Entry 1:
“Why do you think he did it?”

“Everyone knows he was jealous, right? He was always going to go to any lengths to win the tournament, but you know what else I heard?”

Harry bent his neck even further; his nose was almost touching his open copy of Elementary Transfiguration Part 4. The dusty air in the library was stifling to the point his eyes and nose were stinging. The voices at the table behind him continued:

“I heard it from Marietta, who is friends with Cho. Apparently, Potter asked Cho to the Yule Ball.”

“No way!”

“Of course she would never have gone with him, but she felt pressured and told Potter she would’ve if only Cedric hadn’t asked her first. Bet you anything that’s where the whole thing started.”

“There you are, Harry!” Hermione said with such forced brightness it came out rather shrilly. The voices at the table behind him shut up at once.

“Been looking everywhere for you,” Ron said, flinging himself down opposite Harry. He was halfway through a Cornish pasty and, seeing Harry’s look, he extended the remaining half across the table with a raised eyebrow.

“No thanks,” Harry said, keeping his voice low. The rustling and stomping behind him signalled several people getting up from their table and leaving.

“Were they talking about you?” Hermione said anxiously and sat down beside him, trying to catch his eye when Harry was doing his best to avoid hers. She had several books of her own she was getting out of her bag and arranging in front of her without looking, an impressive display of muscle memory.

“Oh yeah, I walked past someone who had a mental theory about what happened in the maze,” Ron said conversationally while he tucked into the last bit pf pastry. “Said they reckon Diggory had a secret older lover his parents didn’t approve of. And she was waiting for him in the maze.”

“Don’t tell me they think she whisked him away with apparition?” Hermione scoffed and smoothed out the open page of the book nearest her.

“Nah, they reckoned she’d stolen one of the Abraxans that pull the Beauxbaton carriage. Strong disillusionment charm and she was sitting there in the middle of the maze on it, waiting for Diggory. Took off straight into the sky.”

“The people who left just now think I was so desperately jealous of Cedric I killed him and fed him to the sphinx in the maze,” Harry said dully.

There was a pause, save for Ron’s chewing and Hermione opening a completely new book, one she spent some time on cracking its spine until it would stay open.

This was the first time Harry had gone off on his own after it all happened. The aftermath had been horrible, but at least he’d had Dumbledore and Sirius by his side. When he was let out of the Hospital Wing Sirius’d had to leave, and this morning Dumbledore had gone to the Ministry to reason with Fudge. Without proof, Dumbledore had told Harry rather bluntly he wasn’t expecting Fudge to believe Voldemort was back.

“That’s just silly,” Hermione said. “Nobody in their right mind will believe something like that.”

“They’d spoken to Cho,” Harry said, his eyes burning unexpectedly again and he had to clear his throat. “Well, to one of Cho’s friends at least.”

“Forget about her,” Ron said sharply.

“Yes, I agree,” Hermione said. “Let’s take a look at this, instead. I ordered it the morning after you came out of the maze. Arrived today. It’s called Blood of thy Father, Bone of thy Mother, and it’s all about old, dark family magic.”

“How’s it supposed to help us?” Ron asked, but he was looking at the book with uneasy respect rather than the usual lacklustre boredom when faced with a new book.

Harry was not optimistic himself, though. Voldemort was resurrected and Cedric’s body was lost and nothing Harry said could make the school or indeed the wizarding world believe his account of what had happened after he touched the Triwizard trophy.

“There were no clues left in the graveyard,” Hermione began patiently. “Magic is supposed to always leave traces, so it’s very odd. But the best clue we have, I think, is the potion Wormtail brewed. If we can figure out the beginning stages of it, we could guess what they were doing before they came to the graveyard. Now, we know the last three ingredients. Your blood, Harry, the blood of an enemy. Then we had the bone of the father, and the flesh of a servant.”

A chill went down Harry’s spine, and he had to force his face not to show just how awful the memory was.

Before he could respond to the plan, a boy dashed up to him holding a letter. A very familiar boy.

“Hi Colin,” Harry said, giving Colin a reluctant smile. Colin Creevey was possibly the only student in the whole castle (beside Ron and Hermione) who still looked like he wanted to be in the same room as Harry.

“Hi Harry! Important message from Professor Moody. Here you are.” Colin smiled broadly and looked like he was going to remain standing next to Harry even after the letter was delivered.

“Thanks Colin. See you later, yeah?”

“Tonight in the Common Room? I’ve got some photographs from the tournament that I could show you!”

“Yeah, maybe…”

“Actually snapped an odd one of Professor Moody that day by the maze. Did you know he could turn into another wizard as a disguise?”

“I mean, he is an ex-auror,” Harry said with a shrug. “He’s bound to know all about disguises.” His eyes were flying over the handwritten note. Besides Dumbledore and Sirius, Moody was the only grown-up he’d told about Voldemort’s spy.

“He thinks he knows who it is,” Harry said in a whisper. Colin had left, but you never knew who might be hiding behind the bookcases. Harry’s stomach lurched with excitement. “I’m to meet him as soon as possible in his office.”

“Reckon we can come with you?” Ron asked hopefully, but Harry was already getting out of his chair and handing his transfiguration book to Hermione to bring back to the Common Room.

“I’ll tell you everything as soon as I’m back,” Harry said, excitement mounting.

 

Spoiler: spoiler

This has a nice canonical tone, if a bit too dependent on adverbs (which is also canonical somewhat).

The beginning is rough as it takes a few lines to understand who the speakers are and that the content doesn't really matter outside of what it's supposed to show. I understand the idea behind it but I think it takes too long for us to realize protagonist is listening in rather than participating. The middle bit is alright, I guess, but maybe lacking the subtle clues to tell us when exactly after the maze this takes place.

Moody twist is good, promising, and I do wonder if this is half already with Moody giving himself up or set up for a longer ruse. Clever use of prompts, and funny bit by Colin. I think as an intro this is pretty good, and nice place to cut it off so it can work as a flash story. Looking forward to whole story.

 

Spoiler

Wouldn't it be Year 4?

I do like this. I think the part about the dusty air is excellent, actually. Unfortunately, I don't think the dialogue's quite up to that same standard, and considering it's a pretty dialogue-heavy piece, that does mar it a little bit.

If we're dividing this into start, middle, and end, then the end is the most interesting bit, but the ending makes sense only as understood outside of the context of the piece itself. If you don't know canon then you'd probably be kind of bemused at what this is trying to set up, except for the clunky "he'd told no one except Moody..." exposition. But on the other hand if you do then I don't really see the point of having Hermione tell Harry what the ritual itself was about.

In short: bit clunky but there's potential there.

 

Spoiler

Needs to begin with something more shocking, not sure why the line about feeding Cedric to a sphinx takes so long to show up. In general I think you could make a bit more of how horrible Harry is feeling. Pull at some heart strings.

Colin is great, he could potentially get even more room. I wonder if you could allude to the Moody bit even before Colin comes in? Just a throw-away line but it would set the piece up better.