As the investigation into the attacks which disrupted the third task continued, the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students remained confined to their accommodations to avoid further conflicts between the three schools.

It had only been two days, but speculation was running rampant among the Hogwarts students, fueling increasingly hostile sentiments towards their foreign visitors. Given Durmstrang's reputation for teaching the Dark Arts, most Hogwarts students had little trouble believing Krum capable of using an Unforgivable Curse. Of course, he had some defenders among the more passionate Quidditch fans, and among those who'd been able to look past his celebrity status long enough to get to know him.

Fleur also had her supporters, mostly among the male students.

The Beauxbatons Headmistress strongly rejected the suggestion that any of her students would ever cast an Unforgivable Curse. The Durmstrang headmaster had disappeared during the chaos, and was unavailable for comment.

The most popular theory claimed Delacour and Krum had either let their competitiveness get the best of them, or they'd cracked under the pressure of competing against Cedric–who the Hogwarts students agreed was the most talented of the champions by a fair margin.

A less popular theory was the existence of a love triangle gone wrong among the three champions. This originated among those who remembered Rita Skeeter's insinuation-heavy article. (A few paused to wonder in passing what had ever become of that reporter, anyway.)

The Quibbler had been erratic in its publishing schedule throughout the year, but for this occasion the paper rushed out a special issue presenting its own theory. It alleged that the Barty Crouch who entered the Triwizard Tournament was neither Junior nor Senior, but rather a grandson named Bartemius Crouch III. This grandson had traveled back through time to undo the embarrassment his ancestor had suffered in losing the Tournament to a mere student the first time around. To succeed would redeem their shared name.

According to the article, this plan got derailed when Barty III wound up causing the exact sequence of events he had come back to prevent.

Most dismissed this theory as far-fetched even for The Quibbler, but Luna was happy just to see her father get another issue published. Getting mail from home was always nice.

The five Gryffindors returned to the roof of Gryffindor Tower so Harry and Ginny could tell Neville the real stories behind their own encounters with Riddle.

After Harry and Ginny cast privacy spells, Harry said, "I'm not sure where to start."

"Quirrell," suggested Ron.

Hermione added, "To save time, we can focus on what we learned each year, and skip how we got there, with all the false trails and dead ends and such."

Harry shifted his weight back and forth from one foot to the other. "This could still take a while. I wish we had chairs. Oh, right. Dobby!"

The house-elf popped in, unleashing his usual burst of effusive greetings.

"Yes, good to see too, Dobby," Harry broke in when he got a chance. "How have you been?"

Dobby hesitated before answering. "Hogwarts is a fine place to work, and Dobby is grateful. But with so many other elves here, Dobby must struggle to find enough work to keep busy."

"In that case, would you mind getting us five chairs, please?"

"Right away, Harry Po–" Dobby exclaimed, popping away before even finishing his reply.

Five comfortable chairs appeared one after another, arranged in a circle. These were soon followed by five glasses of lemonade, one in front of each chair.

"Thanks, Dobby!" called out Harry.

"Nice," remarked Ron as he grabbed a glass of lemonade and settled into a chair.

"Yeah. I should have thought of this yesterday," agreed Harry as he did the same.

"You shouldn't have thought of it at all," grumbled Hermione.

Ginny took a seat without comment. Neville hesitated with a glance at Hermione, but then he sat as well.

Harry said, "You saw how happy it made him."

"Yes, but we should be helping them learn to set their own goals they can find satisfaction in achieving."

"You know a spell to make that happen with one wave of your wand?"

"You know I don't. It will be a long-term project, maybe even the work of generations. All the more reason we should start now."

"And they shouldn't have any satisfaction or enjoyment in their lives in the meantime?"

She shook her head, but picked up the last glass of lemonade and sat in the remaining chair.

With everyone seated, Harry, Ron, and Hermione began giving Neville a summary of their first year experiences, culminating in Harry's confrontation with Quirrell and Riddle in front of the Mirror of Erised. Neville listened in amazement to their account, which went far beyond the scraps he'd picked up from the Hogwarts rumor mill.

As they moved to a recounting of their second year, focus shifted to Ginny, but she proved reluctant to speak.

Ron told her, "Don't worry. Neville's a good bloke. He won't hold it against you."

Hermione added, "Ron's right. Neville doesn't have those silly prejudices. It's your story though. It's up to you how much of it you feel comfortable sharing."

Harry said nothing, but nodded his agreement when Ginny glanced at him.

Neville said, "Oh, I think I get it. Exposure to Dark magic doesn't turn you evil. I hate when people claim that. Do you all know about my parents?"

Ginny and Ron both said they didn't. Ron added, "You know how it is. We each got the war talk from our parents when we were old enough to understand, then again before starting school."

Neville nodded. "Yeah, I figure everyone gets it around then."

"Even I got it eventually, from Remus," agreed Harry. "Though he did let me in on what happened to your family, when he and Sirius were telling stories one time about the people they knew back then. They weren't as close with your parents as they were with mine, but they sure respected them a lot. I would have said something before, but since you always avoid the subject…"

"Yeah. Thanks."

Hermione asked, "Can someone please explain 'the war talk' to the one person here who doesn't know?"

Ron said, "If people don't talk about particular family members, you don't ask. If it's a family like Neville's, it probably means something bad happened to them. For the other sort of family, they probably fought on the wrong side and wound up in Azkaban. Nothing good can come from discussing the war with that sort."

"Unless you're looking to start a fight," put in Ginny.

"I believe a fight qualifies as 'nothing good'," remarked Hermione.

"Depends who wins. But go on, Neville. Though only if you want to."

He nodded and turned his head to look out across the lake. "Janus Thickey Ward. Permanent residents."

The others said the appropriate words of condolence, and Neville replied with the appropriate words of acknowledgment, because they all knew that's how you handle revelations like that, for whatever good it does.

Neville cleared his throat. "There may not be much left of the people they were, but they've always been gentle whenever I visit them. They wouldn't be able to hide it if they weren't. That's how I know for a fact Dark magic doesn't corrupt the people it's used on–just the people who use it."

Ginny said, "Thank you for sharing that." She took a breath. "My exposure to Dark magic was different, but here goes."

"Only if you want to."

"You said you want to be part of the fight. You need to understand who we're fighting. Besides, it's easier to talk about now, the further I get from it. Well, not the parts towards the end, so I'm going to leave most of that out. And even if you don't think badly of me once you've heard it, a lot of people would. So this needs to be another secret you keep."

"Understood. I will. I promise."

That settled, she began the story of her first year at Hogwarts.

Pretty much everyone at Hogwarts knew she'd disappeared into the Chamber of Secrets at the end of the year, but she now revealed to Neville how much earlier she'd gotten involved, when she'd fallen under the influence of a Dark object–a diary which once belonged to Tom Riddle.

As her story progressed and turned darker, she started absently flicking her fingers, causing sparks to fly from her fingertips.

Harry took her other hand, and she stopped, giving him a quick smile. She took a breath and let it out, then continued her tale without the nervous fidgeting.

When she finished, no one spoke for a time.

Neville told her, "I can't imagine how strong you'd have to be to survive a whole year of that. Here I was, proud of myself for making it through like an hour or so with Voldemort–er, Riddle–without completely losing it."

"Thanks," she said quietly. "It wasn't awful the whole year through, but yeah. Once it got bad, it was pretty bad. Someone else talk now."

Harry took up the tale with a brief summary of his encounter with Riddle when he'd gone down to the Chamber at the end of the year to rescue Ginny.

This summary turned out to be too brief for Hermione's liking. Though she'd heard this story before, she had new questions for Harry which she'd thought of since hearing Neville's account. She had new ones for Ginny as well, but hadn't wanted to interrupt her friend while she was already struggling to get through her story.

Hermione got out her notebook to record their answers. When she finished asking everything she could think of–for the moment at least–she lapsed into silence as she continued writing, capturing her initial thoughts on their answers.

Neville observed, "Young Riddle sounds so different. The teenage version hardly seems like the same person, even after he stopped pretending to be Ginny's friend. Harry's encounter at the end of our first year sounds closer to my experience in the graveyard." He turned to Hermione. "I think whatever was broken inside him when he was young has gotten worse, if that affects whatever you're trying to figure out."

She nodded, still writing. "It could."

There wasn't much to say about the next year. Riddle hadn't made an appearance, and the truth about Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black had been widely reported in the papers at the time.

As for the current school year, Neville had learned far more from Crouch and Riddle about what they'd been up to than Harry and his friends had managed to discover, so no one had much to say about that either.

"You should know," Neville warned them, "Dumbledore and Moody suspect you of interfering with the Tournament's second task."

Harry said, "I'm afraid that falls under the list of things which have to be 'no comment' until you learn Occlumency."

"You don't think the headmaster or Professor Moody are spying on our thoughts, do you?"

"Either way, they're not the only ones who might be curious about how Crouch's plans got foiled. Sorry."

"No, I get it. Thank you all for sharing as much as you can for now. It can't have been easy to relive it."

"Sure. And likewise, if I forgot to say it yesterday."

"Sure." Neville looked around at them. "I don't know what else to say. All this is… a lot, when you hear it all at once."

"Yeah. It was a lot to live through, even one piece at a time."

"It's so hard to believe we're supposed to play an even bigger part in it someday."

"I know what you mean," agreed Harry. "I've had a lot longer than you to get used to the idea, and sometimes I still can't believe this is my life. But it is. It's been clear for a while that it always comes down to me and Riddle in the end. Well, not this year, but in general. I always wondered if it might be fate, and now it turns out there's an actual prophecy behind everything. Other people may be able to help along the way, but not when it comes to the final showdown."

Ginny said, "Yeah, still not buying that last part–not when it comes to the group sitting here. Though it does seem like any adults who might be able to help tend to be unavailable right when we could use them the most."

Hermione said, "I'm still not totally buying any part of this theory. It's all speculative."

"It's more than that. It's seeing a pattern–one I know you're beginning to see too."

"I'd say I'm more open to the possibility, but that's far from accepting it as a certainty. We've seen counter-examples. You're forgetting the time when Hagrid, Sirius, and Remus put themselves between us and the Dementors."

"No. I'll never forget seeing bravery like that. You're the one forgetting Riddle wasn't directly involved that time."

Harry added, "Right. If the prophecy is pushing other people out of the way, it makes sense the effect would be strongest when Riddle shows up in person."

Hermione told him, "You're generalizing from just two examples in first and second year when you chose to face Riddle."

"I wasn't expecting him to be there!"

"Alright, but you chose to enter a dangerous situation. I know you had good reasons, but you still made a choice each time to continue on alone."

"Some choice."

"All I'm saying is where there's any choice at all, it can't be entirely up to fate. And you're ignoring this year altogether."

"Yeah, when the prophecy just swapped in someone else it could wrap itself around and still fit."

Ron said, "Either way, you're stuck with us. It's bad enough the prophecy picked a student–or two–as the best choice for beating a Dark wizard. I refuse to accept that on top of it all, you have to do it alone. Why would that be part of it? What possible good could come from it?"

Hermione looked thoughtful. "Unless… maybe Riddle is only the first step. He's incredibly dangerous, but he's just one man."

Ginny said, "Good point. The Death Eaters all need to go too. Glad we agree."

"That's not what I meant. Doesn't it seem like a prophecy should be about something bigger? Something which impacts a whole civilization, like the one which foretold the fall of Atlantis?"

Harry groaned. "Great. Like I needed more pressure. Now I have to save civilization?"

"I'm not saying it's all up to you. Bringing real change to the wizarding world will require cooperation. Its problems go well beyond Riddle and the Death Eaters." She looked around at her friends who'd grown up in that world. "I'm trying to be more careful in how I talk about things like this. I know there are good people here. But too many are too willing to accept things as they are."

Harry said, "Most of the problems here aren't so different from the Muggle world."

"Maybe not, but the wizarding world has a much smaller population, which means a small group can have a big effect, for good or bad. Or even a single individual, if they have the right sort of reputation. As far as I can tell, much of Dumbledore's political influence comes from his defeat of Grindelwald, and his fights with Voldemort. Imagine how much good you or Neville could do if people deferred to you in the same way. Though of course the rest of us wouldn't let either of you bear the burden alone. That goes for both the fight itself and the public scrutiny in the aftermath."

"Hold on," said Harry. "Dumbledore already has the sort of reputation you're talking about. Why hasn't he fixed all the wizarding world's problems?"

"I've wondered more than once why he hasn't done more to bring about change. But I guess we all know the saying about how power corrupts. Maybe he's worried about that happening to him? Again though, there's less risk if one person isn't trying to do it all alone."

Ginny said, "It's a dumb saying anyway. If good people hold back from using power, bad people will be the only ones who do."

Hermione pursed her lips. "An oversimplification, but I don't entirely disagree."

Harry said, "I don't think I'd be much good at getting people to follow me like they do with Dumbledore. I already had a reputation for defeating Voldemort, before I even knew who he was. That didn't stop the whole school from turning on me after I let a few hisses of Parseltongue slip out."

"Well… maybe too much time has passed, or the details of what happened that night are too murky. When we defeat Riddle this time, we'll need to make sure we tell a good story about it. One that sticks."

Ron said, "Like beating Riddle won't be a hard enough job already."

"Yes, but we've already agreed we need to make sure the fight happens under controlled circumstances anyway."

When no one responded, Hermione took in her friends' skeptical expressions. "It just feels so… futile to defeat a Dark wizard if he–or another who's much the same–arises again in a decade or two. It's probably too much to hope for that the world will ever see an end to people who seek that sort of power, but we can try to fix the conditions which let a twisted individual gather followers. The Death Eaters always sneered at the other magical races, but many of them fought on Voldemort's side anyway. He promised radical change to an established order made up of people who looked down on them just as much. That was enough to win over a lot of Beings who had nowhere else to turn for any hope of real change."

Ron warned, "You're not wrong about the history, but it's asking for trouble to start looking past your current opponent, because you're too caught up in thinking about the match that comes next."

"I'm not," she insisted. "I don't underestimate Riddle at all. But I'm trying to find some meaning or purpose in it, some reason why our friends were chosen to face such terrible danger. Like you said, what possible good could from it? I have to believe we can find some. Maybe I'm not explaining this right. It's something I'm still sorting out in my own mind."

Harry said, "Let's focus on beating Riddle first. Then we can work on changing the world."

"I promise you, I'm very focused on that. I just don't see him as entirely separate from the society that produced him and his followers."

No one had anything to add, so they decided to wrap things up.

As they stood to leave, Harry gestured at the chairs and asked Hermione, "Any ideas for getting these back where they're supposed to go without Dobby's help?"

"No, but at least let me handle how we ask him."

"Go ahead."

"Dobby?" she called. "If you have a moment…"

They waited, but he didn't appear.

Hermione sighed. "Dobby, I might have some work for you, if you–"

Dobby popped in before she could finish speaking.

She knelt down to put herself at eye level with him. "I hope you know you don't have to take orders from any of us, but if you could do me a favor and put the chairs and glasses back where you found them, I'd really appreciate it."

Dobby leaped forward to hug her. "Thank you for finally accepting Dobby as he is."

Before she could reply, Dobby, the chairs, and the empty glasses all popped away.

Rising, Hermione declared, "All right, we all heard it, so no one needs to comment. I understand this is how the world is now, but that doesn't mean we can't improve it over time."

None of them said anything as they headed back down the stairs, and none of them let her catch any grins which may have crept onto their faces.

At the bottom of the stairs, Neville lagged behind, still reeling from the stories he'd heard. Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't notice, as they were busy arguing some point, but Ginny paused to wait for him.

She said, "You want a bit of advice, from someone else who came into the story late?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Just that it actually is possible. I remember when it felt like the three of them could never have room for anyone else, but they let me in. I don't know what to think about the prophecy, but you're willing to fight, even if you don't know how yet. That goes a long way in my book."

"Thanks. That means a lot."

"You bet."

As dismissive as the Aurors had been of Neville's account of events in the graveyard, they carried out their investigation into the attacks at Hogwarts competently enough. Three days after the postponed third task, Dumbledore stood up at dinner to announce that Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum had been fully cleared of having cast any Unforgivable Curses of their own volition. He added that he hoped all their visitors would soon rejoin them for meals and general socializing, and that the students of Hogwarts would welcome their guests back warmly. Despite his words, he didn't actually sound hopeful. He hadn't missed the growing animosity towards the other schools.

When Dumbledore finished his announcement, Cedric Diggory stood up and headed for the doors out of the Great Hall without a word. Dumbledore frowned as he watched him leave, but didn't try to call him back.

Cho got up as Cedric neared her place at the Ravenclaw table, but when he spoke briefly to her, she sat down again.

Murmurs started up around the Great Hall. It seemed the official announcement hadn't been enough to quell the speculation which had been going on for days. The collective intelligence of the student body had worked hard to develop and refine their various conspiracy theories, and now they were expected to throw them all away, just on the government's say-so?

The doors opened once more to reveal Cedric returning, now accompanied by Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour. The Great Hall fell silent as the three champions walked to the Hufflepuff table, where they sat down and began filling their plates while chatting among themselves, paying no heed to the reaction their arrival had provoked.

At the head table, Dumbledore beamed with delight. Professor Sprout looked so proud of her student, she might burst into tears.

"That takes guts," Ron observed, "walking into enemy territory like that. Especially for Viktor."

"It's not enemy territory," Hermione said. "Or at least it shouldn't be. That's why they're doing it. They're refusing to do the expected thing and shun each other."

"Sure. I'm just saying, I heard the Puffs really did a number on Krum. Wouldn't have thought they had it in 'em."

Ginny told her brother, "Loyalty is one of their house virtues. Don't underestimate what someone is capable of doing out of loyalty." She flicked her eyes towards Harry to illustrate her point.

Harry missed this, as he and Hermione were watching the champions, but Ron nodded. "Yeah, when you put it like that."

Neville noticed that despite the interest in the three champions, plenty of people were staring at his own little group. He mentioned this to Harry.

Harry glanced around, then sighed. "Word must have gotten around about you getting mixed up in everything too."

"What should I do? You're the expert with this stuff."

Harry looked around again. "Right, then. Hoping people will stop staring never works, but maybe you can at least put it to good use. Let's go over and welcome Viktor and Fleur back."

Hermione said, "That's good advice you should try to take yourself, Harry. Try to see the attention you get as a tool you can use, not an identity forced on you."

"Yeah, maybe. What do you say, Neville?"

"Me? You're friends with all the champions, but I don't really know any of them."

"So? I'll introduce you. For once, it's you they're staring at, rather than me."

"It's not the same. You're famous for driving Voldemort away. I didn't do anything."

Ginny said, "You faced Riddle and survived. That isn't nothing. Take it from me."

Hermione said, "I think going over would be a nice gesture from both of you. Maybe even an important one. It would show that no matter how hard Riddle, or Crouch, or anyone else tries, they can't turn us against each other."

Neville said, "Alright. I'll do it."

He and Harry got up and went to where the champions were sitting. A group of Hufflepuffs had gathered to apologize to Viktor for the curses they'd cast at him, but he was waving away their attempts, insisting they'd been right to defend their friend.

The Hufflepuffs parted to allow Harry and Neville through, and Harry made a point of formally introducing Neville, letting everyone in the Great Hall who cared to watch see both of them greeting and shaking hands with all three champions.

Gradually, normal conversations resumed as everyone returned their attention to their own tables.