Chapter Eight: The Wand Weighing Ceremony

Tom found himself standing in a Hogwarts classroom. The space had been set with audience chairs facing a velvet covered table where the five Triwizard Judges sat—Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Maxime, Crouch and Bagman.

Lucius had briefed him on the memory he was about to see, and the names and positions of those present—it was the Triwizard Wand Weighing Ceremony that had taken place about one month prior, on the 13th of November.

"Hello Lucius. Long time no see," spat a gruff old lump of a wizard, his magical eye spinning wildly. Lucius had said this would be 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. "Sorry I wasn't there to raid your house."

"Alastor. So good to see you staying busy in retirement," Lucius retorted.

Lucius sat down next to Severus Snape, the Hogwarts potions master and head of Slytherin House. Moody snubbed the multitude of open seats to take his place right behind the both of them, smirking at their irritation.

Tom watched as the wandmaker Garrick Ollivander examined the wands of the four Triwizard tournament champions in turn—Delacour, Diggory, Krum, and Potter.

After the wands were tested and pronounced fit, the Daily Prophet photographer took photographs of the judges and the champions.

What a strange occasion for a Death Eater meeting.

Lucius had said Tom was about to see a meeting of importance between the conspirators. But who were they, among the wizards gathered? There were so many present from the Ministry, the press, and academia, and Tom had little knowledge of them beyond Lucius's descriptions. If he had to venture a guess, he supposed the head of Slytherin House and the Durmstrang Headmaster were the most likely to lean dark.

After the photographs were taken, the room began to clear out. The photographer lingered to pack his equipment into cases. Once he left, only three wizards remained—Lucius Malfoy, Professor Moody, and Garrick Ollivander.

Not the three wizards I expected.

Lucius took out his wand and cast precautionary spells against intrusion and eavesdropping. Then he turned to face Moody.

"What happened, Crouch?"

Tom didn't know why Lucius had referred to Moody as 'Crouch'. He had thought Mr. Crouch had been the mustachioed Triwizard judge who had already left.

"I thought the plan was that Potter should be the Hogwarts champion, not Potter and Diggory both," continued Lucius.

"I don't know what happened," Moody grumbled.

"You don't know?"

"I did my best confundus charm. The goblet had its own logic, clearly. Dumbledore made it produce a champion who was at least seventeen, and so it did. I made it produce a champion who was Harry Potter, and so it did."

"Well it couldn't be more obvious now that someone's tampered with it."

"Dumbeldore's suspicions are on Karkaroff," Moody said. "He's having Snape keep an eye on him."

"We should move up the timetable to be safe," said Lucius. "Waiting until June for the third task gives Dumbledore far too much time to discover the truth."

"I could turn Potter's dragon egg into a portkey instead of the Triwizard Cup," Moody offered.

"The first task is in eleven days," Ollivander said, breaking his silence. "Lucius, is that enough time for you to find a body kissed by a dementor?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Do you have a plan yet, at least?" Moody asked.

"I do," said Lucius. The other two stared at him, awaiting the details. Lucius seemed to consider for a moment whether or not to tell them. Reluctantly, he proceeded to explain.

"I will arrange for Minister Fudge to meet with Lazarus Ungur, the head of magical law enforcement of Romania. Fudge does not know Ungur personally, so he will not realize that Ungur is imperiused under our control. Ungur will ask Fudge to borrow a Ministry dementor to perform the kiss on a mass murderer in Romanian custody, who will actually be a wizard we've kidnapped. Fudge will assent, but insist it be performed in Britain under Ministry supervision. Ungur will agree, and then afterwards he will take the body to Pettigrew at Riddle House to await the Dark Lord's resurrection."

Ollivander nodded, satisfied.

"So complicated," Moody scoffed. "I still don't understand why we can't just Avada Kedavra the boy and be done with it."

"If we kill the boy we risk killing the Dark Lord!" Ollivander hissed. "The only way to be certain of awakening the Dark Lord is for me to transplant his soul to the new body."

So that was the plan.

Intentional or not, the original Voldemort must have duplicated his soul one last time in his final moments of life, when his killing curse had rebounded off of Harry Potter. Somehow, his soul's copy had latched itself onto the Potter boy, instead of an inanimate object like the other Horcruxes.

So Voldemort's soul had remained dormant within Harry Potter all these years.

"Could the first task be delayed?" Lucius asked.

"I could confund the dragon handler, have him report to Bagman that one of the dragons is infected with dragonpox," said Moody. "He might delay the task until they can bring in a replacement. Maybe until January."

"That should be sufficient time," said Lucius.

"Good," said Ollivander. "Then let us proceed and not speak of it again until after it is done."

Back in the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore listened intently as Tom finished recounting his meeting with Lucius Malfoy.

When he finished, Dumbledore sat back in his chair and was silent for some time.

"It saddens me a great deal to hear that Ollivander and Barty Crouch are cooperating with these people," Dumbledore said finally. "Ollivander was no Death Eater during the war. I knew he had some traditionalist sympathies, but to go this far? And Barty was always staunchly on our side. There must be foul play in his case."

Before he had left Malfoy Manor, Tom had asked Lucius why he had referred to Professor Moody as 'Crouch' during their meeting. Lucius had explained that Professor Moody was being impersonated by an undercover Death Eater named Barty Crouch Jr. who was the son of the other Barty Crouch in the room. Believed to be dead by the entire wizarding world, Barty Crouch Jr. had gained access to Hogwarts at the start of the school year by using polyjuice potion to impersonate Alastor Moody. The real Moody was being kept as a hostage in an undisclosed location.

At Dumbledore's insistence, Tom had given his account under one drop of veritaserum. So he had been telling the truth, technically speaking, when he had told Dumbledore that the meeting had taken place between Lucius Malfoy, Ollivander, and Barty Crouch.

Tom had felt no guilt whatsoever about leaving out the 'Jr.' at the end of the name, nor any guilt at all over his omission that Crouch had appeared to everyone in the form of Defense Professor Moody.

Tom didn't have a specific reason to deceive Dumbledore. It just seemed like the right thing to do—to keep a card up his own sleeve, just in case.

These guys really should be giving me more than one drop of veritaserum.

Dumbledore stood from his desk, walked to his Phoenix's perch and ran his fingers along the bird's red feathers.

"Ollivander must have worked out the existence of the Potter-Horcrux and brought his theory to Lucius Malfoy," Dumbledore deduced. "Perhaps he suspected it the moment he issued Harry Potter his wand. It has the same phoenix feather core as your own, you see. From this very bird."

Dumbledore stroked the Phoenix once more, then he turned to face him.

"You've done a great service to the wizarding community by providing me this information, Tom. From here, I should be able to defeat the Dark Lord and his followers."

"Then you'll spare my life and transplant me into a new body?"

"Yes. As soon as I find one. For now, you must continue playing the part of Ginevra Weasley."

As Tom walked to Gryffindor Tower through the dark castle, he thought about what Dumbledore's next move would be. If he were in Dumbledore's place—well, I'd just kill the Potter boy.

Of course Tom knew Dumbledore would never do that. The Headmaster's objective would be to defeat Voldemort while keeping his students safe.

Dumbledore will let the Death Eater's plan play out.

Yes, if Dumbeldore were smart—and he was—he would let the plan unfold, allow the Dark Lord's soul to be separated from the Potter boy and transplanted to the new body. (He would accept the collateral damage to the unfortunate wizard whose body was to be used for this purpose), and then he would hit the Dark Lord with everything he had.

Or no—would he be smarter to wait?

If the Dark Lord summoned all his followers first—gathered all the Death Eaters to him, then once they were all in one place…

Yes, Dumbledore would be ready.