Albus summoned Amos and got a contingent of Healers from St Mungo’s to see to Cedric. No one had needed to deal with a young man who had been exposed to a killing curse in years. Oh, the Aurors did now and then, but the Ministry had a few of their own healers on 24 hour standby for things and didn’t usually need St Mungo’s personnel.

Cedric started to groggily revive after an hour, to everyone’s relief. The Healers were listing potions that were needed over the next few days and recommending a week of rest when Harry and Tom were brought in.

Albus heaved a sigh of relief. The news from Auror Tonks that Moody had been a polyjuiced imposter had stunned him … another year of hazardous DADA teachers, he had grimaced in dismay. Tom was seen to a cot and they insisted Harry get into one as well. Albus looked around curiously. He’d expected an overbearingly overprotective Severus to be there barking orders and shouting for Healer Randall.

Albus shook his head and summoned Harry’s healer, himself. Dora had said that Severus and Lucius had gone after the abducted trio themselves. They must still be searching, unaware that the three victims were now safely at Hogwarts. If they didn’t return within the hour, he would send his Patronus with a message. Not knowing what sort of stealthy activity they might be in the middle of … well, he didn’t want to end up getting them killed.

A squad of grim looking Aurors arrived, demanding answers, of course. Rufus had arrived to the holding cells with Barty Crouch Jr. and had sent them off to Hogwarts to question everyone involved. A couple of the Aurors were a part of Rufus’ new pack of ‘hardline Aurors’. They quickly toned down their attitude when they saw Hugo Savage was still present – and Dumbledore had a particularly grim look as well.

Randall had Harry fixed up quickly enough, though magically he’d been badly drained in the duel – but time would fix that Randall told Harry as he patted his shoulder and handed a calming draught and a healing potion to him with a stern look. Harry was reluctant, but he recognized the look on Randall’s face. There was no getting around him. And he trusted Randall - he was sure the Healer would take care of Tom. After Harry dozed off, Randall then turned to Tom, who the St Mungo’s healers were working on, while Dora clutched one of his hands.

"Well, he definitely sustained a head injury that has caused this blindness." An older healer said a bit pompously.

"Yes, yes … all vey obvious." A mediwitch broke in tetchily. "The question is - can we fix it, after an animagus transformation?"

Healer D’Este and the other two frowned, "That does make it complicated …" Madame Pomfrey said in troubled tones.

An older wizard with a beard to rival Dumbledore’s nodded. "A dragon’s brain is different – the anatomy differs, so the injury has been displaced … twice, with him transforming back. We need to take care with our spell-casting."

"Well, we know we need to lessen the inflammation … and clear away excess fluids. We should start with that and look carefully while we are doing so … we’ll do further healing if need be." Healer D’Este leveled his wand at Tom and started an incantation. The others cast supporting spells – one to keep Tom immobile and one to keep him in a light slumber. The last had a monitoring spell in place, to ensure Tom was stable.

Randall, Albus and Hugo watched carefully while Dora kept her gaze fixed on Tom’s face. It would be terrible if Tom was never able to see again. Oh, there were spells that would help – make him able to "see" shapes and shadows or otherwise "know" where objects were. It would not be the same, though. His life’s ambition – building that library of memories – would be essentially over, as he would not be able to view the memories himself. Oh, the work could continue … but it would be without Tom.

Hugo and Albus stood by and fumed. Tom was easily one of the most gifted wizards they’d ever met – a match for them, already, in power. He would likely surpass them when he achieved his full potential. Now, he might have been robbed of his vision … and there was nothing they could do about it, even with all their magical power and ability in their grasp and ready to use.

Healer D’Este lowered his wand after several long minutes and smiled. "I think all the damage has been reversed …" His smiled dimmed a little "…we just need to wait and see if his sight returns – we’ll check daily to see if further healing needs to be done."

The Aurors who had been impatiently watching felt they had waited long enough. The apparent leader, Claudius Smith, was an ardent supporter of Scrimgeour’s hardline attitude toward even the possibility of dark activity. He had been gleeful when Barty Crouch Jr had been brought in and the news that Malfoy Senior and Professor Snape had been shipped to Azkaban under Dumbledore and Savage’s very noses.

"I need to question the … victims, if you’re done, Healer D’Este?" Auror Smith said, just a bit pompously. He was new to the team leader position and the people present in the room were rather daunting for a first – time effort at intimidating some ‘witnesses’. The Potter boy had been shouting about Voldemort having been resurrected and Scrimgeour had been adamant that he be made to recant this … they were obviously fear-mongering to gain support for Dumbledore’s faction in the political arena.

Potter was obviously being groomed to become the front man for Dumbledore’s bid for power and to clean up Malfoy and Snape’s images. Potter was young – and clearly desperate for attention. He likely had gotten used to being center stage and getting constant media exposure. He would be easy to manipulate by the Headmaster and a pair of Uber-Slytherins. He glanced at Potter pityingly – he needed to be rescued from this folly, that much was certain.

Madame Pomfrey immediately objected to ‘stressing her patients further’, but Auror Smith was having none of that.

"There are claims that ‘You Know Who’ has been resurrected. This needs to be looked into immediately, no matter what ‘stress’ they’ve been under." Smith barked in return.

Hugo frowned, but he understood the urgency of the Aurors knowing exactly what had happened where ‘You Know Who’ was concerned. Albus nodded slightly as well. Yes, the quicker people accepted that Voldemort was back, the better chance they had to defeat him. I was a shame the boys were not at their best, of course …

Hugo strode forward before Smith could do anything. "Tom my boy, do you feel up to telling us what happened?"

Dora still clutched Tom’s hand, frowning. She, too, wanted all this cleared up, but was feeling unhappy that Tom couldn’t be spared at least a day. Harry frowned and shifted unhappily after blinking awake at the noise of the Aurors, even with the calming draught making him less anxious about it all.

Tom frowned, he was already feeling stressed enough – not knowing if or when his eyesight would return. He was greatly missing Yvane’s soothing presence. Having Dora’s hand to cling to was comforting – but he wished Yvane was there to inspire more confidence.

"I saw the Professor … who apparently was not Moody … ", Tom began with a small snarl. He and Yvane had known that something was wrong the Professor. However he couldn’t tell the Aurors that ‘the dragon in my head said something was wrong’. "I saw he had the Tri-Wizard Trophy and was headed toward the maze … no one was supposed to be messing with the cup and I didn’t want Harry around the maze when they were putting all those dangerous creatures into it."

It sounded like a good reason to have gone to intervene when ‘Moody’ had called Harry and Cedric over. "I grabbed Harry’s arm just as the portkey charm that was placed on it was set off. I didn’t have a good grip and fell short of the set destination – I hit my head and was unconscious for a time, when I woke up I could no longer see …"

"So you don’t really know what happened then …" Claudius Smith said triumphantly. Perfect, anything this Riddle person said could be refuted – or at least called into question.

"I could hear perfectly well …" Tom broke in angrily, and quickly told them what he’d been able to hear the wizards and witches present say. "… and then we escaped, although it was difficult to fly as a dragon while blind … Harry’s patronus helped, of course."

Harry had awakened a little further, narrowing his eyes at Smith while the Auror listened to Tom with a rather patronizing look on his face – clearly ‘humoring the injured wizard’.

Hugo noticed that the Auror trainee who was supposed to be recording didn’t seem to be writing anything down … at least nothing after Tom said that he’d been blinded. He needed to bring in Aurors that didn’t look to Rufus for leadership.

Auror Smith didn’t bother to question Tom further, the less Tom Riddle said on record, the better. He turned to speak to Cedric. He was briefly unnerved by Amos Diggory’s angry objections that Cedric, luckily, overruled. Cedric patted his father’s hand and shushed him.

"I know we landed in a graveyard and I clearly saw Peter Pettigrew there – another wizard with a cloak and hood told him to ‘kill the spare’. Pettigrew shot a killing curse at me … luckily Harry shoved me aside and I didn’t catch a direct hit of the curse – then I landed on the cup and it portkeyed me back here." Cedric leaned back, sighing in exhaustion.

Auror Smith smiled in delight, "So you never saw the other wizard’s face – he was hooded?"

Cedric nodded, glad to have this over with.

Smith turned to the clearly hostile Harry Potter reluctantly. Luckily Veritaserum could not be used on an underage wizard. The potion was risky to use on those under seventeen – it could set back magical growth, on children under fourteen it was almost certain to damage their magic. They certainly didn’t want an irrefutable sworn statement from Potter … not until they got to the bottom of this. That was the problem with veritaserum – you could say what you thought was true … so if Potter believed the Dark Lord was in that graveyard … he could say it and the public would believe it – and it wouldn’t matter if Potter had been tricked.

"Now, Mr Potter, I need your statement, but you need to stick to the facts." Auror Smith said condescendingly.

Harry glared stonily and began. He described the abduction and Cedric’s near-death quickly. He skimmed over describing the graveyard – mentioning that the gravestones said ‘Riddle’ would not be good for Tom. Harry started describing the ceremony.

"… and then Pettigrew helped the Dark Lord into the cauldron …" Harry was saying.

"Wait …" Smith said. "No one said this was ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ – even if Pettigrew called him ‘My Lord’ that does not make it true … and you did not even see his face." Smith insisted.

Harry scowled, and nodded. "There was a lot of mist from the cauldron, and when the wizard got out Pettigrew got him robed. His face … it was sort of melted looking … but when he called using Pettigrew’s Dark Mark … when his followers arrived, they all called him ‘My Lord’ … and the things he said – he had to have been Voldemort." Harry used the name deliberately, making the Aurors flinch.

Smith recovered quickly, angry that he’d flinched. "It is possible that Death Eaters could call each other with the mark … no one really knows how it works." Smith grimaced uncertainly … what if it had been the Dark Lord, himself? Then he shook his head … no it was an imposter posing as him, it had to be.

"I am quite sure that you have never met ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ in the flesh before … at least not since you were a year and a half old. Am I correct?" Auror Smith had finally come to the point he’d been dreading … convincing Potter that he was wrong – or at least possibly mistaken.

Harry nodded uncertainly, not sure what it mattered. "Well – if you don’t know what he looked like … how can you possibly know that this is ‘Lord … Thingy?" Smith asked a bit aggressively. "And if his face is, as you say ‘melted looking’ how can you even describe him for anyone else to try to recognize as ‘You Know Who’?"

Harry scowled a little. "Well, why not a pensieve memory – like we’ve done before?" Harry looked to Hugo in question.

"Oh, no you don’t, Mr Potter – not until your magic is recovered." Madame Pomfrey bustled forward … this had gone on far enough.

Smith nodded … he had two of the witnesses where they wanted – neither one had ‘seen’ anything and Potter could be worked around, perhaps.

"We’ll return at another time, then." Smith gave a slight smile and bowed to the room in general. He hustled away before he could give in to the overwhelming urge tell them that Malfoy and Snape were now cooling their heels in Azkaban.

Hugo and Albus watched the Aurors and trainee’s leave with slight frowns. "They definitely did not want to find any evidence of the Dark Lord’s return." Albus said flatly.

"Worse … they were determined to not write anything down that might give credence to the claim. Even if they didn’t want him returned – they should have taken down Tom’s statement and Harry’s – however reluctant they were." Hugo said a bit angrily. He would be having words with some section chiefs … Bones would give them a good tongue-lashing.

"They weren’t writing down what I said?" Harry yelled, outraged at this. Tom was doing a bit of fuming as well, and muttered a few things that would have bought him a detention if he’d still been a student. Albus glared at him briefly, and then remembered with a discouraged sigh that Tom couldn’t see the glare.

"No, Harry, they could ignore Tom … at the present … as he could not see who was speaking. They will say it could have been anyone – even a bunch of drunken students messing about. Harry’s statement they could – and probably will - pass off as hysteria after a traumatic experience. Until a pensieve memory can be viewed they’ll resist admitting that the Dark Lord is back." Dora answered apologetically.

Hugo nodded and Albus gritted his teeth. "The longer they wait – the easier it will be for them to say that Harry’s memory has been tampered with. I’m sure they will have an expert or two willing to testify that there is something wrong with the memory." Albus almost snarled. Even being Head of the Wizengamot would not enable him to prevent ‘experts’ being called by Rufus and his cohorts.

Hugo nodded in resignation. "I need to get to the ministry and see what is going on." He nodded to Dora and said goodbye to all three boys.

Albus conjured a comfortable overstuffed chair and sat beside Harry’s bed. "I’m sure your father will be here soon – I can just leave the chair for him … you know he’d not charm one for himself." Albus winked at Harry, who smiled weakly.

Albus glanced at the clock and frowned – Lucius and Severus should have returned long ago. Albus cast his phoenix patronus and asked, "… where are you? … Tom and Harry are here at the infirmary…" and the phoenix left, but returned almost immediately and dissipated with no answer. Making Albus frown –the patronus had been unable to deliver the message.

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Adrian Kirke watched with great interest as Barty Crouch Jr. was brought into the ministry holding cells. The Aurors that marched the madly grinning Death Eater into holding were two of the puffed – up dandies that hung on Rufus Scrimgeour’s every word. Adrian sneered. Mindless sheep, they were. Adrian really wished Rufus Scrimgeour was not his section chief.

The Aurors and trainees in that group were always sending out feelers – seeing if anyone else was likely to buy the tripe they were selling. They always ran on about Dumbledore and his fear-mongering and power – grabbing. They liked to take pot-shots at Malfoy and Snape as well – though after a few broken noses they were silent about Tom Riddle … at least within earshot of Adrian.

Adrian knew he didn’t always use his brain as much as he should – as a Gryffindor he did tend to run toward danger and make plans while charging in. Madame Bones spent a lot of time trying to hex that out of him during training. However, he did feel he was a fair judge of character. His mother and two siblings were Ravenclaws and his father was a Slytherin. Adrian’s sorting into the den of lions had been greeted with resignation by his family, but no surprise. He’d had an adventuresome childhood.

Still, Adrian had learned a few things from his family and he was certain that while Malfoy and Snape were not innocent by any means … they were against the ‘You Know Who’s’ re-emergence. The Headmaster … well, by seventh year he was sure the crafty old warlock was a master manipulator – but also working to get rid of the Dark Lord. As for his old roommate, Tom Riddle – Adrian would continue breaking noses of anyone who spoke against him.

Now, though, Adrian faced a dilemma. Another former Gryffindor roommate, David Spinnett, was a fellow trainee. He was repeating every year of training because of his constant gossiping. The last thing the Aurors needed was someone who could not keep secrets. He was only kept in the program because his father was paying triple the usual apprenticeships fees and had friends in the right places.

Adrian had been in the hallway just as David started crowing loudly about Scrimgeour arresting Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape at Hogwarts under Dumbledore’s very nose. No one knew they’d been taken and Rufus’ bunch immediately started taking bets about how long it would take for Albus’ gang to figure out where they were.

Adrian had backed away and went back to the main part of the ministry. Telling anyone of this outside of the Aurors was ‘wrong’, and Adrian would prefer to not get a reprimand for spreading information. But who, inside of the Aurors, could he tell? Rufus had his ‘following’ that everyone knew about – but he also had friends that were not so obvious that would drag him in front of Rufus immediately.

Bones would do the right thing and contact Albus … and Malfoys kennel of lawyers, but Rufus would still learn of it. Who to tell that wouldn’t point to him as having ‘told on’ his Section Chief.

Adrian could sight of an elderly figure – though his posture was still straight as an arrow and Adrian knew his mind was as sharp as ever. Hugo Savage. Adrian heaved a sigh of relief. Hugo could fix this if anyone could – and hopefully keep his informant a secret.

Adrian ran to catch the old Auror, surprised at how fast the man could still walk, and caught his at his office. Hugo turned to close his door and found an anxious looking man standing there. He quickly recognized the look of an Auror trainee needing to unburden himself and waved him in.

"What can I do for you m’boy?" Hugo hoped he wasn’t wasting time on foolishness.

"My section chief … Auror Scrimgeour … arrested Barty Crouch Jr. today." Adrian started, and Hugo nodded impatiently. "He’s not the only one arrested at Hogwarts …" Adrian waited, hoping Hugo caught on.

Hugo’s gaze sharpened. "Others were arrested?" Hugo quickly put two and two together … arrests and Albus’ missing Slytherins. "Rufus arrested Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape?"

Adrian nodded in relief. "A good call to come to me … I’m technically higher in rank than him, so passing this along to me is alright – but I’ll not say who told me." Hugo waved Adrian off and sat for a moment. What was Rufus playing at? Albus should have been notified of the arrests at the very moment they happened, considering it was at Hogwarts. A power struggle was sure to occur, right when the ministry needed to hold together.

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Hugo went straight to Bones and Amelia had raged for a few minutes and then they enlisted the Minister. Cornelius wavered but they’d managed to herd him into their camp. Albus vouched for both Lucius and Snape – Lucius had money – Snape was Harry’s adopted father – Lucius had a lot money – Tom Riddle was also ‘adopted’ by Snape – Tom Riddle had vaults full of money that even Lucius couldn’t boast of.

Cornelius, bolstered by the presence of Hugo and Amelia and the knowledge that he would have Albus’ backing, went down to confront Rufus.

Rufus was ready, though. He was a Slytherin and he’d been planning, although this had ended up a bit different than he’d expected – he was still ready. He had cordoned off a block of four cells, although only Barty Crouch Jr. currently occupied it. It was now warded and sealed from anyone but Rufus and a select few others. He was invoking an old law that the Auror in charge of Azkaban and the holding cells could ‘protect’ prisoners and refuse admittance to anyone if they were afraid for the prisoner’s lives. And after all – Death Eaters could very well be in danger of assassination attempts. Oh, eventually, lawyers and such would have to be let in … but not until he had dragged it out as long as possible. Plus, as long as Albus, Hugo and all the others were focused on trying to get into the heavily guarded holding cells – they would not be looking for Snape and Malfoy in Azkaban. They would assume the cells Rufus had sealed were where they were kept.

Cornelius blustered, Amelia yelled and Hugo thundered but Rufus held firm.

"I need to question all three of the Death Eaters without worrying that any of their associates will kill them before they can talk." Rufus said a dozen times in spite of the protests.

Rufus watched them leave and frowned. He would have the Head of the Wizengamot in front of him by morning … and likely be faced with the whole Wizengamot soon after. He’d hoped for a few days before the arrests were even known of. He glanced at Spinnett – a good lad with all the right ideas – and very loose lips. Spinnett was the likely culprit.

Now, Hugo trudged down the halls of Hogwarts at an unspeakably late – or perhaps it would be considered early – hour. He found Albus in the infirmary, just as he had thought he would. Albus was pacing and frowning, but turned with a hopeful look.

Hugo noticed that Tom and Harry’s eye opened immediately as he came closer. They were worried as well.

"Did you find them?" Albus asked, and then paled at Hugo’s grim look. Visions of horrifying deaths danced in his head. If caught, he had no doubt that Voldemort would make sure that Severus and Lucius suffered the worst torture he could devise.

"They’ve been arrested." Hugo said bluntly, knowing Albus had thought they were dead … or worse. "Rufus grabbed them soon after we brought Cedric up here. They must not have been able to follow the portkey trail far – they came back and were snatched up immediately."

"They kidnapped my FATHER?!" Shouting was heard and they turned to find Harry standing up in his bed, wand out and his green eyes blazing. He was livid. First he gets portkeyed to a graveyard, watched Voldemort get ‘reborn’, his brother is blinded and now some ministry minion kidnapped his father.

Tom was standing as well, and his wand was in his hand. His eyes were unfocused, but that just made the look of murderous rage all the more chilling.

"They had best give them back … and quickly." Tom said. His voice was calm, but the undercurrents had Hugo fearing that Rufus might need a guard or two of his own.

Dora wrung her hands, what else could go wrong? She’d joined the ministry Aurors to right wrongs … now Rufus and his band of fanatics were ruining it all.

Madame Pomfrey raced out to put the pair back to bed with a good talking – to, but halted at the sight of Harry and Tom’s faces. There would be no reasoning with them, she could tell.

"Harry … Tom …" Albus put up a hand, hoping to calm them. "Give me today … let me force Rufus to give them up immediately, if I can. I still am head of the Wizengamot – and the Minister is on our side. Hugo and I will have them back, I’m sure."

Harry dropped back down on the bed, suddenly realizing how ridiculous he must look. Not to mention his magic was nearly drained … he was in no position for a battle at present. Tom frowned, trying to assess if Albus meant it or not. He reined his temper in with difficulty, he was not ready for a duel with the entire Auror corps at present – even with Dora at his side. Albus and the Wizengamot was their best bet at present.

"One day – then the lawyer, Petunia and Rosmerta will be at Rufus’ door – if I’m feeling really vicious we’ll toss Victoria at him." Tom smiled at the thought of Rufus facing down an irate Tori with Beth egging her on. It cheered him up greatly.

Albus and Hugo relaxed minutely – if he was joking about Tori and Beth he wasn’t homicidal for the moment and Harry, while still furious, was willing to give them a day. After all, they were in the holding cells and the Aurors and guards wouldn’t dare harm them badly when they knew Albus would likely be there soon.

Poppy retired – the two boys would not sleep now, whatever she said – at least Cedric’s Dreamless Sleep had kept working even with the turmoil.

Albus and Hugo left to do more plotting. Harry settled down for a good sulk and sent a house elf for Draco and Dudley – they needed to know about this. Dora left to tell every friend and acquaintance they had about this and whip them into a nice frenzy.

Tom lay back, now his initial rage had cooled he began to plot. Something was very wrong and a simple frontal assault was likely to fail, in spite of Albus. Rufus was a Slytherin – he was expecting Albus to do this. They needed more information and they needed back – up plans.

Tom’s main problem right now was his lack of sight. He blinked and looked around. He had noticed a gradual lightening of the darkness. Now everything was shadow – shades of grey the really had no form. He looked over at Harry, he could see a lighter block shape that he assumed was the bed with a boy – shaped area of color that must be Harry – or rather Harry’s magic. Tom felt a small wave of relief – he couldn’t be snuck up on very easily, then.

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Severus curled up in a ball of misery, the Warden had decided on visits from Dementors every three to four hours for them. No rest, little chance to recover any semblance of sanity … he felt doomed. He began to hastily construct walls to hide his most precious memories behind. Harry, Tom, Rosmerta, Beth … he could let them be taken.

He’d sacrificed his memories of his mother to keep the memories of Lily during his last visit with dementors. He knew the dementors were going to take some happy memories from him … even his very best Occlumency could not hold them off indefinitely – not with them forcing him to relive his most horrifying moments … but he could choose what to give.

He gave small, unimportant ones at first. Getting an award for good grades … several memories of awards for potions … His first paycheck after graduating from Hogwarts … new robes … his very best pranks against the marauders. They finally ran out and he reached for others. Some of Draco’s birthdays … nights out on the town with friends when he’d been younger … then finally he only had memories of Lily to offer, luckily there were many of them. He struggled against the Dementors and they had to fight to get each one. He hoped rescue was soon – it had only been a day and he was already feeling so very weak.

Lucius watched his friend’s mental collapse with horror. Each time the dementors arrived he would hold out as long as he could, urging Severus to fight them, even as he fought them as well. They eventually would overcome him and would have to retreat to his fox form, curling up as small as possible, shivering and whimpering.

If only they would stay away long enough to recover … and where was their rescue?

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The next morning brought the Daily Prophets with waves of hysterical headlines that had little concrete information other than reporters ‘quoting rumors that unnamed sources had given’. Newspapers forgot they were supposed to be factual and since they only knew there had been kidnappings, arrests, dead Death Eaters that were not as dead as they had thought - terrifying rumors of the ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ returning or maybe a new Dark Lord trying to replace ‘You Know Who’. Dragons were once again mentioned, this time whispered to be someone’s animagus form. There were enough tidbits to create wildly speculative stories … and as always The Boy Who Lived was somehow in the middle of it.

Hogwarts was in an uproar. No one knew quite what to think, though an outraged Draco, Dudley and Ron soon let their opinions be known. Most students – even ones who disliked Snape believed he would never in a thousand years do something to harm Harry Potter. He was snide, grouchy, unfair and scary … but he cared about his son.

The infirmary soon became ground zero for students to one by one come to and give verbal support to Draco, Dudley, Harry … and if they were brave they also told Tom that Auror Scrimgeour was a jerk and they were writing their parents to tell them so.

Victor, Fleur and their seconds joined a now awake and confused Cedric and Harry in an impromptu meeting about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Krum was flustered. Igor Karkaroff had vanished from Hogwarts along with his belongings and Victor was now less than confident about the third task.

Fleur was despondent, her family had already sent three owls demanding her immediate return to the family manor – they wanted to pull her from school, even. She’d refused, saying quitting just weeks before graduation was madness. Cedric no longer cared who one – he’d come too close to a killing curse to worry about trophies.

At the present none of the three cared about the cup … just about graduating and getting home to family. In spite of denial from all Rufus’ friends that were quoted in the papers, they could all feel a sense of impending doom.

They all heard snickering from Tom’s direction. "What, Mr. Riddle, you have an answer for all this?" Victor asked.

"Oh, I just remembered something someone said – and it would be really amusing if you three did it."
Tom chuckled.

"Well, share it – I could use a laugh, too." Cedric demanded.

Tom sighed, "I don’t remember where I heard it … but someone said that instead of wars or battles with people dying – we should sit the generals or presidents or whoever down and make them play a high stakes poker game to settle the outcome … just imagine if you three did that to settle who won the tournament?"

The three champions glanced at each other. Did they dare? It would be a huge laugh if they got away with it. Besides – the cup had been used as a kidnapping device before, who wanted to grab it this time, anyway?

"I have a deck of cards …" Krum’s second, Vanyel offered with a smirk.

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