Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

If You Can Help Her – Chapter 21 – Pranking Moody

A week later, Fred, George, Harry, and Ginny found themselves sitting in the common room discussing the first prank that this combined group would pull. The first part of their planning process was identifying the target.

"What about Snape?" suggested Ginny. "The greasy git certainly deserves it."

"That he does, little sister," agreed Fred.

"But we're saving him for later," added George.

"If we want to pull a legendary prank," explained Fred.

"We need to have a victim that nobody believes can be pranked," completed George.

"And who is that?" asked Harry, his brow furrowed as he considered the possibilities. "Dumbledore?"

"He would be a good target, but the teacher we have in mind is the most paranoid one in the school," clarified Fred.

"We can't get him while he's in his office," supplied George.

"You mean Mad-Eye?" asked Ginny. The twins nodded.

"But he turned Malfoy into a ferret," defended Harry, "Why should we prank him?"

"That was a wonderful thing he did," Fred solemnly admitted.

"But his paranoia has made him a perfect target," finished George.

"How can we get him? He's constantly vigilant! He won't even drink from anything but his own flask!" asked Harry.

"Oh, we have a prank in mind," answered Fred.

"We'll just need to use a good switching spell," supplied George.

"While someone else distracts him," completed Fred.

They went over the details of their prank carefully, making sure no one overheard them. Pranking Moody would be quite difficult, and potentially dangerous if he found out who did it.

Two days later, at dinner, Harry and Ginny were sitting with Ron and Hermione, when Harry saw Fred wink at him. "Hermione," asked Harry.

"Yes?" answered the brunette.

"I heard a rumor that Professor Moody was going to use house elves to demonstrate the unforgivable curses in our next class."

"What?" she exclaimed, "That's impossible! He wouldn't!"

"It is just a rumor, but he did do it with spiders, Hermione. What would stop him from doing it to elves, who would probably be honored to help teach students?" asked Harry, while Ginny was keeping a straight face.

"I will!" declared Hermione, as she got up and marched straight for the staff table.

Harry then winked at Fred, who slowly pulled his wand out and waited.

Hermione walked up to the unique professor and asked, "Sir, is it true that you're planning to perform the unforgivable curses on house elves?"

"What?" replied Mad-Eye, with both his eyes looking at Hermione as though she were insane. Fred quickly performed his spell and turned around to continue eating. "I already demonstrated the unforgivables for the class. I was only planning to use elves to demonstrate a few minor hexes."

"What!" responded a shocked Hermione. "You can't do that to them! They're sentient beings!"

"Don't worry, Granger," explained Moody, "None of them is lethal, and most don't leave a scar. But those are for the N.E.W.T. level, anyway. You won't have to watch."

"But, but," said Hermione, and then she turned around and went back to the table. "He's not performing Unforgivables on them, but he will be using them for N.E.W.T. level curses!"

Harry, who'd made up the whole thing, was genuinely surprised. "What?" he replied. Ginny then tapped his shoulder, so he looked at Moody, who was just taking a swig out of his flask. What happened at that moment was not entirely what the new Marauders had expected. Moody's real eye bulged out as his skin turned blue. His magic eye started spinning out of control, and he fell off his chair and onto the ground.

-IYCHH-

(Dumbledore's perspective)

Everyone was looking at where Moody had been, including a very amused-looking Dumbledore. He thought that was funny. Then a hand reached up to the table to pull him up. This hand was starting to bubble. As he pulled himself, Dumbledore saw that his whole body seemed to be bubbling. He, along with a few staff members (as well as Harry, Ron, and Hermione), immediately recognized what was happening and drew their wands on whoever was impersonating Professor Moody using Polyjuice potion. When the transformation was complete, Dumbledore gasped. "Bart, Barty Crouch Jr?" he softly muttered. Then Albus, without turning his head away from the imposter, ordered, "Severus, please get your most powerful truth serum. Minerva, announce for the students to go to their houses."

-IYCHH-

(Back to Harry's perspective)

When the prefects had led all the students back to their common rooms, Fred and George had a whispered conversation with Harry and Ginny. "What happened to Moody?" asked Fred.

"That part of his skin bubbling wasn't supposed to happen," added George.

"That wasn't Moody," whispered Harry.

"What?" asked Fred, George, and Ginny together.

"That looked like whoever it was had taken Polyjuice potion and was changing back," he explained.

"Really?" asked Fred with a grin, "And how do you know what that looks like?"

"In our second year, Hermione brewed some, and Ron and I impersonated Crabbe and Goyle and talked to Malfoy in the Slytherin common room."

"Really?" inquired George proudly, "Hermione brewed that in second year?"

"And you and Ickle-Ronykins used it to get into the Slytherin dungeons?" asked Fred with even more pride.

"Why?" asked Ginny.

Harry looked a bit concerned, "We, er, thought Malfoy might have been the heir of Slytherin, so we wanted to find out," he said quickly.

Ginny looked down for a second, but then looked back up. "That was amazing that Hermione did that in second year. That's a N.E.W.T. level potion."

"I'll bet that's what was in his flask," declared Harry. "Do you still have it, Fred?"

"Yes, of course," Fred replied, producing an identical flask.

He conjured a clear glass and poured the liquid into it. "That is definitely Polyjuice potion!" declared Harry. "And if you don't believe me, you can ask Hermione, or drink it. Though I'd suggest you make sure you're in a bathroom if you do that."

-IYCHH-

The next morning at breakfast, Dumbledore rose up from the staff table to make an announcement behind the podium. All eyes went to him. "I'm afraid that I must make an announcement. Up until today, the man you have known as Professor Moody, was actually an imposter. He was, in fact, an escaped Death Eater by the name of Barty Crouch Jr. He has confessed under the influence of veritaserum in front of several witnesses, including myself and the minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge…"

At this moment he pointed out Fudge with his left hand. Harry hadn't noticed him there before. Cornelius waved graciously at the next generation of voters, and Dumbledore continued, "…that he was working for Lord Voldemort in a plan to restore a body for his master. He, however, does not know where his master is at this moment. He only knew where he had planned be on the day he was to complete his mission. He also confessed that he was working with another Death Eater by the name of Peter Pettigrew, who was believed to be dead.

"According to Crouch, Pettigrew actually committed the crimes that Sirius Black was imprisoned for. The minister has asked me to announce that if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Sirius Black…" At this moment Dumbledore looked at Harry and slightly shook his head. "…they should immediately contact the ministry so that they can clear up this matter. Fortunately, Crouch also revealed the location he was holding the real Professor Moody, and so now he will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Then Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he smiled. "If it hadn't been for the prank that unknown students pulled on the fake Moody, we would probably never have seen through his disguise. I guess you could say that those pranksters actually foiled one of Lord Voldemort's schemes.

-IYCHH-

That night at dinnertime, a Hufflepuff girl who appeared to be a first-year came up to Harry and handed him a note. It said,

If it's not too much trouble, would you meet me in my office after dinner? Miss Weasley, Miss Granger, and Mr. Ronald Weasley are also welcome, if they desire to come.

Professor Dumbledore

P.S. I like Chocolate Frogs

"Chocolate Frogs," asked Ron when he showed the others the note. "Does he expect us to bring him some?"

"No," explained Harry, "That's the password. This has got to be about Sirius."

-IYCHH-

When they got into Dumbledore's office, they found him sitting at his desk.

"Come in, come in. Please have a seat." Dumbledore motioned to four chairs in front of his desk. "First of all, I'd like you to pass my congratulations on to whoever may have helped with that prank…" He gave Harry and Ginny a piercing look, causing them to put their heads down, which did not go unnoticed by Hermione. "…whether deliberately or otherwise." He then looked at Hermione, who blushed slightly.

"Er," replied Harry, looking up. "We, er, will if we find out."

"Of course," responded Dumbledore with a slight chuckle. "Now, onto the more important topic of Sirius Black. I thought you'd want to be aware of what was being done regarding him."

"Yes, sir," agreed Harry while the others nodded.

"I have written him a letter to try to sneak to the castle. It is my wish for his interrogation to take place at Hogwarts, with myself and several others present to make sure his rights are upheld."

Harry nodded silently.

Dumbledore continued. "It is my intention that, when this is over, Sirius Black can rejoin the wizarding world as a free man, perhaps even compensated for the time he spent in Azkaban after being wrongly imprisoned without a trial."

-IYCHH-

Chapter end