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Author: Author by Night Story: Spectators Rating: Teens Setting: Pre-OotP Status: Completed Reviews: 2 Words: 21,201
Wild Dragon Chase Tonks waited hours for Scrimgeour, looking for him in the immediate area and returning to Cardiff Castle, where he'd supposedly wanted to meet her. She finally found him still at the Auror office. “Oh,” Scrimgeour said. “Yes, false alarm, false alarm…” “Rufus,” Tonks began, not bothering to mask her immense irritation, “are you telling me that I just missed the Triwizard Tournament for no reason? That I wasted hours waiting for you, trying to find you, wondering what the urgency was?” “I told Alastor to tell you not to come after all. Or I think I did…” Tonks frowned. “Are you okay?” “I think I need some rest.” Scrimgeour stood. “Good night.” Confused but too exhausted to put much stock into the matter, Tonks returned home as well. “How was it?” Remus asked when she walked through the door. “Couldn't stay. Work. I’m going to bed, I’ll explain in the morning.” Something horrible began to stir in Tonks’s mind, but sleep pushed it away. “Hestia… Hestia…” Hestia jumped when she realized it was her sister's voice calling from the family room. She hurried out of bed and ran to the fireplace. Megan was in Professor Sprout's office; Hestia recognized the chairs. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily. “Megan? What happened?” Hestia asked. “I don't have long,” Megan said. “Sprout told us we could all contact family for a few minutes, if we wanted to. I meant to Floo Mum and Dad, but I said your name. instead ” “Us? We? Who are you with?” “Everyone.” “What's going on?” “I don't know how it happened,” Megan said quietly. She sounded so young. “We were so proud of him. I just spoke to him last night. How can he be gone?” “Who's gone?” “Cedric. Something went wrong tonight, and he came back from the maze — I mean, Harry did, with him.” Cedric… Megan's crush. Mr. and Mrs. Diggory's son. He was what, seventeen? No, eighteen. Still too young. Hestia remembered him being Sorted so many years ago. He'd been a short eleven-year-old. How could that be true? Hestia reached out to hug her sister, then remembered they were speaking through Floo, not in person. “I'm so sorry. What happened?” “No one knows. Well, Harry probably, but he went off somewhere.” She turned, then looked back at Hestia. “I have to go, it's Ernest's turn.” “I'm coming up there straight away.” “You can't. Sprout told us only certain people are allowed to come and go tonight.” “I don't want you to be alone right now!” But Megan had disappeared, leaving Hestia sitting helplessly on the floor.
They’d opted to spend the night in Madame Maxime’s office, despite the protests of their families, who wanted them to stay in the special rooms designated for guests. But Fleur and Viktor needed to be together. Madame Maxime had given them sleeping bags, but they hadn’t slept a wink. “I am sorry I cursed you,” Viktor told her. “I wasn’t myself.” “I know you weren’t.” “I do not know where Karkaroff went,” Viktor continued. Something unimaginable occurred to Fleur — but was anything unimaginable if Cedric was dead? “Do you think he had something to do with this?” “I doubt it, but I think he knew something was going to happen and ran.” “Cedric would never have run,” Fleur said firmly. “No,” Viktor agreed. Fleur put her head to her knees, and started to cry. Viktor was silent. After a moment, he put his arm around her so awkwardly it made her snort through her tears. When Uncle Fabian and Uncle Gideon had died, none of the kids took it worse than Charlie. Of course, they were also all too young to fully grasp what was going on, whereas Bill and Charlie understood perfectly well what it meant. Charlie screamed denials at their parents when given the news, his lungs as loud as they could go. Molly ran out of the room crying, and Bill dragged Charlie outside and let his brother ruin a broomstick by hitting it against the shed over and over. Bill seldom left Charlie’s side for months afterwards. The day Bill left for Egypt, Charlie thanked him for being there all those years before. But Bill didn’t think he’d done anything out of the ordinary; it was just what good brothers did. And now he had to be that person again. He’d told Charlie over Floo, hoping it wasn’t a bad idea. “You’re joking,” Charlie said. “I wish I were.” “But…” “Don’t think. Just come home. I’ll have a broomstick ready for you by the shed.” Sirius had Apparated here and there, despite the risks. But he knew Dumbledore understood that he would — the news had to be relayed immediately, after all. Besides, Sirius knew the safe spots by now. And if he came upon Death Eaters on the way, well… all the better. He was in the mood to make someone pay. “House calls,” as Sirius referred to them, had been far too common in the first war, whether you were the one receiving it or the one relaying it. It was an equally hard situation both ways, but being the informant had its own challenges. You knocked on the door of people who you knew were doing innocuous things — eating dinner, breakfast, sleeping, showering, making love, changing their baby's nappy. That's what Molly Weasley (nee Prewett) had been doing when they interrupted her. She answered the door with twin toddlers at her feet and an infant crying in the background. Was her husband home? (No.) Could they come in? (No — I mean, yes. Come in.) We're so sorry, Mrs. Weasley… She'd been a near-stranger, didn't even know about the Order (and had been furious upon learning her deceased brothers' secret lives), but it didn't make it any easier than this was. It didn't matter whether you were talking to someone you'd met a few times in passing or your oldest friend and your cousin; you were still turning people's worlds upside down. There was one detail Sirius had left out. It had to wait, because he knew he wouldn't be able to finish after that. He was already shaking. “I taught Cedric,” Remus was saying. “He was one of the best students in his year. And Harry… damn it… I should have stayed.” “You should've?” Tonks's voice broke. “I'm the one who just left M-Crouch there. I'm such an idiot.” Remus looked at Sirius. “Peter was involved, wasn't he?” “He did everything.” Sirius told them the rest of it; it wasn't hard to repeat Harry's words when they rang through his mind. As soon as Sirius got to the part about James and Lily coming out of the wand, he ran into the bathroom and threw up.
The portrait of Helga was at the centre of the hearth. Helga watched the house that had been hers - the real her, who would have been able to emerge and comfort them. Not a single Hufflepuff had gone back to their dormitory; they were unified, as always. Some were sleeping in chairs or on the sofa, but most were sitting with lost looks in their eyes. Cho Chang was there — normally someone from another house would not have been permitted, but exceptions could be made. They were so lost, so desolate… the worst thing that could happen to anyone was to lose someone they cared about, but it especially hurt Hufflepuffs. They took unity and friendship so very seriously, and Helga suspected they had many dark days ahead. The real Helga would have comforted them, taken them into her arms and let them cry or sleep or feel. Her portrait could only watch helplessly.
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