A few days passed and neither one of them had so much as said hello to one another. They avoided each other as much as possible, even had their seats moved apart from each other at the staff table. Not many students noticed this change. It was much more alarming when the odd couple were together versus when they were apart so they naturally received less attention now. Lila had been trying so hard not to miss him. She thought of the time she spent in the muggle world after graduating and tried to remember how she rarely thought of him during that time. She wondered if he missed her too.
The whole of Hogwarts gathered outside and filled the stands waiting for the third and final task to begin. Snape was seated by himself and Lila sat next to Hagrid who she was quickly becoming friends with. Lila had always been an animal lover and enjoyed helping Hagrid look after his companions. Everyone watched the four contestants enter the human maze and cheered for their favorites as they began walking away. Lila was still rooting for Harry even though he expressed his distrust in her.
Snape was very much aware of what was to take place that night after the competition. Everyone was anxious for the outcome of this event, but Snape was even more fretful at what events might unfold. He was expecting Harry Potter's death, yet there was nothing he could do to stop this occurrence.
Roughly one hour had passed when Harry Potter appeared clutching Cedric. When everyone stood up to cheer, Snape stood up in surprise. He's supposed to be dead he thought. Harry was crying over Cedric who was laying down when all the patrons realized Cedric was in fact dead. The crowd went silent. Cedric's father came down from the stands in distress and Dumbledore immediately followed. Lila glanced over at Snape to get a look at his expression. His face was blank. It was always blank. Lila turned her attention back to Cedric. She had trouble feeling sorry for the family. To be honest, she was more excited to see someone had finally endured serious harm after constantly hearing about how dangerous this tournament was. She didn't let on about her true feelings though.
Everyone began exiting the seating area; some to convey their condolences to Cedric's father and others to return to their quarters. Meanwhile, Professor Moody collected Harry Potter and took him to his room. Snape was the only one to see this and, fearful for the boy's life, alerted Dumbledore to the situation. Dumbledore immediately rounded up the other heads of houses and instructed them to meet him in front of Moody's room. Lila headed straight there when she heard the news.
It had already been a short while before everyone arrived at the professor's chamber. They entered his room to find him interrogating Harry Potter. Moody stepped away from the boy when they entered.
"What is going on here Alastor?" Dumbledore asked knowing it was not the real Alastor in front of him.
"Trying to find out the details of Cedric's death, Professor."
Dumbledore looked at Harry and he returned the glance.
"Now Harry, tell me what else happened at the grave yard."
"I never told you I was in a grave yard, Professor" Harry retorted.
In that moment Alastor's light red hair turned to dark brown and his face began to morph. Moody struggled to find more polyjuice potion and therefore had to allow the transformation take place. After a few seconds, Barty Crouch Jr. stood in front of all of them. Dumbledore walked over to him and demanded the release of the real Professor Moody. Crouch Jr. revealed to all of them that the real Alastor was being kept hostage in a magical trunk. Lila was in complete shock of what the events that had just happened. She had never witnessed anything like it before.
She walked back to her room alone while processing what just transpired. The halls were empty seeing as it was very late at night.
"Lila," Severus called from behind her.
"Oh hi Severus," she said calmly. She was happy to see him.
"How are you doing?" he didn't ask to be polite, he was concerned about her well-being.
"Fine. I have a question for you that I hope you'll be able to answer; was it Barty Jr., that you were worried about all this time? Did you think he was the one who was going to harm me?"
"Yes," for once he was able to answer honestly.
"So this means-"
"There is nothing in our way," he said with a hopeful smile on his face.
"Well Severus the school year is nearly over and I…I'm going back to Chicago for the summer,"
"No matter, we can still write to one another."
He wasn't making this easy, "Severus I think it's best if we continue our separation."
"Don't be so irrational."
"Severus," she said coolly, "I'm not being irrational. You know I don't like long distance relationships. Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to think about you and receive letters from you and not be able to see you? Not be able to touch you…" she put her hand on his face as one tear ran down her face. "If it's any consolation, I'll be here next year."
All the feelings of when the two of them had separated at the time when Lila graduated flooded back to him. He was just as unsure then of the power of their love as he is now. But what if you don't love me next year he thought. He didn't want them to end like this.
Lila turned away and began walking towards her room. She didn't want to hear anything he might say next, if anything.
Severus mumbled something.
"What?" she turned half way around.
"Say it again; just say it one more time," he pleaded.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Sev."
That was what he wanted. He wanted to hear her call him that one last time. That one syllable would play over and over in his head throughout the entire summer. He smiled and turned around and began walking away.
Lila stood in place and watched him leave. Strange.
Writer's note: Well that's the end of Harry's Fourth year! I hope you liked it! Chapters are not going to be posted as regularly from now on. School has started for me, so my main focus is going to be that. I will be writing for the continuation of Harry's years at Hogwarts so please know this is not the end!