Sunshine glowed on their backs as the four of them walked down to Hagrid's cabin. They no longer had anymore Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, after all.
Fang came running the second them came into view, barking like bad and tail waving a mile a minute.
"Who's that?" Hagrid called curiously, poking his head out the door and then catching sight of them. "Harry!"
He hurried toward them, throwing an arm over Harry's shoulder and ruffling his hair with his free hand. "Good ter see yeh, mate. Good ter see yeh."
He let them inside, and they were greeted with the sight of two massive cups and saucers on Hagrid's table.
"Bin havin' a cuppa with Olympe. She's jus' left," He explained at their confused expressions.
"Who?" Ron's head tilted.
"Madame Maxime, o' course!" Hagrid replied brightly.
"You two made up, have you?" Ron replied.
"Dunno what yeh're talkin' about," Hagrid replied, a giddy air to his voice as he got more cups for them.
Tea soon filled the cups, accompanied with rather doughy cookies, and Hagrid sat down, surveying Harry.
"You all righ'?" He asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied instantly, the answer he always had for anyone who asked him. Even his friends.
"No, yeh're not. 'Course yeh're not. But yeh will be," Hagrid shook his head, continuing when Harry said nothing. "Knew he was goin' ter come back. Known it fer years, Harry. KNew he was out there, bidin' his time. It had ter happen. Well, now it has, an' we'll jus' have ter get on with it. We'll fight. Migh' be able ter stop him before he gets a good hold. That's Dumbledore's plan, anyway. Great man, Dumbledore. 'S long as we've got him, I'm not too worried."
They stared at him in disbelief, shocked.
"No good sittin' worryin' abou' it. What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does. Dumbledore told me wha' you did, Harry. Yeh did as much as yer father would've done, an' I can' give yeh no higher praise than that."
When Harry smiled, Amisty barely stifled her gasp in time.
He hadn't smiled at all, not once, not even a hint all month.
"What's Dumbledore asked you to do, Hagrid? He sent Professor McGonagall to ask you and Madame Maxime to meet him -- that night," Harry asked.
"Got a little job fer me over the summer. Secret, though. I'm not supposed ter talk abou' it, no, not ever ter you lot. Olympe -- Maxime Maxime ter you -- might be comin' with me. I think she will. Think I got her persuaded," Hagrid beamed.
"Is it to do with Voldemort?" He asked,
At the name, they all flinched except Harry. "Migh' be. Now... who'd like ter come an' visit the las' skrewt with me?"
They stared at him, the beginning of a glare or scowl on their faces.
"I was jokin', jokin'!"
-=+=-
The Leaving Feast arrived, but instead of the Great Hall being covered in House Colors it was covered in black. A mark of respect to Cedric.
Moody was sitting in his seat now, looking around even more, twitching at every noise.
The seat usually occupied by Karkaroff was empty, and Madame Maxime was sitting next to Hagrid as they spoke softly to each other.
Dumbledore stood, and the chatter in the Great Hall broke off very suddenly.
"The end of another year," He began, looking around the room, blue gaze resting on the Hufflepuff table before he continued. "There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight, but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."
Amisty stood, lifting up her goblet with everyone else in the room, their voices merging together as one, "Cedric Diggory."
She flinched at the sound of a quiet, shaky breath that undoubtedly came from Cho.
They sat down again.
"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff House. He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think that you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about."
There was a pause, Amisty saw Harry lift his head from the table out the corner of her eye.
"Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."
Several gasps of shock and terror swept through the Great Hall, people staring up at the Headmaster in disbelief.
"The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so -- either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder on his own, is an insult to his memory.
"There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection with Cedric's death. I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter.
"Harry Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort. He risked his own life to return Cedric's body to Hogwarts. He showed, in every respect, the sort of bravery that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort, and for this, I honor him."
The Great Hall rose again, and they murmured Harry's name the same way they did Cedric's.
"The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened -- of Lord Voldemort's return -- such ties are more important than ever before."
Dumbledore's gaze swept across Madame Maxime and Hagrid, and then to the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students.
"Every guest in this Hall will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again -- in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
"It is my belief -- and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken -- that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder."
Amisty looked away for a split second, her breath catching slightly.
"A week ago, a student was taken from our midst.
"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
-=+=-
Dear Amisty,
I've heard of Cedric Diggory. Be careful, Amisty, the world has gotten much more dangerous than it has been. I don't want you going back to the streets this year. Mrs. Weasley already offered to take you to the Burrow immediately this year, instead of you going to stay with them for the last few months. I want you to go with her. And I know that's just going to make you want to stay with Harry more, but there was a reason we hid you away with Haven during the first war. You have a recklessness streak, and right now that's not going to be helpful.
I love you, Dad ❤
"So..." Harry looked up from the letter, "You're not going with back with me... are you?"
"I want to, I really do," Amisty insisted, not quite meeting his gaze as she crossed her arms. "But -- "
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's going to be lonely without you, though."
She shrugged, a trace of a smile on her face, "Hey, it won't be that bad. I'll be writing you all summer."
"Well..." He sighed, shifting their trunks so they didn't topple over before they got on the train, "I guess I'll just have to complain about how lonely I am the whole time."
"'Arry!" A voice called.
They turned around, catching sight of Fleur hurrying toward them, her shiny hair bouncing behind her.
"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope. I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish," She beamed, shaking hands with him.
"It's very good already," Ron smiled, his voice strained and slightly strangled.
Amisty snickered behind her hand at the flush of red on his cheeks as Fleur smiled, stopping at Hermione's scowl.
"Good-bye, 'Arry! It 'az been a pleasure meeting you!"
And she ran back to the Beauxbatons cabin across the grounds, where Madame Maxime was waiting with Hagrid.
Harry was smiling slightly, not necessarily a happy one, but a hopeful smile was better than none.
"Wonder how the Durmstrang students are getting back. D'you reckon they can steer that ship without Karkaroff?" Ron wondered aloud.
"Karkaroff did not steer. He stayed in his cabin and let us do the vork," Another voice replied. It was Krum, and he turned to Hermione, "Could I have a vord?"
"Oh..." Hermione smiled faintly, her own cheeks going pink, "yes... all right."
It was Ron's turn to scowl as she followed Krum through the crowd, he called out in a poorly concealed act of annoyance, "You'd better hurry up! The carriages'll be here in a minute!"
Amisty snorted, plastering on an innocent what-did-I-do expression when Ron glared at her.
When the two of them returned, Hermione didn't give a single thing away.
"I liked Diggory," Krum told Harry suddenly, as if it wasn't often that he admitted such things. "He vos alvays polite to me. Alvays. Even though I vos from Durmstrang -- " He scowled, "with Karkaroff."
"Have you got a new headmaster yet?" Harry asked curiously.
Krum shrugged and shook Harry's hand, then Ron and Amisty's before he turned back to the lake.
"Can I have your autograph?" Ron burst out, so loudly and so abruptly Amisty almost fell over.
Hermione was smiling almost triumphantly as Krum signed a spare scrap of fragment for the redhead.
-=+=-
The ride back to King's Cross was one of the best days in a while.
It was calm, cozy, the conversation they had -- though on sad topics -- wasn't closed off and short. Pigwidgeon's cage was under Ron's horrible dress robes, Hedwig with her head under her wing, Echo hooting contentedly now that she actually had work to do with Draco and Amisty's falling out fixed, and Crookshanks dozing in the spare seat with his ginger tail over his nose.
Hermione went to go get food when the trolley came 'round, and Harry caught sight of a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the third task saying you won the tournament," Hermione's face turned bitter. "They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet."
"He'll never keep Rita quiet. Not on a story like this," Harry scowled.
"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task. As a matter of fact," Hermione's eyes glowed with triumph, "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked, staring at her.
"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming onto the grounds," Hermione replied in one breath.
They stared at her.
"How was she doing it?" Harry demanded.
"How did you find out?" Ron added.
"What did you do?" Amisty asked suspiciously.
"Well, it was you, really, who gave me the idea, Harry," Hermione replied sheepishly.
"Did I? How?" Harry blinked.
"Bugging," Hermione nodded, full on beaming now.
"But you said they didn't work -- " Ron started to protest.
"Oh not electronic bugs. No, you see..." Her eyes narrowed, voice trembling slightly, "Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn -- " She pulled out a tiny glass jar, -- "into a beetle."
"You're kidding," Ron exclaimed, staring at the jar. "You haven't... she's not..."
"Oh yes, she is," Hermione grinned, waving around the jar as her chin tilted up. Amisty stared at it, stared at the fat beetle inside.
"That's never -- you're kidding -- " Ron stumbled over his words, taking the jar into his own hands to inspect it further.
"No, I'm not. I caught her on the windowsill in the hospital wing. Look very closely, and you'll notice the markings are her antennae are exactly like those foul glasses she wears," Hermione replied brightly.
"There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!" Harry exclaimed.
"Exactly," Hermione nodded. "And Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we'd had our conversation by the lake. And unless I'm very much mistaken," She turned to Amisty, "Rita was buzzing around the Great Hall after spying on Hagrid," and then turned to Hagrid, "and she was perched on the windowsill of the Divination class the day your scar hurt. She's been buzzing around for stories all year."
"When we saw Malfoy under that tree..." Ron's voice trailed off in disbelief.
"He was talking to her, in his hand. He knew, of course. That's how she's been getting all those nice little interviews with the Slytherins."
Amisty scowled bitterly at the floor.
"They wouldn't care that she was doing something illegal, as long as they were giving her horrible stuff about us and Hagrid."
Hermione took the jar back, smiling giddily at the beetle as it buzzed around angrily, "I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London. I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."
"Can I squish her?" Amisty asked, glaring at the beetle.
"Amisty..." Harry laughed. "That's murder."
"Well, yes..." She looked away, crossing her arms. "No one would be suspicious since she's an unregistered Animagus. It'd just be a little concerning how badly I want to kill a beetle."
And then the rest of them were laughing, Amisty soon to join. The laughter was soon to cut off when the compartment door slid open.
Can I squish her too? Honestly. Like I wouldn't even hesitate I'd just do it and deal with all the lawsuits later. Is that bad? Does that make me a bad person? I hope not. That'd be unfortunate... Thanks for reading!