The Weasley of Slytherin: The Goblet of Fire

Chapter 26: Crouch Missing

A few hours later Harry burst into the Gryffindor common room completely out of breath.

"What the matter mate?" Ron asked him seriously.

"Did Krum try to make a move on you? Did he ask you to visit him in Bulgarian over the summer?" I asked him sarcastically.

"No-no listen to this!" Harry started quickly, before he told us everything that had just happened, how he was talking with Krum when they stumbled upon Crouch in the forest sounding insane.

How he has left Krum with him and rushed off to grab Dumbledore, only to find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing.

"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 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."

"You can't Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds, haven't I told you enough times?" said Hermione.

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

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

"Oh yeah . . ."

"Are we ignoring the most likely explanation, someone else was there, stunned Krum and I dunno know kidnapped Crouch?" I suggested.

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

"I've told you," Harry repeated dully. "He 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 you said, so half of it was probably just raving. . . ."

"He was sanest when he was trying to talk about Voldemort," said Harry, and Ron winced at the sound of the name. "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."

Harry turned away from the window and staring up into the rafters.

"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 gotten down to the forest? D'you reckon he could've beaten you and Dumbledore there?"