Dumbledore issued instructions to McGonagall and Snape who left to carry out the tasks assigned to them. Once they had left, Dumbledore invited Harry back to his office and Azalea followed them to the headmaster's office. She was surprised to see Sirius there, he was looking thin again. He helped Harry into a chair and Dumbledore quickly told Sirius all that Barty Crouch had confessed. A bird flew over to Harry, a type which Azalea had never seen before. Harry informed her it was a phoenix whilst he gently stroked its beautiful gold and red plumage, the action had a calming effect on Harry and Azalea left them alone. Over Sirius's objections, Dumbledore asked Harry to tell them what had happened after he'd touched the Triwizard cup. Harry explained about the portkey, the death of Cedric, the ceremony involving Tom Riddle's bones, Wormtail's hand and Harry's blood which brought Voldemort back to full strength. He told how Voldemort had summoned the death eaters and finally how he had forced Harry to duel with him and the strange way the two wands had reacted. Dumbledore described this phenomenon as Priori Incantatem and it had undoubtedly saved Hary's life. At one point Sirius seemed close to tears and Azalea went over to where he sat and put her hand on his arm in a comforting gesture, he glanced at her and covered her hand with his. Dumbledore suggested to Harry that he spend the night in the hospital and invited Sirius to join him. Sirius let go of Azalea's hand, nodded, stood up, changed into his dog form and went with them to the hospital wing. Azalea followed on behind unnoticed and she hadn't even used the concealment charm.
The hospital room was busy when they arrived. Ron and Hermione were there, as Azalea would have expected, but also one of the dragon handlers who Azalea remembered was Ron's brother and an older woman who must be Ron's mother. Dumbledore calmed them all down and Harry lay on a bed to rest. He took a couple of sips from a potion given to him by Madam Pomfrey and slipped into a calm doze. While Harry slept, Azalea took a seat close to his bed and Sirius, still in his dog form, sat on the floor his body leaning against her legs and his head resting on the mattress, not taking his eyes off Harry. Hermione and the Weasleys sat around the bed and for a short time the room was peaceful, the lights dimmed, and they had a whispered conversation.
Molly began, "So, you're Azalea, Harry's cousin."
"That's right; Lily's mother and mine were sisters."
Molly commented, "I can see a family resemblance, especially in the eyes but otherwise not much. I expect you take after your father."
"Possibly," replied Azalea, "I never met my father, he left before I was born. I wish I'd known him; my mother was deeply in love with him. I've always thought he must have been a good man for my mother to love him so. "
"He couldn't have been that good or he would never have left," Molly said wryly.
Azalea laughed, "That's true. May be she was attracted to bad boys."
"And you?" enquired Molly, "Are you attracted to bad boys?"
Azalea thought about Edward, there hadn't been a bad bone in his body and Severus; was he a bad boy? "No," Azalea replied "it's only good men for me."
"Me too," said Molly, "and my husband is the best man in the world."
"Ah mum, stop being so soppy," complained Ron "you're embarrassing me."
"I'm making up for the times when you embarrassed me," she said.
Hermione leaned in to the conversation at that point, "Ooh Mrs Weasley, can you think of an example of when Ron embarrassed you?" she asked mischievously.
"Well," said Molly leaning back in the chair, "there was a time when, unbeknown to me, Ron found some bright blue sweets which Fred and George had hidden in their room and he'd scoffed the lot." Ron, who had clearly heard the story before, groaned and hid his head in his hands. Molly continued undeterred, "Ron was about 3 years old and I needed to go to the shops to buy some cheese. I couldn't leave Ron behind (the older children were at school) so I took him and Ginny with me and flew to the shops on my broomstick. It was a blustery day and the journey was a bit bumpy. When we got there, I waited in the queue and hadn't noticed that Ron was looking a bit peaky. He leant over the cheese counter and promptly vomited all over the cheese on display. The vomit was bright blue and splattered everywhere – it looked like every cheese had gone mouldy!" Hermione and Azalea laughed at the image and the embarrassment to Molly. "I offered to clear it up but they shooed me out of the shop as quickly as they could in case Ron still had more left in him. I couldn't go into that shop for months afterwards." Molly concluded.
Hermione begged Molly to tell more stories about Ron and she obliged. As she started the third story Harry became more aware of the conversation going on around him and started to listen, his eyes still closed in apparent sleep. Molly recounted the story with humour but also with love for her son. Harry sympathised with Ron's embarrassment but he envied him the fact that someone had cared enough for him as a child to remember these small things and find them amusing. He would have given anything to be in Ron's situation and be embarrassed if it meant his mother was still alive to embarrass him. He felt tears of self pity spring to his eyes and start to seep out from under his eyelids. When Molly finished with the third story she felt sorry for Ron's embarrassment and told Hermione she would tell her some more another day and the group lapsed into silence.
The quiet was shattered when Minister Fudge, Snape and McGonagall stormed in to the room arguing loudly and closely followed in by Dumbledore. Harry woke up fully and sat up to see what was causing the commotion. Azalea listened in astonishment as she learned that Fudge had seen fit to bring a dementor into Hogwarts which had promptly killed Barty Crouch, no wonder everyone was so angry, was the minister an idiot? As she heard more of the discussion she came to the conclusion that the Minister was indeed an idiot, or was he in Voldemort's camp, acting on orders? Sometimes you couldn't tell who the good guys were. The argument as to whether or not Voldemort had returned raged back and forth with Fudge on one side, unconvinced and refusing to take advice, and Dumbledore and Harry on the other. Finally, Fudge said in a slightly pleading voice, "he can't be back, Dumbledore, he just can't be…"
Azalea saw Severus step forward, pulling up the sleeve of his robe as he went. ^^No Severus, please, no^^ she begged him wordlessly when she realised what he was going to do, but it was too late he'd gone too far to stop.
He thrust his arm towards Fudge, "There," Snape said harshly, "There's the Dark Mark. It's not as clear as it was an hour or so ago when it burned black but you can still see it. It is the way the Dark Lord summons the Death Eaters to him. He is back."
Fudge looked repelled at the sight of the dark mark and left the hospital wing saying he must return to the Ministry. Once he was gone, Dumbledore looked around at everyone left in the room. "There is work to be done," he said. "Molly, I can count on you and Arthur?"
"Of course you can," she replied.
Dumbledore gave other instructions to Bill, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey who all left the room. Azalea, Ron, Hermione and Harry looked at one another bewildered about was going on and whether anyone was going to put them in the picture. Instead, Dumbledore told Sirius, still disguised as a dog, to resume his usual form. Molly and Severus were both shocked by Sirius's sudden appearance. Ron immediately assured his mother it was all right, but Sirius and Severus regarded one another with equal loathing. Dumbledore asked them, somewhat impatiently, to put aside their differences and act for the common good but he would settle for lack of open hostility and asked them to shake hands.
Azalea had known that the two men didn't like each other but hadn't appreciated the depth of their dislike. She tried to lighten the mood and said, "Come along boys, be nice." They glanced over at her and because both wished to please her they shook hands very quickly and stepped away as if their touch burned.
Dumbledore sighed, "That will do to be getting on with." He told Sirius what he required him to do, Sirius was quick to accept. Azalea realised that any task would be better for Sirius than kicking his heels in the cave or at Grimmauld Place and she was grateful to Dumbledore for the distraction. Sirius said good bye to Harry and changed back into a dog, before he left he trotted over to Azalea, she stroked him tenderly and he looked affectionately at her before he ran the length of the room and was gone.
Dumbledore turned to Snape, "Severus, you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready… if you are prepared…"
Azalea's guts turned to ice. What was going on? She looked at Severus but he avoided her gaze and replied to Dumbledore "I am."
"Then good luck," said Dumbledore and Snape glided out of the room with no further comment.
^^Severus, what was that about? What are you going to do?^^ Azalea demanded to his mind.
^^My duty^^ came his reply.
A few moments' silence followed Snape's departure before Dumbledore left the room to see that the Diggorys were being taken care of in their grief. Azalea followed swiftly afterwards desperate to see Severus before he did whatever it was he was going to do and about which she had a shrewd idea. Where was he? He could be anywhere? She didn't have time to look in the places he may have gone. She started to head towards his office when inspiration hit her - she remembered the enchanted map of Hogwarts that she'd made with Sirius. She kept it in her chambers and immediately summoned it. She located his name moving swiftly out of the castle grounds towards the boundary with the Forbidden Forest. Azalea disapparated to appear just in front of him. He almost walked into her but stopped dead when he saw who it was. "How did you do that? Apparation isn't permitted within the boundaries of Hogwarts" he said, recalling that she had disapparated from the maze earlier.
"Isn't it?" she said, "I didn't know that." He went to step past her but she stood in front of him again, "Where are you going?" she asked.
"It is better if you don't know," he replied starting to move past her.
Once again she anticipated his movement and blocked his path, "Where it concerns you I need to know; I worry about you; I care about you and about what happens to you."
"It is as I said, I'm doing my duty," he told her gently, touched by her words but he made no further move to pass her.
Azalea was close to tears by now and said emotionally, "I spoke to Igor when Harry was missing, he was terrified." Snape remained where he was and let her continue. She took his left arm and gently pulled up his sleeve. "Igor has a mark just like this. I didn't realise what it was until today. I'd always assumed it was a tattoo that you'd had done, tattoos are commonplace for muggles and I never thought anything of it. Igor told me what it was and you confirmed it to Fudge earlier on. I didn't want you to do that." Her green eyes were swimming with tears as she looked into his dark brown ones, "You're going to join Voldemort aren't you?" she took a breath to compose herself, "I nearly lost Harry to Voldemort today, I don't want to lose you too."
"Azalea," he said touching her cheek gently with the hand she wasn't holding, "I can't tell you what I'm doing; too much is at stake, people's lives - mine, yours, even Potter's."
"I thought you didn't like Harry very much," she commented.
"I don't," he confirmed, "but I would never wish him dead and you know that" he finished firmly.
"Yes I do, I wasn't suggesting you'd let any harm come to him and I'm sorry." Azalea took both his hands in hers and continued frantically, "Don't go, Severus, run away. We'll go together, somewhere safe where Voldemort will never find us. That's what Igor's doing."
"No!" he spat out venomously releasing both of his hands, then continued in a softer tone, "Leah, I'd like nothing better than to spend the rest of my life with you, but I want a long life with you. If we run away we'll always be looking over our shoulder. Voldemort will hunt me down and kill me if I don't answer his call."
"But Igor?" she interjected.
"Is dead." he said succinctly, "Whatever Karkaroff does he is dead. If he returns Voldemort will punish him for all the death eaters he betrayed. If he runs Voldemort will seek him out to the ends of the earth before he kills him. There is nowhere to hide from the Dark Lord's fury."
Azalea looked aghast, "It's been hours since he called you. Is it too late for you already?"
"I have never betrayed the Dark Lord, so I think not," he replied with a confidence he didn't feel. "Azalea, please trust me in this."
Azalea gave a wan smile and asked him in an attempt at levity, "You're not going to do anything dangerous or stupid are you?"
He smiled back at her and replied lightly, "I can't promise you that but I can assure you it is not my intention to die tonight and I will come back to you. You've given me a reason to live and what I do is for our future, I want us to have a future."
Azalea searched his face and saw his sincerity, "Then I mustn't delay you any further." She didn't move and she looked away from his face to the school building in the background. There were lights shining from the windows and she could just make out some shadows as people moved around inside. There would be one fewer person there tonight – Cedric. His death at Voldemort's hand was unnecessary, his short life snuffed out as if he was worth nothing. Azalea came to a decision, Severus was worth something to her and she was going to tell him. She put her hand on his chest and started to speak. As she spoke she kept her eyes trained on her hand which was resting over his heart and she could feel it beating steadily under her touch "but before you go I must tell you something," she paused, gathering courage before declaring, "I love you." Severus felt his heart leap at her words and he listened to her stumbling on in defence of her admission, "I'm not trying to scare you off and you don't have to say anything but I wanted to tell you that in case you don't come back."
Severus lifted her head and leant down and kissed her tenderly on her soft lips; he felt her respond and he wanted the moment to last forever but he couldn't stay; he may have already waited too long to respond to Voldemort's call. He broke away from the kiss and, leaning his forehead against hers, said in a low voice, "I will come back and we can finish this conversation." He took a step away and she remained where she was; she clearly wasn't going to try to stop him.
He walked to the edge of the Hogwarts grounds where he could disapparate. She followed him with her eyes and he received her amused thought ^^you're a wicked man to leave that conversation unfinished. ^^
He responded in the same vein ^^and you're a wicked woman to start it when I'm in a hurry. ^^ He looked across the grass separating them and caught her eye adding ^^But you are my wicked woman. ^^
She smiled. ^^Yes, I am yours, ^^ she affirmed.
^^And I am yours ^^ he echoed. ^^Eternally^^
There was a sound like a whip cracking and he had gone.
A/N – This brings me to the end of the events in Goblet of Fire, but my story is not yet over and the next chapter starts with a link between Goblet of Fire and the next book – The Order of the Phoenix.