Chapter 25
The World Gets Skinnered
When my feet finally hit the ground, I managed to regain my balance, despite feeling very dizzy.
It looked as if we were miles away from Hogwarts…maybe thousands of miles, seeing as the castle mountains were nowhere in sight.
We seemed to be in a large graveyard, a black church in the background and tombstones every few feet.
"Where are we?" Harry and I asked together, me looking down at Harry, who's injured leg gave away on impact and he fell, Cedric and I following him.
Cedric shrugged and him and I got up and helped Harry to his feet.
Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then at Harry and I, I had retaken my duty to lug my brother "Did anyone tell you the Cup was a Portkey?"
Harry and I shook our heads "No." we said together.
"D'you think this was supposed to be part of the task?" I asked.
"Your guesses are as good as mine." Cedric said "Wands out, you reckon?"
I nodded and pulled out my wand the same time as Harry.
I suddenly had a feeling I was being watched and a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen.
"Someone's coming." I said nervously, pointing towards a dark figure
Cedric and Harry turned to where I was pointing and watched the dark figure advance on us between the gravestones.
They looked short, and they were wearing a robe that covered their face…and…I thought they were holding something.
I looked closer at the thing in the figure's arms. Could it have been a baby? Or was it just a bundle of robes?
Harry lowered his wand slightly and him and I looked at Cedric. Cedric shot us a quizzical look as the figure finally stopped by a marble monument.
For a time, Cedric, Harry, the figure and I looked at each other.
Suddenly, Harry was on his knees, his scar searing with pain as mine prickled unpleasantly. Was this the bad thing I was sensing?
No. I heard a high cold voice hiss "Kill the spare!"
I closed my eyes as I heard a male voice come from the figure "Avada Kedavra!"
I squeezed my eyes closed as green light penetrated my eyelids like the red sparks that Cedric sent up in the maze after we both suffered the Cruciatus Curse.
I heard something collapse in between Harry and I and I opened my eyes, scared of what I'd see.
It was Cedric. Spread-eagled on the ground, eyes wide and blank. He was dead.
I gasped as Harry looked down on Cedric's body, his blank grey eyes (I averted my gaze quickly as they reminded me of Draco's) and his part opened mouth. He looked surprised.
Harry and I both felt numb as the stranger grabbed Harry in one hand and me in the other and walked toward the marble tomb.
The stranger slammed Harry into the stone and I could just make out the name before Harry was tied to it.
TOM RIDDLE
The cords around Harry were thick, and he was tied from neck to ankle on the stone as the stranger turned to another stone next to Harry's and slammed me into it. I managed to read that same last name before I was forced to look at the stranger again:
RIDDLE
I was tied just as Harry was, with tight cords, but I was only bound from my shoulders to my hips.
I turned and gave Harry a dark look.
"Brilliant plan, Harry!" I said sarcastically "Now, we're screwed, Cedric is dead! We're thousands of miles away from Hogwarts and it's all your fault!"
"Hey! My fault! You were the one who agreed to it!" Harry snapped.
"SILENCE, BOTH OF YOU!" the stranger bellowed, lowering his hood.
Harry and I gasped. It was Wormtail. More likely known as Peter Pettigrew, the man (or should I say sneaky rat?) who sold out my parents to Voldemort.
"YOU!" Harry and I said together.
Wormtail sneered and took two things out of his robe…a rag…and a roll of duct tape.
He shoved the black rag into Harry's mouth and ripped off a strip of duct tape and stuck it over my mouth.
I rolled my eyes and turned to Harry.
Hope you're happy now! I thought to him Your brilliant plan is gonna get us killed!
Shut up, Hannah! Harry thought back angrily You're in just as much shit as I am!
I rolled my eyes and looked around for the bundle the rat was carrying before he killed Cedric. I found it at Harry's feet, with a large snake circling the headstone Harry was tied to.
I was a little nervous. What was in that bundle?
Wormtail left and came back with a large bathtub-sized cauldron.
Harry and I looked at each other as Wormtail ignited a fire with his wand.
Suddenly I knew that this wasn't good…wasn't good in the slightest…and Harry and I were most likely going the same way as Cedric in a few moments.
I squeezed my eyes closed and imagined a whole other universe where the Cup wasn't a Portkey and Harry didn't have that bright idea.
…
Cedric and Harry agreed that I was going to take the Cup, and I had taken it happily after they insisted on it. It was a Portkey…but instead of taking me to where Harry, Cedric's body and I were now, I was teleported in front of the maze, everyone seeing that I had come out the victor.
Slytherin house was going wild and Ivy squealed before running down the stands to tackle me in a hug.
I stuck my tongue out at Crabbe, who was scowling because I won, and Goyle grinned (I know that he was joking when he asked me if he could have my broom if I died…he was just a goof nut.)
Ivy pulled off me and Blaise was next to wrap me in a hug, messing up my hair as he gave me a noogie.
I laughed and pushed Blaise off. "Blaise!" I said, the first thing I said since I had come out of the maze "Don't mess up the hair! The Skrewts and the spider did enough of that."
Suddenly I was seized from behind and lifted into a bear hug.
"What the-!" I shouted, half choking before reading the person who had me's mind. "Draco Malfoy you scared me shitless!"
Draco put me down and kissed me hard, half bruising my mouth.
…
HANNAH! Harry shouted in my mind, breaking me from my fantasy.
I turned and saw that the liquid in the cauldron was heated up and Wormtail was holding a very ugly baby over it.
The baby had long spindly arms and legs, a pale white face with no nose, two slits for nostrils and red eyes, the pupils vertical like a cat's.
Wormtail dropped the baby in and I immediately hoped that it was drowned with Harry agreeing with me.
Wormtail raised his wand and said aloud into the night. "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
The ground under Harry's feet opened and out came a little powdery dust from the gap and into the cauldron, which started spitting sparks.
Wormtail had a dagger in his hand and raised it over himself, sobbing. "Flesh - of the servant - w-willingly given, you will revive your master!"
He brought his dagger down on his hand with the finger missing and removed it, nearly making me sick to my stomach as he let out an ear piercing scream.
I popped my ears as Wormtail advanced on Harry, his dagger pointed into his arm and pricked him.
I struggled "Et or ands ff im!" I shouted (translated to "Get your hands off him!")
Wormtail took out a vial and let some of Harry's blood trickle in before walking over to me.
I thrashed around, thinking NO! as Wormtail stabbed me in the shoulder and putting some of my blood in a different vial and putting a stopper on it.
He staggered back to the cauldron and poured Harry's and my own blood in it, saying "Blood of the enemies…forcibly taken…you will both resurrect your foe!" he said, pointing to Harry more than me.
The cauldron burst into flames so bright I nearly went blind when I saw the figure of a man rise up from the belly of the cauldron.
He held out his arms and said to Wormtail in a high, cold voice "Robe me."
Wormtail clumsily robed the man, which afterwards stepped out of the cauldron.
He was worse than what the baby looked like. Tall, almost spidery limbs, with a face almost like a snake, with red eyes that were cold and merciless.
Lord Voldemort had risen again.
I struggled against my bonds as Voldemort checked himself out (Full of himself, much?), his hands, his arms, his face…you know what I mean.
He didn't once look at Harry or me, or even that bloody snake treat, which was writhing along the ground, holding his stump of an arm.
"My…my Lord…" Wormtail said finally. "You…you did promise…my Lord."
I rolled my eyes Kiss ass. I thought to myself Go snog his picture or something.
"Hold out your arm, Wormtail." Voldemort said slowly, the first thing he said after being resurrected.
Wormtail held out his still bleeding stump, making me nauseous "Master…thank you, Master."
Voldemort laughed as I retched silently, a high falsetto, cruelty brimming from the ringing laughter "Your other arm, Wormtail."
Wormtail sobbed and pleaded, but Voldemort pulled out a wand from his robes and forced Wormtail's left robe sleeve up past his elbow, where a dark red mark was branded into his skin.
It was a skull…with a snake in it's mouth like a tongue…the Dark Mark.
"It is back…" Voldemort said, gripping Wormtail's arm tightly "the others will have seen…and now, we shall see…we shall know."
Voldemort jabbed the reddened patch of Wormtail's skin and my scar prickled angrily as Harry moaned in pain.
The Mark was now jet black.
Voldemort looked up into the sky, talking more to himself than to the little snitch at his feet "Now we shall see who will be brave enough to come when they feel it. And who will be foolish enough to stay away."
Then he turned to Harry and I.
"You stand, Harry and Hannah Potter, on the remains of my late father and grandparents." he hissed loud enough for the two of us to hear barely "Muggles and fools…much like your dear darling mother…But they both had their uses, did they not, my father and her? Your mother died protecting you both as little children. And I killed my father…and see how useful he turned out to be in death."
I stifled a gasp. Voldemort really was so low as to kill his own father!?
Voldemort pointed to the hill, where a large manor house was perched "You see that house, Potters? My father lived there. My mother, a witch, fell deeply in love with him, but the fool left her when he found out what she was…a pure loather of magic, my father was."
I tuned him out, worrying about what would happen when his "others" would arrive. And I had to admit…he didn't know how to shut the hell up!
"But look at me reliving my family tree when observe, twins! My true family approaches!" Voldemort said as dark mist surrounded Voldemort's family's graves.
I rolled my eyes as one by one, Death Eaters in hoods popped into the graveyard and formed a cluster, looking at Voldemort, amazed.
Then one man crawled over to Voldemort and kissed the hem of his black robes "Master…master." he muttered.
Then the rest of them followed suit, kissing the hem of the black robes before forming a circle around the Riddle graves, leaving gaps as if to expect more people.
Voldemort welcomed them, but I kept them all tuned out, even during his tirade over how none of them bothered to try and find him when he disappeared.
I was too busy thinking about what was going on at school. Was Ivy worried? Did she know what happened? Was she reading my mind right now? One way to find out:
Ivy? I thought.
HANNAH!?Ivy thought back to me What the hell is going on!? Malfoy's having kittens worrying about you!
Long story. The Cup was a Portkey.
WHAT!? What d'you mean the Cup was a Portkey?
You see, a Portkey is an item enchanted to take a person somewhere.
Don't give me sass, Hannah! I mean, what do you mean when you said the Cup…the Triwizard Cup…was a Portkey?
I shrugged, which went unnoticed as a Death Eater's screams rang through the graveyard. The Cup…when Cedric and Harry and me touched it…it transported us to some weird graveyard thingy.
Are you all ok?Ivy asked, sounding concerned.
Harry and I are…but…Cedric's…he's…
What, Han?
Cedric's dead.
NO!
Yes. Someone murdered him…I'll explain later…tell Draco I'll be back soon and not to piss himself.
Care for me to tell him that you love him, Hannah?
I smirked Could you?
I could almost see Ivy rolling her eyes and she stopped the connection for a moment.
Malfoy says he loves you too, and no matter what you say, he's still going to be shitting kittens until your back at school.
Aww! He's worried about me!…Ivy?
Ivy broke the connection.
"Bitch." I muttered through my gag as Voldemort went around the circle of Death Eaters. Wormtail had since stopped crying, and now where his old hand used to be was a silver one, fitting him like a glove.
"Lucius, my slippery friend," he whispered, halting before someone on Wormtail's right "I am told you have not disowned the old ways, though, to the world you are seen as highly respected…yet…your son has been in magazine and newspaper articles quite a lot since this past Christmas, am I mistaken?"
I paled when Lucius Malfoy's voice said "No, my Lord, you are not."
"Wormtail," Voldemort said, turning to the rat. "untie the young lady and give her back her wand and dagger."
Wormtail walked over to where I sat and cut my bonds with the dagger…Slytherin's dagger.
MY dagger.
Wormtail forced me to my feet and threw me next to Voldemort and Mr Malfoy.
"Ah…Hannah Potter." Voldemort said, taking a hold of a corner of the duct tape that Wormtail put over my mouth to keep my silent. "We have never truly met, haven't we?" he asked, ripping the tape off me in one quick rip.
I swore under my breath, holding my burning mouth. "No, I can't say we have." I said nastily.
"Yet, I feel as if I…oh, wait, I am forgetting my manners now, aren't I, Hannah?" Voldemort said, turning to Malfoy. "I believe Lucius would like to speak to you."
I rolled my eyes, which widened when Malfoy grabbed both my arms and slammed me into a crypt.
"You listen here, you filthy little half blood." Lucius spat, leaving me cowering like I was eight years old again "You have absolutely no right to be anywhere near my son. He deserves far better than the likes of the daughter of a filthy Mudblood and a blood traitor Gryffindor. You are absolutely nothing…you hear me…nothing! And what Draco sees in you is absolutely appalling! He doesn't think you're beautiful, he doesn't think you're smart…he doesn't think anything he's told you! He's lied to you this whole time. He doesn't love you…he's only fancied you. You're like all the rest of the little girls he's dated. You're just like those cheap Muggle dollar store toys that children break and throw away. Draco can do so much better than an ugly little prude like you." he slapped me hard, knocking me to the ground "You had best stay away from my son, Potter. I will kill you with my bare hands like those Muggles you live with couldn't do! And…I won't show you mercy like those Muggles did." he finished, dragging me by the hair and throwing me to Voldemort's feet, who lifted me up like a father figure.
"Lucius…look what you have done now!" Voldemort scolded angrily "You've terrified the girl." he said, almost a sneer in his voice.
"I'm never scared!" I snapped angrily. "I was…caught off guard."
Voldemort smirked and took a hold of my shoulders to mutter in my ear "You know, Hannah, you and I are a lot alike."
I sneered "I'm nothing like you!" I snapped "You're a murderer! You killed my parents!"
"And I killed my own father." Voldemort said again, making me cringe "We were both raised in horrible ways. I was stuck in an orphanage and you were raised with abusive Muggles. You're powerful…I've seen what you can do in Defence Against the Dark Arts in your first year while possessing Quirell, think of what our powers combined could do! We could make those Muggles rue the day they first laid a hand on you…And Lucius may even approve you for young Draco."
"What are you saying?" I demanded as I was spun around.
"Join me, Potter. Together we can rule the wizarding world and bring the Muggles to their knees."
Harry seemed to have fought out of his gag, for he shouted "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, HANNAH! THINK OF MUM AND DAD! THINK OF CEDRIC!"
"SILENCE!" Voldemort said, pointing his wand at Harry, who immediately silenced.
"You're evil…why should I join you?" I demanded.
Voldemort smirked "Why, dear Hannah. There is no good or evil…just power…and those too weak to use it. There is also the powerful…and those who must be destroyed. You want those Muggles you live with destroyed, don't you?"
I grinned "Yes…yes, I do." I said before coming to my senses. I was siding with the villain! The monster that killed my parents. "What was I thinking?!" I said, stepping away from him and pulling out my wand "I'll never join you! You killed my father!"
Voldemort sneered and before I knew it, I was tied back to the headstone, this time the same way as Harry, my wand now resting at my feet. "You're making a big mistake, Potter!" he hissed "You'll go the same way as your parents. If not tonight, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the next day. Eventually, you will turn out like your parents." then his expression softened when he heard Malfoy's voice behind him.
"Master, we all crave to know…how did you achieve this miracle…how did you manage to return to us?"
Voldemort smiled and turned to his Death Eaters, entering a long story that began with Harry and I breaking his power when we were one (while I cheered GO ONE YEAR OLD ME! in my head)
After his power broke (which according to him was pain beyond pain), he settled into a faraway forest, waiting for one of his followers to find him and restore him to a body.
There was more endless blah-blah over how "A faithful Death Eater inside of Hogwarts had put their names inside the Goblet of Fire, and made it so that they were to become trapped by me. Their blood was all that was missing for me to regain power."
After around ten minutes of this boring crap, Voldemort turned to Wormtail again and glared "Now, Wormtail, untie the twins and give them back their wands."
