History of Magic was already hard enough to pay attention to when she was wide awake, but half asleep from staying up all night worrying?
It was a wonder she hadn't immediately fallen out of her seat and started snoring.
The bell rang, to her relief, and they hurried off to the DADA classroom. Moody was leaving, looking just as tired as them.
"Professor Moody?" Harry called out.
"Hello, Potter," Moody growled, his magical eye watching a group of first years before turning back to them. "Come in here."
They slipped inside his classroom, and Moody closed the door behind them with a soft click.
"Did you find him? Mr. Crouch?" Harry asked instantly.
"No," Moody replied simply, sitting down behind his desk and taking a swig from his hip flask.
"Did you use the map?" Harry asked.
"Of course. Took a leaf out of your book, Potter. Summoned it from my office into the forest. He wasn't anywhere on there," Moody sipped again.
"So he did Disapparate?" Ron piped up.
"You can't Disapparate on the grounds, Ron!" Hermione almost shouted, pinching the bridge of her nose before looking up. "There are other ways he could have disappeared, aren't there, Professor?"
"You're another one who might think about a career as an Auror," Moody remarked, looking at Hermione. "Mind works the right way, Granger."
Hermione went pink.
"Well, he wasn't invisible. The map shows invisible people. He must've left the grounds, then," Harry declared.
"But under his own steam or because someone made him?" Hermione continued.
"Yeah, someone could've -- could've pulled him onto a broom and flown off with him, couldn't they?" Ron suggested quickly, seemingly eager to get the same praise from Moody.
"We can't rule out kidnap," Moody replied.
"So, d'you reckon he's somewhere in Hogsmeade?" Ron raised his eyebrows.
"I could ask my father if he's seen any sign of him -- " Amisty offered.
"If Crouch has remained hidden for this long it isn't likely he will find him, River," Moody raised his hand, cutting her off. "He could be anywhere. Only thing we know for sure is that he's not here." He yawned, shaking his head.
"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 just notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."
"What?" Harry blinked, realization hitting him. "Oh yeah..."
"Should be right up your street, this one. 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 piped up quickly, glancing at the rest of them. "Me, Hermione, and Amisty all helped."
Moody grinned toothily, "Well, help him practice for this one, and I'll be very surprised if he doesn't win. In the meantime... constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance," Moody glanced over at Ron, Hermione, and Amisty. "You three, 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."
-=+=-
An owl arrived the next morning with Sirius's reply, soon followed by a Prophet owl that dropped the newspaper into Hermione's lap.
"Ha! She hasn't got wind of Crouch!" Hermione cried triumphantly after scanning the first few pages.
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, Hermione, and Amisty, 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 work you won't stray out-of-bounds again.
Sirius
"Who's he, to lecture me about being out-of-bounds? After all the stuff he did at school!" Harry exclaimed indignantly, folding up the letter and shoving it into his robe pockets.
"This is different, Harry!" Amisty hit his shoulder. "A few school pranks is nowhere near an insane person coming after you!"
Harry rolled his eyes, blocking another hit, "There's no insane person coming after -- "
"He's worried about you! Just like Moody and Hagrid! So listen to them!" Hermione scolded.
"No one's tried to attack me all year. No one's done anything to me at all -- " He retorted.
"Except put your name in the Goblet of Fire. 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," Hermione hissed.
"Look, 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?" Harry snapped impatiently.
"They couldn't have made it look like an accident if they'd murdered you in the forest! But if you die during the task -- " Hermione insisted.
"They didn't care about attacking Krum, did they?" Harry cut her off, getting even more annoyed by the second. "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. 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," Hermione's voice broke off into a whisper.
He stared at her blankly, still blind to the seriousness of the situation, "It's not like I'm -- "
"You could die, Harry!" Amisty snarled, gripping his shoulders tightly as her eyes blazed with fear and frustration. "You... you could die."
That seemed to snap him out of it.
"Am, I'm not going to die," He reassured softly, prying her hands off of him and holding them gently.
"Then train with us, and listen to the people who care about you!"
-=+=-
Amisty crawled up from the floor, having missed the cushions again for the millionth time and nearly getting a concussion. It wasn't the first time in the last few days that she was regretting convincing him to train.
Not that she didn't fear for his life, just that she really didn't want to get too many more bruises.
"Ron," She groaned, rubbing her elbows, "Ron, please, can you do this for a few minutes?"
"I just went the past fifteen times, Am!" He protested, looking absolutely horrified.
Amisty sprawled out on the floor, "Hermione?"
Her brown-haired friend just looked away.
"Please, Ron? I promise, just a few times and then I'll take over again," She pleaded desperately.
"Ugh," Ron whined, "fine!"
He ended up taking over for far longer than Amisty had promised, and she sat off in her corner nursing her bruises and dreading the moment he'd ask her to come back.
"Can't we kidnap Mrs. Norris?" He asked suddenly, after being reawakened once again for about the eighth time. "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..."
"Welcome to my world..." Amisty moaned from the floor, no amount of Cooling Charms helping with her pain.
"Well, you keep missing the cushions, don't you! Just try and fall backward!" Hermione retorted.
"You can't really aim when you've been Stunned, Hermione!" Amisty argued, grudgingly getting up.
"Yeah, why don't you take a turn?" Ron added.
"Well, I think Harry's got it now, anyway," She replied quickly, looking away slightly. "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."
"As long as I don't have to have the hexes placed on me," Amisty nodded.
"I like the look of this one, this Impediment Curse. Should slow down anything that's trying to attack you, Harry. We'll start with that one," Hermione suggested just before the bell rang. "See you at dinner!"
Harry, Ron, and Amisty all trudged up to Divination, the latter two grumbling about how much pain they were in. Really, they should find a carpeted classroom to practice Stunning.
"You up to teaching me your Stinging Hex?" Harry asked as they neared the North Tower. "Might be nifty in that maze."
She stared at him in blatant horror, "And have that cast on me? What did I ever do to you!?"
"No, no," He grinned, shoving her and whispering. "We'd be casting it on Ron, of course."
"What?" Ron looked up, eyes narrowed.
"Nothing, nothing," Amisty laughed. "Harry's just being an idiot."
"Yeah, right," Ron didn't look convinced before turning his attention back to the staircase. "It's going to be boiling in Trelawney's room, she never puts out that fire."
Amisty was devastated to discover that he was right. The heat was suffocating as they walked in, and it didn't help that the smell permeating from the fireplace had gotten stronger.
They took a table by one of the heavily curtained windows, and when Professor Trelawney turned away Amisty hid her sigh of relief as Harry cracked it open.
"My dears, 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..." Professor Trelawney whispered in her patented mysterious voice.
She waved her wand and the lamps went out, only the dim lighting from the fire giving them any idea of what they were supposed to be looking at. She leaned down, taking out a glass dome that seemed to contain the entire solar system... but shrunken down.
"Notice the angle of Mars to Neptune..."
And she was off on her usual tangent about fascinating angles and planets and stars and a whole bunch of other things Amisty couldn't really find the inspiration to care about.
She did try, really, but when a room was this warm and smelled so strongly and she had just spent her lunch period falling to the floor, who could really blame her for being exhausted.
But then Harry went tumbling to the floor and she was wide awake, eyes wide, heart pounding in her ribcage.
"Harry?" She whispered hoarsely.
The class had gone silent. She dropped down to his side, Ron a millisecond behind her.
Chairs scraped as students rushed from their seats to see what the commotion was.
"What's wrong with him?" Ron whispered, his own blue eyes shocked and terrified. The black-haired boy was writhing around on the floor, hands clamped to his forehead -- to his scar -- a low cry of pain leaving his lips.
"Harry!" She shook him desperately."Harry!!!"
He opened his eyes suddenly, pupils dilated so much his eyes almost seemed black.
"You all right?" Ron asked hesitantly.
"Of course he isn't! What was it, Potter? A premonition? An apparition? What did you see?" Professor Trelawney butted in, leaning closer toward Harry.
"Nothing," Harry replied shortly, but Amisty knew he was lying. It couldn't be nothing when he was shaking as he got up.
"You were clutching your scar! You were rolling on the floor, clutching your scar! Come now, Potter, I have experience in these matters!" She insisted.
"I need to go to the hospital wing, I think. Bad headache," Harry's eyes were narrowed slightly.
The Professor seemed repulsed by the sheer thought, "My dear, you were undoubtedly stimulated by the extraordinary clairvoyant vibrations of my room. 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," Harry cut her off, voice sharp. He looked over to where Amisty and Ron were still kneeling on the floor, "See you later."
And with that, he disappeared down the trap door.
Sorry! I remembered I had to post and then got wrapped up in writing and didn't do it, so... I'm a bit late today. Probably not as late as I have been before, but recently it's been coming out at about 9:00 - 9:30 ish depending on when I remembered. Yeah, sorry again. Thanks for reading!