Chapter 37

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Y/N's mind was still racing from the incident, it felt like everything was a dream, but she knew she just didn't want to accept the fact that what had occurred was in fact, reality. Though, she couldn't think much as she was now being nudged into Moody's office as he slammed the door behind him shut.

He moved his ginormous trunk over to the Ravenclaw with his wand, gesturing her to take a seat as he took the seat behind his desk, "Well. Here we are. You all right?"

Y/N only nodded vaguely, she didn't know why she nodded, she just did, she was clearly anything but alright.

"Good. Now tell me what happened." Moody instructed, the Ravenclaw sat there dazed, she didn't want to remember what happened, it was like a bad nightmare she didn't want to relive again, not a single part of it.

Suddenly, she felt the trunk beneath her rattling violently, snapping out of her thoughts she moved the palms of her hand over the lid, attempting to stabilize it so that she wouldn't get knocked off the trunk.

"Y/L/N!" Moody called out sharply which instantly startled the Ravenclaw, it was unusual for him to shout at her so impatiently, it was very unusual, though she didn't think to much of it as she tried to piece everything that happened together, "Cup...the Cup."

"It was a Portkey." she spluttered out, still trembling from her encounter, "Yes, clearly someone bewitched it." Moody stated in a obvious tone, "But what happened? Tell me what happened?"

The Ravenclaw shut her eyes, the same pain, everything was starting to creep up her skin as she tried to force the words out of her mouth, "Everything was wrong...from the start. Fleur was attacked by someone, Krum I think? But he wasn't himself, his eyes were different, like he was cursed, someone controlling him...like someone used the Imperius curse on him."

"Krum's not important, Y/L/N." Moody interjected sternly, "What happened after? When you got to the graveyard."

"It was like I'd fallen into one of my dreams..nightmare..." Y/N quickly stopped herself as her eyebrows furrowing together at a realization, "Wait. I didn't say anything about a graveyard."

She noticed Moody stiffening up, his tongue trailed very slowly over his lower lip, her suspicion began to rise, "Professor, you put the Cup in the maze, meaning you would've known that it was bewitched beforehand, wouldn't you?"

Though, no response from Moody as the trunk beneath her rattled violently once more, that's when it clicked, of course, but how could it be? He had helped her from the very first task, he had helped the Ravenclaw with almost every problem she had with the Tournament.

"It's you...." she murmured lowly as her grip around the trunk beneath tightened, "It was you wasn't it? But...how, why-"

"Tell me what happened! I need to know what happened!" Moody exploded with anger, glaring at the Ravenclaw deadly in the eye, but the Ravenclaw was still in shock, how could it be him?

Moody seemed to grow even more impatient as he reached down his robes and whipped out his wand at the Ravenclaw, fear was what flashed through her eyes, she had already faced a blow back at the graveyard, was she about to face another one here?

Suddenly, the doors blasted open, sending Moody flying back onto the ground. To Y/N's relief it was Dumbledore, who stood at the doorway, his face was coldly staring straight through Moody while McGonagall and Snape trailed behind him.

"Up." Dumbledore ordered with a flick of his wand, Moody was sent roughly back to his chair, "Severus, you wouldn't happen to have a little something to encourage the cooperation?"

She felt McGonagall place her arms over her shoulder in a somewhat protective way as Snape handed a tiny vial, the Ravenclaw recognized as Veritaserum, towards Dumbledore as he gripped Moody by his hair, jerking his head back as he tipped the Veritaserum onto his tongue.

"Do you know where you are?" Dumbledore questioned, "Hogwarts Castle." Moody responded.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Albus Dumbledore."

"And you? Are you Alastor Moody?"

"No."

Instantly, the Ravenclaw fell into a pit of confusion as she watched Dumbledore's eyes began to search the room. Tonight, was certainly a night where all her nightmares had come true, a night she wished would just vanish away.

"Is he nearby?" Dumbledore continued to interrogate, earning a nod from Moody as he motioned his hand slowly into his robes.

"Is he in this chamber?" Dumbledore asked, earning another nod from Moody as Dumbledore began to gaze around the room, "Step aside, will you, Y/N?"

Y/N slowly nodded before she stood up from the trunk beneath her as Snape raised his wand, and with a flash, the seven locks around the trunk exploded open.

Curiously, Y/N peered her head inside the trunk, her eyes widening in shock, it was impossibly deep like a deep tunnel built inside the trunk. What's worse, there was a man that laid naked upon the enclosure, a man that had the same face as Professor Moody.

Instantly, it all clicked, the flask, the minimal hair left on the real Moody's head, the tongue probing, it all made sense now, "Polyjuice Potion.." the Ravenclaw murmured under her breath, earning a hum from Dumbledore as he tossed the clone's flask to her hands.

"I think we now know who's been stealing from your stores. Severus." Dumbledore told as his eyes stayed glued to the cloned Moody. Just then, the Ravenclaw watched as his face begins to mutate along with his hands, his scarred skin turning smooth, his hair turning into the color of straw, that's when she knew, it was

"Barty Crouch. Junior." Dumbledore growled as Crouch turned towards Y/N with a largely spread grin, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."  he smirked smugly as he pulled back his sleeve, revealing the black dark mark, tattooed permanently onto his forearm.

"Y/N." Dumbledore called out calmly, "Would you lift your sleeve, please." he asked softly as the Ravenclaw stared at him with uncertainty, slowly she nodded as she began to pull her sleeve up, revealing the deep still fresh cut by Wormtail.

"It's happened then! Lord Voldemort has returned!" Crouch cheered gleefully as the Ravenclaw's face slowly formed into a frown, staring at her deep cut, "I couldn't stop him.."

She watched as Dumbledore began to examine her cut deeply, then, abruptly he turned away towards McGonagall, "Call Madam Pomfrey, Minerva. The real Alastor Moody will need tending to."

McGonagall frowned at the old wizard as she flickered her gaze towards Y/N then back to Dumbledore, "What about Y/L/N, Albus? She needs to be checked, she's been scarred all over-"

"Y/N will follow me to my office." Dumbledore interjected sternly, "And bring Cornelius here, he'll need to listen to the evidence of tonight's event."

The Ravenclaw could tell McGonagall wasn't so pleased with Dumbledore's orders, especially with her not going to see Pomfrey when she's technically beat, though she slowly nodded before turning away.

"Severus, watch over Barty before Cornelius and Minerva return, I'll need to bring Y/L/N upstairs." Dumbledore ordered, earning a silent nod from Snape before Dumbledore turned back to the Ravenclaw, "Y/N?"

The Ravenclaw slowly nodded as she followed Dumbledore out of the room, suddenly the pain on her ankle remerged again, she also realised that she was now shaking. Dumbledore seemed to notice as he gripped the girl's arm and helped her through the Dark corridor.

"Y/N. We'll go to my office first before I hand you over to Madam Pomfrey." Dumbledore told quietly as they headed up a passageway, "Sirius is waiting for us there."

The Ravenclaw nodded. As she walked beside Dumbledore, she felt a kind of numbness take over her body, though she didn't quite care, instead glad.

She didn't want to think about anything that happened since she laid her finger on the Triwizard Cup. She didn't want to relive those memories, those fresh and sharp photographs that flashed through her mind continuously.

Mad-Eye Moody inside a trunk, Wormtail cradling his stump arm, Voldemort rising from the steamy cauldron. Cedric, a friend she considered as a big brother to her...dead. Cedric, no longer breathing the same air as her.

"Professor." Y/N mumbled out, "Where is Mr Diggory?"

"His with Professor Sprout." he told, his voice shook slightly at the mention, "She was Head of Cedric's house, she knew him best."

They had now reached the stone garygoyle as Dumbledore muttered the password, it sprang aside, allowing for Dumbledore and Y/N to motion up the spiral staircase leading to a wooden door as Dumbledore pushed it open.

Slightly relieved, Sirius was standing there, though his face was white and gaunt, just like when he had escaped Azkaban, he swiftly crossed the room and stood by the Ravenclaw, "Y/N, are you all right? I knew it, I knew something like this-"

"What happened?" he asked curiously as his shaking hand helped the Ravenclaw onto a chair in front of the desk. "What happened?" he repeated, this time more urgent.

Dumbledore began to tell Sirius about everything that he knew, mostly from what Barty Crouch had mentioned, though Y/N was only half listening. Every bone in her body was aching, all she wanted right now was to sit there, undisturbed for hours and hours until she fell asleep, until she can feel or think no more.

Suddenly, she felt a soft rush of wings landing on her knee, glancing over lazily, there was now a beautiful phoenix sitting on her knee, "'ello Fawkes." she muttered out groggily as she stroked it's beautiful plumage.

That was when Dumbledore had stopped talking as he sat down opposite from the Ravenclaw behind his desk. Y/N could tell he was looking at her, though she did anything but look back, she knew he was going to start questioning her, he was going to make her relieve everything again.

"I need to know what happened after you touched the Portkey in the maze, Y/N." Dumbledore told.

"We can leave that 'til morning, can't we Dumbledore?" Sirius retaliated harshly as he placed his hand onto the Ravenclaw's shoulder, in a sign of comfort, "Let her have some sleep. Let her have some rest."

Those words seemed to have calmed Y/N slightly, she wanted rest more than anything right now. Dumbledore however was unbothered by Sirius's remark as he leant forward towards the Ravenclaw.

Y/N really unwillingly lifted her gaze to finally meet Dumbledore's eyes, "If I thought I could help you by putting you into an enchanted sleep, and allowing you to postpone the moment when you have to think about what has happened tonight, I would do it." Dumbledore assured gently.

"But I know better." Dumbledore stated, "Numbing the pain for a while will make it way worse when you finally feel it. You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected, Y/N. I ask you to demonstrate your courage one more time. I ask you to tell us what happened."

The Ravenclaw took a deep breath before slowly, she began to tell them everything that had happened, throughout the time she spoke, visions of everything began to rise again, she could see everything, just like it was happening right in front of her.

There were times where Sirius would make a noise as if he wanted to speak, though Dumbledore'd always raise his hand to stop him, which surprisingly relieved the Ravenclaw. She felt as if she was letting out all the poison and venom swirling around her blood, it was hard to continue speaking about the occurrence, though a feeling told her that if she just spilled it all out, she would feel much better.

It was when she had mentioned Wormtail cutting her arm for her blood that Sirius finally broke, his hand around her shoulder tightened as the Ravenclaw showed them the deep cut on her arm.

Though, Dumbledore kept his composure as he signaled for her to continue, and she did. She continued on about how Voldemort emerged from the cauldron. Though, when she reached the part of how their wands connected, the memories of what came out of Voldemort's wand began to flood her mind.

"The wands connected?" Sirius questioned, breaking off the silence as he flickered his gaze between Dumbledore and Y/N, "Why?"

"Priori Incantatem." Dumbledore muttered out, "When two wands that share the same core connect, in this case,You, Y/N, and Voldemort's wands share a feather from the tail of this phoenix."

The Ravenclaw glanced over to Fawkes who was still peacefully staying on here knee, a sudden feeling of amazement flashed through her, "My wand's feather came from Fawkes?" she questioned in awe to which Dumbledore nodded at.

"Yes, and so does Harry's." he stated as the Ravenclaw stared at him with surprise, "So what happens when a wand meets its brother?" Sirius chimed in curiously.

"They will not work properly against each other." Dumbledore told, "If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do a battle, one of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed, in reverse. The most recent first, and then those which preceded it."

Dumbledore then, turned to the Ravenclaw with an interrogative look, it was like he was asking for some sort of confirmation, so Y/N responded with a nod.

"Which means..." Dumbledore trailed off slowly, "That some form of Cedric must have reappeared."

The Ravenclaw felt a dagger being stabbed right through her heart at the mention of Cedric, she felt guilt, anger, sadness rush through her bloodline, but she kept her composure as she returned a slow nod.

"Diggory came back to life?" Sirius asked sharply to which Dumbledore shook his head at, "No spell can reawaken the dead." he stated lowly, "All that would happen is a kind of reverse echo. A shadow of living Cedric would have emerged from the wand...Am I correct, Y/N?"

"H-He spoke to me." Y/N told as she felt her body begin to shake again, the dagger digging deeper into her heart, "His ghost, the ghost of Cedric...or whatever it was, he spoke."

"An echo." Dumbledore assured, earning a nod from the Ravenclaw as she tried to calm herself down, though she was still trembling, "I saw, an old man, and...." she trailed off, the memory of what happened next made the dagger go straight through her heart.

She glanced up at Dumbledore, then back to Sirius, taking a deep shaky breath, "The Potters." she spluttered lowly, "Lily and James Potter."

She felt Sirius's grip on her shoulder tightened to the point where it started to hurt, though she kept her gaze on Dumbledore, her body still slightly shaky.

"Very well, Y/N, these echoes. Shadows, what did they do?" he questioned gently, slowly and hesitantly, the Ravenclaw continued to tell them about what they did, how she got back to the Portkey, how she escaped Voldemort, Cedric's last request...

After she had finished, she realised Fawkes had moved to the floor, she couldn't tell what it was doing, though all of a sudden, she felt her injured ankle no longer painful, it was healed.

"I will say it again." Dumbledore sounded as Fawkes returned to his perch, "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Y/N. You have shown bravery equal to those who had died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard's burden and found yourself equal to it, and you have given us all that we have a right to expect."

"You will come with me to the Hospital Wing. I do not want you returning to the dormitory tonight. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace..." Dumbledore told softly, "Sirius would you like to stay with her?"

Sirius nodded as he stood up and transformed back into a black dog and walked with Y/N and Dumbledore out of the office, accompanying them down a flight of stairs to the hospital wing.

The Ravenclaw was more than just exhausted, she felt numb, she felt a pain hurting in her chest, she felt lost. A peaceful night's sleep sounded like a lottery ticket to her, she needed it badly, she wants anything more than to think of everything that had happened tonight, she wanted peace, for once, peace.

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