The Third Task

Harry passed the sixteenth way point. As before, he had to stop a moment. There was a short pole with four boxes staked on top of it. Harry was happy to see that they were all still untouched. This meant that he was on the lead again. He made a fist with his right hand and placed it onto the top box. The boxes would be opened in the order that the contestants found this way point. The box flashed, and now had a label on it with his name on it. Below the label there was a small clump of wax. When he placed his fist on it, the ring he was wearing, connected with the wax. Another short burst of green light confirmed that everything was going fine. He withdrew his hand, and confirmed that the seal now was imprinted into the wax. He opened the box and took out the muggle Mars bar that was in it.

Harry consumed the candy ravenously. He had not been able to catch anything so far, so this was his breakfast today. Maybe the sugar in the Mars bar would help him catch something eatable.

With a grunt he soldiered on.

HPU

Two hours later he had finally caught a rabbit. He lit a little fire and roasted it.

As he was cooking, Fleur found him. In the last three days a truce of sorts had been established. Following his lead, the other three Champions were refraining from attacking each other. The traps and beasts that were liberally distributed throughout the race course was enough hazard for them. Harry was skeptical that it would last on the last day of the race, but he trusted Fleur to at least give a warning. With the other two he was not so sure.

The four frequently passed each other, as one or the other paused. They needed to hunt, cook and sometimes just take a breather. Harry jogged as much as he could, but this was a long distance race, and he did not want to exhaust himself during the first couple of days. Harry planed to keep with the pack for the first three and a half days, and then push himself as much as he could for the last bit.

And so Harry did not object when Fleur sat down next to him and started preparing the fish she had caught.

They had covered a respectable distance today, they were getting close to Stonehenge. They knew that their next public stop would be at the famous site. Fleur smiled at Harry. They had a companionable silence between them. After the exertion of the race, it felt good to rest for a moment.

Their rest was interrupted by loud cries for help.

A young woman appeared on the hill besides them.

It was Angelina. The Gryffindor witch was bloodied and clearly exhausted. She appeared to be on the verge of collapsing.

"Help me. Krum is crazy," she shouted as soon as she saw them.

A few steps behind her, Krum followed, in a similar state.

Harry's training from the year kicked in, and his first response was to throw a stunner at the crazed Quidditch professional.

Krum ducked out of the way. His honed reflexes helping him.

Fleur went for the attack as well, and now peppered Krum with various spells.

Krum was no match for Harry and Fleur working in sink. He was grunting and retreating behind a tree. Harry's attention was fully on him.

Thus, he did not notice a wizard sneak up behind them.

"Stupefy." He heard from behind him, and then he knew no more.

HPU

"Ennervate!"

Harry awoke with a startled jolt.

For a moment he cursed himself. Where was that CONSTANT VIGILANCE he had been warned about all year. Then he got annoyed. This was not the time to get distracted. He needed to find out what he could do to get out of this situation.

He looked around himself. In all directions, the country was the same rolling hills that they had seen the last day or so. There was little vegetation besides grass.

Harry was tied to the biggest rock that he could see. Besides him he could see the other three champions. Bound as he was, to the same rock. Before them, the there were two Death eaters. One of them had a silver mask on, while the other had a golden one.

He noticed that the ground was very even, even though it was at the bottom of a small vale. The field in front of him had been stripped of any grass. Over a dozen small red rocks, about the size of a soccer ball, had been placed in a big circle. The big, weathered rock was part of that circle. Centered around the big rock were several other old rocks, but they were not a part of the circle of new, red rocks as the big, old rock. It must be the site of an old stone circle.

On the ground countless runes had been drawn. They were made of some blue substance, and Harry had the distinct impression that this was what Mafalda had been kidnapped for. The runes were drawn in various strange shapes and forms, but concentrated around a oval depression at the center of the circle. The depression was filled with a pond of the blue liquid.

"All right, we have wasted enough time. Lets begin." The Death Eater with the golden mask said.

The two wizards took position opposite the big stone that the four champions were tied to. In their left hand they each held another bucket of the blue substance. They enchanted together, "Veniet Dominus Voldemort, servi tui vocationem."

Then the two made their way to different stones. At each they again proclaimed the incantation, while at the same time sprinkling some of the blue substance on it. Each of the stones began to glow bright red. As they made their way around the circle, they charged each stone and got closer and closer to the old, big stone.

As more and more of the stones lit up, a gray mist formed over the blue pool in the middle of the circle. At first it almost looked like regular fog, but as more red stones lit, it became darker. Until it was almost black. When Harry looked closely, he noticed that the blue substance of the pool slowly disappeared. It looked to him as if it rose from the pool, to form the mist.

Once the two meet at the final, largest stone, the two repeated their incantation nine times, and then dumped the remainder over both the large rock and the four Triwizard Champions.

Out of the clear, blue sky, lightning hit the black fog in its center. The bright light momentarily blinded Harry. When he could again see, a gruesome, if familiar face formed out of the mist.

The full head had formed during the lightning strike, but more of the neck slowly formed out of the mist.

"It is time," the high pitched voice of the Dark Lord resounded over the ritual circle, "bring to me the worthy sacrifices, that I may walk among the living again."

Both of the Death Eaters had dropped to their knees. There was, however, a marked difference in their bearing. The silver masked one was cowering face down, trying to look as small as possible. The golden masked one, while on his knees, looked straight at Voldemort, with no fear betrayed by his bearing. "Who do you want to harvest first, my Lord." he asked.

"Potter is last, I want him to see the others suffer. Other than that I do not care."

Both Death Eaters jumped up, and hastily untied Krum.

The Quidditch star was still numb from the ropes, and fell onto the ground. The two wizards lifted him up by his arms, and dragged him to the center pond. There they tossed him into the blue liquid.

As soon as he touched the liquid, he cried out in agony. He weakly attempted to get out of the pond, but was unable to do so. All his strengths and magic seemed to be drained from him. Krum was just barely able to keep his head out of the liquid, and there was not much liquid left.

As Krum fought, the dark cloud condensed more, and the upper torso and beginnings of arms were added more rapidly to the Dark Lord.

"I can handle two at the time, add another to the pool." Voldemort commanded.

Johnson had to endure the same procedure. She was roughly carried to the pond. And quickly there were two in the blue elixir, fighting weakly for their lives, as Voldemort's materialization accelerated even more. Within seconds, he had fully formed arms.

At the moment that Johnson hit the central pond, a figure appeared up the hill, across the crest.

Moody! Harry instantly realized.

The grizzled veteran Auror charged down the hillside. His peg leg did not appear to hinder him in the least.

As he approached the ritual circle, he began to throw various, very dark curses at the Death Eaters and the dark cloud. Harry was surprised to see a killing curse dissipate into nothing as it came into contact with the circle.

This was a high enough ritual site, that some forms of magic could not penetrate, and this apparently even included the infamous Avada Kedavra. To Harry this was just another confirmation of how powerful rituals were. No wonder Hermione was enthralled with them.

Meanwhile, Moody had reached the circle, and began to manually move one of the red glowing stones. His hands must have begun to burn, because he grunted and stepped back, and began to push with his peg leg.

He had not moved it much, but evidently enough to disturb the ritual. The dark cloud began to blow around, and parts of the legs of Voldemort began to dissipate again.

The two Death Eaters were not idle either.

The silver masked Death Eater stepped forward and began to grapple with Moody. Moody was clearly a better brawler, and the Death Eater was almost instantly on his back. He was good enough, however to keep Moody occupied.

The other, golden masked Death Eater reacted much more strategically.

He ripped out a long blade, and quickly, but calmly went to the big rock, where Harry and Fleur were still tied down. The ritual was collapsing and so he grabbed Fleur, who was closer. He cut her loose and dragged her to a position on the ritual circle, where the runes formed a crescent moon shape, with the open side facing the inside of the circle.

Upon his arrival, he enchanted: "Quia Dominus meus." And plunged the knife into Fleur's sternum.

When the knife impacted her chest, the runes around them intensified in their glow. Fleur also began to glow in bright red. Almost instantaneously she turned into a red cloud, which was drawn towards Voldemort and whirled around him like a tornado.

The magic of the ritual was so overbearing that even Moody and his Death Eater opponent stopped their fight.

Multiple lightning strikes hit Voldemort.

When Harry could again see, he saw total devastation had been wreaked on the ritual circle. All the red rune stones had vanished. As had the remaining blue liquid in the center depression. The ground had a burned look to it that covered any surviving runes. All evidence of ritual had disappeared. The burned look and the ash was evidence, that something had occurred there, but there was no indication as to what had happened in the burned grass area.

Nevertheless, something had definitely happened.

In the center, a very nude Voldemort floated above the shivering Johnson and Krum. He looked pleased at his new body.

For a moment all wizards present were in shock, and the only sound that could be heard were Johnson and Krum's heavy breathing. They lay in the pit shivering. Harry was not sure that they were really present mentally. They looked like they would pass out any moment.

"Oh crap." said Moody.

He again began to punch the silver masked wizard into the kidneys.

The other Death Eater was now free to act and drew out his wand. To everyone's surprise, he was able to cast.

Moody reacted instinctively. He rolled out of the way, and the olive green curse flew over both him and the silver masked wizard. As he rolled he drew his wand and began to fling curses at both Death Eaters. The golden masked wizard quickly parried, and jumped away from what could not be parried.

The silver masked one was not quick enough. He was still recovering from the physical fight. The green glow of the killing curse connected with him. He did not breath again.

"Dad!" the remaining Death Eater loudly cried, and redoubled his effort against Moody.

Voldemort now also actively entered the fight. This put Moody instantly on the defensive. He was the best Auror of the past century, but he was past his prime, and he was not truly a match to the newly reincarnated Dark Lord. The best he could do, was to survive.

Harry's eyes meanwhile were drawn to what was left of his friend.

Fleur's shining white bones stood out from the ash around it.

She was gone.

Harry's inside iced up. He had not made many friends in his time at Hogwarts. It was bizarre that he had become a friend with Fleur, a French vela, in such short time. It was not right that she was now white bones. She was so young. She had not even graduated.

Harry released his feelings in the only way he knew: "Glacio!"

The spell connected with the Death Eater who killed his friend. He was momentarily frozen. In the time that it took Voldemort to counter the spell, Moody landed a bombarda at his feet. He was out cold.

Harry fought as he had never fought before. There was no hesitation, no doubt in his movements. Determination and focus even his best practice spars had lacked. His spell chains came out effortlessly, the timing was flawless. He never ceased to move and thus reserved his spells to the offensive. He practically exclusively used borderline dark spells. He continuously cast for however long the fight lasted. He surprised himself. Harry was consumed by ice cold fire.

It barely made the Dark Lord take a step back, before he redoubled his attack, and stepped forward again.

Even Harry and Moody combined were no match to the Dark Lord. All that the two of them threw at him, Voldemort swatted away like flies. Worse, he didn't just deflect them, he redirected the spells at the other opponent.

Harry's sole mistake in the battle happened when Voldemort did precisely that. He redirected a bone breaker cast by Moody directly at Harry. Harry was unable to doge in time, and was not in position to block the spell.

Knowing that this spell only affected the area around the impact, he stretched his left arm to block it.

It hurt like hell.

But Harry knew what to do. He pulled his Occlumency shields, and blocked out the pain. His left arm now dangled uselessly from its shoulder, but he was alive.

He redoubled his efforts.

Despite Harry's injury, Moody smirked at this point.

Whatever it was, Voldemort must have sensed it too. With four steps he resolutely reached the still alive Death Eater. He grabbed him with his left, and apparated away silently.

Moments later a lone redhead showed up at the top of the crest. As he came closer Harry could identify him as Percy Weasley.

Moody only stood still for a moment and then promptly went to Harry. He ignored the approaching Weasley and focused on casting first aid charms at Harry's left arm.

As he was giving first aid, Moody began to talk: "You did real good, kid. I can count the people who fought you-know-who and lived on one hand. Now that 'You-Know-Who' left, the Ministry will try to explain what happened, and they will possibly try to hush up his return. They will most likely think that they can handle the situation better, if their knowledge of his return is not known widespread. To cover this up they will need a target, and I will be the most logical choice. So I don't have much time. Heard you are learning Legilimency. I bet you are good at it. Your mother was. I have a book that will help you with it. Ask Snape to let you into my room. I just keyed you into the second compartment from the top of my trunk. There are five books on the right end of the compartment. Do not take any of them, except of the one on Legilimency. You will still be cursed if you remove the other four. But the one on Legilimency should help you." Moody paused his casting. "Wow Potter, after all this you don't show any magical exhaustion. You are physically tired, but magically you are as fresh as dew." He resumed casting, focusing on his hand now.

As Moody was still casting, Weasley reached the devastated stone circle. He looked around and cried in surprise at the scene. He saw the bones of Fleur, but could not identify them. He saw Krum and Johnson, now passed out in a hollow in the center of an ancient stone circle. He saw a dead masked figure, possibly a Death Eater, and Moody and Harry.

He looked around quickly and then apparated away.

Minutes later, with a loud pop, he reappeared with two Aurors, and quickly disappeared again.

The two Aurors looked around. One of them directed the other: "McInivan check that body." Then he addressed Moody, "Moody could you …"

"Dawlish, I thing you should take a look at this."

The Auror had removed the silver mask. It revealed the face of the missing Director of International Magical Cooperation. He continued moving his wand, "He died from the killing curse."

"This is getting above our pay-grade. McInivan." He said, as he glanced at the three surviving Triwizard Champions.

"It's good Bones is coming." McInivan replied.

A pop announced the presence of Percy Weasley again, this time with the authoritative presence of Madam Bones. The third person with them was a toad-like witch in pink cardigans.

"Dawlish, status report." Bones said.

"Nothing has changed since we came. Here is Director Crouch. His face was covered with a silver Death Eater mask. He died of an AK."

"Have you checked all wands present? What about these bodies?"

McInivan finally checked the two unconscious Champions. "These two are still alive. Their magic is drained."

"What are you standing around for. Get some healers."

As McInivan apparated away, Dawlish turned to Moody. "Sorry Moody, standard procedure." Dawlish held his hand out, not looking sad at all.

Moody tonelessly handed his wand. Dawlish cast Prior Incantatoon it. It was no surprise that it showed the Avada Kedavras that Moody had cast.

"I have to arrest you for use of an unforgivable, Moody, please don't make this harder then it should be."

"You know I have license to use those, and you should really first get an understanding of what happened before you arrest me."

"And you know that no matter what, we have to arrest any likely AK caster …"

"Moody don't make this harder then it is, you only have the authority to use the Imperio for educational purposes, not the other two." Madam Bones interrupted the retired Auror. "Don't make this difficult or we will have to add resistance to lawful arrest to the charges."

"Madam Bones, Professor Moody only killed the Death Eater in self-defense. We …" Harry said, but was interrupted by the arrival of McInivan and two white robed witches. The Auror directed them to the two unconscious Triwizard Champions. They quickly checked Harry as well, but diagnosed that Moody had done enough for the moment. After telling him that he needed to go to Madam Pomfrey by the end of the day, they focused on the far more severely injured Johnson and Krum.

"Hrm, hrm." the pink clad witch directed the attention away from the healers doing their work. "We have not yet established that he truly was a Death Eater. For all we know, the mask could have been placed on his face after he was killed."

"We do know he was a Death Eater, because he fought for Voldemort." Harry said. All but Moody shuddered at the name.

"'You-Know-Who' was killed over ten years ago. You specifically should know this." The toad-like witch retorted.

"This Death Eater had a golden masked one," several of the wizards and witches present raised their eyebrows, at Harry's statement, "performed a very powerful ritual, that took Fleur's life, and brought Voldemort back."

"The boy speaks the truth," Moody broke his silence.

"Madam Umbridge, we never found his body." Madam Bones stated. "Maybe we should call the Unspeakables. I can't detect anything of this ritual, but they have their ways."

"You can't be taking him seriously." Dawlish said.

"I think, we should cover all possible angles. 'You-Know-Who' was … or is … the most powerful dark lord since Grindelwald. We cannot just dismiss the possibility that he had an ace up his sleeve. At least not with two witnesses stating that they have seen him." Madam Bones sighed "I guess, I will have to speak to the Unspeakables."

"If this is a real danger, then I must insist on secrecy oaths. The Minister will have to decide how to handle this. We don't want the possibility of a mass panic, and it might be strategically beneficial in letting the dark lord believe we are not looking for him." Harry was surprised at the authority behind Madam Umbridge's words. Even the head of Magical Law Enforcement did not object. He wondered who this Madam Umbridge was.

One by one they all swore the required oath. It restricted them from speaking of the day's events to individuals who already knew of 'the possibility of the Dark Lords return.'

It seemed like a convoluted oath, and Moody rolled his eyes as he made it. Harry wondered if he could find a way to tell at least Hermione.

Once this was done, Madam Bones turned to Harry. "I better bring you back to Hogwarts. Poppy will want to look you over. We don't want you to get a bad arm from all of this."

"Before you go Amelia, I would like to commend Mr. Weasley over there." Moody held her up. "He was able to track me when I went of to find Harry. I am not an easy pray to follow. He might be a good acquisition for your department."

Percy Weasley turned red at the praise.

"Good to know." She eyed Weasley with interest. "I will certainly keep an eye on him. How were you able to follow Moody?"

"I was able to calculate his apparition destination, based on the common traces, and then just followed the noise." Weasley was now bright red as a lobster.

"I am certain that I am among the best in covering apparition traces." Moody said. "Don't down play your skill, lad, and you'll go far."

Bones smiled, "You know, with the death of your boss, you might be out of a job. Talk to me if that is the case." Then she frowned. "Moody, how did you know where to find Mr. Potter?"

"Oh, I had a tracker on him since the beginning of the third task. When I lost him due to the ritual, I followed where I had last located him, and then just followed the tracks."

Dawlish smirked. "Another thing to add to your list of charges."

"We will see what we will do about that. It seems to have helped us a great deal." Madam Umbridge said.

With that Harry was apparated away by Madam Bones. She quickly delivered him to Hogwarts infirmary.

A.N. Voldemort is back! I hope you like the variation of both the task and Voldemort's method of returning.

Longest Chapter to date, first one to pass 4k! Just one more chapter for Harry's fourth year, that will hopefully explain any possible questions. It might take a while though.