Harry was sat by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, thinking of what the detention with Umbridge would be like later on. Hermione was already doing some homework, and Ron was staring into space, thinking about something. McGonagall suddenly walked into the common room, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look at her.
"Harry Potter." She said slowly. Harry stood. "You're wanted downstairs." Harry looked to Hermione and Ron, who looked back at him. Hermione mouthed 'what did you do'? and Harry shrugged before he walked over to McGonagall, who turned around and walked outside.
"What's this about Professor?"
"The detectives would like a word with you." She said emotionlessly. Shivers went down Harry's spine.
"Listen to me Mr Potter, you don't have to say anything you don't want to say. If they pressure you, tell me immediately. I won't have them doing that on the first day."
"Why do they want to see me, Professor?" He gulped, dreading the answer.
"Something to do with Mr. Diggory. Listen, Potter, I don't know what they think they know, but you keep your chin up. You can return to the common room when you've finished."
"How long will it take, Professor? I have a detention with Professor Umbridge at 6."
"You've got a detention with Dolores? Oh, Harry. Don't wind her up for goodness sake! You need to stay out of trouble as much as possible, especially this year."
"Professor" Harry said as they walked "you believe me, about Cedric, don't you?"
"I do, Harry." She said, kindly, looking at him "Unfortunately there are people out there who don't." She stopped at a door and knocked on it. A voice came form the other side, velvety and with a thick Irish accent.
"Come in." McGonagall opened the door and walked in, Harry following her. He spotted Valkyrie immediately, standing to the side, and looking slightly ill, then he saw the skeleton, was it Skulduggery? Something weird like that. He had changed suits since class that morning, and a table had been moved to the middle of the room with three chairs around it.
"Ah, Professor, thank you very much." Skulduggery said, stepping forwards. Harry could tell that Professor McGonagall didn't like the detective. She leant down to his ear and whispered' Good luck' into his ear. He nodded silently before she looked at him and left.
The classes seemed to fly by, and by the time 5 o'clock came, Valkyrie was nervous. She didn't know why she was nervous: she'd been to hundreds of interrogations before, participated in almost all of them. Maybe it was the fact that they weren't interrogating a murderer or an arsonist, but a boy younger than herself who had witnessed something. Something big.
The knock on the door made Valkyrie jump. Skulduggery addressed it.
"Come in." He called. He had changed suits with a hat to match, and had been trying to decide if he should have the desks removed to open up more of the room after already having moved one for the interrogation. As McGonagall walked in, with Harry walking behind her. He looked annoyed, or was he nervous too?
"Ah Professor, thank you very much." Skulduggery said. McGonagall nodded and whispered something to Harry, who nodded before taking one last look at both the detectives and leaving, closing the door behind her.
"A pleasure to meet you finally, Mr. Potter. One of the prefects told us about you on our way here. It's good to put a face with the name." Skulduggery tilted his head to the side – he was trying to be pleasant. Harry glanced to Valkyrie, who smiled reassuringly.
"She said exactly the same thing." He said quietly, gesturing with his head to Valkyrie.
"Yes, I would imagine she did." He chuckled. "Please, sit." Skulduggery and Valkyrie sat on one side of the table, and Harry sat on the other, watching them both.
"So, Mr. Potter. We want to start by saying that we don't suspect you."
"You don't?" Harry's eyes widened.
"No. But we do believe you could be a valuable witness, a piece of the puzzle you might say. We'd just like to know, in your own words, what happened on the night of the final TriWizard tournament task." Skulduggery said very calmly. Valkyrie didn't know what a 'TriWizard Tournament' was, but she suspected it was the competition the prefect had mentioned. Harry looked down at his lap, and then back up again.
"No one believes me. They're saying it was an accident, or that I killed him. The Daily Prophet keeps making things up, turning everyone against me and Dumbledore."
"We understand, Mr. Potter. We just want to know what happened." Skulduggery said. Valkyrie remained quiet, taking notes mentally.
"Do I have to say?" Harry said quietly. Skulduggery glanced at Valkyrie, who finally spoke.
"You don't have to say anything you don't want to say, but anything you can remember would really help us. Please Harry." She said, trying not to make her voice seem emotionless. He looked up at them and sighed, putting his elbows on the table.
"It was the night of the final task, and we had to find the tournament cup in the middle of the maze. I ran into Cedric. Something was chasing us, and we decided that we'd win the cup together, for Hogwarts. We grabbed it at the same time, and we landed in a graveyard. I hadn't realised, but the cup was a port key, like a teleporter. Then I heard his voice."
"Whose voice, Mr. Potter?"
"Voldemort's. He said that Cedric wasn't supposed to be there, and before I knew it, Peter Pettigrew – one of Voldemort's followers – killed him with the killing curse. And Cedric just, fell, onto the floor. I can remember screaming, calling Cedric's name, and Pettigrew grabbed me. He tied me to this pole kind of thing and took my wand. There was a cauldron, and Pettigrew put this small, creature, inside it. And I realised it was Voldemort, only, he was sick, weak. Pettigrew, chopped off his hand and put the blood in the cauldron, and then he sliced my hand, and took my blood too. And…" Harry hesitated.
"Yes Mr. Potter?"
"And, Voldemort got out of the cauldron, reformed. He – he took his wand and, tortured with the pain curse." Harry furrowed his eyebrows, as if he was reliving it. Valkyrie suddenly felt the ultimate sympathy for Harry. She'd been tortured, but she'd been prepared, she knew the risk. Harry had been captured and tortured with no way of defending himself.
"He gave Pettigrew a new hand, and called his other followers. They all began to appear, and they tortured me some more, and Voldemort started making a speech. Then he untied me, and gave me my wand, and said we had to duel." Harry furrowed his brows again.
"When we duelled, the last spell Voldemort cast came out of his wand. I saw the ghosts of my mother and father, and they tried to help me. I managed to get out of the way of the curse, and I grabbed Cedric's body and the port key. It took us back to the tournament field, but there was nothing any one could do. Cedric was already dead. I was moved away, and that's all I remember about Cedric's death. I was kind of in, I dunno, shock I guess for the rest of it."
"I understand Mr. Potter. You're a very brave lad." Skulduggery held out his hand to Harry, and Harry looked at it before slowly he reached over and shook Skulduggery's hand.
"From one torture victim to another." Skulduggery said quietly. Valkyrie held out her hand too, and Harry shook that as well.
"You've both been tortured too?" Harry said quietly. Skulduggery nodded.
"Multiple times, the both of us. We know what you went through."
"No one here knows about it, what actually happened. If I told them, they'd call me a liar, say I was trying to set myself up as some kind of hero or something for fighting Voldemort. But I'm not. I got lucky. And Cedric died. It's my fault. It's my fault that Voldemort was there in the first place. He only wants to kill me."
"Why is that?" Valkyrie asked. Harry looked at her.
"13 years ago, he broke into our house. My dad died trying to protect us, and my mum sacrificed herself to keep me safe. When he got to me, something happened, and he couldn't kill me. It almost, rebounded, and practically killed him instead. It left me with the scar. Because he was, weak and pretty much dead, he vanished, and the war ended. People started calling me 'the boy who lived' – I'm the only one who's ever survived a killing curse. He wants to change that." He said sadly.
"We understand, Harry." Valkyrie said softly "We're sorry for your loss."
"It's strange to finally meet someone who doesn't know me as just 'the boy who lived'. Can I ask you a question?" He looked to the both. Skulduggery nodded.
"Who are you? Where are you from?"
"That's two questions." Skulduggery said.
"Can you answer them both? Please." Skulduggery sighed and sat up straight.
"We're the two lead detectives for the society of sorcerers known as 'The Sanctuary'. We keep order and make sure the whole world doesn't find out that magic exists. We remove those that threaten to disturb the 'peace', if you will. We work for the elders, the leaders of the Sanctuary."
"Not that we ever listen to what they have to say." Valkyrie muttered. Skulduggery nodded.
"So, you're not wizards, you're sorcerers."
"That's correct."
"How is that different? I mean, it's all magic. No one's ever mentioned a place called 'The Sanctuary'. Is it just in Ireland?"
"There are Sanctuaries posted all around the world, each working in a separate country. We represent the Irish Sanctuary. Sorcerers are branded with separate kinds of magic, and specialise in their branch. We don't use wands or have large schools like this."
"The Necromancers have the temples." Valkyrie said to Skulduggery.
"Yeah, but they don't get schooled there, just trained." He pointed out. "We were under orders to try and merge the two brands of magic – wizardry and sorcery I mean – as little a possible."
"So that's why you were being all mysterious at dinner." Harry pointed slightly to Valkyrie, who smiled.
"It wasn't my place to say anything."
"It's not like they can do anything, Val." Skulduggery said, turning to her.
"They could have put me in prison."
"Valkyrie, if I can threaten to shoot the grand mage and get away with it, I think you can get away with letting loose a few things about yourself." Valkyrie grinned.
"You were unhinged when you threatened to shoot him, though."
"Completely not the point."
"You threatened to shoot your leader?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes, he hates being shot. It's quite funny really." Skulduggery titled his head.
"I can't tell if you're being serious or not." Harry said.
"Well for future reference, this is my serious face." He pointed to his skull, which made Valkyrie grin and bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. Harry still couldn't tell if he was being serious or not, so just nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on Skulduggery at all times.
"Anyways, thank you for your time, Mr. Potter. If you'd like we could get you some extra combat training to help protect yourself from this Voldemort fellow."
"Sure." Harry said doubtfully.
"Hey, can I ask more more question." Valkyrie said, leaning forwards. Harry nodded.
"What does Voldemort look like?" Harry hesitated, growing paler.
"He has blue-ish white skin, and red eyes like slits. His nose is deformed, like it's been squished into his face, and he has pointy teeth. I saw when he laughed at me. He doesn't have hair, and his fingernails are long and dirty. He smells pretty bad too."
"Well a bald misshapen man with red eyes and a hobo smell can't be too hard to find." Valkyrie looked to Skulduggery, who folded his arms.
"Never underestimate the enemy Valkyrie."
"I'm not underestimating him, I'm mocking him. It's much more fun." Valkyrie looked to Harry and smiled slightly, but he didn't smile back.
"If you're going after Voldemort, then you have to be careful. He's getting more powerful by the minute, and all his followers are beginning to show up again." Harry said.
"We'll do our best to try and figure this out. Thank you, Mr. Potter."
"Call me Harry. Only Malfoy and the professors calls me Potter." Harry said. Skulduggery nodded.
"Very well then Harry. Have a good night sleep. If you want those combat lessons just find us. We'll sort something out. Maybe even open up your inner sorcerer."
"Ok." Harry nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
"What'd you think?" Valkyrie asked as soon as he'd gone.
"I'm thinking he's stressed, tired and hated right now. I'd say he was telling the truth."
"Me too." Valkyrie agreed before she stood.
"Well, it's" she looked at the clock "5: 45 and we have classes tomorrow. Should we go over a lesson plan or not?"
"I don't think so. Each class only had one lesson a week, so we'll just teach one thing per week."
"Sounds good. Hey, does this mean I can tell them that we're bad-ass sorcerers fighting evil?"
"I'd turn a blind eye if you did."
"Ok, good. I'll tell them tomorrow then. Ghastly will be mad at us, won't he."
"I don't think so. If anyone it'll be Madam Mist that'll be angry. But, we can handle her."
"I hope so." Valkyrie grinned "cos I'm gonna tell them anyway. Which reminds me I need to catch up with Seamus tomorrow."
"Yes I noticed you seemed rather friendly."
"Oh shut up."
