AUTHORS NOTE! :P

Hey guys, so I'm really sorry for the long wait, but as you all know, I'm doing my Junior Cert in June, and the Mocks (tests we do before the Junior Cert that's meant to prepare us for the actual test...waste of time in my opinion...) are just over, so I was studying sooooooooo much for those... So I don't really have that much time for fanfiction, or really anything else. It's all just study study study... So please don't hate me about taking so long :(

Now I shall answer some reviews...

Lily-Evans4108: Thanks for understanding :) haha and thanks for that, it really means a lot :)

Guest: You're very welcome :) yeah, I had to torture you guys a little bit haha :D Yup, I took mine and I got a wolf :D

Kisa tracer: Thanks :D honestly, I forgot about it. I know, I felt so stupid and was really angry, but I just...forgot. I'm really sorry, but they will have that conversation, most likely at the end of this story, or at the start of year 5. Sorry about that. And thanks again :)

Bethzilla: I know and it drives my English teacher insane! But I just can't help it, it just comes out like that and I don't notice until someone points it out to me. But I'm working on it :)

SoaringOnWings: possibly, possibly...

AnikaandAj: thanks for forgiving me :) this story wouldn't be the same without all your reviews :D

Arkell26: I'll try and squeeze it in somewhere. Oh, seriously? Whoops...poor Krum with his identity problem haha :)

On a brighter, happier, note, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON WEDNESDAY THE 30th! :D I shall be 15 :) whooop!

Thanks to everyone else that reviewed, and the alerts! LOVE YOU GUYS!

Max's POV

"It simply comes down to this," Fang said. "Either Mr Crouch attacked Krum, or else someone else just attacked them both when Krum wasn't looking."

"It's must've been Crouch," Ron said immediately. "That's why he was gone when Harry, Max and Dumbledore got there. He'd done a runner."

"I don't think so," I said. "He seemed really weak, and didn't really know where he was."

"Yeah, I don't reckon he could have Disapparated or anything," Harry said, running a hand through his dark hair.

"You can't Disapparate inside Hogwarts grounds, haven't I told you that enough?" Hermione said.

"Obviously not," I grinned. She scowled at me.

"Okay, how about this?" Ron said, his eyes gleaming excitedly. "Krum attacked Crouch then- no, wait for it- then Stunned himself!"

"And Crouch just evaporated into thin air, did he?" Iggy said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh right..."

It was just after daydreak. The six of us had crept from the common room and up to the Owlery to send a letter to Sirius. Now we were looking out over the misty grounds. We were all pale and puffy eyed because we had been talking about Crouch well into the night.

"Just go through it again," Hermione said. "What exactly was he saying?"

"We told you already, he wasn't really making sense," I said, rubbing my arms where there were still marks from when Crouch grabbed me. "Said he wanted to warn Dumbledore about something. He definitely mentioned Bertha Jorkins, and he seemed to think that she's dead. He kept saying it was his fault...mentioned his son too."

"Well that was his fault," Iggy said.

"He was out of his mind," Harry said. "Half the time he seemed to think his wife and son were still alive, and he kept talking to Percy about work and giving him instructions."

"And what did he say about You-Know-Who?" Ron asked.

"We've told you," I said, stifling a yawn. "He said he was getting stronger."

There was a pause. Then Ron said, "But you said it yourself, he was out of his mind, so maybe that part isn't true..."

I shook my head. "He was at his sanest when he was talking about Voldemort," I said, ignoring the way Ron flinched at the name. "He was having trouble saying two words, but he seemed to know where he was and what was going on, and what he wanted to do. He just kept asking for Dumbledore."

I crossed my arms and frowned. Even after we went to bed last night, I still hadn't been able to sleep. I stayed up, wondering where had Crouch gone, what had happened to him, whether he did Stun Krum...

"If Snape hadn't held us up," Harry suddenly said bitterly, "we might've actually got there in time. `The headmaster is busy...what's this rubbish...' Why couldn't he have just gotten out of the way?"

"Maybe he held the two of you up on purpose!" Ron said quickly. "Maybe he didn't want you to get there in time! Maybe- hang on- how long do you think it would of taken him to get to the forest? Could he have gotten there before you and Dumbledore?"

"Not unless he finally sprouted his bat wings and flew off," I said.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Ron said.

"We need to talk to Professor Moody," Hermione said." We have to ask him whether he found Mr Crouch or not."

"If he had the Marauders Map on him, then Moody would of found him easily," Iggy said.

"Unless Crouch was already outside the grounds. It only shows up to the boundaries, doesn't it-?"

"Shh!" I hissed. "Someone's coming up the stairs."

We could hear two voices arguing, coming closer and closer and becoming louder and louder.

"-that's blackmail, that is. We could get into serious trouble over that-"

"-we've tried being polite, and it hasn't worked. It's time to play dirty, just like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did-"

"I'm telling you, if we put that in a letter, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, but you won't be complaining when you get a nice fat payoff, now will you?"

The Owlery door banged open, and in walked Fred and George. They froze when they saw us standing at the windows.

"What are you doing here?" Ron and Fred asked at the same time.

"Sending a letter," me and George said in unison.

"What, at this time?" Fang and Fred said.

George grinned.

"Fine- we won't ask you what you're up to, if you don't ask us."

He was holding a sealed envelope in his hand. I glanced at it, but George, whether accidentally or on purpose, moved his hand so the name was covered.

"Well, don't let us hold you up," Fred said, pointing to the door.

Ron didn't move. "Who're you blackmailing?" he asked.

The grin vanished from Fred's face. George half glanced at Fred, before smiling at Ron.

"Don't be stupid, we were only joking," he said.

"Didn't sound that way," Iggy said.

"I've told you lot before," Fred said abruptly, "keep your noses out if you like the shape of them."

"It's my business if you're blackmailing someone," Ron said. "George is right- you could get into serious trouble for that."

"Told you, we were joking," Fred said. He walked over to George and took the envelope from his hands, and started attaching it to the nearest barn owl. "You're starting to sound like our dear older brother, Ronnie. Keep this up, and you'll be made prefect."

"No I won't!" Ron said hotly.

Fred took the barn owl over to the window and let if fly off. He turned around and grinned at Ron.

"Then stop telling people what to do. See you later."

He and George left the Owlery and the six of us stared at each other.

"You don't think they know anything about this?" Hermione asked. "About Crouch and everything?"

"No," Harry said. "If it was something that serious, they'd tell someone. They'd tell Dumbledore."

Ron, however, was starting to look uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"Well..." he said, "I dunno if they would. They've been obsessed with making money lately. I noticed that when I was hanging around with them- when- you know-"

"We weren't talking," Harry finished the sentence for him. "But...blackmail?"

"It's this joke shop idea they have," Ron went on. "I thought they were only saying it to annoy Mum, but they really mean it, they want to start one. They've only got one more year at Hogwarts, they keep going on about how they want to start thinking about their future and Dad can't help them and they need gold to get started."

Hermione was looking uncomfortable now as well.

"Yeah, but they wouldn't do anything against the law to get gold."

"Wouldn't they?" Ron said, looking skeptical. "I dunno...they don't mind breaking the rules, do they?"

"Yes, but this is the actual law, not some silly school rule," Hermione said, starting to look scared. "They'll get a lot more than detention for blackmail! Ron...maybe you should tell Percy..."

"Are you mental?" Ron said. "Tell Percy! He'll probably do a Crouch and turn them in!" He turned around and looked out the window.

"Come on," Fang said. "Let's go get breakfast."

"Do you think it's too early to go talk to Professor Moody?" Hermione asked as we walked down the staircase.

"Oh yeah," Iggy said. "He'd probably blast a hole through the door if we tried waking him up at the crack of dawn; he'll think someone was trying to attack him."

"We'll do it at break," Harry said.

History of Magic seemed to go slower than usual. I kept looking at my watch, but it was going so slow I thought it had broken. The six of us were so tired that we would have gladly fallen asleep right there and then- even Hermione wasn't taking her usual notes.

When the bell finally rang, we hurried out to the corridors and towards the Dark Arts classroom, where we found Moody leaving it. He looked as tired as we felt. The eyelid of his normal eye was drooping, making his face seem even more lopsided.

"Professor Moody?" Harry called as we walked toward him through the crowd.

"Hello, Potter," Mood growled. His magical eye moved to follow a group of first-years, who sped up, looking nervous; it rolled to the back of his head and watched as they walked around the corner before he spoke again.

"Come in here."

He stood back to let us into the now empty classroom, limped in after us and closed the door.

"Did you find him?" I asked as soon as the door closed. "Crouch?"

"No," Moody said. He moved over to the desk, sat down and straightened out his wooden leg and pulled out his hip flask.

"Did you use the map?" Harry asked.

"Of course," Moody said, taking a swing from his flask. "Took a leaf from your book. Summoned it from my office into the forest. He wasn't anywhere on it."

"So he Disapparated?" Ron said.

"You can't Disapparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, Ron!" Hermione said. "There are other ways he could have disappeared, aren't there, Professor?"

Moody's magical eye quivered as it rested on Hermione. "You're another one who might think about a career as an Auror," he said. "Mind works the right way, Granger."

Hermione blushed pink with pleasure.

"Well, he wasn't invisible," Harry said, "the map shows invisible people. He must've left the grounds."

"Did he do it in his own mind, or did someone make him?" I said.

"Yeah, someone could've flown up with a broom and flown off with him, couldn't they?" Ron said, looking hopefully at Moody, as if he hoped Moody would tell him that he had the makings of being an Auror as well.

"We can't rule out kidnap," Moody said.

"So," Iggy said, "D'you reckon he's in Hogsmeade somewhere?"

"He could be anywhere," Moody said, "Only thing we actually know for sure is that he's not here."

He yawned, making his scars stretch widely, and his lopsided mouth revealed a number of missing teeth. Then he said, "Dumbledore's told me that you six fancy yourselves as investigators, but there's nothing you can do for Crouch. The Ministry'll be looking for them now, Dumbledore's notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."

"What?" Harry said. "Oh yeah..."

"Should be up your street, this one," Moody said. "From what Dumbledore's told me, you've managed to get through stuff like this plenty of times before. Broke your way through a series of obstacles guarding the Philosophers Stone in your first year, didn't you?"

"We helped," Ron said quickly. "I mean, we all helped."

Moody grinned. "Well, you help him practice for this task. I'll be very surprised if you don't win, Potter," he said. "In the meantime, constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance." He took another drink from his hip flask, and his magical eye swivelled to the window, where the topmost sail of the Durmstrang sail was visible.

"The five of you," Moody said, his normal eye on me, Fang, Iggy, Ron and Hermione, "you stick close to Potter, all right? I'm keeping an eye on things, but still...you can never have too many eyes out..." Then both of his eyes landed on me. "You too. You're the oldest and the leader of your little `flock' and the one that was pictured, and most mentioned. Also, you're the daughter of a murderer. That makes you a target."

"A target for who?" I asked.

He shrugged, his magical eye looking at the door behind us. "Anyone," he answered simply.

I stared at him. I didn't know whether I should be scared about that or not. I never really thought about anyone other then the whitecoats and Erasers trying to hurt us.

Sirius sent our owl back the very next morning. It fluttered down beside Harry at the same second as a tawny one landed beside Hermione, that days Daily Prophet clutched in it's mouth. She took the newspaper, scanned the first few pages and said, "Ha! She hasn't gotten word on Crouch yet!" then joined the rest of us in reading Sirius's letter.

Harry and Max,

What do you two think you're playing at? Harry, you go walking off into the forest with Viktor Krum, and Max, you're flying alone at night. I want you both to swear by return owl that you are not going to be walking with anyone else at night, or flying alone. There is someone highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It's obvious to me that they wanted to stop Crouch from seeing Dumbledore, and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You both could have been killed.
Harry, your name didn't get into that goblet by accident. If someone wants to attack you, they're on their last chance. Stay close to the others, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and prepare yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming. Learn a few hexes. There is absolutely nothing you can do about Crouch now, so keep your head down and stay out of trouble. And that goes for you too, Max.
I'll be waiting on your letter swearing that the two of you won't go straying out of bounds again.
Sirius.

"Who's he, to lecture me about going out-of-bounds?" Harry said hotly and he folded up Sirius's letter and put it in his pocket. "After all the stuff he did at school!"

"He's worried about you!" Hermione said sharply. "Just like Moody and Hagrid! So listen to him!"

"No one's tried to attack me all year," Harry said. "The only thing that came after Max was a few Erasers, and they have nothing to do with this stuff. No one's done anything to me at all-"

"Except putting your name in the Goblet of Fire," Iggy said. "I don't know how we didn't think of this before, but someone inside the school had to have let the Erasers in the grounds. How else would they in? And Harry, maybe Sir- maybe Snuffles is right. Maybe this is the task they're going to try and get you."

"Look," Harry said impatiently, "let's say Sirius is right, and someone Stunned Krum to kidnap Crouch. Well, they could've been in the trees near me and Max, right? But they waited until we left to get Dumbledore before they acted, didn't they? So it seems as if neither me nor Max was the target."

"It wouldn't have looked like an accident if they murdered you in the forest!" Hermione said. "But in the task-"

"They didn't care about attacking Krum," I said, getting annoyed. "Why didn't they just kill the three of us? Could of made it look as if we all had a fight or something."

"I don't understand any of this either," Hermione said. "I just know that there are a lot of weird things happening and I don't like it. Moody's right...Sirius is right- you've got to train hard for the third task. And make sure you write back to Sirius and promise him you won't go wandering around again."

For the next few days, the six of us, and sometimes Nudge, would spend most of our free time in either the library looking up hexes and spells, or else in empty classrooms practising those hexes and spells. Harry was concentrating on the Stunning Spell, but that meant he needed to actually do the spell on people- and we were the only ones he could do it on.

"Can't we just kidnap Mrs. Norris?" Fang moaned on Monday lunchtime as eh lay flat in his back in the Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and reawoken by Harry for the fifth time in a row. "Let's Stun her for a while. Should be fun."

"You could always use Dobby, Harry," Ron said from the corner where he was rubbing his backside. "He'd do anything for you Harry. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I'm aching all over."

"Well that's your own fault for missing the cushions each time, isn't it?" I said, rearranging the pile of cushions we took from Flitwick's cabinet. "Just try and fall straight backwards."

"Once you're Stunned you can't aim that well, Max!" Ron said angrily. "Why don't you take a turn!"

"I did it before Fang! It's Iggy's turn now!" I said.

"I think Harry's pretty much got it now anyway," Iggy said hastily. "We should start on something else."

"Iggy's right, we should start something new..." Hermione said, thinking. "We don't have to worry about Disarming, you've been able to do that for ages. We should start on one of the hexes this evening."

She looked down at the list we made in the library.

"This one seems good," she said. ,"the Impediment Curse. Slows down anything that's trying to attack you, Harry. We'll start with that one."

The bell rang, and we hastily shoved the cushions back into the cabinet and slipped out of the classroom.

"See you at dinner!" Hermione called as she set off for Arithmancy, while the rest of us headed towards the North Tower for Divination.

"It's going to be boiling in Trelawney's room," Iggy said as we started up the staircase towards the silver ladder and the trapdoor.

And of course, he was right. The dimly lit room was sweltering hot, and the fumes from the perfuming fire seemed heavier than before. My head swam as I walked over to the tables by the curtained windows. Harry sat beside me, his face flushed from the heat as well. When Professor Trelawney wasn't looking, I reached up and opened the window a tiny bit, then me and Harry sat close to each other so the breeze played across our faces.

"My dears," Trelawney said, sitting in the winged armchair and she faced the class, peering at everyone with her strangely enlarged eyes, "we have nearly finished our work on planetary divination. Today, however, will be an excellent opportunity to examine the effects on Mars because he is placed most interestingly at this present time. If you will all look this way, I'll dim the lights..."

She waved her wand and the lamps across the room dimmed. The fire was the only source of light in the room. Professor Trelawney bent down and pulled a miniature model of the solar system out from under her chair, contained in a glass dome. It was beautiful, each moon glimmering in place around the nine planets and fiery sun, all of them hanging in thin air inside the globe. I watched lazily as Professor Trelawney began to point out the different angles Mars was making to Neptune. The heavily perfumed fumes washed over me, and the breeze from the window was making my fringe sweep lazily across my face. I could hear an insect humming gently somewhere behind the curtain. My eyelids began to drop...

Suddenly, I sat up. My heart was racing and I felt like I couldn't breath. I was panicking, but I couldn't see why. My eyes darted across the entire room, taking everything in but I couldn't see anything or hear anything that could make me panic. But yet, my heart was still thudding madly in my chest. My breaths were short and ragged. My vision was blurring, I couldn't see anything clearly, I closed my eyes...

"Max! Max!"

Someone was shaking me, yelling at me, but I couldn't open my eyes. Something was there, something dangerous, something that could hurt us all. I had to warn everyone, but I still couldn't get my breathing under control. I felt light-headed, I couldn't concentrate...

Then, just as soon as it had started, it was over. I took a deep, shaky breath and slowly opened my eyes. I was lying on the floor in Professor Trelawney's class, with everyone surrounding me. My chest was aching, and I still felt dizzy.

"Max?! Are you okay?"

I turned my head towards the voice. It was Iggy, who was kneeling by my head. I nodded slowly, then Iggy helped me sit up. I looked beside me, and saw that Ron was crouched down beside Harry, who was lying beside me, his hands covering his head, whimpering quietly.

"What happened to him?" I asked, gasping.

Iggy smirked. "Only you could pass out, not breathing properly, and ask about someone else." I shrugged, massaging my chest. "Seriously, though. What happened to him?"

"Well, he fell asleep, then a few seconds after you collapsed, Harry did. You weren't breathing properly, and Harry was clutching at his scar, whimpering. We didn't know what was happening-"

Trelawney came up behind Iggy, and pushed him to the side. "What was it, Ride? A premonition? What did you see?"

I stared at her. "Nothing," I said. I couldn't help looking around the class. I had been so sure that something was wrong, that something was going to hurt us. But why would I feel like that if nothing was there?

That was when Harry opened his eyes, and removed his hands from his head. His scar stood out against his pale and sweaty face, and his green eyes were watering. "You alright?" I asked him. Did the same thing happen to him? Or was it something different?

Harry nodded, grimacing.

"I think you two should go to the hospital wing," Fang said. I looked at Harry, who nodded, but I could see that he wasn't really going to go to the hospital wing. I stood up, my knees a bit wobbly, but I stayed on my feet. Harry stood up beside me, and when we started walking, the class started backing away, looking unnerved.

"See you later," I muttered to Ron, Iggy, and Fang. Harry and I walked down the trapdoor of Trelawney's room, and when we got down to the corridor, we set off in the different direction to the hospital wing. Sirius had told us that if anything weird happened, we should go to Dumbledore's office. And that's exactly what we were doing.

"So what happened to you?" I asked.

Harry looked at me. "Remember the dream I had before school started? It was like that, but different. Voldemort, Wormtail, and Nagini were there. Wormtail made a mistake or something, and Voldemort told him that someone was dead. He- he mentioned me. And some girl, I don't know who he was talking about. Then Voldemort, he- he started torturing Wormtail."

I stared at Harry. That was so much worse than what happened to me.

"What happened to you?"

I sighed. "I'm not sure. I didn't really see anything. I just started feeling panicked, then I couldn't breath. It felt like something was in that room, trying to attack us." I looked up at Harry. "Not as bad as what happened to you," I said, smirking slightly.

Harry smiled at me, seeming to relax slightly. We stopped walking before the stone gargoyle that protected Dumbledore's office. As we stood in front of it, that's when I realised that I didn't know the password.

"Er...please tell me that you know the password?" I said, looking at Harry. Harry shook his head.

"Brilliant," I muttered. "Can you remember what the password was in second year?"

Harry nodded. "Sherbet lemon?" he tried, but the gargoyle didn't move.

I groaned. "We just have to guess the password," I said. "Let's just guess as many sweets as we can until we get it right."

So we called out as many sweets we knew, but still the gargoyle remained still.

"Oh come on," Harry cried. "We really need to see Dumbledore! It's urgent!" But still, the gargoyle stayed still.

Harry kicked at it, hoping to get it to do something, but the only thing it achieved was Harry nearly breaking his toes.

"Chocolate frogs!" I said angrily. "Sugar quills! Cockroach Cluster!"

The gargoyle jumped aside, and me and Harry stared at it .

"Cockroach Cluster?" I said, amazed. "I was only joking...Dumbledore has weird taste..."

We hurried toward the gap and stepped onto the foot of a spiral staircase, which started moving slowly upwards as the doors closed behind us, taking us up to a polished oak door with a brass knocker.

We could hear voices from inside the office. I shared a look with Harry, and we both nodded. We stepped off the moving staircase, and stood by the door, listening.

"Dumbledore, I'm sorry but I just don't see the connection, don't see it at all!" It was the voice of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. "Ludo says that Bertha's more than capable of getting herself lost. I agree we would have expected to have found her by now, but all the same there is no evidence of foul play, Dumbledore, none at all. As for her disappearance being linked with Barty Crouch's-"

"And what is it you think happened to Barty Crouch, Minister?" came Moody's growling voice.

"I see two possibilities, Alaster," Fudge said. "Either Crouch has finally lost his mind, gone off wondering somewhere-"

"He wandered quite quickly in that case, Cornelius," Dumbledore said calmly.

"Or else- well..." Fudge sounded embarrassed. "Well, I'll reserve judgement until after I've seen the place where he was found, but you say that it was near the Beauxbatons carriage? Dumbledore, you know what that woman is!"

"I consider her a very able headmistress- and an excellent dancer," Dumbledore said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Dumbledore, come!" said Fudge angrily. "Don't you think you might be prejudiced in her favour because of Hagrid? They don't all turn out harmless- if indeed you can call Hagrid harmless, with that monster obsession he has-"

"I no more suspect Madame Maxime than Hagrid," Dumbledore said, just as calmly. "I think it possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius."

"Can we wrap up this discussion?" Moody growled.

"Yes, yes, lets go down to the grounds then," Fudge said impatiently.

"No, it's not that," Moody said. "It's just that Mr Potter and Miss Ride would like to talk to you, Headmaster. They're just outside the door."

I have no words to describe how terribly sorry I am that it took me this long. As I said at the start of the chapter, I've been studying for my Mocks (but thankfully they're over now) we've been getting heaps and heaps of homework, I feel like my heads about to explode. Not to mention I've been preparing for my Music practical (for the Junior Cert, I need to sing in front of an examiner and I get marked on it) and I've been trying to get used to singing in public, but I still can't sing in front of more than 3 people...

So, for the past two months, I've been so freaking busy that I've barely gotten time to go near my laptop at all. Also, I've had MAJOR writers block, so please don't focus on how badly this chapter is written, just focus on the fact that there's a new chapter! :D

I want to thank the people who messaged and reviewed, telling me to hurry up and telling me that they were waiting for a new chapter. I wouldn't have gotten this chapter up yet if it hadn't been for those people, so this chapter is dedicated all for you guys! Thanks :D

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'm sooooooooooo terribly sorry for how long it took :( hopefully, I never take that long again, but I can't make any promises. This year is going to be completely crazy, so sorry if they take a really long time.

But I will never give up on this story. I promise that. I will never just stop writing this story, that's not the kind of person I am. And, Arkell26, asked whether I was dead or missing... I would get a way to let you guys know if that ever happened (hopefully it won't) so don't worry about that.

I really love you guys, and thanks for everything :D

So, if you want cookies and butterbeer, you know the drill...

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