Chapter 22
With a heavy heart Amelia watched Harry disappear into the maze. It took all of her willpower not to run onto the field to try and stop him, but she knew his stupid feeling of honor would not let him be stopped. Nor would the ministry officials that were present. So she settled for the next best thing: Crossing her fingers and praying to any entity that would listen to get him, and the other champions, back safe. When there were no more champions in sight, she turned to her left, where Hermione was sitting. Amelia noticed the way her hands were clenched into fists and tried not to feel too bad for the girl. It was her best friend that was inside of that death trap, though, and Amelia could only imagine how that felt. For a second she saw her friends disappearing into the deep green of the large hedges and it sent shivers down her spine, just thinking about it. Instead, she grabbed Fred's hand, hoping it would give her a bit of comfort. And that's how she stayed for what felt like the longest two and a half hours of her life.
X- Harry Potter -X
Amelia stared at the center of the field in shock. There were only two thoughts running through her mind: Cedric is dead. And: He's back. She tried very hard not to hear the heartbreaking cries of Amos Diggory, as he cried over the lifeless body of his son. She could not look at the way Harry was dragged from the scene for more than a second, afraid that it might break her heart even more. She did notice the fact that Moody, who was the one dragging him away, had a crazed look on his face. Even more than usual. Eventually not being able to look at the boy in the middle of the field anymore, she turned to Fred. She notice his eyes planted on the direction Harry had been pulled in, a look in his eyes she didn't see all too often. When she redirected her attention to George, then Hermione and Ron, she noticed all of them having the same sort of look in their eyes. It was George who spoke first.
"Something's not right." The other three agreed immediately and Amelia realized they were right. Something was amiss. And she was about two hundred percent sure that whatever was wrong, Harry was the one who was in the middle of it. Again.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go round up some teachers!" Hermione snapped to no one in particular.
"Everyone, let's split up and grab the first teacher you can find." Fred supplied. Amelia, who was rooted to the spot with the realization that Harry was once again the target of something fishy had to be pulled by the arm by her boyfriend. She vaguely registered being pulled through a panicked crowd and in the general direction of professor McGonnagall, who seemed the easiest to reach at that moment.
"Mr. Weasley, Miss Sterling, what in the world is going on with the two of you." McGonagall was obviously meaning the wild looks on their faces.
"Professor! It's Harry." Amelia finally found her words, and was only now realizing how out of breath she was. A confused look on McGonagall's face told them that she had no idea what to think of the situation. Fred, however, did not miss the way her eyes flickered over the crowd, obviously searching for the boy in question.
"He's not here! Moody dragged him back to the school."
"So he's safe with a professor. What is the problem with that?" This was the point where Fred surprised both women that were with him at that moment, by launching into a list of all the things that he and George had been noticing about the strange professor. Like the way he was always sipping the flask he carried everywhere, looking quite sick after. And the way he sometimes walked like he wasn't used to the magic eye. Also the dark magic detectors in his office that always seemed to be going off when he was around. With everything Fred mentioned, Amelia saw the shock on McGonagall's face grow bigger, and soon she interrupted him, turning around and brandishing her wand. A silver tabby cat patronus shot out, quickly making its way through the crowd, to where Dumbledore was located. After that, everything seemed to be going fast as lightning. McGonagall sped towards the castle, Amelia and Fred in tow, as Dumbledore started giving instructions to others, ready to follow them to the castle.
X- Harry Potter -X
There was silence in the common room that night. Amelia was curled up in a chair in front of the fire, her gaze pulled to the flame, not even noticing the way her eyes watered from the heat. Harry had been taken to the hospital wing and they were not quite sure when he would be able to get out. Amelia had also heard from Ron and Hermione that a dementor had managed to take use of a moment of surprise, in which it had taken away Barty crouch jr's soul, making Harry the sole witness of Voldemort's return. Just the thought of the name sent shivers down her spine. Something she immediately tried to push down, remembering something she had once heard Harry say. He had no doubt gotten it from someone else, perhaps Dumbledore. She couldn't remember exactly, but she did remember it being about fear of a name increasing fear of the thing itself. Or something like that. As she kept staring into the fire, images of Cedric flew through her mind. She had not known him all that well, only having talked to him a handful of times over the past year, but she had liked him. He had been one of the kindest guys she knew and always wanted to help. It was not fair that he had been killed for no other reason than just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She did not realize that all the emotions of the day were getting to her, making a lonely tear roll down her cheek. It was only when Katie, who had been sitting on the floor next to her grabbed her hand, that she remembered there were other people around. The twins were sitting on the floor a little bit further away from the fire, after getting too hot earlier, joined by Lee, Alicia and Angelina. She caught Fred's eye and tried to silently tell him that she was tired. He seemed to understand her, even without words and rose to his feet, before whispering something to the rest of their group. Soon they all headed up the staircases to the dorms, getting changed into something comfortable, before the girls made their way towards the boys' room. They had somehow managed to transform enough things into mattresses, pillows and blankets to cover the whole floor. Soon everyone had found a spot close to each other and tried to find comfort with anyone who was close by. That night no one spoke a word, even though they never slept a wink.
X- Harry Potter –X
During the last week of the school year it was quite hard to hold on to their sanity. Harry had returned from the hospital, but his life had gotten even harder than before. There was starting to form a rift between students. Those who believed Harry, and were not afraid to show it and those who either didn't believe him or did believe him but were afraid of showing it. It was all too bad that the latter had an overwhelming majority and tended to avoid Harry in the corridors. Harry had even started to avoid the great hall during the moments that it was crowded. There was also the fact that Amelia shot murderous gazes to anyone who even dared to look at him in a less than friendly way. So that last week seemed to take an eternity to pass, making them all glad to make it through to the end of year feast. It took quite a lot of determination to get Harry to go at all. But once Hermione mentioned that Cedric (the name brought a lot of emotions with it, still) would have been there if he'd had a chance. This, let's admit it, cheap shot, finally got the fourteen year old to come with them to the great hall, where they silently ate their food and listened to Dumbledore as he told them all to keep themselves safe and to pay their respect to Cedric by keeping quiet for a minute.
X- Harry Potter –X
The train ride was the first time in ages that they had a chance to relax for a bit. Amelia was nestled against Fred, who was staring out of the window. She let her eyes roam the compartment, memorizing everyone's faces at that moment. She noticed the way Harry's hair was even messier than normal, his eyes surrounded by dark circles. Circles that could also be noticed in Hermione's sleeping face, for a whole different reason, Amelia suspected. Ron seemed, for the first time since she could remember, not hungry, as he absentmindedly plucked pieces off of a piece of cauldron cake, obviously being somewhere far away from their little compartment. Her gaze slid towards Angelina who had fell asleep almost as soon as the train had started to move, her head on George's shoulder. George's eyes were glued to his girlfriend, as if he was memorizing every little detail of her, before summer started. They were all startled when Harry suddenly stood and reached into his trunk, pulling out a suspiciously heavy looking bag. Amelia narrowed her eyes at the bag when there was a kind of tinkling sound, it reminded her of metal hitting metal. Then it hit her what was in the bag. Her only question was: Why did he pull it out at that moment. Her question was answered almost immediately, when he offered the money to the twins, telling them to put the money to good use. When they refused to take it, Harry told them that he would throw it out otherwise. His words prompted George to take the money from his hands, promising Harry that he would always be welcome to pick up anything he wanted from their future shop. Amelia could not suppress a smile, especially when she noticed that Angelina had slept through the whole situation.
X- Harry Potter –X
Standing on the platform, they all took their time to say goodbye to Harry, promising to write him as soon as they could. Amelia was the last one to step towards him. Without thinking about it, she wrapped her arms around the boy, who was slowly starting to grow taller than herself and hugged him tight.
"You better take care of yourself, do you hear me? Or I'll find a way to get through to you, that won't be pleasant. And don't blame yourself, Harry. It was not your fault. If you ever need to talk, just send me an owl." She noticed him looking anywhere but at her and softly grabbed his chin. "I mean it. Don't hesitate." After he promised, she watched him walk away, tears forming in her eyes. She did not have a lot of time to cry, however, as Mrs Weasley made her way over to them. Amelia already knew that she was not going to Cassandra again this summer. She had known as soon as she saw Cassandra and Jennifer leaving about ten minutes earlier. Looking over at Fred, Amelia vaguely wondered how his parents would react to them being together. She didn't have the faintest idea if they had a clue about what exactly had been happening between the two of them over the past year, but she figured everything would be revealed at a certain point in time. They all said their goodbyes to any friends that hadn't left yet, before walking the short distance to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Greetings were offered and hugs were exchanged, before they made their way to the floo.