Cause for Fear

Harry and Hermione arrived at the door to the hospital wing almost at the same time. Hermione smiled at Harry as he caught up to her at the door.

They had succeeded, each had played their part, and now finally Mafalda was free again.

Or rather, as free as her open back would allow her to be.

When the two entered the main room of the infirmary they looked for her in one of the beds, but they could not find her at first. They looked behind each drawn curtain, but apart from a patient suffering from a normal Quidditch accident, no one was there.

"If you could not disturb my patients, I would highly appreciate it." The voice of Madam Pomfrey reminded them. The motherly witch Harry knew too well, came from a previously unnoticed door. "You two got permission to see Miss Weasley. She is in here. Come in, but don't get her exited."

The mediwitch stepped aside and let them enter.

The two stepped into a small room. It was furbished like the regular bedsides in the main infirmary. But the single bed it contained had been altered. It didn't have a regular mattress, but one made so that the patient could more comfortably lay face down for extended periods of time. The mattress was at an angle, and was shaped so that the hands could go down in front of the patient.

In it lay Mafalda. Her back was still exposed, but whatever the healers had done had at least stopped the constant trickle of blood.

When she saw Harry and Hermione, her face instantly lit up.

"Harry, you made it. I was not sure if they would let you in." Her head turned towards Hermione, "Who are you? I mean I saw you in my prison cell, but I don't think I have met you."

"I'm Hermione, from Ravenclaw, same year as Harry."

"What she is not telling you is that she was the one who discovered a way to find you. If not for Hermione, you would still be bleeding in that chamber." Harry said.

"Blunt as always, Potter." Snape walked into the room. "I was looking for you." He disregarded that the three had been talking.

"Professor, should we go to your office?" Harry asked.

Snape hesitated for a moment. "I suppose, it will be acceptable to discuss this with Miss Weasley and Miss Granger present. It largely concerns Miss Weasley and Miss Granger is already involved in any case, and I'm afraid you will discuss this with her later anyway."

He conjured a comfortable looking chair for himself and sat down. He looked at the three students in front of him. "After Professor Dumbledore led you back to your rooms, I waited outside the room, until the healers had treated Miss Weasley. If the kidnapper returned, I wanted to be ready."

"What about now, he still could come back?" Hermione interjected.

"Professor Vector is standing guard right now, and we will rotate for a couple days, to make sure that he does not sneak back. But based on what I found in the room, I don't think he will come back. We examined the potions laboratory in which you were held, Miss Weasley. The examination of unfinished potions can be very tricky, especially if the main ingredient is so potent as blood.

"But even given this limitation, we are fairly sure we know two of the potions that they made. One is the pleasure potion that has been plaguing our school for the last year. Whoever is behind this probably made a pile of galleons from the sale of this substance, both here at Hogwarts and throughout Wizarding Britain. A contact with the Aurors, told me Knockturn Alley is currently flooded with this stuff."

"I wonder how they were able to smuggle it out of Hogwarts?" Mafalda asked.

"If an adult was part of this, it would not have been difficult. Due to the Triwizard Tournament, there are constantly outsiders in the school, this year." Hermione said.

"There are plenty of ways that a student could sneak out as well, a student could have done that as well." Harry smirked, remembering past adventures.

"I don't think we will get much information, but we should be able to limit the number of suspects at least somewhat. Regardless, if we had only found this pleasure potion, that would be bad enough really, but there were also hints that the Death Eater had been brewing another even more dangerous potion. There were tools and traces of a substance mostly known as 'the blue blood elixir.' It is a potion that can be used as a basis for almost anything. But most critically, it is an essential ingredient many very dark rituals."

"What sort of rituals can it be used for?" Hermione's eyes lit up.

"I am afraid I don't personally know too many, but the Headmaster shared with me that it can be used to fashion a new body."

"Who would need that?" Mafalda looked confused.

"Many people would want a new, young, healthy body." Snape scowled. "But what troubles us most is the possibility that the Death Eaters behind this want to revive their master."

"My cousins said 'You-Know-Who' was killed by Harry" Mafalda's face showed terror.

"His demise has been exaggerated. His body was never found." Snape said.

"I fought him in my first and second year. Both times he tried to regain a body." Harry explained.

"You never told me about these?" Hermione was confused.

"We were not very close at the time…" Harry tried to explain.

"Those events are why came to you." Snape explained, "you have a tendency to get in the way of the Dark Lord. I want you to be very careful. We don't want the third time to be the charm, for him."

"Constant vigilance, sir." Harry tried to remind himself.

"There is another concern why I wanted to talk to you. There were only traces of the blue elixir. Many of the traces seem to indicate that they were hastily removed. As if they knew you would find the room soon." Snape said.

"Yes, the Death Eater came in and rushed around only an hour or two before you found me." Mafalda confirmed.

"Who could have known about it?" Snape asked.

"Only Harry, Theo and I knew what we were doing, Professor." Hermione said with a startled face.

"Well, Ron Weasley was around sometimes, I think." Harry said, "we did not share anything with him, but he might have overheard something."

"It might be just a coincidence." Snape frowned, "but you need to be more careful, if Weasley could have heard it, who knows who else could have heard it."

"We were more concerned about finding Mafalda!" Hermione tried to explain.

"There is no help in crying over spilled milk, Miss Granger, just learn from this. Be more careful next time." The potions professor rose and vanished his seat. "I have to go, but just would like to remind Champion Potter, that you have your last task starting Monday. Be sure you get enough sleep before then. Good day"

With that Snape left the room.

Harry did not quite know what to make of all he had heard. He looked at Mafalda's exposed back. Who would do this sort of thing to another human?

He looked intently around the edge of the gaping hole. When looking at it carefully one could see improvements. The healers had written, maybe tattooed, countless runes. The effect of all the magic involved was a hovering, transparent shield. It protected the open wound. There was also a hint of blue skin around the edge of the wound. If it worked as it should the wound would slowly close.

His train of thought drifted. He was in wonder of this application of runic magic. It was so diverse.

Hermione was right. He really should learn runes, they were a hole additional field of magic that could be useful. Even if they never did another ritual. Which was bloody unlikely, with Hermione's fascination of them.

But before that came the end of the Triwizard Tournament!

HPU

"Mr. Potter, may I have a word with you, please?" Harry was surprised to be addressed by Percy Weasley, just as he was getting out of the Dungeons. He must have waited for him.

"Mr. Weasley, how can I help you?"

"I just have some questions, it should only take a minute. I have been investigating the disappearance of my boss, and your discovery of Mafalda makes me ask some questions."

Harry grunted noncommittally.

"You see, I wonder if there is a connection between Mafalda's disappearance, and Director Crouch's disappearance. If so, then Mafalda's imprisonment within Hogwarts itself gives us some clues. The biggest one is that there had to be someone inside to have regular access to her."

"Of course there had to be someone on the inside. But beyond the fact that both have been missing do you have any evidence that they were kidnapped by the same people? I mean for all we know, maybe Crouch eloped. There is a big difference between a first year who is almost a Muggle born and a high ministry employee." Harry said.

"I would say that two disappearances in such a short time frame have a high probability of being connected. Regardless, I rally just wanted to talk to you about Alastor Moody. He strikes me as very suspicious. But before I tell you of my thoughts, I want to hear what you have to say. I don't want to influence your initial impression of him. What do you know about him?"

"Moody, well, he knew, or rather suspected before Halloween that I would be part of the Triwizard Tournament. He helped me train until I had to pick only one professor to help me with my preparations. After that he still tried to help me as much as he could. Apart from that all I know is that he is a very blunt teacher."

"Blunt is one way to describe the unforgivables. But anyway, how did he know that you would be part of the tournament? That is very suspect." Percy said.

"He just said that I have a tendency to be part of dangerous adventures, and that I better begin to prepare for them before they happen. And from that he concluded that I would most likely be part of the tournament, since that is the most adventurous thing happening this year." Harry explained.

"Seems on the surface like a good explanation, but that doesn't mean anything. Here is what I have. He is the only mayor staff change this year. He has shown a willingness to use unforgivables, that is a clear sign of a dark wizard. I don't think we can rule out the Slytherin upper years, but an adult seems more likely."

"But from all that I have heard, he was a hero of the last Wizarding war. And he was really helpful with defense. Why would he help me if he was a death eater?"

"People change Mr. Potter. Moody was a hero, but that is a decade ago. And I looked at his records. Let's just say that his retirement was not entirely what he wanted. As far as Moody helping you, I think it makes perfect sense to get on the good side of the boy-who-lived. Especially if he is one of the Champions."

"I still think that the Death Eaters behind Mafalda's kidnapping had some connection to Slytherin. How else would they have known about the chamber."

"You are well informed, Mr. Potter. I don't have an answer to that at the moment. All I am trying to tell you is that I would be careful around Mr. Moody." Percy Weasley left in a hurry.

HPU

Dear fellow champion,

I was asked to consider a coalition with each of you. I am honored for your offer of assistance. I would highly prize friendship with each of you, outside of the Triwizard Tournament. This has made me wonder how that is best applied to the last task. I do not want to show favoritism to one of you. I furthermore don't think it would be helpful for our friendship if one of us had to break this coalition by surprise in the end. There can only be one winner after all.

Given these problems, I have to decline your generous offers. I will, however, offer each of you a truce of sorts. I promise to refrain from any hostile action, unless you first attack or ambush me. I hope to all see you at the finish line.

May the best win,

Harry Potter, Champion of the House of Slytherin

Harry looked at his letter. Yes, it would do. It was solemn enough for a champion.

He copied it twice with a quick spell, placed them into envelopes, and labeled them. Then he gave it to Hedwig to deliver them. She was one of the best post owls, who was able to deliver multiple letters at once, provided they were not too far from each other. This was luckily not the case.

HPU

Inside the Headmasters office were Harry and the other three champions, the three Headmasters, Percy Weasley and Director Bagman.

"Thank you for coming, I hope you champions brought what we asked you to bring, and only what we asked you to bring." Ludo Bagman looked around, as sternly as he could.

"This is very important. We want to have an even playing field, so, Headmasters, if you would check your respective Champions. They are only allowed their wands, appropriate clothing and good shoes, and if they want a Swiss army knife." Deputy-Director Weasley was far more successful with his stern face. "Just to make sure that we are all on the same page, we will floo to the cliffs of Dover. There the Minister himself will give a quick speech. After that you will race back to Hogwarts. Since this is over 450 miles, and we want this to take about a week, we have broken this into three sections. Between each section, you will be transported by Ministry officials. You will have to…"

"Lets not forget the spectators," Director Bagman chimed in, "There will be opportunities throughout the race for witches and wizards to cheer you on. The ministry will move stands to exiting areas. Furthermore the Wizarding Wireless Network will follow you closely and report on you throughout the day. All of Wizarding Britain will follow you."

"Yes, yes, as I was saying, you will have to follow a rough course, which will be warded against apparition. There will be stretches in which there will be traps or magical flora and fauna that should give you trouble. You will have to run from way point to way point. At each way point, you will have to mark your presence with the ring you obtained in the first task. This will also alert us to you progress. You may also find some surprise there. After each daily segment you will be required to rest eight hours at the rest stops, unless it is a transfer stop, then you will have ten hours. At each stop you will be provided with a very substantial dinner, but breakfast and lunch are your own responsibility. You will have to find food in the field. Any questions?"

"What about the start? Do we just go all at once?" Johnson asked.

"Oh, yes, we will start in order of points. Each point is worth five minutes of time. Mr. Potter will go first, twenty five minutes later, Miss Delacour will start. Twenty minutes later Miss Johnson, and five minutes after that Mr. Krum. This sounds like a lot of time, but since the race will last five days, it should only give a slight edge."

As no one had any more questions after that, they stepped through the Floo.

Harry tumbled out of a mobile floo connection. Around him were two stands, filled with roughly fifteen hundred people.

Harry tuned out the speech of the Minister as he was wont to do.

Then it was time, he was going first.

The crowd cheered, he jogged away. Soon the stands and the people disappeared behind him.

A.N. Two more chapters after this! Do you see any plot holes? I got an anonymous review stating that they think this fic should be rated 'M.' Is that a more widespread opinion?