Sirius stared at the cave wall, then made a grimace of frustration. "There's still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn't, but I just can't see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he'd ever worked for Voldemort."

"Why are Moody and Crouch so keen to get into Snape's office then?" said Ron stubbornly.

"Well," said Sirius slowly, "I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to have searched every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts. He takes his Defense Against the Dark Arts seriously, Moody. I'm not sure he trusts anyone at all, and after the things he's seen, it's not surprising. I'll say this for Moody, though, he never killed if he could help it. Always brought people in alive where possible. He was tough, but he never descended to the level of the Death Eaters. Crouch, though . . . he's a different matter . . . is he really ill? If he is, why did he make the effort to drag himself up to Snape's office? And if he's not . . . what's he up to? What was he doing at the World Cup that was so important he didn't turn up in the Top Box? What's he been doing while he should have been judging the tournament?" Sirius lapsed into silence, still staring at the cave wall. Buckbeak was ferreting around on the rocky floor, looking for bones he might have overlooked.

Finally, Sirius looked up at Ron. "You say your brother's Crouch's personal assistant? Any chance you could ask him if he's seen Crouch lately?"

"Possibly, if Ritchie doesn't give us any answers" Ron said "Better not make it sound like I reckon Crouch is up to anything dodgy, though. Percy loves Crouch."

"And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads on Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," said Sirius, gesturing to the second copy of the Daily Prophet. Sirius heaved an enormous sigh and rubbed his shadowed eyes. "What's the time?"

I checked my watch. "Half four" I said

"You'd better get back to school," Sirius said, getting to his feet. "Now listen . . ." He looked particularly hard at Harry. "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"But there's the invisibility cloak" I said

"Yeah, and no one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry said, but Sirius scowled at him.

"I don't care . . . I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?" He handed Harry the empty napkin and flask and went to pat Buckbeak good-bye. "I'll walk to the edge of the village with you," said Sirius, "see if I can scrounge another paper."

He transformed into the great black dog before we left the cave, and we walked back down the mountainside with him, across the boulder-strewn ground, and back to the stile. Here he allowed each of us to pat him on the head, before turning and setting off at a run around the outskirts of the village. We made our way back into Hogsmeade and up toward Hogwarts.

"Wonder if Percy knows all that stuff about Crouch?" Ron said as they walked up the drive to the castle. "But maybe he doesn't care . . . it'd probably just make him admire Crouch even more. Yeah, Percy loves rules. He'd just say Crouch was refusing to break them for his own son."

"Percy would never throw any of his family to the dementors," said Hermione severely.

"I don't know," said Ron. "If he thought we were standing in the way of his career . . . Percy's really ambitious, you know. . ."

"I can't see Percy doing that, as much as he's annoying sometimes, Dementors can suck your soul out, he wouldn't subject any of us to it" I said

"I just hope that doesn't happen to Ludo. He deserves Azkaban but not to be soulless" Amy commented

"Don't worry, they don't ever do that to prisoners" Demelza said "It's only those who escape who get the kiss, I believe Snuffles is still fated to that if he's captured"

"Still though, I've heard people go mad within weeks of entering Azkaban"

"Hagrid was there for a couple months in our first year, and he got through it, we just have to hope Ludo can do the same"

We walked up the stone steps into the entrance hall, where the delicious smells of dinner wafted toward us from the Great Hall.

"Poor old Snuffles," said Ron, breathing deeply. "He must really like you, Harry. . . . Imagine having to live off rats."

The next morning, Demelza and I were fortunate enough to run into Ritchie Crouch in the common room, where he was doing some homework.

"Bit keen aren't you?" I said "It's Sunday morning, relax a bit"

Ritchie looked up at us

"I'm sorry, do I know you two?"

"No, and we're sorry to interrupt" said Demelza, shooting a look at me as we sat down, "but we were wondering if you're any relation to Barty Crouch Senior, and if so, what you could tell us about him and where he might be at the moment"

"I'm his great nephew" though he looked annoyed at being disturbed. Clearly our speculation at the sorting had been incorrect.

"Ok. Are you aware of his absence from work recently and why that might be?"

"Of course I'm aware, and as far as I know, he's just been ill and then wanted to take some time off and rest after recovering, he's not the youngest person out there is he? Now, can you let me get back to my work?"

"So you don't know anything else?" I said "Would it surprise you to learn that he was seen in Snape's office at 1am a couple weeks ago?"

He blanched. "That didn't happen" he said

"Yes it did! I saw it!"

"Look, I don't know what you two think you're playing at, but I've told you what I know. Please leave me alone or I'm going to report you to McGonagall"