The lunacy in Mad-Eye Moody's eyes were more clear now than ever, "Imagine how he'll reward me, when he finds I have done it for him. I give you to him - the thing he needed above all to regenerate - and then I killed you for him. I will be honored above all other Death Eaters. I will be his dearest, his closest supporter... closer than a son... The Dark Lord and I have much in common. Both of us, for instance, had very disappointing fathers... very disappointing indeed. And both of us had the pleasure... the very great pleasure... of killing our fathers, to ensure the continued rise of the Dark Order!"
"You're mad!" Harry shouted, backing away from the lunatic professor. In the corner of his eye, the Foe-Glass began gleam, showing silhouettes of different, undecipherable faces.
"Mad, am I?" Moody began to raise his wand, giving one last wicked cackle, "We'll see about that!"
"Stupefy!" the door to Moody's office was blasted to pieces as the blinding red light flew towards him. Dumbledore stormed inside, quickly follower by McGonagall and Snape.
Harry stared at Mad-Eye Moody's limp body on the floor, "Moody... How could it have been-"
"Because it's not Moody at all..." Harry looked up to find Annabeth standing beside the door frame, the arch being all that remained after Dumbledore blasted it to smithereens.
Behind her he spotted Percy, Thalia, and Nico just entering the room. The Son of Hades crouched down over the body, flipping it over to observe "Not-So-Moody's" face.
Annabeth rested a hand on Harry's shoulder, "Are you okay?"
Harry nodded, but his face was still quite pale.
She smiled weakly back at him. Meanwhile, Dumbledore turned to Snape and McGonagall, "Severus, please fetch me the strongest Truth Potion you possess, and then go down to the kitchens, and bring up the house-elf called Winky. Minerva, kindly go down to Hagrid's house, where you will find a large black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. Take the dog up to my office, tell him I will be with him shortly, then come back here."
The two professors left.
Percy frowned, noticing a faint gleam from inside one of the pockets in "Not-So-Moody's" jacket. He bent down and retrieved a set of keys, holding them up in the air curiously.
Nico's eyes widened with recognition, his eyes darting from the key chain towards the chest in the corner of the room, "By the Gods... Could he-"
"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore replied for him, his arm outstretched as Percy handed him the keys. Then, the headmaster walked towards the chest.
And with a faint 'click,' the chest opened.
________________________________________________________________________________
It took seven tries before the Headmaster opened the chest to a rather horrific magical compartment.
The demigods and Harry both knelt forward, looking inside the contents of the chest. There was a ten foot deep pit inside the chest, and lying on the very bottom was a very thin and starved-looking Professor Moody. Only without his magical eye and wooden leg.
"It seems you were right, Ms. Chase," Dumbledore turned towards her, "Not that I had any doubt."
The Daughter of Athena nodded with satisfaction, taking one last pitiful glance back at the trunk.
Nico swiftly dropped himself into the trunk, joining the prisoner at the bottom of the massive, dark pit. Then, he grabbed hold of Moody's wrist and the two shadow-traveled away.
The Son of Hades promptly tumbled out of the wall besides them, landing back into Moody's office. The real Moody collapsed onto the floor. Thalia ran over, helping Nico support the wizard's weight by the two demigods swinging an arm over each of their shoulders.
"He is in terrible shape... But he'll live," Dumbledore turned towards Annabeth, "Please alert Madam Pomfrey about Alastor Moody's condition as Thalia and Nico take him to the Hospital Wing."
The three demigods nodded wordlessly, following his instructions.
Percy was the first to speak out of the remaining three people in the room, "Headmaster Dumbledore... I still don't quite understand."
"Oh?"
"If that" he pointed to the doorway, where the three demigods and Moody had just left, "was the real Alastor Moody, than who's this?" The Son of Poseidon then pointed towards the floor, where the limp body of "Not-So-Moody" was.
Harry inched cautiously away from the unconscious body, staring at it dubiously.
Dumbledore smiled, sitting in a chair patiently, "The potion should wear off soon...
It seems we'll have to wait and see."
________________________________________________________________________________
Several minutes had passed by as the three patiently waited. Well, Harry and Dumbledore had... but Percy was quite restless, he constantly tapped his foot on the floor as he watched the unconscious man.
And then finally, his face began to morph into somebody else. He no longer had Moody's mangy hair and scars, but pale skin and fair hair. Because the man had two real eyes, the magical eye had wriggled out of place and fallen to the floor along with Moody's peg leg.
At perfect timing, Professor Snape had returned with Winky standing behind him. McGonagall appeared with them, "Barty Crouch! Merlin's Beard..."
Winky then emerged from cowering behind Snape's robes, "Master Barty! What is you doing here?" After a moment, she leapt towards him and began to cry, "You is killed him!" repeatedly.
"Woah, woah..." Percy pulled the house-elf off of him, "Who did he kill?"
Harry's eyes widened, "Mr. Crouch... He wasn't found..."
Winky was still held up in the air, struggling to be let go. But because of Percy's grip her efforts were in vain. It wasn't until she managed to kick backwards, into his gut, that the demigod finally dropped her back on the floor.
This time however, she didn't lunge back onto Crouch Jr. She merely stood there with her hands over her face with a look of horror in her large, house-elf sized eyes.
Dumbledore had awakened Barty Crouch with a simple wave of his wand, accompanied by the words 'Rennervate.' Snape then stepped forward and forced a small vial full of clear liquid down the the now dazed man's throat.
"Now," the Headmaster said, "I would like to ask you a few questions."
________________________________________________________________________________
Crouch had told them everything because of the Veritaserum. How his mother had used a polyjuice potion to impersonate him inside of Azkaban, how he had been subject to the Imperius Curse by his father afterwards, how Voldemort one day spoken to him about a job inside Hogwarts and then cast an Imperius Curse on Barty Crouch Sr., how he had been behind the attack on the Quidditch Cup... and the list continues.
Everything this year which had puzzled Harry finally clicked. It was all him.
"My master's plans worked," the man cackled with an insane glint in his eyes, "It had worked..." He laughed even louder.
"Oh, shut up!" Percy finally shouted.
His head snapped towards him, the demigod, who had now currently stood in the corner of the room during the interrogation.
"The only thing my master didn't seem to predict... was you. Jackson," he sneered. Then, muttering beneath his breath, "Waste of good blood... Pure blood."
The Son of Poseidon looked extremely confused, "... What?" His voice was dangerously soft.
Barty Crouch began to rant, "Oi, and that mother of yours is a squib, eh?" he paused for another maniac-like laugh, "Figures. That bitch had it com-"
Percy lunged towards him. Within a second, he was holding him the collar of his robes with one hand, as his fist of his other arm plummeted right into Barty's nose.
"DON'T YOU EVER INSULT MY MOTHER!"
With a sickening 'crack' his nose had broke. Even Dumbledore had flinched at the sound.
He was going to hit him again, even though he was now knocked out cold, if it weren't for someone who had grabbed his raised arm's wrist.
"By the gods, Percy! Stop it!" Annabeth restrained his arm, having returned from the Hospital Wing.
Harry hadn't seen this from Percy ever before... A look of pure hate. It was almost more scary than the Dark Lord himself. But just like that, after Annabeth had snapped him back to reality, it was gone again.
His posture softened, dropping Crouch Jr.'s limp body back onto the floor. Though he didn't have the consideration to let go of him gently, he still had, which seemed to be enough to satisfy the Daughter of Athena.
Thalia and Nico had returned as well, standing in the door frame of the office with a great amount of worry.
And without a word, Percy stormed out, not bothering to acknowledge the stares from both demigods and wizards alike.
Harry shook his head... Today was a long day.
________________________________________________________________________________
Word Count: 1,456