The Potter Twins and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 26: The Beginning

When they looked back, even a month later, Harry and Michael found they had only scattered memories of the next few days.

It was as though they had been through too much to take in any more. The recollections they did have were very painful. The worst, perhaps, was the meeting with the Diggorys that took place the following morning.

They did not blame them for what had happened; on the contrary, both thanked them for returning Cedric's body to them. Mr. Diggory sobbed through most of the interview. Mrs. Diggory's grief seemed to be beyond tears.

"He suffered very little then", she said, when Harry had told her how Cedric had died, "and after all, Amos…. He died just when he'd won the tournament. He must have been happy."

When they got to their feet, she looked down at Harry and Michael and said, "you look after yourselves, now."

Michael and Harry seized the sack of gold on the bedside table.

Michael, "you take this. It should've been Cedric's, he got there first, you take it-"

But she backed away from them.

"Oh no, it's yours, dears, I couldn't…. You keep it…."

….

Michael and Harry returned to Gryffindor Tower the following evening.

From what Hermione and Ron told them, Dumbledore had spoken to the school that morning at breakfast. He had merely requested that they leave the twins alone, that nobody ask them questions or badger them to tell the story of what had happened in the maze. Most people, they noticed, were skirting them in the corridors, avoiding their eyes. Some whispered behind their hands as they passed. They guessed that many of them had believed Rita Skeeter's article about how disturbed and possibly dangerous they were. Perhaps they were formulating their own theories about how Cedric had died. But both twins found they didn't care very much. They liked it best when they were with Ron and Hermione and they were talking about other things, or else letting them sit in silence while they played chess. They felt as though all four of them had reached an understanding they didn't need to put into words; that each was waiting for some sign, some word, of what was going on outside Hogwarts, and that it was useless to speculate about what might be coming until they knew anything for certain. The only time they touched upon the subject was when Ron told the twins about a meeting Mrs. Weasley had had with Dumbledore before going home.

Ron, "she went to ask him if you could come straight to us this summer. But he wants you to go back to the Dursleys, at least at first."

Harry, "why?"

Michael, "yeah, why?"

Ron, "she said Dumbledore's got his reasons, I suppose we've got to trust him, haven't we?"

Hermione had also given up her crusade for the House-Elves. Luna had been the one to convince her to do so, and for the life of them, neither twin nor Ron knew how the Hell she managed to do it!

….

Michael had gone to see Cho one day.

She wasn't as lively as she used to be before Cedric was killed.

When Michael had gone to see her, she had asked, "did Cedric tell you anything? About me?"

Michael had told her, "he asked me to take care of you…. He really did love you Cho…. You made each other happy…. I'll never try to replace Cedric, but I'll be there for you whenever you need me…."

Cho had hugged Michael tightly, crying into his shoulder.

Michael was content with being a shoulder for Cho to cry on. They had both lost something. Cho had lost her boyfriend, and Michael had lost a boy he wished he could have called friend before it was over….

….

The only person apart from Ron and Hermione that the twins felt able to talk to was Hagrid. As there was no longer a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, they had those lessons free. They used the one on Thursday afternoon to go down and visit Hagrid in his cabin. It was a bright and sunny day; Fang bounded out of the open door as they approached, barking and wagging his tail madly.

Hagrid, "who's that? Harry! Michael!"

He strode out to meet them, pulled Harry and Michael each into a one-armed hug, ruffled their hair, and said, "good ter see yeh, mates. Good ter see yeh."

They saw two bucket-size cups and saucers on the wooden table in front of the fireplace when they entered Hagrid's cabin.

Hagrid, "bin havin' a cuppa with Olympe. She's jus' left."

Ron, "who?"

Hagrid, "Madame Maxime, o' course!"

Ron, "you two made up, have you?"

"Dunno what yeh're talkin' about", said Hagrid airily, fetching more cups from the dresser. When he had made tea and offered around a plate of doughy cookies, he leaned back in his chair and surveyed the twins closely through his beetle-black eyes.

Hagrid, "you two all righ'?"

Harry, "yeah."

Michael, "we're fine."

Hagrid, "no, yeh're not. 'Course yeh're not. But yeh will be."

Michael and Harry said nothing.

"Knew he was goin' ter come back", said Hagrid, and Michael, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up at him, shocked, "known it fer years. Knew he was out there, bidin' his time. It had ter happen. Well, now it has, an' we'll jus' have ter get on with it. We'll fight. Migh' be able ter stop him before he gets a good hold. That's Dumbledore's plan, anyway. Great man, Dumbledore. 'S long as we've got him, I'm not too worried", Hagrid raised his bushy eyebrows at the disbelieving expressions on their faces, "no good sittin' worryin' abou' it. What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does. Dumbledore told me wha' you did, boys", Hagrid's chest swelled as he looked at Harry, "yeh did as much as yer father would've done, an' I can' give yeh no higher praise than that."

Michael and Harry smiled back at him. It was the first time they'd smiled in days.

Michael, "what's Dumbledore asked you to do, Hagrid?"

Hagrid, "he sent Professor McGonagall to ask me and Madame Maxime to meet him, that night. Got a little job fer me over the summer. Secret, though. I'm not s'pposed ter talk abou' it, no, not even ter you lot. Olympe, Madame Maxime ter you, might be comin' with me. I think she will. Think I got her persuaded."

Harry, "is it to do with Voldemort?"

Hagrid flinched at the sound of the name, "migh' be. Now…. Who'd like ter come an' visit the las' skrewt with me? I was jokin'- jokin'", he added hastily, seeing the looks on their faces….

….

It was with a heavy heart that Harry and Michael packed their trunks up in the dormitory on the night before their return to Privet Drive. They were dreading the Leaving Feast, which was usually a cause for celebration, when the winner of the Inter-House Championship would be announced. They had avoided being in the Great Hall when it was full ever since they had left the hospital wing, preferring to eat when it was nearly empty to avoid the stares of their fellow students.

When they, Ron, and Hermione entered the Hall, they saw at once that the usual decorations were missing. The Great Hall was normally decorated with the winning House's colors for the Leaving Feast. Tonight, however, there were black drapes on the wall behind the teachers' table. The twins knew instantly that they were there as a mark of respect to Cedric.

The real Mad-Eye Moody was at the staff table now, his wooden leg and his magical eye back in place. He was extremely twitchy, jumping every time someone spoke to him. Neither twin could blame him; Moody's fear of attack was bound to have been increased by his ten-month imprisonment in his own trunk. Professor Karkaroff's chair was empty. Harry and Michael wondered, as they sat down with the other Gryffindors, where Karkaroff was now, and whether Voldemort had caught up with him.

Madame Maxime was still there. She was sitting next to Hagrid. They were talking quietly together. Further along the table, sitting next to Professor McGonagall, was Snape. His eyes lingered on Michael and Harry for a moment as the twins looked at him. His expression was difficult to read. He looked as sour and unpleasant as ever. They continued to watch him, long after Snape had looked away.

What was it that Snape had done on Dumbledore's orders, the night that Voldemort had returned? And why…. Why…. Was Dumbledore so convinced that Snape was truly on their side? He had been their spy, Dumbledore had said so in the Pensieve. Snape had turned spy against Voldemort, "at great personal risk." Was that the job he had taken up again? Had he made contact with the Death Eaters, perhaps? Pretended that he had never really gone over to Dumbledore, that he had been, like Voldemort himself, biding his time?

Their musings were ended by Professor Dumbledore, who stood up at the staff table.

The Great Hall, which in any case had been less noisy than it usually was at the Leaving Feast, became very quiet.

Dumbledore, "the end of another year", he paused, and his eyes fell upon the Hufflepuff table. Theirs had been the most subdued table before he had gotten to his feet, and theirs were still the saddest and palest faces in the Hall, "there is much that I would like to say to you all tonight, but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here", he gestured toward the Hufflepuffs, "enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."

They did it, all of them; the benches scraped as everyone in the Hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, "Cedric Diggory."

Michael caught a glimpse of Cho through the crowd. She caught his gaze and gave a sad smile, as if to thank him for comforting her. There were tears pouring silently down her face. He looked down at the table as they all sat down again.

"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff house. He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think that you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about."

Harry and Michael raised their heads and stared at Dumbledore.

"Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."

A panicked whisper swept the Great Hall. People were staring at Dumbledore in disbelief, in horror. He looked perfectly calm as he watched them mutter themselves into silence.

Dumbledore, "the Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so, either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory."

Stunned and frightened, every face in the Hall was turned toward Dumbledore now…. Well, almost every face. Over at the Slytherin table, Harry and Michael saw Draco Malfoy muttering something to Crabbe and Goyle. Both brothers felt hot, sick swoops of anger in their stomachs. They forced themselves to look back at Dumbledore.

"There are two others who must be mentioned in connection with Cedric's death. I am talking, of course, about Harry and Michael Potter."

A kind of ripple crossed the Great Hall as a few heads turned in Michael and Harry's direction before flicking back to face Dumbledore.

"Harry and Michael Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort. They risked their own lives to return Cedric's body to Hogwarts. They showed, in every respect, the sort of bravery that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort, and for this, I honor them."

Dumbledore turned gravely to Harry and Michael and raised his goblet once more. Nearly everyone in the Great Hall followed suit. They murmured their names, as they had murmured Cedric's, and drank to them. But through a gap in the standing figures, the twins saw that Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and many of the other Slytherins had remained defiantly in their seats, their goblets untouched. Dumbledore, who after all possessed no magical eye, did not see them.

When everyone had once again resumed their seats, Dumbledore continued, "the Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened, of Lord Voldemort's return, such ties are more important than ever before."

Dumbledore looked from Madame Maxime and Hagrid, to Fleur Delacour and her fellow Beauxbatons students, to Viktor Krum and the Durmstrangs at the Slytherin table. Krum, Harry and Michael saw, looked wary, almost frightened, as though he expected Dumbledore to say something harsh.

Dumbledore, "every guest in this Hall will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again, in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open. It is my belief, and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken, that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our midst. Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory…."

….

Michael and Harry's trunks were packed; Hedwig was back in her cage on top of Harry's, and now, Nosey and Fleet were snuggled up on either of Michael's shoulders. They, Ron, and Hermione were waiting in the crowded entrance hall with the rest of the fourth years for the carriages that would take them back to Hogsmeade station. It was another beautiful summer's day. The twins supposed that Privet Drive would be hot and leafy, its flower beds a riot of color, when they arrived there that evening. The thought gave them no pleasure at all.

"'Arry! Michael!"

They looked around. Fleur was hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Beyond her, far across the grounds, they could see Hagrid helping Madame Maxime to back two of the giant horses into their harness. The Beauxbatons carriage was about to take off.

"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope", said Fleur as she reached them, holding out her hands, "I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish."

Ron, "it's very good already."

Fleur smiled at him; Hermione scowled.

"Good-bye, 'Arry, Michael", said Fleur, turning to go, "it 'az been a pleasure meeting you both!"

The twins' spirits couldn't help but lift slightly as they watched Fleur hurry back across the lawns to Madame Maxime, her silvery hair rippling in the sunlight.

Ron, "wonder how the Durmstrang students are getting back. D'you reckon they can steer that ship without Karkaroff?"

"Karkaroff did not steer", said a gruff voice, "he stayed in his cabin and let us do the vork."

Krum had come to say good-bye to Hermione.

Krum, "could I have a vord?"

"Oh…. Yes…. Alright", said Hermione, looking slightly flustered, and following Krum through the crowd and out of sight.

"You'd better hurry up", Ron called loudly after her, "the carriages'll be here in a minute!"

He let Harry and Michael keep a watch for the carriages, however, and spent the next few minutes craning his neck over the crowd to try and see what Krum and Hermione might be up to.

As Michael kept a lookout, he saw a sight that actually made him smile.

He saw Alex, the kid from the Yule Ball, holding hands with another boy. It appears his moment with Michael had given him the courage to pursue a boy he liked.

Alex saw Michael and gave a wave with a smile.

Michael smiled and waved back. Even if he had a rough year, he was happy for Alex.

Hermione and Krum returned quite soon. Ron stared at Hermione, but her face was quite impassive.

"I liked Diggory", said Krum abruptly to Harry, "he vos alvays polite to me. Alvays. Even though I vos from Durmstrang, with Karkaroff."

Harry, "have you got a new headmaster yet?"

Krum shrugged. He held out his hands as Fleur had done, shook Michael and Harry's hand, and then Ron's. Ron looked as though he was suffering some sort of painful internal struggle.

Krum had already started walking away when Ron burst out, "can I have your autograph?"

Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages that were now trundling toward them up the drive, as Krum, looking surprised but gratified, signed a fragment of parchment for Ron.

….

The weather could not have been more different on the journey back to King's Cross than it had been on their way to Hogwarts the previous September. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Harry, Michael, Ron, and Hermione had managed to get a compartment to themselves. Pigwidgeon was once again hidden under Ron's dress robes to stop him from hooting continually; Hedwig was dozing, her head under her wing, Crookshanks was curled up in a spare seat like a large, furry ginger cushion, and Fleet and Nosey were snuggled up by the windowsill.

Michael, Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked more fully and freely than they had all week as the train sped them southward. The twins felt as though Dumbledore's speech at the Leaving Feast had unblocked them, somehow. It was less painful to discuss what had happened now. They broke off their conversation about what action Dumbledore might be taking, even now, to stop Voldemort only when the lunch trolley arrived.

When Hermione returned from the trolley and put her money back into her school bag, she dislodged a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had been carrying in there. Harry and Michael looked at it, unsure whether they really wanted to know what it might say, but Hermione, seeing them looking at it, said calmly, "there's nothing in there. You can look for yourselves, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the third task saying you two won the tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet."

Harry, "he'll never keep Rita quiet. Not on a story like this."

Michael, "I can see it now, 'Potter Twins Resurrect Dark Lord And Kill Classmate! Oh, And One Of Them Is Bi-sexual!'"

"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task", said Hermione in an oddly constrained voice, "as a matter of fact….", she added, her voice now trembling slightly, "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."

Ron, "what are you talking about?"

Hermione, "I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming onto the grounds."

Michael and Harry had the impression that Hermione had been dying to tell them this for days, but that she had restrained herself in light of everything else that had happened.

Harry, "how was she doing it?"

Ron, "how did you find out?"

Michael, "and can I hit her?"

Hermione, "well, it was you, really, who gave me the idea, boys."

Michael, "did we?"

Harry, "how?"

Hermione, "bugging."

Michael, "but you said they didn't work-"

Hermione, "oh not electronic bugs. No, you see…. Rita Skeeter…. Is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn….", Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag, "... into a beetle."

Ron, "you're kidding. You haven't…. She's not…."

"Oh yes she is", said Hermione happily, brandishing the jar at them.

Inside were a few twigs and leaves and one large, fat beetle.

"That's never…. You're kidding….", Ron whispered, lifting the jar to his eyes.

Hermione, "no, I'm not. I caught her on the windowsill in the hospital wing. Look very closely, and you'll notice the markings around her antennae are exactly like those foul glasses she wears."

Michael and Harry looked and saw that she was quite right. He also remembered something.

Harry, "there was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!"

Hermione, "exactly. And Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we'd had our conversation by the lake. And unless I'm very much mistaken, Rita was perched on the windowsill of the Divination class the day your scar hurt. She's been buzzing around for stories all year."

Ron, "when we saw Malfoy under that tree…."

Hermione, "he was talking to her, in his hand. He knew, of course. That's how she's been getting all those nice little interviews with the Slytherins. They wouldn't care that she was doing something illegal, as long as they were giving her horrible stuff about us and Hagrid."

Hermione took the glass jar back from Ron and smiled at the beetle, which buzzed angrily against the glass.

Michael, "oh, PLEASE tell me we're gonna feed her to Trevor, or at least shake her around in that thing?"

Hermione, "as great as that sounds, no, I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London. I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."

Michael gave Hermione a high-five.

Smiling serenely, Hermione placed the beetle back inside her school bag.

The door of the compartment slid open.

Draco, "very clever, Granger."

Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him. All three of them looked more pleased with themselves, more arrogant and more menacing, than Harry and Michael had ever seen them.

"So", said Draco slowly, advancing slightly into the compartment and looking slowly around at them, a smirk quivering on his lips, "you caught some pathetic reporter, and the Potter's are Dumbledore's favorite boys again. Big deal."

His smirk widened. Crabbe and Goyle leered.

Draco, "trying not to think about it, are we? Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"

Harry, "get out."

Michael, "yeah, before I tell Fleet to chew your nose off."

They had not been this close to Malfoy since they had watched him muttering to Crabbe and Goyle during Dumbledore's speech about Cedric. They could feel a kind of ringing in their ears. Their hands gripped their wands under their robes.

Draco, "you've picked the losing side, Potter's! I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this", he jerked his head at Ron and Hermione, "too late now, Potter's! They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well, second, Diggory was the f-"

Michael suddenly punched Draco in the nose before a blaze of spells filled the compartment. Blinded by the blaze of the spells that had blasted from every direction, deafened by a series of bangs,

Harry and Michael blinked and looked down at the floor. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all lying unconscious in the doorway. They, Ron, and Hermione were on their feet, all three of them having used a different hex. Nor were they the only ones to have done so.

"Thought we'd see what those three were up to", said Fred matter-of-factly, stepping onto Goyle and into the compartment. He had his wand out, and so did George, who was careful to tread on Malfoy as he followed Fred inside.

"Interesting effect", said George, looking down at Crabbe, "who used the Furnunculus Curse?"

Harry, "me."

Michael pointed to a small flame on Malfoy's butt and said, "I did that."

George, "odd. I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor."

Michael, Ron, Harry, and George kicked, rolled, and pushed the unconscious Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, each of whom looked distinctly the worse for the jumble of jinxes with which they had been hit, out into the corridor, then came back into the compartment and rolled the door shut.

Fred, "Exploding Snap, anyone?"

Fred pulled out a pack of cards.

They were halfway through their fifth game when Harry decided to ask them.

Harry, "you going to tell us, then? Who were you blackmailing?"

George, "oh. That."

Fred, "it doesn't matter. It wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway."

"We've given up", said George, shrugging.

But Harry, Michael, Ron, and Hermione kept on asking, and finally, Fred said, "alright, alright, if you really want to know…. It was Ludo Bagman."

Harry, "Bagman? Are you saying he was involved in…."

George, "nah. Nothing like that. Stupid git. He wouldn't have the brains."

Ron, "well, what, then?"

Fred hesitated, then said, "you remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?"

"Yeah….", said Michael, Harry and Ron slowly.

Fred, "well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."

Michael, "so?"

Fred, "so, it vanished, didn't it? By the next morning, it was gone!"

Hermione, "but, it must've been an accident, mustn't it?"

George laughed very bitterly, "yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."

Fred, "in the end, he turned pretty nasty. Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."

George, "so we asked for our money back."

Hermione, "he didn't refuse!"

Fred, "right in one."

Ron, "but that was all your savings!"

George, "tell me about it. 'Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"

Michael, "how?"

Fred, "he put a bet on you, mate. Put a big bet on you to win the tournament. Bet against the goblins."

Harry, "so that's why he kept trying to help us win!"

Michael, "well, we did win, didn't we? So he can pay you your gold!"

George, "nope. The goblins play as dirty as him. They say you drew with Diggory, and Bagman was betting you'd win outright. So Bagman had to run for it. He did run for it right after the third task."

George sighed deeply and started dealing out the cards again. The rest of the journey passed pleasantly enough; Harry and Michael wished it could have gone on all summer, in fact, and that they would never arrive at King's Cross…. But as they had learned the hard way that year, time will not slow down when something unpleasant lies ahead, and all too soon, the Hogwarts Express was pulling in at platform nine and three-quarters. The usual confusion and noise filled the corridors as the students began to disembark. Ron and Hermione struggled out past Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, carrying their trunks. Harry and Michael, however, stayed put.

Harry, "Fred, George, wait a moment."

The Weasley twins turned. Harry pulled open his trunk and drew out his and Michael's Triwizard winnings.

"Take it", Harry said, and he thrust the sack into George's hands.

Fred, "what?"

Michael, "take it. We don't want it."

George, "you're mental."

Michael, "no, we're not. You take it, and get inventing. It's for the joke shop."

Fred, "they are mental."

Harry, "listen, if you don't take it, we're throwing it down the drain. We don't want it and we don't need it. But we could do with a few laughs. We could all do with a few laughs. We've got a feeling we're going to need them more than usual before long."

George, "Harry, Michael, there's got to be a thousand Galleons in here."

Michael, "yeah. Think how many Canary Creams that is. And if I may make a request, maybe make a version of Draco's favorite candy that makes people bald?"

The twins stared at them.

Harry, "just don't tell your mum where you got it…. Although she might not be so keen for you to join the Ministry anymore, come to think of it…."

"Harry, Michael-", Fred began, but the Potter twins pulled out their wands.

Harry, "look, take it, or we'll hex you. We know some good ones now. Just do us one favor, okay? Buy Ron some different dress robes and say they're from you."

The twins left the compartment before they could say another word, stepping over Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were still lying on the floor, covered in hex marks.

Uncle Vernon was waiting beyond the barrier. Mrs. Weasley was close by him. She hugged the twins very tightly when she saw them and whispered in their ears, "I think Dumbledore will let you come to us later in the summer. Keep in touch, dears."

"See you, guys", said Ron, clapping them on the backs.

"Bye boys", said Hermione, and she did something she had never done before, and kissed them on the cheeks.

"Harry, Michael, thanks", George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side.

The Potter twins winked at the Weasley twins, turned to Uncle Vernon, and followed him silently from the station. There was no point worrying yet, they told themselves, as they got into the back of the Dursleys' car.

As Hagrid had said, what would come, would come…. And they would have to meet it when it did…. But they would do it with their friends…. And with each other….

….

Reviews:

Canadude2029: yeah, Fudge SUCKS. And things are gonna get worse in the future... Thanks.

….

And thus we wrap up Goblet of Fire. I plan on doing Order of the Phoenix after the site issues are FINALLY resolved.