Dumbledore looked up from the chained and still stunned Crouch who was still disguised as Moody.
"Well, nothing for it then. If he possibly could have heard you, we cannot risk him getting back to Riddle."
The headmaster conjured his Patronus and sent to flying out of the office. "We will soon know how he is keeping in touch with his master. Harry, you two should go before Severus arrives. Unless you want to tell him everything."
Harry was in a mixed place about telling the Potions master. He got up and Fleur followed and they were both well down the hall before they saw Snape making a beeline for the Headmaster's office.
*A-Weasley-Redo*
Harry called an emergency meeting in the Room of Requirement. Hermonie had remade those handy galleons they used in his first time around so calling everyone together was a breeze. Once they were safely in the secured room, Ginny hugged Harry.
"Are you alright?" She asked him and he gave her a gentle kiss.
"I'm fine. Fleur and I found Crouch in the bushes after she stunned him. Albus should be joining us shortly so we can discuss how to handle this development.
At that moment, Professor Dumbledore swept into the room. "Alastor, would you be against going undercover?"
The Auror looked up from his book he was reading. "Pretend to be the man pretending to be me? Are you kidding me, Albus, that is like my dream assignment. And if it helps put Riddle in his grave, I'm all for it."
The rest breathed a sigh of relief. It had been terrifying to have a live bomb in the form of a Death Eater walking free around the castle each day.
"The deception will need to be perfect, Alastor. We extracted as much information and memories from Crouch as we could, for you to study. I shall move the pensive here before the night is out."
"Alright, that is one issue solved." Fred folded his arms. "But what happens to Crouch?"
Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled. "Well, he is already supposed to be dead. We can hardly go out and hand him over to the Ministry without a load of trouble. I believe we might have to invoke the Doppelganger Clause."
Harry's eyes widened but he nodded grimly. Doppelganger clause protected wizards or witches or even Muggles who killed someone trying to assume their place. It was not an uncommon thing for a magical serial killer to kill someone close to the victim and take their place, getting close enough to do the same to the victim. And no one knew that person was gone. A person killed while wearing the face of another was in breach of the Doppelganger Clause, thus the killing would not be deemed murder. This was a risk involved with Polyjuice potion too.
"So, we claim that Moody survived the attempt to replace him and came back to reclaim his life by killing Crouch?" Harry asked. "The law would prevent Moody from facing any charges and Crouch would die in Moody's form, so no one would know. I don't like it, but it would work."
Moody nodded. "I don't mind. He is a Death Eater, ready to die for his master. He was none to gentle with me while I was under his Imperio curse, either. Bring him here after the others leave and I'll see it finished, Albus."
Dumbledore nodded and looked at the others. "I did look through the rules to see what else could be done about Crouch, and sadly there is not much we can do with him. Not without the ministry becoming our enemies. We could detain him until his Master is dead, which would buy us a lot of goodwill. But then we would need to guard him 24 hours a day and ensure he cannot get a wand."
Ginny nodded. "So, we get rid of him. I hate that sounds like a sensible idea."
Dumbledore shook his head. "I had forgotten how grown up you all are. You've had to make some tough calls as the Stars, haven't you?"
Ron smiled at him. "War changes you, mate. We do try and leave killing to a last resort but we've all had to do it before. If I have to choose between the life of a murderer and my sister, I know which I'm picking."
Harry growled. "I should have been the one to kill that man."
Ron shook his head. "Mate, you were on assignment in France. There is no way you could have been there."
They all paused to think about this.
"Why don't we all go to bed and let Dumbledore and Alastor take things from here?" Angelina suggested.
They all filed out and headed off to bed.
*A-Weasley-Redo*
Alastor had been smug when he told Harry the day before Christmas that he had made his first report.
"Riddle bought it hook, line, sinker." He said smugly. "It helps that Crouch's orders were to stay here and only communicate through untraceable means. It makes it hard for the Dark Lord to pry into my mind. Not that he would have been able to if we were face to face, mind."
That was lucky, Harry knew. Unlike the progress that Dumbledore was making with extracting the bit of Riddle's soul trapped inside him. He had wanted to talk to Ginny about it, but she was so excited about tomorrow's Yule Ball. He could wait 48 hours to bring it up to his wife. Perhaps when they were teens, she would have been upset that he sat on something that important for a couple of days, but they were married adults now. She understood that Harry held off on bad news for a reason and she respected it, even if she didn't like it.
Time sped on and then it was time for him to dress in his robes and meet Ginny for the dance. He waited at the bottom of the stairs to the girl's room. Hermonie was down waiting with him as well. She bit off a chuckle suddenly with her hand over her mouth.
"What's so funny?" He asked her as they waited for their partners. He wasn't sure what was keeping Ron so long.
"I was just remembering the day Ron tried to go up into the girl's dormitory."
Harry smiled as well now, his memory going back to those stairs changing to a slide and him being forced down to the bottom again.
"Oi, you talking about me?" Ron asked and he came out in a very nice-looking pair of dress robes. Fred and George also dressed sharply, came down behind him.
"Wow, you made that from the maroon disaster?" Hermoine blinked in surprise."
Geroge beamed in pride. "Of course, was child's play with what I know now. I had Gred do most of the work though, so he can learn how it's done."
Fred nodded and rubbed his hands. "It was certainly a challenge, Forge. Now, Katie told me to meet her in a specific place after we were done. See you all later."
Ron's eyes had been locked on Hermoine in her dress robes. Harry smiled as he elbowed his best friend and brother-in-law.
"Oh, yes. Shall we go, Hermonie?"
"That sounds charming, Ronald." She gave him a bright smile and the two of them left for the ball.
Then Harry's breath was taken away. Ginny came down in a set of emerald-green robes that matched his own. It made such a contrast with her Firey red hair. Her hair was done up in a French braid, one that Fleur and Gabrielle both had put Ginny's hair in frequently. Harry loved that braid.
"You look like you just got Stupified." Ginny chuckled and offered him her hand.
He took his wife's hand in his and pressed a kiss to it. "Milady. May I have the honor of escorting you to the dance?"
She gave him a smile. "Oh kind sir, the honor would be all mine."
Harry wondered if their eventual kids would ever be able to admit that they knew them.
*A-Weasley-Redo*
Harry and Ginny opened the dance with the other champions. Fleur was dancing with her sister, Gabrielle. Some people looked like they wanted to complain but Dumbledore just chuckled and said.
"The bonds between family are something I would not get between. Let them be."
Harry grinned; glad Fleur had found an answer as Bill could not be here for her tonight. He was spending most of his time doing as passable an impression of dancing as he could. While he could dance now, he knew that people would be suspicious if he stole the spotlight and tangoed properly with his wife. He could tell Ginny was having the same problem. They stopped after just two dances and instead went around chatting with other couples that were their friends.
Harry saw Neville dancing with Luna off to one side. Or rather, Luna was dancing with him and he was desperately trying to follow along. That girl was a force of nature.
"Should we stop Skeeter from doing that smear piece on Hagrid?" Ginny asked him as they were to get a drink.
"No," Harry said with confidence. "As much as I want to, we need to change as little as possible. The more threads we cut, the bigger change Tom will be able to throttle us with the ends."
Ginny nodded reluctantly. "It doesn't do any lasting damage. Still, I feel bad about it."
"Same. It's more important we get everyone through the next few months alive."
She poked him in the chest. "That includes you, mister."
He laughed. He longed to kiss her but that would stretch the believes of many of the people in the room. Ginny, however, had a plan.
She took out her wand and summoned a sprig of mistletoe above their heads. She said loudly. "Oh, look, Harry, Mistletoe. It would be rude if you didn't kiss me."
She presented her cheek to him. Harry leaned in and gave her a very quick peck on her cheek.
Fred and Geroge came by and grabbed Harry and dragged him off towards the punch bowl.
"Well," Ginny sighed as her loving brothers dumped the head of her husband into the remainder of the punch. "It won't leave a mark at least."
*A-Weasley-Redo*
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this next entry. Next is the second task and the leadup to the third task. See you next chapter.