Chapter 29: He Has Risen

Josh felt his feet slam into the ground; his hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last. He took a took deep breath, to breathe again and raised his head.

"What happened?" he hoarsely said.

Cedric shook his head. He got up while Josh struggling got to his feet, and they looked around. They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously travelled miles - perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Josh could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup.

"It's a portkey," Cedric said, shaking his head. "Of course, what did you do now, eh?"

"Me?" Josh groaned, turning to Cedric. "You think I did this? You are as dumb as you look aren't you?"

"Shut it!" Cedric growled. "If you didn't do this then who did?" Josh shrugged.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure this isn't part of the task," Josh exclaimed, tightly gripping his wand as it was silent and slightly eerie.

"Cedric! Josh!" shouted a familiar voice.

Josh and Cedric whirled around and saw Harry pinned up against large stone monument, magically.

"Harry?" Josh gasped as him and Cedric ran over to Harry. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I dunno," Harry groaned. "I went to get my wand and I was attacked from behind, but from my training I tried to fight back, but I got knocked out and woke up here."

"Did you get a look at the attacker's face?" Josh asked. Harry nodded.

"Well who was it?" Cedric asked.

"Glad you could make it, Joshua," said a familiar voice; one very familiar to Josh. Josh and Cedric turned around and faced Josh's Uncle Silus, leaning against a tall grave. "I knew you'd get that cup."

"He's one of the men in my dreams," Harry said.

"What?" Josh said, looking at Harry. "Dreams? Harry, why didn't you tell me this?" Harry didn't answer, as Josh wondered if Harry did know something Josh didn't.

"Someone else's coming," Cedric said suddenly.

Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched another figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Josh couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, he could tell that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - they saw that the thing in the person's arms looked like a baby…or was it merely a bundle of robes?

Josh lowered his wand slightly and glanced sideways at Cedric. Cedric shot him a quizzical look. Harry groaned out. Josh turned to look at Harry; his scar seemed to be bleeding a little. And at the moment, Josh was sure who that was in the man's arms. Josh turned back to watch the approaching figure. It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second Josh, Harry, and Cedric and the short figure simply looked at one another.

And then, without warning, Harry let out a scream of pain, shocking both Josh and Cedric.

"Harry!" Josh shouted.

From far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."

Josh back around towards Cedric, but it was too late. A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"

A blast of green light reflected through Josh's eyes, and hitting Cedric right in the chest, throwing him to the ground. Cedric lied spread-eagled on the ground beside them. He was dead. Josh stared in horror, never before seeing death.

For a second that contained an eternity, Josh stared into Cedric's face, at his open grey eyes, blank and expressionless as the windows of a deserted house, at his half-open mouth, which looked slightly surprised. Josh couldn't believe it.

Suddenly, a spell whizzed behind his neck, slightly scratching him. Josh quickly dove behind a stone grave as another spell shattered the corner of it.

"Come on, Joshua," Silus spoke. "Surely you're not that kind of coward?" Breathing heavily, Josh slowly stood out from behind the stone grave, pointing his wand at Silus. "There you go," he said. "Now, show me what you've learned from Hogwarts, boy!"

"Stupefy!" Josh shouted, but Silus easily deflected the spell.

"Come on, you can do better than that," Silus replied.

Josh tried to slow down his breath, but his heart beat steadily fast, and pointed his wand again. "Impedimenta!" He shouted, but Silus one again deflected the spell, and then threw is wand out in front of him where a white spell flew out of his wand and towards Josh.

Josh quickly lifted his wand and shouted, "Protego!" and his shield was up, but Silus's spell shattered it, hitting Josh in the chest and sending flying into the monument Harry was pinned against. Josh tried to get up, but he couldn't. Not because it was magical, but because he was in too much pain. Silus stood there and laughed at his nephew and then waved his wand conjuring ropes around Josh.

The short man in the cloak had put down his bundle, lit his wand, and walked over to the stone monument towards Harry and Josh. Josh looked up at it and noticed the name that was on it.

TOM RIDDLE

Josh turned back to the cloaked figure and could hear shallow, fast breathing from the depths of the hood from where he was; he saw a hand with a finger missing from under the figure's cloak.

And Josh realized who was under the hood. "Wormtail," Josh groaned.

But Wormtail not hear him; he was busy checking the tightness of Josh's cords, his fingers trembling uncontrollably, rumbling over the knots. Wormtail drew a length of some black material from the inside of his cloak and stuffed it roughly into Harry's mouth; then, without a word, he turned from Harry and hurried away.

Cedric's body was lying some twenty feet away. Some way beyond him, glinting in the starlight, lay the Triwizard Cup. Josh's wand was on the ground at his feet. The bundle of robes that Harry and Josh had thought was a baby was close by, at the foot of the grave. It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Josh looked at Harry who looked back.

And then they heard the hissing noises. Josh looked and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where he was tied to. Wormtail's fast, wheezy breathing was growing louder again. It sounded as though he was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then he came back pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water and it was larger than any cauldron Josh had ever used; a great stone belly large enough for a full-grown man to sit in.

The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. Now Wormtail was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling names beneath it. The large snake slithered away into the darkness. The liquid in the cauldron seemed to heat very fast. The surface began not only to bubble, but to send out fiery sparks, as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Wormtail tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated. And Josh heard the high, cold voice again.

"Hurry!"

The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It might have been encrusted with diamonds.

"It is ready Master."

"Now…" said the cold voice.

Wormtail pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside them. It was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind - but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Josh had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face - no child alive ever had a face like that - flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes.

The thing seemed almost helpless; it raised its thin arms, put them around Wormtail's neck, and Wormtail lifted it. As he did so, his hood fell back, and Josh saw the look of revulsion on Wormtail's weak, pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron. For one moment, Josh saw the evil, flat face illuminated in the sparks dancing on the surface of the potion. And then Wormtail lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Josh heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud.

Wormtail then began to speak. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"

The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked. Horrified, Harry and Josh watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Wormtail's command and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.

And now Wormtail was whimpering. He pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs.

"Flesh - of the servant - w-willingly given - you will - revive - your master."

He stretched his right hand out in front of him - the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward. Josh watched as the frightened man slashed off his own hand and winced when Wormtail let out his scream of pain. Josh looked and saw his hand on the ground. With Wormtail's anguished panting, the man picked it up and threw it in the cauldron making a sickening splash.

Wormtail was gasping and moaning with agony. Josh watched as he moved over to Josh's left hand.

"What are you doing?" Josh growled out but he was ignored as Wormtail grabbed Josh's hand. He waved the wand over Josh's hand and felt something pull into his left ring finger.

"F-flesh, blood, and magic unwillingly taken from the Heir…you will…make the Dark Lord stronger!"

Wormtail then pulled the knife on Josh's hand. Josh screamed out in pain as Wormtail slashed off his left ring finger, and the stood up, tossing it into the cauldron.

Wormtail then moved over to Harry.

"B-blood of the enemy… forcibly taken… you will… resurrect your foe."

Neither Josh nor Harry could do anything to prevent it, both unable to move. Josh saw the shining silver dagger shaking in Wormtail's remaining hand. He saw its point penetrate the crook of Harry's right arm and blood seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Wormtail, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it.

Wormtail staggered back to the cauldron with Harry's blood. He poured it inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, a blinding white. Wormtail, his job done, dropped to his knees beside the cauldron, then slumped sideways and lay on the ground, cradling the bleeding stump of his arm, gasping and sobbing.

The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness. Nothing happened…but Josh wasn't paying too much attention as he was in a lot of pain. His back, his head, his abs and stomach, and his left hand were in pain.

And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Harry and Josh, so that he couldn't see Wormtail or Cedric or anything but vapor hanging in the air…

But then, through the mist in front of him, they saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.

"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one handed over his master's head.

The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry…and Harry stared back into the face. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils…

Lord Voldemort had risen again.

Josh struggled against the ropes. He was tired and was in pain all over his body, but then he felt the ropes disappear from around his body. Josh slowly lifted his left hand, hoping it was still there, but as he looked at his own hand with his missing finger, he knew it was all real.

"Ah, Young Joshua Black. You have helped brought me back to full life and stronger at that."

Josh looked up at Voldemort, seeing red and snake-like face.

"Now that I'm back, young Black, I know that you are a very powerful wizard. Having Slytherin blood in you makes you a powerful wizard, just as I am. I know what you are capable of and I know what you can do. And I do have a request of you," said the cold voice. Josh continued to look at the Dark Lord, staring into his eyes.

And a pale, skinny, and skeletal looking hand reached out in front of Josh. "Join me," he said. "Join me and I could give you power; more than you could ever imagine. I can show you real and true magic, magic that can help you live for all eternity. Join me and Join my cause, for our world will be the purest."

Josh stared at the skeletal hand, thinking whether or not if he should take it. Josh stared back into Voldemort's red eyes, and slowly reached up for Voldemort's hand.