Quick update, huh? I don't own HP. Phew. I didn't realize how much Voldy blabs until I wrote this chap. Lol.
Cedric forced himself to look away from the horrid scene, to focus on the cup, and listen for a moment when he could get them out of there. The situation had become much worse. Not only was he trying to save his life, but he was also trying to save Harry's.
The snake slithered to a stop at the front of the headstone, and heard the thump of a body hitting the ground, and the cloaked man's insipid sobbing began all over again. Then a high, cold, mirthless laugh.
"My lord," the cloaked man sobbed. "My Lord… you promised… you did promise…"
"Hold out your arm," said Voldemort lazily.
"Oh Master… thank you, Master…"the man whimpered.
"The other arm Wormtail," Voldemort laughed.
And Cedric could only guess what Voldemort was looking for.
"It is back," Voldemort said softly, "they will all have noticed it… and now we shall see… now we shall know… "
There was silence, and then the man called Wormtail howled.
"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" Voldemort whispered, and then paused. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"
Merlin. Did that mean that Deatheaters- Cedric gulped- were on their way here?
"You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father," Voldemort hissed softly. "A muggle and a fool… very like your dear mother. But they both had their uses did they not? Your mother died to defend you as a child… and I killed my father, and see how useful he has proved himself, in death…" Voldemort laughed again
Cedric couldn't believe what he was hearing. Voldemort, a half-blood? Who would have thought, and here he bases his philosophy on blood purity.
"You see that house upon the hillside, Potter? My father lived there. My mother, a witch who lived here in this village, fell in love with him. But he abandoned her when she told him what she was… H didn't like magic, my father… He left her and returned to his muggle parents before I was even born, Potter, and she died giving birth to me, leaving me to be raised in a muggle orphanage… but I vowed to find him… I revenged myself upon him, that fool who gave me his name… Tom Riddle…" He paused.
"Listen to me, reliving family history, why I am growing quite sentimental… But look Harry! My true family returns…" Voldemort hissed with glee.
Then Cedric heard the swishing of cloaks and then a chorus of voices saying "Master… master…"
"Welcome, Death Eaters," said Voldemort quietly. "Thirteen years… thirteen years since we last met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday… We are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"
Cedric heard a sniffing noise. "I smell guilt. There is a stench of guilt upon this air. I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact- such prompt appearances!- and I ask myself… why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"
There was silence, accept for Wormtail's sobbing.
"And I ask myself," whispered Voldemort, "they must have believed me broken, they thought I was wrong. They slipped back among my enemies, and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment…. And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death? They, who had seen proofs of the immensity of my power in the times when I was mightier than any wizard living?
"And I answer myself perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort… perhaps they now pay allegiance to another… perhaps that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore? It is a disappiontment to me… I confess myself disappointed…"
And then Cedric heard someone shriek "Master! Master, forgive me! Forgive us all!"
And Voldemort's high cold laugh rang out again. "Crucio!"
Cedric peered around with terrified shock and watched as the Death Eater writhed and shrieked on the ground.
"Get up, Avery," said Voldemort softly. "Stand up. You ask for forgiveness? I do not forgive. I do not forget. Thirteen long years… I want thirteen years' repayment before I forgive you. Wormtail here has paid som of his debt already, have you not Wormtail? You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but out of fear of your old friends. You deserve pain, Wormtail. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes, Master," moaned Wormtail, "please, Master… please…"
"You helped me return to my body, worthless and traitorous as you are, you helped me… and Lord Voldemort rewards his helpers…"
And Cedric watched as Wormtail received a new hand, silver and gleaming bright as moonlight. And he stopped sobbing abruptly. "My Lord," Wormtail whispered. "Master… it is beautiful… thank you… thank you…" he scrambled forward and kissed the hem of Voldemort's robe.
"May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail," said Voldemort.
"No, my Lord… never, my Lord…"
"Lucius, my slippery friend, I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though to the world you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? Yet you never tried to find me Lucius… Your exploits at the Quidditch World Cup were fun, I daresay… but might not your energies been better directed toward finding and aiding your master?"
"My Lord, I was constantly on the alert, came Lucius Malfoy's voice. Cedric should have known Malfoy was behind the World Cup incident. He was a sick and twisted man. "Had there been any sign from you, any whisper of your whereabouts, I would have been at your side immediately, nothing could have prevented me-"
"And yet you ran from my Mark, when a faithful Death Eater sent it into the sky last summer?" said Voldemort lazily, and Malfoy stopped talking. "Yes I know all about that Lucius… You have disappointed me… I expect more faithful service in the future."
"Of course, my Lord of course… you are merciful, thank you…."
Voldemort moved on to an empty space in the circle of Death Eaters. "The Lestanges should stand here, but they are entombed in Azkaban. They were faithful. They went to Azkaban rather than renounce me… When Azkaban is broken open, the Lestranges will be honored beyond their dreams. The Dementors will join us- they are our natural allies- we will recall the banished giants… I shall have all my devoted servants returned to me, and an army of creatures whom all fear…" He walked on.
"Macnair… destroying dangerous beasts for the Ministry of Magic now, Wormtail tells me? You shall have better victims than that soon, Macnair. Lord Voldemort will provide…" Cedric felt sickened by Voldemort's words.
"And here we have Crabbe… you will do better this time will you not, Crabbe? And you, Goyle?"
The figures Voldemort was addressing bowed clumsily and muttered, but Cedric couldn't hear what they said.
"The same goes for you, Nott," said Voldemort as he continued around. And then he reached a large gap. "And here we have six missing Death Eaters… three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return.. He will pay. One I believe has left me forever… he will be killed of course… and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service. He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friend arrived here tonight, Yes! Harry Potter has kindly joined us for my rebirthing party. One might go as far as to call him my guest of honor."
Lucius Malfoy said something Cedric couldn't hear, and Voldemort walked lazily to stand right in front of Harry. Cedric looked away, hoping that Voldemort hadn't seen him, and it looked as if he had gotten lucky.
"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. His mother died in the attempt to save him- and unwittingly provided him with a protection I admit I had not foreseen… I could not touch the boy. His mother left upon him the traced of her sacrifice… This is old magic, I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook it… but no matter. I can touch him now." Cedric heard Harry thrashing in pain, and winced. He needed to move soon.
"I miscalculated, my friends, I admit it. My curse was deflected by the woman's foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah… pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than a spirit, less than the meanest ghost… but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know… I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal- to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked, for I had not been killed, though the curse should have done it. Nevertheless, I was as powerless as the weakest creature alive, and without means to help myself… for I had no body, and every spell that might have helped me required the use of a wand… I remember only forcing myself, sleeplessly, endlessly, second by second to exist… I settled in a faraway place, in a forest, and I waited… Surely one of my faithful Death Eaters would try and find me, one of them would come and perform the magic I could not, to restore me to a body, but I waited in vain… Only one power remained to me. I could posses bodies of others. But I dared not go where other humans were plentiful, for I knew that the Aurors were still abroad and searching for me. I sometimes inhabited animals- snakes, of course, being my preference- but I was little better off inside them than as pure spirit for their bodies were ill adapted to perform magic… and my possession of them shortened their lives, none of them lasted long…
Voldemort spun out a long tale… unbelievable to even Cedric, and then all of a sudden he heard "Crucio!" And Harry was thrashing around once again.
"Now untie him, Wormtail, and give him back his wand." Voldemort ordered. Wormtail untied him and returned Harry's wand. And Cedric knew it was his moment to act.
"Accio Cup!" he yelled with all the power he could muster, and the cup flew into his hand, just as he tackled Harry, bringing him into the whirl of colors. All Cedric saw was Voldemort's ferocious face and the green light of the Avada Kedavra coming at them before he was gone.
R and R!!