Chapter Twenty Four
The Dark Lord Returns.
After a dizzying several seconds, Harry and Cedric found themselves roughly deposited on the ground. With pained groans, they both got back to their feet, trying to catch their bearings.
They appeared to be in a graveyard. Where they were neither of them new.
"Harry the cup is a portkey." said Cedric.
Harry walked in front of a large tombstone, and saw a name that name his stomach drop right into his shoes. On the grave was the name "Tom Riddle". Looking around, he saw a large cauldron bubbling away over a large flame.
Suddenly his scar burst open in pain, and he fell to his knees.
"Harry what's wrong?" Cedric asked coming to Harry's aide.
'Get back to the cup!" Harry shouted.
'What are you talking about?"
It was then they both noticed a short fat man approaching. Harry recognized the person immediately. It was Wormtail. The traitor looked seemed to be carrying a small bundle in his arms.
"Kill the spare!" the two champions heard a high pitched voice cry.
'Avada Kedavra!" Wormtail shouted.
Sickly green death raced toward Cedric, but Harry was able to fight through the pain and tackled the Hufflepuff to the ground. The killing curse missed Harry by inches.
Harry raised his wand to retaliate, but was knocked back down by something large. He looked and saw a very large snake rearing back to strike. To slow, Harry was bitten on his leg. He cried out in agony as the snake twisted.
Cedric wasn't fast enough to avoid a second killing curse, and was struck down.
"No!" shouted Harry.
He was able to do nothing else as he found himself thrown toward the Riddle tombstone and tightly bound. His head was spinning from impacting unprotected against the unforgiving stone.
"Do it!" said the high pitched voice again. "Now!"
Wormtail dropped the bundle into the cauldron and began the ritual to resurrect his master, Harry cursing up a storm the entire time.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given. You shall renew your son!" Wormtail recited.
There was a cracking sound coming from the ground at Harry's feet. He then saw white dust rising from a gash in the ground and drop into the cauldron.
"Flesh of the servant, willingly given. You will revive your master." Wormtail pulled a dagger from his robes, and held his hand over the cauldron before slicing his hand off at the wrist, with an agonized scream, allowing the flesh to fall into the now boiling mixture.
Whimpering, Wormtail cleaned off the dagger and approached Harry. Wormtail freed Harry's right arm and slashed it, collecting his blood.
"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken. You shall resurrect your foe." Wormtail finished as he dripped Harry's blood into the cauldron.
The contents of the cauldron burst into flames and the large container tipped onto it's side. With a cold spike of fear, he saw a tall skeletal thin man step out of the over turned cauldron. Lord Voldemort had returned.
"Robe me." the dark lord said in a deathly quiet voice.
Once he was clothed, he ordered Pettigrew to give him his wand.
'Your arm Wormtail." said Riddle
"Thank you master." Wormtail whimpered, bringing his stump forward.
'Your other arm Wormtail!" Voldemort said harshly.
Grabbing hold of Wormtail's left arm, Voldemort jabbed his wand harshly at a pale tattoo, causing it to turn black. Wormtail once again screamed in pain.
Within moments, numerous cracks of apperation echoed through he grave yard. Nearly twenty black robbed, masked figures, like those at the World Cup stood in a circle around Voldemort. There were numerous empty spaces in between each death eater.
"Welcome my friends" said Voldemort. "Thirteen years it's been, and yet… here you stand before me, as though it were only yesterday."
Voldemort circled in place, looking over each robed, inbred, bigoted idiot with a false smile.
"I confess myself.." Voldemort's false smile fell into a scowl. "Disappointed."
Harry could see the death eaters shudder as one.
"Not one of you tried to find me!" he rushed forward to each one, naming them as he removed their masks, each falling to their knees.
"Not even you…" he looked at the final masked wizard. "Lucius." he said as he removed the blond ponce's mask.
Now on his knees, Lucius grovelled. "My Lord. If I had detected any sign, a whisper."
"There were signs my slippery friend, and more than whispers." said Voldemort "I've been twittering like mad!"**
"I assure you my Lord." said Lucius. 'I have never renounced the old ways. The face I've been forced to present since your.. Absence… That is my true mask."
"I returned." Wormtail said in a small frightened voice.
Voldemort rushed up to the snivelling rat so quickly that it made Wormtail cower.
"Out of fear! Not loyalty." said Voldemort. "Still…. You have proven yourself useful these last few months."
With a wave of his wand, Voldemort conjured a silver hand on what was once Wormtail's stump.
'Thank you my Lord." Wormtail brown nosed.
Voldemort walked over to Cedric's body, and turned the dead boy's face with his bare foot to get a better look as he tisked. "Oh. What a shame. Such a handsome boy"
"Don't touch him!" Harry shouted, which caused Voldemort to look up at him.
"Oh, Harry. I'd almost forgotten you were here." the dark lord said in a falsely cheerful voice. 'Standing on the bones of my father."
Voldemort approached Harry, which made his scar burn even more than it already was.
"I'd introduce you, but word has it that you're almost as famous as me these days."
Voldemort turned to his death eaters for a moment as he said. "The Boy-Who-Lived." he turned back to Harry. "How lies have fed your legend Harry. Shall I reveal what really happened that night thirteen years ago?" Voldemort turned and walked back into the centre of his circle of followers.
"Shall I divulge how I truly lost my powers?" Voldemort asked.
"It was love." said Voldemort. "You see when dear sweet Lily Potter gave her life to save her only son, she provided the ultimate protection. I could not touch him."
The dark lord approached Harry slowly. "It was old magic. Something I should have foreseen. But no matter. Things have changed."
Voldemort then charged up toward Harry. "I can touch you now!" he said as he pressed a finger to Harry's scar. The pain was unimaginable. Harry felt as though his head had been split opened with an axe. He screamed in agony, as Voldemort mockingly parroted his cries.
"Astonishing what a few drops of your blood will do isn't it?" he turned and walked away quickly, as Harry was suddenly released from his bindings causing him to fall to the ground.
'Pick up your wand Potter!" Voldemort ordered.
Harry did so as he stood, preparing to fight for him life.
"You've been taught how to duel I presume?" Voldemort asked. "First we bow to each other."
Harry stood straight, defiantly.
"Come now Harry." Voldemort mocked. "The niceties must be observed. I said Bow! Imperio!"
Harry felt the calming affects of the Imperious curse try to take hold. They were telling him to bow. Telling him he wanted to bow. 'Like hell I will!'
"No!" Harry said, surprising everyone there.
"Very well then Potter." said Voldemort.
Harry suddenly felt as though a giant hand were pressing his back, causing him to unwillingly bend at the waist as the death eaters laughed at him.
"Crucio!" cried Voldemort.
Harry felt as though every inch of his body was being stabbed by white hot knives. Very quickly though, the spell was lifted.
"A few rocks will not defeat me Harry." said Voldemort from at least fifteen feet away. "You're all alone. Dumbledore isn't here to save you. You will be with your filthy muggle mother soon."
From his prone position, Harry let loose a powerful cutting curse. Voldemort had underestimated the strength of the curse, as it pushed him back several feet at he deflected it, right into the face of one of his death eaters, ending his life.
"Well." Voldemort laughed. "The boy has some spunk. Good, I was hoping this wouldn't be boring."
Harry jumped back up to his feet and let loose several more cutting curses and bludgeoning hexes as he moved quickly to the left and right. Each spell was dodged by Voldemort, but with effort. Neither had cast spells at the same time. He had clearly underestimated the boy.
Harry dove behind a small tomb as Voldemort shouted at him as he cast the killing curse after him. "Don't you turn your back on me Harry Potter! I want you to look at me when I kill you! I want to see the light leave your eyes!"
Harry sat, leaning against the tomb. He gathered up his courage as he thought of Daphne. His heart ached at the thought that he would never see her again, for if he was going to die tonight, he would die on his feet. Like a true Gryffindor. It was all he could do not to break down right there as he thought of his love's smiling face.
Standing up, Harry walked back out from behind his cover to face Voldemort.
"Have it your way then." Harry said.
"CONFRINGO!" Harry shouted at the same time Voldemort shouted,
"AVADA KEDAVERA!"
Instead of blasts of magic, something neither expected happened. There was a distinctly avian cry as jets of magic, resembling electric arcs in sight and sound, shot from both wands and connected in the halfway between them.
Voldemort's green magic was met with equal force by Harry's indigo blue as the two wands fought for domination. The ball of 'melting' magic was slowly inching toward Harry. He didn't know what would happen, just that he had to push the magic back toward Voldemort.
As the ball of magic drew closer, Harry's wand bucked violently. It took two hand to keep a firm grip and not allow his wand to fall out of his hand. He knew it would mean death if he did so.
Slowly, the ball of magic came to a stop, and began moving back toward Voldemort. Suddenly with another avian cry, light shot straight up from the magical connection, and spread out in a golden sphere, separating Harry and Voldemort from the death eaters.
"Do nothing! He's mine to finish!" Voldemort commanded.
Harry was willing the magic closer to Voldemort's wand, and he could see worry in the dark lord's eyes as his wand began to buck violently, just as Harry's wand did.
Closer it drew, until it finally made contact. Inhuman screams were heard from Voldemort's wand before a smoky form shot out of the wand and materialized in the form of Cedric. "Hang on Harry! Help is coming!" the ghostly form of the recently deceased boy said as a second form flew out of Voldemort's wand. It was an old man.
The ghostly figure of the man looked at Voldemort and began cussing at him. He then looked at Harry with fierce eyes and said. "You fight him boy! Fight that cock sucker! Don't give in! Never give in to the likes of him!" before he started circling Voldemort, taunting the dark wizard.
Another smoky form shot out of the wand, and materialised into the shape of a middle aged woman whom Harry did not know. She too began circling Voldemort, shouting obscenities at him.
Finally, two forms leapt from Voldemort's wand almost simultaneously. One coming to rest one each side of Harry.
'Harry!" he heard from his left. He saw his father. The same face he had seen in the Mirror of Erised. "When the connection is broken you must get to the portkey! We can linger for a moment to give you some time but only a moment do you understand?"
Harry nodded. "Go Harry You have to get out of here." Cedric said.
"What about your body?" Harry asked.
"Forget about me Harry. You have to get back." said the Hufflepuff's ghostly form. "You have to get back to Daphne alive. Go back and live. Get married and have lot's of children."
"We're so proud of you son!" came his mother's voice form his right. "You have to let go now! Sweetheart you're ready! Let go! Let go now!"
With a great wrench of his wand, the connection was severed as the ghostly forms of those deceased raced to obscure Voldemort's vision. Harry rand as quickly as he could toward Cedric's body. He summoned the cup as he grabbed hold of the body. As soon as the cup touched his free hand, he felt the all to familiar pull behind his navel and he was gone.
Voldemort rushed forward to find Harry, but when he looked, the boy was no where to be seen. He let out a cry of rage at his failure to kill the little whelp.
X x x x x x x x
Harry landed in a heap on top of Cedric's boy, and could hear the sounds of cheers erupting all around him.
Dumbledore was the first to reach him.
"He's back! Voldemort's back! He used my blood!" Harry cried. "Cedric told me to save myself, but I couldn't leave his body there! Not with them!"
"It's okay Harry. You're both home now." said Dumbledore.
Harry vaguely heard the Minister order people back into their seats, and tell Dumbledore that Cedric's body had to be moved. In his shock, he was also barely aware of a pair of feminine arms embracing him.
Suddenly he was lifted up by a much stranger set of arms. It was Moody telling him that it wasn't where he wanted to be.
Daphne thought this was all wrong. She'd been told by Professor Moody that he was taking Harry up to the safety of the castle and that she had to stay there after she'd followed him to just outside the Quidditch stadium. She turned and ran to find Dumbledore.
The old wizard paled when she told him that Moody had taken Harry up to the castle. With speed that no man his age should ever be able to achieve, he ran toward the castle with Daphne hot on his heels.
She knew where they might be. Moody's office. Daphne put on a burst of speed, fuelled by her growing rage. She quickly left Dumbledore far behind her as she ran full tilt to rescue Harry.
X x x x x x x
Harry was once again in a state of shock. It was Moody who put his name in the Goblet. He'd confessed to the whole thing. Now Harry was mentally and physically exhausted and back into a corner near the door to Moody's office.
"Imagine how he will reward me, when he learns that I have once and for all, silenced the great Harry Potter!" he said as he raised his wand to strike Harry down, but never got that far as a loud female voice shouted "Expelliarmus!" from the other side of Moody's office door.
The door exploded sending shards of splintered wood into the defence professor. Daphne's spell still carried enough power after destroying the door, to blast Moody into the wall across the office.
Daphne stormed in, wand trained on Moody, looking ready to kill. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape right behind her. Once the three professors had their wands trained on Moody, Daphne lowered her wand and found a shell shocked Harry against the wall, barely able to stand.
She rushed toward him and once again, gathered him in her arms and apologized profusely for not protecting him better. Harry could only nod as he held on to her tighter.
They both looked up in time to see Moody being force fed truth serum.
"Do you know who I am?" Dumbledore asked with force.
"Albus Dumbledore." came the strained reply.
"Are you Alastor Moody?"
"No."
"Where is he?" Dumbledore continued his interrogation.
"In the seventh compartment of his trunk." 'Moody' replied.
'Who are you?"
"Bartimus Crouch Jr." the impostor revealed as his face began transforming.
In short order, there sat the deranged form of Barty Crouch's insane son, who looked at Snape and said. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." as he pulled up his left sleeve.
While the two heads of house kept their wands trained on Crouch, Dumbledore went to Harry and gingerly lifted his right sleeve, revealing a long gash along his forearm. Dumbledore let out a breath as if he'd been sucker punched in the gut.
"Ms. Greengrass." said Dumbledore. "If you would be so kind as to take Mr. Potter straight to the hospital wing. I will take care of things here."
"Yes sir." she replied as she lifted Harry and supported as much of his weight as she could.
X x x x x x x x
An hour later, in the hospital wing, Daphne sat by Harry's bedside as she refused to leave his side again. Madam Pomfrey objected until Dumbledore told her to leave Daphne be. The matron huffed as she went to gather needed potions.
At the moment, Harry was asleep, having been given a dreamless sleep draught. Tears ran down her cheeks as she thought about what could have happened tonight. Harry had faced Voldemort and survived. Diggory wasn't so lucky and was now lying under a white sheet at the far end of the ward.
To add to it all, she'd allowed him to be taken out of her arms, and he was almost killed again. She berated herself for her stupidity. She promised herself, that from that moment on, she would do everything she could to protect Harry. That she would never again, leave his side, no matter how much he would want to complain about it.
She was never going to leave his side again. Not if she had anything to say about it. Little did she know, that her father, and Sirius had decided to move their plans up. Plans that would join them as husband and wife before summer's end, and fulfilling the dreams of both Harry and Daphne.
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Note; there you go. Boy am I tired….. Insomnia is a bitch! Ha! Cliffy in the last two chapters. I decided to keep this as an exclusive HP/DG story. If I wanted to, I'd just write an HP/GD story, but I'm already having enough trouble coming up with things that haven't been done before, and if they have been done, I've not read them yet.
As adorable as Gabrielle is (especially played by Angelica Mandy) it wouldn't have added anything to this story, and would have only gotten in the way. Soon Fifth year shall begin, and it will be an all out resistance/guerrilla-war against Umbitch waged by the students. Needless to say, Daphne, or Mrs. Potter will NOT be happy about the blood quill.