Triwizard Lecture Two
June 26th, 1995
Sixth Year
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Once the girls were out of the hospital wing, they joined Dumbledore in his office for the lecture of their lives for not coming to him at the start of all this.
"…You should have informed me of your suspicions at the beginning. However, for your selfless acts, you will be each be given awards for special services to the school and you will each be given 100 points for what was surely stellar spell-work. The awards will be revealed along with the House Cup at the feast."
"Well, we thought maybe you knew what was going on, at first." Jo was silent as she tried to remember how many points Hufflepuff had and what the point boost would bring them up to. Once Jo had hold of a number she shoved it aside and shifted her attention back to Dumbledore.
"Can you maybe not reveal the awards? We kinda don't want anyone who doesn't already know, to know, y'know?"
Curious, he asked, "Why? Most students would revel in the compliment."
"We aren't doing it for the points, or the recognition. We're doing it because someone has to."
"And that 'someone' has to be you?"
"Yes," Jo replied. "It's easier for us to keep the kid safe then it would be for any of the teachers to. We've already kept an eye on him for the past 4 years. It's actually sort of fun, sometimes."
"It can be arranged. Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
"Tell you? Not as yet." Leili said.
"I do have a question to ask you, what's up with Sirius Black being Harry's Godfather? And the whole not-dead slash innocent thing."
"Oooh, Good question," Leili told her.
"Ah. To answer your first question, Sirius Black was James Potter's best friend; he was named Harry's godfather when Harry was born. He was falsely accused of betraying James and Lily to Voldemort, in fact the betrayer was—"
"Peter Pettigrew," Leili interrupted.
"Indeed. Peter faked his death and Sirius was sent to Azkaban for his murder and the murder of twelve Muggles. There was no trial."
"Why wasn't there a trial?"
"It was deemed unnecessary. Peter had accused Sirius of betraying James and Lily and blew up the street, leaving behind his finger and a handful of witnesses who repeated Peter's claim and swore they saw Sirius cast 'Confringo'. It didn't help that Minister Fudge claimed when he arrived on scene Sirius was hysterical with laughter.
"For twelve years, Sirius remained incarcerated but last summer, recognizing Peter's animagus form in a newspaper clipping, he escaped and came here to carry out the death he was imprisoned for. You both saw him briefly last year. He was the 'large black dog' dragging Mr. Weasley under the Whomping Willow. Mr. Potter and Miss Granger turned time back to prevent the Dementor's kiss. They set him and Buckbeak free and now it is time for dinner. I'll see you at the Feast," he said, dismissing them.
"By the way, I'm really, really sorry I zapped you!" Leilani apologized. Dumbledore chuckled.
"Oh, oh, oh! Speaking of zapping people, can I see someone's memory of what happened? I was kinda unconscious." Jo asked excitedly.
She'd heard rumors of something bordering on epic but since she'd been suffering from blood loss, she didn't remember any of it and Leili had been surprisingly tightlipped about it, but whether that was because she didn't remember it and thus had nothing to say or because she remembered it and was mortified, Jo couldn't say.
Leilani gave a pointed, "No," before dragging her friend out of the office.
"Why not?" Jo whined as the door closed, Dumbledore chuckled as he heard Leilani's reply.
"I zapped Dumbledore! It is not a crowning achievement!" She said, her voice rising to a slight shriek.
"Oh I dunno, I think it's pretty cool."
"What am I going to do with you?" Leilani groaned. Jo gave her best cheeky grin in response. It was at that point that Dumbledore lost the sound of their voices, leaving him to ruminate over sending an innocent man to Azkaban, not unlike Gellert Grindlewald had once done.
"Think of how useful it could be!"
"Useful? How?
"Having everyone know that you can conjure and control lightning, they'll be terrified! The attacks on Hufflepuffs should decrease."
"Yeah, but I can't control it! I don't even know how I did it!"
"You know that and I know that but no-one else needs to know that!"
After a short silence Leilani spoke again, "It happened once before you know," The girls rounded a corner, finding their seats for the feast early, so as to better ignore the impending stares and whispers.
"What happened before?"
"The lightning on my skin, it happened once before. When Wood and I broke up, after he hit me, my skin was crawling with lightning. I'd kinda forgotten."
Jo said pondered this, taking Leili's hand in her own. "Seems to me, it's triggered by fear. Congrats, you have an electrifying defense mechanism..."
Leili groaned at the terrible joke.
Once everyone was seated Dumbledore stood and began his speech.
"There is much that I wish say to you all tonight, but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here," he gestured toward the Hufflepuffs, "enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory." He paused, and his eyes fell upon the Hufflepuff table. Theirs had been the most subdued table before he had gotten to his feet, and theirs were still the saddest and palest faces in the Hall.
The benches scraped as everyone in the Hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, "Cedric Diggory."
"Cedric was a fine boy who embodied many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff house," Dumbledore continued. "He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not at all.
"Any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory. Now there are some who will not wish me to tell you this, but truth is, in my opinion, preferable to lies. I think that you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how he died. He died in the defense of a fellow champion. He died at the hand of a man who escaped Azkaban in order to return Voldemort to power." He paused here to let the influx of whispers die down.
"Now, for the selfless acts and loyalty of three students this year, I award Hufflepuff 500 points, and thus…" with a clap and a wave the Hufflepuff banners as well as the Hogwarts mourning banners, both so rarely used, hung on the walls.
Hufflepuff clapped, after a momentary stunned silence—they thought that surely the House cup would have been canceled this year—and Marcus Flint clapped quietly under the Slytherin table.
For the first time since 1985, Hufflepuff had won the house cup.