Inside Dumbledore's office, there was pandemonium as six people piled inside and tried to arrange themselves in front of the headmaster's desk. Dumbledore himself, was already seated at his desk, surrounded by neat piles of parchment and appeared mildly surprised by the interruption. Always the host, he conjured a few extra chairs for his guests, which were mostly ignored.

"It seems like every year, I meet with most of you to discuss something or other. We seem to have a new addition today. Mr Diggory, I am surprised to see you. How come you to be involved with our more… adventurous students?"

"Diggory is unimportant." Snape snapped. Cedric managed to not appear particularly offended, although Hermione and Harry were offended enough on his behalf. "We are here urgently, headmaster. Once more, it is about that psychotic paranoid you have hired."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. To be fair, Snape did tend to insult pretty much everyone he came across.

"Professor Moody. Headmaster-"

"He cursed Ron!" Hermione interrupted, so Harry knew it must be serious.

"Miss Granger?"

Dumbledore glanced at her quickly, ignoring Snape's indignant muttering, before turning his full attention to Ron, who had been dumped unceremoniously into a nearby chair when Snape had marched up to Dumbledore's desk.

"We went down to breakfast late in the Great Hall, and then on the way up the stairs, Ron started feeling funny. Every time he tried to walk anywhere he'd start to float off the ground and I had to pull him back down. We supposed it wasn't a medical thing and it was just another of the tw- of those pranks that keep happening, so we thought we would try Professor Moody instead of the Hospital Wing. And we were walking nearer his classroom, of course." Hermione stopped and bit her lip. Harry suspected she was thinking about how to continue.

"I do not doubt your judgement of the situation, Miss Granger, please continue. Why do you believe it was Professor Moody who caused Mr Weasley's current state?"

"Well, we managed to get along to the classroom. There were some students already there, in detention, I think- three Slytherins."

Snape and Harry shared a look. That must be Zabini after he had left them, along with the two others (Malfoy and Nott?) who had been given detention by Moody the day before.

"They told us that Professor Moody had just gone into his office and Ron sort of just went straight in. He did knock first, of course, but he didn't wait or anything." Hermione pulled a face. "The door slammed shut, and I heard some shouting. Then a couple of minutes later, Ron came out with Professor Moody, but he acted sort of… drunk. We just left of course, and then the Slytherins followed us out, saying that they had been dismissed early. But the strange thing is that Ron doesn't remember any of it. And he's still acting so odd, but he does seem to have stopped floating off, maybe the charm just wore off."

By then, everyone was watching Ron, who had stood up and walked over to Fawkes the phoenix. The boy was stroking the bird carefully, smiling blissfully at the way the plume of feathers on the bird's head popped back up after he flattened them.

Fawkes gave his owner a look of pure resignation.

Ron looked over at Harry dreamily, and words tumbled out, "He wants t'see you, y'know." He turned back to the phoenix.

"Who?" Harry blinked, "Moody?"

"He does." Ron didn't even turn around.

Dumbledore frowned and then addressed Snape. "Do you believe we can deal with this incident first, Severus? Or is your problem of a more urgent nature?"

"It is somewhat urgent, Headmaster. But it would be prudent to ensure Weasley is not totally addled first. Minerva, he is one of yours."

McGonagall tutted at them, "Mr Weasley." She said, sharply. "Do come over here and sit down!"

Ron seemed concerned by her tone, and left the bird immediately. He was having issues walking in a straight line and had to focus in order to sit down between the arms on his chair. "Wha's wrong?" His words were slightly slurred and Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon after a long day at work and more than one brandy.

"Weasley, you will tell me about what has happened to you since breakfast."

Ron blinked at the floor, obviously trying to think. After a long moment, the furrows on his forehead deepened. The rest of the room leaned forward in anticipation.

"I think," he said, testing the way the words sounded. "I think old tables are stupid. I mean, what's with the feet? Are they all just tranfirreg- transfigured bad? Like how my mirror still had those ears?" He looked at McGonagall. "You remember the ears?"

"I remember the ears, Mr Weasley."

Ron nodded, happy again.

"Is he going to be alright?" Harry asked quietly "Shouldn't we get him to the hospital wing, or…"

Dumbledore frowned and made a complicated movement with his wand. He did not seem overly concerned by whatever he had discovered.

"There is no pressing issues with Mr Weasley, and nothing which our Madame Pomfrey cannot fix." Dumbledore smiled reassuringly. "She has yet to meet her match with student curses. Severus, you have an idea what it is which might have aggravated Alastor?"

"You recall, Headmaster, that I told you my suspicions about Moody before? That he was alleged to use unforgivables in his classes, which you say you permitted him to do. That he used the imperius on the students, which even you could not permit him to do. And that he was acting oddly around certain students in my house, and in others, whose parents were of a certain inclination."

Dumbledore nodded, "I do indeed remember the last couple of days, Severus. I am not senile yet."

"Also that Professor Moody decided to search my office the other day, claiming that it was on your orders. May I ask if that is true?"

Snape didn't even sound offended by the idea, Harry thought. He made it sound like that was something that Dumbledore was totally allowed to do.

"I promise you that I would neither require, nor permit Alastor to take any such action. I do not believe he could possibly misinterpret my words to reach that conclusion either." Dumbledore was solemn.

Snape nodded, "Then today, I discovered during my Remedial Potion class, that there were some distinctive ingredients which have disappeared from my storeroom. Of course, my immediate thought was that there was a student responsible, since that has been the case before." Harry and Hermione attempted to look innocent. Ron attempted to pull some threads out of a rug on the floor.

"However, if the ingredients remain the same, circumstances lead me to a different conclusion. The ingredients were lacewing flies, boomslang skin. Not common ingredients, you'll agree."

"So you believe Alastor is brewing…?"

"It's not Moody, Sir. It's Mr Crouch, and he's brewing Polyjuice potion." Harry blurted the information out in his urgency, they had to make Dumbledore understand as quickly as possible.

Hermione's hands flew to her mouth as she took the information in. Dumbledore pushed his glasses back up his nose, the better to see Harry and Snape who were standing next to each other.

"I agree that Polyjuice might be a reasonable explanation for odd behaviour. And it would be an intelligent move to choose Alastor if one was going to impersonate a member of the faculty, but if there is a false Moody, then the real one must still be here, as a fresh source for Polyjuice. Those ingredients which are of a human origin last no longer than a day. The real question is how long has our imposter been here?

"Bins," Ron grinned, drumming on the floor with both hands.

"Professor Binns?" McGonagall was completely puzzled by the random word.

"No! No, he means dustbins!" Hermione said, excitedly. "During the summer, do you remember? Mr Weasley had to go and help him deal with some intrusion. They said it was a false alarm, but what if it happened then?"

Snape nodded, "There is some merit to that conclusion, Miss Granger. It has been many years since Moody has been in regular contact with anybody. Nobody expected him to be the same man he was when he retired."

Harry thought that it was unfair to give Hermione all of the praise when it seemed Ron had come to the conclusion first. He didn't feel he could say anything, however, his own interpretation had been that Ron thought they should search the Professor's office bin.

"I can understand how you think this might have happened," Dumbledore agreed. "But you must explain to me, Harry, or Severus, how you came to the conclusion that it is Bartemius who is impersonating Alastor. I cannot imagine why he should want to do such a thing. Alastor did once arrest a member of his family, but Barty is the last person who might be upset about that incident."

Snape took an angry breath, "He saw it on an enchanted-"

"Sir!" Harry was scandalised that Snape would give away his secret.

"Mister Potter, some of us believe in prioritising matters. Your little secret is hardly more important than the safety of the school and the witches and wizards who reside here." Snape was cutting, but perhaps not so much as he might have been.

Harry, feeling chastened, decided to explain for himself, rather than let Snape give everyone the wrong end of the wand.

"I have this map, right? And it kind of shows Hogwarts, and er, everyone in it. And it shows up all of their names even if they're in disguise. So it shows up people under invisibility cloaks and animaguses and stuff."

"Animagi." Hermione whispered under her breath.

"Right, so when we saw that Barty Crouch was supposed to be in Professor Snape's office, we got down there and Moody was in there under an invisibility cloak. Anyway, today we realised that it was really easy to get into the potions store through that office, and all those Polyjuice ingredients were missing, so we figured that was it and came up here."

"After exploding two cauldrons." Snape added nastily, irritated by being interrupted.

"Well, not on purpose," Harry said, "And it's not like anybody was hurt."

"And where exactly did you procure this map from, Potter?" McGonagall asked, disapproving.

"Uh, from some friends?" Harry tried.

"It sounds like the sort of item Gryffindor troublemakers would find a lot of use for, if you ask me." Snape said, silkily.

"Humph," McGonagall snorted, "Which troublemakers?"

"I can think of a pair." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "Or four, perhaps."

McGonagall's eyes flitted from Snape, to Harry, and to Ron in quick succession.

"Hang on!" Cedric said, interrupting for the first time. "You don't think that those twins could have had a map with everywhere and everyone on it all this time? Those bas- I mean, that explains so much. I wondered how they managed to follow me around in third year for that whole week! I spent three whole days in the library researching what kind of tracking charm they had put on me and I couldn't find a single thing!"

"It is concerning how few students use the library of their own volition to actually do their schoolwork." McGonagall said dryly to Snape, who smirked back.

"And Professor McGonagall?" Dumbledore asked mildly, turning away from Cedric, serious again. "What is it that has brought you here today?"

"Severus and I had spoken about this issue with Professor Moody before. We had that issue with him transfiguring Mr Malfoy- in the second week of term, no less. And this business with the Imperius is unconscionable, Albus."

"Ferrety, ferrety Ferretface" Ron burbled.

Dumbledore drummed his fingers on his desk. "It simply does not make any sense that Bartemius would do any such thing. He is practically married to his job, these days. What could possibly make him want to take up a teaching post at Hogwarts and cast Unforgivable curses on children? Besides that, he has continued with his post at the ministry, how do you suggest he has been occupying both jobs at once?"

McGonagall shook her head, "Even when speaking with Severus, I had believed that there was no credence to this idea that Barty Crouch might be the responsible party. It is hard to imagine that might not have been Alastor who has been teaching this term. I believed that we knew him better than that, Albus. He seems so much the same man, with all his talk of honour and justice and vigilance."

"He does go on about bravery, and loyalty a lot." Harry put forward, "I always thought that was a bit weird."

"Now that sounds like the Alastor I know." Dumbledore sighed, "I do not know what to make of this."

"There were always two sides to be loyal to, Headmaster." Snape said darkly. "And there was a Crouch who was firmly on the other side."

There was silence for a moment and Harry and Hermione shared a nonplussed look.

"Barty's son died years ago. He was buried in the grounds of Azkaban prison. Bartemius did not even attend the funeral." Dumbledore stood up from his throne-like chair and walked quickly over to a cabinet underneath one of the large windows. He returned a moment later with a large roughly shaped stone bowl, with runes carved into the rim. Placing it onto his desk, he began to stir the silvery contents with the tip of his wand. Harry was glad that Ron was too low down to see inside, as Ron was likely to just stick his whole hand in with the way he was acting.

After a few moments, the image of a young man's face began to appear in the air over the top of the basin.

Harry gasped involuntarily. "I know him!"

His eyes locked with Dumbledore's piercing blue. "I've seen him before- it was in a dream, I think. Just this summer, he was in some old house." He paused, "I don't know much more, there might have been a snake and maybe Wormtail was there… Ugh, I can't think!"

Harry frowned, unconsciously rubbing at his scar while he tried to remember. After a few long moments, he shook his head. "It's no use, I can't remember. Sorry."

"Is this what happens every year when the three of you disappear and everything goes mad?"

Hermione smiled back at Cedric. "I suppose so. Usually the Defence teacher is up to something dodgy."

"Professor Lupin wasn't dodgy, he's been our best Professor so far!" Harry said.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Compared to an idiot, somebody who practises one of the worst curses in existence on children and somebody who was literally half Voldemort?"

"Point taken." Harry said, "He was still a really good teacher though, even if he had a- a little problem."

Snape made a small growling noise, but thankfully declined to comment on Lupin, in order to keep an eye on Ron, who had stood up. "Weasley, are you alright?"

"Do you recognise that man, Ron?" Hermione asked, seeing that the redhead was peering up at the face.

"He thinks you're less fuzzy." Ron said, very seriously to Dumbledore. "He thought you'd stay fuzzy, but you're bigger too. 'Nd the walls aren't too thick, 'Nd he wants to see Harry."

"Thank you, Mr Weasley." Dumbledore nodded to him, and then to himself, seeming to come to a decision. He turned to Hermione. "Miss Granger, I would like to thank you both for your help. You were right to bring Mr Weasley to me first. Unfortunately, although I believe he has merely been hit with a Confundus charm, we do seem to be neglecting him a little too much. Could I ask you to escort him to the Hospital wing? I promise you I will see to it that you are both informed of today's happenings."

Dumbledore walked around to Ron and clapped a hand on his shoulder, "Thank you for those warnings, Mr Weasley. I will remember to be watchful of those scrying techniques."

Hermione came over and took Ron by the arm, and the two of them staggered out of the office and allowed the staircase to guide them back down.

The moment they were sure the two Gryffindors had left the room, McGonagall burst into speech. Obviously a weight was taken off her chest now that she knew Ron was on his way to being helped. "Heavens, Albus. What are we to do? If he has Alastor's eye then he will know the moment we go looking for him. And he has that foe-glass to boot. There is no possibility that we will be able to apprehend the man, whoever he is, in front of the students. We shall have to stage a staff meeting, draw him-"

Snape shook his head, and interrupted, "Have you forgotten that we had a meeting yesterday? If we hold another so soon, he is bound to be suspicious and arrive on his guard."

"And we cannot risk doing any harm to the other professors." Dumbledore added. "They are not warriors, and it would not be fair to force them into such a situation, especially if we were to do so with no warning. We would be exposing them to too much harm."

Harry hummed, "So what you need is to get him somewhere out of the way? And you need an excuse to have a load of professors there too? The ones who will know what to do if all hell breaks loose."

Snape rolled his eyes, "I am so glad that you are capable of listening Pot-"

"So you need a big distraction. Oh, sorry Sir. I didn't mean to interrupt! You're going to have to wait until he's somewhere out of the way, and then have some sort of incident which means you'll need loads of teachers to help deal with it."

"Do you actually have a point?"

"Yes, Sir. We need to have a fight." Harry said, earnestly.

"Really, a fight? Between who exactly?"

"Between me and Diggory."

Snape raised an eyebrow, "Between yourself and Diggory? And what would I be doing during this supposed fight? You don't imagine it would be normal for me to stand 5 feet away while two students were duelling and not take any action?"

"Well we're going to be busy pretending to fight. I was kind've hoping that you could pretend to be knocked out, and then you could be ready to deal with him when he turns up. And I reckon a student attacking a teacher is a good excuse for loads of teachers to turn up and for students to be kept away, don't you?"

"There might be some value to that idea, Potter." Snape held up a placating hand to fend off McGonagall who had made an outraged noise.

"However, you are severely mistaken if you believe that we would allow you to be anywhere near this mess. You are only a child and there is no reason for you to be involved at all."

"Except, Sir, if you are going to be there, then he does have to be there." Cedric pointed out. "Sort of, if you don't want it to be suspicious. And we have already set up quite a good reason for us to have a fight. And, well everyone knows you don't like each other, Sir. So it wouldn't be strange for you to have a fight either."

"And what exactly are we going to say you are fighting about, Diggory?" McGonagall asked.

"Well, about half the school already knows that we blew up those cauldrons in the potions extra credit class. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine Potter had something to do with that."

"Hey!"

"Be fair, you did. Also, if I saw somebody attack a professor in front of me, then I like to believe that I would do something about it." Cedric spread his hands out in a delicate shrug, "Besides, if we're throwing spells all over the place, then we're hardly going to be explaining anything, are we. Just some loud, vague shouting about people cursing professors should do the trick."

The professors did not appear remotely convinced.