"A word, Malfoy." Moody commanded, from where he was standing in front of his desk.

Draco, who was almost at the door, stopped in his tracks and turned towards his professor in confusion. What would Moody want to talk to him about?

"Yes, sir." Draco acknowledged, turning to face him.

"I'll wait outside." Theo promised quietly.

Draco nodded thankfully, before watching his friends leave with the rest of their classmates. While Hogwarts was significantly safer than it had been the week before, mostly due to Headmistress McGonagall's unyielding stance towards bullying, it still wasn't safe for Slytherins to walk the corridors alone. It was worse for the first, second, and third years who needed to travel in packs of four or five in order to be safe.

Once the final student had filed out of the classroom, Draco turned back to Moody who hadn't moved from his position at the front of the room. "Professor?"

He flinched as Moody's wand appeared in his hand and flicked towards him, before clenching his jaw in embarrassment when he heard the door behind him click shut. Of course that was what Moody had been doing? Why in Merlin's name would his professor want to attack him?

Moody's wand drew an intricate pattern in the air and Draco watched in confusion. What was his professor doing?

"There." Moody pronounced eventually, as the walls around them flared purple for a second. "Now nobody will hear you scream."

"What?" Draco stepped backwards and grasped at his wand.

Moody's tongue darted out of his mouth and flicked at his lips. "Expelliarmus!"

"Protego!" Draco shouted desperately, before exhaling in relief when Moody's spell hit his shield. What was going on? Was this some kind of test?

Moody chuckled darkly. "Clever boy. Ten points to Slytherin. Let's see what you can do with this. Crucio!"

Draco watched helplessly as the red spell left his professor's wand and flew towards him. He felt as though his feet were rooted to the floor, he couldn't move, and the spell was going to hit him at any…

Pain! So much pain! Draco was vaguely aware that he had collapsed on the floor, but it didn't mean anything to him. Not over the pain, pain, pain, pain…

And then suddenly the pain was gone, though Draco could still feel residual shocks running through his body. He opened his eyes and flinched away when he saw Professor Moody watching him with a malicious grin – Draco's wand held loosely in one of his hands.

"Not so cocky are you now, boy?" Moody asked with a smirk. "Your father was always the same – thought he was better than everyone else." His smirk twisted into a snarl. "But he isn't, is he? He's just a traitorous coward."

Draco stared at Moody, trying to ignore his racing heartbeat. Why would Moody, the most famous Auror of all time, think his father was a traitor? That made no sense.

"The Dark Lord is going to find your father." Moody promised darkly, his tongue darting out of his mouth again. "And he's promised that, when he does, he'll let us have our fun with him before he kills him." Moody's eyes were filled with sadistic glee. "I look forward to hearing him scream."

Draco's breath hitched in horror and his eyes darted towards the door. Theo had said he'd wait, surely his friend would realise something was up and come and save him. Except, Theo wouldn't manage against Moody any better than Draco had and then they'd both be in trouble.

"Just like I'm going to enjoy hearing you scream." Moody's lopsided mouth leered at him. "Crucio!"

The pain was all-consuming! Draco couldn't think, he couldn't do anything but writhe and scream. When the pain eventually stopped, Draco's limbs, which had been tensed against the pain, flopped helplessly against the floor.

Moody was chuckling gleefully as he stepped closer and used his foot to roll Draco's trembling body over so that he was lying on his back. "Your father will scream just as beautifully as you do when the Dark Lord finds him, little Malfoy."

Draco's brain felt sluggish, aftershocks of pain were shooting through his body, making it hard to think. He had to do something, anything to distract Moody from torturing him into insanity.

He didn't want to end up like Neville's parents. He didn't want to die. He needed to do something!

"Crucio!"

The pain was just as bad as it had been the first time, maybe worse – though Draco honestly couldn't believe that there could be any pain worse than this. The pain went on, and on, and on, and on, and…then, finally, it was over and he could hear Moody laughing again.

"P-p-professor?" Draco asked weakly, grimacing when the movement of his mouth made his lip sting. Had he bitten his lip during the pain? He dabbed a finger to his lip and pulled it away – it was bleeding.

"Yes, Malfoy?" Moody leered at him.

"I don't understand." Draco admitted, feeling like a hypocrite. How many times had he rebuked Harry for admitting that he didn't understand something? Surely it was allowed when you were trying to distract someone from torturing you though.

"No," Moody said slowly, his amusement audible. "I imagine you don't."

"Are you a Death Eater?" Draco asked, trying to pull himself up into a sitting position.

"I am the Dark Lord's most loyal follower!" Moody declared passionately. "I didn't deny him like those spineless cowards did. I went to Azkaban for him!"

Right, so Moody was either completely delusional or not Moody. It was useful information, though Draco doubted that even that was going to save him.

"Not like your father!" Moody snarled, spit flying. "He denied our Lord, kissed the feet of the filthy blood-traitors, but our Lord still forgave him! Welcomed him back as though he wasn't a bit of faithless, worthless, filth! And what did your father do to repay him? He betrayed his master! Turned tail and ran!"

Draco watched with wide eyes as Moody, or whoever it was that was masquerading as Moody, worked himself into a lather. One the one hand he was relieved that his distraction had worked, any second that he wasn't being cursed was a relief, but he doubted that Moody's rage would mean anything good for him.

"I serve the Dark Lord faithfully! I…" Moody broke off in shock as a sudden explosion blew a hole in the wall where the door had once been. "What in Merlin's name?!"

Draco made use of Moody's distraction and scrambled backwards until his back was against the wall. He didn't think he had ever felt so relieved in his life. Maybe he wasn't going to die today.

But, as the dust began to fall to the floor and nobody stepped through the new hole in wall, he began to doubt himself. What if it had been an accident? What if whoever was out there didn't know that he was in the classroom?

"Help!" Draco called desperately.

"Shut up!" Moody snapped, swinging towards Draco and pointing his wand at him. "Silencio!" Then Moody turned back towards the hole in the wall. "I know you're there, Potter!" He called cajolingly. "Show yourself!"

Draco's heart sunk in horror. What in Merlin's name was Harry doing? Why hadn't he gotten a professor?

Moody began to walk towards the door, his wooden leg thumping against the floor. "Show yourself!" He walked steadily towards the door, his wand out and a malicious smirk on his face. "Avada Kedavra!"

"No!" Draco screamed silently as the green spell left Moody's wand and sped out of Draco's line of sight.

Immediately, Moody stepped to the side, just in time to avoid whatever spell that Harry had sent at him. The spell splashed harmlessly against one of the desks and Moody violently pushed a nearby desk over causing a loud crash.

There was a long, nail-biting silence and Draco waited desperately for some kind of noise to confirm that Harry was still alive. His heart leapt in relief when he heard a voice in the hall, before dropping again when he realised that it meant that Theo was there now too.

"What's going on?" Theo asked

"Moody's gone crazy!" Harry's voice replied. "Where's the professor?"

"Professor Vector's coming." Theo answered. "Are you sure?"

Draco watched in horror as Moody slowly crept towards the door, his wand out. He screamed out a warning as loudly as he could, but the silencing charm didn't break.

"Vector?!" Harry didn't sound impressed. "Yes, I'm bloody sure. Get your wand out."

"What should I do?" Theo asked.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody's suddenly snapped, having reached the door.

The next five minutes were possibly the most nerve-wracking of Draco's life. He spent the entire time arguing with himself about whether or not he should do anything to help Harry. But no matter how many times he tried to convince himself that it was the right thing to, his logical side always won out. After all, he didn't even have a wand. If he did something stupid like tried to tackle Moody he'd just end up dead – and that wouldn't be helpful for anyone.

Eventually though, Harry somehow managed to defeat Moody and Draco was left staring at the fallen body of his attacker. How had Harry done it? Whoever Moody was, he was an adult – Harry was only fourteen!

Draco waited for Harry to come bursting through the door, but when nothing happened he realised that his cousin was probably suspicious that Moody was faking again. He opened his mouth to call out to his Harry, before remembering the silencing charm.

Instead, Draco tried to climb to his feet, but his legs were too weak and he just ended up slumped back against the wall waiting for something to happen.

Draco didn't he could ever be more relieved as he was when he heard Sirius' voice in the corridor with Harry, but then his godfather slowly stepped through the door along with Sirius, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick, and Draco was proved wrong.

He waited patiently, and silently, for Uncle Severus to check on Moody, and then for his godfather to approach him and remove the silencing charm.

"How are you, Draco?" Uncle Severus asked softly, crouching down beside him.

"Sore." Draco admitted, clenching his jaw to prevent himself from bursting into tears of relief.

Uncle Severus frowned worriedly. "What did he cast on you?"

"The Cruciatus Curse." Draco answered, looking down at his left arm that was still trembling from the after-effects of the curse.

Uncle Severus' expression twisted as though he was in pain. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." Draco pointed out, looking over at where Sirius, McGonagall and Flitwick were gathered around Moody's body. "I don't think he is actually Moody. He said he was a Death Eater and that he had gone to Azkaban."

Uncle Severus looked startled. "Pardon!"

"Draco!" Harry rushed into the classroom, with Professor Vector a few steps behind him. "You're alright."

"Mr. Potter!" Professor Vector rebuked him. "You were told to wait in the corridor."

Draco looked up at his cousin who had saved his life. "Thanks to you." He tried to stand again, but couldn't find the strength in his legs to force himself up. "I owe you a life debt."

44-44-44

"Draco was right." Sirius announced hours later, when they met in his and Harry's quarters. "The wizard who attacked him wasn't Alastor Moody. It was Barty Crouch Junior."

Harry stared at Sirius in disbelief. "Pardon?"

Theo looked just as shocked as he felt, but Draco didn't look at all surprised.

"He was actually Barty Crouch Junior using Polyjuice." Sirius repeated patiently. "The real Alastor Moody has spent the last nine months locked in the bottom of his trunk. He's been sent to St. Mungo's for treatment, but Madame Pomfrey thinks that he will make a full recovery."

Harry wondered whether he should have been less surprised. He'd heard of Barty, of course. He, Rudolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange, had been the Death Eaters who had tortured Neville's parents into insanity. Not only that, but he had been the Heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Crouch up until his father, Lord Crouch, had disowned him.

It was surprising and completely bizarre but, the more he thought about it, Professor Moody having actually been Barty made complete sense. Or, at least, explained a lot of things.

Like why Professor Moody had struggled to teach them magical theory – since Barty had only been nineteen when he had been sentenced to life in Azkaban.

And why he had attacked Draco – since obviously, as a Death Eater, Barty hadn't appreciated Lord Malfoy's betrayal.

So, yes, Harry thought maybe he should have expected it – except he hadn't. Because Dumbledore and Moody were supposed to know each other really well, and Dumbledore had been the one to hire him. Harry couldn't imagine not noticing if someone polyjuiced themselves as one of his friends – especially not if they'd kept up the ruse for the majority of a year!

"What's going to happen to him?" Draco asked quietly, not looking up from his hands.

"Amelia isn't feeling very confident in Azkaban's security, so he is being held in one of the small holding cells at the Ministry." Sirius explained. "An emergency Wizengamot session is being held tomorrow to decide whether he will face a Dementor's Kiss for his actions."

Harry watched in concern as Draco's eyes closed in relief as he slumped back in his chair – he had never seen his cousin so vulnerable before. Harry wanted to be able to comfort him, but he had no idea what to say.

"Good." Theo said, with a shudder.

"Were you there when they questioned him?" Harry asked his godfather. "Did they use Veritaserum?"

"I was and, yes, they did." Sirius answered. "He admitted to having been the one to enter your name into the Goblet."

"Did he say why?" Harry asked hopefully. "Other than because Voldemort told him too?"

"No," Sirius leaned forward and leant his elbows on his knees. "He didn't seem to know."

"Oh," Harry ran a hand through his hair. "Because that would have been good information to have."

"It's almost over though." Theo pointed out. "There's only task left and, having seen you in action today, I don't think you'll have any problems."

"Except that I still have no idea what it will involve." Harry sighed. "And who knows what Voldemort's got up his sleeve. I doubt he entered me into the Tournament just to watch me do well."

"He didn't know that you would do well." Sirius reminded him. "And he still thought that you might join him when he entered you. Maybe he was just trying to test you?"

Theo's mouth dropped open. "The Dark Lord thought you were going to join him? Why would he think that? You won't even let people say 'mudblood' around you."

"Tell that to Weasley and the rest of the school." Harry snorted. "They seem to think Voldemort and I are a great match."

"One can hardly expect anything more from ignorant plebeians." Draco commented disdainfully. "To answer your question, Theo, the Dark Lord believed that Harry was considering joining him because Father told him so. The Dark Lord was suspicious of Harry's relationship with our House, so Father told him that we were wooing Harry over to the dark side."

Harry smiled in both amusement and relief. Draco was clearly feeling more like himself if he was insulting non-traditionalists and making Star Wars references.

Theo's eyes widened. "That explains a few things."

"I trust that you won't share this with anyone." Sirius told him sternly. "While Lucius' true loyalties are now public knowledge, it would not do Harry's reputation any good for people to know that the Dark Lord believed that he would defect."

Theo nodded quickly. "Of course, my lord."

"The information about Barty Crouch Junior's actions this year is also privileged information." Sirius continued sternly, his eyes moving from Theo, to Draco, and finally to Harry. "The only reason I am telling you any of this is because it would be unfair on Moody for the three of you to believe that he had been the one to attack you. You are not to tell anyone what happened today – not even your betrotheds."

Harry nodded seriously. "We understand, Sirius, we'll have to come up with a good excuse on why nobody has seen us since the end of classes. We even missed dinner. Not to mention that Neville and over a dozen Slytherins saw me leave the Slytherin Dungeon in a rush when I heard that Draco was alone with Moody."

"How did you know there was something wrong?" Theo asked curiously. "You can't have known that Professor Moody was actually Barty Crouch Junior."

"He'd been eyeing Draco strangely all week, and there were a few times when his glares seemed a little homicidal." Harry explained, shooting Sirius an apologetic look when his godfather turned to him in surprise. "I thought maybe Moody didn't believe that Lord Malfoy had been spying on the Dark Lord for the Ministry and was angry that he had been exonerated."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sirius asked in obvious concern.

"It was Mad-Eye Moody." Harry reminded him. "He's a war hero. I thought I was just getting paranoid."

"I wouldn't blame you." Draco commented lowly. "I think I'm going to be paranoid for the rest of my life."

44-44-44

Harry wondered what it said about their school that nobody seemed particularly surprised to hear that Moody had resigned his position and was leaving Hogwarts immediately. He supposed it made sense though, after all, Moody was hardly their first DADA professor who had left before the end of the year, and everyone knew that the position was cursed.

As always, there were a few crazy stories that circulated about why Moody was leaving, and, unsurprisingly, more than a few involved Harry the Evil Death Eater, but even those stories seemed to die down over the week.

In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that Remus and Snape had started teaching the DADA classes as well as their own, Harry doubted anyone would have remembered that anything had happened. Well, anyone except him, Draco, and Theo that was, but then Harry thought it probably would have been weird if they had gotten over their experience so quickly.

Still, the nightmares and constant flinching at any loud, or sudden, movement got old very quickly and it didn't make it easier to keep the truth from their friends. In fact, Harry knew for a fact that every single one of their friends knew something had happened, even the twins, though thankfully they all seemed to be alright with not knowing the details.

Harry wished that his mind would catch onto the fact that he was no longer in danger – especially with Barty Crouch Junior having received the Dementor's Kiss the day after the attack. The whole thing was over, why couldn't his mind understand that?

At first Harry was worried that it might become a long term problem, but thankfully it only took him a week and a half to stop flinching at sudden movements and loud noises. Theo and Draco both took a little longer, but eventually they began to return to normal as well. Something that Harry knew they shared his relief over. It had been embarrassing not to have control of their actions and had, more than once, earnt them derision from some of their classmates who thought it was amusing that the usually composed traditionalists were so jumpy.

44-44-44

A.N. I've been asked a few times how many chapters there are left in this story so I thought I would let you all know at once. There are 7 chapters left until the end of this story. Eek, we're getting near the end now!