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NINETEEN
——PRETTY PICTURE BUT THE SCENERY IS SO LOUD
"WHAT ON EARTH—" EFFIE WINCED, GRABBING HER HEAD, WHICH WAS BANDAGED UP. "—just happened?"
"You were attacked, from what I heard," She hears her father's voice say. And then his gentle hands were pressing her back down on the bed. "Take it easy, you sustained a cracked skull, and any longer untreated, your spine would've fractured as well."
Effie grimaced, slowly raising her hand to shield her eyes. The lights dimmed, which she later found was a courtesy of Ginny, and beside her stood Pansy. "W—Where's Crouch? Is he—? What about Krum? Crouch attacked him first—"
"He's alright," Ginny interjected, sitting down in the edge of Effie's bed. "He was just stunned. Merlin, how'd you get banged up like that? I swear, if I ever see him, or—or I could just hit my brother Percy since he's standing in Krum's place—"
"I'll be sure to have a word with Dumbledore," Eleazar said firmly. He pressed a kiss to Effie's forehead, straightened his suit then left.
"I'll get us breakfast," Pansy says excitedly. "The only good thing about you right now besides being fine is we get to skip classes with valid excuses."
Effie snorts once the brunette sashayed away, before setting her sights on Ginny. She told her everything that happened that night, which left Ginny confused. "Is it peculiar of me to think that these disappearances may be connected?"
"I know," Effie agreed. "Albania was where Voldemort was last sighted, that's where Bertha Jorkins' trail ended. Crouch disappearing from Hogwarts—well, Hogwarts—"
"—is where all of them came from," Ginny adds.
Effie nods, "And I heard, that there's a recent disappearance of a muggle named Frank Bryce in the town where Voldemort grew up. My dad always told me about the three times charm; one is an incident, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern."
The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense again. Everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would take place a week before the end of term. Pansy and Effie studied about Magical Creatures, while also helping with her breathing, Neville helped Effie about plants, then Effie and Ginny would duel it out.
They kept up the use of the Room of Requirement, Effie reverted to tea and coffee so her use of amphetamines was getting lesser and lesser (Ginny had transferred half of the last bottle to an empty one, leaving about fifteen pills and tasking Pretzel to hide the rest), the nightmares did keep up, but it was easier to ignore.
The dark side of you is still a part of you, Ginny had told her. That doesn't have to be a bad thing.
✨
THE MORNING OF THE FIRST TASK WAS A NOISY OCCASION. Effie was offered numerous good lucks—the Slytherin table even conjured up several cakes decorated with lime green lollipops for her. However, Ginny, Pansy, Luna, and even Neville were running her by all they practiced.
"Stark, Professor Snape said to tell you the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast," Warrington says, panting from having run from the dungeons to the Great Hall.
"Okay. . . ?" Effie furrowed her brows. "But the task's not till tonight—"
"That's what he told me to tell you," Warringon shakes his head. "You should probably go."
The Slytherins all yelled good luck to her and bring them to glory as she went to go. Effie smiled at them gratefully, waving at Ginny, before walking towards said chambers. From there, her dad greets her with a large hug that she sunk into instantly.
"Dad," She says, muffled by his suit. "What's going on? Why're—?"
He pulled away, smiling down at her. "The champions' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. But I've always been present at each one—no matter how bad we fight, it's family above all."
"I know," Effie says with a smile. "Always and forever."
"Even beyond that," Eleazar adds. "Are you nervous?"
Effie shrugged slightly, nibbling down on her lip. "I—I don't know what to feel," Effie says with a shake of her head. "Obviously, I've been practicing, but. . . when panic strikes you sometimes you forget everything and freeze, y'know?"
"I know," His hand combed through her hair gently. "I want you to remember, that whatever it is the outcome of this, I'd still be proud, hm?"
"I'm proud of us," Effie told him sincerely. Eleazar looked at her, about to ask— "I just. . . It gives me relief to know I said it at least once and you actually heard it."
Eleazar looked like he wanted to ask more, but decided against it. "You know you can tell me anything—anything at all and nothing would make any less a daughter of mine?"
"I know," Effie felt guilty, at the same time, she felt relieved. "I'll tell you everything. After. . . After all this."
"Very well then," He seemed happier about that, kissing the crown of her head and swiveled himself gracefully out of the way. "I'd like you to meet some people—two of whom may've been familiar to you."
Cedric and his parents were just inside the door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle, was holding her mother's hand.
Then, in front of the fireplace, were unmistakeable redheads. Effie assumed this must be Ginny's mum and one of her brothers. The woman grinned, "Oh, you must be the famous Effie Stark my girl always talked about!"
Effie was suddenly swept in a hug, and finally gathered herself after a moment of shock for a good twenty seconds. She let out a surprised chuckle, her arms curling around the woman. "Mrs. Weasley?"
"Right you are, darling," Mrs. Weasley says with a smile so bright it outshone the sun. "This is William, my eldest," She gestures to the tall and lanky man beside her. "He goes by Bill."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Weasley," Effie says with a grin. "And you, Bill."
"Alright, Effie?" Bill says with a welcoming smile. "My brother Charlie, who was one of whom handled the dragons in the First Task, said you were great against that Longhorn. Clever, using smoke."
"She treated it like a literal clean, in and out business," Eleazar shares with a small laugh. "She's watched too many muggle action films—"
"Well, I've proven some of them are quite useful to our Wizarding World," Effie told him nonchalantly, before looking around. "Didn't anyone tell Potter where the champions are supposed to be?"
"He's here," Cedric announced to her excitedly.
"Would you perhaps fancy showing me around?" Eleazar asked Effie, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "I think I'd like to see the difference it had to Beauxbatons. The last time I was inside these very walls of the castle was when I met your mother, but I suppose that was only inside Dumbledore's office."
"Let's hope you don't fall down the stairs like I did, the first time I stepped foot in here," Effie says back, leading her dad out. She nods at Potter on his way in, "Potter, this is my dad, Eleazar."
"You're friends with my daughter?" Eleazar raised an eyebrow.
Potter looked as if he was going to throw himself out as he nodded hesitantly, "Er—nice to meet you, Mr. Stark."
"Call me Eleazar instead," He snorted.
"We should go before he gets the idea to show everyone my baby pictures," Effie muttered, slightly embarrassed. "Good luck, Potter."
"You too."
Eleazar looped an arm around her shoulders, "Come to think of it, I may even help you practice for a bit before you have to go."
"Is Percy Weasley stepping in for Crouch as the fifth judge tonight?" She asked him curiously after setting up a silencing charm bubble around them, so it'd moved as they go.
Eleazar tensed a bit. Despite not being a British republican, Eleazar was well kept up with what was happening inside the Ministry—there was no use keeping it from Effie since she'd find out, one way or another.
"The Ministry wants to keep Mr. Crouch's disappearance quiet, but Percy's been hauled in for questioning about the instructions Mr. Crouch has been sending in. They seem to think there's a chance they weren't genuinely written by him. Percy's been under a lot of strain. They're not letting him fill in for Mr. Crouch as the fifth judge tonight. Cornelius Fudge is going to be doing it."
"I think there's a pattern going on here, dad," Effie admitted. "Like something big's going to happen. Remember Bertha Jorkins? She disappeared in Albania, but Crouch was trying to say she's dead. What if the same fate went for Crouch? And the muggle guy who disappeared in the town Voldemort grew up in—"
"I suspect someone's been helping you piece these together," Eleazar says with a knowing look. "You never would have gone insane if you kept it all to yourself."
"Yeah, Ginny," Effie enlightened him, and glowered at his knowing smirk. "No, I don't like like her like that!"
"Yet," Eleazar coughed.
Then, Effie lowered her voice. "How did it go? What I asked of you?"
"You were right," There was a change in the atmosphere as his expression grew grave, and lowered his voice. "I had connections inside Azkaban that owe me—" He shoots her a look, knowing lots of people owed her too, to which Effie briefly smirked at. "—and dug up the grave for Crouch's son. It was all bones left, I had it sent for DNA testing. It matched Crouch's wife's muggle copy of her birth certificate."
". . . Wait, the Wizarding World has muggle copies of our birth certificates?"
"Yes, it's how we coexist somehow. If ever found in a muggle hospital, that's what we use."
"Smart," Effie commented, piecing it together in her head. "But they thought it was Crouch's son they were burying. . . oh. Oh, Polyjuice Potion was definitely involved. Which brings me back to my theory—that Alastor Moody isn't Alastor Moody."
Eleazar's head snapped towards her that Effie thought it might fall off. "What?"
"Don't think I'm crazy," She defends with furrowed brows. "I'm not the one who dug up bones that were buried probably before I was born."
"You asked for it."
"Yes, but you willingly carried it out."
"Because you wouldn't have ceased pestering me about it."
"Fair point," Effie waved him off. "One day I got lost in his office, I swore I smelt Polyjuice Potion from the flask he always carries. And then, few hours later, Ginny asks to meet up with me and boom, the Polyjuice turned into freaking fire whiskey. I think he knew."
"I think so too," Eleazar said after a moment. "That's what I would have done. Ostensibly, he might've wanted to pass you off as crazy, like you're hallucinating—"
Effie suddenly tensed up. Hallucinating. . . but it—it's too farfetched, besides, how the hell would he come close enough to poison her?
"—what?" He looked at her worriedly.
"Nothing," Effie dismissed, but then backtracked. "It's part of the whole thing I'll tell you about after all this. . . debacle. We got off-tracked. If it was Crouch's wife buried in Azkaban, then where could his son be? I mean, I forgot to mention earlier, but Potter has this map of the whole school made by the Marauders."
"The Marauders, yes," Eleazar smirked. "I was the one to recommend the last bit of spells they had—and, I was also responsible for writing down the quickest way of turning into an animagus. You see, I was your mother's pen pal for a bit."
"Cool. As to what I was saying, Potter and I, Ginny as well, since I insisted, tricking Potter into thinking it was for Pansy—well, that wasn't a complete lie, not the truth either—" She clears her throat getting off topic again. Eleazar looked amused, but listened well. "—the three of us saw Crouch moving around in here, the school. Potter saw him apparently in Snape's office—by the way, did you know his office got ransacked?—and it was Crouch."
Eleazar furrowed his brows, "Would it be possible he'd be ransacking Severus's office for ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion?"
Effie gestured to him, acknowledging his point, and continued, "Anyway, after that, Ginny and I saw him in Moody's office. If he was so sick that he could barely attend the World Cup—he looked sickly at the Goblet of Fire shebang and First Task—then how could he get the strength to move around Hogwarts in the middle of the night? What did he want? What was his motive?"
"I see your point there, no doubt you would've had this up your murder board—"
"Bits of parchments did suffice, the multicolored inks Ginny gifted me helped substitute for the yarns I use."
"I knew it," He smirked. "But with two Crouch's running around, one who've run amok and the other trying to save his Icarus-like reputation, it'd strike me as odd that Crouch Senior would appear by nighttime at Hogwarts—all raggedy, torn and worn like Potter described. The only thought I'd have about that, is Crouch Senior might've been held captive the entire time."
That was how they spent the entire day, forming contingency plans and conspiracy theories among practicing spells. Much to Effie's relief, Eleazar actually had a tape recorder running in his pocket the whole time so their discussion was not lost.
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