AN: *Insert frozen2 theme song here* Into the unknooooooooooooooown! Ok, I'm done.
All thanks to Katherine my beta.
The days following the third task were a trial in restraint and patience in Mia. The day after, Dumbledore had asked the school not to question Harry about what happened, to leave him alone, and this only resulted in students going back to their old habits of whispering when Harry passed, glaring, or shying away in fear.
Over the years Mia and Harry had traded off being hated enough. She knew what it felt like and wanted to make it stop. Some magazine went around saying Harry was deranged, Gabe thought it was a smear campaign by the ministry, and Mia agreed.
She found Draco at lunch.
"Ah, Amelia cousin, what brings you to the green side of the great hall? Thinking of converting after all?"
"Can we talk?" she asked.
Draco made a big show of rolling his eyes and saying what a weight her familia ties were on his social calendar, but he followed her out of the great hall all the same.
"Do you know what happened last night?" she asked.
Draco winced. "Yeah, a puff died."
Mia took a deep breath. "Please refrain from being an ass long enough to talk to me. Do you know how he died?"
Draco rolled his eyes and shrugged. "No, no one does. Potter was there, but other than being weird and mopey, he's not saying." Then Draco's eyes grew sharp. "Why? Do you know?"
"Yes, I do." She pulled Draco farther to the side and lowered her voice. "Last night…" She knew she shouldn't be talking about this, but she had to warn Draco about what he would be going home to. "Last night You-Know-Who returned." Fear bloomed in Draco's eyes, but then it was replaced by disbelief. She kept going. "Harry was there. You-Know-Who killed Cedric, and then used Harry to come back, even more powerful than ever. He called all of his old people to him. Harry said he saw your Father there."
Fear, disbelief, confusion, panic. Draco shook his head. "Potter lies-"
"No Draco, he doesn't. You know he doesn't. You lie because you don't like him and like to get him in trouble, but he's always honest about this stuff."
Draco shook his head again and paced away a few steps, his head bowed.
After a moment, Mia crossed to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "I don't know what this all really means for you, but if you need a place to stay, or to get away, you're always welcome with us."
Draco shoved off her hand and turned to her, hatred in his face. "What do I need a bunch of blood traitors like you for? Just because you have something to fear from… from Him doesn't mean I do."
He walked away towards the dungeons, and Mia sighed. He was scared. She could see it in his face, so again he lashed out at her. She just hoped if it ever came to it, he wouldn't be too ashamed to let her help him. She couldn't imagine what this summer held for his family.
People wouldn't shut up about Harry, and it was driving Mia mad. After serving detention for hexing a student who wouldn't stop loudly proclaiming their theories as to what happened the night of the third task, Mia decided she would never be able to beat the other students into submission, as much as she wanted to. Instead she, Ron, Hermione, Gabe, and the twins did everything they could to distract Harry, talk about nothing, or something so unrelated to current events as possible. Most of the time Harry just sat there, not saying a word, his eyes tired and empty.
The only times Mia saw Harry with any type of smile or light on his face was when his owl landed at the breakfast table, and he would take the letter, and disappear somewhere to read and reply. Sirius was sending letters to Harry daily, and Mia didn't have the slightest bit of jealousy. Harry needed someone who could help him through the horrors he'd faced, and if anyone knew about overcoming horrors, it was Sirius.
Sirius had changed so much in the last year. She'd seen the change first in his letters, and how he spoke, and then more firmly when she had seen him after months apart. He hadn't just worn a shell of jovial fun but had truly started to change into someone who could laugh and joke without the smile cracking into bitter sorrow at the end. And the night of the third task, when everything had gone to hell, he had stood in the darkness of the night worried out of his mind for Harry, but the bleak horror she had seen in his eyes the summer before whenever darkness approached was gone. It gave her hope that nothing in life couldn't be overcome.
When they entered the great hall for the leaving feast, Mia was surprised to see it void of any colorful decoration. Instead black drapes hung behind the teachers table, a mark of respect for Cedric. The real Professor Moody sat at the teachers table, twitchier and jumpier than his body double had ever been. It was understandable. If Mia had spent a year locked in a trunk, she wouldn't be fit for big gatherings either.
The room was quiet and somber compared to any of their previous feasts. When Dumbledore rose at the end to give his leaving speech, silence fell completely. He looked over the room with a sad expression, landing finally on the Hufflepuff table.
"The end of another year. 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."
Everyone rose. The benches made noise, but no one else did as every person in the hall stood and raised their goblets. Everyone spoke in one low voice "Cedric Diggory."
Once everyone had sat, Dumbledore went on to speak of Cedric's qualities and achievements, and then he spoke of his death. "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. Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."
Panic spiked through Mia's chest. She knew this but hearing it out loud again brought back the fear and anxiety of that night in the hospital wing, hearing about his return from Harry. Fearful whispers spread around the room and people started at Dumbledore with shock and horror.
"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 of 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."
Everyone in the room turned to stare at her table, and at Harry a few seats away. Mia felt a spark of anger for Dumbledore calling him out. Harry didn't want this, he wanted to forget it all, not be thrown into a spotlight.
"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 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 went on to talk about the friendships and connections they had built over the year, and how crucial this would be in the light of Voldemort's return. He said, "we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided" and those words drilled themselves into Mia. He said Voldemort's gift was for spreading discord and enmity among people, and that friendship and trust would be crucial as they all faced very dark days to come. He said some of them had already suffered from the hands of Voldemort, and that some had already had their lives torn apart. Mia couldn't help glancing at Draco, who glared at Dumbledore with anger and rage. She wanted to help him so bad, but she didn't know how.
At last, Dumbledore finished. "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."
The next morning Mia said goodbye to Professor McGonagall with a somber hug. She was sad to be leaving the castle, and the stability and protection it had always provided. She didn't know what awaited her away from those stone walls.
Harry had to return to his cousin's house for the beginning of summer. Sirius had explained Dumbledore's reasonings to both him and her but still, she felt terrible for him. Either way Sirius promised he could spend the second half of summer with them, and Mia wasn't dreading it. That part of her that had felt possessive and jealous over Sirius' attention had relaxed. Somewhere over their correspondences of the year Mia had grown secure in the relationship she had with Sirius, with her dad. And there was a room in that relationship for Harry.
She stood at the bottom of the steps outside of Hogwarts and looked up at the castle, so much fear and trepidation about what was to come. Gabe appeared at her side a moment later, his occlumency book in his hands. He was another constant in her life, someone she could depend on when everything else was unknown.
"All this theoretical application is getting me nowhere." He snapped the book shut and looked at Mia, a plotting look in his eyes. "Mia, would you be willing to try and brew some veritaserum this summer, to see if I can resist it? It's the closest to mimicking the skills I'm likely to get."
"Yeah that might be fun." Mia smiled thinking about all the questions she could ask her boyfriend while he was under the truth serum.
"I don't think I like the look on your face right now," Gabe said seriously. "You wouldn't ask anything mean, would you?"
Mia grinned harder. "I guess you will just have to work hard on your occlumency skills and hope for the best."
And suddenly Mia wasn't so worried about leaving the castle.
AN: Into the unknOOOOOooOOOooOhoOhoOhown!
Yeah, that's gonna be stuck in my head allll day now.