A/N: Okay so I know I offer pretty lame descriptions of the tasks, but considering the audience stared at a lake for the second task and a maze for the third, you're just going to have to suffer through a few paragraphs of boring. Bear with me.
"You're going to be brilliant Harry." Audra looks him in eye as she says it, like she's trying to convey just how much she means it, as if that might make either of them feel better about what he's going to have to do tonight. She feels the rush of tears in her eyes and wraps him in a hug to hide it. Audra's not sure if he's ever had someone other than Mrs. Weasley and Hermione hug him like this, like they care, like he's family. His hands hang at his sides, like no one's taught him how it goes, but she doesn't let go. Her eyes are stinging when she steps away, and behind Harry, Mrs. Weasley looks like she's about to burst into tears herself. "I mean it."
"I'll be fine." He's grinning. Audra had caught sight of him this morning before her potions exam and he had looked a little green, but he does seem happy now. It seemed that seeing Mrs. Weasley and Bill had bolstered his confidence. "I've done alright so far, haven't I?"
"You've done amazing, and you better keep it up." She ruffles his hair, making it stick up even more than it normally does. "I've got twenty galleons riding on this."
She settles down in the middle of a group of Gryffindors to watch the third task, between the twins and Ginny, and behind Ron and Hermione. No one gives her a second glance- it seems that for once, it is all Hogwarts students as one, instead of divided into four.
The crowd is loud, but they're little group is quiet. The music blasting from the band combined with the cheers make it hard for them to hear anything, but the looks on their faces are enough: no matter what they told Harry, it'll be a long night as they wait for him to come out of the maze with all his limbs attached.
"He's going to be okay, right?" Hermione asks, her voice small and on the verge of tears.
No one wants to answer her at first. She looks to Ron for reassurance, and Audra is reminded of when Mrs. Weasley looked at Arthur when they got home from the World Cup. "Of course he's going to be fine." He wrapped an arm around her in a side ways hug. His voice was light and cheerful, but when he looked up at the twins, they all saw the grim expression on his face. "He's gotten himself out of worse situations than this, you know he has."
"I know he can do it," Hermione said, sniffing and waving a hand at the air. "I suppose I'm just being silly."
Audra didn't think she was being silly at all. She exchanged a look from Fred, and he nodded, just enough to let her known that he saw her looking.
When the names were announced, Ginny grabbed onto her hand and squeezed. The cannon fired and Harry ran into the maze, wand outstretched. Audra squeezed back.
They stay like that for the first hour, tense and searching for any sign that showed that Harry might be on his way out. The six of them looked pretty pathetic compared to the rest of the crowd- Neville was sitting on the very edge of his seat, Hermione kept alternating between muttering random facts about the previous tournaments and burying her head in Ron's shoulder, the twins were cracking jokes that fell flat, and Ginny hadn't spoken at all since Harry disappeared, holding tight to Audra's hand the whole time.
It was hard to stay as worried as they were, and eventually, after they got used to the idea that Harry wasn't going to be led out of the maze on a stretcher, things calmed down. Neville took snack orders around hour three, and they all took turns going to the bathroom during hour four. Audra felt tense and miserable throughout all of it, hugging herself and digging her nails into her own skin, only stopping when Fred pried her fingers away. There was a commotion when red sparks emerged the first time, followed by Fleur's scratch covered face and twig filled hair. Then the sparks came up again and Krum was carried out, and the uproar was instantaneous- no matter which champion reaches the final, Hogwarts has won.
"I can't believe it." Fred whistled low when Krum passed below them, a lump on his head and dried blood on his face. Hermione fought her way down to the ground, leaving Ron in a sour mood. "Harry might win."
"Of course he'll win." Ron said, rolling his eyes. "You new here?"
Harry comes back six hours into the task, bringing Cedric and the cup with them. They erupted, cheering, and Audra didn't know who she was hugging, but she knew it was one of the girls. there was squealing, and Fred and George were chanting, but Ron threw himself back into his seat with a groan. "I don't believe it. They've both got the cup, it was a tie. Bet it was Harry's idea, the stupid git."
It was Hermione who noticed first, shushing them and holding onto Neville for balance as she leaned forward. "Something's wrong. Cedric, he's..." And all at once Audra saw what Hermione did, the way that Cedric still hadn't moved, the way his head was angled, how Harry had yet to turn towards the crowd, throwing himself onto his fellow champion's body instead. "Ron, we've got to get down there."
The two took off, pushing through people and climbing over seats. It didn't take long for the rest of the crowd to realize that something had gone horribly wrong, and the message carried up from the very first row all the way to the top- A boy's been killed, stay in your seats, it's Cedric, don't let Cho see. They were quiet in seconds, all of them staring, this wonderful thing gone astray like a beloved pet that suddenly bites, the joy of all the Hogwarts students dissolving into the confusion that would morph into widespread grief. The whole crowd could hear Harry sobbing, out of his mind, refusing to let go, and when Mr. Diggory held his son's pale face in his hands for the last time, his anguished screams seemed to rip the very air apart.
Audra spotted Ron and Hermione making it to the very end and being stopped by Professor Flitwick, ushering them back into the seats. Hermione snapped back, hair wild. It was the first time Audra had ever seen her disrespect a teacher, and she did so with gusto- she launched herself over railing and ran towards where they had last seen Harry, leaving Ron to protest weakly and push through on his own.
"Jesus." George swears, fluently. He looks deathly pale.
"What do you think happened?" Fred asks, seemingly unable to tear his eyes away from the scene in front of them.
"Didn't you hear Harry?" Ginny said. She was frightened, terrified, but unlike everyone else, she didn't seem to be worried about the body, no matter how horrifying it was. Her hand was shaking when Audra took it. "It was you-know-who. He killed Diggory." She didn't cry, and when she stared up at them, the resemblance between her and the twins was shocking. "He's back."
"No," George said, shaking his head. "No, he's confused, he had to have been. Right?"
Neville shrugged, looking even more disconcerted than he had before. "Harry's never lost his head before. If Harry says he's back, he's back."
Ginny throws herself at George, the first time that Audra had seen her turn towards one of her brothers for comfort. He looks just as surprised as anyone else, but he accepts it without question, telling her everything was going to be fine. If he knows that he's lying, he doesn't show it.
Audra looks at Fred, and he doesn't hesitate before opening his arms. She ducks her head into his neck and cries, and he holds her tighter, clutching at her like that might keep the two of them safe. They were just a bunch of scared kids then, holding each other close like that might keep all the bad things either away. And far away, in a graveyard that none of them knew existed, a war was beginning.
The stadium was silent as it was cleared. They all made three lines- Beauxbatons towards their carriage, Durmstrang the boat, and Hogwarts students up to the castle. Cedric's body had been covered, but they all stared at it as they passed, like they were all waiting for him to get up and walk away. For a lot of them, it was the first time that they'd witnessed death firsthand.
"Don't look, Ginny," George ordered, and Fred looked like he wanted to tell Audra the same thing.
Flitwick and Sprout were there to receive them on the steps, directing them to go straight to their houses. George goes straight to the tower with Ginny, but Fred walks with Audra as long as he can. He pulls her to the side at the last second. "I'll sneak out to see you later tonight."
"Don't." She grabs his hands, both of them being buffeted by the group of students parting around them. "They've got enough to worry about without you being out of bed."
"You're going to be so far away." He has her face in his hands, and he's searching in her eyes for something. "I just, I won't know.."
"We're safe at Hogwarts, alright?" She had her fingers wrapped around his wrist, loosely, but she could feel his pulse thrumming under her thumb. It's fast. "I'll write to you tonight, see you first thing tomorrow, but don't risk your neck over something stupid, okay? I'm going to be fine. Ron and Ginny need you tonight."
"I know. Okay. I know." He presses their foreheads together, briefly, and then he turns away. She watches after him until he turns the corner.
"Come on," Emmeline tugged on her hand, pulling her forward. "We gotta go."
The common room is silent.
Audra doesn't think she's ever seen it so full. Tonight, every kid was here, stuffed onto sofas and sitting on tables. Some of them were fine with sitting, just staring at walls and ceilings, but others were in constant movement, throwing things into the fire or starting and erasing letters to send to parents the next day. It's not until a small first year falls asleep and slides off her chair that a prefect gets up and ushers all the first and second years to bed, promising that the sixth and seventh years will take turns checking up on them.
They're a little more open when it's just the older students, if you can call thirteen old enough. Conversations kept popping up in hushed whispers and the occasional angry yell, but they died as soon as they start. Everywhere Audra looks, there's frightened faces and set jaws. She knows that every house probably looks like that, and all of them would have different ways of coping, but she also knows that this is the house who's kids have the most to lose. To be expected to fight for what you love is one thing, but to be expected to become the monster that gets slain is quite another.
"Did you hear what he was saying?" A fifth year that Audra had never spoken to piped up from her place by the fire. "That he's back. Do you think it's true?"
One of the boys beside her snorted, picking up an ink well and throwing it into the fire to vent his frustration. The glass glints in the flames, but the ink splatters. A fleck finds its way onto Emmeline's cheek, a vivid acid green tear against her pale skin. "We're fucked if it is. You know that, right? We'll have to join him." He would have looked brave if not for the tear tracks on his cheeks. No one laughs at him for it.
"We don't have to," The girl, whose name was Peggy, argues. She's gentle, reaching an arm out to draw him back, but he turns away from her, almost spitting with rage. No one stops him from yelling back, even though they knew it would carry down the hallways to the first years.
"Are you that daft?" He spews the words out at her, at the rest of them. Audra's not sure who he's trying to convince. "You don't get to say no to this. Our parents were in, so we're in. He'll kill us if we don't."
"We don't know anything yet." Emmeline said, trying to calm them, coaxing the boy into putting down the book he had just picked up.
"What do you mean, we don't know?" Draco's voice was thin and childlike. There was panic on his face, the same one that was rising inside of all of them. Audra can feel it in herself, twisting her stomach, clawing its way up her throat, wanting to find a release. She wants to yell, but settles for punching the cold dungeon wall instead. No one sees. "You heard what Potter was screaming. He hasn't been wrong about anything yet. And healthy kids don't just die, do they?If he says he's back, he's back."
"But don't trick yourself into thinking you don't have a choice." Audra moved to the center of the room to stand beside Emmeline. "We don't have to join him. It's not an easy choice, I know that, but we have a chance to do the right thing."
"The choice to die?" Crabbe sneers at her. She wants to put her fist in his teeth.
"The choice to fight against him. People have done it, and won. You-know-who isn't untouchable. Harry proved that as a baby, and he can do it again. If we stand together, all of us, we can stay away. Our parents made their choice. It's up to us to make a better one." Audra stared at all of them, at all the tired eyes and frightened faces and disheveled robes. "And if you don't think you can do that, you can run. He doesn't give a damn about us, if we move out of reach, he won't follow. Maybe not for long, but maybe you'll be able to outlast the war. Dumbledore will help you, he has in the past."
"Why would he help us?" The same boy, the one who was now clutching a shard of glass in his hands. The blood dripped onto the bear rug he was standing on, staining the white fur. "We're death eaters."
"We're kids." She walked over to him, pried the glass from his hand. He seemed surprised to see that he was holding it. "Not killers."
It's true, she thought later, staring up at the ceiling. We're a lot of things, but we're not cut out for what he's going to ask us to do. They had grown up with prejudices, grown up to be taught that they are better than everyone, groomed to be rich and priveledged for the rest of their lives. It's a big jump from being spewing school yard taunts to using unforgiveable curses on anyone who stands in your way.
"Do you believe that?" Ariel, their room mate, says. The three of them had gone up to bed soon after Audra's proclamation, and they could hear the rest of the students walking down to bed, a small stream of them leaving the common room in twos and threes. No one seems to want to be alone. "What you said in there?"
"I do." She found that she did. Audra also knows that its different from her, to know that if she joins the wrong side she would soon have to fight against one of the Weasley's or Hermione or Harry, or some classmate she used to sit beside. If she joined, she would have to hurt Fred. Audra would sooner kneel defenseless at the Dark Lord's feet and let him kill her than do that. "And I think that if you've decided that you're going to run, you should talk to Dumbledore as soon as possible. I'm not sure you can go home."
They sit in silence for a little bit. There was water running, people showering and getting ready for bed like normal. There was crying in the hall, someone walking back to their dorms. Back in the common room, they had all started yelling, screaming at each other. Someone got called a coward, and then there was a massive shattering that had to have been the mirrored wall. Audra thinks she should go help, but she could hear the door slam open across the hall and decided to let the prefects handle it.
"Could we stay up together, just for a little longer?" Emmeline said. She had her knees pulled tight to her chest, and her hair was loose around her shoulders. She looks younger than normal. "I don't feel like going to sleep yet."
Together, Emmeline, Audra, and Ariel pull the mattresses off the bed and slide them in front of the fire. They pile on all the blankets and pillows they can find, open the door for the fourth years that had come knocking. There's crying on the other side of the wall, and when Emmeline goes over to check on them, she returns with four fourth years and a pillowcase that Pansy had stuffed full of chocolate frogs. It is a long night, interrupted by the yelling from the common room and the lashing of rain on the windows, but eventually they manage to huddle together and fall asleep.
They do not know, then, about what happened in the graveyard. They do not know that the Diggory's have finally been told the story of how their son was killed, and that somehow Mr. Diggory's silence was even worse than his screams. No one told them about the letters on the way to the former Order members houses, that sleep would be interrupted by a scratching at the window and a trusted handful would be reentered into a nightmare that they had never really left behind. They did not know, could not know, that finally, after so long, their parent's marks were back, burning black against pale skin, scorching, a battle cry of the worst kind.