An open conspiracy! Douglas never lifted a finger, and Barty Crouch Jr. drove himself mad!
Moody's office.
The magical eye he had removed sat submerged in a maintenance solution.
The eyeball still rolled restlessly, like an imprisoned crystal ball foretelling a storm.
On the walls, the various detectors had stopped humming.
Candlelight flickered.
Shadows stretched and distorted Moody's scarred face, casting it onto the cold stone wall.
Like a soul splitting apart, locked in fierce combat.
Snape's greasy face and his victor's sneer played over and over in his mind.
Humiliation!
Like a bone splinter piercing his nerves.
He had lost.
Not in magical power.
He had lost to a new set of rules he could not begin to understand.
An invisible web woven by that damned Holmes.
At that moment, he finally understood.
Holmes... that bastard had never considered him an opponent.
He merely regarded him as a spider that had wandered into a trap.
He had simply set the rules.
Then stood at a distance, watching coldly.
Waiting for him to trap himself to death!
Storming Snape's storeroom?
A stupid move!
He had stepped straight into a hunting trap tailor-made for him!
This was not dark magic.
It was not even any known form of magic.
This was a poison more insidious than jinxes.
A kind of Muggle witchcraft designed specifically to contaminate thoughts!
Holmes had poisoned his mind!
He let you know he existed, yet made it impossible for you to find him.
He forced you, the hunter, to keep guessing, keep probing.
Until, in an endless cycle of wearing yourself down, you revealed every card you held!
Moody's gaze slowly shifted.
It settled on the desk.
A training file on Harry Potter.
A vicious scheme exploded in his mind, carrying the cruelty and wild delight unique to Death Eaters.
Why be stupid enough to slam into that wall Holmes had built