The Egg and the Map

With the idea that he'd have to get the egg to the Prefects' bathroom, Arthur decided that he'll do it at night, where he could do it feely and as long as he wants.

Plus, the Prefects' bathroom is a place for fewer people so he'd have less chance to be disturbed.

He planned this out extremely carefully as he didn't want to get caught by Filch, the caretaker, out of bed at night for a second time. This means he'll need to use both the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map, the two most useful items in Arthur's possession when it comes to avoid being caught.

The map especially was really useful because it showed all of Hogwarts, including the many shortcuts and secret passageways, but most significantly, it showed the people inside the castle as minuscule, labelled dots, moving through the corridors, therefore Arthur knew in advance if someone approached the bathroom.


On Thursday night, Arthur sneaked up to bed, puth the Cloak on and crept back downstairs, and like the night Hagrid showed him the dragons, he waited for the portrait hole to open. This time, it was David who had waited outside to give the Fat Lady the password ("Banana fritters").

"Be careful." David muttered as he climbed into the common room while Arthur crept out past him.

It was awkward to move around under the Cloak tonight due to the fact Arthur had the heavy egg under one arm and the map held out in front of his nose with the other. But the moonlit corridors were empty and silent so by checking the map at strategic intervals, Arthur was able to make sure he didn't run into anyone that he wanted to avoid, mainly Snape and Filch.

He eventually reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, a lost looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, and located the right door, leaning close to it and muttered "Pine-fresh", just as Cedric instructed.

The door creaked open and Arthur slipped inside, bolting the door behind him and pulled the Invisibility Cloak off, looking around.

Arthur, for a moment, grew jealous that Prefects got to use this bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, with everything being made if white marble, even an empty rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. Around the pool's edges stood around a hundred golden taps, each with different coloured jewels set onto the handles. There was also a diving board, which Arthur thought was just showing off.

There were long white linen curtains hanging at the windows, as well as a large pile of fluffy white towels that sat in a corner.

Another thing of note was a single golden framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid, who was currently fast asleep on a rock, her long hair fluttering over her face whenever she snored.

Arthur put the Cloak down, along with the egg and map before moving forward, his footsteps echoing off the walls.

He might've wanted to fully check the place out, but he had to solve the egg.

So he put one of the fluffy towels, the Cloak, the map and egg to the side of the swimming pool sized bath and knelt down to turn on a few of the taps.

It was clear that they each carried different kinds of bubble bath mixed with the water, though it wasn't the type that Arthur experienced before.

One tap gushed out pink and blue bubbles the size of footballs, another poured out ice white foam that was so thick that Arthur thought it could support his weight if he tested it out. Then a third sent heavily perfumed purple clouds that hovered over the surface of the water.

He tried some other taps out until the deep pool was full of hot water, foam and bubbles (which took a short time, considering its size). Arthur turned the taps off and pulled off his pyjamas, slippers and dressing gown until he was only in his underwear and slid into the water.

It turned out to be so deep that his feet were barely able to touch the bottom. He then did a couple of lengths before he swam back to the side and treaded through the water and stared at the egg.

"I'd try putting it in the water, if I were you."

Arthur spun around with wide eyes and spotted the ghost of a very glum looking girl that sat cross legged on top of one of the taps. It was Moaning Myrtle, who normally sobbed in the S-bend of a toilet three floors below.

"Get out of here, Myrtle!" Arthur said in outrage. "Can't you tell I want some privacy!"

"You haven't been to see me for ages." Myrtle replied.

"Why should I? I didn't feel the need to see you again after all that drama with the Chamber of Secrets." Arthur shot back. "Now get out of here!"

"Fine!" Myrtle cried out in tears before she hovered off through the wall.

Arthur then grabbed the egg, now on his own, and held it out in front of him over the water before he lowered it beneath the foamy surface, opening it.

Instead of a wailing screech, there was a gurgling song.

Arthur took a deep breath before he dived under the surface, sitting on the marble bottom of the bath, hearing a rather beautiful yet haunting chorus singing to him from the egg, which the glowing bubbles were now more calm:

Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching, ponder this:

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour - the prospect's black

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

Arthur then let himself float back upwards, breaking the bubbly surface, shaking his hair out from his eyes. He then closed the egg back up and placed it on the side so that he could sit there, thinking.

He thought about the words and how the song could only be heard underwater.

He gazed over at the painting of the mermaid and that's when he realised what the song meant.

The second task would involve swimming in the lake and retrieving something he'd sorely missed from selkies. He knew it had to be selkies because they're the only merpeople that reside in Scotland, where Hogwards was located.

Now that he knew what the task would be, it helped explain Krum diving into the lake. He was practising.

But then he realised something else. He didn't exactly know how he'd be able to hold his breath for an hour, both with spells or any other source. And with how large and deep that lake was… he'd need whatever could help.

And Arthur was growing concerned about what would be taken from him that he'd sorely miss. He could think of a whole myriad of things he'd miss, among them being his friends, who he dreaded if it were any of them, especially with what the song implied if he didn't find them within an hour's time.

Realising that he was now just wasting time in the bath, he climbed out and dried himself, pulling on his pyjamas and dressing gown again.

Arthur then put the Invisibility Cloak back on right before he exited the bathroom.

Once he was in the dark corridor, Arthur looked at the Marauder's Map to check if the coast was clear. He saw the dots belonging to Filch and his cat Mrs Norros were safely in their office. All that moved was Peeves, who bounced around the trophy room on the floor above.

Arthur was taking his first step back to Gryffindor Tower when he noticed something else on the map that struck him as odd.

It seemed that Peeves wasn't the only one that was moving on the map. There was a single dot that moved around a room in the bottom left hand corner - Snape's office. Yet the dot wasn't labelled Severus Snape. It said Bartemius Crouch.

Arthur stared at the dot in confusion. Crouch was apparently supposed to be too ill to go to work or come to the Yule Ball, so why would he be sneaking around in Hogwarts at one o'clock in the morning? He watched closely as the dot moved around the room, pausing here and there.

Arthur couldn't risk getting caught if he headed off to try and figure this out, and he knew he could just watch the dot on the map. With these thoughts, he carried on back to Gryffindor Tower.

Upon entering through the portrait hole, he sat on the couch in front of the embering flame and watched the Crouch dot with focus.

He watched it still in Snape's office until it walked out and wandered through the castle, heading directly to Moody's office where another shocker was seen.

There was already a dot there in his office, perfectly still, that read Alastor Moody. Crouch entered the office and moved around.

This left Arthur very confused as he tried to find logic behind what he had just seen.

Eventually, his thoughts went to when the Crouch dot was in Snape's office, moving around. It was as though he was looking for something. That's when he remembered that Chrys did the same thing in second year for key ingredients for Polyjuice Potion.

That was when it now started making sense.

Perhaps the map would show multiple people with the same name, like a Senior and Junior, but not show those for whatever reason. So if Arthur was right, then this could be Barty Crouch Junior. He never heard anything about a son, but there's still the chance.

And so Crouch Junior has been using Moody directly as a source for his hairs for Polyjuice Potion, stored in that trunk with the seven keyholes.

Mood would be a perfect cover, especially with how paranoid he is. He's so paranoid that he only drinks from his hip flask, which Crouch Junior could use to drink his Polyjuice Potion.

And it goes in line with how Moody was attacked before he was supposed to come to Hogwarts. Crouch Junior, and Wormtail, based on the dream he had before the World Cup, must've snuck up on him, took him down and Crouch Junior, who must be Voldemort's faithful servant, took Moody's place, acting like the real Moody, even fooling Dumbledore.

So this means that Voldemort is indeed behind Arthur's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire with Crouch Junior doing exactly as he said right after Arhur's name came out.

Of course, he'll need confirmation that Crouch did have a son to prove this to be true, despite what the map showed, because he didn't want to come off as crazy to his friends and Dumbledore if he told them about his theory.

But regardless, he now had to keep his guard up around the fake Moody.


The plot thickens.