"I ask you to demonstrate your courage one more time. I ask you to tell us what happened."

- J.K. Rowling, The Goblet of Fire, Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter 8: The Hospital Wing

There was the initial moment of stunned silence as they arrived at the edge of the maze. There was nothing graceful about it. Lupin and Thrace were both weighed down by their burdens, and Harry and Cedric by their shock and general confusion. Then, everything exploded into chaos.

Harry felt Cedric's hand on his arm, hauling him to his feet. Dumbledore - and Fudge - were talking to them both. Another tug from his other side.

"Potter needs the hospital wing. I'll take him-"

"No!" Dumbledore said sharply. "No, I need your help, Alastor, with these- Minerva can take him."

Harry's mind was whirling. A spy at the school. Someone who would try to get him on his own. But it couldn't be Moody - could it?

Dumbledore was muttering instructions to Professor McGonagall. "Take Cedric and Harry to the hospital wing. Cedric's parents, the Weasleys, Miss Granger...they can go too. But then I need you to stand guard. No one goes in or out, do you hear me? Except - Hagrid!"

He wasn't supposed to leave Dumbledore, he remembered. He was starting to protest -

"It's fine," a strained voice said in his ear. It was Thrace. "Go with McGonagall."

Dumbledore's voice was very low as he addressed Hagrid, who had stumbled over looking extremely overwrought. "Go, quickly, to your hut. In the pumpkin patch, you will find a large black dog. Bring him to the hospital wing. He will stay with Harry." He turned his attention back to McGonagall. "You may tell Poppy he is quite well trained."

Then Harry, and Cedric, who had not let go of his arm the whole time, were being ushered along by Professor McGonagall, and the Diggorys, and the Weasleys. He could hear Dumbledore giving instructions, louder this time, to those who remained. Someone needed to contact the Auror office, and could Severus please fetch a vial of Veritaserum? The rest of them, would they go to the Great Hall? Refreshments would be provided while they sorted everything out...

The shock and the pain of his scar had receded enough that Harry could feel the pain in his leg again. It was a relief to collapse on the hospital bed. As Madam Pomfrey darted out of her office towards them, looking grim, Cedric let go, and told her he was unhurt, but Harry needed attending to, and she bent over his leg with staunch professionalism.

Professor McGonagall took up her post at the end of his bed. Cedric was directed to the bed next to his, and the Weasleys, the Diggorys, and yes, there was Hermione, all took up chairs around them.

Even Fred and George had come, but from the look on McGonagall's face, Harry wasn't entirely sure Dumbledore had intended to include them in the invitation.

"Harry, what happened?" Hermione demanded, once everyone had settled and Madam Pomfrey had finished with his leg.

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, the door to the hospital wing opened, and Hagrid appeared, a great black dog in tow. Hagrid left the dog with the others, clasped Harry's hand briefly in his oversized one, and left, following Dumbledore's orders.

The dog looked around at his audience briefly, then jumped up to lie across the end of Harry's bed, facing the door.

"Hullo, Snuffles," said Harry.

This time no one asked.

"I don't know what's going on," he told them honestly.

"Harry," Cedric said slowly, "You said that man, the one Professor Lupin captured...you said he was Peter Pettigrew...but Pettrigrew is..."

"He's not dead," Harry said simply. He looked at Ron and Hermione.

"Mum," Ron said, a bit nervously, "Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew."

"Oh, come off it!" said Fred.

"It's true!" Hermione said. "We...we saw it...last year. Professor Lupin...he said..." She looked at Harry.

"He said that Peter Pettrigrew, my dad, and Sirius all figured out how to become Animagi while they were at school," Harry explained. "It was Pettigrew that blew up all of those Muggles. He cut off his finger so everyone would think he was dead."

It was a good thing, Harry thought, and that Percy had not joined the party. After all, Pettigrew had been his pet first.

He exchanged another glance with Ron and Hermione, and then they all launched into the story.

"But Black..." Amos Diggory began, when they had finished.

"Sirius has been helping me by owl all year," Harry said fiercely. "If he'd really wanted me dead, he could have done it."

No one looked comfortable with this information.

"This still doesn't explain what happened tonight," Hermione said, circling back to her original question.

This time, Cedric told most of the story. He and Harry, though in their respective hospital beds, were both sitting up, alert and energetic. Harry suspected Cedric was burning with questions as much as he was.

"Dad," Cedric said, "Kara Thrace...I didn't know she could fight."

For the first time, Professor McGonagall spoke up. "During the War, there were a number of people who were not Aurors who volunteered to work against You-Know-Who. Remus Lupin and Kara Thrace were two of them. They were fierce friends at school, and after."

"They live together," said Mrs. Weasley, and Harry, Hermione, Cedric, and her children all stared at her.

"Professor Lupin has a girlfriend?" Ron wondered aloud.

Harry felt something at his feet, as though the great black dog had tensed.

"No," said Mrs. Weasley, "though I think they are both fools for it, and I've told her so often. They get along so well-"

"Not to put too fine a point on it," McGonagall said, "but both of them lost all of their other friends in a single night." She glanced apologetically at Harry. "I do not know that we can judge the boundaries of their relationship without having suffered similarly."

It was a fair argument.

"But what brought them there tonight?" Amos Diggory was saying. "What has happened? What was that Kara was carrying?"

Harry had been wondering that himself. But there would be no answers. Not until someone decided to come down and talk to them.

The night drew on. At some point, the doors opened, and Severus Snape appeared with someone Harry did not recognize, and a stretcher carrying Mad-Eye Moody floating in front of them. But it didn't look like the Mad-Eye Moody Harry had known. This man was wasted and white as old parchment, and his magical eye and leg were missing. Madam Pomfrey rushed over to meet with Snape, then bent over Moody. McGonagall crossed the room to consult briefly with Snape, then the Potions Master left, and she returned to her post at the foot of Harry's bed.

Everyone looked at her.

"The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher you have believed to be Alastor Moody all this year has been an imposter. He has been keeping the real Moody," McGonagall nodded at the man across the room, "locked up in his office all this time."

"For Polyjuice Potion," supplied Hermione.

McGonagall nodded.

Harry sagged back against the pillows. He felt weary, all of a sudden.

More time passed. When the door opened again, it admitted Professor Lupin and Kara Thrace, who crossed its length with quiet, but pointed steps. As they reached the crowd around Harry and Cedric's beds, there was a stirring across the room.

"Thrace!" a hoarse voice barked. "Get over here! Help me up! There are Death Eaters abroad."

Thrace crossed over to him, looking unimpressed.

"And what exactly do you think you are going to do about it?"

"Don't sass me, girl. I will not be told what to do by a two-bit mediwitch who-"

"This two-bit mediwitch patched up half the holes in your great ugly mug!" Thrace snapped. "Back. To. Bed!"

"Really!" Pomfrey shouted, emerging. "This is a hospital! Not Trafalgar Square!"

"Sorry, Poppy," Thrace said, turning to her, "Alastor here" she glared back at Moody, "thinks he's going to get up and take on the Dark Lord all by his lonesome."

Madam Pomfrey snorted. "And what's happened to you?"

It was then that Harry noticed how Thrace was holding herself, her arms crossed and close, but not against her body. Her sleeves were torn and ragged, and it looked as though the fabric against her chest was as well. "I've been burnt," she said evenly.

"Dumbledore sent us down here," Remus explained. He had several cuts and bruises along his face and hands. Harry would have wagered he had others that were less visible. "He will be down himself, once he and the Minister have sorted out a few more things."

Pomfrey ushered Thrace into the bed on Harry's other side, where she took up a similar position to his and Cedric's. Her eyes were alert, though glazed with pain. Pomfrey pulled a screen around them for a bit, and when it was removed, Thrace was wearing a new shirt, and her forearms and palms were bandaged.

Pomfrey turned her attention to Lupin, and, after a moment, proclaimed his wounds superficial and, "at any rate, he'd had worse before".

Lupin sat at the foot of Thrace's bed. Everyone stared at them.

Before they could ask any questions, the great black dog slid off of Harry bed and circled Thrace's. He jumped up and settled himself beside her.

Madam Pomfrey returned with a salve for Lupin's scratches. She started at the sight of the dog, stared down at him in irritation.

"That dog! I'm sorry, Thrace. Dumbledore assured me he was tame."

"Certainly not the word I would have used for him," Thrace said, surveying him with some amusement. She looked up at Madam Pomfrey. "He's not bothering me."

The Healer huffed, then started on Lupin. Once she was gone, the dog lowered his head onto Thrace's lap and whined.

"I'm fine," she told him.

"Harry..." Bill began, studying the dog, but Thrace shot him a look, and he quieted.

"Professor Lupin," Harry said, impatient. "What happened? Why were you there in that graveyard?"

Lupin sighed. "The short version, Harry, is that Kara and I have been trying to track down Peter for a year now, and when we finally caught up with him...Well, you were there." He smiled.

Harry sat up straighter. Beside him, he could feel Ron and Hermione, equally tense. "You...you caught him...Does that mean?"

"If it doesn't, Harry," said Thrace, "I will personally set the Minister on fire."

From her lap, the dog snorted.

Harry decided he thought she was alright.

It wasn't too much longer now. And what time was it anyway, two? three? It was early morning, surely. None of them were tired. There was a tension in the room. Even Moody, though he seemed beyond exhausted, remained awake. They waited, then waited a little more, then...

The hospital wing door opened once again, and Dumbledore, Snape, Cornelius Fudge, and a man who resembled nothing so much as a lion entered, stopping only when they too had reached the foot of Harry and Cedric's beds.

Dumbledore looked down at them both affectionately. Before he could say anything, the lion man demanded, "What's that dog doing here?"

"Snuffles?" said Thrace, eyes innocently transferring from the dog to the man. "He's mine."

"Don't you have enough...pets?" the man said, eyes flickering to Lupin.

There was a strangled cry of outrage from Ron and Hermione, and Harry sat up straighter, glaring at the man.

Thrace blinked at him. "Remus is only a wolf a night or two out of the month. And he's not particularly cuddly when he is."

Lupin, at her feet, leaned down and away, hiding the lower half of his face behind his hand. Dumbledore's eyes were shining.

"If I may," he said. Everyone quieted, including Fred and George, who were staring at Thrace with blatant admiration. "Harry, as we have suspected all along, this was a well-orchestrated plot. We just did not know what they were planning. The man who has been posing as Alastor Moody - his real name, you will understand, is Barty Crouch Jr. -"

Hermione and Ron both gasped. "But-" Hermione began.

Dumbledore held up a hand. "Polyjuice potion. Yet again. He is now in Ministry custody. His master and Peter Pettigrew are as well. You have all been very lucky. Harry," he hesitated, "I'm afraid the plan all along was to get you to Lord Voldemort."

There was a collective shudder.

"So Crouch was trying to get me to Wormtail, who would have taken me to-"

"No. The bundle Pettigrew was carrying, the one Miss Thrace bore out of the graveyard, that was Lord Voldemort."

All eyes now turned to Thrace, who did not look happy about the attention, or the reminder. Lupin moved a hand to rest on her ankle.

"Both Voldemort and Pettigrew are now also in Ministry custody." Harry was sitting up so straightly, he was now nearly out of his bed. "And, thanks to our friends in the North and our, um, spirit of international cooperation, will be transferred to the dungeons at Nurmengard Castle. We have some doubt that Azkaban could hold them."

Fudge now squared his shoulders and turned to Lupin and Thrace. "You will both receive Orders of Merlin, First Class."

Both looked slightly embarrassed at this.

"One more thing," Dumbledore said, a note of steel Harry had rarely heard in his voice. "I want Remus reinstated at the school."

Both Lupin and Fudge looked as though they would have liked to protest, but Dumbledore was firm.

"Surely any wizard, werewolf or no, who has received an Order of Merlin, First Class, for the capture and incarceration of one of the Darkest Wizards of our age, is more than qualified to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Can you think of anyone better?"

Before anyone could respond to this, a cacophony of agreement broke out.

"He was the best we have ever had!"

"Including that nutter who actually was a Dark Wizard!"

"Please come back, Professor Lupin!"

"If you don't come back, I'm skiving off all of next year in protest!"

"You most certainly won't, George Weasley!"

"Neither Harry nor I would have made it so far in the Tournament if it weren't for you, Professor."

Lupin looked like he still might argue, but Thrace kicked him. After meeting her stubborn gaze for a moment, he nodded at Dumbledore.

"Excellent," said the headmaster.

"What about you, Kara," said Fudge. "It there anything you want?"

She looked at him. "Sirius' name is cleared?"

"Yes...yes, of course. With Pettigrew caught...We can't really deny...Of course, we'll have to tell The Prophet..."

She settled back into the pillows and held up her bandaged arms. "Then if someone could ask Tom to hold my job for me until I can go back to work, that would be lovely."

Fudge, Snape, and the lion man all looked mildly annoyed, but the Minister nodded.

The courtesies exchanged as they left were awkward, and Dumbledore watched them go, Snape behind them. He waited until the door was firmly closed before turning back to the group gathered around Cedric and Harry.

"It will take some time for word to get around about Sirius' innocence, and of course we have to make sure the Muggles know as well, but I think, in present company at least, we can dispense with disguises."

He looked at the dog, who a moment was later was a man, and staring at the two people beside him in wonder. "What the hell did you do? Kara, you're hurt." He reached a grimy hand toward her bandages, but did not touch her.

"Carrying Voldemort, even in a weakened state, seems to have had an adverse effect on her," Dumbledore explained. "But, my dear," and now he looked at Thrace, "the wounds are only skin deep. You will heal, though you will have scars, but there is no taint of evil upon you."

Thrace nodded at him, her eyes more vulnerable than Harry had seen them yet. As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, ready to rise, Sirius, pulled her against him, one arm around her, and her eyes suddenly filled.

Dumbledore looked them over. "Sirius, I am sending you home with Kara and Remus. Harry, Sirius will meet you at King's Cross, at the end of term."

Harry looked at Sirius, who was smiling broadly at him. "Where will we live?" Harry asked.

Lupin cleared his throat. "With us, for now. We can all discuss what to do next once we've had a good rest."

He stood, as did Sirius, carefully helping Thrace to her feet as well. His arm remained around her waist.

Dumbledore's eyes were full as well. "I am immensely proud of you both."

Lupin looked away, overcome, and Kara sniffed.

"Sirius," she said. "You smell terrible."

He laughed, leaned down and kissed her, right next to the corner of her mouth. She gave an odd shudder, and Sirius pulled away to stare down at her in astonishment. She did not seem quite able to meet his gaze.

Harry sat up further to grasp his godfather's hand.

"I promise, Harry, I will see you soon."

"Now all I have to do is decide how to inform your aunt and uncle," Dumbledore mused. "Should I write them a letter, or visit them in person?"

Harry grinned, lying back.