Chapter Fifty Four

Lily wrapped him in a big hug, "It's going to be OK."

Harry revelled in her warmth for a moment, "It's going to get worse, isn't it? Fudge is going to make life hell for us."

Sirius smirked, "You should have seen some of the stuff they were coming out with last time round."

"Oh, they called us all sorts." Lily said, "Mostly that we were just causing trouble, we were the going nuts and attacking everyone so we could feel important. Truth came out in the end though, and it will again."

"You just need to, well, ignore it." Lucius said.

Harry smirked "Ignore it and it will all go away?"

They could hear Dumbledore and Fudge still arguing outside the hospital wing. Dumbledore was saying something about giants, which seemed to make Fudge rather unhappy.

"Why… why is Fudge so… I… he seems very elitist." Harry said.

Nikka sighed, "You noticed that too?"

Harry nodded.

Lucius sat down, next to the bed and look thoughtfully at Harry, "You never really knew pure-bloods before, before your mother got hold of us, lets put it this way; Bellatrix's way of thinking isn't as unusual as it should be."

"So he just thinks he's better than everyone else?" Harry said.

Narcissa nodded, "Yes, basically that's the case. The Crouchs' were as old as a family gets, and yet he destroyed the last member today. That irony will be forever lost on him."

"You never meant to be friends with Mum did you?" Harry smiled.

"Harry!" Lily gasped, "That's not a nice thing to ask."

Narcissa smiled, "No. It was… I'd used the last of my influence at the ministry to clear Bellatrix's name and being friends with your mother was the easiest way to show how wonderfully reformed we were. I never thought, not for a second, that I would come to think of her as a sister."

Lily smiled, "The gods work in mysterious ways."

Madam Pomfrey walked over, "I think Harry should get another hour or so's sleep before his friends come up and see him."

Harry took the potion she offered him and gulped it down. He'd managed to wear himself out already and he couldn't face what his dreams would bring right now.

He woke up, not sure how long he had been asleep to see most of the chairs were now empty. He could hear his mother's voice though, sitting on his other side.

"It's not your fault." Lily said.

"But it is." Narcissa sniffed, "I was the one who stopped her from going to prison. If I had just let them do the investigation, not stepped in for her..."

"What was going to happen would of happened one way or another." Lily sighed, "You can't blame yourself for this."

"I just can't think straight right now, Bellatrix, the baby..." Narcissa said, Harry could tell she was crying.

"I feel like we should have seen this coming." Lily said, "She kept going on about her strong little boy."

"Why did she even come to the ball?" Narcissa asked, "It just gave her another thing she had to explain."

"To show it off." Lily whispered, "She thinks she won already."

Narcissa sighed, "Hasn't she? You heard what Fudge said, how he reacted. The world is completely unprepared for another war and the ministry is pretending that everything is completely fine."

Lily shook her head, "No. We'll get through this. I promise, we can make this work. Like last time; get people informed, slowly and just keep going. They only win when we give up."

Harry wanted to cry, his brain seemed to have caught up enough that crying seemed like the only logical thing to do any more. He didn't want to cry though, it seemed pathetic, he was fourteen and wanting to cry.

He shifted slowly, to show his mother he was awake. Her and Narcissa fell silent.

"How are you feeling Harry?" Narcissa asked, "Draco keeps sending up messages, asking how you are."

Harry shrugged, "More awake." it was at least part of the truth.

"Do you think you're up to seeing everyone?" Lily asked, "It can wait if you're not ready."

Harry shook his head, "I want to see them. Where is everyone?"

"They went for a change of clothes and to get something to eat." Lily said, "The… the Diggorys were coming to collect Cedric's body, Madam Pomfrey said only two of us could stay, to give them some privacy."

Harry nodded, that made a lot of sense. Now his mother had said it, he could see the bed was empty, made up again with fresh sheets. It was like Cedric had never been there.

"Harry?" Narcissa asked softly, "Are you sure you're OK?"

Harry blinked, "I will be."

Narcissa patted his hand and walked quickly, from the room. She wasn't more than a few moments, Harry suspected his friends had been waiting just outside the door.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped coming over, "You..."

"Look terrible?" Harry finished for her.

Hermione blushed.

"We didn't want to say it out loud." Draco smirked, "How are you doing?"

Harry opened his mouth, and wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't fine, really wasn't fine but the five of them that gathered around his bed were already as white as a sheet.

"Did you see, Cedric?" He asked at last.

Neville nodded, "Yeah. We kept trying to get down to you but we'd ended up at the top of the stands, we couldn't get down again with all the people in the way."

"I know." Harry said, "I knew you'd be trying to get to me." the crying feeling was back, but he wasn't about to cry in front of his friends.

Draco wiped his eyes, "You could have died, you could have really died and been gone and..." he dropped down into a chair and bent his head over Harry's hand, Harry could feel the tears dripping onto his skin.

He shuffled up and patted the bed, crying himself now. It felt good to let it out, to let all the pain and anger and loss pour our of him, soaking the top of his pyjamas. Daphne, Draco, Pansy, Hermione and Neville all climbed, squished onto the bed and buried Harry in a hug.

It hurt; his ribs were still bruised and the cuts not yet healed but it was a good hurt, he was never going to be alone, not really.

They were all crying, Lily and Narcissa watching on as well.

Madam Pomfrey walked over, "You shouldn't really all be on the bed." She said softly, but she didn't make an issue about it.

Harry wasn't sure how long they sat there, crying and hugging and just being there, but he knew that when Hermione finally let go because she was getting a cramp in her leg, Harry felt a lot better.

"Thanks guys." He mumbled, wiping his eyes.

"We're always going to be here for you." Daphne smiled.

Madam Pomfrey walked over, carrying a large bowl of water and several soft flannels, "You need to get cleaned up. Harry, I have fresh robes for you to get dressed into. You're free to go back to your dorm tonight, if you wish."

"Professor Dumbledore has…I think he wants to you see the Diggorys' before they leave." Neville explained, wiping his face.

Harry sighed, washing his face felt good. As practical and quick as magical cleaning was it just didn't have the same feel as actually having a wash. He folded the flannel carefully and put it next to the bowl.

"You don't have to worry about people asking you what happened." Pansy said, guessing that that might have been what he was worried about, "Dumbledore said this morning that we weren't to ask you what happened until you were ready."

Harry smiled, "That's good, one thing I don't have to worry about anyway."

His friends and family waited on the other side of the screen while he got changed, his ankle ached still but it wasn't too bad and held his weight without shaking at all. It felt weird to be in his robes and clean. The long sleeves covered his bandaged arm without even showing the outline; it could have never even happened, only it had.

He pushed the curtains aside when he'd finished to see that Nikka, Sirius, Lucius and Severus were back. Dumbledore had also arrived, and were pacing up and down slowly.

"Ah Harry." Dumbledore smiled, "I trust that you are feeling a little better?"

"As much as can be expected." Harry said, he had a feeling he would be saying that a lot.

"I trust you all know we will have a difficult time of convincing our fellow witches and wizards of Voldemort's return. We will all have our part to play, I assume I can trust in each of you?" Dumbledore asked.

They all nodded.

"Severus are you ready to take up the responsibility once more?" Dumbledore asked.

Severus looked to Harry and Lily before nodding, "Yes, I am."

"I am afraid that a similar burden will fall to you Lucius." Dumbledore said.

Lucius nodded.

"I invite you all to stay for dinner tonight, before we start contacting the old crew." Dumbledore said, "I have a list."

"I'll take that." Lily said, taking the bit of paper and tucking it into her pocket.

Harry felt like it was someone else, as he walked down the corridor, he felt like everyone was looking at him but that might have just been because of the large crowd that was walking down the corridor with him, at least that's what he tried to convince himself.

They followed Dumbledore to a small, mostly unused office and waited outside while Dumbledore went in.

The door opened again, a few minutes later.

"Come on in Harry." Dumbledore said softly.

Harry looked to his parents and held tightly to Lily's hand. He walked through the door and saw Mr and Mrs Diggory sitting on a comfortable looking sofa, in fact the whole room looked like an old fashioned sitting room.

"Harry." Mr Diggory said, coughing slightly.

Harry wasn't sure what to say, "I'm sorry… for what...umm… for Cedric." it sounded pathetic.

"Thank you." Mrs Diggory said, her grief seemed almost beyond tears at this point.

Harry, Lily and Severus sat down, opposite the Diggorys.

"Why don't you tell the Diggory's what happened? Harry." Dumbledore suggested.

Harry took no pleasure in going through the events yet again and sat quietly, waiting for them to respond after he'd finished.

"So… so he suffered very little then?" Mrs Diggory asked.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, yes. He… he was gone before he even knew what happened, I think."

Mr Diggory coughed again, "We wanted to thank you, for bringing Cedric's body back to us."

"Oh, well he asked me to." Harry said, "With the wand thing..."

Mr Diggory nodded, "It will still a good thing of you to do. To think of him, when… well Dumbledore filled us in, roughly, about what you went through."

Harry hadn't thought for a second to leave Cedric there, it seemed like the least he could do.

Harry remembered the large bag of gold and pulled it out and tried to hand it to the Diggorys, "Here, you should have this." Harry said.

"Oh no, Harry we couldn't." Mrs Diggory said.

"I want you to have it." Harry said, "He… Cedric won as well and I-"

"No Harry, really." Mr Diggory said, "It's yours."

Harry didn't want to push the issue, he just wanted to make at least a small part of their pain go away. But that wasn't possible right now and he knew that.

Saying goodbye to his family that evening after dinner was one of the most difficult things Harry had to do. He'd even forced himself to actually eat some dinner to get them to stay longer. The Durmstrang students moved up so there was more room of the Slytherin table for them.

Gemini and Rodolphus glared down the table at them, whispering to one another. Even their normal group of 'friends' were staying away from them for the time being. Corvus was quiet, he sat alone, further along the table ignoring the world around him.

Harry felt very sorry for him, it was one more thing that his heart had to feel sad about.