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Iris felt herself slam flat into the ground; her face was pressed into the grass; the smell of it filled her nostrils. She had closed her eyes while the Portkey transported her and Harry, and she kept them closed now. She did not move. All the breath seemed to have been knocked out of her; her head was swimming so badly she felt as though the ground beneath her was swaying like the deck of a ship. To hold herself steady, she tightened her hold on the two things she was still clutching: the soft but dirtied and scorched sleeve of her brother's shirt and Cedric's body. She felt as though she would slide away into the blackness gathering at the edges of her brain if she let go of either of them. Shock, pain, and exhaustion kept her on the ground, breathing in the smell of the grass, waiting... waiting for someone to do something... something to happen... and all the while, her body was still wracked in shaking pains from the Cruciatus curse... 

A torrent of sound deafened and confused her; there were voices everywhere, footsteps, screams... She remained where she was, her face screwed up against the noise, as though it were a nightmare that would pass...

There were so many voices screaming in her mind. The sound was deafening and made her want to curl up in pain.

But she was numb.

In both body and spirit, Iris was defeated. Her boyfriend, her love, her happiness... was dead. Right in front of her. And behind the thin veil over her eyes played the malevolent bolt of vivid green light striking him down over and over.

Then a pair of hands seized her roughly and turned her over. 

"Iris! Harry!"

She opened her eyes. 

She was looking up at the starry sky, and Albus Dumbledore was crouched over her. The dark shadows of a crowd of people pressed in around them, pushing nearer; Iris felt the ground beneath her head reverberating with their footsteps. Her eyes were glazed dully, the world hazy around her as she had trouble focusing.

They had come back to the edge of the maze. She could see the stands rising above her, the shapes of people moving in them, the stars above. 

Beside her, Harry let go of the cup, but Iris clutched him and Cedric to her even more tightly. Her eyes drooped closed as her headed pounded. They opened once more when Dumbledore urgently shook her, and she exhaustedly gazed up at him, his face swimming in and out of focus. 

"He's back," Iris heard Harry whisper. "He's back. Voldemort."

"What's going on? What's happened?" 

The face of Cornelius Fudge appeared upside down over Iris; it looked white, appalled. "My God — Diggory!" it whispered. "Dumbledore — he's dead!" 

The words were repeated, growing louder in Iris' ears as she slowly tuned back into reality, the shadowy figures pressing in on them gasped it to those around them... and then others shouted it — screeched it — into the night —

"He's dead!"

"He's dead!"

"Cedric Diggory! Dead!" 

"Iris, let go of him," she heard Fudge's voice say gently, and she felt fingers trying to pry her from Cedric's limp body, but Iris wouldn't let him go.

The stars, so beautiful, were tainted by the tragedy of the night. Once the subject of her wonder and fascination, as she now stared numbly up at them Iris saw nothing but pain and despair reflected back into her hazel eyes.

 Then Dumbledore's face, which was still blurred and misted, came closer. 

"Iris, you can't help him now. He's gone. Let go." 

"He wanted me to bring him back," Harry muttered, turning to Iris as he sat up beside her looking half as lost as Iris felt — it seemed important to him to explain this. "He wanted me to bring him back to his parents..."

Iris blinked heavily, her glossy eyes rolling over to Harry. He had spoken to Cedric? She swallowed with difficulty, her face then crumbling as sobs began tumbling out of her. Iris' grip loosened on Cedric as her hands were taken by Harry's while he carefully removed them from the still body of her dead boyfriend.

"That's right, Iris... just let go now..."

Harry watched with pain in his heart at the sight of his sister. She looked absolutely broken, not a fragment of happiness or hope left in her usually smiling face. It had taken less than a second to collapse her, leaving a shell of his other half behind. Harry was traumatised as well, horrified and in pain, but he knew immediately that he would set himself aside for Iris. She had been the one all their lives protecting him, shielding him from everything harmful, and now it was his turn to do the same for her.

When Iris released her hold, Dumbledore bent down, and with extraordinary strength for a man so old and thin, raised Iris from the ground and set her on her feet. Iris swayed. Her head felt like it was being repeatedly hit with a hammer.

Her injured shoulder no longer burned as her thoughts strayed so far from the fact that she was hurt. Harry stood beside her and wrapped his arm around her back to support her while also leaning into her side to keep weight off of his injured leg. The crowd around them jostled, fighting to get closer, pressing darkly in on the twins—

"What's happened?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"Diggory's dead!" 

"They'll need to go to the hospital wing!" Fudge was saying loudly. "They're ill, they're injured — Dumbledore, Diggory's parents, they're here, they're in the stands..." 

"I'll take the twins, Dumbledore, I'll take them—" 

"No, I would prefer—" 

"Dumbledore, Amos Diggory's running... he's coming over... Don't you think you should tell him — before he sees— ?" 

"Harry, Iris, stay here—"

Girls were screaming, sobbing hysterically... The scene flickered oddly before Iris' eyes... 

"Its all right, Potters, I've got you... come on... hospital wing..." 

"Dumbledore said stay," said Harry thickly, the pounding in his scar making him feel as though he was about to throw up; his vision was blurring worse than ever. Iris didn't speak, though she looked as though she wasn't even registering what was happening.

"You two need to lie down... Come on now..." 

Someone larger and stronger than they were was half pulling, half carrying them through the frightened crowd. Iris heard people gasping, screaming, and shouting as the man supporting her pushed a path through them, taking her and Harry back to the castle. Across the lawn, past the lake and the Durmstrang ship, Iris heard nothing but the heavy breathing of the man helping her walk. 

"What happened, Harry?" the man asked at last as he lifted the two Potters up the stone steps, seeming to understand that Iris was incapable of speaking at that moment.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. It was Mad-Eye Moody. 

"Cup was a Portkey," said Harry as they crossed the entrance hall. "Took us and —" he hesitated, glancing at Iris who gave no response,"... Cedric to a graveyard... and Voldemort was there... Lord Voldemort..." 

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Up the marble stairs... 

"The Dark Lord was there? What happened then?" 

A quiet and dull voice spoke, surprising both of the men, "Killed Cedric... they killed Cedric..." 

Moody nodded at Iris who had spoken, "And then?" 

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Along the corridor... 

Harry took over speaking again, "Made a potion... got his body back..." 

"The Dark Lord got his body back? He's returned?" 

"And the Death Eaters came... and then we duelled..." 

"You duelled with the Dark Lord?" 

"Got away... he hit Iris with a spell and she fell... thought she was dead too... my wand... did something funny... something linked it with Iris... I saw our mum and dad... they came out of his wand..."

Somewhere in the back of Iris' head, she understood what her brother was saying. She felt awful realising that he had thought she was dead. Iris couldn't imagine living in a world without Harry.

"In here, Potters... in here, and sit down... You'll be all right now... drink this..." 

Iris heard a key scrape in a lock and felt a cup being pushed into her hands. 

"Drink it... you'll feel better... come on, now. I need to know exactly what happened..."

Moody helped tip the stuff down each of the twin's throats; they coughed, a peppery taste burned Iris' throat. Moody's office came into sharper focus, and so did Moody himself... He looked as white as Fudge had looked, and both eyes were fixed one each unblinkingly upon either of their faces.

"Voldemort's back, Harry? You're sure he's back? How did he do it?" 

"He took stuff from his father's grave, and from Wormtail, and me," said Harry.

Iris' head felt clearer; her head wasn't hurting so badly and the buzzing that had been running through her body from the Cruciatus curse was disappearing; she could now see Moody's face distinctly, even though the office was dark. She could still hear screaming and shouting from the distant Quidditch field. 

"What did the Dark Lord take from you?" said Moody. 

"Blood," said Harry, raising his arm. Iris looked over silently, her throat feeling extremely dry. His sleeve was ripped where Wormtail's dagger had torn it. 

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

"So he chose you... And the Death Eaters? They returned?" 

"Yes," Iris said finally, "A lot of them..." 

"How did he treat them?" Moody asked quietly, "Did he forgive them?" 

Iris thought that was an odd question to ask.

But Iris had suddenly remembered. Like a distant memory, she remembered something Voldemort had said, "There's a Death Eater at Hogwarts..." Iris muttered, her eyebrows pulling together in mild confusion.

Harry's eyes went wide in fear as he, too, remembered, "There's a Death Eater here — they put our names in the Goblet of Fire, they made sure we got through to the end —" 

Harry tried to get up, but Moody pushed him back down. Iris stared at their professor, a warning bell beginning to ring in the back of her mind. The pieces were falling into place suddenly, things were making sense, and as Harry rattled on about Karkaroff, Iris grew more horrified by the second. How could she have missed it? 

"Karkaroff's gone? He ran away?" Harry questioned in shock, "But then — he didn't put our names in the goblet?" 

"No," said Moody slowly, "No, he didn't. It was I who did that." 

Iris heard his words but couldn't make sense of it. She didn't understand how someone like Mad-Eye Moody could be one of Voldemort's best Death Eaters when he had been the one to put a good amount of them in Azkaban.

"No, you didn't," Harry said, reaching his hand over to grab Iris's. "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 Iris knew he was making sure that there was no one outside it. At the same time, Moody drew out his wand and pointed it at Iris, speaking darkly to the twins. 

"Marvellous creatures, dragons, aren't they? Do you think that miserable oaf would have led you into the woods if I hadn't suggested it?" Iris' eyes were wide open, the foggy numbness had left her completely, "Do you think Cedric Diggory would have told you to hold the egg under the water if I hadn't have told him first myself?" Moody's magical eye had now left the door. Both of his eyes were fixed upon the twins. His lopsided mouth leered more widely than ever. "Do you think Neville Longbottom the witless wonder could have provided you with gillyweed if I hadn't have given him the book that led you straight to it?" He gestured to Iris, "At least you figured that one out by yourself."

As he growled out everything he had done, an increasing sense of fear grew in Iris. Fear not only for herself but for Harry.

Moody's voice was low and dark as he crept closer to them, wand still raised, "You two won because I made it so. You ended up in that graveyard tonight because it was meant to be so. And now the deed is done. The blood that runs through each of your veins runs within the dark lord. Imagine how he will reward me when he learns that I have once and for all silenced the great Harry and Iris Potter."

Moody raised his wand, he opened his mouth; Iris' hand clenched around Harry's.

"Stupefy!" There was a blinding flash of red light, and with a great splintering and crashing, the door of Moody's office was blasted apart— Moody was thrown backwards onto the office floor. Iris stared at the place where Moody's face had been before she turned around and saw Albus Dumbledore, Professor Snape, and Professor McGonagall standing in the doorway, Dumbledore in front, his wand outstretched. 

At that moment, Iris 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 Iris 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.

The older wizard bent down, and with Snape's help, dragged Moody off of the floor and threw him into a chair.

"Severus..." Dumbledore spoke his name and at an instant, Professor Snape poured a clear potion down Moody's throat.

With that, Dumbledore held his wand to the unconscious man's chest and woke him. McGonagall was standing behind the twins, holding them wrapped within her arms as she watched in horror.

Moody wriggled and convulsed but Dumbledore and Snape held him down, the Headmaster asking angrily, "Do you know who I am?"

"Albus Dumbledore," Moody growled out.

"Are you Alastor Moody? Are you?"

Moody hesitated, trying to fight the truth potion, though he was unsuccessful, "No."

Of course, that would explain things. The question on Iris' mind then though, was that if that wasn't Moody, who was it?

Dumbledore's face dropped in fear and anger, "Is he in this room?" At no response, he repeated, Is he in this room?"

The faux-Moody grunted, nudging his head in the direction of a large chest sitting at the side of the office. Dumbledore approached the chest cautiously, Snape holding his wand menacingly to the impostor. The Headmaster opened the chest which contained a series of smaller chests. When the final chest opened, they all, besides Snape, crept forward to peer inside, finding a pit within which held a man: the real Alastor Moody.

"Are you alright Alastor?" Dumbledore called down.

The real Moody moaned a bit, yelling sadly up to them, "I'm sorry Albus."

McGonagall pulled Iris and Harry back, but Harry muttered out, confused, "That's Moody, but then who's...?"

They all looked to the impostor, and Dumbledore quickly swept back over to him and grabbed his hip flask. He popped the cap open and smelled it. With a grimace, he held it out for Professor Snape to smell as well.

"Polyjuice potion," the dark-haired wizard said.

Dumbledore nodded gravely, "Now we know who's been stealing from your stores, Severus." He leaned over the chest, speaking to the real Moody, "We'll get you up in a minute."

Alastor Moody groaned. The Mad-Eye Moody captive in the chair suddenly began to twitch about restlessly, making strange noises.

Then, before Iris' very eyes, the face of the man on the floor began to change. The scars were disappearing, the skin was becoming smooth; the mangled nose became whole and started to shrink. The long mane of grizzled grey hair was withdrawing into the scalp and turning the colour of straw. Suddenly, with a loud clunk, the wooden leg fell away as a normal leg regrew in its place; next moment, the magical eyeball had popped out of the man's face as a real eye replaced it; it rolled away across the floor and continued to swivel in every direction. 

Iris saw a man sitting before her, pale-skinned, slightly freckled, with a mop of fair hair. She knew who he was. She had seen him through Harry in Dumbledore's Pensieve, had watched him being led away from court by the dementors, trying to convince Mr Crouch that he was innocent... but he was lined around the eyes now and looked much older...

"Barty Crouch Junior," Dumbledore spoke.

The man grinned twistedly, reaching over to shove the sleeve of his left arm up, exposing a black snake and skull tattoo, "You know what this means don't you? He's back. Lord Voldemort has returned."

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 Professor McGonagall. 

"Minerva, could I ask you to stand guard here while I take Iris and Harry upstairs?" 

"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. 

"Severus" — Dumbledore turned to Snape — "please tell Madam Pomfrey to come down here; we need to get Alastor Moody into the hospital wing. Then go down into the grounds, find Cornelius Fudge, and bring him up to this office. He will undoubtedly want to question Crouch himself. Tell him I will be in the hospital wing in half an hour's time if he needs me." 

Snape nodded silently and swept out of the room. 

"Harry, Iris?" Dumbledore said gently. 

Iris dragged her eyes away from Barty Crouch Jr. beginning to feel unsteady; the pain in her shoulder, which she had not noticed all the time she had been listening to Crouch, now returned in full measure. She also realized that she was trembling; an aftereffect of the Cruciatus curse. Dumbledore gripped hers and Harry's arms and helped them out into the dark corridor. 

"I want you two to come up to my office first," he said quietly as they headed up the passageway. "Sirius and Remus are waiting for us there."

Iris nodded. A kind of numbness and a sense of complete unreality were upon her, but she didn't care; she was even glad of it. She didn't want to have to think about anything that had happened since they had first touched the Triwizard Cup. She didn't want to have to examine the memories, fresh and sharp as photographs, which kept flashing across her mind. Mad-Eye Moody, inside the trunk. Wormtail, slumped on the ground, cradling his stump of an arm. Voldemort, rising from the steaming cauldron. Cedric... dead...

She didn't want to think about it... it hurt too much. Iris had known loss in her life, but never like this. She didn't know how to go on from this, how to live without him there. It was too strange to think about how she would never see his beautiful face smiling down at her.

"Professor," Harry mumbled, "where are Mr and Mrs Diggory?" 

"They are with Professor Sprout," said Dumbledore. His voice, which had been so calm throughout the interrogation of Barty Crouch, shook very slightly for the first time. "She was Head of Cedric's house, and knew him best." 

They had reached the stone gargoyle. Dumbledore gave the password, it sprang aside, and he and the twins went up the moving spiral staircase to the oak door. Dumbledore pushed it open. Sirius and Remus were standing there. Both of their faces were white and gaunt, and it reminded Iris vaguely of Sirius had looked when he had escaped Azkaban. In one swift moment, their godfathers had crossed the room. Sirius wrapped his arms around Iris immediately, one hand on the back of her head as is rested on his chest. It took all of her willpower not to breakdown right there.

"Iris, are you all right? I knew it — I knew something like this — what happened?" 

His hands shook as he helped Iris into a chair in front of the desk. 

"What happened?" Remus asked more urgently, guiding Harry to the chair beside her. 

Dumbledore began to tell Sirius and Remus everything Barty Crouch had said. Iris was only half listening. So tired every bone in her body was aching, she wanted nothing more than to sit here, undisturbed, for hours and hours, until she fell asleep and didn't have to think or feel anymore. 

She tuned out the arguing that ensued over whether they should have to recount the events that had happened at that moment or if they could wait. Their godfathers were adamant about not wanting to make the twins relive what had happened, but Dumbledore said it would be easier now.

Iris stared down at her hands which were fidgeting anxiously in her lap. A hand fell gently on top of them and she looked up through wet eyes to see Harry staring at her sadly. She knew what he was thinking: he would tell them so she wouldn't have to.

As he spoke, visions of everything that had passed that night seemed to rise before Iris' eyes; she saw the sparkling surface of the potion that had revived Voldemort; she saw the Death Eaters Apparating between the graves around them; she saw Cedric's body, lying on the ground beside the cup. 

The story progressed and the reactions of Dumbledore, Sirius, and Remus were increasingly filled with concern. Harry told them of how Wormtail had taken his blood to resurrect Voldemort, spurring a cry of outrage from the adults in the room. He told them of how his and Voldemort's wands had connected, and how Iris had linked up to them in the middle before the golden dome fell over the three of them.

Priori Incantatem, Dumbledore had called it. Harry and Voldemort's wands shared the same core, disallowing them to fight with one another, which in turn caused Voldemort (who lost the duel) to have his wand regurgitate in reverse chronological order the times he had used the killing curse. Iris stared in shock as Harry explained that he had seen and spoken to both their parents and Cedric.

She felt oddly pathetic as this launched her into another crying fit. Iris had felt so many overwhelming emotions in just the last hour, and she was utterly exhausted from it all. Hearing that her parents and Cedric were there and saved her and Harry broke the dam that had been holding her tears back.

Sirius' face was contorted in anguish as he stood beside her chair and rubbed her shoulder while she cried. He hated to see her like this and felt even worse knowing that there was nothing he could do about it.

"I will say it again," said Dumbledore looking pained at Iris' suffering. "You two have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard's burden and found yourself equal to it — and you have now given us all we have a right to expect. You will both come with me to the hospital wing. I do not want either of you returning to the dormitory tonight. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace... Remus, Sirius, would you both like to stay with them?" 

Both of the men nodded. Sirius transformed back into the great black dog and walked with Iris, Harry, Remus, and Dumbledore out of the office, accompanying them down a flight of stairs to the hospital wing.

As Iris walked, she felt the dense reality begin to finally start setting in. Her head hurt trying to wrap itself around the fact that she would never again see Cedric alive. He wouldn't get to graduate from Hogwarts, become an auror, get married, have kids. Iris had wanted these things for him, she had wanted him to live a long, happy life. But now he would never get to.

Iris' heart ached. She wouldn't be able to move on for a long time after this. The nightmares spawning from images of him getting hit with that jet of green light would plague her in visions at every hour of the day.

Part of Iris blamed herself. If she had seen it coming — had remembered sooner, maybe she could have saved him. But it didn't matter anymore.

Cedric was dead.

And Iris was broken.

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honestly a part of how Iris is feeling are my own emotions :( it only hit me a day or two after publishing the last chapter that that was the last time I would get to write cedric and iris together and I got SO sad thinking about that. but I'm also getting excited to write Iris' ptsd and let me just say, some shit's about to go down in the next few chapters.

I'd like to say thank you to all of you reading, because your support is so great to have and even though I sometimes can't keep up with responding to comments, just know that I do see them all and they make me so happy and excited to continue writing!

I'm currently only one follower away from 600 (i actually hit it and then someone unfollowed but we won't talk about that lmaoo) but I wanted to say a huge thanks to all of you who have followed me because it's really cool to be at this number! I also wanted to ask you all if you wouldn't mind going to check out my wattpad bestie daniellawrites02 and drop her a follow because she's getting kinda close to 500 and she really deserves it!!

okay last thing, we're super close to hitting 175k reads which is absolutely mindblowing so thank you thank you thank you to literally every single one of you <3 <3 if all goes to plan, next chapter should be the last one of fourth year!!