"Neville, have I ever told you how much I despise Rita Skeeter?" Harry looked up from the article in the the Daily Prophet that he was reading. Neville had shown him the article during breakfast, deciding that his friend would be interested in seeing what was printed about him. The angry look on Harry's face made it clear he was not happy with what he read.
"Only once or twice, Harry." Neville laughed.
"If I ever do go dark, it may just be so I can get back at her." Harry said. "I wonder what Daphne is going to say about it."
"They were actually harsher on her than you." Neville pointed out. "But I don't think she has a temper quite like yours.
"I'm curious Neville, what do you think of Daphne?" Harry asked, hoping that his other good friend would not have any issues with her. He had decided that Hermione was not going to be a problem after seeing the two girls interact with each other the previous night. They were polite to each other, though not exactly friendly. Maybe one day that would change, it would certainly be easier on him if it did.
"I don't have any problems with her. We're actually distantly related, but that isn't surprising considering we are both from pureblood families. My great grandmother was her great grandfather's sister, I guess that makes us third cousins." Neville explained with a small shrug. Neville, like Daphne, had also been taught not only their own family's history but about the other pureblood families. He found the customs and traditions to be mostly annoying and outdated, but his grandmother insisted he learn them and Neville rarely said no to his grandmother.
"I see. So do you show up at each others family reunions or something?"
"No, we're not closely related enough to do that. The Greengrasses and the Longbottoms have gone their separate ways. I don't think I've ever talked to her to be honest. She's never tried to insult me like most of the other Slytherins, so that counts for something. Plus, you seem to like her so she can't be all that bad." Harry smiled, happy that he would probably not have to worry about Daphne and Neville not getting along with each other. He started to go back to his meal when he someone suddenly sat down in the seat next to him. Harry immediately recognized the younger brown haired girl.
"Hello Harry Potter." she said, "I'm Astoria Greengrass." Daphne's younger sister sat looking at him confidently while the others sitting at the long table looked at her with a mixture of surprise and amusement. Harry briefly thought that it would have been nice if the Slytherins had reacted that way when he sat at their table.
"Hi, can I help you?" Harry asked, unsure of what to say to the girl.
"Sure, you can tell me what your intentions are with my big sister." she said seriously. Harry had definitely not been expecting her to say that.
"Isn't that something a girl's dad normally asks a guy, not her little sister?" Harry said with a small laugh.
"Usually, but if you want her to be your Dark Lady I need to approve that you are a good Dark Lord." Astoria answered, her efforts to hold back her smile now starting to falter. Harry and Neville looked at each other when they heard this and both started laughing.
"Sorry, but I thought you were trying to be serious when you came over here." Harry replied.
"I do care about my sister, but she has answered all of my questions and vouched for you. I would give you the 'hurt her and die' speech but you're Harry freakin' Potter, so I'll just have to go with the 'hurt her and I will be a huge pain in your ass' speech."
"Fair enough." Harry said with a nod. Astoria looked at him seriously for a moment, as if trying to judge his reaction. Finally she seemed satisfied and got up to head back to her table. She only got a few steps before she turned back around with an odd grin on her face.
"You may have thought it was funny now, but we'll see how much you laugh when it is my dad asking the questions." Astoria said before turning back and continuing towards her table. Harry's laughter seemed to die in his throat, realizing the young girl might have a point.
Hours later Harry was sitting in the library reading Hermione's favorite book Hogwarts: A History. He was hoping to find some reference to creatures living in the lake but had found nothing. He had first asked Daphne then Hermione if they wanted to help him with the research but they had both been forced to say no for the same reason. Classes would be beginning again in a few days and for them that meant a huge Ancient Runes project coming due that would count for a large chunk of their grades. Harry, having not taken Ancient Runes, did not share that problem.
After an hour of flipping through the book Harry slammed it shut with a frustrated grunt. 'I should have known there was nothing in there,' he thought 'Because Hermione would have mentioned it if there was. She has that book practically memorized.' Harry was walking down the aisles and looking at the titles of the books, hoping to find one that looked promising, when he heard the soft popping noise that occurs when house elves use their version of Apparition. Looking down he saw Dobby, smiling and bouncing with excitement.
"Harry Potter sir! Dobby is finding masters new room!" the little elf yelled.
"That's great Dobby! Where is it?" he asked.
"Seventh floor, sir. Follow me, Dobby will explain on the way." Dobby began jumping up and down waiting for Harry to follow him, and when Harry did start to walk towards the door he saw Dobby hopping instead of walking. The house elf seemed very pleased with himself.
"Dobby, I've been all over the seventh floor and I can't think of anywhere better than the classroom I am using now. And there my map doesn't show any large rooms either."
"Does Harry Potter's map know all the secrets of Hogwarts sir?" Dobby asked with a grin.
"Well, now that you mention it the Chamber of Secrets isn't on there. Are you saying that this room is a hidden room like that?" Harry asked as they began climbing the stairs up towards the upper levels of the castle. Thankfully the moving staircases were all aligned properly so they did not have to take a detour.
"Oh yes sir. The Come and Go room can be many things, all the Hogwarts house elves know that."
"Come and Go Room?" Harry asked curiously.
"You wizards call it the Room of Requirement, Dobby thinks. Come Harry Potter sir! We are getting close!" Dobby grew more excited the closer they got, hopping faster than ever. Harry was practically running in order to keep up with him. Finally Dobby hopped, tripped, and tumbled to a stop in front of a blank stretch of wall. "We're here!" he yelled happily.
"Dobby, there's no room here. There isn't even a painting hiding a door." Harry said skeptically.
"Not yet, sir. You need to think of what room you want and walk past this wall three times then POP! Your room will be there." Dobby explained.
"So if I wanted a bedroom, that is what would appear? Or a bathroom, or a library, or whatever else I could think of?" Harry asked, starting to realize the potential such a room would have.
"Yes!" Dobby said, nodding vigorously. Harry decided to try it and the first room that came to mind was an image of the Gryffindor common room. Walking past the wall once he looked up, hoping to see something but the wall remained unchanged. After his second pass still nothing had happened. Then, on his third time past the wall, a door began to appear. The wall around it seemed to melt away as if it were mad of wax and the door had been hidden beneath it. When the changes finally stopped Harry grabbed the knob and threw the door open.
The room inside was an exact replica of the common room he had pictured in his mind. It even included Ron's chess set on a table in the corner, with the pieces arranged and ready to play. A fire was lit in the fireplace and gave a little warmth and light to the room. Harry rushed in, staring in awe at what seemed to be a perfect copy of the room he knew so well. Smiling, he walked up the stairs to the door that led to his bedroom and opened it only to be met with a wall instead of an entrance.
"I wonder why that happened?" Harry said. He then realized that he had only asked to see the common room, not all of the dorms attached to the common room as well. So when he used the room he would have to be very specific in what he asked for. "Dobby, you are the best elf ever."
Dobby gasped at Harry's praise and tears of joys began to leak from his eyes. The tiny elf rushed towards Harry and grabbed his leg in a tight hug. "Harry Potter is too kind!" he began repeating, only stopping after Harry spent several minutes calming him down. Harry didn't think he was being too kind though, this room had almost endless potential. And it seemed he was the only person who knew about it.
"Thank you, Dobby. You did great." Harry said seriously. The elf hugged him again and then popped away, explaining that he had to get back to work. Harry spent the next few hours experimenting with the room, quickly realizing that it would be the perfect place to move his training to.
Harry walked back into the library that night with an odd expression on his face. He was about to sit down at the table he had been using earlier in the day when he noticed Neville excitedly waving him over. Harry waved and then walked over to where his friend was sitting.
"Hey Harry. Is something wrong?" Neville asked, noticing Harry's expression.
"No, not wrong exactly. Just strange and unexpected."
"What are you talking about?"
"On my way in to the library Susan Bones stopped me. You know Susan, right? Our year, in Hufflepuff." Neville nodded, clearly recognizing who Harry was talking about. "Well anyway she comes up to me and says she is sorry I have to put up with all that garbage from the Daily Prophet, and that not everybody believes everything they read. Then she walked off and I came in here."
"She's right, Harry. Lots of people must know better than to listen to that stuff, right?" Neville asked.
"That's the problem, up until now it has seemed like almost everyone believed the worst about me. You not included, of course." Harry stated. Neither of them had noticed that someone had heard the last part of their conversation and was now standing behind Harry.
"But what if I wanted to be a Dark Lady?" a voice asked from behind Harry, causing him to turn and look for the source. He smiled when he saw Daphne smile back and sit next to him.
"I am sure that can be arranged, Daphne." Harry assured her. "Neville, meet Daphne. Daphne, meet Neville." Daphne and Neville exchanged hello's and other simple greetings. "I thought you had to work on an Ancient Runes project?"
"I do." Daphne answered. "The real reason I am here is to look up some things for the project, but at as added bonus you get to see me."
"Great." Harry responded, smiling.
"Harry, I almost forgot what I wanted to talk to you about. I found a solution to your problem for the second task!" Neville explained happily.
"Is it the Bubble Head Charm? Hermione told me about that one last night." Harry said.
"What? Oh, well no it isn't that. There's this plant called Gillyweed and if you eat some you are supposed to grow fins and gills so you can breath underwater and move a lot easier." Neville explained.
"That actually sounds a lot more useful than the Bubble Head Charm." Harry noted. Daphne nodded, thinking the same thing.
"The only problem is that it is hard to find. You can buy it, but it will probably be pretty expensive."
"Harry, maybe what you should do is use the Bubble Head Charm to explore the lake but use Gillyweed in the actual tournament." Daphne suggested. Harry nodded in agreement, although he would like to try the gillyweed at least once before he used it in the second task. That way he could test the effects and see how long the change lasted.
"That's brilliant Neville, I never would have thought of that." Harry said in thanks.
"You're just lucky I found it in this book that Professor Moody gave me." Neville responded. Harry's smile immediately dropped into an expression of concentration.
"Harry, I think I've noticed something going on here." Daphne said with a similar expression on her face, "You're going to think this sounds crazy but..."
"But you've noticed how everything about this tournament keeps coming back to Professor Moody, right?" Harry finished for her. "First he tells me about the dragon, but not Cedric. Then, he tries to give me pointers on how to beat the dragon. Next, he tells Cedric what to do with the egg and Cedric just happens to rush over and tell me about it. And now, Neville conveniently finds the answer to our problems in a book he gave to him. What is he up to?"
"Harry, you're not thinking Professor Moody has gone dark are you?" Neville asked, shocked by where the conversation was headed. "That's crazy. They say that half of the dark wizards in Azkaban are only there because Mad Eye Moody put them there. I don't think he would ever turn dark."
"Maybe this isn't about him turning dark," Daphne suggested, "Maybe he has some other goal. What does he stand to gain by having Harry win the tournament?"
"Nothing." Harry responded. "So let's assume that he is the one who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, surely he is powerful enough of a wizard to do it, what's the point? He's helping me at every turn, so he obviously didn't put me in the tournament to get me hurt."
"Unless he is waiting for the third task to do it as some violent grand finale." Daphne pointed out.
"Well, yes. I guess it could be that." Harry said in agreement with her unpleasant thought. "But so far there is no proof he wants me to get hurt. Why should he care if I win the tournament or not?"
"What do you get for winning, Harry?" Neville asked.
"A thousand galleons and a trophy, I think."
"Neither of those are worth the effort. It has to be something else." Daphne stated. "Assuming it was Moody that put your name in the cup in the first place. It could be that he just wants to help you out because he knows you shouldn't be in the tournament in the first place."
"Do you really believe that?" Harry asked.
"No." Daphne answered truthfully. "But it is possible."
"What if this isn't about you winning, Harry." Neville said uncertainly. "Maybe he just doesn't want one of the others to win." Harry thought about it and shrugged.
"OK, but who would he possibly be trying to stop from winning? He did help Cedric a little, so it can't be him. That leaves Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum. We know that Krum's headmaster was once a Death Eater, but there has to be more to it than that right?" Harry offered. The other two seemed to agree.
"If that was all he could have just helped out Diggory." Daphne said. "There would be no reason to enter Harry in the tournament in the first place. We're missing something, something important. I guess we should just watch and see what he does next."
"That's a great idea!" Harry replied with a grin. He then starting digging through his book bag and came up with a plain looking piece of parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." he said, tapping the parchment with his wand as he did. Immediately ink seemed to spread from where he had tapped the parchment, revealing the Marauder's Map. Daphne had heard about the map but never seen it and was now staring at it in awe. Neville, on the other hand, had never even heard of the Marauder's Map and was confused about what he was looking at. "Neville, this is a map of Hogwarts that my dad and his friends made when they went to school here. It shows the location of everyone in the castle." And sure enough, Neville saw a dot with his own name next to it in the library near dots that said 'Harry Potter' and 'Daphne Greengrass'.
"Wow, no wonder you never get caught out in the halls at night." Neville said.
"Well, this is certainly part of that. I'll have to show you the other part later." Harry answered. "Now, where is Moody? His office is next to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom which is... here. There he is! He's in his office with... Barty Crouch?"
"Who is Barty Crouch?" Neville asked.
"He's the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Percy Weasley works for him and was saying at the Yule Ball that he had been out sick recently. Now I sort of wish that I had been listening to what that brown noser was saying about his boss. I wonder what he is doing in Moody's office." Harry said, the curiosity plainly evident in his voice.
"Years ago he was also head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so he would have been Professor Moody's boss. That would explain how they know each other, but not why he is in the castle." Daphne added. She sat back and sighed, angry because she knew she was missing something but had no idea what it was.
"Maybe we should just take a step back from this for a while. It's possible that we are all just letting our imaginations run wild and seeing conspiracy theories where there aren't any. He could just be a nice but odd professor trying to help me out in the tournament because I am from the school he teaches at and he likes me." Harry said uncertainly.
"Perhaps, but do you believe that?" Daphne asked, echoing his earlier question.
"No, I don't." Harry answered, frowning. "I will see you guys later, OK? I need to write a letter to Sirius and see what he thinks about all of this. He'll probably just tell me I'm crazy, but I would still feel better if I brought it up." Harry turned towards Daphne and hugged her, whispering "Good night" to her as he did, then stood and walked out of the library still deep in thought.
Harry felt he was close to uncovering some key fact that kept slipping from his grasp. The idea that one of the greatest Auror's in history wanted to hurt him was ridiculous, but there had to be something going on there. Upon reaching the Owlery, Harry took out a piece of parchment and his quill and wrote a quick note to Sirius about his suspicions. For a long time he held the completed letter, unsure of whether or not he wanted to send it at all. Finally he decided that it couldn't hurt anything and tied the letter the leg of one of the Hogwart's owls, much to Hedwig's displeasure.
"Sorry girl, you can't send this one. People would notice you." Harry apologized to the snowy owl who turned her head and hooted at him to show her unhappiness. "Take this to Sirius Black, OK?" Harry told the Hogwarts owl which hooted and flew off towards its destination. He gave Hedwig a few treats and stroked her feathers for a while, hoping to cheer her up, before finally leaving the Owlery and going back to his dorm room to think.
The following days Harry patiently waited for a response from Sirius, but it had not yet come. He had no idea where Sirius was currently hiding, so it was entirely possible that it was just taking the owl a long time to reach him. Harry spent a lot of time puzzling over his entry into the Triwizard tournament and Professor Moody's actions since then. No matter how hard he tried though, he could still not understand what was going on. He briefly considered confronting the Professor about it, but quickly decided that until he could be sure that the tough ex-Auror meant him no harm it would be very unwise to do so. As proud as Harry was about his progress in learning new and powerful magic this year, he knew he stood almost no chance of defeating a man who had put some of the most dangerous wizards of the modern era behind bars.
Harry spent much of his free time in the newly discovered Room of Requirement, which he had still not showed to Hermione or Daphne because they spent their time working on their projects. He had found that the room was incredibly powerful, but did have some limitations. For instance, there was an upper limit on how big the room could become. He had once tried asking for Sirius to be brought to the room but that did not work, instead the room was blank and empty. He could, however, get the room to look like almost anything he wanted. Harry spent a lot of time trying to create a perfect training room, though he found he was constantly coming up with new ideas to improve it.
Eventually the holiday came to an end and classes were set to return. The first morning back Harry accidentally overslept, his body clearly not used to waking up early in the morning for classes. Seeing that he could only make it to his first class on time if he skipped breakfast, Harry groaned in disappointment and began the walk towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The room was already halfway full when he arrived and Professor Moody was writing notes on the chalkboard. Strangely, he noticed several people watching him as if they were waiting to see what he was going to do. Trying to ignore the stares, Harry sat down at his usual spot and waited for class to begin.
"Harry!" he heard Hermione yell as she walked in the door. She rushed over and sat next to him with a worried expression on her face. "I've been looking for you all morning, were you with Daphne? How is she?"
"Hermione, what are you talking about? No, I haven't seen Daphne. She's not here yet, but class hasn't started so she's probably on her way."
"Then you haven't seen it yet, have you?" Hermione asked, a small shocked expression on her face.
"Seen what?" Harry asked, getting a little frustrated.
"Harry, there's a new article by Rita Skeeter in today's Daily Prophet. She went after Daphne this time and said... well, I think it would be better if you read it. That awful woman." Hermione reluctantly handed him a copy of the Daily Prophet turned to the second page, where the article in question was found:
DAPHNE GREENGRASS'S DEADLY THIRST FOR POWER
by Rita Skeeter
Harry Potter may be in even more danger than we thought. Since last weeks article this office has been flooded with letters to the editor demanding that the Ministry of Magic take action to either turn the Boy-Who-Lived back to the light or free him from the nefarious influence of Daphne Greengrass. Several students at Hogwarts have expressed their shock at the unexpected couple and confirmed that the only way the two could have come together is through the use of banned potions or spells. We at the Daily Prophet whole heartedly agree.
The question that must be asked is why? Why has Ms Greengrass taken such blatant action against Mr Potter. Does she and her family plan on using our young hero in some dark and evil ritual? Is it simply a case of a girl's obsession with that which she can not have? Or is it Daphne Greengrass's next step on her long and deadly path towards personal power? I have personally uncovered evidence that this may not be the first time the aspiring Dark Lady has committed unthinkable acts for her own gain.
It is well known that Daphne Greengrass is not only the heiress to her family's fortune but the future head of the Greengrass family. What you may not know is this has not always been the case. The Greengrass line, like many noble pureblood lines, typically passes to the oldest son or if there is no son to the oldest daughter. For the first few years of her life young Daphne was set to inherit everything, but that changed with the birth of her younger brother David Greengrass. One can only imagine the jealousy that must have taken root in the young girl's heart. Tragedy for the Greengrass family struck when young David died in what was at the time deemed an accident when he was only 3 years old.
But, and it truly pains me to have to ask such a question, was it really an accident? Or did a young girl in a fit of jealousy murder her younger brother in order to take back what she believed was rightfully hers? If so, what does that mean for the Boy-Who-Lived? One thing is painfully clear: Harry Potter needs help.
Harry slowly set the paper down. His hands were shaking in anger at the paper and Rita Skeeter, but he also felt incredible sadness for Daphne and her family. In the time it had taken Harry to read the article class had begun. "I never even knew she had a little brother," Harry whispered to Hermione who was seated next to him, "she never brought it up."
"It's probably a very painful memory for her, Harry. I'm not surprised." Hermione answered quietly. Harry nodded and began looking around the class, looking for Daphne but she was not there. With class already started, Harry was trapped. He desperately wanted to go look for her and try and comfort her but knew he would have to wait for class to end. He would probably miss the next one, but he did not really care.
No class had ever passed so slowly for Harry. He found it impossible to listen to Professor Moody talk and when they were assigned a part of the book to read he simply stared at the page for fifteen minutes not reading at all. Harry's initial rage at the article had been overcome by his worry for Daphne. They had known that there would be consequences to their date and ongoing relationship, but he had never expected for her to be attacked in this way. Suddenly, with only five minutes left in the class, an idea struck him. There was something useful he could be doing! Reaching into his bag he pulled out the Marauder's Map and quietly said the phrase to activate it.
The first place he looked was in the Slytherin dorms, then the Great Hall, then the hospital wing. Each time he was disappointed when he found she was not there. Then inspiration struck him and he looked at the third floor classroom they had been using together for so long. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, he had found her. He guessed she must have been sitting down because her dot had not moved much. Glad he knew where to find her Harry began to put the map up when he found something very odd: Barty Crouch was in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with him. Harry looked around for him but only found Professor Moody talking with a few Ravenclaw students about the assignment. Looking back at the map he was further surprised to see that Moody was supposed to be in his office, not the classroom. As his eyes darted back and forth between the professor and the map a startling realization hit him: the man he was looking at was not Professor Moody but Barty Crouch using glamors or polyjuice potion to make him look like Professor Moody.
Harry's mind reeled trying to fit this new piece into the puzzle. Even with this new information everything that had happened still did not make sense. And what should he do about it? Tell Dumbledore? Harry guessed that was a good start. Suddenly the Moody impersonator's magic eye swiveled in its socket and stared directly at him. Harry belatedly realized that he had been staring at the Professor with his mouth open in shock for the last minute or two and attempted in vain to look like he was interested in his book. The next time Harry looked up 'Moody' was facing him, watching his every move with with a strange grin. Finally, class ended and everyone got up to leave but 'Moody's' eyes never left him.
"Potter!" the false Moody yelled causing Harry to cringe. "Stay after class." Harry's eyes widened in shock at the request. He looked around the room, seeing with disappointment that Hermione and Neville had already left. Thoughts of finding Daphne were slowly being replaced by a need to be anywhere but here. Harry watched with a sense of dread as the other students left the classroom and he suddenly found himself remembering that the next class wouldn't be in the room for another hour. Behind him he heard the soft thump of the door closing and then there was silence.
Everyone else had left. Harry was now stuck in the classroom alone with the man he knew was not Mad Eye Moody.