"It comes down to this," said Hermione, rubbing her forehead. "Either Mr. Crouch attacked Krum, or somebody else attacked both of them when Krum wasn't looking."

"It must've been Crouch," said Ron at once. "That's why he was gone when Harry and Dumbledore got there. He'd done a runner."

"I don't think so," said Harry, shaking his head. "He seemed really weak — I don't reckon he was up to Disapparating or anything."

"I can't imagine Great Uncle Barty attacking someone like that" Ritchie said "especially if he was as weak as Harry claims"

"You can't Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds, haven't I told you enough times?" said Hermione.

"Okay . . . how's this for a theory," said Ron excitedly. "Krum attacked Crouch — no, wait for it — and then Stunned himself!"

"And Mr. Crouch evaporated, did he?" said Hermione coldly.

"Oh yeah . . ."

"To be fair Hermione, he could have just transfigured Crouch into something to hide the evidence" I said "After all, we know he is capable of at least partial human transfiguration"

"Great point!" said Ron

"I really can't see Krum doing something like that" said Hermione

"Why are you so determined to exonerate Krum?"

"Why are you so determined to convict him?"

"Here we go again" Harry groaned, putting his face in his hands. "I hate this" he said, as Ron and Hermione continued bickering.

"Don't blame you, it's your two best mates" said Demelza "I had to deal with something similar with these two recently" She pointed at Amy and I.

"Hey, we weren't arguing all the time!" Amy protested

"No, you were the complete opposite, giving each other the cold shoulder, but that's not any better! Having to choose which one of you to hang out with was never easy!"

"When's the wedding anniversary?" I said loudly to Ron and Hermione, and they stopped and stared at me.

"What? You're only arguing like an old married couple". This made them both blush and look away from us.

"Well, I'm going to see Dumbledore tomorrow. I want to know if he's found anything else out about why Barty was here, that he might not be telling you lot" said Ritchie.

The next morning, a letter was sent to Sirius talking about what happened. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I had crept out of our dormitories very early and hurried up to the Owlery together to send a note to Sirius. Now we were standing looking out at the misty grounds.

"Just go through it again, Harry," said Hermione. "What did Mr. Crouch actually say?" "I've told you, he wasn't making much sense," said Harry. "He said he wanted to warn Dumbledore about something. He definitely mentioned Bertha Jorkins, and he seemed to think she was dead. He kept saying stuff was his fault. . . . He mentioned his son."

"Well, that was his fault," said Hermione testily.

"He was out of his mind," said Harry. "Half the time he seemed to think his wife and son were still alive, and he kept talking to Percy about work and giving him instructions."

"And . . . remind me what he said about You-Know-Who?" said Ron tentatively.

"I've told you," Harry repeated dully. "He said he's getting stronger"

"He was sanest when he was trying to talk about Voldemort," said Harry, and Ron winced at the sound of the name. "He was having real trouble stringing two words together, but that was when he seemed to know where he was, and know what he wanted to do. He just kept saying he had to see Dumbledore."

"If he sounded sanest when he was talking about-" I bit my lip nervously "V-Voldemort, then I'd be inclined to take him seriously, I'd disregard everything else"

"Ginny!" Ron snapped at me "don't say that name!"

It was the first time I had ever said his name out loud.

"I think it's about time we all got over saying the name. It only increases the fear of the thing itself" I told him.

"Well said Ginny" said Harry, and he gave me a brief but tight hug.

"I agree in principle but it might take me a while to actually do it" said Hermione

"Nutters, the lot of you" Ron muttered, shaking his head.

Harry turned away from the window and stared up into the rafters. The many perches were half-empty; every now and then, another owl would swoop in through one of the windows, returning from its night's hunting with a mouse in its beak. "

If Snape hadn't held me up," Harry said bitterly, "we might've got there in time. 'The headmaster is busy, Potter . . . what's this rubbish, Potter?' Why couldn't he have just got out of the way?"

"Maybe he didn't want you to get there!" said Ron quickly. "Maybe — hang on — how fast d'you reckon he could've gotten down to the forest? D'you reckon he could've beaten you and Dumbledore there?"

"Not unless he can turn himself into a bat or something," said Harry. "Wouldn't put it past him," Ron muttered.

"We need to see Professor Moody," said Hermione. "We need to find out whether he found Mr. Crouch."

"If he had the Marauder's Map on him, it would've been easy," said Harry.

"Unless Crouch was already outside the grounds," said Ron, "because it only shows up to the boundaries, doesn't —"

"Shh!" said Hermione suddenly. Somebody was climbing the steps up to the Owlery.

CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK

"Speak of the devil..." I said

Sure enough, it was Moody.

"Oh, hello you four" he growled. "Bit keen to be up here this early?"

"Yeah we needed to get this letter sent before working hours" Ron said

"I've already got my own owl sent out, but this came up urgently. Pity, I don't like using things I don't own, but needs must..." Moody replied

One came down to him, but before he attached his letter, he said "Revialis!"

Nothing happened

"Had to check..." Moody muttered, and sent the owl on it's way.

"Did you find him?" Harry asked without preamble. "Mr. Crouch?"

"No," said Moody.

"Did you use the map?" Harry said.

"Of course," said Moody, taking a swig from his flask. "Took a leaf out of your book, Potter. Summoned it from my office into the forest. He wasn't anywhere on there."

"So he did Disapparate?" said Ron.

"You can't Disapparate on the grounds, Ron!" said Hermione. "There are other ways he could have disappeared, aren't there, Professor?"

Moody's magical eye quivered as it rested on Hermione. "You're another one who might think about a career as an Auror," he told her. "Mind works the right way, Granger."

Hermione flushed pink with pleasure.

"Well, he wasn't invisible," said Harry. "The map shows invisible people. He must've left the grounds, then."

"But under his own steam?" said Hermione eagerly, "or because someone made him?"

"Yeah, someone could've — could've pulled him onto a broom and flown off with him, couldn't they?" said Ron quickly, looking hopefully at Moody as if he too wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"We can't rule out kidnap," growled Moody, "or transfiguration and burial, come to think of it. That would leave no traces"

"Who could it possibly have been though, they'd have only had a few minutes between Harry leaving and returning with Dumbledore, and none of them saw anyone else around the area" I said

"Snape held me up remember, I reckon they'd have just about had enough time to stun Krum and kidnap Crouch" said Harry "or transfigure him"

"So," said Ron, "d'you reckon Crouch is somewhere in Hogsmeade?"

"Could be anywhere," said Moody, shaking his head. "Only thing we know for sure is that he's not here." He yawned widely, so that his scars stretched, and his lopsided mouth revealed a number of missing teeth. Then he said, "Now, Dumbledore's told me you four fancy yourselves as investigators, but there's nothing you can do for Crouch. The Ministry'll be looking for him now, Dumbledore's notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."

"What?" said Harry. "Oh yeah . . ."

"Should be right up your street, this one," said Moody, looking up at Harry and scratching his scarred and stubbly chin. "From what Dumbledore's said, you've managed to get through stuff like this plenty of times. Broke your way through a series of obstacles guarding the Sorcerer's Stone in your first year, didn't you?"

"We helped," Ron said quickly. "Me and Hermione helped."

Moody grinned. "Well, help him practice for this one, and I'll be very surprised if he doesn't win," said Moody. "In the meantime . . . constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance." He took another long draw from his hip flask. "You three," counselled Moody, his normal eye on Ron, Hermione and I "you stick close to Potter, all right? I'm keeping an eye on things, but all the same . . . you can never have too many eyes out."

We would find out later that day that Ritchie had unsurprisingly failed to get any further info out of Dumbledore. This time though, I suspected it was because he really didn't know anything else.