Percy Jackson and Harry Potter Halfblood Heroes. (Book 4)

Chapter 22

Both Percy and Hermione turned pink.

"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?" said Ron quickly, looking hopefully at Moody as if he too wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"We can't rule out kidnap," growled Moody.

"So," said Ron, "d'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, and his lopsided mouth revealed several missing teeth. Then he said,

"Now, Dumbledore's told me you four fancy yourselves as investigators, but there's nothing you can do for Crouch. The Ministry'll be looking for him now, Dumbledore's notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."

"What?" said Harry.

"The tournament Idiot." Percy hissed.

"Oh yeah . . ."

"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," Ron said quickly. "Me, Percy and Hermione helped."

"I didn't do much," Percy added.

"Mate you're too noble," Ron said

Moody grinned. "Noble Mr Jackson, defeating a troll in your first year is nothing to you?"

Percy looked at him. How did he know?

Moody grinned. "Well, help them practice for this one, and I'll be very surprised if you don't win," said Moody. "In the meantime . . . constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance." He took another long draw from his hip flask, his magical eye swivelled towards the window.

"You three," counselled Moody, his normal eye on Percy, Ron and Hermione, "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 their 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 the boys in reading what Sirius had to say.

"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 sharply. "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 and Percy 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 the 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 both of 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 whenHarry had to stay indoors. For the next few days, he spent all of his free time either in the library with Percy, Hermione and Ron, looking uphexes, or else in empty classrooms, which they sneaked into topractice. Harry was concentrating on the Stunning Spell, which hehad never used before. The trouble was that practising it involvedcertain sacrifices on Percy's, Ron's and Hermione's part.

"Can't we kidnap Mrs. Norris?" Ron suggested on Mondaylunchtime as he lay flat on his back in the middle of their Charmsclassroom, having just been Stunned and reawoken by Harry forthe fifth time in a row. "Let's Stun her for a bit. Or you could useDobby, Harry, I bet he'd do anything to help you. I'm not complaining or anything" — he got gingerly to his feet, rubbing hisbackside — "but I'm aching all over. . . ."

"Well, you keep missing the cushions, don't you!" said Hermione impatiently, rearranging the pile of cushions they had used forthe Banishing Spell, which Flitwick had left in a cabinet. "Just tryand fall backward!"

"Once you're Stunned, you can't aim too well, Hermione!" saidRon angrily. "Why don't you take a turn?"

"Well, I think Harry's got it now, anyway," said Hermionehastily. "And we don't have to worry about Disarming, because he'sbeen able to do that for ages. . . . I think we ought to start on someof these hexes this evening."

"How about the bat bogey hex?" Percy asked grinning mischievously

"No, it doesn't cause much damage," said Hermione consulting her list

"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. They hastily shoved the cushions back intoFlitwick's cupboard and slipped out of the classroom.

"See you at dinner!" said Hermione, and she set off for Arithmancy, while Percy went for Muggle studies and Harry and Ron headed toward North Tower, for Divination