polaroids (cedric diggory)

twenty two

"he returned"

Cheers erupted as Harry and Cedric appeared in front them, their hands wrapped around the handles of the Triwizard Cup. Aria and the rest of the crowd standing to their feet.

She knew instantly something was wrong, Harry was sobbing, Cedric unmoving as their friends and family descended onto them. Aria ran over to both of them, shoving people out of the way.

"What happened?" She asked her voice breaking as she saw Cedric. Mrs Diggory was shaking her son, tears streaming down her cheeks, trying to wake him up. Madam Pomfrey came and helped him, after some time Cedric opened his eyes and slowly sat up. Silent tears started streaming down his face as he pulled Aria straight into his arms. The cheers faded into darkness, the band silencing.

"He's back! He's back!" Harry cried, "Voldemort's back!"

Moody's hand wrapped around Harry, Cedric and Aria, dragging the three of them along with him as he loped away, "I got you, it's all right."

He gently led the three of them into his quarters and shutting the door behind him, getting them all chairs to sit on, looking to Cedric and Harry, "Are you both all right?"

Cedric took Aria's hand, squeezing it lightly. She hadn't even noticed the large cuts that ran across Harry's face and arm.

"Does it hurt?" Moody asked, "That?"

Harry shook his head, still in shock, "Not so much now."

"Perhaps I'd better take a look at it."

Cedric finally spoke, his voice croaky and shaking, "The Cup was a Portkey. Someone had bewitched it."

"What was it like?" Moody asked, after examining the wound on Harry's arm, "What was he like?"

"Who?"

"The Dark Lord." He grinned malevolent, putting some pressure on the wound before standing, "What was it like to stand in his presence?"

"I don't know." Moody grunted in response, "It was like I'd fallen into one of my dreams. Into one of my nightmares."

Moody took a drink from his hip flask, only to find it empty. Aria used the hand that wasn't interlocked with Cedric's to run Harry's shoulder.

Moody ran to a chest, groaning when he only pulled up empty bottles, "Were there others? In the graveyard, were there others?"

Aria's eyes snapped to Moody as she stood, her hands falling from Harry and Cedric, "Harry never said anything about a graveyard."
Moody leered at her, high voice mocking Hagrid's, "Marvelous creatures, dragons, are they? Do you think that miserable oaf would've led you into the woods if I hadn't suggested it?"

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion as Moody frantically searched through all the cupboards, throwing the drawers onto the floor.

"Think Cedric Diggory would've told you to open the egg underwater if I hadn't told him first myself? Did you think Neville Longbottom, the witless wonder, could've provided you with gillyweed if I hadn't given him the book that led him straight to it?"

Aria's fist clenched, "It was you from the begging. You put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire. You've been using everyone for months!"

Moody sneered, "Potter won because I made it so, Weasley. Potter ended up in that graveyard tonight because it was meant to be so. And now the deed is done."

He shoved Aria to the side, ripping Harry's sleeve apart and looking at his wound, "The blood that runs through these veins runs within the Dark Lord."

He grunted, his face bubbling, "Imagine how he will reward me when he learns that I have once and for all silenced the great Harry Potter."

Aria reached for her wand, "Incarcerous."

A spell hit both her and Moody, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher shooting a spell at her the same time she did, just before ropes magically bound him, originating from her wand.

Aria was thrown back against the wall, her head smashing against the stone before she landed on her front, her head oozing blood.

Cedric leapt towards her as the door flew open, rolling her over and crouching beside her as the teachers flew into the room, "Professor McGonagall, she's been hurt!"

The Gryffindor Head of House raced towards the two prefects as a now tied up Moody was forcefully shoved into a chair by Snape as he poured Veritaserum into his mouth.

Dumbledore grabbed Moody by the collar as McGonagall, with a silent flick of her wand, gently floated Aria into the air and guided her out of the room and towards the Hospital Wing, with Cedric right behind them.

"Do you know who I am?" Dumbledore growled at Moody.

"Albus Dumbledore."

"Are you Alastor Moody? Are you?"

"No."

"Is he in his room? Is he in this room?"

The fake Moody's eyes flew to the black chest, the teachers following his gaze as Dumbledore pulled a terrified Harry away from it.

With a silent spell, Snape magicked it open, various chests springing up, until the last one snapped into place and Snape and Dumbledore slowly approached it. The real Mad-Eye Moody was slumped at the bottom of the chest.

"Are you alright, Alastor?"

"I'm sorry, Albus." The ex-Aurors voice echoed up towards them.

Harry looked at him in confusion, "That's Moody. But then who's..?"

Snape pulled the hip flask out of the fake Moody's jacket, opening it and smelling its empty contents, "Pollyjuice Potion."

"Now we know who's been stealing from your stores, Severus." Dumbledore mused, looking down at the real Moody, "We'll get you up in a minute."

Fake Moody's skin was bubbling and pulling from the bones, his face warping as he pulled the fake eye out of its socket and morphed back into Barty Crouch Junior.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." The Death Eater sneered at Harry, pulling his sleeve up to reveal a Dark Mark tattoo on his left arm.

Dumbledore pulled Harry forward, "Your arm."

The bloody wound vaguely matched the skull and serpent on Crouch's arm, "You know what this means, don't you? He's back. Lord Voldemort has returned."

"I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't help it."

Dumbledore turned to Snape, "Send an owl to Azkaban. I think they need to come and take their missing prisoner."

"I'll be welcomed back like a hero!"

"Perhaps. Personally, I've never had much time for heroes. But what Miss Weasley just did, that wasn't heroic. That was just a girl protecting her friends, no matter the personal cost."