xviii. high horse

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"It comes down to this," said Hermione, rubbing her forehead. "Either Mr. Crouch attacked Viktor, or somebody else attacked both of them when Viktor wasn't looking."

"It must've been Crouch," said Ron at once. "That's why he was gone when Harry, Tilly, and Dumbledore got there. He'd done a runner."

"I don't think so," said Harry, shaking his head. "He seemed really weak – I don't reckon he was up to Disapparating or anything."

"Not possible," said Matilda in a bored tone. "You can't disapparate on Hogwarts grounds."

Hermione nodded, agreeing.

"Ok... how's this for a theory," said Ron excitedly, "Krum attacked Crouch – no, wait for it – and then Stunned himself!"

Matilda shook her head, "Horrible theory."

"And Mr. Crouch evaporated, did he?" said Hermione annoyed.

"Oh, yeah..."

It was daybreak. Harry, Matilda, Ron, and Hermione had crept out of their dormitories very early and hurried up to the Owlery together to send a note to Sirius. Now they were standing looking out at the misty grounds. All three of them were puffy-eyed and pale because they had been talking late into the night about Mr. Crouch.

"Just go through it again, Harry," said Hermione. "What did Mr. Crouch actually say?"

"I've told you, he wasn't making much sense," said Harry. "He said he wanted to warn Dumbledore about something. He definitely mentioned Bertha Jorkins, and he seemed to think she was dead. He kept saying stuff was his fault... he mentioned his son."

"Well, that was his fault," said Hermione testily.

"He was out of his mind," said Harry. "Half the time he seemed to think his wife and son were still alive, and he kept talking to Percy about work and giving him instructions."

"And... remind me what he said about You-Know-Who?" said Ron tentatively.

Harry sighed, that particular part of the conversation had become the hardest for Harry to recount, so Matilda, noticing his discomfort stepped in, "Mr. Crouch said he's getting stronger."

There was a pause.

Then Ron said in a falsely confident voice, "But he was out of his mind, like Harry said, so half of it was probably just raving..."

"He was sanest when he was trying to talk about Voldemort," said Harry, ignoring Ron's wince. "He was having real trouble stringing two words together, but that was when he seemed to know where he was and know what he wanted to do. He just kept saying he had to see Dumbledore."

Matilda watched as Harry's gaze turned away from the window and stared up into the rafters. Half the many perches were empty; every now and then, another owl would swoop in through one of the windows, returning from its night's hunting with a mouse in its beak.

"If Snape hadn't held me up," Harry said bitterly, "We might've got there in time. 'The Headmaster is busy, Potter... what's this rubbish, Potter?' Why couldn't he have just got out of the way?"

"Maybe he didn't want you to get there!" said Ron quickly. "Maybe – hang on – how fast d'you reckon he could've got down to the Forest? D'you reckon he could've beaten you and Dumbledore there?"

"Not unless he apparated, which we all hopefully know by now, he couldn't have done that," said Matilda.

"Maybe he turned himself into a bat," Harry suggested with heavy sarcasm.

"Wouldn't put it past him," Ron muttered.

"We need to see Professor Moody," said Hermione. "We need to find out whether he found Mr. Crouch."

"If he had the Marauder's Map on him, it would've been easy," said Harry.

"Still can't believe you lent it to him," Matilda shook her head disapprovingly. "You barely know the man, and most of the time he's acting like a lunatic."

Harry shrugged. At the time it seemed like a good idea, but now, he was missing the map.

"Unless Crouch was already outside the grounds," said Ron, "because it only shows up to the boundaries, doesn't –"

"Shh!" said Hermione suddenly.

Somebody was climbing the steps up to the Owlery. Matilda could hear two voices arguing, coming closer and closer.

"– that's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that –"

"– we've tried being polite, it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did –"

"I'm telling you, if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat payoff, will you?"

The Owlery door banged open. Fred and George came over the threshold, then froze at the sight of Matilda, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"What're you doing here?" Ron and Fred said at the same time.

"Sending a letter," said Harry and George in unison.

"What, at this time?" said Hermione and Fred.

Fred grinned. "Fine – we won't ask you what you're doing if you don't ask us,"

"Fine idea," Matilda nodded approvingly, "Carry on, then."

Fred was holding a sealed envelope in his hands. Matilda glanced at it, but he, whether accidentally or on purpose, shifted his hand so that the name on it was covered.

"Well, don't let us hold you up," he said, making a mock bow, and pointing at the door.

Ron didn't move. "Who're you blackmailing?"

"Not important," said Matilda, nudging Ron. "Let's go."

The grin vanished from Fred's face. Harry saw George half glance at Fred, before smiling at Ron.

"Don't be stupid, I was only joking," he said easily.

"Didn't sound like that," said Ron.

Fred and George looked at each other.

Then Fred said abruptly, "I've told you before, Ron, keep your nose out if you like it the shape it is. Can't see why you would, but –"

"It's my business if you're blackmailing someone," said Ron. "George's right, you could end up in serious trouble for that."

"Told you, I was joking," said George. He walked over to Fred, pulled the letter out of his hands, and began attaching it to the leg of the nearest barn owl. "You're starting to sound a bit like our dear older brother, you are, Ron. Carry on like this and you'll be made a Prefect."

"No, I won't!" said Ron hotly.

George carried the barn owl over to the window and it took off.

He turned around and grinned at Ron. "Well, stop telling people what to do then. See you later."

George and Fred left the Owlery. Matilda, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at each other.

"Well, I can see how sounding like Percy could be a bad thing, but what's the matter with being a Prefect?" Matilda questioned aloud once the twins had gone.

Ron shrugged. He didn't think being a Prefect was bad, but he didn't want to admit that to his brothers and become teased relentlessly about it.

"You don't think they know something about all this, do you?" Hermione whispered. "About Crouch and everything?"

"No," said Harry. "If it was something that serious, they'd tell someone. They'd tell Dumbledore."

Matilda chuckled, not believing a word of that. They'd had the Marauders Map and never mentioned it to a Professor.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked a seemingly uncomfortable Ron.

"Well..." said Ron slowly, "I dunno if they would. They're... they're obsessed with making money lately, I noticed it when I was hanging around with them – when – you know –"

"When you wouldn't talk to Harry for childish reasons," Matilda finished for him.

"Yeah, but blackmail?" Harry questioned.

"It's this joke-shop idea they've got," said Ron. "I thought they were only saying it to annoy Mum, but they really mean it, they want to start one. They've only got a year left at Hogwarts, they keep going on about how it's time to think about their future, and Dad can't help them, and they need gold to get started."

"Well," Matilda shrugged. "At least they're thinking about their future."

Hermione was looking uncomfortable now. "Yes, but... they wouldn't do anything against the law to get gold. Would they?"

"Wouldn't they?" said Ron, looking skeptical. "I dunno... they don't exactly mind breaking rules, do they?"

"Yes, but this is the law," said Hermione, looking scared. "This isn't some silly school rule... they'll get a lot more than detention for blackmail! Ron... maybe you'd better tell Percy..."

"Oh Hermione, come down off that high horse of yours for a moment, please," Matilda scoffed. "Since I've met the three of you all we've done is broke rules. We – at the moment, are aiding a fugitive."

"Tilly's right," said Ron. "Besides, if I told Percy he'd do a Crouch and turn them in."

Ron stared at the window through which Fred and George's owl had departed, then said, "Come on, let's get some breakfast,"

"D'you think it's too early to go and see Professor Moody?" Hermione said, as they went down the spiral staircase.

Matilda sighed, "It's always too early to go and see Moody."

History of Magic had always been the slowest moving class in Matilda's opinion. But for Harry, it seemed to go even slower. He kept checking Ron's watch, having finally discarded his own, but apparently, the tiny hands on Ron's wrist weren't moving as quickly as Harry wished them to. It was amusing to watch Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to sit through the most boring lesson of the day. They acted as though their heads weighed a thousand pounds and could barely keep it upright. Matilda though felt fine. She sat in her usual spot at the front of the class with Padma and took her usual notes.

When the bell finally rang Matilda lingered behind in no rush unlike the other three as they hurried out into the corridor towards the Dark Arts' classroom, and found Professor Moody leaving it. He looked as tired as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The eyelid of his normal eye was drooping, giving his face an even more lop-sided appearance than usual.

"Professor Moody?" Harry called, as they made their way towards him through the crowd.

"Hello, Potter," growled Moody. His magical eye followed a couple of passing first-years, who sped up, looking nervous; it rolled into the back of Moody's head and watched them around the corner before he spoke again. "Come in here."

He stood back to let them into his empty classroom, limped in after them, and closed the door.

"Did you find him?" Harry asked, without preamble. "Mr. Crouch?"

"No," said Moody. He moved over to his desk, sat down, stretched out his wooden leg with a slight groan, and pulled out his hip-flask.

"Did you use the map?" Harry said.

"Of course," said Moody, taking a swig from his flask. "Took a leaf out of your book, Potter. Summoned it from my office into the Forest. He wasn't anywhere on there."

"So he did Disapparate?" said Ron.

Matilda rolled her eyes and turned back to face Ron, "Really? Haven't we gone over this enough? He did not disapparate!"

"You can't Disapparate in the grounds, Ron!" said Hermione. "There are other ways he could have disappeared, aren't there, Professor?"

Moody's magical eye quivered as it fell in-between Hermione and Matilda.

"The two of you might think about a career as an Auror," he pointed to them. "Minds work great together. You'd be a great team, Granger and Winters."

Hermione flushed pink with pleasure, but Matilda stood shaking her head, unimpressed, "No. Never thought about it, never will. Certainly not the career choice for an intellect like myself."

"Well, he wasn't invisible," said Harry, back on topic. "The map shows invisible people. He must've left the grounds, then."

"But under his own steam?" said Hermione eagerly. "Or because someone made him?"

"I think the answer to that is pretty obvious," said Matilda.

"Yeah, someone could've – could've pulled him onto a broom and flown off with him, couldn't they?" said Ron quickly, looking hopefully at Moody, as if he, too, wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"We can't rule out kidnap," growled Moody.

"So," said Ron, "d'you reckon he's somewhere in Hogsmeade?"

"Could be anywhere," said Moody, shaking his head. "Only thing we know for sure is that he's not here."

He yawned widely so that his scars stretched, and his lopsided mouth revealed a number of missing teeth.

Then he said, "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 notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task."

"What?" said Harry. "Oh, yeah..."

"Should be right up your street, this one," said Moody, looking up at Harry and scratching his scarred and stubbly chin. "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 Philosopher's Stone in your first year, didn't you?"

"We helped," Ron said quickly.

Moody looked between the three friends behind Harry.

"Them not me," Matilda told him.

"But you're here now," Moody leaned back up to look at Matilda from across the large desk.

Matilda nodded, unphased, "Sure am."

Moody grinned. "Well, help him practice for this one, and I'll be very surprised if he doesn't win," he said. "In the meantime... constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance."

He took another long draught from his hip-flask, and his magical eye swiveled onto the window. The topmost sail of the Durmstrang ship was visible through it. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had turned to leave the classroom. Matilda went to follow behind but was stopped when Moody cleared his throat loudly.

She turned back to face him.

"You," his normal eye was focused on Matilda. "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."

"Of course, Professor,"

But the growing pit in Matilda's stomach kept her from trusting Moody.

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Sirius sent their owl back the very next morning. It fluttered down beside Harry at the same moment that a tawny owl landed in front of Hermione, clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet in its beak. She took the newspaper, scanned the first few pages, said,

"Ha! She hasn't got wind of Crouch!", then joined Matilda, Ron, and Harry in reading what Sirius had to say on the mysterious events of the night before last.

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 and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming with Matilda. 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 word you won't stray out of bounds again.

Sirius

Matilda snorted out a laugh, "Can't believe he's lecturing you. Better be glad he didn't send no Howler."

"Who's he, to lecture me about being out of bounds?" said Harry in mild indignation, as he folded up Sirius' letter and put it inside his robes. "After all the stuff he did at school!"

"He's worried about you!" said Hermione sharply. "Just like Moody and Hagrid! So listen to them!"

"No one's tried to attack me all year," said Harry. "No one's done anything to me at all –"

"Except put your name in the Goblet of Fire," said Hermione. "And they must've done that for a reason, Harry. Snuffles is right. Maybe they've been biding their time."

"Look," said Harry impatiently, "let's say Snuffles 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 'til I was out of the way until they acted, didn't they? So, it doesn't look like I'm their target, does it?"

"Yet," added Matilda. "Not their target yet."

"They didn't care about attacking Krum, did they?" said Harry. "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."

"A quiet beginning does not guarantee a quiet ending," said Matilda.

Harry rolled his eyes, but Matilda continued.

"It's odd, I'll admit it, but you're better safe than sorry," she told him. "The best thing to do right now is to begin preparing for the third task."

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The Hogwarts grounds never seemed more inviting to Harry than when everyone was doing everything they could to keep him indoors. For the next few days, Matilda spent most of her free time either in the library with Harry, looking up hexes, or else in empty classrooms, which they would sneak into for practice. Harry was learning the Stunning Spell, which he'd never used before. The trouble was that practicing it involved certain sacrifices that Matilda wasn't willing to take, and so it was dropped onto Ron and Hermione to be the test rabbits.

"Can't we kidnap Mrs. Norris?" Ron suggested during Monday lunchtime, as he lay flat on his back in the middle of their Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and re-awoken by Harry for the fifth time in a row. "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..."

Ron got to his feet, rubbing his backside.

"Well, you keep missing the cushions, don't you!" said Hermione impatiently, rearranging the pile of cushions they had used for the Banishing Spell, which Flitwick had left in a cabinet. "Just try and fall backward!"

"Once you're Stunned, you can't aim too well, Hermione!" said Ron angrily. "Why don't you take a turn?"

"I believe Harry's got it now," said Matilda, defusing an upcoming argument. "And we don't need to worry about Disarming – Harry's known how to that for a while now. About the only spell, he does almost perfectly."

"I think we ought to start on some of these hexes then," said Hermione as she read off the list they'd made in the library for Harry.

"Oh, I like this one," Matilda pointed to the list. "The Impediment Jinx should slow down anything that's trying to attack you. We'll start with that one."

The bell rang. They hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwick's cupboard, and slipped out of the classroom.

"See you at dinner," waved Hermione as she and Matilda set off for Arithmancy.

Hermione and Matilda shared a desk at the front of the classroom. Though the two hardly spoke as they became entranced by the lesson. Unlike Divinations, Arithmancy made sense. There was math behind the predictions, undeniable proof. There was no blind belief or blind trust, just proof.

This week Professor Vector introduced The Fibonacci Sequence. The Fibonacci sequence can itself be found in many places within nature and science. It was first discovered while looking at the reproductive habits of rabbits. It was thus used to determine how many pairs of rabbits would be present after a certain number of months.

Today, the class was solving the tenth number in the sequence.

Terry Boot had just raised his hand to offer an answer when an impatient knock came from outside the door. Professor Vector told Terry to hold his answer as she seemingly floated by the desks to the back of the classroom. The class turned their heads to watch as she opened the door and then stepped outside the classroom.

A few seconds later she returned, searching the classroom until her gaze rested on Matilda, "Miss Winters, your presence is being... demanded."

Furrowing her eyebrows Matilda looked to Hermione and shrugged as she began to gather her classroom materials and quickly pack them back into her bag. She stopped on her way out and handed a scroll to Professor Vector. It was the homework assignment that was due by the end of this week. She'd finished it ages ago.

Professor Vector nodded and stepped aside so that she could walk out the large, rounded door. In the hallway, waiting impatiently was Harry. He was pacing while tracing the scar on his forehead with his index finger.

"Harry?" Matilda questioned. "What on earth are you doing? I am in class."

"I know, I know – I'm sorry," he stopped pacing and approached Matilda.

Matilda quickly took notice of Harry's nervous demeanor and she pulled her bag higher up on her small shoulders.

"Harry what is going on?" she asked.

"It's my scar," he told her.

"Is it hurting again?" Matilda gulped.

Harry nodded.

"Alright," she said. "What do we need to do?"

Harry sighed, "Well, Sirius told me to see Dumbledore the next time—"

"–Then let's go."

Matilda took hold of Harry's hand and pulled him through the empty and narrow corridors toward the entrance of the Headmaster's office. An office she's been to countless times before this one. Usually once a week, but this year Dumbledore's tea-times have been cut to only twice a month since it was so busy this year.

"You know the password, don't you?" Harry asked.

Matilda dropped his hands as they came face-to-face with the gargoyles guarding the entrance. She scoffed and turned back to the statue.

"Cockroach Cluster..."

Harry's nose wrinkled in disgust and the gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside. Matilda grinned proudly.

They hurried through the gap in the walls and stepped onto the foot of a spiral stone staircase, which moved slowly upwards as the doors closed behind him, taking him up to a polished oak door with a brass doorknocker.

Matilda could hear voices from inside the office. She took hold of Harry's wrist as they stepped off the moving staircase and hesitated, listening.

"Dumbledore, I'm afraid I don't see the connection, don't see it at all!" It was the voice of the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge. "Ludo says Bertha's perfectly capable of getting herself lost. I agree we would have expected to have found her by now, but all the same, we've no evidence of foul play, Dumbledore, none at all. As for her disappearance being linked with Barty Crouch's!"

"And what do you think's happened to Barty Crouch, Minister?" said Moody's growling voice.

"I see two possibilities, Alastor," said Fudge. "Either Crouch has finally cracked – more than likely, I'm sure you'll agree, given his personal history – lost his mind, and gone wandering off somewhere –"

"He wandered extremely quickly, if that is the case, Cornelius," said Dumbledore calmly.

"Or else – well..." Fudge sounded embarrassed. "Well, I'll reserve judgment until after I've seen the place where he was found, but you say it was just past the Beauxbatons carriage? Dumbledore, you know what that woman is?"

"I consider her to be a very able Headmistress – and an excellent dancer," said Dumbledore quietly.

"Dumbledore, come!" said Fudge angrily. "Don't you think you might be prejudiced in her favor because of Hagrid? They don't all turn out harmless – if, indeed, you can call Hagrid harmless, with that monster fixation he's got –"

"I no more suspect Madame Maxime than Hagrid," said Dumbledore, just as calmly. "I think it possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius."

"Can we wrap up this discussion?" growled Moody.

"Yes, yes, let's go down into the grounds, then," said Cornelius impatiently.

"No, it's not that," said Moody. "It's just that Potter and Winters are waiting just outside the door to have a word with Dumbledore."

Matilda and Harry stood wide-eyed as they listened to the sound of Moody's wooden nearing the door. 

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AN:// a bit of a shorter and more relaxed chapter.

More action to come soon. Hope this isn't as boring as I think.

See you all next time :)