Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. That would violate anti-slavery laws.
Ok, ok, I know I posted this earlier than I said I would. But I think everyone has reviewed, so it doesn't make much sense to wait any longer. I'll write my comments about the guesses down below.
"Voldemort!" Harry involuntarily shuddered.
"Not yet…" came the hiss again, and suddenly a bright light came into being a few feet away from the stone. Harry's jaw fell as soon as he saw who it was.
It was Padma Patil! Of course! Harry thought, It all makes sense! Parvati attacked me in my room while the ward was going on, but didn't remember doing it later. It must have really been Padma in the Gryffindor robes – and she must have just pretended to get better when I hit her with the exorcism spell! And Padma was one of the immune students, and was free to walk about the grounds, which would've allowed her free access to the library to torch it, or attack Madame Pomfrey up in the hospital!
"Miss Patil," Dumbledore commanded, "back away from that stone!"
"Why, hello Dumbledore!" Padma said in a cheerful voice, holding what Harry guessed must be Copulo's Stave, "Fancy seeing you here." Padma's voice switched back into a deep hissing sound, and continued, "It reminds me of last year. Remember the battle at my father's grave? Well, this time will be a little different." Padma made a slight wave of her hand, and several robed figures came into the light.
"I see you recognize Lucius, Wormtail, Avery, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle," Padma hissed.
"Padma, it is not too late! Please back away!" Dumbledore spoke gravely.
"Too late?" Padma asked, surprised. "Too late? The Dark Lord is immortal – neither death nor time have any power over him. So I ask you, do you honestly think you can defeat him? Then, I invite you to try!", and then darkly chuckled, "Well, shall we start?"
The Death Eaters immidately all pointed their wands at Padma, and a shimmering field of green surrounded her. Padma grabbed the stone in her other hand and began a chanting in a language Harry didn't recognize. Dumbledore slowly raised his hands and Harry watched as electricity seemed to gather in the air. Harry felt his skin tingling from all the energy and saw the green bubble around Padma shrink.
Harry whipped out his wand and started stunning the death eaters. First Avery, then Goyle and Nott were taken down by Stupefy spells. The bubble began shrinking even more rapidly, but Dumbledore began to frown. Obviously he felt the bubble would last long enough.
A few seconds later Dumbledore's fears were realized. Padma let out a low horrible scream. Beams of darkness coalesced around Padma's body, and an immensely loud roar which somehow made no noise assaulted Harry's ears.
Harry looked back up at Padma, who was laughing throatily. "It is done," she intoned in Voldemort's voice. Crabbe, Wormtail, and Lucius opened their eyes and disapparated. Padma disapparated a second later, but not before Dumbledore and Harry caught the horrible grin on her face.
"What's going on here?" came a voice from behind them. Harry turned saw several wizards in the blood-red Durmstrang robes.
Dumbledore replied, "Please take these men to the Romanian Ministry of Magic. They are guilty of aiding Voldemort." A few of the arrivals cringed at the name, but took the stunned Death Eaters away.
Dumbledore sighed and Harry noticed how old the man appeared to be at the moment. "Don't worry," Harry said, "We'll get him. We've stopped him, what, 3-4 times already?"
Dumbledore looked at him, a trace of a smile on his lips. "I know, Harry." Dumbledore put his hand on Harry's shoulder and began to lead them both back outside.
As Harry and Dumbledore exited the castle, the found everyone's eyes on them from the Quidditch pitch. Richard Joel, which Harry recognized from last year, ran up to the pair. "What happened?" Joel asked quickly.
Dumbledore replied, "We can discuss it later. Perhaps you should begin the 3rd task."
"Sure, sure," Joel answered and ran back off to the judges table. Dumbledore and Harry made their way to the side of the pitch. Harry wondered if he could find Ginny and Ron, but realized they would be sitting up in the stands somewhere. Since it appeared the three champions were about ready to take off, Harry doubted he'd have enough time to find them before the task began.
Hermione looked extremely nervous on the broom. Jean and Alex were glaring at each other, making him wonder if Jean also played Quidditch. Neither seemed to be giving Hermione a second glance. Why did she tell them she was bad at flying? Harry wondered.
Joel blew his whistle, and Hermione took off hesitantly, almost unsure of how to climb in the air. Several seconds later, Joel's whistle sounded again and Alex anxiously took off, flying almost straight up. Another two seconds and Jean was in the air as well. Harry groaned; Hermione had a large head start, but both the guys had already passed her. He looked up and saw a gleaming cup high in the sky.
"Stupefy!" Harry heard Alex curse at Jean. Jean dodged and retaliated. Soon, the two were flying around cursing each other, looking remarkably similar to Harry and Petrina the year before. Harry's eye caught movement to their left. Stone figures were stirring on the Durmstrang castle walls, and suddenly spread wings. "Gargoyles," Harry whispered.
The gargoyles took to the air, and began to attack the intruders. Alex and Jean gave up trying to attack each other and began to swerve around trying to avoid the slashing claws of the stone beasts.
Both the champions and the gargoyles were ignoring Hermione, far below them. Harry watched as Hermione climbed closer and closer. "It's just like The Tortoise and the Hair!" Harry chuckled, watching Alex and Jean zoom through the air while Hermione edged closer each second.
Suddenly, Hermione banked sharply upward and rocketed forward. Harry gasped, as Hermione flew at a sharper angle than even he would try. One of the gargoyles broke off from the guys and tried to intercept her. Both Alex and Jean finally noticed her and shot stunning spells at her. Alex managed to hit her left arm; Jean, however, hit the Gargoyle on her other side. Hermione screamed, her left hand was now useless, and she grabbed the Triwizard cup with her right arm. Not having any arms on the broom, she quickly slid of the end of the vertical shaft. Harry grew alarmed, as Hermione began to plummet to the ground.
Hermione, beginning to panic, wedged the cup under her now useless left arm and drew her wand. Harry looked up, and saw that she was summoning her broom. The broom flew down towards her, but not much faster than Hermione herself was falling. Hermione gasped as she fell past the quidditch goal posts, but the broom still hadn't reached her. The ground rushed up to meet her, and Hermione tossed her right arm up and managed to snag the broom.
Harry watched as she quickly slowed down. Hermione blinked, looking up at her right hand holding both the broom and the wand. She slowly looked back down and yelped. Her feet were only a few feet from the ground!
"And Hogwarts wins the Triwizard Cup!" Joel's voice boomed over the crowd. The crowd began clapping politely, and Harry ran over to congratulate Hermione. He wasn't alone, though, as Ron and Ginny ran over as well.
"Good job, Hermione!" Harry beamed.
Ron grabbed Hermione in a big hug and gushed, "That was…was…" He didn't seem to find the right words, and gave her a giant kiss instead.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
At Dumbledore's insistence, Harry traveled back to Hogwarts with him, as opposed to staying the few extra hours at Durmstrang with Ginny like he wanted to. Harry didn't like it, but said goodbye to Ginny again.
Despite the mode of transportation, it was a relatively relaxed trip back to Hogwarts. Thirty minutes into the flight, Dumbledore called back to him, "How did you find that information about the Stone of Preparation, Harry?"
Harry talked loudly against the rushing air, "I knew that the stone glowed. So even if there weren't records, there was probably an oral account. So I looked up lore from the surrounding countries."
Dumbledore shot back, "It certainly appears Hermione is rubbing off on you, Harry."
Harry smiled and sat back to enjoy the ride. He highly doubted he'd ever get the opportunity to ride a dragon again. However, as soon as they finally arrived on the Hogwarts grounds, McGonagall ran up to the pair.
"Headmaster, come quick!" she nervously said. Dumbledore nodded, and followed her into the castle. Harry decided to follow them as well.
Harry descended into the dungeons behind Dumbledore and McGonagall. As he rounded yet another corner, he came to a room he had never seen before. Hannah Abbot was against a wall, chained in place. She was crying to herself and looked on the verge of a complete breakdown.
"I can't remove the chains," McGonagall whispered. Dumbledore nodded and waved his hands. The chains disappeared, and the headmaster scooped Hannah up onto his shoulder.
"He did it…" sobbed Hannah, "He did it… I didn't mean to… I'm so sorry…" Dumbledore patted her gently on the back, softly saying, "It's all right, It's all right," over and over again.
Hannah's sobs came fewer and fewer, until she silently fell asleep huddled against the headmaster, tears clinging to her face. Dumbledore lifted her up and whispered, "Poor girl. We should get her to the infirmary. She's been through more than anyone should ever have to deal with."
Dumbledore led the way to the hospital, with a silent Harry and McGonagall following closely behind. The headmaster gently laid her on one of the beds, and motioned that the three should leave.
"What was this all about?" McGonagall asked when Dumbledore shut the door behind him.
Dumbledore spoke sadly, "Voldemort needed someone to possess so he could research the jewel's location. Hannah happened to be easy to control. And when he needed to evacuate her body, he must have confined her, so she couldn't leave and warn anyone."
Harry and McGonagall shuddered in sympathy for what Hannah Abbott had to go through. Dumbledore softly said, "We need to get down to the Great Hall. The delegation will return shortly." Harry nodded mutely, and made his way down to wait for Ginny.
As the Hogwarts delegation made their way into the Great Hall back at Hogwarts, Harry noticed Ginny shooting nasty looks at Parvati. "Don't," whispered Harry. Ginny looked at him confused, and Harry hissed, "Trust me, leave Parvati alone." Ginny looked confused, but wasn't glaring at Patil anymore.
Dumbledore took his spot at the high table and turned to face the students. "Yet another year, gone, and I hope that next year will be a normal one." A few of the students chuckled, remembering all the things that happened the last several years.
Dumbledore announced, "First, I would like to congratulate Hermione Granger, who won the Triwizard Cup this year for Hogwarts." At this, the Great Hall burst into loud cheering, with the Gryffindor table nearly going deaf. Dumbledore had to wait awhile for the noise to die down.
"Next, I believe the House Cup needs awarding. In 4th place, Hufflepuff with 324 points. In third place, Gryffindor with 354 points," Dumbledore announced. Harry was surprised, until he realized that Gryffindor was competing without Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, although Harry doubted Ron would have made much of a difference.
Dumbledore continued, "In second place, Ravenclaw with 379 points, and this year's winner is Slytherin with 398 points!" At his words, the students at the Slytherin table began cheering. Harry clapped loudly for them. It surprised him that he didn't mind Slytherin winning the cup, until he realized the main reason he didn't want them to win it the first four years was mainly because of Draco Malfoy.
Dumbledore waited for the Slytherins to calm down and said, "Yes, well done, Slytherin. However, I have grave news. Voldemort has returned." At these words, the Hall went completely silent. "As you noticed," Dumbledore announced, "Voldemort was possessing students. However, he has found a way to permanently merge with one of the students." Ginny, Ron, and Hermione gasped as Parvati broke into tears.
Dumbledore bowed his head slightly and said, "Unfortunately, Padma Patil had a change of loyalties." This only made Parvati cry harder, and several people murmured, apparently figuring out whom Voldemort had merged with.
Several people shied away from Parvati, and Ginny shrieked, "This isn't her fault!" and pointedly sat down next to the crying girl. Ginny put her arm around Parvati who immediately turned and began sobbing into her shoulder. "It's ok," Ginny shushed.
Dumbledore took in Parvati's state with sadness, and then continued, "If Padma has taught us one thing, it is that now, more than ever, the choices we make are important. Each one of you will be faced with decisions, and I certainly hope you choose wisely."
Dumbledore silently sat down, and bowed his head. McGonagall slowly stood up and motioned for the prefects to lead their students up to their dorms to pack. Lee Jordan, in a rare somber mood, merely said, "Gyffindors" and led the way up to the commons.
McGonagall caught Harry by the shoulder, and said, "Harry, will you please come with me?" Harry nodded, and followed the professor to an adjoining room.
"Harry, what is the London Underground?" McGonagall asked.
"Er, it's a form of public transportation," Harry answered, confused by her question.
"How about electricity?"
"It's a form of energy which travels along a conducting material. It powers most muggle objects."
"What are the two lowest perfect numbers?" McGonagall asked.
Harry had to think back to the 3rd year Arithmancy classes he guarded, and remembered that perfect numbers were also the sum of their factors. "6 and 28."
"What are the first 5 numbers in the 3-4 Fibonacci sequence?"
"Professor, why are you asking me all these questions?" Harry asked, confused.
"Potter, just answer the question," McGonagall ordered.
Harry sat, trying to remember what the Fibonacci sequence was. Finally, he came up with it and said, "3, 4, 7, 11, er… 18"
"What does an alignment between Mars and Saturn mean?" McGonagall quizzed. But Harry couldn't get the response 'Green eyed people born in July will die!' out of his head and merely shook his head.
McGonagall smirked, and asked, "Turn this cup into a chipmunk and conjure a home for it." Harry concentrated and transfigured the goblet. After finishing, he conjured a little hollow half-sphere with a tiny opening for the animal.
After he completed his task, McGonagall drew her wand and cast Stupefy at him. Harry, quietly thanking Fleur for her instilling a sense of paranoia, dived out of the way and came up with his own wand. "Nutusus Aegis!" he cried, focusing his mind.
However, McGonagall merely put down her wand and gently smiled, which Harry had to admit she didn't do often. "Congratulations, Potter," she said, "Due to your services to the school, the professors decided to let you receive your O.W.L.s, at least on an honorary basis. Based on your answers, I think 13 would certainly be fair."
Harry gasped; he had gotten 13 O.W.L.s! McGonagall couldn't resist adding, "You did miss the Divination question, but I don't think any less of you." Harry laughed, and McGonagall said, "You should probably go pack. The train will leave in less than half an hour."
Harry ran up to the dorms and hurriedly packed, determined not miss the train. As he finally arrived with his trunk, Ginny helped him stow it on the train and guided him to the compartment with Ron and Hermione.
Harry amusedly wondered what the Ginny and he might be interrupting. However, as they entered the compartment, both Ron and Hermione's eyes were on him, and they both watched him sit down.
After a long minute, Hermione said, "He's back." Harry simply nodded.
Another minute passed, before Ginny finally said, "Well, so what?"
"So what?" demanded Ron, "Don't you know what Voldemort does? Don't you know what he did to Harry's parents?"
Ginny defended herself and said, "Yes, of course I do. But he's been stopped before. And I'm sure he'll be stopped again. I mean, Harry's stopped him, what, 4 times already?" She then added jokingly, "And if Harry could do it, who knows what a powerful wizard could do to him!"
Ron and Hermione sniggered as Harry drew himself up and said, "Really?"
Ginny smiled, and whispered, "I guess we need a public demonstration then."
Harry's expression turned to confusion; Ginny smiled wider and drew her wand. "Nutusus Aegis!" she cried.
"Wow! I didn't know you knew the willpower shield, Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed.
Ron chucked, "You're joking, right! McGonagall couldn't even beat Harry at those, Ginny." His laughter died down as he saw the nervous look on Harry's face. "What is it, Harry?"
Ginny looked like she was trying hard not to laugh and said, "Well, Harry? Are you going to take the shield off?"
Harry shook his head in wonder and said, "You know, Ginny, you can be quite evil at times."
Hermione didn't seem to understand what Harry and Ginny were talking about and said, "Ok, enough of this. Finite Nutus! Tarantallegra!"
However, despite Hermione's spells, Harry certainly wasn't dancing. Hermione grew puzzled, and tried several more times. Harry and Ginny burst out laughing, and didn't quit laughing until they arrived at King's Cross.
----
Ok, time for the points. I think first place should go to Suzanne. Although she guessed Lavender, look what she wrote for her review of chapter 10: 'OOhhh, Parvati doesn't remember . . . Was it really her? Duh duh duh!!!! A basic who-done-it story.'
I think second place should go to Ariel. I never even thought about it – Ginny was back during the few days when Dumbledore was attacked. That is a pretty good circumstance…
Hehe, I loved Seifer and Serayane's choice – Fleur. I think Rowling has permanently soiled the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Of course, I did have her stun the students on whim a few times…
AllAboutMe chose Lavender or Parvati. I have to admit, it's pretty tempting to make on of them the culprit, if just to get them out of the way. Fire Mistress picked Snape because of his evil looks. I think if I made Snape out to be the villain, I'd have several people after my head – it seems there are a lot of Snape lovers out there. Penda – I loved how you absolutely wanted either Dumbledore or Ginny to be the evil one, since it would hit Harry the hardest. Kina cruel, though…
****
I'd like to thank all of those who reviewed! You made this a lot better of a story!
Finally, I'd like to direct you to the third (and final) story: Harry Potter and the Obsidian Tome. Unfortunately, I had to switch the rating of this story to PG. I didn't do this because of any compromising materials or foul language. I had to do it because of mildly disturbing imagery. I don't think I could work my way around this, considering part of the book involves Necromancy.
I realized I worried needlessly the last story about giving you the story ID and how to find it. To find the next story (which already has some chapters written!), click the 'Kevin' link at the top of the page.