A/N: Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter, sorry. Some of the text comes out of GoF. Enjoy!
Trial of Champions: Book 1 Alternate Ending
By: Patronydoe77
Chapter 1
"We'll both take it. At the same time." Harry said. The gleaming Triwizard Cup stood right in between Harry and Cedric. Cedric still had his wand raised from stunning the spider, which lay behind Harry. Harry was leaning on the hedge for support, the spider had bitten his leg and he had twisted his ankle after it had dropped him.
Cedric stared at Harry.
"Fine." Cedric finally replied. It was still a victory for Hogwarts and they needed to get out of the maze quickly. Cedric helped Harry over to the cup.
"On the count of three. One…two…THREE!" They both grasped a handle of the cup. In a flash of light and color, the familiar jolt of a Portkey spun them off to a place unknown.
They were both discarded unceremoniously on the ground. Harry yelped at the pain in his injured leg and shook his head to clear it. Cedric was already standing and offering a helping hand to Harry. Harry graciously took it. Looking around, they saw a large house on top of a hill in the distance and surrounding them were headstones that jutted eerily out of the ground. Right behind them was an ancient yew tree, twisted from age.
"Where are we?"
"Dunno." Cedric replied, "Wands out, d'you reckon?" Harry nodded.
Suddenly a twig snapped of to their right. Through the darkness, a person's outline could be seen. As they drew closer it could be seen that they were carrying a bundle. Harry looked over at Cedric, eye contact was made and they were thinking the same thing. Who is this person and what are they doing? The figure stopped by a large stone obelisk, not even four paces in front of them. Then, without warning, Harry's scar flared with pain. It was such agony that he never felt before in his life; his wand slipped out of this fingers as his hands went over his face; his knees buckled and he was nearly screaming out in pain from his scar. Harry didn't even notice Cedric laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Cedric had seen Harry fall. It scared him to see someone in that much pain. It crossed his mind briefly that someone had set the Cruciatus on him but he banished the thought and laid a worried hand on his friend's shoulder. Before Cedric could do anything more a high, cold voice rang in the air sending a chill up his spine.
"Kill the spare!"
Under his hand he felt Harry shake and in a flourish, a wand was pulled and the voice rang out again.
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was a whooshing sound, a green light and a voice in side of his head told him to duck. Cedric obeyed and landed on the ground with a loud thump. He heard Harry yell out in pain again and couldn't see how Harry could hold up under so much. A whole new level of respect had developed for the young boy in front of him.
Cedric was roughly pushed over and looking up he found a wand pointed at his face. His attacker chuckled.
"It seems that Potter wants a witness. So be it. "
Cedric grabbed his attacker's legs and threw him to the ground, before he found the chance to move he was bound and gagged to the ancient yew tree; his head throbbing from the rough contact. He saw Harry now being roughly dragged and then shoved against the marble obelisk.
With a sickening crack, Harry's head made contact with the marble and he felt blood trickling down his back. His vision started to fuzz and black spots started to appear, threatening to black out.
Cedric saw Harry struggling as he was being bound. The hooded man slapped Harry across the face and he fell limp against the bounds, unconscious.
The man conjured a large cauldron full of crystal water with the flick of his wand before picking up the bundle on the ground and placing it tenderly in the cauldron. Cedric heard the man whimper as he swirled the wand in an intricate pattern over the headstone Harry was bound to.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
A fine trickle of white dust rose from the ground and floated into the cauldron, turning the liquid inside a vivid blue. The man now pulled out a long, thin, shining silver knife. Cedric then heard the man sob out.
"Flesh - of the servant - willingly given - you will - revive - your master."
Cedric looked away as the man chopped off his right hand. The man screamed as the sound of something being dropped into the cauldron filled the air. The potion hissed and turned a burning red color. Cedric looked back over to the blinding potion in time to see the figure insert the tip of the knife between the ropes binding Harry and into Harry's right arm.
Harry screamed as the knife was dragged from the crook of his elbow down to his wrist.
"B-blood of the enemy…forcibly taken…you will…resurrect your foe."
Horrified, Cedric watched the blood drip both from Harry's already blood soaked robes and from the knife into the red potion. The potion turned a blinding white color as soon as the first drop of blood hit the surface. By now the figure slumped to the ground twitching and moaning, and Harry was now trying to hold his grasp onto consciousness once again.
A white mist slowly gathered around the cauldron and expanded, thickening, obliterating everything around Harry, Cedric, and the man sobbing on the ground.
But then, through the mist, a dark outline of a man rising slowly from inside the cauldron. The remaining mist gathered back together and darkened, forming into a robe around the man. Amazed, Cedric saw Harry staring with a frightening amount of determination at the man. And once again, he heard the voice in his head and he knew for sure that the man in front of him was not an illusion. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils…
Voldemort.
The monster's eyes scanned over the man huddling on the ground, Cedric tied to the yew tree, and Harry's pale, bloody figure trying to stare him down.
"I see you brought company this time," Voldemort said as he inspected his long, spider like fingers. "Do you want me to kill him now, or later?"
Harry didn't reply.
"Hmm…staying silent. Very well." Voldemort turned to the figure huddling on the ground. "My wand, Wormtail."
A long thin wand appeared in Voldemort's outstretched hand. A sneer apparent on his lips.
"Your arm."
Hesitantly, held out his stub of an arm, cradling it like a baby. He sobbed, "Thank you, master."
"Your other arm, Wormtail." Voldemort hissed. Wormtail whimpered, and held out his left arm. The Dark Lord pressed the tip of the thin, pale wand into the middle of the trembling man's Dark Mark. It turned from pale, natural to dark black and wriggling. Within seconds pops filled the still night air and masked and cloaked Death Eaters appeared at their master's side.
"Master!" they all cried, kneeling and kissing the hem of Voldemort's robes. He smiled, taking in all of it.
"My friends! Welcome. I've been waiting anxiously for you as you were for me. But why haven't we met earlier, sooner. Why has this reunion been almost too late? Some of you renounced your ways when I fell, but my most faithful remain in Azkaban prison awaiting for me to return so we can make this world a better place for us pureblood, a place where there will be no mudbloods to dirty our blood and muggles to do all our work. But why, you've asked yourselves, is it taking so long? And I answer you: because you have not come looking for ME!"
The surrounding Death Eaters bristled and formed a wide circle around Voldemort, Harry and Cedric.
"But no matter, those who need to be punished shall be and those who need to be rewarded will be, but for now we need to be disposed of a nasty thorn in my side: Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived." Voldemort spat out the boy's name. "Wormtail, give him back his wand, I want to see if he can beat me: man to man."
Wormtail scurried to do his master's bidding, cutting the ropes around Harry, who struggled to find his feet in time, and thrusting the holly wand into his shaking hands.
Cedric found that he still had his wand and begun to burn through the ropes.
"It seems that they taught you how to duel, Harry Potter, now bow before death" Voldemort hissed, positioning into a dueling stance. With more bravery than he felt, Harry replied, "You too should bow, Tom. For it is only proper."
"So be it."
The two enemies bowed to each other but before they finish Voldemort shot off a Cruciatus Curse. Harry did not duck out of the way of the red curse fast enough and was hit full on. Cedric cringed at Harry's screams but it seemed to fuel Voldemort and his minions as they continued to hold the curse longer than necessary. He had burned through the last of his ropes and was ready to grab Harry at a moments notice once Voldemort had his back turned.
It was agony as the spell coursed through Harry and when the curse ended he lacked any conscious thought as black spots danced in his vision. Voldemort chuckled darkly as he made his way over to Harry's prone form.
"You are going to die, Harry Potter, and I'm going to watch the lights leave you eyes. There's nothing you do to stop me." He gentle brought his long fingers down Harry's cheek and watched him moan and twist in pain. A look of triumph crossed Voldemort's reptilian features as he straightened up, stepped back and pulled his wand.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort cried as Cedric and Harry, using the last of his energy in the attempt to save his own life, yelled, "Diffindo!"
Cedric's spell went wide and hit one of the unsuspecting Death Eaters, but Harry's collided with Voldemort's green spell. The two spells met and turned into a golden rod connecting the two wands expanded into a golden dome, and lifted Harry and Voldemort of the ground. Harry held onto his wand, as he seemed to be unable to let go. He felt like he was running off of pure magic. Phoenix song filled his ears giving him the strength he needed to continue. With that he wrenched the wand up and disconnected the golden rod sending both wizards crashing to the ground. The landing left Harry gasping for breath and his vision dimming around him.
"Get him!" Voldemort screamed, but his Death Eaters were unable to cross the golden threshold still enacted. Cedric made haste over to the now unconscious Harry and summoned the Triwizard Cup, taking advantage of the little protection that had been erected.
In a flash of blue portkey light Harry and Cedric disappeared. They landed with a soft thump and all sound ceased for a millisecond before the crowd exploded with cheers. The sound hurt his ears as his head swam and all he wanted to do it curl up and forget that tonight had even happened. But Harry needed help; the hand that rested on the boy's chest signaled that his breathing was irregular and far too shallow; the other clutched the cold handle of the Cup. A scream pierce the cold night air and he could feel the footsteps of people against the hard ground.
"Harry. Harry!"
"Cedric!"
Harry was pulled out of his grasp and he, himself was roughly turned over. His eyes locked into those of the Headmaster.
Tell him.
Said the whisper again. Cedric was having trouble forming the words and exhaustion was creeping up on him, but the caught the look on his father's face so he continued just before the blackness claimed him:
"H-Harry…V-Voldemort…back…"