The Lost Potter || Draco Malfoy [BOOK 1]

Chapter 44

Small warning—there's a bit of a small make-out sesh in this chapter. It's nothing too graphic or bad, but I know some people want to get into the storyline and some people aren't comfortable with it, so I'll put warnings if you want to skip it :)

~~~

Later that night Harry and I told Hermione and Ron everything that happened regarding Crouch and Krum.

"It comes down to this," said Hermione, rubbing her forehead. "Either Mr. Crouch attack 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, Maya, and Dumbledore got there. He'd done a runner."

"I don't think so," said Harry, shaking his head. "He seemed 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.

"Well, we can't rule out Crouch then," I said. "Moody's searching the forest right now. Maybe he'll find someone. Or something."

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

"Why would Krum stun himself?" I asked.

"To make it seem like he was innocent, duh," said Ron.

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

"Oh, yeah..." said Ron.

~~~

The next morning, Harry, Hermione, Ron and I snuck out of our dorms as early as we could and went up to the Owlery to send a letter to Sirius. I was the one that wrote to Sirius at about three in the morning because I couldn't sleep. In the letter, I explained the whole Crouch situation to the best of my ability and even went into a bit of detail about my mental health improving and my animagus form.

All four of us were cooped up in the Owlery, puffy-eyed and tired after staying up late talking about the Crouch situation.

"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 said 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."

"Sane or not sane, it's not something we should take lightly," I reminded. "If Voldemort's getting stronger, or even coming back, then we should be on guard. Sirius told me about how some of his friends were killed and hurt by death eaters, and I refuse to let that happen to any of my friends."