Hi everyone,
As always, thanks for the reviews, favs and follows.
I hope you are enjoying the story :)
Have a nice day and stay safe,
Perhentian
oOoOoOo
Chapter 7 - July 1994
Hermione leaped with assurance from one branch to another, progressing rapidly through the forest until she reached the edge, just before the start of Riddle Manor's park. She spotted immediately the three people waiting below her, and she jumped at their feet. Immediately Harry's wand was pointed at her, before he recognized her animagus form.
"Couldn't you Apparate here directly?" Harry mumbled.
Hermione changed back and smiled smugly at him. She knew Harry hated the idea that her animagus form was much more discreet and practical than his own, despite his lion animagus being the spitting image of Gryffindor's emblem.
"I came earlier for a bit of reconnaissance," Hermione answered. "Everything's quiet around, the house itself is empty, and I put the gardener under a bewitched sleep for the whole night."
"We should cast our glamour spells now," Ginny said. "Just in case."
It was a sound precaution, and they of course agreed. The four of them took out small potion vials from their robes and took a sip of the aging potion prepared by Hermione. Seconds after they looked like they were about twenty years old. As soon as her body finished to age, Hermione raised her wand and casted a series of glamour spells on herself. She was now mastering them quite well, as she had needed them frequently in the past years to sneak around undetected. Her hair took a lighter shade, her face lengthened slightly and she seemed to lose a few pounds. Once she had finished her spells, she inspected the appearances of her friends.
Ginny now had medium-length brown hair, thinner lips and darker skin. Harry had swapped his so characteristic green gaze for common brown eyes, his jaw was now less square and some hair was expertly hiding his scar. Ron had some aristocratic features that were not without reminding Malfoy, although his hair was brown and his eyes a muddy shade of green.
On top of their new appearances, they also had each prepared an alias. Ginny was Virginia. Ron, Ralph. Harry, Hadrian. And Hermione, Helen. As for their appearances, they were convinced that the best lies contained some truth, and all had kept names close to the originals in case one of them had a slip at some point.
"Your glamours look fine," Hermione said. "No one should be able to recognize you."
Her voice was also slightly different, and it was as always what she found the most disturbing. As if someone else was speaking every time she opened her mouth.
"Same for you, Helen ," Ron said.
"Do we keep our main wands or do we use the spare ones?" Ginny asked.
Hermione had a quick thought for her mangrove tree wood and Rougarou hair wand, carefully hidden in one of the pockets of her robe.
"Let's keep our main wands, we wouldn't want to be at a disadvantage if any issue arose," Ron answered. "They are anyway tricked to never display the real spells we used, so they would be the best ally we can have in case of a duel."
Ron was the only one of them to always have three wands with him, the first one that Hermione had given him after her trip to Knockturn Alley, Charlie's old wand, and his main wand that Harry had bought him in the summer before the second year, stopping Molly Weasley's objections with quite convincing doe eyes.
"Let's start then," Harry stated. "Ralph and Virginia, good luck. Helen, our destination is right in front of us."
The four of them exchanged a last look, and all went on their way.
oOoOoOo
"Can I help you one way or another?" Harry asked.
He was leaning against one of the walls of Riddle Manor's living room, nervously watching Hermione draw numerous runes on the floor.
"Not really, no," Hermione answered without raising her head. "You do have the few drops of the Philosopher's Stone Elixir of Life, don't you?"
"Yes Helen, I do," Harry confirmed.
His tone was terse, and for good reason: Hermione was almost certain that she had asked the same question several times before. She did not bother to comment. They both were a little too nervous about what they were going to do, and she anyway needed all her concentration for what she was currently doing.
A slight tingling sound was heard, and for the first time in the past two hours Hermione raised her head from the runes she was tracing, all her senses alert.
"Probably Virginia and Ralph, I'll go take a look," Harry said.
Hermione nodded and watched him exit the room warily. Despite the strong probability that it would indeed be their friends, she did not continue her work and moved to one of the corners of the room, her wand in her hand. She relaxed only when Harry, Ron and Ginny entered the room.
"The Cup?" Hermione asked.
"In my bag," Ginny answered with a wide smile.
"Have you left any trace of your presence in Gringotts?" Harry asked.
"We shouldn't have left any," Ron replied with assurance. "And if unfortunately they ever find a clue of our presence they can only draw the wrong conclusions. We had robbed sixteen other vaults on top of the Lestranges' one."
"Sixteen vaults?" Harry repeated with disbelief. "Are you completely mad?"
"That's a smokescreen, and a quite good one if I may," Ginny justified. "These seventeen families have at least one thing in common, their ancestors have all received a golden Tudor Rose awarded by Henry VII for their contribution to the Wars of the Roses. We have recovered all the roses that actually were in the vaults."
Hermione looked thoughtfully at Ginny. She was vaguely aware of the story of these golden roses, but she had had no idea which families were now owning them. But it was probably the kind of story that was told in pureblood families.
"And if anyone makes any inquiries, they'll think that's the reason for your burglary. It's indeed a good smokescreen," Hermione agreed.
Harry seemed less happy with their way of proceeding, and he even pointed an accusing finger at Ginny and Ron.
"Wait, don't tell me that you robbed the Potters' vault?" he asked menacingly.
Ginny looked at him apologetically.
"It would have been too suspicious to rob all the vaults except this one," she said.
Harry grumbled something that sounded vaguely like a curse towards all redheads in general and Ginny and Ron in particular.
"Have you finished here?" Ron asked.
Hermione looked at the multiple runes drawn on the floor.
"Not quite," she said. "I still have to finish Seth's circle, and ward the manor just in case."
"You're using Seth's circle?" Ginny asked, her disbelief quite evident. "But it is supposed to be..."
"Incredibly unstable, I know," Hermione snapped.
The two girls winced and Hermione apologized. She was not really in the mood to be reminded about the complexity of what she was trying to do.
"In that case, it would be better for us to go fetch Voldemort while you're finishing the ritual," Ron said.
Hermione hesitated for a moment. She did not really want to leave her three friends alone with Voldemort. Even if he was still only a mere shadow of what he really was. But it was more reluctance to part from them than a fear for their lives if she was honest. And she would be much more useful if she continued her runes rather than by accompanying them.
"All right," she agreed. "But don't take any unnecessary risk. And don't underestimate Nagini."
Few seconds after they were out of the room, and Hermione focused anew on the ritual preparation.
oOoOoOo
When her friends finally came back, Hermione was on the verge of an anxiety attack. Of course she knew that it would take time for them to go to Albania and come back. Of course she trusted them. But once the ritual runes were finalized, and the wards around the manor casted, there had been nothing left to distract her, and staying alone in Riddle Manor was hardly a pleasant experience.
She felt relieved when she saw Ginny, Ron, and Harry enter the living room, Harry levitating in front of him what seemed to be a bundle of rags the size of a small child.
"It's ... him?" Hermione asked, feeling strangely intimidated to have Voldemort so close to them.
"Yes," Harry confirmed.
His face was reflecting something between repugnance and pity.
"Did you got his wand too?" Hermione checked.
"No," Ginny answered. "It wasn't there. And Hadrian claims he never saw him use it, so we think he just never recovered it."
"But… he had gotten his wand back the last time, how's that?" Hermione asked.
"Probably Pettigrew ," Ron shrugged.
Hermione thoughtfully turned her wand between her fingers. Yes, it could be that Voldemort had forced Pettigrew to get him his wand, wherever it was.
"How should we proceed?" Harry asked curtly, stopping Hermione's and Ron's chatter.
"Place the diary, the ring, the locket, the cup, and the diadem in the small circles, in that order. Each of you will then step on one of the branches here, there and there, with Hadrian in the middle. And for him… put him in the centre."
They complied and Hermione had to hold back a jolt of disgust when Harry removed the cloak wrapped around Voldemort's body. A deformed child body, seemingly covered with blood, breathing with difficulty. At least he was unconscious, thanks Merlin for small mercies.
"What have you done with Nagini?" Hermione asked.
She saw Ron look angrily at Harry who ignored him.
"We just Stupefied her," Harry answered. "There was no need to kill her. She's not responsible for Voldemort's actions."
Hermione went around the different runes one last time, checking that the seven catalysts, five Horcruxes and three wizards were all in place. Then she took the vial containing the Philosopher's Stone Elixir of Life in her left hand, raised her wand in her right hand and began the ritual that should return Lord Voldemort to his former glory, while destroying his Horcruxes.
oOoOoOo
Before their eyes the air began to spin around Voldemort, becoming more and more opaque, darker also, and nearly suffocating. It seemed to plunge into the mutilated body of the darkest wizard of all times, and they saw him begin to transform, his body growing rapidly.
"Stupefy!" Harry casted.
He had casted it a little too early, even before the ritual was completely finished, but Hermione could not really blame him. The darkened air turned into steam before dissipating, and they observed the stupefied body of Voldemort lying on the floor just before them.
"Wow, your ritual is quite efficient Helen, he looks a lot better than the last time. Well done," Ron congratulated with sarcasm.
Indeed, the man in front of them had nothing of the snake-like monster they had faced the previous time. Tall, dark-haired, with so well designed aristocratic features that it was unnerving, Voldemort's body seemed almost too perfect.
"It's his real body," Ginny murmured with fear.
Hermione looked at Voldemort more closely, and noticed that Ginny was right. The man looked a lot like the teenage Tom Riddle, whose pictures she had seen in Hogwarts' archives, with perhaps fifteen more years. And that did not reassure Hermione at all. She knew her ritual was not the same as the one originally used, so it was expected for the results to be slightly different, but she was now wondering what else was different for his appearance to have changed so much.
But that was of no importance in reality, because the situation was only temporary. As soon as she will have managed to tore down Slytherin Castle's library wards, they would reduce Voldemort to a mere wraith again.
"Let's not waste any time," Harry said. "Helen, take what you need and make sure it was worth it. We will stay here and wait for your signal to kill him, at least temporary."
Quickly, Hermione approached Voldemort and neatly slashed his left wrist, collecting the blood in one vial. She closed the wound and cleaned all traces of blood, before stealing some hair too, her shaking hands making it far more difficult than it should have been.
She paused for a moment as her eyes landed on Ravenclaw's diadem, and she frowned. She thought the ritual would destroy the containers at the same time as the Horcruxes. She carefully picked up the diadem, then the cup, then the locket, and stopped again when she reached the ring. This one had been reduced to dust, with the exception of the Resurrection Stone. Looking slightly up towards the next circle Hermione saw that there was nothing left of the diary.
"There was an issue with the ritual," Hermione said anxiously. "Something didn't go as planned. The ring and the diary are destroyed, but not the locket, the cup, nor the diadem. This is not normal."
Harry approached and retrieved the three founder relics and the little black stone from her hands, and glanced quickly at Voldemort.
"He seems quite alive though," Harry said curtly.
"But there must be something that has not worked correctly," Hermione panicked. "The ritual shouldn't have destroyed only half of the Horcruxes."
"They're not Horcruxes anymore," Ron pointed out.
He had been casting several spells on the objects for the past few minutes. But the fact that they were no longer Horcruxes did not explain why the diary and the ring had been the only ones to be reduced to dust.
"That doesn't change the plan," Harry decided. "Helen, you need to start moving. We will solve this problem when we won't have a Dark Lord to watch."
Hermione nodded. He was right. It was more urgent to deal with the library.
"I'm on my way. I'll keep you informed through the notebooks as soon as I break the wards."
Harry, Ron, and Ginny nodded, their wands pointed resolutely at Voldemort, and Hermione got out of Riddle Manor before Apparating to Slytherin Castle.
oOoOoOo
Hidden among the shadows, invisible and undetectable, Death looked at her alleged master and his unruly black hair. Even with potions and spells, he could not hide his true identity from her. Not when he was not under the Cloak. Without the Deathly Hallows he was nothing more than a banal wizard with scandalous luck.
He had been back for years. It had been years since he had gotten his friends back in time with him out of her. And during all those years, nothing remarkable had happened. A total boredom. But that night Death felt that something important was happening. Something that would really change the timeline. Something that would finally give her some well-deserved distraction.
Everything was still for the moment, and Death wondered if she should not push Fate a little. If she should not make the events move a little faster. But just then, there was an imperceptible change in the atmosphere, and Death smiled. Finally things were moving forward.
oOoOoOo
When Lord Voldemort regained consciousness he immediately noticed that he was lying on a hard surface. His last memories came back to him and he forced himself to maintain the most perfect immobility, knowing for the moment nothing about his environment. He had been attacked while he was possessing Nagini. The connection with his snake had been abruptly broken, meaning that someone had attacked his homunculus. It was a quite annoying information. Who had managed to find him? And why had he been attacked?
Then Lord Voldemort noticed another strange thing. He felt he had a body. A real body. A human one. A sensation he had not felt for almost thirteen years. And his thoughts also seemed to have never been so clear. And his magic... he could feel it swarming under his skin. Powerful and wanting to be used.
Someone had performed a ritual on him, to give him his body back. He thought first of the Death Eaters he had probed in the recent weeks, but quickly dismissed the idea. He had not started to really call them, they would not have been able to find his hideout without further help. And none would have known what ritual to perform. But then, who had dared to do this without his consent? And again, why?
"Any news?" asked a feminine voice.
He had been right to stay immobile. He was not alone. There were at least two other persons near him, and for now he knew nothing about them. Except that they had probably something to do with him having a new body.
"No, not for the moment."
It was a male voice that had answered this time. Lord Voldemort did not recognize either of them. He then heard the sound of creasing fabrics, betraying the movement of one of the persons. If he had had his wand, he would not have hesitated to attack and kill them right now. But he did not have his wand right now. It must still be hidden somewhere, probably at Godric's Hollow, protected by a charm that made it visible only to him or his followers if ever it was torn off him while he was still alive.
He probably should have recovered it when he was possessing Quirrell, but his only goal was then the Philosopher's Stone. It was kind of strange nonetheless that he had not thought about recovering his wand at that time. It hardly looked like him not to take into account all the details of a situation. This wandering had visibly lessened his mental faculties more than what he had previously guessed. But that was not the time to dwell on that.
Even though Lord Voldemort did not have his wand, he could still easily escape his captors. He would then come back and kill those reckless idiots later. After making them confess everything they knew. Focusing on his surroundings, Voldemort concluded that there should be three of them, about four meters away from him. The temperature was relatively cool so it had to be the night. Unless they were in a place protected from the sun. Or unless he was no longer in Albania.
"What is taking her so long? She should have contacted us already!"
It was the third person, a different man. And they were obviously waiting for information from a fourth person. He really should not linger here. Fighting against three or four wizards with their wands while he was himself wandless was not really on his top priorities right now. He would win, he had no doubt about that, but it would not be easy. Especially with this body that seemed both familiar and foreign to him. Was it because he had lost the habit those past thirteen years? Or was this body different from the one he had used since the seventies?
Hoping that they were not watching him too closely, Voldemort began to chant an incantation for him to Apparate through anti-apparition wards. Few could master such enchantments without a wand, but it was not an issue for him. After all, was he not the most powerful wizard of all times? A wizard the other wizards were even too afraid of to say the name aloud.
Lord Voldemort reached the end of his incantation, opened his eyes so he could then re-Apparate to the same place, and at the same time made a sudden movement to Apparate away. Violently colliding into another ward.
"Stupefy!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expulso!"
Voldemort moved briskly and narrowly avoided the three spells, astonished by the speed at which his assailants had reacted. And by the use of an Avada Kedavra. Those were not allies then. He moved fluidly behind a couch, quite angry at the thought of having been caught by an Erebus ward. Because it could have only been an Erebus ward to block his incantation.
One of his enemies at least was not to be taken lightly. Erecting such a ward was far from common, and was borderline dark magic. There was a new volley of spells and Lord Voldemort started to chant another incantation. A few seconds later he was invisible.
"No!" one of them yelled.
"Hominum Revelio!" the only girl casted.
But his camouflage was far more advanced than this spell, and only their own three forms brightened slightly. Voldemort realized at that moment that they actually were in the living room of Riddle Manor. The manor of his unworthy paternal family in Yorkshire. Who were these people? How could they know this manor? His connection with it? And why come to get him in Albania, give him a body back, and then try to throw Avada Kedavras at him?
"Oh my god, Helen's gonna kill us," muttered one of the guys.
"If it's not Voldemort," the girl replied acidly, her eyes still searching the room carefully.
They dared to use his name! Lord Voldemort glanced at them one last time, engraving their face and wands in his memory, and, using another charm to stay undetectable, slipped out of the room and out of the manor, before finally Apparating away.
oOoOoOo
Hermione was cursing loudly in Slytherin Castle's library. She had tried several spells, several rituals, but nothing worked. Even with Voldemort's blood. And Harry had already disabled all the wards that were in Parseltongue. What could the dark wizard have put in place to protect his precious library so well? She had his blood, his hair, and the approval of the castle thanks to Harry! How was it possible that she did not manage to open the access to the books? It was almost insulting.
"It's utter nonsense!" she grumbled.
She could not fail. Not with everything they had done to get there. She had to find a way to access this library, and quickly. Harry, Ron and Ginny would not be able to watch Voldemort forever. And the night was already well advanced.
Suddenly her charms detecting intruders were triggered and she moved briskly, concealing with a quick wand movement the runes that covered the library and moving in an area with a perfect view of the entrance. There could be only two types of people who could come here right now. Her friends, or Voldemort. And if in neither cases it would be good news, she still preferred the intruders to be her friends.
She heard a cavalcade and relaxed slightly. Voldemort would have never made so much noise. But the presence of her friends and their haste raised many questions, one of the most important being what could justify that they went against the plan. A few seconds later Harry, Ron and Ginny tumbled into the library, their wands raised, looking for her.
"How did we became friends?" Hermione asked as she emerged from the shadows.
"Fighting a troll," Harry – Hadrian – replied.
They all simultaneously casted discretion spells.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked .
"He managed to escape," Harry said.
Hermione's brain stopped, and for few seconds she was not even able to breath properly.
"Are you kidding me?"
The defeated faces of her friends assured her that no, they were not, and Hermione suddenly felt completely depressed. Before the panic took over.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"No idea. Not here it seems," Ron replied.
But Hermione did not pay attention to Ron and kept her gaze fixed on Harry, who shook his head.
"How can you not know where he is Hadrian?" Hermione asked , her voice laced with anguish.
Since they had been back, Harry had always been able to locate Voldemort through the Horcrux in his scar, and it was the only Horcrux she had not destroyed in the ritual not to risk the life of her friend.
"His mind is occluded. I have no idea what he thinks or where he can be right now."
Hermione could feel the desperation in Harry's voice, and she knew that he must feel strangely lost to no longer feel a distant echo of Voldemort's life.
"He had not been aware of your connection until the middle of the fifth year last time, hadn't he?" Hermione asked carefully. "How can he be aware of it now?"
"I don't think he specifically blocks me, Helen. I think he's blocking everything."
Hermione had to force herself to breathe calmly to regain control of the terror that was trying to submerge her. Her ritual had changed too many things. Voldemort had woken up much earlier than they had calculated. And obviously much more alert. And they had no way of knowing what would be his exact next actions.
"We have to put our own wards here, he will necessarily pass by Slytherin Castle, and it's probably our best chance to find him," Ginny said.
Hermione resolutely casted aside her anguished torpor and approved Ginny's proposition. Both girls began to work on it, while Harry and Ron continued to discuss in one of the corners, carefully monitoring the entrance of the library. Hermione's hands were shaking slightly, and she was trying hard to focus on the different rituals and not to think about the disaster that would happen very, very, soon.
"Should we add a Kashgar charm?" Ginny asked.
"It won't be discreet enough for him I think," Hermione replied. "I will rather try one of Melvure's alterations."
"That would take us hours," Ginny sighed.
"Can you take a break before you start then?" Harry intervened. "We need to talk."
The two girls looked up at Harry and Ron. All were quite serious, knowing that the situation could degenerate very quickly. They had some assets on their side. The blood and hair of the dark wizard. The Philosopher's Stone. A far more extensive knowledge of Voldemort's places of residence and his Death Eaters that the Dark Lord could ever imagine. The benefit of anonymity too, at least for now.
"There are many things we need to do," Ron said. "We need to be sure that Dumbledore has been warned by Snape, that he is ready to fight if needed."
"I'll try to get this information from Sirius," Harry said.
"We can't do anything about the Death Eaters that had been found not guilty, like Malfoy. Voldemort may have already called them all. But we have to make sure we are warned if something happens in Azkaban," Ron continued.
Hermione nodded. It was absolutely out of the question to have Bellatrix Lestrange and her acolytes once again ravaging the country. This would lead to a lot of deaths as it had been the case the first time around.
"Any ideas how to do that?" Harry asked.
"Some," Ginny replied. "With Hermione we should be able to do it. Melvure again?"
"Yes," Hermione replied. "But probably another alteration, I'll need to think about it a few minutes."
"When do you think you can do that?" Ron asked.
"Not tonight, we have to finish here first, but the next one should be fine," Ginny said.
If like the last time Voldemort tried not to advertise too much his own resurrection, he would not act so fast anyway.
"We also need to watch this place if we want to be able to catch him, someone should always be here," Ron said.
"And also at Riddle Manor, no?" Ginny asked.
Ron shook his head.
"We won't be able to constantly watch Slytherin Castle and Riddle Manor at the same time," he said. "Not with our parents, Sirius and Remus constantly on our backs. And he may have already come back to Riddle Manor, setting his own wards there... Slytherin Castle is more suitable. He will inevitably come here one time or another, and that would be our only chance to kill him."
Hermione shook her head, and took a long breath.
"We cannot kill him," she said. "Not yet. I have been unable to access the books here. We have to wait for him, true, but to negotiate."
"Negotiate?" Harry exclaimed. "With him? It's madness!"
"The books were the reason why we had given Voldemort his body back," Hermione said, glaring at him. "Our goal is not him, but to prevent the magical source eruption in fifty years. Killing him now is unfortunately not our priority. Not until we get Slytherin's books."
oOoOoOo
Albus Dumbledore looked up from the letter he was reading when Severus Snape entered briskly in his office. When Albus had been awaken by his alarms warning him that someone was heading to his office around six o'clock in the morning, he had gotten up with resignation, and had begun to re-read an important letter while waiting for his Slytherin's head of house to arrive.
The professor's livid complexion immediately caught his attention, as did his haggard eyes.
"He came back Albus," Severus said.
In the same movement he lifted his left sleeve and showed Albus the Dark Mark that was moving on his arm. It radiated energy and malice, and it almost seemed to mock Albus' apprehensive gaze.
"Since when?" Albus asked warily.
"It started burning four hours ago. Gently, then more and more surely. I came as soon as I could."
Severus began pacing in front of his desk, visibly agitated.
"They will have felt it. The Death Eaters, all of them. Lucius. The Lestrange. Avery. Nott. Dolohov. It's a disaster Albus."
"It's far from good news," Albus agreed. "I will gather the Order back. And try to talk to Cornelius."
Severus snorted disdainfully, but Albus did not react. Even though his opinion of the Minister of Magic was becoming worse with each passing year, Albus still had to warm him to prepare for the war that would undoubtedly happen .
"Severus," Dumbledore said calmly.
Severus turned his eyes to him, looking haunted, and Albus hated himself for what he was going to ask of him. But if Voldemort was actually back, they can not do without Severus' help.
"You know what I must ask you to do. If he calls you… if you are ready…"
Severus's face immediately became an impassive mask, hiding from the headmaster what he was really thinking of going back to spy on Voldemort.
"I am," Severus said.
"Thank you Severus."
Severus swept wordlessly out of his office. Albus' gaze wandered on Fawkes, currently a young fledgling who chirped some sad notes, and Albus sighed. He had wished for that day to never come. But since the disappearance of the Philosopher's Stone he had known that his wish would not come true.
oOoOoOo
Lord Voldemort looked disdainfully at the ruins right in front of him. So no one had taken care of repairing the former house of the Potters. Or perhaps the wizards had wanted to honour the Potters and had let the ruins as a token of their supposed courage? It was something Voldemort could never understand. How could some ruins represent anything, especially courage, when two wizards had been killed there? Easily killed even, as none of them had even put up a real fight. Too bad Harry Potter had not been as easy to kill.
Green sparks shouted out of the wand Voldemort had discreetly stolen from a witch less than ten minutes ago. Thinking about Harry Potter always made him want to destroy something. But he would take care of the boy afterwards. In the first place, he needed to recover his faithful yew wand. Then he would see. There was Potter of course. But also Dumbledore. Slytherin Castle. Nagini. His Death Eaters. The Ministry of Magic. Yes, Lord Voldemort had a lot of things to take care of.
oOoOoOo
AN: And here it is, Voldemort is back :)
