As the Sister of Harry Potter

“Thank goodness they’re alive…” were Madame Pomfrey’s words as we stumbled into Harry and I’s part-time living quarters. See? I can be funny even when I’m about to fall over dead.

Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Fred and George, Ron, Hermione, Ophilia, Sarlanda, Launa, Hyden… they were all here. Cedric was lying on a bed, his entire torso bandaged it seemed.

“Madame Pomfrey, I must ask you to just heal and let them rest. Harry and Jennifer don’t need anymore questions,” said Dumbledore before he left to go do goodness knows what.

Mrs. Weasley and Bill went to Harry, along with the Fourthies, but the Twins, Ophilia and Sarlanda stared at me. Ophilia was the first to move.

“Jennifer, we thought you were dead…” she croaked, and moved towards me. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying. Ophilia’s the most emotional out of all of us, but this was a lot of tears even for her. I gripped her in a one-armed hug.

“Nearly was, mate,” I said gruffly, wincing.

I looked at the other three. There was no joke in the Twins’ faces, and Sarlanda looked very odd, emotionless, but worried.

“We didn’t find you in the Quidditch stands, and—and…” Ophilia’s voice trailed off as she started crying again.

“Ophilia, Jen looks about to pass out…” Fred said, and he took her in his arms. Madame Pomfrey shooed me into the bathroom in the back so I could shower. I almost vomited again when I saw myself in the mirror.

Practically from head to toe, I was covered in blood. Everything about me seemed to be dyed red to match my hair. I had a big cut on my head that was bruising from being kicked by Wormtail, and the upped half of my body was stained with the Death Eater’s blood. My hands were coated with Cedric’s blood, and my left arm hand a long cut on it, again from Wormtail. And the icing on the cake? My new scar. It was similar to Harry’s, but it looked like a four-year-old was given four sticks of lightning and asked to stick them together. It was pretty random anyways, and was still burning like mad.

I showered, glad to be rid of all the blood, and changed into some spare cloths, which Ophilia had brought down. In the Wing, Harry had already been given his sleeping draft. Madame Pomfrey fixed my shoulder and re-located it, and Sarlanda hugged me after I cast another worrying look at Cedric.

“He’s gonna be fine Jen, really.”

“I know,” I mumbled. Pomfrey set me on the bed across from Harry and bandaged my wrist.

Then came shouting from down the corridor. “They’re going to wake him up if they don’t shut up!” Mrs. Weasley hissed. McGonagall and Fudge burst into the Wing, yelling at each other. Snape followed silently.

“When he hears about this-”

“Where’s Dumbledore?” Fudge asked Madame Pomfrey, and she glared at him.

“Not here, and this is a Hospital Wing, Minister.”

In the knick of time, Dumbledore himself entered. “What has happened?” he asked Fudge sharply.

“Oh, nothing,” said McGonagall sarcastically, “the Minister just seems to see it fit to be accompanied by a Dementor everywhere!”

“To interview a potentially dangerous-”

But McGonagall drowned him out. “And the minute that thing entered the room, it swooped down on him, and… and…”

We didn’t need her to finish.

“He is no loss at all! He’s been convicted of several murders!”

“But now he can’t testify as to why he committed said murders,” Dumbledore pointed out.

“Why? Because he’s a raving lunatic! He seemed to think that Lord Voldemort was giving him his instructions!”

“Because he was, and his plan succeeded. Lord Voldemort has been returned to his body.”

Fudge looked dumbstruck. Then denial kicked in. “Preposterous Dumbledore! You-Know-Who, back?”

“We heard Barty Crouch’s confession, and he was under the influence of Veratiserum.”

“Crouch believed himself to be receiving You-Know-Who’s instructions! You can’t possibly believe the word of a lunatic!”

“When they touched the Triwizard Cup tonight,” Dumbledore said steadily, but I could tell his rage and impatience was slowly building, “Harry, Jennifer, and Cedric were transported to a graveyard where they witnessed Lord Voldemort’s re-birth.”

“You’re prepared to take their word on that? Diggory’s half dead, and the Potters, well…” Fudge’s voice trailed off. Anger began to boil in me. What in the world was Fudge playing at?

“You’ve been reading Rita Skeeter, haven’t you Minister?” Harry asked quietly. Everyone but Dumbledore and Sarlanda jumped. None of us had noticed he was awake.

Fudge turned red, but said, “And what if I have? I notice there are certain facts about there two you’ve kept from me.” He now pointed at me. “Like her! She’s just a plain trouble-maker and attention-seeker!” Now he pointed at Harry. “A Parselmouth? Having funny spells all over the place-”

“If you are referring to the pains Harry’s scar give him, I can assure you, he’s as sane as anyone.”

“Look!” Harry shouted, “I saw him come back! I saw the Death Eaters too!” He rattled off a few of the names. I must have been knocked out at that part, but I knew quite a few of the surnames he mentioned.

“All cleared! They were only associated with him thirteen years ago!” Fudge bellowed.

I had had enough. I yanked myself out of Madame Pomfrey’s grip and stalked up to Fudge. I towered over him. Not as much as Dumbledore, but enough. Being a bit on the tall side was a good thing sometimes. “So,” I growled, “you’re saying that-” I pointed at Cedric, “was a freak accident?!”

“You all are so convinced on destroying what we have built the past thirteen years!” Fudge yelled back. Sarlanda pulled me back from Fudge and Dumbledore resumed.

“Lord Voldemort is back. If you take precautions now, we can prevent him from rising to his former strength. I suggest you start by removing the Dementors from Azkaban and recruiting the Giants.”

“If the magical community got wind that I had done such things, I’d be booted out of office!”

“You are blinded,” Dumbledore said, exerting his rage once more, “by your love of office! If you don’t act, then you are only aiding the Dark Lord!”

“Mad… absolutely barking…”

“Here,” Snape hissed, yanking up his robe sleeve and showing us all his Dark Mark, “the Dark Mark. Not as dark as it was an hour or two ago, but proof.” Fudge backed away from the potions master.

“You’re all insane!”

Now it was my turn. I broke away from Sarlanda and tugged the collar of my shirt down, revealing my new scar. “There! New curse mark, fresh off the Avada Kadavra train! Got it the same way Harry got his!” I yelled rather loud.

“You could have done it to yourself!”

“Oh yes!” I said sardonically. “Because I just know it’ll bounce right off me!”

Sarlanda was restrained me again at this point.

Fudge jammed his bowler hat on his head. “Good evening to you all. Dumbledore, I’ll be in touch with you tomorrow on how this school is to be run.” He headed for the door.

“You pompous ASS! You’re going to get everyone killed!” I screamed as he exited.

-

It was the feast night, and Harry and I weren’t exactly looking forward to bring in the Great Hall with all those people. The morning after the task, Dumbledore had asked the school not to badger us and Cedric about what had happened in the maze. He didn’t really need to, because they avoided us anyways.

Before we started eating, Dumbledore stood. The hall went silent. “As you all know, we nearly lost one of our own during the final task. That student is Cedric Diggory.”

Eyes flashed in Cedric’s direction. He had been released this morning, but he still had bandages on. Pomfrey said he should be fully healed before the end of summer, but he’d have the scars for the rest of his life.

“The devastation of what happened to Cedric has affected us all. Therefore, I think it’s only fair that you all know who did this.”

Dumbledore paused. Nobody was even breathing.

“The attempts made on his life, first by a Killing Curse, then by a Cutting Curse, were made by Lord Voldemort himself.” Whispering started up. “The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this, but I feel not telling you is an insult to Cedric.”

His blue eyes flashed to where Cedric sat at the Hufflepuff table.

“There are two other people worthy of mention in connection to this, and they are Harry and Jennifer Potter.” Now everyone looked at us, but their eyes soon returned to Dumbledore. “They risked their lives fighting the Dark Lord and are solely responsible for bringing Cedric back alive.” With that, Dumbledore sat back down.

-

On the train, we were in our usual compartment. But none of the fun was there. Fred and Ophilia quietly talked by the compartment door. George and I sat across from each other at the window, silent. Sarlanda was out making her Prefect rounds, and Lee and Sophia had gone off to find the food cart.

I stared at passing clouds, thinking of how everything had changed. Last time we were on the Hogwarts Express, the air was charged with mystery, anticipation, and Quidditch. Now, there was gloom, doom, and dread. In the course of one school year, I had found love, almost lost it, and killed someone. Voldemort had returned, and the Ministry wasn’t going to be doing anything about it. Dumbledore would be fighting, but how? And who would help him?

Time on the train passed, and I somehow found myself alone in the compartment. This didn’t particularly bother me. I enjoyed the solitude.

Not for long though. With a knock on the door, and Cedric entered my compartment. We stood looking at each other for a moment. His gray eyes had their spark back, but he still looked exhausted. We embraced each other, and I felt the tears welling up in my eyes like the sissy I was.

“Shh…” he said, running his fingers through my hair. I started crying into his shoulder. I never wanted to let him go, ever. “Where did everyone go?”

I shook my head. Like I knew where the hell they went. I tried my best to stop crying when he pulled back a bit to look at me. He was one of those people I really didn’t want to see me cry.

“Jennifer,” Cedric said seriously, brushing tears off my face, “thank you, for saving my life three times in one night.”

I smiled a bit. “It’s okay, just doing my job.”

He kissed me sweetly, and I him. ‘Please,’ I begged Time, ‘let this never end.’

But of course it did.

On the platform, Harry and I stood with our trunks. Hedwig and Fiona hooted at each other. Fred and George found me and pulled me aside.

“Jen, look what he gave us,” Fred said, and George produced Harry’s Triwizard winnings; All one thousand Galleons.

“Good! Now you two can finally open that joke shop you’ve been wanting!” They looked at me, dumbstruck. “You two know what’ll happen if you don’t take it, right?”

“We’d never walk again,” said George, gulping.

“Exactly!” I said, and I gave each of them a hug. “You two better save me from the Dursley’s!” I said, running back to my brother. Uncle Vernon was there, and our luggage was loaded… they were waiting for me. And so were Cedric and his parents, who would probably have been more welcoming of Harry and I than our relatives.

I hugged Cedric and then his parents hugged me.

“Jennifer, thank you. If you hadn’t been there…” Mrs. Diggory shuddered.

“It’s fine; I just did what I always do.” I poked Cedric’s forehead. “You! You better write to me!”

“I swear!” he vowed, raising his right hand. I laughed, kissed his cheek, and ran back to Uncle Vernon, who was impatient.

As Harry and I crawled into the back seat, he grumbled, “Who the ruddy hell was that scruffy guy?”

“Love of my life,” I said dreamily. That shut him up.

In the driveway of Privet Drive, I stopped Harry and put an arm on his shoulder.

“Don’t forget Harry, what’s coming will come-”

“And we’ll meet it when it does,” he finished.

We grinned at each other and walked inside Number Four.