The Rise of Lord Voldemort
Disclaimer: Rowling owns HP, not me. I do own Kitty, though.
Kitty decide dot take a deep breath and calm down. "The best way to find Harry is to find the Cup," she said aloud to herself, "I must reach the Cup. Harry and the other champions would eventually turn up there." So she put her wand flat on her palm, as she had seen Harry do, and said, "Point me!" the wand spun around, and pointed to her left.
Kitty walked on ahead, and took a left turn. Feeling a little confident, she stepped up further and came face to face with a large pale-grey serpent, surrounded by ashes. Kitty recognized it as an Ashwinder, a serpent born from the embers of a dying fire. "Relax," Kitty told herself, "It probably can't see me in the cloak." Kitty backed away quietly. The serpent's eyes followed her.
Kitty wished that Harry was there to speak to it in Parseltongue. "What am I supposed to do?" she thought frantically, as the serpent slithered forwards, leaving behind an ashy trail.
"Incendio!" cried Kitty desperately, pointing her wand at it. Flames shot out of her wand and lit up the dry grass around the Ashwinder. The serpent loomed larger, as if strengthened by the fire. "No, that can't be correct, maybe I'm supposed to immobolise it," thought Kitty.
Thankful that she was so good at charms, Kitty tried a Freezing Charm next. "Immobilus!" cried Kitty. The serpent froze, and Kitty shot past it, running as fast as she could, and bumped into something hard.
"Ooof," said Kitty, instinctively. It was Krum. "Who's there?" said Krum, waving his wand around. A jet of red light shot out from his wand that Kitty narrowly dodged. Kitty was just about to take off the cloak and reveal herself, when she remembered that it was his voice that had crucioed Cedric.
She held her breath and slid past Krum, and took a left turning. She came to a junction of two paths, and paused. Hearing Krum's footsteps behind her, she took the right one and kept following it. After a few more turns and dead ends, she came to a new path, at the end of which, she could see a glowing light.
She followed it, panting and stopped as she came to its end. The Triwizard Cup was glowing brightly, emanating brilliant white light.
"Harry," called a voice. It was Cedric Diggory. Kitty had never been so pleased to see him. She edged towards her left and what she saw next pleased her even further. It was Harry.
"Take it, then," Harry panted to Cedric. "Go on, take it. You're there." But Cedric didn't move. He merely stood there, looking at Harry. Then he turned to stare at the cup. Harry saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at Harry again, who was now holding onto the hedge to support himself. Cedric took a deep breath. "You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck in here."
"That's not how it's supposed to work," Harry said. "We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it." Cedric stared at Harry. He unfolded his arms. Kitty walked towards them and whispered in Harry's ear, "It's me!"
Harry jumped and said, "Where've you been, I've been so worried."
"Huh?" said Cedric. "Nothing," said Harry taking my arm, "Come on, let's take it." Both Cedric and Harry reached out towards the Cup. Harry was holding on to Kitty tightly, as though afraid he'd lose her again. He and Cedric both grasped a handle.
Instantly, Kitty felt a jerk somewhere behind her navel. Her feet had left the ground. She could feel Harry's hand gripping her arm tightly. Kitty felt her feet slam onto the ground. The Invisibility Cloak had come off her. Beside either side of her lay, Harry and Cedric.
"Um, what's she doing here? And where are we?" said Cedric, uncertainly. They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously travelled miles - perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Kitty could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.
"Someone's coming," said Harry. "Put that on," he added to Kitty, who obeyed at once, ignoring Cedric's stare. Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Kitty couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, she could tell that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Kitty saw that the thing in the person's arms looked like a baby...or was it merely a bundle of robes?
Harry was clutching his forehead, groaning loudly. From far away, above their heads, Kitty heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."
A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"
Something heavy fell to the ground beside her; Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside Kitty. He was dead. Kitty went down on her knees beside Cedric, trying to feel for his pulse. Kitty stared into Cedric's open eyes, blank and expressionless. Harry kneeled beside Kitty, as if examining Cedric, and whispered to her out of the corner of his mouth. "Stay hidden."
Kitty saw Harry being pulled to his feet. She followed him. The short man dragged him and slammed him towards a marble headstone. "Wormtail," muttered Harry. Kitty felt a powerful surge of hatred through her body, as she looked at the man who had betrayed her parents. Wormtail bound Harry tightly to the headstone.
Wormtail pulled a huge stone cauldron that seemed to be filled with boiling water. And Kitty heard the high, cold voice again. "Hurry!"
The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Kitty had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face - no child alive ever had a face like that - flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes. Kitty almost let out a scream when she saw it. Wormtail lowered the frail body into the cauldron.
Wormtail was speaking. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked. Horrified, Harry watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Wormtail's command and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.
"Flesh - of the servant - w-willingly given - you will - revive - your master."
Wormtail stretched his right hand out in front of him - the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward.
"B-blood of the enemy...forcibly taken...you will...resurrect your foe."
Kitty could do nothing to prevent it; she was unable to move with horror and fear. She saw a dagger's point penetrate the crook of Harry's right arm and blood seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Wormtail, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it. He staggered back to the cauldron, and poured the blood inside.
Then, through the mist in front of her, she saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.
"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master's head.
The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry...and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's, with slits for nostrils...
Lord Voldemort had risen again.
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