Chapter 126: Creatures

"So you're telling us, Bagman was working for You-Know-Who, without having any idea about that?" George said.

"Yep." Chris replied.

Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Colin and Luna were at Gryffindor table. Chris explained them the thing with Bagman, (she omitted the parts of Harry and Mr Crouch's son). Chris just used Voldemort's name and it did the trick. Ginny, Colin and Luna who were so upset and angry on Chris for disappearing like that, forgave Chris as soon as they heard the name Voldemort.

"Is he that much of an idiot?" Ginny burst out.

"I think so." Fred said seriously. "And here we thought he's a cunning person. What a waste!"

"Still you should be careful now on, Fred." Hermione injected, looking worried. "Messing with this kind of people is dangerous."

"I know, Hermione." Fred sighed.

"But any of you can't spill a word in front mom, is that clear?" George said.

All of them nodded.

Though Harry said sorry to Chris, Harry and Chris wasn't talking that much. He was there with Ron and Hermione, just to hear the Chris's version of the story. Chris's didn't bother much with this as she had plenty of things to think about. But then Harry said something.

"We went to meet Professor Moody this morning. He said Bagman was always like this."

"You told everything to Mad-Eye?" Chris choked in her pumpkin juice.

"Yeah... why?" Harry suddenly looked nervous. He understood by Chris's expression that he shouldn't have done that. But he hurriedly added, "I was curious about what happened after I left the Hospital wing. I thought it's a good idea to ask Professor Moody, as he was there."

"Stop being curious about everything goes around you, Potter." Chris said with a calm voice. "You always get in trouble because of that."

Harry didn't reply and Chris knew why; one, because Harry was thinking hard about Mad-Eye and, two, Chris called him 'Potter' with a formal tone, which means end of the discussion.

After that Hermione, Ginny and Colin talked to Fred and George about their joke shop idea and many things but Chris didn't participate in that conversation.

Sirius warned them all to be careful now on, specially Harry. He strictly prohibited Harry to go out after dinner. He was also worried about the third task, Chris thought maybe Dumbledore haven't told Sirius about the fact that Voldemort or someone of his followers wants Harry to win; because Sirius asked Harry to win.

Chris debated for a long time about she should tell Jason about these or not. At last she decided she'll give him a overall summary.

Next morning as Chris, Ginny, Colin and Luna were having breakfast and discussing about Charms, a screech owl arrived for Chris, carrying her morning copy of the Daily Prophet. Chris put the money on its pouch, unfolded the paper, glanced at the front page, and again choked, this time a small bite of toast. She hurriedly gulp some pumpkin juice.

"What happened?" Colin, Ginny and Luna said together.

"This is bad. This is really bad." Chris said wide eyed as she read the headline.

FATHER KILLED BY HIS SON

AN ATTACK OUTSIDE ST MUNGO'S HOSPITAL

Mr. Barty Crouch, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, who was not well for sometime, was killed yesterday in front of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries by his own son Barty Crouch jr., writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Mr Barty Crouch's son Barty Crouch jr. is well known for being a Death Eater, fourteen years ago. He was sent to Azkaban, with the Lestranges for torturing Auror Frank Longbottom and his wife by Cruciatus curse, after the defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by Harry Potter. Yesterday afternoon, when the Minister and few Aurors were taking Mr Crouch to St. Mungo's hospital, as he was not in his right mind state, Barty Crouch jr attacked them and killed his own father, with the killing curse. According to the witnesses Barty Crouch jr wasn't in the right mind either.

"After killing his father, he laughed like a maniac and shouted that he took his revenge." Said an employee of St Mungo's Hospital.

"He was babbling how his father tricked the Ministry and brought him back from Azkaban only to torture him..." said another witness.

According to the Minister of Magic Fudge, Barty Crouch had some resources in the Ministry before he became the Minister and like that he freed his son from Azkaban years ago.

The Aurors think that Mr Crouch despised the Death Eaters so much that he decided to torture his son on his own and that's how Barty Crouch jr went mad. But then recently somehow he overpowered his father and tortured him back and when Crouch escaped his son, Barty Crouch jr decided to kill him in broad daylight as he just wanted revenge nothing else.

And that's why after killing his father, Barty Crouch jr didn't try to hide or run away. The Aurors captured him quickly and the Ministry summoned a Dementor and orederd to perform the Dementors kiss on him as he could've been highly dangerous to kept alive.

"I cannot erase the things, which happened before I became Minister but I'm trying to fix this dangerous things as much as possible. I'm trying to keep our Wizarding community safe and I'll do everything in my power to keep it like that." Said Minister of Magic after the incident.

Though Ministry had made countable mistakes before, this time Minister is determined to fix things, also he assured that this has nothing to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Well, we must wait and see if the Ministry will take extra precautions now on or not.

Ginny gasped as she finished reading. Chris looked at the entire paper if there was anything about Bagman or not but there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Not even the news about he losing his job.

"Chris, have you seen it?" Someone asked and Chris looked up. It was Hermione. She was also looking horror struck like Ginny and Colin, clutching her own Daily Prophet.

"I can't believe this!" Ron exclaimed beside her.

"Me neither, Ron." Chris sighed.

Minister of Magic Fudge, clearly denied the fact that it has anything to do with Voldemort, which was a total lie. Dumbledore told him about Voldemort's connection with Mr Crouch's son. How could he just ignore something this much serious?

It took lots of effort to stop herself from running to Dumbledore again and ask him directly about these.

"Dumbledore must be already busy because of this... I shouldn't bother him." Chris told herself.

Suddenly Chris saw Neville running out of the Great Hall.

"What happened to him?" Colin asked.

And soon realization dawn on everyone's faces as they looked at each other and the Daily Prophet article.

"Yes, Frank Longbottom is his father." Chris replied as she got up. "I'll go and check on him."

"I'll come with you." Harry said getting up to. "I never thought why he lives with his grandmother. Voldemort's death eaters killed them, isn't it?"

"No. They're not dead. They're..." Chris stopped. "If you want to come... just come..."

And she walked out the Great Hall. Neville was running out to the grounds. Chris followed.

"Neville! Neville!" She called but Neville didn't stop.

At last he stopped in front of the lake and Chris finally caught him.

"Neville..." Chris was breathing heavily because of running. "Neville...."

Chris was facing Neville's back. He didn't turned around or spoke.

"Neville... please... talk to me... I know it's hard..." Chris said.

Still silence. Chris didn't say anything else. After sometime Chris realized Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and Colin all of them where standing behind her.

"You know Chris... when Granny told me the names... of... those four people... who... who tortured my mother and father..." Neville said suddenly. His voice was trembling badly. "I thought.... if... if something bad... happens to them... then I'll... feel better... or I'll feel different..."

Chris stepped towards him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"But I was very wrong... today... after reading... the Daily Prophet... I felt nothing... do you know why?" Neville continued. "Maybe because... this doesn't change anything... for me... my parents are still in St. Mungo's... They still don't..."

Neville started sobbing. To Chris's surprise, suddenly Harry came forward and hugged Neville.

"I know it's hard Neville but we're strong." Harry said. "We can get through anything."

Neville hugged Harry back.

Chris smiled at Harry.

After Neville calmed down a little, he told her parents story to others. Everyone was feeling pity for him just like he predicted but Luna started to say few things which cheered up Neville a lot. He even laughed at one point. Soon they all realized they all had missed their first classes. Neville, Ron, Harry and Hermione had Transfiguration and Chris, Luna and Colin had Divination. Neville felt a little guilty seeing Hermione's dull face but soon Hermione brushed it off saying that Neville was more important than this.

Soon the day of the third task started to come close, Harry was spending his all free time to learn new jixes and hexes. Most of the times it was Hermione and Ron who was sacrificing themselves for Harry's practice but sometimes they asked Ginny and Colin for help. Ginny refused but Colin agreed to help sometimes, only because he knew that Chris can perform the counter spells. So he wasn't nervous about Harry's practice. As Colin was spending time with Harry, Ron and Hermione; and Ginny and Luna were with Michael and Shawn, Chris was spending her time with Jason.

"They're called machines. Obviously they worked faster then humans." Chris said giggling.

She and Jason were strolling through the forbidden forest and Chris was talking about normal muggle machines.

"Wow... sometimes I feel muggles are more progressive than us. I mean, they can't do magic but they create things, which work like magic." Jason replied.

"True." Chris said.

It was Jason's idea to sneak out and watch some magical creatures in the forest. Though he didn't love the magical creatures, he knew Chris loves this kind of things. Chris was very happy when Jason suggested this. They saw many unicorns, Chizpurfle (a small parasites up to a twentieth of an inch high, crablike in appearance, with large fangs), Bowtruckle (a tree-guardian creature, apparently made of bark and twigs with two small brown eyes), Clabbert (a tree-dwelling creature, in appearance something like a cross between a monkey and a frog), and Diricawl (A plump-bodied, fluffy-feathered, flightless bird).

Nothing much dangerous but it was fun. On the back as sun started to set Chris felt someone's gaze on her. She looked around few times but found no one but she thought she saw a shadow of, which seemed like a Centaur, a human head, torso, and arms joined to a horse's body.