Chapter 137: Stubbornness

Dumbledore stood up. He stared down at Barty Crouch for a moment with disgust on his face. Then he raised his wand once more and ropes flew out of it, ropes that twisted themselves around Barty Crouch, binding him tightly. He turned to Snape.

"Severus, where's Travis?" Dumbledore asked.

"He's in your office, Professor. I made sure he can't leave." Snape replied.

"Hmm... release him. I'll talk to him later. Also tell Fudge about this, he will undoubtedly want to question Crouch himself. Tell him I will be in the hospital wing." Dumbledore said, then turned to Professor McGonagall, "Minerva, could I ask you to stand guard here while I take them to the Hospital wing?"

"Of course," said Professor McGonagall. She looked slightly nauseous, as though she had just watched someone being sick. However, when she drew out her wand and pointed it at Barty Crouch, her hand was quite steady.

Snape swept out of the room.

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After sometime, Chris, Harry, Cedric, Mad-Eye all were in Hospital wing. While Madam Pomfrey nursed Mad-Eye, Harry and Cedric told Dumbledore and Sirius about the Graveyard. Chris was fiddling with three golden keys in her hand, silently. Time to time all were staring at her, but she didn't look up.

Many thoughts were moving inside her head. Now there's no way to back out from this situation. She was already inside it. Now it'll be life and death situation all the time. She was lucky this time but future will be different. There's no hope she'll survive everytime. And what about her father, will this effect him? Will Malgino try to attack him if they don't find her? What'll be the normal life now on? Will it be normal at all? Chris felt like crying thinking about her father. She can't let them hurt her father... her friends... or Jason.

"And then the keys transport us back to the maze. We touched the Cup and..." Chris heard as Cedric finished.

"Who's this Kazle? Who appeared from nowhere to help Voldemort?" Sirius asked sharply.

"Kazle is his new name." Dumbledore muttered. "Once he was known as Malgino. He was the student under the four founders of Hogwarts."

"The founders? But how this possible?" Sirius said blankly.

"He was one of those wizards, who discovered the equation of life and death and was able to make himself immortal." Dumbledore said. "People think him as a myth but he's as true as you and me. He's living for centuries under different names, different places. I knew he was going to come out as soon as I saw the first key."

"You knew?" Chris looked up at Dumbledore.

"I did. He were after the keys, the moment they knew about them." Dumbledore sighed. "The keys are the gifts of the four founders to our school. He shouldn't get those."

"But how I'm supposed to protect them when I even don't know I can protect myself or my closed ones or not?" Chris burst out. "I've changed nothing, Professor. My presence changes nothing. It's Malgino who is changing things. He's making Voldemort stronger. He's helping the death eaters. Even Stormy is much more stronger than me. How I'm supposed to beat Malgino? He's immortal."

"Christina." Dumbledore put a hand on her shoulder. "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight. All three of you have. And I'll repeat, I don't regret asking your help in this championship. You've proved yourself multiple times. I trust you. The founders trusted you. Now you need to trust yourself."

At that moment, the Diggorys, Cho, Mrs Weasley, Bill, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and Colin entered the Hospital wing hurriedly.

As soon as they saw them, Mrs. Weasley let out a kind of muffled scream.

"Harry! Oh Harry! Chris! Oh dears!"

She started to hurry toward him, but Dumbledore moved between them.

"Molly," he said, holding up a hand, "please listen to me for a moment. They have been through a terrible ordeal tonight. They just had to relive it for me. What they needs now is sleep, and peace, and quiet. If all three of them like you all to stay with them." he added, looking around. "you may do so. But I do not want you questioning him until he is ready to answer, and certainly not this evening. Same goes for you Amos."

Mr and Mrs Diggory looked at each other then nodded.

Mrs. Weasley nodded as well. She was very white. She rounded on Ron, Hermione, Bill, Ginny, Luna and Colin as though they were being noisy, and hissed, "Did you hear? Harry and Chris need quiet!"

"Listen," Dumbledore turned to Chris, Harry and Cedric. "I would like you all three to remain here tomorrow until I have spoken to the school. Understood?"

Harry and Cedric nodded. Dumbledore waited looking at Chris, who finally gave a reluctant nod. Then Dumbledore left.

Madam Pomfrey had already given Chris and Harry healing potions, now she gave them pajamas and pulled the screens around the beds.

Chris took of the robes and saw red large dots on her wrists, arms, legs and waist. Those poisonous thorns really had some bad effects, as Chris was still feeling a little dizzy and she had headache.

Chris wore the pajamas and pulled back the screen only to find Bill, Ginny, Luna and Colin around her bed. Mrs Weasley, Sirius, Ron and Hermione around Harry's bed and Cedric's parents and Cho around Cedric's bed. Ginny, Luna and Colin were looking scared as they saw Chris's injuries.

"It'll heal, Madam Pomfrey said." Chris informed them but they still looked very worried.

Madam Pomfrey, who had bustled off to her office, returned holding a small bottle of some purple potion and three goblets.

"You'll need to drink all of this," she said holding a cup to Harry. "It's a potion for dreamless sleep."

Harry took the goblet and Madame Pomfrey gave one to Cedric, who wasn't sure at first but then his mother insisted so he took it. Madam Pomfrey hold the third goblet to Chris.

"Ummm... alright." Chris took it but set it aside without drinking.

When Jason entered the Hospital wing, after looking around a bit he spotted Chris. Mrs Weasley made a displeased face.

"Hey!" Jason said as he reached her bed.

"Hi." Chris said quietly.

"Professor Dumbledore forbid us to ask her anything right now." Luna said clearly.

"Oh alright. I was just going to ask if she's okay?" Jason said to Luna.

"Of course she isn't." Ginny said.

"Yes. Right." Jason looked at Chris, like he was feeling out of place.

"I'm better now." Chris whispered. "I'll be out tomorrow morning."

"Okay. I'll talk to you, tomorrow then." Jason hold Chris's hand. "Take care."

Chris nodded and he left.

"You need to finish that potion, Chris." Ginny said.

"Not now." Chris lie down on the bed.

Mrs Weasley opened her mouth to say something but Chris hurriedly closed her eyes.

She was too tired to move. As soon as the darkness surrounded her, she left relief.

It was hardly fifteen minutes or so when Chris heard a loud bang on the hospital wing's door. Chris jerked up on her bed and saw someone pulled the screen around her bed. Chris pulled them back a little to see what's going on.

"Where's Dumbledore?" It was Fudge. He demanded of Mrs. Weasley.

"He's not here," said Mrs. Weasley angrily. "This is a hospital wing, Minister, don't you think you'd do better to —"

But the door opened, and Dumbledore came sweeping up the ward.

"What has happened?" said Dumbledore sharply, looking from Fudge to Professor McGonagall. "Why are you disturbing these people? Minerva, I'm surprised at you — I asked you to stand guard over Barty Crouch —"

"There is no need to stand guard over him anymore, Dumbledore!" she shrieked. "The Minister has seen to that!"

Chris had never seen Professor McGonagall lose control like this. There were angry blotches of color in her cheeks, and her hands were balled into fists; she was trembling with fury.

"When we told Mr. Fudge that we had caught the Death Eater responsible for tonight's events," said Snape, in a low voice, "he seemed to feel his personal safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a dementor to accompany him into the castle. He brought it up to the office where Barty Crouch —"

"I told him you would not agree, Dumbledore!" Professor McGonagall fumed. "I told him you would never allow dementors to set foot inside the castle, but —"

"My dear woman!" roared Fudge, who likewise looked angrier, "as Minister of Magic, it is my decision whether I wish to bring protection with me when interviewing a possibly dangerous —"

But Professor McGonagall's voice drowned Fudge's.

"The moment that — that thing entered the room," she screamed, pointing at Fudge, trembling all over, "it swooped down on Crouch and — and —"

Professor McGonagall struggled to find words to describe what had happened, but Chris understood. Though she felt the Dementors, she knew what a Dementors kiss can do.

"By all accounts, he is no loss!" blustered Fudge. "It seems he has been responsible for several deaths!"

"But he cannot now give testimony, Cornelius," said Dumbledore. He was staring hard at Fudge, as though seeing him plainly for the first time. "He cannot give evidence about why he killed those people."

"Why he killed them? Well, that's no mystery, is it?" blustered Fudge. "He was a raving lunatic! From what Minerva and Severus have told me, he seems to have thought he was doing it all on You-Know-Who's and a imagined character's instructions"

"Lord Voldemort and Malgino were giving him instructions, Cornelius," Dumbledore said. "Malgino is not an imaginative character. He's alive. Those people's deaths were mere by-products of a plan to restore Voldemort to full strength again. The plan succeeded. Voldemort has been restored to his body."

Fudge looked as though someone had just swung a heavy weight into his face. Dazed and blinking, he stared back at Dumbledore as if he couldn't quite believe what he had just heard. He began to sputter, still goggling at Dumbledore.

"You-Know-Who . . . returned? Preposterous. Come now, Dumbledore . . ."

"As Minerva and Severus have doubtless told you," said Dumbledore, "we heard Barty Crouch confess. Under the influence of Veritaserum, he told us how he was smuggled out of Azkaban, and how Voldemort — learning of his continued existence from Bertha Jorkins — went to free him from his father and used him to capture Harry. The plan worked, I tell you. Also you thought you already killed Barty Crouch jr but you didn't.... doesn't that proves anything to you? Crouch has helped Voldemort to return."

"See here, Dumbledore," said Fudge. "As I said I believe Crouch saved his son out of love, I also believe that his son sent someone to kill his father in his place and I also believe he was doing this, thinking that he was doing this under You-Know-Who's order but you can't seriously believe that, You-Know-Who — back? Come now, come now . . . certainly, to take the word of a lunatic like that, Dumbledore . . ."

"Harry, Cedric and Christina, all three of them were transported to a place by a creature and they've seen Voldemort's rebirth." Dumbledore said steadily.

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"But nothing can Apparate in Hogwarts." Fudge said smiling.

"Some creatures can." Dumbledore said and noticed Chris, Harry and Cedric all were awake on their beds. "I'm afraid I cannot permit you to question them tonight."

Fudge's curious smile lingered. He too glanced at Harry and Chris then looked back at Dumbledore, and said, "You are — er — prepared to take their word on this, are you, Dumbledore?"

Sirius angrily stood up.

"What do you mean by this Fudge?" He asked.

"Sirius!" Dumbledore said a little loudly. Then he looked at Fudge. "Certainly, I believe them. I heard Crouch's confession, and I heard their account of what happened; the two stories make sense, they explain everything that has happened since Bertha Jorkins disappeared last summer."

Fudge still had that strange smile on his face. Once again, he glanced at Harry and Chris before answering.

"You are prepared to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, on the word of a lunatic murderer, and two students... who are... well...."

"You've been reading Rita Skeeter, Mr. Fudge," Harry said quietly.

"And if I have?" Fudge said, looking at Dumbledore. "If I have discovered that you've been keeping certain facts about the boy very quiet? A Parselmouth, eh? And having funny turns all over the place —"

"I assume that you are referring to the pains Harry has been experiencing in his scar?" said Dumbledore coolly.

"You admit that he has been having these pains, then?" said Fudge quickly.

"And I guess the pains are the another proof of Voldemort's arrival, which you're going to ignore?" Chris spoke coolly pulling back the screen completely.

"Now listen to me girl. I'm not talking to you." Fudge was red with anger. "You've already broken Triwizard Tournament rules, been at places where you shouldn't be, misguided people around you... I don't be surprised if Diggory will agree with you, I guess you're capable of doing much more advanced magic comparing to your age!"

"What do you mean?" Cedric said. "Why will I agree with her? I saw what they saw... I saw You-Know-Who coming back."

"See what I mean.. Amos, you seriously don't believe this, do you? I think your son is Confunded." Fudge said glancing at Chris. "Someone indeed Confunded your son."

"Listen to me, Cornelius," said Dumbledore, taking a step toward Fudge, and once again, he seemed to radiate indefinable sense of power. "They're telling the truth. No one is Confunded or any one of them used any advanced magic like that. You've the proofs in front of your eyes. You ignored them last time. Don't..."

Fudge had taken half a step back from Dumbledore, but he looked no less stubborn.

"You'll forgive me, Dumbledore, but it seems to me that you are all determined to start a panic that will destabilize everything we have worked for these last thirteen years!" Fudge said. "That's all."

"Voldemort has returned," Dumbledore repeated. "And someone much powerful is with him. If you accept that fact straightaway, Fudge, and take the necessary measures, we may still be able to save the situation."

"Insane," whispered Fudge, still backing away. "Mad . . ."

And then there was silence.