"How is he doing?" Marina asked Madame Pomfrey the next morning.

Dumbledore had gotten Mad-Eye out of the trunk and magicked his unconscious self to the infirmary.

"The effects of the Imperius are wearing off, and he refuses to go to St. Mungo's," Pomfrey reported, obviously very displeased with that.

"Can he have visitors?"

"Aye," Mad-Eye grumbled from behind the curtain around his bed.

Marina snorted.

"I wasn't talking to you. Last I checked you have no Healer training," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Saw that," he grumbled.

"You put his eye back in?"

"He did, over my objection. He needs rest, but he disagrees. He insists on-"

"Constant vigilance," Marina finished for her. She could imagine that would get worse than ever, now that someone had actually gotten the drop on him.

"Ten minutes," Madame Pomfrey allowed with a small smile she tried to hide.

So she pulled open the curtain and found an awful looking ex-auror.

"Bloody hell, Mad-Eye," she exclaimed and sat next to his bed. "You starve yourself?"

"Tried to," he rumbled. "Bastard wouldn't let me."

From the looks of it, he'd lost 25 pounds at least – which given his scarred skin looked horrible. Said skin was pale and thin from lack of daylight and nutrition. Patches of his hair had very obviously been cut and shaved off.

"With any luck he'll get killed within the next two days," she muttered, angry all over again. That's how long it would take the auror office to get him back to Azkaban. If he attempted an escape then, they had licence to kill him.

"I'm sorry, lass," Mad-Eye said. The man that never apologised.

"No, I am," Marina shook her head. "I should have figured it out sooner."

"Albus didn't," the grouch growled and shifted uncomfortably. "How should you have?"

"Seriously?" she huffed and glared at the matress. "He was putting on a damn good act but there were still signs. I should have known. You taught be better than this."

Silence reigned for a few minutes, both of them wallowing in their respective self-blame. Then Marina took a breath and forced herself to ask.

"Mad-Eye... how in Merlin's name did he get the drop on you?"

"He didn't," the ex-auror grumbled – and something about his tone warned her that she wouldn't at all like what he would say next.

"Somebody did."

"Aye. Voldemort."

Marina sat there and stared at her mentor for what felt like minutes, but was only a few seconds.

"You... you're telling me he was in London?"

If so, that took nerve.

"Aye. Didn't look much like himself but it was him."

A chill rang down her spine. Something Harry had told her before the World Cup came to mind.

I had a dream last night. Wormtail, Crouch and Bellatrix were there... with Him. He wants me, Marina. He killed a muggle that found them. And he didn't look human...

"How long are you going to let Madame Pomfrey do her job?" she asked Mad-Eye casually but was feeling anything but.

"Another day or two. Then I'm outta here and doing my job. Why?"

"Because I need you to start training Harry now, Mad-Eye. Crouch didn't enter us into the Tournament for nothing."

"According to Nott, the lad did alright so far."

"Because he seems to have no fear once he's actually in danger. But that will only get him so far. I need you to give him a crash course."


And so it was decided. Marina should probably have apologised to Madame Pomfrey for giving Mad-Eye a reason to resist treatment even sooner, but she couldn't ignore the knot of worry.

Harry, to her surprise, had argued against extra training. It was Dad who'd caught on and sat down to talk privatley to his son – Merlin, that still sounded weird, and yet right somehow.

Turned out her brother just wanted to avoid even more gossip and attention. Being tutored by Moody would cause exactly that but their father had spent about an hour talking things out, until it had boiled down to the inevitable question: what was more important to Harry? Avoiding the rumours or being as prepared as he could be for what was to come?

So now Harry, Ron, Hermione, Susan, Draco, Theo, Daphne and her sister Astoria, Neville and Hannah would join Marina and the other advanced sixth-years in their extra session; Wednesday, 2nd period. They could help train the kids while learning something themselves. Mad-Eye had been surprisingly accomodating about including Harry's friends but Remus might have had something to do with that.

But first, there was the matter of Crouch Jr and his imminent return to hell.

David and Elias had contacted Amelia personally and asked her permission (and subsequent orders) that they be assigned to stay as security until the lunatic was out of the castle. Given her nieces' close proximity, Marina hadn't been surprised at Amelia's hasty confirmation.

Meanwhile, the Prophet – or should she say Rita Skeeter – had of course made it their new mission to analyse just what had to have gone wrong for an insane Death Eater like Crouch to not only overcome Mad-Eye but the castle's security as well. In between, she kept getting digs in that David and Elias maybe hadn't been as focused on their job as they should have been, instead showing more concern about their girlfriends.

Marina had sent a Howler in response. There was only so much restraint anyone could have and that woman was driving her round the bend more than the Death Eaters.

She couldn't have seen Skeeter's next move coming, though, since she'd been as oblivious as everyone else. In the evening edition, the despicable woman had taken her gossip column about the love lives at Hogwarts to a whole new level:

Skeeter suggested that not only was Marina dating David, longtime paramour to Curse Breaker Jenna Hastings, but also seeing Viktor Krum on the side.

Viktor, who'd been seen around the castle a lot with Elvira Rookwood – and Hermione Granger.

Hermione, who was allegedly busy breaking the Seeker's heart, as well as Harry's.

Even though a source reported that Harry had asked out Cho Chang – Cederic's new girlfriend.

Needless to say, reading that article Marina hadn't known whether to send the witch a hexed letter or laugh hysterically at the nonsense of it all. She wondered if this was what a Boggart felt like after getting hit with the Riddikulus. As if she'd fallen into twilight zone.

Of course, there was the troubling fact of the matter that while the witch's allegations were ridiculous, her facts were spot-on.

Harry did like Cho and had asked her out, not knowing Cederic had beaten him to it. Cho had let him down very gently apparently.

Viktor was to be seen with Elvira because the two got along great and unless Marina missed her guess, there was some romance developing. Merlin knew it was about time for her grumpy friend to meet someone who liked him for himself, not his fame. And he couldn't care less about Elvira's infamy due to her father.

Hermione had been seen with him because she'd volunteered to play messenger when Marina had wanted to avoid exactly these kinds of rumours. And Karkaroff's glares.

The question was-

"Where the hell does she keep getting all this?" Carmen muttered under her breath, tossing the paper aside, voicing Marina's thoughts.

"A few months ago I would have said the Slytherins," Marina sighed. "But Draco and Theo would have heard and told us."

"Plus, someone would have noticed that cyka on the grounds," Irina butted in with a growl. Marina didn't ask but the word didn't sound nice.

Charlie had dragged the two of them along to the dragon enclosure – a day after all the exitement and the beasts were actually relatively calm. David and Elias had joined them an hour ago. They'd been sleeping in after standing guard at Crouch's cell all last night and this morning. The dragonologists had decided they needed a distraction and so here they were.

Irina had spent the last two hours passing the 'friends-test'. Apparently wanting to make a good impression on Charlie's best friends outside the reservoir, she'd endured a lot of questions.

She was only a few months younger than her boyfriend and had attended Koldovstoretz – the Russian Wizarding School. That was possibly the reason why she wasn't much for Quidditch; at her school they played it on whole uprooted trees. Her parents had intended for her to take over the family business in Siberia, but much like Charlie she'd only ever been intersted in Magizoology. She'd come to the reservoir for a summer internship and decided to specialise in dragons. Irina was an only child and her family had money, but for all that she was remarkably grounded. She and Charlie seemed to be absolutely perfect for each other. Hopefully, Molly would agree.

But for all the questioning, Marina could tell both aurors were smitten by the Russian. It was hard finding any fault with her when Charlie was so obviously crazy about her.

"Someone needs to put a permanent Silencing Charm on that woman," Carmen muttered.

"Wouldn't do much good with that quill of hers," Marina grumbled and laid back on the grass. If anyone would have told her yesterday she'd ever be relaxed this close to the dragons...

"I want to know how she knows everything that goes on here," Carmen maintained with a huff. "You didn't even know Cederic and Cho were dating until they told you to check on Harry. So how does she?"

"We're going to have to start checking the Map regularly. Then maybe we'll catch her."


"Be careful," Marina said quietly as she said goodbye to David. Yet another pair of aurors had arrived to help him and Elias escort Crouch back to Azkaban. The fact that a single, unarmed, wizard warranted this kind of precaution was not comforting at all.

"There is another team coming," David told her just as quietly and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Just in case."

In case her fruitcake of a cousin would try and get her master's favourite out of custody.

"Has anyone actually figured out how they escaped in the first place?" she questioned and held onto David's robes so she wouldn't do something stupid. "Sending him to the place that lost him before does not inspire confidence."

"The Ministry doesn't want anyone to know," David said slowly. "Not all dementors are under our control. Looks like Voldemort convinced a few rogue ones to free some of his assets and promised them free reign in exchange."

"Brilliant." If the Ministry thought they were actually controling the bloody creatures, then they were delusional. As far as she was concerned, the Dementors played along until something better came their way. Like say, an evil wizard with aspirations to take over the world.

"There are three more aurors stationed as wardens now," David assured her. Or tried to at least.

"I didn't see Bellatrix making a move, but doesn't mean anything," Marina mumbled and buried her face in his chest, audience be damned. "If she shows..."

As if David's testimony against her wasn't enough of a reason for her cousin to target him, thanks to Skeeter the world now knew that Marina loved him. It put even more of a target on his back.

"Better me than you," he said, adamant. He still wasn't over the bit about Bella wanting her as a prize.

She knew better than to argue. The stubborn streak was common in his family; not that she was any better, she supposed.

The kids, her friends and Marina then stood back and watched the newly arrived pair of aurors drag a grinning Crouch out of the dungeons. Apparently, he'd been laughing the entire two days he'd spent in the cell. He and Bella had a lot in common.

"Come on," she said when the maniac started chuckling while being chained and muted. "Let's get back to classes. He's had too much of our attention already."


Two weeks later...

"Say what?" Marina stared at her brother dumbfounded. She must have misheard.

"McGonagall said that the Champions have to dance at the Yule Ball. First dance."

Harry sounded utterly miserable about it too. Possibly because neither one of them could dance, never mind that three schools would be watching.

"And she tells us this now? The Ball is in two weeks." Barely.

Their so-called friends were all laughing at their expense. Where in the name of Merlin and Morgana was she going to get a date in two weeks' notice? She hadn't planned on taking anybody since she couldn't very well ask David.

"Okay," Carmen said loudly and gathered everyone's attention. "Who's taking who?"

"Katie," Fred announced at the same time as George said, "Angelina."

Neither one of the girls protested so Marina assumed the twins had actually already bothered to ask. It was progress.

"I'm taking Sam," Lee added, clearly proud of himself. He was so biting off more than he could chew with the Ravenclaw Beater.

"Viktor is taking Elvira," Marina volunteered when the girl stayed silent – she was promptly met with startled eyes.

"He asked my permission," she explained and rolled her eyes. "Because of Skeeter's article. He doesn't want to make it worse."

"I asked Ginny," Neville said quietly and blushed bright red immediately. Surprisingly, none of her brothers reacted at all. Fourth-years and above were all invited to the Ball; everything below needed an invitation as plus-one.

"So we're leaving Ty in the cold?" Harry asked. "He won't like that much."

"I'll go with him," Hannah offered, pink staining her cheeks. "If he wants, that is. I was gonna go alone, but..."

"Draco and Theo offered to take us," Daphne said and slung an arm around her younger sister.

Of course. The Greengrass sisters were capable, smart, nice and purebloods. The boys would be having a good time and wouldn't damage their Slytherin reputations.

"Jolene?" Carmen asked their Hufflepuff friend.

"One of the Durmstrangs asked me," she admitted, twisting her auburn hair nervously. As far as Marina knew, she'd never dated before.

"Trish?"

"Me too," she nodded. "Viktor was there too and didn't say anything so I said yes."

Her friend had taken to warning her friends away from the... darker students of his school.

"Okay, then. Don't take this the wrong way, but back to the main problem.

I know you'd planned to go solo, so who are you taking, Harry?" Marina asked after they'd worked through all their friends – who all had a date, ironically enough. Well, except Carmen.

To her amazement, Harry sensed nervous and apologetic at the same time.

"Well...," he hedged, clearly uncomfortable, "... once I knew I had to bring someone..."

"He asked me," Hermione finished, putting him out of his misery. "As friends."

"Same with Ron and me," Susan added quickly – to stop everyone from gawking, she imagined.

That certainly explained Harry's nerves. It would fuel the rumours Skeeter had started.

"Well, then. I suppose I better get a move on and find a date."


Later that day, it was the first time in what felt like months that she and Harry were alone. Everybody was busy doing homework, or training – or discussing what they'd wear to the Ball. The two of them were doing their respective Runes homework; not just because it needed to get done, because it was somewhat calming work.

"I like Hermione," Harry suddenly said, as if defending himself.

Marina raised her brows.

"I'd hope so. She's your best friend."

"And I know she's a girl and pretty, just..." He trailed off, shrugging helplessly. Ah, the struggles of a teenage boy talking about his feelings. Luckily, she knew what he was trying to say.

"You feel guilty because you just asked her because you had to take someone."

He deflated like a balloon that had been pricked.

"What if someone would have asked her as... you know, a date? What if she's mad?"

Marina stared at him and debated what to do. Between him and Ron, she was fairly sure they never debated their feelings. And they sure wouldn't talk to the girls, or vice versa.

She also knew that Ron wasn't nearly as callous about girls' feelings as he pretended to be; the fool just wanted to look cool to his friends – she blamed his brothers for that attitude. Harry, however, had always remained silent and had stayed out of it all. More than once she'd sensed his discomfort at how his best friend treated the girls.

Marina didn't know whether is was progress he'd broached the subject, or if she was entering a dangerous territory here. And just how was she supposed to answer that? She knew perfectly well what Hermione was feeling, but imagined the girl wouldn't appreciate her telling Harry.

What a minefield.

"Did she seem mad?" she asked her brother calmly and put down her quill. This conversation needed focus.

"No. But Hermione doesn't really get mad at me. Just... disappointed." He pulled a face at that last bit. His friend only got disappointed with him when she had reason; he didn't like that apparently.

"Well, what did you say when you asked her?" Marina asked and braced herself for the worst. Boys a lot older, and more experienced with girls than Harry, sometimes were complete idiots when talking to girls. And given how nervous he still was just talking about it, she didn't think her brother had done much better.

"I told her that I hadn't planned on taking anyone – I don't dance," he added as if he needed to tell her that. "But since I had to take someone, I wanna go with a friend. Someone I won't make myself a prat in front of."

That was... remarkably good.

"And what did she say?"

"That she didn't dance either but she'll of course go with me. Then she mumbled that I wouldn't laugh," he added with a confused frown. Marina wasn't touching that one. He'd just have to figure out for himself that Hermione was starting to feel like a girl, not just a sponge eager to absorb any knowledge she could find.

"She's not mad at you," she circled back to the beginning of this discussion. "You actually did really good."

"Well," he cleared his throat and fidgeted in his seat, suddenly unbearably embarassed.

"What?"

"Sirius and Remus gave me the talk this summer," he admitted, his face turning scarlet. "How to treat girls and … you know."

Marina's own face blushed bright red. She remembered Dromeda giving her that talk all too well. It was embarassing as hell to girls, who were generally used to talk about feelings more, but for a boy... and the two men giving the talk? She shuddered.

"Glad I wasn't around for that," she said. "They do know you're not interested yet, right?"

"I told them that, but Padfoot said better safe than sorry," Harry mumbled, relaxing a bit. Given the fact that Marina had been an accident, she could see where her father was coming from.

"Do me favour," she said and picked up her quill again. "When you do start liking girls that way, use Occlumency around me, please."

Harry looked at her sharply at that.

"You sense all that too?"

"Yep. It got worse last year when, you know, all my friends started dating. But after a while I can focus on other emotions and ignore it."

But she didn't want to know when her brother started getting interested.


December 25th 1994

She didn't deserve her friends, that was for sure.

The girls had banded together behind her back and started asking around who might be willing to take her to the damn Ball. Just when she'd been about to ask one of Viktor's friends – who she knew had a girl at home – Logan Dodge had approached her and asked if she'd go with him. She knew he was dating a fellow Hufflepuff named Reya. They'd both assured her that it was fine.

Marina had been cutting it close and had accepted, with the promise that after the opening dance Reya would get her boyfriend back.

Her dress robes had been a present from the Tonks – in fact they had all gotten their robes for Christmas, from all the parents.

Marina had just finished putting on her sheath-cut gown in sea-green (only two or so shades darker than her eyes) and white-gold jewelry, before meeting the others.

Harry's robes looked a lot like his school robes, just completely green. Ron's were exactly the same except in a warm walnut brown.

Carmen was wearing a mermaid-cut gown in azure blue, without holders and complete with her golden jewelry.

Susan had chosen an empire-cut gown in black – which looked absolutely amazing against her pale skin.

Hermione, however, was the real eye-catcher tonight. Her basque-waist gown was scarlet red, only highlighted by the golden jewelry. And for the first time since Marina had met her, the girl's hair was tamed and twirled in an elaborate updo. She looked amazing.

Harry, for his part, smiled and handed her the corsage with roses he'd gotten her. He was still feeling a bit guilty.

Thankfully, Ron seemed to have been concerned about how it must have looked too and had gone with Harry to purchase an orchid corsage for Susan.

The girls shot each other an amused look but accepted with thanks anyway.

"I owe you one for this," she told Logan as they made their way into the Great Hall. Harry and Hermione were right behind them. Viktor and Elvira were ahead and talking happily. She'd never heard the man talk so much, ever. Up front was Fleur with Roger Davis.

"Nah. Just tell your auror I'm taken," he teased and she shook her head.

"David knows I have to open the damn Ball. He had to read the rant."

"Skeeter is here, you know," Logan said after hesitating for a second.

"Yes, and I'm sure she'll collect enough ammunition for another one of her ridiculous articles. We've all agreed to just ignore her. Otherwise we might just have to hex her for real."

When they took their places on the dinner tables – she'd insisted Logan eat with Reya – Harry and Marina were subjected to Percy. Evidently, he'd been promoted and was standing in for Crouch.

She didn't pay much attention to his self-important blabber though, when she spotted her father. With Hestia on his arm.

A grin spread across her face. Her Dad was wearing dress robes as black as his hair but with a scarlet tie. Hestia was dressed completely gold – shoes to hairpin. Finally.

Remus was there too, his dress robes all black. It had certainly taken the two of them long enough to let Marina in on the fact that several families had hired Remus as a private tutor for their younger children after the older kids had argued on his behalf long enough.

Then Dumbledore stood and everyone quieted down. Harry sighed. Here we go...


A/N: In case anyone was wondering, the Weasleys aren't poor in my AU. Just not rich either.