Chapter 110: Harry's Freakout
History of Magic had rarely gone so slowly. Harry kept checking my watch, having finally discarded his own, but mine wasn't moving fast enough for him either. All three of us were so tired we could happily have put our heads down on the desks and slept. Even Hermione wasn't taking her usual notes, but was sitting with her head on her hand, gazing at Professor Binns with her eyes out of focus. She ended up leaning on my arm, napping for a few minutes
When the bell finally rang, we hurried out into the corridors toward the Dark Arts classroom and found Professor Moody leaving it. He looked as tired as we felt. The eyelid of his normal eye was drooping, giving his face an even more lopsided appearance than usual.
"Professor Moody?" Harry called as we made our way toward him through the crowd.
"Hello, Potter," growled Moody. His magical eye followed a couple of passing first years, who sped up, looking nervous; it rolled into the back of Moody's head and watched them around the corner before he spoke again.
"Come in here."
He stood back to let us into his empty classroom, limped in after us, and closed the door.
"Did you find him?" Harry asked without preamble. "Mr. Crouch?"
"No," said Moody. He moved over to his desk, sat down, stretched out his wooden leg with a slight groan, and pulled out his hip flask.
"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?" I said, knowing what was coming.
"You can't Disapparate on the grounds, Ron!" snapped Hermione.
Too easy.
"There are other ways he could have disappeared, aren't there, Professor?" she asked.
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 gave a grateful grin.
"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?" I suggested.
"We can't rule out kidnap," growled Moody.
"So, do you reckon he's 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. "Now, Dumbledore's told me you three fancy yourselves as investigators, but there's nothing you can do for Crouch. The Ministry Will be looking for him now, Dumbledore's notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."
"What?" said Harry. "Oh yeah. I hadn't given it much thought, considering."
"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," I 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, and his magical eye swiveled onto the window. The topmost sail of the Durmstrang ship was visible through it.
"You two," counseled Moody, his normal eye on 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."
Sirius sent our owl back the very next morning. It fluttered down beside Harry at the same moment that a tawny owl landed in front of Hermione, clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet in its beak. She took the newspaper, scanned the first few pages, said, "Ha! She hasn't got wind of Crouch!" then joined us in reading what Sirius had to say on the mysterious events of the night before last.
Harry,
What do you think you are playing at, walking off into the forest with Viktor Krum? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night.
There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It is clear to me that they wanted to stop Crouch from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You could have been killed.
Your name didn't get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. If someone's trying to attack you, they're on their last chance. Stay close to Ron and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn't go amiss either.
There's nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I'm waiting for your letter giving me your word you won't stray out-of-bounds again.
Sirius
"Who's he, to lecture me about being out-of-bounds?" said Harry in mild indignation as he folded up Sirius's letter and put it inside his robes. "After all the stuff he did at school!"
"He's worried about you!" said Hermione. "Just like Moody and Hagrid! So listen to them!"
"No one's tried to attack me all year," said Harry. "No one's done anything to me at all-"
"Except put your name in the Goblet of Fire," said Hermione. "And they must've done that for a reason. Harry. Snuffles is right. Maybe they've been biding their time. Maybe this is the task they're going to get you."
"Look," said Harry impatiently, "let's say Sirius is right, and someone Stunned Krum to kidnap Crouch. Well, they would've been in the trees near us, wouldn't they? But they waited till I was out of the way until they acted, didn't they? So it doesn't look like I'm their target, does it?"
"They couldn't have made it look like an accident if they'd murdered you in the forest!" said Hermione. "But if you die during a task-"
"They didn't care about attacking Krum, did they?" said Harry. "Why didn't they just polish me off at the same time? They could've made it look like Krum and I had a duel or something."
"Harry, I don't understand it either," said Hermione desperately. "I just know there are a lot of odd things going on, and I don't like it...Moody's right - Sirius is right - you've got to get in training for the third task, straight away. And you make sure you write back to Sirius and promise him you're not going to go sneaking off alone again."
The Hogwarts grounds never looked more inviting than when we had to stay indoors. For the next few days we spent all of our free time either in the library looking up hexes, or else in empty classrooms, which they sneaked into to practice. Harry was concentrating on the Stunning Spell, which he had never used before. The trouble was that practicing it involved certain sacrifices on mine and Hermione's part.
"Can't we kidnap Mrs. Norris?" I suggested on Monday lunchtime as I laid flat on my back in the middle of the Charms classroom. Harry had just finished stunning and reawakening me for the fifth time in a row.
"Let's Stun her for a bit. Or you could use Dobby, Harry, I bet he'd do anything to help you. I'm not complaining or anything, but I'm aching all over."
"Well, you keep missing the cushions, don't you!" said Hermione impatiently. "Just try and fall backward!"
"Once you're Stunned, you can't aim too well, Hermione! "I snapped at her. "Why don't you take a turn?"
"Well, I think Harry's got it now, anyway," said Hermione hastily.
"Oh yeah, now's he's got it when your ass is on the line." I joked as I got off the floor.
"And we don't have to worry about Disarming, because he's been able to do that for ages...I think we ought to start on some of these hexes this evening." said Hermione, as she looked down the list we had made in the library.
"I like the look of this one," she said, "this Impediment Curse. Should slow down anything that's trying to attack you. Harry. We'll start with that one."
The bell rang. We hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwick's cupboard and slipped out of the classroom.
"See you at dinner!" said Hermione, and she set off for Arithmancy, while Harry and I headed toward Divination.
"It's going to be boiling in Trelawney's room, she never puts out that fire," I remarked as we started up the staircase toward the silver ladder and the trapdoor.
The dimly lit room was hot as hell. The fumes from the perfumed fire were heavier than ever. Thankfully, we sat near a window, which Harry cracked to let in a nice breeze.
"My dears," said Professor Trelawney, sitting down in her winged armchair in front of the class, "we have almost finished our work on planetary divination. Today, however, will be an excellent opportunity to examine the effects of Mars, for he is placed most interestingly at the present time. If you will all look this way, I will dim the lights..."
She waved her wand and the lamps went out. The fire was the only source of light now. Professor Trelawney bent down and lifted, from under her chair, a miniature model of the solar system, contained within a glass dome. It was actually quite brilliant. Each of the moons glimmered in place around the nine planets and the fiery sun, all of them hanging in thin air beneath the glass. I watched attentively for the first time almost ever as Professor Trelawney began to point out the fascinating angle Mars was making to Neptune. Harry, on the other hand, dropped off to sleep.
I didn't want to disturb him. He has been having so much on his mind lately, I figured a nap would be good for him. He looked comfortable enough. I almost envied him because I really wasn't sleepy.
Suddenly, Harry began to shake. At first it was a couple subtle movements, but it quickly turned more violent.
"Harry?" I said, trying to shake him awake. "Mate? Wake up...wake up!"
Next thing I knew, Harry let out a blood curdling scream and fell to the floor, rolling and clutching the part of his forehead where his scar was located.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared. I tried to grab a hold to Harry's shoulders.
"Harry! Wake up!" I yelled.
Professor Trelawney came over quickly and knelt down, looking at Harry with wonder.
"Don't wake him, dear, he could be having a breakthrough!" She told me in an awestruck voice.
"Or a meltdown!" I yelled."Harry! Harry!"
Harry opened his eyes. His hands were still on his scar, and he looked positively terrified.
"You all right?" I said, worried
"Of course he isn't!" said Professor Trelawney, looking thoroughly excited. "What was it. Potter? A premonition? An apparition? What did you see?"
"Nothing," Harry said as he sat up quickly. He was shaking like I did when I had met Aragog. Helookes around frantically, as if he thought someone else that shouldn't be was in the room.
"You were clutching your scar!" said Professor Trelawney. "You were rolling on the floor, clutching your scar! Come now. Potter, I have experience in these matters!"
Harry looked up at her. "I need to go to the hospital wing, I think," he said. "Bad headache."
"My dear, you were undoubtedly stimulated by the extraordinary clairvoyant vibrations of my room!" said Professor Trelawney. "If you leave now, you may lose the opportunity to see further than you have ever -"
"I don't want to see anything except a headache cure," said Harry.
He stood up. The class backed away.
"See you later," Harry muttered to me, and he picked up his bag and headed for the trapdoor, ignoring Professor Trelawney, who was wearing an expression of great frustration, as though she had just been denied a real treat.
Class went sort of barmy for the rest of the time. People kept asking me questions, as if I knew what had happened, and even more, as if I would tell them if I knew. I was glad when the bell finally rang, and I was the first one out of the classroom, bolting down the stairs.
When I got down to the main floor I ran into Hermione and told her everything. She looked horribly worried.
"You think he might have went to the hospital wing?" she asked.
"Doubt it." I said. "He may have went to Moody or Dumbledore. That was no headache. He was holding his scar, Hermione. It was something wrong with his scar. Just like first year."
Hermione looked afraid. "Well, what do we do? Moody told us to stay with him."
"Well we couldn't have known this would happen, Hermione. Let's just go wait in the common room or something."
Sure enough, that evening, Harry came back, looking as if he had been through a mental hell.
"Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well?" I whispered.
Everything Harry had seen in the thing he called a Pensieve, and everything he and Dumbledore discussed, he shared with me and Hermione - and, of course, with Sirius, to which Harry said he had sent an owl the moment he had left Dumbledore's office. We sat up late in the common room once again that night, listening to Harry talk about the trial, and how it all played out. How Karkaroff was indeed a Death Eater ("formally"), and how Crouch threw his son to the dementors like he was nothing.
I couldn't help but shiver at the thought of all this. It was so overwhelming.
"And he trusts Snape?" I asked. "He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"
"Yes," said Harry.
Hermione had not spoken for ten minutes. She was sitting with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees.
"Rita Skeeter," she muttered finally.
"Really? Really?! How can you be worrying about her now?!" I asked in disbelief.
"I'm not worrying about her," Hermione said to her knees. "I'm just thinking...remember what she said to me in the Three Broomsticks? 'I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl. ' This is what she meant, isn't it? She reported his trial, she knew he'd passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember...'Ludo Bagman's a bad wizard.' Mr. Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home."
"Yeah, but Bagman didn't pass information on purpose, did he?"
Hermione shrugged.
"And Fudge reckons Madame Maxime attacked Crouch?" I said, turning back to Harry.
"Yeah," said Harry, "but he's only saying that because Crouch disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage."
"We never thought of her, did we? Mind you, she's definitely got giant blood, and she doesn't want to admit it-"
"Of course she doesn't," said Hermione sharply. "Look what happened to Hagrid when Rita found out about his mother. Look at Fudge, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she's part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I'd probably say I had big bones if I knew that's what I'd get for telling the truth."
"That's true." said Harry.
Hermione looked at her watch. "We haven't done any practicing!" she said, looking shocked. "We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on. Harry, you need to get some sleep."