CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

After the second task, Ron enjoys attention as his tale grows exaggerated, but Hermione’s mood sours when Rita Skeeter’s Witch Weekly article paints her as toying with Harry and Viktor Krum. In Potions, Pansy flaunts the article; Snape publicly mocks it, splits the trio, and needles Harry.

Snape privately accuses Harry of stealing from his stores and brandishes Veritaserum, threatening exposure. Igor Karkaroff interrupts class, anxiously insisting on speaking to Snape and secretly shows him something on his left forearm, which alarms Snape. Harry observes this and hurries to tell Ron and Hermione.

The next day in Hogsmeade, the trio meet Sirius in his Animagus form and follow him to a cave where Buckbeak waits. Sirius, living rough, has collected Daily Prophets about Barty Crouch’s mysterious illness and Bertha Jorkins’s disappearance. He probes how Harry’s wand could have been stolen at the World Cup and flags the Malfoys and Ludo Bagman as possibilities.

Sirius then recounts Barty Crouch’s past: as a hard-line enforcer during Voldemort’s rise, Crouch authorized extreme measures, sent suspects to Azkaban without trial, and even consigned his own son—caught with Death Eaters—to the dementors; the son later died, as did Crouch’s wife. Crouch’s reputation fell, and Fudge became Minister while Crouch was sidelined.

Sirius questions why a truly ill Crouch would sneak to Snape’s office, and why he’s absent from judging, while noting Dumbledore’s trust in Snape but acknowledging Snape’s Dark Arts ties and Karkaroff’s anxiety. He asks Ron to discreetly sound out Percy about Crouch and any leads on Bertha. Before parting, Sirius orders them to stay within Hogwarts, send notes only, and call him “Snuffles.”