Chapter Thirty:

Elizabeth ended up spending the last few days of terms almost completely with her fellow Hufflepuffs. It was not anything about not wanting to be around Harry, but more she needed to be with her House after the loss of one of their own. Though the whole time, very little was ever said. The Hufflepuff common room had never been so quiet—not even in their second year after Justin had been petrified. Elizabeth spent most of her time around her fellow fourth years, the group sitting in a small circle near the fireplace. Lewis was over often, sitting silently between Susan and Elizabeth. He had only spoken once, telling Elizabeth that he had written to their mother to tell her what had happened.

When the final day at Hogwarts came, Elizabeth spent the entirety of it in her dormitory, packing away her things. As usual of late, the atmosphere was quiet and solemn. Aside from the occasional asking the others if something was theirs, no one said anything. There wasn't the usual chatter of summer plans or being glad another year was over. It was clear everyone wanted to be home, but for a completely different reason than why they would have wanted it in the years before.

Elizabeth's breath caught a little when they went into the Great Hall for the End of Term Feast. The usual banners were missing, instead replaced by black draperies. For an instant, Elizabeth thought of her horrid nightmare. Then, she reminded herself that in her nightmare, the Great Hall had been completely empty, not full but quiet as it was now.

Elizabeth sat down with the others, no one speaking at the Hufflepuff table. She saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione nearby and she gave them a small wave, which Harry returned.

"The end of another year," Dumbledore spoke up at the staff table and Elizabeth put down her fork. She'd barely eaten any of her food, but as was becoming usual, she didn't have much of an appetite anyway.

"There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," Dumbledore went on, and Elizabeth noticed his gaze lingered on her table, "But I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here enjoying our feat with us. I would like you all, please, to stand and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."

There was a low echoing of Cedric's name as everyone rose to their feet and lifted their goblets. Elizabeth could feel tears stinging at the corner of her eyes again and she wiped her face, glancing towards the Ravenclaw table where Cho was staring down at her feet.

"Cedric was a person who exemplified many qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff House," Dumbledore said when everyone took their seats again, "He was a good and loyal friend—" (Elizabeth noticed Lewis tensed and became preoccupied with his food as a few people looked towards him) "—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. Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."

Elizabeth twitched, and several people gave small gasps. Many were staring at Dumbledore, their eyes wide with fear. Elizabeth saw Susan had gone even more pale than before, and Lewis—oddly—was glaring at Dumbledore. Elizabeth couldn't understand. Wouldn't he want to know how his best friend died?

"The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this," Dumbledore went on, "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 so, 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.

"There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection with Cedric's death. I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter."

Elizabeth glanced to Harry, who was frowning and clearly wishing he hadn't been mentioned.

"Harry Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort," Dumbledore said, "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 honor him."

Again, everyone (or nearly everyone) followed Dumbledore in a toast to Harry. Elizabeth noticed the Slytherin table remained in their seats and—Elizabeth's stomach tightened—so did Lewis. Elizabeth stared at him, wondering what was wrong.

"The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further promote magical understanding," Dumbledore continued, "In the light of what has happened—of Lord Voldemort's return—such ties are more important than ever." Dumbledore paused to glance around the room at 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 al, once again—in the light of Lord 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 at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.

"It is my belief—and never have I so hoped I am mistaken—that we are facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our mist."

Elizabeth glanced at the frowns on the faces of her fellow Hufflepuffs. She knew plenty about the loss due to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. She lost her father before she was even born. She saw the effects of what happened to Neville's parents was doing to him and his grandmother. Susan had lost an uncle, aunt, and cousins before she'd gotten to know them...

"Remember Cedric," Dumbledore said, "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."

xxxxx

Elizabeth finally got the chance to talk to Harry again the following day, as she broke from the Hufflepuffs to sit with Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the Hogwarts Express. Hedwig and Pigwidgeon were napping overhead while Crookshanks was curled in a corner, and Cream stayed in Elizabeth's lap. As the train made its way home, Harry told them about what had happened to him.

He told them that the Professor Moody they'd known all year had been Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise. (Elizabeth was horrified at this, remembering how she'd had detention with him, how she'd been alone in a room with a madman.) Harry went on to tell them that Barty Crouch Jr. had turned the Triwizard Cup into a portkey, so when Harry and Cedric had grabbed it, they'd been transported away from Hogwarts to some graveyard. Wormtail—the man who had disguised himself as Ron's rat Scabbers—was there, and he had been the one to kill Cedric. He had done some ritual to bring He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named back to life, and they had summoned Death Eaters. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had tried to kill Harry, but his wand had caused some sort of shield and he was able to escape back to the portkey with Cedric. The rest, Elizabeth and the others already knew from piecing things together after Harry had come back.

Harry had just finished explaining what had happened—which odd glances to Elizabeth whenever he mentioned Cedric—when the lunch trolley came by. Hermione bought them all some sweets and Elizabeth opened her pack of Berty Bott's Beans s Hermione unrolled a copy of the Daily Prophet she'd been carrying.

"There's nothing in here," she said, and Elizabeth saw her looking to Harry, "You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the third task saying you won the tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep it quiet."

"He'll never keep Rita quiet," Harry said, "Not on a story like this."

"I'm surprised she hasn't written a story already," Elizabeth said, scratching Cream behind the ears.

"Oh, Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while," Hermione said confidently, "Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."

"What're you talking about?" Ron asked.

"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to coming onto the grounds," Hermione said in one very fast breath. Elizabeth sat up more.

"How?" Elizabeth, Ron, and Harry chorused.

"Well, it was really you who gave me the idea, Harry," Hermione said with a grin.

"Did I?" Harry looked confused.

"Bugging."

"But you said they didn't work—"

"Oh, not electronic bugs," Hermione cut in, holding herself straight and had a look on her face as if she'd been prepping for this, "No, you see...Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn—" she paused to pull a jar from her bag. "—into a beetle."

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she leaned forward to stare at the jar. Inside was a fat beetle that had an unmistakable marking around its eyes—just like the rhinestones on Skeeter's glasses.

"I caught her on the windowsill in the hospital wing," Hermione said happily.

"There was a beetle sitting on the window in Divination when I passed out," Harry said, a look of realization on his face.

"Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we'd had our conversation by the lake. She's been buzzing around for stories all year." Hermione held up the jar a little. "I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London. I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's got to keep her quill to herself for a while year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."

"Very clever, Granger."

Elizabeth looked up to see Malfoy was standing in the compartment doorway, Crabbe and Goyle right behind as usual. All three of them looked incredibly smug with themselves. Elizabeth didn't like it.

"So, you caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter's Dumbledore's favorite again. Big deal." Malfoy smirked at them. "Trying not to think about it, are we? Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"

Elizabeth tensed, her hand going to her wand as Harry told Malfoy and his goons to shove off.

"You've picked the losing side, Potter," Malfoy ignored Harry's comment, "I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this!" Malfoy paused to motion to Elizabeth, Ron, and Hermione. Elizabeth glared, tightening her grip on her wand. "Too late now, Potter! They'll be the first go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well—second—Diggory was f—"

That was the final straw. Elizabeth was on her feet (Cream hissed and ran to the corner of the compartment) and shot off a hex at Malfoy. She hadn't been alone. Hermione, Ron, and Harry had shot off their own jinxes, as well as a couple of bangs coming from out of sight in the corridor. In an instant, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were unconscious on the floor—Malfoy was sprouting tentacles out of his face. For the first time in over a week, Elizabeth was grinning.

Fred and George appeared, stepping around the unconscious Slytherins.

"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," Fred said. George studied the three on the ground.

"Who used Furnunculus Curse?"

"Me," Harry said.

"Odd," George said in odd fascination, "I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the décor."

A few minutes later, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were shut away in an empty compartment and Fred and George decided to join the others for a game of Exploding Snap.

"You going to tell us, then?" Harry asked, looking to Fred and George, "Who you were blackmailing?"

Elizabeth looked up. She had forgotten about that, honestly.

"It doesn't matter," Fred said, "It wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway."

"We've given up," George added with a shrug.

Elizabeth and the others weren't going to give up, however, and kept badgering the twins until they finally gave in and told them.

"Bagman?" Harry echoed in shock, "Are you saying he was involved in—"

"Nah, nothing like that," George said, "Stupid git. He wouldn't have had the brains."

"Well, what, then?" Ron asked.

"You remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup?" Fred asked, "About how Ireland would win, but Krum would catch the Snitch?"

"The git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught form the Irish mascots."

"So it vanished. By the next morning, it had gone!"

"Maybe it was just a mistake," Elizabeth said, "Maybe he just got it mixed up."

George gave a laugh at that.

"Yeah, that's what we thought at first," he said, "We thought if we just wrote him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."

"In the end, he turned pretty nasty," Fred added, "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."

"So we asked for our money back."

"He didn't refuse!" Hermione looked horrified.

"Right in one," Fred said.

"But that was all your savings!"

"Tell me about it," George said, "'Course, we found out what was gong on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"

"How?"

"He put a bet on you, mate," Fred said, looking to Harry, "Put a big bet on you to win the tournament. Bet against the goblins."

"That is the stupidest thing anyone could ever do," Elizabeth said, "Never do business with goblins. They're good for running Gringotts, but I wouldn't do any sort of partnership with them."

With the story of Bagman out in the open now, the group returned to their game of Exploding Snap. They chatted about more cheerful things, avoiding talk about what had happened the past year and instead talked about plans for the summer. Hermione mentioned she was going to try and visit Viktor Krum over the summer. Ron—who was now accepting of Krum again since the tournament was over—teased her relentlessly over it and only stopped once Hermione threatened to jinx him like they had just done to Malfoy.

When the train slowed to a stop, Elizabeth and the others got off. Elizabeth pulled along her trunk, carrying Cream in her carrier in her other hand. She saw Lewis heading over to where their mother was waiting, and Elizabeth turned to Harry, letting go of her stuff long enough to hug him.

"I'll write as soon as I can," she said, turning to Hermione and Ron, see you over the summer."

Elizabeth gave her goodbyes, then grabbed her things and headed off to where her mother was waiting. After all that had happened in the past year, she was eager for the familiar safety of home.

A/N: And here ends Elizabeth Martin: Year of Changes. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'm in the process of planning the next installment: Year of Rebellions. Stay tuned!

And for anyone curious about Ron's behavior towards Krum and Hermione's relationship in this chapter, I will state now that Ron/Hermione won't happen within this series like I originally planned. I have ideas for them, but they won't come along until much later. Like with everything else, you'll have to stay tuned.