostages during the Second Task. What most people don't know is that all the while, Potter was visiting Sirius Black.
That's right. Potter was visiting the man who, as everyone knew, wanted to kill him.
It was only pure dumb luck that we found out—or perhaps smart luck, since I don't like to think of anything about me as dumb, even my luck. The four of us had invented this new charm; we called it the Invisibility Charm. As the name would suggest, it turned things invisible. Of all people, Rachel had come up with the idea—Rachel, who was usually the one to advise us not to do something against the rules. But mischief is contagious, as I myself had discovered from years of associating with Zach. So come up with the idea she did, and she was the one who suggested that we practice them on each other that weekend. Absolutely insane—apparently insanity is also contagious. It was dangerous, very dangerous, you see; a new spell, untried, invented by first years—there was a good chance that we'd end up getting ourselves killed. But we didn't, thankfully. We were clever enough to invent a spell that worked like we wanted (though we didn't have the common sense to try it on something inanimate first, just in case. I have discovered that common sense and IQ tend to be inversely proportional. Except that people with extremely low IQ's also have little common sense. Maybe an absolute value function? I'll have to do a study on that).
"This is awesome," I said. "We have the whole school open to us now. Nobody can see us; we can't get caught." Well, not quite nobody—but you'll find out about that soon enough.
"It's a Hogsmeade weekend. We could go to the village," Zach suggested.
"Yeah, cool. Let's do that!" Jim agreed. The two boys had been getting along much better since Halloween. They still argued occasionally, but then again, Zach and I still argued all the time. At least they didn't fight, except when the teachers were watching.
Sounds weird, doesn't it? But we didn't want the teachers to know that we were friends. Zach and I insulted each other at every opportunity, and the two boys managed to get into a fight in the hallway at least once a week. Speaking of fights, I was beginning to formulate a plan involving a fight between myself and Zach. I'd gotten the idea from Magic's Pawn, by Mercedes Lackey. Great book.
Easier said than done—getting into Hogsmeade, that is—but still easily done. Jim was the main problem; he didn't know how to walk quietly. Zach had gotten plenty of practice while he was growing up from all the times he used to sneak up on me (harder than you'd expect, since I tend to be quite alert, even when I'm reading, unless I'm really into the book); I used to practice walking quietly just for fun; and Rachel was a natural; but Jim had never had any practice, and he was pretty clumsy besides. There was one moment, when we were creeping out of Hogwarts, that Filch looked right at us, obviously wondering what had caused that noise. But he couldn't see us, so after a bit he must've decided it was just the wind or something. With a sigh of relief, I crept on past him, into Hogsmeade.
That was when I realized that I had no idea where the others were. I nearly panicked. Then Zach's hand touched mine, and I grasped the hand, feeling my panic drain out of me. "We need to hold hands," I whispered into the place where his ear should have been, "so we don't lose each other."
"Already done," he whispered back. "I'm ahead of you, girl." Curse him! I thought, a bit put out by his smug tone.
Near the end of the road in Hogsmeade, I spotted Potter and his friends. We crept closer. A large black dog walked up to them.
"Hello, Sirius," said Potter. Sirius? Sirius Black? I tugged on Zach's hand, indicating we should leave. We crept back up the road, keeping to the sides of the buildings so we wouldn't run into anyone.
In a weak voice, Rachel asked, "Was that Sirius Black?"
I kept my voice casual, trying not to laugh. "That big black dog? Yep, that was him."
"What am I missing here?" Rachel wondered. "Why was Potter with Sirius Black?"
"Oh, right. Er, well, you see, we kinda forgot to tell you, but, er, Black is actually innocent," I explained. I was about to go on, but we were approaching the school and Moody was standing near the entrance.
Moody turned toward us. We shrank back into the shadows, even though we were already invisible. "Jones. Johnson. Smith. Taylor. Come to my office."
Oh no! Moody could see through our Invisibility Charms! This was not good at all. Not only had Moody caught us sneaking around school grounds, he had caught us sneaking around school grounds together.
The climb up the stairs to Moody's office seemed interminable, a long march to our doom. My doom, at least; this would ruin my perfect record. And our secret would be out—admitted, only the less important one would be revealed, but that could lead to someone discovering the other one.
In Moody's office, my attention was drawn to the map lying on the desk. It showed the entire school, with the secret passageways and everything—even the people. There was my dot, and my friends' dots, and Moody's—
Wait a minute. Moody's dot was labeled "Bartemius Crouch." Interesting. . .
Moody's voice brought me out of my musings. "What were you four doing, sneaking around the grounds like that?"
We exchanged several glances. Then, to our surprise, Zach lifted his chin in an excellent imitation of a haughty expression. "Johnson was insulting me, and I had to stand up for myself, so I challenged him to a duel."
Well, that took care of the boys. So what about us girls? But Rachel had the answer to that. "So that's what you two were up to! We saw them sneaking off, Professor, and we couldn't just let them go. They're such troublemakers. And there weren't any teachers around."
I nodded. "We'd convinced them to come back, but there you were. You're really frightening, you know, Professor."
Moody peered at us suspiciously. "Alright then. Run along," he said after a moment.
"Moody is actually Bartemius Crouch." I told them about the map. They listened closely, with astonished expressions.
"Mr. Crouch? Impossible!" Jim said.
"There's not another Bartemius Crouch, is there?" Rachel asked.
Zach thought it through. "Crouch's son—but he's dead, he was caught with a group of Death Eaters and thrown in Azkaban. He died a year later."
"Sirius Black is innocent." That was Rachel.
"Yeah. I just told you that, remember?" I was thinking that Rachel might be just a tad bit slow. Or maybe the fact that the mass murderer Sirius Black was innocent was a bit too much for anyone to handle all at once, and she was just taking a bit to process the information. After all, we hadn't really picked a very convenient time to impart it to her.
"It's just, if Black is innocent, Pettigrew must be alive. So there are ways to fake your death."
"Are you saying that Crouch's son is alive?" Jim demanded.
"It's possible. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's probable, but it's definitely possible."
"So Crouch was a Death Eater, and Moody is Crouch—"
I interrupted, "What if Moody put Potter's name in the goblet?"
Yeah, I know. It's not too realistic. It would mess up the whole story line. Except that it won't. Read the next chapter to find out. Once I get it posted.
Please review. If you don't review, Mera will send the vampires after you. Oh, wait, that's not even in this story. It's in one of the later ones. But it's still Mera. Anyhoo, please review. Pretty please with sugar and cherries on top.