"We really can't keep ending the school year like this."

Not for the first time, they were stationed in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey fussing over them with great panic. Harry lay in one bed, Hermione occupying the one next to it. Both of them were sitting up, as much as the matron wished for them to get some sleep. Matthew had plonked a stool right in between them so that he could be near to his friends, although it made Pomfrey's work a lot more difficult. He had no intention of moving; he'd come close to losing them so keeping them in his proximity was his only way of ensuring that they were completely okay. Even someone as stern as the nurse wasn't going to stand in the way of that, and Dumbledore had quietly requested that she take it easy on the three students.

The headmaster was hovering close by in the room, plastering a content smile on his face. There was more work than ever to be done and a black cloud was descending on the world but, for a few short moments, he could allow himself to celebrate their victory. Voldemort and his followers may have gotten away, but they had rescued their targets. That had to be seen as a success. The larger fight was still to come but, over his many years, Dumbledore had learnt to make the most of any triumph, no matter the size.

Moody had left them to sort out the mess of the tournament, but Sirius and Lupin were still present, with the former only just vacating his spot next to Harry's bed. The short journey in the Tardis had been filled with relieved hugs, brimming with desperate emotions that threatened to spill over. Even so, Harry's godfather hadn't quite gotten his fill of making sure the boy was really there. It was the first time Harry was truly seeing Sirius as the guardian he now was, constantly worrying over every cut and bruise that were beginning to make themselves known. Any other kid might have found it annoying but he found it as magical as any spell he'd learnt up to that point. He had an adult who properly cared about him. It had been a long time coming.

"We're going to need loyalty cards at this point," Matthew quipped, responding to Harry's light hearted comment. "We're keeping Madam Pomfrey in a job."

The woman huffed as she ventured back towards her office. "As much as I enjoy showing off my prowess, I would prefer it if the three of you weren't constantly getting into trouble and getting injured!"

"You can't really blame us for it this time," Harry argued. "Trust me, I wish we could actually have a quiet year. Or even a quiet month. That'd be nice." He rested his head further onto the pillow. The entirety of his body felt incredibly heavy and he could feel himself sinking into the mattress as if it were nothing more than a cloud.

"It sounds idyllic," Hermione agreed, sighing at the thought.

"But I doubt we've got any chance of that happening after what's gone on tonight."

"I have to confirm your thoughts, Harry," Dumbledore said sadly. "This evening has been a dark one."

"It could have been a lot darker," Matthew reminded them. He found himself gently rubbing his thumb over the back of Hermione's hand, an act which she wasn't complaining about. It seemed to be grounding them both back to reality as they recovered from the events that had unfolded.

"Certainly, Mister Mormont. A point that we must cling onto, to remind ourselves of what we have achieved. But we can't ignore the fact that Lord Voldemort has returned."

"And he'll come back at some point," Harry responded. "He isn't finished with me."

Sirius visibly bristled. "Can't this wait until the morning? They've been through so much! They don't need to relive it just now."

"I'm fine, Sirius. Really, I am. He didn't hurt me that much."

"The fading scar on your arm says otherwise. He tied you up, tortured you…you were subjected to the Cruciatus curse! It's a miracle that you're able to even talk after experiencing that."

Lupin took the other man by the arm, making him step back gently. "Madam Pomfrey has already given him enough potions to drown the worst of the effects."

"It won't be enough. I want him on bedrest for at least the next few days. Maybe even a week."

Harry didn't have the energy to fight him on that. "I'm just glad that he didn't do it to Hermione." He gave his friend a half smile, already starting to feel tired.

Matthew's expression turned dark. "I wouldn't have allowed him to get away if he had done."

The girl shushed him gently. "There's no need to be a hero for me. And don't start kicking yourself for the fact that he was able to leave."

Dumbledore was stroking his fine beard. "As much as this can be seen as a victory for Voldemort, since he has restored his body, I am sure that he will be licking his wounds for some time. This was supposed to be his glorious return…but it was scuppered once more by the boy that continues to defy him."

Harry bowed his head bashfully. "More because of the quick thinking of Matthew. I reckon Voldemort will be trying to figure out what the Tardis is for quite some time."

"It is true that Mister Mormont's decisive decision making was extremely commendable," Dumbledore told him. "Many adults would have faltered under the pressure."

"I think some of my ability to defy him has been taken away," Harry admitted. "The potion he made…it contained my blood…that's why he had to cut my arm. He spoke about how it was because of my mum that I've been protected against him, so he eradicated that. He was able to touch me afterwards, unlike when he tried to as Professor Quirrel."

Dumbledore's eyes glinted with something but Harry couldn't quite tell what it was. "Interesting. But, even with such precautions taken, you were still able to hold him off long enough for us to arrive."

"Probably because he'd just woken up and was weaker because of it."

Hermione rolled her eyes so heavily that the action was practically audible. "Oh, Harry! Stop putting yourself down! You did something remarkable! You used a different form of magic! I saw it with my own eyes!"

Matthew's head turned to him so suddenly that it almost threatened to fall off. "You tapped into your core magic?" He spoke so loudly that they were surprised Pomfrey didn't emerge once again to tell him off.

"I…think so?" Harry replied, still struggling to process it. After how long he had been training for, he didn't want to preemptively get his hopes up that he'd accomplished something.

His friend's smile was huge. "This is amazing! And to do it in the circumstances….what were the circumstances? Why did you have to do it? What did you actually do?"

"Hermione…she was in trouble. Voldemort was going…to do something to her and all I wanted to do was stop him. It was strange. I was so focused on that rather than worrying about anything else, like my own safety, that it's the most I've ever been able to concentrate on that source of magic."

"He produced some sort of shield," Hermione explained, sensing Harry tailing off as he relived the moment. "It was the same energy that we've seen you produce. The same I've been able to conjure, just on a much larger scale."

Matthew's grin had faded somewhat. "What was he going to do to you? Voldemort?"

She couldn't quite look him in the eyes. "We don't need to think about that now."

"Hermione." His voice was dangerous, warning her that he wasn't going to let this up.

"He was…going to kill me," she whispered, fresh tears now appearing in her eyes. "He used the killing curse. It was coming towards me…it would have hit me if it hadn't been for Harry."

Sirius almost stumbled where he was standing. "You blocked the killing curse? That shouldn't be possible!" He was looking to Dumbledore for confirmation.

The headmaster slowly nodded his head, seemingly considering something. "There should be no spell that can defend oneself against such an attack. And yet Harry has now done it twice in his short lifetime."

"It wasn't a spell, that's why it worked," Matthew said, though he was still looking at Hermione with a dark, unreadable expression. "It was pure magic, basically a ball of energy. The curse couldn't pass through it, like a physical shield."

"That's what helped me realise there was a chance of it working," Harry outlined. "Voldemort spoke about what my mum did and how it was old magic. It was like it triggered something within me. I had to use a similar sort of old magic to do it again. I'm just surprised that it worked."

"Well, let's thank whatever gods are out there that it did work. Otherwise we wouldn't have ever been able to see…"

For one of the few times since they'd met him, Matthew appeared to be losing his composure as he looked at Hermione. He couldn't finish the sentence, choosing instead to simply hold her hand more tightly. It was such a strong grip that it should have hurt her, and yet she was seeking comfort from it all the same. The boy was showing a more vulnerable side to his character, the one born out of loss. He'd had loved ones taken from him in the past, and he'd come mightily close to experiencing the same thing again. He wasn't going to let go for quite some time.

"I'm okay," she told him quietly. "We both are. We're not going away. We're not leaving you. Everything worked out in the end."

"Besides the tournament," Harry mentioned, feeling as if it was practically inconsequential now. "Has that even finished?"

"The crowd are being returned to the castle as we speak," Dumbledore said. "Professor McGonagall and her fellow colleagues will be supervising that. When you were taken, we thought it best to leave everyone in one place, so that we could at least control one variable tonight. Now that you have safely returned, the evening can come to a close at last. I'm sure that the spectators will have a lot of questions but, for once, the Hogwarts rumour mill can wait at least one day to start up."

"So no one wins?"

"Technically, the person…or people…to first touch the Triwizard Cup should be declared the Champion. And that…was you two."

"No," Harry said immediately.

"That's not fair," Hermione added. "We didn't win it properly. We wanted to get out of there right at the start! What about the other champions? They must be devastated. They're alright, aren't they?"

Dumbledore gave her a small smile. "Albeit suffering from the same confusion as everyone else, they are in good health. They will obviously want to know about the result and whether tonight's events have rendered everything null and void. But I am of the opinion that we should be putting this tournament firmly behind us."

"I doubt Maxime and Karkaroff will be happy about that," Harry muttered.

"No, you're right about that. I'm sure that I'll be having plenty of conversations with them over the coming weeks. But I think they will be most relieved, after you were taken, that their students have survived the ordeal. Mister Krum came the closest to being an unwitting victim. During our searches of the maze, we found him lying on the ground, unconscious. He appeared to have been stupefied by some force. When he was woken a short while ago, he had no memory of what unfolded." He peered at them over his half moon spectacles. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Hermione sat up straighter. "I think I do, actually. We had help getting to the cup after we asked to be taken out. I think Krum might have been blocking our path because the thing that was helping us…it disappeared from view for a few moments, there was a flash and a heavy thud…and then we were moving again. That's all I can think of."

They were all rightly curious about this tidbit of information. "Who were you helped by?" Lupin asked.

"Well…at the time…we thought it was Matthew."

The boy held up his one free hand, as confused as any of them. "I can safely say that I didn't attack Krum. I don't hold anything against him. He seemed rather nice, actually. Surprisingly quiet."

"It wasn't you ," Harry assured him. "We were just made to believe it was. It turned out that Crouch produced a…I don't know what to call it…a construct of Matthew to lure us towards the cup. We wouldn't have gotten close to it otherwise. But he knew that we were always going to follow Matthew, regardless of whether it was against our better judgement."

"He used me against you?"

Hermione could quickly sense what was happening. "Before you even start, I won't allow you to blame yourself for that either."

"Fine. I won't. For tonight, at least. That's as good as you're going to get."

Sirius rubbed his chin, closing his eyes in exasperated thought. "I'm sorry…did you say…Crouch?"

Harry nodded his head. "Yeah. Didn't you see him in the graveyard?"

"Barty Crouch?"

"The son," Dumbledore rectified. "He was indeed there alongside Voldemort. I can remember that face all too well from many moons ago."

"His son's alive?"

"Apparently so."

"It was the mum who died," Harry said, trying to remember what he'd been told. His brain was struggling to contend with all the information he'd been given. "They visited Crouch Junior in Azkaban, remember? You told us that, Sirius. But no one knew that he swapped places with his mum, who was already dying. He's been living secretly with his dad ever since, until this year. He's the one who's been helping Voldemort, the one who made sure we were taken to that graveyard at the right moment."

"He was using his father," Hermione carried on. "The Mister Crouch that's been around Hogwarts all year wasn't really him. It was Barty polyjuiced as his dad. That's how the goblet was tampered with. That's how he was able to get to us in the maze before anyone else. He was right under our nose all the time." She shivered slightly. "I can't stop thinking about the way he looked at me after the second task, as if, by winning, I was proving why I needed to be a target for Voldemort."

"And he got away with the rest of them," Matthew concluded.

Harry was leaning forward, something suddenly troubling him. "But, if he was using his dad for the entire year, that means he must still be alive, right? Crouch Senior must be hidden away somewhere…and if his son doesn't have any need for him anymore…"

"Then that means that he's in real danger." Dumbledore was already moving, heading for the large double doors. "I must make an urgent call with the Minister of Magic. A team of aurors will need to be sent to the Crouch household, where I presume he's been locked away. I'm hoping that we can act quickly, before the loose end is removed. Not only for the safety of Crouch…but Minister Fudge is not the sort of man who will believe our tales easily. Having Crouch as a witness may swing him to our side, providing the irrefutable proof that we need. I must depart. Harry…Miss Granger…I'm very relieved to see that you're okay. I hope you can rest for a good while after this, and I assure you that I'll do everything within my remit to save Mister Crouch."

They watched him leave, shoving the doors open with an urgent force as he marched away. Any room always felt emptier whenever the headmaster departed, his presence larger than anyone they knew. Sirius shook his head, muttering something under his breath. It was something that Harry quickly picked up on.

"What's the matter?"

"It's just that he's made a career of making up for his mistakes," his godfather said bitterly. "All that power he has…he could have stopped this a lot sooner. It should never have gotten this far. It's a miracle that you survived. It could have obviously been a lot worse, all because Dumbledore didn't act promptly. He acts retroactively all the time."

"I don't think that's very fair," Hermione argued, and Lupin started to chuckle at Sirius' look, as if he'd never expected the girl to fight back. "We can't blame him for what Voldemort did. No one could have known that Crouch was using polyjuice potion. And…as much as the headmaster has made mistakes…at least he is doing his best to make amends. That's all we can ask of people sometimes."

"Forgive me for not giving him that leniency when it's your lives on the line."

"You can't overlook the fact that Voldemort immediately started to wet himself as soon as he saw Dumbledore," Matthew reminded them. "He panicked straight away, and then ran. As long as we have Dumbledore, it's going to stop Voldemort from striking as much as he'd like to. We've got to be grateful for that."

"Well…I thought he might have been scared of me as well. A little bit."

Lupin patted him on the back. "I'm sorry that you've taken such a massive hit to your ego."

The doors opened again and, for a moment, they presumed that Dumbledore had turned back to defend himself after somehow hearing Sirius' arguments. It was a much more frantic sight than the headmaster, however, as Hermione's parents came rushing into the hospital wing, closely monitored by McGonagall. Hermione sat up straight, a happy smile flashing across her face whilst fresh tears painted her cheeks.

"Where is she?" Katherine was asking desperately. "Where's Hermione? Where's our daughter?"

"I'm over here, Mum," the young girl answered in a small voice.

Her parents cried out over the sound, running over to her bedside. Matthew moved obligingly out of the way, leaving Hermione aching for his close touch. She wasn't giving much time to miss it though, as she was soon being enveloped in two tight hugs at once. It was a slightly awkward angle as her mum and dad embraced her from both sides, the three of them crying in relief at being able to hold one another again. It left Harry feeling rather strange about the moment - he'd been without that sort of bond all his life, only to be potentially finding something similar in Sirius. He wondered how Matthew was feeling, the one now he truly had no family left. Would he be jealous? Or would he just be happy for his friends after what they'd been through?

"Oh, you're okay!" It was unusual for her to be hearing her dad cry, who was normally the more stoic and composed one of her parents. "You can't imagine how worried we've been! And no one was telling us anything! No one knew what was going on."

Her mum picked up the story. "Matthew told us to wait with everyone else whilst they went to get you,but we had no idea how long that was going to be. Or whether he'd even succeed! I think I've formed a hole in the grass where I was pacing in a circle, waiting for any news."

"But you're okay," Peter reiterated. "Right? There's nothing wrong with you?"

"Absolutely fine," Hermione assured them, deciding it was probably for the best that she didn't go into detail about how close she'd actually come to dying. "Just completely shattered."

Katherine was rubbing her hair in a soothing manner. "I can understand that. I feel as if I've been awake for about a week."

"There's just been so much to process," Peter concurred. "Not to mention the fact that we've just walked through your school for the first time. I'm sure that a portrait spoke to us as we were running but I was rushing so much that I didn't process just how absurd that is!"

Hermione laughed, which was a nice thing to do after the day she'd had. "Yeah, they tend to do that."

"I thought it best that I escort them to the hospital wing from the quidditch pitch," McGonagall said to them. "It can be a maze at the best of times, particularly for people unacquainted with the castle. Or magic, for that matter."

"Thank you, professor. I just wish that they'd been able to visit for the first time under better conditions. You haven't been able to properly take in just how beautiful this place is."

"That's the last thing you need to be worrying about," Katherine told her daughter. "Who knows…maybe afterwards you could give us a full tour, hey? Once you're fighting fit, of course. We're not going to be leaving anytime soon after what's happened. I don't think I could leave you. No matter even if they told us to go. No matter if they even tried to use magic on us."

Sirius chuckled at that, understanding the sentiment. McGonagall looked aghast at the notion. "I can assure you that we would never resort to such actions! I've already instructed that some private quarters should be made up for you both, to make you feel as comfortable as possible. It's not the usual sort of practice but these aren't typical circumstances, are they? And I'm always willing to bend the rules for my Lions, though I'd prefer it if you didn't say that to anyone else."

"I always knew there was a kind heart under that frosty exterior," Sirius said, getting a bit too close to the old professor for her liking.

"Don't push your luck, Sirius," she replied in a crisp tone. "I may not be your Head of House any longer but I'm sure that I can still put a good sense of dread into you."

He slowly retracted his arm that had been about to wrap itself around her shoulders. "You've certainly got that right."

"I'm just relieved," Hermione murmured, looking at her parents. "If you're willing to stay, and to look around, I'm taking that as a sign that you're not going to take me away. I was worried that you would after what happened."

Katherine shared a look with Peter. "That's still a conversation that needs to be had…"

"Mum…"

" But …we've fought you on this before and didn't win. I doubt much will have changed on that front. All we want to know is that you're safe. We need to know what happened, firstly."

"Do you remember Dumbledore telling you about that dark wizard? Voldemort?"

"It's not something I'm likely to forget."

"He was behind us being taken. You won't understand all of the details, but he wanted to use Harry to bring himself back to power. He succeeded in doing that. He would have done more to us too, if it hadn't been for our rescue party."

"My concern is just how relaxed you are when you're talking about this," Peter said. "You've had a near death experience by the sounds of it, and you're just sitting there as if it's perfectly normal! That's not right."

Katherine put a hand on top of his own to calm him down slightly. "The only thing that's keeping me remotely calm about this…and trust me, I'm struggling with that…is that you had the rescue party. You've got people who will protect you from this sort of thing, no matter what. You've got friends who care for you deeply and passionately."

Hermione wasn't oblivious to the look her mum gave to Matthew, who was seemingly doing his best to ignore the both of them. Instead, he was frowning at something, as if he could hear something that she couldn't pick up. As they were talking, he busied himself with reaching into his cloak, pulling out a thick piece of parchment and began inspecting it.

Hermione was just grateful that her mum was starting to see it more from her point of view. "That's what I've been trying to tell you from the beginning. Even if you took me away now, I'd still be a target. Voldemort wanted to get me because I represent everything he detests, not just because I'm friends with Harry. He'd still come after me even if I wasn't at Hogwarts. I just wouldn't be able to defend myself against an attack, unlike tonight. And we're learning new ways to do that, preparing ourselves for when he does come back."

"You're just kids though!" Peter complained. "You shouldn't have to worry about defending yourselves!"

"Everyone will have to now. Not just children. We can't change the fact that we're magic, and it's not something that I want to change. All over the world, not just in magical societies, children have to grow up faster than their parents would like. It might not be fair…but there's no going back now."

Sirius stepped forward, seeking to lend a helping hand that the kids couldn't provide. "You'll understand that I'd like to wrap Harry in cotton wool just as much as you'd like you to do the same to Hermione. But, in the short time I've come to know him properly, I've learnt that it just isn't going to happen. There will always be people who want to hurt him. It's up to me…and a large number of people, some of the most skilled witches and wizards to grace these halls…to look out for him."

"I think that's a point that's still troubling us," Katherine admitted. "You can protect Harry. You can use that wand of yours and do a spell." She noticed her daughter wince at her less than eloquent terminology. "But we can't. We don't have that ability. We're left on the sidelines."

"If I might interject…" Lupin held up a hand, which wasn't really necessary but he'd always been one for politeness. "...I think you might be wrong about that. You can provide a safe haven for them outside of the magical world. When things get especially rough, which they have a habit of doing, then they know they'll always have you to go to. Just look at the summer - that's exactly what they did when everyone thought the Ministry was being attacked. You've got a role to play in this just as much as we do."

"And that should mean you get to give them the chance to be more like normal children every so often." Sirius winked at Lupin, believing they'd worked well together to hammer home the point.

Katherine allowed a small smile to appear on her lips. "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that."

Hermione didn't know how she was going to be able to repay the two adults for slowly getting her parents on side, even if there was obvious work still to be done. She might have even said so, if Matthew hadn't suddenly stood up with his wand appearing out of nowhere. His quick reflexes sent a fizzing spell towards the wall, so violent that it left a scorch mark on the bricks. Everyone, barring Harry and Hermione, jumped up at his unexpected actions, McGonagall looking irate.

"What do you think you're doing?" she bellowed, her Scottish lilt more pronounced than ever.

"Taking care of business," he answered, walking over to that side of the room. Before he left the beds, he waved the parchment at his friends and threw it over to them. "Take a look at that."

Pomfrey charged out of her office at the sound of the chaos. "What's the meaning of this? Who's using magic in my wing?"

"I'll clean it up myself if I have to. But I wasn't about to let her slip away again."

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked, summing up everyone's thoughts with one question.

Matthew didn't answer, instead crouching out of view. When he stood up again, he was holding a jar he'd created himself, with a tiny object inside. He brought it over, jiggling it slightly. Harry was too busy reading the Marauders' Map, Hermione now out of her bed to look at it herself.

"No," Harry said in astonishment. "It can't be."

"Is someone going to explain what's going on?" McGonagall asked bristly.

"Professor, you might want to give some news to the headmaster once he's finished dealing with Fudge. We've just discovered how Rita Skeeter has been getting all of her stories."

He undid the lid on the jar, tossing the object onto the cold floor. Under closer inspection, the others found that it was actually a beetle, unmoving after Matthew's attack. With another casual wave of his wand, the bug transformed, the blonde haired woman sitting in its place, blinking with bleary eyes as she recovered from the effects of the magic.

"It's like we theorised," Hermione gasped. "She's an animagus. An unregistered animagus!"

McGonagall was cleaning her glasses on the sleeve of her robes. "I can't believe what I'm seeing!"

"The proof is right in front of you, professor." Matthew's mouth was set in a thin line. "She's been eavesdropping all year, I reckon. That's how she was able to follow us and discover the Tardis. But the wards wouldn't have allowed her to fly in, regardless of her form. She would have been detected straight away."

Skeeter was looking at all of them, finding each face glaring at her furiously. "You've got it all wrong! If you just let me explain…"

"There's really no need to." Matthew was right in her face now and the reporter was surprised at just how terrified she was feeling. "You've made my friends' lives a living hell over the past year. You dragged Hermione's name through the mud. You made a mockery of Margot, ruining that relationship for Harry. And you did it all the while you were going against the law. I'm sure your editor will love to hear about this…"

"You wouldn't be so hasty…I can change. I'll stop looking into whatever that blue box is…I won't run any harsh articles on dear Harry, or the girl."

"The girl is my daughter," Katherine snapped. "And I'd like to see just what you've been writing about a child. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Matthew leaned ever closer. "You see, I'm not even the one you should be scared of the most. But I'll tell you this…you won't be writing any articles for a very long time. Because you might say you won't harass us again…but you'll find another target and repeat the same process. I'm not going to let that happen. A kinder, more merciful person might give you a chance to reform. If you wanted to meet that version of me, you shouldn't have come for my friends. Now…now I can't wait for your lies to finally be exposed."