Here comes the next chapter, and with it the end of fourth year. Things will change a great deal starting with the next chapter, and expect a slightly darker tone to the story.

Chapter 10

It was the day of the second task, and ever since Harry had figured out the clue from the golden egg, he was in a foul mood for a simple reason. He hated swimming.

"It's not so bad, Harry. I wish I could go for a swim in the lake, but there are too many things that can see me down there." Hermione sighed.

"Easy for you to say. It's not like you can drown." Harry huffed.

"Don't worry, Harry, I've got you covered." Neville handed him a clump of some sort of tangled plant.

"Gillyweed. Enough to last you for more than an hour." The boy explained. Out of the three, he knew the most about magical herbs.

"Thanks, Neville. Have you seen Luna? She said she'd be here." Harry's eyes roamed the audience for his newest friend.

"I can't say that I have. I'm sure she'll turn up." Neville shrugged.

The water in the lake was cold, and for a few moments after he jumped in, Harry stood still, getting used to the changes wrought by the gillyweed and the sudden change in temperature. He cast a warming charm on himself and sped out towards the faint sound of singing.

Getting trough the lake was not an easy task, having to struggle trough large areas overrun with seaweed, and twice, he was assaulted by swarms of grindylows, but a quick dose of killing intent stopped the underwater pests from bothering him.

After what felt like forever, he reached the mermaid village at the bottom of the lake. In what looked like a square, he saw his objective. Four people were floating serenely, anchored to a statue.

Harry froze when he recognized one of them as Luna. His hand blurring into motion, a blade of wind cut the rope holding her with ease. Within minutes, they were at the surface, and Luna woke up the moment the air touched her face.

"That's a new look for you, Harry." She gestured to the gills on his neck and his webbed hands.

Harry grinned lightly and cast a warming charm on her as well and began swimming towards the platforms where everyone was watching.

They reached the platform with ten minutes to spare, and the crowd went wild.

"So, did you really miss me so much that you'd go into the lake to get me back?" Luna smiled dreamily at him.

"I just did, didn't I?" Harry grinned as his eyes caught a large beetle on Luna's hair. Getting a strange sensation about it, he conjured a jar, and before the bug could get away, Harry's hand was locked around it, and he had it inside the jar. He put a punctured lid on it and cast an unbreakable charm on the jar.

"What's that you got there, Harry?" Luna took the jar and looked at the beetle that was frantically running around the jar.

"A beetle. It looks interesting, doesn't it? I read about a charm that you can use to crystallize a bug and turn it into a decoration." Harry's eyebrow rose as the beetle tripled its efforts to find a way out.

"Oh, it would make a lovely broach, Harry." Luna gave him a wide smile.

"I'll see what I can do. Say, do you have any plans for the next Hogsmeade trip?" Harry said suddenly.

"Isn't the next trip on Valentine…?" Luna's eyes widened. "Falling for my charms, Mr. Potter?" She snuggled next to him.

"Perhaps a bit. We're still just friends, though. If I want to take it further, I'll let you know." Harry grinned back.

Again, Harry got full marks for this task as well, cementing his lead into the tournament by a large margin.

"What are you reading, Harry?" Hermione and Neville arrived in the RoR to see Harry reading a book for a change. Usually, Harry was busy working over a technique scroll or working on a technique.

"I'm reading about Animagi. Especially, the Animagus reversal spell." Harry gave a pointed look to the jar with the beetle he had caught this morning.

"You think that's an Animagus?" Neville stared curiously at the still beetle.

"It's too unusual to be anything else. The question is, who it is, and why were they on Luna's hair while I was talking to her?" Harry finally found the right spell and took his wand out. He opened the jar, and the beetle immediately tried to fly away, but again, Harry's quick hand caught it.

A quick spell later and Rita Skeeter appeared before them.

"Now this is a surprise. What do you think we should do now, Harry?" Neville grinned evilly at the clearly scared witch.

"No one knows she's here. I say we put a smile on her face and leave her for the Acromantula in the forest." Harry pulled out a kunai, making the woman pale like a sheet and back up against the wall.

In seconds, she fell apart, sobbing hysterically and begging them to spare her life.

"Spineless vermin. You should be grateful I'm doing this for you." Harry grabbed Rita and dragged her away to the sealing chamber.

"If you even flinch, I'll slit your throat." Harry took one of the brushes they used for painting seals.

"Take off your clothes." This time, Rita stopped her sobbing to give him a shocked and fearful look.

"I'm not going to rape you, damn it. Now do it before I change my mind about killing you." Harry gave her a bit of killing intent, and she immediately rushed to obey.

"What are you going to do?" Hermione watched as he painted the seals.

"I'm using Sasori's mind sealing. I'm basically locking away the memories of everything she saw today, as well as adding a few personality modifications." Harry explained as he put the finishing touches on the seal.

"I've studied that seal as well, and I know it's not this complex." Hermione commented.

"I'm using a double seal. I might need her in the future. Releasing the first seal will activate the second, and with it, a personality more open to writing what we tell her to." Harry grinned as he began making hand signs.

"That's cold, Harry, even for someone like her." Hermione shook her head.

"I won't make her risk her life for me, Hermione. I just don't like being spied upon." Harry shrugged and touched two fingers to Rita's forehead. The woman screamed and collapsed as the seals compressed on her forehead and faded from sight.

"Will you get her dressed? Have a Kage Bunshin take her out of the castle afterwards." Harry turned to Hermione.

"Sure. You'll spar with me tonight?" She asked hopefully.

"Can't. I already promised Neville. Tomorrow, alright?" Harry grinned. Ever since she hit puberty, Hermione was really turning violent.

That night, Harry's usually calm sleep was disturbed by a vision. He found himself in a decrepit old house, facing Wormtail.

The rat-like man had failed something, but someone else working for Voldemort managed to fix it. After telling Wormtail this, Voldemort proceeded to use the Cruciatus on the man. Sudden pain surged trough Harry forcing him awake.

This was the first time this had happened, and Harry was worried. He checked his mental protection carefully, finding a gap in the shadows he failed to close again. Frowning, he moved to examine the gap more carefully, tracing it to his scar.

"So, he really is alive. And apparently getting stronger as well." Neville frowned when Harry told them this the next day.

"He's not fully back yet. But yes, he's getting stronger, considering I couldn't close the connection between the scar and my mind. I think it would be wise to examine the scar more carefully." Harry replied.

"I didn't believe the results of the first scan, so I did them again, and even then, if I hadn't studied demon sealing, I doubt I'd have recognized it. There is a soul fragment lodged into the scar. That is what is keeping the connection open." Hermione informed them with a grim face.

"What do we do?" Harry did not like the sound of this. Souls, as he had read were tricky things, even if he didn't know it was possible to break a soul into pieces.

"Sealing it will prevent it from influencing you, but if we do, the fragment will remain with you, making it impossible to kill Voldemort. We must extract it, without damaging your own soul and magic in the process." Hermione explained.

"That will be tricky. One wrong move and you'll remove my magic, or worse, my whole soul." Harry tried to remain calm, but on the inside, he felt a panic attack approaching rapidly. The fragment had to be removed, but the risk was simply enormous.

"We'll focus on this. Until we get rid of the fragment, it takes precedence over all other projects." Neville gave the other two a firm look. They gave a nod in agreement.

"I'll tell the twins we'll have to delay the prank." Harry formed a clone and sent it to talk to the twins.

"We have a lot of work to do. Best get to it." The trio walked into the large library, working madly over the scrolls talking about sealing.

The complexity of the seal in question and the risk involved if they did something went wrong forced them to spend nearly all the time until the third task studying and calculating seal arrays.

Harry, who knew the most about seals, put himself under an enormous amount of pressure to get this done. Several times over the weeks, he had dozed off during class, thanks to him spending long hours into the night to work. He even mumbled seal calculations between snores.

"I think that should do it. We went over the calculations five times. It will work." Hermione tried to get her courage up as she and Neville were finishing the seal. The truth was, until they had done it, there was no way of knowing if it worked or not.

The seal activated, and Harry trashed wildly as the markings rushed towards and inside his scar. His suggestion for a gag turned out to be a good idea. He was clearly screaming his throat out, and they noticed his jaw clenched tightly against the thick piece of rubber stuck between his teeth.

After several minutes, a small green ball of emerged from the scar, wrapped in seal markings. The moment it was out, the markings vanished, and moments later, so did the ball. Harry stopped trashing, and appeared to be merely passed out.

"Is he alright?" Hermione asked as Neville began a medical scan.

A minute later, Neville let out a sigh of relief.

"He's fine, although his chakra is almost completely empty. He'll need several days before he's fit again." Neville told her, and Hermione too sagged against the wall.

"Thank god." She smiled in relief.

"How do you feel?" Harry awoke the next day, feeling like shit. Hermione handed him some warm tea, which helped greatly with his sore throat.

"Like shit. I'll have to thank Voldemort for that pleasant experience when I see him." Harry growled, but winced a moment later because of his sore throat.

"Well, you're lucky you're exempt from the exams and that you still have a couple of days until the third task. It would have been fun trying to pass it while suffering from chakra exhaustion." She laughed.

"Laugh all you want." Harry said calmly then released a short string of hisses.

"Hmm, there was a possibility I would have lost that ability. I'm glad that's not the case." Harry grinned.

"Only you would mourn the loss of Parseltongue." Hermione shook her head.

"Where have you been?" Harry was surprised when his familiar appeared only hours before the third task. Acheron had simply wandered away almost immediately after waking up from his usual winter hibernation and he hadn't seen him since.

"Looking for clues, master. I had learned much, but I wanted to confirm a few things before I came to you." The snake sounded pleased with himself.

"What have you learned?" Harry was curious now.

"The new adult here, the crippled one. I followed him many times in secret. Not just him, but it was his actions that aroused my suspicion." Harry frowned. He had no reason to doubt Acheron, but his words made him even more curious.

"He has snuck into the greasy man's stores several times, always taking the same ingredients, but I cannot say what, as he never spoke during those times. Then, I followed him to the forest. He met a man there and killed him. He changed his body to a bone and buried it there. He was talking to himself, saying how the man he had killed nearly ruined everything, and that it was lucky he found him first." Acheron finished.

"I see." Harry did not move for a few seconds. Then, he formed a Kage Bunshin and sent it to find Hermione and Neville and inform them of this new development.

"You've done well, Acheron. I'm going to buy you a whole box of tasty treats." Harry grinned as he watched the snake's eyes shine.

The third task was a maze, and the champions would go in order of points. Harry, as the one with the most, went in first with a significant head start from the other three. However, the maze was so complicated, that advantage meant very little.

Any other man would have felt intimidated in the tight corridors inside the tall hedge, especially in the dark, but Harry was not just anyone.

"This maze is easy. Far too easy." Harry frowned as he encountered little if any resistance during his progress.

The first major obstacle was a sphinx. For a moment, they observed each other. Harry could not help but admire the creature.

"Before you speak, I'd like to inform you this blade is coated with the venom of a red striped asp." Harry pulled out a hidden kunai that was practically soaked with the venom.

The sphinx took a long sniff, and judging from her expression, she realized he wasn't lying.

"One of my cousins died from such a snake." The sphinx said and walked away. Unlike most wizards, the creature could see that Harry was physically very fit, and more than capable of cutting it before it could kill him.

Harry's triumph as he seized the cup was broken as he felt his entire body getting pulled away, and he felt foolish when he realized the cup was a portkey. He landed roughly, tripping on something. He felt a sharp pain from the side of his head before his vision was filled with darkness.

Harry woke up by a sense of immense pain, and for a moment, he felt he was still suffering under the seal they used to remove Voldemort's soul from him. Then, the pain ended, and Harry's mind caught up with recent events.

He woke up, head throbbing painfully, to see a small crowd of masked and hooded figures, and in front of him, was the resurrected form of Lord Voldemort.

"Shit." Harry cursed as he struggled to get up. The maniac most likely used the Cruciatus to wake him up.

"Awake at last, Harry. Give him his wand, Wormtail. You have been taught how to duel, Harry?" Voldemort gave him an evil smile.

"I have. So, we shall see which one of us is the greater wizard, huh?" Harry eyed the man before him carefully, his right hand holding his wand tightly while his left was keeping very close to his hidden kunai holster.

"That is the plan." Voldemort grinned a bit.

"I have better things to do, I'm afraid." Voldemort barely managed to dodge the kunai heading for his head. When he returned his eyes back to Harry, he found the boy missing.

A sudden flash from his side brought his attention to where the discarded portkey that brought Harry here was. With a scream of rage, Voldemort realized his prey had escaped him.

Behind him, Lucius was carefully examining the small dagger that passed so close to his head it cut off a lock of his hair.

'Potter is more dangerous than I believed. So much poison would kill even the Dark Lord.'

Harry appeared on the Hogwarts grounds, and the adrenaline low and the effects of his recent concussion came forth in full force. He fell to his knees as the sounds of a crowd reached him, and he looked up to see he was back at the entrance of the maze.

Dumbledore approached him, as well as others from the crowd.

"What happened, Harry?" Dumbledore gave him a concerned look.

"Long story. I want to lie down first." Harry said weakly. Dumbledore nodded and lead him to the Hospital Wing.

Madam Pomfrey fixed the few cuts he had quickly, and gave him a potion for the concussion, which had the added effect of making him fall asleep.

"Headmaster, he's back." This was the last thing Harry said before he fell asleep.

"Glad to see you're still in one piece." Hermione and Neville came to visit the next day. Harry gave them a look, and Neville quickly formed a genjutsu to keep them undisturbed.

"Voldemort is back. If I hadn't bumped my head when that portkey landed, I might have been able to stop it. What did you guys learn?" Harry hoped his friends had more luck than he did.

"We caught Moody, only it turned out it wasn't Moody at all. It was Barty Crouch Jr. He was Voldemort's inside man all along. We left hints for Dumbledore to find the real Moody, while we've been interrogating Crouch. He was really hard to break, and I'm afraid by the time we got everything out of him he was too injured to stay alive." Hermione whispered the last part.

"I always thought I'd be the first to do it." Harry sighed. Despite the fact the man was the lowest scum; the fact that it was their actions that killed them hit the two teenagers hard.

"Yeah. We've talked about it, though. We'll be alright." Hermione smiled lightly.

"I'm afraid things will get worse before they get better. We may be forced to kill again." Harry sighed.

"We will deal with it when the day comes." Neville added.

AN: I know what I did to Rita was a bit cruel, but she will play a key role in the future chapters thanks to those seals. As for the fight, I doubt anyone would stay and fight while outnumbered and suffering from a concussion and posibly mild blood loss.