Chosen & Hated (HP) {Book 2 of the Wild & Free Series}

37. The Triwizard Gold

When I looked back, even a month later, I found I had only scattered memories of the next few days. It was as though I had been through too much to take in any more. The recollections I did have were very painful. The worst, perhaps, was the meeting with the Diggorys that took place the following morning.

They did not blame Harry and me for what had happened; on the contrary, both thanked us 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 Harry and I 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."

When they got to their feet, she looked down at Harry and me and said, "You look after yourselves, now."

I seized the sack of gold on the bedside table.

"You take this," I muttered to her. "It should've been Cedric's, he got there first, you take it —"

But she backed away from me.

"Oh no, it's yours, dears, I couldn't... you keep it."

Harry and I returned to Gryffindor Tower the following evening. From what Hermione, Rowan, Lucy and Ron told us, Dumbledore had spoken to the school that morning at breakfast. He had merely requested that they leave Harry and me alone, that nobody ask us questions or badger us to tell the story of what had happened in the maze. Most people, I noticed, were skirting us in the corridors, avoiding our eyes. Some whispered behind their hands as we passed. I guessed that many of them had believed Rita Skeeter's article about how disturbed and possibly dangerous we were. Perhaps they were formulating their own theories about how Cedric had died. I found I didn't care very much. I liked it best when I was with Ron, Lucy, Rowan, Harry and Hermione and we were talking about other things, or else letting Harry and me sit in silence while they played chess. I felt as though all six of us had reached an understanding we 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 we knew anything for certain. The only time they touched upon the subject was when Ron told Harry and me about a meeting Mrs. Weasley had had with Dumbledore before going home.

"She went to ask him if you two could come straight to us this summer," he said. "But he wants you, Harry to go back to the Dursleys and you, Liana ro return to the orphanage, 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?"

It was with a heavy heart that I packed my trunk up in the dormitory on the night before my return to the orphanage. I was dreading the Leaving Feast, which was usually a cause for celebration, when the winner of the Inter-House Championship would be announced. Harry and I had avoided being in the Great Hall when it was full ever since we had left the hospital wing, preferring to eat when it was nearly empty to avoid the stares of our fellow students.

When Harry, Ron, Rowan, Hermione and I entered the Hall, we saw at once that the usual decorations was missing. The Great Hall was normally decorated with the winning House's colours for the Leaving Feast. Tonight, however, there were black drapes on the wall behind the teachers' table. I knew instantly that they were there as a mark of respect to Cedric.

We quickly sat down as Dumbledore got up and the crowd went silent.

"The end," said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, "of another year."

He paused, and his eyes fell upon the Hufflepuff table. Theirs had been the most subdued table before he had gotten to his feet, and theirs were still the saddest and palest faces in the Hall.