Lena found herself being hugged to death by Draco... as her animagus, of course. (Not that it would have stopped the boy). She'd decided to try to hide under the couch when the boy had chased her down the hall yelling about wandering off with strange men and missing dinner but had been a bit too late.
And now here she was, being squished to the boy's chest like a fuzzy pillow.
"You're an animagus."
Well obviously, dear. I am a cat right now."
Riddle huffed. "I think for a second I will not be surprised anymore and then you up and do something like this…"
Yes, well I'll let you rant about your surprise later. For now, let me focus on getting out of this death grip.
"Mrow." She tried to voice her displeasure, but her growly meow was cut off into a merp as she was squeezed again.
"Shhhh. You don't get to complain. What if Crouch had hurt you! If Moody hadn't run him off before you two went on your walk around the grounds who knows what would have happened all alone in the forest!"
Lena sighed as best she could.
Such little faith.
A hand moved to pet her head and she looked up at where Ginny was smiling amusedly. "I think Dray was a bit worried."
The boy snorted, turning his nose up in mimicry of how he used to act. "How could I not be! Charlie would have killed me if she'd gotten hurt!"
Wiggling out of the arms, she finally moved to stand on her own feet, batting at the blond's hand in reprimand for squeezing her.
Scooped up by different arms, she blinked up at Severus, who looked down at her with sharp eyes. "And what is this I hear of Mad-Eye having to chase off Mr. Crouch from lecturing you on cheating and other archaic tournament rules?" His voice was calm, but there was a hint of question behind it as he was surely wondering why the official story had her blindly following the Tournament official when she clearly didn't trust him.
Huffing slightly, nodded her head to his office.
Severus carried her into his office, setting her down in a chair and then moving to close his door. When she shifted back, he leaned against his desk with his arms crossed. "Explain."
"I can't. Not unless you promise to keep anything said between you and I secret unless I allow you to tell someone." Lena crossed her arms at the frown he gave her, willing to wait until he gave in if necessary.
"Are you going to tell him about me?" Riddle's voice was soft, as if uncertain.
Eventually, maybe, but not right now.
"Good."
Don't worry dearest, all your dirty little secrets are safe with me.
Severus rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I swear not to reveal anything said to me by Lena Farland in confidence unless she allows me." The man arched a sharp brow. "Now, what is this ridiculousness about?"
"I killed Barty Crouch." Hurring on when he opened his mouth, she explained her reasoning, as she didn't just go around killing for fun. "I have a journal entry in my notebook detailing a few different encounters a young girl had with Mr. Crouch, as he was a friend of her father's and would let her stay at his house when her father was out. Apparently when he drank..."
"I understand." There was a cold stillness to the man's voice and she let him take a moment to compose himself. "And when you-… did you seek him out?"
Lena tried to keep herself from feeling hurt at that prodding question, knowing that it must have been a bit much to learn that for the second time in a year the child he was supposed to be the guardian of had killed a grown man, but her jaw clenched slightly despite herself. "He ordered me to follow him and I did, knowing that there was a faint possibility that I might have to defend myself, however, if nothing had happened then I would not have done what I did." She curled in on herself slightly, something raw in her chest seeming to open as her voice softened. "I never wanted this."
I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to be great… to be something more than nothing.
"Oh my dear, if I had my way, you would never have to feel such guilt ever again."
Sighing deeply and kneeling by her chair so he could pull her into his arms, Severus smoothed out her hair gently. "I will never think less of you for helping someone less fortunate or defending yourself… but please tell me should you think the best way to help is by killing a man, as I am sure with two heads on the matter we could come up with some other way."
"Skeeter."
Pulling away just slightly with a frown, the man looked at her with a slight smile. "Did you kill her too?"
She scowled at the man. "Not yet, but if she gets too irritating..."
Severus snorted softly. "I will write a letter to your account manager, try to find a basis to sue- like using a name you have specifically stated you don't magically identify with."
"Thank you." Reaching out to take his hand, she squeezed it gently, knowing that as hard as it was for her to initiate contact sometimes that it meant a lot to the man. Letting him go, she sat for a while longer curled up in the chair watching as he scrawled out a letter, before shifting back into her animagus and returning to the Common Room.
Surely she could get someone to hug her tight so she could forget the cold feeling in her stomach at not telling Severus that his old master might have returned and she'd helped that along.
Slowly the time went by, Professor Babbling dragging her outside to the grounds to run though ward drawings and runic circles like some type of game drawing in the grass with chalk spells, Severus popping out of nowhere to ask her questions about high-level potions, and Fake Moody making her do laps or other exercises on the Quidditch Pitch.
It wasn't long before the Quidditch team and some of the Durmstrang boys were actually joining her in the exercises with Moody, needing to keep in shape, and once and awhile Ginny would show up with a grin. (Apparently, the girl was vying for the seeker position on the team the next year because of Lena's indifference to the game.)
Lena took to wearing more and more muggle clothes, so as not to ruin her nice robes with sweat or chalk, and Ginny had quickly taken her up on her offer of the muggle sports bras and shorts for workouts.
Daphne and Fleur were eventually convinced to join them- but only for the running- and as the weather slowly warmed up Moody even had her swimming in the Black Lake.
Skeeter wrote another article about her and her 'scandalous show of blatantly unladylike behavior', accusing her of dating most of her male friends at the same time and making rude comments about her attire while training, but she ignored it and instead focused on mastering sticking charms so she could wear the locket while still being active.
If Fake Moody ever had any knowledge about 'Tom' from her second task or the locket, he kept quiet, instead just looking at her strangely every time he saw her holding the golden necklace as if he expected her to drop dead any second.
Unsurprisingly, Rite Skeeter couldn't find anything on Tom, so she instead slandered Lena as 'insane' and tried to play the boy off as a hallucination, to which Lena had just smiled and muttered "I wish he was" before tossing the paper aside.
Though she still saw glimpses of an older Riddle with red eyes wherever she went.
Running? He was sitting in the stands.
Out to Hogsmeade? He was lingering in an alleyway.
Walking with Dumbledore? There he was, at the edge of the forest.
Before she knew it, her mind preoccupied with all the chaos making up her life, she was standing in a familiar tent with the other Champions.
She was just glad she was done with her OWLs and NEWTs for Ancient Runes.
Ludo Bagman clapped his hands, seeming as if he was hyper, and his eyes were gleaming with a sort of childish excitement. "Okay! The final task! Here's your objective... Survive!" The man then held out his hand. "You will have to use your prowess as Champions to last 30 minutes in the arena without your wands. If you will hand over your wands please."
"You are kidding!" Fleur paled a bit. "We… we are not to fight each other?!"
"Only if you want to! There are also ten magical creatures in the arena, some of which even I don't know how the Judges got ahold of, as well as two weapons and two healing potions hidden around the arena." Bagman grinned. "Now, take off all magical items and hand over your wands please."
Looking at each other, the four slowly handed over their wands and she unclasped the locket, putting it in Snape's pocket while glaring at Bagman.
The man just beamed at the four of them, as if completely unaffected by the mood in the tent. "Okay! When the whistle blows you four will be sent to different areas of the arena!" Then the man pranced out.
Lena quickly looked to the four. "Okay, if something's stronger than you and you're unarmed or you know you can't survive it, try to befriend it or at least get away. If you can't, then fight with everything you have."
"What will they put out there?" Cedric looked pale at the thought of possibly facing another dragon.
"I have no idea…"
A sharp whistle blew and the world distorted around her as she was transported from the tent.