Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181
Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386
Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099
Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999
Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737
Chapter 6: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003592048
Chapter 7: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003593450
Chapter 8: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003594715
Chapter 9: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003595876
Chapter 10: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003596713
Chapter 11: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003597502
Chapter 12: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003598647
Chapter 13: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003600597
Chapter 14: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003602821
Chapter 15: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605031
Chapter 16: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605690
Chapter 17: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003607525
Chapter 18: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003607955
Chapter 19: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003608845
Chapter 20: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003609937
Chapter 21: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003612000
Chapter 22: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003613068
Chapter 23: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003613747
Chapter 24: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003614871
Tags: @MeowTasticCat (love the new profile pic) @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox @Kakaonut @Potatopanda2121
(So I have been on a trip these past few days, and I wrote the entire time, so I have several chapters finished. I'll try and spread them out but expect a lot of uploads. DO NOT FEEL PRESSURED TO READ THEM RIGHT AWAY.)
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Madness of Mr Crouch
After the information Harry had learned he had been in quite a mood, but on Sunday morning he was in a bit better spirt as he headed towards the kitchen with Theodore, Allison, and Tracey. Harry couldn’t wait to give Dobby his new socks.
The house-elves gave them a very cheery welcome, bowing and curtsying and bustling around making tea again. Dobby was ecstatic about his present.
‘Harry Potter is too good to Dobby!’ he squeaked, wiping large tears out of his enormous eyes.
‘You saved my life with that gillyweed, Dobby, you deserve it. Also Allison here helped pick them out,’ said Harry.
‘Dobby is grateful to Miss Runcorn too.’
‘You are quite welcome,’ said Allison in a rare smile.
He switched the miss-matched pair he was wearing with two others from Harry’s present.
After a moment Harry noticed that something was missing from the kitchen, or more appropriately someone.
‘Dobby, where is Winky?’
‘Winky is over there by the fire, sir,’ said Dobby quietly, his ears drooping slightly.
‘Poor thing,’ said Tracey as she spotted Winky.
Harry looked over at the fireplace too. Winky was sitting on the same stool as last time, but she had allowed herself to become so filthy that she was not immediately distinguishable from the smoke-blackened brick behind her. Her clothes were ragged and unwashed. She was clutching a bottle of butterbeer and swaying slightly on her stool, staring into the fire. As they watched her, she gave an enormous hiccup.
‘Winky is getting through six bottles a day now,’ Dobby whispered to Harry.
‘Well, it’s not strong, that stuff,’ Harry said.
But Dobby shook his head. ‘’Tis strong for a house-elf, sir,’ he said.
Winky hiccuped again. The elves who had brought the group some sweets gave her disapproving looks as they returned to work.
‘Winky is pining, Harry Potter,’ Dobby whispered sadly. ‘Winky wants to go home. Winky still thinks Mr Crouch is her master, sir, and nothing Dobby says will persuade her that Professor Dumbledore is her master now.’
‘Hey, Winky,’ said Harry, struck by a sudden inspiration, walking over to her, and bending down, ‘you don’t know what Mr Crouch might be up to, do you? Because he’s stopped turning up to judge the Triwizard Tournament.’
Winky’s eyes flickered. Her enormous pupils focused on Harry. She swayed slightly again and then said, ‘M—Master is stopped—hic—coming?’
‘Yeah,’ said Harry, ‘we haven’t seen him since the first task. The Daily Prophet’s saying he’s ill.’
Winky swayed some more, staring blurrily at Harry. ‘Master—hic—ill?’
Her bottom lip began to tremble.
‘Maybe,’ said Theodore quickly, ‘we have reason to believe he might be faking.’
‘Master is needing his—hic—Winky!’ whimpered the elf. ‘Master cannot—hic—manage—hic—all by himself...’
‘Well, I think he’s able to take care of himself, it’s just that he-‘ began Harry before being interrupted.
‘Winky—hic—is not only—hic—taking care of Mr Crouch!’ Winky squeaked indignantly, swaying worse than ever and slopping butterbeer down her already heavily stained blouse. ‘Master is—hic—trusting Winky with—hic—the most important—hic—the most secret—‘
‘What?’ said Harry.
But Winky shook her head very hard, spilling more butterbeer down herself.
‘Winky keeps—hic—her master’s secrets,’ she said mutinously, swaying very heavily now, frowning up at Harry with her eyes crossed. ‘You is—hic—nosing, you is.’
‘Winky must not talk like that to Harry Potter!’ said Dobby angrily. ‘Harry Potter is brave and noble and Harry Potter is not nosy!’
‘He is nosing—hic—into my master’s—hic—private and secret—hic—Winky is a good house-elf—hic—Winky keeps her silence—hic—people trying to—hic—pry and poke—hic—‘
Winky’s eyelids drooped and suddenly, without warning, she slid off her stool into the hearth, snoring loudly. The empty bottle of butterbeer rolled away across the stone-flagged floor. Half a dozen house-elves came hurrying forward, looking disgusted. One of them picked up the bottle; the others covered Winky with a large checked tablecloth and tucked the ends in neatly, hiding her from view.
‘We is sorry you had to see that, sirs and misses!’ squeaked a nearby elf, shaking his head and looking very ashamed. ‘We is hoping you will not judge us all by Winky, sirs and misses!’
‘Will she be ok?’ asked Tracey.
‘We don’t know, miss,’ said another elf. ‘House-elf’s who spend their entire life under one master almost never take being fired well, but most are usually better by now.’
The atmosphere in the kitchen had changed, the elves clearly did not like the group seeing Winky in her current state or anyone taking about being fired. Not wishing to cause trouble Harry and his friends soon headed for the exit.
‘Thank you for the socks, Harry Potter!’ Dobby called miserably from the hearth, where he was standing next to the lumpy tablecloth that was Winky.
‘You’re very much welcome,’ said Harry as he exited.
‘That was very interesting,’ said Theodore as they headed back towards the dungeon. ‘Winky implied someone else was living with Crouch, but his wife and son are both dead. Who could she mean?’
Harry thought for a second, ‘It’s been over thirteen years since his wife died, maybe he found somebody else? However she was really drunk, she might have old memories confused for newer ones and was talking about Crouch’s wife and son.’
Despite how their conversation with Winky had ended, the four of them were quite chipper by the following morning. They all ate with Terence until they were full from the delicious spread on the table. As always the post owls arrived halfway through the morning meal, however unlike normal Tracey received far more mail than normal.
‘Tracey, you’re birthday was six months ago, wasn’t it?’ said Harry, seizing Tracey’s goblet before it was knocked over by the cluster of owls, all of whom were jostling close to her, trying to deliver their own letter first. Allison also received a couple letters apposed to her regular one from her mother.
‘It’s not, I don’t understand—?’ Tracey said, taking the letter from a gray owl, opening it, and starting to read. ‘My goodness!’ she sputtered, going rather pink in the ears.
‘What does it say?’ Asked Terence, concerned.
‘They’re hate mail,’ said Allison plainly after reading hers.
‘They’re quite childish, I must say,’ said Tracey. She thrust the letter at Harry, who saw that it was not handwritten, but composed from pasted letters that seemed to have been cut out of the Daily Prophet.
“You are a WickEd giRL. HarRy PotTER desErves BeTteR. HOpe your NeW mAN DUmps youR UgLY half-BLooD arsE.”
‘Mine says I’m a back stabbing...well, it gets kind of immature,’ said Allison.
‘Each one is about the same,’ said Tracey, opening each letter. ‘All saying how I don’t deserve you Harry, some insulting my father, and others are just making fun of—‘
‘Tracey! Stop!’ said Allison in alarm, she was pointing at the black envelope Tracey was currently holding. ‘Accio black letter.’
The letter zipped into her hand, before any of them could question what she was doing, Allison sniffed the letter and her nose scrunched up. Harry then noticed a small amount of yellowish-green liquid was oozing from a corner of the letter.
‘Smells like petrol, I think this letter is filled with Undiluted bubotuber pus!’ she then raised her wand at it again. ‘Insendio.’
The letter burnt in an instant and only a tiny pile of ashes remained.
‘Thanks Alli. I think we should burn all of these, but maybe not at the table,’ said Tracey, looking at the surrounding students who had noticed the short fiery explosion.
History of Magic was as boring as usual. But it wasn’t that class Harry was worried about as it had a strict no talking policy. The following Care of Magical Creatures class would open Pansy and her gang to torment Tracey about the owl tornado of hate.
As Harry and his friends left the Ravenclaws behind and started making their way towards their Care of Magical Creatures class, they were closely followed by Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle, all whispering and giggling behind them.
‘Trouble in paradise, Potter?’ Pansy mocked. ‘It looked like one of your exes tried to set you on fire.’
Harry ignored her; Tracey’s advice from Friday was right, just ignore as none of the things in the Witch Weekly article was true or had any effect on what truly mattered.
Hagrid, who had told them last lesson that they had finished with unicorns, was waiting for them outside his cabin with a fresh supply of open crates at his feet. Harry’s heart sank at the sight of the crates—surely not another skrewt hatching?—but when he got near enough to see inside, he found himself looking at a number of fluffy black creatures with long snouts. Their front paws were curiously flat, like spades, and they were blinking up at the class, looking politely puzzled at all the attention.
‘These’re nifflers,’ said Hagrid, when the class had gathered around. ‘Yeh find ’em down mines mostly. They like sparkly stuff...There yeh go, look.’
One of the nifflers had suddenly leapt up and attempted to bite Pansy Parkinson’s watch off her wrist. She shrieked and jumped backward.
‘Useful little treasure detectors,’ said Hagrid happily. ‘Thought we’d have some fun with ’em today. See over there?’ He pointed at the large patch of freshly turned earth not far from the hut. ‘I’ve buried some gold coins. I’ve got a prize fer whoever picks the niffler that digs up most. Jus’ take off all yer valuables, an’ choose a niffler, an’ get ready ter set ’em loose.’
Harry took off his watch, which he was only wearing out of habit, as it didn’t work anymore, and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he picked up a niffler. It put its long snout in Harry’s ear and sniffed enthusiastically. It was really quite cuddly.
It was easily the most fun they had ever had in Care of Magical Creatures. The nifflers dived in and out of the patch of earth as though it were water, each scurrying back to the student who had released it and spitting gold into their hands. Ron Weasley’s was particularly efficient; it had soon filled his lap with coins.
‘Can you buy these as pets, Hagrid?’ he asked excitedly as his niffler dived back into the soil, splattering his robes.
‘Yer mum wouldn’ be happy, Ron,’ said Hagrid, grinning. ‘They wreck houses, nifflers. I reckon they’ve nearly got the lot, now,’ he added, pacing around the patch of earth while the nifflers continued to dive. “I on’y buried a hundred coins. Well, let’s check how yeh’ve all done! Count yer coins! An’ there’s no point tryin’ ter steal any, Goyle,’ he added, his beetle-black eyes narrowed. ‘It’s leprechaun gold. Vanishes after a few hours.’
Goyle emptied his pockets, looking extremely sulky. It turned out that Ron’s niffler had been most successful, so Hagrid gave him an enormous slab of Honeydukes chocolate for a prize. The bell rang across the grounds for lunch; the rest of the class set off back to the castle, but Harry, Tracey, Allison, and Theodore stayed behind to help Hagrid put the nifflers back in their boxes. Harry noticed Madame Maxime watching them out of her carriage window.
‘Why was Parkinson’s lookin’ extra smug today?’ said Hagrid, looking curious.
Allison told him about the hate mail she and Tracey had received that morning because of Rita’s article, and the envelope full of bubotuber pus that she had to burn away.
‘Aaah, don’ worry,’ said Hagrid gently, looking down at the two girls. ‘I got some o’ those letters an’ all, after Rita Skeeter wrote abou’ me mum. ‘Yeh’re a monster an’ yeh should be put down.’ ‘Yer mother killed innocent people an’ if you had any decency you’d jump in a lake.’
‘That is awful!’ said Tracey, looking shocked.
‘Yeah,’ said Hagrid, heaving the niffler crates over by his cabin wall. ‘They’re jus’ nutters. Don’ open ’em if yeh get any more, you two. Chuck ’em straigh’ in the fire.’
‘I think we really needed a pick-me-up like that after the week we’ve had,’ Harry said as they headed back toward the castle. ‘They’re good, nifflers, aren’t they, Ron?”
But the girls weren’t in as good a mood as Harry, they were still rather put out by the mornings incident and Allison specifically was still quite mad at Rita Skeeter.
‘If I wasn’t planning my revenge on Skeeter before, I am now,’ she said at lunch. Tracey looked at her concerned, but Allison reassured her. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll use my head instead of my fury.’
Hate mail continued to arrive for Tracey and Allison over the following week, and although they followed Hagrid’s advice and stopped opening it, several of their ill-wishers sent Howlers, which exploded at the Slytherin table and shrieked insults at them for the whole Hall to hear. Even those people who didn’t read Witch Weekly knew all about the supposed Tracey-Harry-Allison triangle now. Harry was getting sick of telling people that neither of them were his girlfriend.
‘It should die down soon, though,’ he told Allison, ‘if we just ignore it...People got bored with that stuff she wrote about me last time—‘
‘I don’t really care about the gossip anymore,’ said Allison calmly. ‘What I care about is learning how Skeeter has been sneaking around the grounds without being caught. How she’s getting all this information while banned.’
Allison hung back in their next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson to ask Professor Moody something. The rest of the class was very eager to leave; Moody had given them such a rigorous test of hex-deflection that many of them were nursing small injuries. Harry had such a bad case of Twitchy Ears, he had to hold his hands clamped over them as he walked away from the class.
‘Well, the invisibility cloak theory is now out,’ Allison panted five minutes later, catching up with Harry, Tracey, and Theodore in the entrance hall and pulling Harry’s hand away from one of his wiggling ears so that he could hear her. ‘Moody told me he didn’t see anyone using one near the judges’ table or the lake during the second task.’
‘Allison,’ Tracey said trying to sound as calm as possible. ‘I love how you are putting your frustration into detective work instead of outbursts, but there is a point where what you are doing becomes an obsession instead of just an output.’
‘I’m fine,’ Allison said stubbornly. ‘This isn’t just for me, I want to know how she gets her information so I can stop her from ruining more lives. If she can’t use whatever method she is using she’ll have to collect information the regular way, through interviews, and that way the people she talks to have more control over what she knows about them.’
‘Well if she isn’t using an invisibility cloak,’ said Harry, ‘what other method could she be using?’
‘Likely not a legal one,’ said Allison with a devilish smile. ‘Which actually gives me an idea.’
And she then she took off towards the direction of the owlery. Harry had a sneaking suspicion she might be sending and owl to her father.
‘Do you think she’ll be able to do it?’ said Theodore. ‘Find out how Rita Skeeter is collecting information and stopping her?’
None of them were sure, but they had to admit it was nice seeing her have a passion this year. Something to distract her from her mother’s health.
Leading up to the Easter Holidays their workload was mounting ever higher. Harry frankly marveled at the fact that Allison could research magical methods of eavesdropping as well as her Runes class and everything else they had to do. He was working flat-out just to get through all their homework, but tried to find time to hang out with Canini. He also wrote short notes home every couple days, telling his parents that nothing out of the ordinary had been happening.
When Easter break finally arrived Harry was very relieved. Even though he still had a lot of homework it was nice to be away from the drama of Hogwarts Castle. On Easter Sunday Harry, his parents, Canini, Theodore, Nymphadora and her parents all had Easter supper together. Theodore recounted how Harry had handled the first two tasks, while Canini also talked about Cedric.
The start of the summer term would normally have meant that Harry and Allison were training hard for the last Quidditch match of the season. This year, however, it was the third and final task in the Triwizard Tournament for which he needed to prepare, but he still didn’t know what he would have to do. Finally, in the last week of May, Professor McGonagall held him back in Transfiguration.
‘You are to go down to the Quidditch field tonight at nine o’clock, Potter,’ she told him. ‘Mr Bagman will be there to tell the champions about the third task.’
So at half past eight that night, Harry left his friends in Slytherin Dungeon and went upstairs. As he crossed the entrance hall, Cedric came up from the Hufflepuff common room.
‘What d’you reckon it’s going to be?’ he asked Harry as they went together down the stone steps, out into the cloudy night. ‘Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels; she reckons we’ve got to find treasure.’
‘That wouldn’t be too bad,’ said Harry, thinking that he would simply ask Hagrid for a niftier to do the job for him.
They walked down the dark lawn to the Quidditch stadium, turned through a gap in the stands, and walked out onto the field. ‘What’ve they done to it?’ Cedric said indignantly, stopping dead.
The Quidditch field was no longer smooth and flat. It looked as though somebody had been building long, low walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.
‘They’re hedges!’ said Harry, bending to examine the nearest one.
‘Hello there!’ called a cheery voice.
Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Krum and Fleur. Harry and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges. Fleur beamed at Harry as he came nearer. Her attitude toward him had changed completely since he had saved her sister from the lake.
‘Well, what d’you think?’ said Bagman happily as Harry and Cedric climbed over the last hedge. ‘Growing nicely, aren’t they? Give them a month and Hagrid’ll have them twenty feet high. Don’t worry,’ he added, grinning, spotting the less-than-happy expressions on Harry’s and Cedric’s faces, ‘you’ll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we’re making here?’
No one spoke for a moment. Then—
‘Maze,’ grunted Krum.
‘That’s right!’ said Bagman. ‘A maze. The third task’s really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks.’
‘We seemply ’ave to get through the maze?’ said Fleur.
‘There will be obstacles,’ said Bagman happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. ‘Hagrid is providing a number of creatures...then there will be spells that must be broken...all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champions who are leading on points will get a head start into the maze.’ Bagman grinned at Harry and Cedric. ‘Then Mr Krum will enter...then Miss Delacour. But you’ll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?’
Harry, who knew only too well the kind of creatures that Hagrid was likely to provide for an event like this, thought it was unlikely to be any fun at all. However, he nodded politely like the other champions.
‘Very well...if you haven’t got any questions, we’ll go back up to the castle, shall we, it’s a bit chilly...’
Bagman hurried alongside Harry as they began to wend their way out of the growing maze. Harry had the feeling that Bagman was going to start offering to help him again, so Harry held himself back by a few feet.
Just as Harry exited the stadium he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned to see a familiar face.
‘Terence, what are you doing here?’ Harry asked.
I followed you from the Dungeon. I was hoping we could talk.’
‘Yeah, all right,’ said Harry, slightly surprised.
‘Let’s walk and talk, it’s getting cold.’
‘Okay,’ said Harry curiously.
Bagman looked slightly perturbed. ‘I’ll wait for you, Harry, shall I?’
‘No, it’s okay, Mr Bagman,’ said Harry, suppressing a smile, ‘I think I can find the castle on my own, thanks.’