Golden | h.p

30| Theorizing

Harry was having a conversation with Barty Crouch right after the second task. Diana was walking behind the two barley paying any attention to what was being said. She was more focused on her visions and why the last one she had felt so different. 

Mad-eye Moody had come up to the three of them shortly after. "Not trying to lure Potter into one of the Ministry's summer work internships, are we? Last boy that went into the Department of Mysteries never came out" Moody said, with a snake like tongue movement. 

Harry didn't seem to notice the tongue movement but Diana sure did. 'That tongue thing... I've seen in before from Barty Crouch Junior in The Daily Prophet, he was known to do that. It can't be... but it would explain the intense teaching and sudden interest on if Harry succeeds in this tournament or not' Diana thought.

Crouch walked up to Moody, starring at him for a moment before walking off with a dazed expression. "And they say I'm mad!" Moody said, causing Crouch to turn around give a slight glare and walk away. Moody drank more of his mysterious beverage before walking in the opposite direction. 

'Polyjuice potion! That's exactly... Barty Crouch Jr would be able to transform into Moody with Polyjuice. It would explain what he's constantly drinking. So then it has to be. That isn't the real Alastor Moody' Diana thought, relived she'd figured it out after months of just thinking and getting nowhere.

~~~

"I remember when I first met you all. Biggest set of misfits I'd ever set eyes on, reminded me of myself a little" Hagrid told the four kids as they walked through the Forbidden Forrest later that night. "Here we are, four years later" Hagrid said. "Yeah, still a bunch of misfits" Ron laughed. "But now with a new member of the misfits club, isn't that right, Diana?" Hagrid laughed along.

Diana had been pretty shaken up from the visions and from what she figured out earlier, she'd tried telling Dumbledore but he didn't believe the girl. 

"Yeah, you're right" Diana said. "Are you alright? You've been off ever since the second task ended" Hermione asked as she walked up to her girl friend. "I'm okay. Just been doing a lot of thinking since then, I guess" Diana shrugged. Hermione noticed Diana's hesitation when speaking but decided to not touch on it.

Diana separated from Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid and walked to Harry. "You're quiet today, what's up?" Diana asked Harry. Before Harry got a chance to answer the pair saw Barty Crouch on the ground, dead. Diana and Harry exchanged a look. 

~~~

"What do you think Dumbledore's telling him?" Ron asked Diana as he finished his Potions assignment. "I don't he'll be telling him anything" Diana mumbled. "What do you mean?" Hermione asked. "Dumbledore has a tendency to show or vaguely tell Harry anything and expect him to figure it out on his own but then by the time he does it's too late" Diana answered rather coldly.

"You know something we don't... spill it" Hermione said and put her book down and waited for Diana's answer. Diana grabbed her wand and cast the "muffliato" charm on the Gryffindor common room. "I have a feeling our Defense Against the Dark arts professor is not who he says he is" Diana began. 

"Please elaborate" Hermione said, now interested. "Barty Crouch Junior is a death eater, he got exposed and sentenced to Azkaban. He was known for doing this snake like tongue thing and earlier today Moody came up to Crouch and Harry and did the same snake tongue thi-" Diana tried continuing but was cut off. 

"You're over thinking this way too much. Come on, Diana, you sound crazy. There are more than one person who does the snake tongue thing. Doesn't mean anything" Ron cut her off then imitated the same tongue movement, "looks like now I'm Barty Crouch Junior" he teased. 

"You don't believe me, why am I not surprised?" Diana sighed as she flipped through the pages of her book. "What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm telling you guys this because I believe it to be true and that Harry could be in danger but you are both out here making me sound insane" Diana simply said, not wanting to cause any arguments between the three of them.

"How do you expect that Crouch would be able to do such a thing?" Hermione asked. "Polyjuice. You know the same potion you brewed in second year to spy of Malfoy" Diana told Hermione. 

"It would explain what he's always drinking" Hermione said coming to a slight realization. "He would have to keep making the potion over and over again and it takes months to brew. Besides, it's not like Snape would allow his ingredients to go 'missing' for an entire school year"Ron told the girls.

"You don't have to believe me. Dumbledore didn't. Hell, I wouldn't believe myself" Diana said as she stood up. "I'm going to go up to bed. Forget I brought any of this up. It was stupid anyway" Diana mumbled as she walked up the steps to the girls dormitory. 

Hermione and Ron watched as Diana made her way upstairs. Guilt instantly beaming on their faces as if they had just committed a felony. The pair exchanged glances, almost as if they were deciding who should go speak to the Bennett girl. Of course they felt bad for degrading her but to them her theory sounded absurd. Then again it wouldn't be the first time a theory sounded crazy but turned out to be true. 

Ron finally stood up after one too many extra seconds of contemplating. But the second he did Harry entered the common room. "You'd never believe what Snape accused us of" Harry told the pair. With a slight tug on his sleeve from Hermione, Ron exhaled and sat back down.

"He thinks we've been stealing his ingredients to brew Polyjuice potions. Apparently most of his supply is used up and of course he thinks we're responsible for it" Harry told his friends as he sat down next to Hermione. Frowns formed on Ron and Hermione's faces once they heard what Harry told them as the two came to terms that Diana was most likely right.

"What's up with you two?" Harry asked noticing their guilt filled expression. "We made-" Ron said but was cut off by Hermione "Ron made", he rolled his eyes "we made" he corrected her with a glare. 

"Get on with it you two" Harry said. "We made Diana feel bad since she had come up with a theory that Moody is actually Crouch Junior in disguise and that he was using Polyjuice potion to look like Moody" Ron told Harry.

"Diana figured that out on her own?" Harry asked. Hermione and Ron nodded. "And, what? You two made her feel stupid? When instead she was actually a genius" Harry said getting frustrated. 

"It sounded ridiculous. We didn't think that was an actual possibility" Hermione told him. "Hermione, you do realize everything we've been through the past three and a half years? It all sound ridiculous when written on paper or being told to someone else. But we lived it. All that craziness; the basilisk, ghosts, werewolves, three headed dogs, giants, a professor having Voldemort attached to its fucking head. It all sound ridiculous and fictional, because to most people it is. So how is it that this theory sound ridiculous after everything else?" Harry snapped.

He did not know why he was so defensive over Diana's feelings. Hermione and Ron starred at him at a loss of words. "When you put it like that it does sound pretty normal" Ron said rather slowly, not wanting to upset harry even more. "None of this is normal. We go to a school for magic with all kinds of craziness" Hermione mumbled, earning a glare from Harry.

"Not normal at all, Miss Granger" Moody said from behind them. "Brilliant that Diana girl is. Too bad she won't remember her theory. And neither will you three" Moody told the three of them. Before the trio could grab either one of their wands the word "obliviate" was echoed through the common room.