I was dumped on a road somewhere in just my underwear, tied up.

And just to add to this utterly degrading situation, it turned out that they dumped me with my fucking mugger.

The jumped up prick was just going to leave me lying there after I'd helped untie him first.

"Why should I?" He scoffed as I screamed at him to turn his thieving backside around and untie me at once. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? To crawl out of the competition? We had a chance! Do you think I wanted to mug you that night? Of course I didn't. But it's what I have to do in order to survive! And now that's on you - you and the other hundred cowards that voted to leave."

"THEY WERE FUCKING KILLING US IN THERE!"

"And they're fucking killing us out here, too," he said with a heavy sigh. "So what's the sodding difference?"

He looked resigned, tired and beaten. His sleek black hair flopped over his green eyes, pale face sporting chiselled cheekbones. Despite his sharp looks, there was a sort of vulnerability emanating off him, giving the air of a frightened youth.

"What's your name?" I asked him as he crouched down to roughly cut the ropes tied around my wrist with his penknife, his face hardened in a scowl. "I don't remember you from school."

"That's because I didn't go. Well... not really."

"Oh. I just got the impression that all the players had been past Hogwarts students, even Dumbledore-"

"My name is Nico," he cut in sharply as he dropped my hands, and quickly rose back to his feet. "But you won't remember me as that."

I stared up at the dark haired boy in confusion, searching his face beneath the light of the street lamps.

He sighed heavily, tossing me my clothes. It was only then I realised I was shivering in the cold. Quickly getting dressed, I kept throwing him furtive glances.

"What do you mean you didn't really go to Hogwarts?" I asked curiously as I zipped up my tattered parka. "Surely you either did, or you didn't?"

He gave me a sideways glance, as though contemplating how much more he was willing to tell me.

In the end, probably out of nothing better to do, he told me.

"My parents named me Pansy. That's who went to Hogwarts. Not me. I never felt... right, I never felt like me."

This, I was not expecting.

"Pansy? As in Pansy Parkinson?"

"No. Yes. But I was never her. This is me. Nicolas Parkinson. I had the surgery two years ago. My family disowned me when they realised what I'd spent my trust fund on. Kicked me to the curb and left me with nothing."

"Wait- does Draco Malfoy know? Is that why he got you beaten up?"

To my surprise, Nico just threw his head back and gave a sycophantic laugh. "Malfoy got me beaten up because he's a chicken shit coward who was simply threatened by the way I looked at him. I don't think he even knew I was someone he once dated. Fuck, what I ever saw in him, I'll never know."

"So... do you, um- date boys still?" I asked. I knew I was being overly nosey but curiosity was getting the better of me.

"I'm pan, if that's what you're asking," he said, his eyes flashing in amusement, "so one might argue that my parents must have had some idea when giving me my birth name."

"Pan?"

"Pansexual," he chuckled, clearly amused by my ignorance. "In other words: the sky's the limit."

"Wow." I felt a wave of admiration despite the fact that this guy had literally mugged me.

"Anyway," he drawled lazily, already looking bored by our conversation, "don't you have some sewer to climb back down into?"

"Oh."

Thrown, I looked around. For a start, I had no idea where we were. This was not the same road I was picked up on. And what about Padma, Parvati and Luna? Where had they been taken to?

"We're in Ruislip," Nico explained, frowning as he watched me carefully, "it's a good old trek back to Soho from here, if that's where you're aiming for?"

I shrugged. "I'd sooner find out where they took Luna and my sisters."

Nico went to leave but instead hesitated. "Have you any money?"

I shook my head, giving a derisive bark of laughter. "What the fuck do you think? I was mugged, not a single fucking Knut to my name, thanks to you."

"Yeah... well," he shrugged, finally actually looking shamefaced for once, "as I said, that game was my last chance, my only hope."

"You would really compete?" I asked, baffled. "Knowing now what the stakes are? You would risk a violent bloody end to get your hands on some cash?"

"It's not just cash though, it's ten million Galleons."

"At the cost of all your old classmates!"

"Who says anyone else has to die, though? They did say, if you follow the rules, you will get out alive. Just don't slip up. Simple."

"They killed over half the players in one single game!"

"Because they all panicked and broke the rules. It was easy enough to get to the other side in the time given. Just keep your head in future games and you'll be laughing."

I looked at him, hating what his words were doing to me. Was I a fool to have opted out? But then I remembered Cho Chang and her swollen stomach.

No. We chose the right thing.

*****

Nico and I stuck together that night, slowly traipsing through the streets and sheltering from the rain in bus stops and doorways.

My eyes constantly scanned passerby's for any sign of Luna or my sisters, but to no avail.

Nico bought us some chips to share. I was going to say thank you but then recalled the money he used was what he stole from me. So I said nothing and silently tucked in, trying not to let the bitterness ruin the taste. There was no point biting the hand that has fed you, after all. No matter what means they had gone about getting it.

"When did you realise you were actually a boy?" I daringly asked once the last chip had been consumed and there was nothing left but greasy newspaper which Nico greedily licked.

"I dunno," he shrugged, "I guess I always knew, deep down. I hated my name for a start. People calling me Pansy made me shudder every single time. But it wasn't just that, of course. Nothing about being a girl felt right."

A silence ensued. I didn't know how to respond to that. It was all very new to me.

"Now it's my turn to ask you a question," Nico said, a smirk twitching at his lips. "Are you only sat with me now because you consider me 'safe'?"

"Safe?" I frowned, confused by the question.

"I mean," he scoffed, and this time I noticed a touch of derision to his tone, "you still see me as a girl, don't you? It's okay. I mean- no, it's not okay. But it's not your fault. It's this god damned fucking society. And I tell you, I'm so fucking done with it."

"I don't-" I started. But then I stopped. And I really thought about it.

Did I find Nico safe since he told me his story? Would I really be sat down next to him in a church doorway sharing chips if I actually considered him to be a hot blooded male?

He smirked again, screwing up the newspaper in his hands. "Don't worry, at least you're not as bad as my parents. You're not running from me, for one."

I didn't point out that it was because I literally had nowhere else to go.

But that night, as I curled up shivering on the step next to Nico, I found I was glad I was with him.

*****

"Daddy?"

Luna shakily stepped inside her home that she'd shared with her father all her life.

Everything was a mess: windows smashed, furniture upended, books scattered with pages torn out.

She tried the light switch but nothing.

"Daddy?" She said louder, her radishes bobbing below her ears as her voice trembled.

She shakily lifted her wand and silently lit it, her blood turning cold as her eyes landed instantly on the message on the wall written in what looked suspiciously like blood.

GIVE US WHAT YOU OWE OR IT'S BYE BYE DADDY

******

Padma and Parvati travelled straight to the centre of London, vowing to search every sewer until they found their little sister again.

But no matter who they asked, no matter where they went, they were greeted with the same ugly sneers and warnings to 'go home, or go die'.

"It's no use," Padma hissed. "We should never have left the game! Stick together, no matter what. We have our wits, all three of us could get through the competition. I mean, Grandmother's Footsteps? Really? Only a moron couldn't win that game."

Parvati said nothing, only wept. Because she couldn't help but feel that maybe this time her twin sister was right. She was the Ravenclaw, after all.

******

The white-blond haired Slytherin sank down at the gravestone, his chest tight as his fingertips shakily brushed against the name engraved into the white marble.

"I'm sorry, Mother," he choked, tears brimming in his eyes and spilling down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry I let you down."

He had nothing left, nothing, except for a father whom he hated above everyone else.

When he awoke the next morning, his once immaculate suit crumpled as he lay shivering by his mother's grave, he found he was clasping a small rectangular card that wasn't there before, a very familiar card.

*****

"The invitations have been sent back out. I am confident that the majority will return. Their lives are as pitiful as ever."

"Miss Cho Chang?"

"I think it's safe to say she won't be returning, I can't say the same for Cedric Diggory. I made sure to burn their house down. Times will be pretty desperate for them with a little one on the way."

"Hmmm, a shame." A deadly pause. "And what about him?"

"He will not let us down, boss. He knows his role."

"Good... good."

A wicked smile beneath a glittering mask made of gold and shaped like a Phoenix.

And so let the game continue.

******