Unexpected Animagus, Part 5
Problem-Solving Capabilities of the British Changeling

Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I am doing wrong (to correct it).

Hogwarts
September the 2nd
Empty Classroom
Early Morning

"But you can't leave him there, Harry!" Hermione argued, "He is in grave danger."

"Junior won't harm him much. He needs him." Harry defended feebly. He was realizing that leaving the man there would be exposing him to possible harm later.

"It's wrong, I went to the library first thing in the morning, and looked for any reference to Bartemius Crouch Junior, Harry. It's horrible, he was one of the worst Death Eaters. He was captured just a few days after your parents…"

Harry tensed, "Go on."

"He and three others, the Lestrange family, were caught right after they tortured Neville's parents into insanity. All four were ranting about their Master, and sentenced to Azkaban."

"So they merited a trial, right?" Harry's fists trembled.

"Yes, another black mark on the Ministry. Back to Crouch, it was a group of Aurors, led by Moody, who captured them. Are you willing to bet Moody's life that Junior won't do the same to him? He only needs Moody to be physically healthy, his mind doesn't really matter to Crouch."

Harry lowered his eyes, ashamed. "You are right, Hermione. I'm sorry."

She hugged him. "We need to talk to Sirius and my parents."

"Yes. Let's owl them a letter."

"They are at my granny's farm. Sirius will stay there for a few days. He needs the fresh air instead of being locked in Grimauld's."

She checked her watch, "We better hurry to the Great Hall, we have a full day and we don't know if missing breakfast will affect you, or how."

"Oh, boy… it will be fun to be close to dragon dung…" Harry sighed, rubbing his nose.

"Oh, Harry…" Hermione commiserated him.

Hours later

Among many others, Ron Weasley roared in laughter when the DADA teacher transfigured Draco Malfoy into a ferret. Neither Harry nor Hermione joined the chorus; instead, they decided to go somewhere else. They missed the rest of the scene.

Even while being admonished by Professor McGonaghal, the fake Moody kept on looking for Potter all around them.

"That was strange? Not that Malfoy doesn't deserve a punishment, but that was…" Harry commented once they were away from witnesses.

"Convenient?" Hermione whispered. "I think he is trying to get on your good side. Publicly punishing your enemy would get him in your good graces."

"Perhaps if we didn't know." He shrugged, "At least Ron found it very funny. But I don't like it when people abuses others. Especially for fun."

Hermione patted his shoulder. "Let's write that letter."

Puckle Farm
Hours later

Hedwig flew into the farm house and landed on her perch.

"Dan! Emma!" Sirius called his hosts, "We got mail!"

"By the knob on Merlin's staff!" (1) Sirius exclaimed. "This is really bad… If Crouch Junior is posing as Madeye Moody, he is in the perfect place to hurt Harry!"

"Or anybody else, including Hermione." Dan Granger added coldly.

Sirius looked at him with big, round eyes. "You are right, Dan. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it's a natural reaction" Emma said. "If only we could talk to the kids… owl mail takes too long, even with Hedwig."

The white-owl ruffled her feathers. Dan gave her an owl treat. "No offense, Hedwig, but there are things that get lost when answering a letter." This pacified her pride.

Emma continued. "If only there was a magical equivalent to a phone…"

Sirius head snapped up. "There is. I was planning to give it to Harry later on, but this is an emergency." He stood in the center of the room, and firmly said, "Kreacher!"

The surly elf appeared a moment later, "Filthy Master calls Kreacher to filthy muggles house…" he grumbled, looking everywhere but the people in the room.

"Stop it right there, Kreacher. The Grangers are my friends and you will treat them with respect. That is an order."

Kreacher looked as if he had been slapped, he opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't say anything. He managed a strangled, "What are filthy master's orders?"

"Take me back to Grimauld's Place, to the living room. Don't try anything untowards."

Minutes later, the two of them were back. "Got 'em." He proudly showed a small package. "Kreacher, go back to Grimauld's Place and keep on cleaning the place. Don't talk about this to anybody without my express permission. That includes my Mother's portrait. No one will know it from you, those are my orders. Is that clearly understood?"

Kreacher looked like he was choking, he nodded after a minute. "Kreacher obeys filthy master's orders." And popped away.

"What's that, Sirius?" Dan asked, watching the wizard unwrap the parcel.

"It's a project we Marauders worked on back at Hogwarts. It's the magical equivalent to a portable Floo call, but with less chimney and kneeling. Lily said it was like a phone when she saw it work." He pulled a set of mirrors from the box. "I would need a lot of arythmancy to modify them for you to activate them. One needs to push some magic into them to call or answer. I'll get to work on that later. For now, we can use them to talk to the kids."

He demonstrated the use, making a call in one mirror and answering in the other. Then, he terminated the call, and put one of the mirrors back in the box.

"Hedwig, give me a few minutes to write a letter for Harry, I need you to keep the letter and package with you until you can deliver it to Harry or Hermione, but only if they are alone."

Hedwig barked her understanding, and waited patiently until she had both letter and package secured to her leg. Sirius disillusioned both.

"Um…" Dan asked before Hedwig took flight, "just curious, why don't you send your elf to deliver them?"

"First, I don't trust Kreacher; Harry managed to get him to cooperate, but I don't know if it is permanent or how well he well behave; there's too much bad blood between us. The little bugger hates me and I fear he will try to subvert my orders. I wouldn't put it past him to try really hard to find a way to murder me if he can find a loophole. I have to be very, very specific with what I order him to do. I only called him because I'm not sure I could aparate with Reggie's wand, and I'd rather not risk missing something if I fail."

He snorted, "Second, Hedwig deserves to do her work. Harry doesn't have many people to write to."

Hedwig's bark sounded like a laugh. She took flight, and a moment later, she was just a speck in the sky.

Sirius relaxed a bit.

"What about that other elf? The one who idolizes Harry?" Emma asked.

Sirius answered distractedly, "Yeah, he could do it. For him it would be like a… personal… mission…" He facepalmed. "I am, officially, an idiot."

He whispered, "Dobby?"

The excitable elf appeared next to him. "Great Master Harry Potter's Dogfather calls Dobby? What Can Dobby be doing for Great Master Harry Potter's Dogfather?"

Sirius sat down on the couch, while Emma and Dan tried to contain their laughter. "Um… Dobby, can you come and go from and to Hogwarts without being detected."

"Dobby Can!" The elf smiled like a loon. "Dobby being a free elf. Working at Hoggywarts, not for Hoggywarts."

"Okay." Sirius leaned back, "let me think." Dobby bounced on his feet, eager for a job for his favorite wizard. "Dan, Emma? I'd like your points of view on how to help Harry and Hermione deal with this. Keep in mind Crouch Jr. is both a crazy fanatic and a nasty piece of work."

"He wanting to hurt Great Master?" There was a dangerous edge in Dobby's voice.

Dan answered, "We think so. But we are not sure how. Right now, we know where he is, and that he has some kind of plan, but not the details. Our advantage is that he doesn't know we know."

"Dobby helps." He nodded decisively, punching his left palm with his right fist.

A minute later, the group had written down some things to discuss later with the kids. They needed more information to even begin to think a plan.

Hogwarts
Owlery

"Hello, girl." Harry said, caressing her feathers. Hedwig extended her leg, and a package appeared on sight.

"There's a letter too" Hermione noted. "But… the envelope is blank." She looked at Harry, "Invisible ink?"

Harry thought about it for a moment, suddenly, he smiled. "No. It's a message. Sirius sent it."

Once at a different unused classroom, and several privacy spells later, Harry opened the letter. Two sheets of paper were inside. A long and rambling letter from Hermione's parents.

"This is weird, they never write like this…"

"Turn the sheets around, I bet there's more." Harry tapped the sheets with his wand, saying, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."

Immediately, a second letter appeared. As it was addressed to both, Hermione sat next to Harry to read along.

"Great! Mirror phones!" Harry exclaimed. He put wand to the task and called, "Sirius Black!"

The mirror fogged for a moment, and when it cleared, Sirius' face appeared, he looked away, "Dan, Emma! They got it!"

The Granger parents appeared behind Sirius. "Hey, kids!" Dan waved.

Emma added, "Are you in a secure place?"

Hermione answered, "Yes, we are in an empty classroom, with several privacy spells up."

"Good, good. Now," Sirius said, "tell us ya everything. To the last detail."

"Hmmm…" Sirius stroked his beard, "I think Hermione is right, we have to get Moody out."

"I'll tell Dumbledore. He will know what to do." Hermione nodded.

"Erm… about that…"Dan said hesitantly. "Isn't Dumbledore supposed to be a long time friend of Moody's"

"Yeah, he will want to rescue him."

"If they are friends, don't you think he would… have… noticed something?" Emma asked. "Granted, it's been a short time, but…"

Hermione gasped.

"No," Harry said, "you're right." He turned towards Hermione, "When Ron and I used the potion to spy in Slytherin, we were almost found out several times, because we didn't know how Crabbe and Goyle act in private. We got away with it by a miracle. And because Draco is a fool. Dumbledore is smart, very smart. So, either he has not talked to Moody in length, which I doubt, as there's a big meeting at Dumbledore's office the first day of school; or he is letting things proceed for whatever reason."

"Then what do we do, Harry?" Hermione asked, working on her bottom lip, nervously.

Harry looked back at the mirror, and sighed. "Well… there's only one person we could ask, isn't there?"

Author Notes:

It's been pointed to me that leaving Moody a prisoner would be OOC for Harry, and after thinking about it, I agree.

(1) A song mentioned on the Discworld books is called "A Wizard's Staff has a Knob on the End". Terry Pratchett didn't go into detail about it, beyond noting the obvious double-entendre. There are several versions around, ranging from very innocent to very risqué. Personally, I really like Dave Greenslade's version. It is one of the relatively innocent ones. I stress, relatively! Greenslade's record "From the Discworld" was released early in 1994, so, it is possible, but not really probable, that Sirius could have heard the song. Of course, he would have found it really funny.