Paula was used to waking up in the middle of the night thanks to her frequent nightmares of the Happy-Happy Cultists, Giygas who had impacted her much more than it did her friends thanks to being able to hear his thoughts and being afraid of wizards who weren't above torturing 'muggleborns' for laughs.

Normally they would shuffle through Giygas and the Happy-Happy Cultists. But after that world cup Ness had invited her too and the fear of a wizard finding out she was actually a PSI user, the nightmares of wizards had become more frequent guests in her dreams. It had been quiet clear in their battle against those muggle hating cultists that Ness and Paula had the upper hand thanks to their PSI. They merely had to dodge and lash out with their makeshift weapons before the wizards crumpled to the ground, giving them a serious advantage over the older and more skilled men.

But this… this was different. Normally, she awoke with a jolt, her breath coming in rapid gulps as she trembled from head to toe like a leaf before she slowly forced herself to take in her surroundings and remind herself that she was home.

Home was safe—for the most part anyway, her room was her sanctuary full of soothing items that brought forth happy memories to wash away t frightful pieces of her nightmares before she tried to fall back asleep.

She never woke up like this before, feeling as if her brain was just starting her morning routine early for a long car trip to visit family or for a school event that needed serious prep time. Her mind was clear and able to recount what she was last thinking of while her breathing was steady.

Paula glanced at her fuzzy pink alarm clock and frowned, feeling a little worried when she saw it was four in the morning. Today was a Saturday, meaning that her brain shouldn't had gently pushed her from her sleep for a free day. She glanced out the window, just to double check that it was indeed early morning and felt worry creep up her spine. The February skies were that light indigo purple and rosy pink hue, the sun slowly rising and coating the snow-covered town with small rays of warm light.

"Something's wrong." Paula murmured, not liking the early morning wake up that was seemingly caused by nothing, she sat up and closed her eyes, allowing her telekinetic powers to wander into her parents' room to see if they had woken up early and had created a loud but soothing noise that put her at ease instead of jolting her awake.

Their minds were quiet and still, indicating that they were in a deep sleep. But if that was the case then… what had woken her up—a low crunch of snow sent her mind's eye flying toward the door, briefly picking up two very awake minds processing information.

"Thieves!" Paula gasped, cringing as she felt herself fall off the bed in shock almost missing a very crucial detail as her mind's eye was yanked from the static filled zone that allowed her to reach out or speak to people. The pros and cons of Telekinetic speaking were like a two-way radio with specific wave lengths.

PSI users which much easier to find and talk to than average people since they had the same 'signal'. The average Joe couldn't hear Paula's mental voice as clearly, treating it like a mixed thought that their subconscious created and ignoring it unless Paula kept at it. She had discovered this the hard way when trying to talk to Jeff who had a busy mind and didn't believe in superstition.

Wizards also had a 'signal' one that was very hard to connect with. It was protected by some force field which gave Paula a headache whenever she tried to force through it and talk to them, she had only tried it on Ginny and quickly given up when it became clear that the girl barely noticed Paula's forceful attempts to mentally chat with her.

These 'thieves' had the same wavelength as Ginny, only weaker as the pair talked about something, their focus wavering between performing some action and talking.

Magic, Paula realized, they were attempting to perform magic and break into her house! But why? She focused actively pushing the magic back as she reached out for a snippet of a thought.

It came through several bursts of static, but it was worth it as four words rang in her ears. Paula, tournament, lake and desire.

It wasn't enough information to truly understand what they were after, but she had a small idea, an idea that was causing her blood pressure to rise and her hands to shake.

They wanted her for Ness's tournament, a life or death event that was going on at that horrible school. They desired her for some odd reason, perhaps because she was a muggle and had a lake in mind.

Did they desire her 'muggle' blood for a sacrifice to the wizarding gods of water? Out of a foolish notion she had looked up wizards and witches, growing sick at the sacrifices they made in exchange for magic and the 'blood of a virgin' they sought after.

Whatever the reason, their intent was clear. They wanted her, and were planning on kidnapping her. With a shaky gasp Paula flung herself out of her fear induced stupor and flattened herself on the floor her hand blindly reaching for something as she heard the front door open. She silently thanked her paranoia for suggesting the weapon as she grabbed her stainless-steel frying pan from under the bed and spun toward her door.

What do to? They were getting closer, she could feel their protected minds ringing loudly in the silent house, growing closer and closer to her room as she trembled. She would be forced to rely on brute strength, she didn't want to out her status as a PSI user. That would just make her and her family more appealing to watch or, they might drag her to the same school Ness was at.

She couldn't risk that! She couldn't survive that!

"Breath," her voice sounded painfully loud as she struggled to rein in her fears and use a light PSI shield, she wouldn't have to worry about physical damage the last group of wizards she had fought had proven not to bother with the idea of kicking or punching them. They were too heavily focused on using their minds and magic to—

She jumped as her doorknob began to turn, blood began pounding in her ears as she plastered herself to the wall beside the door, holding her breath and the frying pan as it slowly opened.

Two British voices floated into her room followed by heavy boots tracking snow. Great, her mother was going to have a mess to clean up if Paula got herself caught. Which she wasn't! She was going to fight tooth and nail and show those awful wizards that Paula Polestar wasn't anyone to mess with!

She tensed, preparing for action as a woman wrapped in a black robe with a witch hat on her head, "Honestly, this is a bit much." The woman was muttering as a greasy haired man joined her, turning around to close the door as the woman continued, "The poor girl's going to have to have her mind wiped after this if she isn't like that Earthbound boy."

"Knowing our luck, she probably is," the greasy haired man drawled when he stiffened noticing the ferocious and terrified looking thirteen-year-old girl hiding behind the door, "Minerva!" the man barked whipping out his wand as Paula lunged and swung striking the man's hip and causing him to stumble with a grunt of pain.

She hopped uncertainly on one foot as she twisted her body, grateful for the few lessons of ballet and baseball she took as she wound up and tried to hit the woman who was able to react and jump back, "Now hold on! We aren't going to hurt you!" the woman—Minerva cried, "You'll just be taking a short field trip Ms. Polestar!"

Paula bit her lip to suppress a retort and focused on lunging, when it came to fighting skills Paula was great at slamming enemies with PSI and giving those who got too close to her nasty headaches with her frying pan, often treating it like a mace or a baseball bat than a pan.

Movement was key, rapid attacks were important especially since she was dealing with a magic only user, warning tones the sound of static exploded in her ear as a spell shot past her ear and slammed into her window. The other wizard was able to focus through the pain? Perhaps she was going to have to resort to crude violence…

Throwing up a beta light PSI shield to protect her against the spells that she was unable to dodge, she continued swinging and keeping her senses alert. Minerva pursed her lips when she sensed that talking wasn't going to be an option and pointed her wand at Paula, preparing to wordlessly cast a spell.

"I'm not going anywhere with cultists!" Paula grounded out, ducking under a midnight blue wisp of smoke and swiftly jabbing the woman with the pan handle. Minerva doubled over as Paula dove to the left, catching another blue wisp behind her and glowering at the greasy haired man who was deadest on doing something to her with that spell.

With her divided focus she was going to fail soon, but with the woman struggling for breath and her wand across the room she would simply have to deal with the—

A loud buzz ripped her from her battle mindset as something broke through her shield and smacked her in the face. A wave of sleepiness crashed down on her as Paula struggled to stand her mind a static mess of confusion as she tried to figure out what happened.

Her shield was at Beta level, meaning it was weak but it should have blocked the spell before shattering! How could it had so easily been destroyed? And why was her head fuzzy? She could barely identify the level of hypnosis she was under as she fell forward faintly murmuring, "No…" as she was thrown into a nightmare. Her powers unable to reach out and scream for help as the mind-numbing static forced it down. Leaving Paula helpless.

"Why did it have to be so early in the morning." Ness grumbled, shooting a glare at the still rising sun as he stumbled down into the dining hall to eat. Every champion who had an inkling of what today's task was looking sick, wondering what their greatest treasure was doing underwater as they forced themselves to eat a light breakfast.

Ness felt sick as well, but not just because of the task, ever since he woke up he had felt something loud and jumbled bouncing around his mind, leaving him feeling nausea and oddly, afraid.

Was this another magic side-effect? Was something magically trying to use telekinesis but failing? He didn't know, but he wanted it to kindly shut up so he could focus on eating a piece of toast.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Alexander murmured as he sipped on a cup of tea, looking awful as Adaliz grumbled something in rapid French.

"What's wrong Adaliz?" Ness asked, hoping that talking to someone would make him forget the jumbled storm rampaging in his head.

"It's my best friend, Maria!" Adaliz replied her voice heavy with annoyance and underlying fear, "Madam Maxine wished to speak to her last night and she never returned!"

"Huh…Same thing happened to my pal, Gerald," Alexander murmured, "Karkaroff needed him for something and wouldn't tell me what it was about. I don't think he ever came back."

"Weird…" Ness commented as the jumbled thoughts became coherent and more urgent, causing him to cringe as a loud sound rang out in his head, "-ess?" he looked up, suppressing a weak growl of pain as the storm grew louder, "Is something wrong?" Ginny asked, joining them with a yawn, "You look pained."

"I just have this awful headache-," Ness started when he heard someone call his name, he looked around and frowned when he saw no one else looking at him, "Did…you guys call me?" Ness asked frowning when they shook their heads.

"You were saying something about a headache when you froze up-," Adaliz started to supply when someone frantically yelled, "Cultists!"

Prompting him to stiffen and look around, "Ness?" Alexander questioned looking a little worried as Ness blinked and felt the storm increase in a panicked frenzy, whimpering something about pain and cultists attacking her.

"Paula." Ness realized as he stopped fighting the storm and felt overwhelmed by a mess of static and blue fog threatening to put him to sleep unless he reacted quickly, "Bathroom!" Ness abruptly said, hurrying back upstairs and locking himself in a classroom as he tried to figure out why and how Paula was contacting him in such a panicked rush.

"Paula? Paula chill! What's going on?!" Ness asked, feeling terrified as he tried to push away some of the more frenzied thoughts to hear Paula's voice, "What did the wizards do? Where are you?"

"They broke it, they broke it!" Paula managed her voice sounding pained, confused and utterly terrified as it rose and dropped in volume, suddenly cutting in and out, "Fighting—wizards! Heavy Hypnosis—tournament!"

"Tournament? Paula. Where are you?" Ness asked, his heart dropping as Paula's voice began to fade seemingly unable to hold the connection, "Lake! Des-!" were the last coherent words Paula managed before her voice died completely, the storm abruptly ending and leaving Ness feeling like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on his head.

"They didn't." Ness whispered as he hurried back to the table and joined Adaliz and Alexander who were about to leave for the lake, "Ness? What's wrong?" Adaliz asked, quickly noticing the panicked look in his eyes as he forced himself to seem collected.

"Paula, they got—I think she's-," Ness stopped himself and took a shaky breath, "Our treasures, there people." Adaliz and Alexander shared a horrified yet baffled expression before they looked back at Ness, "Paula, she um, contacted me and she was really, really freaked out," Ness explained, "She's a muggle and she was rambling on about water and cultists before she abruptly hung up on me and-,"

"They wouldn't…" Alexander whispered with a look of pure despair on his face, Adaliz merely balled her hands into fists and picked up the past, speed walking past Flur and Victor who shot her an annoyed look for shoving past them then shared a baffled frown as Alexander and Ness broke into a sprint wasting no time to reach the lake.

"Now! Now!" Ludo Bagman started with a tone so cheerful and upbeat that it nearly made Ness wonder if wizards enjoyed seeing young kids being thrown into the lake with sea monsters, "No need to rush!"

He recoiled at the pair of death glares he got as Alexander feverishly muttered his plan to himself, shaking with the fear at the thought of being unable to save Gerald.

"Where's Harry?" a bossy voice belonging to Percy asked. Apparently, Mr. Crouch was sick. AGAIN, and now Percy was in charge. Ness was considering shutting him up when he realized that Harry was indeed not with them.

Ice cold panic surged through him as he realized that they weren't going to start until Harry showed up, leaving Paula and the others stuck under the water for a bit longer. How much air did they have? Were they all magically knocked out? They had to be given how relaxed everyone was, acting as if they didn't have a care in the world as Ness desperately tried to reach Paula.

"I'm here!" Ness barely resisted muttering 'Thank god' as Harry stumble to a stop before the lake, breathing heavily and looking worried, did he know about the people being used as treasures as well? If so, then that meant they had four people who were somewhat prepared to fight tooth and nail for their friends and family.

Ness considered it a miracle that he didn't shoot Bagman a death glare as they lined up and the man ensured that everyone knew what they were doing. "Good, good," Bagman said before he put his wand to his throat and murmured a spell, allowing his voice to be heard throughout the hastily made bleachers and tents.

He said something that Ness tuned out as he tried to locate Paula, gritting his teeth at how hard it was to mentally reach out for someone, did Paula face all this static on a daily basis? If so, he was never buying her a radio.

He jolted as Bagman yelled, "Go!" and everyone moved forward just as Paula's voice came through crystal clear, the static and turmoil from before washed away, "Ness! I'm underwater surrounded by Merpeople!"

"Can you see the surface? Maybe a landmark?" Ness asked as he kicked his shoes and hat off and dove into the freezing water, "OHMYGOSHTHISISCOLD."

"It's the middle of February! What did you expect?!"

"Not an icebox!" Ness retorted as he forced himself to focus on Paula's voice and holding his breath. "Now location! Maybe a picture of where you're at! I'm running out of air!"

"This isn't going to help but…" a mental image flashed across his mind, showing a small set of coral houses, fish like people who did NOT look like Merpeople and a row of wooden sticks with people tied to them, their hair frozen mid flutter as the slow water current played with them.

"Alright, I'm on my way!" Ness said, vaguely aware of Alexander and Adaliz swimming beside him in the murky water, he was tempted to grab their arms and teleport them to Paula but decided against it.

He wasn't even sure if his sliver of an idea was going to work with just him, he didn't want to screw up their chance if he failed. With a silent prayer to God he dropped to the lake bed and tried to run picturing the image Paula had given him as he forced his legs to kick through the water in a running gesture.

For a moment, there was nothing but bubbles appearing, then with a bright flash he found himself looking right at Paula, a storm of bubbles erupting from the sudden teleportation and the air in his lungs threatening to burst.

"Ness!" Paula mentally screeched, her eyes growing wide with relief as she squirmed, trying to loosen the rope binding her to the pole, "Nice nightgown," Ness commented, fighting back a blush as Paula snapped, "Don't remind me! This is even worse than the last kidnapping!"

"Right, right." Ness dropped the floor and searched the sand, trying to find a sharp rock as Paula frantically urged him to hurry, spotting the Merpeople from before closing in on them as Ness found what he was looking for and cut Paula free, "Are you okay?"

"Besides feeling lightheaded, scared out of my wits and traumatized of water? Fine." Paula sarcastically replied performing small bicycle kicks as she glued her arms to her side, her face a bright red.

"Nice to know," Ness glanced at the others then at the surface which was so far away… could the others make it in time? Would they make it out? They didn't have any magic breathing tools and were both dangerously low on air, they would have to move fast if they wanted to live.

"Paula, I know this is probably a dumb idea, but can you reach out to some wizards named Adaliz, Alexander and Harry? Tell them that everyone's sort of fine?"

Paula gave a grim frown as her eyes drooped, prompting Ness to grab Paula and drop to the ground, preparing to teleport them out of the lake, "N-no…Somehow, I used up all my PSI energy to fight off the hypnosis and finding you in that awful building." Paula replied as Ness began water sprinting and pictured them in the castle, the transfer to land and water was oddly painful as water ran up their nose and they stumbled into an empty classroom, taking greedy gulps of air as they collapsed on the cold stone floor.

"I want the person who came up with this challenge, to get mobbed by the Cubs fan." Ness gasped his hand still wrapped around Paula's as she wheezed, "Can the fans be armed with frying pans? I would like that."

"Heck. Yes."

They stayed like that for a bit before they sat up and looked at each other, Paula was a complete mess and for some odd reason, she was wearing a witch's robe over her sun yellow nightgown.

Ness deiced not to point this out and instead made fun of her messy hair bun, her ribbon drooping and tickling the base of her neck as her hair looked like a wild Barbie doll's.

"Not a word." Paula hissed when she felt her hair and blushed, hastily tying it down before she looked out the window. "Now what? Do we go back or…?"

"We go back." Ness answered, squeezing her hand as fear briefly flickered onto her face, "At least until we're sure the other champions reach their loved ones."

"Those other people—," Paula started before she shut her mouth and started to shake, maybe out of fear or anger at being next to others who may have also been kidnapped from their homes, "I'm setting your principle on fire." Paula said after a long moment.

"Yea, I'm thinking of doing that to." They stood up and with a last nod of confidence and deep breathes, teleported back into the water. It felt like performing a cannon ball in moving water, being swiftly yanked away before they abruptly stopped in a storm of bubbles in front of the others.

Paula tightened her grip and frantically pointed to a person with glasses and gills and desperately waved her hand.

"Paula, I think that's Harry." Ness said after a moment of examining the fish boy.

"Why is he a fish!?"

"Let's ask him later," Ness said before he swam up to Harry, gesturing toward the people who were still tied up, then the surface before pointing to him and Paula who was warily eyeing the Merpeople closing in on them.

Harry looked back the way he came before he nodded, mouthing, "Thank you." As they started to untie people. They ignored the Merpeople's warnings of only taking one and Harry snapped at them a couple times, his angry words erupting in a volcano of bubbles as Ness went to hand Paula the rock he was using when he paused.

"Where were you keeping that pocket knife?"

"In a pocket in my nightgown." Paula hotly replied as she moved to untie a girl who looked a lot like Flur, "I've sewn hidden pockets in most of my dresses after running into two different groups of cultists."

"Smart."

"Thank you, now stab the fish people!"

Geez, you're violent when being a damsel in distress." If looks could kill then Ness's corpse would probably be floating up to the surface as Paula shot him a look worthy of a critical attack before she resumed untying everyone with Harry's help.

Ness focused on jabbing at the fish people who were getting to close and checking in with Paula every now and then to ensure that she was doing okay air wise.

They had just untied Hermione when a hammer head shark appeared, startling everyone into pausing before Harry realized who it was and waved at them (Paula mostly) to calm down and lower their weapons, mouthing, "Krum." As the hammerhead shark gently began nudging Hermione up to the surface.

Soon after Krum arrived Flur and Cedric followed by a frantic Adaliz and Alexander arrived, rescuing their chosen loved ones with thankful nods at the trio before they swam to the surface. Ness flashed Harry a thumbs up before he grabbed Paula and teleported to the very end of the lake, erupting out of the water with twin gasps and coughs as the crowd exploded with applause.

"These people have a sick sense of humor." Paula weakly noted, leaning on Ness as he guided her to the medical tent to get some towels, making a point avoid Madam Pomfrey and any other wizards when Paula flashed her pocketknife at them.

If they thought they were going to get answers from her anytime soon, they were dead wrong since she had a look of clear, fearful blood lust in her eyes as Ness buried her under towels.

"Why. Are you stuck going to this awful school?" Paula asked as she slowly calmed down, her breathing steady as she watched the wizards walk in and out of the medical tent. Madam Pomfrey had quickly backed off when she saw the look in Paula's eyes and focused on treating the hostages outside before coming back to them.

"I honestly have no idea." Ness admitted, "But I don't think I can just up and leave."

"Why not? Is there some law prevent you from 'changing' schools or something?" Paula hotly asked earning a small frown as Ness thought about it.

He had just taken going to Hogwarts with some relcunt stride and hadn't thought about out right leaving the school. It had never crossed his mind since it didn't sound like he had a lot to say in the matter of him attending Hogwarts.

"I'll bring it up after the tournament ends." Ness promised flashing Paula a reassuring smile before he was forced to go get his score from the judges. Mr. Crouch was nowhere to be seen, which was a bit worrisome as Percy gave him an okay score, Madam Maxine and Karkaroff gave him low scores while he got an oddly high one from Dumbledore, praising him and Harry's genuine concern to help save the other champions.

He ignored the current scoreboard in favor of returning to Paula who was reluctantly chatting with Luna about the wonders of Wood Pixies, "Is she always like this?" Paula asked as she nodded her head along to seem like she was paying attention to Luna's explanation.

"More or less, but that's her charm." Ness bit back a grin as Paula sent him a bewildered look and grumbled, "Wizards are scary, bizarre and should stay far, far away from me."

"True, how did they even get you here? Besides, clearly kidnapping you."

"I don't know, they put me under this weird hypnosis attack after I broke some slimy haired werido's hip and tried to beat up someone named Minerva."

Snape helped kidnap Paula? With the help of someone else? He'd never thought the grumpy Slythrin teacher would have agreed to someone else helping him but perhaps he had been ordered by a higher up. A higher up with half-moon spectacles who had been all for children younger than him entering the tournament.

Dumbledore.

"Ness?" Luna questioned as Madam Pomfrey shot them a silent warning as students began to head back to the castle, "Later," Ness said a rare coil of anger forming as Paula studied him, "Come on, we need to see who's taking Paula home."

"Hopefully an airplane and a taxi." Paula muttered following them outside and into the ever present crowd of reporters who were still bugging the challengers.

They were nearly home free from the din of questions when a chipper voice called, "Moment of your time Earthbound?" and caused them to pause as a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Sorry! Sorry!" the man—Chip Adams Ness recalled from the Mystic Informant offered them an apologetic grin as Lily panted, "Finally! You two are fast!"

"Just a couple questions then we'll be out of your face." Chip promised as he snapped a quick picture of Paula who could only managed a faint smile as she warily studied the two wizards, "Boss's orders you know."

"Right," Ness managed ignoring Paula's mental death glare, "So, what do you guys need?"

"Just the basics, did you know what the challenge was about, how did you get your plan of action? Stuff like that." Lily said with a wave of her hand trying to make the interview seem casual, "Nothing to big today kiddos!"

Nothing to big. How ironic, this entire challenge had been a race against life and death. Something the viewers only got an inkling of. Or, did they know and just not care? They had to have known, otherwise the hearty cheers wouldn't have sounded so relieved.

Ness was pulled out of his thoughts by Paula who gently pulled on his sleeve, not trusting herself to hold a civil conversation and answer the questions for him.

"Oh, right." Ness forced a sheepish smile, "Sorry, it's just overwhelming at the moment. Even though all of us had clues as what to do and rescue we didn't think they would take our loved ones."

Lily nodded and wrote it down on her notebook, her tape recorder from before nowhere to be seen, "I see, the other participants explained that they were called up to a teacher's office and explained the details of the challenge beforehand. Was this the same with you Ms…?"

It took Paula moment to realize Lily was asking her before she bluntly looked away, her voice tight with anger and fear as she answered, "Polestar, and no, I wasn't exactly informed and was basically kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" Chip echoed in disbelief, "Er, do you know who?" Paula glared at him before she abruptly relaxed, "Someone named Minerva and a man with greasy black hair. That was all I managed to learn during our scuffle before they knocked me out."

"They attacked you?" Lily asked with quiet horror, her hand faltering as Ness took over, "Paula was kidnapped by a cult when we were just kids and was involved at the Wizarding World Cup. Making her extremely distrustful of other wizards and on edge when around them. She heard them entering the house and attacked them the first chance she got, not letting them speak."

"They claimed they didn't mean any harm to me." Paula grumbled, the fire returning in her eyes, "But that was quickly proven false when they gave me a nasty headache in the process of knocking me out."

"Well…that explains the outfit." Chip muttered, winching as Lily elbowed him and offered Paula a sympathetic smile before she turned to Ness, "What are your thoughts on the challenge?"

"Hated it. Paula woke up during the challenge from being forcefully put under and had to work with limited air when I found her." Ness fought back a shudder at the thought of being unable to teleport Paula above the water to take a breather, "We stuck around to ensure that everyone else was alright but…it was terrifying, I seriously thought someone was going to die."

Chip and Lily nodded in understanding and profoundly thanked them for their time before moving on.

"…They weren't wizards." Paula said as they swiftly hurried into the castle to avoid the crowds of excited students, "They weren't?" Ness questioned as he led her to the kitchens for a proper breakfast. Their stomachs grumpily reminding them that they hadn't eaten beforehand as they briskly walked down the hallway with the fruit painting.

"No, but I'm not sure what they were. Their signals were a bit mixed to be sure if they were normies or PSI users like us."

"Man, Dumbledore's really slacking on security then." Ness stopped in front of the painting and tickled the pear like Ginny had told them for future attempts to try and talk to Winky. "Only Wizards can see and enter this place."

"Then how am I here?" Paula dryly retorted as the painting slid aside and allowed them to enter through the door.

"…magi—"

"Don't."

"Well I'm sort of right." Ness grumbled as they entered the kitchen and caused hundreds of House elves busily preparing for lunch look up in surprise.

Ness managed a small grin and a wave hello as Paula studied them in silent wonder. "Hey! Sorry for the sudden interruption! But my friend accidentally skipped breakfast in her hurry to be a volunteer for the tournament-" he didn't even get to finish before three eager House elves were spurred into action disappearing into the main hub of the giant kitchen and returning with some fruits, untouched pancakes and sausages.

"Here you go miss!" they squeaked as others pushed a small stool for Paula to sit on, ignoring her bewildered look as the tiny creatures went to fetch some milk for her to drink. "Are they all like this?" Paula asked as she tried to thank them only to get it waved away.

"Yup, there the servants of the wizarding world and they LOVE to be helpful."

"Well…nice to know they enjoy their work." Paula managed as she forced a smile and started to eat her food, leaving Ness to deal with elves who were wondering what he needed. Figuring asking for Winky outright was a bad idea he just asked dumb questions about why they came to Hogwarts and if they enjoyed their work.

"Oh yes Mr. Earthbound!" an elf wearing a polka dotted tea cozy squeaked, "Hogwarts is a wonderful, wonderful place! We're always busy, busy, busy!"

"And we get paid if we wants to!" someone yelled, causing the others to stiffen. Apparently, they didn't like money or vacation days since they kept going on about how busy they were in-between cooking and tidying up the castle.

"Thank you for the meal." Paula said, awkwardly handing her plate to an elf and resisting the urge to wash it herself by folding her hands together, "You all seem like a lovely bunch!"

They glowed with pride until a loud half sob echoed through the kitchen, causing everyone to turn toward the fireplace, the House elves with looks of serve disapproval while Ness and Paula exchanged worried looks at the lump carefully hidden under a blanket in front of a slow burning fireplace.

"Who's that?" Ness asked as Paula approached the lump, "Oh, it's just Winky, Sir." A House elf wearing a tea towel answered, "She's been er… coping."

"Very poorly." One elf muttered with an edge to its voice.

"Still? It's been half a year since um, the 'incidence'." Ness pointed out, feeling a little worried, "Is she okay?" the silent glares thrown toward Winky for her 'rude' behavior toward their guests quickly answered his question with a blunt 'No, she is not okay'.

"What happened? And why is everyone glaring at her?" Paula asked as she tried to cox Winky out from under her blanket, ignoring the frantic squeaks from the elves who assured her that Winky merely needed some alone time.

"She got blame for summoning the dark mark and fired. Which to elves is a fate worse than death." Ness explained, "You met her at the World Cup, remember?"

"I just remember cultists." Paula nudged Winky and softly called, "Winky? Are you alright?"

"She was before that girl arrived." An elf wearing a tea pot cozy muttered, earning a half-hearted glares of disapproval and agreement from the other elves. Probably referring to Hermione and her bold claims of elf equality.

Ness really wished Hermione dropped it since the only immoral thing he could see was the fact that elves were the common servants for wizards. They seemed to be treated pretty well here in Hogwarts and were hopefully treated the same everywhere else.

Winky hiccuped, prompting Ness to look at the Tea cozy elf who uncomfortable muttered, "She may have gotten into a stash of Butterbeer and may have been constantly drinking it."

"So…she's drunk?" Ness questioned, biting back a small laugh of amusement and pity as they merely looked at him in silent unison, the answer loud and clear.

"Good lord. They got drunk off of BUTTER?!" Paula mentally exclaimed as she managed to force Winky to sit up, "Come now, what's wrong?" Paula coxed, "It's alright, you can tell me."

Winky furiously shook her head and sobbed, "Winky failed! Winky failed!" and tried to bury herself under her blankets.

"Um…explanation?"

"She was supposed to take care of Mr. Crouch or something." Ness replied with a small shrug as Paula kept at it, desperately trying to tip-toe around the problem while pulling the answers out of the hysterically drunk elf.

"Now, now, it's alright Mr. Crouch is fine." Paula rubbed unsure small circles into Winky's back, "Sure, he may be a little lost at the moment but-,"

"No! He's very lost without Winky! Winky was supposed to protect the young-," she abruptly stopped herself, her giant eyes widening to the size of tennis balls before she tried to bang her head against the frying pan, "Can we not please!" Paula yelped pulling Winky back and patting her head, "H-here! I know what we can do!"

Winky looked at her with milky brown eyes, "I can try and contact him, see how's he's doing!"

"He's going to be just awful without Winky…" Winky moaned as Paula tried to make her look on the positive side, "We don't know that for sure, do we? For all we know he could be um, putting you through a test!"

"A t-test miss?" Winky asked, hiccuping slightly before she violently shook her head, "No! Winky not being put through a test!"

"Well, you could be, maybe he does miss you but isn't sure you're a worthy worker." Ness attentively answered, "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be too pleased to know his house elf is hitting the sauce."

Paula shot him a withering glare as his comment and loose description of being drunk as it went over the elf's head.

"Mr. Crouch is sick, right? That means he must have depended on you oh so very much," Paula tried, "He probably misses you deep down but can't face the guilt of firing such a wonderful house elf out of anger."

"Or because he's a jerk." Ness offered, winching as Paula shot him a death glare, "He might be on the grounds right now! We could ask him about you if you want, to put your mind at ease." Paula offered, "It seems very disrespectful to wallow around when you have a second chance of being a wonderful worker."

"Winky doesn't deserve a second chance, not w-when the yo—Master could be running with th-e bad crowd." Winky sniffled interrupting herself with small shudders and feverishly correcting herself to hide something. Even when fired, Winky had a strong honor code toward the man who had basically thrown her to the wolves.

"Then we need to warn him!" Paula insisted, clapping Winky's hands together, "Remind him of all the wonderful things you did to make him reconsider his choices!"

An elf leaned over to Ness as Winky considered Paula's words, "You have a very wonderful lady friend Mr. Earthbound." The elf whispered, causing Ness to blush for some reason as he merely nodded in agreement, watching as Winky slowly nodded and sniffled, "But how can Winky reach him?"

"I'm um, a very special wizard." Paula explained with a slight grimace at her lie and the term 'wizard', "I can mentally contact people and speak to them with other people. You could speak through me if you like."

"D…does it really work?"

"Yes, I need a name and possibly a face to work with, but he should still be on school grounds." Paula assured her, "He's um, Barty Crouch, correct?"

Winky nodded and wiped her dull eyes that were slowly glowing with hope as Paula closed her eyes and searched for Mr. Crouch, who Ness realized never showed up. He was about to warn her about that when Paula chirped, "I found him! He's thinking about the third task or something and…oh my."

"Something wrong Paula?" Ness asked, wondering how on earth she managed to reach a man not here.

"His mind, it's unstable and it's very hard to stay in contact with." Paula explained, biting her lip as she focused, "He keeps rambling about Harry and some sort of Dark lord." Winky yelped and waved her hands, "Stop it! Please stop!"

Paula opened her eyes and grimaced, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry it was just all over the place, I don't think he would have heard me."

"That's fine, that's fine!" Winky shakily stated, waving her branch like arms in an excited gesture, "Winky's just glad to know his sickness isn't keeping him from work."

Paula frowned but didn't press, merely nodding in agreement and apologizing for getting Winky's hopes up before they left to the other elves delight.

"I wonder if we're banned as well." Ness mused as they went to grab a light lunch from the table and nodded toward his friends.

"Where were you?" Ginny asked with a small frown, "You two just up and disappeared!"

"Breakfast and a certain drunk elf." Ness explained, dropping his voice to a whisper as the others—mainly Harry, Hermione and Ron looked up in surprise.

"You got her to talk to you?" Hermione asked in disbelief as Paula carefully picked at a sandwich, "The poor thing was so distressed over being fired, I just want to cheer her up a bit." Paula sighed, "I ended up making her more flustered in the end."

"How'd you do that?" Ron asked throwing a light glare at Hermione, "Did you try and advocate for elf freedom?"

Paula frowned and shook her head, "Now why on earth would I do that? They seemed perfectly fine."

"Plus I get the feeling that they need someone to boss them around in order to survive." Ness added, watching Hermione grow frustrated with Paula's inability to see her cause. Which meant she was probably about to begin ranting about it.

"But they aren't getting paid! Or getting vacation days!" And she did.

Paula raised an eyebrow with a blunt stare as a retort, "And? There happy, and the best thing you can find in a job is happiness."

"There slaves!"

"Workers. There workers who repay their host's kindness by tending to the castle." Paula corrected, "Why on earth would they even need money, don't you cultists use-,"

"Wizards. Paula." Ness corrected, trying to ignore the withering glare she shot him before she resumed eating.

"So, why did Winky get flustered?" Ginny asked, glancing at Paula then trying to mime mind reading. "Paula sensed something about Mr. Crouch that she shouldn't have." Ness carefully explained, watching Paula who stiffened but gave a small nod at his explanation.

"When?" Harry asked, "He didn't show up, remember?"

"I know, but she sensed a Crouch." Ness glanced at Mad Eye Moody before glaring at Snape and Dumbledore, "One who was rambling on about the Dark Lord."

"He needs help." Paula muttered, quietly adding, "Like all 'wizards'." When she was sure no one was watching her. It was hard to do so since everyone was studying Paula and the others hostages with awe, probably wanting to ask how it felt to be a part of the tournament. It irked them when Colin Creevy bounded up to them after lunch and excitedly asked Paula what it was like to be underwater.

Paula gave him a look then thought to Ness, "There all insane." Before she bluntly informed Colin that wasn't a public subject to talk about and shot him a warning glare as Ness lead her to the waiting room for the other hostages to use as they waited for the Hogwarts express to take them back home.

"I should have grabbed a frying pan from the kitchen." Paula complained as Ness checked up on her on break, feeling a bit relived that she hadn't tried to set anyone on fire yet, "Well, you could borrow my bat if you want." Ness offered, frowning as Paula flushed slightly and muttered that he would be defenseless against the cultists and changed topic.

"So, I did another search for Mr. Crouch and I kept bumping into another PSI user."

Ness raised an eyebrow in confusion as they pretended to read school books, "You did?"

"Yes, a powerful PSI user since I kept going around it when I tried to see who it was exactly."

"That's odd…I'm supposed to be the only one here."

"Apparently not, since it's an adult mind and somewhere above us."

"I'll look into it." Ness promised before prompting about Mr. Crouch.

"Yes, as I was saying when I did find his mind it was…interesting. He's planning something, something big that involves you, Harry and a grass maze." Paula paused and glanced at Ness, "By the way. How old is Mr. Crouch?"

"Uh…old enough to be a grump, have a nearly grown son be murdered for working with the Dark Lord and to be head of something or other."

"Ah…So…That means that it's another Crouch Winky was going on about."

Ness straightened and shot her a confused look.

"Think about it, she kept talking about the 'young master' and him 'falling into a bad crowd'. Now why would a House Elf be using childish phrases when she's worrying about a man who's ill with not mental issues, but a physical sickness?"

"She'd use it to reference another Crouch. Which means that the son who was murdered didn't actually die and was the guy behind the attack!"

"And is here in the flesh. Did you get any new teachers?"

"Yea! Mad Eye Moody! It's the perfect cover! He's cautious about everything and his paranoia wouldn't be suspicious to anyone since it's a Moody thing!"

"We have to do something!"

"Like tell a teacher?"

Paula shot him a glare, "No, like force him to reveal himself. He's clearly using some sort of illusion magic!"

"Yea…but what?" Ness questioned when the bell rang, forcing Ness to grimace and shoot Paula an apologetic glance as he hurried to Potions. Hopefully Selvis would know the illusion spell behind Moody's disguise.

"Isn't it obvious?" Selvis wrote, "He's using a Polyjuice Potion, probably hidden in his flask."

Ness shot Selvis a look as the Slytherin boy disappeared into the crowd to make it to his next class. The flask, the one thing Moody carried on him at all times. Of course. But the question was, how were they going to get it away from him long enough to reveal he was a faker?

Ness sighed and shot Paula a quick mental thank you as he continued on with school life and bid a nervous Paula good-bye right after dinner.

"As soon as I figure out their addresses, there getting a very angry letter from me." Paula promised, giving Ness a quick hug before she boarded the train, unable to resist looking around in clear awe as she waved good bye from a window.

"Safe travels!" Ness called, chuckling at the thought of Paula sending Dumbledore a firestorm of complaints.

Paula was fun to write ^-^ and I think I managed to drop enough romantic hints for this chapter! (Right? I'm not very good with romance and my private practices end up with them being friends or just skipping to the date part and chilling.) Anyway, Merry Christmas Eve! Enjoy your present of two chapters instead of one!