A Memorable Tale

53 | Two Aurors and a Boy with Straw Hair

The Department of International Magical Cooperation.

"She worked under Crouch...?"

"Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go."

What if she found out something she wasn't supposed to? I glanced at the blank space in the timeline, where I believed that her memory was erased.

It wasn't the entire Ministry that believed she was forgetful - it was Bagman.

"Something happened before that," I whispered. "But not here. Diffindo." I sliced the parchment and moved it so there was no blank space, then wrote between her being in the Department of International Magic Cooperation and her joining the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

Memory charm used.

•••

"I doubt that the riddles will be the same as the ones for the Ravenclaw common room, Ced," I said as he followed me back from dinner.

"I just want to check."

"And what if there's no riddles in the maze?"

Cedric had told me about the last task - it was something so unpredictable that I could barely help. He had his spells, his hexes, and his general knowledge; he was just scared of the riddles. It wasn't that he wasn't smart, it's just that our riddles needed a good balance of logic and creativity - that's one thing a Hufflepuff couldn't find.

The knocker awoken and asked, "There are things people can be swallowed by, things that people can swallow, but there are few that can do both - name one."

Cedric stared a long while. "Um..."

"Don't get me locked out."

He hummed for a while. "Why are the riddles- They're either very straightforward or make almost no sense."

"Or maybe they do and you simply don't understand." I turned to the knocker. "Pride."

The door swung open and Cedric sighed. "At least I wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw."

"Yes, I don't think the Sorting Hat is that cruel."

I led him inside and went to the niche where the books were kept. "There has to be one about riddles."

We would be looking in the library, but Madam Pince had already snapped at some boys trying to help Fleur with the previous task, so this was the next best thing.

Cho came down, hearing the commotion, and smiled. "Hey Cedric."

He smiled in return. "Hey Cho."

And suddenly I was invisible.

I watched the two talk, grinning as if they had been married for the past five years. I sighed, leaning on the bookshelf with a blank expression.

I could've gotten stabbed in that very moment and they wouldn't notice.

"...Evelyn."

"What?" The two turned to me.

"Y/N Evelyn Griffin. Just... if you're looking for baby names."

After a while, I slipped away and left the common room, scared that they'd start snogging in front of me.

I entered my dorm and flopped onto my bed, hearing a crinkle under me when I did. I looked under me, seeing a newspaper on my bed. "Helena...?"

I got off my bed and picked up the newspaper.

Death Eaters Caught and Arrested for Torture of Two Aurors

And a very familiar face there was. Barty Crouch Junior.

I stared at the photo for a long while.

He didn't look much older than Cedric, given that worry lines were probably compromising him in that comparison. My father never liked talking about his friends back in Hogwarts, and I never really found the guts to pry about it. Did he know that one of his best friends was put into Azkaban?

Did he know that one of his best friends died a year later?

Four Death Eaters: Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, and, the surprising fourth, Barty Crouch Junior, were tried and arrested for the torture of Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom.

The two were reportedly found by Aurors, just moments too late.

My eyes widened. Barty Crouch Junior tortured Neville's parents into insanity? Or, supposedly, at least.

In the photo, he wasn't screaming and grinning cunningly at the camera like the others - not even like Sirius.

He looked terrified. His eyes were wide, his hands trembled in the moving photo, beads of sweat moving down the sides of his pale face.

My eyes travelled back to the printed words.

Just moments too late.

Before I left, I heard something bang against the window and I glanced at the glass, seeing Hedwig hovering outside. I opened the window and she dropped a letter before flying off again.

I found Crouch... I was with Krum and we found Mr. Crouch, but when I went to get help and came back, he was gone and Krum was stunned. Crouch was incoherent and thought I was Ron's brother. Just thought you should know.
Harry

I placed the letter and the newspaper in the drawer of my nightstand and went down to the common room, where Cho and Cedric migrated to the couch.

"Going out?" he asked as I approached the door.

"Yep... see you."

The library.

The smell of old books and the sound of pages turning as hushed voices entered my ears, just quiet enough for me to not understand, but just loud enough for me to want to.

The perfect place for my mind.

I opened the large swinging doors, seeing students scattered across the different tables, some with books and papers and quills, other with nail files and eyeliner and gossip to share.

Someone lowered their book from their face and my face brightened. Neville.

He waved me over and I sat down beside him. He smelled like the lake and forest. Had he been outside?

"Where have you been all day?" Neville closed his book and put it down.

"Shut in," I breathed, slouching in my chair. "Reading."

"Not surprised. What was your latest book about?"

I tried to stop my grin from forming but it was no longer under my control. "Ten people were invited to a place called Soldier Island by a Mr. and Mrs. U.N. but when they get there, the two are no where to be found. Each guest then starts being killed, one by one."

Neville's brows raised, whether in interest or concern was a mystery to me, so I stopped.

"So you like those kinds of books," he noted. "I think my gran likes those kinds of books too, but she used to tell me the stories when I was small, and I wasn't quite fond of them."

"Of course," I laughed.

"I do remember the story of one! Want to hear it?"

"I'm all ears."

The library was a perfect place.

Only because he was there.

The smell of the trees and the lake, with the rough skin at the end of his fingertips from flipping through books about plants and wading through the water.

He was perfect.