"𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚃𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚎?"

𝕚𝕟𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 - 𝕋𝕒𝕪𝕝𝕠𝕣 𝕊𝕨𝕚𝕗𝕥

─── ∙ ~☾~ ∙ ───

The quartet had decided the best way to find out information about Crouch was to contact Percy, so Sunday after breakfast they made their way up to the Owlery. Hedwig and Athena both looked attentively at the four students hoping to finally get out again. They decided it was best to use Hedwig which didn't stop Athena from clicking her beak annoyingly and flying away from them.

After they watched the snowy owl fly out of their sight they went down to the kitchens to give Dobby the pair of socks they had bought at Hogsmeade. 

When they entered, the house-elves gave them a cheery welcome, and immediately started making tea. Dobby let out an excited squeal when he received his present. 

"Harry Potter is too good to Dobby!" he gushed, wiping abnormally large tears out of his huge eyes. 

"Oh come on you deserve it, you gave Neville the Gillyweed that saved my life," Harry praised. 

"No chance of more of those eclairs, is there?" Ron said, looking at the smiling house-elves. 

"You've just had breakfast!" Hermione protested, but eclairs were already served to the group on a silver platter. 

After taking one gratefully, Y/N dropped her head down and whispered to Harry, "We should get some stuff to send up to Snuffles."

"Good idea," Harry said, "It would give Athena something to do she's definitely giving you the silent treatment right now."

"How kind of you to care about the relationship between me and my owl," Y/N said with fake sincerity. Y/N turned to the surrounding house-elves, "Would you mind giving us an extra bit of food?"

They bowed happily and hurried off. 

"Dobby, where's Winky?" Hermione asked scanning the room. 

"Winky is over there by the fire, miss," Dobby said quietly. They all continued about their business until they heard Hermione's voice.

"Oh dear," Hermione muttered.

They all turned to see Winky sitting on the same stool they had seen her in when they were last down there. She had neglected basic hygiene and allowed herself to become so filthy that the smoke-blackened brick behind her was not so distinguishable from the tiny house elf.  

Her clothes had become ragged and they looked like they hadn't been washed in weeks. She had a bottle of butterbeer held tightly in her hand and she was staring into the fire. 

"Winky goes through six bottles a day now," Dobby whispered. 

"Well, at least it's not the strong stuff," Y/N offered, trying to see a bright side. 

"Strong for a house-elf Miss," Dobby said shaking his head as Winky let out an enormous hiccup.  

"Winky is pining, Harry Potter," Dobby said sadly. "Winky wants to go home. Winky is still thinking Mr. Crouch is her master, sir, and nothing Dobby says will persuade her that Professor Dumbledore is her master now."

The four looked at the House elf. Y/N could see in her eyes how she felt. She lacked a purpose and she definitely didn't want a new one in the kitchens.

"Hey Winky," Harry said surprisingly finding himself heading over to her and kneeling down. "you don't know what Mr. Crouch might be up to, do you? Because he's stopped turning up to judge the Triwizard tournament."

Winky blinked a couple of times before turning her huge eyes to focus on Harry. She swayed slightly and then said, "M–Master is stopped–hic–coming?"

"Yeah," Y/N said softly, joining beside him, "we haven't seen him since the first task. The Daily Prophet's saying he's ill."

Winky swayed slightly and turned her pupils in Y/N's direction. 

"Master–hic–ill?" Her bottom lip began to tremble. 

Y/N and Harry exchanged a frantic look before Hermione cut in quickly adding, "But we're not sure if that's true."

"Master is needing his–hic–Winky!" the elf began whimpering, hiccuping between words. "Master can not–hic–manage–hic–all by himself..."

"Other people do their own housework you know Winky," Hermione said severely. 

"Winky is not only–hic–doing housework for Mr. Crouch!" Winky squealed, swaying dangerously causing butterbeer to spill on her already stained blouse. "Master is–hic–trusting Winky with–hic–the most important–hic–the most secret–"

"What?" Harry said. 

But Winky just started shaking her head furiously spilling more butterbeer on herself. 

"You is–hic–nosing, you is," Winky said looking at Harry furiously and frowning. 

"Winky must not talk like that to Harry Potter!" Dobby said angrily. "Harry Potter is brave and noble and Harry Potter is not nosy!"

"He is nosing – hic – into my master's – hic – private and secret – hic – Winky is a good house-elf – hic – Winky keeps her silence – hic – people trying to – hic – pry and poke – hic –"

Winky's eyelids drooped suddenly, and then without warning she fell off her stool into the hearth and began snoring loudly. The empty butterbeer bottle rolled across the stone floor.

House elves gave her a disgusted look and placed a tablecloth on her tucking her out of sight and picking up the beer bottle. 

"We is sorry you had to see that, sirs and misses!" squared a house elf. "We is hoping you will not judge us all by Winky, sirs, and misses!" He shook his head looking very ashamed. 

"She's unhappy!" Hermione's voice rising. "Why don't you try to cheer her up instead of covering her up?"

"Um maybe not the time Hermione–" Harry began.

"Begging your pardon miss," the house elf said bowing deeply. "but house elves has no right to be unhappy when there is work to be done and masters to be served."

"Oh for heaven's sake!" Hermione cried. "Listen to me all of you! You've got just as much rights as wizards to be unhappy! You've got the right to wages and holidays and proper clothes, you don't have to do everything you're told – look at Dobby!"

"Miss will please keep Dobby out of this," Dobby mumbled looking scared. 

The other house elves were no longer cheery and smiling. They were looking at Hermione as if she was dangerous. 

"We has your extra food!" A house elf squeaked by Y/N's elbow. He shoved a large ham, a dozen cakes, and some fruits into Y/N's arms. "Goodbye!"

The house elves began crowding around the four and pushing them out of the kitchen. Little hands pushing at the smalls of their backs. 

"Thank you for the socks, Harry Potter!" Dobby called.

The kitchen door then slammed behind them. 

"You couldn't have kept your mouth shut, could you Hermione?" Ron said angrily. "They won't want us visiting them now! We could've tried to get more stuff out of Winky about Crouch!"

"Oh as if you care about that!" Hermione scoffed. "You only like coming down here for the food!"

"I resent that statement!" Ron gasped. 

Hermione looked at Y/N and Harry desparatly, "Come on, I was just telling them the truth."

"You could have gone about it in a different manner," Harry said softly scared of Hermione's burning gaze. 

"Wha–"

"Look Hermione, what you said was the truth," Y/N started earning a 'ha' look at Ron from Hermione. 

"But," she continued, "They've all been brainwashed to think this is how it should be and if someone tries to mess that up it should be a disgrace. We can't just go in there and read off their rights expecting them to storm the castle or go on strike."

"Fine," Hermione huffed turning around and heading towards the exit. 

"Fine?" Ron said annoyed following after her, "You fight me for hours about this but when Y/N says something it's "fine."?"

"Oh god," Y/N said watching the two disappear leaving her and Harry outside the kitchen door.

"At least you get a break, I've got to go back to the common room with them and listen to them argue, and then I've got to listen to Ron complaining about her in our dorm."

"Sounds like you're in for a fun night," Y/N said giving him a pat on the shoulder. 

Harry cracked a smile before extending his arms out. 

"Here I'll take those," he offered, taking the food the house elves had shamelessly stuffed into Y/N's hands before kicking them out. 

"Thanks," Y/N said handing the food over to Harry. 

They began walking down the silent corridor, their steps echoing through the hall. 

Harry watched Y/N as she seemed to be lost in her thoughts. She had the same face she wore whenever she was figuring something out, but all Harry could think about was the way her eyebrows were furrowed and how she was chewing her lip. 

God Harry just tell her how you feel. Was the sorting hat high when it sorted you into Gryffindor?

"Y/–"

"Harry what big secret do you think Winky was talking about?" Y/N said turning her gaze to him.

Harry made a quick smiling gesture towards her before saying, "I don't know. It seems to be important though. Winky was about to guard it with her life."

"Yeah," Y/N said turning her gaze back toward the front trying to connect the dots. 

Another time. Harry thought. 

"I feel like the answers right here but we're missing something," Y/N said thoughtfully.

"Yeah something's definitely missing," Harry said thinking running a hand through his hair. "We just got to figure out what."

"Sounds easy enough," Y/N said sarcastically as they reached the door that lead them to the hallway outside the Great Hall. 

"See you later Harrison," Y/N smiled at him. 

"You know I'd really prefer if you would stop calling me that," Harry said. 

"But now I've given you two nickname options," Y/N protested. "You can't forget the original Harold. Would you like a third option?"

Harry thought for a minute, "Fine. Let's hear it."

"I'll do you one better," Y/N smiled, "Three new options."

"Oh here we go," Harry sighed, rolling his eyes and leaning against the wall. 

"Haroldine, Hearelda, and Haroldo," Y/N said listing them off her fingers. 

"I guess I'll go with Haroldo," Harry said after a brief moment of thinking. 

"Great, see you later Harelda!" Y/N called moving towards the Slytherin common room. 

"That's not what I said!" Harry protested. 

"It's not? My bad. See you tomorrow Harrison!"

Harry smiled as the girl waved over her shoulder and then proceeded down the steps to the dungeons. 

He turned his head towards the number of steps he had to climb to reach the Gryffindor common rooms just to be met with classic Romione arguing. 

He looked back at the door the Slytherin girl had just disappeared down. 

One day, he knew he was going to tell her how he felt. It was inevitable. They've always had a connection, even if they were arguing, or fighting about who's better at quidditch. He felt it even now when they had parted. 

There would always be an invisible string tying him to the girl who would save him time and time again. 

He couldn't even imagine a life without her. It wasn't a world he wanted to live in. 

─── ∙ ~☾~ ∙ ───

Thankfully by the next day at breakfast, Ron and Hermione's bad moods had burnt out. 

Making Daphne and Tracey pout, Y/N had decided to sit with the Gryffindors during breakfast not wanting to leave Harry alone if the two were still bickering. 

When the post owls arrived, Hermione looked up eagerly. 

"Expecting something Hermione?" Y/N asked taking a bite of her eggs. 

"Percy won't've had time to answer yet," Ron said. "We only sent Hedwig yesterday."

"No it's not that," Hermione said. "I've taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet."

"Now why on earth would you do that?" Y/N asked looking back to the amount of damage the Daily Prophet and other wizarding news had done. 

"I'm sick of finding everything out from the gits in Slytherin," Hermione sighed. 

"Good thinking," Harry said as Y/N nodded in approval. 

They both went back to peacefully eating their meals. The two weren't inclined to get any important mail at mealtimes anymore.

Now when owl post arrived Harry was just praying he wouldn't get anything about somebody finding Sirius. And Y/N had juvenile hope that miraculously some letter from her family would come. 

It never did. 

"Hey Hermione I think you're in luck–" Ron said nodding up. The group saw a gray owl soaring down towards their table. 

"It isn't a newspaper, though," Hermione said disappointed.

Y/N who wasn't particularly paying attention jumped when the gray owl landed in front of her plate.  

"It's for you," Hermione said, a slight disappointment in her voice. 

"What–" Y/N started wondering who on earth could be sending her letter. Hopefully not her parents saying hi from six feet under.  

"Maybe it's from the Ministry," Harry suggested. 

"Yeah, the school year is coming to an end in a couple of months," Hermione said, "Maybe there's information about where you're staying over the summer."

"Like Mum would let you stay anywhere else but the Burrow," Ron said shaking his head. 

Before Y/N could react four barn owls, a brown owl, and a tawny soared to the table all landing in front of her. 

"Got a load of penpals do you?" Harry asked grabbing Y/N's goblet before it was knocked over by the cluster of owls, all of whom were jostling closer to her, trying to deliver their own letter first. 

"What the hell–?" Y/N said. She grabbed the letter from the gray owl. She opened it and began to read.

She felt her cheeks heat up as soon as she read it.

"What's up?" Ron asked. 

"This is ridiculous–" she muttered. 

She thrusted the letter into Harry's hands. He gave her a confused look but she wasn't making eye contact with him. He noticed it wasn't handwritten. It seemed to be pasted from letters that had been cut out of the Daily Prophet. 

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐖𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐄𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐑𝐋. 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐑𝐲 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐄𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐓𝐭𝐞𝐑. 𝐆𝐎 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐎 𝐢𝐋𝐯𝐄𝐑𝐦𝐎𝐫𝐍𝐲.

"They're all like it!" Y/N sighed opening letter after another. "'Harry Potter can do much better than the likes of you...' 'Why don't you do us a favor and disappear like your family' 'You deserve to be boiled in frog spawn' Ouch!"

She had opened the second to last envelope and a yellowish-green liquid gushed over her hands. It smelt strongly of petrol and it began to erupt large yellow boils on her skin. 

"Undiluted bubotuber pus!" Ron said picking up the envelope carefully. 

Y/N hissed in pain as she tried to rub the substance off her hands with a napkin but her fingers were covered so thickly that it looked like she was wearing weirdly shaped gloves. 

"Oh my god, you need to go to the hospital wing!" Hermione urged as Y/N stood up. 

Harry stood up with her, "Here I'll walk you–"

"No," Y/N said shortly still trying to wipe the pus off her hands. "I'll be fine. Go to Herbology."

Without letting him answer she took off out of the Great Hall. 

She didn't mean for what she said to come out hurtful, but she still didn't look Harry in the eye when she told him to go to class. The stinging in her eyes got worse as she left the Great Hall and headed to the hospital wing. 

"This is insane," Hermione said, "Look at this one." She picked up a letter Y/N had left behind. "'I read in Witch Weekly about how you are playing Harry Potter false and that boy has had enough hardship and I will be sending you a curse by next post as soon as I can find a big enough envelope.' She's got to be careful."

"This is all my fault," Harry said, "I should've done something. Told someone the truth so they would lay off her."

"Come on Harry," Ron said. "It's not your fault."

"No, it is," Hermione said packing up the opened envelopes into a neat pile. 

The two boys turned to look at her. 

"Don't act surprised," Hermione said. "Harry if you had just told her about your feelings long ago this wouldn't have happened. And your right. If you had told someone that you were the huge dick at the Yule Ball not her then maybe things would be different."

Harry blinked at her. He knew she was right. He had spent months wallowing in his guilt and the fact that he had blown his chance with Y/N when really he should have been fixing his mess. Maybe if he told her the truth it would have given her closure but he didn't.

"Come on Hermione," Ron defended. He dropped his voice to a whisper even though Harry could still hear him. "You know he's kind of delicate when it comes to this."

"I can hear you, Ron," Harry said scowling at him. 

"Look the point is you better figure out a way to fix this," Hermione said after she perfected the pile she made. 

Then, an unopened envelope that was turned face-down caught her eye. "There's one more letter left," she said. 

"I'm not opening it," Ron said inching away from Hermione. 

"Don't look at me," Harry said doing the same as Ron. 

Hermione let out a sigh and used her fork and knife to turn the letter face up. 

"Merlin's sake, it's from the Ministry," she said abandoning the fork and knife and picking it up with her hands. 

"What's Y/N doing getting letters from the Ministry?" Ron asked. 

"I don't know," Hermione said observing the outside of it.

"Well open it," Harry said. 

"I can't open her mail that's a crime," Hermione protested. 

"Well, it's not like she can open it herself now can she?" Ron sassed. 

"It still wouldn't be right," Hermione said.

"Oh my god, fine Mrs. Morality Police, I'll open it," Ron sighed reaching over her to grab it. 

"What so you can get your bacon greased hands on it," Hermione snarled pulling the letter closer to her and away from her Ron. "I'll open it."

"Fine," Ron said. 

"Fine," Hermione huffed. 

She began opening the seal slowly, "I would just like to say–"

"Merlin's beard just open it!" Harry hissed. 

Hermione rolled her eyes and began opening the seal. She pulled the letter out and the boys watched her face carefully. 

"Oh no," Hermione began muttering. "This can't be happening," She frantically said turning the letter over hoping for something on the back to tell her it was one big practical joke.

"Who died?" Ron said jumping to the worst conclusion he could think of. 

"Wha–no one died Ronald!" Hermione said annoyed. 

"Then what's wrong?" Harry asked hating the anticipation Hermione drummed up. 

Ron looked over Hermione's shoulders and his eyes went as wide as saucers. 

"Does someone want to tell me what's going on?" Harry asked growing more impatient by the millisecond. 

Ron and Hermione exchanged a look and then looked back at Harry like they were unaware if he could handle the information the letter held. 

"Oh so now you too are besties again," Harry said sarcastically. "Just tell me what the hell the letter says."

Hermione took a breath before reading and Ron gulped.

"It seems like they're having trouble finding any relatives here for Y/N to stay with," Hermione said slowly. 

"So?" Harry asked. 

"So...they're sending her back to Ilvermorny at the end of the year," Ron said

"What are you talking about?" Harry said the full effects not setting in yet. "Y/N will never go for it."

"I don't think she has a choice Harry," Hermione said softly.

─── ∙ ~☾~ ∙ ───

𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝟒: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟑

A/N: I'M BACK!! I'M SO SORRY FOR BEING GONE FOR SO LONG BUT I PROMISE IT WASN'T MY INTENTION TO ABANDON THIS BOOK. LIFE JUST GOT IN THE WAY. I'M SO SO SORRY BUT I NOW AM SO EXCITED TO START WRITING AGAIN AND I'VE MISSED YOU ALL SM!! 

IF ANYONE OF YOU NEED TO TALK YOU CAN MESSAGE ME ON HERE OR ON TIKTOK I DON'T BITE AND I TRY MY BEST TO REPLY NO MATTER WHAT!

I LOVE YOU ALL SM AND I'VE MISSED YOU OML! OKAY, THAT'S IT FOR NOW BUT HEYY AGAIN!