By the time Steven stopped trying to revive Peter Pettigrew, the light from above had faded into darkness. On his knees next to the body, Steven sat and stared down at his hands.

"Was this our fault?" he asked.

"He cut off his own hand," Harry said. "I didn't see anybody else there that could have done it."

"If I hadn't hit Voldemort, he'd have saved him," Steven said. He didn't look up.

Harry scowled. "We'd both be dead if you hadn't hit him when he wasn't ready for it."

The sorting hat had wanted to put Harry in Slytherin. It was possible that it was moments like this that had led it to that conclusion. As far as Harry was concerned, hitting Voldemort when he wasn't looking wasn't just smart, it was right.

"You saw what he could do when he was ready," Harry said. Once he'd been ready for the rocks they hadn't been any use at all.

From the darkness, Harry heard something rustling in the grass. He started to turn, but it was already too late. He saw ivory fangs flashing in the moonlight as something scaled lashed out at him.

He couldn't react fast enough, even though it was suddenly as it his life was flashing in front of his eyes. It was the snake, Voldemort's snake, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

A flash of white filled his vision, and Harry fell backwards, landing painfully on his backside. It took him a moment to realize what he was seeing.

Steven's Lion was devouring the snake, and Harry had a momentary feeling that he could hear screaming in the back of his mind.

"He used to be pink," Steven said. "And he was around all the time, not just when I cast a patronus."

The fact that Steven didn't even comment on the fact that Lion was eating Voldemort's snake bothered Harry for some reason. Maybe it was the look on his face; he looked like he was in shock.

He had blood all over his arms and hands; the blood of both Harry and Peter Pettigrew. He looked terrible.

"We need to get back," Harry said. "Everybody is going to be worried about us."

Steven didn't react for a moment, but finally he nodded. He looked down at the corpse of Peter Pettigrew. "We can't just leave him here. It wouldn't be right."

Glancing at Lion, Harry winced as he saw him devouring the snake's head whole.

"I'm not sure there's room for all of us. He looks like he'll be dead weight." Harry said quietly, then winced at the pun.

"It'll be fine," Steven said tiredly. He turned and pointed his wand at Pettigrew's body. "Wingardium Leviosa."

A moment later the body was floating. Harry wasn't sure why Steven didn't just pick him up, unless he was squeamish about handling a dead body. Maybe it was a sign of respect.

"Lion," Steven said.

The Lion looked up for a moment. It looked as though it was going to ignore him, but finally rose to it's feet, the snake's body trailing from it's mouth.

It bowed, and a moment later Pettigrew's body was slipping inside it's mane.

"He doesn't need to breathe," Steven said absently. "So it'll be O.K."

He still seemed out of it, but he climbed back up on Lion's back and Harry scrambled to follow. The less time they spent in this graveyard, the better.

The Lion looked almost resentful as it spit out the last third of the snake. It started moving, and a moment later it roared.

A moment later they were somewhere else. It wasn't like apparating at all; there wasn't the sensation of being squeezed by a tube. It didn't feel like anything; all Harry felt was the muscles of Lion's back against his legs as they flexed and moved.

It made him wonder again why all Wizarding transportation tended to be uncomfortable.

Then they were at the edge of the maze, the stands which had been full of onlookers looming above them. The stands were empty now, and the stand in the middle had somehow collapsed. Where three large screens had been set up, there was only shattered glass.

They could hear the sound of weeping from somewhere behind the stands, along with the murmuring voices of a crowd.

Lion sat, letting them slide to the ground, and a moment later he disgorged Pettigrew from his mane and then he vanished.

Harry cautiously moved to the side to get a better look.

It was a chaotic scene, with people lying injured on the ground and other people milling about, seemingly confused. He saw classmates who looked stunned, as though their worlds had been totally upended.

He recognized Susan Bones, who was kneeling over an injured classmate. She looked up and caught his eye. Before he could say anything she shouted and pointed in his direction.

The crowd surged toward him and Steven, and he felt like running back into the maze as lights from cameras flashed in his eyes.

His artificial eye rolling back and forth, Mad Eye Moody sat on a bench in front of them. He'd been interrogating them for thirty minutes after having gotten them away from the crowd. It had been a little dicey for a minute, as grasping hands and the press of the crowd had made it hard to breathe, but he'd extracted them efficiently using sheer intimidation.

"I'm the one asking the questions, boys," he said.

Harry sighed irritably and rubbed his scar. "We've told you what happened. We've even offered for you to look at our memories using a Pensieve, what more do you want?"

"I just want to know what happened to Pearl and Amethyst," Steven said. "And Hermione."

"The girl's fine," Moody said. "Was helping in the hospital wing last I saw. Your..."aunts" went after Voldemort along with Dumbledore."

Steven nodded, as though it didn't even occur to him that they would do anything else.

Moody said, "They seemed to get it in their heads that if he appeared instead of you that meant you were dead."

"What?" Steven asked, looking surprised instead of tired for the first time in the entire conversation.

"The tall one has a vicious streak too...she blasted him in the side with one of those spear things of hers and he was bleeding like a stuck pig even when he flew away."

Steven looked oddly distressed by this, even though Moody caught Harry's eye and they both shared a tight smile. Voldemort's pain was everyone else's gain.

"He killed three good aurors before he got away," Moody said. "Injured a lot more, and the stampede out of the stands hurt who knows how many. He deserves everything he got."

Steven sighed, but didn't argue.

"On the good side, with your aunts and Dumbledore chasing him, he won't have time to get up to any mischief," Moody said. "If we get really lucky, they might be able to save us the trouble of another war."

"You think that's what's going to happen?" Harry asked. "Another war?"

Moody's artificial eye focused on Harry fo0r a moment, then switched to Steven. "If they don't catch him, it's all but certain. There's an army of purebloods out there just waiting to show the world what they can do."

"So who was the traitor?" Harry asked.

Moody didn't say anything.

"He had to have someone on the inside to jinx the Goblet, or they never could have got my name in," Harry said.

"That's what Hermione thought too," Steven said. "She assumed it had to be a teacher, but really it could have been anyone who had access to the school."

Moody chuckled coldly. "They broke into my house...tried to ambush me...but I had extra wards they didn't know about. I'd set them in case that short aunt of yours tried to come after me."

"Hey," Steven said, sitting up. "Amethyst wouldn't do that!"

"Like she wouldn't substitute a Weasley potion for Snape's hair gel?" Moody asked dryly. He shook his head. "I couldn't risk it. It saved me from an ambush anyway, even if I didn't catch the one's trying to get me."

"So if they didn't get you, who did they get?" Harry asked. He looked at the Auror dubiously. Just because he said they hadn't gotten him didn't mean they hadn't actually gotten him. Given the power of Wizard magic, it was possible that he wouldn't even remember if they had gotten him.

"We'll be looking into it," Moody said. "But so far, I'm thinking Crouch might have done it. He had the skill and the opportunity, and if he was Imperiused and broke it...it might explained why he was killed."

"Then who killed him?" Steven asked. "It wasn't like he killed himself."

"Whoever was holding him whenever he wasn't putting on a role here," Moody said. "I wouldn't put it past a Malfoy or any of the other Dark families, but it could have been almost anyone loyal to the Death eaters."

"Maybe he was being brave in the end," Steven said hopefully.

Given the damage the man had done to Winky, it astounded Harry that Steven could have any charitable thoughts toward him at all. Whatever he'd been trying to tell Dumbledore in the end didn't make up for the life he'd led before, at least not for Harry.

"Maybe it wasn't even Crouch when he was here," Steven said. "Wizards have ways of changing their shape, right?"

Moody shook his head. "Polyjuice has to be reapplied regularly, and I'd have noticed if he was slipping drinks out of a flask every hour."

"Maybe not," Harry said. "How often was he around people for longer than an hour?"

"Hmm," Moody said. He looked thoughtful. "It'd be easier for an outsider than a teacher here. Just make sure you aren't at an event that long..."

"The challenges were all longer than an hour," Harry said. "Somebody would have noticed."

"I think he might have been drinking something at all the challenges," Steven said. "Water or something out of a big cup.."

"Pretending to be drinking," Moody said grimly. "Which means whoever impersonated him is still out there."

Harry scowled. As though his life wasn't complicated enough without the threat of some shape changing Death eater to make his life even harder.

Before he could respond the door slammed open, and Amethyst and Pearl were suddenly there.

"Steven!"

For a moment Harry felt as though he was outside of his body. Watching how these two inhuman women reacted to Steven made him feel bitterly envious. He'd never had anyone respond to him like that. The Dursleys would have been delighted to hear that he was dead.

It wasn't until he felt arms suddenly surrounding his in a bear hug that he suddenly came back to reality.

It was Amethyst, and she was hugging him. Harry wasn't sure how to react, and so he stood awkwardly, his hands to his side.

He felt odd, but in a good way.

"I'm glad to see you made it, dude," Amethyst said into his ear. "And thanks for bringing Steven home safe."

Before he knew it, Harry felt himself relaxing, and for a moment, just a moment, he felt a glimmer of what having a real family actually meant.

A warm hug from someone happy to see he was alive. It wasn't a bad way to end his day. It wasn't bad at all.