A Change in Fate || Cedric Diggory [1]

Chapter 26: Indications

Analeigh didn't get a detailed response from her father after her lengthy letter to him, which disappointed her a bit for she was expecting his usual wise words of advice whenever she had a problem. He did say he would talk to her face to face soon – she didn't know what soon meant because she still had a few weeks left until the tournament and entire school year ended. However, she temporarily forgot about those worries because Altair at least sent her some chocolates from Grace. Analeigh was over the moon at receiving some of her mother's sweets again, which she badly needed to take her mind off of things.

"I still can't believe Snape was a Death Eater," Analeigh was saying.

"I'm not," said Ron. "It fits the evil and brooding image he's always had. I knew he had some dark secret."

The group of fourth year students were currently taking a break from training for the Third Task. Ron and Hermione had been kind enough to take away some time from studying for their exams to help Harry and Analeigh prepare for the last phase of the Triwizard Tournament.

It had been just a week since Harry's incident in the Forbidden Forest – the one where he found Barty Crouch acting strange, ran to Dumbledore for help, and returned to find Krum stunned on the floor who claimed that it was Crouch's doing. But it had only been a few days when a new incident occurred: Harry's dream about Voldemort during Divination class, which caused Harry's scar to hurt badly that he immediately went to Dumbledore to ask him about it. Analeigh wasn't able to witness this scene as she had a different class elective during that time slot, so Harry updated her and Hermione as soon as he saw them after speaking to Dumbledore.

He had quite an interesting adventure in the headmaster's office. He accidentally watched his memories from his Pensieve, specifically one of Igor Karkaroff's trial as a Death Eater shortly after Voldemort's defeat. Dumbledore eventually discussed its details – though, not all of them – with Harry, who later shared those to Hermione, Ron, and Analeigh.

"Ronald," Hermione said warningly. "Snape must have done something really good because Harry literally just told us that Dumbledore fully trusts him."

"Yeah, well, if I were him, I still wouldn't."

They found out a number of surprising things from Harry's trip through Dumbledore's memories. While it was shocking enough to see Karkaroff in his own trial for being a Death Eater, he had also revealed that Snape was one, too. Harry retold how Dumbledore explained that Snape no longer supported Voldemort. He didn't say much, but something in Dumbledore's voice that night told Harry that he shouldn't argue against it.

"What made you think he'd really stopped supporting Voldemort, Professor?" Harry had questioned. Dumbledore held his curious gaze for a few seconds.

"That, Harry, is a matter between Professor Snape and myself."

"The next wildest thing that could happen after Snape being a Death Eater is that someone from our families was one, too," Ron joked.

"Not funny," Analeigh lightly shoved the redhead. "Besides, that's highly unlikely."

"I was kidding, woman. Dad's obsessed with muggles. There's no way he'd have been a Death Eater like Snape or Karkaroff."

Hermione's parents were muggles while Harry's obviously defied Voldemort more than once, costing them their lives. Analeigh was just confident that her parents had nothing to do with the dark arts, too – after all, didn't her father move to France where he met her mother right after he graduated? So, with that, the four Gryffindors directed their attention back to the matter at hand: practicing new spells. They trained and trained for hours in the empty Transfiguration classroom until it was almost curfew.