Chapter Forty
It only seemed like ten minutes for Harry before he was sitting on the train again, waving goodbye to a tearful Danica who was begging Lily to let her go to school with Harry, after all it was only five years early.
"I can't believe he was going to hit her, a gentlemen should never hit a lady." Draco said, pulling on his robes.
"Well I think that very much depends on if she was trying to hit him first." Daphne said.
"She wasn't," Harry said, "Well at least not from what I could see, she was just being a bitch."
"What do you think she was going out for?" Pansy asked.
"How am I meant to know, I'm only roughly related to her and that's hardly by choice." Draco smirked.
"I think her being your aunt is a little more than 'roughly' related." Hermione laughed.
"Point taken, but the rest still stands. I honestly have no idea what she gets up to. Strange that Rodolphus cares, he's not exactly known for being the most loving husband in the world." Draco sighed.
"I bet it's because she's pregnant again. It seems so strange, she barely lets him touch her." Neville said, "You need touching after all for babies to come along."
"Really? I never knew." Pansy grinned, rolling her eyes.
Harry leaned back against the seat, finishing tying his tie.
Hermione frowned, reading over a copy of Witch Weekly, "There is something really weird going on."
"You're going to have to narrow that down a little." Draco said.
Hermione smoothed the page on the small table in the carriage and pointed to an article, a large picture of Rita Skeeter beaming out at them.
"I wont make you read it, most of it is made up anyway but she did get one thing right," Hermione blushed, "Well it's in here that Viktor asked me to spend the summer with him, I hadn't told anyone yet. I'd not even asked my parents."
"You can't go." Daphne said, "Maybe next summer but you're only fifteen!"
Hermione blushed as red as her tie, "Nothing like that would happen."
"Of course not." Pansy said, "She just meant that it would be very improper, I'm sure your parents would say the same thing."
Hermione pointed back to the page of the article, "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is how did she know? We were alone when Viktor asked me, we were still in the lake, after the second challenge so there was no way people could hear us from the shore."
Harry frowned, "Viktor wouldn't tell her, he's really not that sort of person. That is very strange."
Hermione nodded, "Exactly."
"There was no one else there when Hagrid was talking to Madam Maxime either, well apart from us." Draco chimed in.
"It's very strange." Pansy said, "I think we need to keep our eyes open."
Harry nodded, he didn't really have much room in his head to be worrying about Rita Skeeter and her trouble causing articles right now. The third and final task had seemed very far away before he'd gone for the Easter holiday but now, as the train pulled into the station, Harry felt like he was drowning again.
Harry tried to ignore it, the constant, never ending voice in his brain saying that he was going to die, that there was going to be some horrific incident and he would be bleeding and lost somewhere, unable to ask for help.
The last week of May had Harry, Draco, Pansy and Daphne crowded around a desk in the Potions lab trying to make a potion that would help with hayfever.
"Harry, Harry… HARRY!" Draco shouted at him, "What on earth are you doing?"
Harry looked down at his potion and put the handfull of wolfsbane down slowly, "Thanks."
"Harry your potion is purple, it's meant to be green and you put Lynx fur in last." Daphne hissed, "You were about to cause and explosion!"
"I'm really sorry." Harry sighed, "I just can't seem to focus on anything at the moment, I sent Professor Flitwick flying across the room rather than a snow globe the other day."
"Harry, no one is going to let you die in the next challenge." Draco said firmly.
"No talking please." Professor Snape said.
"You have to calm down Harry, there are going to be safety precautions, you know this." Pansy whispered.
Harry nodded and tried, and failed, to save his potion. He'd just dropped off his lumpy, bright purple potion on Professor Snape's next when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Professor… is everything OK?" Harry asked.
Professor Snape gazed worriedly and kindly down at him, "No, nothing is wrong. Professor Dumbledore requests that you go down to the Quidditch pitch at nine. Ludo Bagman will be there to fill you in about the last task."
Harry forced a smile and nodded, "Thank you for letting me know."
Professor Snape patted him on the back and nodded. He picked up Harry's potion and raised his eyebrows, "Tell you what Harry, it's a good job that you don't have to pass your exams this year."
Harry snorted a laugh, "Yep, always look on the bright side. I'll see you later."
Severus nodded, "Yes."
Harry could tell his father was nervous but how much information did Severus have about the next challenge? Was it possible he was just nervous at the very idea or did he know something that Harry didn't?
He couldn't think about that right now, instead focusing, as best as he could, on his homework and then forcing down some dinner. The next challenge was still weeks away and Harry tried to convince himself that that meant there was no point worrying about it right now.
At half past eight Harry left his friends studying in the library and trudged down to the Quidditch pitch. It was a warm evening, late enough in the year already that the sun was only just starting to fade below the hills.
"How are you Harry? Did you have a good Easter?" Cedric asked, joining up with Harry.
Harry nodded, glad he wasn't asking about the Harry/Hermione/Viktor love triangle.
"Yeah it was good, enjoyed seeing my family again." Harry smiled, "You?"
Cedric nodded, "Yeah I stayed here, my parents were going to be busy anyway. Managed to use the time to take Cho on a few dates."
Harry gritted his teeth and nodded; he knew Cedric well enough to know he wasn't trying to rub his nose in it, but that some how made it even worse.
They rounded the side of the changing rooms and stopped suddenly.
"What have you done?!" Cedric gasped, "Our pitch!"
Harry was too shocked to speak, the lush and green Quidditch pitch was gone, now replaced but a lot of small hedges, all about two foot high, twisting and cutting through the pitch.
"Hello there!" Bagman beamed, waving at the four champions, he'd brought Fleur and Viktor with him, "Well what do you think?"
"It's going to be very difficult to play Quidditch." Harry said, trying to make light of the horror he was feeling inside.
Ludo Bagman gave out a loud laugh and patted his stomach, "Oh dear boy! What a sense of humour you have! Don't worry, the pitch will be as right as rain by next year. These are growing nicely though, aren't they? Give Hagrid a month and they'll be twenty foot high. Now can anyone guess what the task is?"
There was an awkward silence while Bagman looked eagerly between them. Harry was thought he could hear the bushes growing while they waited.
"Maze." Viktor grunted after almost a minute of painful quietness.
"That's right!" cried Bagman, looking very pleased with himself, "The third task is fairly straight forward really. As you can see there will be a maze and you will have to race one another through it to the centre and the first one to touch the Triwizard cup will get full marks."
"We seemply 'ave to get through ze maze?" Fleur asked, it seemed far to easy.
Bagman was basically bouncing up and down on the soles of his feet with excitement, "There will be obstacles of course, things you have to get past, spells, Hagrid is providing a number of creatures of course, that kind of thing. Now the two champions in the lead, that will be Cedric and Harry, will enter the maze fist, then followed by Krum and then, of course, Miss Delacour. Now don't worry, you will all be in with a jolly good chance at the prize still, it just depends on how well you do with the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"
Harry forced a smile, he knew the sort of creatures Hagrid would consider appropriate for this sort of thing and highly doubted it would be much fun at all, let along all the spells and curses they would be up against. He was suddenly very glad that Professor Moody had been having such practical lessons with them.
"Good, good, excellent in fact! Now if you don't have any questions you are free to go! It's a bit chilly out here, we should head back up to the castle." Bagman said, rubbing his hands together in the not-at-all chilly night air.
Harry started to walk back up to the castle, painfully aware that Bagman was hovering next to him, mirroring nearly every step. Harry was pretty sure he was going to offer to help Harry again when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Viktor, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Can I haff a vord vith you?" he asked.
Harry nodded, half confused and half curious.
"I'll wait for you, shall I Harry?" Bagman asked, looking Krum up and down slightly.
Harry smiled, "It's OK. I think I can find the castle on my own. Why don't you just head up and get warm?"
Bagman nodded, clearly a little disappointed, "All right then."
Viktor led Harry away from those walking back to the castle, towards the edge of the forbidden forest. Viktor pulled at the sleeve of his robe for a moment before looking Harry in the eye.
"I haff come to think of you a friend Harry." Viktor said, "You let us eat at your table and haff been very good to me, so I need to ask you something."
"Ok… Viktor, what's going on?" Harry asked.
"I vant to know," he paused for a second, taking a deep breath as if stealing himself to ask something he really didn't want to, "Vot there is between you and Hermy-own-ninny."
Harry looked at him stunned, from the way Krum had been acting he'd been expecting something a lot worse that this, "Nothing."
Krum frowned and glared at him, Harry was struck by how tall he was and felt very young.
"Really." Harry said, "She's my friend, obviously, but nothing more than that. It was just that stupid Skeeter women trying to cause trouble for her."
Krum nodded thoughtfully, "She talks a lot about you."
Harry shrugged, "Yeah but that's only because she's my friend, probably one of my best friends but she's never been my girlfriend or anything, I don't really think about her that way and she doesn't think that way about me either."
Harry was trying not to grin, it wouldn't help the situation in any way at all, but there was something rather exhilarating about being considered a rival by an international Quidditch player like Krum.
"You haff never… you haff not..."
"Never, I promise." Harry smiled, "No real want to either. I wouldn't want to risk such a good friendship."
Krum nodded, looking very relieved, "Vell, I am glad."
Harry grinned, "She really likes you, I don't think you should take her way for the summer though and as her friends I have to do the whole you hurt her and I'll..."
Harry stopped, there was something moving around the trees, he was sure of it. Harry reached for his wand and pointed towards where the noise had come from to let Krum know, he also turned around, wand drawn.
"Hello?" Harry called.
The next moment a ragged looking man, with torn robes and a face covered in dirt came out from the trees. Harry didn't know who it was to start with, but it only took Harry a few more moments to recognise it was Mr Crouch.
It looked as though he had been travelling for days. The knees of his robes were ripped and bloody, as were his hands. He was covered in mud and dirt, his normally neat hair and moustache were in desperate need of a wash and a trim.
However it was not his ragged appearance that worried Harry the most but the strange way he was behaving. Talking to someone only he could see and waving at things that weren't there.
"Vosn't he a judge?" Viktor asked, clearly not wanting to get too close, "He is vith your Ministry?"
Harry nodded but didn't say anything, he didn't want to spook Mr Crouch who was gazing wildly around them. Harry took a few steps forward, slowly. He was reminded of an old documentary he'd watched with his mother when he was younger, about wolves hunting their prey; Mr Crouch certainly looked like he would scare as quickly as those deer did.
"And when you've done that, Weatherby, send an owl to Dumbledore confirming the number of Durmstrang students who will be attending the Tournament, Karkaroff has just sent word there will be twelve…" said Mr Crouch, looking at his hand like it was a piece of parchment and talking to a nearby tree.
"Mr Crouch?" Harry said softly, "Umm… Percy isn't here."
Mr Crouch ignored him continuing to talk to the tree, "And then send another owl to Madam Maxime, because she might want to up the number of students she's bringing, now Karkaroff's made it a round dozen… do that, Weatherby, will you? Will you? Will..." he turned and moved back into the forest slowly, his eyes rolling widly in his head.
"Vot is vong vith him?" Krum asked.
"I have no idea, this isn't just sick though." Harry said, following Mr Crouch into the forest, "I think you should go and get a teacher."
"Dumbledore!" Mr Crouch cried suddenly, clutching at Harry's robed, "I need… see… Dumbledore..."
"Ok… OK we can take you to Dumbledore, that's not a problem." Harry said, trying to loosen Mr Crouch's grip on his robes, he could hear seems breaking, "Mr Crouch, tell me what's going on? What's happened to you?"
"I've done… stupid… thing…" Mr Crouch forced out, tears in his eyes, "Must… tell… Dumbledore…"
He looked truly mad, his eyes bulging and scanning everything around them, like there was something in the shadows ready to jump out at a seconds noticed.
"Mr Crouch! You have to get up! Now! I will take you to Dumbledore you just have to get up so we can go!" Harry said.
Mr Crouch looked down at Harry's fingers locked onto his own and then up, his eyes burning into Harry's own.
"Who… you?" He whispered.
"I'm a student, at the school." Harry said, "Mr Crouch, you know who I am." Harry looked back towards Krum for some help but it was very clear Krum was wanting to stay out of it.
"You're not… his?" Crouch asked.
Harry shook his head in confusion, "His? Who are you talking about?"
Mr Crouch looked confused and shook his own head, "No… of cour… no. You're… you're Dumbledore's?"
Harry wasn't sure what to say, "Well I go to Hogwarts if that's what you mean."
Crouch nodded, "Warn… Dumbledore…"
He was pulling tighter on Harry's robes, to the point where Harry was struggling to breath.
"Warn his what?" Harry asked, "Mr Crouch?"
"DUMBLEDORE!" Mr Crouch yelled.
Harry pulled at his fingers once again, "Mr Crouch, stop it! I will get you Dumbledore as soon as you let me go."
Mr Crouch looked very relieved, "Thank you Weatherby, and when you have done that I would like a cup of tea. My wife and son will be arriving shortly, we are attending a concert tonight with Mr and Mrs Fudge."
Harry paused for a moment, Mr Crouch was now talking to a tree again.
"Yes, my son has recently gained twelve O.W.L.s, most satisfactory, yes, thank you, yes, very proud indeed. Now, if you could bring me that memo from the Andorran Minister for Magic, I think I will have time to draft a response…"
Harry shook his head, "Stay here with him will you Viktor?" he asked.
Krum nodded,
"I'll be quick. I know where Dumbledore's office is." Harry turned and started to walk away, before turning back to Krum, "I'll get my Dad as well, if he's been poisoned or something, Dad will be the only we need."
"I think he is mad." Krum said, doubtfully.
Harry couldn't argue there and shrugged, "Yeah you may be right there… just stay with him."
Harry turned to leave again but felt Mr Crouch throw himself at Harry's legs, holding on tightly.
"Don't… leave… me!" He whispered, he looked like a scared child, "I… escaped… must warn… must tell… see Dumbledore… my fault… all my fault… Bertha… dead… all my fault...my son… he… my fault… tell Dumbledore… Harry Potter… the Dark Lord… stronger… Harry Potter..."
"Help me." Harry hissed at Krum, "Mr Crouch, you have to let me go!"
Krum moved forward, very slowly, and crouched down by Mr Crouch, pulling him off Harry.
"Just keep him here." Harry said.
Krum nodded, "Hurry, von't you?"
Harry nodded, "I'll be as quick as I can."