Chapter 57 - Why Did he Do It?

***** Regular Chapter ***** A/N: Ngl, It's slowing my writing down lately, but I'm having a lot of fun planning everything out for the future of this story. Got some fun shit in the pipeline, and gonna touch on some bigger lore stuff that always bothered me in the books. This might turn into a much bigger story than I had originally intended when I started lmfao. *****

"Ahem!"

Khan heard Hermione clear her throat and looked up from his search.

At the door he saw an angry Hermione, hands on her hips, with a sheepish looking Harry, waving at him from behind her.

"Hey you two!" Khan greeted them distractedly. "It's been a few days hasn't it?"

Wanting to continue his quick sear- 'investigation', he looked back down at the desk he was previously looking through, before deciding to move over to the chest close by the potions table.

"Alohamora!" Khan casted a quick unlocking charm on the chest, intending to look through it, before he was interrupted by a furious sounding Hermione once again.

"Is that all you have to say to us?" Hermione raged. "You were completely irresponsible leaving unannounced for a few days, not teaching your classes!"

"What do you mean?" Khan tilted his head in clear confusion, hearing Hermione's accusations. "I informed Dumbledore of my absence the night of the first task."

'That's odd.... I informed Dumbledore of my absence. Not to mention when I talked to Moody earlier, he did ask if I would be returning to classes next week, indicating he was also informed.' Khan thought to himself. 'Did none of the teachers inform the rest of the school?'

"You told Dumbledore?" Hermione appeared halted from her lecture momentarily, with her shock at Khan's words.

'Phew... escap-' Khan was about to thank his luck that Hermione was going to stop lecturing him, however he disappointed when he was interrupted.

"Why didn't you tell us then? You had us all completely worried!" Hermione once more, continued her rant.

Khan put on a grin, as even though he was on the receiving end of a dreaded 'Hermione lecture', it truly showed that Hermione cared for him as a friend. It made him quite happy to find people who truly cared for his wellbeing in the present era, such as Flitwick and Hermione.

"Oh I had you worried did I?" Khan decided to tease her, as her had recently done in Hogsmeade. "I'm sorry Hermione.... I didn't realize I was so important to you."

"NO..... I'M.... All of us were worried!" Khan watched as Hermione blushed, red as a tomato, stuttering out a response, embarrassed.

He chuckled to himself, before she was finally able to fire back at him, teasing him about.... Fleur?

"You had poor Fleur in a complete fit all week, after all!" She teased.

"She really did seem like she was this upset housewife, waiting for her missing husband to come home." Harry surprisingly joined in, backing up Hermione and laughing in the process.

"Please tell me you know where Jordan is?" Khan watched as Hermione struck a maiden-like pose, clearly mocking Fleur and the rumors surrounding him and her as a 'power couple'.

Khan naturally had heard the rumors floating around Hogwarts, many of his girlfans inquiring about the news themselves.

"That's a pretty good imitation!" Khan laughed, as he immediately recognized her acting. "But you're missing her French accent. Gotta work on that Hermione!"

Khan had realized that Hermione's acting in terms of imitation was spot on, although she would need to work on her Heavy French Accent, in order to really sell it.

"Actually, this IS her accent now! So I was accurate with that imitation!" Hermione stuck out her tongue cutely at a clearly disbelieving Khan.

"She's right. She's strangely lost her French accent, even taking on a British one." Harry once again, backed up his best friend, completely confusing Khan in the process.

Khan in particular was thinking about the first task, remembering Fleur's heavy French accent. She could not even properly pronounce 'H's a few days ago, yet somehow she not only lost her French accent, but has now developed a British accent?

Was there new magic developed over the last century for accents or languages?

Thinking however, about the first task with Fleur, Khan couldn't help but remember his first kiss, touching his lips absentmindedly.

"Anyways... Where did Prof. Moody go?" Hermione interrupted Khan's thoughts, knocking him out of his memories.

"Oh, Um... He left maybe 5-10 minutes ago." Khan replied, feeling rather sheepish. He had accidentally sent Moody away, and had still not gone to fetch him.

Hopefully he wasn't too angry.

"5-10 minutes ago? But he was just here..." Khan heard Harry ask him.

Khan found it was an odd question, as he had clearly remembered sending Moody away with his portkey, and had already searched through most of his things.

"How would you even know?" Khan had to question. Harry or Hermione could be gifted in Divination after all.

The two of them however, shared a look between themselves, not answering his question.

"Well... at any rate, I can assure you, I've been alone for several minutes now." Khan continued after a few moments of silence.

Khan could feel the unease building in his friends, and decided to move on, confirming that he has been alone now in this office, for some time now.

He could tell they had some sort of secret they did not want to share, and that was fine with him.

So you can imagine his surprise, when just after he had decided to move on, and let them keep their secret, Harry would reach into his pockets, pulling out an old blank piece of parchment.

"I Solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

Harry's words seemingly activated the enchantment in the blank parchment, as Khan watched, fascinated.

The parchment was slowly coming to life, ink spreading out over the originally blank surface, eventually creating a large map of Hogwarts.

Learning of the Marauder's map from Harry, Khan was surprised by the enchantments of this Map. A live map that showed all current locations of all it's inhabitants!

Absolutely Amazing!

However, what surprised him even more, was the fact that Moody appeared to be in the same room as the 3 of them, at least according to this map.

Looking around the room quite confused, Khan did not notice any 'air-shimmers' that accompanied the disillusionment charms/potions, nor did he sense anyone in the room with them with his highly sensitive combat senses.

There were no large objects or spaces, behind which Moody could hide to spy on them. Not to mention that Khan clearly remembered sending Moody to his shop via Portkey.

Could he have escaped and returned so quickly back to his office?

"Moody probably isn't here... I was just rifling through his things..." Khan mumbled to himself, thinking of more logical options. "I suppose the enchantment could be fading. His Dad and his friends did make it a few decades ago.... Or perhaps it was picking up Moody's magical aura from when he was previously here."

Khan shrugged his shoulders; it could be any number of things.... perhaps it was even his ancient magic interfering with Harry's map.

'Who knows...'

Khan got back to his 'investigative work', wanting to grab the potion ingredients as well as look into that chest he had just unlocked, before he was interrupted by Hermione.

He moved back over to the potions table in the corner, grabbing the ingredients laid out on the table.

'Lacewing flies, Leeches, Powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed, boomslang skin... What potion is this?' He identified the ingredients as he swiped them, not recognizing the specific potion being brewed.

Evidently it was not a combat potion, as Khan was familiar with most of them, having used and even improved their potency with his ancient magic (A/N: The potion talents that extend their duration/effectiveness).

Moving back toward the chest, Khan opened it eagerly, expecting some sort of special enchanted clothing, he was used to looting out of similar chests he had found previously during his past adventures.

Opening it and looking in however, it was not treasure or clothing that was found. Instead what Khan found was an old decrepit man, with 1 empty eye socket, 1 missing leg, and long uneven hair.

It was his mentor, Prof. Moody?

Khan was shocked!

He had come originally that night with the intention of exposing the impostor Moody.

But he had failed. Moody had been able to produce the correct Epitaph from the hidden compartment in his flask.

Who could've guessed he was right in his original assumption?

"Levioso!" Khan casted a quick charm to lift Moody out of the magical chest, surprising his younger companions.

He proceeded to bark some orders, sending them to fetch Dumbledore and Pomfrey, before he Floo-flashed over to a Hogsmeade Fireplace located at the 3 broomsticks, intending to fetch the imposter Moody from his shop.

Upon reaching his shop, he found Lenny at the counter looking rather pleased with himself.

"Hello Lord Khan!" Squeaked Lenny.

"Lenny! Was a man transported here earlier?" Khan asked Lenny, looking around his shop for any signs of trouble.

"Yes! Lenny thinks he is a playmate for Sir Fastidio that sir Khan has found!" Lenny nodded his head, happily telling Khan of his initiative-taking. "Crazy eye was making a mess in the shop, so Lenny knocked him away into Sir Fastidio's box of fun! Crazy eye can make a mess with Sir Fastidio instead!"

"...." Khan was speechless. Although he had previously gone adventuring with Deek, he had no idea house-elves were powerful enough to overpower an adult wizard, with Deek mainly taking up a support role during their adventures.

Listening to the happy Lenny however, casually brag about knocking an unknown wizard into Fastidio's 'box of fun' as he called it, it seemed Khan was quite mistaken with his initial assumption.

It was probably a good thing that House-elves were so naturally subservient to wizards... If they were to ever rebel, like Ranrok and the goblins, Khan doubted that normal wizards would stand a chance.

"Well done Lenny!" Khan praised Lenny, after a moment of personal crisis over the unspoken power behind a house-elf. "Feel free to take tomorrow off to play with Fastidio if you wish."

This personal crisis reaffirmed Khan's dedication to treat house-elves well. Not just because of his personal friendship with Deek and Penny and their decendants, but due to wanting to stay on their good side.

They were the most loyal companions and friends after all.

Summoning Sol out of his Knab-sack, he walked over to the backroom intending to grab the chest, otherwise known as Fastidio's box of fun.

Seeing his Field Guide on the floor, close by the chest, Khan picked it up in passing, putting it into his inventory, before grabbing the chest, picking it up and readying for Sol to Phoenix flash them back to the Defense Office, where he had left the passed out, 'one-eyed' Moody.

*****

"Which led to myself arriving a few moments ago, to you all treating the unconscious Moody." Khan finished narrating.

"What a series of fortunate events!" Dumbledore commented in awe.

"And whatever caused you to suspect Moody was an imposter in the first place?" Dumbledore had to ask. "I myself did not notice anything out of the ordinary, and we have been friends and colleagues for decades!"

"Truthfully sir, I only ever had small suspicions here and there." Khan responded. "He was a little too different than the Moody I remembered during our first meeting during the summer upon reawaking from my coma, after all."

"Calling me boy, when previously he called me 'sir' and was quite polite... Not being a proper mentor in comparison to Flitwick, often leaving me out of lesson plans altogether..." Khan began to list off his various observations. "I even spoke with his Auror Trainee, Nymphadora Tonks, and she too confirmed, that Moody was acting slightly different towards the end of summer."

"What really raised my suspicions however, was the fact that Moody had too detailed a theory on how the Goblet of Fire could have been tricked to include Harry in this tournament." Khan gestured to his younger friend, reminding Dumbledore that Harry was not supposed to be in this tournament.

Yes, he had done quite well in the first task, and was currently tied for 2nd, right behind Khan himself. But that did not reduce the dangers of the upcoming 2nd and 3rd tasks, and Khan did not want to school to act as if Harry's forced participation was in fact normal.

"The goblet is an ancient artifact, that only ignites every time there is a triwizard tournament." Khan further explain. "If the last time it was lit was before even my time at Hogwarts, how could Moody even know how the goblet functioned, enough to give that detailed a theory? Especially without experimenting and trying it on the goblet himself."

"How indeed..." Dumbledore murmured to himself, ashamed at having missed those particular clues.

"What I haven't figured out is.... who specifically this Barty Crouch Jr actually is, and why is he targeting Harry?" Khan finished. "The only thing I can tell from context, is that he is related to, and is probably the son of Mr Crouch from the Ministry, who is a judge."

"So Why did he do it?"

"I have a few theories..." Dumbledore replied, as he took out a small glass bottle from his robes. "But perhaps we should hear directly from the culprit himself."

Walking over to the still 'trapped in a barrel' Crouch Jr. Dumbledore pulled him into a sitting position, Winky still grabbing his legs sobbing. He then forced open the man's mouth, pouring a few drops of a clear liquid that was inside the small glass bottle he had recently removed from his robes.

"Veritaserum." Dumbledore answered the student's unspoken questions, before casting out "Rennervate!", reawakening Crouch's son.

He opened his eyes, although his gaze remained unfocused, and face slack, as though still in a trance.

This was the first time Khan had viewed the truth potion in action, and it reminded him a little of the Imperius Curse.

"Can you hear me?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

"Yes." Crouch Jr responded, somewhat monotone.

"And you are Bartimus Crouch Jr?"

"Yes." Crouch Jr responded once more.

"I would like you to tell us, how you came to be here." Dumbledore requested. "How did you escape Azkaban?"

'Azkaban?' Khan thought to himself in shock.

This man, son of a high ranking, not to mention uptight, ministry official, was in Azkaban?

And he had escaped, seemingly to come enter Harry in a dangerous tournament?

Just what kind of adventure had he stumbled upon?