Harry Potters Twin Book Four

Dreams

"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.

"It doesn't matter if he could disaperate on the grounds or not," I said, waving her aside. "The fact remains that Crouch could not have hurt Krum because he didn't even know who we were in the first place and I doubt if he had his wand on him he would have been in that forest in the first place."

Hermione stared at me beadily. "So what are you implying? That Viktor did it?"

"No, not at all," I replied cooly. "Krum is too stupid to know if he was holding his wand the right way or not."

Ron roared with laughter but Hermione glared furiously at the two of us.

"Krum can very much curse anyone he pleases-"

"So are you saying that you think he attacked Crouch?" I asked, my voice interupting hers.

She seemed pretty flustered at this. "No, not at all. I'm just saying that if Krum was smart enough to enter the triwizard tournament, then he could be smart enough to curse someone."

"But he didn't," I said, smiling at her as I seen her face relax at me saying it so confidently. "Because before I was obliviated, I remember seeing Krum turning his back on Crouch to look for Harry."

"Wait, I thought you said you didn't remember anything?" Harry asked, looking at me suspiciously. "You said you didn't know why you were in the nforest in the first place."

"I said that because Krum was there," I said with a shrug. "I thought he was going to hex you or something..."

"Then what did you see?" Harry asked, choosing to let the 'i suspected krum' thing go. "Do you remember a face or. . . ."

"Nothing," I said with a frown. "It's all fuzzy."

There was a silence.

"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…"

"Wait, didn't I just tell you that Krum didn't do it?" I asked in annoyance.

"Oh yeah..."

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 we 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."