"That's a great idea!" Harry replied with a grin. He then starting digging through his book bag and came up with a plain looking piece of parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." he said, tapping the parchment with his wand as he did. Immediately ink seemed to spread from where he had tapped the parchment, revealing the Marauder's Map. Daphne had heard about the map but never seen it and was now staring at it in awe. Neville, on the other hand, had never even heard of the Marauder's Map and was confused about what he was looking at. "Neville, this is a map of Hogwarts that my dad and his friends made when they went to school here. It shows the location of everyone in the castle." And sure enough, Neville saw a dot with his own name next to it in the library near dots that said 'Harry Potter' and 'Daphne Greengrass'.
"Wow, no wonder you never get caught out in the halls at night." Neville said.
"Well, this is certainly part of that. I'll have to show you the other part later." Harry answered. "Now, where is Moody? His office is next to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom which is… here. There he is! He's in his office with… Barty Crouch?"
"Who is Barty Crouch?" Neville asked.
"He's the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Percy Weasley works for him and was saying at the Yule Ball that he had been out sick recently. Now I sort of wish that I had been listening to what that brown noser was saying about his boss. I wonder what he is doing in Moody's office." Harry said, the curiosity plainly evident in his voice.
"Years ago he was also head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so he would have been Professor Moody's boss. That would explain how they know each other, but not why he is in the castle." Daphne added. She sat back and sighed, angry because she knew she was missing something but had no idea what it was.
"Maybe we should just take a step back from this for a while. It's possible that we are all just letting our imaginations run wild and seeing conspiracy theories where there aren't any. He could just be a nice but odd professor trying to help me out in the tournament because I am from the school he teaches at and he likes me." Harry said uncertainly.
"Perhaps, but do you believe that?" Daphne asked, echoing his earlier question.
"No, I don't." Harry answered, frowning. "I will see you guys later, ok? I need to write a letter to Sirius and see what he thinks about all of this. He'll probably just tell me I'm crazy, but I would still feel better if I brought it up." Harry turned towards Daphne and hugged her, whispering "Good night" to her as he did, then stood and walked out of the library still deep in thought.
Harry felt he was close to uncovering some key fact that kept slipping from his grasp. The idea that one of the greatest Auror's in history wanted to hurt him was ridiculous, but there had to be something going on there. Upon reaching the Owlery, Harry took out a piece of parchment and his quill and wrote a quick note to Sirius about his suspicions. For a long time he held the completed letter, unsure of whether or not he wanted to send it at all. Finally he decided that it couldn't hurt anything and tied the letter the leg of one of the Hogwart's owls, much to Hedwig's displeasure.
"Sorry girl, you can't send this one. People would notice you." Harry apologized to the snowy owl who turned her head and hooted at him to show her unhappiness. "Take this to Sirius Black, ok?" Harry told the Hogwarts owl which hooted and flew off towards its destination. He gave Hedwig a few treats and stroked her feathers for a while, hoping to cheer her up, before finally leaving the Owlery and going back to his dorm room to think.
...
The following days Harry patiently waited for a response from Sirius, but it had not yet come. He had no idea where Sirius was currently hiding, so it was entirely possible that it was just taking the owl a long time to reach him. Harry spent a lot of time puzzling over his entry into the Triwizard tournament and Professor Moody's actions since then. No matter how hard he tried though, he could still not understand what was going on. He briefly considered confronting the Professor about it, but quickly decided that until he could be sure that the tough ex-Auror meant him no harm it would be very unwise to do so. As proud as Harry was about his progress in learning new and powerful magic this year, he knew he stood almost no chance of defeating a man who had put some of the most dangerous wizards of the modern era behind bars.
Harry spent much of his free time in the newly discovered Room of Requirement, which he had still not showed to Hermione or Daphne because they spent their time working on their projects. He had found that the room was incredibly powerful, but did have some limitations. For instance, there was an upper limit on how big the room could become. He had once tried asking for Sirius to be brought to the room but that did not work, instead the room was blank and empty. He could, however, get the room to look like almost anything he wanted. Harry spent a lot of time trying to create a perfect training room, though he found he was constantly coming up with new ideas to improve it.
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