“We need some excuse to do it and if he’s looking for me anyway, then he’s way more likely to come across us. It’s the best way to draw him in quickly. And you can watch exactly where he is the whole time from the map, and turn up if things start to get a bit… hairy.”

“May we see this map?” Dumbledore enquired, raising a bushy eyebrow at Harry.

Harry swallowed, it went against his instincts to show the map to any teacher. When he had used it last year, Snape had tried to confiscate it without even knowing what it was. Then Lupin had known what it was and had taken it away for the rest of the year. He was still fairly shocked that Snape had let him keep it this year.

“It is after all, Harry, for the good of the school.”

Snape made an odd noise and Harry glanced at him curiously. The man had lost his usual poker face, and looked sort of apprehensive.

Harry supposed that he was being a little ridiculous, of course his little map wasn’t more important than making sure innocent little first years weren’t dragged into the middle of all of this. Or if Moody had a way to be invisible, then they wouldn’t be caught out for very long.

He brought the map out of his pocket and activated it quietly, before handing it over to Dumbledore who pored over it with interest. The old man spread it out over his desk and used his long fingers to trace out different passageways and staircases on the parchment, he hovered briefly over the names of the seven of them in the office.

“Think of what those men could have done if they had been together these last thirteen years.” McGonagall marvelled.

Snape practically growled in his anger and spun away from the table, stalking away a few feet, before feeling the tether spell tug on Harry. He made an annoyed noise, and began to pace in the few feet of room he had, with his face set in one of his stony expressions.

Harry felt an unfamiliar wave of grief for his father, and also in a way for Professor Lupin and Sirius. He hadn’t known any of the men for long, but from what he had heard of the ‘marauders’ from Sirius’s letters over the summer, they were far different from the carefree boys they sounded like they had been.

Dumbledore hummed suddenly, and everyone returned their attention to him. He tapped one of his fingers on the map. “You see, here is Alastor in his office, and his classroom is empty, as we have heard.”

Dumbledore nodded, absently and all watched as his hand slit over the parchment and came to rest over another part of the map entirely. “But, do you see? Down on the back stairway to the dungeons, we have a Barty Crouch. You were right- Harry, Severus. Unless there is something very wrong with the enchantments here, I cannot understand why the map should choose to add this name.”

“But how on earth could he be here?” Cedric asked, although even he seemed to be surprised that he had asked. “Sorry, but you did say he was in Azkaban. And dead.”

“We can only speculate at the moment.” Dumbledore said, “We know now that it is indeed possible for one to escape Azkaban with the correct motivation. Any escape would have been over ten years ago, now. Who knows where he might have been hiding.”

“Or Bartemius could be the man we are looking for,” McGonagall said. “Instead of some ridiculous ghost story we have cooked up out of almost no real evidence.”

“Bartemius has yet to miss a single day of work in his career.” Dumbledore told her. “He has been acting slightly out of character lately, but he must be himself. If nothing else, there are protections on the ministry to ensure the verification of Members of the Wizengamot. Mr Crouch must have been through the Thief’s Downfall three times this week alone.”

It seems to me that this does not matter.” Snape said bluntly. “We should be taking these measures in order to apprehend any man who had cast an Unforgivable Curse on a child. We have to be prepared to deal with one of three men, all of whom are well trained in the Dark arts and in Defence. This person has access to both Mad-Eye Moody’s enchanted eye and invisibility cloak as well as any number of dark detectors in his office.”

“And we have five of us, an invisibility cloak and a magical map.” Harry added, trying to compare their odds.

“You have an invisibility cloak?” Cedric asked, he raised an eyebrow, “The Weasley’s didn’t have that too, did they?”

Harry shook his head, “No, they’d rather use Peeves. It’s more of a… family heirloom, I guess.”

Cedric nodded, understandingly. “Sounds a lot more useful than our heirloom. We’ve got a fossilised Nundu claw. Dad loves it. Wouldn’t help you do anything fun though.”

“Oh!” Harry exclaimed, “Dam- Oh, uh, I forgot. The cloak won’t work.”

“Are you certain?” Dumbledore asked, “It is a very unique cloak.”

Harry felt a blush rise on his face. “Well, you know the other day, when you caught me in the dungeon, Professor?”

Snape narrowed his eyes, but nodded.

“Well, we kind of ran into Moody on the way down there. We thought he’d seen our feet, since it’s getting a bit cramped if more than one of us is in there. But no, he called us all out by name. He said it wasn’t past curfew, so he wouldn’t take points, but…”

“I always said Alastor had an inappropriate teaching method.” McGonagall muttered.

Snape looked at her, exasperated. “He has been cursing students! How was this more inappropriate?”

McGonagall humphed.

“Anyway,” Harry said, slightly unnerved by the professors, “What we were saying was that if Sna-Professor Snape- is going to be there, and I figure you are going to need him- then I’ll have to be there. Because if the guy is looking for me anyway, he might just run away from whatever you try to do to come and find me. If he sees Professor Snape without me, then he’ll know that I have to be in the dungeons and he can just wander around down there until he spots me through one of the walls.”

Dumbledore was nodding slightly, but McGonagall’s lips were incredibly thin.

“And Mr Diggory? There is no reason to expose him to this madness. He is only a child, he has barely completed his OWLs for goodness sake.”

“Ouch.” Diggory said, good naturedly. “I thought it might make more sense for Potter to have a fight with me. He isn’t the sort to take on two Professors in a duel at once, and he wouldn’t last long against Professor Snape.”

“What you are forgetting, yet again,” Snape pointed out, “Is that this man is prepared to use unforgivable curses and we have no idea why they are looking for Potter. We have to consider the possibility that they will attempt to use an unforgivable curse on Potter.”

“Well luckily whoever it is taught me how to throw off the Imperius. That Pain one doesn’t seem like it would do any permanent damage in the few seconds it’d take you to get there, and I got lucky with the other one before.”

All of the adults turned as one and advanced towards Harry in what appeared to be a choreographed movement, all berating him. Their words of anger (Snape), reprimand (McGonagall) and disapproval (Dumbledore) all blending into one.

Harry must have looked sufficiently admonished after a minute, when the three of them drew back, with a final “Curb that ridiculous Gryffindor impulsiveness, or I will make you.” From Snape.

Harry shared a wide eyed look with Cedric, and gulped.

“Uh, Sorry. But I still think I’m right. I mean, from what we’ve been taught, there isn’t a whole lot you can do if someone casts one of those curses at you. So unless you’ve got some kind of magic shield, nobody else knows about…”

Dumbledore glanced up at a display case over one of the bookcases. Harry followed his gaze and saw something he recognised. The Sword of Gryffindor. Harry frowned back at the old man in confusion, but Dumbledore seemed to have moved on from whatever thought he had just had.

“I don’t want to ruin this planning meeting,” Cedric said hesitantly. “But isn’t this the sort of thing we should be calling in aurors to do? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure with three professors trained in the art of war, this is going to go fairly smoothly, but aren’t we supposed to call in aurors for this kind of thing?”

Snape had given Diggory a sharp look, and was continuing to eye him with a less than friendly expression, so it was left to the headmaster to answer.

“Ordinarily, that would be the right thing to do, Mr Diggory. But time is of the essence and we must deal with this situation before it threatens our more vulnerable students. We have wasted a lot of time already” Dumbledore sighed and beckoned to his two Heads of House, “Sometimes we are called upon to choose between what is right and what is easy. I am afraid, we cannot choose the easy route.”

He pointed to the map and they saw that the footprints labelled Barty Crouch were leading towards the room Harry had been sleeping in.

“It appears that out Mr Crouch has begun to look for Harry. Severus, send a message to your Slytherins, you have a method they will trust?”

Snape nodded and pulled what looked like a photograph out of his pocket. He produced a quill from within his robes and begun to write on the sheet. Harry tried to see what the man was writing, but it was far too spiky and small to be legible. Harry hoped whatever it was worked even with Snape’s awful excuse for handwriting.

“Professor McGonagall, you will accompany me, if you would, to the alcove behind the Gargoyle on the second floor. I believe that will be far enough for Alastor’s eye to be ineffective, but close enough to excuse our hearing a commotion on ground floor. We will join you if we see this label either join you, or stop nearby. If he does not fall for our trap, and leaves in a different direction, Professor McGonagall and I will pursue him ourselves.”

Snape looked unhappy, but eyed the two students and nodded in agreement.

McGonagall drew her wand and conjured about five greyish-brown balls about the size of apples. She handed two to Diggory, and three to Snape. After a moment’s thought, she conjured two marble spheres of the same size and gave them to Harry.

She turned to Diggory first.

“You recall the OWL transfiguration to increase the density of a substance? This pellet will disperse into dust if you throw it into the ground, or against a wall. You must then visualise the density increasing and a wall being formed when the dust rises. It is important to visualise the wall, or else the dust will all become denser and you will have half of a wall in your lung, understand?”

Cedric nodded, looking more than a little scared of the ball of dust.

“Good, when Professor Moody appears, you will create a wall around yourself. This will be enough to block any unsavoury curses until we arrive. It would be best if you also erect a shield charm and integrate it into the wall, to prevent any attempts to destroy the barrier.”

She turned to Snape next, “You will do the same to protect Potter as soon as you engage our opponent. If there is a chance you will be hit by that spell, use another of them to protect yourself and Albus and I will neutralise the threat.”

Snape nodded, surprising Harry, who had expected him to want to do everything.

McGonagall turned back to look at the map, every inch the battle tactician.

“Uh, Professor,” Harry said, “What are these for? I can’t think of any transfiguration that’d help me with these.” He held up the two smooth chunks of marble.

“Oh.” McGonagall smiled, “Apologies Potter, I was trying to play to your strengths, and unfortunately Transfiguration is not the greatest of your talents.”

“Then what…?”

“Well, you are rather good at quiddich, and it is always good to keep your opponent guessing. They will probably expect you to do the same as Professor Snape and Mr Diggory and use these in a defensive manner. I was rather hoping that if the chance arose, you might be able to slam one of these into what is left of his nose.”

Harry gaped at her for a moment, blinking. “Uh, yeah. I guess I could do that. No problem”

“Good.”

Snape ushered Harry and Cedric out of the room and slowly down towards the dungeons, instructing them along the way.

“Diggory, you will be aiming to use primarily spells which will create a lot of noise, and will not cause any damage to Potter. You will attempt to appear as though you are protecting my person from further harm and to summon other professors to the scene.”

Cedric nodded, rolling his wand nervously in his wand-hand.

“Mr Potter, you will have to keep your head through this. Do not get caught up in the duel, as soon as we are aware of our imposter, you will get behind me as fast as possible. If you are the first to notice them, then you will attempt to run out of the reach of the bond. It will simply appear as though you are scared of being discovered.”

Harry nodded, “I can do that, Sir.”

“And I don’t want any heroics from either of you. Don’t look like that, Diggory. I know full well how far a Hufflepuff can take their definition of loyalty. Potter you must get behind me, because he is after you. Diggory, don’t hesitate to make that wall if real spells start flying, because he is after Potter.”

They reached the top of the dungeon staircase. This one was used far less commonly by students due to its propensity to vanish after 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Also, there was a rumour that it became instead an extra chimney for the house elves to use when preparing dinner. This was supported by the fact that the walls were coated in soot every morning, and that on Saturday mornings, the whole staircase smelled of last night’s fish.

“Okay, Potter. When I insult you directly, you must turn and shout stupefy, but do not channel the magic. Just in case, do try to not aim at me. And stay close, we only have a few yards.”

Harry nodded simply. He didn’t want to risk saying something stupid which might give them away. Snape had started complaining loudly about anything and everything.

“Of course the headmaster has his favourite little star Gryffindor. Merlin forbid that one of my students should blow something up in an accident. Blasted favouritism, they can’t help but pander to you and your little friends. Even bringing along a witness can’t convince them.”

Snape sneered over at Cedric, getting into his stride, “Even bringing along the perfect little Hufflepuff prefect does not convince them. They have no say in your punishment now, Potter. You are still my responsibility for a few hours yet. You will be scrubbing every inch of the dungeons until the moment your Head of House thinks to come looking for you. If I had you for another week, you would never behave in the same way again, you despicable, ignorant little-“

“Stupefy!” Harry pointed his wand just off to the side of the man. He saw Snape’s eyes flash in the light of what looked like a red Stunner and panicked inside for a second in case he had accidentally cast the spell, as he saw it flying towards the man. Snape flew backwards, but not quite far enough that it would make Harry fall over.

Harry shared a brief, panicked look with Cedric, before deciding that even if he had stunned Snape, it would be best to continue with the plan as it was and just hope he could protect himself and Snape until Dumbledore arrived. 

“What now, Potter?” Cedric shouted, backing up a little, so he was partially hidden by a small alcove. “They might not have taken any notice of you blowing something up, but what are you going to say about attacking a teacher.”

“Shut up, Diggory. It’s not like you have to put up with him all day, every day! He’s been doing my head in for days, I know a perfect Hufflepuff like you wouldn’t understand anything about that. Everyone thinks the sun shines out of your-“

“Flipendo!” Cedric hit his mark, a heavily ornamented suit of armour on the staircase landing, which fell to pieces and began to clatter down the stairs towards the dungeons.

“You are a complete idiot, aren’t you, Diggory? You can’t even aim! What are you going to do next, bring down the ceiling?” Harry spat, “Furunculous!”

Cedric laughed, dodging unnecessarily, “Going for kids’ spells, Potter? Gatallagi!”

A bolt of orange light hit one of the pauldrons of the suit of armour which spun and uncurled like a hedgehog, unwinding itself into the largest looking wildcat Harry had ever seen. It was about half the size of Sirius in his dog form. Harry worried for a moment that the thing would attack him, but instead it sat up, threw its head back and began to yowl loudly.

Harry stared at the gold coloured cat thing and wondered what crazy part of Cedric’s mind had conjured that idea and resolved to ask the boy later on.

They heard footsteps clattering up the stairs and Cedric brought out one of his dust stones from his robe pocket, he used it to block off half of his little alcove.

Harry swallowed, steeping back a few paces so that he was standing behind where Snape’s body was still sprawled out on the floor. The cat shrunk down and span back into a mass of distorted metal as the transfiguration resorted to its original form.

Somebody came flying up the stairs to see what was going on, Harry was dismayed to see that whoever it was was wearing a Slytherin uniform.

The person couldn’t have been more than a first or second year, and Harry was hardly surprised that when the child turned from gaping at Cedric’s half hidden body to look at him, Fowley’s face was the one he saw.

“Fowley, what are you doing here? All of the Slytherins are supposed to be in their common room.” Cedric said from across the floor.

Fowley was still watching Harry though. “Potter, what’s going on? Everyone’s going on about something in Potions, something about stuff blowing up?”

“Listen, Fowley, I’ll explain later. You have to get out of here, right. The place is going to be flooded with professors in a minute and you don’t wanna be caught in the middle, trust me. Quick, run upstairs and keep out of the way.”

Fowley frowned, “Why should I go upstairs if all of the Slytherins are in the common room?”

There was the sound of people rushing down the stairs, and Harry thought quickly about how to get rid of Fowley in a safe way. He was surprised to see that Cedric had blocked off the rest of his alcove, and felt a bit annoyed, they could have hidden Fowley in there too.

“Look, trust me- Get out of here.”

Fowley just watched Harry carefully, drawing their wand with surprisingly steady hands. Harry was surprised, since the kid had been so scared a couple of days ago when Harry had come across them being bullied.

“Expelliarmus!” Dumbledore said, appearing on the landing with McGonagall on his heels. It was a strong spell, but he had obviously been expecting someone much taller and the spell flew right over the head of the ducking second year.

“What the-“ Harry shouted, diving forwards to try and protect the kid, or at least make the professors notice they were attacking a child and should stop.

Fowley got off a disarming spell of their own, which was slightly off target, and cast another in quick succession. Somehow, the spells managed to collide with Snape and Harry and both of their wands were sent flying towards the second year.

“No, Harry!” Dumbledore called, and Harry spun halfway around, to see the old man reaching for him, before he felt the ground moving at his feet. Snape was also lurching up towards Fowley, presumably to get his wand back. For a moment, the three of them collided in the middle of the floor, a tangled mess of arms and wands.

Harry and Snape both looked down at Fowley, they were shocked when the child smiled up at them, and grabbed hold of Harry’s bare hand with their own. Harry felt the cool metal of a ring pressing into his hand, before both of their hands were covered by Snape’s larger, calloused one, trying to pull them apart.

The three of them tipped over dangerously, Fowley at the bottom of the pile.

Fowley grinned back at them both, and said, “Blood Traitors.”

Harry’s eyes widened and he felt his stomach drop.