The Switch (pjo/hp)

Chapter 17: Mr.Crouch Goes Insane

"It's quite strange, now that I think about it," Hermione said thoughtfully. "It's been two months—almost three now—and Crouch hasn't made an appearance."

"I mean, the entirety of this Tournamet, he's only been here for the important parts," Ron pointed out. "Besides, he seems like a real introvert."

"But think about it, he's always been there at least a few times between each task. We haven't seen him at all since the second task," Hermione countered. Percy shuddered at the mention of the second task. He had so many unanswered questions about what happened during it. Why had the merpeople obeyed him? Why was he able to breathe underwater? How? Why was he here? It was pretty depressing to be so deep in the dark like that.

"What if he like, took a break or something?" Percy said, taking a bite of his food. "Oh Gods, this food is great."

"Hmph," Hermione grunted. Apparently, some creatures called House Elves made their food, which annoyed Hermione quite a lot. She said had said that they worked tirelessly all day with no salary and no holidays. It did make Percy feel a little bad, but he wouldn't be doing them any good if he didn't eat the food they prepared—that would just make it go to waste.

Recently, Percy had been trying to reach out to Nico in his dreams, but controlling your dreams—nearly impossible. Percy remembered Nico was about to tell him something about who he was, but he always had to wake up at the wrong time, didn't he?

Lessons were progressively getting harder, as if they hadn't been hard enough. Hermione was constantly helping him— much to Ron's protest as to why he didn't get help, to which Hermione would respond with an glare—but she couldn't really do anything during the class.

A big group of owls landed next to Hermione, dropping some letters and flying away. She sighed. It had become somewhat a routine. Ever since Rita Skeeter had written an article about how Hermione was a 'cheater', the letters wouldn't stop. The article had a picture of him and Hermione hugging before the first task, and another of her dancing with Victor Krum. Since then, she had been getting a lot of hate—people were sending her letters, saying Harry deserved better than her. They really pissed Percy off. Hermione wasn't the only one who people were hating on. Someone had been listening to Hagrid and Madam Maxime during the Yule Ball, and now everybody knew that Hagrid was a half-giant. He had locked himself in his hut, refusing to show his face. Percy, Ron, and Hermione tried multiple times to persuade him to get out, but he wouldn't budge. Finally, they managed to convince him that it was fine to be what he was and that everyone was different in their own way.

All in all, these past two and a half weeks hadn't been the greatest.

"I don't know why you actually read those," Ron said. "Just ignore them. They're all lies anyway."

Hermione looked like she was going to say something but interrupted herself with a gasp. "Ouch!"

Some wierd, greenish-yellow goo shot out if one of the letters, drenching her hands in it. Her face controlled in pain as tears brimmed the corners of her eyes.

"Hermione, I told you not to open them!" Ron said. "You should go to the hospital wing."

She did as Ron suggested, and Percy and Ron headed towards their Care of Magical Creatures class. Percy feared what Hagrid wanted them to take care of now since the Blast-ended Skrewt were finally out of the way, but it wasn't as bad as he had anticipated. They learned about Nifflers, which were these animals that could sniff out gold from the ground. The lesson was pretty fun, actually. They played a game where every student gets a Niffler, and the one whose Niffler finds the most gold wins.

After their classes, they left for the common room. Hermione had joined them in the last lesson they had. Both her hands were heavily bandaged, but apparently, it wasn't severe. Percy made up some random excuse and left the two of them in front of the fat lady. He had talked to Harry's godfather again, and he had told Percy to send him a letter if he ever needed anyone to talk to. Honestly, Percy never planned to do so, but everything that was going on was suffocating him, and he really did need to talk. So that was the reason he was now heading towards the owlery. [Help did I spell that right?]