Queen of the Night: Years 4-5

by awalkerlifeforme

Tara Nox has had an interesting childhood. Lately things have taken a darker turn. From eerie presents and notes from a mystery sender to dreams of Voldemort's return, Tara knows something big is coming. When a competition between the three elite wizarding schools takes a strange turn, Tara finds herself, her best friends, and her boyfriend getting sucked into a dangerous scheme.

28. Padfoot Returns

One of the best things about the aftermath of the Second Task was that everybody was very keen to hear details of what had happened down in the lake, which meant that Ron was getting to share Harry and I's limelight for once. It also kept people from asking me what had happened during my trip underwater as Ron's version was far more interesting - despite having been asleep for most of their journey. Harry had mentioned that Ron's version of events was changing subtly with every retelling.

At first, he gave what seemed to be the truth; it tallied with Hermione and Fred's stories, anyway - Dumbledore had put all the hostages into a bewitched sleep in Professor McGonagall's office, first assuring them that they would be quite safe, and would awake when they were back above the water. One week later, however, Ron was telling a thrilling tale of kidnap in which he struggled single-handedly against fifty heavily armed merpeople who had to beat him into submission before tying him up.

"But I had my wand hidden up my sleeve," Ron assured Padma Patil, who seemed to be a lot keener on Ron now that he was getting so much attention and was making a point of talking to him every time they passed in the corridors. "I could've taken those mer-idiots any time I wanted."

"What were you going to do, snore at them?" Hermione asked waspishly.

Her attitude had gone the opposite direction of Ron's since the Second Task. "Be careful," I whispered, leaning into Hermione with a vague smile. "You're starting to sound like me."

"How do you deal with it?" Hermione asked.

"That's hardly the worst of what anyone's ever had to say about me," I told her honestly.

There was always some nasty rumor passing through the halls about me. Some were somewhat true, others were total lies. People had been teasing Hermione so much about being the thing that Viktor Krum would most miss that she was in a rather tetchy mood. I assumed that they would get over teasing Hermione soon enough though and return to their harassment of me. Ron's ears went red at Hermione's comment, and thereafter, he reverted to the bewitched sleep version of events.

Unfortunately, things had been a mix of both wonderful and awful for me lately. I was the champion of the school lately and was in first place, thus far suiting me to win the Triwizard Tournament. Gryffindor had never been so happy to have me around and even the Ravenclaw and some of the Hufflepuff students had come around to me with Cedric's constant insistence that he would be perfectly happy if I won the tournament. I knew that his house was only being nice to me because he was demanding it.

The Slytherin students were about as keen on me now as they had been before. Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini made it painfully obvious that they still hated me. They took every opportunity they could to throw insults in my direction. Malfoy, however, remained generally silent when it came to me. It left me very confused about the state of our relationship. Were we friends? Did we hate each other? I could never seem to have much luck in figuring out what we were to each other.

Though it greatly bothered me that I didn't know what was going on with my relationship with Malfoy, I reminded myself that he wasn't the one I should have been thinking about. Instead, I refocused on my relationship with Cedric. We had been spending as much time together as possible in the wake of the Second Task and I took every opportunity that I could to sneak away with him. I could tell that my actions didn't please Hermione, but she had luckily been distracted by her budding relationship with Viktor Krum.

It was for that very reason that Hermione hadn't noticed when I had spent all night after my win in the Second Task with Cedric. I had briefly considered the Astronomy Tower, but I'd known that the professors would be monitoring the halls for any stray students who were celebrating. I instead had decided to make a riskier move and took Cedric out to Hogsmeade instead. This time we hadn't wasted any time wandering around. We had instead built a makeshift campsite in the storage room of Honeydukes.

We had pulled out pieces of fabric that were leftover from shipments and some packing material to make a place for us to lay down. We had wound up gorging ourselves on sweets that we'd found while telling each other what the other had done during the task. Though I'd tried, I hadn't been able to bring myself to tell Cedric what had happened to me. It turned out that his venture had been relatively uneventful after a brief run-in with the grindylows. I had rolled my eyes at him, annoyed that I had instead taken their wrath.

After discussing the task for only about ten minutes, I had once again banned all talk of the tournament. Cedric chuckled but agreed and we'd spent the rest of the night wrapped in each other. I didn't get a wink of sleep before the sun rose the following morning, urging us out of the Honeydukes cellar and back to the castle, where I had promptly slept the rest of the weekend away - not without half-joking inviting Cedric to sleep with me. I was reasonably sure that he wasn't kidding when he had said that he would have taken me up on my offer.

We were no longer trying to hide our relationship. I didn't care about the tournament's rules. I was going to kiss my boyfriend whenever I wanted. It got to the point that the teachers would only groan and mutter half-hearted attempts to get us to follow the rules. It usually led me to tease Cedric before walking off, knowing that it was only leaving him wanting more. Of course, I should have known that the moment my relationship with Cedric hit new heights, something would try its hardest to bring it back down.

As luck had it, Skeeter had written another article about me and my relationship with the men of Hogwarts. I wasn't surprised that Malfoy was heavily mentioned but I had been shocked to see that his comment about my bathing suit was relayed in the article. My face burned when other students began bringing it up with me. I was furious about it but hadn't had the chance to confront Malfoy about relaying our conversation to Skeeter. I would hit him for it the first chance I got though.

The worst part was what made up the bulk of the article. Malfoy had only been the hook to get people interesting. This time the article focused mainly on how Fred was the treasure that I needed. The article made it very clear that I was overly interested in my friendship with Fred and often spent my time with Cedric thinking about the Weasley twin. The school had a field day with the article, especially since many people had seen the flirtatious relationship that I had with Fred.

Days passed where I could only think of the article and my relationship with Fred. I was mortified that someone might have noticed the fondness that I had for my friend, but we were only friends! That was what I had to keep telling myself. We had always acted this way, long before I had begun dating Cedric. Both Cedric and Fred attempted to speak with me immediately after the article was released, but I had refused to speak with them and asked for some time until I had my feelings on the matter straight in my head.

Fred had been treating the article as a joke. He playfully flirted with me but I was grateful that he saved it mostly for when we were in private. He knew that I was trying to diffuse the rumors. He had even gone ahead and offered to talk to Cedric for me. I brushed off the offer but was almost certain that Fred had done so anyway. I noticed he and Cedric together one day but when I had questioned them on it later, Cedric had responded that it was about classwork and Fred had told me that it was just a casual conversation.

The quick and short nature of their responses was enough to reassure me that they had been talking about me, they just didn't want to admit it. It didn't ease my mind about their reactions or my reaction. I wasn't sure how to approach the situation. I adored Fred and did like to flirt with him - which wasn't my finest personality trait - but maybe I did need to stop. It bothered me that I didn't like the thought of stopping. Why not? Cedric should have been the only person I wanted to flirt with.

Despite refusing to allow me to think about Fred, it was what was dominating my thoughts. Even when I began thinking about how to address it with Cedric. I was very lucky that it seemed that Cedric wasn't much more concerned about the article with Fred than he had been for any of the earlier articles. He treated it like he had the others. He knew that it was just a rumor and insisted that I had nothing to apologize for. When I felt bad about the way his friends teased us, he reminded me that it was nothing to be upset about - it was all fake.

Of course, Cedric had always been known to be much more level-headed about things than I was. He was able to laugh off the jokes and go about his business. Whenever I heard one of the jokes that were being made about us, it made me want to put someone's head through the castle's stone walls. It was driving me nuts to hear the ways that my classmates were teasing and poking and prodding at me, but I refused to let them get to me. I had wonderful friends and my boyfriend loved and trusted me.

Unfortunately, my problems didn't just end with my classmates teasing me about the state of my relationship. The murder of the grindylows during the Second Task remained in the forefront of my mind often, but I was unable to talk about it with anyone. Not even Cedric. This wasn't about hitting someone or yelling at them; this was murder, even if I had been trying to defend myself. I knew that it was justified and that they were just nasty little water demons, but I still ended multiple lives.

It made me feel like there was a cloud taking over me. I had noticed it for a while; I was feeling angrier and antsier. I wasn't sure what was going on with me, but the murder of the grindylows seemed to have exacerbated it. I resolved myself to just ignore the problem for now until I could figure out what my next move was. There had to be someone I trusted that I could tell; there was Dumbledore, of course, but would the headmaster understand? Would he think I was insane? There were days I thought that I was insane myself.

As we entered March, the weather became drier, but the cruel winds skinned our hands and faces every time we went out onto the grounds. There were delays in the post because the owls kept being blown off course. The brown owl that Harry had sent to Sirius with the dates of the Hogsmeade weekend turned up at breakfast on Friday morning with half its feathers sticking up the wrong way; Harry had no sooner torn off Sirius's reply than it took flight, clearly afraid it was going to be sent outside again.

Sirius's letter was almost as short as the previous one: Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish and Banges) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can.

"He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" Ron asked incredulously.

"It looks like it, doesn't it?" Hermione replied.

"He's afraid for us," I reasoned. It broke my heart that Sirius was willing to be killed or go back to Azkaban just to ensure that we were okay. "He would be willing to risk anything if it meant helping his godchildren."

"I can't believe him, if he's caught..." Harry trailed off tersely.

"Made it so far, though, hasn't he? And it's not like the place is swarming with Dementors anymore," Ron pointed out.

"He'll be okay. He's been on the run for a year, some of it in plain sight; he knows how to stay hidden," I told Harry, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. I knew that he was feeling guilty. "Buck up! At least we get to see him again and not through a fireplace this time."

That put a bit of a smile on his face. Harry folded up the letter in silence as we exchanged a slight smile. Sirius would be okay. That was what I would keep telling myself. If I was being honest with myself, I was glad that Sirius was taking the risk as I wanted to see my godfather again. It was that desire that made me approach the final lesson of the afternoon - double Potions - feeling considerably more cheerful than I usually did when descending the steps to the dungeons.

My good mood was quickly shot down when I noticed that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing in a huddle outside the classroom door with Pansy Parkinson's gang of Slytherin girls. All of them were looking at something I couldn't see and sniggering heartily. Judging by the chuckles coming out of their mouths, I assumed that it was something I wouldn't like. Pansy's pug-like face peered excitedly around Goyle's broad back as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I approached.

"There they are, there they are!" Parkinson giggled, and the knot of Slytherin's broke apart.

"This ought to be good," I growled as we approached them.

My mutter didn't go unnoticed. "Look boys, it's the cheater," Parkinson chirped, looking at me.

"Looks kids, it's the girl who can't keep her boyfriend interested in her," I called back loudly, looking around at my friends. The Gryffindor's burst into fits of laughter as I caught Malfoy's eye and winked. He knew I was telling her the truth. Malfoy shot back a grin as I looked at my friends. "Excuse me a moment, will you?"

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Taking matters into my own hands," I replied vaguely. I stepped past my friends and walked up to Malfoy, pushing unceremoniously past Parkinson. "Can we have a word?"

"Always," Malfoy said, grinning.

We stepped to the side of the dungeon, ensuring that no one was close enough to hear us. "We were the only people standing close enough to hear what we were talking about," I said, pulling out my folded-up copy of the Daily Prophet from my bag. I opened it to the section that repeated our conversation of me eventually showing myself to Malfoy. He took the paper and began reading through the article. I waited for a moment before speaking again. "You went to her?"

It was impossible to keep the hurt out of my voice, which infuriated me. I shouldn't have cared either way. Malfoy glanced up and shook his head. "'Course not," he said simply.

Normally, I would have yelled at him for lying, but the look on his face told me that he was telling me the truth. "Then which one of your idiot friends did you tell?" I snapped.

"None of them," Malfoy insisted. I stared blankly at him. "Believe it or not, Nox, I won't repeat what we talk about."

For some reason, I believed him. "Then how did she find out?" I asked irritably.

Malfoy shrugged. "No idea, but it wasn't from me."

His face looked so honest but there was so much bad blood between us. It made it so hard to believe that he was telling me the truth. "I want to believe you," I said slowly.

"You can," Malfoy replied.

Since when? We had never trusted one another. Not for more than a few minutes at a time. "I'm not sure that I can. I never know what to think about you. I never know what to call you. Are you my friend?" I asked, wishing that he would give me an answer, but Malfoy remained silent. "We're something, I know that, but I don't know what."

We stared at each other for a moment. This should have been a serious moment where we finally got some clarity, but Malfoy managed to make a joke out of it. "There's a reason you're interested," he teased.

"Don't flatter yourself," I snapped, stepping away from him. "I'm not interested, I just know that you don't hate me the way you do my friends."

It was clear to me that he didn't hate me. I didn't hate him either, as much as I wanted to. I just didn't know what he thought of me. Hell, I didn't know what I thought of him. "There's a reason you'll talk to me when your friends either ignore me or insult me," Malfoy said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"You know what it is," Malfoy teased.

Of course. Malfoy appeared to believe that I had feelings for him - which I didn't. I didn't have feelings for anyone other than Cedric. Even if I did, it wouldn't have been Malfoy. He was a horrible person and I would have been a fool to go after him. "There's only one person I'm interested in," I said determinedly.

"Maybe right now, but I'd face the facts sooner rather than later. You may like him right now, but he's going to bore you," Malfoy said. The anger in my chest began bubbling again. Cedric was a sweetheart but he wasn't boring. He just wasn't an asshole. "You want someone you can have this with. The back-and-forth."

I would wind up tearing my hair out if I was with someone like Malfoy. "You don't know me," I hissed.

"Oh, I do. You're just like me," Malfoy said, stepping toward me.

"I am not!" I barked. "Anything I have in me that's similar to you is something I'd hate about myself."

"Now look me in the eyes and say it like you mean it."

Whether or not he believed me, I was telling the truth. I would never want to be like him. We stared at each other for a moment before I began shaking my head sadly. "Every time I think we might make some progress you have to go and set us back to the beginning. If you had been the kind of person I know you can be, Skeeter's article might just have been true," I said truthfully.

Maybe we could have been something more if he had continued acting the way he had when we'd first met, but he was too much like his friends. Some emotion that I couldn't quite pick up on flashed through Malfoy's eyes. "You've said it yourself; you're not interested in someone like me," Malfoy said tonelessly.

"You've said it yourself; I'm a liar," I shot back. I went to pass Malfoy but he grabbed my arm before I could, pulling us to stand side-by-side. I looked over my shoulder to meet his eyes, far closer to him than I was comfortable with. We remained in a tense silence before I spoke again. "Time for class."

It took me a moment but I managed to pull myself out of his grasp. It felt like my arm was burning from the way that he had grabbed me. I wouldn't lie that he did get my blood flowing, but I could never be with him. I would never want to be with him. I wanted to be with Cedric. I walked away from Malfoy, noticing that Parkinson had thrown a copy of Witch Weekly at my friends. There was a moving picture on the front that showed a curly-haired witch who was smiling toothily and pointing at a large sponge cake with her wand.

"You might find something to interest you in there, Granger!" Parkinson said loudly as she threw the magazine at Hermione, who caught it, looking startled.

"What's that?" I asked curiously, stepping up to their sides.

"I'm not sure," Hermione said. "What happened with Malfoy?"

"Not worth repeating. If these articles are any indication, Skeeter will repeat it soon enough," I growled irritably.

At that moment, the dungeon door opened, and Snape beckoned us inside. Hermione, Harry, Ron, and I headed for a table at the back of the dungeon as usual. Once Snape had turned his back on us to write up the ingredients of today's potion on the blackboard, Hermione hastily rifled through the magazine under the desk. At last, in the center pages, Hermione found what we were looking for. Harry, Ron, and I leaned in closer. A color photograph of Harry headed a short piece entitled:

Harry Potter's Secret Heartache

A boy like no other, perhaps — yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought that he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss.

Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last Quidditch World Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to stay with him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays and insists that he has "never felt this way about any other girl."

However, it may not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate young boys' interests.

"She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth year student, "but she'd be well-up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it."

Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate.

The article was almost enough to make me grin. I felt bad for Hermione, whose ears were practically steaming with mortification, but it was nothing I hadn't experienced. At least now the others couldn't just tell me to get over the articles anymore. They now knew just how awful the articles were and how embarrassing the teasing that stemmed from the articles was. I took the magazine from Hermione and flipped to the following page. Unsurprisingly, it was about me.

Knowing that the article would only further upset me, I didn't read it fully but I did give a brief scan over the words. It detailed how I had been rejected by Harry and had lashed out by going after Cedric, who had only accepted me because I was willing to give what other girls weren't. That in turn had attracted interest from other boys in Hogwarts; interests that I was happy to feed into. Again, Malfoy and Fred were mentioned throughout the article. No mention of Parkinson though.

Feeling her eyes on me, I turned to meet Parkinson's glimmering eyes. She had been waiting on my comment. I raised the magazine into her eye-line. "If you think this is true, how does it make you feel?" I asked her.

"Meaning?" Parkinson asked with a tightened jaw.

"Your boyfriend's only with you to pass the time seeing as he can't have what he wants," I said loudly enough that the rest of her friends could hear. Parkinson made to bark back at me, but I ripped my article page out of the magazine and shoved it into Parkinson's chest so hard that she heaved and stumbled back. "Learn to read before you throw insults around."

"I told you!" Ron hissed at Hermione as she stared down at the article and I took my seat again. "I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of - of scarlet woman!"

Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter. "Scarlet woman?" she repeated, shaking with suppressed giggles as she looked around at Ron.

"It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered, his ears going red.

"I don't think you fully understand the concept of a scarlet woman," I told him.

"If that's the best Rita can do, she's losing her touch," Hermione said, still giggling, as she threw Witch Weekly onto the empty chair beside her. "What a pile of old rubbish."

"Plus, if anyone's being labeled a scarlet woman, it's me," I added.

Both Hermione and I looked over at the Slytherin's, who were all watching the two of us and Harry closely across the room to see if any of us had been upset by the article. Hermione gave them a sarcastic smile and a wave. I threw up my middle finger as I turned away; judging by the sound of her voice, Parkinson hadn't appreciated my gesture. In the meantime, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and I started unpacking the ingredients that we would need for our Wit-Sharpening Potion.

"There's something funny, though," Hermione said ten minutes later, holding her pestle suspended over a bowl of scarab beetles. "How could Rita Skeeter have known?"

"That's what's driving me nuts," I said, grinding down the scarab beetles. "She's been overhearing conversations when I'm positive that no one was around. Even some of my conversations with Malfoy; I don't think he would have repeated what we said. Not to her and not to his friends."

"So, how could she have known?" Hermione asked.

"Known what?" Ron asked us. "You haven't been mixing up Love Potions, have you?"

"Don't be stupid," Hermione snapped, starting to pound up her beetles again. "No, it's just... how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?"

Hermione blushed scarlet as she said that and determinedly avoided Ron's eyes. I grinned as I looked back and forth between the pair; Ron looked stunned and Hermione looked mortified. It made me exchange a small smile with Harry. Hermione had relayed Krum's invite to me earlier in the morning and I had been extremely eager to know Hermione's answer. Unfortunately, Hermione hadn't answered Krum but I could tell from the look on her face that she wanted to say yes, she was just afraid of what Ron would say.

"What?" Ron asked, dropping his pestle with a loud clunk.

"He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake," Hermione muttered. "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to -"

"And what did you say?" Ron asked, who had picked up his pestle and was grinding it on the desk, a good six inches from his bowl, because he was looking at Hermione.

"And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went on, going so red now that I could almost feel the heat coming from her.

"It's sweet. Don't be embarrassed," I said, laying my hand on hers. "Cedric's asked me to stay with him."

"Y - Yes, I suppose. But how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She wasn't there... or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak; maybe she sneaked onto the grounds to watch the Second Task," Hermione reasoned.

"No way. She'd have been kicked out for sneaking onto the grounds. Mione, she heard conversations between Fred and me in the middle of the night. In the closed-off Common Room. How did she know?" I asked.

An awkward silence settled over us as I immediately regretted my comment. Since the articles detailing my relationship with Fred started, I had noticed tense silences fall between Ron and me. It didn't escape my notice that Ron didn't like the thought of me being anything to his brother other than his friend. Though neither of us had said anything about it, I knew that we were both thinking about it. I wouldn't even know how to address it with him. All I could do was try to push through those awkward moments.

I was eternally grateful when Ron changed the subject. "And what did you say?" Ron repeated, pounding his pestle down so hard that it dented the desk.

"Well, I was too busy seeing whether you three were okay to -"

"Fascinating though your social lives undoubtedly are, Misses Nox and Granger," an icy voice said right behind us, and all four of us jumped, "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Twenty points from Gryffindor."

Snape had glided over to our desk while we were talking. The whole class was now looking around at us; Malfoy took the opportunity to flash POTTER STINKS across the dungeon at Harry. At that moment, Malfoy and I briefly met eyes. I narrowed mine at him as he lowered the button. I did notice that he only flashed it for Harry's insult. I broke eye contact with Malfoy long enough to realize that Snape had spotted the magazine that we were reading.

"Ah... Reading magazines under the table as well?" Snape added, snatching up the copy of Witch Weekly. "A further ten points from Gryffindor... Oh, but of course." Snape's black eyes glittered as they fell on Rita Skeeter's article. I was immensely grateful that I had pulled mine out. "Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings." The dungeon rang with the Slytherin's laughter, and an unpleasant smile curled Snape's thin mouth. He then began to read the article aloud. "'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache... dear, dear. Potter, what's ailing you now? 'A boy like no other, perhaps.'"

Harry's face was burning. Snape was pausing at the end of every sentence to allow the Slytherin's a hearty laugh. My stomach began to bubble with unadulterated hatred. If my article was in there, Snape would have been reading it too. I was sick of the way that people were laughing at us. They didn't seem to understand that, in the Muggle world, an article like this would have practically been considered child pornography. The article sounded ten times worse when read by Snape. Even Hermione was blushing scarlet now.

"'... Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate.' How very touching," Snape sneered, rolling up the magazine to continued gales of laughter from the Slytherin's.

"What part of that is funny to you?" I deadpanned. My voice was much louder than I had thought it would be. The room was plunged into an icy silence as I looked around. "To any of you?"

Snape's eyes blazed. "Miss Nox -"

"That's not funny," I interrupted, knowing I would pay for it. "None of these articles are funny. They're certainly not a reason for a pathetic excuse of an adult to bully a child into submission. I'll bet that part escaped all of you. These articles are written about children. In most of the Muggle world, an article like this would be enough to throw the writer into prison. But it's just a joke because it's not your name in there. Shit like this does lasting damage to people. Reputations don't go away overnight."

"Thank you for your insight that no one asked for, Miss Nox," Snape growled, his teeth looking so tight-pressed together that I thought they would break. "Now sit down and be quiet."

"It's not a reputation if it's the truth, Nox," Parkinson teased.

The gaggle of Slytherin students all laughed as the Gryffindor's steamed with annoyance. I whipped around to Snape, who acted as though he didn't hear Parkinson. "And she doesn't get any reprimanding?" I asked him.

"For a harmless joke?" Snape asked.

Harmless? These articles wouldn't seem to stop harming my relationships. I spoke again before I could stop myself. "I'd have thought the Marauders would teach someone just how much damage a harmless joke could do to another person," I said.

Snape's eyes were blazing with fury. I knew that I had taken it too far but I didn't care. Though the rest of the classroom looked lost as to what my comment had meant, Harry, Ron, and Hermione's faces were ghostly pale. They couldn't believe what I had said. "One hundred points from Gryffindor," Snape growled lowly. Get out. Don't come back."

"Fine by me," I snapped back.

The classroom had gone eerily silent. No one - not even the Slytherin's - would dare say something when Snape was as angry as he was at me right now. I tossed my things into my bag, grabbed the piece of parchment that had the day's assignments on it from Snape's hands, and stormed out of the classroom. I tossed my bag deliberately harshly over my shoulder as I walked out. My bag swung around my body and hit Parkinson in the face as I left. I didn't want to laugh as Parkinson shrieked in fury; I wanted to kill her.

I noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione staring at me as I left. Harry looked a little guilty - as he was the one I had been defending - but I didn't mind. Someone had to stop Snape. Someone had to make them realize that they were teasing real people, not just characters in a story. The things that they said hurt and affected real relationships. I wandered through the halls muttering creative profanities about Snape under my breath. I should have gone to the library to finish my work but all I wanted to do was go upstairs and destroy my dorm.

"Miss Nox." I stopped muttering angrily and turned to see Professor Dumbledore standing at the other end of the hallway. I stumbled over my words for a moment as I rarely saw him out and about during the day. "Should you not be in Potions?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

Impressive that he knew my schedule. "Professor Snape kicked me out," I admitted.

Dumbledore nodded. "I see. Why did Professor Snape ask you to leave?"

"Because he started reading that idiotic article about Harry and Hermione from Witch Weekly word-for-word just to embarrass him and I couldn't take it anymore so I stood up and spoke against it," I said. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he knew that I wasn't telling the entire truth. I blushed slightly as I continued. "Maybe not in the nicest way in the world, but he was wrong for reading it. Honestly, there's something wrong in the Wizarding World that we allow stories like that to be published."

We stood in silence for a moment as Dumbledore nodded understandingly. "I don't disagree, but Rita has a large following that enjoys her miserable and poorly-written tales."

"It's so unfair," I whined, feeling very pathetic for complaining to the headmaster about a mean teacher and exaggerated articles written about my personal life. "Skeeter writes an article that's not true and it spreads like wildfire. Instead of tamping down the horrible articles like a normal adult would do, Snape reads them like a bad Shakespeare recital."

"Professor Snape, Tara," Dumbledore corrected me. I huffed a little under my breath. "I will speak with him."

"Thanks," I said, feeling a little awkward. I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to hear that conversation. "No offense, Headmaster, but why did you hire a prick like that?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement with a slight warning in them for me to not speak like that about another teacher. I nodded that I understood what his gaze meant. "Professor Snape has more to him than meets the eye," Dumbledore said.

"A pair of horns under his temples?" I muttered irritably.

Dumbledore chuckled. "A forked tail, too," he added teasingly. We both laughed that time. I loved that he could joke along with his students. Dumbledore glanced at the parchment in my hand and nodded. "Scamper along now. I'm not sure what I'll be able to do for you if that's not completed by your next Potions lesson."

"Search the dungeons for my body would probably be a good start," I joked.

We exchanged another brief smile as I thanked Dumbledore and headed to the library, knowing that he would stop me if I headed for Gryffindor Tower. I went upstairs and rushed through my homework assignment, finishing just as the bell rang to dismiss the students. I dropped my bag off in my dorm and headed back to the Great Hall, where the others informed me that Snape had separated them for the rest of class and was sour toward everyone for her outburst. I shrugged carelessly.

Later that evening, Harry told us about Snape and Karkaroff's interruption that had happened in Potions after I'd left - he mentioned the urgency that Karkaroff had entered with and that Karkaroff had mentioned that Snape had been avoiding him. He mentioned Karkaroff showing Snape his inner forearm and the other three were about to get into the details, but the conversation was ended abruptly when I honestly and calmly told Harry that I would smash his teeth in if he mentioned Snape's name one more time.

We left the castle at noon the next day to find a weak silver sun shining down upon the grounds. The weather was milder than it had been all year, and by the time we arrived in Hogsmeade, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had taken off their cloaks and thrown them over their shoulders. I remained in mine, still a native Floridian at heart. It also didn't help that I was wearing shorts and a tank top under my cloak. The food Sirius had told us to bring was in Harry's bag; we had sneaked a dozen chicken legs, a loaf of bread, and a flask of pumpkin juice from the lunch table earlier.

It was just shy of one o'clock. The four of us were supposed to be meeting Sirius at one-thirty. They were going to try and find something for Dobby for helping Harry in the Second Task, but I had something else on my mind. On our way into Hogsmeade, I had spotted something I had never paid any mind before - The Daily Prophet Hogsmeade branch. Though we walked past the building and I tried to put my mind to ease, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Go get the present for Dobby," I said, stopping suddenly. The other three turned back to stare after me in shock. "I'll be back. There's something I have to take care of."

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.

"I'm going to go handle something. Don't worry, I'll be back by half-past one," I promised.

The other three looked completely lost as I turned away without another word. I needed to corner Skeeter and perhaps even kill her for the new articles. It was also driving me nuts that I didn't know how Skeeter was finding out about my private conversations as the others swore they weren't repeating them to her. Even though I didn't want to, I believed that Malfoy wasn't lying to me. I was about halfway back to the Daily Prophet building when I was caught off guard.

"Hello, my lovely girlfriend," Cedric chirped.

Surprised by the sudden appearance of my boyfriend, I whipped around to smile at Cedric. "Hello, my poorly-timed boyfriend," I teased. Cedric smiled at me as he walked up to my side. "We're not supposed to be meeting until two."

"Are you not supposed to be with your godfather right now?" Cedric asked curiously.

"I've got half an hour," I explained.

Cedric nodded. "Ah, then would you like to go on a walk for half an hour?"

"I - I've got plans."

"Doing?"

Judging by the look on his face, he already knew what I was planning on doing. I scowled at him as I folded my arms over my chest. "Why can't you ever let me have fun?" I snapped.

He knew that I was planning on doing something that would get me in a lot of trouble if I got caught. "It's not worth it. Skeeter is looking to get a reaction out of you. Don't give her one. The more you play into her the further she's going to take things. If you keep ignoring her, she will go away," Cedric promised.

"If I break her wrists though, she won't be able to write at all," I reasoned.

"And what she's said about you will become true," Cedric pointed out.

How was it that he could always keep a level head when things went wrong? It drove me insane. "How does this not bother you?" I asked, hearing the whine in my voice.

Cedric smiled slightly, running a hand through my hair. "Don't get me wrong. It does bother me, but I don't need her to know that. She's not worth my time and she's not worth yours."

"It's so hard to ignore her."

"How about I help get your mind off her?"

Though it was something that intrigued me greatly, I shook my head. I couldn't brush this one off, no matter how hard I tried. "No. We can both admit that you're better than me. You can turn the other cheek when her articles come out but I can't. Not this time," I said. Cedric let out a deep breath but nodded his understanding. "I have to confront her. You can walk away and I won't tell you what happened but -"

"Or I can come with you," Cedric offered, interrupting me.

My jaw nearly dropped. "You want to see this?" I asked him.

"It could be kind of entertaining," Cedric teased, making me smile. "You don't have to do this alone. Come on."

We linked hands as we walked the rest of the way up to High Street toward the Daily Prophet building. I wrung my fingers on my right hand together as we walked. I was furious with Skeeter and that she was still writing the articles. I wanted to know how she was finding out about my private conversations and wanted to ensure that she stopped writing. She could write about whatever she wanted but it wasn't going to be about me and my relationship with Cedric, Fred, Malfoy, Phil Troy, or any other men.

We reached the building and I stormed in without knocking. Skeeter was standing at her desk and she barely glanced up as I walked into the office. "Didn't your mother teach you to knock before you enter?" she asked blandly.

"Public building," I answered just as tonelessly.

Skeeter finally glanced up and pushed her glasses down her nose in a bored movement. "Can I help you?"

"Really? That's what you're going to lead with?" I asked disbelievingly. Skeeter looked at me but it didn't look like she was planning on responding. "You know exactly why I'm here."

Skeeter smirked. "Come to bargain?"

The smug look on her face made me want to kill her where she stood. "No. I'm well past bargaining and I know that I don't have anything you want," I said. Skeeter didn't show any emotion on her face but she did nod in agreement. "The only thing you want from me is the gossip I provide your column - the only thing that's started to give you readers, by the way."

Skeeter smiled. "Why do you think I write about you so often?"

"Lack of creative juices... or a soul?" I offered.

If my insult bothered her at all, Skeeter didn't show it. She waved her hand carelessly. "Say what you want. Throw out whatever threat you want. The columns aren't stopping."

"No?" I asked, pulling out my wand as Skeeter's lips split into a grin. "You sure about that?"

"I'm not sure what you think you're doing. You can't do magic off Hogwarts grounds," Skeeter pointed out.

"You're right. But there's nothing in the rulebook that says I can't do this," I said. Skeeter's perfectly-formed eyebrow raised curiously. I grabbed the Quick-Quotes Quill off Skeeter's desk and snapped it in half, tearing apart the feather in the process. I dropped the pieces to the ground. "See? No magic required."

Skeeter's lips curled into a sneer. "That's expensive."

"It was," I corrected, grabbing an inkwell filled with bright pink ink and dumping it all over any articles where I saw my name, Harry's, or Hermione's. "Oh, what a shame. You worked so hard on those too." Skeeter began to advance on me - likely to get me to stop destroying her work - when I turned and grabbed a letter opener from her desk, pointing it at the writer. "I'm not done."

Skeeter wavered slightly, unsure what my next move would be. "You wouldn't dare."

Would I? I hated her, I wanted to kill her, but would I? I wasn't sure, but I wasn't going to let her keep running all over me and my friends. "You want to bet? I shoved Gilderoy Lockhart down a hole where I knew a murderous snake was waiting," I told Skeeter, who stared at me disbelievingly. "Stabbing you in the hand with this would be no problem."

"That's not fatal," Skeeter pointed out.

Duh... "Who said that was where I would stop? I've got far bigger problems than you to be worried about and I'm sick of spending so much of my time thinking about and being worried about you and what you're doing. I've got Voldemort after me for... I don't know why, actually," I snapped. Skeeter twitched at the mention of his name. "Someone put my name in the Goblet of Fire to make sure I don't see my Fifth Year at Hogwarts. I'm sure there's a reason.

"My life is far too complicated for someone my age. There aren't many things that keep me calm or happy the way I see others my age are. No, instead I spend my time worrying about Voldemort coming back, who's trying to kill me this year, and your fucking articles aren't helping. Leave me alone." I grabbed the bottle of black ink from Skeeter's table and tossed it in her eyes; she shrieked as it ran down her face, hair, and clothing. "Keep our names out of your piece-of-shit column or I won't be as nice next time."

Trembling with fury, Skeeter reached out and brushed the ink off of her glasses. "You're lucky that I kept out the worst of it." The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I whipped back to Skeeter. "I suppose I'd rather see his face anyway," Skeeter chirped, looking at Cedric. "I would have loved to include the little bit about your sleepovers with young Mr. Weasley. The twin."

Cedric stiffened against me, as he had been standing at my hip. My face went bright red as I briefly wondered how the hell Skeeter had known about the evenings that I had fallen asleep with Fred on the couch. It didn't matter now. Anger built up in my chest before I picked up another inkwell from the desk and threw it at Skeeter's face, who Apparated before I could hit her. The glass shattered against the wall where black ink spilled down the white paint. I slowly spun back to Cedric, whose face was unreadable.

After a moment, Cedric turned to look at me. He smiled vaguely, though it didn't look happy. "I'll have to assume she worded that far worse than whatever the truth is," Cedric said slowly.

"Y - Yes. I - I don't know how she even - it doesn't matter," I stammered. Though my chest was burning with fury, I desperately wanted to know how Skeeter had found out. No one had seen us on those nights and Fred would never have repeated it. "I've dozed off on the couch in the Gryffindor Common Room with Fred a few times. It was nothing more than that." Cedric nodded wordlessly. "She just - she knows -"

"She knows how to hit that nerve," Cedric interrupted.

It felt like my body deflated from Cedric's answer. He knew that there was nothing between Fred and me, but that didn't make the comments any easier to hear. "Yeah, she does," I mumbled. It still felt like I needed to say something. "There's nothing -"

"You don't owe me an explanation," Cedric interrupted again, taking my hand. "I trust you."

It seemed odd that he didn't even want to hear my explanation. It seemed like he was ending the conversation too quickly, but I didn't want to think about it. If he trusted me, that was good enough for me. Instead, I walked up to Cedric and wrapped my fingers around the lapels of his jacket. "I shouldn't have started this. You were right," I admitted.

Cedric smiled slightly. "Say it one more time."

"No!"

"Come on, one more time," Cedric goaded.

We both laughed as I shoved his hip back. "I'm not saying it again, but I'll thank you for not making a fuss out of it," I said quietly. I smiled at him as I turned to Skeeter's desk and tossed her parchment and quills to the floor, sweeping the messy desk clean. As I turned back to Cedric, I grabbed his jacket and yanked him into me. He stumbled against my chest as I jumped backward, landing on the desk. "Give her something new to write about."

Cedric grinned. "Happily."

We both chuckled as I leaned back against the desk and let Cedric step in between my legs. His hands worked into my hair and I felt the rough fabric of his jeans run against my bare leg as I was wearing shorts. Cedric grabbed me around the back of the waist and tightened his grip on me to the point that it felt like it would bruise. I didn't mind. It made me grab him around the back of the neck even tighter. We leaned back against the table for what felt like forever, not breaking apart until the clock started chiming.

Cedric broke the kiss so that we could glance at the clock. It was time to leave so I could meet Sirius, but I desperately wanted to stay. "Should we go?" Cedric offered. "It's getting close to when you need to meet your friends."

"What's the rush?" I asked, running my legs against the outside of Cedric's thigh. He smiled. "There's no fun in getting something done when you're rushing. I'd much rather have a guy that takes his time."

Cedric threw his head back and laughed as he hooked a hand behind my right knee, keeping my leg against his. "Naturally, you would do that when we have somewhere else to be." I giggled under my breath as Cedric released my knee and stepped back so that I could hop off the table. "You know she's going to use what you said against you," Cedric pointed out.

"Oh, I know," I said, brushing my hair back over my forehead. "I'm certain what I've said is going to make me out to be the newest case study, but I'd rather have people talking about that than what's going on with us."

"Fascinating priorities you have," Cedric joked.

"At least if they're talking about what's going on with the Triwizard Tournament and Voldemort they're talking about the things that matter," I pointed out. "Not what we're doing."

"How are you doing with the tournament?" Cedric asked. "I don't think I've asked you that enough."

I smiled at him. "I'm beating you, so I have that," I joked. Cedric chuckled for a moment, but worry lines quickly formed around his eyes. I knew that he was being serious. "I'm okay. I can't shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen though."

"Something bad like?" Cedric asked curiously.

It turned my stomach thinking about it. The bad feeling was vague, but it made me feel like I was going to be sick. It wasn't a good feeling. "No idea. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough," I sighed.

Cedric nodded understandingly as he reached up and ran his hands comfortingly down my arms. "You've had enough bad. I think it's time you had some good," Cedric said. That would have been nice, but I didn't believe it. Either way, I smiled, agreeing with him silently. "In fact, I think you'll have quite a bit of good this summer."

"That so?" I asked.

"Mm-hmm..." Cedric muttered. I giggled as Cedric grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into him. "I think it's time to go."

"Oh, alright," I huffed.

As much as I wanted to stay, I knew he was right. We smiled at each other and wrapped our fingers together as we walked out of the clutter of the Daily Prophet office. I glanced at the watch on my wrist and nodded. I was coming up to the last few minutes before I had to meet Harry, Ron, and Hermione to go see Sirius. Cedric would have to keep himself entertained for half an hour or so while we had our conversation. Cedric and I walked up High Street for a few minutes as we chatted, heading toward Dervish and Banges.

"There they are!" Skeeter's voice rang out through the street. Cedric and I whirled around to see a furious and ink-stained Rita Skeeter storming after us, dragging along a very bored-looking Professor McGonagall. "She's the one who destroyed my office."

Skeeter's bony finger was pointing at my face. "Did she now?" Professor McGonagall asked, barely looking at me. Skeeter hissed her approval. Professor McGonagall turned her bored stare on me. "Miss Nox, did you destroy the Daily Prophet office?"

"What?" I asked, sending a small grin in Skeeter's direction. If she wanted to play it this way, I was more than happy to play with her. I turned back to Professor McGonagall. "You know me, Professor. I'm a good girl."

Professor McGonagall nodded curtly. "Well, that's it, Rita. With no concrete evidence, I'm afraid there's nothing more to do here."

Professor McGonagall gave me a vague grin before turning away and leaving Rita steaming. "That's it?" Skeeter shrieked.

"That's it," Professor McGonagall confirmed, turning back to her. "You should move along. It sounds like you have a lot of cleaning to get to."

The look on Rita Skeeter's face was priceless. She looked like she would explode. Once I was certain that Professor McGonagall was out of earshot, I turned back to Skeeter and smiled. "Why do you look so upset, Rita? I thought you wanted to play," I said slowly. Skeeter looked like she could set me on fire from how angry she was. "Game on."

Trembling with fury, Skeeter whirled around on her heel and headed back to the Daily Prophet office. Cedric turned back to me with an amused look on his face. "You are so far from a good girl that it's not even funny," he said.

True. "You don't want one anyway," I teased.

Cedric grinned. "That is true."

We smiled at each other as I leaned up and pressed a kiss against Cedric's mouth. I knew that I should have let it go when it came to Skeeter, but I couldn't resist. It was the perfect opportunity. If Skeeter wanted to play, I would happily oblige. Once Professor McGonagall and Skeeter were clear of view, Cedric and I decided to head toward our meeting point. My friends would kill me if I was late to the meeting with Sirius after we had been waiting to see him in person for so long.

At half-past one, we made our way up the High Street, toward Dervish and Banges. I stopped Cedric and told him to wait there; that I would speak with Sirius first and come back to grab Cedric later. I met up with her friends on my way out of the village as they had stopped to wait for me so that we could arrive together. They immediately asked me what had happened, but I'd merely shaken my head, warning them silently that they didn't want to know. Hermione gave me a scrutinizing stare. She knew that I hadn't done anything good.

As we continued walking, I realized that I had never been in this direction before. The winding lane was leading us out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; we were walking toward the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. Then we turned a corner and saw a stile at the end of the lane. Waiting for us, its front paws on the topmost bar, was a very large, shaggy black dog, which was carrying some newspapers in its mouth and looking very familiar.

"Sirius!" I whispered happily, knowing that I couldn't be too loud.

"Hello, Sirius," Harry said when we had reached him.

In his large form, Sirius wandered up to me first and nuzzled against my hand. Knowing that the fleas must have been driving him insane, I kneeled at his side and scratched him behind the ears. Sirius whined slightly in response. In the meantime, the black dog sniffed Harry's bag eagerly, wagged its tail once, then turned and began to trot away from us across the scrubby patch of ground that rose to meet the rocky foot of the mountain. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I climbed over the stile and followed.

Sirius led us to the foot of the mountain, where the ground was covered with boulders and rocks. It was easy for him, with his four paws, but Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were soon out of breath. We followed Sirius higher, up onto the mountain itself. I was grateful that Oliver Wood had never known about this path; I was sure he would have made us train on it. For nearly half an hour we climbed a steep, winding, and stony path, following Sirius's wagging tail, sweating in the sun to the point where I finally had to remove my cloak.

Then, at last, Sirius slipped out of sight, and when we reached the place where he had vanished, I saw a narrow fissure in the rock. We squeezed into it and found ourselves in a cool, dimly lit cave. Tethered at the end of it, one end of his rope around a large rock, was Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Half gray horse, half giant eagle, Buckbeak's fierce orange eye flashed at the sight of us. We all bowed low to him, and after regarding us imperiously for a moment, Buckbeak bent his scaly front knees and allowed Hermione to rush forward and stroke his feathery neck. Harry and I, however, were looking at the black dog, which had just turned into our godfather.

Sirius was wearing ragged gray robes; the same ones he had been wearing when he had left Azkaban. I frowned, wishing he was wearing something at least cleaner. His black hair was longer than it had been when he had appeared in the fire, and it was untidy and matted once more. He looked very thin. I didn't allow Sirius a moment to recover from the transformation before walking up to him and wrapping my arms around his midsection. I felt his ribs but his hug still seemed strong as he wrapped his arms back around me.

It wasn't long before he released me and looked at Harry. "Chicken!" Sirius said hoarsely after removing the old Daily Prophets from his mouth and throwing them down onto the cave floor.

"We'll bring you more if you need it," I offered. His ribs had been so prominent. "The Weasley twins know how to break into the kitchen. I can get some and bring it here in the middle of the night."

Harry pulled open his bag and handed over the bundle of chicken legs and bread. "Thanks," Sirius told us, opening the bag, grabbing a drumstick, sitting down on the cave floor, and tearing off a large chunk with his teeth. "Don't go sneaking around for me. I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself."

"Sirius, I'll bring you food," I offered, scrunching my nose in disgust at the thought of him eating rats. "That's disgusting."

"No sneaking around for me," Sirius repeated.

The tone of his voice told me not to argue with him. Sirius grinned up at Harry and me, but we both returned the grin only reluctantly. "What're you doing here, Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather," Sirius answered, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very doglike way. "Don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray."

"Hopefully you're getting scraps tossed to you at least," I muttered.

"Some," Sirius answered. He was still grinning, but seeing the anxiety in our faces, said more seriously, "I want to be on the spot. Your last letter... well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."

Sirius nodded at the yellowing Daily Prophets on the cave floor, and Ron picked them up and unfolded them. Harry, however, continued to stare at Sirius. My eyes were locked on the paper. My stomach bubbled as I risked a glance at my godfather. He sent me a glance before looking away. I knew that he felt a little awkward. I noticed my name visible a few times on the papers. He must have seen at least a few of the unflattering stories that Skeeter had published about me.

"You've been reading them, then?" I asked nervously.

Sirius looked up and nodded. "I have. I know they're exaggerated." I breathed out a sigh of relief as a mischievous smile spread over Sirius's lips. "Merlin, Rita Skeeter hates you."

"The feeling's mutual," I hissed.

Sirius chuckled. "Not to worry, I gave her a hard bite the other day."

It wasn't just me who snorted in amusement. "Thanks, Sirius," I said.

"What if they catch you?" Harry asked, disrupting our side conversation. "What if you're seen?"

It didn't appear that Sirius was too worried anyone would know who he was. "You four and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," Sirius said, shrugging, and continuing to devour the chicken leg. Once he had torn off another piece of meat he looked at me. "You haven't told the Diggory boy, have you?"

I shook my head. "Not that you're an Animagus. He just knows you're in hiding."

"Good girl," Sirius said.

Ron nudged Harry and passed him the Daily Prophets. There were two: The first bore the headline Mystery Illness of Bartemius Crouch, the second, Ministry Witch Still Missing-Minister of Magic Now Personally Involved. I scanned through the story about Crouch. Phrases jumped out at me: Hasn't been seen in public since November. House appears deserted. St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries decline comment. Ministry refuses to confirm rumors of critical illness.

"They're making it sound like he's dying," Harry said slowly. "But he can't be that ill if he managed to get up here."

"My brothers Crouch's personal assistant," Ron informed Sirius. "He says Crouch is suffering from overwork."

No way... Crouch had always been busy. It was easy enough to take a break from stress but let everyone know that you're okay. "That doesn't seem right. Crouch isn't just working too much. Hell, he's got people to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Something's going on and it's not good," I countered.

"Mind you though, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close," Harry said slowly, still reading the story. "The night our names came out of the goblet."

That wasn't exactly fair. Anyone who had seen me up-close that night probably would have thought that I was about to return my dinner. "I'm pretty sure we all looked a little ill that night," I pointed out. Harry just stared at me. "You don't just have to look ill because you're sick. There are other reasons he could have looked that way."

Sirius hummed thoughtfully. "Tara's right. Crouch has access to the best doctors in the Wizarding World. He hasn't just come down with a cold," he pointed out.

"What do you think it could be?" I asked.

Sirius shook his head. "I'm not sure."

It didn't make me feel any better knowing that Sirius didn't understand what was going on either. "Getting his comeuppance for sacking Winky, isn't he?" Hermione asked, an edge to her voice. I turned to her and scowled. She had to get over Winky. This was much more serious than getting rid of a house-elf. Hermione was on the other edge of the cave, stroking Buckbeak, who was crunching up Sirius's chicken bones. "I bet he wishes he hadn't done it now - bet he feels the difference now she's not there to look after him."

"Oh, let it go," I snapped at her.

"Hermione's obsessed with house-elves," Ron muttered to Sirius, casting Hermione a dark look.

Sirius, however, looked interested. "Crouch sacked his house-elf?"

"Yeah, at the Quidditch World Cup," Harry explained, and he launched into the story of the Dark Mark's appearance, and Winky being found with Harry's wand clutched in her hand and Mr. Crouch's fury. When Harry had finished, Sirius was on his feet again and had started pacing up and down the cave.

"Let me get this straight," Sirius said after a while, brandishing a fresh chicken leg. "You first saw the elf in the Top Box. She was saving Crouch a seat, right?"

"Right," all four of us said together.

"But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?" Sirius asked.

"No. I think he said he'd been too busy," Harry said.

Sirius paced all around the cave in silence. Then he said, "Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box?"

"Um..." Harry stopped speaking for a moment to think hard. "No," he said finally. "I didn't need to use it before we got in the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was in there were my Omnioculars." He stared at Sirius. "Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?"

"It's possible," Sirius said.

"Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione insisted.

It didn't mean that it was Winky. There were a lot of people in the Top Box who could have done something like that. "Not necessarily her. It could have been someone else. There were plenty of people in the box," I said. We had been four of at least twenty people up there. "Or, she could have been doing it on someone's orders."

"Whose?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. It could quite literally have been anyone," I pointed out.

It could have been one of the Bulgarians whose names I wouldn't have been able to guess. "The elf wasn't the only one in that box," Sirius said, his brow furrowed as he continued to pace. "Who else was sitting behind you?"

"Loads of people," Harry said. "Some Bulgarian ministers. Cornelius Fudge. The Malfoy's."

"The Malfoy's!" Ron said suddenly, so loudly that his voice echoed all around the cave, and Buckbeak tossed his head nervously. I rolled my eyes at Ron. "I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!"

Ron was the only one in the cave who seemed to seriously be considering that it might have been the Malfoy's to seal Harry's wand. "Lay off the Malfoy's," I said. Sirius cast me an interested look out of the corner of his eyes. "They're awful but I doubt they're that diabolical. They're not going to go out of their way to stir things up."

"Anyone else?" Sirius asked.

"No one," Harry said.

"Yes, there was, there was Ludo Bagman," Hermione reminded him.

"Oh, yeah," Harry answered.

"I don't know anything about Bagman except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," Sirius said, still pacing around the cave. "What's he like?"

"In love with Harry," I answered.

Harry whipped around so hard that I thought he would topple over. "Shut up!" Harry snapped. Sirius shot me a fleeting grin that I returned. Harry's face was red as he looked back at Sirius. "He's okay. He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament."

"Does he, now?" Sirius asked, frowning more deeply. "I wonder why he'd do that?"

"Says he's taken a liking to me," Harry answered.

"Hmm," Sirius hummed, looking thoughtful.

"Probably has some money on you," I reasoned.

Aside from my jokes about their budding romance, the only reason that I could imagine Bagman being so invested in Harry winning the Triwizard Tournament was that he had serious money on him winning. "We saw him in the forest just before the Dark Mark appeared. Remember?" Hermione asked us.

"Yeah, but he didn't stay in the forest, did he? The moment we told him about the riot, he went off to the campsite," Ron said.

"How do you know?" Hermione shot back. "How do you know where he Disapparated to?"

"Come off it," Ron said incredulously. "Are you saying you reckon Ludo Bagman conjured the Dark Mark?"

"It's more likely he did it than Winky," Hermione replied stubbornly.

There was no way either one of them had done it. They were the side characters, not the main acts. "They're both idiotic. Is either one of them even smart enough to know the spell to conjure the Dark Mark?" I offered.

"Told you," Ron said, looking meaningfully at Sirius, "told you she's obsessed with house -"

But Sirius held up a hand to silence Ron. "When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered holding Harry's wand, what did Crouch do?" Sirius asked.

"Went to look in the bushes, but there wasn't anyone else there," Harry answered.

"Of course, of course, he'd want to pin it on anyone but his own elf... and then he sacked her?" Sirius muttered, pacing up and down.

"Yes, he sacked her, just because she hadn't stayed in her tent and let herself get trampled -" Hermione ranted in a heated voice.

"Hermione, will you give it a rest with the elf!" Ron snapped.

Sirius shook his head and said, "She's got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."

My head snapped up as I smiled at my godfather. He met my eyes and gave me a vague nod. My head was spinning from the argument and Sirius's last comment. I was glad that we fell silent as he ran a hand over his unshaven face, evidently thinking hard. My eyebrows were raised to the top of my forehead as I thought about his words. It was a good piece of advice that I had to keep remembering. As much as I wanted to be friends with Malfoy, this was something to be remembered. He would never treat someone he deemed less than himself as a person.

"All these absences of Barty Crouch's... He goes to the trouble of making sure his house-elf saves him a seat at the Quidditch World Cup but doesn't bother to turn up and watch. He works very hard to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament and then stops coming to that too. It's not like Crouch. If he's ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak," Sirius said.

"Do you know Crouch, then?" Harry asked.

Sirius's face darkened and my stomach turned at the sight of it. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when the four of us had first met him, the night when we had all still believed Sirius to be a murderer. "Oh, I know Crouch all right. He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban - without a trial," Sirius growled quietly.

"What?" Ron and Hermione said together.

"You're kidding!" Harry gasped.

How were they all that shocked? Sirius could have easily proven himself innocent if he'd had the chance. No fair trial was the only way that Sirius could have been sentenced. "Say something a little less intelligent, huh?" I snapped at my friends. Harry scowled at me as I turned back to Sirius. "How could you have been sent to Azkaban without a trial? Innocent until proven guilty, that sort of thing."

"It's a long story and I'm not joking," Sirius said, taking another great bite of chicken. "Crouch used to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione shook their heads. "About fifteen years ago?" I asked.

Mom and Dad had told me a bit about the Ministry when they were younger. "Yes. He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic. He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical - and power-hungry. Oh, never a Voldemort supporter," Sirius clarified, reading the looks on our faces. "No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But then a lot of people who were against the Dark Side... well, you wouldn't understand... you're too young..."

"Too young? Sirius, look at all we've done," I pointed out.

"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," Ron added, with a trace of irritation in his voice. "Try us, why don't you?"

A grin flashed across Sirius's thin face. "All right, I'll try you." Sirius walked once up the cave, back again, and then said, "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing. The Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that's how it used to be.

"Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning - I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Auror's were given new powers - powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the Dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you - plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened."

Sirius smiled grimly. I was caught up in my thoughts, though. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked horrified at the prospect of Crouch going to such extreme measures to catch the Death Eaters but I understood. Hell, I agreed with him. Sometimes the only thing you could do was get down and dirty to defend yourself. It was what I had just had to do with Skeeter. Sometimes you had no other options - you were pushed as far as you can go. Again, I was left wondering about the darkness within.

"Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently, they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power," Sirius continued, breaking me from my reverie.

"Crouch's son was caught?" Hermione gasped.

"I didn't know Crouch had a son," I said.

"He doesn't announce it much anymore," Sirius explained, throwing his chicken bone to Buckbeak, flinging himself back down on the ground beside the loaf of bread, and tearing it in half. "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while... gotten to know his own son."

Sirius began to wolf down large pieces of bread. "Was his son a Death Eater?" Harry asked.

"No idea," Sirius answered, still stuffing down bread. "I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death Eaters - but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf."

"Did Crouch try and get his son off?" Hermione whispered.

Sirius let out a laugh that was much more like a bark. "Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione! Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again - doesn't that tell you what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy... then he sent him straight to Azkaban."

"He gave his own son to the Dementors?" Harry asked quietly.

"That's right," Sirius said, and he didn't look remotely amused now. "I saw the Dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though. They all went quiet in the end... except when they shrieked in their sleep."

For a moment, the deadened look in Sirius's eyes became more pronounced than ever, as though shutters had closed behind them. My mind went to what Crouch had done again. It was a power-hungry and self-serving move, but one that I could almost sympathize with. What would I have done if someone had told me that my child was attempting to raise back to power a man who had murdered innocent people? Perhaps I would have done the same thing. I wasn't sure.

"So he's still in Azkaban?" Harry asked.

"No," Sirius answered dully. "No, he's not in there anymore. He died about a year after they brought him in."

"He died?" Harry asked, shocked.

"He wasn't the only one," Sirius said bitterly. "Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming because the Dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently, shortly afterward. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The Dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched them do it."

Sirius threw aside the bread he had just lifted to his mouth and instead picked up the flask of pumpkin juice and drained it. I stared at him, watching the ghosts of his experience in Azkaban flash through his eyes. It was when he spoke like this that he no longer seemed like my annoying, overprotective godfather. Right now he looked very much like the hardened criminal that everyone thought he was. I watched Sirius drain the bottle, probably wishing that it was something stronger.

"So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he had it made," Sirius continued, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister of Magic... next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name dishonored, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him. So Cornelius Fudge got the top job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

There was a long silence once Sirius was done speaking. I let out a deep breath. All I could think of was the way Crouch's eyes had bulged as he'd looked down at his disobedient house-elf back in the wood at the Quidditch World Cup. Sirius's story of Crouch's son must have been why Crouch had overreacted to Winky being found beneath the Dark Mark. It had brought back memories of his son, and the old scandal, and his fall from grace at the Ministry. I shook my head. It wasn't on Crouch.

"Whether or not the boy died doesn't matter," I said, breaking the others from their thoughts. Hermione looked shocked by my words. "He was nineteen; old enough to know what he was doing and who he was associating with. He got what was coming to him."

They weren't kind words but, I was telling the truth. Crouch's son had known what he was doing. He wasn't an innocent child, he was an adult man who had made his choices. "Still... it's an awful story," Hermione said sadly.

"People get what's coming to them," I answered coldly.

"Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards," Harry told Sirius, trying to diffuse the tension between us.

"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him," Sirius said, nodding. "If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater."

"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" Ron said triumphantly, looking at Hermione.

"Yes, and that doesn't make sense at all," Sirius said.

"Yeah, it does!" Ron said excitedly, but Sirius shook his head.

"Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge the tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts and keep an eye on him."

"So you think Snape could be up to something, then?" Harry asked, but Hermione broke in.

"Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape -"

"Oh, give it a rest, Hermione," Ron said impatiently. "I know Dumbledore's brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn't fool him -"

"Why did Snape save Harry's life in the First Year, then? Why didn't he just let him die?" Hermione shot back.

"I dunno - maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out -"

"What do you think, Sirius?" Harry said loudly, and Ron and Hermione stopped bickering to listen.

"I think they've both got a point," Sirius said, looking thoughtfully at Ron and Hermione. "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was," Sirius added, and we all grinned at each other. "Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherin's who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters."

But that wasn't a fair comment. Just because Snape had known some bad people and wasn't always the nicest person in the world didn't mean that he was nefarious. Snape was one of the most annoying people I had ever had the misfortune of meeting, but I didn't think that he was an awful person. That was a difference between being an asshole and being truly evil. As I scowled at my friends, Sirius held up his fingers and began ticking off names.

"Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Auror's the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestrange's - they're a married couple - they're in Azkaban. Avery - from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse - he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater - not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape is certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble."

Even though I wasn't Snape's biggest fan, I didn't like people saying that he was a Death Eater. That was a bit much. "Just because he knew bad people doesn't mean he was one of them," I told the others. "We all know some bad people and Dumbledore is smart enough to know that Snape may have been troubled, but not diabolical."

"Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet," Ron said.

"Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" Harry said quickly. I jumped in surprise from the sudden increase in volume. "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was."

"He showed Snape something on his arm?" Sirius asked, looking frankly bewildered. He ran his fingers distractedly through his filthy hair, then shrugged again. "Well, I've no idea what that's about... but if Karkaroff s genuinely worried, and he's going to Snape for answers..." Sirius stared at the cave wall, then made a grimace of frustration. "There's still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn't, but I just can't see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he'd ever worked for Voldemort."

"Why are Moody and Crouch so keen to get into Snape's office then?" Ron asked stubbornly.

"Well, I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to have searched every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts," Sirius said slowly. "He takes his Defense Against the Dark Arts seriously, Moody. I'm not sure he trusts anyone at all, and after the things he's seen, it's not surprising. I'll say this for Moody, though, he never killed if he could help it. Always brought people in alive where possible. He was tough, but he never descended to the level of the Death Eaters. Crouch, though... he's a different matter. Is he really ill? If he is, why did he make the effort to drag himself up to Snape's office? And if he's not... what's he up to? What was he doing at the World Cup that was so important he didn't turn up in the Top Box? What's he been doing while he should have been judging the tournament?"

Sirius lapsed into silence, still staring at the cave wall. I looked after him. I wasn't sure what was going on with Snape and Karkaroff. There was too much to think about now. All I wanted to focus on now was finishing the Triwizard Tournament. We could deal with everything else later. This was too much to have on my mind. I glanced to the other end of the cave. Buckbeak was ferreting around on the rocky floor, looking for bones he might have overlooked. Finally, Sirius looked up at Ron.

"You say your brother's Crouch's personal assistant?" Sirius asked. Ron nodded his confirmation. "Any chance you could ask him if he's seen Crouch lately?"

"I can try," Ron said doubtfully. "Better not make it sound like I reckon Crouch is up to anything dodgy, though. Percy loves Crouch."

"And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads on Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," Sirius said, gesturing to the second copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Bagman told me they hadn't," Harry said.

"Yes, he's quoted in the article in there," Sirius said, nodding at the paper. "Blustering on about how bad Bertha's memory is. Well, maybe she's changed since I knew her, but the Bertha I knew wasn't forgetful at all - quite the reverse. She was a bit dim, but she had an excellent memory for gossip. It used to get her into a lot of trouble; she never knew when to keep her mouth shut. I can see her being a bit of a liability at the Ministry of Magic. Maybe that's why Bagman didn't bother to look for her for so long."

Sirius heaved an enormous sigh and rubbed his shadowed eyes. I stared at them and let out a deep breath myself. All I had wanted going into this year was to have a normal year and this had been anything but. There was so much to think about. Normal teenage melodrama, my unwilling participation in the Triwizard Tournament, a suspicious missing person, and a major revelation about a major player in the Ministry of Magic. I could see why Sirius hardly looked like he had gotten any respite since Azkaban.

"What's the time?" Sirius asked. Harry checked his watch and scowled. It hadn't been working since it had spent over an hour in the lake.

"It's half-past three," Hermione answered.

"You'd better get back to school," Sirius told Harry, Ron, and Hermione, clambering to his feet as he glanced at me. "You and I still have a conversation to have." I nodded. "Now listen..." He looked particularly hard at Harry and me. "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you. That bit's for you especially."

Sirius's head whipped toward me so quickly that I thought I would hear his neck crack. "Me? I've never done anything against the rules in my life," I said, grinning brightly.

Sirius wasn't the only one to snort. Everyone did. "No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry said, but Sirius scowled at us again.

"I don't care. I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June," Sirius said. I nodded my understanding, but I felt my stomach twist guiltily. Sirius was risking so much - and was back to almost inhospitable lodgings - just to stay here and make sure that we were okay. "And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?"

Sirius handed Harry the empty napkin and flask and went to pat Buckbeak goodbye. "We know what to do," I confirmed.

"I'll walk to the edge of the village with you, see if I can scrounge another paper. We can finish our talk there," Sirius told me.

As long as he was certain that he wouldn't get caught. I nodded as he transformed into the great black dog before we left the cave. We began walking back down the mountainside with him, across the boulder-strewn ground and back to the stile. Once we were there, he allowed the other three to each pat him on the head. Sirius turned and headed toward the outskirts of the village. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stopped long enough to give me a sideways glance.

"You guys head back. I'll see you at dinner," I confirmed.

"Good luck," Hermione said sweetly.

"Take it hard on him, Snuffles," Ron called after Sirius.

"Really hard," Harry added.

Sirius turned back and let out a bark, which I assumed was a confirmation. "Get out! I hate you both," I snapped. Cedric - who had been standing close-by - grinned and walked up to me, but his smile faded immediately when he spotted the large black dog next to me. I hadn't told him about Sirius, but he was smart enough to understand who the dog was. I motioned Cedric along as we headed into the edge of the woods to ensure that no one could see us. I turned to Cedric and smiled reassuringly. "You ready?"

"Of course," Cedric said as confidently as I assumed he could. His eyes shifted to Sirius. "This is him?"

Before I could say anything, the massive black dog stood on its rear legs and grew into the height of a very tall human male. Sirius stared down at Cedric, whose body appeared to have shrunk in on itself. His face had lost all of the color that it had had prior. I tried to give Cedric a reassuring smile, but he was completely focused on Sirius. I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to give Sirius a once-over - and probably ask a thousand questions - but he was too stunned to do anything.

"This is him," Sirius finally answered.

I'd never seen Cedric's eyes so wide. It took my boyfriend a few moments to shake himself of his stupor. "M - M - Mr. Black. It's - It's a pleasure to meet you," Cedric stammered.

"Mr. Diggory, I presume?" Sirius asked knowingly, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes. My name's Cedric."

"Mm..." Sirius hummed, walking around Cedric, who looked stiff as a board. "You look like your father."

Cedric smiled vaguely. "That's what I've been told."

"Tara tells me you're a good Quidditch player," Sirius commented.

Cedric nodded. "Yes, sir. Seeker for Hufflepuff." Sirius hummed again. I wondered if he was thinking about his days on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "I'm nowhere near as good as Tara, though," Cedric added.

Sirius and I both smiled slightly. "Good answer, son," Sirius answered. We all shared a small laugh. "Are you thinking about going professional?"

It was a conversation that Cedric and I had had a few times before. Cedric chuckled under his breath. "I've considered it and I think my dad would love it, but I don't think that's where I belong. I'm not good enough if we're honest," Cedric said. I raised an eyebrow. If he kept working I thought he would be good enough. "I was thinking about working for the Ministry. As an... Auror."

The tone of Cedric's voice changed as he began speaking about his desire to work for the Ministry. I knew that he was afraid of what Sirius would think, having been done so wrong by them himself. Sirius shook his head comfortingly. "There's nothing wrong with that. The world needs good people in it who stand up for what's right."

Cedric nodded. "I'm very sorry for what's happened to you."

Sirius's eyes brightened slightly, just enough so that he looked like the young man from my parent's photo albums. "Keep it in mind if that's the career path you choose to follow," Sirius warned gently.

"Of course. No one deserves to be wrongly accused. You didn't deserve that," Cedric said.

"Thank you," Sirius said, turning to me. "Tara, love, give us a moment, will you?"

It would have been impossible to miss the tension that flooded Cedric's body - probably at the thought of being alone with Sirius. I shook my head as I stepped forward. "Uh..." I mumbled slowly. "I'm not so certain that's such a great -"

"Go," Sirius ordered, leaving no room for argument.

I turned to look at Cedric, wondering if he was okay with this. Cedric nodded his confirmation, taking my hand for a moment. "Go on. It's all right."

"Okay," I said slowly. This didn't seem like it would end well to me, but if they were both okay with it, that was their choice. I walked up to Sirius and grabbed him around the bicep warningly. "Be nice."

"We'll see," Sirius answered. "I won't have him long."

The look on Sirius's face told me that he'd already had this speech he was going to give Cedric prepared. I knew that Sirius would be even worse than my father. Cedric didn't look too concerned, though he did look far more nervous talk to Sirius than Dad. Still, he nodded at me reassuringly. I walked out of the cave with my stomach roiling nervously. I knew that Sirius wouldn't physically harm my boyfriend, but I couldn't help but wonder if Cedric would still want to be with me when my godfather was done with him.

Cedric's P.O.V.

Once Tara was gone, Cedric tensed up slightly. It was odd standing alone in the forest with a man that Cedric had always believed to be a murderer. But Sirius Black was a good man who was his girlfriend's loving godfather. Sirius Black looked Cedric up and down and stared at him for a long time. They were looking at each other, sizing the other one up. If Cedric had thought that he was nervous to face her father after officially announcing that they were dating, he was terrified to be alone with her godfather.

"She cares very deeply for you," Sirius Black announced after a long silence.

Cedric nodded. "I know. I care for her too."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Care for her?" he repeated.

"Yes," Cedric confirmed, but he knew that Sirius wanted the entire truth; a truth that Cedric hadn't even admitted to Tara yet. "Well, I - It's more than that. I don't just care for your goddaughter - for Tara. I -"

Sirius smiled, sensing how nervous Cedric was. "You can tell me, son," Sirius said. His voice had lost a bit of the edge that it had had previously. It sounded a little more welcoming now. "Whatever it is you feel for her, it's none of my business to repeat it to her. That's your business. I just want to be sure you won't hurt her."

"Never. I love her," Cedric said so quickly that it surprised even him. It was something he had never said out loud, he had never even admitted it to his friends. "I'm not going to hurt her."

A grin tilted up on Tara's godfather's lips that suddenly made Sirius Black look about ten years younger and far friendlier. "Good. Tell her that you love her. Tell her before someone else does," Sirius said knowingly.

The knowledge in his voice almost startled Cedric. The pair stared at each other for a few moments as Cedric tried to figure out what to say. Cedric wasn't sure how it had happened, but he was positive that Sirius knew more than he let on. Cedric assumed that Sirius knew a little bit about what was going on - there was a copy of the Daily Prophet on the ground next to him - but he didn't know how much Tara's godfather knew. The comment wound Cedric's mind back to another conversation.

It was just a few days after the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament and Rita Skeeter's newest article about Tara and her relationships. "Diggory!" Cedric heard a voice down the hall shout.

Cedric turned back to see Fred Weasley running up to him. "Hey, Fred," Cedric greeted, turning back to his friends. He already knew that this was a conversation meant to have in private. "Give us a moment, yeah?"

"Sure," Ted said. "Hey, Fred."

"Hey," Fred greeted. They both waited for Cedric's friends to walk away and get down the hall before either said anything. "You saw the article Skeeter published in the Daily Prophet?"

Cedric smiled, laughing humorlessly. He'd already heard more about the article than he'd wanted to and he had seen how much it was bothering Tara. "In light of recent events, I've unsubscribed to the letter," Cedric joked. Fred smiled slightly. "But I do still see copies from other students. Yes, I saw the article that Skeeter published. Tara has too."

They stared at each other for a moment. They both knew what needed to be discussed, but neither one wanted to be the first one to bring it up. "Oh, I know. I offered to say something to you but she asked me not to," Fred admitted.

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "She did?"

"She wanted to handle it on her own, I think, but I wanted to make sure you know that what Skeeter wrote in the article isn't true," Fred said, trying to explain himself. Cedric nodded slowly. He knew that Tara was faithful; it was something else that was bothering him. "What is true is embellished to make it look like Tara isn't faithful."

"I know she is. I appreciate the honesty though, Fred," Cedric said.

"Of course," Fred answered.

There was a brief moment of silence where they stared at each other. Would today be the day they said what they'd been dancing around for almost a year now? Fred turned to walk away when Cedric called him back. "Fred." The Weasley twin turned back. It looked like he let out a deep breath. "You really do love her, don't you?" Cedric asked knowingly.

Fred's face was one of complete shock. He clearly hadn't been expecting Cedric to be that blunt; Cedric hadn't expected it from himself either. "'Course I love her. She's my brother's best friend and I've known her a long time," Fred answered safely.

Cedric shook his head with an admittedly bitter smile. "No, that's not what I meant and you know it," Cedric said. Fred let out a deep breath but nodded anyway. "We've danced around this subject for a long time. Maybe it's finally time that we talk about it."

Neither one of them had been expecting to discuss this today, but it was time. A long silence passed between them where they attempted to figure out what they were supposed to say. They had always known what was about to come to light but had always also been gentlemen enough not to discuss the obvious. "What's there to say?" Fred asked tensely.

"You're in love with my girlfriend," Cedric answered bluntly.

"That's all you have to say about it?" Fred asked.

The fact that there had been no denial confirmed what Cedric had always suspected. "There's a lot I could say about it. I guess I just have one question," Cedric said. Fred nodded for him to say what he needed to. "Why haven't you said anything to her?"

Fred smiled bitterly. "Because that wouldn't be fair to either one of you." Cedric raised his eyebrows. It wasn't the answer he had expected. "We're not friends, Diggory, but I do respect you. I know that you're a good guy and that you'd never hurt her. I know that she cares for you - hell, probably more than she's ever admitted to you. You two are good together. It's not worth lying to you. I would love to be with her, but at the end of the day, the only thing I want for her is for her to be happy. She's happy with you. It's the happiest I've ever seen her."

Cedric was silent for a long time as he processed Fred's words. He had never thought that they would have this conversation. This was the conversation he'd thought would always remain unsaid. Fred was looking at Cedric with sad eyes. Cedric almost felt bad about bringing it up. It wasn't Fred's fault that he loved Tara - she was an easy person to get attached to. It was just so difficult to believe that Fred wouldn't say anything just because he knew how happy Tara was with Cedric.

"That's a very selfless way to think," Cedric finally said.

"She means as much to me as she does to you," Fred pointed out. Cedric nodded his confirmation. They both cared for her in the same way. They both wanted her to be happy. "Isn't that all you want? For her to be happy?"

"Of course," Cedric said.

"There's no one that makes her happier than you," Fred explained.

That was what Cedric had found himself doubting lately. He knew he made her happy, but other people did too. "Don't discredit yourself. There's a reason that you were her treasure," Cedric reasoned.

"It didn't mean what you think. Tara has no idea about the way I feel about her," Fred said.

"Not right now, but give her some credit. She'll start to figure it out soon if she hasn't already," Cedric admitted. He had seen the shock in Tara's eyes when Skeeter had started writing about her relationship with Fred. It had gotten the gears turning in her head. The two of them stared at each other for a while. "Thank you for not saying anything to her."

Fred nodded. "Just keep her happy."

"Always," Cedric promised.

The memory of the conversation sent a nervous chill over Cedric's spine. There was no doubt in his mind that he loved his girlfriend and wanted to stay with her. It just came down to telling her. It was the first time that he would ever say those three words to someone and he had never prepared to say them before. He wanted it to be perfect. He wanted to make sure that she knew that he wasn't saying it because he thought it was the right time. He was saying it because he really felt that way about her.

"I'm going to tell her," Cedric promised Sirius. "I just want to find the right time."

Sirius smiled and let out a small laugh as he shook his head. "There's never going to be a right time." It was the words of someone who was speaking from experience. "Something's always going to go wrong. You'll burn dinner if you wanted to cook for her, you'll forget the speech you had prepared, or you'll trip when trying to face her. She doesn't need that. Just make sure you tell her before something gets in the way. You'd be amazed how quickly life can take over."

Spoken from a man who knew exactly how quickly life could change. Cedric nodded. "That's good advice. I appreciate it."

"Of course. Come," Sirius said, extending a hand for Cedric to follow him. "She'll be worried I've disposed of you if we take too long." Cedric chuckled and nodded, following Sirius Black through the woods back to where Tara was waiting. "By the way, you're still young and have a lot of life left to live. Take some of it slow."

Cedric blushed. He knew that they weren't the most subtle people in the world, but he hadn't expected any of her family to know what they were doing. Did he somehow know? "Absolutely," Cedric answered nervously.

Sirius hummed under his breath. "Be glad I'm not Marcus. You're not a good liar."

Cedric sputtered dumbly for a moment before realizing that Sirius wasn't going to believe him, no matter what he said. Sirius knew what they were doing. "I'll work on it," Cedric said.

Sirius hummed bemusedly before extending his hand for Cedric to start walking. They both let out low laughs as Sirius extended his hand to shake. Cedric responded to the handshake, smiling at Tara's godfather. He was glad to have met him and learn that he wasn't the monster the Ministry had portrayed him as. Once they had released each other, they headed back toward Tara. The moment that she caught sight of the pair, she met them halfway and grabbed Cedric by the arms.

They started walking back to Hogsmeade as a trio. They could only walk for a little while and chat about their lives at Hogwarts before having to stop to make sure Sirius wasn't spotted. Cedric told Sirius about Quidditch and the courses he was taking. Sirius had a good laugh when Tara told him that Cedric was a prefect. She joined in on the teasing, which made Cedric smile. Sirius promised over the summer that they could have dinner and get to know each other better. Cedric was telling the truth when he told Sirius that it was a pleasure meeting him.

Sirius transformed into the large black dog as they walked to the edge of Hogsmeade. Tara and Cedric then continued, just the two of them, back to the castle. Once they were out of ear-shot, Tara spoke again. "What did he have to say to you?" she asked.

"Just the typical 'don't-hurt-my-goddaughter-or-I'll-come-after-you-and-kill-you' routine. It's a little scarier when the godfather is a convicted killer, even if that was an inaccurate accusation," Cedric said carelessly.

Tara's eyes narrowed as she stared at him. "Hmm... You're a bad liar, you know?" she teased.

Cedric smiled, pressing a kiss against her forehead. Like godfather, like goddaughter. "It's nothing for you to worry about," Cedric promised. After all, she would know soon enough.

A/N: Next time... The Third Task is revealed to the champions and Tara confronts Dumbledore about why he has protected her actions in the Second Task. I'm sorry about the long delay for this one! I've had some serious stress at work and I've had a lot of visitors the past few weeks (that adult life, ya know?) but I'm back to writing! I really hope you guys liked this chapter and I hope the next one comes a lot faster. As always, thank you for all the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

Vincent FGS91: Right?! Cho drives me nuts, not that the character ever did anything particularly awful, but something about her just always bothered me. So, I took my liberties in creating my version of her. Onto the Third Task indeed! Oh man...

zikashigaku: They are! If you've ever gotten back together with someone you didn't want to end things with in the first place, you'll know that feeling lol. Cedric and Ted are making every effort to be extra nice to Tara now that Cedric knows how easy it is to lose her. Yes, the return of the voice! I love hearing everyone's theories about who it is. I loved writing their encounter! I wish it could have been longer but I have a reason for it being so short. I actually didn't consider writing the trio's reaction to Tara telling Cedric about Sirius. In my mind they weren't happy about it but she gave them one warning glance and that was the end of the conversation! Yes, I'm excited to get into the meat of the story!

Alex876: Thank you! I love Goblet of Fire so much (even though the end makes me want to throw the book through the wall), because it's such a major turning point in the series. I know, the closer we get to the end the more nervous I think I'm making everyone. I hope you liked this one!

Guest: Hello! I appreciate the check-up! I'm doing much better these days, it's just a lot to balance with my job, personal life, and writing, of course. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it though. Thanks for the check in and I hope you like this one!