TW: Crucio Curse and burning
__
She woke up in a cluttered and dark space, her head spinning, throbbing again.
"Ugh, people really are keen on knocking me out," she mumbled, putting a hand over her head, wincing when she touched it. She definitely won't be doing that again. What had happened? She heard a grunt, realized she wasn't alone in the dark.
"Argh!" she shrieked and then a person shushed her.
"It's all right," they said.
"Where am I? Who are you?" she squinted, trying to see something through that darkness. It seemed to be a corpulent man, but she wasn't sure.
"I'm Alastor Moody, who are you?"
"What?" her voice became high pitched again and he shushed her again.
"I'm the real Alastor Moody, whomever you've met is an impersonator," he said.
Sarah's brain bleeped, remembering that the person she thought was her professor attacked her.
"I'm-I'm Sarah McCauley," she breathed out, sitting up and resting her back against a cold surface.
"McCauley? Lyana and Daniel's daughter?" he asked.
Her breath hitched, "Yes."
"What a small world."
She snorted, slapping the cold wall, "Literally, yes."
"Who is he then?" she asked.
She heard him grunt, and she was taken aback by how well that impersonator had been mimicking him all those months.
"He's Barty Crouch's son. Death Eater. Undercover, and-"
A small light broke through the darkness, and she looked up, they were deep underground. Sarah was lifted off the ground and up until she was out of there, and chained to a wall.
"What the hell?" she tried to pull on the chains and looked at him.
"I suppose you've already figured some part of the story, now," he points his wand at her, "Let's start."
"Crucio"
Sarah screamed, as she felt her skin burn. A million daggers stab her at once, there wasn't any more blood coursing through her, but inflammable liquid and it caught fire, burning her from within. She couldn't breathe, and the last thing she remembered before blacking out from the pain was her parents' voices, Be brave, I love you.
That night was restless, horrifying, Crouch, although he had Moody's appearance, used the Cruciatus Curse whenever she regained consciousness. Sarah had never felt this kind of pain before, even though he used it relentlessly, it never got better, she screamed her throat raw until she couldn't get out a sound anymore. The curse hurt her all over again, at the same intensity.
But after the fourth time, something seemed to not suffice, because he was furious.
He picked up a torch, "Incendio" and turned to her, "I do apologize, Miss McCauley, you're quite the gifted witch," he shrugs, "Look at what I'm saying, all sentimental. This scum of a traitor is starting to affect my morals."
"As if you ever had morals," said Sarah weakly, her vision coming in and out of focus. She then realized he was holding a lit up torch, hoping, praying it was to add to the light and not something else.
"Now, now, if you're well enough to snap snarky comments, I haven't been doing a very good job," he spat and started walking towards her with the torch.
Sarah eyed it, recoiling away from it with every step he took. She tried to pull on the chains again, obviously they didn't budge. And he crouched down to face her, "This is necessary, I'm afraid."
She frowned and shook her head hastily, "No. No, it isn't, it-"
She inhaled sharply, yelled out in pain, and if before she felt herself consumed from within, now was a different story as he set the torch close to her abdomen, burning through the fabric of her clothes. She fought with everything she had not to lose consciousness again. In clenched teeth and silent tears, she pretended to faint and he stopped.
She heard him whisper, "The Dark Lord could pardon me, now," and that was the last thing she remembered.
_
Fred, Selena, George and Sarah had agreed a day before to meet up directly at the stadium for the Third and Final task, because Sarah wanted to accompany Harry until the last moment. Only Harry was there, before them, and she was nowhere to be seen, once again.
"I don't like this," muttered Fred, staring at the entrance, hoping she'll show up, run into someone because she was too hurried and flash him a bright smile.
"We need to talk to Harry," suggested George. He and Fred tried to call him, but the band was playing loudly, people were cheering, their voices wouldn't even have reached the teachers. Selena took out her wand, worried about her best friend as well and formed an airplane out of a piece of parchment where she'd written 'Where's Sarah?' and sent it flying into Harry's head.
Harry flinched and turned, unfolded the paper and read it. He turned to see Fred and George doing ample gestures and Selena tilting her chin up to question him. Harry raised his shoulders, pointed at them like he was asking, 'She's not with you?' and they shook their heads.
Moody saw the interaction and tapped Harry's shoulder, "I believe I saw Miss McCauley down the hallway, she should arrive any minute, make your friends rest."
He lent Harry a pen to write his answer on the paper and sent it back toward Selena.
She read it to the twins, "Says she'll be here any minute, that he saw her."
Fred glanced at Moody, taking the opportunity of calm during Dumbledore's speech to scan the stadium again.
"Earlier today, Professor Moody placed the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze. Only he knows its exact position. Now, as Mr Diggory," a row of cheers erupted from a side of the benches, "And Mr Potter," Fred, George and Selena all got up to cheer, "Are tied for first position, they will be the first to enter the maze, followed by Mr Krum and Miss Delacour."
"First person to touch the cup, will be the winner!" everybody got up and cheered again, clapping loudly, encouraging the Champions.
"Should at any point a contestant wish to withdraw from the task, he or she need only to send up red sparks with their wands. Contestants, gather round!" Dumbledore called Harry and the others to speak to them and left the crowd to wait impatiently the beginning of the task, until the cannon fired and the four of them entered the maze.
Ginny and George glance every so often at Fred, because they realized he hasn't cracked a joke or a comment since they've been sitting on these benches.
He was fidgeting his leg anxiously, staring at the maze, scouring through his memories of the last time he saw her, because he realized that Moody couldn't have seen her earlier, he was setting the Triwizard Cup in the maze.
_
The night fell while they were waiting, torches had been lit, the fire flickering around the stadium. Suddenly, Harry and Cedric drop on the ground, with the Triwizard Cup next to them.
Everyone gets up and cheers, clapping at the Hogwarts champions and the trumpets start to play. Selena, George and Fred go down from their higher spot to greet Harry but they hear Fleur wail in horror. Dumbledore runs to Harry, and everyone's faces drop when they take a better look at Cedric.
"He's back! He's back! Voldemort's back!" shouts Harry, hanging on to Cedric, "Cedric, he asked me to bring his body back. I couldn't leave him, not there," he yelped and Dumbledore grabbed his shoulders, "It's all right, he's home, Harry. You both are."
Cedric's father ran down to them, the pain in his voice was unmistakably the most raw and cruel sound they'd ever heard, "That's my son! That's my boy!"
Everyone stared, cried, didn't move as they heard the wailing of Cedric's father.
Dumbledore's gaze shot up and looked around the crowd, until it reached the twins. He seemed to be looking for someone, someone that wasn't there. And when the twins looked around, they saw Harry wasn't there anymore and Dumbledore walked to them, "Miss McCauley, where is she?"
Fred's heart stopped. It just stopped.
"We haven't seen her today, sir," said George in a shaky voice and Dumbledore left at once, leaving them to a crippling fear that something happened to her. They tried to leave the field and follow Dumbledore but were stopped by McGonagall, telling them they couldn't leave this stadium until Cedric's death was sorted out.
_
Sarah was woken up by the door of his office being slammed. She tried opening her eyes, and she thought she heard two voices, but her eyelids were heavy and every inch of her body hurt, so she decided to listen for a few minutes and then react.
"Were there others? In the graveyard were there others?" she heard Moody, well, Crouch shout at someone, and then a voice, a sweet voice, a known voice answered, "I don't think I ever said anything about a graveyard, Professor."
Sarah inhaled sharply, "Harry," she breathed out and he looked around the room and saw her, backed into a corner. He gasped loudly and hurried down next to her, took her hand in his, "How did-"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she whimpered, not believable in the slightest and Moody, no, Crouch was standing in the doorway, "Marvelous creatures, dragons, aren't they?"
Harry squeezes her hand, making sure she doesn't pass out, as Crouch continues to talk and fumble through his recipients, "Did you think that miserable oaf would've led you into the woods if I hadn't suggested it? Do you think Cedric Diggory would've told you to open the egg underwater if I hadn't told him first myself? Did you think Neville Longbottom, the witless wonder, could've provided you with Gillyweed if I hadn't given him the book that led him straight to it?"
"It was him, Harry," spoke Sarah quietly, "From the beginning."
"You put my name in the Goblet of Fire," said Harry, staring at him in terror.
"You won because I made it so. You ended up in the graveyard tonight because it was meant to be so," he took a step forward, "The blood that runs in these veins, runs within the Dark Lord. She's weak enough, now. Imagine how he will reward me when he learns that I have silenced the great Harry Potter."
Sarah's head dropped and Harry caught it, shaking her gently to make her come back.
"Expelliarmus!"
Crouch falls down and Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall run inside the room.
"You're okay, now," whispered Harry, shaking her a little, and she's vaguely aware of him speaking, she nods. He hugged her, kept speaking to keep her conscious, letting her know he's got her.
McGonagall turned to Harry and Sarah and shrieked horrified, "Miss McCauley!" and blasted her chains. "Albus!"
Dumbledore turned, rested his eyes on her for a while and quickly got word out for Madam Pomfrey.
Crouch transformed into his true self, and while the teachers questioned him, Sarah tapped Harry's arm, "My wand, it's-" she blinks, trying to get the words out, "I think it's on the desk."
Harry leaves her side for a second and gives her her wand, and she points it at the wounds on her wrists, "Ferula" and a bandage wrapped itself around it. She let out a sigh of relief.
She and Harry are taken to the Infirmary immediately and Sarah turns to Madam Pomfrey muttering weakly, "I've hit my head, I'll need a Blood-Replenishing potion, and I have a burn on the left side, and Harry, he has a deep cut, I-"
"It's all right, Miss McCauley, you can rest now, we'll take care," said Madam Pomfrey and set her on a bed.
Madam Pomfrey tended to her burn, and Harry was brought in too, along with the real Alastor Moody and Harry hurried to her, hugging her gently. He didn't know what her injuries were, he preferred to be careful.
"He's back, Sarah," he whispered against her hair and she sighed, still weak, somewhere at the back of her mind, still expecting to relive the pain from the Curse.
She'd heard, and Crouch kept mumbling all night about bringing him back, about bewitching the Cup, but in her in and out of conscious state, she didn't think he was actually going to do it.
Fred, George, Selena, Ron, Hermione, Bill, Dumbledore , Molly, Sirius and Remus all walked in at once. Fred pushed past everyone, kneeled down next to her bed, taking her hand in his, "Sarah, are you okay?"
George, Remus and everybody else made their way towards her and Harry, Remus squeezing gently her ankle at the foot of the bed to let her know he was there. Sarah kept her eyes closed, still positive the room would be blurry and spinning if she opened them and felt a warm and calming feeling spreading from her fingertips, where Fred's hand was. She managed to nod.
"Barty Crouch Jr," said Dumbledore, "A Death Eater. I'm really sorry for what happened, Miss McCauley."
"What happened?" asked Fred urgently, looking at Dumbledore, then at McGonagall.
Remus stepped in, frowning imposingly, "Yes, make me aware of it. What happened? And how exactly did it manage to happen on Hogwarts grounds, under your watch, Albus?"
"Unfortunate events, that I will leave the right to Miss McCauley to disclose. We have made sure to not let the man go unpunished," spoke McGonagall, looking worriedly at Sarah lying eyes closed on the bed.
Remus stepped closer to talk to Sarah's teachers, and her friends went around her bed, Hermione and Ron sitting on Harry's bed, too.
Fred pushed the hair away from Sarah's face, gently brushing his knuckles over her cheek and whispered, "Are you quite done with all these near death calls?"
She chuckled weakly, and she opened her eyes, then, making Fred's heart beat normally again, well, not entirely true, but now wasn't the time. "This one wasn't my fault," she whispered, she hadn't quite regained her voice yet.
"I know, I know," he pressed a soft kiss on the back of her hand and he glanced at her wrists, saw they were bandaged. His chest tightened again.
"Help me up, please?" she breathed out, looking at Fred and he did, Selena and George sat down and she nodded at them, reassuring them she was okay. Fred didn't let go of her hand, though.
They spent a while asking Harry and Sarah about what they'd seen and heard, until the real Alastor Moody grunted in his sleep and Sarah reached for her wand without thinking.
"I believe you've already made the acquaintance of Alastor Moody, Miss McCauley," said Dumbledore.
She nodded and spat out before she could stop herself, "Yes, sir. I find being locked into a subterranean trunk with another person makes one bond quite effortlessly."
Remus shook his head in complete anger and bewilderment that this could have happened on Hogwarts grounds and Fred squeezed her hand, sending her a puzzled look that she reassured with a small nod. As she said it, she realized that it was the Head Master she just retorted that to, and bit the inside of her cheek, "Sorry." But Dumbledore raised his hand, telling her it was all right.
Sarah was watching Harry, warily, as he lay on a bed, looking as dreadful as she did, which was saying a lot.
Madam Pomfrey walked into the room again, holding a small potion Sarah recognized, "Dreamless Potion," she whispered and when Fred heard Madam Pomfrey say exactly that he smiled softly. Harry drank and quickly fell asleep.
Madam Pomfrey turned to Sarah, "I see you've tended to your wounds yourself, Miss McCauley," she gestured to her wrists, "Can you walk?"
Sarah nodded and only then did Fred let go, "I'm fine, Weasley." Her look almost convinced him, he did breathe easier after that.
Sarah got up and concentrated on walking into a straight line, not wanting to cause any worry because her physical wounds were superficial, besides her burn but no one had seen that, she wrapped her arms around her waist, and no one ever will.
Sarah was looking around Madam Pomfrey's set of medicine and potions, it was amazing. She was stumbling through the cumbered shelves, knowing exactly where everything was, "Your Bandaging Spell looks well. Quite a gift you have there," she said while fetching the Blood-Replenshing potion.
She handed it to her and while she drank it, she said, "I've heard wind of some program, it often leads to a career as a Healer. It could help you get to another level of study, greater. Perhaps you'd be interested. Given your scores, they would love to have you. I can set it up with the Head Master to get you enrolled for the summer. It's in Ireland, if you don't mind the unknown."
Sarah almost spat the potion out, from the taste and from what she'd just heard, "That would be brilliant, Ma'am. And it wouldn't be that unknown, Remus, my godfather, he spends quite a bit of time in Ireland for business. I will discuss it with him," Madam Pomfrey gave her a sweet smile "I'm really glad to hear Remus has you. I used to care for him quite a lot when he was at school here, you know."
Sarah's eyes filled with tears, and she smiles through them, nodding "He's told me, when I talked to him about becoming a Healer too," Madam Pomfrey chuckled softly, telling her she's free to go, instructed her to change the bandages in a couple of hours and move around slowly for an hour, to allow the potion to work.
She heads back to the group. They had sat down on empty beds, no one was talking, just listening to every breath in and out. She sat back down next to the twins, and they waited, all thinking of what he went through. Voldemort was back, his followers were coming back to him, building again, stronger. It was only a matter of time before everything as they knew it would come crumbling down. Her breath caught at the thought. She looked around at the people she loved so fiercely, how downcast and pale they were, worried for Harry, worried for their families, worried for the future.
They heard voices coming from the hall, arguing. Sarah glanced at Harry, saw his eyes flutter.
"Why don't they shut up? They're waking him up," she whispered, glaring at the door.
"What are they shouting about? Nothing else can have happened, can it?" asked Ron, shakily.
"That's Minerva McGonagall. And Fudge. What are they arguing about?" whispered Molly to Bill and he just raised his shoulders.
Now they could hear them clearly. They barged into the Infirmary, Fudge asking blatantly Molly of Dumbledore's whereabouts. That's when he came in too, followed by Snape. They were arguing loudly about Crouch.
A shiver passer her spine, recalling fright, torture and anger. He'd had the Dementor's Kiss delivered to him. That's when she let out a small breath of relief. At least he couldn't cause any more harm, or do Voldemort's bidding.
Fudge barged in, started questioning Harry, but was refusing to believe his version of the story, the truth.
"Parselmouth, eh?" he spat at Harry.
Sarah could feel her anger boiling, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. The man supposed to be responsible for the Wizarding World was a complete coward.
Harry started naming the Death Eaters he'd seen with Voldemort, at which Fudge snaps and shouts at him angrily. Sarah looks at Bill, Sirius, Molly and Dumbledore, silently pleading the adults to say something to him but they don't so she speaks, "Harry's telling the truth."
Fudge's head shoots up at her, "What?"
"Crouch told me his plan, we saw his Dark Mark come back," she said, keeping her tone to a distant one, so he'd believe her, even though she was obviously hurt.
"And why would he tell you?"
"Because he had me tied up, and he needed catharsis, who knows? Case in point, Harry's telling the truth," she said, pointedly.
Everyone stared for a few seconds, and Fudge squinted at her, as if wondering where he'd seen her before, "And who are you?"
"She is Daniel and Lyana McCauley's daughter," said McGonagall from behind him. Fudge nods briefly, recognizing the names, acknowledging they meant something to him.
"You're parents fought valiantly. But inducing hallucinations or optical illusions are not estranged from the twisted minds such as his. There's no proof."
She stares at him in disbelief and she can't help a chuckle at his ridicule, "No proof? Harry's cut on his arm is not proof? Cedric Diggory's body isn't proof?"
"These were not the simple acts of a lunatic," cried McGonagall, in an attempt to reason with Fudge again, and failing.
"Voldemort has returned" said Dumbledore coolly and Fudge started the argument again. He was deliberately oblivious, scared, but that wasn't an excuse, they were all terrified.
After he left, Dumbledore gave the teachers instructions, and everyone left to their missions. He also turned to Sarah and said "I hope you've accepted Madam Pomfrey's proposal," and she glanced at Remus, "Maybe."
Harry was understandably still on edge, Remus, Sirius, Bill and Molly had left to see Arthur, warn people of Voldemort's return. After a couple minutes, their friends got up, deciding they needed a time out from the company.
"You both drink your potions. You need rest," said Hermione
They all nodded and got up, leaving them alone. Fred looked back before leaving, just to make sure Sarah was standing, that she was breathing. She'd almost died again, and he felt like he couldn't breathe properly before that thought. She looked tired, like she hadn't slept in a long time, and although she was smiling, something was hidden in her eyes, and suddenly he didn't want to ever leave her side anymore.
"I don't know if you remember," said Harry once they were all out of the room, "When Crouch was about to kill me, he said something, about you."
Sarah was fluffing her pillow, and she turned to him, "I don't-I don't think I remember."
He swallowed, "He said that you were weak enough, now."
"What?" her mouth falling slightly agape.
Harry shrugged, not knowing any more than she did.
"What is going on Harry?" she asked him, scared at what it might mean.
"I don't know," he said, looking down at his hands.
She let out a sigh, "We'll figure it out, rest now. Just know that I've got you."
"And I've got you," he whispered.
After a few seconds, she figured it was time for him to sleep, "Drink your potion and rest, please."
"You should drink yours, too, Miss McCauley," said Madam Pomfrey as she entered the room, pointing to the potion for her. Sarah nodded, drank it and fell into a dreamless sleep, but not before taking everything that happened with Crouch and toss it away, and worry about what Voldemort's return meant for the Wizarding World.