AN: Sorry for the late update, with it being Christmas time and all that, I just haven't had a lot of time to finish this particular chapter also major story blockage. BUT! Merry whatever you celebrate, I hope you all have a great day and have a happy new year my friends!
BROMBROS: Well I hope that you found it to be a good interesting
Jamin P. Rose: I'm certainly glad you think so and never fear, the next chapter is here!
Moonreaper666: Oooh you never know, something might happen to completely wreck his whole plan and get his ass handed to him.
Chapter 12 – The Final Task & Dark Promises
A week after the second task had passed and with it, no positive change had come between the brotherhood that was once between Harry and Neville.
Dumbledore silently watched on his golden throne at the head table as Harry sat at the far end of the Ravenclaw table with his two ever faithful Miss Lovegood and the new addition of Miss Greengrass but noticed that Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom weren't with him.
"Filius, Pomona, do you know what has happened between young Mr Potter, Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom? Normally I'd expect to see them together at the Ravenclaw table but they seem to be separated today, surely after their scuffle Harry and Mr Longbottom would've made up."
Filius and Pomona looked over at the table where Harry was sitting with only two of his friend and not the entire group and it surprised them to see such a view.
"That certainly is strange due to the nature of their relationship, I've even heard them refer to each other as proper siblings and not just best friends," Filius stated with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
It was what Pomona next that gave them somewhat of an idea of the wedge that came between the two.
"What Filius said is quite correct Albus, normally they would be inseparable due to their views but something truly bad had to have happened to cause such a split."
Dumbledore nodded with her words and went back to watching Harry and his friends for a few more minutes to try to gleam any more information from the interactions at the table but from the looks of the ending conversation, there was nothing more to be gleamed.
Just before the students ended their lunch, Albus quickly rose from his chair and walked down to where Harry was beginning to stand up from the table.
"Ah Harry my boy, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time before you go to your next class? It doesn't matter if you're late, I shall write you a note, my boy."
Harry motioned towards Luna and Daphne to let them go ahead before following the Headmaster up to his office for the inevitable discussion.
Scene break
"Please have a seat, my boy. Now, Harry, it has come to my attention that you aren't spending as much time with Mr Longbottom, is there anything you want to talk about my boy?"
Harry's eyebrow raised slightly at the boldness of Dumbledore's questions but for his own entertainment, he decided to answer the questions but in his own way.
"Well Headmaster, I am sure you saw the injuries that myself and Neville sustained during our disagreement."
"What was this disagreement about to cause such injuries, my boy?"
"We had a... difference of opinion regarding certain aspects of our lives, something that is common amongst friends you see," Harry laughed in his head at seeing a slight flicker of frustration in Dumbledore's eyes.
The two descended into a one-sided uncomfortable silence as Harry chose to look around the to pass the time as he chose not to speak and give Dumbledore the power in the conversation.
Dumbledore watched as his young student looked around his office and noted that as he looked at the large golden stand standing at the side of his desk, he raised his eyebrow ever so slightly but other than, there was no reaction whatsoever.
Finally, as the silence began to grate on Dumbledore's mind, to his relief he remembered something that he wanted to inform Harry of something and broke the silence.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you, Harry, I recently had a discussion with the Minister of Magic and he has accepted to lend us some of his aurors for increased security, lest something unfortunate happen and they are due to arrive later on today."
"And you tell me this why Headmaster? Perhaps a helpful hint? Or maybe a warning?" Harry asked with a humourless smile.
"I only tell you this my boy so your mind can be more at peace knowing that you won't have to go to extremes to finish the remaining task," Dumbledore attempted to placate him.
After receiving no response from Harry but a simple nod of his head, Dumbledore let him leave and as he sat in his chair in silence, frustrating thoughts began to whirl around in his head, giving him a headache that he knew would last at least a few hours.
Scene break
It was just after lunchtime, where Harry had a free period, that he found himself walking across the grounds with nought but his thinking of the future.
'Ever since the beginning of the tournament I have chosen to keep it a secret from myself but it is time to see who exactly entered my name in this farce is.'
As Harry began to turn his control towards the strings of the past, his interest began to peak as he caught sight of a cloaked man beginning to change his face into another's after taking a sip from a hip flask.
'What's this? Someone changing their face into another's to keep another identity? Now this certainly is interesting.'
As Harry continued along the path of the string, he came across a segment that had the face changer talking to the face that he was changing into and so he decided to listen in to whatever the topic was.
"Constant vigilance eh Moody? You must be really rusty considering how easy it was or you're just not that good enough."
Harry watched as the man taunted supposed Moody until it came to a point that had Harry thinking about the third task even more.
"With the Tri-Wizard Tournament back in action and coming to Hogwarts, my lord has given me the express task of ensuring that young Mr Potter somehow gets entered into it with him surviving all that the tasks throw at him and even making it to the final task which holds the ever important trophy."
Harry raised his eyebrow at the blatant revealing of plans from this man to his captive.
"But that's not the best part, the best is this: after I help Potter win the final task, the dark lord will be reborn in his full glory to begin his promise anew to purge the filthy muggle-lovers and mudbloods from our noble world! And my lord will know, that I, Barty Crouch Jnr, helped him to rise again in all of his glory and will reward me handsomely, not the rat that hides in the shadows pathetically."
As Harry left the string of the past and was brought back to the present, he chose this moment to sit down on one of the boulders of the stone circle and reassess his plans now that this new information had been opened to him.
"The dark lord reborn eh? And at the end of the tournament as well? And here I thought this farce was becoming a boring."
Harry continued to make plans in silence before he was interrupted by his patron, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"It would seem that your defence teacher is plotting to use you in a ritual to bring back his master, foolish mortal."
"Yes, though I do wonder what the product of a wizard using the warp infused blood of a sorcerer that more powerful than he in a rebirth ritual would be? And the mention of the rat? It looks like I will be meeting Pettigrew again after all." Harry said with an afterthought.
"Regarding that weakling, I assume you have something that will permanently erase him?"
"Oh yes, something that will be of ample vengeance and it will bring about, even more, chaos for the future." At the end of the statement, he began to outline his plans for both the third task and the plan he had for Pettigrew with the approval of his dark patron.
Scene break
The day of the third and final task came and with it, a more palpable excitement at the prospects of whoever should win the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Everyone from all three schools including outside reporters from all three countries, so as to bring in even more publicity that shone the British Ministry in a positive light and to the majority of the crowd's surprise, extra auror's that were already going on their patrols with stern faces.
Harry stood in his section of the champions area with small smatterings of support from the Hogwarts section which he took note of, but other than those small pockets, his only support came from his own friends.
As he looked around, Harry noticed that as one of the auror's began to walk by his section, she had a very different shade of hair that he hadn't seen on someone, even in the magical world: pink.
"Why do you have pink hair?"
Harry's words startled the pink haired auror and she spun around to answer him, she promptly tripped over nothing right in front of him.
"Sorry, sorry, my bad."
Harry only raised an eyebrow at her answer and waited till she picked herself up and put on a brave face, not caring about the glares from several other auror's in the area.
"Right so what was your question? Oh yeah it was about my hair, wasn't it? Well, I'm a metamorphmagus, you know, someone who can change their features at will," the female auror said, somewhat hesitantly as she answered his question.
"A changling? Now that is interesting," Harry said with a certain gleam in his eye that made the auror raise her own eyebrow in response but walked away after wishing him good luck.
'A changlinng? Here? Oh, this was meant to be; this is the work of chaos to bring me such fortune." Harry thought to himself as he watched the auror continue on her way but was interrupted as Dumbledore came to the forefront to address the crowd.
"Welcome, everyone! Welcome, each and every one of you to the third and final task of this historic event. Now as everyone can see, the four champions shall enter this maze behind me, facing tests that will require every ounce of courage and knowledge they have. At the very centre of the maze, is the Tri-wizard Cup and the first who reaches and takes it, shall be declared the winner!" as he spread his arm with cheer, the music section began to play as three of the four champions gave one last look to the crowd and began to enter the maze.
Scene break
As the maze closed its branches behind him, Harry felt what he thought was supposed to be an ominous cold wind float through the maze with several sounds that sounded like wild beasts but he only laughed at them.
"You think this is meant to frighten me? Mazes are somewhat of a speciality for someone such as myself and this does not even compare." Harry shouted as he stopped in front of a wall, it's branches and leaves moving ever so slightly due to the wind.
Harry stared at it for a second before thrusting a hand out and launching a human sized ball of fire at it, completely burning the leaves and branches away, leaving a hole large enough for him to climb through with little effort.
Wall after wall, giant fireball after giant fireball he launched at the walls, Harry stepped through each and every wall he came across until he came across spells being launched at each other but it was two against one; Delacour and Diggory against Krum.
Harry noted that with every spell Krum sent at the two, it was deflected or blocked but it left a slight sizzle and a bit of smoke, indicating that Krum was using borderline, if not dark magic.
For several minutes he watched as the trio traded spells back and forth before he got bored of being a spectator and chose to become participants in the little duel.
Scene break
From the corner of her eye, Fleur noticed that from the giant hole in the wall that almost interrupted the duel out came the fourth competitor, calmly watching their duel with an almost bored look on his face.
Fleur nudged Cedric slightly so as to make sure that his defence of them was not disrupted but only to notify him that they had company and received a nod in acknowledgement.
After those few minutes of waiting for their competition to do something, all they got was a scant few seconds of thought before their vision was covered in darkness for a second before returning but to their surprise, Krum was on the ground, smoke rising from his still breathing body, with Harry standing over him with his wand out.
"Potter, what in merlins name just happened?" Cedric asked as they slowly approached the fourth champion.
"Don't worry about it Cedric, all I did was stop him and that's the main thing. Now, shall we complete this maze and grab the 'glory' of the Tri-wizard cup?" Harry stretched his arm out and launched another fireball at the maze wall, which to the others immense surprise, the cup that they sought was in the clearing that Harry had opened up.
Before anyone could blink, Cedric snapped off a stunning spell at Fleur, which brought a raised eyebrow from Harry.
"A Hogwarts victory no matter what Harry."
At Cedric's words, Harry dipped his head in respect for Cedric's deviousness, considering he was a Hufflepuff, Harry had not expected that from someone from the house of loyalty.
As he and Cedric walked up to the cup, both having their own internal thoughts about it, Harry's was interrupted by Tzeentch.
"The time has come for you, my champion, bring chaos upon your enemies and show this Voldemort the power you wield."
Harry bowed his head slightly at his patron's commands and with a nod to Cedric, both of the Hogwarts champions grasped the handles of the Tri-Wizard cup, not knowing that while one's fate shall end, the fates of more would forever be altered.
Scene break
As the twirling and whizzing stopped, the two champions hit the ground hard and tumbled for a few meters before coming to a stop.
As the two began to get up from the ground, their recovery was interrupted by a voice that sounded like a hiss.
"Kill the spare!"
Harry looked up to see a wizard that held something in their arms and as he watched the green light raced towards Cedric, the two champions looked at each other, one with fear in his eyes and the other with resignation.
Harry felt the air rush past him as Cedric's body was blown backwards, but as the graveyard descended into silence, Harry stood up, eyes full of hatred and promises of pain.
"We meet again Peter, but this time, you won't survive this meeting," Harry began to walk at a leisure pace towards Peter, wand out and hand crackling with warp lightning.
"N-n-now H-h-harry, y-you don't w-want to do t-this, w-what w-would your parents s-say?"
Harry stopped for a second, appearing to be thoughtful and Peter breathed a small sigh of relief but paled rapidly as Harry began to walk with a furious step towards him again.
"What would my parents say? Well, I wouldn't know, because a backstabbing rat chose to act as such and betray them. So I declare you a rat and forever a rat you shall be, surrounded by those who would backstab their own kind for eternity!" As Harry stopped in front of the sobbing and whimpering traitor, his right hand burst into a green flame for a split second before a glowing, green rock with jagged edges sat in it.
Peter watched as the glowing rock inched ever so closer, glowing with a darkness that easily eclipsed the pretend evil that called itself Voldemort.
Unbeknownst to the two of them, the cauldron behind them began to shake with dark magic and darkness, with a python slithering away quickly before it was caught.
With a shout of uncontrolled power, Harry rammed the warp infused stone into Peter's forehead, creating a swirling tempest surrounding them.
For what seemed like an eternity for Peter but was only a few minutes in real time, the tempest exploded in a force of warp infused wind, unintentionally corrupting the dark ritual behind them and blowing Harry back, hitting his head on the large gravestone, knocking him unconscious.
Scene break
Back at Hogwarts, the crowd eagerly awaited for the last two champions to return, already seeing the Bulgarian and French champion returning without the trophy.
As the crowd continued to wait in the stands, a number of students sucked in deep breaths as they felt an ominous echo ring through the warp, signalling that something big had happened, whether it be in their favour they knew not but they all still felt it.
"Something has happened Slaanesh, you cannot deny that is has something to do with Tzeentch and his champion."
"The only thing we can do is wait and see what new plot Tzeentch has hatched this time."
Unaware of the godly discussion, over in the support section for Harry, Hermione sat next to Neville with a worried look on her face.
"Did Harry discuss anything of his plans with you, Hermione?"
"No nothing, he kept the plans for this task a secret. Ever since your confrontation, he has been keeping what he usually told me, a secret." Hermione sighed as she wondered, again, where her brother was.
Scene break
When Harry came to, noticed that he was tied up with the stone reaper centrepiece of the grave, with the newly reborn Voldemort parading his rebirth in front of several death eaters.
"It has been too long my friends, thirteen years, in fact, thirteen years I waited for my faithful to come find me and yet, only one found me and it wasn't one of my circle. I find myself…disappointed."
Harry saw some of the death eaters wince and lower their heads in submission and he scoffed out loud at their weakness.
"Oh Harry, I wondered when you would grace us with your awakening, it seems whatever you did to poor Wormtail was a bit too much for you and knocked you out."
"What I did was beyond you and it was a power that is beyond your level." Harry smiled as he saw Voldemort's and some of the death eaters' faces darken with anger at his words.
"And what pray tell, is this power that is supposedly beyond my level? A level I shall remind you that unsurpassed by any and all, including your precious headmaster Dumbledore," Voldemort sneered as he walked up to Harry, almost nose to nose.
"Magic."
Silence reigned in the graveyard for several moments before Voldemort laughed at the audacity of Harry's answer and replied furiously.
"You think that you know a more powerful magic than I have found? A magical knowledge that somehow surpasses the level of a fourth year Harry? Then come, show us this supposed powerful magic." Voldemort opened his arms in a way that indicated that the floor was Harry's before quietly chuckling to himself.
"Oh dear, I am so forgetful, here let me- "Voldemort's words were cut off as the stone reaper that held Harry shattered into minuscule pieces before their eyes.
As the dust from the shattering settled, Harry walked forward with eyes glowing harshly and wand in hand.
Idly, some of the death eaters within the graveyard noted that the clouds in the skies were darkening, already dark as they were, they somehow became darker in nature and seemed to give off an ominous feeling to them.
"You wish to see this power that I have been gifted? As you wish." With a sharp thrust upwards of his wand, pink lightning came crackling out and disappearing into the sky, only to begin sparking outwards in the clouds, creating a booming thunderstorm.
As Harry stood stock still, eyes still glowing, Voldemort seized this opportunity to snap off a quick entrails expelling curse to end his young enemy's performance but to the shock of them, Harry deftly dodged to the side of the curse, without moving from his spot.
"Crucio!"
Harry saw as Voldemort spat the unforgivable out, he finally moved from his spot and disappeared from sight in a mass of blue shadows.
Slightly shaken at the sight of his nemesis disappearing, Voldemort quickly smothered any shock and plastered a smile on his face.
"So this is what we get from the great Harry Potter? A brave word or two and then running away like a coward. I expected better from you Potter, both your father and mother were somewhat capable duellists and showed more bravery and courage than you do now. You bring shame upon the Potter name," Voldemort called out to the shadows as the death eaters behind him began to laugh as well.
Before anyone could say anything else, the sky sounded another great boom, but this time there was lightning that streaked across the sky, diverging from each other in multiple directions.
As the group were distracted by the thunder and lightning, none of them noticed the ground beneath them slowly churned as barbed chains wrapped themselves around their legs, never once letting their barbs wound their victims too much.
"You mistake my disappearance for cowardice Voldemort, it is but a simple matter of using what is at my disposal." As Harry's whisper rang across the graveyard, the shadows coalesced into his form, standing in front of the dark lord.
As both groups descended into silence, Voldemort saw Harry's hand twitch ever so slightly and retaliated with him casting spell after spell at Harry, with the unforgivables mixed in between.
As soon as Voldemort began casting, Harry responded in kind but what he cast weren't considered spells, they were just balls of raw magic combined with warp energies.
With every spell Voldemort threw at him, Harry responded with two more but as the duel went on, Harry moved closer and closer to his enemy, eyes burning with restrained warp energies.
When the death eaters saw that Harry was gained ground and moving closer to their lord, several of them tried to move forward to assist but cried out in pain as they realised they were trapped in barbed chains with the barbs digging in every time they moved.
Before he knew it, Voldemort's wand hand was grasped in an iron lock grip, with the hand attached to his now very close enemy, staring directly into his eyes.
As he held Voldemort's wrist in his grip, Harry looked over to the death eaters that were trapped and with the power of the warp, he glared at several of his enemies, causing them to scream in terror and with a motion of a closing fist, the screaming was silenced as their very souls were wrenched from their bodies, offered up as a sacrifice to the ruinous powers.
Voldemort watched as the majority of his death eaters were killed in such a brutal and if he was to be honest, magical way and looked back at his nemesis with shaky breaths.
"You thought it was going to be easy, weren't you? You are nothing compared to the power of the warp and besides, my lord Tzeentch won your war a long, long time ago!" Harry whispered the dark tongue in Voldemort's ear.
As he dropped Voldemort and began to walk back to the Tri-wizard cup, his thoughts slowly returned to his humanity and what they were before this mess began and knelt over to Cedric's body.
"I am sorry for what happened Cedric."
With the cup in his left hand and his right grasping onto Cedric, he disappeared in a flash of warp fire, leaving a silent graveyard with only a few survivors, with memories that showed them what a taste of what true power was.
Scene break
As the crowds grew excited when the burst of fire transported both living and dead bodies, whispers began to spread out at a snail's pace at why only one of them showed signs of moving and one didn't.
Before too long, a scream rang out from the Beauxbatons section with fingers pointing towards Cedric's corpse.
Before anyone could properly begin to shout questions, the judges and aurors closed in quickly and cornered everything off, both to keep people from seeing something and to begin questioning as to what had happened.
"Harry! Harry my boy, what in merlins name has happened?" Dumbledore quickly closed in on his student before any auror could start questioning him.
Harry turned his head slightly and looked over at the Diggory's, who were cradling their now dead son to their chests.
"Voldemort has returned."
With the schism continuing to live in between the trio, will the relationship between chaotic students be repaired? Will Harry using the glowing rock on Wormtail come back to haunt him? Just what was that stone anyways? Will Harry's fight with Voldemort and his warnings come true? Or will it take him down ever so further the path of chaos? And what will happen now that Harry has told of Voldemort's return? Will the people believe it? Or will they ignore it? Find out next time on The Affliction!
Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)