Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter - that would be J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 46

Once Professors McGongall and Snape had left the room, Dumbledore walked over towards a large trunk that sat in the corner of the room. It was a very unusual trunk because it had seven different locks on it, something that you don't see on your average trunk. In his hands, Dumbledore carried a series of keys that I assumed would all of the different locks. First, Dumbledore began by unlocking the top lock and then made his way down from there.

The different layers of the trunk all carried a different assortment of things in them including spells books, Sneako-scopes, invisibility cloaks, parchment, and loads of other random objects. However, as soon as I began to wonder why Dumbledore had opened this trunk in the first place, he unlocked the final layer and it revealed a large, underground pit that I would have never expected to be there. Knowing that Moody was an odd person anyway, this didn't surprise me too much.

Slowly, Harry walked over to see what was inside of it. As soon as he saw what it was, he immediately shouted and stepped back quickly in shock. Alarmed, I walked over to see what it was as well. What I saw wasn't anything that I would have expected. It was Mad-Eye Moody. However, this one appeared to be sleeping and starved and was also missing his wooden leg and magical eyes. Only after a second of looking at the unconscious man, I quickly sprang back in surprise just as my brother had done.

"Who is that?" I asked, completely confused as to what was going on.

"Just who you think it is Emily," Dumbledore nodded while looking grave. "It's the real Mad-Eye Moody."

Together, Harry and I managed to help Dumbledore down into the pit to see if the real Moody was actually still alive. Luckily for us, he was still alive, but he wasn't doing so well.

"He's very weak," Dumbledore said while nealing down next to him. "He's been controlled by the Imperius Curse by the looks of it - they must have had to keep him alive…one of you throw down the cloak that the fake one is wearing…"

I walked over to the unconscious body of the imposter that had been struck down moments ago. Who was he really then? Harry helped sit the man up and I took off the cloak that he was wearing and tossed it down to Dumbledore so that the real Moody wouldn't freeze to his death.

Once Moody was covered, Dumbledore got back out of the trunk and walked over to the desk that the fake Moody had been using. On the top of it sat the flask that he had been carrying around all year. Dumbledore opened it up and dumped its contents out onto the desk in front of him. Since I had expected to see some pumpkin juice or something of the sort, it was quite the shock to see a muddy and chunky looking liquid pour out of it.

"Polyjuice Potion…" I murmured.

"Exactly," Dumbledore nodded. "So that explains why Moody was placed inside of his office - the imposter would have to keep him close in order to get the hair that he needed to make the potion."

Suddenly I heard a groaning noise behind me and I quickly spun around to see what was happening. Without any hesitation, Harry quickly jumped in front of me and Dumbledore in front of me, his wand already in position to strike if necessary. However, the man on the floor didn't attack us at all. Instead, his form began to change suddenly into someone that I had seen before. He had a dirty blonde color to his hair and appeared to be very young.

"Barty Crouch?" someone said behind me.

I turned suddenly and found Snape and Winky staring ahead at the man that had just transformed with Professor McGongall trailing close behind. He was right too. I had only seen this man once before and it was in the courtroom where he was begging his mother and father to believe that he was innocent of the crime that he had committed. When I had seen him then, I had almost believed that he was innocent himself given the way that he was acting. Now I knew that his father had been right all along - he was a murdering traitor that didn't belong out of the jail cell. That's when I remembered what he was accused of and rage filled me suddenly. He was involved in the torturing of Neville's parents.

"Master Barty - what is you doing here?" Winky asked in a panic.

Winky quickly jumped around Snape and ran to the fallen form of her former master. As soon as his leg twitched to show that he was alive, Snape quickly moved ahead and grabbed onto my arm and forced Harry and me to take a step backwards. I held onto his arm as Dumbledore moved towards the young Barty Crouch and then turned back towards Snape.

"Did you bring the potion Severus?" he asked.

From out of his pocket, Snape handed over a clear looking potion that I recognized to be Veritaserum from one of the potion books that I was given. It was commonly known as one of the most powerful truth potions in existence. Once Dumbledore had it opened, he kneeled over Crouch and forced his mouth open to pour a few drops over it.

"Ennervate," Dumbledore said.

Suddenly Barty came back into consciousness and quickly scrambled around in search of his wand. Just before Dumbledore had any time to react, several unspoken curses flew through the air from Crouch's wand.

The last thing that I remember before I blacked out was a sharp pain cutting through my chest.

When I woke up, I half expected to be dead because of the pain that I had felt before I had passed out. Instead, I found Harry sitting next to me and Snape kneeling over me and was putting his wand back into his robes. Both of them appeared very worried and I slowly sat up and looked around the room. Dumbledore was saying something quietly to Professor McGonagall, who had grown very pale at this point.

"Emily - are you okay?" Harry asked, his eyes looking a bit wet.

"What happened?" I asked as I looked down at my torso.

I found there an enormous cut across me and I suddenly grew as pale as a sheet when I saw how much blood had come out of me due to the amount that had already dried underneath me. How long had I been out?

"Harry and Emily - I would like to have a word with you both in my office, if that is okay with you," Dumbledore said. "Emily - are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine," I said as I started to stand up.

As soon as I began to move, I felt the sting of the cut that I had just received. I grimaced in pain and then I suddenly remembered that my ankle was severely swollen and I started to fall, but I was quickly grabbed by Harry and Snape who were standing next to me.

"Thank you," I murmured.

"Harry, if you don't mind, I believe that it would be best if Professor Snape helped to escort your sister up to my office seeing as you are not in the best condition yourself," Dumbledore said.

Snape and Harry both looked at each other and, for once, didn't appear to hate each other too much. Harry nodded in agreement and then began to limp towards the exit himself while Snape helped me walk out of the room with Dumbledore trailing closely behind.

"Once we have finished talking, I ask that you both stop my Madam Pomfrey's office," Dumbledore said as he watched us limping around. "Severus seemed to have healed the mark on you Miss Potter, but I imagine that it should be looked at further…"

I nodded as continued to move forward. Luckily enough, the halls of the castle appeared to be mostly vacant and I went on to assume that most people were probably congregated around the Quidditch field. That's when I suddenly thought back to everything that had happened earlier that day. I hope that they hadn't left Cedric's body lying there for everyone to see. How had Cedric's parents reacted? Were they going to be okay?

"Emily!"

I spun my head around and saw a quick flash of red hair before I felt myself having the life squeezed out of me. For a moment, I stood there in complete shock, but then I wrapped my arms around him as I quickly realized who it was. Fred was standing nearby looking shaken and a few of our other good friends stood by as well, all looking a bit off with the events that had just happened.

Snape, who I half expected to smack George in the head because he had burst out of nowhere and grabbed me, stood silently off to the side without expression. Dumbledore and Harry, who had both been walking ahead of us, now stopped and turned around to see what was going on. When Harry saw them, he expression didn't change too much as I imagined my expression looked at the moment. It was difficult to process everything considering the circumstances and what we had just been put through.

George held me close to him and I leaned into his chest, but there were no more tears to be shed. I believe that I had cried more today than I had ever cried in my entire life. At this point, I was too weak to do anything and I wanted more than anything to just crawl into my bed and sleep for hours. George kissed the side of my head and then whispered in my ear.

"I love you Emily," he whispered into my ear with a choked up tone.

"I love you too George," I whispered back.

"Are you okay?" George asked, clearly still panicking but trying to cover it up.

"I'm fine George," I said quietly as I looked back up at him. "How is everyone else?"

Harry walked over and stood by Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Neville who had all come into the castle.

"What have they done with Cedric…?" Harry asked.

"They took Cedric's body off the grounds," Fred told us. "His family doesn't seem to be doing too well. It's all a shock…"

All of us stood silent for a moment before Dumbledore spoke up again. He had a tone of sympathy, but at the same time he seemed urgent.

"I understand that you are happy to see one another, but I am afraid that I must take these two away for a moment," Dumbledore said. "I assure you that they are now in safe hands."

George, who seemed to understand, finally let me out of his embrace and I returned to Snape who began to walk me towards Dumbledore's office once more. It took a bit longer to make it there because of our injuries, but when we did, I finally realized what Dumbledore had been talking about when he sent the request for a large, black dog to be brought to his office.

Once we stepped up the stairs and walked through the doors, Sirius changed back into his human form and ran to us both. He brought us towards him and hugged us and then took a look at our injuries with a quick glance. He was very pale and wore the same grim expression that everyone seemed to be wearing since we had gotten out of the graveyard.

"Are you two all right?" Sirius asked quickly and we both nodded. "I knew something like this would happen - what happened - what is he doing here?"

For a moment, I didn't understand who he was referring to, but it only took me seconds to figure that out when I noticed him glaring at Snape. Honestly, they were like children. Couldn't they just get along for five minutes - especially considering the circumstances.

"I was assisting Emily into the office," Snape said in a slow, dangerous manner.

"Well, I believe that she is here now," Sirius said bluntly.

It would have been clear to anyone that the statement actually meant that Sirius wanted Snape to get out. He really should consider growing up a bit - Snape didn't do anything to him.

"Indeed," Snape said shortly.

They both glared at each other for a moment as Dumbledore took a seat behind his desk and then looked between the pair of rivals. For a moment, he looked slightly amused, but also a bit irritated at the same time.

"I believe that we all have more important matters to discuss at the moment," Dumbledore said in all seriousness.

"You're right," Sirius said. "I don't believe that Severus really needs to be present for this."

Snape narrowed his eyes and Sirius did the same. However, Snape seemed to take the hint and he began to walk out of the room. That was before I grabbed onto his arm as he was passing the chair I was sitting in and stopped him from walking. While looking at Sirius, I spoke up.

"I want you to stay," I told Snape.

I looked back at Snape and he almost appeared smug as he walked over stood next to my chair without breaking eye contact with Sirius, who was now standing at Harry's side. The tension between the two could nearly be felt in the room as they glared menacingly at one another.

Harry, who was sitting next to me, gave me a raised eyebrow and then returned his attention back to Dumbledore. Although that brief moment between the two had taken my mind off of the matter at hand, I felt myself began to sink back into the state that I was in before because of the look in Dumbledore's eyes. I already knew what he had brought us in here to do, but I didn't want to and I knew that Harry didn't either. He was going to have us retell the story.

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

Luckily enough for us, we were put off another moment as Dumbledore explained what had happened in the office only moments ago with Crouch and Moody. I tried to listen in to some of it because I didn't entirely understand myself what had happened because of my fainting. However, I couldn't bring myself to fully pay attention because I knew what was coming next.

I leaned my head against Harry and I watched as Fawkes flew over to us. Harry pet the phoenix gently as my eyelids began to grow heavy. What I wanted more than anything at the moment was to go back up to my vacant dormitory and just fall asleep for ages, but I knew that it wasn't going to be that easy. Nothing was ever going to be that easy anymore. How were either of us going to sleep peacefully knowing that Voldemort was back and looking all around for us. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he was in some sort of rage right now because of our quick escape from him. Not to mention that he was undoubtedly furious about not being able to kill us again.

I was sprung back into reality when Dumbledore addressed us. He looked completely sympathetic, but there was a look of business-needs-to-get-done in his eyes as well.

"I know that this won't be easy for the two of you," Dumbledore said slowly. "But I am going to need you to tell me what happened after you left the maze today."

"Can't this wait until tomorrow?" Sirius asked. "They need to go to the hospital wing and rest."

Although Snape and Sirius tended to disagree on things, I caught a small nod of agreement coming from Snape. I nearly felt relieved when Sirius stood up for us, but I knew that there wasn't any way that Dumbledore would let us do this. If he thought he could hear this later, he would have let us rest before even suggesting that we go to his office.

"As much as I would love to do just that, I am afraid that I will need to know this now," Dumbledore said. "I imagine that it won't be easy to retell, but I need to know this information now that it is fresh in your minds. Now…I ask you to please tell us what happened…"

He was very calm about the manner and I knew that he really meant what he said. If we were to go to sleep, there was a small chance that we could forget some of the events that took place. We both sighed and sat up and began to retell the story of what happened.

I started off and told them everything that I knew up to the point where I fell unconscious. I told them every ingredient placed into the cauldron and the creature that I now knew to be Voldemort in his weakened and pathetic form.

"…after he had cut his hand off and placed it in the cauldron, he came over to us," I told them without looking them in their eyes. "He cut us both in the arms and took our blood -"

Suddenly Dumbledore rose from his chair while Sirius and Snape looked absolutely horrified with the whole idea.

"He did what?" Sirius exclaimed.

"He mentioned something about the blood of the enemy…" I murmured.

"He had to use our blood to make him stronger - he couldn't use someone else's," Harry spoke up. "He mentioned that he would have the protection that our mother left us would be inside of him as well if he used our blood. He was right…he was able to touch both of us without hurting himself like before…"

Everyone stared at us in a horrified silence. I wouldn't look any of them in the eye because I wasn't sure how they were going to take all of this and it scared me in a way. Once Dumbledore sat back down in his chair, he waved his hands as if to tell me to continue.

I finished up my part of the story where I mentioned that I had fallen unconscious and then Harry picked up where I left off. There wasn't a word said about anything until Harry finally got to the part where our wands connected.

"How is that possible?" Snape asked.

"Priori Incantatem," Dumbledore said in a hushed tone.

Dumbledore seemed to have some sort of sudden realization as he looked from one of us to the other. However, both Harry and I were still a bit confused.

"What is that?" I croaked.

"The Reverse Spell effect…" Sirius murmured. "But…how?"

"Harry's and Emily's wands both share the same core as Voldemort's wand," Dumbledore explained. "They each have a feather from the tail of a phoenix - Fawkes to be exact -"

"Fawkes?" I asked.

Dumbledore nodded as Sirius spoke up again.

"What happens when the cores meet?" he asked.

"They will not work properly against one another," Dumbledore told us. "One of the wands usually forces the other to show the precious spells that it had performed…did you all see Cedric?"

"Yes," I said quietly and Snape put his hand on my shoulder. "He seemed…almost like a ghost…he told us that he wanted us to bring his body back…and to tell his parents that he loves them…"

Dumbledore nodded sympathetically and then got a sudden look of curiosity on his face.

"He wasn't the only person that you saw, was he?" he asked.

"There was an old man," Harry choked out. "And Bertha Jorkins…and…"

"…our parents…" I finished for him.

Harry looked down at the floor and refused to meet anyone's eyes. Without hesitation, I held onto Harry's hand tightly. He wasn't in this alone and I didn't want to make him feel like he was.

Everyone in the room remained silent for a moment, drinking in everything that they had just heard. Finally, I heard the words that I had been waiting for since the moment that I walked back into the castle.

"I believe that it is time for you two to see Madam Pomfrey," Dumbledore said. "Sirius - Severus - would you two mind helping these two into the hospital wing."

He smiled sympathetically at the two of us as we stood ourselves up and began to limp back out of the door to Dumbledore's office and out to face the rest of the world.

Thanks for reading - I hope that you liked it! I know that this had a lot of filler in it like the last one, but I am trying to stick with the plot at the moment. The next chapter should contain a lot of stuff that didn't happen in the book. Tell me what you think and tell me if you have any ideas!

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