29 Countermeasures

Despite Professor McGonagall's protest, Crouch refused to turn Malfoy back to his original form, citing appropriate punishment for sneakily hexing me. The disguised Death Eater eventually was forced to do so, however, as our Griffindor Head pleaded:

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

Though this might displease the fanatically loyal Crouch, it worked in his favour as the Slytherin's are afraid of confronting him and the rest admires his no-nonsense attitude and magic - even my bushy-haired girlfriend showed a disapproving attitude for the extreme behaviour but sighed lightly of relief.

Ickle Ronniekin, on the other hand, positive beamed at Malfoy's terror, confidently claiming Moody would be the greatest DADA professor and showed off, to anyone who listens, that it was his father who had met the retired Auror over the summer.

My thoughts were slightly different from the two friends, as Crouch's hatred for Malfoy and negligence towards my reaction was quite enlightening. Though in the books it appears he only wanted my favour, this Crouch might actually resent betrayers more than the one who actually "defeated" the Dark Lord.

As one of the few times complete transfiguration was done on humans, the psychological effect disappoints me slightly. Crucio, it seems, is much more effective and versatile at both inflicting pain and forcing confessions. The only thing that stands out is how Malfoy somewhat behaves like a ferret afterwards, perhaps unconsciously, that warrants further investigation - Wormtail, who stayed in rat form for a long time, also exhibits this trait.

Noticing my distant gaze, Hermione pinched my hand and asked worriedly:

"You okay, Harry? Professor Moody seems quite... extreme, isn't he?"

"Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking about whether human transfiguration could be useful to learn, that's all..." I replied, smiling wickedly.

"You're joking, right?", she asked, peering sideways at my expression, "Professor McGonagall said it was illegal!"

"Dark Wizards don't care if a spell is allowed or not, Hermione", I retorted, "and I'm going to need all the help I get if I'm hypothetically chosen for the Triwizard tournament, right?"

"Harry's right - look, you don't need to disapprove only spells you can't do..."

Greeted by an intense glare, Ron faltered and went silent. Before Hermione could berate him, however, a certain Luna Lovegood accompanied by Ginny poked my back and whispered, with her dreamy and misunderstand-inducing voice: "Harry, can I have a minute?"

Of course, unable to deny such an earnest request, I swiftly departed from the scene with Luna, expertly ignoring the suspicious look sent my way. The girl merely tilted her head bemusedly after we stopped, approximately three floors from the Great Hall.

"Uhm... hello?... What did you mean to say back then?", I asked after waiting awkwardly for her nonexistent question. Only after I waved my hand in front of Luna's eyes did they refocused themselves on me.

"Your chapter, Harry. You promised me, remember?", she replied, with an utmost seriousness(?).

Feeling thankful to my past self for preparing it, I pulled out the parchment for the prologue and introductory of the novel.

Luna received it with her innocent smile: "Thank you, Harry. I think Hermione had something to say to you there..."

At those last words, I slowly turned around to see my girlfriend striding through the hallway, her temper splitting up the crowd like Moses did to the sea. Hermione's smile sent shivers up my spine, and I sighed at the trouble I got myself into, barely one morning into our relationship.

***

For the rest of the week, Crouch sneaked into Snape's cabinet only once, presumably for Polyjuice ingredients. Aside from spying on disguised Death Eater(s), the Marauder's Map is truly useful in avoiding professors at night, much to my delight. This allowed me to sneak into the library's Restricted section with little incident, or simply "borrowing" books that would arouse suspicion such as textbooks of previous years.

On the subject of studying, Hermione found out my nightly escapades on Wednesday and, to my surprise, tagged along, mumbling something about making sure I'm not sneaking off somewhere. Though she criticized me for not practicing spells and forgetting them over the summer - a perfect misunderstanding for my knowledge being self-taught in less than two months - Hermione quite sincerely held my hand, physically and figuratively, while relearning three years of knowledge.

By Friday, the combination of eidetic memory and Hermione being a great teacher allowed me to just barely catch up with theoretical Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology at 3rd year level. Snape had more reason to criticize my less than ideal practical skills in class, but failed to dock more points off Griffindor when I answered every question he asked, much to Ron and Malfoy's astonishment.

The most frustrating caveat, of course, is my inability to cast the Patronus charm, though I did not mention this to Hermione and had to rely on the Room of Requirement and mental space for studying that spell. Of course, if nothing goes wrong this year, I will not have to display the glowy stag, but better be safe than sorry.