As Harry's hand closed on the the Goblet, he felt a pull at his navel. 'What the..' The worlds spun around. Harry staggered, trying to keep his feet. Looking up he found he was somewhere else.
A graveyard.
As Harry turned to look around, ropes spring out of thin air and wrap him in a cocoon.
"So, this is Harry Potter" came a raspy voice. Standing off to one side was Professor Moody, his wand drawn. Perched on his arm was a reptilian gnome-like creature. Moody walked up to Harry and pulled the wand from his immobilized hand.
"Professor? What's going on?" Harry asked.
"Don't worry about it, Potter. We just have a potion to make" Moody replied nonchalantly, as he mobilicorpus-ed Harry over to a cauldron that was slowly boiling.
"And after that, my boy, you will die!" cackled the creature, "Begin, my loyal one!"
Moody made a slashing motion, opening a gash in Harry's arm. He collected the blood that flowed out into a flask before casting a healing charm to stop the bleeding. "Sorry, Potter. You can't die quite yet."
Moody began to chant "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son." He opened up a kerchief that was lying on the ground next to the cauldron and dropped something white into the potion. It bubbled for a few minutes, as Moody stirred it wordlessly.
Harry squirmed in his ropes, hoping to find some way to get free. "This is insane! I don't know what you are trying to do, but let me go."
"Silence him!" hissed the gnome.
Moody scowled, and wordlessly ripped a piece off of his shirt and jammed it into Harry's mouth. apparently he didn't want to interrupt the ritual by speaking.
"Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master." Moody pulled a knife from under his robes and quickly sliced off a pinky, dropping it into the potion. He jammed the kerchief against the wound, and continued stirring. The reptilian thing watched with glee.
"Soon. Soon, I will return to my former glory."
'I'm going to die.' Harry had been scared before. When Dudley and his gang beat him up. When they had had the Dementors at Hogwarts last year. But this was different. This time, there was no panic. Just a cold certainty of his impending death.
"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe." Moody poured in Harry's blood.
"Yes, yes! It is good! Now!"
Moody picked up the gnome and dropped him into the cauldron as well.
The potion began to boil vigorously, splashing liquid in all directions. Moody quickly retreated to a safe distance. As he did, the liquid exploded out, revealing a man floating above the cauldron.
"And now, Lord Voldemort is reborn!" the same raspy voice came from the man as from the homonculous. The man looked almost normal, save for for a slightly snakey look to his face.
Moody went down on one knee "Welcome, Master" He then stood up and offered his arm. "Would you like to summon the others?" His eyes sparkled with anticipation.
'How much of an idiot am I for just standing there when the Goblet portkeyed me here? I should have assumed something was wrong and run.' As the Dark Lord and his number one disciple proceeded to summon the rest of the Death Eaters, Harry was replaying what he had done, and what he should have done better. 'Or I should have tensed up my muscles, like Houdini, so I could get out of the ropes.' Harry tried tensing and relaxing his muscles, in the hopes of loosening the ropes, but it didn't help - the ropes stayed just as tight. 'Why didn't I bring a knife or something. I'm a moron - I should have learned from the second task to carry a knife.'
"You know of course, that they have called this boy my downfall? You all know that on the night I lost my powers and my body, I tried to kill him." Harry's musings were interrupted by Voldemort's announcement. He-who-must-not-be-named was now surrounded by a semi-circle of cloaked Death Eaters, all wearing their bone white masks. "Well, let us see how well he does."
Voldemort turned and swept towards Harry, "Boy, Do you think you are my match?"
"N..no sir." Harry could barely force the words out.
"You are an amusing little worm. How about you provide my comrades a spot of entertainment?" Voldemort positively radiated a malevolent sort of jeux de vivre.
"O..ok?" Several of the Death Eaters stifled chortles..
"Crucio!" Harry Potter arched and gasped as the most unimaginable pain lanced through him.
"Does this little boy look like a threat to me?" Voldemort asked his followers before turning back to Harry and dispelled the ropes. "Now, dual me. At least that way, you will die with dignity. Or would you prefer to scream in pain as you soil your robes and choke on your own vomit?"
"I'll, I'll take the duel, sir" Harry said tentatively as he stood back up. This time most of the Death Eaters laughed openly. Harry sank into a fighting stance. Fortunately, the Crucio had lasted but a moment, so his muscles were still working.
"In that case, go get your wand." Voldemort turned to speak to his Death Eaters as Moody held up Harry's wand. "We will see how well Dumbledore has taught his little puppe...erk!" Voldemort staggered as Harry delivered a powerful kick to the back of his knee. As the Dark Lord folded backwards, Harry grabbed the wand from his hand, almost by instinct, and ran.
"Get him!" Yelled Voldemort, at the same time as Moody, his main cheerleader, called out, "Shoot the little bastard!"
The Death Eaters were at a loss - their master was still recovering his footing, and he was directly in their line of fire. And you didn't just tell the Dark lord to 'drop and cover' so you could shoot a killing curse over his head. They ran to the sides, trying to get a clear shot.
Harry ran as fast as he could. Every moment, he expected to feel the awful green light of the killing curse wash over him. He wove between tombstones, finally ducking behind a mausoleum. 'Where do I go? I'm not going to be able to run back to Hogwarts. They'll catch me and kill me' Harry surreptitiously looked around.
"He's over that way! McNair, circle left!" There was the sound of orders being issued.
'At least they aren't close by. Unless one of them is silently sneaking up while the others distract me.' Harry's blood ran cold. he dropped down onto his hands and knees and crawled for the edge of the crypt. Fortunately for him, there was a collection of large statues - angels or something - around that end, so Harry was able to scoot out and get behind a large tombstone. 'Now what?'
There was a yell "There he is!" and the sound of running feet. But it wasn't coming closer, "Damn! I was certain I saw the little bastard."
'The Goblet! Maybe it's a two way portkey!' Harry knew the chances were slim, but he was desperate. Harry bunched himself up and, not daring to look, darted from his hiding place and ran for the open area where the Goblet had dumped him
"There he goes!" spells started flashing by him. Some red, some blue and some the vile green of the Aveda Kedavera. Harry flinched as a tombstone to his right exploded, spraying him with shards of granite. He kept running, hunched low to get the most cover he could. He ducked behind another mausoleum just in time to avoid an exploding hex that sprayed dirt over his back. Some of the dirt stuck to his face, and he rubbed off the gooey mess as he ran. 'Why is my face wet?" he noticed red on his hand from where he had d brushed the dirt away. 'Huh. I'm bleeding.'
As Harry ran, he pulled out the exploding snap deck he had confundo'ed earlier and threw the cards behind him. Some exploded as soon as they left his hand, others detonated when they hit the ground. Others lay quietly until stepped on by Death Eaters. The whole display was harmless, but the Death Eaters didn't know that, and several stopped or cast Protego as they tried to avoid the miniature explosions.
"He's going for the Goblet, you morons!' that was Voldemort. Harry was almost to the clearing, and now he stopped, hunching down and put on a full burst of speed. The Goblet was right in front of him. Something hard slammed into his shoulder, spinning him around. Harry landed on his side, facing backwards. He could see the Death Eaters running towards him. Moody was in the lead - he was waving his wand as he leaped from tombstone to tombstone. Harry turned and scrambled for the Goblet. His fingers grasped it as he pleaded, 'pleasepleaseplease'
There was a pull at his navel.
*Zero*Zero*
Harry collapsed in the clearing in the Maze, dropping the Goblet. He pulled his knees up and shivered uncontrollably in reaction. 'I can't believe Moody is a Death Eater. I thought he was a cool guy, but...'
There was the sound of yelling from somewhere nearby in the maze, and the sound of spells being cast. "Harry? Cedric? we're on our way. Please call out so we know where you are!" That sounded like Flitwick.
"What are you doing here?" Harry looked up.
Facing him was Cedric. "Go take the Goblet again." he was staring at Harry with a dangerous intensity.
"No! Are you crazy? I almost died back there. I can't believe Moody betrayed me." he sobbed. "I don't know what's going on. The whole world has gone insane!"
Cedric stepped forward, pointing his wand at Harry, almost poking him in the face, "Go. Take. The. Goblet. Or I will kill you!"
Harry looked up at his former tutor, horrified, 'Him too?' He slowly stood back up, raising his hands in surrender as he did. When he was most of the way up, is left hand batted Cedric's wand off to the side and he lunged in, wrapping his left hand behind Cedric's neck as he jabbing with his right hand. He was surprised to find it held a wand, so he yelled the first spell that popped into his mind. "Reducto!"
The force of the spell blasted a hole right through Cedric's torso, spraying blood and gore over Harry.
At that moment, the hedge wall at his side flared and turned to ash, "Harry! are you ok?" professor Sprout burst through the gap, only to stop, horrified.
"What's wrong?" other wizards spilled past her, several were dressed in Auror robes. There was a buzz of words, which Harry couldn't follow as he stood staring at the remains of the boy he had killed.
He felt the wand pulled from his hands. Before he could groggily turn to see what had happened, a spell spun him around and pulled his hand behind his back. "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to a barrister. If you can not afford one, the Wizengmot will appoint one for you."
Sorry for the short chapter. I will post the conclusion to Harry Potter: Zero in a few days.
After that, the story will continue in Harry Potter: Metamorphosis, which will be a year 5 story.