A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting! I bought a house and have since been using every spare moment to paint, pack, and move the last two weeks.

Harry couldn't sleep and neither could Matilda. They both sat in the common room hoping in vain that McGonagall would come and update them again tonight.

"Rory and I don't hang out as much since you started dating," Matilda said, staring into the fireplace. "Not that I'm not also completely consumed with Fred." She scoffed. "Or I was anyway."

Harry couldn't recall ever having had a one-on-one conversation with Matilda, especially not since he'd started dating Rory. He didn't spend time with Matilda and Neville without Rory now that he thought about it.

It felt stupid now that he hadn't. They were both sitting up awake because they were worried about Rory. Ron and Hermione spent loads of time with Rory. He hadn't made the slightest bit of effort to do the same with her friends.

"Are things with Fred… Okay?" Harry asked.

Matilda chuckled. "No. I think he's going to break up with me. I keep bugging him because…" she sighed. "You know they're trying to start a joke shop. I haven't exactly been supportive of their fundraising efforts. Not to mention…" She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He just says I nag him all of the time now. I don't think he likes being around me. I don't think I do either, honestly."

"I'm sorry," Harry said. "Rory didn't say anything."

"I didn't tell her," Matilda said. "She watched someone get murdered and no one believes her. I'm not going to bug her about how shit my boyfriend is. She'd be upset that I was upset." She let out a deep sigh. "Although I suppose I'm the one worrying now."

"You and me both," Harry said.

She looked over her shoulder to look at him.

"I think she loves you," Matilda said. Harry felt his whole face go hot. "At least the way you two are with each other I feel like it must be love. I'm a little jealous."

Harry chuckled. "I can't imagine you being jealous of anyone."

"I suppose I do plant the seed of jealousy in the heart of others." Matilda looked back to the fire. "But you and Rory are… I think you're soulmates. Not that she believes in that kind of thing. But I can't help but think whatever stuff you two are made up of, it's the same."

That reminded Harry of what Rory had said to him the day he'd asked her out. She'd told him that Firenze saw that their lives were intertwined. Harry didn't know what that meant. Maybe it meant they were destined to fall in love. Maybe they were meant to face what evil was coming together. Maybe it meant that if things between them didn't work out there'd always be the fact that Voldemort upturned both of their lives when his parents were murdered between them.

Harry didn't know if he loved Rory. But he cared for her more than he felt like he'd cared for any other person he'd met in his whole life. The fact that she was lying in a bed in the hospital wing having fits and headaches terrified him.

"I don't know what she sees in me," Harry admitted. He slid from the couch and sat beside Matilda on the floor. "I half think she's mad sometimes because I've done nothing but cause her problems since people found out we were together. I mean, she could do better, right?"

Matilda gave Harry a pat on the shoulder. "Just don't stop being good to her. You make her feel happy and safe. And you make her laugh even though you're not funny."

"I can be funny sometimes," Harry insisted.

"As long as she thinks so, then no one else matters, right?" Matilda asked.

Harry nodded. No one else mattered. No one else but Rory.

Eventually, Harry and Matilda made their way to bed and had very short, restless nights of sleep. Professor McGonagall was nowhere to be found until they had Defense Against the Dark Arts. She strode into the classroom and cleared her throat quietly.

"Sorry to bother you, Alastor, but Professor Dumbledore needs to speak with a few of your students," she said.

Moody's eye whizzed around the room and for some reason, Harry felt uneasy. For the first time, Harry felt like Rory might be right not to trust Moody.

"Of course," Moody said finally.

"Potter, Cerbus, Granger, Weasley, Longbottom. If you could gather your things and come with me," McGonagall said.

Harry had expected McGonagall to see after himself and Matilda, but the others? Something was wrong.

McGonagall refused to answer any questions until they were in Dumbledore's office. Snape was there too which made Harry even more uneasy. Second to Moody, Rory distrusted Snape and was certain he was the one who'd put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire.

"Is Rory okay?" Matilda asked, not wanting to waste another second.

"Aurora Lupin is going to be fine," Dumbledore said. "She's at St. Mungo's where her father is keeping an eye on her. She should be able to return to classes in a few days."

"She had to go to St. Mungo's?" Neville asked.

"It seems your friend, Lupin, fell victim to a nasty poison," Snape said.

"Someone poisoned her?" Harry asked.

"It seems so. Lucky whoever administered it didn't give a stronger dose. It could have easily killed her," Dumbledore said.

"But she's going to be fine?" Harry asked even though this particular question had already been answered.

"Yes, yes," McGonagall said. "Don't worry. Remus has promised to write to both of you to let you know how she's doing."

Matilda and Harry both let out a sigh of relief.

"Who would want to poison Rory?" Neville asked.

"We were hoping you might be able to tell us," Dumbledore said.

"It would have taken several hours for this poison to take effect. You were the last people seen with her," Snape said. "That would obviously make you the prime suspects, except I also believe none of you, but Lupin would be advanced enough to create the potion that nearly killed her."

Harry hated that Rory wasn't around to hear him say that. As much as he talked down to her in class, to admit she was the best student among them would make her gloat.

"And as it's much more common that you would commit overkill rather than not administering a high enough dose, it is unlikely she did this to herself," Snape said.

"When did she first start to feel ill?" McGonagall asked.

"After I came from seeing Professor Dumbledore," Harry said.

"She came with Hermione and me to check on Harry," Ron said. "I saw her the whole time. We were waiting out in the corridor. We missed our last class."

"Did you see anyone else during that time?" Dumbledore asked.

Ron shook his head. "It was just the three of us until Harry came down. And then we went to the common room."

"We both went upstairs to change, and she said her head felt a bit funny. By the time we went back downstairs she said her head was hurting," Hermione said.

"She seemed fine at dinner," Neville said. "Not like, fine, but sometimes you have a headache and it's fine."

"Then she started acting funny in the library, but we were all together the whole time. One of us was always with her," Matilda said. "I don't think we even talked to Parvati and Lavender. I didn't even talk to Fred and George."

"And you spoke to no one else on the way to dinner or the common room or after leaving my office?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, we saw Moody," Ron said.

Harry froze. "Moody."

"What was that?" Snape asked.

"Moody," Harry said. "He told Ron and Hermione to stick close to me. And to stick close to Rory too because she might get into trouble if no one kept an eye on her. He was walking away and stopped to say it to her. He patted her on the shoulder."

"You think Professor Moody poisoned Rory?" Matilda asked. "I know Rory and I both detest him despite Neville's constant praise, but I don't think he'd poison her. Transfigure her into a starfish maybe."

"A starfish?" Ron asked.

"Rory hates starfish," Harry, Matilda, and Neville said in unison.

Moody knew that Rory was a seer. And if Barty Crouch was right, Rory knew that Moody wasn't who he said he was. Moody was going to kill her if he got the chance. Why hadn't he taken her more seriously? Why had he dragged Rory away from Moody yesterday?

"Why does she hate starfish?" Ron asked.

"It doesn't matter. The only other person she talked to was Professor Moody," Harry said.

"Well, I can assure you that Professor Moody, as unconventional as he might be, wouldn't try to murder one of his students," McGonagall said.

Unless he wasn't actually Moody. Which is what Rory had been telling him all year. He was a liar. He wasn't who he said he was. Maybe it was Moody, but he'd turned to the dark side.

"Maybe she got another one of those letters," Hermione suggested.

"She just gives them all to Professor McGonagall now," Harry reminded her.

"Well, who else would want to hurt Rory? She's harmless unless you're Moody or Snape," Matilda said.

"Malfoy? Parkinson?" Neville asked.

"Connor O'Malley," Matilda said sharply. "He and Rory went on a bad date before the tournament and he took it badly that she started dating Harry. He's been quite nasty to her in choir ever since."

"She never told me that," Harry said.

"If you ever talk to Ara Ashe or Professor Flitwick, Rory shuts O'Malley down quite well. She says you've got enough to worry about without having to worry about boys who are lesser than you," Matilda said. She looked back to Dumbledore. "I bet it's O'Malley. It has to be. I mean, don't get me wrong, Draco Malfoy is a solid candidate, but Connor is still mad about it."

"But Professor Snape just said that it was easier to overdose than underdose someone when you don't know what you're doing. If you get underdosed doesn't mean it that you likely avoided getting the full dose somehow? Unless you're as smart Rory or Hermione or a teacher you're not going to know what you're doing," Harry said.

Matilda nodded. "Good point. But how would Rory have known she was being poisoned and then known to avoid being fully murdered?"

"Because Moody touched her," Hermione said. She mimicked the movement on Ron's shoulder. "He touched her just like that, but only for a second and she practically jumped out of her skin when he did it."

"Settle down," Dumbledore said. "Forgive me if I have to discourage the line of thinking that Professor Moody tried to murder one of his students."

"But what if he's not Moody?" Harry said without thinking. Everyone stared at him. But it needed saying.

"Not Moody?" Neville asked.

"What are you on about, Harry?" Matilda asked.

"Professors, could you leave us for a moment?" Dumbledore asked.

Snape and McGonagall only exchanged a glance before they wordlessly complied and walked out of the office.

"What's going on?" Neville asked.

"So, she hasn't told them?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry shook his head. He looked over to Matilda and Neville. "Rory's a seer."

"A seer? You mean like Trelawney?" Matilda asked. "Harry, I know Rory's brilliant and gets excellent grades in-."

"Those extra lessons she takes with Hagrid are actually with a centaur, Firenze, in the Forbidden Forest, teaching her Divination. Because she's terrifyingly gifted," Harry said. "She told me I was going to be in the tournament. She told Dumbledore that Barty Crouch was going to be murdered, and she's the one that told me that the second task was going to be underwater. And she told me Professor Moody isn't who he says he is. That's why she's been so terrified of him all year."

Matilda stared at Harry and laughed. "You can't be serious. I mean, Professor Dumbledore. Surely you know-."

"I was the one who arranged Aurora's extra lessons," Dumbledore said.

Matilda and Neville were silent.

Matilda looked over to Harry. "Okay then. She told you three about all this, but not us."

"I told her she should-."

"It doesn't matter," Matilda said. "You've not gone out of your way to talk to us, have you? Neville and I know every little thing about you. And it's not like she hasn't been warning us against Moody all year. But she starts snogging Harry Potter and suddenly he's the only one who gets to know her secrets."

"We didn't know she was a seer until yesterday," Ron said.

"When you had your fit during class?" Matilda asked. She looked directly at Harry. Suddenly he felt ashamed. He felt guilty. He told Rory that she should tell Neville and Matilda she was a seer months ago. He wasn't going to force her, of course, but they were her best friends. He thought they should know. Harry couldn't imagine not telling Ron and Hermione the same things.

But Rory was different. Something about only Harry knowing made her feel safer. She'd only told Ron and Hermione because he'd had the nightmare in class. Otherwise, no one would know.

"I promise she wasn't intentionally hiding it from you, Mattie," Harry said. "She was just afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Matilda asked. "She's my sister. I have a mum who drinks herself into oblivion since my dad decided to be a psychopath. Other than that I've had Aurora and I've had Neville. And we've always-."

Matilda's voice broke off and she dissolved into sobs. Neville put his arm around her.

"Just because Voldemort killed your parents doesn't mean you're the only person who's had bad things happen to you," Neville said.

Harry knew about Neville's parents being tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange, Rory's cousin. She was the only person he'd told. But he wouldn't reveal that to Neville. Even if Rory was upset later, he had to tell them this.

So he started from the beginning. The prediction with Malfoy and the ferret. Marley and the choir performance. Every detail she'd ever told him about the TriWizard Tournament. And come hell or high water, he told Matilda and Neville everything that had happened in third year.

Part of Harry felt like Neville and Matilda loved Rory more than he did. Harry knew that if he ever stepped out of line Matilda and Neville would destroy him. And he respected that. Loving Rory more than he did meant something.

And then Harry realized.

If they loved Rory more, that meant he loved her at all.

Harry loved Rory. When had that happened? Who cared? He loved her.

"If I ever thought that I was the only person who bad things happened to, Rory wouldn't like me for even a second," Harry said. "Aurora just wants everyone to be happy. To have what they need. Especially you. She loves you."

Matilda and Neville exchanged a long glance. Then Matilda looked over to Dumbledore.

"Pardon my language, Professor, but what the fuck?" Matilda said. She looked over to Ron. "You slept with a dude pretending to be a rat in your bed for how many years?"

"Don't remind me," Ron said with a shudder.

"We have to give her some credit," Neville said. "I don't know if I'd believe any of that if you hadn't told us in front of Dumbledore."

"I'm still on the fence about any of it being true, but it does explain a few things," Matilda said. "She's got a lot of explaining to do when she gets back, I'll tell you that. And I'm definitely going to go off about Fred. If she wants to lie to me about all this, I'm going to make her endure all the nonsense that's happening with me as retaliation."

"What's wrong with Fred?" Ron asked.

"He's shit is what," Matilda said. She turned back to Dumbledore. "Sorry." Then she turned back to Ron. "Forgive me if I don't find it attractive that he wants to blackmail people in political office."

"The person they're blackmailing is in office?" Ron asked.

"You knew they were blackmailing someone?" Matilda asked.

"I'm going to chime in here before any more incriminating secrets about Fred and George Weasley comes to light," Dumbledore said. "I think we've gotten a bit off-topic."

Harry nodded. "I think Moody poisoned Rory. If he's lying about who he is or why he agreed to teach here, she knows that. And Crouch said that he would try to kill her for it."

"So, we tell the Minister, right? Surely Fudge won't be keen on him being a murderer. Especially if he's trying to take out teenagers," Matilda said.

"Fudge has no reason to take Aurora on her word, unfortunately. And considering her parentage, he will not be inclined to believe her," Dumbledore said.

"But surely he must trust your word," Matilda said. "At the very least you can fire Moody so he's not hanging out about trying to kill her. And Harry for that matter. I mean if Rory has been right about Moody all along then you should take some kind of precaution, right? You can't just let him hang around."

"We don't have any proof other than Rory doesn't have a good feeling about him. And even if Rory is a talented seer, Divination isn't always 100 percent accurate," Hermione said.

"So we just take the risk then?" Matilda asked. "That's crap. Rory nearly died. Someone is trying to kill Harry, like actually for real this time since apparently Sirius Black is actually a good dude."

"We'll just have to keep an eye on her I guess," Neville said.

"None of us left her side yesterday and she's still at St. Mungo's now. Barty Crouch was at St. Mungo's and when he showed up he wound up dead," Matilda said.

"What else can we do?" Ron asked.

Matilda faltered for an answer and huffed. "It's crap."

"It is crap," Harry said. "But we'll just have to keep a close watch on her."

"And you," Matilda said. "You're like the tour guide to danger, no offense."

"None taken," Harry said, feeling that it was probably an appropriate title.

Rory didn't remember much. She remembered talking to Harry after he left Dumbledor's office. She remembered not feeling well. Past dinner she didn't remember much at all aside from feelings. Fear. Confusion. Exhaustion.

She vaguely remembered being in the hospital wing. Then things went truly blank. When she'd come to, she was lying in a hospital with her dad sitting beside her reading.

"What's going on?" she asked. Her throat felt like sandpaper.

Remus snapped his book closed quickly and was on his feet.

"You're finally awake," he said. "You haven't been conscious at all since you left Hogwarts."

"Left?" she asked. She surveyed her surroundings. She wasn't at Hogwarts. She was in an actual hospital. "St. Mungo's?"

"Do you remember anything?" Remus asked.

"I had a headache. I felt really funny," she said. "It's all kind of fuzzy. My brain feels like soup."

"I can imagine," he said. "You were poisoned."

"Poisoned?" she asked. "Someone poisoned me?"

"You're lucky to be alive. It was meant to kill you," he said. "Somehow you managed to avoid getting the full dose."

Rory rubbed her temples. There was still a dull ache to her head. She went to speak again but began coughing. Remus handed her a glass of water from the table beside her. She chugged the whole thing and already began to feel loads better.

"Who would try to poison me?" Rory asked. But she knew. She knew immediately. "Moody."

"Your friends seem to have landed on that conclusion as well," Remus said.

"Can't prove it though," Rory said. "Just like I can't prove he's a liar. Crouch said he was going to try to kill me. Dunno why we're surprised."

"I'm hesitant to send you back to school," Remus said.

"I have to go back," Rory said dismissively. "He'd be an idiot to try it again. At least right now. He'll wait until it's safe to go after Harry too."

"Whether someone tries to murder you now or later is still someone trying to murder you," Remus said.

"I'm going back. I can't prove it's Moody if I'm not there. And I have sneaking suspicion that I'm the only one who'll be able to," Rory said. "Besides, if someone is trying to kill Harry in the last task, he's going to need my help."

Remus sighed. "It's getting harder and harder to argue with you these days."

"Side effect of getting older I suppose," Rory said. "If it makes you feel better, your bestie hasn't stopped lurking around since Crouch got murdered. He sends us a letter every day telling us to be careful."

"Which you excel at, clearly," Remus said.

"I didn't die," Rory said. "That's what's important, right?"

Remus looked so exhausted to be her father right then, but he kissed her forehead. "Be careful."