Dumbledore gazed out as the summer sun set on another beautiful day, how could nature be so at odds with the evil that was spreading its way through Wizardom? Riddle was back, the second nemesis he had encountered in his lifetime. Despite his prediction, that Voldemort would indeed return, coming true, he felt unprepared for how to go forward.

The ministry was being corrupted from the inside, like last time, there were mysterious disappearances, like last time and he feared for the lives of those around him, like last time. Unlike last time, there was an end in sight, the prophecy that had catalysed Voldemort's first demise, had come into play. Harry had been marked the Dark Lord's equal, Harry had a power the Dark Lord knew not, however, no matter how optimistic Dumbledore's outlook, he knew, if one wizard was to die at the hand of the other, Harry did not stand a chance of being the one who survived. The events of last term, proved as much.

The Final Task, of what had been, by all accounts, a more successful tournament than it had looked at the beginning of the year. Harry was holding his own against his much greater experienced competitors and it looked as if Hogwarts could have its champion. Dumbledore blamed himself for his complacency in blindly allowing the events of that night to unfurl, how had he not suspected something was a foot?

His first sign of trouble was when Fleur was discovered, suffering the effects of a wizard administered curse, he knew none of the other competitors would have sunk so low as to willingly cast that on the girl.

Then Krum turned up, with the dazed and troubled countenance of one, recently imperialised. All he could do was wait for the other two competitors to re-emerge.

He had been sitting, agitatedly at the front of the expectant crowd, when the man to his right had tensed and hissed in pain.

"Severus, what is it?" he whispered,

"the dark lord, it is a summoning, I must go, Potter may be in trouble",

"impossible, he cannot have left the grounds and Voldemort cannot have entered them".

Severus stood up and started making his way back to the castle, Dumbledore followed. At a safe distance away from the stands he stopped the former Death Eater.

"You cannot know that, perhaps it would be best if you waited here until the task's completion, it would be folly to answer whilst this ill-informed"

" Albus with all due respect, I know what he is calling for, he is back, sir, he has regained his full strength and you know as well as I do, that he would desire the boy to be there".

Albus pulled out his wand and cast a quick detection spell at the maze and gasped "You are right, Harry has gone, so too has Diggory, I fear something terrible has occurred" he admitted gravely to the other man.

"Then I shall make hast and see what can be done" with that Snape sped back towards the castle and into the night.

Dumbledore hurried back to the crowd, pacing and cursing how this could have happened beneath his very nose.

Three wizards returned to the front of the maze in a tangled and bloodied mess. Someone was sobbing, Harry, Dumbledore noted as he hurried to their sides.

"Severus has what we feared transpired?" he got a tense nod in reply.

"He's dead, I couldn't stop him, it was so fast" Harry hiccuped and Dumbledore looked down at the other boy. Diggory lay motionless, blank eyes staring up into nothing.

"Severus get Harry somewhere safe, I shall take care of this",

Snape went to take Harry by the shoulders but Harry clung on to the body, "No, no, no it's not fair" Harry broke down into heart wrenching sobs bowed over the other boy's body.

Mr Diggory had by now pushed his way through the gathering crowd and discovered his son. "No, my boy, that's my boy!".

The distraction was enough for Snape to haul Harry out of there and away.

It was later that Dumbledore found Harry, seated in Minerva's office with said professor and Severus standing either side, also a stunned and bound man lying at their feet.

" Am I to gather that this man, has something to do with the events of this evening?" Albus enquired.

"The man who we believed to be Alistair Moody, accosted me earlier as I brought Potter inside. Potter managed to stun him and we brought him in here, where he recently transformed into this" Snape emphasised 'this' with a kick to the man's ribs.

"Ennervate" Dumbledore muttered to the man at his feet "Ah Barty Crouch, Junior, it has been a long time. Tell me, to what end did you mean by impersonating a retired Auror?"

"Why should I tell you anything, old man?" he spat

" I see" Dumbledore sighed "Severus?"

Snape bent forward and poured a clear liquid down the man's throat. Barty coughed and looked around with wild eyes.

"Why were you impersonating Alistair Moody?" Dumbledore repeated,

"The Dark Lord bade me bring Potter to him, I had to get into the school to put his name in the goblet of fire" Barty replied in a flat, emotionless voice.

"What did Voldemort want with Harry?"

"He did not say, just to make sure the boy was at the graveyard tonight. Wormtail said the Dark Lord had found a way to return".

Dumbledore nodded and looked between Harry and Severus, "I take it, Voldemort was successful?"

Harry glanced at Snape, before replying "Yes, he took my blood and his father's bone and chopped of Pettigrew's hand. Then his new body just grew out of nowhere, it was grotesque" Harry shuddered and McGonagall put her arm around the boy's shoulders.

"Is Alistair Moody still alive?" Dumbledore asked of their captive.

" He is locked in my trunk, I had to keep him alive for his hair to put in the polyjuice"

"Minerva, if you would escort Harry back to his dormitory, I shall contact the Aurors and see to Alistair… Severus?"

Snape had suddenly gasped and doubled over, holding his left arm against his chest.

"Severus?" Minerva and Albus asked at once, "Was your cover broken?" all Snape could do was grimace and nod,

"I'll alert Poppy, I think there is a potion you have need of".

Albus sent off his patronus to the ministry then headed to fire call Poppy.

Before Minerva could usher Harry out, the boy had turned to Albus and gestured at Snape, "It was my fault, he had to give himself up to save me, Voldemort was going to kill me" looking down at his groaning professor the boy added "I'm sorry" before he left.

It was one of the longest nights he had had in a long time. Severus had taken his experimental potion and after a night of agony, the mark was gone, Albus couldn't help the pride at the talent of the man he thought of as close to a son.

He returned from his balcony, now that it was dark, and set about with some work he had promised for the Order.

His first alert that something was wrong was Fawkes squawking and swooping down to his desk. He quickly glanced at his ward detector, but nothing seemed amiss with it, hurrying over to his shelf, he found the source of Fawkes' disturbance, one of his monitoring spheres was pulsing an angry orange and began to shriek. Picking the ball up and turning it over, he read the HJP on the base, Harry was in trouble.

He sent his patronus right away, "Arabella, you must get to privet drive, something is wrong" he also sent a note to Grimmauld place with Fawkes, hoping an Order Member was around to get to Harry. He then hurried to the hospital wing to prepare for an imminent arrival.