Here goes my first proper jump into a different fandom with a full story plan and everything, and of course as it's me it's a full 60-chapter story… for those that don't know my prior works I'm usually a Game of Thrones only writer, but Harry Potter is what got me into fanfiction and this little plot bunny has been growing and growing for literal years now, with the first draft of this chapter having been written in 2021! The content warning may change because of my prior work and how I tend to describe battle injuries, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Without further ado then, let's jump into the story then! I own nothing of the source material, I'm only playing around in the ball pit of the Wizarding World that brought me so much happiness and joy when I was younger. Some dialogue is borrowed from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter 37 - The Beginning.
Leo MacDonald had never in his 15 years of life been more relieved to see his Mother than he was at the exact moment of the Hogwarts Express doors opening at its arrival into King's Cross station after his fourth year at the Scotland based School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It had started off as an entertaining year with the announcement of a revival of the Triwizard Tournament, an inter school competition between the three largest Wizarding schools in Europe of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, but despite the excitement of the three tasks and the Yule Ball giving the school year a different flavour to Leo's first three, it had ended in horror and confusion for the vast majority of students that had been watching along outside the maze grown for the third task, as one of the more popular members of the school, Hufflepuff 6th year Cedric Diggory, had died mysteriously at some point during the final task, with only the sullen expression from The-Boy-Who-Lived along with the words of the Hogwarts headmaster giving any form of explanation that something genuinely nefarious had happened.
Leo took a deep breath to attempt to compose himself as he stepped off of the scarlet train and onto the platform, lugging his heavy trunk with him. He looked around at the larger than usual crowd of concerned parents and family members looking out for the brunette hair of his Mother, spotting her quickly as he saw she was over by the back wall of the platform waving at him frantically. After waving back, he quickly turned to his best friend and fellow 4th year Gryffindor Fay Dunbar. "I'll see you soon then?" He muttered, feeling eager to get away from the platform to the comforts of home.
Fay smiled brightly, though her blue eyes were barely hinting at the mirth her face was forcibly showing as he saw the tiredness that had filled most Hogwarts students over the last few weeks. "Definitely, see you in September Leo." She replied softly, wrapping him a tight hug. "Write to me, yeah?"
"Of course." Leo nodded.
Fay then turned to the third member of their friendship group, Anna Bailey, another Gryffindor that Leo found annoying equally as much as he got on with her. "Can you see your Mum?" Fay asked her.
At that point Leo just waved to the auburn-haired Anna and said another goodbye after a quick look back at where his Mother was stood showed her to be fidgeting nervously, and so Leo walked away from the two teenage girls to greet his only parent. Mary MacDonald was a petite lady that had raised Leo almost all by herself, giving him her surname of MacDonald, a smaller Pureblood family from the west of Scotland. Their relationship was a close one, and Leo eagerly returned the crushing hug that he received, only squirming away when she got on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Mum." Leo whispered embarrassed.
"Oh stop it, I've not seen you since September!" Mary grinned, her soft Scottish accent making Leo feel infinitely better already. "Come, let me have a look at you." She stepped backwards and took him in fully. "You've grown again. You must be at least six foot by now. And your hair… I do wish you'd let me cut it."
Leo nodded, running his hand through his shoulder length black hair awkwardly. "I had to charm my trousers to get longer at least three times." He admitted, ignoring the old and overused jibe about his hair.
Mary chuckled at the thought. "Well, you can tell me all about it when we get home." She said, her eyes darting around the platform. Leo could clearly see that she was feeling nervous being there and her tone was also far more frantic than he had ever known her to be.
She took hold of his trunk and silently cast a feather-light charm on it, before gripping his hand tightly in her spare hand as she led him through the magical barrier that separated Platform 9 ¾ from the muggle station of King's Cross, leading him into a quiet area before stopping. "Get ready." She told him. Leo took a deep breath and closed his eyes as with a faint pop, he felt like he was being forcibly squeezed through a rubber tube. The smoke and the noise of King's Cross Station vanished, and the soft sound of Loch Ryan lapping against the shore filled his ears and the smell of fresh, country air filled his nostrils. Grinning, Leo looked up at the small cottage he and his mother had called home for all of Leo's life and he ran inside excitedly, rushing to his bedroom to fling his backpack on his Wigtown Wanderers decorated bedspread and place his wand on the stand, silently saying goodbye to the ebony wood and unicorn hair magical instrument for another summer, before he ran back down to the kitchen to grab himself and his Mother some dinner.
All throughout the meal Leo could sense the nervous aura coming from across the table, but it wasn't until around half an hour after he had finished his dinner, as they both had retired to the living room to read and listen to the wireless when his Mother poked her nose up from a book she was clearly only pretending to read to ask him softly. "So what actually happened during the Third Task?"
Leo froze at the question, his own book The Wonder of Wigtown Wanderers dropping down to the sofa beside him. He had been expecting to have to explain his own view of what had happened in the stands, but the casual nature of the question was surprising. "Don't you already know?" He asked her. "You work at the Ministry, surely they told you."
Mary snorted. "I'm a low-level employee in the Department of Magical Games and Sports dealing with the most boring parts of the Quidditch league, Leo, and you know they won't trust me any more after your Grandfather…" She trailed off as Leo grimaced. His Grandfather had been considered a joke to the wider world, but before Magnus MacDonald's death the previous summer he had been the only Father figure that Leo had ever known. A keen Creaothceann player, Magnus had once tried to lift the ban on the highly dangerous sport, only to be nicknamed 'Dent-Head' by the Ministry for his troubles. His love of sport as a whole however had clearly rubbed off on Mary when she left Hogwarts as she had very quickly gone to work in the sporting side of the Ministry, but due to Magnus' request being laughed off she had been stuck there as a dogsbody doing a job way below her capability in administration for the British and Irish Quidditch League. Not that had Mary minded, as she told him often that it gave her more chances to stay at home when she was raising him and they got more opportunities than most to attend Wigtown games while Leo was away from Hogwarts.
Leo let the moment of mourning settle before restarting the conversation. "But your department still organised the Tournament, surely something filtered down to you…"
"I'm not that lucky, Leo." Mary chuckled, interrupting him quickly. "All I know is that a poor boy died during the Third Task and that now I have a new boss. The sheer lack of me knowing anything has been why I was so skittish at King's Cross…"
Leo looked at her, questioningly, baffled that she didn't know more. "You don't know what Professor Dumbledore is claiming?" Mary shook her head and so Leo began explaining what the Headmaster had told them all during the Leaving Feast.
Leo had arrived at the Great Hall of Hogwarts early for the last feast before the end of the year, and together with both Fay and Anna they sat down in their usual spots at the Gryffindor table facing the Hufflepuff's and waited for the room to fill up. He noticed that the room wasn't decorated as it normally would be for the final feast of the school year, with the decorations on the wall behind the teachers table being plain black instead of the yellow banners with a badger adorned on it that should be hanging up due to Hufflepuff having won the most points throughout the year.
"Why do you think they haven't decorated properly?" Anna whispered to Fay, who simply shrugged in response, though her eyes narrowed questioningly at the teacher's table.
Leo gave her a baffled look. "Cedric is dead." He whispered harshly. "Do you imagine celebrating a meaningless trophy in comparison is going to cheer them up?" Anna looked like she was about to argue, but decided against it as the last few students were filing in. Soon enough, the quiet talking between students stopped as Professor Dumbledore stood up and walked to his podium.
"The end, of another year." The Headmaster said, looking carefully at each of the House tables. He looked at Hufflepuff's last, and Leo looked over at them to see pale and upset faces, as he had expected. "There is much that I would like to say to you tonight." Dumbledore continued. "But first I must acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here." Dumbledore gestured to his left towards the Hufflepuff table. "Enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand and raise your glasses to Cedric Diggory."
Leo immediately rose to his feet and held out his goblet of pumpkin juice, saying solemnly. "Cedric Diggory." Along with the entire Great Hall before they all sat down once more.
"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." That morbidly intrigued Leo as he looked over at Fay with alarm on his face, but his friend was simply staring at Dumbledore, completely entranced in the Headmaster's speech. "Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."
Leo flinched at the sound of You-Know-Who's name being spoken so brazenly by the Headmaster. His dark blue eyes took him along the table to where Harry Potter was sat, his classmate's eyes firmly on his empty plate and his hand clenched. He heard Fay muttering quickly, though it was not loud enough for him to hear her words over the entire hall reacting, while Anna's face had also gone a deathly pale at the feared name.
The murmurs soon stopped, and Dumbledore continued. "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, 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." The Headmaster let that settle in for a moment before he carried on. "There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection with Cedric's death. I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter."
All eyes turned to the bespectacled boy in Leo's dormitory. Leo clenched his teeth, realising that of course the Boy-Who-Lived would have to be spoken about in the closing speech. "Harry Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort." Leo flinched once again. "He risked his own life to return Cedric's body to Hogwarts. He showed, in every respect, the sort of bravery that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort, and for this, I honour him." Leo again raised his goblet, this time towards Harry to his left-hand side and stood to murmur his name, a small hint of bitterness in his throat. Sitting back down again, Dumbledore continued his speech. "The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened, of Voldemort's return, such ties are more important than ever before." Dumbledore gestured to both the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students. "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 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 if all of our aims are identical and our hearts are open."
Leo let out a breath that he hadn't realised that he had been holding. The Professor had always been a good speaker, but this was different, he could tell. This was a cry for unity. He looked over his shoulder at the Slytherin students and internally shuddered, knowing that unity in this school was maybe a dream even a man such as Albus Dumbledore couldn't possibly achieve.
"It is my belief." Dumbledore continued. "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 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."
Mary looked at her son after he had told her it all and leant back in her chair for support. Her hand raised to rub her eyes exasperatedly, but Leo didn't expect the words that followed. "I always knew Fudge was an idiot." She whispered.
"Mother!" Leo exclaimed, shocked at her brazenness to speak like that about her boss. "That's the Minister for Magic!"
Mary smiled sadly at her son. "The appearance of power in a person should not mean giving them your blind obedience, Leo." She said softly. "Professor Dumbledore would never have told you any of that if he did not need you to know… if he did not need us all to know exactly what happened in anticipation of the Minister being a prat."
"You surely can't believe he's back…" Leo whispered, horrified at the thought. He had only heard stories of course, having been nothing more than a baby when the Dark Lord had been defeated almost 14 years earlier, but those stories were enough to scare even the hardiest of Gryffindors, something that Leo would never claim to be.
Mary looked towards the fireplace. "I don't know what to believe." She admitted, frustration in her tone. "But the facts are the facts. A boy is dead, and the Ministry is hiding something even from its own staff." She looked back at Leo before getting to her feet and walking over to his sofa, kneeling before it and taking his hands tightly into her own. "Promise me, Leo. Promise me that you will be careful next year."
Her eyes were wide, and Leo noticed that she seemed more scared than he had ever seen her before. "Mum, I'll be fine." Leo shrugged her concerns away. "If this is true, and that's a big if, Dumbledore is the Headmaster. We will be safe." He wanted to grumble that he barely spoke to many people at the school as it was, but decided against it at her look.
"Dumbledore is a great man, there's no denying it." Mary smiled sadly, grabbing his hands in her own. "But he is still only one man. There are those at the school who are still sympathetic to You-Know-Who's cause all these years later. Look at your guests this year, the Durmstrang Headmaster, Karkaroff?" Leo nodded having seen the man a few times. "He was a Death Eater." She whispered.
Leo went rigid as he felt all the colour drain from his face instantly. "And they let him into the school?" He whispered hoarsely.
Mary nodded. "He gave the Ministry names of You-Know-Who's followers and was pardoned for it, but that ideology, that mentality that You Know Who had… it doesn't go away easily. Just be careful, keep up with your Defence Against the Dark Arts work and stay vigilant."
Leo nodded, and his Mother wrapped her arms around him tightly, stroking his head with her hand. They stayed silently like that for a couple of minutes until their attention was grabbed as the fireplace went bright green, and with agility that Leo didn't even know he had he was up with his fists clenched, stood behind his Mother who had her wand trained tightly on the flames. Out stepped a man wearing an extremely shaggy brown suit that looked like it had been patched up half a dozen times, although as soon as Leo saw the man's face he smiled and dropped his guard. "Professor Lupin!" He exclaimed, happy to see his favourite Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher again.
His mother, on the other hand, stayed firm in her stance, her want still aimed directly at the man's face. "In our fifth year at Hogwarts." She began sharply, her spare hand reaching behind her to grip Leo's hand tightly, pulling him gently to stand behind her. "What did you say to me after I was attacked?"
Remus Lupin had a sad smile. "I promised you that nothing would ever happen like that again, and both Lily and I swore to use our powers as prefect to ensure that both Avery and Mulciber were rarely out of detention for the remainder of our school days."
Leo scowled at those names, but he watched his Mother carefully as she began to lower her wand slowly, before moving forwards to hug Leo's old professor. "Remus. It's great to see you."
"And you, Mary." The tall man replied. He looked over at Leo and nodded politely. "Mr MacDonald, I trust you are well?"
"Missing your lessons, Professor." Leo admitted. Remus barked out a quick laugh.
"I'm sure you will get a better teacher than I next term." Remus said modestly before turning to Mary. "I'm sorry I couldn't do this sooner, I've been extremely busy, but I need to speak with you. Urgently."
Mary looked worried, but she nodded all the same. "Leo, why don't you run down into Stranraer, find some muggle food that you want for tomorrow." She told him, walking over to a drawer and pulling out some muggle money. Leo looked concerned but nodded his agreement. He pocketed the ten-pound note as he walked out of the door. He hung back and pressed his ear up to the door in the hope of eavesdropping, but suddenly Leo was thrown away from it as his Mother put up some extra privacy charms. Shrugging, he walked along the Loch towards the nearest Scottish town, wondering what in Merlin's name could be so important.
It was a half an hour walk into town, and a half an hour walk back out of it once Leo had picked out every muggle snack he could possibly buy with the money he had grabbed. He had opened some crisps as he took the walk back and by the time he reached the cottage dusk was falling. He tried the door tentatively, hoping that he wasn't about to be thrown back again with a bag full of shopping but thankfully the charms had been removed and the door swung open smoothly. "Mum?" He called out, moving to the kitchen as he kicked off his shoes.
"In here." Mary called from upstairs, and so Leo dumped the carrier bag on the kitchen table and jogged up the stairs into his Mother's bedroom. She was sat on her bed with an old photo album on her lap, which she carelessly threw away once she saw him. "You get everything?" She asked, looking up at him with red, tearstained eyes.
Leo nodded as an answer to her question. "Are you ok?" He asked her one back, concerned at her appearance.
Mary sniffed, betraying the fact that she had been crying, but in a poor attempt to stop him worrying she nodded anyway. "Of course I am Leo. Come, let's go and make something to eat that is really bad for us and listen to the wireless. Perhaps Viktor Krum has decided to stay in Scotland and join Wigtown."
Leo chuckled, watching as his Mother leapt off the bed and passed him in the doorway after standing on her tiptoes and pressing a kiss to his cheek. Leo took a brief look back towards the still opened photo album and looked away quickly, the surprise on his face clear when he saw the faces of Harry Potter's dead parents staring back up at him.