Diana's mind cleared up as soon as she heard the familiar voice her hand froze mid-air and her eyes widened.
'Sirius...'
In this split second between Sirius's call and Diana's off-guard moment, Bartemius slipped out of Diana's grip as he tackled her to the ground. Shocked and unguarded, Diana fell with a thud on the ground as the straw-haired man sprinted out of the place with his wand. Diana saw Bartemius vanish in the hazy darkness and a wave of disappointment washed over her. She lay on the muddy ground, unmoving, staring at the starless, smoky night sky.
'I should've killed him...'
The words repeated in her mind like a broken radio.
Sirius soon appeared, wand in his raised hand, ready to attack; he looked down and found Diana lying on the ground, disheveled, bruised, and visibly disturbed. He hurriedly put his wand away, kneeled, and helped her sit.
"What in the name of Merlin are you doing here? Are you okay?" Sirius asked Diana, panic was evident in his voice as he held her arms tightly. His stormy gray eyes stared at her, in an attempt to look inside the depths of her mind.
Her eyes were lost and out of focus as she turned to Sirius as if she was in a trance.
"Diana!" He snapped and shook her roughly. "What happened here? Who was here with you?"
In an instant, she snapped out of it and looked at the panicking, wide-eyed, black-haired man in front of her who held her tightly.
"I let him get away..." she murmured, her voice raspy.
"What?" relief washed over Sirius as he heard her speak but a little frown found its place on his sharp features hearing what she said.
"I let him get away," her voice was louder and clearer this time as she stared at him.
"Who?"
She remained silent and looked down, trembling.
"Who, Dia?" His voice was softer, as he peered down at the auburn-haired woman, and searched her eyes for any hints of her soul.
"Bartemius..."
"What?!" Sirius said incredulously as he frowned, not quite believing what he just heard.
"Barty Crouch Jr!"
His frown sank deeper. "What are you talking about? He's locked in Azkaban..."
"You think, I, out of all people, don't know that! He was beside my own fucking cell, Sirius." she snapped.
"Then how did he–"
"He broke out, obviously, I don't know how."
"Are you sure it was him?" Sirius asked with a bit of suspicion in his tone.
Something inside Diana flared up as soon as she heard Sirius's question. He didn't believe her. "What do you mean if I'm sure? Do you think I was fucking imagining things on my own in the middle of nowhere?! Or do you think I'm bloody mad too?"
"What?" Sirius was taken aback at her outburst.
"Do you think I've gone bloody lunatic after Azkaban?!" She yelled, as she shook off his hands and stood up.
"I don't think you're mad, Diana," Sirius said calmly. "Not more than the usual anyway."
She glared at him hard and was ready to retort before Sirius interrupted her pushing his finger on her lips. "As much as I'd love to continue this discussion with you, I think the senior Barty is on his way here and I'm sure he'd be delighted to escort you back to bloody Azkaban. You better transform," he whispered as he looked behind her back.
"Tosser!" Diana hissed before she transformed into her animagus form in the blink of an eye and went to sit on Sirius's shoulder. He tried to stroke the large bird's head, but Diana, who was still pissed, whipped her head away from his touch and bit his fingers angrily. He snatched his fingers away from the bird but still smirked a little before he looked ahead in the distance.
"Stupefy!" Sirius and Diana both frowned as they saw the members of the ministry go in a different direction from them and heard a combined yell from a bunch of people.
"Stop! Stop! That's my son!" No sooner than Sirius heard Arthur Weasely's scream, he sprinted in the direction with Diana tailing behind him in the air.
"That's my godson!" Sirius yelled when he saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the endpoint of Bartemius Crouch's wand. He shoved them away as he went to stand beside Harry who looked beyond surprised at the whole commotion.
"Are you three all right?" Sirius asked them as he looked at them for any visible injuries.
"We're fine," Harry replied as he petted the Goshawk who went and sat on his shoulder.
"Which of you conjured it? Do not lie!" Barty Crouch shrieked as he pointed his wand at the trio.
"Are you bloody serious, Barty?" Sirius snapped as he stood in front of the trio beside Arthur, guarding them against the ministry people.
"Barty, you can't possibly–"
"They've been discovered at the scene of the crime!" Barty Crouch accused them once again, interrupting Arthur.
"They're just kids, Barty," Arthur said calmly.
"They're bloody fifteen, Barty!" Sirius glared at the older man as he held Harry behind him. "Open your fucking eyes for once!"
"What crime are they talking about?" Asked Harry frowning, thoroughly confused.
"The Dark Mark, Harry," Hermione replied in a low voice.
"It's Voldemort's mark." Sirius turned around to look at Harry in the eyes, his expression was unreadable.
"Those people tonight, they're his too, right? His followers?" Harry asked looking at his godfather.
"Death Eaters." Sirius and Arthur nodded gloomily as they looked up at the sky.
Barty Crouch Sr frowned and turned around. "Follow me!"
"Um, there was a man before, there," Harry added hurriedly as Diana turned to her godson, her bead-like red eyes widening in shock. "I heard two voices. It seemed like he was fighting with someone."
Sirius stiffened as he took an unconscious step towards Diana.
"All of you, this way!" Barty Crouch stared at Harry for a moment before yelling and leading his men toward the direction Harry pointed out.
"A man fighting with someone, Harry?" Arthur asked. "Who?"
"I don't know. I didn't get to see their faces." Harry replied as he stroked Diana's smooth feathers who was frozen like a statue.
Sirius looked at Diana, realizing maybe she was indeed correct.
_
"Okay, Remus, why are you asking me if I'm sure what I've seen too, like that bitch over there?" Diana snapped as she slammed her firewhiskey glass on the long wooden dining table and pointed at Sirius who was standing by the door.
Unlike the furious woman, the black-haired man was surprisingly calm, observing Diana's rage with inscrutable, hooded dark eyes. Usually most of the time, Sirius loses his temper whenever Diana loses it and gets into a heated argument but this time it was different. He remained calm for some unknown reason.
Remus threw an unfathomable look at Sirius before he turned to Diana who was sitting in front of him again. So many things had happened only in a matter of few hours and he was still recovering from his last full moon transformation. He was nearly dead with fatigue and feeling extremely drowsy but the matter in hand was too important to sleep on it. He took a sip from his camomile tea calmly.
"Because, Diana, it is highly unlikely that Barty Crouch Jr. escaped Azkaban after you because the ministry has tightened security to the point where it is almost impenetrable now." Remus reasoned. "And even if he had escaped, do you think the ministry doesn't know about it?"
Diana narrowed her eyes. "You believe what Fudge says?"
"I believe what Arthur Weasely says."
"... What if he escaped before me?"
Remus frowned. "What?"
"You heard what I said. His father is a high-ranking ministry official. What if his father helped him to escape? What if his whole family is in it too? They're almost as influential as the Malfoys in the Wizarding World." Diana rambled on, pouring out her inner thoughts in the open.
"Are you hearing yourself, right now?" Remus was exasperated as he ran his fingers through his light brown hair. "Why are you so dead set on that it was indeed Barty Crouch Jr.? Maybe it was someone else, some other death eater? Or someone who pretended to be a death eater to get a rouse out of you?"
"Why are you so dead set on that it was not Barty Crouch Jr.?" Diana shook her head in annoyance. "Why is it so hard to believe that he escaped Azkaban too? I did, didn't I? Why are so sure that I'm mistaken like Sirius too?"
"... Because it was dark and chaotic, Diana. You probably didn't even know what you saw–"
"I SAID I BLOODY FOUGHT WITH HIM!" Fuming, Diana pounded her fists on the table rattling the utensils on the table. Kreacher at the corner of the room just stared at the auburn-haired woman in fear. "Why aren't you two believing me?!"
"It's not that we're not believing y–"
"Do you think I've gone bloody mad too?" Diana uttered in a cold voice. The utterance that Barty Crouch Jr. had asserted to Diana was slowly spreading in her mind, growing into a bigger suspicion.
'Her own friends are not believing her anymore.'
"You think Azkaban has made me unhinged, don't you?" Diana asked in a low tone, tilting her head.
Remus and Sirius both remained silent. The only difference was Remus was avoiding her glowering eyes but Sirius was staring right into them as he sipped on his firewhiskey.
"You two think I'm out of my mind, that I'm insane," Diana stated as if she had already figured out what her two other friends were thinking.
"You don't think you're insane, Diana." Remus protested as he held her trembling, cold hands softly. His heart almost broke. "Twelve years is a long time, Diana, to spend locked up in a place like Azkaban. It's completely normal to feel... out of place, both physically and mentally after such a traumatic experience."
"How long have you been thinking this about me?" Diana asked as if she hadn't heard what Remus just said.
Remus remained quiet for a moment then he exhaled loudly. "Diana... you've been displaying... inconsistent behaviors since the very beginning. You sometimes do or say things that aren't... quite like you. Sometimes you burst out in anger out of nowhere when you were never like this before."
"So you think I'm bloody deranged?" Diana snatched her hand away from Remus's warm ones.
"Yes," Sirius spoke for the first time since they came back to the Grimmauld Place. "We think you're mentally unstable now. And I think you must be aware of your own state better than any of us here" He stared straight into her hazel eyes, proving that he believed what he was saying.
Seething in fury, Diana glared at Sirius along with Kreacher in the corner who was observing the whole commotion. His hatred for his own master was increasing every second.
"More than I normally am?" Diana asked icily.
"More than you normally are."
"Then what do you suggest I do now?" Diana slowly arose from her chair, pushing it back with a loud creak and making Remus stand on guard. She strode towards where Sirus stood. "Get myself admitted into St. Mungo's?"
Throwing daggers with her gaze, she stood in front of him while Sirius calmly sipped on his firewhiskey. "As much as I'd like to consider your suggestion, I don't think that's necessary right now. We should inform Dumbledore for now." He gently walked past Diana who looked at him confused.
"About your state and what you've seen at the World Cup today." Sirius placed his empty glass on the table and looked at the woman.
"So you believe her?" Remus asked Sirius frowning as he still had some doubts.
"I'm just merely considering it and as far as Harry's safety is concerned, Dumbledore should know it too," Sirius said as he walked out of the room leaving his two friends behind.
"Good thing, we sent the kids at the Burrow for tonight. They didn't need to hear all these." Remus sighed as he sat down on his chair again along with Diana, who was still a bit flabbergasted.
Remus took a sip of his cold tea and grimaced not liking the taste at all, while Diana drank her whiskey as Kreacher served her a sandwich.
That night Diana wrote a letter to Dumbledore, fully explaining what happened at the World Cup, that Bartemius Crouch Jr. the death eater who took part in the capture and torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom, had escaped the Azkaban.
And no one in the wizarding world knew about it.
_
Word count: 2130
Author's Note: A rather short chapter. Too many things happened in the previous chapter, so I decided to maybe calm things down a bit.
Also, I published the first chapter of my Remus Lupin fic "Mortal Enemies". Check that out too!
Tell me if you enjoyed this chapter. I love reading your comments and your feedbacks are very much appreciated. Don't forget to leave a vote if you like it.
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