Harry Potter And The Unexpected Friend

Harry walked back into the library that night with an odd expression on his face. He was about to sit down at the table he had been using earlier in the day when he noticed Neville excitedly waving him over. Harry waved and then walked over to where his friend was sitting.

"Hey Harry. Is something wrong?" Neville asked, noticing Harry's expression.

"No, not wrong exactly. Just strange and unexpected."

"What are you talking about?"

"On my way in to the library Susan Bones stopped me. You know Susan, right? Our year, in Hufflepuff." Neville nodded, clearly recognizing who Harry was talking about. "Well anyway she comes up to me and says she is sorry I have to put up with all that garbage from the Daily Prophet, and that not everybody believes everything they read. Then she walked off and I came in here."

"She's right, Harry. Lots of people must know better than to listen to that stuff, right?" Neville asked.

"That's the problem, up until now it has seemed like almost everyone believed the worst about me. You not included, of course." Harry stated. Neither of them had noticed that someone had heard the last part of their conversation and was now standing behind Harry.

"But what if I wanted to be a Dark Lady?" a voice asked from behind Harry, causing him to turn and look for the source. He smiled when he saw Daphne smile back and sit next to him.

"I am sure that can be arranged, Daphne." Harry assured her. "Neville, meet Daphne. Daphne, meet Neville." Daphne and Neville exchanged hello's and other simple greetings. "I thought you had to work on an Ancient Runes project?"

"I do." Daphne answered. "The real reason I am here is to look up some things for the project, but at as added bonus you get to see me."

"Great." Harry responded, smiling.

"Harry, I almost forgot what I wanted to talk to you about. I found a solution to your problem for the second task!" Neville explained happily.

"Is it the Bubble Head Charm? Hermione told me about that one last night." Harry said.

"What? Oh, well no it isn't that. There's this plant called Gillyweed and if you eat some you are supposed to grow fins and gills so you can breath underwater and move a lot easier." Neville explained.

"That actually sounds a lot more useful than the Bubble Head Charm." Harry noted. Daphne nodded, thinking the same thing.

"The only problem is that it is hard to find. You can buy it, but it will probably be pretty expensive."

"Harry, maybe what you should do is use the Bubble Head Charm to explore the lake but use Gillyweed in the actual tournament." Daphne suggested. Harry nodded in agreement, although he would like to try the gillyweed at least once before he used it in the second task. That way he could test the effects and see how long the change lasted.

"That's brilliant Neville, I never would have thought of that." Harry said in thanks.

"You're just lucky I found it in this book that Professor Moody gave me." Neville responded. Harry's smile immediately dropped into an expression of concentration.

"Harry, I think I've noticed something going on here." Daphne said with a similar expression on her face, "You're going to think this sounds crazy but…"

"But you've noticed how everything about this tournament keeps coming back to Professor Moody, right?" Harry finished for her. "First he tells me about the dragon, but not Cedric. Then, he tries to give me pointers on how to beat the dragon. Next, he tells Cedric what to do with the egg and Cedric just happens to rush over and tell me about it. And now, Neville conveniently finds the answer to our problems in a book he gave to him. What is he up to?"

"Harry, you're not thinking Professor Moody has gone dark are you?" Neville asked, shocked by where the conversation was headed. "That's crazy. They say that half of the dark wizards in Azkaban are only there because Mad Eye Moody put them there. I don't think he would ever turn dark."

"Maybe this isn't about him turning dark," Daphne suggested, "Maybe he has some other goal. What does he stand to gain by having Harry win the tournament?"

"Nothing." Harry responded. "So let's assume that he is the one who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, surely he is powerful enough of a wizard to do it, what's the point? He's helping me at every turn, so he obviously didn't put me in the tournament to get me hurt."

"Unless he is waiting for the third task to do it as some violent grand finale." Daphne pointed out.

"Well, yes. I guess it could be that." Harry said in agreement with her unpleasant thought. "But so far there is no proof he wants me to get hurt. Why should he care if I win the tournament or not?"

"What do you get for winning, Harry?" Neville asked.

"A thousand galleons and a trophy, I think."

"Neither of those are worth the effort. It has to be something else." Daphne stated. "Assuming it was Moody that put your name in the cup in the first place. It could be that he just wants to help you out because he knows you shouldn't be in the tournament in the first place."

"Do you really believe that?" Harry asked.

"No." Daphne answered truthfully. "But it is possible."

"What if this isn't about you winning, Harry." Neville said uncertainly. "Maybe he just doesn't want one of the others to win." Harry thought about it and shrugged.

"OK, but who would he possibly be trying to stop from winning? He did help Cedric a little, so it can't be him. That leaves Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum. We know that Krum's headmaster was once a Death Eater, but there has to be more to it than that right?" Harry offered. The other two seemed to agree.

"If that was all he could have just helped out Diggory." Daphne said. "There would be no reason to enter Harry in the tournament in the first place. We're missing something, something important. I guess we should just watch and see what he does next."

"That's a great idea!" Harry replied with a grin. He then starting digging through his book bag and came up with a plain looking piece of parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." he said, tapping the parchment with his wand as he did. Immediately ink seemed to spread from where he had tapped the parchment, revealing the Marauder's Map. Daphne had heard about the map but never seen it and was now staring at it in awe. Neville, on the other hand, had never even heard of the Marauder's Map and was confused about what he was looking at. "Neville, this is a map of Hogwarts that my dad and his friends made when they went to school here. It shows the location of everyone in the castle." And sure enough, Neville saw a dot with his own name next to it in the library near dots that said 'Harry Potter' and 'Daphne Greengrass'.

"Wow, no wonder you never get caught out in the halls at night." Neville said.

"Well, this is certainly part of that. I'll have to show you the other part later." Harry answered. "Now, where is Moody? His office is next to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom which is… here. There he is! He's in his office with… Barty Crouch?"

"Who is Barty Crouch?" Neville asked.

....

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