The present Vipers immediately left the main area of the common room and followed Harry into the Vipers' Arena, there was a passageway that led to the greenhouses. Hopefully they could get there in time. They were walking down the passageway, making a plan as they went. As soon as they were away from the castle and under the grounds, Harry felt an odd sensation and then his friends saw him disappear.
In an instant Harry drew his wand and was looking around for any signs of attack.
"Hello there Harry, sit with me and talk. Magic won't help you here, I've put up a magical dead zone," came the voice of Tom Riddle, who was sitting down with a pleased look on his face.
"VAMPIRES? Fucking Vampires? Really Tom? If I find out that anyone was hurt because of this I will kill you," Harry snarled, letting his anger wrap around him with his magic rising.
"Harry, Harry, Harry… I did tell you that the next time you saw me I would restore your memories and show you why you're best served joining me. But for now let us talk, the hour is nearly upon us."
/*** **-** ***/
The second Harry vanished, Dudley took over.
"I have no idea what just happened, but what I do know is that Elias and the rest of his class need our help. I'll try to call Harry on the ring later, but for now we need to make sure Elias is safe. We should be coming to the end of the passageway, this is where our training comes in. We are to avoid combat unless absolutely necessary, this is just a rescue mission."
Before they opened the passageway Dudley called Hermione to ask her to try to cause a distraction to bring any Vampires away from this side of the school. Their prayers were answered when they heard the magically amplified sound of Hermione screaming as if under attack.
The group heard the sound of people running above their heads and waited until things fell silent again, before trying to contact Elias. After a minute of waiting, Dudley was beginning to lose hope, the sound of Elias' voice sounded in Dudley's ear.
"Harry?"
"No, it's Dudley, where are you? Are you okay?"
"We're still in Greenhouse 1, Professor Sprout is fighting someone outside the Greenhouse and it doesn't sound like she's winning."
"We're less than a minute away, stay back from the door." Dudley cancelled the call and they left the passageway. It took less than a minute of following the sound of Professor Sprout's pained yells, they arrived in time to see her getting scratched across the face and to see the vampire nearly bite her.
"BOMBARDA, LEVICORPUS, ACCIO!" Dudley yelled at the same time that Draco also shouted out.
"STUPIFY, DEPULSO, INCENDIO!"
While this was going on Theo cast the Bone Breaker Curse at the Vampire, before summoning a small branch from a tree and transfiguring the end of it to be pointy, before levitating it and sending it straight through the chest of the attacking Vampire. Within a second and with a horrific screaming, the Vampire turned into smoke and vanished.
Theo rushed over to Professor Sprout and began healing her injuries, he didn't know any of the higher end healing charms, but would be able to stabilise her for Madame Pomfrey.
Things were looking up, that was until the death scream of the first Vampire summoned more and they weren't happy.
/*** **-** ***/
"Harry, you can sit or stand, I honestly don't care. But you will listen to me, I can promise you that much." Tom had watched Harry skulk back and forth, his wand never lowering.
"What do you want from me?"
"You let me leave Harry, you know you did. You could have stopped me before I left the Chamber. That was because at the time you had a shard of my soul residing within you. I know what you did, having it surgically removed." Riddle smirked at this point and Harry became very uncomfortable.
"It was you! You walked out of the operating room with the chunk I had removed. Just as they gave me a sedative I saw you." Riddle laughed a high, cold laugh.
"Very good Harry, I hoped you would be smart, it seems my hopes weren't in vain. I have it here, the tumour, it has continued to grow and soon it will be restored to a full body," Tom informed him calmly.
"Why are you telling me this? You know I will stop you-" Harry was cut off by Riddle's laugh.
"Harry, please, you really think I would tell you before the point of no return."
A grin appeared on Riddle's face and a second later Harry felt a sharp cut on his arm in the second before Riddle dropped the magical dead zone and Harry was bound with ropes to the chair he had refused to sit in.
"The resurrection of Lord Voldemort has begun.
The Slytherin Vipers were struggling to hold back the Vampires, they were actually surprised they had held off so long. Dudley, Blaise, and Draco were casting offensive spells to try and hold off the attackers, while Theo sent magically sharpened sticks through the chest of multiple Vampires. As the fight went on all of the attacking Vampires had come to avenge their fallen brothers, and were getting more and more desperate and aggressive.
"This isn't good," Theo called out as he turned another Vampire to smoke. "I'm running out of energy and magical reserves."
Dudley was panicking now. There was no sign of actual reinforcements on the side of the wizards, though all of the Vampires suddenly venturing to another area should have tipped the staff off.
Blaise was trying to make a decision, he had been hoping to keep this a secret, should he use the powers his mother taught him? As Theo took down another Vampire and the rest stepped closer, Blaise realised that he was out of time to decide. He cast a series of Bombardas, telling the rest to do the same. Once there was a gap between the attackers and defenders Blaise put his wand away and rose both of his arms. In an instant there was a huge wall of earth between them and the Vampires, buying them a few minutes of time to think and to act. Theo checked Professor Sprout's vitals and deemed her stable enough to revive.
"What are you boys doing out here? The students in the greenhouse are safe, and so were you lot in the castle," Professor Sprout immediately chastised the boys upon regaining consciousness.
"You weren't. If we hadn't shown up and if Theo hadn't been studying healing magic then you would have died," Dudley argued back.
"A small price to pay to keep the lives of my students safe, I came out here hoping that if I had to sacrifice my life, then at least the students would have been safe, my sacrifice adding to the protections I've woven across the Greenhouse," Professor Sprout rebutted as she rose to her feet. "If we can get into Greenhouse 2, before they manage to break down that mound of earth, we can grab the Devil's Snare to use against them. Follow me."
While they walked Dudley was relieved not to be in charge anymore, but was equally worried about his cousin.
As the magically conjured robes slithered up Harry's body he took advantage of the last moment of freedom in his arms to activate his ring, and more specifically the tracking feature he had put in for emergencies. Everyone who wore one of the rings would be able to hear this, hopefully they could find him before the end.
"Are you comfortable now, Harry? Good, we can continue," Riddle began. As he spoke, the man who cut Harry's arm walked over, and dropped three drops of blood from Harry's arm. "Blood of the Heir, taken by force if necessary." Riddle then cut off his own hand before dropping it into the potion. "Flesh of the self, a sacrifice to bring myself back to strength." He finally turned his wand on the mystery man and a purple light shot out, entering through the man's eyes and exiting via the mouth, before landing into the potion. "Life force of the servant, unknowingly given, but willing all the same." Riddle then walked a few paces away and picked up a hideously deformed being, the size of a baby, but without any features, before dropping it into the Cauldron. "I enter into this potion to restore myself, I will become whole."
As soon as the last word was spoken, the air in the room thickened with magic, the potion began to bubble and change colours, and most significantly Harry's scar began to burn, more so than it ever had. He screamed so hard blood came out of his mouth, he wanted to die right then. His tormented screams stopped at the same time that the boiling did. Harry opened his eyes and saw a new person inside the room.
He was pale white, eyes as red as Rubies, his face gaunt and snakelike. The very form of a monster. However not even a minute later his features began to melt like wax and reform looking as normal as any other wizard.
Lord Voldemort was back.
/*** **-** ***/
Back at Hogwarts the Vipers and Professor Sprout had gathered the Devil's Snare and had begun planting it between the dirt mound and themselves. Dudley had summoned some garlic from the kitchen, remembering Bram Stoker's Dracula, and figuring it could be a weakness to exploit.
Before they could plant the last of the Devil's Snare a hole was punched through the mound of dirt and Blaise dropped it, swallowing the Vampire who had punched through into the ground.
The Vampires were frenzied at this point and began to charge the group.
/*** **-** ***/
