The second task came and went without much of a hitch, thankfully.
Harry got there second, pulled Ron out of the lake, scored well enough to stay joint first with Cedric overall. Blake had watched from the bank with the rest of the school, arms folded against the cold, quietly supporting his friend.
He found Harry afterward in the changing rooms, damp and wrapped in what appeared to be every available towel, looking exhausted but intact, which was the main thing.
"Well done," Blake said, sitting down beside him. "Seriously. How'd you sort the breathing in the end?"
"Gillyweed," Harry said. "Neville gave it to me."
Blake looked at him. "Neville?"
"Yeah. He came up to me the night before, said he'd been reading about it and thought it might help."
Blake was quiet for a moment.
Neville Longbottom.
He knew that Neville was certainly intelligent, especially at Herbology, but Gillyweed wasn't related to anything they'd done before in the year at all, unless Neville was randomly reading Herbology textbooks in his free time.
No, definitely not that.
Blake thought back to when he'd bumped into Neville not too long ago, outside Moody's office, for a pre-arranged meeting. Was Blake meant to believe that Neville had, entirely of his own initiative, been researching underwater breathing solutions for a tournament his friend hadn't wanted to enter in the first place?
Bullsh*t.
Moody had suggested the Accio plan for the dragon task.
Someone had pointed Neville toward the Gillyweed for the lake task.
Two tasks. Two solutions. Both tracing back, through varying degrees of plausible distance, to the same person.
He's been steering Harry through every single task all year, Blake thought. He wants Harry to win badly - but why?
Suddenly, Blake came up with a chilling idea.
What if it was Moody who submitted Harry's name into the Cup? It makes complete sense - someone has to have done it. No one who's jealous of Harry would want him to gain the spotlight anymore - it has to be someone who needed him for something - Moody's the only one who's proven he's invested in Harry's success like this. The only other possibility might be Dumbledore ordering Moody to do it, but that seems unlikely - what benefit would that bring his agenda?
"That's brilliant," Blake said. "Tell Neville I said so."
"Will do," Harry said, grinning tiredly. "He was well pleased about it."
Blake nodded, and smiled, and said something else about the task, changing the subject, while the image of Moody's vigilant face stayed etched in his mind.
/
Blake had decided enough was enough. That evening, he invited everyone involved to a discussion. All five of his Slytherin friends as well as the Golden Trio were crammed into the boys' dorm with the door locked and a Muffliato up, which had become their standard setup for anything sensitive ever since he'd started seriously worrying about Skeeter.
He laid it out in order. Moody from the beginning of the year - the eye tracking him in lessons, the dorm paper on the floor, the cheek twitch in their conversation, the meeting with Neville that produced the Gillyweed that saved Harry's life in the lake. The Accio suggestion for the dragon. As he recounted the story, he grew more and more convinced that Moody was the one behind this.
"But it doesn't seem like Moody," Hermione said, frowning. "He was one of the Aurors that got my father. He hates Dark wizards with a passion - there's no reason for him to set up Harry."
"Polyjuice," Zabini said suddenly, and Blake paused.
"Has to be," Blake said, agreeing - Polyjuice seemed too simple a tactic, but it was the only possible explanation for how an imposter could get away with this, other than the Imperius Curse - but even that, someone like Moody would surely be able to fight it off eventually.
"And that means the real Moody's been imprisoned somewhere all year - maybe even in the castle, or the room itself. You'd need a constant hair supply - easiest place to keep the source is close," Ron said, realisation dawning.
"That's so risky though," Tracey frowned. "Imagine if someone found out! And besides, aren't we forgetting that Dumbledore and Moody are friends? This is arguably the most powerful and intelligent wizard ever - there's no way he wouldn't realise!"
"Not if the imposter trained himself on how to act like Moody," Daphne countered. "Think about it - if he's got access to Moody while he's subjugated, what's stopping him from using Legilimency or the Imperius Curse to get his memories, behaviour - everything?"
"Exactly," Blake agreed. "All he needs is to keep Moody imprisoned and alive, and he's got permanent credibility as Moody."
"But what's the end goal of this imposter then? What's the point of getting him to the third task, or making him win the tournament?" Tracey said.
The room was quiet for a moment, as the 8 of them silently reached the same conclusion.
"Voldemort," Harry said.
"He's been getting stronger all year," Blake said solemnly. "The Dark Mark's been darkening - I overheard Karkaroff saying so to Snape two weeks ago. Karkaroff's terrified because he knows what it means - he knows that whatever he did during the first war is going to catch up with him when Voldemort's back properly." He paused. "Which brings me to Snape."
The room got slightly more still.
"He's a Death Eater," Blake said flatly. "Was, or still is, I don't know which. What I do know is that his Mark's been darkening with the rest of them, he knows what that means, and I heard Karkaroff speak to him like they're in it together, even if Karkaroff's more scared about it than Snape is." He stopped. "I don't know anymore where that puts him. But I'm not assuming he's on our side without better evidence than Dumbledore says so."
Harry had been quiet through most of this. He was leaning forward on the bed now, elbows on knees.
"So what do we do?" he said.
"We investigate," Blake said. "Carefully. Skeeter's been everywhere this year - she's been getting onto Harry, Hermione, Daphne and me especially. If she catches us looking into Moody, or planning anything around any of this, she's definitely going to write about it. If whoever's impersonating him finds out we know, Voldemort adjusts." He looked around the group. "So we're smart about it. Room of Requirement for anything sensitive, nothing discussed in corridors or the common room, and we keep it between us until we know the full shape of it."
"And Skeeter?" Daphne said, from the corner. "She's been in here before. She's been in the common room."
"I know," Blake said. "We deal with her. Just not yet - we need to identify how she's doing this first before we can catch her." He paused. "In the meantime, nothing sensitive happens anywhere she could be."
"Where can't she be?" Tracey asked.
"The Room of Requirement, if we set it right," Blake said. "Underwater. Anywhere with that's password protected without windows." He thought for a second. "And we keep any planning conversations short. Don't let anything drag on long enough for it to be worth reporting."
"What's the theory?" Harry said. "On what she is."
"I think she's an Animagus," Hermione put forward.
"Agreed," Daphne said, nodding.
"It makes sense," Zabini said. "Unregistered, and probably something small enough to go unnoticed anywhere indoors. That's how she's been in places she has no business being - the restricted section, the Slytherin common room, staff corridors." He glanced at Daphne. "Dormitories."
Daphne's expression didn't change, but something around her eyes did.
"We figure out the form," Blake continued, "we catch her, and we deal with it. But for now, the Moody problem is the priority."
"Agreed," Zabini said.
Harry nodded. The rest of them nodded.
"Right," Blake said, standing up. "Same time next week, in the Room. We start building a proper picture."
/
After everyone else had gone to bed, Zabini sat at his desk for a while in the lamplight, not reading, just thinking.
"Snape," Zabini said eventually.
"Yeah?" Blake said, from his bed.
"You're certain."
"I heard what I heard."
Zabini was quiet for a moment. "He's covered for you - multiple times."
"I know," Blake said. "I'm not writing him off or saying he still is one. I'm saying I don't know. And right now, I'm not treating anyone as fully safe just because it's convenient." He stared at the ceiling. "That includes Dumbledore."
And besides, Blake thought silently. Anyone that's taken that Mark willingly, no matter what the circumstances…
Zabini turned his lamp off.
"Fair enough," he said, and went to sleep.
Blake lay in the dark for a long time.
It's going to work, he thought.
He was going to make sure it worked.
AN: If you would like to view up to 20 more bonus chapters on all my fics so far including this one, and would also like to support me, please visit my P@TR30N, at pa tr eon.com / GhidorahWriter (remove the spaces).
Thanks for reading and make sure ADD to your COLLECTION and VOTE with POWER STONES! Once we hit 100, I'll release a BONUS chapter!