"So, does this mean Hufflepuff won?" Peter asked groggily. Even having landed upside-down in a warm, plush chair, the vibrant yellow walls with little badgers painted on them and the earth colored carpet gave it away. "How utterly rude," he finished in a mutter, thinking Harry had been slighted if that were the case. A tie was more than fair-

"Prongs? Moony, you two alright?" Peter flipped out of the chair and landed even more painfully than when he'd been upside down, but ignoring any cricks in his body he'd get for that later, he quickly scrambled around to see Sirius bending over the two in concern, rightly so. James's leg was still smoking slightly, and even as he watched, Remus lost the battle of keeping his eyes open, they rolled back into his head and he passed into sleep right on the table he'd landed on.

"We'll live," Prongs groaned, ignoring Padfoot's outstretched hand and inspecting the rest of his leg for further damage. Thankfully for now it just looked like a really bad sunburn, rather than charred flesh. "Remind me to kill Hagrid though."

"Don't think that'll be top of my list," Sirius crouched down beside him instead, casting a healing charm for him. "Even you wouldn't take those odds mate."

"I still owe him a good one," James returned sourly, still prodding the angry flesh until Sirius slapped his fingers away. "Only reason that blasted skrewt didn't kill us was the sphinx got territorial."

Peter choked in further concern and made his way over to Remus to check he really was asleep. Despite the slight snoring, he easily could have been dead.

Sirius didn't wait for permission this time and grabbed Prongs under the arms, hoisting him to his unsteady feet despite his protests and dragging him to the chair Peter had vacated. Then he came back and Peter was quick to help him get Moony to the couch, he didn't so much as twitch as they sort of half-dropped him down, he definitely wasn't light.

"Probably best we all get some sleep while we can," Alice agreed, standing surprisingly close to Sirius. "What with the tournament being over, and who knows what's coming for us next." Then she patted him lightly on the arm and whispered for him alone, "just remember what I said."

Sirius gave her a strange look as she went back to Frank's side, not quite in agreement, but he'd think about it regardless. For now he shoved Remus's legs at least slightly out of the way and claimed the other end of the couch again, ignoring the strange looks he got from Peter and James for this as there wasn't a lack of seating, but both of them were clearly just too exhausted themselves to care enough to ask, thankfully, as they tried to make themselves comfortable.

Frank watched the exchange with bewilderment, eyeing the shirtless stud of Hogwarts as it was clear some kind of interaction had happened between them, but brushed it off even before she slipped her hand into his and smiled for him alone. "How do you like my common room?"

"Lovely," he complimented with a genuine smile as he looked around once more. "I'm honestly jealous we can't switch houses now." It was a round, low-ceilinged room with a colourful profusion of plants and flowers that seemed to relish the atmosphere of the Hufflepuff common room: various cacti stood on wooden circular shelves (curved to fit the walls), many of them waving and dancing for no apparent reason, while copper-bottomed plant holders dangled amid the ceiling caused tendrils of ferns and ivies to brush your hair as you passed under them. James Potter seemed to be eyeing them with a careful eye Frank couldn't blame, he remembered the Devil's Snare as well, even if such a thing would never be here.

A portrait over the wooden mantelpiece (carved all over with decorative dancing badgers) showed Helga Hufflepuff, toasting her students with a tiny, two-handled golden cup. Small, round windows just level with the ground at the foot of the castle showed a pleasant view of rippling grass and dandelions, onto the grounds beyond. These low windows notwithstanding, the room felt perennially sunny.*

"I hope we get to go to the dorms as well at some point," she nodded to the rounded doors that led off. "But the couches are plenty comfortable," she squeezed his hand and the two curled up under the mantle and began to have a soft whispered conversation of what the other had done while separated in the maze. She never really got around to saying what she'd talked to Black about while stuck around him, but Frank hardly noticed that. He squeezed her tighter and shivered with distaste at the trap she described, while Alice smiled even broader he'd managed to have at least a semi-normal conversation with one of the Marauders, like her. They really weren't so bad individually it seemed, they just all enhanced the worst in each other apparently, she laughed to herself without sharing that thought aloud.

Only Lily and Regulus didn't seem to want to settle, though neither was acknowledging the other anymore despite the fact they shared the exact same thought. It was too easy.

All throughout this tournament Harry hadn't really had much of a struggle, now apparently it was just over? Lily kept flipping the blank pages of the book, it had landed right on top of someone's potions homework this time, but with at least Lupin and possibly Potter already asleep, no words were appearing. She'd seen how far along Regulus Black was though, and there seemed a decent chunk left, more than just the wrap-up of him going back to the Dursleys. You-Know-Who's plan hadn't seemed to come to fruition at all...

Alice had been right about one thing though, they both acknowledged to themselves, may as well catch some sleep now before they added any new nightmares to the mix with whatever did happen.

The floor was so soft Lily was tempted to just curl up right in front of the fireplace, but instead levitated a couch over there instead, mentally apologizing to whomever had been sitting here. She wondered once more what happened to these places once they left, and if a poor group of students would find themselves on the floor with no idea why their couch moved when they left once more.

Regulus curled up uneasily in a chair, not expecting to be able to sleep much in the bright common room, but his traitorous body was already listing to one side before he'd even finished the thought.

Lily was trying to walk her dog around her favorite forest spot, and doing a terrible job of it. The black beast kept tugging her in all sorts of directions no matter how much she scolded, and then when she finally got him to sit, he had a bone in his mouth, and he began chewing on it, loudly. Disgusted, she backed up and heard the crunching intensify, and suddenly the bright forest faded all around her, and she was in the Chamber of Secrets again, the dog had turned into a stag, still chewing on that bone that she now saw had a human foot at the end-

Potter stood before her chewing obnoxiously on some crisps, his hand holding out an unopened bag to her. "Alright Evans?" He asked cheerfully, not even spraying any of it on her, a small miracle. "Better enjoy that while you can," he said quickly to the indignant look she gave to him, though it was more for him hovering over her while she slept than the offered food this time. "It's the last of the food we've got on us, hopefully we get sent to the feast next."

She snatched it away and flounced over to where Alice and Frank were untangling themselves from each other, yawning and holding their own bags with bewildered faces as if they had no idea how that had happened.

Sirius had successfully summoned the bag back to him again and lobbed up for another throw. Regulus's reflexes were still on autopilot though, and he swatted it away once more, still snoring softly. Snickering in delight at the game, Sirius summoned it back for a fourth try when James circled back to him and snatched the bag into his hand.

"I should have woken you up last," he rolled his eyes, "now you've probably gone and crushed them all."

"They're still edible as dust," he shrugged without remorse.

James snatched Sirius's still mostly full bag and left the now abused one in its place, ignoring Sirius's mutters of daddy syndrome setting in as he changed the subject, "have you even tried waking him up yet?" Needlessly gesturing to Remus still snoring loudest of all.

Sirius hadn't, their feet were still tangled together and he was enjoying that too much. Aloud he said, "I'll certainly give it a try. Now that he's had some rest, at least we should only have to threaten bodily harm rather than acting on it."

James left him to it and went over to drop the bag gently on Regulus's face. That finally snapped him awake, and the bag fell to the floor, where he proceeded to crush it under his foot as he stood in surprise at how close Potter was. James sighed for the wasted food but turned away and left once more, grabbing the book and settling down next to Peter just a hair's breadth farther apart than he normally would have and flipped the book open, waiting patiently for the words to appear as Remus was finally roused.

When he saw them at last, a crisp lodged in his throat, and Peter reached over to thump him on the back in concern, but stopped just as quickly when he saw for himself.

"That's, not what I would have expected," he whispered to no one, flinching back away and studying the common room around them with new, worried eyes.

James completely agreed, as he had no idea why he was saying the words, "Flesh, Blood, and Bone."

If anybody had still been groggily waking up before, he had all attention on him now.

Lily heard about Harry and Cedric finding themselves in a graveyard instead of school with such a tight pit in her stomach, she wanted to demand from Potter what he'd really fed her. Surely this was all his fault, he was making this up just to scare them, he'd fed them something to make them all nauseous, he'd started all of this by bothering her at the end of class!

Her anger at him just didn't last though as a figure approached the boys, she knew this wasn't anyone's fault but You-Know-Who's. Sometimes she hated to be right.

Regulus watched and listened with abject horror only on Peter as Potter said the words. Kill the spare echoed in the room, it didn't even sound possible that had come from a teenager's mouth. The spare, what could that possibly mean? His brain shut down, even as he looked at all the older kids around him, their faces pale and looking sickly. The spare, what? He looked around again at the common room, and now refused to let it click together.

Potter wasn't letting anyone live in denial for what that could mean. He read in a rough, unrecognizable voice of the light coming out of a wand, and leaving Cedric Diggory's eyes.

James wanted to put the book down. No, more than that, he wanted to tear it into a million little pieces and then set each one ablaze and throw the ashes at Peeves and see if he could incinerate them further somehow. Nobody had actually tried that, he realized in near sudden hysterics. Why hadn't he thought of that, he was the most destructive person in the castle! Surely, if they just blew up this ruddy book, they could all just go home!

Before his hands could even twitch to begin though, he looked up at those around him. What would happen to them, even if it worked? Would they be trapped here forever without their means of escape? Trapped inside, though Cedric would never be able to come back here. He wondered if his homework was lying on one of those tables, never turned in. What was the point of all of this?!

Sirius moved so fast Peter barely had time to see him coming. Even if he had though, he'd do nothing to stop him, he hoped James wouldn't this time either. He deserved whatever thrashing that was about to happen, he'd actually killed someone, in cold blood, no hesitation. He was a monster, beyond redemption- He wheezed when Sirius's arms locked around him, unable to stop himself from tensing and pulling away on instinct, but found no force constricting the air out of him. Instead Sirius was holding him like a child, the muttered oaths under his breath were directed at himself.

"-never going to turn into that- won't let him be such an idiot again-"

Peter looked around wildly to see James and Remus too looked far more concerned for him, than about him, for once.

It took all he had not to burst into tears all over again as James forced out every cruel deed of this future. Hitting Harry! Creating that potion, using his own hand to bring You-Know-Who back to life...it never seemed to end, and it was all his fault! He'd do anything to atone for this...

HPHPHPHP

*The description of the common room came from JK herself. I don't know where she would have slipped it into the series myself, but I forever wish she'd gotten the chance.