Ninja Wizard IV: Goblet of Fire 12
By David
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling has that honor.
Author's Notes: these marks [] indicate Japanese spoken.
Ninja Wizard IV: Goblet of Fire 12
'Battle in the Graveyard'
Cedric and Harry both grabbed the handles on the big glowing TriWizard's Trophy and they felt a slight jerk within them as their world was suddenly enveloped in a swirl of colors and sound. Harry saw the shocked look on Cedric's face and realized this wasn't supposed to happen.
"Kuso!" Harry snarled.
Someone was gonna get their ass kicked for this! Harry ran down the list of suspects, and it was a very short list. Dumbledore, the DE's, or somebody with a grudge. A moment later the world stopped spinning and they popped out into normal time once more and crash landed on the ground.
"Kill the spare," the calm soft voice sounded from in front of them.
Harry reacted immediately, knocking Cedric away from him and down on the ground, the green killing spell narrowly missing him by scant inches. Cedric landed hard once more, smacking the back of his head on something and rattling his mind good. Harry didn't hesitate to go into action, pulling the Potter wand and attacking. Harry recognized Peter Pettigrew as he snapped off the first offensive spell in his direction. Peter sneered and raised his wand to deflect the spell away from him. Harry noted a bundle in Peter's left arm and wondered just what the hell it was until Peter moved enough for Harry to see. It was without a doubt the ugliest baby Harry had ever seen. The baby turned its head and looked at Harry, and Harry instantly knew who it was. Voldemort. His worst fear had been realized. Harry fought back his fear and attacked once more, moving as he did so. It was time to see if his training would pay off. Peter fired off another spell, forcing Harry to move. Peter quickly put Voldemort on the ground by the large cauldron sitting a few feet away. Harry used the opportunity to use flipendo to knock Peter backwards but Peter flipped up a shield and the spell bounced away harmlessly. Instead of standing there and watching what his spell did, Harry followed up with other spells, pacing himself so he wouldn't tire out fast. Cedric at this point managed to sit up behind the tall tombstone and started to watch Harry duel with Peter. He saw the spells flashing between them and marveled at how fast and sure Harry was.
"Harry's been training," Cedric realized. "Something all of us should be doing."
Cedric made up his mind to convince his father to raise hell over the current methods of teaching at Hogwarts. The changes McGonagall had done were a good start, but more needed to be done. The students of Hogwarts needed to be prepared for this Voldemort, if he should ever come back, and tonight he would, as Cedric was convinced that the cauldron he saw would be the ways and means needed to revive Voldemort. Cedric started looking for his wand and then realized he didn't have it on him. He mentally cursed himself for having lost it. He turned his attention back to the battle, his mind starting to work on an escape plan.
Harry was trying to move Peter away from Voldemort as he was sure the man was very vulnerable in his ugly baby form, knowing that one good shot could end the threat of Voldemort for good. Voldemort must have figured out what Harry was trying to do as he had gotten on his hands and knees and crawled around the cauldron for his safety. Harry changed direction and started attacking Peter from another direction. Peter moved in the direction Harry wanted him to go in, something that Harry had hoped he would do and pressed the advantage. Peter laughed at Harry.
"Nice try, Potter. But you need to do a lot better than that," Peter taunted.
Harry knew that Peter was trying to get him all riled up so that he would react in anger. Harry kept a grip on his temper and kept up his attacks on Peter, trying to push him away from the cauldron. Peter was doing his best to block everything that Harry sent at him. Harry wondered if Peter had been training as well. Peter certainly had changed in the year since he had last seen him, a weak coward begging for mercy on his knees inside the room in the shrieking shack. According to his Dad's journals, Peter wasn't much of a wizard, constantly needing help to get his assignments done, failed potions, barely scraped through the other classes, and didn't have a whole lot of courage, something he had seen for himself in the shrieking shack last spring. Something must have happened to Peter to make him a lot more confident of himself. Harry wondered what it was that made Peter different.
An offensive spell from Peter nearly caught Harry unaware. Harry managed to avoid it as he cast protego to block it and then snapped off a pair of offensive spells to turn things his way once more. Peter stumbled back as one of the blasting spells slipped through his shield and caught him in the center of his chest. Harry followed up with a couple more of the blasting spells moving Peter away from the cauldron. Harry moved forward as he bounced from side to side to avoid Peter's spells. Cedric cheered him on mentally from where he was. He now had what he thought was the perfect escape plan. He would slowly move towards the cup and get into position to where he could grab the cup when Potter grabbed one of his ankles. That would cause the portkey to activate and take them back to the maze. As Harry was keeping Peter busy that would give him the opportunity to move in that direction. Cedric started moving that way, a little at a time, watching the fight and moving only when Peter was blocking Harry's offensive spells. Harry was intently watching Peter, waiting for his big chance to move in and try physical attacks. One of the things Harry had noticed was that the average wizard tended to rely on their magic to protect them too much. They seemed to never consider the idea of what would they do if they lost their wand? That was one of the reasons why Harry constantly trained his ninja skills in the event he should ever lose his wand. He wanted to have every advantage possible in a fight as he knew what would happen if he lost and he had no intention of ever losing a fight. Both of them kept going at each other, Harry and Peter trying to gain the advantage over the other. Peter grinned as Harry stumbled as he tried to avoid the trip jinx.
"Getting weaker, Potter. I almost have you!" Peter chortled as he snapped off another spell at Harry.
"No you don't, Peter. You don't have me at all," Harry said with confidence.
Harry decided to try reverse psychology on Peter. "Dad wrote about you in his journals. Said that you were such a weak wizard he had to do all of your homework for you."
"That's a lie!" Peter snarled as he grew angry. "I was the brains of the outfit. They looked to me for everything!"
Harry knew his words had hit home with Peter. So he attacked once more with something he knew.
"Dad said you couldn't lead shit to a toilet if you tried," Harry fired back and Cedric nearly gave himself away by his laughter.
That really got Peter all fired up and he attacked. Harry knocked all of Peter's attacks away with protego and a few simple dodges.
"Dad said you couldn't charm a girl out of her knickers on your best day," Harry verbally attacked once more and Peter responded to that one with another flurry of attacks against Harry.
Harry noticed his verbal attacks were working. Peter was starting to lose control over him self and was starting to make mistakes. So Harry jabbed him again with another verbal attack.
"In fact, Dad said you couldn't catch crabs from a two galleon hooker," Harry taunted the now raging mad Peter.
Peter charged forwards firing off spells as fast as he could. Harry blocked as many of them as he could while dancing around the other ones. Cedric knew without a doubt that Harry had been training for fights like thins one. He knew that once they got out of this mess, he was going to ask Harry if he could join his training sessions. Cedric knew he needed to practice his defensive and offensive spells. He turned his attention back to the fight in progress.
"Come on, Peter!" Harry yelled. "You can do better than that!"
Peter was firing spells as fast as he could and Harry was defending himself from Peter's attacks by moving around and using shields. What Harry didn't notice was that every time one of Peter's spells hit the tombstones behind him, the spells cast by Peter were knocking chips off of the stone and marble and flying everywhere. Harry had been moving to the right in an effort to avoid the spells that Peter was casting and really wasn't paying attention to where he was putting his feet, something every well trained ninja learns while keeping his eyes on his targets, and he was slowly moving onto a large tombstone that lay flat over a particular grave. Fate is often a very cold hearted bitch, eager to teach people lessons about life and was now about to teach Harry Potter a lesson in the art of combat. Pay attention to where you are going.
Harry was nearly in the center of the flat tombstone, watching an angry Peter attacking and deflecting his spells with shields and his dodging when his right foot came down on a little round stone that had been flung up on the tombstone by one of the spells from Peter that Harry had deflected into the ground. The little round stone immediately slid forward as Harry stepped on it. Harry immediately lost his balance, and his concentration, and fell backwards aided by one of Peter's spells. Harry landed hard on his back and the shock of his landing caused him to let go of his wand and it flew off to the right of him and landed just out of reach. Peter sensed opportunity and just before Harry could react, cast incarcerous and bound him tightly to the tombstone with magical ropes from his feet right up to his chin. Harry wasn't going anywhere. Cedric groaned as he lightly tapped his forehead against the tombstone he was hiding behind. He mentally prepared himself for battle.
"Now I got you!" crowed a very demented Peter as he advanced on Harry, his eyes bugging out as he smiled in a very demented way. "My master will be so pleased!"
"Indeed I am, Wormtail. You have managed to conquer the boy. Well done. Now you know what it is you have to do," the soft calm voice of Voldemort said.
Harry and Peter looked towards the cauldron to see the baby Voldemort sitting there with his tiny arms folded in front of himself, looking at the both of them with such a very serious look. Peter grinned at Harry as he backed away.
"Congratulations Potter! You are our guest of honor at my master's rebirthing!"
Peter cackled dementedly as he turned to Voldemort.
"Come along now, Wormtail. The boy's time is not yet at hand. You need to start the ritual to give me a body," Voldemort said.
Harry began wiggling around trying to break free of his bonds. He gave that up and managed to curl his right hand inward and the handle of a razor sharp knife popped into his hand. He began working on cutting the ropes away from himself. Peter picked up Voldemort and lit the fire underneath the cauldron with incindio. The fire flared up and then settled down. Peter laughed out loud joyously as he pulled the blanket away from the baby that was Voldemort. Cedric heaved up into a nearby bush at the sight of the naked deformed ugly baby. Peter raised him up over the cauldron and laughed dementedly once more. It was obvious to Harry that Peter was slowly slipping around the bend into insanity. If Harry had to handle that ugly baby, he probably would have gone nuts too.
Peter dropped the baby into the now boiling cauldron and turned to Harry, a very loony smile on his face. He brought up his wand and walked up to Harry and leaned in close to him. Harry could see the blood veins in Peter's eyes.
"He he he," Peter chuckled in a very demented way and waved his wand. "Bone of the father," he whispered as his eyes bugged out, "unknowingly taken, you will revive your son."
Harry watched in a horrified fascination as powdered bone came out from underneath the slab he was lying on. Cedric had gone pale as he watched. This was not turning out well. The powdered bone went straight into the cauldron and a cloud of steam rose into the air as Peter cackled loudly. He stood up and went over to the cauldron as Harry continued to cut the ropes holding him down. Peter reached into his robes and pulled out a knife and smiled dementedly at Harry once more. He stretched out his right hand over the cauldron and beamed at Harry.
"Flesh of the servant," he called out as his head tilted back, "willingly given," he shouted as he brought the knife down and sliced the right hand off his right arm, "you will revive your master!" he screamed out as the right hand fell inside the cauldron.
Harry managed to turn his head to the left and upchucked on the grave of Tom Riddle Sr. as Cedric uploaded into another bush next to him. Peter laughed once more as his body trembled from the shock of having lost a body part. He turned to Harry as Harry could see the redness around Peter's eye and the very demented look on his face. Peter had completely lost it. His mind was gone.
Harry watched as Peter stumbled towards him grasping the knife in his left hand. He fell to his knees next to Harry as the blade slipped through another bit of rope, Harry cutting them away as fast as he could. He was cursing himself for not having paying attention to everything around him and he had paid for that. Goading Peter hadn't been a great idea either, and now he was about to pay for his mistakes. Harry was pissed at himself and he would deal with it later. Right now he needed to stop Peter from doing whatever it was he was about to do. Peter got down on his knees and grinned at Harry. Then he looked down at the ropes holding Harry down and cut away the loops that were holding his right arm down. Then he looked up at Harry and giggled insanely.
"Blood of the enemy," he whispered into Harry's right ear as he pulled the knife's tip down his right forearm, "forcibly taken," and he withdrew to let Harry see the stream of blood running out and down his arm as Wormtail reached into his cloak for something and pulled out a vial.
He held it under the long cut and filled the vial to the top. Peter stood up and stumbled to the cauldron as Harry continued to cut at the ropes, trying to free himself in time to stop Peter from adding his blood. Peter leaned against the cauldron and raised his left hand into the air with the vial clutched in the hand. He poured it in as Harry groaned in agony.
"You will revive your foe!" he screamed as he poured Harry's blood into the cauldron and then stumbled backwards, dropping the now empty vial on the ground, shattering it completely.
Nothing happened for a moment and then the cauldron began to smoke heavily, the flames began to grow higher, and light began to flash from inside of it. Harry got his right arm free and began working on the rest of the ropes holding him down when the cauldron exploded, the force of the explosion sending metal shards everywhere, throwing the potion used in all directions, as Harry turned his head away to protect himself. Harry turned back once everything had calmed down. It took a moment for the smoke to clear and when it did, he could see a tall figure standing there. Harry knew it was Voldemort. Voldemort had returned.
Voldemort turned towards Peter. "Robe me," he ordered.
Peter managed to get to his feet and moved forward with a grey colored robe and presented it to Voldemort. Voldemort pulled it on around himself and then turned to Peter. Peter had dropped to one knee and held out Voldemort's wand to him. Then he presented his left arm to him. Voldemort pressed the tip of his wand into the dark mark on Peter's arm and Peter hissed in pain. After a moment Voldemort nodded.
"Now your other arm," he said and Peter held out the stump where his right hand had been.
Voldemort pressed the tip of his wand against the stump and Harry's eyes grew wide as he witnessed the creation of a silver hand for Peter. Cedric blinked at the sight from his hiding place and wondered just how powerful Voldemort was. Voldemort then turned to Harry and smiled down at him.
"Harry Potter," he said, his voice soft and melodious, "how I've looked forward to meeting you! Too bad that this shall be our one and only meeting as I shall kill you when my faithful have arrived."
Dark forms suddenly flashed into existence, forming a half circle behind Voldemort as he leaned down to look at Harry. Voldemort then treated everyone present with a long drawn out rant about how he had waited to be rescued by one of his faithful, how he went after the Potters and killed them, how he went after Harry but ended up killing himself, how he had left certain things behind for his faithful to find and use to bring him back, how Peter had been the only one to find him and bring him here, how Barty Jr. had assisted in bringing Harry here, how disappointed he was in all of his followers, how he planned on rescuing all of those that had been faithful to him from Azkaban, and now he was going to duel Harry and kill him to prove to all that he was the greatest sorcerer of all. Voldemort waved his wand over Harry and the ropes disappeared. Harry stood up and looked at Voldemort.
"Wormtail, give Harry his wand," he said. "We must observe the rituals for a proper duel."
As Peter went looking for Harry's wand, Harry immediately reviewed a number of combat spells he hadn't tried yet and tried to calm him self and relax. He needed all of his wits about him for this fight. He knew there would be no talk between them. This fight would be to the death unless Harry could pull off an escape. Cedric knew this was it. Harry needed to fight his way out of this one. Cedric began to move once more, trying to use as much cover as he possibly could to get to the TriWizard's Cup, knowing that it was their only avenue of escape from this place. He hoped that Harry would see this and figure out what it was that Cedric was doing. All Harry had to do was to grab one of his ankles and Cedric would grab the cup and off they would go. Harry and Voldemort stood there for a time and stared at each other, sizing up the other. And then suddenly they moved.
Light flashed as the opening spells flew. The battle between Harry and Voldemort began. Harry managed to draw first blood as his spell hit Voldemort dead on target, making Voldemort stumble back as a cut appeared on his right cheek as his spell missed Harry. Harry didn't give Voldemort a chance to recover as he attacked, pacing him self and timing the spells so that there was one right after the other. Harry spoke not a word, having mastered silent casting. Voldemort stumbled backwards as several of Harry's spells struck him before he managed to get it in gear, throwing up a shield in time to deflect the next one that was coming in towards him. Voldemort hissed in anger as he began going offensive. Harry started to move, avoiding Voldemort's spells as his splashed against the shield Voldemort had thrown up between them. Peter Pettigrew moved behind the remains of the cauldron as the ground where it had been continued to smoke from the remains of the potion used. Harry kept going, pacing him self as he didn't want to tire out too soon. As Harry moved around, he had seen Cedric moving towards the cup and then stop right next to it. Harry instantly figured it out. Cedric had set up a way for them to escape. Harry turned back to the fight. Now he needed to time his moves and attacks to reach Cedric so they could get out of here. Harry noted how soft the ground was and wondered if he could work that to his advantage. If he could move in a spot between gravestones, he could strike out and get his wand to lock up with Voldemort's and let the power from Voldemort's push him back to the point where he would be past the two gravestones and then use a flash bang followed by a concussion grenade to knock them senseless so he could escape. Harry began making his moves, continuing his attacks on Voldemort, making the man go defensive, blocking all of Harry's spells. Voldemort managed to get off an attack of his own and then suddenly Harry was the one doing all of the blocking. Harry dodged and weaved between the spells, waiting for his big chance to make his final move.
"You're getting weak, Potter!" Voldemort called out. "You can't beat me! Give up and I will send you to join your precious mummy dearest."
"I will never join you, Voldemort!" Harry shouted as he blocked another purple colored spell and tossed a chunk of rock up to deflect the killing spell.
Harry had discovered in a moment of desperation that the only thing that could stop spells and especially the killing spell, was by using things to block them. He needed to pass that on the moment he got back.
"Then I must make an example of you, Potter. I will kill you slowly, and in the most painful way possible. Then I shall wrap your entrails about your neck and have you hung from the roof of a building in Diagon Alley," Voldemort smiled.
Harry laughed out loud. "You sure talk big for a wimpy wizard, sonny."
Voldemort snarled and attacked, firing a bolt of something blue at Harry. Harry fired back with expelliarmus, and just as he planned, the two spells connected in mid air. Harry felt himself sliding backwards as Voldemort's spell pushed him backwards. Harry grunted with the effort of keeping Voldemort's spell from touching him. Voldemort was concentrating on moving his spell at Harry and didn't realize that he was indeed pushing Harry backwards. The DE's behind Voldemort were cheering him on, thinking that victory was close at hand. Earlier on in the fight Harry knew he couldn't beat Voldemort until his secrets were exposed. Voldemort had years of experience in the magical arts over Harry, even though Harry had a few years of physical combat and ninja arts training over Voldemort. In Harry's mind both appeared to cancel each other out. Harry was beginning to realize that there were two ways to beat Voldemort and one of them was to take out as many of the DE's as he could, and the second way was to ferret out his secrets and use them against him. The diary proved that Voldemort had a way to come back if he ever lost his body again. If there were more of them then they needed to be found and destroyed. Voldemort could not be allowed to take over the magical world.
Voldemort moved forward as Harry slid backwards. He concentrated on keeping Voldemort's spell from making contact with the Potter wand. Harry made an effort to memorize who the DE's that appeared after Voldemort had 'called' and knew that there had to be a lot more of them as the ones that were here now had to be the inner circle ones and that they would pass on Voldemort's orders to the rank and file ones. Harry wondered just how many DE's Voldemort had under his control. He was sure he would find out once he started taking them out. Harry slid closer to the tombstone behind him and he reached out with his feelings and sensed Cedric on the ground a few feet behind him, ready to go the moment Harry broke off the attack and came running for the escape. Harry's back made contact with the tombstone behind him as he encountered another stone that changed his direction. Cedric swore under his breath hoping Harry wouldn't break off the attack. Harry immediately went to plan B. He pretended to stumble a bit, moving his left hand behind him to make it look like he was trying to keep his balance but in reality he was reaching for one of his small flash bang cylinders in his pocket. Harry had no idea why he pocketed it, knowing that Sirius would search him prior to going into the maze to make sure he didn't have anything else on him. How the man missed it Harry would never know, but he had and now Harry would be able to use it. The light show the two clashing spells were putting out was keeping people from seeing the two fighters clearly, just their outlines. Harry knew that would work to his advantage as his hand dipped into his pocket for the device. The light show prevented him from seeing Voldemort clearly, and the only thing he could see of him was the outline of his body faintly. But that meant Voldemort had trouble seeing him too. Harry did have an advantage over the situation and that he was able to sense just where Voldemort was. Harry's escape plan was suddenly ruined when Voldemort unexpectedly pulled back.
The sudden loss of pressure made Harry stumble once more, and Voldemort used that opportunity to cast crucio on Harry. Harry fought the pain the best he could but it was a bit too much as the pain overwhelmed him. Harry writhed on the ground as Voldemort held the spell on him for a moment and then backed off.
"Did you like that, Harry?" Voldemort asked. "I did. I loved using it on you."
Harry rolled out of the way of the next one and fired off another spell at Voldemort. He managed to block it and sneered at Harry.
"You cannot defeat me, Harry. Nobody can, for I am the all powerful Voldemort, and I shall rule this place," Voldemort smiled as Harry rolled into another direction to avoid another crucio.
Harry attacked with diffindo and followed it up with incindio. The flash of fire made Voldemort pull back a bit and Harry used that to get back to his feet and snapped off a chain of spells that made Voldemort work a bit to defend him self from those spells. The last incindio allowed Harry to move in closer and then suddenly he unleashed a flurry of fists and feet, taking Voldemort by surprise, knocking the dark lord for a loop. Voldemort tried to fire off a spell to get Harry to back off but Harry managed to knock his wand aside and use an open palm strike to the middle of Voldemort's chest, causing him to stumble backwards and gasp for breath. The DE's behind Voldemort hissed in anger and one of them acted to strike Harry down. Harry blocked the attack and then Voldemort was right there, having recovered from Harry's physical attack. The both of them cast spells at each other only to have their wands lock up again as the spells met between them. This time Harry was prepared as Voldemort's spell propelled him backwards. Voldemort cackled in glee as he could see Harry struggling to keep the spell up and working. Harry could feel him self sliding backwards once more and this time he had his feet spread out a bit to maintain his balance. The DE's were cheering once more, sure that Voldemort was winning the duel against Harry Potter. Harry now knew that they had him right where he wanted to be.
Harry worked to keep his balance as he slid backwards. The small cylinder was in the palm of his hand, ready to go the moment he twisted the one end clockwise. He would have at least five seconds to toss it right in front of Voldemort. He was counting on the shockwave to knock him backwards into Cedric the moment it went off. He was almost even with the two tombstones now, just a bit further back and he would be in position to throw it. He slowed down just a bit but Voldemort did what Harry hoped he would, put a bit more power into the spell and pushed Harry backwards just slightly past the tombstones. Harry used his thumb and two fingers on his left hand to turn the one end of the silver cylinder clockwise and felt it pop out just a tiny bit. Now he had five seconds from that point. Harry counted off three seconds and then moved his left hand upward, tossing the cylinder forward to a spot on the ground in front of Voldemort. To Voldemort and the DE's watching, it looked like Harry was taking a two handed grip on his wand. Harry immediately closed his eyes. The silver cylinder landed just where Harry wanted it to. A second later the flash bang detonated with a very bright flash of white light and a very loud roar to rival a dragon's roar. As Harry had hoped, the resulting shock wave knocked him backwards and on top of Cedric. Cedric immediately grabbed Harry's left hand and then reached for the handle of the TriWizard's Cup. The cup turned portkey activated, and then Cedric and Harry disappeared in the bright flash. The graveyard fell silent as Voldemort and the DE's struggled to shake off the effects of the flash bang Harry had used. Voldemort struggled to his feet and looked around for Harry. He moved forward, looking for Harry, Cedric's body, and the cup that was a portkey. As he searched the DE's behind him began to recover from the flash bang they had been subjected to. The first one that stood up looked in the direction of where Harry had been in and didn't see him, or the cup. He shivered in fear as he suddenly realized that Harry had made a very speedy exit and that particular fact would severely piss off Voldemort. He decided that now would be a good time to make a discrete exit as Voldemort turned around to face the group of DE's that were there. They watched as Voldemort trembled in anger and knew he was about to lose it.
"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS HARRY POTTER!" Voldemort screamed.
The DE's present suddenly wished they were somewhere else.
The spectators were getting restless as it was now three hours into the task. Viktor and Fleur had been retrieved from the maze and told their stories. They had no idea where Harry and Cedric had gone to inside the maze. Sirius was getting nervous as he paced back and forth in front of the maze. Dumbledore and the other officials along with McGonagall, Karkaroff, and Maxime, were sitting under a canopy enjoying refreshments while the spectators were milling around the area in front of the stands taking advantage of the concession stands. The Aurors and other volunteers were keeping watch over the maze and the spectators. At some point Dumbledore was looking towards the maze when Moody appeared. The man was looking a bit stressed out and as Dumbledore watched, reached for his ever present flask to get a drink out of it. Moody flipped open the cap and tilted it back and then suddenly he got a distressed look on his face. Dumbledore frowned as he watched Moody pat him self down like he was looking for something. Moody was starting to look frantic and Dumbledore wondered what was wrong with his old friend. Moody stumbled into the corner post of the maze and grabbed onto it. Dumbledore blinked as he saw Moody's face start to swell up, or so he thought. He stood up and casually walked around the large table he had been sitting at, and looked around as he moved, continuing to observe Moody as he glanced his way. He saw Moody shiver and bring his hands up to his face, and Dumbledore swore he saw Moody's hair start to change color. He watched for another minute and blinked as Moody's hair color continued to change. He suddenly realized that the Moody he was looking at was an impostor. He reached into his robe as he sped up, heading towards the impostor, pulling his wand free, and once he had a clear shot of the impostor, fired the incarcerous spell. People immediately paid attention when they heard Dumbledore cast incarcerous. The ropes flew out of the tip of his wand, striking the impostor in the chest and immediately tied him to the post. Sirius had turned the moment he heard Dumbledore cast the spell and watched in shock as the man started acting like he was having a seizure. People gasped as the impostor reverted back to the person he was. Ludo Bagman was the first to react.
"Barty?" he asked. "Barty? Is that you?"
Sirius blinked. "Bartemius Crouch Jr.? But he's supposed to be dead!"
Dumbledore reached Barty first and looked at him in the eye as Snape moved up next to him and picked up the flask from the ground. He sniffed at the mouth of the flask.
"Polyjuice potion," he announced.
Sirius slowly put it together as he moved forward. He drew his wand and jammed it up underneath Barty's chin.
"Where is my godson Harry?" he demanded as Remus rushed up behind him.
He wrapped his arms around Sirius and started pulling him backwards. Tonks was the next to appear and she took Sirius' wand as Remus had him distracted.
"What have you done?" Sirius shouted as he struggled in Remus' arms. "Let me go, Remus! The bastard's got Harry! If you hurt him, I'll kill you!"
"Calm down, Sirius! The last thing you need is to go off the rails again! You are not going to do Harry any good if you get tossed back into Azkaban!"
Dumbledore turned to Sirius. "Calm down, Sirius. We will find out what he has done."
Sirius snarled at Barty as the man smiled insanely. "Harry is the guest of honor at my master's rebirthing party."
That simple announcement shocked everybody.
"Please explain," Dumbledore said, looking into Barty's eyes.
Barty smiled. "It was a glorious plan made by my master. I was to take Moody's place here at Hogwarts. Capturing him was so easy. I rattled his dustbins at his house. When he came out to investigate, Peter Pettigrew and I stunned him. I locked him inside his own trunk after getting bits of his hair for the first bottle of the polyjuice potion. I was the one who entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire. I was the one who was stealing all the ingredients I needed for the potion from Snape's storeroom all year long. I killed my father when he broke free of my control for two reasons. The first was because he had sent me to Azkaban. The second reason was because I couldn't have him inform you of my being alive. I turned the TriWizard's Cup into a portkey so that when Potter got a hold of it he would be sent to where my master would be waiting. Peter was to perform the ritual to revive our master using a bit of Harry's blood. If Peter did it right the dark lord shall rise once more and he shall rule over the entire wizarding world!"
Barty began to laugh insanely. Everybody listening had gone pale.
"What do we do now?" Fudge asked Dumbledore.
Dumbledore sighed. Before he could say anything, there was a bright flash of light and a loud crack. People turned to see what it was and there was Harry and Cedric falling from the sky. Hermione was the first to react.
"Arrestus Momentum!" she cried out, having whipped her wand out and had it pointed at Harry and Cedric.
Both of them halted just inches from the ground as the TriWizard's Cup hit the ground and bounced off in another direction. Hermione waved her wand once more and set Harry and Cedric on their feet. Both of them looked like hell. Amos Diggory, Cedric's father, rushed up to his son and hugged him tight as Hermione rushed up to Harry and did the same thing as the crowd got excited. Dumbledore had to shoot off a few sparks from his wand to get attention. People went quiet.
"If all of you will settle down, we shall investigate this very carefully and will report our findings at breakfast in the morning," Dumbledore said calmly.
The third task was over.
Things happened after that. The real Moody was found and taken to the hospital wing and looked over by Madame Pomfrey. Harry and Cedric spent the next few hours being interviewed by the ministry, a pair of mind healers, and the Aurors in separate rooms. Sirius accompanied Harry and Amos Diggory accompanied his son Cedric. Both of them had much to say and between then they were able to identify the DE's that had been there as Voldemort had addressed each one during his long rant. It wasn't what Fudge wanted to hear and he got very agitated as Cedric and Harry gave their testimony. This was the last thing Fudge needed to deal with and didn't know what to do. He needed to get away from here and think. He saw all of this as a threat to his being the minister of magic. Back at his office he paced the floor as Dolores Umbridge watched Fudge on the verge of a meltdown. She saw this as an opportunity to somehow take the minister's job away from him. Fudge was worried that either Dumbledore or Harry Potter would use this opportunity to take his job away from him. That thought took root in his mind and that was the beginning of his downfall. He turned to Umbridge and they discussed the situation long into the night. They talked for nearly two hours and then they decided to call it a night after not coming up with anything concrete, left Fudge's office. They did not see the house elf in black disappear. Dobby needed to report to Bustah. Dumbledore had gone back to his rooms and spent an hour pacing the floor as he wondered how he could turn this to his advantage in regaining control of Harry. One thing he did know he had to do was to start up the Order of the Phoenix once more to fight Voldemort like he had done during the first war against Voldemort. He nodded to himself after having made that decision. Now all he had to do was to come up with a way to play Harry just right. As he left his office to go to bed and closing the door behind him, another house elf emerged from the shadows dressed in black. Winky needed to find Bustah and report in. She delivered her report at the same time Dobby did. Bustah dismissed both and then went looking for Filius Flitwick. He had a report to give. Flitwick listened and then dismissed Bustah. He felt a chill in his bones and knew things were about to get really bad. He would talk to McGonagall in the morning.
The great hall was buzzing the next morning with wild rumors. One rumor had it that Karkaroff had done a runner. Nobody knew where he was. Another had it that someone else had been inside the maze and attacked the champions. A third had it that both Harry and Cedric had become delusional from all of the stress of the tournament and had suffered hallucinations of seeing Voldemort come back to life. A fourth had it that Harry wanted to win the tournament so bad that he had attacked the other three champions and tried to take the cup away from Cedric and by a stroke of luck Cedric managed to hang onto the cup. Umbridge smiled in glee as she listened to all of the wild rumors and speculation going on. Her plan to discredit Cedric and Harry was working. Now all she had to do was point Rita Skeeter in the right direction. She didn't have to worry about that as Rita was buzzing around in her illegal animagus form getting all the details from various students that didn't like Harry. Dumbledore had heard the talk as he went to the great hall for breakfast from the students surrounding him. Now if he could foster more of that kind of talk, he could regain control of Harry sooner than he hoped. The boy would become severely stressed and depressed over all the wild rumors and the speculation going on about him he would seek out Dumbledore and ask for help. Dumbledore then would offer him sanctuary and during that time would very carefully feed him a regimen of potions that would make him so easy to control. Harry and Cedric were worn out from all of the interviews they had to go through last night. Harry wanted to get away from there as he needed and wanted some down time. All he had to do now was to get through this morning and the last two weeks of Hogwarts and then he could get out of there. Breakfast got started once everyone had arrived. Harry took his time as he mentally went over the ordeal he had gone through in the graveyard. He knew he had done the right thing in getting out of there as the odds had been against him right then as Voldemort had proven to Harry just how powerful he was. Voldemort had an advantage as he had much more experience at magic than Harry did. Harry had an advantage over Voldemort because of his ninja skills and physical training. Harry had done a lot of thinking about last night and noted that Voldemort was far too trusting in his magical abilities and had no physical training. Harry knew he had to train harder in his use of magic on his own knowing he wasn't going to get any help from anybody if people believed the rumors and speculations about him and Cedric. Cedric was graduating from Hogwarts in two weeks so he wouldn't have to deal with all of the trouble that Harry knew he was going to be dealing with. Then Daichi Souta rose, and the room went quiet.
"It has been decided to declare a tie between Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter. Both of them shall receive one thousand galleons and award the trophy to Hogwarts," he declared, sending the audience into shock.
Harry suddenly had the feeling that nothing good would come out of this.
To Be Continued