As the Sister of Harry Potter

Chapter 16: Godfather in Hogsmead

Thank goodness for the weekend, because the past few days have really sucked.

The first thing I did after Skeeter had left was run to the castle and eat. I hadn’t eaten in… forty eight hours? Something like that… but the House Elves treated me well, and I brought loads of food back up to the common room for a party for Harry. He looked real pleased with himself. Fred, George, and I spiked most everyone’s food, and Sophia entertained us all with her pyro-mania. That was the best night all week.

The next morning however started my general bad mood off.

I was greeted in the Great Hall not by any of my friends, but by that bundle of joy, Brittany Chang. She merely stood in my way, smirking.

“Could you move, Chang?” I asked, sighing.

She laughed and tossed her long ringlets of hair. “Why? I shouldn’t have to move for a liar.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t lie about anything. Now move you annoying prick.”

Brittany snorted. “At least I’m not snogging people all over the front page.”

“Whatever,” I said, pulling my wand and pointing it at her so she would move.

She did, still smirking. “You’ll see…”

I sat across from the youngest Weasleys and next to Launa.

“Ron, give me your paper,” I said flatly, holding out my hand. Ron and Ginny exchanged looks of subtle fright.

“Jennifer…” Ginny started.

“You don’t want to read it,” Launa finished.

“I don’t care, let me read it.”

Ron sighed and gave me the paper. “Just don’t explode.”

I flipped to the front page. The headline read, “CHAMPION LOVE.” My stomach dropped out. There we were, Cedric kissing me on the front page, accompanied by an article by that Skeeter woman. I didn’t even read the article and I got in trouble.

“THAT RAVING BI-”

“Potter!”

Snape has the worst timing.

“Do not use that language in school! 10 points from Gryffindor!”

“What? You can’t take points for that!”

“TWENTY points! And detention for arguing!” And that was that, Snape walked away, leaving me pissed off and mouth open.

“See,” said Launa, “I told you not to read it.”

I stabbed my fork into the table and left without eating.

As a summary of the rest of my week, here are the events as follows:

1. Brittany reminded me every time she could of the article
2. The Slytherins followed me around quoting it
3. I got detention with McGonagall for hexing Pansy Parkinson
4. Detention with Snape was spent maintaining jars of pickled animal parts
5. Hermione vowed to get back at Rita Skeeter somehow
6. There was another article released Thursday, but luckily without an embarrassing photo

Friday made it all up though. That morning, Hyden received an owl from Sirius. It read:

Hyden and Co,

Tomorrow I’ll meet you all at the mountain by the Shrieking Shack, in dog form. And bring LOTS of food!

Love,
Snuffles

“So, I guess we’ve got a date with Snuffles tomorrow?” Hermione asked.

“Sounds like it. How’s the anti-Skeeter research going?” Hyden asked her.

“Alright, but I still can’t figure out how she gets her information…”

“Maybe she’s an Animagus?” Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head. “She’s not on the records, I checked.”

“Unregistered then?” I added.

She thought for a moment. “That would make sense… I’ll check up on it later…”

And now it was Saturday, and the six of us trooped down to the carriages, packing a bag of food each and Hyden leading the way. Fresh snow coated the ground and our breath rose like wispy clouds from our lips. We squished inside; myself packed between the window and Launa. Everyone seemed happier at the idea of seeing Sirius again, Hyden especially.

After some silence as the carriage began its bumpy journey, he said, “I’m gonna say it. It’s a bad idea, but I’m glad he’s back.” We all nodded in agreement.

“If he gets himself caught though…” I growled. Harry smiled from his seat across from me, knowing what I was thinking.

“Me too,” he agreed.

When we finally reached Hogsmead, I had a leg cramp. Six people and enough food to feed them all were not designated to be crammed into that carriage. A brisk walk though the village and we came to the Shack. Ah, so many memories of last year lingered around this place. But standing in the snow waiting for us was an enormous black shaggy dog.

“Sirius,” Hyden breathed, and he rushed to meet his father in dog form. Sirius bounded to him and tackled Hyden to the ground, licking his face everywhere he could get at. Hyden laughed and pushed at Sirius playfully. The big dog stopped and looked at us, his tail wagging madly.

WOOF!

“I think he wants us to follow him?” Harry suggested, and Sirius nodded, coming up and licking Launa’s hand. She made a face and wiped the slobber off in the snow before scratching behind his ears. Then he bounded off up the mountain. I transferred my bag to Ron before transforming into my cat form and following Sirius. It felt good to be able to turn cat again. It was half an hour of scrambling over boulders to climb the mountain, a feat that left the fourthies panting, especially Ron. Suddenly, Sirius disappeared behind one particularly large boulder, and I followed him to find a fissure in the mountain. I slipped through and found myself in a nice sized cave, and Buckbeak the Hippogriff laying against one wall. Everyone squeezed inside, and set our luggage down. I turned back and Ron threw his hands in the air.

“When the bloody hell did you learn to do that?!”

“This summer. I figured you lot should know… so when you see a reddish-black cat, that’s me.”

“I’m glad you got it to work,” said Sirius, setting his rough hand on my shoulder. I spun around to hug him.

“Good to see you too,” I said, grinning. He was still quite thin, and even wearing his Azkaban robes, but at least he didn’t look like a walking corpse anymore.

“Now,” he said, rubbing his hands together, “I smelt chicken.” He dug into Launa’s bag, which contained said food and bit out chunks larger than even Ron could have taken. Harry started looking through some yellowing newspapers on the floor. One of the headlines read, “Crouch’s Mysterious Illness.”

“They make it out like he’s dying,” Harry commented as he scanned through the rest of the article, “but mind, he looked sick the night my name got pulled, and he wasn’t at the second task, or the Yule Ball either.”

“Serves him right for sacking Winky,” Hermione said, satisfyingly crossing her arms.

“Hermione’s been obsessing over house elves,” Ron told Sirius. I rolled my eyes. I got what Hermione was getting at, and the morality of it all, but I don’t think most house elves are unhappy as they are. Unless your name was Dobby and you served the Malfoys. At least Sarlanda had been nice to him.

“Crouch sacked his house elf?” Sirius asked, actually interested in the subject.

“Yeah, at the Cup.” Harry said, and explained everything that had happened, from sitting in the Top Box to the Dark Mark. I listened just as intently as Sirius, because I still wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to them that night.

“So,” said Sirius, now digging through Harry’s bad to find more chicken, “Crouch sends his house elf up to save him a seat, but doesn’t show for the match?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Harry.

“And did you have your wand with you in the Top Box?”

“Umm… not sure. I didn’t check until I was I the forest.”

“Hmm…” said Sirius, biting into more chicken.

“So you’re saying zat ‘oever took ‘Arry’s wand was in ze Top Box?”

Sirius swallowed. “It’s quite possible.”

“Well, it wasn’t Winky,” said Hermione, definitively re-crossing her arms.
“I’m not saying it was, but who else was up there?”

“Lots of people, but no one up there would steal Harry’s wand,” said Hyden.

“What about Malfoy?” Ron asked. “He was up there!”

“Yeah, and so was Sarlanda. There’s no way he would steal something under her nose,” I pointed out.

“Look, um… so, what did Crouch do after Harry found Winky with the wand?”

“Um, he went off looking in the bushes, didn’t he? Yeah, but there was on one there…” Ron’s voice trailed off.

“Hm, figures. He’d want to blame it on anyone but his own house elf. Then what’d he do?”

“Sacked her,” Hyden said simply.

“Yes, he sacker her, just for leaving the tent so she wouldn’t get trampled-”

“Hermione, will you give the bloody elf a rest?” snapped Ron.

“Look here Ron, Hermione’s got a better measure of Crouch than you do. If you want to know what a man’s like, see how he treats his inferiors, not his equals,” said Sirius, going now for another loaf of bread. He ran his fingers through his shaggy hair. “None of it adds up. His elf saves him a seat at the Cup, but he doesn’t show. Then, he spends all this time on the Triwizard Tournament, then just stops coming. It’s just not like him.”

“So you know Crouch then?” Harry asked.

“Do I? Harry, he’s the one who threw me in Azkaban. Without a trial.”

“But… why?” I asked, shocked as everyone else.

“Why? Because he was a power-hungry madman, that’s why Jennifer,” Sirius replied, tearing into the loaf of bread. “Oh yes. He started out with the best intentions, but as you know…”

“The road to hell is paved with them,” I quoted.

“Exactly. See, he started catching dark wizard, and collecting power and supporters. He rose quickly through the Ministry. Filled lots of cells in Azkaban. He was even going to become Minister.”

“What happened?” Harry asked.

“Crouch’s own son was caught with a group of people I would bet my life on were Death Eaters.”

Hermione covered her mouth in shock.

“Wat did Crouch do?” Launa asked.

“What could he do? He gave the boy a trial at least, but locked him up all the same.”

I shook my head. Percy was working for a psychopath.

“Moody said he was obsessed,” Harry said grimly.

“Yeah, he it,” Sirius agreed.

“So that’s why he was searching Snape’s office!” Ron said triumphantly. Wait, searching Snape’s office what?

“But that doesn’t make sense either. I mean, if he wanted to search Snape, then why would he skip out on judging? Why would he go sneaking around Hogwarts at night when he’s ‘sposed to be home, deathly ill?” Sirius asked, and that stumped us all.

“Harry, how do you know he was sneaking around at night?” I asked.

He looked at me sheepishly, and pulled the Marauder’s Map from his pocket.

“I’m sorry Jen, I had to use it to get into the Prefect’s bath, and you weren’t there, so…”

“It’s alright,” I said, pocketing the Map. He could have told me these things, at least.

“Hey Ron,” Hyden started, “how about we just ask Percy where Crouch’s been?”

“That’s actually a good idea,” Sirius said, and they both looked at Ron.

“Well, I could send him an owl, but we’d have to be careful; Percy loves Crouch.”

“We’ll write him when we get back,” Hermione said. “At any rate, it’s a bit past three.”

“You lot had better go. Be careful, all of you. Send me updates. And use ‘Snuffles’ when you’re talking about me,” Sirius said, and he gave reach of us goodbye hugs. He pulled me aside as Launa and Hermione sorted out the food we’d be leaving him.

“Look Jennifer, someone entered Harry in this contest for a reason. Two down, one to go. The final task is their last chance to do him any harm. Make sure he stays safe.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be safe with me. I’ve already started a list of spells I want to teach him,” I reassured.

Sirius pulled me into a fierce hug. “Good girl. Take care of them all, they’re only fourth years.” I chuckled, and we exited the cave. Sirius saw us back to the edge of the village.

-

That night, my mind swum with this mystery and all the questions. Where was Crouch? What was the third task? Who had put Harry’s name in the Goblet?

I barely got any sleep.