Frisk had gone through so many loops that, when the next day finally dawned, it felt almost odd. She had been about to ask her siblings what they expected to be quizzed on their already taken transfiguration test. She'd caught herself when Chara asked her what she expected the headmaster to tell the students about the night before.
"I don't know," Frisk admitted, as they made their way down to the great hall. "I haven't really thought about it. I was so focused on trying to find a way to save Cedric. I'm still wondering if there's a way, but I can't think of it. I asked you two, on the last loop."
"I was lying awake last night trying to think of something too," Asriel said. "But I didn't think of anything either, I'm sorry Frisk."
"It's okay," Frisk said, though she sighed. "I don't know if I actually could make myself go back again."
As it turned out, Dumbledore didn't say much of anything at breakfast. All he wanted them to do was to leave Harry alone, and not ask him any questions about what happened in the maze. And, mostly, they didn't. Even in the common room, Harry was being given a wide berth by just about everyone. Frisk wrote one letter home, and a much more detailed letter to Sans, explaining everything she'd gone though.
When she saw Opal at dinner, Frisk's heart panged. Like a lot of Hufflepuffs, she had not gotten over Cedric's death, not really. She wasn't ready to talk about it.
The last week of term passed slowly, almost incredibly slowly. What classes there were mostly focused on subjects the professors thought the students needed to revise after seeing the results of the exams. There was no Defense Against the Dark Arts classes at all, though Professor Moody, the real one, had joined the staff table at meal times. Frisk had repeatedly tried to introduce herself, but he had been so jumpy, it was hard going. Frisk kept trying.
"Are you able to talk about it?" Ginny asked her after dinner on Tuesday. "Or did Dumbledore ask you not to? Everyone's been asking me to ask you."
"He didn't," Frisk admitted. They stood, and started heading up to the common room. "But I heard things there that I would prefer to keep in confidence. I'm sorry, Ginny."
"I can understand that," Ginny said. "But I think Opal really needs to hear who killed Cedric."
"I'd put gold down that the headmaster will tell us before we go home," Frisk promised. "But I don't want to be the one starting a panic."
Ginny had frozen on the stairwell, and stared at her, the truth dawning in her face. Frisk suddenly realized she'd said too much to the wrong person. "Ginny," she begged. "Please. You can't share that."
"No," she said, her face paling. "Not him. Not he-who-must-not-be-named. You can't be right."
"I don't know," Frisk admitted. "But that's what Harry said, and I believe him."
Ginny swallowed, and they didn't anything more after that. When Steven came up to Frisk at lunch the next day to ask her the same question, it became apparent that Ginny had not, in fact, let it go any further.
Dubran had come to visit them at Firenze's cabin one last time. He reported that Dumbledore had been there earlier that week, to tell him of the revival of the Big V and ask some favor of his father. They played a round or two of Dominion before going outside to throw the quaffle around again. "Do you think I could borrow the game, while you're on holiday?" he asked. "I'd like to teach it to my father."
"Sure," Chara told him. "It's one less thing we have to pack and carry home and back." Frisk was happy to hear the he was trying to make up with his father.
For the farewell feast, the great hall was normally decorated in the colors of the house that won the house cup. This year, however, all the banners and drapes were black. Nobody had to tell anyone that this was for the fallen Cedric Diggory.
Moody was there. Frisk had finally gotten him to talk to her on Friday. She hadn't asked him about being stuck in the trunk at all, but asked him to tell her about his experiences as an auror. After sipping from his hip flask, she got a story about the first Wizard War, when he'd gotten into a fight with a masked death eater, one of the few to match him in spell casting. He never did find out who it was, but after they were caught, he thought it was Bellatrix Lestrange.
Madame Maxine, Beauxbaton's headmaster was there, too. She was talking to professor Hagrid about something. Durmstrang's headmaster Karkaroff wasn't. Frisk wasn't sure why. Had he been related to the death-eaters in some way? Even if he was, Hogwarts had to have been one of the safest places in the world.
Professor Snape was there, scanning the hall, looking grumpy about something. He met Frisk's eyes for a moment, nodded, but did not smile or otherwise acknowledge her.
Opal was sitting behind her, still not speaking to anyone. Ginny had parked herself next to Frisk and her siblings, also not saying anything.
There was one other person at the table, someone she hadn't expected to see at all. The once royal scientist of the monsters, Alphys. She was sitting next to Dumbledore, looking flustered and nervous. She gave Frisk a nervous little wave, then sank back in the chair, avoiding the gaze of everyone else.
"The end," said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, "Of another year."
He paused, and looked down the Hufflepuff table. The two chairs closest to the headmaster had been left empty. The rest of students at the table all looked as pale as Opal's did. Frisk could tell she hadn't been the only one that had cried recently.
At Dumbledore's request, they all stood, every last one of them, and raised a toast to Cedric Diggory. Dumbledore went on to eulogize Cedric, and Frisk thought back to when he'd caught her studying in the Great Hall, and encouraged Opal to rekindle her friendship with Frisk. And the way he'd asked her to go back in time again, to 'unsave' him, so that he'd have the chance to save Harry Potter. She was forced to wipe away the tears from her own eyes.
Frisk came back to the present just in time to hear Dumbledore's proclamation that Lord Voldemort had murdered Cedric. As Frisk had predicted, whispers of fear and panic swept over the great hall. Frisk looked behind her, at Opal. The tears on her face were unable to mask the stirrings of a new emotion – anger.
Dumbledore explained why he was telling them this – the truth. How some parents might be upset, Toriel's glaring face appeared in Frisk's imagination. How the Ministry of Magic was almost certainly going to be upset, but how anything less would dishonor Cedric.
Then he mentioned how Harry had also appeared in front of the Dark Lord, survived him, and returned with Cedric's body. Then they toasted Harry, they all did. Frisk could see Steven standing at the Slytherin table, and her siblings' friends Mafilda and Malcolm as well.
Dumbledore went onto call out the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students, saying how the Tri-Wizard tournament was supposed to bring the various magical communities together. He went on to say how every single person in the hall was to be welcome back at any time they chose to return.
Dumbledore took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. He looked back at Alphys, still mostly hidden by the table, then back at their students. They were all looking at her now, so he must have figured there was no avoiding it. "This was supposed to be a celebration, not just of the Tri-Wizard tournament, but of all of our schools. After the first task, it was pointed out how this was leaving the majority of Hogwarts, as well as the members of the other delegations, who otherwise came this far just to be disappointed. While we grieve today, it is not fair to let the person who created the idea for the full school challenge go unappreciated. I would like you all to recognize Ms. Alphys, who designed the overall challenge, and many of the individual tests you all conquered."
Alphys, her normally yellow cheek-scales once again a bright red, waved from her seat. There was some tepid applause from the hall. Frisk could only wish her friend's moment in the limelight had come at a happier time, when the students could have truly cheered for what she'd done for all of them. Alphys didn't look bothered, at least, by lackluster response. She didn't move to give a speech, either.
After dinner, which was far more quiet than the leaving feast had been last year, she dragged her friends up to meet the monster scientist. "Hello, Alphys," Frisk said.
"Oh, hi Frisk," Alphys said. She blushed again, and looked about as flustered as ever. "I shouldn't even be here. But I didn't know."
"What?" Opal demanded. "How did you not know?"
"Nobody does," Alphys explained, averting her eyes from the angry Opal. "There might have been a mention buried in the Daily Prophet. But you would think it would have been on the front page, and it wasn't. I was supposed to be part of the leaving celebration, and nobody told me this had happened."
"You deserved better than that, Alphys," Frisk said. She paused to introduce her friends. "This is Alphys, she was Chief Scientist of the underground, and one of the smartest people I know. I think she'd give Hermione a run for her money. Did you come up with the Quidditch task? I think that might have been the school favorite."
"With Madam Hooch," Alphys said, a hint of a smile appearing briefly on her face. "I got the idea from the online games I play, and she helped sketch out the specifics. There really should have been a fourth phase, though, to get everyone on their toes. I wish they hadn't one shot it though, it'd have made it even better to make everyone have had to practice."
"I am sorry, Ms. Alphys," said Dumbledore, who appeared behind her. Alphys gave a slight squeak and a jump. "Young Frisk is correct. You did deserve better than that, and for that you have my apologies. This last week has been a nightmare, for all of us, and certain parts of it we will not be waking up from," he continued, nodding to Opal. "I do want to make clear, in public, how much I appreciate your efforts. Perhaps it was better than the tri-wizard tournament itself."
"You told me that when I arrived, Mr. Dumbledore," Alphys acknowledged, "but thank you. Again."
They talked for a while, but they were leaving the next day. Alphys might have been taking the Knight Bus, everyone else had to be ready for the Hogwarts express, and. That meant they had to pack.
"Did you find it?" Steven asked as Frisk loaded her bag onto one of the racks, and sat down in her compartment.
Steven had already staked out a compartment for them, and Luna was behind her. "Find what?" Frisk asked.
He grinned at her. "Our Triwizard 'winnings'. They were in my school trunk when I went to start packing."
Ginny came in to store her trunk. "Oh, I found mine. A bag of chocolate coins in gold foil. It's actually pretty funny. Since the winner of the cup was supposed to actually get gold."
"Oh, yes. I found those. And had one already," Frisk said as Opal joined them, shutting the door behind her. Asriel and Chara were sitting with their friends, for the time being. They made small talk, discussing their exams and their grades, as the train pulled away from Hogsmead station.
"Have you decided what electives you're taking next year?" Steven asked his fellow second years, after the snack trolley came around.
"Care of Magical Creatures," Frisk said, to many enthusiastic nods. "I like animals."
"That's with Professor Hagrid, he's a bit of a joke," Luna told them.
"My brother likes him," Ginny said, "And he's a nice enough person."
"I agree," Frisk said. "I met him when he was caring for that hippogryph last year. I think he knows his stuff."
"Ravenclaw doesn't think he's a very good teacher though," Luna responded. "He's too fascinated with dangerous creatures. People took bets about how many skrewts he'd have left at the end of the year. I think they set the number at one and a half, and he had two."
"I don't care how bad he is. He can't be worse than Professor Binns," Frisk said, and nobody was willing to argue that. "Other than that, I'm not sure. Not divination, I don't think I want to see the future." She'd 'been' to the future enough times to be very sure she'd rather not knowing what was coming.
"There's Muggle studies," suggested Ginny. "That's what I'm taking."
"I grew up in non-magical homes," Frisk protested. "I don't need muggle studies."
"We don't have to decide now, I guess," Steven said. "I probably am taking Muggle studies," He grinned. "I'm hoping you and Opal might be willing to tutor me if I have trouble."
Frisk laughed. Opal didn't. She looked up at the others, and Frisk could still see the fire burning in her friend's eyes. "Are you okay, Opal?"
"No. I want to know what we're doing. When," she struggled with the word for a moment, then spit it out, "when Voldemort comes back," Steven and Ginny both flinched at the use of the dark lord's proper name.
"What do you expect us to do?" Frisk asked. "We're second, well, third year wizards now, I guess."
"I don't know," Opal admitted. "But even if you don't, I have to be ready to do something. We all do! For Cedric's sake."
"I guess," said Frisk, shifting nervously. This aggressive tone of Opal's was making her very uncomfortable. "I suppose if you really want to help, you should write to the headmaster. I'm sure Dumbledore would know how you can help."
Opal smouldered a bit. It wasn't that it seemed a bad idea, it wasn't. But Opal needed to do something right then, and trying to divert her wasn't helping. "You could train, I guess," Steven suggested. "Who was that friend of yours who designed the obstacle course?" he asked.
"Oh, Undyne," Frisk said. "You ought to try her full course, Opal. I'll help you get in touch with her over the break!"
"Maybe," Opal said, but she didn't sound convinced.
"How about exploding snap?" Ginny suggested, trying to change the subject. Everyone but Opal was in for that, and even she joined in after a few hands, as the others talked about the electives they planned to take.
Eventually, the Hogwarts Express pulled into King's Cross. With one last goodbye, they separated to find their families. Frisk met up with her siblings, and then met with Mom and Dad. She could see the ministry wizards, ready to disillusion her parents again.
"I am so glad you are safe, my children," Toriel said, trying to sweep them all into a single hug. "I got your letter, and Dumbledore and Alphys have both told us what happened at school," she said. "And I am so relieved to see you again."
"I'm glad to see you too," Asgore rumbled. "And Dumbledore told us how brave you were, Chara," he said, lowering his volume. "Going to act to save the life of a fellow student. I am proud of you. Time with the healer, befriending centaurs, I'm proud of you all."
"Perhaps, Asgore, it is time to go home. I am sure our children are famished. There is, of course, cinnamon and butterscotch pie waiting."
There might have been darkness in the future. But, at least for now, those were words that all three of them had been waiting to hear. With disillusionment charms put on the three monsters, the Dreemurr's headed out of Kings Cross, into waiting ministry cars that would take them home.
