After an entertaining conversation with Krum about the differences between Durmstrang and Hogwarts- with the Bulgarian Quidditch Team roping Draco, Madame Zabini, and Blaise into a drinking contest in the background- Lena said her goodbyes to the group and the Minister before walking with the Malfoys and Snape back to their tent, as the Zabinis and Theo were not staying the night.

They'd spent a fair amount of time with the Bulgarians, the sky a beautiful dark navy blue with stars unhindered by clouds, the last traces of the golden light from the sun long having seeped from the sky.

"Ah! Lucius!" A man ran over, dressed in long Quidditch robes with thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black, an enormous picture of a wasp on his chest. His nose was slightly bent off-center, his short blond hair and rosy complexion making him look like a very overgrown schoolboy. "So good to see you here! "

The man following the thinner man was a stiff, upright, elderly man, dressed in an impeccably crisp suit and tie. The parting in his short gray hair was almost unnaturally straight, and his narrow toothbrush mustache looked as though he trimmed it using a slide rule, his sneer seeming to be permanently etched into his face. "Lord Malfoy."

"Ludo. Barty." The elder Malfoy looked to them with piercing eyes. "What is it?"

Bouncing up and down, the thinner man she suspected was this 'Ludo' smiled as if a kid about to get candy. "Did you talk to the Bulgarian Minister? Did he sign? Is it going to happen?"

"Yes." Lucius glanced at her, before smirking back at Ludo. "Everything is going according to plan gentlemen. The Minister agreed with little to no persuasion- actually Miss Farland here helped me with that part."

"Miss… ?" The thin man looked to where she was keeping Draco from falling on his face before smiling brightly. "Blimey! You're Helena Potter! I'm Ludo! Ludo Bagman!"

Narrowing her eyes, she looked from where he'd extended his hand to glare poisonously at the man. "My name is Lena Farland." She looked to where Lucius was smiling like the cat that had eaten a canary, feeling as if this next year would be very interesting indeed. "We should get back to camp."

"There's something coming. Something bad, if I have to clarify."

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

"...Rude."

Snape seemed to agree with her, looking to Lucius skeptically and then helping her drag the half-unconscious Draco towards camp. "Agreed."

Saying a few more words to the men, the tall blonde caught up with them quickly, a smile still on his lips.

Sounds of loud blasts came from the distance, people shouting, but the others seemed to put it off as celebration as they walked further into the midst of tents.

"I don't think…" Trusting her gut feeling of danger as she eyed where an orange glow was lighting the night, she clutched onto Draco harder. "That doesn't sound like fireworks… It sounds almost like-"

"Shouts." Snape looked to Lucius sharply. "Why was there no word?"

The smile was gone from the blonde's face, his jaw clenched. "It's unsanctioned."

"Get out of here, Lena. Get out now!"

Both men shared dark and unhappy looks and she waved her hand at them. "Go then. I can make sure Draco and I are safe while you two go confront your old war buddies." At their sharp looks, she raised an eyebrow, no humor or patience left in her tone. "Must I repeat myself?"

"Be safe." Snape put a hand on her head lightly, him and the elder Malfoy then running into the sea of tents.

Flicking her wand at Draco, she turned him away from her when he started to throw up. Steeling herself against the horrible smell and noise, she instead turned away to look around her, wand in hand.

"What was tha' for?" Draco mumbled, spitting at the ground and looking a bit more conscious than before.

"Unsanctioned Death Eaters are attacking the camp and I need to not have dead weight on my hands." The boy blinked, seeming to sober just a bit at the steel in her tone. "Now, we are going to get you to the tent, and if anyone tries to get in my path…"

Riddle's voice was more serious than she'd heard before. "Lethal curses first. They will not stop to ask questions and if you're going to fight then neither should you."

Don't worry love, I wasn't planning on going easy on anyone who tries to harm us.

"I'm going to need you to follow me closely and I needed you somewhat coherent."

Draco nodded, voice solemn. "Got it."

Taking Janus' gift out of her small pouch as it would help block some of the lighter curses, she wrapped it around her shoulders before casting a point-me spell to the tent, feeling Draco's hand clutched in her cloak as he stumbled slightly behind her.

The screams got louder, the people running past them frantically, making it harder to get through the crowd.

Looking back, she stilled.

Draco was gone.

"Lena, you have to move! Get out of here!"

A bolt of light hit her in the chest and sent her flying into the side of a tent, her breath coming out short for a second as she gasped for air, guessing she'd broken a rib (or two) from the impact.

"Lena? Lena, you alright?"

Fine, thanks.

Putting her hands on the cold ground and taking a deep breath, she rose to her feet, noticing that the people had fled this area.

Across the small clearing from her, orange light glinting off a silver mask, a figure stood with a wand leveled at her steadily.

Lena didn't try to go for her wand where it'd fallen a few feet away, knowing she didn't have the time to get to it before a spell would hit her, not to mention that the dumb thing didn't work half the time anyway. Instead, she pushed out her magic to weave it's way around the clearing like a web of snakes. Breathing shallowly and bringing up a hand to her side to try to minimize the pain, she glared lightly at the figure in the way a chiding parent would a kid that had drawn on the wall in permanent marker. "That wasn't very nice."

"I could care less about being nice to some no-named half-blood…" The deep voice of Theodore's grandfather drifted across the clearing, the man taking a few steps forward right into the middle of her web. "But one of the two twins of the Prophecy and the one tarnishing the name of Slytherin at that? I think that my Lord would be pleased to know that your blood will be spilled in his name."

"How dare he try to use me for his petty grudges!"

Glad your pride's the thing of concern here and not the possible internal bleeding I'm starting to suspect I have.

Ignoring the boy's muttered comments of apology, she looked at the man walking further into her web. "I think you're mistaken." She dug her fingers into her side, closing her eyes briefly to try to steel herself. "As this was unsanctioned. I bet you haven't even ever seen your Lord. I bet... you're full of shit."

The man raised his wand, snarling lowly. "Avada-"

Pulling a single string tight with her hand, silence fell as the sharpened magic cut through the man like butter, nothing left but two lumps laying on the ground, blood and other bodily fluid slowly pooling from them.

The night was quiet, the orange fading and she tilted her head back so she didn't have to see the mess she'd made, breathing shallowly from her mouth so she didn't have to smell the stench of death.

"Dearest… You did what you could. This isn't your fault."

I still killed him.

Slowly, breath coming out short as tears stung her eyes from the pain, she sat down on the ground with her back to the tent post. Summoning her wand, she held it in her hand loosely and tried not to think about the seeping pool of blood that was slowly oozing from the body.

A soft crunch of footsteps and she had her wand raised in a second.

A man in shabby clothes with a glint to his eyes looked from the bloody body to her, tongue darting out to wet his lip, reminding her of a lizard. "Quite a feat… killing Nott like that." The tall man moved forward slightly, peering at the body in a sort of sick fascination before grinning at her madly. "He was indeed right in using you in the plans."

Lena narrowed her eyes into slits, wand level. "Leave now and take your plans with you or I will run out of patience and curse you the same way."

"See you soon then, Helena…" The man seemed to melt back into shadows, but only after casting a bright light into the air like a rocket.

Watching the light soar through the air and then explode into a large green skull that opened its mouth to let a snake slither out like a long tongue, she threw up a shield as a group of people appeared with a crack, their stunners hitting the shield with flashes of light. She was jolted with the impact, the shield flickering as her back hit the tent wall again and she bit off a whimper at the shooting pain that went through her side.

"HOLD YOUR SPELLS! HOLD- DON'T YOU DARE CAST!"

The spells stopped and she let go of the shield, feeling extremely dizzy as she smiled loosely at where Snape looked like a mess next to a tired-looking Dumbledore. "Hey old man. I didn't think… I'd see… you here." She felt the world tilt as she slumped to the side, her shoulder hit the ground and she winced at the impact.

Snape ran to her, falling to his knees with Dumbledore close behind. "Lena! Lena- no- you can't- you're not allowed to leave me!"

Voices were talking, asking questions, but she was losing focus as if drifting away from her body itself.

"Let me in."

Why… would I do that?

"Because I can help."

You also destroy... and I would be a foolish fly to walk into your parlor willingly. Staring up at the night sky, where the green symbol had faded against the clouds, she blinked slowly against her heavy eyelids. Goodnight Riddle.

There was no response, someone yelling something- and she only hissed softly as someone stepped on her hand.

Closing her eyes, everything else forgotten, she lost herself to the void.

Lena woke to bright lights that were most definitely not from anything she knew, as her room was only lit with candles and sometimes natural sunlight, she blinked to adjust to the light. Looked down at where she was propped up on a bed, she went to touch the side of her ribs when she was stopped by binds tying her right wrist to the side of the bed.

"She's only just healed! This is absurd! You can't think she honestly cast the Dark Mark!" Snape's voice was rough, irritation clear in his tone.

"Please, gentlemen, Amelia… if you would just wait a few hours more to let Miss Farland rest for a little while longer…" That was Dumbledore's placating voice.

But it seemed they were no use, because two figures in red Aurors robes strode in, led by the man- 'Barty'- that Lucius had been talking to and a woman with a slightly pinched face who was talking to the man quietly. "Surely we can wait for Miss Farland to wake, as she-" The woman blinked at seeing her awake and then smoothed her face into a small smile. "Oh, Miss Farland, you're awake… I'm Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and this is-"

"Barty Crouch. Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation." The man glared at her. "Why did you cast the Dark Mark?"

"We tested her wand and she didn't cast it, Barty." The woman looked as if she was going to strangle the man and say it was an accident, rolling her eyes slightly as she looked to Lena before stepping forward. "Can we ask you a few questions? Are you feeling alright?"

Moving her free hand to poke at her side that hurt a bit but was otherwise fine, she shrugged. "Where am I?"

"We will ask the questions, not you!"

Miss Bones ignored the man. "You're in St. Mungos, the best magical hospital that Britain has."

Nodding slowly, she studied the room and the two men in the dueling robes, before looking back to the woman and tilting her head slightly. "You have three policemen and I-" she gestured to her other wrist, "-am restrained… am I in trouble for something?"

"The murder of Thaddius Nott and the casting of an extremely illegal spell," Crouch growled lowly.

"I see." Lena looked to the woman. "I assume you checked Nott's own wand for the illegal spell, his robes for any spell energy that might have come from my wand, my wand itself for the illegal or lethal spell, and found the black tattoo that was on the very man's left arm?"

The room was still.

She closed her eyes, laying back. "I think you should come back when that's done. Or don't. I too would be embarrassed about accusing a fourteen-year-old of killing a man when that same man was not only trying to kill her but was one of the Death Eaters terrorizing the World Cup… imagine the news…"

"I told you that it was too early- that we didn't even have the tests done- but you just wanted to barge right in!" The woman snapped at Crouch. "I will be having words with Fudge about this for sure!" Then with a sharp hand wave to the two Aurors, the three left the room.

"You're not innocent." Crouch sneered at her. "I can feel it."

Lena peered at the man through her lashes, eyes barely slits. "Innocence is subjective, Mr. Crouch… though I bet your sins far outweigh mine."

Flushing in a rage, the man hurried out.

Closing her eyes once more, she sighed. Bothersome idiots.

But there was only silence in return to her thought.

Blinking, she looked to her hand, and at not seeing the ring- looked to the table where her wand and clothes sat… next to a ring whose black stone had fallen out of the band, the gold casing broken clean in half.

Ah.

So then there were two...

Closing her eyes again, she tried not to think about why that thought bothered her so much and instead tried to go back to sleep.

Though Lena's doctor was skeptical of releasing her, saying that she should still have a bit to heal, she felt fine and it was already the first day of Hogwarts, so she demanded to be let out and they reluctantly obliged.

Her side was hit by a dark curse that was supposed to break all the ribs in a person's body so the shards would rupture a bunch of organs and kill the target, but it had somehow been mostly defected (she thought it had to do with her Heirship ring but whatever). Because of this, the doctors had removed the few ribs and bone shards that were broken and made her regrow them but were cautious with using magic on the area if not an emergency because they were suspicious it would 'reactive the curse' or something.

She thought they were idiots.

Either way, that led to her whole side, part of her upper arm, and her thigh all on her right side being bruised with sickly purples and yellows and greens (and even a bit of blue in places).

It was decidedly not pretty.

The medi-witch helping her wrapped a bandage around her torso (that was apparently useful in some way she didn't understand) and she limped to where Snape was waiting for her with the cane that she'd had the goblins buy for her, made from a wood that would take the form of whatever the caster transfigured it to and stay that way until they changed it. "Shall we go pack? I'm already late if you want to-"

"I already packed your stuff in your trunk." The man's eyes looked her over, something dark living in them as he clenched his jaw and looked away. "Albus would rather have you in the safety of Hogwarts as soon as possible."

Nodding, they walked in silence, her cane echoing on the stone floors as they walked through the crowds. In the lobby, Snape held out a coin. "Grab hold." Doing so and squeezing her eyes shut, the man said, "Lemon drops" and the portkey activated.

Stumbling slightly on the landing, Snape steadying her, she muttered her thanks and then leaned on her cane heavily. She didn't move towards the castle. "It's not your fault," she scowled at her feet, "so stop looking at me like that."

"I should have stayed with you." Snape's voice was pinched. "That should never have happened."

Lena reached out to take his hand in hers. "You didn't have to kill the grandfather of a good friend you now have to face… so how about we just be grateful I'm amazing and leave it at that."

Snape snorted. "Did you really... kill him?"

"Hypothetically? Yeah." She let her lips quirk up when he gave an exaggerated eye-roll, starting to limp away, knowing he would follow. "I had meant to ask… what did you and Lucius mean by 'unsanctioned'? The Dark Lord was defeated."

"The marks would fade then. And they haven't yet." His tone was clipped

She decided not to mention that might be because of the other parts of the man's consciousness drifting around the world in two more objects, instead choosing to frown at the castle they were approaching. "What happened to Theo? I mean… his father is in Azkaban and I-..."

Snape moved to put his hand on her shoulder gently. "He is living under the House of Malfoy as their ward until he turns seventeen."

"Do-... do you think he'll hate me? I mean I did-"

"Lena." Stopping, the man looked at her sternly. "If I'm not allowed to feel bad, then neither are you. It was self-defense and I'm sure that Theodore will understand that."

Nodding slightly, they continued walking in silence.

Reaching the Great Hall to find the doors already open, a man just about to sit down at the head table, she raised an eyebrow. "Someone stole my grand entrance then. Shame." Hooking his elbow with hers, she limped up the aisle, nodded to the man when they got to the head of the Slytherin table, and then sat down with a wince.

"Don't trust Moody," Snape muttered, giving her a pointed look, then putting his hands in his pockets and stalking to the Head Table.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Mad-Eye Moody."

The man was scarred on what seemed like every inch of his skin, with a vivid blue glass eye that whirled around separate from his normal brown one, which was fixed on her.

The room broke into whispers.

Lena watched the man take a long swig of his hip flask, deciding that she didn't trust the man.

Partially because Snape didn't, but still.

"As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

Again the room's noise level rose, everyone talking.

Blaise looked to her, concern in his eyes. "You okay? We didn't know who you would think best as king, so as of right now it's just you, but we know you've been in St. Mungos for a week or more so..."

"I'll deal with that later. Not to worry." She smiled at the boy, patting his hand.

Dumbledore waited for it to quiet a bit before speaking up. "The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Lovely." Lena chuckled. "Always looking for another death-defying experience…"

She got the faint impression this 'tournament' had to do with Malfoy senior's plans but was going to ignore that until it mattered.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

The Slytherins were already plotting how to bribe and blackmail this 'impartial judge', whispering to themselves and she smirked slightly.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age… that is to say, seventeen years or older will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This-" Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious- "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion."

Dumbledore's light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred's and George's mutinous faces. "I, therefore, beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected."

The hall clapped, whispering about the tournament.

Lena knew that all the restrictions would only encourage her snakes to try to get around the rules, smiling a bit, though it faltered slightly when Theo caught her eyes.

"I think... we need to talk."

Nodding slowly, she looked to Snape for a second, and when the man nodded, stood with a wane smile to Theo. "We can go to the Common Room early then."

The boy followed a step behind her as she limped out of the Great Hall, not staying anything even as they were both sitting in the empty room with the fire going.

"For what it's worth… I'm sorry about-"

"Don't be." Theo looked at the fire, face set. "If I'm upset, it's because I always thought I would be the one to kill that bastard."

Lena blinked.

The boy's face was grim as he refused to look at her, a tear sliding down his cheek. "I thought- I hoped that finally, I would get away from that house. I could live and be my own person if he just…" Curling up into a ball, Theodore shook with silent sobs.

"He hurt you, didn't he." Lana's hands clenched, but there was nothing more she could do but help the boy recover, standing from her chair. "Scoot over."

Still sniffling, Theo made room for her in the large char and she curled up beside him.

"Some days- some days Mr. Malfoy will say my name in the same sharp tone and- and I just hear… I think he's back." His voice was a shaky whisper. "I can't- I won't go back."

Lena pushed aside her usual distaste for contact, reaching out to draw the boy into her arms as much as she could. "You don't have to. Even if your grandfather gets resurrected or your father released… I will fight to the last breath to keep you safe." Tucking his head under her chin as he started to cry again, she closed her eyes, a tear sliding down her own cheek. "You're my friend Theodore, but you're also part of my court and I promised you that I would take care of you as long as you needed me to. If I had known your Grandfather was hurting you…"

It was a while before the boy calmed enough to speak, voice barely a whisper. "If I told you what would you have done? You were a first-year Lena."

"I would have made sure you were safe. That comes first, above anything else- and you should know better than to underestimate me."

She heard the soft huff that came out of the boy, smiling slightly.

It would be alright.

She bet by the end of the year Theo would be able to stand on his own.