Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Seven

Annabeth noticed some inconsistencies immediately.

The first one was that Sirius Black had been best friends with James Potter. One of the news articles was accompanied by a picture of the Potter's wedding, and Black looked insanely happy for the couple. Annabeth had spent her entire life learning to read people. She saw nothing malicious in Black in that picture.

Sure, Annabeth had been betrayed before. Badly. But she had been so enamored with Luke, she hadn't read the signs that had become so clear to her.

The second was that Peter Pettigrew had been blown apart. Twelve other muggles had died. As far as the article said, the twelve muggles had just dropped, completely intact. So why had Pettigrew been the only one to be blown apart? Sure, his body could have taken the brunt of the curse, but if twelve others had died, shouldn't there have been a varying degree of gore, based on their proximity to the curse?

Third, if Black had broken into Hogwarts three times, how was Harry alive? Vera and Freddie had told her that the first time, he hadn't made it into the Gryffindor common room. It made sense that he fled after the failure. But the second time, he had been standing over Ron Weasley's bed with a knife. Harry had been right next to him. Why not kill Ron and then Harry? Black had shown before that he had no qualms about witnesses.

Black had been in Azkaban for twelve years before he escaped. Was there something that triggered it? Had he been planning it all along, and only then had he been ready?

"Why did he escape then?" Annabeth murmured. She had found long ago that asking her questions and working through the answers out loud always helped.

She pulled the article about Fudge's visit towards her. She didn't find anything helpful. She looked through his statement after Black had escaped. According to Fudge's speech, he had given Black a newspaper. Did Black find something in it that gave him need to escape?

Annabeth looked back at the date that Fudge had gone to Azkaban. Then she got up, sifted through the stacks of newspapers, and got the one from that date.

The newspaper was yellow, crinkled, and dirty. It was a photo of the Weasley family standing in front of a pyramid, waving at the camera. A rat standing on Ron's shoulder was circled in an inky pen. With a closer look, Annabeth saw that the rat was missing a toe.

***

Hermione watched as Annabeth Chase rifled through newspaper articles. Hermione was hiding behind a bookshelf, but she had pulled off a few books so she could see through the gap. Annabeth was muttering to herself, looking everything over multiple times. Hermione only caught a few words.

"Missing toe... but how could... is that possible...? Doesn't make sense..."

Suddenly Annabeth got up and ran to the rack of old newspapers. She pulled one off that was dated to last year. Hermione saw the headline. It was about Lupin's being a Werewolf.

She watched Annabeth for at least twenty minutes, until something happened. Annabeth's mutterings became more excited. She was on the edge of a breakthrough.

"That would explain... it wouldn't alert the dementors... Vera said the rat died last year, but what if... and if they were all... but then... it says they were confunded but what if..."

Annabeth stood, eyes wide. "He's innocent," she said. Then she did something that made Hermione freeze with fear. Annabeth looked straight into Hermione's eyes and said, "how long have you known?"

***

Annabeth knew Hermione had been following her from the start. She had spent years learning how to tell when she was being stalked by a monster, and Hermione was louder than a Hydra on a mountain.