Chapter 41
Chapter 41 of 74
livvy6Barty Crouch resurfaces, and Hermione finally puts the pieces together about Moody's impostor.
A/N: Well, y'all, we are getting to the final stretch. One more chapter, and we will again return to Hermione's POV and see how her world will change. Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate each one! Also, thanks to my betas, luvsev and WriterMerrin, who continue to work so hard with this fic. Finally, thanks to JKR, who allows us to fiddle with her work and have a bit of fun with her awesome characters.
***
Easter arrived, and Ron received a very shirty letter from Percy that closed the door to any hope of gaining information about Crouch. Hermione kept on the lookout for Rita Skeeter and had informed Dumbledore of her hunch about Moody and Crouch. He didn't outright brush off the idea, but he was very close-lipped about it. His advice remained the same: Stay away from Moody as much as possible, and he would remain on top of it.
In May, Harry dashed into the common room, saying he was to go to the Quidditch pitch for the final instructions for the third task. Ron and Hermione were excited.
"Good luck, Harry," Hermione told him when he left to meet Ludo Bagman and the other champions.
***
Late that night, Harry came in, looking disheveled, with a very irate Hagrid at his side. Hermione sat as Hagrid told her in no uncertain terms that she was to keep her distance from Viktor Krum. He left in a huff.
"I've never seen Hagrid that angry before," whispered Ron. "Hermione, what d'you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" she said shrilly. "Harry," she asked as she looked at him. "You're a mess! What happened?"
Harry told them the whole sordid tale. Crouch had resurfaced and was acting completely barmy; he'd gone to fetch Dumbledore for help and left Krum behind to watch out for Crouch. Severus had detained him, and by the time he got back, Crouch was gone, Krum had been attacked, and then Moody showed up out of nowhere.
Hermione sat rubbing her forehead. "All right, it comes down to this. Either Crouch attacked Viktor, or somebody attacked them both when Viktor wasn't looking."
"It had to have been Crouch," said Ron at once. "That's why he was gone when Harry and Dumbledore got there. He'd done a runner."
"I don't think so," said Harry, shaking his head. "Crouch seemed so weak...I don't reckon he was up to Disapparating or anything."
Hermione was getting mad. "You CAN'T Disapparate or Apparate on Hogwarts grounds; haven't I told you enough times?" she shouted.
They went through every insane theory until daybreak, and then they went to the owlery to notify Sirius about Crouch.
"Okay, Harry," Hermione asked once more. "Tell me again, what did Mr. Crouch actually say?"
"I've told you, he wasn't making any sense," Harry said, sounding frustrated. "He wanted to warn Dumbledore about something. He definitely mentioned Bertha Jorkins, and he seemed to think she was dead. He kept saying stuff was his fault... He mentioned his son."
"What did he say about You-Know-Who?" asked Ron.
"Just that he was getting stronger," Harry whispered.
They all looked at each other nervously. Then Ron said, "Yeah, but he was out of his mind, like you said, so half of it was probably just raving..."
"He was the sanest when he was talking about Voldemort," Harry said, and Ron winced at the sound of the name. "It was then he was desperate to see Dumbledore."
Harry turned to look out the window. "If Snape hadn't held me up," he said angrily.
"It was probably for the best, Harry. Something could have happened to you. We still don't know who put your name in the Goblet! You could have been killed," Hermione said fiercely.
Harry turned to her. "What's with you and Snape, anyway?" he asked suspiciously. "You seem awful keen to take up for him lately."
"Harry, I am trying to be a voice of reason. Snape saved your life once. Why would..."
"I don't fucking care, Hermione. Maybe he saved my life so that he could have me preserved for something truly horrific later! That still doesn't answer my question why you are so keen on Snape. What, are you crushing on the git?"
Hermione turned and left without another word. There was nothing to say to Harry. After all, he wasn't crazy; he was spot on. He would faint dead away if he knew the whole truth of the matter. She decided to work this out on her own. First, she had to see Severus and ask why he had stopped Harry. Then she needed to talk to Dumbledore.
She went into the dungeons, and since it was so very early, wasn't fussed about being caught. She tapped on the door, and she could faintly hear the wards sounding off. The door opened a sliver with an ebony wand coming into view. Seeing it was Hermione, he huffed and dragged her into the room, securing it behind him.
"Not a sound!" he snapped as he grabbed her hand and let her into his private rooms.
After the doors had been warded sufficiently for a man who was turning into a delusional, paranoid mess before her eyes, he then barked, "Speak!"
Hermione blinked a few times and asked, "Severus, when was the last time you slept?"
"Hermione," he said sharply. "I do not have time for this. Say your piece, then get the hell out of here!"
"Why did you detain Harry yesterday?" she asked.
"Because the blighter was acting out of pure reflex. He was babbling about Crouch being back, and I didn't want him going immediately back out there where an unstable man might be lying in wait," he said coolly.
"You wanted to buy a little time?" she asked.
"Obviously," he sneered.
"How does the information strike you that Moody showed up minutes after Harry arrived?" she offered.
"The information that I never gave him?" he said with a grimace on his face.
"What?" she said.
"You heard me," he said as he poured himself and her a drink. "Moody claims he was on the grounds where Krum was attacked because I had informed him Crouch was out there, utterly insane. I did no such thing." He tossed his drink back, emptying his glass all at once. Hermione followed.
"Oh, no," she whispered. "That means it's true! Moody is actually...oh my god!" she breathed as she dropped the tumbler onto the floor. She watched as Snape repaired the glass and stared into her frozen face.
"Hermione!" he said as he shook her by the arms.
"I have to see Dumbledore...NOW!" she screeched.
"Oh, no," he said as he grabbed her arm and hauled her back to him. "You're going to tell me what's rattling around in that brain of yours," he insisted.
"All this time, I never thought it. I kept remembering Harry talk about that night he almost got caught by you..."
"Damn, I knew it was Potter!" he seethed.
"Honestly, Severus!" she said impatiently. "Harry hasn't been stealing from you; it's been Crouch!"
"What? Are you insane, woman?" he yelled.
"Listen," she demanded. "Harry has had the Marauder's Map. That map doesn't lie. It said that Barty Crouch was in your storeroom, which was why Harry was out of Gryffindor tower. He got his foot stuck in that trick step on the staircase. Filch comes, you come, then Moody materializes...out of nowhere!"
Severus' eyes glanced around him as he thought. "Last night, Potter came demanding to see Dumbledore...to bring him to Crouch who was acting like a lunatic...insisting the Dark Lord was getting stronger." Severus placed his hand over his left arm instinctively. "It has been getting stronger... Hurts more as well... Can't sleep... Can't think," he rasped.
"I've known Moody wasn't really Alastor Moody nearly all year," she confessed.
Severus eyes snapped open. "What? How?" he demanded.
"Because the summer after our sixth year, Remus and I went to Fenwick's farm to train for the Order with Kingsley and Moody. I lived with him for the summer, trained, fought, ate...this Moody didn't even think twice when he saw me. Remember how Remus acted when he saw me for the first time?"
Severus chuckled a little.
"You are a sick and twisted wizard, you know that, right?" she said in hopes of shaming him.
"It's not my fault the werewolf nearly went into an apoplectic seizure," he said calmly.
"You loved it," she pointed out to him.
"If we could return to the topic at hand?" he asked smoothly.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Fine," she conceded. "All this time I thought Barty Crouch missing equals Alastor Moody amongst us. The old Dark wizard catcher, eager for his big, white whale," she said dramatically.
"His what?" Severus said, nearly laughing.
"Never mind," she said as she rolled her eyes. "But I forgot that the night of the drawing of names, Barty Crouch was there and so was Alastor Moody. Don't you see? At the same time! In the SAME room," she spelled out.
"Barty Crouch," Severus said. "That map didn't provide anyone with a senior or junior, did it?"
Hermione shook her head and smiled knowingly.
"Always knew Potter was never that bright. Even with all four of them, they still managed to muck it up!" he said triumphantly.
"Enough already with the Marauders, Severus!" she pleaded as she threw her hands up in the air in frustration.
"So, Barty Crouch Jr. is still among the land of the living?" Severus mused."This is insane. It can't be."
"It's the only logical explanation, Severus," she insisted. "We must tell Dumbledore immediately!"
"Let me tell him, Hermione. I want you to be very cautious. Very cautious, understand?" he said intensely.
"Okay, Severus. I'll let you handle this. But don't you get Harry killed!" she choked out as she started to cry.
Severus took her in his arms, lifting her slightly off the floor. "I promise, Hermione," he whispered. Hermione sighed in his embrace. He stood upright and lifted her even more off the floor when she refused to unwrap her arms from his neck.
"Hermione," he said as he tickled her waist.
She giggled. "This is interesting," she said dreamily. "I could stay like this all day long."
"How much longer till your birthday?" he asked.
"Four months," she whispered as she nuzzled his ear.
"Then I shall remember you said that in exactly four months time," he said with a grin as he deposited her upon his bed and threw on his robes.
"Don't you ever get tempted?" she whined. "Why is it that I'm the one that has to try and seduce you?"
"So, you've already forgotten the snog behind the alcove after the Yule Ball, have you?" he asked with a glint in his eye.
"No," she answered lowly.
"Someone has to be the adult here," he said importantly with a raised eyebrow.
"And what is so 'un-adult' about wanting to have sex?" she asked.
"Nothing, I assure you," he said with a snort. "Rather sex with a fifteen-year-and-eight-month-old child is rather 'un-adult.' I believe it's called a 'felony.'"
She pursed her lips and made to storm off when he caught her arms and leaned into her. "Just remember, my darling fiancée, when you're telling me a year from now you 'have a headache' and aren't 'in the mood,' this little conversation. I assure you, our not having sex has nothing to do with feeling it is beneath me."
"What that I were," she murmured as she pecked his beak-nose and escaped him.
***
Nerve-wracking as it was, Hermione had to go along with the farce. She couldn't even tell Harry and Ron about it. It was killing her to go around with all the pressure inside her trying to get out. She just wanted this whole fucking Tournament over and done with so she could go ahead and find where Moody really was. She dearly hoped her old mentor wasn't dead. She didn't know if she could handle that blow after all this time of that nagging feeling she never could exactly place.
The three of them caught up with the professor outside in the corridor of his classroom.
"Professor Moody!" Harry called.
"Hello, Potter," growled Moody. He looked like hell.
"You three in here," he said gruffly. Hermione didn't want to, but she followed Harry.
"Did you find him?" asked Harry eagerly.
"No," he said as he took out his hip flask and took a swig from it.
"Did you use the Map?"
"Of course, took a leaf from your book, Potter. Summoned it from my room. He wasn't anywhere on it."
Hermione kept her walls of Occlumency up as high as she could. She could sense the pressure from him. Harry and Ron, who knew nothing about Occlumency or Legilimency, couldn't possibly notice the feelings of it around them, trying to invade their minds.
"So, he DID Disapparate?" said Ron.
"You can't Disapparate on the grounds, Ron!" Hermione said, exasperated. "There are other ways he could have disappeared, aren't there, Professor?"
Moody's magical eye quivered as it rested on Hermione. "You're another one who might think about a career as an Auror," he told her. "Mind works the same way, Granger."
Hermione nearly had to bite her tongue off to stop telling him what she thought of him.
"Well, he wasn't invisible," Harry said.
"Yes, but under his own steam?" Hermione inquired.
"Yeah," said Ron. "Someone could have put him on a broom with them or something."
"We can't rule out kidnap," growled Moody. "Could be anywhere. Only thing we do know is that he's not here."
Hermione was then convinced that Crouch was on Hogwarts property. This impostor wanted them to believe that Crouch was long gone so badly, it could only mean he was here. His own father! But ironically, he had put his own son in Azkaban. What goes around comes around, she thought grimly. She hoped he wasn't dead, but he had to be. This was getting more hopeless by the second.
"Well," Moody said, dragging Hermione out of her thoughts, "get lots of practice for this last task. Right up your alley, Potter. A maze. Just remember, Constant Vigilance! You two stay with him, help him train, right?"
"Yes," Ron and Hermione both said.
"And you both stick close to Potter. I'm keeping an eye on him, but you can't have too many eyes out!"
***
The next day, Sirius sent Harry a scathing letter that made it quite plain that Harry was to keep his nose out of trouble and stay focused on his task. Hermione knew he was concerned. She hadn't been able to see him in a while and wouldn't be able to either. She couldn't even tell him why as she didn't want Severus knowing she'd been visiting him. Obviously, Albus knew the precariousness of the situation; he hadn't said a word to Severus either.
Hermione didn't know what to do except to help Harry the best way she knew how by training him: force all the curses and hexes she knew into his brain until he complained of leakage. And any time Harry began to grouse about it all, she would shove him back into reality.
"Harry, Sirius is worried about you! We all are! Moody, Hagrid, Sirius, and I are all saying the same thing. Now stop fussing and do it! Get to work!"
She had never before been called bossy so many times in her life. Honestly, at times she thought she was a mother, a mother to a couple of ready-made children that she had to stop from getting themselves killed. It was driving her batty.
Therefore, they kept on working hard at preparing Harry for his task. It was the middle of June, and still nothing was amiss until one day, Ron came after Hermione just before dinner.
"Where's Harry?" she demanded.
"He took off! He fell asleep...well, we both fell asleep during Divination...and then he was screaming, shaking, and pressing on his scar! He said he was going to the infirmary, but he's not there!"
"Oh, no!" Hermione moaned.
They had to carry on until they realized Harry wasn't at dinner and neither was Dumbledore. Hermione excused herself, went to the High Table, and talked with McGonagall.
"Don't worry, Miss Granger. Professor Dumbledore is in conference with Mr. Potter. You finish your dinner, and I will make sure he gets back to the common room safely. I'm sure he will have much to tell you and Mr. Weasley," she said reassuringly.
"Okay, she whispered. "Um," she said even more quietly. "Where is Professor Snape? Is he okay?"
"Professor Snape has found it easier to remain in his solitude for now. There are just too many stressors. It's easier for him to remain in the dungeons. I think it is easier on the nerves to remain where he is most comfortable." She patted her arm, and Hermione felt better. She wished she could just assert her true identity and scream, "I'm thirty-five fucking years old! I want to take care of my own fiancé!"
Instead, she swallowed her anger, confusion, and her fear, ate her dinner, and dutifully went to Gryffindor tower with Ron, awaiting Harry's return. They passed the time by finishing homework and preparing for exams.
When Harry returned, they all stayed up late into the night as he retold everything that had happened. The dream of Voldemort, Wormtail, and the snake, Nagini, talking in a strange old house; the visit to Dumbledore's office; the trip into the Pensieve; and everything Dumbledore had told him about his scar and about Crouch's son, Barty Jr., having been sent to Azkaban for being a Death Eater.
Hermione, of course, knew everything he was saying and everything he wasn't. Hermione peered into his mind and saw that Harry knew the truth about Neville's parents. She was glad he had the strength of character to keep that to himself.
Ron was having a difficult time of it all. Perhaps she would be as well if she had never left this timeline and went into the past. It was refreshing, though, to know that Dumbledore had reinforced in Harry's mind the belief and faith he has in Severus. It really hurt Hermione the way Harry continued to talk to her so disrespectfully about her fiancé.
Harry turned to her. "Hermione, I'm sorry I accused you of fancying Snape...I just couldn't see. Sometimes I can't see past things because of how he talks about my Dad."
"I know, Harry. It has to really be hurtful when he talks to you about your Dad that way. It's a shame he has to be so difficult."
"Hermione, I know I just said I was sorry about what I said, but I still think that you do have some feelings for him."
Hermione smiled. "Harry, you think I'm crushing on Snape?" she asked.
"Dunno, are you?"
Hermione looked at her watch. "Harry! We've got to practice...we have to get the Impediment Curse done tomorrow! Get Ron, and go to bed. I'll see you first thing in the morning," she said as she patted his back.
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Latest 25 Reviews for A Change is Going to Come
1513 Reviews | 7.08/10 Average
livvy, eventhough I would never get a response from you. As a reader, albeit late, to be honored to know what is inside your alternate universe means so much in this community. This is such a masterpiece. The emotions rolling in such perfect clarity. Though a parody, it brought such happiness to those who say 'what if?'. I'm glad to think that there is this Severus Snape who had his Hermione with a lot of wonderful talented children, happy and content. Although canon already sentenced him to.... I'm still glad to find this universe in your eyes. :)
That was a Very good story. I am very glad you wrote it.Thanks
I don't envy Hermione at all. She's still out of her own timeline and can't really make a real life here. There is still pain for Severus and I wish there wasn't.
Part of me wonders why Dumbledore allows all of this death eater activity to go on in the school grounds. He could expel them but maybe he's afraid of their parents. The school board could make a death eater the Headmaster, but he sure lets the Slytherins get away with an awful lot right now. Why? Has he no power over the students? Why didn't those who raped that muggle-born girl not get called up before the Aurors and the Wizengamot? I don't understand how this all can be going on right under Dumbledore's nose on his own turf!
If Voldemort is not a fool, he knows he would need to woo a truly intelligent and powerful witch to be loyal to him. Especially if he thinks she would be truly useful and doesn't want to waste her by having to kill her for disobedience. He will need her to come to him fully of her own free will.
Well written!!! Great chapter. Intrigue, romance, angst, anxiety, hope, courage. Great character development! Great flow. I feel worried and afraid but have a small amount of hope, just like your characters. I loved the veritiserum save Albus made. Inferi are an absolute horror. I thought they were too scary to be in a children's book when I read that book. I felt DH was way too scary for pre-teen children to be reading. It should have a PG-13 or even a R rating for violence.
What a tragedy for all of them. Broken hearts are everywhere! I'm glad Severus and Hermione still have their love. It will help him be strong. It will give him a reason to not give up like his mum did. I'm a little sorry for Lily that she says she loves Hermione, but I don't like her much. I'm sure she is hurt because she didn't get what she wanted, who she wanted. She used Severus, she used the James and Sirius against Severus. She says she loves Hermione but only if Hermione does what she wants her to do. It's sad that she is such a shallow person. Even if Hermione was gay, she would be too good of a person for Lily. Lily will make a great idealistic, Griffidorish, self-righteous Order Member. Everyone wants her. Only Hermione really knows her. She's just what the cause will need for the perfect Martyr for the side of the Light. Many have died and many will die, but only James and Lily will be hailed as great Martyrs. Hermione's life pretty much sucks. I'm sorry for Remus. He'll have Tonks but not for long. They will die too before they get to see their child grow up. I wonder if JKR considered her story to be a tragedy? I have faith that you will save our heroes, Severus and Hermione in the end and it won't be a tragic ending.
Hermione is as much a prisoner of the Order as Severus is of Voldemort. They are neither free to live thier own lives. Severus loves Hermione and Hermione loves Severus. As long as their Occulumency sheilds hold Tom Riddle and Albus Dumbledore or Alaster Moody don't need to know Hermione and Severus are still friends. I don't like Moody even if he is just doing his job. He may be on the side of the light but he isn't a good person.
Moody is a bastard. War is hell. She isn't any more free to make her own decisions than Severus is. Yet, they both important be held accountable for their actions. I have a bad feeling this gets worse before it gets better. 
Possible spoilers....
I don't remember what age Hermione is when she returns to her own time line. I will be such a total bummer if she is younger and doesn't get to retain all this skill and knowledge she is gaining this summer. If she has to start over as a third year it will suck for her, but I can't seem to figure out a way for her to get around it or she won't be with Harry for certain important moments. I wish that before she goes back to her old timeline she could have some memories put in a pensive and Dumbledore would give them back to her at the right moment so that she already knows this stuff. Besides her being able to teach it to others at the DA, she will remember that she loves Severus and he loves her.
What happens to wizards that take oaths that conflict? Can you tell me? Will Voldemort be able to detect Hermione's oaths to the Order? I've never liked Moody because he's always been so mean to Severus. He and Lily are two of a kind. He may be powerful and intelligent but he isn't complex. He's too simple and everything is too black and white unless he wants to do it for what he considers a good cause. Albus is the same way. They would both use dark magic for the greater good while making sure anyone else he wanted disposed of would go to Azkaban for the same thing. Hermione is very mature for her age and very wise.
How awesome and awkward. I imagine she eventually has to go back to her own timeline in order for Harry to prevail. Severus will be bound to her and will remember who she will become when she starts at Hogwarts at 11. But she won't remember him until after she time travels. Remus will know, Dumbledore will know. Will Minerva remember? Will Sirius? Will Dumbledore alter certain people's memories about her at Hogwarts who will meet her again when she is 11 years old and Harry's best friend or will all the Order Members who know her in this timeline remember her and realize she had been time traveling? I hope you can tell me the answer w/o spoilers for other readers but I really want to know! If you can't tell me in the review will you contact me and let me know? Do you write anywhere else? You are a really talented writer. Thanks! breastlady
You weave a fascinating tale of intrigue. It is so sad how little choice Severus has ever had in his life. He will give everything he has and is. He will be alone and despised. And he will end up with absolutely nothing in the end, only to die for no good reason on a dirty floor in cannon. I'm sure you have changed the end or I would not have put this story on my list of favorite years ago. I normally check the end of stories to make sure they end well. If they don't I don't read them. I can't remember anything else in this story due to my own memory issues but I'm glad I saved it. I can't stop reading it.
There's really nothing to say except, poor Severus. Poor, poor Severus. He deserves better than Lily. She can't seem to understand he has to stay on the good side of the Slytherins in order for her to be under his protection. Has Hermione put it that clearly to Lily? Maybe she would say she doesn't need his protection because she has never had a unforgivable cast against her and maybe she really can defend herself as well as Hermione. She doesn't know though because she's never needed to. Does she not believe Hermione when she says Severus would be slaughtered in his sleep? Has Hermione put it that clearly to Lily?
Hermione is quite impressive.
I can never understand how Albus Dumbledore could allow all this bullying to go on. He has to know! What is his problem? Is it some sort of adgenda?
I wonder how long the spell lasts and how long his dad will stay petrified. Maybe he could tie him up and just unfreeze him to feed him then freeze him again. Maybe he should try to send an owl to Albus Dumbledore for help. I don't suppose he has access to an owl.
Nothing ever goes well for Severus. He is up for the most horrible disappointment! I can see how Lily could be torn. She feels obligated to be true to her best friend, Severus, but she isn't attracted to him. He does put a lot of pressure on her to make his life happy. She is everything to him and that isn't healthy. He has nothing and no one but Lily. Lily has lots of people who love her. It does make one rather callow. She doesn't know what it feels like to have no one. She can't. She tries but she isn't a very deep girl. Not everyone is. Hermione is also shaped by her dangerous association with Harry. She is very mature for her age in this story. I guess is is in cannon as well.
Ooooh! Why don't I remember this chapter? Hell, I never remember anything! It does making reading stories over again much more fun, but that's the only silver lining to having memory problems. It must be the almost daily migraines for the last 16 yrs. I'm reading my favorites over again because I've been soooo soooo sad about AR's passing. This is on my favorites list! I remember the basic premise but not many details. At least I'm able to leave reviews now. The first month I wasn't even up to reviews but I know you authors put so much heart into these long stories and all for the price of reviews. And you deserve them for your brilliance and hard work. Thank you so much for sharing your craft in the ff arena for free and thank you for writing this ship. It's still my very favorite all these years later. I started reading when the first movie trailer came out and I found WIKTT way back then by accident. It opened a whole world of how to spend my evenings and weekends instead doing the things I should be doing. But I became addicted and I still am. I'm on to chapter 2. Ta, love!
I wonder if Hagrid recognizes or remembers Hermione when she come to Hogwarts in the future? I can imagine that the other teachers could be in on the secret eventually and know that she's from the future and not treat her any different when they see her again years later, but I don't know that Hagrid could keep the secret. Interesting.
I loved this fic! I've spent all my spare time reading it this week. Thank you for such an amazing story! It really was an emotional roller coaster that I thoroughly enjoyed.
So sweet! Loved every bit of it
Things are looking up
Aww I'm so happy!
Good for her!