The Hidden Truth
"An interesting trip," said Einar as he stepped off the bus behind Arthur. "By the way, is this the place?" he asked while looking around, realizing they weren't in a magical area.
"This is Mad-Eye Moody's house, a retired auror who's quite paranoid. He lives in a Muggle area because he believes his enemies won't look for him here, though he moves around from time to time," Arthur said quickly as he approached the house. "We received reports that he might be using magic near Muggles, so I came to check if everything is fine."
"Wait, Arthur," Einar said quickly, looking around the house with interest, approaching the scattered trash cans on the side.
He then crouched down, carefully observing the grass.
"At least three people. One with a wooden leg, fighting against two others," Einar said, examining the tracks closely. "You can see the foot movements here. The positions show great skill from the guy with the wooden leg."
"That must be Moody. So he might have really been attacked," Arthur said as he pulled out his wand.
"Looks like they tried to erase the tracks, but they weren't that good at it," Einar said with a smile, given that his work on some missions involved following almost impossible trails.
"What are you two doing snooping around my house?" said a scarred man with an eye that moved erratically as he aimed his wand-staff at Einar and Arthur.
"Moody. We received an alert at the Ministry, and I came to see if everything was alright," Arthur said quickly, recognizing the man who appeared.
"Arthur Weasley? Is that you...? Who's the masked fellow?" Moody said quickly, eyeing Einar, who was standing calmly with his gaze fixed on Moody.
"He's Einar. He's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. He came just in case," Arthur explained quickly.
"So, you're the one Dumbledore replaced me with," Moody grumbled as his magical eye seemed to avoid looking at Einar every time. "You'd better show your face, kid. I need to know if you're someone I should recognize."
"Sure," Einar said, easily removing his mask and showing his face to Moody.
"Hmm... I don't know you. But if you're with Arthur... come in," Moody said quickly, turning around and walking towards his house.
"Looks like Moody managed to defeat the attackers," Arthur sighed with relief, while Einar continued to observe Moody with interest.
The three of them quickly entered Moody's house, and the man went straight to a couch, removing his wooden leg and massaging his painful limb.
"Moody, Einar saw signs of an attack outside. What happened?" Arthur asked quickly.
"Ah, he was able to see the tracks even after I cleaned them up well? Seems you're pretty good, kid," Moody said, eyeing him with suspicion.
"Yeah, and you are as well," Einar replied while glancing around the house with interest.
"Just some wizards seeking revenge. You know, for all the ones I sent to Azkaban. They just ran off when they couldn't accomplish anything," Moody said quickly.
"Do you know who they were?" Arthur asked with concern.
"Of course I do. Those idiots who saved their hides by blaming the Imperius Curse," Moody said angrily.
"Interesting," Einar interrupted.
"What is?" Moody asked quickly.
"Your house. It's filled with traps everywhere, but all of them are deactivated. Some are even completely broken," Einar said while looking around with curiosity.
"Ah, that's because I was about to move. So I was deactivating them when I got ambushed," Moody said quickly.
"Your eye seems to be malfunctioning," Einar said, staring at him intently while a black and red dagger started sliding from his sleeve to his hand.
"I'm just keeping an eye out for another ambush," Moody replied.
"It can see mana, can't it? When I arrived, you must have seen me like a blazing sun in front of you. But you're not used to using it, which is why your eye keeps avoiding looking at me. As for your wooden leg... you're not used to that either, which is why you took it off as soon as you came inside. A paranoid person would never lower their guard in front of anyone, even if they were acquaintances," Einar said, pointing at the prosthetic leg Moody had left beside the couch.
"If one of you was using false skin or Polyjuice Potion, especially after being attacked, I would be very careful not to lose my mobility," Einar continued, his tone growing more serious.
Arthur began to step back, noticing Moody's wary gaze and Einar's well-founded suspicion, while his hand moved toward his wand hidden in his pocket.
"Crucio!"
Moody cast an Unforgivable Curse immediately, but Einar dodged by moving to the side and threw the dagger in his hand quickly while pulling out another.
Moody protected himself with a shield, but the dagger got stuck in it, its tip near Moody's magical eye. However, he quickly moved and cast another spell.
"Avada Kedavra!" A green spell grazed Einar's head again as he ducked and threw a dagger with sparks of electricity along its blade.
The dagger embedded itself in Moody's leg, who had little mobility with only one leg, causing him to fall to the ground in pain as the dagger's electricity paralyzed him.
"Expelliarmus!" Arthur cast his spell, disarming Moody of his cane as he tried to reach for it while being electrocuted.
"Aaaah!" Moody screamed in pain as the electricity continued to affect him as long as the dagger remained lodged in his leg.
Einar approached him and took a vial from Moody's pocket, examining it carefully.
"Do you know what this usually contains?" Einar asked Arthur.
"Antidote, because he always thinks people are trying to poison him," Arthur said quickly as he sniffed the contents. "But this seems to be something else. It could be Polyjuice Potion."
"That potion lasts for a while, right? So, do we wait or what?" Einar asked quickly.
"Just in case, I'll notify the Aurors," Arthur replied swiftly as he cast a spell into the air.
"Expecto Patronum!" he said, and from his wand emerged a weasel that quickly flew away.
"That's a Patronus. It's the first time I've seen one," Einar said with interest.
"It's usually a bit difficult to make it corporeal, but it can also be used to send a short message," Arthur replied with a smile.
"Although the communication methods in the wizarding world always leave something to be desired. If there had been a massacre here, we would have had to wait a couple of hours for the owl to arrive," Einar said as he started tying up Moody to prevent him from escaping,
though he didn't remove his dagger.
"We can also use Floo Powder to communicate faster, but for those in the Muggle world, it can be a bit difficult," Arthur commented, realizing the harsh reality.
For example, if a Muggle family with a wizard was attacked by dark wizards, by the time the Aurors realized it, the family would likely have been killed after the fight. It would be impossible to send help from the beginning.
Of course, the Patronus was faster than an owl, but not everyone could use that charm.
After an hour of waiting, the Aurors began arriving just as the Polyjuice Potion Moody had taken started to wear off.
"Arthur, we arrived as soon as we got the message," said one of the Aurors who worked at the Ministry and knew Arthur as he quickly entered the house.
Then everyone saw Moody begin to change.
"By Merlin's beard!" Arthur said in shock upon seeing the true face of the fake Moody.
"Is it who I think it is?" asked the Auror, equally shocked. "But he was supposed to be dead in Azkaban."
"Barty Crouch Jr.," Arthur said.
"It's best to take him to the Ministry. We need to find out what the hell is going on," said the Auror as he signaled the others to capture Barty. Meanwhile, Einar removed his dagger from Barty's leg, allowing him to move again and stop suffering from electric spasms.
"Damn bastards! You're all dead! Did you hear me? You're dead! You can't stop him! Hahaha! He will return!" Barty shouted as the Aurors quickly covered his mouth.
Meanwhile, Einar sensed something and turned in another direction.
"What is it, Einar?" Arthur asked quickly.
"A rat... seems like it wasn't one," he said, feeling how, far away, that rat transformed into a wizard and then disappeared, probably using Apparition.
Some Aurors stayed to search the entire house, while Arthur and Einar were also taken to the Ministry to report what they had seen.
When they told their part to the investigators, they also discovered the real Moody locked inside a box, recently unconscious.
Einar and Arthur were released at dawn, while they heard that Barty Crouch was sent to St. Mungo's Hospital to be questioned about what the hell was going on and why his son was alive and free.
But Einar was no longer interested in that, as he had to return to give his first class at Hogwarts.
"---------------
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