CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: YELLING
(JKR's description of the maze are just weird, so I'm not following the directions she gave. Tried to draw the damn thing, but it was just weird…)
Life continued at Hogwarts, as was inevitable. Hermione and Ron were helping Harry out with all kinds of curses, and Buffy was still learning Defence from Moody. Mr Fudge still didn't seem to believe that Crouch had truly been killed and that Buffy had just been hallucinating. Buffy had thought that it was only Sunnydale residents who were so good at denial, but it seemed that even in the wizarding world, people could turn a blind eye to what was directly in front of them. It was incredibly annoying.
On the morning of the third task, June twenty-fourth, the Gryffindor table was incredibly rowdy. The twins were setting off fireworks and trying to keep Buffy laughing so that her mind was not on what would happen that night.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting a little further down the table, and when Hermione's subscription of the Daily Prophet was delivered, she nearly spat out a mouthful of juice after reading the headline.
Harry Potter 'Disturbed and Dangerous'The article went on to explain Harry's scar and the fact that he could speak Parseltongue. Just for the fun of it, the article then went on to explain the familial link between he and Buffy and again spoke of Buffy's status as Slayer, Sirius Black's daughter, and how she was the former lover of Angelus 'Scourge of Europe'.
Harry quickly concealed it from Buffy, knowing that she would not appreciate Skeeter writing another article about them.
"How did she know your scar hurt in Divinations?" Ron asked. "There's no way she was there, there's no way she could've hear-"
"The window was open," Harry replied. "I opened it to breath."
"You were on the top of the North Tower," Hermione argued. "Your voice couldn't have carried all the way down to the grounds."
"Well, you're the one who's supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging," Harry said. "You tell me how she did it!"
"I've been trying, but I…but…"
An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hemione's face. She suddenly raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair.
"Are you alright?" Ron asked, frowning at her.
"Yes," Hermione replied breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth as the trio had seen Draco Malfoy doing only the other day outside on the grounds. Harry and Ron stared at each other.
"I've had an idea," Hermione announced. "I think I know…because no one would be able to see…even Moody…and she'd have been able to get onto the window ledge…but she's not allowed…she's definitely not allowed…I think we've got her! Just give me two seconds in the library, just to make sure!"
She stood and dashed out of the Great Hall. Ron called after her, but the girl paid him no attention.
Professor McGonagall approached the Gryffindor table and explained to Harry and Buffy that they were to meet in the chamber of the Hall after breakfast as their families had been invited to watch the final task.
"She doesn't expect the Dursley's to turn up, does she?" Harry asked blankly.
"Dunno," Ron replied. He bid Harry goodbye and raced off to history of Magic for the exam. Buffy caught up with Harry, a grin on her face.
She saw Harry's perturbed look and slung her arm around his shoulder.
"What's got you so upset?"
"Professor McGonagall…Dursley's…"
Buffy snorted with laughter. "C'mon Harry, you don't think they'd honestly turn up, do you?" Buffy asked. "My mom'll hafta make do for both of us."
Harry suddenly grinned. He'd almost forgotten. Aunt Joyce. It was a shame that Sirius wouldn't have been able to make it. Harry was still upset that Sirius had been put back in Azkaban, and he was hoping desperately that they would be able to do something about getting him out of there.
Buffy and Harry entered the chamber and saw Viktor Krum with his parents over in a corner, conversing with his parents in rapid Bulgarian. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother while Fleur's younger sister Gabrielle was holding her mother's hand. The younger girl beamed and waved enthusiastically at both Harry and Buffy who waved back.
Buffy then spotted her mother speaking with Giles, and the two Black women hugged tightly. Joyce then pulled Harry into a hug and Harry sighed happily. He was suddenly pulled out of Joyce's embrace and pulled into a hug by Mrs Weasley.
Harry grinned as he saw Bill over Mrs Weasley's shoulder, the older Weasley boy standing by the fireplace. With him stood a redheaded girl that looked slightly like an older version of Ginny, and next to her was a tall brown-haired boy with a lopsided grin.
"Holy crap!" Buffy suddenly yelled.
Harry stepped back from Mrs Weasley and watched as Buffy raced towards the redheaded girl and the brown haired boy, hugging both of them enthusiastically as the two teens hugged Buffy back with equal enthusiasm.
"What are you guys doing here?" Buffy asked.
Willow Rosenburg shrugged sheepishly. "When your mom came back to Sunnydale and invited us to come and watch you do this Tournament thingy…well, we couldn't resist," Willow explained.
"Yeah Buff, we didn't wanna miss this for the world," Xander added. "'Sides, your mom said that some Professor dude had invited your family…how could we not have come?"
Harry coughed unsubtly and stepped closer to the group. Buffy grinned and pulled him forward.
"Guys, this is my cousin Harry. Harry these are my best friends, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris."
Harry shook hands with Willow and Xander as Bill merged into the group, introducing himself.
"Hello all," he said brightly. "I'm Bill. I'll probably be Buffy's brother-in-law in about a year or so."
Buffy went bright red and her jaw dropped in shock. She hit Bill across the arm, and he winced in pain and rubbed at it, trying to get the blood flowing again.
"You're dating someone?" Xander asked curiously.
Buffy nodded. "Yup. His name's George. He's a worse trouble-maker than you are Xan."
Xander looked horrified. "There are better trouble-makers than me?" he asked.
The group laughed, thankful for the small break in ice. They chatted easily with each other, Joyce and Mrs Weasley wandering over and sharing reminiscent stories about their old Hogwarts days. Buffy heard more about her mom and Sirius' escapades, and they listened as Molly told them about the early days of her romance with her husband back at Hogwarts.
"Wanna go for a walk?" Buffy asked the group.
Molly and Joyce decided to stay in doors and catch up with some of the Professors who weren't teaching classes at that moment. Buffy and Harry led the group around the Hogwarts grounds. They went back up to the castle for lunch, sitting with Ron, George, Fred and the other Sixth Year Gryffindors. Joyce and Molly joined them at the Gryffindor Table.
"Mum, Bill!" Ron exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Come to watch Harry and Buffy in the last task!" Mrs Weasley replied.
Xander gave the brotherly warning to George about not hurting Buffy or else he would do some serious bone breaking to the redheaded boy. George had looked sufficiently threatened and he'd nodded in understanding before promising not to ever hurt his girlfriend.
Willow had noticed the claddagh ring that George had been sporting, but hadn't mentioned it.
Hermione came up to them halfway through lunch, and Harry remembered the girls brainwave from that morning. He wondered if she'd worked out how Skeeter had been listening to all of their most important and private conversations. "Are you going to tell us-?"
Hermione looked sharply at Harry, nodding at Mrs Weasley. Harry stopped halfway through his question.
"Hello Hermione," Mrs Weasley greeted, a little more stiffly than usual.
"Hello," Hermione replied, her smile dropping slightly as she saw Mrs Weasley's unusually cold expression.
Harry immediately caught on to the undertones of what was happening.
"Mrs Weasley, you didn't believe that rubbish that Rita Skeeter wrote did you? Because Hermione's not my girlfriend," Harry said.
"Oh! No…of course I didn't."
But Mrs Weasley became considerably warmer to Hermione after that.
Willow and Xander kept everyone on the edges of their seats by telling stories about their adventures in Sunnydale. They explained about the new Slayer, Faith who seemed to thrive on the slaying and how Faith's Watcher Wesley Wyndham-Pryce was barely able to keep her in line.
Xander and Willow listened, completely captivated by the stories of the first and seconds tasks. Xander's jaw was open in shock as he heard about the dragons and merpeople and about the creatures of the Forbidden Forest.
Time passed quickly and after several courses of dinner, Dumbledore stood and silence descended upon the Hall.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch Pitch for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore said. "Will the champions please follow Mr Bagman down to the stadium now."
"I think that'd be us," Buffy whispered to Harry.
Harry grinned and they stood, the Gryffindors all along the table applauding them loudly. They headed off out of the Great Hall with Fleur and Krum, walking down to the stadium. Harry grinned as he listened to his cousin muttering spells beneath her breath, as though making sure she knew the pronunciation of what to say if she needed it.
They walked onto the Quidditch pitch, which was completely unrecognisable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them; the entrance to the vast maze.
Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his coat.
"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," Professor McGonagall explained. "If you get into difficulties, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"
The champions all nodded.
"Not the most confidence inspiring speech was it?" Buffy muttered.
Harry smirked, and the four teachers all walked around the edge of the maze to station themselves around the maze.
Bagman pointed his wand to his throat and magically magnified his voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! In first place is Eliza Black, better known as Buffy. In second place, just one point behind, is Harry Potter. In third place is Viktor Krum, and in fourth place is Fleur Delacour."
There was applause from the stands. Harry suddenly waved at the Weasley's who were sitting with Joyce and Hermione. They all waved back beaming. Buffy grinned as she saw her friends and family up in the stands.
"On my whistle Miss Black!" Bagman suddenly said.
Buffy quickly grabbed Harry and pulled him into a hug. She slipped something to him and whispered a single word. "Pocket."
She pulled back and Bagman's whistle blew. She entered the maze, her wand out and a stake at her back, resting between her jeans and the skin of her back, the feel of the wood a comfort to the Slayer. In her back pocket was a small pocketknife that Sirius had given to her as part of her birthday present.
She entered the maze and took the first felt, confidently walking along the darkened path. The sounds of the crowd had been completely silenced, and all that could be heard was the still night air rustling the leaves of the hedges. She'd become used to walking in dark areas with no sources of light over the years, and she was having no problems with the maze as she continued going straight for about fifty yards. She took the second right hand turn, listening carefully for anything that might have tried to approach.
Two minutes after she'd been let into the maze, the Bagman's whistle blew and Buffy knew that Harry had entered the maze.
The Boy-Who-Lived wandered into the dark hedges, jumping slightly as the sound suddenly cut off completely. It felt as though he was being thrust back under water, the difference was so startling. He pulled his wand out and light the end of it. "Lumos!"
He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out whatever Buffy had given to him. He unfolded it and read it in the light of his wand. He laughed slightly and shook his head, wondering where his cousin had managed to find the map she'd given him. It was a full map of the maze, drawn with a pen on lined paper, and it occurred to Harry that it was Buffy who had drawn it. It wasn't magical in the slightest, merely a drawing that Buffy had done of the maze.
There was two different sets of dotted lines in different colour highlighters. At the bottom of the page was an index, telling him that he was the blue colour while Buffy was the bright neon pink colour. He turned left and took the first right, careful to continue listening for any of the obstacles that the Professors had placed into the maze.
He turned left and another right, followed by another right before he found anything that had been placed into the maze. Bagman's whistle had sounded twice more already, and all of the champions were in the maze.
Harry's insides went cold, but he knew what to do. He concentrated on celebrating with his friends after getting gout of the maze and shouted "Expecto Patronum!"
A silver stag erupted from the end of Harry's wand and galloped towards the Dementor, which fell back and tripped over the hem of its robes…Harry had never seen a Dementor stumble. "Hang on!" he cried. "You're a boggart! Riddukulus!"
Buffy kept her ears peeled for anything that may have been approaching. All she'd come across so far were Hagrid's Blast-Ended-Skrewts, and she'd managed to flip past it to stop herself from getting singed by its blasting ends. She stunned the creature after putting some distance between herself and it.
A scream sounded in the air, and Buffy knew that it had come from Fleur. The Slayer part of her wanted to race towards where it had come from and help her, but she knew that she would never be able to find her in the maze. She also knew that there were teachers who were there to help students who needed it. Sighing, she continued on the path that she'd spent hours memorising just from sitting up in the stands of the Quidditch Pitch.
Harry too had heard the scream, and he could tell that it had come from Fleur, not from Buffy. She sounded close, but he was hesitating near some golden coloured mist. He took a deep breath and ran through the enchanted mist. The world turned upside down. Harry was hanging from the ground with his hair on end, his glasses dangling off his nose, threatening to fall into the bottomless sky. He clutched them to the end of his nose and hung there, terrified. He closed his eyes, trying to think clearly, pulling his right foot away from the grassy roof, but when his eyes opened, the world had righted itself. He ran out of the mist and stared back at it incredulously.
He looked back down at the map Buffy had given him, thankful that he'd managed to stay on it. Every turn he'd come to had been on the map, and he'd taken the highlighted path for him. He made a mental note to burn the piece of paper before the task ended. He didn't want to be accused of cheating, or letting another student help him.
Buffy turned left and continued walking straight, ignoring the different paths that shot out to her left and right, waiting for the correct turn to take. Something suddenly stepped out of one of the dead end tunnels and stopped in the path in front of her. For a moment, she couldn't see who or what it was, but as she got closer, she saw it was Viktor Krum, his wand raised.
"Hey Viktor," she greeted cheerily.
Krum said nothing in reply, and Buffy began feeling uneasy about the look on his face. He looked pale, and his eyes were a strange combination of cold and incredibly blank.
"Uh…you trying to pick a path or something?" she asked.
"Crucio!" his voice yelled strongly.
Buffy dropped to her knees, crying out in pain. Her fist clenched and she forced her mind to clear completely, putting herself into a light trance that allowed her to completely ignore the pain shooting threw her body. She gripped her own wand, her knuckles white from the painful effort. "Finite!"
The pain ended, and Krum suddenly stepped back in horror.
"I…I'm so sor-"
"Stupefy!" Buffy yelled, not even wanting to listen to Krum's excuses.
Krum fell to the ground, completely stunned. Buffy reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a wrapped sweet that would boost her sugar up and hopefully reduce the pain of the curse that had crippled her. She didn't even want to imagine how painful that spell would be to anyone who wasn't a Slayer. She sent up a burst of red sparks over Krum's limp body, wanting the Professors to take him out of the game so he couldn't hurt anyone else. She would have bet money that Fleur's scream had been because of Krum.
Nearby, Harry had stopped in front of an extraordinary creature that he'd only ever seen pictures of. It had the body of an overlarge lion, but its head however was that of a woman. Harry held his wand uncertainly.
"You are very near your goal," the sphinx said. "The quickest way is past me."
"So…so will you move, please?" he asked.
"No," the sphinx said, pacing to and fro to stop Harry from getting past her. "Not unless you answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess – I let you pass. Answer wrongly – I attack. Remain silent – I will let you walk away from me unscathed."
"Okay…can I hear the riddle?" he asked. At least if he didn't know the answer, he could walk away. There was another route he could take that was drawn on Buffy's map, but it detoured far further than he wanted to go. And the Cup was very close.
"First think of the person who lives in disguise
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies,
Next, tell me what's always the last thing to men,
The middle of middle and the end of end.
And finally give me the sounds often heard
During the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together, and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"
Harry gaped at her.
Buffy stood completely still, her wand in one hand, her stake in the other, both of them having only just been used. She was breathing hard, and trying to get herself to calm down, but it was nearly impossible.
Like Harry, she'd come across a boggart, but when a vampiric Harry had stepped out of the shadows and moved towards her, she'd frozen in absolute horror.
"God no…"
Harry laughed harshly. "He has no place here Buff," he replied mockingly. "C'mon cuz…don't you wanna play?"
He lunged towards her, and Buffy, acting on pure instinct had thrown him over her shoulder. He'd landed hard and struggled to catch his breath, and Buffy had caught on quickly. Firstly, vampires didn't need to breath. Secondly, she'd seen Harry only half an hour before, and he'd been absolutely fine. The vampire Harry in front of her wasn't her cousin. The vampire had rushed her, and she'd thrust her stake into the vampire's heart. The boggart had transformed into Sirius' face, vampiric ridges and all. She'd realised exactly what the creature truly was, pointed her wand and dispelled the boggart completely.
But that didn't stop the shaking. She pulled out her own copy of the map, her mind too frazzled to remember the paths that she'd memorised earlier. She traced her footsteps on the map and worked out that she was still on course. She turned right and found Harry about to turn left. He grinned at her until he saw her shaking.
"All right there?" he asked.
Buffy just nodded and placed her stake at the back of her jeans. "You?" she asked.
"Yeah. Going orright. Have you seen Krum or Fleur?"
Buffy's eyes darkened. "Yeah, I saw Viktor. Bastard used the Cruciatus on me. I stunned him…sent up red sparks. He's out of the game."
Harry's eyes were wide. "Krum? Using an Unforgivable?"
Buffy nodded. "I think that's what happened to Fleur. I'm not one hundred percent sure though."
Harry nodded. "So…" he pointed to his left and Buffy's right. "Together then?"
Buffy nodded and they walked down the path, lit only by Harry's wand light.
Buffy felt her senses prickle with something familiar, and it wasn't just because Harry was nearby. She froze, but Harry didn't notice.
Harry was suddenly lifted into the air. Panicking he kicked out, and whatever it was that had lifted him, dropped him. He expected to land heavily, but his fall was cushioned by Buffy, who barely managed to stay on her feet as he was thrown towards her.
The massive spider lifted one of its pincers to stab at its attacker with, but before it could connect with anything, Buffy's hands wrapped around its leg, stopping the downward thrust. Blood dripped from her hands as the sharp edges of its leg cut through her skin, Harry looking on in shock.
"What did I tell you about hurting students?" Buffy asked in a low and dangerous voice that Harry had never heard before.
The massive spider actually whimpered much to Harry's shock and scuttled backwards. It bowed low and backed away into a darkened passage.
"That was just…wow," Harry whispered.
Buffy shrugged and looked at her bleeding hands and ripped off part of the material of her shirt and used it to wrap her palms, Harry helping her to tighten them and keep them on.
They stood and took a right and a quick left, and there it was, shimmering in all of its golden glory: the Cup.
The cousins stared at each other.
"Count of three?" Harry asked.
Buffy grinned and they stood on either side of the Cup.
"One…two…three!"
They both grabbed hold of the Cup and instantly felt a tug behind their navels. Their feet left the ground, and they couldn't let go of the Cup. It was pulling them onwards, in a howl of wind and swirling colour. Their feet suddenly touched the ground, and they lurched slightly, but managed to stay standing.
"Get your wand out," Buffy whispered, holding onto her own wand as well as her stake as she looked around the darkened cemetery that they had landed in.
It reminded her strongly of Sunnydale, but she could tell that they weren't in Sunnydale. She didn't know where they were, but it was definitely creepy.
Harry pulled out his wand and they crept forward, listening carefully for any sign of life. Buffy suddenly ducked behind a headstone and pulled Harry down to crouch beside her. They watched as someone carrying a large bundle of something walked towards a marble headstone only six feet away from them.
Without warning, Harry's scar suddenly exploded with pain, it was agony such as he'd never felt before.
Buffy grabbed hold of Harry's hand and squeezed it, the pain elsewhere helping him to focus. She began whispering soft words to him to give him something else to think about, and to Harry's surprise, redirecting his attentions to something else lessened the pain to a manageable level. "Ron, Hermione…Quidditch…chocolate frogs…Sirius…Padfoot, Moony, Prongs…"
Harry blinked his eyes to clear them and smiled thankfully at his cousin.
"Thanks," he whispered.
"Here to help," she replied. "Wanna live."
Harry suddenly gasped as he noticed the man six feet away from them had a finger missing.
"Wormtail," he whispered.
Buffy's eyes narrowed. "Pettigrew," she spat out bitterly. She went to stand, but Harry grabbed hold of her wrist.
"Are you crazy?" he whispered harshly.
"Our guests have arrived," a cold voice suddenly whispered.
Both Harry and Buffy froze. They recognised that voice. They'd heard it in their shared dream, and it sent chills running up and down their spines.
Buffy suddenly stood and aimed her wand at Pettigrew, shouting "Stupefy!"
She wasn't quite fast enough though, as Pettigrew was prepared for the spell. "Protego!"
"Protego!" Buffy yelled quickly as the spell suddenly bounced back towards she and Harry. She redirected the spell towards a nearby headstone, and it cracked the stone slightly.
"Stupefy!" Pettigrew yelled, aiming at Harry. The fourth-year Gryffindor had never learnt the protection charm, and the spell hit him at full force, sending him flying backwards, falling to the ground, barely an inch away from having hit his head on one of the headstones.
"Enervate!" Buffy quickly yelled, re-aiming at Harry. But Pettigrew had already shouted a Stunning Spell at the Slayer while her back was turned. Harry stood shakily, and cried out in protest as his cousin fell to the ground.
"Expelliarmus!" Pettigrew yelled. Harry's wand flew from his hands and into Pettigrew's.
Pettigrew stepped forward and grabbed hold of Harry's robes, pulling him towards the grave that he'd been near earlier. Harry was thrown to the ground and Pettigrew conjured ropes that bound Harry from neck to feet, tying him to the headstone that read Tom Riddle.
Pettigrew, with shaking hands, gagged Harry and checked the strength of the knots. Harry struggled against his bonds and could only watch helplessly as Pettigrew dragged Buffy to an adjacent headstone and tied her to it with conjured ropes, taking her wand from her as well. He bound her hands behind her back to make it harder for her to escape. He knew that she was the Slayer, but even Slayers would have trouble getting out of magical ropes. He walked away quickly, leaving Harry and Buffy in the eerie silence of the graveyard. Near Harry's feet was the bundle of clothes that Pettigrew had been carrying earlier. They twitched slightly and Harry felt his scar begin to sear in pain.
Pettigrew returned, pulling a massive stone cauldron closer to where Harry was bound as a large snake slithered close by in the grass.
"Buffy," Harry whispered fearfully.
His cousin moved slightly, and then Harry noticed that the bundle of clothes was stirring more persistently. He stared at it in fear, wondering what Pettigrew had planned and what he and Buffy had to do with any of it.
Buffy stirred and struggled against her bonds momentarily. She forced herself to calm down and to think logically. Struggling would only make the bonds tighter, and they were only made of rope, which would be far easier to escape from than metal chains. Buffy stretched her bound hands downwards, wiggling one of her hands into her back pocket, struggling to remove the pocket knife that Sirius had given to her. She grinned with relief when it came out of her pocket. She fumbled with it momentarily, and flicked the blade open, carefully cutting into the ropes and freeing her hands.
A crackling flame suddenly lit beneath the cauldron that Pettigrew was working with. 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 also to send out fiery sparks, as though it was on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Pettigrew. The movements beneath the cloak became more agitated, and Buffy and Harry heard the cold voice once more.
"Hurry!"
"It is ready Master," Pettigrew said.
Buffy stood and stayed low as she raced towards Harry.
"The girl!"
Pettigrew yelled out in frustration. "Crucio!"
Harry cried out as Buffy fell to her knees, her eyes watering as pain rippled through her entire body, burning her from the insides. As she'd done earlier, she controlled her breathing, controlled her thoughts, controlled absolutely everything that she could and managed to concentrate on anything other than the pain. But she didn't have her wand. She couldn't stop the spell, except to get to Pettigrew and snap his wand.
She struggled to stand, her knees shaking, her entire body trembling. Harry watched in awe and shock as Buffy stood and half crawled towards the cauldron.
Pettigrew saw her coming though and delivered a stunning kick to her face, Buffy falling to the ground, the Cruciatus still rippling through her. Pettigrew grabbed hold of Buffy's arm, pulling her towards the cauldron. He kicked her again and Buffy cried out in pain, still trembling from the Cruciatus.
Pettigrew kept one eye on Buffy as he removed the cloak from the creature inside it. It was the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly, looking a dark raw reddish black. Pettigrew lifted it and placed it into the cauldron.
Harry was silently praying for the thing to drown when Pettigrew lifted his wand into the air and closed his eyes. Buffy felt the Cruciatus lift from her, but her body continued to twitch and she struggled to catch her breath.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" Pettigrew said, his voice shaking.
The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked. A fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Pettigrew's command, and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface if the water broke and hissed, sending sparks in all directions and turning a vivid poisonous-looking blue.
Pettigrew was almost whimpering now as he lifted a dagger into the air above his outstretched arm.
"Flesh - of the servant – w-willingly given – you will – revive – your master."
Harry closed his eyes tightly to avoid having to watch Pettgrew cut his own hand off, but his ears were still able to ear the man screaming in agony. Buffy struggled to get her arms to support her weight, knowing that she could probably catch the pained Pettigrew off guard.
The man walked towards Harry, gasping and moaning. He bent down with the silver dagger in his hands and went to cut into the crook of Harry's arm.
Buffy grabbed Pettigrew's bloodied stump and squeezed with every ounce of strength that she had left. Pettigrew screamed in agony, and without thought, he swung at her with his good arm. He caught her off guard, and she was thrown to the side, clipping the side of her head against a stone grave.
Harry was trembling in fear, struggling wildly.
"B-blood of the enemy…forcibly taken…you will…resurrect you foe."
Harry felt the blade cut into his arm, and Pettigrew fumbled in his cloak for a glass vial. Pettigrew let the vial fill half way and then moved across to Buffy's still form. He removed the makeshift bandage from Buffy's hand and re-opened the nearly healed wound, dripping Buffy's blood into the vial.
"Traitor," Buffy whispered.
Pettigrew froze for an instant, his eyes going wide.
"You're a despicable coward," she continued, her voice soft and breaking, everything in her body aching with a pain that went through every muscle. "You think you'll be rewarded for all this, but you won't be."
"I will be," he replied adamantly.
"You think he won't turn on your the second he's back?" Buffy asked. "You think you'll suddenly be his right-hand man? Newsflash Peter, you won't get anything from him. He didn't hesitate to use the Cruciatus on you before…why would it change now?"
Pettigrew was hesitating, and Buffy could see the indecision in his eyes. She tried to swallow her anger at him, tried to forget that it was Pettigrew's fault that her father was in prison, and that her aunt and uncle had been killed because he had betrayed them. If she could get through to him, Voldemort wouldn't be restored, and there would be a chance of completely killing the wizard whose very name struck fear into people's hearts.
"You can stop it all," Buffy whispered. "You could be free of all of it. You'd be able to finally stop hiding and start living. You'd never have to put up with him cursing you when you only tried to help him. You could be your own master. You'd never have to hear the name Voldemort again."
Harry held his breath as Pettigrew paused in deep thought. For one beautiful moment, he thought that the man had actually taken Buffy's words to heart. He thought that Pettigrew was going to drop the vial to the ground and let it shatter. But he thought wrong. Pettigrew stood and kicked Buffy's ribs viciously. "Nobody says his name!" He poured the vial of blood into the cauldron.
For several long moments, nothing happened. And then suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron, obliterating everything in front of Harry so that he couldn't see Pettigrew or Buffy or anything but vapour hanging in the air.
Buffy coughed softly, trying to breath. She could tell that one of Pettigrew's kicks had broken one of her ribs, and from the way she was struggling to breath, she could bet that it had punctured one of her lungs.
She struggled to crawl towards Harry, the pocketknife still in her hand as she slowly made her way towards a fearful Harry, who was watching the mist. Suddenly, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin rose from the cauldron.
"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam. Pettigrew, sobbing and clutching at his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robe from the ground.
The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry and Buffy who had collapsed in pain just by Harry's feet. She was trying to cut through the ropes that bound Harry's feet.
Harry stared up into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes, and a nose that was as flat as a snake's, with slits for nostrils. Lord Voldemort had risen again.
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Sorry for the delay in updating. Life and work and general hecticness.