A Memorable Tale

52 | The Wrong Griffin

As we began to leave, Sirius took my hand. "Could I have one more minute with you?"

I nodded and walked back further into the cave. "What is it?"

"You mentioned that you saw Bartemius Crouch Junior at the World Cup, certainly alive. Did I hear you right?"

"Well, yes... but I might have just been seeing things - I was pretty shaken, perhaps I was going mad."

"You don't know how many great minds they've called mad," he said with a smile.

I smiled in return but it quickly turned back into a frown. "Are you saying that there's a possibility that Crouch's son is alive?"

"I'm not sure, but if your eyes weren't deceiving you, then we have to look into it. I want you to look into that."

I nodded, hesitating. My father's best friend...

He walked with me out of the cave, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were still waiting.

"If you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles. I'll walk to the edge of the village with you to see if I can scrounge another paper."

Sirius transformed into a dog and walked with us down the mountainside.

We made it to the edge of Hogsmeade and he had each of us pat his head so he truly appeared as a dog before running off to find another newspaper.

"Wonder if Percy knows all that stuff about Crouch," Ron said while we walked back. "But maybe he doesn't care. It'd probably just make him admire Crouch even more. He'd say Crouch was refusing to break the rules for his own son."

I summoned a piece of parchment from my bag and began scribbling things down.

"You don't already have notes, do you?" Hermione stared at the parchment and quill in my hands with bewilderment.

"Of course not. It's things to send to Sirius so he doesn't have to live off rats and with his hair all matte and gross." I ripped out the bottom and handed it to Harry. "These are things he said he likes through our letters during the summer."

•••

Sunday afternoon, I went to the kitchen to grab a snack when I spotted Dobby. My brows shot up. "Dobby! What are you doing here?"

"Miss Griffin!" he exclaimed, a joyous grin on his face. "Professor Dumbledore has given Dobby a job here at Hogwarts!"

I glanced at the fireplace, my excited grin wavering. Winky sat there, sobbing into her hands. "I assume... he gave that one a job as well?"

All the house elves sighed when I noticed, two taking a moment to apologize for what I had to witness.

"That is Winky, Miss Griffin."

"Crouch's elf?" A loud sob came from the hearth. "Yep, that's his elf."

"Nothing Dobby says will persuade her that Professor Dumbledore is her master now," Dobby said dejectedly. "Harry Potter and his friends came by earlier and she was in a terrible state, much like now."

The other elves made disapproving noises when they heard him mention the three. What on earth did they do now?

I walked up to Winky and tilted my head. "Still on Crouch, hm?"

"You is nosing too?" she snapped, making the other house elves gasp in horror.

"Winky must not talk like that to Miss Griffin!" Dobby snapped back.

Winky gasped and sat up, staring at me with round eyes. "You is Caelum Griffin?"

I furrowed my brow. "No... No, not quite."