It took about a month to receive a reply from Percy. In that time, we were sending regular food parcels up to Sirius, but other than that, things were strangely quiet. Not that we were complaining, it was nice to catch a break for once! Percy's letter was short and irritated:

"As I am constantly telling the Daily Prophet, Mr. Crouch is taking a well-deserved break. He is sending in regular owls with instructions. No, I haven't actually seen him, but I think I can be trusted to know my own superior's handwriting. I have quite enough to do at the moment without trying to quash these ridiculous rumours. Please don't bother me again unless it's something important. Happy Easter"

"Well that's useful" I said sarcastically "told us so many things we hadn't already heard"

"Should've seen it coming" said Ron irritably "Percy was never going to tell us anything he wasn't supposed to"

The start of the summer term would normally have meant that Harry and I were training hard for the last Quidditch match of the season. This year, however, it was the third and final task in the Triwizard Tournament for which Harry needed to prepare, but he still didn't know what he would have to do. He got his answer in the last week of May, and just when we'd thought the quietness couldn't last any longer, it ended, and then some!

I was sitting with my usual group in the common room one evening, with Harry having left to find out what the third task would entail. He was taking a rather long time though, over an hour.

"Man, the task must be complicated if it's taking him this long to get back" Andrew said

"I know right, it is weird. We should send someone to go and find him" said Amy

"Look, don't worry just yet, let's give him another 15 minutes or so" Demelza said

Fifteen minutes passed however, with still no sign of Harry, so I got up and was about to head towards the portrait hole, but at that exact moment, it opened and in came Harry.

"Where have you been?" Ron asked

"You'll never believe what just happened!" Harry said, and he looked rather confused and unnerved.

"What?" we all said at once.

"Let's go to my dorm, I don't want this being overheard"

We went up there, spread ourselves out across Harry and Ron's beds, placed locking and silencing spells on the door, and waited for Harry to begin.

"Right, so when we got to the Quidditch pitch, we discovered that it had been turned into a maze. There's loads of hedges currently being grown on it, and McGonagall was there, she told us that we'd have to find the cup in the middle of the maze, while fighting various creatures and spells etc to get there. I'm in the lead points wise so I'll get a head start, Cedric will come in after me, then Krum and Fleur last" he said.

"Ok" said Magda "but why would that take you an hour and fifteen minutes"

"I'm getting there!" Harry replied impatiently

"So Viktor Krum took me towards the forest afterwards, and asked me if there was any truth behind Skeeter's article about the supposed love triangle between me, Hermione and Ginny. I told him there obviously wasn't, that Ginny and I have been together for almost a year, and that Hermione and I are only friends. Anyway, so then I noticed movement in the trees, and saw that it was none other than Mr. Crouch!"

"WHAT!" we all shouted

"How, why?" said Amy

"First he appears in Crouch's office at 1am, now this?" I said

"He was in a state of utter madness, one minute he was acting like Percy was there, giving him instructions like everything was normal, the other he was desperate, grabbing hold of me and demanding to see Dumbledore. He was saying things like he'd made a terrible mistake and needed to warn Dumbledore about something. Something about his son, Bertha Jorkins, and Voldemort getting stronger. He looked like he'd been travelling for ages, his clothes were ripped and he was bleeding"

"That's so bizarre mate" Hermione commented, and Harry ignored us all wincing at the sound of You-Know Who's name.

"Tell me about it. So, eventually, I managed to free myself and told Krum to stay there and watch over Crouch. Snape tried to hold me up, but thankfully Dumbledore appeared and came back with me to where Crouch was, only he was gone, and we found Krum unconscious! Dumbledore revived him, then he told us that Crouch had attacked him!"

"Why would he attack Krum if he knew you'd gone to get Dumbledore?" Demelza said

"God knows, he wasn't in his right mind, remember? So, Dumbledore then called for Hagrid, and Moody arrived too. Dumbledore told Hagrid to fetch Karkaroff, and when he arrived, he started ranting about how Dumbledore must have been plotting against Durmstrang the whole time"

"Typical Igor" Amy said

"You know what" I said suddenly "I reckon Ritchie should know about this!"

I stood up to go and get him, but Demelza grabbed my arm.

"Don't mate. He's only a first year, he doesn't need to be involved in this"

"It's his great uncle, he has a right to know!" I replied, and ripped my arm out of Demelza's grip. Once I'd returned with Ritchie, I made Harry re-tell the story until that point.

"So Barty shows up here delirious and attacks Krum, and Karkaroff thinks it's some sort of plot by Dumbledore? Is he really that stupid?! Even I know Dumbledore wouldn't do something like that!" he said

"Yeah, I know, but that's what happened. He then spat at Dumbledore's feet, saying that's what he thinks of him. Hagrid picked him up and slammed him against a tree, demanding he apologise until Dumbledore told him to stop. He then told Hagrid to take me back here, and for me not to send any owls until morning. Hagrid had a go at me for trusting Krum, and now here we are"

"He trusted Maxime" said Ron

"Yeah that's what I said, but Hagrid shut me down and said he doesn't trust her anymore"