I slammed flat onto the ground my face pressed into the grasss. It worked. I breathed with relief not moving from where I lay in the grass. All the breath had been knocked out of me but I need to get up, to make sure Harry was alright. I moved to sit up, my head swimming; my body's deepest desire was to curl up right there in that patch of grass. I struggled to sit up there were voices everywhere, footsteps and screams.
"Harry? Alice!"
"Allison! Harry!"
"Alice…Allison." Professor Dumbledore was crouching over Harry and I, behind him a dark shadow of a crowd pressed around us. I looked to see Harry laying face up in the grass, he'd let go of the portkey, but continued to stare blankly at the ground. I looked around to discover we had come back to the edge of the maze. Dumbledore's face swam in and out of focus as I tossed the cup aside myself. Cedric's body lay sprawled on the lawn between Harry and I. I slipped my hand through Cedric's ice cold one before looking directly at Dumbledore.
"He's back." I whispered. "He's back, Voldemort."
"What's going on? What's happened?" The face of Cornelius Fudge appeared upside down over us.
"My God - Diggory!" Fudge whispered. "Dumbledore - he's dead!" The words were repeated, the shadowy figures pressing in gasping to those around them. The words began as a whisper and them moved to shouts and screeches."He's dead!" "He's dead!" "Cedric Diggory! Dead!"
"Harry, let go of him," I heard Fudge's voice say. I turned to see Harry grasping at Cedric's shirt trying to keep Fudge from taking him away. Dumbledore leaned in speaking to Harry. and he felt fingers trying to pry him from Cedric's limp body, but Harry wouldn't let him go. Then Dumbledore's face, which was still blurred and misted, came closer.
"Harry, you can't help him now. It's over. Let go."
"He wanted us to bring him back," Harry muttered. "He wanted me to bring him back to his parents. ..."
"That's right. Harry …just let go now…" Dumbledore now attempted to pry Harry's finger's from Cedric's body but Harry only tightened his grip. Realizing how we must have looked clinging to a dead body, I released Cedric's hand. Trembling I looked over at my brother.
"Harry, he's right there's nothing we can do for him now. We brought him back, just like we promised we would." That was enough to break Harry from the spell he was under he released Cedric's body and looked back at me.
"What now?"
"They need to go to the hospital wing." Fudge said loudly. "They're ill, they're injured. Dumbledore Diggory's parents, they're here, they're in the stands."
"Dumbledore, Amos Diggorys running …he's coming over… Don't you think you should tell him - before he sees - ?"
"Harry, Alice, stay here -" Dumbledore commanded.
"Alright you two, with me."
"Dumbledore said stay," Harry grumbled.
"You need to lie down…Come on now..." despite our efforts to remain seated on the ground someone larger and stronger was half pulling half carrying ups through the frightened crowd.
"What happened Alice?" the man asked as he pushed Harry and I up the stone steps. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. It was Mad-Eye Moody. This fact relaxed me but it only seemed to give Harry more cause for worry.
"Cup was a Portkey," I answered as we crossed the Entrance Hall. "Took me and Cedric to a graveyard…and Voldemort was there…Lord Voldemort..." Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Up the marble stairs.
"The Dark Lord was there? What happened then?"
"Killed Cedric…they killed Cedric…" Harry murmured.
"And then?" Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Along the corridor.
"Made a potion to get his body back." I answered.
"The Dark Lord got his body back? He's returned?"
"And the Death Eaters came and then we dueled." I ignored his question.
"You dueled with the Dark Lord?"
"We got away our wands…did something funny…our parents… they came out of his wand…"
"In here kids in here, and sit down. You'll be all right, now drink this." There was a key scrape in a lock and a cup was forced into my hands. I knew better than to drink it Severus had taught me better than to just drink anything someone put in front of me.
"Drink it you'll feel better." Moody commanded. Rather than drink it I found myself wishing Remus was there with chocolate. "Come on, now. I need to know exactly what happened…."
"Voldemort's back? You're sure he's back? How did he do it?"
"He took stuff from his father's grave, and from Wormtail, and me," I answered my head still a bit clearer than Harry's.
"What did the Dark Lord take from you?" Moody asked.
"Blood." I said pointing to the fresh cut on my cheek. Moody let out his breath in a long, low hiss.
"And the Death Eaters? They returned?"
"Loads of them." Harry grumbled. I noticed he didn't drink what Moody had handed him either.
"How did he treat them?" Moody asked quietly. "Did he forgive them?"
"There's a Death Eater at Hogwarts!" I remembered as I replayed the events of the night in my head. "There's a Death Eater here - they put my name in the Goblet of Fire, they made sure I got through to the end -" I tried to get up but Moody pushed me back down. Harry's eyes widened and he sent me a warning look.
"I know who the Death Eater is," Moody told us.
"Karkaroff?" I asked hopefully. Please don't let it be Sev, please don't say Severus Snape.
"Karkaroff?" said Moody with an odd laugh. "Karkaroff fled tonight, when he felt the Dark Mark burn upon his arm. He betrayed too many faithful supporters of the Dark Lord to wish to meet them but I doubt he will get far. The Dark Lord has ways of tracking his enemies."
"Karkaroff's gone? He ran away? But then he didn't put my name in the goblet?"
"No," said Moody slowly. "No, he didn't. It was I who did that."
"No, you didn't," I shook my head. "You didn't do that…you can't have done..." Severus would have mentioned if you were ever ever a Death Eater.
"I assure you I did," Moody said and his magical eye swung around and fixed upon the door. He was making sure there was no one outside it. At the same time Moody pulled his wand out swishing it between Harry and I.
"He forgave them, then? The Death Eaters who went free? The ones who escaped Azkaban?"
"What?" Harry said. He was looking at the wand Moody was pointing at him. This was a bad joke, it had to be.
"I asked you," said Moody quietly, "Whether he forgave the scum who never even went to look for him. Those treacherous cowards who wouldn't even brave Azkaban for him. The faithless, worthless bits of filth who were brave enough to cavort in masks at the Quidditch World Cup, but fled at the sight of the Dark Mark when I fired it into the sky."
"You fired . . . What are you talking about?" I asked still not believing Moody was the Death Eater at Hogwarts.
"I told you, Alice, I told you. If there's one thing I hate more than any other, it's a Death Eater who walked free. They turned their backs on my master when he needed them most. I expected him to punish them. I expected him to torture them. Tell me he hurt them…" Moody's face was suddenly lit with an insane smile. "Tell me he told them that I, I alone remained faithful... prepared to risk everything to deliver to him the one thing he wanted above all... you"
"You didn't... it - it can't be you. ..." I stuttered while Harry shook his head in resignation.
"Who put your name in the Goblet of Fire, under the name of a different school? I did. Who frightened off every person I thought might try to hurt you or prevent you from winning the tournament? I did. Who nudged Hagrid into showing you the dragons? I did. Who helped you see the only way you could beat the dragon? I did." Moody's magical eye had now left the door. It was fixed upon me. His lopsided mouth leered more widely than ever. "It hasn't been easy, Alice, guiding you through these tasks without arousing suspicion.I have had to use every ounce of cunning I possess, so that my hand would not be detectable in your success. Dumbledore would have been very suspicious if you had managed everything too easily. As long as you got into that maze, preferably with a decent head start - then, I knew, I would have a chance of getting rid of the other champions and leaving your way clear. But I also had to contend with your stupidity. The second task that was when I was most afraid we would fail. I was keeping watch on you, Potter. I knew you hadn't worked out the egg's clue, so I had to give you another hint -"
"You didn't," shook my head. Cedric gave me the clue -"
"Who told Cedric to open it underwater? I did. I trusted that he would pass the information on to you. Decent people are so easy to manipulate, Potter. I was sure Cedric would want to repay you for telling him about the dragons, and so he did. But even then, Potter, even then you seemed likely to fail. I was watching all the time all those hours in the library. I expected you to ask everyone and anyone you could for help. Longbottom would have told you in an instant. But you did not, you did not, you have a streak of pride and independence that might have ruined all. So what could I do? You were so long in that lake, Potter, I thought you had drowned. But luckily, Dumbledore took your idiocy for nobility, and marked you high for it. I breathed had an easier time of it than you should have in that maze tonight, of course, I was patrolling around it, able to see through the outer hedges, able to curse many obstacles out of your way. I Stunned Fleur Delacour as she passed. I put the Imperius Curse on Krum, so that he would finish Diggory and leave your path to the cup clear."
My brain could keep up with what Moody was saying. Dumbledore's friend the famous Auror the one who caught so many Death Eaters it made no sense, no sense at all. Foggy shapes in Moody's Foe-Glass were sharpening. I could barely see the outlines of three people over Moody's shoulder moving closer and closer but Moody wasn't watching, his magical eye was focused on me.
"The Dark Lord didn't manage to kill you two and he so wanted to," whispered Moody. "Imagine how he will reward me when he finds I have done it for him. I gave you to him -the thing he needed above all to regenerate - and then I killed you for him. I will be honored beyond all other Death Eaters. I will be his dearest, his closest supporter closer than a son. The Dark Lord and I have much in common. Both of us, for instance, had very disappointing fathers ….very disappointing indeed. Both of us suffered the indignity of being named after those fathers. And both of us had the pleasure the very great pleasure ... of killing our fathers to ensure the continued rise of the Dark Order!"
"You're mad," Harry exclaimed.
"Mad, am I?" Moody said, his voice rising uncontrollably. "We'll see! We'll see who's mad, now that the Dark Lord has returned, with me at his side! He is back, Harry Potter, you did not conquer him - and now - I conquer you!" Moody raised his wand, he opened his mouth,
"Stupefy!" With incredible speed I had reached my wand and used it to stun Moody. There was a blinding flash of red light, and with a great splintering and crashing, the door of Moody's office was blasted apart -Moody was thrown backward onto the office floor. Harry and I could see Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Severus looking back at us in the Foe-Glass. Whipping my head to the door I was relieved to see the three of them standing in the doorway. Professor Dumbledore was infront his wand outstretched. At that moment, I fully understood for the first time why people said Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared. The look upon Dumbledore's face as he stared down at the unconscious form of Mad-Eye Moody was more terrible than anyone could have ever imagined. There was no benign smile upon Dumbledore's face, no twinkle in the eyes behind the spectacles. There was cold fury in every line of the ancient face; a sense of power radiated from Dumbledore as though he were giving off burning heat. He stepped into the office, placed a foot underneath Moody's unconscious body, and kicked him over onto his back, so that his face was visible. Severus followed him glancing first at me then turning to look into the Foe-Glass, where his own face was still visible, glaring into the room. Professor McGonagall went straight to Harry.
"Come along, Potter," she whispered. The thin line of her mouth was twitching as though she was about to cry. "Come along…hospital wing ..."
"No," said Dumbledore sharply.
"Dumbledore, he ought to - look at him - he's been through enough tonight -"
"He will stay, Minerva. Allison will stay as well, because they needs to understand," said Dumbledore curtly. "Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. They needs to know who has put them through the ordeal they have suffered tonight, and why,"
"Moody," I asked the adults. "How can it have been Moody?"
"This is not Alastor Moody," said Dumbledore quietly. "You have never known Alastor Moody. The real Moody would not have removed you from my sight after what happened tonight. The moment he took you, I knew and I followed." Dumbledore bent down over Moody's limp form and put a hand inside his robes. He pulled out Moody's hip flask and a set of keys on a ring. Then he turned to Professor McGonagall and Sev.
"Severus, please fetch me the strongest Truth Potion you possess, and then go down to the kitchens and bring up the house-elf called Winky. Minerva, kindly go down to Hagrid's house, where you will find a large black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. Take the dog up to my office, tell him I will be with him shortly, then come back here." Severus and Professor McGonagall seemed to be used to these sort of strange request from the old man because both turned at once and left the office. Dumbledore walked over to the trunk with seven locks, fitted the first key in the lock, and opened it. It contained a mass of spell-books. Dumbledore closed the trunk, placed a second key in the second lock, and opened the trunk again. The spellbooks had vanished; this time it contained an assortment of broken Sneako-scopes, some parchment and quills, and what looked like a silvery Invisibility Cloak. Harry and I watched, astounded, as Dumbledore placed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth keys in their respective locks, reopening the trunk each time, and revealing different contents each time. Then he placed the seventh key in the lock, threw open the lid, I couldn't help but be amazed once again by the power of magic.
We were looking down into a kind of pit, an underground room, and lying on the floor some ten feet below, apparently fast asleep, thin and starved in appearance, was the real Mad-Eye Moody. His wooden leg was gone, the socket that should have held the magical eye looked empty beneath its lid, and chunks of his grizzled hair were missing. All I could do was glance between the sleeping Moody in the trunk and the unconscious Moody lying on the floor in the office. Dumbledore climbed into the trunk, lowered himself, and fell lightly onto the floor beside the sleeping Moody. He bent over him.
"Stunned - controlled by the Imperius Curse - very weak," Professor Dumbledore said. "Of course, they would have needed to keep him alive. Would one of you throw down the imposter's cloak - he's freezing. Madam Pomfrey will need to see him, but he seems in no immediate danger."
Harry was processing things much faster than I was and fetched the cloak from imposter-Moody. Dumbledore covered the real Moody in the cloak, tucked it around him and clambered out of the trunk. Then he picked up the hip flask that stood on the desk, unscrewed it and turned it over. I think glutinous liquid splattered onto the floor.
"Polyjuice Potion, children," said Dumbledore. "You see the simplicity of it, and the brilliance. For Moody never does drink except from his hip flask, he's well known for it. The imposter needed, of course, to keep the real Moody close by, so that he could continue making the potion. You see his hair ..." Dumbledore looked down on the Moody in the trunk. "The imposter has been cutting it off all year, see where it is uneven? But I think, in the excitement of tonight, our fake Moody might have forgotten to take it as frequently as he should have done ... on the hour . . . every hour. . . . We shall see." Dumbledore pulled out the chair at the desk and sat down in it, his eyes fixed upon the unconscious Moody on the floor. Harry and I stared at him too. Minutes passed in silence, then before our eyes the face of the man on the floor began to change. The scars were disappearing, the skin was becoming smooth; the mangled nose became whole and started to shrink. The long mane of grizzled gray hair was withdrawing into the scalp and turning the color of straw. Suddenly, with a loud clunk, the wooden leg fell away as a normal leg regrew in its place; next moment, the magical eyeball had popped out of the man's face as a real eye replaced it; it rolled away across the floor and continued to swivel in every direction.