Determination

LII: Rising Action

June 1995

Harry now stood behind the angry looming figures of both his uncle and his godfather, staring at the reformed face of Barty Crouch JR.

He listened as the man told his story easily to Dumbledore. Harry listened as this insane plot was unfolded before him, and things that didn't make sense previous were suddenly brought into new light.

But Harry still had questions.

The torturous screams of Meae just before he left that graveyard were still haunting his eardrums. He still didn't understand why she had said to have faith in her, if she knew she wasn't coming back.

Harry glanced at the man he'd feared the most, since leaving her behind.

Severus Snape stood straight and still as a board while glaring with the fire of an exploding sun through his eyes alone.

I wonder if he's just as anxious as I am to know what happened to bring Meae to that graveyard. Voldemort said he wanted to sever their bond, but why?

Harry knew Meae was an extremely talented witch, but Voldemort had no trouble killing talented witches before. He wondered if it had something to do with their bond, why were they bonded anyway?

Harry just couldn't understand how she fit, and he was hoping Mr. Crouch Jr. had the answers for him.
If only Dumbledore would ever get around to asking the man...

Finally, Dumbledore stood to his feet. He pointed his wand, disgust clear on his face, and bound the man in front of him tightly with rope.

"Minerva, could I ask you to stand gaurd while we take Harry upstairs?" He asked calmly.

Harry moved before the Transfiguration Professor could respond.
"WHAT?-! NO! No," he exclaimed "no I need to hear for myself what's happening to Meae."

Harry turned towards the bound traitor before them all and marched as close as he dared.

"How did Meae end up in that graveyard? Why did Meae end up in the graveyard?!" Harry could feel the despair leaking out of him, could still hear her screams echoing in his mind.

"Potter! This is not the time for your misplaced heroic facade." Snape hissed at him.

Harry watched as Uncle Moony stepped between them with his hands in a placating manner. "Now Severus..."
Harry felt a tug as Sirius pulled him back towards himself.

"No!" Harry yelled "I have questions, and the only people who can answer them are in this room, so start talking." Harry rounded towards Barty Crouch Jr. again. "Why does Voldemort want to sever Meae's bond?" He asked.

The man in question looked at Harry like he was a dream come true.

"My master will finally do it... he will bind himself to the girl of limitless power, he will be unstoppable!"

Harry heard Professor McGonagall gasp quietly from her place in the room. Harry- Harry didn't know what to think... what did they mean by limitless power? What more about Meae did he not know?

"How did she end up in the Graveyard?" Snape asked breaking the silence of the room.

Barty Crouch Jr. chuckled quietly "oh... I let the mutt come and fetch her for our master. He's a disgustingly filthy animal, but at least he knows where his loyalties should lie... yes.... It was very easy to sneak him in and out of the castle grounds with the boy's map at my disposal."

Harry wanted the floor to swallow him whole when he felt five pairs of judgmental eyes on him.

"He knocked her unconscious?" Snape asked the man.

"Yes, Could you feel it?" The traitor asked him.

Harry watched Snape glare at the man before turning back to Dumbledore.
"Was there's anything else you wanted from me Headmaster?"

"Are you joking?! That's it!?" Sirius raged

"Yes, Severus I am curious as well... you seem completely unbothered by the knowledge that Voldemort is trying to break your bond with Masondrit... why is that?" Uncle Moony asked suspiciously.

Harry could feel the loathing and annoyance clearly radiating off of Snape as he turned hating eyes onto the two men before him.

"I am unbothered because it has no value to worry about such nonsense-"

"She is your Soulmate! I feel that's reason enou-!" Sirius started.

"The Dark Lord will not be able to break the bond between Meae and I without killing the both of us. He has always seen her as a valuable tool, he is not dense enough to run that risk. Therefore his only options will be to try and control her, which she is extremely resistant to, or-"

"Try and sway her to his side..." Moony finished in understanding "which he won't be able to do."

"Precisely." Snape answered shortly "now, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore looked at Snape for a moment before answering "please tell Madame Pomfrey to come down here, Alastor Moody needs to go to the hospital wing. Then go down to field and find Cornelius Fudge and bring him here. He will undoubtedly want to question Crouch himself."

Snape nodded silently before starting to sweep out of the room. But Harry, in a fit of courage that didn't feel like his own, caught the man by the arm before he departed.

"Potter," he sneered "I suggest you let go of me th-"

"Why did she say-" Harry started "why did she tell me that if she knew?"

"I couldn't possibly have any idea wha-"

"In the Graveyard." Harry interrupted again "she told me to get Cedric and leave... she told me to 'have faith in her'... why did she say that if she knew she wasn't coming back?"

Harry looked up at the man whose face only bore a slight hint of pain and multitudes of confusion. He released the Professor's arm before despair and exhaustion overtook him again.

"I guess you wouldn't know either..." Harry said quietly, before being ushered by the other adults out of the room and to Dumbledore's office.

What Harry didn't see, was the confusion quickly turn into shock and realization as the Professor quickly made his way down to the hospital wing.

Severus Snape was a clever man.

That did not mean, however, he came to realization quickly.

"Of course!" He said aloud to himself on his speedy journey to the hospital wing.

"Of course she would never let anything happen to a student here. I should have known she would pull something like this..." he grumbled to himself.

Severus Snape threw open the doors to the hospital wing and quickly searched the beds for what he was looking for.

He stopped and grimaced upon finding it.

"Move." He said to the figures around the bed.

Madame Pomfrey quickly made her way towards him "Professor, I really don't think now is the time-"

He glanced at her coldly for only a moment before shoving his way through the gawking group of grievers.

"The boy's not dead." He said before quickly pulling out his wand and aiming it at the white sheet of a Hufflepuff boy.

"Fidelis Alma."

"HEY-"
"PROFESSOR SNAPE-"
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL-"

But all their exclamations ceased the moment the boy started shimmering a yellow glow."

"It can't be.." he heard whispered into the air.

The glow receded, and a low pained groan could be heard.

"CEDRIC! MY BOY!"