Shooting Star

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Sirius, Remus and I sat in the stands, listening to Ludo Bagman commentate. I just wanted to get to it.
Hermione and Ron joined us shortly. Hermione petted Sirius, but then remembered that it wasn't actually a dog and apologized profusely. I smiled.
Sirius--Snuffles--paced back and forth before us, Remus sat up straight, internally freaking out, and I was jingling my leg and tapping my fingers, outwardly freaking out. Remus put his arm around me. Hermione was freaking out beside me.
I almost cried when Harry got on his broom and flew around.
They all made it all right. We all knew Dumbledore wouldn't let anybody be seriously injured, but it was stressful anyways.
"Harry." I said, hugging him once it was over.
"Hey, Mum." He hugged me back. "Uh, are you all right?"
"No!" I held him back and looked at him. "Harry Potter, I swear..." I hugged him again.
Hermione jumped in on the hug.
Once it calmed down, Sirius and Harry went into a room by themselves to talk--without Sirius as a dog.
Remus was looking towards the Shrieking Shack, his hands in his pockets. I went up and put my arm around him.
"Oh. Hey." He said, putting his arm around me. "You all right?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Sure."
"Shall we find Sirius?" I suggested.
"Yeah. 'Course."
"Are you sure you're all right?" I asked as I pulled him away.
"Yep. I'm all right." He smiled.
So we went home to return in a few weeks for the second Trial.
Remus went to his house instead of home with us, so we didn't know what to do, really. I laid down on the couch with a book.
"Elizaaaaa." Sirius said.
I waved my hand dismissively.
"Eliza."
"Is it an emergency?"
"No. But--"
"Then hush."
He climbed over me and laid between me and the couch.
"Sirius." I sighed, scooting over.
He ducked under my arm and laid down. "Much better."
"Sirius, you aren't a dog." I reminded him.
"Oh, am I in your way?"
"No, but--"
He scooted up and over a little bit. "How about now?"
"Yes, you kind of are."
"Good. Are you gonna pay attention to me now?"
"I'm paying attention to my book."
"Pay attention to me."
"Sirius!" I sighed.
He turned over, half on top of me, and took my book from my hands, tossing it to the coffee table.
"You lost my page!" I complained.
"Oops." He smiled up at me.
"Can you get off of me?"
"No." He rolled over again and kissed me.
"My whole life is spent paying attention to you." I told him.
"No. You work all week."
"And I come home and pay attention to you."
"You pay more attention to Remus." He whined.
"If you're referring to the full moon, that's still a no. He's not constantly demanding my attention."
"But you still give it to him."
"Yes, because he needs it."
"I need it!"
"And you get it in abundance. Cut it out, Sirius. Why can't you read a book?"
"Because that's boooring. What's a guy gotta do for his wife to pay him attention?" He kissed me again.
"Sirius, you get plenty of attention. You aren't three, and I'll push you off the couch."
"You're coming with me, then."
"Just get off me."
He kissed me again. "But I love you."
"Remember when you used to be cold and hard and emotionless towards me?"
"Yep. Hardest thing I've ever done." He kissed me. "Remember that one time in sixth year when you woke us up--or we were already awake, but--to go look at the stars?"
"I remember several times."
"But this one time?"
"Can you be more specific?"
"That time when Peter saw it first and I was complaining about being out there in the middle of the night and you said that it was obviously because I love you?" He prompted.
"Yeah." I lied. I had a no remembrance of that whatsoever. I'm sure it happened at some point, though. It sounds plausible.
"You held my hand that night." He grinned down at me.
"Did I?"
"Yes. You pulled me all the way out, and then when I laid down, you grabbed it again."
"Oh. Yeah, I remember that." I feel like I'm humoring a child.
He kissed me again, slowly this time. "I had woken up screaming that night, right before you and Lily came in. Normally I cut after things like that. But then you..." he stopped talking and kissed me again. "I love you." He said.
"I love you too, love."

We were back at Hogwarts in a few weeks for the second task. This one didn't seem as bad as the dragons, but then again, I don't know what's in the bottom of that bloody lake. I didn't know where Ron and Hermione were, though, and that was nearly as stressful.
Oh, God. There's a bloody giant squid in that thing.
"Oh, God. I've killed Harry Potter." I heard Neville say, and I sat up straight, looking around.
But then Harry jumped from the water, and I sighed in relief.
I heard Draco Malfoy sneering about Harry, and Sirius turned and barked at him. Draco shrieked, and it was quite amusing.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Remus asked.
I shrugged.
"Oh, God, he's gonna die." I sighed.
"He'll be all right. Dumbledore won't let anything happen."
"I don't care. I want him out."
"I know." He said. "I agree. It's all right."
I locked eyes with Mad Eye Moody, and he nodded and looked away.
"Having Mad Eye as a teacher must be terrifying." I told Remus.
He nodded in agreement. "Probably."
When Harry finally came up with Ron and Fleur's little sister, I started breathing again. I was also relieved to have found where Hermione and Ron were.
Rita Skeeter was giving Harry Potter some bad press about this crap. I wanted to punch her in the throat.
We were back shortly for the final task, sitting in front of a huge maze. I was basically hyperventilating in my seat, jiggling my leg and tapping my fingers on my knee. Remus put his hand over mine. "Calm down. It's all right."
"Is it supposed to take this long." I demanded.
"I'm sure it's fine." He said soothingly.
"But what if it's not?"
"Dumbledore won't let anything happen, Eliza. It's all right."
We waited patiently--some of us more so than others--only to have Harry show up with a dead Cedric Diggory. Harry was on the ground, crying over his body. I stood up as Amos Diggory yelled, "My boy! My boy!"
"Oh, Merlin." I sighed. "I told you, Remus! I told you--"
"Sh." He said.
Mad Eye ran onto the ground and pulled Harry away.
I searched for Snape in the crowd. He locked eyes with me and nodded. I grabbed Remus' hand and pulled him along.
It turned out that Mad Eye was actually Barty Crouch Jr who escaped from Azkaban using a shit ton of Polyjuice Potion and he had Moody locked in a trunk. I pulled Harry to me, completely ignoring Crouch. "God, Harry." I hugged him tightly, wanting to cry. "Oh my God."
He was crying into my shoulder. My poor baby. I didn't say anything, just hugged him. My poor baby... "Voldemort's back! He's back!" Harry said emphatically.
"It'll be okay, Harry. We'll take care of it. It's okay." I found myself lying.
"No. No it's not. Voldemort's back, Mum."
I closed my eyes against the tears. Voldemort...
That. Fucking. Bastard.
"He touched me." Harry said.
"He touched you?"
"He has my blood in him. Peter Pettigrew... He helped raise him--"
"Peter?" I asked.
Harry nodded. "I'm sorry, Mum..."

"I thought this was safe." I demanded in Dumbledore's office later that evening. "I thought you wouldn't--"
"I know, Eliza. Barty Crouch Jr. set it all up. We didn't know." Dumbledore said.
"How did you not know that that wasn't Moody?! You knew him--"
"Eliza, love." Sirius said gently, his hand on my arm.
"No! Somebody died, Sirius. A child died."
"Eliza." He said quietly.
"My son is traumatized." I snapped at Dumbledore.
"I'm afraid it will only get worse." Dumbledore said.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sirius demanded.
"If Voldemort is truly risen--"
"Harry wouldn't lie." Remus said.
"Things will continue to get worse with Voldemort risen." Dumbledore continued.
"I fucking hate Peter. Why can't we just fucking kill him?" Sirius snapped, his hand shaking around my arm.
"Sirius, where did that get you last time, mate?" Remus said, and Sirius turned to glare at him.
"I'm sorry." Dumbledore said.
Yeah, me too.