The Dream
"So Crouch Jr must've hid somewhere and Stunned Krum before dealing with his father." Chrys said. "But what did he do with him?"
"Most likely something gruesome, if he had a bad relationship with his father." David said, making Arthur start imagining gruesome images in his mind.
It was daybreak when the trio crept out of the dormitories very early and hurried to the Owlery to send a note to Sirius.
They now stood looking out at the currently misty grounds, all puffy eyed and pale as they were up late into the night, talking about Crouch.
"Why would Crouch be responsible for what happened to Bertha Jorkins?" Chrys asked.
"Because he had to have cast a Memory Charm on her to ensure she didn't blab about his son being alive. And he must've gotten carried away, resulting in her being the way she was. And she ended up being killed by Voldemort." Arthur replied.
"And he mentioned his son?" David asked.
"Yeah." Arthur replied. "He clearly felt responsible for freeing his son and therefore allowing Voldemort to gain an ally, one that is in the school as we speak."
"And Crouch was under the Imperius Curse?" Chrys asked.
"How else would his disappearance be explained? Plus he said he escaped, clearly from Voldemort and Wormtail. How else would they keep him under their watch, considering how powerful of a wizard he is?"
"Then fighting against it must've caused his mind to break." Chrys said.
"So if Crouch Jr Stunned Krum and disposed of his father, he had to have hid nearby. Maybe with an Invisibility Cloak, just like at the Quidditch World Cup." David theorised.
"Makes sense." Chrys said.
"Wait, shh!" Arthur said.
Someone was climbing up the steps to the Owlery and Arthur was able to hear two voices arguing, coming closer and closer.
"...that's blackmail, though. We could end up in trouble for doing this."
"Yeah, well we've tried being nice, we're gonna have to play dirty. Imagine the Ministry hearing what he did."
"I'm serious, if you put that in, it's blackmail! Dad would be furious!"
"Maybe, but would you be complaining if we get paid?"
The Owlery door banged open and Jack and Kevin came through the threshold, freezing upon seeing the trio.
"What are you doing here?" Both David and Jack said at the same time.
"Sending a letter." Both Arthur and Kevin said in unison.
"What, at this time?" Chrys and Jack this time.
"Fine." Jack grinned. "We won't ask what you're doing if you don't ask us." He was holding up a sealed envelope in his hand. Arthur remembered the bet the twins made with Bagman at the Quidditch World Cup and also remembered the leprechaun gold. He was thinking that Bagman paid them with it and now they're trying to get what is rightly their money back.
"Who were you blackmailing?" David asked his older brothers, who frowned at him.
"We've told you before, it's none of your business." Jack said.
"But if it's blackmail, it is. Like Kevin said, you could end up in trouble and dad wouldn't be pleased."
"You're younger than us, you don't get to tell us what to do. And you're not even a Prefect." Jack glared at him before he and Kevin walked further into the Owlery and the trio left.
"Those two have been obsessed with making money lately for their joke shop idea. I hate to think about who they're blackmailing." David muttered.
"Let's just hope they don't end up breaking the law." Chrys said.
"They would never go that far." David told her as they went down the spiral staircase.
Sirius sent their owl back the next morning. It fluttered down beside Arthur at the same time as a tawny owl landed in front of Chrys, clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet in its beak.
She took the newspaper, scanned the first few pages before saying "Nothing significant, of course Skeeter couldn't even write about Crouch if she tried."
Chrys then joined Arthur and David in reading Sirius' letter about what happened the night before last.
Arthur - what do you think you are playing at, walking off into the Forest with Viktor Krum? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night. Crouch Jr has plans for you, remember? It is clear that he wanted to stop his father from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from him in the dark. You could have been killed.
Your name didn't get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. Crouch Jr is on his last chance. Stay close to David and Chrys, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practise Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn't go amiss either. There's nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I'm waiting for your letter giving me your word you won't stray out of bounds again.
Sirius
"Honestly, I get he's worried about me and wants me to be okay, but this is just going too far." Arthur groaned indignantly as he folded up the letter, putting it in his robes. "It's like he thinks I can't take care of myself."
"He's right to be like that Arthur, he's your godfather after all." Chrys reminded him.
"I'm just sick and tired of people thinking I need to be looked after, Hagrid was bad enough." Arthur said.
"Look, we understand, but you should do what they tell you, you never know what Crouch Jr would do now. Plus, you need to train for the third task." David stated.
The Hogwarts grounds looked the most inviting now despite the fact that Arthur had to spend indoors.
For the next few days, he spent all his free time either in the library with David, Chrys and Mike, who decided to help out, looking up various hexes, or in empty classrooms, where they'd sneak off for Arthur to practise.
Arthur mainly centred on practising the Stunning Spell, having never used it before. The thing about practising it, though, is that it required David, Chrys and Mike to make certain sacrifices.
"Couldn't we have just kidnapped Mrs Norris?" Davd groaned during Monday lunchtime, lying flat on his back in the middle of their Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and reawakened by Arthur the fifth time in a row. "We can Stun her no problem."
"It's not our fault you keep missing the cushions." Mike playfully retorted as he and Chrys rearranged the cushions that were used for the Banishing Spell.
"Yeah, well, aftering being Stunned, you can't aim too well." David replied. "Why don't you take a turn?"
"No need, I've already got the hang of the Stunning Spell." Arthur said. "And I don't need to practise disarming, I'm practically a natural at it."
"Then why don't we start on some hexes this evening?" Chrys said as she looked down the list they made in the library.
"This is a good one. The Impediment Jinx. Should slow down anything that's trying to attack you. We can start with that one."
The bell then rang and the four hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwick's cupboard before slipping out of the classroom.
"See you guys at dinner!" Chrys said as she set off for Arithmancy, whereas the three boys headed for the North Tower, for Divination.
Broad strips of dazzling gold sunlight fell across the corridor from the high windows and the sky outside was so brightly blue that it seemed as though it had been enamelled.
"It's gonna be unbearable in Trelawney's room, she never puts out that fire." David said as they went up the staircase to the silver ladder and the trapdoor.
He proved to be right. The dimly lit room was swelteringly hot and the fumes from the perfumed fire were now heavier than ever, making Arthur feel very sick and sleepy. He, David and Mike made their way to one of the curtained windows and sat by it. While Trelawney looked the other way, disentangling her shawl from a lamp, Arthur opened the window an inch or two and settled back in his chintz armchair, allowing a soft breeze to brush his face, now making the room tolerable.
"My dears…" Trelawney said, sitting down in her winged armchair in front of the class, peering around at them all with her oddly enlarged eyes. "...we have almost finished our work on planetary divination. Today, however, will be an excellent opportunity to examine the effects of Mars, for he is placed most interestingly at the present time. If you will all look this way, I will dim the lights…."
She waved her wand and all the lamps went out. The fire was now the only source of light in the room. Trelawney bent down and lifted from under her chair a model of the solar system, which was contained within a glass dome.
Arthur had to admit that it was a beautiful object, with each of the moons glimmering in place around the nine planets and the fiery sun, all of which in thin air beneath the glass.
Arthur watched as Trelawney started pointing out the fascinating angle Mars was making with Neptune.
The heavily perfumed fumes started washing over him, though, and the breeze from the window brushed his face making his eyelids droop.
He found himself riding on the back of an eagle owl, soaring through the clear blue sky to an old, ivy-covered house he remembered from his dream in the summer, set high on a hillside.
They flew lower and lower with the wind blowing pleasantly in Arthur's face, until they reached a dark and broken window in the upper storey of the building and entered.
They now flew along a gloomy passageway, to a room at the very end… through the door they went into a dark room whose windows were boarded up….
Arthur had now left the owl's back and now watched as it fluttered across the room and into a chair with its back to him. He saw two dark shapes on the floor beside the chair… both stirring.
He saw a huge snake… who he remembered to be Nagini… and the other was a man… a short, balding man with watery eyes and a pointed nose. It was Wormtail, who was now wheezing and sobbing on the hearth rug….
"You are in luck, Wormtail." A familiar cold and high pitched voice said from the depths of the chair the owl landed on. "You are very fortunate indeed. Your blunder has not ruined everything. He is dead."
If Arthur was right, Voldemort just said that Crouch is now dead, thanks to his son.
"My Lord!" Wormtail gasped. "My Lord, I am… I am so pleased… and so sorry…."
"Nagini…" Voldemort said. "...you are out of luck. I will not be feeding Wormtail to you, after all… but never mind, never mind… there is still Arthur Pendergast…."
The snake hissed, its tongue fluttering. Arthur was disturbed upon hearing Voldemort say that he'd feed his snake with himself.
"Now, Wormtail, perhaps one more little reminder why I will not tolerate another blunder from you…."
"My Lord… no… I beg you…."
The tip of a bone white wand emerged from the depths of the chair, pointed at Wormtail.
"Crucio." Voldemort said and Wormtail screamed like every nerve in his body was on fire.
That was the last thing Arthur saw before he found himself waking up with a jolt and a pain in his scar that was even worse than what he felt when he woke up from that dream in the summer.
David and Mike looked at him, concerned as Arthur looked at them with a look of horror, panting heavily and sweating.
"What's wrong?" David whispered to avoid attraction from Trelawney.
"I'll tell you later." Arthur said, knowing what he had to do,
"Professor, I need to go to the hospital wing. I'm feeling sick." He then said aloud for Trelawney to hear, lying as he had to visit Dumbledore.
"My dear, did you experience a premonition? An apparition?"
"No, I just need to go to the hospital wing." Arthur snarled as he stood and picked his bag up.
"See you guys later." Arthur muttered to David and Mike before he walked to the trapdoor, ignoring Trelawney, who seemed like she was denied a real treat.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stepladder, he set off as fast as he could to Dumbledore's office, partly because Sirius advised him to do so.
He was shocked to have another vivid dream about Voldemort. It definitely took place at the same time he fell asleep in that room, so there's no doubt that it really happened. And it definitely proved that Crouch escaped and Wormtail paid the price for his mistake.
Arthur walked right up to the metal gryphon that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office and now had to think of what other sweet related password Dumbledore would use.
He decided to go in alphabetical order with Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, even though Dumbledore didn't like them.
That didn't work as the gryphon didn't move.
"Okay then… Chocolate Frog! Cockroach cluster!"
That last one worked as the gryphon sprang to life and moved aside.
Arthur hurried through the gap in the walls and stepped onto the spiral stone staircase that moved slowly upwards as the doors closed behind him, taking him up to a polished oak door with a brass door knocker.
He heard voices come from within the office and so he stepped off the staircase and listened in.
"Dumbledore, I'm afraid I don't see the connection, don't see it at all!" The voice of the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge said. "Ludo says Bertha's perfectly capable of getting herself lost. I agree we would have expected to have found her by now, but all the same, we've no evidence of foul play, Dumbledore, none at all. As for her disappearance being linked with Barty Crouch's!"
Arthur thought that it would make sense that there wouldn't be signs of foul play, Voldemort doesn't want anyone to know that he's planning to come back to power. He's that careful.
"And what do you think's happened to Barty Crouch, Minister?" Crouch Jr growled in his disguise as Moody.
"I see two possibilities, Alastor." Fudge replied. "Either Crouch has finally cracked, more than likely, I'm sure you'll agree, given his personal history, lost his mind, and gone off wandering off somewhere -"
"He wandered extremely quickly, if that's the case, Cornelius." Dumbledore said calmly as Arthur was flabbergasted that Fudge would throw Crouch under the bus like that. It's like he was petty against him.
"Or else - well…." Fudge said, sounding embarrassed. "Well, I'll reserve judgement until after I've seen the place where he was found, but you say it was just past the Beauxbatons carriage? Dumbledore, you what that woman is?"
Arthur was now utterly disgusted by Fudge's clear prejudice towards Maxime for being a half-giant. He's trying to blame her for what happened to Crouch.
"I consider her to be a very able Headmistress, and an excellent dancer." Dumbledore said quietly.
"Dumbledore, come!" Fudge said 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 fixation he's got -"
"I no more suspect Madame Maxime than Hagrid." Dumbledore said calmly, though he was clearly holding back his frustration at Fudge. "I think that it is possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius." He then said, putting him in his place.
"Can we wrap up this discussion?" Crouch Jr growled.
"Yes, yes, let's go down into the grounds, then." Fudge said impatiently.
"No, it's not that…" Crouch Jr said. "...it's just that Pendergast wants a word with you, Dumbledore. He's just outside the door."
Fudge just proved one reason why someone like him shouldn't be in a position of power, considering his prejudice.
