Wormtail approached the headstone with a determined look. I briefly considered biting the servant of the dark lord before conceding that it would in no way help Harry and I. Breathing came easier now that I wasn't tied to a stone with a wad of cloth in my mouth. Harry seemed about to suggest attempting to run away but then he caught sight of my badly damaged leg and shook his head at himself. The Death Eaters formed a tighter circle around us, so all the gaps left by missing Death Eaters were filled. Wormtail returned our wands to us without looking at us, and then returned to his place next to Lucius Malfoy.
"You have been taught how to duel?" Voldemort asked softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness. In the back of my mind I remembered the Dueling Club that Professor Lockheart had attempted to form.
"We bow to each other children." said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face upturned to Harry and I. "Come, the niceties must be observed, Dumbledore would like you to show manners…" I did as Voldemort had done, bending slightly, but keeping my eyes lock on him. Try not to get yourself killed you silly girl. Severus' voice echoed in the back on my head. My heart ached as I accepted the fact that Severus wouldn't be around to save me this time. "Bow to death, Harry…" Voldemort instructed, but Harry didn't move a muscle. He wore a defiant look, wand pointed not moving. Harry now is not the time to go all Gryffindor on me.
"I said, bow," Voldemort commanded raising his wand. As if pushed by an invisible hand, Harry bent far forward. The Death Eaters erupted into laughter. "Very good and now you face me, like a man, straight-backed and proud, the way your father died." Harry's jaw tightened at the mention of our dad, but he complied this time. Probably to maintain control over his own body.
"And now, children, we duel." Voldemort raised his wand and before I could defend myself I was hit again by the Cuciatus Curse. Without the cloth to gag me I was free to let out an earth shattering scream that felt so detached even coming out of my mouth. Then, just as before, the incomprehensible pain was gone. "A little break." Voldemort smiled sadistically. "A little pause, that hurt didn't it Allison? What do you say you give it a try Harry?" Harry didn't answer. He didn't move or say anything. Red eyes glared down at us. I was going to die, so was Harry. We were going to die like Cedric and there was nothing we could do about it. Fighting back only seemed futile. Harry didn't seem to agree with me. He continued to stare at Voldemort in defiance.
"I asked you would like to give it a try." Voldemort asked turning his wand on Harry. "Answer me! Imperio!" I watched as Harry seemed to be having an internal battle with himself. There was nothing I could do there was no way to counter an unforgivable curse. Not from where I stood anyway. Professor Moody's first lesson coming back to me: The Imperious Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character and not everyone's got it.
"I WON'T!" Harry suddenly shouted from my side.
"You won't?" Voldemort said quietly, the Death Eaters had stopped their laughing." You won't say no? Harry, obedience is a virtue I need to teach you before you die…perhaps another little dose of pain?" Voldemort raised his wand, but this time Harry was ready he flung himself sideways onto the ground; he rolled behind the marble headstone of Voldemort s father, and he heard it crack as the curse missed him. Panicking I followed Harry behind the marble headstone.
"We are not playing hide-and-seek, cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish you off now? Come out, come out and play, then it will be quick. It might even be painless…I would not know…I have never died." Crouched behind the headstone my eyes begged Harry not to do anything stupid.
"I'm not going to die here…not like this." Harry whispered as Voldemort neared us. "Remember last year when we were in the Shrieking Shack and we all tried to disarm Professor Snape at the same time? Maybe, maybe together we can at least disarm him?" Harry looked at me a plan clearly calculating in his eyes.
"What about Death Eaters?" I questioned back. "They'll try and defend him. wont they?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. On the count of three?"
"Not like I have a choice is there?" I said waiting for his signal.
"Three…Two…One!" Before Voldemort could stick his snakelike face around the headstone. Harry and I leapt to our feet. Voldemort was ready. As Harry and I cast the disarming spell Voldemort called out his killing curse. A jet of green light issued from Voldemort's wand just as a jet of red light blast from both Harry's and my own wand. There was a vibrating charge surging through my wand, couldn't let go of it if I tried. A narrow "Y" shaped beam of gold now connected all three wands and then I felt my feet lift from the ground. Harry, Voldemort, and myself were being raised into the air our wands connected by the thread of shimmering gold light. We glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort's father and came to rest on a patch of ground free of graves. The Death Eaters were shouting and asking Voldemort for instructions, some of them drew their wands. The golden thread connecting us splintered but remained connected, more beams arced high in a golden dome-shaped web, a cge of light blocking us from the Death Eaters.
"Do nothing!" Voldemort shrieked to his followers. I couldn't help but notice the astonishment in his eyes. "Do nothing unless I command you!" And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air. It was coming from every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around us. It was a sound I barley recognized, it was a phoenix song. It was the sound of hope to Harry and me.
Don't break the connection. I mouthed to Harry.
I know. He mouthed back. But no sooner had he said that that it became much harder to do. My wand began to vibrate more powerfully than ever and the beams between Harry, Voldemort and I were changing too. Large beads of light were sliding up and down the threads connecting the wands. I felt my wand give a shudder as the light bead on my connection slide slowly towards me and away from Voldemort. Harry was doing a much better job of keeping the light bead on his strand away from his wand. The closer my own bead moved toward me I realized my wand would not survive contact with it. Gripping my wand with all my might I concentrated every last bit of willpower on forcing the bead back toward Voldemort. Slowly, very slowly, the bead began to move towards Voldemort who looked astonished. Concentrating with all of our might Harry and I were able to force both our beads of light forward to touch the tip of Voldemort's wand. At once Voldemort's wand began to emit echoing screams of pain, his red eyes widened with shock. A dense smoky hand flew out of the time of his wand and vanished. The ghost of the hand he had made for Wormtail. More shouts of pain and then a great grayish head…chest...and arms…the torso of Cedric Diggory. There was soon a thick gray ghost of Cedric Diggory emerged in its entirety from the end of Voldemort's wand.
"Hold on. Harry, Alice, hold on." The Ghostly version of Cedric spoke. Its voice was distance and echoing. More screams of pain came from the wand and then someone else emerged from its tip. It was the muggle from my dream last summer.
"He was a real wizard, then?" the old man said, his eyes on Voldemort. "Killed me, that one did. You fight em!" The vibrating from my wand combined with standing on my leg for so long was beginning to cause tremors through my whole body but I didn't dare let go as another figured emerged from the wand. The shadow of Bertha Jorkins surveyed the battle before her with wide eyes.
"Don't let go, now!" she cried, "Don't let him get you, both of you don't let go!" She and the other two shadowy figures began to pace around the inner walls of the golden web, while the Death Eaters flitted around the outside of it. Voldemort's dead victims whispered words of encouragement to Harry and me, and hissed words we couldn't hear to Voldemort. Soon another victim would emerge from Voldemort's wand. I'd been expecting it since Cedric had first appeared from the wand. The smoky shadow of a young woman with long hair fell to the ground straightened up, and looked at us. With shaking arms I smiled at my mom.
"Your father's coming..." she said quietly. "Hold on for your father... it will be all right... hold on..." And he came tall and untidy-haired like Harry, the smoky shadowy form of our father. Dad walked over and stood between Harry and I, speaking so that only we could hear him.
"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments but we will give you time. You must get to the Portkey it will return you to Hogwarts. Do you understand, Harry? Alice? "
"Yes." Harry answered for both of us. His wand was beginning to slip from his fingers.
"Alice...Harry…" I looked up at the Shadow of Cedric who couldn't seem to put words to what he wanted from us. "Take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents…"
"We will." I assured him with a nod. Now letting me own wand slip a few inches.
"Do it now," Our father whispered. "Be ready to run…do it now…"
"NOW!" Harry yelled pulling his wand upward, I repeated his action and watched as the cage of light vanished. The phoenix song died but the shadowy figures of Voldemort's victims did not disappear they were closing in upon Voldemort shielding us from him. Without a second thought we ran. I'd never run so fast in my life. Together we zigzagged behind headstones and dodged curses. The incredible pain in my leg forgotten as I literally ran for my life.
"Assuming you got here by Portkey as well, which one do we use?" I asked racing toward Cedric's body.
"The cup!" Harry shouted as he jumped a low headstone. "I've no idea where the Portkey I used is and they wont dare followed us to Hogwarts anyway." With a painful thud I tripped over Cedric's body and landed hard on the ground. "Stay there!" Harry commanded before summoning the Triwizard Cup towards us. "Hold on to Cedric and the cup!" Harry instructed as it came soaring towards us. My some miracle I managed to clasp onto both the Triwizard Cup and Cedric's body.