Chapter 20: The Trio's First Failure - Early July 1993

As promised, Sirius showed up directly into Harry's bedroom at the Dursley's house to collect him for summer studying. Harry went downstairs to tell his aunt that he was going with Sirius, then they apparated away together.

"Whoa," Harry was awed by Sirius' cottage. It looked small and like it needed a bit of work, but the tall trees surrounding the house were grand.

Sirius explained, "My family home has too many bad memories, so I'm staying here for now. I hired warders, so it should be fairly safe here for you even if I'm not around. You're always welcome to come here if you need a place to stay. Or a place to hide. Whatever you need. Here's a portkey for you - activation phrase is Padfoot's Retreat."

Harry took the proffered old-style brass key. "Thanks, Sirius. This means a lot."

Harry followed Sirius inside, where sat at a wooden dining set that was of quality but had seen some use. Next to the table was Harry's trunk, and he dug around for his homework things.

Harry decided that today was the day to tackle Charms. He expected it to be the hardest for him. Each broad type of charm functioned very differently, and Harry had trouble keeping them straight. He could get specific charms down with time but the theory never stuck.

To make things worse, Harry had never written this essay in the previous timeline. Professor Flitwick had been inspired by all of Ron's "excellent lines of inquiry" and asked them for something completely different than in the previous timeline. Maybe I should owl Ron?

After a half hour of staring at books and the parchment with only a few scribbles of notes, Sirius checked in. "What's the assignment?"

Harry explained, "We've been set three feet of parchment, one foot each on three charms of our choice. We're supposed to explain how these specific bits of theory connects to that particular charm."

Sirius asked some more questions clarified the requirements and what Harry was thinking. "Hmm, the multiplicative charm would be straightforward to explain the Theory of Quantity with… ."

Harry had never noticed it before, but Sirius was smart. His explanations were so helpful that Harry even had some of his own ideas for the assignment after their conversation. Harry made a bunch of notes and promised to continue the essay next week.

"Wow, two hours already? This was fun. I miss some of this stuff."

Harry asked, "Do wizards have universities?"

"Not in the United Kingdom. But on the continent, yes. I probably won't go afield while you're still in school. Acturus has me helping with the family investments, which is also keeping me busy now."

"I don't know anything about the wizarding… financial system? Economic system?"

Sirius smiled. "I wish I didn't, but business is something to do. We can talk about it some other time, though probably not via letter. My opinions and version of the facts are best not written down, if you catch my drift."

Harry's eyes went wide. "Wicked."

As Harry lay in bed that night, he felt a warmth in his chest. Today, Sirius felt like an honest-to-goodness parent. Harry's earlier wariness of his godfather had vanished.

The Crouch family home was opulent, in Hermione's opinion. It was certainly closer in style to Malfoy Manor than the Grangers' London townhome.

Hermione had taken the lead on Crouch plans. She obtained some Magical Maintenance uniforms that she and Ron used, alongside Polyjuice potion containing hairs from random muggles. Before taking their first sip, they had loaded up a flask each with additional servings just in case.

Hermione strode up to the front door of the Crouch home and knocked. In her other hand, she held a Ministry-issue case filled with maintenance equipment.

Ron stood behind her with a bored expression that was part of the act.

Winky the house elf answered the door.

Hermione said, "Magical Maintenance. We're here to inspect the Floo."

Winky said flatly, "Master is not saying nothing about an inspection."

"It's procedure to owl in advance of our inspection, but if it doesn't get there, we still gotta do the job. Safety, you see. We don't do these often, but there've been a rash of homes burning down." Hermione was lying through her teeth.

Winky rocked back and forth on her little feet.

Ron added, "Ashwinder eggs are dangerous. We'll check for them and any sign of tampering, then we'll be on our way. Five minutes per fireplace with Floo access."

Winky asked them to wait on the step. A minute later, she re-opened the door, "You is coming in now. But master is not being home, so Winky is allowed to defend master's property."

Hermione brought the case next to the hearth that Winky brought them to. Hermione pulled out various tools to distract Winky while Ron cast an illusion in the back corner of the fireplace.

While it was improbable that the first fireplace would have the problem that they specifically mentioned, they didn't want to chance that Winky hadn't sent Mr. Crouch a message about their presence.

Once Hermione started using the tools in completely imaginary ways, Ron shouted, "Watch out! I think I see one."

Hermione pretended to panic, pulling out her wand and brandishing the meter ineffectually in her other hand. "This reading is off the charts! Step back, elf."

Winky hid her eyes, which was their cue to start a small, real fire.

Ron told Winky, "Contact your master immediately! And the aurors!"

Hermione let the fire grow a bit larger, then extinguished it while Ron slipped away to find Barty Crouch Junior.

When he came back several minutes later, he shook his head. No Junior.

Their plan to capture Junior themselves as a part of the incident had failed. Their backup plan was to get investigators to search the house, yet they didn't want to linger.

Winky was also sharp and devoted to her household. The pair knew that she was already suspicious.

Hermione waited for another few minutes before claiming that the fire was under control, and that she needed to head back to the office to file paperwork about the incident. She promised that they would return another day to inspect any other fireplaces.

The following day's Prophet reported on a fire started by two wizards posing as Ministry employees. The article painted Mr. Crouch as an upstanding citizen threatened by dangerous, fire-starting criminals for unknown purposes.

Hermione knew for sure that they had totally failed.

Ron was disappointed but not surprised by their lack of success at Crouch Manor. Plan M.A.I.N.T.A.I.N. (Maintenance And Inflammation Near Target As Incarceratorial opportuNity) was negatively impacted by a lack of information about father, son, or their home. It had also been very direct and time-sensitive, which hadn't afforded them many opportunities to learn more or update their strategy.

They would have to try something else, but Ron was at a loss.

He reviewed their major goals. They wanted to prevent or delay Crouch Junior's search for Voldemort's wraith. They also wanted to prevent the Triwizard Tournament and expose Crouch Senior's Azkaban prisoner swap and subsequent Imperious use.

The most straightforward way to stop Crouch Junior was to get him back in Azkaban. Voldemort could break him out later, but only after some other follower got him a body, most likely.

A less obvious solution to their problem would be to get Crouch Senior to keep his son under better control. This was less ethically and morally sound.

Ron decided to ask Luna's opinion when they were pretending to fish in mid-July. Ginny had already wandered off.

"Hey Luna, could I ask you for some advice?"

She responded breezily, "No one other than Harry has ever asked me for advice before. I could give it a try, but it might not be very good."

Ron was a little uncomfortable with that response, but he asked anyway. "Say that you knew someone was doing something bad. What would you do if you didn't think that people would believe you?"

"Hmm." After several minutes, she carefully said, "I would help someone else who knows the truth to wield it."

After some thought, that reminded Ron of Bertha Jorkins. The trio knew from their past that she saw Junior, but the witch was then made to forget by her boss. Her memory was permanently affected, which Ron thought was really tragic. If not for his broken wand, he could have ended up like her because of Lockhart during their original second year at Hogwarts.

Ron worded his next question very carefully. "If that person couldn't remember the truth, is it cruel to remind them?"

"I would think it would depend on how you went about it. Perhaps do it how you yourself would want to be told."

Ron thanked Luna sincerely. An idea began to form in his mind. When he was back at the Burrow, he wrote several letters.

Harry asked Dobby a few weeks into the summer how he felt about working for Harry and Petunia. Dobby had a lot to say, half of which wasn't quite what he was wondering about.

For example, Harry decided not to address that Petunia had Dobby listening for neighborhood gossip as he worked out in the yard. At least they're getting along.

But Dobby did reveal that he had a lot of idle time.

"Do you like breaks? Or do you want me to see about finding you more work?"

Dobby quickly said, "More work!" with enthusiastic nodding.

Harry chewed his lip as an idea formed in his mind. "I'll ask Sirius if he could use any help."

At the end of Harry's next homework session, he brought up the elf with his godfather.

Sirius rubbed his chin in consideration. "I've never heard of an elf that wants a wizard's money. But if that's what he says he wants, I suppose I can get behind that." Sirius nodded in decision. "My family's elf Kreacher hates me and is getting up there in years. I would be happy to talk to Dobby and see if he's interested in working for pay for me, especially here at the cottage."

Harry told Sirius, "That would be great! Name a time and place, and I'll make sure that he's there for an interview."

Sirius apparated Harry to the Dursley's house. Then he said, "You know, freeing and paying a house elf is something that your mother would approve of. She told me more than once about how raw of a deal they get."

Harry gave the sappy smile the comment warranted, but he couldn't help but wonder about the version of his mother Sirius knew. Does she still exist?

The next time Harry went to work on homework at Sirius, he was greeted by the elf.

"Mr. Harry Potter!" Dobby squeaked. Sirius had taken him on. The elf was splitting his time between Sirius' cottage and 12 Grimmauld Place, where Acturus lived.

"I've told you before, you can just call me Harry," he said gently. "How are you liking working for the Blacks?"

"Dobby is happy for the work." Harry sensed hesitation.

"You can be honest, Dobby," Sirius said.

"Dobby likes Master Sirius and Master Acturus. But Kreacher isn't liking Dobby."

"Call me Sirius. And, Kreacher doesn't like me either, if it makes you feel better."

"Master Sirius is kind." Dobby left them for his work.

At the mention of the Black Family's ancient house elf, Harry realized that he should be working towards getting Slytherin's Locket. He went back to his journal to look up Ron's ideas.