Disclaimer: No, I'm not J. K. Rowling - I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 47

When we stepped into the hospital wing, we were greeted by all of the people that were waiting for us - George, Fredz, Mrs. Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Bill. As soon as we crossed into the room, I no longer needed Snape's assistance with walking because George had rushed over to me again to help. However, Snape seemed to be keeping close to me, probably just his usual paranoid self.

"Harry - Emily!" Mrs. Weasley shouted and walked quickly over to us.

Before she could actually reach us, Dumbledore stood in between us all and held up his hand. Mrs. Weasley stopped in her tracks and it was then that I noticed just how pale she was - how everyone was.

"I ask that you all let these two rest," Dumbledore said calmly. "They have both gone through a terrible ordeal tonight and they need some peace and quiet.

Madam Pomfrey came out of her office and looked around at the crowd of people that now stood in her hospital wing. She looked around frantically, probably worried that she was going to have to heal all of us at once or something. That or she just didn't like her hospital crowded.

"Headmaster - why is there a dog here?" she asked while looking down at Sirius.

"I assure you that he if very well trained," Dumbledore nodded. "Now, I must go speak with Fudge. I ask that you all do not leave here until I have spoken to the school."

He nodded at us with a small smile and then began to walk towards the door. He gave a look to Snape as if to tell him to leave as well and he got the hint and started to walk out.

"Sleep well," he said to me as he walked towards the door.

I nodded wordlessly and I hoped that I would be able to sleep well. At this point, I was completely exhausted and just wanted to sleep right now. However, I also feared that if I did go to sleep that I would have nightmares about what had happened in the graveyard.

Once they had left, Madam Pomfrey had us crawl into the beds that were set out and then walked over to her cabinet where she had her potions. While I settled down, several people surrounded the beds that we laid in. George held my hand as Madam Pomfrey handed me a potion.

"This is for a dreamless sleep," she said as she held it up to my mouth.

I took two large mouthfuls and instantly felt tired. I looked over at Harry and he gave me a small smile and then took his potion wordlessly. Everything became fuzzy and I looked over at George and Fred who were both looking down at me with worry. It hurt to see them like this - they were usually so cheerful…

On my right side, I saw Neville, Ron, and Hermione - who were also on Harry left side - standing and looking at the both of us with the utmost concern on their faces. Just as I wished that I wouldn't have to see all my friends so distraught, I looked into George's eyes and faded away into my long awaited sleep.

When I woke up, I heard loud voices shouting at one another and I could still feel George's hand holding onto mine. I didn't open my eyes immediately, but I recognized the voices Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Cornelius Fudge talking urgently to one another. Somehow, even when I didn't tie together what they were saying, I knew that the conversation wasn't going too well judging by the tones of their voices. After a moment of realizing that I couldn't just fall back to sleep, I tried to listen into what they were saying while still pretending to be sleeping.

"You are prepared to take their word on this Dumbledore?" Fudge scoffed. "They are two fourteen year olds!"

"I believe them both - Harry and Emily have never lied to me before," Dumbledore said proudly. "Crouch also confessed moments ago and they both explain everything and make perfect sense - Lord Voldemort has returned Cornelius, you must understand this."

I opened my eyes and looked around at the scene. Luckily enough, no one seemed to notice that I was awake aside from Harry who glanced over in my direction for a moment. Not too far away from our beds, Dumbledore and Fudge were standing and they both seemed to be very serious at the moment. Fudge was looking at Dumbledore as if he were some kind of lunatic while Snape and McGonagall stood off to the side looking furious.

"That is insane Dumbledore," Fudge said. "How can you believe the word of some lunatic and two children who clearly don't have their heads on…well, you know what I mean…"

"I don't," I said suddenly.

Nearly everyone in the room jumped when they heard my voice. Apparently they didn't realize that I was awake. Everyone then looked over at Harry and recognized that he was awake as well.

"Are you implying that we are not in our right minds Minister?" I asked coolly as I sat up in my bed.

"Well…I have heard about the instances recently about the two of you seeing things, having headaches, possibly hallucinations…" he said.

"From who - Rita Skeeter?" I scoffed. "I thought that you were smarter than that Minister."

"Excuse me - I will not be talked to like a child," Fudge said while going red in the face. "Now - I will not believe that the greatest Dark wizard of all time has returned simply because these two have been having headaches."

"We saw him come back!" Harry said suddenly. "We saw the Death Eaters - I can give you their names!"

"I am not interested in hearing names," Fudge said. "I've been hearing stories from these two since the beginning of the school year and I'm not interested in hearing any more - how can anyone trust what comes out of their mouths?"

"What about Cedric?" I said. "How do expect that he died then? Are you suggesting that it was us?"

"No - it was an accident of the Tournament - these things have happened before!" Fudge declared.

"You are blinded by fear Cornelius," Dumbledore said. "You must understand that Voldemort has returned! He is going to come after all of us just like last time and you must be prepared. You need to get these dementors out of the castle and send someone to get on the good side of the giants - he is going to use them just like he did before and you have to make sure that you get to them first."

"I am the Minister!" Fudge said. "I will not take orders - I will not go to such measures because you believe in two children who clearly don't know what kind of mess they are trying to start. Voldemort could not have returned…it's impossible!"

Suddenly, Snape stepped towards Fudge and pulled up the sleeve to reveal his forearm. When the Mark was shown on his arm, the Minister quickly jumped back in disgust.

"The Dark Lord has returned - this is evidence of it," Snape said irritably. "It's been getting darker all year and he summoned us earlier when they were all in the graveyard."

"I've had enough of this!" Fudge declared. "Here are your winnings Potters - I must return to the Ministry."

He threw the bag of money towards us and quickly walked out of the door without another word. He was acting more like a child than anyone that I had ever seen. How could he not believe us? Dumbledore was right - he had to be blinded by his fear.

The room was silent for a moment after he left until Dumbledore sent Madam Pomfrey out of the room to talk to Winky who was apparently in some sort of distress. After she left, I understood just why he wanted her to leave.

"Sirius - I believe that it is time that you show yourself to these people," Dumbledore announced to the Weasleys.

Sirius, who was previously in his dog form, suddenly changed his form at once and showed who he was to the people around him. Mrs. Weasley shrieked and suddenly backed away from him in horror. Bill's jaw dropped and Fred's eyes widened. Snape rolled his eyes in annoyance of seeing his rival once again. Even George, who had already known about Sirius, looked a bit surprised to find out that he was actually in the room with us. I guess that I had forgot to mention the part about him being an Animagus.

"Sirius Black!" Mrs. Weasley yelled.

"Calm down Mrs. Weasley - he's supposed to be here," I said. "It's all right."

Sirius smiled innocently at the Weasley's mother as if in hopes that she wouldn't pull out her wand and kill him on the spot. If it were me, it wouldn't be her that I would be worrying about. Given the look that Snape was giving Sirius, I think I would be more afraid of him at the moment.

"I must assure you all that he has my full trust and he has done nothing to not have yours as well," Dumbledore said while looking at the Weasleys.

Snape let out a small snort and Sirius threw him a look. It was amazing how a rivalry can last this long. You think that they both would have grown up by now.

"Now that this has been settled," Dumbledore said while turning to Snape. "I believe that we have discussed what must be done Severus - if you are prepared of course."

"I am…" Snape said.

"Good luck," Dumbledore said.

Snape nodded and then looked around the room for a moment and began to walk out of the door. I wish that he would have stayed for a moment longer, I really wanted to talk to him more than anything right now. He always knew how to make me feel better or how to take my mind off of things. I just wish that Sirius could understand that and be better towards him for my sake at least.

"I must be going downstairs now," Dumbledore said. "I need to speak with the Diggorys - Harry and Emily, you both need to rest now."

He smiled weakly at us both and then turned towards the door to leave us to rest. The Weasleys and the rest of our friends crowded around us and spoke to both Harry and me separately. Fred, George, and Neville came over to talk with me while the rest of the group spoke to Harry.

"Doing any better?" Fred asked.

"Not really…" I muttered. "This is all…such a mess…"

"It is…I'm sure we'll make it through it though," Fred said with a small smile.

"It isn't that easy…" I said weakly. "Voldemort's back and…no one believes us…"

"We believe you Emily," Neville said. "Fudge just doesn't want to believe it, that's all. He'll come around soon enough."

"He's just scared," George said. "All the signs were there, he just thinks that if he avoids the problem all together that it will just vanish."

I nodded and looked down at my hands and held onto George's again. Even though they all say that Fudge will have to believe it sooner or later, it didn't help at all right now. Voldemort was back and there was no stopping him if the Minister of Magic wouldn't warn the public simply because he was too afraid to see what we all did. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that Voldemort was going to be a lot worse than he was last time because of all of the anger that he built up because of his failure with us. He was going to have more people killed just like Cedric and just like with him, I'm not going to be able to stop him.

"You should try to sleep more," George said. "You're tired…"

"I know…" I murmured. "I just have too many things on my mind…"

I didn't think it was possible at this point, but I started to tear up once again as everything came back to me at once. Although I normally don't cry a lot, today was an exception because I was crying more today than I ever thought that I could. It was getting ridiculous.

"It's okay Emily," George said.

He sat down next to me on the bed and pulled me closer to him. I buried my face into his chest so that no one could see the tears flowing down my face.

"No it's not," I cried. "Nothing is okay. Voldemort's back and Cedric is dead and it's all my fault."

"Emily, it isn't your fault that he died," George said. "There wasn't anything that you could do."

"Yes there was - I was right there George, I could have done something," I cried. "But I wasn't fast enough to save him. I should have never left him there - he could have lived if I wouldn't have left him there."

"Stop blaming yourself," George said. "You didn't know what was going to happen."

"But I'm the one that came up with the idea for all of us to take the cup," I sobbed. "H-he could have l-lived if it wasn't for t-that."

"Emily, you didn't know what was going to happen," George said soothingly. "You didn't know where that cup was going to take you, so please don't blame yourself for this. It isn't your fault."

I couldn't bring myself to speak anymore and just cried into George's chest for a few more moments. When I finally stopped, I leaned back and wiped my face clear of my tears. George wiped off one more tear from my eyes and then kissed me on my forehead.

"You need to sleep," he said quietly.

"I know…" I mumbled. "Can you all stay with me until I fall asleep…?"

"Of course we will," George said.

Fred and Neville nodded and I looked at both of them and noticed that I wasn't the only one of us that was crying. Although they were all trying to hide it, all of them had puffy red eyes and were wiping their faces off in attempt to keep anyone from noticing. I saw one tear go down Neville's face and he quickly turned around to grab the sleeping potion while wiping it away.

"Here," Neville said in a choked voice as he handed me the potion.

I took the potion in my hand and then put my arms around him to hug him. He held onto me tightly for a moment before releasing me again. He coughed and I could tell that he was covering up a cry and I turned to Fred and gave him a hug as well.

"Get to sleep Potter," Fred smiled weakly.

"Okay Weasley," I said and wiped away the last tear.

I drank the potion in one gulp and the room became fuzzy once more. I felt George's hand go around mine as I leaned back and fell asleep at once.

I was back in the graveyard, but this time my brother wasn't there with me. The only person that I saw was the body of Cedric Diggory that lay in front of Tom Riddle's gravestone. Not understanding what was going on, I walked closer towards him and noticed that he wasn't breathing. I began to panic and looked around the area for some help.

"Look what you've done Emily," a voice said behind me.

I spun around and saw the ghost of Cedric staring at me in disappointment. He looked just like I remembered him, except the usual kind look in his eyes was missing.

"W-what do you mean?" I stammered.

"I thought you were going to protect me Emily," Cedric said while looking down at his broken body. "But all you did was run and save yourself. How could you be so selfish?"

"Cedric - I tried," I said. "I didn't want you to die!"

"You just left me there," Cedric said as he began to circle around me. "I would have never done that to you."

"Please, I didn't mean to," I begged.

"All you cared about was saving your own skin," Cedric said. "After everything that I did to help you, you just let him kill me."

Suddenly the scene changed and I was standing in front of a casket. Inside of it, I saw Cedric lying there looking like he was asleep. Everyone around me was crying as they passed by the casket.

"He was such a good man - why did he have to die so young?" Neville asked.

"It's all her fault," Mr. Diggory sneered in my direction. "If she wouldn't have been so selfish, my son could still be alive."

Everyone in the room looked at me in disgust and a few people burst into tears. Then, everyone began to move towards me and I backed up into a wall nearby as the people began to surround me.

"It's all your fault," Mrs. Diggory said.

"Please, I tried to help him," I said. "I wanted to help him."

"She's pathetic," Draco scoffed. "It's all her fault that he's dead and she refuses to take the blame."

"It doesn't matter," Snape said. "We all know what really happened Emily."

"Severus, please," I cried. "I'm so sorry..."

"You killed him," everyone began to chant.

Everyone moved in closer and chanted the same thing. From a distance, I heard several people burst into tears as the people began to chant the same thing over and over again until I was backed into a corner. I started to cry as the kept going and I sunk down to the ground and they kept moving closer to me.

"Emily!" someone shouted. "Emily - wake up!"

Suddenly my eyes flew open and I looked around frantically. It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness, but when they did, I saw my brother standing above me with a terrified expression plastered on his face. We were still in the hospital wing.

"I'm sorry," I said through a choked sob.

"It was just a dream Emily," Harry said as he pulled me into an embrace.

"But it felt so real," I cried.

"It's okay," he said. "It's gone now..."

We sat there for a minute before he let go of me and walked over to the side table where more of the potion sat. I guess that it had worn off through the night when my nightmare had happened. When he handed it to me, I took a quick gulp of it and he did the same.

Instead of going back to his bed, he crawled into mine so that he could stay with me throughout the night. Considering our size, the bed was large enough to fit us both comfortably enough so that we could both fall back into a dreamless sleep.

Thanks for reading - I hope that you all liked it! I was going to try to make this the last chapter, but I decided that I wanted to add some more things into it later. In other words, the next chapter will be the last one for this book and then it'll be The Potter Twins and the Order of the Pheonix! I hope that you all will read that one too! By the way, I'm probably going to take a small break in between writing this one and the next one so I can think of some more ideas. At most, it'll probably last a week. For any news regarding that, you could check my Twitter page where I'll be posting updates on when I'm writing again. Tell me what you think!

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