Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

69. The Beginning

It was the next morning and as Y/n and Harry awoke both felt as if they had been through too much to take in anymore. The worst, perhaps, was the meeting with the Diggory's that took place that morning.

They did not blame either of them for what had happened, on the contrary, both thanked them for returning Cedric's body to them. Mr. Diggory sobbed through most of the interview. Mrs. Diggory's grief seemed to be beyond tears.

"He suffered very little then." she said, when they had told her how Cedric had died. "And after all, Amos...he died just when he'd won the tournament. He must have been happy."

"Cedric was a very brave person, right till the very end...I am honored to have competed with him." Y/n told them.

When the Diggory's got to their feet, Mrs Diggory looked down at Y/n and Harry and said, "You both look after yourselves now."

Harry seized the sack of gold on the bedside table. "You take this." he muttered to her. "It should've been Cedric's, he got there first, you take it..."

But she backed away from him. "Oh no, it's yours, dears, I couldn't... you keep it." and with that she and her husband left.

Y/n returned with Harry to Gryffindor Tower that evening. From what Hermione and Ron had told them, Dumbledore had spoken to the school that morning at breakfast. He had merely requested that they all leave Y/n and Harry alone, that nobody asked them questions or badger them to tell the story of what had happened in the maze.

Most people, Y/n noticed, were skirting him in the corridors, avoiding his gaze. Some whispered behind their hands as he passed. He guessed that many of them had believed Rita Skeeter's article about how dangerous he supposedly was. Perhaps they were formulating their own theories about how Cedric had died. But he was too tired both physically and mentally to care anymore. All he wanted was to sit with Hermione as she and Ron were talking about other things, or else letting him and Harry sit in silence while they played chess. All four of them had reached an understanding they didn't need to put into words, that each was waiting for some sign, some word, of what was going on outside Hogwarts and that it was useless to speculate about what might be coming until they knew anything for certain. The only time they touched upon the subject was when Ron told Harry about a meeting Mrs. Weasley had had with Dumbledore before going home.

"She went to ask him if you could come straight to us this summer." he said. "But he wants you to go back to the Dursleys, at least at first."

"Why?" said Harry.

"She said Dumbledore's got his reasons." said Ron, shaking his head darkly. "I suppose we've got to trust him, haven't we? Y/n will be staying with us though I imagine now that Dumbledore has his grandmother running all about the place."

"Actually Ron, Y/n is probably going to be staying with me and my parents. I wrote them a letter this morning. " Hermione said now.

"You?" Ron said surprised by this. "But why would he stay with you?"

"Because..." Hermione said and she turned her head to look at Y/n.

"Because Hermione is my girlfriend Ron." Y/n spoke up now as he took Hermione's hand.

"Wha..Since when!?" Ron cried out surprised again.

"I asked her officially last night." Y/n said and Hermione's hold on his hand gently tightened. "We have both had feelings for one another for quite a while, but I asked her to wait till the tournament was over."

"Did you know about this?" Ron immediately asked Harry.

"What...oh, yeah I suppose." Harry said coming out of a deep thought.