Written In The Stars IV -[Harry Potter xF!Oc]

Chapter Thirty-One: Daydreams.

"Just go through it again, Harry," said Hermione after they sent Sirius' letter the next morning. "What did Mr Crouch actually say?"

"I've told you, he wasn't making much sense, 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–"

"He was out of his mind," Harry shook his head. "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?" Ron shivered lightly.

"I've told you... He said he's getting stronger."

"But he was out of his mind like you said, so half of it was probably just raving..." Ron shrugged, trying to make it like it was no big deal.

"He was sanest when he was trying to talk about Voldemort. 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 replied with certainty.

"I just don't understand how he got here," Mel frowned. "It sounds almost as if he was fighting against the Imperio curse, remember? Most of us were just a blabbering mess when trying to come out of it..."

"If Snape hadn't held me up," Harry said in a terrible mood, looking at the owls flying above them, "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?"

Mel reached out for his hand in silence and held it as a way of comfort. Harry squeezed back lightly, his eyes still fixed somewhere else.

"Maybe he didn't want you to get there! 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?" Ron offered.

"Not unless he can turn himself into a bat or something."

"Wouldn't put it past him," Ron muttered.

"Still, why would he attack Krum and not Karkaroff?" Mel inquired. "If you mean to point to the discussions they had days prior, why attacking a student when he could've been directly attacked without anyone noticing?"

"We need to see Professor Moody. We need to find out whether he found Mr Crouch." Hermione sentenced.

"If he had the Marauder's Map on him, it would've been easy."

"Unless Crouch was already outside the grounds, because it only shows up to the boundaries, doesn't —"

"Shh!" said Hermione stopped them.

"— that's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that —" A voice said from outside the door.

"— we've tried being polite; it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did —"

"I'm telling you if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat payoff, will you?"

Fred and George froze at the sight of them.

"What're you doing here?"

"Sending a letter."

"What, at this time?"

"Fine —" Fred smiled, but it didn't look at all like his usual grin. "We won't ask you what you're doing if you don't ask us... Well, don't let us hold you up."