ROTBTD: Hogwarts

Chapter Eighteen: The Parting of the Ways

Note: That's actually the title of this chap in the real book but I thought it was cool so I'm using it.

Enjoy!

Even if Merida was in an enchanted sleep, yelling voices will wake anyone up. Especially if they are accompanied by banging doors. When the hospital doors burst open, Merida jerked upright in her bed and very nearly yelled out. She swept her hair out of her face and climbed out of the bed, cracking the curtains just a bit to watch.

"Where's Dumbledore?" a voice demanded angrily. Merida turned to the left to see Cornelius Fudge through the thin sliver of space between the curtains. Professor McGonagall looked absolutely livid, and Fudge was furious. Snape, trying to conceal his anger, was with them.

"He's not here," said another voice. Merida couldn't see who it was, but she recognized the voice as Ron's mother's. "This is a hospital wing, Minister, don't you think you'd do better to --"

The door opened again. Merida swivelled to see Dumbledore striding inside.

"What has happened?" he said sharply, glancing between Fudge and McGonagall. "Why are you disturbing these people? Minerva, I'm surprised at you -- I asked you to stand guard over Barty Crouch --"

"There is no need to stand guard over him anymore, Dumbledore!" she shrieked. "The Minister has seen to that!" Merida had never seen her like this before. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hands were balled into fists. She was trembling with fury.

"When we told Mr. Fudge that we had caught the Death Eater responsible for tonight's events," said Snape in a low, dangerous voice, "he seemed to feel his personal safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a dementor to accompany him into the castle. He brought it up to the office where Barty Crouch --"

"I told him you would not agree, Dumbledore!" fumed McGonagall. "I told him you would never allow dementors to set foot inside the castle, but --"

"My dear woman!" yelled Fudge, "as Minister of Magic, it is my decision whether I wish to bring protection with me when interviewing a possibly dangerous --"

But McGonagall drowned out Fudge as she continued, "The moment that -- that thing entered the room, it swooped down on Crouch and -- and --"

Merida dropped the curtains with a gasp. The dementor -- it had turned Crouch into a living shell. He was worse than dead.

"By all accounts, he is no loss!" shouted Fudge. "He seems he had been responsible for several deaths!"

"But he cannot give testimony how, Cornelius," said Dumbledore. Merida had not drawn the curtains back again, but she knew he was staring hard at Fudge. "He cannot give evidence about why he killed those people."

"Why he killed them? Well, that's no mystery, is it?" blustered Fudge. "He was a raving lunatic! From what Minerva and Severus have told me, he seems to have thought he was doing it all on You-Know-Who's instructions!"

"Lord Voldemort was giving him instructions, Cornelius," said Dumbledore. "Those people's deaths were mere by-products of a plan to restore Voldemort to full strength again. The plan succeeded. Voldemort has been restored to his body."

For a moment, there was silence. Merida listened hard. "You-Know-Who... returned? Preposterous. Come now, Dumbledore..."

"As Minerva and Severus have doubtless told you," said Dumbledore, "we heard Barty Crouch confess. Under the influence of Veritaserum, he told us how he was smuggled out of Azkaban, and how Voldemort -- learning of his continued existence from Bertha Jorkins -- went to free him from his father and used him to capture Harry. The plan worked, I tell you. Crouch has helped Voldemort to return."