Chapter 25: The Boy Who Died.
Harry awoke to find himself tied to a tombstone in front of a large cauldron filled with a foul-smelling liquid. In front of him he saw a dozen hooded figures, one of them holding what looked like a child, or rather a grotesque parody of a child.
"Ah, our guest is awake. Let us begin Wormtail," said one of the figures who Harry recognized as the silky voice of Lucius Malfoy. Harry was enraged to find that Malfoy was with Wormtail. Malfoy then threw the baby into the cauldron.
Let it drown, Harry thought as his scar burned in red hot pain. Let it die
Wormtail raised his wand and pointed it to the ground under Harry. "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
The ground cracked, and a bone arose from the ground and landed in the cauldron. Next Malfoy approached the cauldron and held out his left hand. In his right he held a long silver knife.
"Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master." He said as he sliced off his hand into the cauldron. An agonizing scream left his lips as he clutched the stump of his hand. Quickly he took out his wand and stopped the bleeding and nodded to Wormtail to continue. Wormtail took the knife and approached Harry.
"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe." And cut the crook of Harry's right arm and caught it in a glass vial, which he proceeded to dump into the cauldron. The cauldron smoked, and the wind began to howl. The air became cold.
Let it be dead, let it have drowned, Harry thought. His prayer was vain as he saw the form of a man emerge from the cauldron. His skin was pale and featureless. He didn't seem to have genitalia and there was no hair anywhere on his body. His face was masklike with two red eyes and slits where his nose should have been. Voldemort had returned.
"Robe me." He said in a cold high voice. Wormtail rushed over and covered Voldemort's body with a black robe. He then knelled and presented his wand to his master.
"Lucius, present your left arm," he said, as Malfoy approached and held out the stub of his arm. Voldemort waved his wand over it and a silver hand grew from the stump.
"Thank you my lord," Lucius said as he knelt before Voldemort.
"Harry Potter, welcome. You are here to give witness to my rebirth. Lucius has been so kind to arrange this family reunion. My true family, my death eaters. And now they shall bear witness to my destruction of you…the boy who lived…for a time. For you see it was not your skill or your magic that defeated me. Your mother used an old charm, blood magic, to give you a shield against me. This is why Quirrell couldn't touch you. But by using your blood, her protection now lives in me." And with that Voldemort grasped Harry's face roughly and his scar exploded in pain, but Voldemort was unharmed. "Now we shall duel." And with a flick of his wand Harry was on the ground. He felt in his pocket for his wand and he slowly stood to face the thing that murdered his parents.
AVO
Cedric arrived in the town square of Hogsmeade with a startled yell. He had spinched himself slightly and was bleeding from a cut on his back. He needed help but remembered that many of the Hogsmeade shop keepers were at the castle watching the event. He tried to stand but slumped back down with an agonized cry. The barman from the Hogs Head, having head the pathetic sound, came out of his bar to see the boy.
"Easy lad looks like you splinched yourself." And took out his wand and started to heal Cedric. "Aren't you one of those champions? What in blazes are you doing here?"
"The cup," Cedric gasped, "The cup was a portkey, Harry and I took it together, he's in trouble…Dumbledore, I need to get to the school."
"You just hang on," he said. "Bob, you take over, I need to get this lad to the school." He shouted. He then waved his wand and a goat patronus left his wand and ran towards the school.
AVO
The scene at the school was chaotic. Everyone saw the two teens grab the cup together. Ginny smiled at that, of course he would want to take the cup with Cedric. Her happiness seeing her noble boyfriend turned to dread as she saw the two of them disappear from the maze.
Everyone was murmuring. Where did they go? After a few minutes a goat patronus galloped up to Dumbledore in a gruff voice, "Albus, get your ass over here, a splinched boy just apparated into town, says he needs to see you. He says Harry is in trouble."
"Fawkes!" Dumbledore yelled, and his phoenix flamed next to him. He grabbed the talons and in a flash was gone. A few minutes later he was back holding onto Cedric Diggory. His parents rushed towards him. "Sirius, Remus, come with me. Harry is in trouble, he's in little Hangleton. The cup was a portkey."
"I'll come too Dumbledore," said Crouch, "It's my responsibility, my tournament"
"Headmaster, I…"started Snape.
Dumbledore gave him a look, "Stay here and help the other heads of house get the students to their common rooms." Dumbledore then wordlessly summoned a "Potter stinks" banner from one of the Slytherins and tapped it with his wand and said "Portus"
"Minerva, contact the auror office, have them meet us the graveyard in Little Hangleton in Yorkshire. Sirius, Remus, Hestia and Nymphadora, grab hold, you too Bill if you'd like, that's a good lad. Now on the count of three. One, Two, Three…" and the six adults blinked out. No one had noticed that Ginny had approached them and grabbed hold at the last minute.
AVO
The group landed just outside the graveyard and saw an awe-inspiring sight. Harry and Voldemort were locked in combat as a golden light connected their wands, and in the middle was a bead of light slowly moving towards Voldemort's wand. When it finally made contact with Voldemort's wand, it started to regurgitate shadowy versions of the last spells he had cast with the wand.
"Priori incantatem," said Dumbledore, "Quickly, we have no time to lose." And the six adults started making their way to the graveyard. There was a ward up against it that Bill and Dumbledore took down with skill as they proceeded to attack the death eaters. Then a group of aurors lead by Rufus Scrimgeour and Kingsley Shacklebolt apparated behind them and started to approach the death eaters as well.
Sirius pointed his wand at Wormtail, who dodged out of the way. Lucius sent a cutting hex at Tonks who was just barely able to get a shield up when half a dozen death eaters started to attack the recently arrived aurors.
The connection finally broke and Voldemort could see the battle in front of him.
"Flee, we will continue this later," yelled Voldemort. Before he disaparated though, he saw that Ginny had tagged along and was trying to get to Harry.
"Potter, my wand failed me today, but I can still hurt you. AVARDA KADAVERA" and a green jet of light sped towards Ginny.
Without thought of himself Harry jumped in the path of the spell and the curse struck him in the chest.
AVO
Harry awoke to find himself naked in an empty place. He soon realized he was not alone as he saw the baby from the cauldron a few feet away. It was pitiful and disgusting, and it was dying. He walked away from it and self-consciously wished for some clothes. Just then he saw some robes next to him and he put them on. He walked around and the white mist around him slowly started to take shape and he found himself in the Gryffindor common room. He gave one more look at the baby thing behind him when he heard something he thought he would never have the pleasure of hearing in his life.
"Come here son, it's too late for him." Said a feminine voice. He turned to see who had spoken and looked into a pair of green eyes. His eyes. The owner of the eyes was a beautiful red-haired woman dressed in white. She barley looked older than he did. Beside her was a man that looked a lot like Harry only with hazel eyes. Both were smiling at him.
"You did a brave thing, taking that curse for Ginny." Said the man.
"Mum? Dad?" Harry asked as he received nods from the two. "Am I dead?"
"I don't think so," said Lily. "or rather, I think you have a choice. To stay here with us or return and live, finish of Voldemort. I'm not sure why you have the choice, maybe Albus can explain it."
"What, what is that thing over there?" Harry said motioning towards the baby.
"We think that's a piece of Voldemort," James said. "We spoke with Merlin, yes THE Merlin, after we arrived, and he speculated that a piece of Voldemort's soul broke off when he killed you. When you go back, and you ARE going back, you need to tell Dumbledore he was right, that Voldemort made Horcruxes. He'll know what that means. We can watch the living, but we can't view the past and we are not omniscient, so I can't tell you how many he made, but Merlin knows the snake is one and suspects there are more."
"You said, you said I have a choice…can I stay here with you?" asked Harry. All his life he wanted to be with his parents and here they were, right in front of him.
"Harry, we love you, but we don't want you to be here yet," said Lily. "You will have all eternity to be with us, but right now you have things to do. And I'm not talking about killing Voldemort. You need to get married and give us grandchildren, and live a long, happy life. I know you are still young, but we love Ginny and think you two make an adorable couple."
"And I got a kick out of Padfoot's sex talk," laughed James. "though I agree with Remus, if Molly knew what he told you she would have him fixed."
Being reminded of Ginny he knew what he had to do. "I love you both, part of me wants to stay, but I have to go back. I…I can't leave Ginny, and I have work left to do."
"We love you too, Harry. Tell Ginny we adore her and think she's a great girl. Give our love to her and Ron and Hermione, they are great friends to you. Also thank Mrs. Weasley for being there for you," said Lily though her tears.
"Tell Padfoot and Mooney I'm proud of them and I'm glad they've both settled down. And tell the twins that Prongs is proud that they are carrying on the tradition of the Marauders." Said James as the world started to fade to black.
AVO
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," screamed Ginny as she saw Harry knocked to the ground. Voldemort was knocked down after his curse hit Harry and a death eater had side along disaparated with him. Ginny fell over Harry's still body weeping.
"Ginny," Bill said, coming close to his sister. "Ginny I'm so, so sorry."
"He can't be dead," Ginny said sobbing. "He can't be. This isn't fucking possible. Bill, he can't be dead." She buried her head in her brother's chest and sobbed all the harder.
Sirius had fallen to his knees looking like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Hestia stood by him holding on to him. Remus was still and silent. Tonks could feel the hairs on her arm stand up. She knew some werewolves, like Greyback, could be wolfish even when not turned, but this is the first time she had looked at her boyfriend and realized that he could be dangerous as she heard a low growl in his chest. Dumbledore walked over to Ginny and Harry, no sign of a twinkle left in his eye and he placed an aged hand on Ginny's shoulder and gave it a squeeze before going to examine Harry's body.
"Dear boy, I feared this might be your fate, but I wish you had had more time." He said quietly, as tears started to fall from his eyes to his beard. One landed on Harry's cheek and his face twitched. Startled, Dumbledore checked Harry's pulse and gasped.
"Miss Weasley, Sirius, Remus, come here. Harry…he's, he's alive!" Dumbledore shouted, without any trace of his normal composure.
Ginny rushed over to him and saw that he was breathing and proceeded to kiss him hard. Harry reached up and put a hand on the back of her head and deepened the kiss.
"Hey Gin…I thought I was supposed to wake you up with a kiss." Harry said with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Prat," she said, slapping his chest playfully. This elicited a wince. "Oh, I'm sorry Harry."
"It's okay, it's just sore."
"Sorry, Harry you took a bloody killing curse to the chest and you're sore?" said Sirius who had approached the teens.
"Harry, how are you alive?" asked Remus.
"Avada Ke" said Crouch, as he was cut off by a stunner before he could finish. Crouch was sprawled on the ground and Hestia had her wand out.
"What the fuck!" shouted Sirius, furious that Crouch had tried to kill his godson. Tonks bound the ministry worker in ropes and searched him, removing his wand, a knife and a flask. Opening the flask she took a whiff. "Polyjuice…this isn't Barty Crouch" she said.
"Shacklebolt," said Scrimgeour, "take the auror force we brought, search the Crouch estate for Barty. I'll take the imposter in along with Dawlish. Dumbledore I'll be by later to question Potter. We'll tell Fudge about you-know-who after we've questioned this…whoever this is."
Dumbledore nodded and the aurors left with Kingsley while Scrimgeour and Dawlish took the not-Barty with them to the ministry.
Harry, we need to talk about what happened." Dumbledore said.
"Can Ginny and Sirius and Remus come too…I have messages for them." Harry said. This elicited a confused look from everyone except the headmaster, but he nodded. He picked up a stone fragment and tapped it with his wand and said "Portus".
"Miss Tonks, Miss Jones, take the banner portkey back, tell the heads of house that Harry is safe. Mr. Weasley, please go with them and find your parents and tell them the same and that Ginny is fine, I'm sure your mother is sick with freight. You may also want to tell Miss Delacour, she is quite fond of Harry since the second task. Harry, Ginny, Sirius and Remus, this portkey will take us to my office. That's it, grab hold. One, two, three…" and Harry felt the pulling sensation behind his navel as they were sped away to the Headmaster's office.
Upon arriving Harry and Ginny took the seats in front of the desk, with Sirius and Remus conjuring their own beside. Dumbledore went to a cabinet and retrieved a stone basin and set it on the desk.
"Now Harry, this is a Pensieve, it is used for storing a viewing memories. They are quite rare, but the school has access to this one. Later I will ask you for the memory of tonight, but let's talk first. Cedric already told us the cup was a portkey, that was very noble, by the way, sending him back. What happened after you sent him to warn us?"
Harry took a deep breath. "I was stunned soon after…. when I awoke I was tied to a grave stone. Wormtail and Malfoy were there." Sirius and Remus tensed at the mention of their former friend, but Harry continued. "There was a large cauldron. Malfoy was carrying what looked like a deformed baby, but I think it was Voldemort. They threw it in and then added Tom Riddle Sr.'s bone, Malfoy's hand and my blood….it was some kind of ritual. Then…. he came out of the cauldron. He can touch me now…he said my mum's protection no longer works because he has my blood. He gave Malfoy a new hand and summoned the death eaters. They cut me down and tried to make me bow to him. They tried the imperious curse, but I through it off…They then used the Cruciatus curse on me a few times. Then they gave me my wand and Voldemort told me to fight him. That's when our wands…the spells connected, and shapes came out. I saw an old man, a woman…. then my parents…"
Dumbledore nodded. "priori incantatem. Your wands share a core, tail feathers from Fawkes. Brother wands will do this, they won't' fight each other. It caused Voldemort's wand to regurgitate its last spells. In the case of the killing curse, it shows a shade of shadow of the person killed."
Harry nodded in understanding. "After that, well you all were there, Voldemort tried…tried to kill Ginny…and I…. I'm afraid you'll think I'm crazy…"
"My dear boy," Dumbledore said leaning back in his chair. "I just saw Voldemort resurrected and you survive a second killing curse. The only thing I would find beyond belief at this stage would be a quidditch cup victory by the Chudley Canons."
Everyone chuckled at this and Harry went on. "After the curse it me…I found myself in a sort of limbo. Everything was white…I saw the baby thing on the ground, it was dying. Then I saw…I saw my parents again. They said…they said I had a choice, to stay or go back. I…part of my wanted to stay." Ginny squeezed his hand. "but I had to come back. I need to see this through…and I didn't want to leave everyone," he finished, looking Ginny in the eyes. "They also said that they spoke with Merlin…and that he says you're right, that Voldemort created horcruxes? They said you can explain it. They also sent messages. They like you Ginny, and they think we are good together." Harry and Ginny both blushed at this, "and to thank your mum for looking after me. They also wanted to thank Moony and Padfoot and tell them they are happy they are both settling down. Oh, and that he's proud of the twins for carrying on the marauder tradition.
Ginny laughed through her tears, "That will make their day." Harry looked over and saw his godfather and honorary uncle blinking back tears.
"Well, I can try to answer your questions Harry. First about horcruxes. A horcrux Harry is a foul dark magical artifact that houses a portion of a soul. A dark wizard first must damage his soul by committing the foul act of murder. Then he separates the torn part of his soul and places it into an object. I suspected the diary was such an object due to its power. The fact that Voldemort entrusted it to Malfoy suggests he has more than one, as the diary was clearly intended as a weapon."
"So, murder fractures your soul?" Harry asked.
"cold blooded murder, yes. Remorse is the pain of healing that wound. One of the reasons a horcrux is so vile is that one cannot feel this remorse while the soul fragment is entrapped. Essentially, you are choosing to never repent, thus damning yourself."
"They said a piece of Voldemort was in me?"
"That was my suspicion of why you can speak parseltounge and why your scar hurt when you encountered Voldemort. After your second year I began to suspect Voldemort of making multiple horcruxes. I suspect he had prepared to make a horcrux with your death, and when the curse rebounded a piece of his soul, fractured from the deaths of your parents, latched onto you. I prayed I was wrong and was trying to find a way to kill it without your death…This leads me to the other point, why you survived. It is only a guess, but my guesses are usually good, that by using your blood Voldemort anchored you here, like a horcrux but though your body not your soul. In other words, like the soul remaining in an object thus anchoring the soul after the body is destroyed, Voldemort inadvertently anchored your soul to the earth. I don't think it would help you if you were, say, decapitated, but the killing curse doesn't kill the body by trauma. It would probably have killed you if not for the piece of Voldemort's soul in your scar. It was far easier for the curse to separate that piece than your soul which is currently more strongly anchored to earth. Again, you are not immortal, but in this case, you were able to use Voldemort's soul as a shield."
"So, what do we do now?" asked Harry.
"Now we need to discover how many horcruxes Voldemort made, what they are and where they are hidden."
"oh, is that all," quipped Sirius.
"Indeed. I will reform the Order of the Phoenix and…"
Just then the door slammed open and an irate Mrs. Weasley burst into the office. "GINEVERA MOLLY WEASLEY HOW DARE YOU. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED. YOU AREN'T GOING TO LEAVE YOUR ROOM YOUNG LADY ALL SUMMER."
"TO HELL WITH THAT I'LL SNEAK OUT IF I HAVE TO, THEY HAD HARRY." Ginny shouted back. Harry looked between the two females and realized for the first time how similar they were. Both had flush cheeks and stormy looks in their faces.
"Now Molly, "said Arthur who was following behind her.
"Don't you 'Now Molly' me, she could have died."
"She almost did, Molly," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort fired a killing curse at her, and Harry stepped in front of it."
Molly's eyes grew wide with shock as she looked between her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. Dumbledore had accomplished another great feat, he had managed to leave Molly Weasley nee Prewitt speechless. He proceeded to explain what had happened in the grave yard, and Harry's experience in limbo and his mother's message to Molly. Molly immediately teared up and caught Harry and Ginny both up in a bone crushing hug.
"Miss Weasley should not have come." Said Dumbledore calmly, "But remember she is quite young and prone to impulsive acts. I can remember a certain third year girl who was caught in the forbidden forest once trying to track down unicorns on a dare. If my memory serves she was almost to the acromantula den when she was rescued by Hagrid. While your daughter's actions were rash, she acted out of love, which is far better than being foolhardy and brash, wouldn't you agree? Perhaps I could give her a detention for disobeying school rules and that would suffice?"
Molly spluttered and then nodded. Dumbledore gave the two students a wink. "Professor Black, would you escort Miss Weasley to the Gryffindor common room, so she can inform her friends of Harry's survival? Remus can you stay here to escort Harry after the DMLE comes for his statement. Molly and Arthur, I believe Bill is waiting for you in Hogsmeade."
Molly gave her daughter and Harry one last hug and Arthur gave his daughter a hug and a kiss, and then put his hand on Harry's shoulder and squeezed. "I'm so proud of you lad. You saved my little girl again. I can never repay you."
Harry stayed until Scrimgeour arrived with his boss Amelia Bones and took Harry's statement, which he gave, though he excluded the death experience, as he was calling it, at Dumbledore's advice. Before he left for his dorm, Dumbledore showed him how to extract a memory and made two sets of the resurrection of Voldemort and the battle, one for Dumbledore and one for the DMLE, and made a copy of his memory of the death experience for Dumbledore. Amelia gave Harry his half of the Triwizard winnings, which Harry didn't particularly want, but took anyway.
As Harry and Remus approached the portrait, it swung open and hands came out to grab both teen and man into the common room. To his astonishment there seemed to be a party in the common room. A makeshift banner was erected proclaiming "Congratulations Harry, Hogwarts Champion and Defier of the Dark Tosser."
"What the fuck?" Remus spluttered as Sirius and the twins approached Harry and himself with shots of firewhiskey.
"The twins and I decided to do this, we're not going to let the Dark Tosser ruin Harry's victory. Drink this Harry, I know you're only fourteen but shit you've earned it."
"Dark Tosser?" asked Harry.
"That was ickle Gin-Gin's idea." Grinned Fred. But no fire whiskey for her."
"Taking on Moldyshorts is one thing, but we don't want mum to kill us," said George.
Harry couldn't help but smile as the entire Gryffindor house celebrated well into the night, along with Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Hestia. When McGonagall came by at one in the morning she was shocked to see almost all of Gryffindor up and still going strong, and a professor snogging his girlfriend in the corner, both clearly drunk. After a quick aguamenti spell on the two adults "who ought to know better, honestly" she shooed the adults out and everyone else to bed.
The next day all of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff houses were bleary eyed at the midday close of term feast, apparently Cedric also had a party in his common room for his victory. The decorations were a mix of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, in recognition of the dual Hogwarts victory. Fleur came by to kiss Harry on both cheeks and informed him that she might see him over the summer, that she was getting a job at Gringotts and "Beel iz going to 'elp me improve my eenglish."
"So you'll be studying a foreign tongue then Fleur?" asked Ginny smirking.
Fleur just winked and returned to her fellow students.
At the end of the feast Dumbledore rose to address the students.
"Another year is over. I hope what you have learned will stay with you and keep you safe. Now many of you have heard what happened last night, especially those of you in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, but let me confirm it. Last night when Harry and Cedric, in an excellent show of sportsmanship, school pride and friendship, decided to take the cup together, they were whisked away via a portkey. I have been in communication with the ministry and it seems Barty Crouch sr. had broken his son out of Azkaban years earlier and kept him under the imperious. His son broke free and assisted Voldemort in a rather convoluted scheme to ensure that Harry was chosen as a champion and would get the cup, and had turned the cup into a portkey and used Harry's blood against his will to create a new body for himself. Voldemort is back. Showing great courage and judgement on both their parts, Harry sent Cedric back with news, so myself, professor black and a few others were able to assist him in breaking free of Voldemort. The aurors arrived and Voldemort was seen by not just myself and my companions, but also the aurors. Several death eaters were captured including Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew. Be safe this summer, remember your training here and always remember that we will be faced with choices, between what is right and what is easy. Aurors will be at the platform in London to ensure your safety."
A couple of hours later they were all on the train. Ginny was sitting in Harry's lap, much to the frustration of her brother, when the twins came into the compartment.
"Harry, first of all that's just disturbing." Fred said.
"Second, I heard you wanted to see us?" George added.
"Yeah," Harry said, reaching into his bag. "My Triwizard earnings…I don't need the money, I thought I'd like to invest in your business. After the party last night…well I was thinking about how a little butterbeer and jokes kept everyone's spirits up. I think we're going to need a lot of laughs, so I thought this was a good use for the money."
"Thanks mate! We'll make you a silent partner, and when we get premises you can have your pick of the goods." Said Fred.
"but no love potions, we don't want ickle Gin Gin to hex us." Said George.
" I don't want one," said Harry. "I have all the love I need right here," and he kissed Ginny, causeing her brothers to groan and Hermione to fawn at the affection they were showing each other.
"It's going to be a bloody long train ride." Grumbled Ron. And it was.
A/N: And that's two years down! I will defiantly go the years five and six, maybe year seven, depending on if I have enough plot. And no I'm not dead….I got distracted by other projects, so I apologize for my George R. Martin impersonation. I will attempt to update more frequently. Again, if you last read chapter 24 in 2018, reread it as I fixed it.