"Hey Neville," I greeted as I sat beside him in the stands.
Every student and teacher that resided within Hogwarts grounds gathered at the Quidditch field. The final task was about to start and everyone was at the edge of their seats, ready to see the first winner of the Triwizard Tournament in centuries.
I bounced my leg, staring at the ominous entrance of the maze. Soon enough, Cedric would enter it, and the final task would begin.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "You look feverish."
"No, I'm fine." No.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin!" Bagman announced with the tip of his wand at his neck. "Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place are Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter of Hogwarts School!"
Nearly the entirety of the stands erupted into applause as every stood on their feet, whistling, clapping, and screaming for Hogwarts' two champions.
"In second place, Mr. Victor Krum of Durmstrang Institute!"
More applause came around, with Karkaroff clapping especially hard.
"And in third place, Miss. Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Academy!"
The applause wasn't as vigorous for her, as there were polite and scattered claps. She had gotten last in every task and her entire school seemed to be staring down in ridicule.
"So, on my whistle, Harry and Cedric!" Bagman counted down and gave a short blow on his whistle, which signalled Harry and Cedric to enter the maze.
After a little while, Krum went in, then a little while after, Fleur.
With this task along with the last one, the crowd seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick. There was really nothing to watch.
Sure, the dragons were scary, but at least we could see them.
I shifted in my seat, wondering what was going on beyond the hedges of the maze. Was Harry defending himself well? Was Cedric harmed?
I felt Neville's hand place itself over mine between us and I tried not to smile. My dad was sitting right next to me after all.
After barely 15 minutes, Fleur was guided back out from the maze, her expression dazed but she was awake.
"What happened?" I muttered.
There were grass stains on her pants and a leave in her hair - did she pass out?
Moody told something to Dumbledore and I furrowed my brow. He probably knew she was in trouble because of that large blue eye. After all, no one noticed a red flare.
As she was led away by Madam Pomfrey, I overheard her say, "That Krum... attacked me..."
Cedric told me that the champions (unfortunately excluding Harry) had become close. I didn't blame her for sounding hurt.
"Odd..."
"What's odd?" my dad asked.
"Hermione went to the Yule Ball with Krum. He seemed like a nice guy. I didn't think he'd attack someone he considered his friend to win."
"He is from Durmstrang," he reminded me. "And they're being taught by Karkaroff."
I looked at the judge's table, where the irritable headmaster sat, awaiting Krum's apparently inevitable victory according to his face.
The gears in my mind were turning again. And they were turning quickly.
"Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. He showed Snape something on his arm."
"Something on his arm." I looked back at the biased judge. "If it is what I think it is, then why show it to Snape? In front of children? Wasn't he reformed and released?"
"The Bertha I knew wasn't forgetful at all."
"People tend to act a bit more forgetful than they are when Obliviate's just been used on them"
"What did you forget, Bertha?" I pulled out my notebook and began searching through the pages.
"Why would Mr. Crouch be in Snape's office?"
"Moody said that he was searching Snape's office as well?"
"Don't lie to me. Boomslang. Gillyweed. Both come from my private stores, and I know who stole them."
"It wasn't Harry. There are no books in the library that have information on Gillyweed, or Cedric would've found it. And why would he need to use a Polyjuice Potion?" Someone else was using a Polyjuice Potion in the school.
Someone that needed to hide, but somehow make sure that they didn't run into themselves.
I saw a red flare shoot into the sky and I squinted.
"Who do you reckon it is?" Neville asked.
"We'll see soon enough."
A few minutes later, Krum staggered out from the maze with Professor McGonagall by his side.
Fleur suddenly stood up and angrily began yelling at him in rapid French, her face red with fury. Professor McGonagall and Madam Maxime tried to break it up but she was outraged.
Krum, on the other hand, appeared... confused.
"What's she saying?" Neville asked.
"'How dare you? I was under the assumption that we were friends but apparently winning the tournament is far more important than your integrity,'" I translated. "I think."
Krum said some words and suddenly, Fleur stopped, and her furious expression was replaced by a puzzled one.
Professor McGonagall guided the two to Madam Pomfrey, who appeared just as puzzled as Fleur.
My dad and I looked at each other. "I'll check it out," he said, getting to his feet.
My dad returned to the stands and plopped down beside me with a pensive look.
"Krum claims that he doesn't know why he attacked Delacour," he explained, his brows drawing together. "He says that he didn't even feel like he was about to do it. He just did. He also admitted to attacking Cedric."
For a moment, a flash of anger overwhelmed me, then my brain started working.
"But he wouldn't do that," I insisted. "He and Cedric are friends, same with him and Fleur. None of that makes any..." I noticed Krum rubbing the back of his neck and Madam Pomfrey began to tend to it. I rubbed the back of my own neck, a memory surfacing in my mind.
"Imperius Curse?" I questioned aloud.
"That's what it seems like."
"But who would do that? No one could've been in the maze other than the champions."
"And the people who saved them," Neville added.
"Yeah, but those were Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody. Unless the cup hasn't been placed yet?"
"No, Professor Moody did that, too."
A lot of quite interesting things seemed to be happening ever since Moody began teaching, actually.
Harry's name being put in the Goblet of Fire.
Crouch's disappearance.
Crouch's reappearance then disappearance again.
And now the peculiar circumstances of which Krum attacked Fleur.
There were cogs in my head that were turning, but not all of them. I needed to add some for it all to make sense.
"Let me get this straight. You first saw the elf in the Top Box saving Crouch a seat, right?"
"Yes."
"But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?"
"Crouch didn't show up for the match but the seats were quite expensive in the Top Box," I mumbled. Winky was covering her eyes the entire time according to Hermione, so she didn't even watch the game.
"She can't act without her master's permission."
"Right, but Winky was found outside of the Top Box without her master coming to tell her to leave..." So who told her to leave? As far as I was concerned, there was no one left in the Crouch family for Winky to listen to. My eyes darted to Bagman.
"He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament."
"But why? How could he benefit?" He was a gambling man. Perhaps he bet that Harry would win and he was just trying to raise his chances. He didn't quite seem like the scheming Dark Wizard I had imagined. Too ditzy, I'd say.
"When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered holding Harry's wand, what did Crouch do?"
"He went to look through the bushes."
"Why the bushes... was there something he was hiding?"
"Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban."
"Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go."
"Anything had to go. How far would he go to make sure of that?"
Bertha Jorkins had something to do with the Death Eaters showing up to the World Cup and Harry's name being put in the Goblet of Fire. That was for sure.
At the World Cup, the Dark Mark was cast, causing Winky to be let go of even though she didn't cast it. But why would Crouch do that if she didn't cast it and no one refuted that fact?
"He went to look through the bushes."
No. Winky lost something. It wasn't because of the Dark Mark, she lost something, and it was important.
According to his ramblings to Harry, he mentioned that Voldemort was getting stronger and that something was all his fault. Putting two and two together, these two things are probably connected.
But how would he cause Voldemort to become stronger?
And in relation to these ramblings, exactly how did he leave the scene so quickly after stunning Krum - meaning he had to wait for Harry to be out of earshot - and being so incoherent?
"You used the Marauder's Map?"
"Yes."
No, he didn't just disappear. He disappeared from the Marauder's Map. He stunned Krum and suddenly evaporated, it seemed.
Or, he was forced to stun Krum.
The Imperius Curse... it made sense. It causes physical harm, like my neck and Harry's knees, so who's to say it doesn't call mental harm?
If he was taken, which seemed to be the most likely explanation since he couldn't tell a tree from Percy, then whoever took him had to be on the scene when Harry and Dumbledore arrived. They couldn't have escaped so quickly.
And somehow avoided Moody?
"No, that's impossible with that bloody eye of his," I mumbled.
Moody was an Auror. He couldn't be escaped from so easily, even with his rather old age.
Harry said he could see through Invisibility Cloaks, so that was out of the question.
He could see through solid objects, as seen in Defence Against the Dark Arts, so hiding was out of the question as well.
And he's been helping Harry a ton this whole time, even helped Cedric. He isn't a complete dud either.
Wait... he can see through solid-
"Harry's back!" Neville pointed out. "Look, he's got the cup in his hand!"
I stood. "No... No, there's something else in his hands."
Fleur, who stood closer to the entrance, let out an ear piercing scream, while Krum's right hand went down his face, stopping in front of his mouth.
"Cedric Diggory, dead!" someone in the front row screeched.
And my brain just stopped.