“There’s only one explanation.  Someone snuck up on Cedric and dragged Mr. Crouch away after they’d Stunned him.”

Ron rolled his eyes at Niamh and muttered, “You only say that because he’s your boyfriend.  OW!”

Niamh scowled venomously at Ron, who scooted his chair away from her, clutching his arm.

Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother and said, “You only say that because Hufflepuff keeps beating Gryffindor in the Quidditch matches.”

Ron scowled at her and snapped, “I do not!”

“Alright children,” sneered Hermione.”  Harry…what all did Mr. Crouch say?”

Harry looked up from where’d he was trying to finish the work on Niamh’s boom box and said, “He just kept on raving.  He seemed to be talking to Percy – about the Tournament, oddly enough.”

“Anything else?” asked Ginny.

“He kept saying he needed to see Dumbledore.  Didn’t say why though.”

Harry frowned and continued, “Y’know, it was almost like he was under Imperius…”

“Imperius?” said Niamh in a surprised tone.

“Yeah.  When he was talking to – well, the trees – he was going along fine.  But when he was talking about Dumbledore he was stumbling.”

“Like under Imperius,” said Ron.

Harry nodded then set back to working on the boom box.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

“What’s he doing?” asked Hermione as she and Niamh watched Harry sitting outside by the lake with Amanda and Neville.  “He shoulder be training for the third task!”

Niamh gave her an odd look then smiled reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, Mione.  Harry knows all he might possibly need for the third task.”

“How do you know?”

“Because when he hasn’t been working on that boom box or with us or in class, he’s been in one of the unused rooms in the dungeons practicing.  He is the Lord Hex after all.”

“He doesn’t know every hex and curse!” cried Hermione.

“No,” replied Niamh. “But he – and I – have made up a few of our own.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”  Niamh reached into her cloak and pulled out a little leather-bound journal.  As she handed it over to the other girl, she said, “Don’t tell Harry I showed it to you.  There’s some dangerous stuff in there.”

“Like what?” asked Hermione as she opened the little book.

“Like a spell to skin someone alive.”

Hermione sputtered and stared at the girl.

“You’re joking, right?”

“Not in the slightest.  We figured it out by mistake.  I was trying to say one thing but said something else.  Next thing we know, there’s a skinned rat on the floor.”

“You killed a rat?”

“Well, its nice to imagine its Pettigrew.  And they’ve been plaguing the kitchens for ages.  The house-elf’s don’t know what to do with them after they catch them so they five them to us.”

Hermione blinked a few times then asked, “What other dangerous spells have you two thought up?”

“Look in the back.”

Hermione obliged then looked skeptically at her friends.

“The ‘Hex-o-meter’?”

Niamh shrugged and took the notebook back, saying, “Well it had to have a title.  And I have to get to Divination.  See you, Mione.”

“Of course.”