voldemort was back. elara somehow just knew that she had a huge role to play. she had been in the graveyard. she witnessed cedric die, she witnessed voldemort's return, she witnessed voldemort's victims crawl out of his wand, and she witnessed as they overpowered him. she felt tingly all over.

"lara....? are you alright?" said someone's voice.

"harry. i have to get to harry," elara's voice was filled with pure desperation.

she pushed past many applauding people; they had not realized. she got yelled at. she didn't care. she reached the pitch and pushed past teachers and came to harry's side. he was sobbing over the body of cedric.

"harry..." she whispered, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"he's back," said harry through tears.

"i know, i know," said elara quietly. "c'mere."

harry was crying into elara's chest. his arms were wrapped around her middle. she had placed an arm around harry's head and was running her fingers through his hair in an attempt to soothe him. he cried for his mum and dad. he cried for bertha jorkins. he cried for the old man. he cried for cedric.

"i won't leave you," elara tried. she wasn't sure harry heard her over the noise of the screaming crowd. "i'm right here. i'm with you 'til the end."

elara held onto him as people argued. as girls were sobbing. as people were screaming. she refused to let go as someone pulled harry up and take him to the hospital wing. elara wasn't going to let go. no way, no way, no way.

"what happened, harry?" the man asked at last as he brought the pair up the stone steps. it was mad-eye moody.

"cup was a portkey," said harry as they crossed the entrance hall. "took me and cedric to a graveyard . . . and voldemort was there . . . lord voldemort . . ."

they went up the marble stairs

"the dark lord was there? what happened then?"

the dark lord? elara tightened her grip on harry. only death eaters called voldemort the dark lord. the wheels inside her brain were turning. maybe it was a mistake

"killed cedric . . . they killed cedric. . . ."

"and then?"

they were going down the wrong corridor. they weren't going to the hospital wing. the wheels kept turning. something bad was going to happen, she could feel it.

"made a potion . . . got his body back. . . ."

"the dark lord got his body back? he's returned?"

there it was again. two times was passable. but mad-eye moody, the famous auror that locked up so, so many death eaters, would not call voldemort 'the dark lord'.

"and the death eaters came . . . and then we dueled. . . ."

"you dueled with the dark lord?"

three times was not forgivable. this was not mad-eye moody. elara tightened her grip on harry yet again. her fingers itched for her wand. acting now would be idiotic.

"got away . . . my wand . . . did something funny. . . . i saw my mum and dad . . . they came out of his wand. . . ."

they entered moody's office. moody discreetly tried pulling elara away from harry. she refused.

"in here, you two . . . in here, and sit down. . . . you'll be all right now . . . drink this. . . ."

moody unlocked a cupboard and pushed a cup into harry's hands. he offered elara something. she refused. this wasn't moody. the infamous jumpy moody would've wanted harry to be near the other champions in case the death eaters came knocking again.

"drink it . . . you'll feel better . . . come on, now, harry, i need to know exactly what happened. . . ."

moody helped tip the stuff down harry's throat; he coughed. harry blinked a few times. moody looked as white as fudge had looked, and both eyes were fixed unblinkingly upon harry's face.

"voldemort's back, harry? you're sure he's back? how did he do it?"

elara relaxed slightly.

"he took stuff from his father's grave, and from wormtail, and me," said harry.

elara could still hear screaming and shouting from the distant quidditch field.

"what did the dark lord take from you?" said moody.

elara tensed again.

"blood," said harry, raising his arm. his sleeve was ripped where wormtail's dagger had torn it. elara scowled. she remembered how she was forced to stand helpless.

moody let out his breath in a long, low hiss.

"and the death eaters? they returned?"

"yes," said harry. "loads of them . . ."

"how did he treat them?" moody asked quietly. "did he forgive them?"

elara was highly alert now. why the hell would an auror care if voldemort forgave his death eaters or not? she itched for her wand, but now was not the time.

"there's a death eater at hogwarts! there's a death eater here — they put my name in the goblet of fire, they made sure i got through to the end —"

harry tried to get up, but moody pushed him back down. this wasn't moody. this wasn't moody. this wasn't moody.

"i know who the death eater is," he said quietly.

"then why didn't you say something?" elara challenged, her voice accusatory. moody narrowed his normal eye at her.

"karkaroff?" said harry wildly. "where is he? have you got him? is he locked up?"

"karkaroff?" said moody with an odd laugh. "karkaroff fled tonight, when he felt the dark mark burn upon his arm. he betrayed too many faithful supporters of the dark lord to wish to meet them . . . but i doubt he will get far. the dark lord has ways of tracking his enemies."

"karkaroff's gone? he ran away? but then — he didn't put my name in the goblet?"

"no," said moody slowly. "no, he didn't. it was i who did that."

elara stood so quickly that she stumbled.

"you bastard," she hissed.

"no, you didn't," harry said. "you didn't do that . . . you can't have done . . ."

"i assure you i did," said moody, and his magical eye swung around and fixed upon the door, and elara knew he was making sure that there was no one outside it. elara drew her wand and pointed it at moody as moody pointed his at both of them.

"he forgave them, then?" he said. "the death eaters who went free? the ones who escaped azkaban?"

"what?" said harry.

"i asked you," said moody quietly, "whether he forgave the scum who never even went to look for him. those treacherous cowards who wouldn't even brave azkaban for him. the faithless, worthless bits of filth who were brave enough to cavort in masks at the quidditch world cup, but fled at the sight of the dark mark when i fired it into the sky."

"it was you?" said elara, her grip tightening on her wand. fight or die.

"you fired . . . what are you talking about . . . ?"

"i told you, harry . . . i told you. if there's one thing i hate more than any other, it's a death eater who walked free. they turned their backs on my master when he needed them most. i expected him to punish them. i expected him to torture them. tell me he hurt them, harry. . . ." moody's face was suddenly lit with an insane smile. "tell me he told them that i, i alone remained faithful . . . prepared to risk everything to deliver to him the one thing he wanted above all . . . you."

"you didn't . . . it — it can't be you. . . ."

"harry," elara hissed. he was being so naive.

"who put your name in the goblet of fire, under the name of a different school? i did. who frightened off every person i thought might try to hurt you or prevent you from winning the tournament? i did. who nudged hagrid into showing you the dragons? i did. who helped you see the only way you could beat the dragon? i did."

moody's magical eye had now left the door. it was whizzing between harry and elara. his lopsided mouth leered more widely than ever. elara needed him to talk more. more evidence.

"you'd already done the first part of my task. you two were already attached at the hip. i knew i didn't need to enter lestrange. she'd be with you through everything. but it hasn't been easy, harry, guiding you through these tasks without arousing suspicion. i have had to use every ounce of cunning i possess, so that my hand would not be detectable in your success. dumbledore would have been very suspicious if you had managed everything too easily. as long as you got into that maze, preferably with a decent head start — then, i knew, i would have a chance of getting rid of the other champions and leaving your way clear. but i also had to contend with your stupidity. the second task . . . that was when i was most afraid we would fail. i was keeping watch on you, potter. i knew you hadn't worked out the egg's clue, so i had to give you another hint —"

"you didn't," harry said hoarsely. "cedric gave me the clue —"

"who told cedric to open it underwater? i did. i trusted that he would pass the information on to you. decent people are so easy to manipulate, potter. i was sure cedric would want to repay you for telling him about the dragons, and so he did. but even then, potter, even then you seemed likely to fail. i was watching all the time . . . all those hours in the library. didn't you realize that the book you needed was in your dormitory all along? i planted it there early on, i gave it to the longbottom boy, don't you remember? magical water plants of the mediterranean. it would have told you all you needed to know about gillyweed. i expected you to ask everyone and anyone you could for help. longbottom would have told you in an instant. but you did not . . . you did not. . . . you have a streak of pride and independence that might have ruined all."

keep talking, elara willed. keep talking. she had a feeling someone knew. that someone was coming.

"so what could i do? feed you information from another innocent source. you told me at the yule ball a house-elf called dobby had given you a christmas present. i called the elf to the staffroom to collect some robes for cleaning. i staged a loud conversation with professor mcgonagall about the hostages who had been taken, and whether potter would think to use gillyweed. and your little elf friend ran straight to snape's office and then hurried to find you. . . ."

moody's wand was still moving between harry and elara. elara stood still. she would not go down without a fight.

"you were so long in that lake, potter, i thought you had drowned. but luckily, dumbledore took your idiocy for nobility, and marked you high for it. i breathed again.

"you had an easier time of it than you should have in that maze tonight, of course," said moody. "i was patrolling around it, able to see through the outer hedges, able to curse many obstacles out of your way. i stunned fleur delacour as she passed. i put the imperius curse on krum, so that he would finish diggory and leave your path to the cup clear."

elara fought hard to keep the smug smile off her face. moody was admitting to everything he'd done. she knew she was going to get out of this alive. there was no siren call. help was coming. death eaters were a dim lot.

"the dark lord didn't manage to kill you, potter, and have you, lestrange, and he so wanted to," whispered moody. "imagine how he will reward me when he finds i have done it for him. i gave you to him — the thing he needed above all to regenerate — and then i killed you for him. i will have given voldemort's most desired weapon i will be honored beyond all other death eaters. i will be his dearest, his closest supporter . . . closer than a son. . . ."

moody's normal eye was bulging, the magical eye fixed upon harry. elara noticed the door was barred. perhaps it was desperation, but the door squeaked ever so slightly. the bar had come undone.

"the dark lord and i," said moody, and he looked completely insane now, towering over harry and elara, leering down at him, "have much in common. both of us, for instance, had very disappointing fathers . . . very disappointing indeed. both of us suffered the indignity, harry, of being named after those fathers. and both of us had the pleasure . . . the very great pleasure . . . of killing our fathers to ensure the continued rise of the dark order!"

"you're mad," elara said — she couldn't stop himself — "you're mad!"

"mad, am i?" said moody, his voice rising uncontrollably. "we'll see! we'll see who's mad, now that the dark lord has returned, with me at his side! he is back, elara lestrange, harry potter, you did not conquer him — and now — i conquer -- "

but elara was ready. "stupefy!"

moody was thrown backward across the office floor. dumbledore, snape, and mcgonagall piled inside not seconds later. at that moment, elara fully understood for the first time why people said dumbledore was the only wizard voldemort had ever feared. the look upon dumbledore's face as he stared down at the unconscious form of mad-eye moody was more terrible than elara could have ever imagined. there was no benign smile upon dumbledore's face, no twinkle in the eyes behind the spectacles. there was cold fury in every line of the ancient face; a sense of power radiated from dumbledore as though he were giving off burning heat.

he placed a foot underneath moody's unconscious body, and kicked him over onto his back, so that his face was visible.

"good wandwork, elara," said dumbledore.

"had to keep him talking."

snape followed him, looking into the foe-glass, where his own face was still visible, glaring into the room. professor mcgonagall went straight to harry and elara.

"come along, potter, lestrange," she whispered. the thin line of her mouth was twitching as though she was about to cry. "come along . . . hospital wing . . ."

"no," said dumbledore sharply.

"dumbledore, they ought to — look at harry — he's been through enough tonight — and elara — she's just awakened—"

"they will stay, minerva, because they need to understand," said dumbledore curtly. "understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. harry needs to know who has put him through the ordeal he has suffered tonight, and why."

"moody," harry said. he was still seemingly in a state of complete disbelief. "how can it have been moody?"

"that's not moody," said elara, in place of dumbledore. "no auror would have taken you away from dumbledore, the only one voldemort ever feared, after what happened tonight."

dumbledore looked at elara thoughtfully. "as soon as he revoked you both from my sight, i knew. although elara, how did you know?"

"he kept saying 'the dark lord'. and he was asking questions that no one but a death eater would care about."

"you have incredible intuition, elara. i can not say i'm surprised."

"but, why did he want me too, professor?"

"that shall be answered soon."

dumbledore bent down over moody's limp form and put a hand inside his robes. he pulled out moody's hip flask and a set of keys on a ring. then he turned to professors mcgonagall and snape.

"severus, please fetch me the strongest truth potion you possess, and then go down to the kitchens and bring up the house-elf called winky. minerva, kindly go down to hagrid's house, where you will find a large black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. nymphandora tonks should be here too. please take her and the dog up to my office, tell him i will be with him shortly, then come back here."

if either snape or mcgonagall found these instructions peculiar, they hid their confusion. both turned at once and left the office. dumbledore walked over to the trunk with seven locks, fitted the first key in the lock, and opened it. it contained a mass of spellbooks. dumbledore closed the trunk, placed a second key in the second lock, and opened the trunk again. the spellbooks had vanished; this time it contained an assortment of broken sneakoscopes, some parchment and quills, and what looked like a silvery invisibility cloak. harry watched, astounded, as dumbledore placed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth keys in their respective locks, reopening the trunk, and each time revealing different contents. then he placed the seventh key in the lock, threw open the lid, and elara and harry let out a cried of amazement.

they were looking down into a kind of pit, an underground room, and lying on the floor some ten feet below, apparently fast asleep, thin and starved in appearance, was the real mad-eye moody. his wooden leg was gone, the socket that should have held the magical eye looked empty beneath its lid, and chunks of his grizzled hair were missing. elara stared, thunderstruck, between the sleeping moody in the trunk and the unconscious moody lying on the floor of the office.

dumbledore climbed into the trunk, lowered himself, and fell lightly onto the floor beside the sleeping moody. he bent over him.

"stunned — controlled by the imperius curse — very weak," he said. "of course, they would have needed to keep him alive. harry, would you throw down the imposter's cloak — he's freezing. madam pomfrey will need to see him, but he seems in no immediate danger."

harry did as he was told; dumbledore covered Moody in the cloak, tucked it around him, and clambered out of the trunk again. then he picked up the hip flask that stood upon the desk, unscrewed it, and turned it over. a thick glutinous liquid splattered onto the office floor.