A Somber Return

A week had passed since Harry Potter stepped through the Veil. The Unspeakables had somebody monitoring the Veil twenty four hours a day and while the Veil was still acting differently, there was still no sign of Harry Potter or the elf.

.....

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office at Hogwarts patiently waiting to be summoned to the Ministry of Magic to answer for his actions this year. He hoped no one looked too deeply and discovered his manipulations concerning the young man as there would be too many questions that Albus did not want to answer.

He was probably most upset that Harry had taken certain items behind the Veil with him. Items that Albus desperately needed and wanted as he knew his time was running short. His control over the Potter accounts was a moot point now that the items were gone and if he claimed them with the false will it would only draw more attention to his deeds.

Albus had received a letter from Bearclaw everyday since the last task and after the first one; he had taken to ignoring them. He hoped that Bearclaw would take the fall for this leaving him clear but he knew that with the way his luck had run this year, it was very unlikely.

.....

Upon returning to the Ministry, Amelia was escorted to the secure holding area by Connie Hammer and was stunned at what she found. When she returned to her office, she cancelled the kiss on sight order on Sirius Black and called in one of her Aurors.

Nymphadora Tonks entered her boss' office and stood at attention. "You called for me ma'am?"

Amelia looked up and said "Yes Auror Tonks. I need you to contact your mother and inform her that I need to speak with her cousin at his earliest convenience. Make it clear that is not an attempt to arrest him but to clear his name. If my information is correct, his Godson left me the means to affect this but only if he is willing to stand trial once again."

Tonks looked at her cautiously and replied "Ma'am, I have no knowledge of my mother being in contact with the escaped convict but I will relay your message."

Amelia glared at her and said "Who do you think you are talking to? I know that Lord Black has summoned his family and I also know there can only be one person who is Lord Black. You will leave now and deliver the message you were just given. I expect you to report back to me within a half hour telling me this task has been done. I also expect to have a message in my hands before lunch tomorrow or all deals are off. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

.....

The mood in the castle was rather somber with the results of the third task. The single champion remaining in the castle refused to be awarded the Tri-Wizard Cup and was seen mostly in the company of Cho Chang who was an emotional wreck over the whole situation and was almost always seen crying ever since that night.

In an unusual move, the Slytherin Ice Queen, Daphne Greengrass, had been sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Fleur and aiding in her attempts at comforting Cho as well as passing on the reports her mother had been sending her about Cedric and Megan.

At the Leaving Feast, desert was interrupted by Lord Greengrass walking in the door holding several pieces of parchment. As he made his way to the head table, Albus rose and asked "Lord Greengrass, may I ask your reason for being here tonight?"

"Of course Mr. Dumbledore, I have come for my daughters, Miss Moon, Miss Davis, Miss Lovegood, and finally Miss Chang."

"This is highly unusual…"

"I have the written permission slips from their parents. They are going to wake Mr. Diggory and Miss Jones tomorrow morning and we thought it would be better to have their family surrounding them as they found out the news of Mr. Potter. Girls, call your elves and have them pack you immediately."

.....

The healers at St. Mungos decided that the two sleeping teens in their care were finally ready to be woken from their magically induced sleep. All tests concluded that they were fully recovered from the ordeal and the fact had even been verified by Madam Pomfrey at the request of the families.

They slowly woke up to the comforting feeling of being surrounded by family. Kathleen was sitting there holding her daughter's hand and softly said "Welcome back baby."

Megan muttered out "Cedric?"

"He's fine dear and is waking up now. You did an amazing thing and I'm proud of you."

Megan gave her a small smile and then her eyes spotted Poppy standing across the room. She started suddenly looking around the room and started panicking when she couldn't find Harry. "Where's Harry?"

When nobody answered she asked a little louder "Where's Harry?"

By this time, Cedric was sitting up with his arms around Cho. Daphne moved to Megan's side as she yelled "WHERE'S HARRY?"

Reginald moved forward "Honestly baby we don't know."

She cried out "DOBBY?"

Poppy said "He won't answer sweetie. I've tried."

"What happened?"

"We don't know much. Harry fought Voldemort and according to the Aurors, he was fine. Evidently, Dobby exhausted himself and Harry picked him up. All we know is that they were apparating away and they were hit by a curse from Voldemort. The next time they were seen was when they appeared in the DOM and stepped through the Veil of Death."

Tears were falling down her cheeks as she sat there thinking that she had lost her Harry. Luna sat down on her bed and pulled her into hug. "Can you still feel him?"

Megan closed her eyes and could feel the connection still holding her to him and nodded her head. Luna bluntly said "Then he is still alive somewhere. We will see him again when it is time."

....

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