Chapter 42: Polyjuice Potion & Portkey
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. IT BELONGS TO JK ROWLING.
A/N: Read, enjoy, and remember not to take either life or my writing too seriously.
Hermione looked at Harry. "That was it? They just flew over the maze? Who was the bloody idiot who didn't think of that?"
Harry shrugged at her. "We already said it was an idiot who thought up this event." After a kiss to calm his girlfriend down, he added, "Now what about page eighty-seven, my stunning little bookworm?"
Hermione eyes widened as she grinned and nodded. The two of them quickly departed their seats and were about to leave the pitch when they heard a voice behind them. "POTTER!"
Harry stopped and saw Professor Moody stomping his way toward them. "I was coming to find you. I think your friend is in trouble, Potter. He's still in the maze and I thought I heard screams. Here, take this lantern and go see if you can find him. Unfortunately until he reaches the center or sends up red sparks, no instructor is allowed to help him."
Harry glanced at Hermione, and then back to Moody who was still trying to catch up to them. He quickly weighed going into a dangerous maze in search of a jealous idiot against going to the Come and Go Room to work on page eighty-seven with his girlfriend. The decision process took less time than Ron took to eat a biscuit. "As much as I'd like to," He yelled as he grabbed Hermione's hand. "I thought I heard screaming in the castle," Then in a quieter voice to his girlfriend, "or will be hearing it anyway," Harry tugged on Hermione as he spun toward the castle and started running leaving the bugus defense instructor stunned.
'What about his Saving People Syndrome? Especially his friend?' Moody asked himself as he continued to follow the two teens for a short time, yelling for them to come back and save their friend, but nothing slowed them down from their rather spirited charge to the castle.
He lifted his wand with the intention of stunning Potter, but then he noticed a number of students were now close by. With a sigh he lowered his wand knowing he could not capture Potter without it being noticed.
'Well, there goes Plan A,' Crouch thought. 'Time for Plan B.' He stomped off back to the maze. Using his magical eye, he quickly found the ginger headed idi... champion. He was huddled in a corner of the maze, jabbing his wand at something.
At first, Crouch couldn't figure out what the boy was fighting, wondering if he had been hit by one of the severe confusion traps or illusion spells, but then he saw the spider. Not the six foot acromantula spider, but a one-inch garden type that could be found around most hedges.
Crouch pulled out a flask of Polyjuice potion and dropped Harry's hair into the liquid. The liquid bubbled and frothed and then turned a bright, clear gold. 'Damn, he is the golden boy, isn't he?' Crouch thought. 'Well, that will make it easier.' Then he remembered Potter's glasses. "Accio Potter's glasses."
Harry and Hermione were almost to the castle when, all of a sudden, Harry's glasses went zooming off of his face. Harry watched the glasses disappearing into a blurred distance. "Probably Fred and George having a laugh," Harry said. "Just get me to the Room of Requirement now and I'll get them from them later, or maybe you can conjure me some new ones." It took a little longer, but Hermione was finally able to lead him to the proper place.
The glasses landed in Crouch's hand as he limped to where Ron continued his silent battle with the garden spider. When the fourth champion saw the DADA Professor, he quickly ran behind him and pointed at the spider. Crouch walked the two steps and with a sweep of his foot, he knocked the spider off the path.
Crouch turned to the boy and all the headaches of the past came back almost instantly overwhelming his senses. He took a deep breath and regained his composure. Then, realizing how quiet it was in the maze, he thought, 'He probably doesn't know the task is over.' He looked again at Ron and started his on-the-spot spiel. "Mister Weasley, you still have a chance at this but the other champions are now in the maze."
Ron's eyes widened as Crouch continued, knowing exactly what would push the boy on. "They probably think you're taking care of all the challenges."
Ron nodded in agreement.
"What you need is an edge. You need the same luck as Harry Potter," Crouch continued. "I mean, he has all the luck and you have nothing, right?"
Ron's nodding continued. Actually, it hadn't stopped from when it began.
Crouch pulled out the flask of golden colored Polyjuice potion and showed it to Ron. "This will give you his luck. This will make you Harry Potter for an hour. Drink it and you'll definitely be going places."
Ron grabbed the flask and chugged the golden liquid in one gulp and a few seconds later, he looked like Harry Potter in slightly oversized robes. Crouch handed him the glasses and said, "Now take this lantern. It's charmed to guide you to the cup and protect you from any other creatures in the maze." Crouch tapped his wand to the lantern and muttered a couple of words, and then handed it to the fourth champion.
Ron grabbed the lantern and, as he turned toward the path Crouch was pointing at, a wand came up behind his head with barely a whisper following it. "Obliviate."
'Now he won't remember me giving him that or polyjuicing him.'
The dazed looking fourth champion dropped his wand as he stumbled slowly down the path. Thirty seconds later, the lantern glowed blue and he felt the pull behind his navel. Ron Weasley, Triwizard Champion (though currently polyjuiced as Harry Potter,) disappeared from the maze.
As Crouch watched the carrot-topped idiot disappear, he breathed a sigh of relief. He now could at least say he was tricked by Dumbledore if his master found out the truth.
Or at worst, Plan C was still an option with a hacksaw ready to go to reduce any magical traces. He turned to walk back out of the maze. On the other side of the hedge from where he was, a blast-ended skrewt was preparing to propel itself.
The flames from the skrewt passed through the hedges and ignited the robes of the Death Eater DADA professor. Since Crouch had been adding Firewhisky to his polyjuice potion for months, every single cell in his body was saturated in the flammable liquid. The flames caught in the fumes of his breath and quickly ignited his entire body.
The extremely hot flames burned everything to ash, including the magical eye and wooden leg. The real Mad-Eye Moody was never found. He died of thirst and starvation in his own trunk. Everyone presumed the crazy old Auror had wandered off somewhere and would return some day. His trunk and other magical detection devices were all stored away in a remote storage area in the castle in case he ever turned up to claim them.
Ron's feet slammed into the ground a few seconds after leaving the maze. Following his feet, his arse was the next part to hit and then his head. Ron stayed sprawled on the ground for several seconds but, finally, he climbed to his feet as he rubbed his arse.
The blow to the head had been firm, but the lack of anything of importance there prevented any significant injury. Finally, he started to look around as he tried to figure out what had happened. The last thing he remembered was fighting a spider and now he was holding a lantern and had no wand and no clue. He suddenly wished he had his egg with him. It always brought him a sense of comfort.
The various tombstones that surrounded Ron gave him the clue that he was not at Hogwarts anymore. In fact, after only a few minutes of contemplation, he realized he was in a dark and overgrown graveyard. He even noticed the outline of a small church beyond a large tree to his right. To his left, a hill rose in the distance. As he studied his surroundings, a feeling of ill omen passed over him but Ron mistook it for hunger.
'I'll wait here. I'm sure someone will come and get me any time now,' he thought as he sat down and started patting his pockets, looking for something to eat. It never crossed his mind to wonder why he was wearing glasses. As he continued to search his pockets for the third time, Ron never heard the footsteps approach until a high-pitched, babyish voice said, "If it isn't Harry Potter at last. Welcome."
Ron turned around quickly and found himself staring at his old rat. Well, not actually the rat, but the person his rat turned into last year. 'Wormtail?' Ron screamed silently. Then he thought of what else was said. 'Harry?' And quickly looked around for his friend.
But when he didn't see him, he turned back to the small man in front of him. That's when he noticed the infant in Wormtail's arms. Confusion rung in Ron's head. It rung even louder because of the echo effect that existed in the mostly empty space between his ears.
'When did Wormtail have a baby? Oh Merlin! It's the ugliest baby, too! Hate to think who the mother must have been.'
"Prepare him," the baby said in its high-pitched voice.
"Yes, Milord," Wormtail said to the evil looking baby thing. He sat the infant down and grabbed Ron and started pulling him away.
'Milord?' Ron thought as he found himself being dragged over to a marble headstone. Just as Ron was forced against the stone and cords conjured to hold him in place, he saw a name.
TOM RIDDLE.
.....Cliffhanger
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