As the Sister of Harry Potter

We hit the ground and Harry collapsed, taking me with him. I pulled him over to a gravestone to lean against and looked around. We were in some graveyard, no where I had ever seen in my life. But I got the chills from it, and a feeling of great danger, even though nothing at the moment really looked threatening.

“I don’t think this is part of the task…” Cedric said, and we all pulled our wands back out, and began inspecting the area with Cedric. There was a little church nearby, and a two-story house a ways away on the hill. And then the rows and rows of old, slightly crumbling gravestone.

“Jennifer, I’ve been here before,” said Harry, “in my dreams.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end, and I whipped around. Walked towards us was a short, hooded figure, clutching a baby-sized bundle of robes. Cedric and I pointed our wands at it.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Cedric asked.

“Kill the spare,” came a high and cold voice from the bundle. “Avada Kadavra!”

“NO!”

I proceeded to make one of the best and dumbest decisions I would probably ever make in my life. I jumped in front of Cedric as the jet of green light came at him.

The ‘no!’ had come from Harry. The Killing Curse hit me in the chest just under my collarbone, bounced off, slammed me back into Cedric, and we flew backwards into a gravestone.

I had always wondered if my mother’s protection had covered me too, and tonight I guess it was time to test it out. And it worked, I lived, by that incredible miracle that had saved Harry thirteen years ago. I was in a hell of a lot of pain, but I was alive.

The figure must have thought both of us to be dead, because he got to work hauling a giant stone cauldron to the boot of the headstone he had bound Harry to. I felt faint, but felt up Cedric’s neck, looking for a pulse. I found it, and sighed in relief. At least he was alive; Passed out, but alive. I managed to stretch up and feel his face, and found blood on his cheek. ‘Must have a cut,’ I thought. I hoped it was only a cut, and that he hadn’t completely cracked his head open.

Sharply, I felt pain in my left wrist. The figure was dragging a silver dagger through my flesh, whimpering in pain. I could see why, because he had no right hand, and it was bleeding profusely. I caught a fuzzy glance of his face, and it turned out to be Wormtail, the slimy git who had betrayed my parents. He collected blood from my arm in a vial that already contained what I guessed to be Harry’s blood and left to pour it in the potion. At this point, I lost my strength and fell into unconsciousness.

I awoke to an intense burning on my chest from where Avada Kadavra had hit me and my little brother’s screams. ‘Harry’s in trouble,’ my brain kept screaming at me, kicking me into my slow-motion action. My vision was blurry, and I swayed and my brain swam when I stood, but at least Harry stopped screaming. But I knew that standing wouldn’t be good enough. I just hoped my brain would get straight soon so I could fight, possibly even die trying, to keep Harry alive. That kid was my life, my family, the only one who had defeated Voldemort, and probably the one who would have to do it again, and if I needed to die so he could live, so be it.

My eyes decided to work again, and from what I could see around me, there were thirty or so Death Eaters around us. Wormtail had a new silver hand and was in the circle. Cedric was still unconscious where I had left him, at the foot of a gravestone inside the circle, and the Triwizard Cup, our ticket out of here, was no where in sight. I was facing the biggest cauldron I had seen in my life, and Harry was tied against a gravestone in front of it, struggling. Standing in front of Harry, death pale with red eyes and a snake-like nose, was Lord Voldemort.

Slowly, I pointed my wand and took steps towards the tall man. I felt drunker that the last time Fred and George forced Firewhiskey upon me, absolutely wasted. I stumbled, but held my own. I came within a couple feet of the two, Voldemort facing me, a smirk of amusement (no doubt at my lack of coordination) plastered on his face.

“So Jennifer, you lived. It seems your mother’s protection applied to you as well,” Voldemort said, interested. His eyes reminded me of lasers from those cheesy spy movies.

“You don’t touch my brother, you got it?” I said, re-aiming my wand for his chest. I was having a hard time keeping my wand pointed straight.

“So, you’d like to die in his place? Following in your Muggle mother’s footsteps even more are we? You already look like her.”

“My mum wasn’t a bloody Muggle!” I shouted.

“Crucio!” Voldemort yelled.

The pain hit so suddenly my already questionable knees gave out. It felt like every cell in my body was on fire. I screamed so loud I thought I’d break my own eardrums. And then it stopped, and Voldemort was coming at me, yanking my up by my sloppy ponytail.

“Enjoying it, Potter? Are you so willing to die for him now? You weren’t as a child, you coward!” He spat, mocking me. Red-hot anger boiled in my mind, and I turned and threw a punch at his face. He couldn’t block me, so I ended up giving him a bloody nose somehow, but he yanked my hair harder, threatening to rip it out. And that’s when Cedric came to, groaning pitifully.

A Death Eater grabbed him and restrained him, which probably didn’t take much, seeing as he was groggy. Voldemort frowned, obviously irritated in his own folly. “So, it seems tonight is a night just full of surprises. How about a little fun first? CRUCIO!” Now it was Cedric’s turn to scream, and I kicked Voldemort’s shin.

“DON’T TOUCH HIM EITHER!”

Voldemort broke the curse and looked back and forth between us several times before smiling softly and coldly.

“Ah, I see… love. A worthless thing,” he commented, and he continued torturing Cedric. I started struggling madly, and I think I lost a few hairs out of my scalp.

Voldemort sneered at my efforts. “You just don’t give up, do you?”

I gasped out, “Get a life.” My brain really didn’t like to think about what came out of my mouth when I was in distress, did it?

Rage filled, Voldemort flicked his wand, and I soared to Harry’s gravestone, smashing my shoulder into it. With a crunch and a loud pop, my shoulder dislocated and the bones got crushed a bit. I could still move it, but it hurt like hell, almost more than the Cruciatus Curse.

“Really, you think that? Well then, maybe I should just finish him off. Would you like that? But then again, you’ve spent my mercy…” Voldemort turned to a struggling Cedric. “Sectumsempra!”

The curse caught Cedric, slashing two gashes in him, making a sort of huge less than sign covering is body. He screamed painfully, and the Death Eater threw him to the ground so he could bleed to death outside of the ring. At this point, I’m sorry to say, I was kicked in the head by Wormtail and blacked out again.

-

I woke up again to golden light and some kind of bird song. Harry and Voldemort’s wands were connected by a golden jet of light. It was magic beyond anything I knew. Harry jerked his wand up and broke it, running away. I struggled to my feet and looked for Cedric. He had somehow ended up over by the glowing Triwizard Cup. I sprinted after Harry, dodging spells, gravestones and Death Eaters.

“Stun them! Stun them!” Voldemort screamed.
I don’t know how I didn’t see him, but a Death Eater tripped me and stood over me with his wand. I flipped over and uttered the first spell that came to mind.

“Sectumsempra!”

You might call it good aim, but I call it poor. My curse caught his jugular and his blood practically exploded out of his neck. Harry ran over and his spell knocked the dying Death Eater over.

“Jen, what happened?” he asked, dragging me to my feet as we stared at the Death Eater.

“He’s… dead,” I said in a ghost of a voice as the Death Eater just… died.

“Jen! Let’s go! We don’t have time!” When I didn’t budge, he grabbed my arm and we slid behind a gravestone. I really wanted to, but I had no time to feel revulsion. We ran just a little further, dodging more curses, and finally came to Cedric’s bloody body. I grabbed his wrist as Harry pointed his wand at the Triwizard Cup.

“Accio!”

We flew though the air as Voldemort screamed in rage.

-

Cedric was the first thought in my mind the second we landed at Hogwarts outside the Maze. “HELP!” I screamed, but that was probably unnecessary, seeing as there were many people screaming around us already.

“Cedric?” I called to him. “Cedric? Can you hear me?” His eyes opened slightly and he groaned. “Okay, just stay with me…” At least he was still alive, but hardly so, and I didn’t know what to do at all. I found a rip on my jeans and opened it wider, taking off an entire pant leg bellow my knee and started trying to stop the bleeding with it, as it was the only thing I knew to do.

People were surrounding us, screaming still, but thankfully, Dumbledore kept most of them back, and Amos Diggory appeared by my side. Cedric’s eyes closed, and Amos took over for me, using his own coat. I grabbed Cedric’s face.

“Don’t you die on me!” His eyes opened again, the spark almost gone from his gray eyes. “Just hold on…” I choked, my tears spilling out of my eyes. He couldn’t die, he just couldn’t bloody die!

“Move out of the way!”

Madame Pomfrey shoved her way through the crowd and over too us, shooing away Mr. Diggory, and pulling me off Cedric. “Move on Potter, it’s me Diggory needs, not you!” she yelled, and I was yanked away by my bad shoulder.

“Ouch! No, Cedric!”

But Moody was dragging Harry and I up to the castle, and there wasn’t much we could do about it.

Harry looked dead. His eyes were screwed up in pain from his ankle, and he was as pale as a ghost. He had one hand covering his scar, which was still paining him. Personally, I felt queasy. I staggered a lot, and my entire left side was numb with pain. My scalp still hurt. Nothing in my mind made sense. Thoughts changed, mover around, collided, and disappeared of their own will. Harry had to tell Moody what happened, and he could barely talk himself.

“Cup was Portkey… took us to graveyard… Voldemort was there…”

“Keep going boy,” Moody said, still growly, but a bit sympathetic.

“Tried to kill Cedric…. got body back… Death Eaters came…”

“How many?”

“Thirty… at least…” I answered, and continued for Harry while he tried to pass out. “Attacked me… then Cedric...” I came close to hurling in the corridor as the image of Cedric being cut open came to mind.

Harry went on after that. “Dueled Voldemort… wands connected and did something funny…”

“Alright, good, good, sit down…”

We were in Moody’s office. He had us drink some awful potion, but it cleared our heads and we could see properly again. “So you’re sure he’s back?” Moody asked.

“Yes,” I said, “he’s back. And very real.”

“Did he forgive them? The ones who escaped Azkaban?”

“Oh!” Harry said, remembering something and totally ignoring Moody’s question at the same time. “There’s a Death Eater here! He put my name in the Goblet!”

“Of course there is, I know who it is.”

“Who, Karkaroff?” Harry asked wildly.

“No, he took off as soon as he felt the Mark burning. It was me.”

“You? No, it couldn’t have been!”

“I assure you, it was. I put your name in under a different school. Who helped you with the first task? Who nudged Hagrid into showing you the dragons? Who eliminated your competition in the maze? Who showed that thick-head Diggory how to get the egg’s clue, knowing he would pass the information on to you? I did.”

He now leered over us, wand pointed at Harry’s heart. I could probably have knocked him a good one in the face, but it wouldn’t do much and most likely more damage to myself than to Moody. And my body felt so sluggish he probably would have blocked it anyways. “And now, imagine how bad the Dark Lord wants to kill you – both of you. Imagine how I’ll be rewarded when he finds I’ve defeated both of you…”

“You’re barking,” I said venomously, spitting blood in his face. I was even bleeding inside my mouth. This was not exactly a good sign.

“We’ll see who’s mad now!” Moody cried insanely, raising his wand.

“Stupify!”

Moody went sailing across the room, and Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall stood there. The Headmaster stood with such fury it seemed to heat the entire room. Dumbledore searched Moody for his hip flask, which he sniffed.

“Polyjuice Potion. Now we know who’s been stealing for you, Severus. We’re going to need your strongest Truth Potion… Minerva, go down to Hagrid’s and bring the large black dog there up to my office and tell him to wait. Then bring up Winky from the kitchens.”

The two Professors left without question, but certainly gave Dumbledore odd looks.

“Harry, Jennifer… you need to know the truth, so I have to ask you to stay here.”

With that, Dumbledore began rummaging through Moody’s many-locked trunk, and found the real Moody inside. As Dumbledore tended to him, the Moody in the chair began to change into someone Harry and I both knew.

“Crouch! Barty Crouch!” Snape hissed as he swept back into the room, followed by McGonagall and a house elf who was in tears. Dumbledore poured the Truth Potion Snape handed him down Crouch Jr.’s throat. Then Dumbledore woke him up.

“Tell us what happened. Everything,” instructed Dumbledore. While Winky cried, Barty Crouch Jr. told the story of his father saving him for Azkaban on his mother’s wish, him sending up the Dark Mark at the Quidditch Cup, turning into Moody, and everything that had happened at Hogwarts. He looked mad. Scratch that, he was mad. He had killed his own father, and seemed to think he was Voldemort’s best friend!

When he finished, Dumbledore gave more instructions. “Minerva, I need you to stay on watch here. Severus, we need Poppy up here to tend to Alastor as soon as she can. Harry, Jennifer?” We stood, weary and swaying. Dumbledore helped us into the corridor. “I must ask you to come up to my office first. Sirius is waiting for us.”

We nodded and tried not to trip over our own feet. Then, I had to know. “Professor? Is Cedric okay?”

“Madame Pomfrey got to him just in time, and she’s finishing patching him up in the Hospital Wing as we speak. He’ll be fine.”

I sighed in relief. At least one thing could be good tonight.

We made it into Dumbledore’s office, and Sirius hugged each of us in turn, very lightly.

“Dumbledore, they need medical attention! You can’t possibly-”

“Sirius, they can go, and will go, as soon as we know what happened. Jennifer, start with yourself going into the maze.”

And so I started. I got us up to me jumping in the middle of Avada Kadavra, and Sirius gasped. I showed him where it had hit me. “Naturally, Lily’s protection would have covered you as well,” said Dumbledore, and Harry continued where I left off. I added in what I could.

Finally, when we finished, Dumbledore said, “Jennifer, you violated the rules by entering the maze. However, because without you, Cedric would be dead, Harry won’t be disqualified.”

I honestly didn’t care about that, and I didn’t think Harry did either. We were just thankful to be alive.

“As for your wands connecting Harry, when brother wands do battle against each other, one of the wands can show echoes of recent spells cast. That is why you saw your parents. But remember Harry, no spell can re-awaken the dead.”

Harry nodded grimly. I think he understood this, even if he didn’t like it at all.

But guilt was building up inside me. I had to tell them. “Sirius, Professor… I—I killed one of them…” My voice cracked, and the tears spilled again. “He was going to kill me, and my Cutting Curse hit his throat, and—and…”

I couldn’t finish. I grabbed Dumbledore’s rubbish bin and vomited in it. Blood and bile went out, and my mouth tasted awful. But at least my stomach felt better. Sirius rubbed my back. Too bad that wouldn’t fix a broken guilty conscience.

“Dumbledore, they’ve told you enough. They need rest, and hospital.”

“Alright, and I’ll say it again; you two have shown bravery beyond anything I could have imagined from a pair of students. Now, bed and rest.” Sirius transformed, and we left the office for the Hospital Wing.