Dudley stumbled as he slammed to the ground, falling on top of Neville.
"Sorry," he muttered, clambering off of Neville and lifting him to his feet.
"Did anyone mention anything about a portkey to you?" Neville asked.
Dudley shook his head. He glanced around and shivered. They were standing in a dark and overgrown graveyard. The black outline of a church was visible to their right, while too the left there was a hill with a large house on it. The place gave him the creeps.
"Do you think this is part of the task?" Dudley asked.
"No," said Neville. "I think this is whoever put our names in. Get your wand out."
Dudley fumbled in his robes and withdrew his wand. Dudley had the horrible feeling he was being watched and he didn't like it.
"Someone's coming!" Neville hissed.
Through the gloom, a tall figure strode, its face was obscured by a hood. In its arms it carried a bundle.
"Stupefy!" Dudley yelled, he was leaving nothing to chance.
The figure was fast, craddling the bundle with one arm, it raised a wand with its other and blocked Dudley's spell with a non-verbal protego charm. In the same movement, Dudley felt his body going stiff as a petrificus totalus spell hit him.
"Dudley!" Neville shouted. "Impediment ..."
"Crucio!"
Neville screamed with pain as the spell hit him.
Dudley couldn't move. He was a stiff as a board, lying on his side and he could only watch as Neville twitched and screamed beside him.
"Enough!" a cold, hard voice said. It was a voice which sent chills running down Dudley's spine.
Neville stopped screaming.
"Bind the mudblood—it was watch. Then it will die."
Dudley felt himself being levitated by the unknown figure. As they passed out from under the shadow of a tree, Dudley saw that his hood had fallen down revealing the pale face and long blond hair of Lucius Malfoy.
"Incarcerous!" Malfoy whispered and thick ropes bound Dudley tightly to a statue.
He could only watch, unmoving while Malfoy did the same to Neville. He bound the almost unconscious boy onto a tombstone opposite Dudley.
Dudley tried to speak but he couldn't utter a word. His whole body was paralyzed.
Dudley could see Neville but nothing else, Neville's head was down and he was breathing heavily. He could hear Malfoy fumbling with something and, once more he entered Dudley's field of vision.
Malfoy was using his wand to push a cauldron full of liquid into the clearing. It was bigger than any cauldron Dudley had ever seen. It was big enough for a grown man to sit in.
Dudley's heart froze as a huge snake, bigger than any he had seen before slithered past.
Now Malfoy had pointed his wand at the bottom of the cauldron. There were now crackling flames below it. The cauldron soon began to bubble and sparks started shooting out of it.
"It is ready, master," said Lucius Malfoy.
"Now ..." said the cold voice.
Lucius Malfoy stepped out of Dudley's view and returned carrying the bundle of clothing. Lucius pulled open the bundle. If Dudley could move he would have screamed. It had the shape of a crouched child yet was hairless and scaly-looking with raw, reddish skin and a flat, smooth face with glowing red eyes.
Neville had stirred now and was gazing with fear at Lucius Malfoy and the thing.
Malfoy lowered the thing into the cauldron and Dudley heard it hit the bottom.
Malfoy was speaking now. His voice low and his wand raised. "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
The surface of the grave at Neville's feet cracked. Horrified, Dudley watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Malfoy'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.
""Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master."
Dudley couldn't look away. He couldn't even close his eyes from the sight of Lucius Malfoy hacking off his own hand and hurling it into the cauldron. The potion had now turned a bright red.
Malfoy was breathing heavily.
"B-blood of the enemy...forcibly taken...you will...resurrect your foe."
Neville cried out in fear as Malfoy approached. Dudley couldn't see what Malfoy did, but Neville thrashed around and when Lucius turned around, he had a vial of Neville's blood which he added to the cauldron too.
His job over, Malfoy dropped to his knees, cradling the stump of his arm.
The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness. Nothing happened...
Let it have drowned. Dudley thought, let it have gone wrong...
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 Dudley, so that he couldn't see Malfoy or Neville or anything but vapor hanging in the air...It's gone wrong, he thought...it's drowned ...please...please let it be dead...
But then, through the mist in front of him, he 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 Malfoy, still breathing heavily, 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, and ignoring Dudley he stared directly at Neville. What little Dudley could see of Neville's face looked absolutely terrified.
Dudley didn't have to see the man's face to know that Lord Voldemort had risen again.
Voldemort was examining his body now. He took no notice of Malfoy, nor of the great snake circling them nor of Dudley. He was instead staring at Neville Longbottom. Dudley watched as he drew his wand.
Voldemort pointed it at Malfoy who was lifted into the air and thrown against the tombstone where Neville was tied.
Malfoy's robes were stained with blood. "My lord, please ..."
"Hold out your arm," Voldemort said.
Malfoy extended the bleeding stump but Voldemort merely laughed. "Your other one, Lucius ..." he said softly.
Voldemort bent down and pulled out Malfoy's left arm; he forced the sleeve of Malfoy's robes up past his elbow. Dudley couldn't see what Voldemort was doing.
"It is back," he said softly, "they will all have noticed it...and now, we shall see...now we shall know..."
He pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on Malfoy's arm. Malfoy howled.
Voldemort now stared at the empty graveyard.
"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" he whispered, his gleaming red eyes fixed upon the stars. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"
He now turned to Neville, standing directly in front of him. Dudley couldn't hear what Voldemort was saying to his friend.
The air was full of the sound of swishing cloaks. Black robed wizards were appearing out of nowhere. They kissed the hem of Voldemort's robes before forming a circle around them all.
"Welcome, Death Eaters," said Voldemort quietly. "Thirteen years...thirteen years since last we met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday, we are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"
He put back his terrible face and sniffed, his slit-like nostrils widening.
"I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench or guilt upon the air.
A second shiver ran around the circle, as though each member of it longed, but did not dare to step back from him.
"I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact - such prompt appearances! and I ask myself...why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"
No one spoke. No one moved except Malfoy, who was upon the ground, still cradling his bleeding arm.
"And I answer myself," whispered Voldemort, "they must have believed me broken, they thought I was gone. They slipped back among my enemies, and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment ...
"And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death? They, who had seen proofs of the immensity of my power in the times when I was mightier than any wizard living?
"And I answer myself, perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort...perhaps they now pay allegiance to another...perhaps that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore?"
At the mention of Dumbledore's name, the members of the circle stirred, and some muttered and shook their heads. Voldemort ignored them.
"It is a disappointment to me...I confess myself disappointed..."
One of the men suddenly flung himself forward, breaking the circle. Trembling from head to foot, he collapsed at Voldemort's feet.
"Master!" he shrieked, "Master, forgive me! Forgive us all!"
Voldemort began to laugh. He raised his wand.
"Crucio!"
The Death Eater on the ground writhed and shrieked.
Voldemort raised his wand. The tortured Death Eater lay flat upon the ground, gasping.
"Get up, Avery," said Voldemort softly. "Stand up. You ask for forgiveness? I do not forgive. I do not forget. Thirteen long years...I want thirteen years' repayment before I forgive you. Malfoy here has paid some of his debt already, have you not, Malfoy?"
"Malfoy returned ... if he returned to me immediately, I would have risen to power long ago. But he waited until he had the choice—be sentenced to Azkaban or rejoin his master." Voldemort said coldly.
"Yet he returned ... for that I shall reward him with his life. I intended to kill Lucius for his failure ... but without him, I wouldn't have returned to my body. So, Lucius ... I allow you to live," he waved his wand and Malfoy's stump healed.
"Thank you, my lord, thank you!" Malfoy gasped, bowing low before going to his place in the circle.
Voldemort moved to a person in the circle. "You have already paid me a small service, have you not, Crabbe and Goyle?" he said to two huge Death Eaters. "Yes, Crabbe and Goyle aided Lucius Malfoy's escape from the Aurors. You have a long way to go until your debt is repaid."
Crabbe and Goyle both bowed rather clumsily. Voldemort moved on.
"The Lestranges should stand here," said Voldemort quietly. "But they are entombed in Azkaban. They were faithful. They went to Azkaban rather than renounce me...When Azkaban is broken open, the Lestranges will be honored beyond their dreams. The dementors will join us...they are our natural allies...we will recall the banished giants...I shall have all my devoted servants returned to me, and an army of creatures whom all fear..."
He walked on. "Julian Avery I and Julian Avery II, while it good to see blood purity running through the family, you both need to do better."
"Abaddon Nott should stand here, he is now in Azkaban. Jailed after helping Lucius escape. Captured by Gilderoy Lockhart ... he will pay, of course. He will pay."
Some figures, Voldemort passed in silence. Others, he stopped to speak with. One, he didn't name "You have began your service anew—yes, you have repaid your debt by retrieving my wand."
He paused next to a squat female Death Eater and a tall, well-built male. "The famous Death Eater siblings ..."Voldemort said in a mocking sort of voice. "I expect more from you both than last time."
"We will serve well, my lord," the female said.
"Macnair ... destroying dangerous beasts for the Ministry now, Lucius tells me. You will have better victims soon. Lord Voldemort will provide."
"Thank you, master," said Macnair.
"Thorfin Rowle ... now I know you haven't given up the old beliefs," Voldemort said. "Lucius tells me you have murdered ... is it four muggles in the past years?"
"Five ..." Rowle said.
"And the Ministry doesn't suspect a thing?"
"Not at all,"
"You will put your considerable skills to greater use soon, Rowle ... soon you will have more victims. Many more."
Voldemort had now reached the largest group of all.
"And here we have six missing Death Eaters...three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return...he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever...he will be killed, of course...and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service."
"He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friends arrived here tonight..."
"Yes, here we have Neville Longbottom—son of the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom. And here we have the Mudblood Dursley ..." Voldemort grinned.
"In some ways ... we should thank the mudblood. It is thanks to him that we are rid of Sirius Black and the Order of the Phoenix's pet werewolf Remus Lupin."
The Death Eaters laughed. Dudley's thoughts were running wild.
Why was Voldemort celebrating Sirius Black being kissed ... unless. No ... no! No! No! Surely not. Surely Malfoy hadn't been telling the truth. Surely Sirius Black hadn't been innocent.
Voldemort seemed to know what Dudley was thinking for he laughed.
"Yes, Sirius Black was never mine ... he was Dumbledore's man through and through. I should reward you, perhaps I will make your death quick?" his red eyes gleamed. "Or ... perhaps not ..." he fingered his wand. "Perhaps I will allow to live just long enough to see your friend here die."
"Master ..." It was the Death Eater called Thorfin Rowle. "How did this ... miracle occur?"
"It begins with the Muggle Lover and Defender of Mudbloods, Albus Dumbledore. He defeated me," said Voldemort. "I am not afraid to admit it. He and that fool of a brother of his, Aberforth ... they managed to defeat me. Aberforth died in the attempt ... ironically, thanks to one of Dumbledore's own spells. But it was enough—I was defeated. Dumbledore tracked me down to kill me that night ... I didn't think him capable."
I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost...but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know...I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal - to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked...for I had not been killed, though the curse should have done it. Nevertheless, I was as powerless as the weakest creature alive, and without the means to help myself...for I had no body, and every spell that might have helped me required the use of a wand...
"I remember only forcing myself, sleeplessly, endlessly, second by second, to exist...I settled in a faraway place, in a forest, and I waited...Surely, one of my faithful Death Eaters would try and find me...one of them would come and perform the magic I could not, to restore me to a body..., but I waited in vain..."
The shiver ran once more around the circle of listening Death Eaters. Voldemort let the silence spiral horribly before continuing.
"Only one power remained to me. I could possess the bodies of others. But I dared not go where other humans were plentiful, for I knew that the Aurors were still abroad and searching for me."
"I sometimes inhabited animals - snakes, of course, being my preference - but I was little better off inside them than as pure spirit, for their bodies were ill adapted to perform magic...and my possession of them shortened their lives; none of them lasted long..."
"Then...four years ago...the means for my return seemed assured. A wizard - young, foolish, and gullible - wandered across my path in the forest I had made my home. Oh, he seemed the very chance I had been dreaming of...for he was a teacher at Dumbledore's school...he was easy to bend to my will...he brought me back to this country, and after a while, I took possession of his body, to supervise him closely as he carried out my orders. But my plan failed. I did not manage to steal the Philosopher's Stone. I was not to be assured immortal life. I was thwarted...thwarted, by the mudblood Dursley and his friends.
"The servant died when I left his body, and I was left as weak as ever I had been," Voldemort continued. "I returned to my hiding place far away, and I will not pretend to you that I didn't then fear that I might never regain my powers...Yes, that was perhaps my darkest hour...I could not hope that I would be sent another wizard to possess...and I had given up hope, now, that any of my Death Eaters cared what had become of me..."
One or two of the masked wizards in the circle moved uncomfortably, but Voldemort took no notice.
"And then, not even a year ago, when I had almost abandoned hope, it happened at last...a servant returned to me. Malfoy, who had acted most foolishly had been arrested by Aurors. He escaped ... thanks to Abaddon Nott, Wolstenholme Crabbe and Tiberius Goyle. He immediately sought me out, doing what he should have done 13 years ago ..."
"But his journey back to me was not smooth, was it, Malfoy? For, hungry one night, on the edge of the very forest where he had hoped to find me, he foolishly stopped at an inn for some food...and who should he meet there, but one Bertha Jorkins, a witch from the Ministry of Magic.
"Now see the way that fate favors Lord Voldemort. This might have been the end of Malfoy, and of my last hope for regeneration. But Malfoy has always been a slippery character. He imperiused Bertha Jorkins and brought her to me. And Bertha Jorkins, who might have ruined all, proved instead to be a gift beyond my wildest dreams...for - with a little persuasion - she became a veritable mine of information.
"She told me that the Triwizard Tournament would be played at Hogwarts this year. She told me that she knew of a faithful Death Eater who would be only too willing to help me, if I could only contact him. She told me many things...but the means I used to break the Memory Charm upon her were powerful, and when I had extracted all useful information from her, her mind and body were both damaged beyond repair. She had now served her purpose. I could not possess her. I disposed of her."
Voldemort smiled his terrible smile, his red eyes blank and pitiless.
"Malfoy's body, of course, was ill adapted for possession for he was a wanted man, and would attract far too much attention if noticed. However, he was the able-bodied servant I needed, and, quite a skilled wizard in many areas. Malfoy was able to follow the instructions I gave him, which would return me to a rudimentary, weak body of my own, a body I would be able to inhabit while awaiting the essential ingredients for true rebirth...a spell or two of my own invention...a little help from my dear Nagini," Voldemort's red eyes fell upon the continually circling snake, "a potion concocted from unicorn blood, and the snake venom Nagini provided...I was soon returned to an almost human form, and strong enough to travel.
"There was no hope of stealing the Philosopher's Stone anymore, for I knew that Dumbledore would have seen to it that it was destroyed. But I was willing to embrace mortal life again, before chasing immortality. I set my sights lower...I would settle for my old body back again, and my old strength.
"I knew that to achieve this - it is an old piece of Dark Magic, the potion that revived me tonight - I would need three powerful ingredients. Well, one of them was already at hand, was it not, Malfoy? Flesh given by a servant...
"My father's bone, naturally, meant that we would have to come here, where he was buried. But the blood of a foe...Malfoy would have had me use any wizard, would you not, Malfoy? Any wizard who had hated me...as so many of them still do. But I knew the one I must use, if I was to rise again, more powerful than I had been when I had fallen. That of Neville Longbottom.
"My reasons are my own, but Longbottom's was the blood I required ..." he was staring hard at Neville now who, to his credit, stared defiantly back.
Voldemort broke contact first. "I would use the Triwizard Tournament, and why use the opportunity to get rid of the Mudblood Dursley too? My faithful Death Eater bewitched the Goblet into accepting Longbottom as a Champion. He placed a vanishing spell on the Goblet to get rid of all Hogwarts entrants bar the Mudblood Dursley ... thereby entering both into the tournament. Dursley was supposed to die of course ..."
Now, Voldemort turned those red eyes on him. "But by a stroke of good fortune he survived ... and found his way here. He will die tonight. Did for crossing Lord Voldemort."
"But first ... Longbottom. Malfoy ... untie him. Give Longbottom back his wand."