Chapter 14

Barty Crouch

I woke up the next day, still thinking about Mr. Crouch. I hoped that Ron sent his owl out to his brother, Percy, to find out if he had seen his boss at all. Since it was still the weekend, Cedric and I made plans to hang out by the greenhouses after lunch, which meant I had the morning to spend with my friends.

Pansy and I walked down to breakfast together, where we met up with Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini. I sat down between Pansy and Zabini, and started piling food onto my plate. The group was complaining that Hagrid was still teaching here, even though his lessons had considerably improved.

"What is it with you guys and Hagrid?" I asked in between bites of potatoes and bacon.

"He's an oaf." Pansy giggled. "A giant oaf." Everyone started laughing at her joke.

"And being part giant, is that bad?" I asked.

"Well, giants are known to be dangerous creatures. They've killed hundreds if not thousands of witches and wizards. Not to mention the fact they basically killed each other off too." Zabini said with a shrug.

"Huh." I said. "But we've never really seen Hagrid be aggressive or anything. He's just… exposed us to dangerous creatures."

"Exactly. He's exposed us to dangerous creatures. He shouldn't be a teacher if he's going to make class unsafe." said Zabini with a glance in my direction.

"His classes have been getting better though." I said with a small shrug.

"Why do you care so much about Hagrid?" Pansy asked while she rolled her eyes at me.

"I just don't think he is a bad person. I don't really like him as a teacher, but as a person he isn't that bad. Besides, he helped Harry and me get our school supplies for the first time. He was our first exposure to the wizarding world."

"So that's why you care." Draco said. He was sitting on the opposite side of the table, directly in front of me. "You know, if you keep shoveling food in your mouth, you're going to get sick." He added as he watched me take a big bite of pancakes.

"Or you'll gain weight." Pansy sneered. "I bet Cedric wouldn't want to date you if you were fat."

"I don't think Cedric would care if I was fat." I said with a shrug. Pansy was always self-conscious about her looks. I think her mother had a lot to do with that. Pansy has told me that her mom likes to make snide comments about her weight, or if she had a blemish on her face, or if her hair didn't look a certain way.

"What's on the agenda for today?" Zabini asked, changing the subject.

"We could jinx first-years!" Crabbe offered, chuckling.

"We did that last weekend." Draco said, rolling his eyes at Crabbe.

"I've got plans for after lunch, but I'm all yours until then." I said with a smile.

"Great!" Pansy said, returning my smile. "That gives us a few hours. Anything you want to do?"

"Hmm," I thought for a moment. I thought back to the beginning of the year, when we were put under the Imperius Curse in class. "What if we practiced Defense Against the Dark Arts stuff?"

"Like what?" Zabini asked.

"Well, remember at the beginning of the year, when Moody had us practice fighting against the Imperius Curse?" They all started to nod. "What if we kept practicing that?"

"Who's going to put the curse on us?" Pansy asked, looking confused. I looked up and made eye contact with Draco. He had a huge grin on his face, and I knew he was thinking what I was thinking.

"We can practice casting it too." He said with a chuckle. Everyone started grinning at the idea.

"Let's find an empty classroom!" Pansy said excitedly.

"I think we should go somewhere more private than that. We could get walked in on." Zabini said.

"What about the boy's dormitory?" I suggested. "It's just the four of you sharing a room isn't it?" I added at the looks on the boys' faces.

"Yeah," Goyle said softly. "But we don't want girls in there."

"Why? Cause it'll be the only time you'd ever have a girl near your bed?" I teased. "What are you afraid of?"

"It's a little messy, that's all." He responded with a glare.

"So take five minutes, pick up your clothes or whatever, and then let us in." I said while rolling my eyes.

"Alright, we can do that." Draco said, standing up. "Let's get going." We all stood up and left the Great Hall.

Pansy and I waited in the common room while the boys went and cleaned up their dormitory. I wasn't surprised that it took a little longer than five minutes for them to finish and come get us. A feeling of excitement went through my body as Pansy and I followed them to their dormitory.

The room was identical to our own. Green poster beds around the room, trunks at the foot of them all. I could see some socks that the boys forgot to pick up, and a little bit of trash laying around.

"So, how do we do this?" Pansy said as she sat on the edge of one of the beds.

"Well, I guess one of us casts the curse on someone else. We've seen Moody do it several times, it can't be that hard." I said, sitting next to Pansy. "Any volunteers?" No one said anything. We all looked around at each other until I finally said, "Alright, I'll go first. Who wants to cast the curse on me?"

"I'll do it." Draco said, stepping forward. I had mixed feelings about letting Draco cast the curse on me. We haven't really been getting along lately, and I knew he would take advantage of the situation.

"Fine." I said, standing up.

I stood across from Draco and nodded to let him know I was ready. He pointed his wand at me and said, "Imperio." A feeling of calm flooded my body. My worries of Draco making me do something embarrassing faded away. Then, the feeling was gone. I looked around in confusion.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Not sure," Draco said, looking just as confused. "Maybe I didn't cast it well enough? Should I try again?"

"Alright." I braced myself again. I heard Draco say the incantation, and felt the calmness again. This time it lasted a little bit longer, but in the end it also faded away.

"Maybe we need to practice casting it too." Pansy suggested. "It's supposed to be a hard spell to cast properly."

"Let me try." I said, pulling my wand out. "Who's volunteering for me?"

"Since you let me try on you, you can use me." Draco said, putting his wand back in his robe pocket.

"Ready?" I asked, raising my wand and pointing it at him. When he nodded, I took a deep breath and said with as much confidence as I could, "imperio". I felt a wave of something powerful go up my wand hand. Draco had a glazed look over his eyes.

"Ask him to do something." Pansy said.

"Uh, jump one time." Draco looked up at me and instead of jumping up one time, he rolled his eyes at me.

"It didn't work." He said

"I felt something though." I said, looking down at my hand.

"I felt it for a moment there, but when you asked me to jump, I came back to my senses. It wasn't hard to get myself out of it. Much easier than when Moody was casting it on us."

"Huh," I said softly. "I guess we aren't that great at casting it, are we?"

"Suppose not." Draco said with a shrug. "Should we do something else?"

"But we didn't get to try!" Crabbe complained.

"If neither Chloe or I could cast it, what makes you think you could?" said Draco with a small sneer. Out of all of us Crabbe and Goyle were the least skilled in magic, and brains. Crabbe huffed unhappily, but didn't say anything back.

"Well, we still have a couple of hours before lunch. What do we do now?" Zabini said. I could hear the boredom in his voice. It was like Zabini to complain about stuff, but never have any ideas himself. Honestly, it got really annoying sometimes.

"We could play exploding snaps." I suggested half heartedly. I really had hoped we would have been better at casting the Imperius Curse, but alas it was not meant to be.

"Shall we head to the common room then?" Pansy said, standing up.

"Alright then." Draco responded. He started to head for the dormitory door, and we all followed him.

Back in the common room, we sat around a table and played exploding snaps. The rules were simple: when someone sees two identical pictures, they hit the card with the top of their wand – one point goes to the player who hits the cards first. The player with the most points won the game. The hard part was, the cards shuffled faster and faster. With four years under my belt, I had gotten quite good at the game.

We all were having a great time, yelling and laughing whenever the cards exploded. One game, I desperately tried to tap the cards in time but was half a second too slow and when the cards exploded they flew all the way across the room. Pansy laughed so hard that she fell out of her chair, which set the rest of us off.

Time flew by, and it was time to head off to lunch. We were still giggling at the events that had just taken place all the way down to the Great Hall. Lunch had already begun, and most people were eating. I sat down next to Pansy, like always, and grabbed a ham sandwich to eat.

"What are you plans after lunch, Chloe?" Pansy asked as she ate her caesar salad.

"Oh, I am meeting up with Cedric." I said with a smile. Just thinking about Cedric lifted my spirits.

"Ooooo," Zabini said. "Gonna go snog him are you?"

"That is none of your business." I said, a blush creeping up my face.

"So that's a yes." He said teasingly. "I don't know what you see in the guy. I am clearing a much better choice."

"You?" I laughed. "I don't think so."

"Why not?" Zabini looked a bit offended.

"You're so indecisive, and have no opinion on things." I shrugged, eating my sandwich.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Shut up, both of you." Draco said, rolling his eyes at us. "It's obvious I am the best choice."

"I agree," said Pansy with a shy smile. Draco returned the smile, looking pleased with himself.

"You're a better choice than Zabini, yes." I said, nodding my head. "But I think I'd still choose Cedric." Draco glared at me. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He said, turning away. I thought back to our last private conversation. Draco was upset because I hadn't been putting much effort into our friendship. He must still be upset about that.

"What are you doing after dinner, Draco?" I asked.

"Probably just hang out in the common room."

"Let's do something. Just you and me." I added so Pansy wouldn't invite herself. I heard her huff a little, but she didn't say anything.

"Yeah?" Draco said, "What do you have in mind?"

"Just a walk, or something. We haven't had time to hang out just the two of us in a while. This is me trying to put more effort into our friendship."

"Alright then." Draco looked a little bit happier.

As soon as I finished my food I told everyone goodbye and headed off towards the greenhouses. I beat Cedric there, so I just wandered around for a few minutes waiting for him. I was admiring the flutterby bushes when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind.

"I hope you weren't waiting too long." Cedric's voice said from behind me. I turned around, still in his arms, and smiled up at him.

"I would wait a million years for you." I leaned up and planted a kiss on his soft lips.

"Would you?" He asked, chuckling lightly.

"I think that I would do just about anything to stay with you." I felt heat rush to my cheeks. Cedric rubbed the top of my head affectionately, and then kissed it.

"How has your day been? Do anything interesting?" I thought about telling him how we tried to cast the Imperius Curse, but decided against it. I wasn't sure that Cedric would approve of my friends and me doing dark magic.

"We played exploding snaps in the common room. You?"

"I brushed up on some defensive spells. I want to be prepared for the next Task."

"You find out soon what it is, right?"

"Yeah, after Easter."

"That's just a couple weeks away."

"I know," said Cedric.

Cedric took my hand in his and we started wandering around the greenhouses. He pointed out some of the plants I had yet to work with and told me what they were used for. I could have spent hours listening to him talk about anything. Eventually we found a nice quiet corner, with a bench, and we sat down. I rested my head against his shoulder and let out a sigh of content.

"Chloe, there's been something I've been wanting to say to you. Everytime I try, something or someone interrupts us." I thought back to the night of the Second Task, when I was sure he was going to tell me he thought he loved me. A small blush crept up my face.

"What is it?"

"After the Second Task, I realized something. I've had a lot of time since then to think about it, and it's only become a bigger feeling. I have never met anyone like you. You're not afraid to say what's on your mind, even if it's something that comes off rude." I gave him a small shove, smiling.

"You value all your relationships, big or small, and make efforts to do your part in them. Whether that's helping your brother with preparing for the Tasks, or keeping my secrets from him. You like to pull pranks and make people laugh. And when you are having fun, your eyes get this sparkle in them and I find it hard to look away. You always offer to help me, even if you know you can't. You make me feel a way no one has ever made me feel. I can't imagine my life without you in it. You are the most important person to me and I never want that to change." Cedric looked deep into my sea green eyes, and I knew he meant every word he was saying. I saw a blush creep up his face as he finished what he wanted to say. "Chloe Potter, I am in love with you."

A rush of emotions flooded my body. I could feel butterflies in my stomach, and my head felt light with giddiness. I cupped Cedric's face with my hands and kissed him with as much love as I could. I felt his arms wrap around my waist as he deepened the kiss. We only broke apart after what felt like blissful eternity, and when neither of us could breathe anymore.

"Cedric, I love you too." I whispered as I caught my breath. He enveloped me in a warm hug and we sat there enjoying each other's presence until it was time to head off to dinner.

I was practically glowing with joy all through dinner. Pansy kept giving me weird looks, even Crabbe and Goyle noticed my mood. I didn't say anything because I wanted to enjoy the memory of Cedric and I telling each other we love one another in private for a while longer.

Once dinner was finished, Draco and I headed off towards the school grounds. We decided to take a couple laps around the Black Lake to help dinner digest in our stomachs.

"So why did you want to hang out?" Draco asked after we were halfway done with our first lap.

"Because we haven't hung out in a while." I said with a shrug. My thoughts were still full of Cedric and what happened before dinner.

"Is that all?"

"Draco, you are my friend. I am trying to make an effort in our friendship. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"It is. I just didn't think you would actually make time for me." He said with a shrug.

"I know I haven't exactly been present lately, and I am sorry for that." I started to say. Why did I feel like I was always apologizing to him? "But you can't expect me to only be friends with you. I have other relationships too."

"Yes, I know. You and Cedric can't seem to be apart from one another for too long." He teased me. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks.

"I really like him." I said looking away from Draco. I wasn't sure what his reaction would be if I told him that Cedric and I loved each other, but I had a feeling it wouldn't be a good one.

"I can tell, but that doesn't mean I am okay with it."

"I'm not looking for your approval." I rolled my eyes at him.

"As your friend, I think you can do better." I didn't bother responding to him. I was confused as to why Draco disliked Cedric. At the beginning of the year he seemed to like him, even though our champion wasn't a Slytherin. As my thoughts turned back to the beginning of the school year, I remembered something.

"Draco, why did you decide to be my friend again?"

"Huh?" Draco asked, looking slightly stunned.

"Why did you decide to be my friend again?" I repeated.

"I felt bad for ignoring you for two years."

"I know that isn't the only reason. You said you would tell me." I reminded him.

"Well, I had a bad feeling about this year and I wanted to make sure we were friends in case something bad did happen."

"A bad feeling?"

"I don't know how to explain it. My parents seemed to be on edge, and when they get like that I can't help but feel like something awful is going to happen."

"Was it maybe the Tournament?"

"I knew about that a while ago. My father told me before the school year started." We just finished our first lap, and continued on to our second.

"So what was it then?" I pressed, wanting answers.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course I can." I said, trying to sound reassuring.

"Ok," Draco took a deep breath. "My parents have a very strict belief system. That only people from wizarding families should learn magic. They would go as far as only purebloods, but they would accept half bloods too. Anyway, they are into some dark stuff and have friends that are into the same kinds of things. There are signs, according to their friends, that the Dark Lord might be returning." I let out a small gasp.

"You really think Voldemort will be coming back?" I asked. Usually people would react when they heard Voldermort's name, but Draco didn't even flinch.

"That's the impression I got from them. No one knows when, but there are rumors of someone taking up residence in the house that his family lived in."

"And this is why you wanted to be friends again?"

"I want to be there for you if anything goes wrong. I know your history with the Dark Lord, and I couldn't bear it if something were to happen to you."

"My history? It wasn't me Voldemort tried to kill before he disappeared, it was my brother. I was in a separate crib at the time, and we don't know if he would have killed me after he took care of my brother."

"But you were there, and you are a Potter. You can't be sure that he wasn't going to go after you too."

"So you want to protect me from the greatest dark wizard history has known?" I scoffed.

"I just want to be there for you in case you need me. Maybe, if he does come back, my family can convince him to spare you." Draco sounded upset. I didn't realize he cared that much about me.

"You'd do that for me? Even though we haven't been close friends since our first year?" I asked softly.

"Chloe, I think I would do anything for you. And just because we haven't been close friends since our first year doesn't mean I wasn't paying attention to what you were doing. I still cared about you even if I wasn't being a good friend."

"What about my brother? Would you help him too?"

"Your brother is a different case." Draco said, rolling his eyes. "He was the one who caused the Dark Lord's disappearance, there isn't anything I could do for him. Besides, I don't like your brother very much." I half expected this answer from him, but was still slightly disappointed in it.

"And if I asked you to help protect him?"

"I can't. It took me a long time to convince my parents you weren't like your brother. They didn't want me to be friends with you in the first place. But I think now, under the right circumstances, they would help."

"You talked to your parents about me?"

"My mom is quite nosy." Draco said with a chuckle. "She makes me write her updates about school, and who my friends are, and what I have been up to during my free time. It's honestly quite annoying."

"At least you have a mom." I said jokingly. We just finished our second lap around the lake and it was getting dark and cold outside. We started to head back up to the castle.

"At least your aunt and uncle don't bother you." He shot back with a smile.

"Gods, I would hate it if they did. But they dislike my brother and me just as much as we dislike them." I chuckled. We continued to trash talk my aunt, uncle, and cousin all the way back to the common room. Since it was late, we said goodnight and went off to bed.

During our next Care of Magical Creatures class, we learned about nifflers. Hagrid had buried a bunch of gold coins and had us pick out a niffler. "The person who picks the niffler that gets the most coins will win a prize." said Hagrid happily. During the excitement of watching the nifflers run around and find pieces of gold, Harry updated me on what the three of them had been up to. Ron sent a letter to Percy, but we haven't heard back yet. The same day Harry, Ron, and Hermione went down to the kitchens to gift Dobby some socks and chat with Winky.

"Winky was concerned for Mr. Crouch. She kept saying that he would need her, that he couldn't manage without her." Harry whispered to me. "I guess he was trusting her with a very important secret but she wouldn't tell us what it was."

"I wonder what Crouch's secret is." I pondered.

"If Hermione hadn't been a nuisance with the elves we might have gotten some more answers." Ron said irritably.

"Where is Hermione? And what was up with all the owls that delivered letters to her this morning?" I asked, remembering how many owls were surrounding her this morning.

"Oh that? Just a bunch of people who were upset with her because of the article Skeeter published." Ron replied with annoyance in his voice. "She had to go to the Hospital Wing because one of the envelopes had bobutuber pus in it."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Yeah, it was awful." Harry said with a grimace.

"I can't believe people took that article seriously. I thought it was funny because I knew it wasn't true." I said, shaking my head.

"It was so not funny." Ron said, glaring at me. "It's causing her distress."

"Obviously the aftermath isn't funny, but the ridiculousness of the article was most definitely funny." I glared back at him. "I am going to go back to my other friends. See you all later." And with that I headed back over to my Slytherin friends.

"What are you doing, Goyle?" I asked as I saw him putting gold coins in his pocket.

"Nothing." He said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him.

Just then Hermione joined the class. Her hands were wrapped in linen to keep them clean. She looked absolutely miserable. Pansy giggled as Hermione passed us and whispered to me, "Wonder what happened to her." I decided to not tell Pansy that Hermione had received hate mail this morning and that one of the envelopes had bobutuber pus in it. Even though I thought the article was hilarious, I didn't think that sending hate mail and getting Hermione hurt was an appropriate response to the article.

"Let's check to see how they did. Count your coins everyone. And there's no point in trying to steal any Goyle." Hagrid said, eyeing Goyle's pockets. "It's leprechaun gold, it vanishes after a few hours." I chuckled as Goyle emptied his pockets grumpily. It turned out that Ron's niffler had done the best and his prize was a huge slab of Honeyduke's chocolate.

The lunch bell rang and the class headed off towards the class. Well, everyone except for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I was sure they were just going to catch up with Hagrid, so I didn't bother staying behind with them.

When my group of friends and I arrived at the Great Hall for lunch, I noticed Cedric hanging out by the doors. When he saw me approaching, he waved me over. I told everyone I would see them inside in a bit and headed towards him.

"Hey," he said with a smile. He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss before saying, "How was your class?"

"It was good, learned a bit about nifflers." I returned the smile. "What about you?"

"I had a free period, spent it in the library."

"Brushing up on spells for the Task?" I asked, putting my hand in his.

"Yeah, we'll be finding out what the Task is soon." He squeezed my hand, and I returned the squeeze. "I'll walk you to your table, I just wanted to talk to you for a bit before you sat down for lunch." We walked inside the Great Hall, which was loud with chatting students. He walked me over to Pansy, gave me another kiss, and headed off towards the Hufflepuff table.

"You two are literally so cute." Pansy gushed as I sat down. "I wish I had a relationship."

"Thanks Pansy, I'm sure you'll find someone soon." I replied with a smile. We ate our lunch, and the rest of the day went by without anything interesting happening.

The next few weeks went by in a flash. Hermione had been receiving more hate mail, and even though she wasn't opening the letters anymore a few people had sent her howlers. It was clear that Hermione was doing her best to figure out how Skeeter was getting her information, even I was curious at this point.

"Hey, Draco." I said one day after Easter. He turned and looked at me questioningly. "How did you do that interview with Rita Skeeter?"

"Oh that?" Draco let out a laugh. "If I tell you, you can't tell your other friends." I promised to not tell anyone. "Skeeter is an animagus, she can turn into a beetle."

"Seriously?" I laughed. "A beetle? Sounds like Skeeter, she really is a bug. I suppose that's how she has been able to listen in on conversations without being seen."

"Ingenious isn't?"

"I suppose it does help in her line of work, gossip." I chuckled.

Later that day, the Champions were called down to the quidditch field. I knew this because Cedric and I had been hanging out in the library when Professor Sprout came to get him. Cedric promised to tell me what the Task was when he got back. So I waited around for a while in the library, working on a History of Magic essay.

After what felt like hours, Cedric finally came back to the library. In the time he was gone I was able to finish not only my History of Magic essay, but also my Transfiguration and Potions essay.

"So, what is it?" I asked as I put my things away in my bag.

"It's a maze." Cedric said quietly. "They turned the quidditch field into a huge maze."

"They did what to the quidditch field?" I asked, upset.

"Don't worry. Bagman said they would turn it back to normal after the task." Cedric said to calm me down. "Hagrid is growing the hedges, and will provide some magical creatures as obstacles in the maze. There will also be spells that will need to be undone." Cedric went on explaining what he had learned.

"I bet you Hagrid puts some of his nasty skrewts in the maze." I said as I threw my bag over my shoulders. We headed out of the library and down the stairs towards the entrances of our dormitories.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did." Cedric said with a grimace. "Harry and I will be allowed in the maze first, followed by Krum, and Fleur last. We have one month to prepare for the Task."

"Will you let me help you this time?" I asked, giving him a concerned look.

"I've got a way better knowledge of spells that will be useful than your brother. You should help him practice." Cedric said with a smile. "I'll be fine." He added when the concern on my face didn't disappear.

"I want to do something to help." I insisted.

"Just spending time with you helps." Cedric answered. He reached out and grabbed my hand. "I have years of experience on Harry, and I'll have plenty of time for practice since I don't need to worry about end of year exams."

Just as we got to the Entrance Hall, Harry was running in looking troubled. He started heading towards the staircases and I called out to him. He glanced behind but did not stop and yelled back, "Need to get Dumbledore."

"What for?" I yelled back as he continued to sprint up the marble staircase towards the second floor.

"Crouch!" he yelled as he disappeared around the corner.

"What does he mean Crouch?" Cedric asked curiously.

"I'm not sure. Percy sent a letter earlier today to Ron saying that Crouch was ill, but not to worry." I answered, staring at the spot Harry disappeared from.

"Should we follow him?"

"No, he'll update me later. Besides, it's getting late and we should head to bed." I said, turning back to face Cedric. "I'll let you know what he says."

"Alright." Cedric walked me to the entrance of the dungeons and kissed me good night. "Love you."

"I love you too." I answered back with a grin. I watched as Cedric walked towards the basement entrance.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I hung out in the Entrance Hall to see if Harry would turn up again. A few minutes later I saw both Harry and Dumbledore heading towards the school grounds. I hid behind a statue and heard Harry telling Dumbledore that Crouch wasn't in his right mind, that he was speaking mostly nonsense. I debated for a minute on whether to follow them or not, and ended up deciding to follow them.

I kept back a few yards from the pair as they hurried through the school grounds towards the Forbidden Forest. I was wishing at that point that Harry didn't have the cloak because I knew sooner or later they would see me. I followed them past the Beauxbaton carriage, just a little ways into the forest. They stopped walking and started looking around. I decided to hide behind a tree and watch.

"Lumos," said Dumbledore and his wand lit up the area. The light revealed a passed out Krum laying on the forest floor. He had been stunned.

"Should I go and get someone? Madam Pomfrey?" I heard Harry ask.

"No," Dumbledore responded swiftly. "Stay here." He pointed his wand towards Hagrid's cabin and sent something silvery towards it. It kind of looked like a bird. Dumbledore pointed his wand at Krum and muttered, "rennervate." Kurm came to, looking dazed.

"He attacked me." Krum muttered. "The old mad man attacked me. I was looking around to see where Potter had gone and he attacked from behind."

"Lay still for a moment." Dumbledore said. The sound of thunderous footsteps approached the area. Hagrid came into view from the trees, looking worried.

"Professor Dumbledore." He said, his eyes wide. "Harry. What the?"

"Hagrid, I need you to fetch Professor Karkaroff. His student has been attacked. When you've done that, kindly alert Professor Moody."

"No need, Dumbledore." Said a growling voice, "I am here." Moody was limping towards everyone, leaning on his staff. "Damn leg, would've been here quicker. What's happened? Snape said something about Crouch."

"Crouch?" said Hagrid blankly. Dumbledore reminded Hagrid to go get Professor Moody. He turned and ran off towards the Black Lake, where the Durmstrang boat was docked.

"I don't know where Bary Crouch is, but it is essential that we find him," said Dumbledore.

"I'm on it," growled Moody as he pulled out his wand and headed off into the forest. I slid down and sat on the forest ground, wondering what in the world was happening. It was a few minutes before I heard footsteps approaching the area. I peaked around my tree to see Karkaroff coming with Hagrid.

"What is this? What's going on?" Karkaroff asked angrily.

"I was attacked." Krum started to say. "Mr. Crouch or whatever his name is." Krum started rubbing his head.

"Crouch attacked you? The Triwizard judge?"

"Igor," Dumbledore began but Karkaroff had drawn himself up. Clutching his furs around him, looking livid.

"Treachery." He bellowed, pointing at Dumbledore. "It is a plot. You and your ministry of magic have lured me here under false pretenses. This is not an equal competition. First, you sneak Potter into the Tournament even though he is underage. Now one of your ministry friends attempts to put my champion out of action. I smell double dealing and corruption in this whole affair. And you, Dumbledore, you with your talk of closer international wizarding links of rebuilding old ties, of forgetting old differences. Here's what I think of you!" Karkaroff spat on the ground at Dumbldore's feet.

In a split second, Hagrid lifted Karkaroff into the air and slammed him into the closest tree. "Apologize." Hagrid growled at him as Karkaroff gasped for breath.

"Hagrid, no!" Dumbledore shouted, his eyes flashing. Hagrid lowered Karkaroff to the ground. Karkaroff slid to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

"Kindly escort Harry back to the castle." Dumbledore said to Hagrid.

"I think I better stay here." Hagrid replied, eyeing Karkaroff.

"You will take Harry back to school, Hagrid." Dumbledore repeated. "Harry, you will stay in Gryffindor Tower, anything you want to do, any owls you want to send, can wait until morning. Do you understand me?"

"Uh, yes." Harry said. I knew that Harry was thinking of sending an owl to Sirius to tell him what happened. Hagrid and Harry left the forest, heading towards the castle. Quietly, I did the same, taking care to not step on any twigs or branches on the ground so I didn't make a sound.

I took a different path towards the castle so that Harry and Hagrid wouldn't see me walking behind them. As they headed towards the lake, I headed to the greenhouses. Eventually I made it back to the castle and went straight to my dormitory.

Why was Crouch there? What did he want to tell Dumbledore? Where did he go when everyone turned up to help? Was there a reason as to why he attacked Krum? After some time, I fell into a fitful sleep.

AN: Thank you for reading this far! Please leave a review, constructive criticism is alway welcome.