The Eagle and The Snake: A Tragic Love Story

7. Polyjuice Potion

Harry gave Luna and Carly strange and weary looks after the Yule Ball, now that he knew their secret.
Carly glared back at him when he did this, whereas Luna just lowered her head in embarrassment.
To make sure that she didn't piss Harry off further, Carly avoided talking to Rita Skeeter about him.
Harry on the other hand, had too much to worry about at the moment, since he had barely survived the 2nd task in the Black Lake, and the 3rd task was fastly approaching. So, his sister's love life was not his top priority.
But he knew that once the tournament was over, he would have to have a serious think about Carly's relationship with Luna, and whether or not he would agree to let it continue.

To try and forget about the incident with Harry, Luna threw herself into her lessons, to take her mind off things.
During one Defense Against the Dark Arts class, she saw a drop of liquid spill from Moody's hip flask, that he always drunk out of.
Since Luna couldn't recognise it, she took a sample, so that she could run a few tests on it, as it didn't look like a normal substance to drink. And she wanted to know what Moody was up to.

After several experiments, Luna figured out what the strange potion was, that her professor was consuming. It was Polyjuice Potion.
And Luna was quick to reveal her discovery to Carly, once they were safely inside the Room of Requirement.
"I figured out what Moody has been drinking from his hip flask every day, it's Polyjuice Potion" announced Luna.
"Well done Lulu, I knew you could work it out. But isn't Polyjuice Potion illegal?" Questioned Carly.
"Not exactly. It depends on what you use it for. But it is a very hard potion to make" answered Luna.

"I have a feeling that impersonating a teacher, is definitely not one of its legal uses" said Carly.
"I agree. The question then is, who the hell is our real Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and why is he pretending to be Alastor Moody?" Quizzed Luna.
"I don't know, but it can't be for a good reason" answered Carly.
"I have a theory, but it's a bit out there"
"Go on".

"Well, imagine if Harry has been telling the truth the whole time, and he really didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire. That means someone else put it in. So, what if Moody is really a death eater in disguise, and he's here to cause trouble for Harry. Putting Harry's name in the Goblet is a good way to get him killed, while keeping your hands clean. Perhaps he's here to kill Harry, for defeating You-Know-Who all those years ago" suggested Luna.
"That's a pretty convoluted way of killing someone" commented Carly.
"Yeah, I know" sighed Luna.

"If he wanted Harry dead, he could have just murdered him during his first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson" pointed out Carly.
"Not if he wanted to humiliate Harry first, and drag out his suffering" replied Luna.
"True. And Harry was definitely humiliated at first, even though he has managed to turn things around, somehow. I swear that boy has an infinite number of lives and chances" complained Carly.
"He's like a cat"
"I'm pretty sure he has more than 9 lives".

"It does seem that way... Anyway, back to Moody, what are we going to do about him?" Questioned Luna.
"What do you mean?" Asked Carly.
"Well, we can't just carry on as normal and pretend that we don't know he's an imposter" replied Luna.
"If you want me to tell Harry, then that's not going to happen. Because he will just take all the credit for figuring it out, when it was really you who did it"
"No, I don't plan on telling him. He's got enough on his plate right now".

"Do you want us to tell another teacher then?" Questioned Carly.
"Who would believe us if we did? Dumbledore trusts Moody, so no one is going to believe a word we say. And even if we showed them the Polyjuice Potion, the teachers might think we just made it ourselves, like your brother did in his second year, and we could get in trouble for brewing a banned potion" admitted Luna.

"Well, if we can't let it go, and we can't tell a teacher, then there is only one option left to us. We have to confront him!" Announced Carly.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea" Luna said quietly.
"You don't have come if you don't want to" replied Carly.
"I'm not going to let you walk into danger, alone. I've got your back"
"Good. Then let's go".