Chapter 8: Barty Crouch Junior?!
It was after lunch and Albus still hadn't gotten a chance to speak to his dad, or aunt, or uncle. He had some darn good questions for them about some stuff.
This was driven out of his mind though as the excitement about his Transfiguration class seeped into his mind, knocking away the questions for the Golden Trio.
He headed over to the Gryffindor common room when he saw the tent that the Aurors were staying in. He could go see them now! He did have fifteen minutes to get to class anyway. So he might as well pay a visit.
He walked over to the tent and was about to open the flap when he heard them talking, no arguing.
"Harry?! Are you out of your mind? Bartemius Crouch Junior Harry really? Do you really think that Harry? He got the Dementor's Kiss!" whisper-screamed Hermione.
"But you guys! Come on, think about it. Dementors are Dark creatures, therefore affiliated with Dark wizards like, oh, I dunno,… Lord Voldemort! Before the Second Wizarding War when the Order was secretly reformed and the Ministry was being stupid, the Dementors joined forces with the Dark Side, Mass Breakout of 1996, remember? Voldemort had them with him all the time! Who knows what he could've said to them. Barty Crouch Junior was a very loyal and helpful follower of Voldemort. He could've anytime influenced the Dementor that took his soul to, well, give him his soul back! And he could've made the Rudimentary potion to revive his body, or make a new one at least; any common wizard is an enemy of Death Eaters, so he could've just taken blood from them! And the rest would be simple. Get the bone from Crouch Senior's body, not buried far from here! And, well, he would find a servant somewhere to get the blood from. It has never been determined that they can't do that, huh? The Dark Mark, the Dementor, everything! Dean, didn't you say that Ron sounded like Diggory at the Quidditch World Cup, right? Crouch set the Dark Mark off there, and no one was a victim, I don't see any difference here! The Dementor must have brought Crouch's body to Hogsmeade station; it wasn't buried far from there anyway! Don't you understand Hermione? Or you, Ron? Dean? Fay? I'm telling Dumbledore and Neville about what I think!" shouted Harry, breathing heavily due to his anger and saying all that at once. Not to mention his voice rising with every word!
"Uh, Harry, your son is outside," said Fay as Albus panicked watching her turn her head to the flap.
Hermione walked over to push open the flap revealing a wide-eyed yet guilty looking Albus.
"Albus! Why were you eavesdropping! You know you shouldn't have heard that!" scolded Hermione.
"Er, well, I was thinking that I should come and see you and just happened to overhear you talking," Albus replied quietly, giving his aunt a look that said, 'Does that do it?'.
"Don't you have classes?" asked Hermione quickly, as if she was interrogating Albus. Eavesdropping, she didn't like. Her own nephew skipping classes was worse than being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange according to her.
"We have a free period," Albus replied shortly.
"Where's Rose?" interrogated Hermione. She added quickly, "And Scorpius, or any other friends you have."
"Scorpius is early to the classroom and when I last saw her, Rose was with her friends. Dorm mates actually I think. They must be walking to Transfiguration right now. I should go too. I don't know where it is and I need to be in time for Emma Macmillan, the prefect, to lead the first years to their lessons," Albus rambled. He then turned so fast, he could've Apparated if he was thinking where to go and had his wand in his hand.
Unfortunately for him, Hermione caught his arm roughly. "Albus, you don't have to go now, one of us can escort you there right?"
Albus knew in how much trouble he was in. His aunt could get really strict.
"Albus Severus Potter! You mustn't reveal this to anyone! In other words, you can't breathe a word of it to anybody! Not even any of your cousins, okay? This is TOP SECRET! Top secret…" Hermione paused for a moment to think about how to word her sentence, and then said, "Top secret certain Auror stuff!"
Albus nodded, but wasn't planning on obeying his Aunt Hermione. He had to tell Scorpius and Rose. Only then would Scorpius stop accusing Merope for no real reason. Aunt Hermione couldn't know that though. "I won't."
"Okay good. Hey Ron, could you take Albus to the Transfiguration classroom? I've got some work to do," Hermione said curtly. Albus knew she still had her doubts that Albus would tell, but probably just thought he would tell Rose.
Ron walked over and led Albus out.
"Well mate. You know, I know, we all know Rose is your best friend. So you can tell Rose. We were always hearing things we shouldn't when we were kids. And we told each other all the time."
"What about Scorpius?" asked Albus eagerly, but immediately regretted it with all his heart.
Ron's eyes changed into something Albus couldn't exactly describe. It looked as a mixture of a tiny, tiny bit of fear, some anger, and confusion, along with some remembrance. "Scorpius?! Albus, as your uncle, I don't exactly rejoice the idea that you're friends with a Malfoy. I know I told Rose fine, but I never imagined it would happen! I was just kidding! I don't find this safe." Albus nodded on the outside. But on the inside, he was shaking his head. He was going to tell Rose and Scorpius. Whether he had permission or not.
"Oh here we are. Hello Professor Martin!" said Ron cheerfully as he walked Albus into the classroom.
"Oh, please, call me Holly, or 'Ms. Martin'. You see, I'm from America, and there, the teachers are called 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.' or 'Ms.', same goes for you, class," said the Transfiguration teacher, a quite pretty woman with chocolate brown hair and hazel eyes. She went on, "We were just taking attendance."
"Okay well, I'll go now," Ron said awkwardly before walking out.
"Anyway, today we will be doing a simple Transfiguration spell. Match to Needle and the other way around. Very few will accomplish it in this lesson, so you will have it to practice for homework. First though, we have to take a few notes." Albus groaned along with a bunch of other of his classmates.