And here's the update for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord". Enjoy!

* Review response:
Kyukon, plums, kidneysrgood, Dman303, ShadowCub, McGeezel, nopparitari, Dragon and Sword Master, drscot, ElementalMaster16, laxmad, shuridh2014, FateBurn, tchizek, Penny is wise, skywiseskychan, wonderpanda10, mrcloak, thank you for your reviews, folks!
The Sinful, you are quite right about what Worochi no Aramasa blade does.
The Swordslinger, lilmisadiva, hehe.
Skelo, DarkLord98, Silverstargirl, who said it failed? To quote my AN just below, "Worochi no Aramasa" has the power to seal away any soul it touches into endless, unbreakable illusion that represents the sealed soul's perfect world. And Voldemort's perfect world starts with him killing off Potter, does it not?
Kaioo, at the end of the second year. Chapter 25, I think.
Gruffard, yes, only a couple of chapters left for this story.
lol9, that's quite nice, but, I'm afraid that if I write it that way, other readers will lynch me... I'd rather live a little bit longer ;)
JPElles, yeah, that sometimes happens... And HP story without any magic used is just... not all that attractive.
Addictorator, GYGBMuest, yes, the sword is (by its other name) "Totsuka no Tsurugi", though I took its powers from "Naruto" anime/manga here.

* AN: "Worochi no Aramasa", better known as "Totsuka no Tsurugi", is the legendary sword that belongs to the Shinto God of Sea and Storms, Susanoo. It normally exists outside of the human realm, but can be summoned into it through an artifact, which is currently in Harry's possession. Here, it has the power to seal away any soul it touches into endless, unbreakable illusion that represents the sealed soul's perfect world. For all of its power, however, "Worochi no Aramasa" is not meant to be wielded by mortals, and manifesting it will suck the magic and then life force of anyone who tried to do them within a minute, even with the blessing of the sword's proper owner.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "Freezing" and "Naruto" anime/manga series or anything else I might mix in.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"
messages

chapter 74: The survivor

~/ *** Some time earlier at Hogwarts *** \~

Amelia Bones tied the still-immobilized Crouch to the iron chair that Dumbledore had conjured on her request with a few magical chains. After all, it wouldn't do if the man somehow managed to escape, especially before she had milked him for the information about what was going on... Right now no one in the room had any doubts that it was Junior who had turned the Goblet of Fire into the portkey that had sent the two champions from Hogwarts somewhere far away, after all.

Only after the director of the DMLE was sure the captured agent of the Dark Lord was secured in the chair without any chance of escaping on his own, she did lift the spells that Draconica had placed the man under... Quite understandably, Crouch Junior was far from happy when he saw that he was surrounded by the people who were his and his master's enemies. But as director Bones had indeed done a good job at securing him, he couldn't do anything more than turn his head or drum his fingers against the armrests of his chair.

"You will never learn anything from me, bastards!" The man who was supposed to have died in Azkaban ages ago shouted. "The Dark Lord has returned and he will wipe all you, filthy blood-traitors and mudblood-lovers from the face of the Earth!"

"I'm not quite sure I agree with you, bastard." Amelia hissed – this man was among those who had taken her brother from her, after all – as she waved her wand to spell Crouch's mouth wide open, while also making him unable to turn his head. That done, the witch took a vial with a transparent liquid from one of her aurors. "You know what this is, don't you?" She asked, before forcing three drops of veritaserum down the Junior's throat. Stepping back, she lifted her own spells from the man – it was quite hard to spill your guts out when you couldn't move your mouth... "Now, let's see what sorts of secrets you can tell us..."

But before the first question could be asked, Crouch Jr. started making gurgling sounds while a few seconds later some blood began leaking from the corners of his mouth. By the time someone had reacted to this, it was too late to do anything but watch the bastard die... Bartemius Crouch Junior had committed suicide by biting off his own tongue.

"That was quite unfortunate." Amelia concluded with a heavy sigh after a very long silence. Then, after another pause she added: "I'm quite sure he could have told us where young Mr. Diggory and lord Slytherin had been taken." Dumbledore then turned to Draconica.

"Lady Slytherin, can't use you tell us where your lord is by the means of your family magics?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked. The blond girl shook her head.

"No. Unfortunately, no." Was her answer. "All that I can tell you is that he is still alive." That indeed sounded like bad news as no one could think of any other means to locate the two teens that had been spirited away via the portkey the Goblet of Fire had been turned into. "But since it seems the Dark Lord is indeed the mastermind behind this, to me it seems like whatever his plans are, they will result in some rather impressive magics. Can't we use the data from the monitoring devices in the Ministry to narrow down the possible locations?"

"That is a nice idea..." Amelia said. "But it will take some time to contact the Improper Use of Magic Office and even if we could somehow do that instantly, it will still take sometime for them to reconfigure their devices to detect magic from all areas of Great Britain. By the time they are done, it may be too late: the sensing arrays must be turned off while they are being modified. In other words, if something happens while Mafalda and her team work on it, we will never learn about it, not from the Office." She explained.

"That surely complicates things..." Dumbledore concluded. "Still, I say, we should notify the office regardless, just so that they won't dismiss any odd occurrence they might detect without resetting their sensors. And I'm sure that Fawkes will be kind enough to deliver the note to Ms. Hopkirk." Indeed, a moment later the headmaster's phoenix flashed into the room to sit on the elderly warlock's shoulder. Nodding, Amelia conjured a sheet of parchment and quickly wrote a note on it, before handing it over to the Chief Warlock, who, in turn, entrusted the note to his familiar. "Here we go." Fawkes trilled a note, before flashing away in a fire.
The phoenix returned in a couple of minutes, holding a response from Madam Hopkirk saying that her office will keep an eye for any strange occurrences they might detect. Without any other means to locate the abducted champions, the group could do nothing but wait... A small light of hope appeared when a nervous Severus Snape entered the room claiming that the Dark Lord was alive and was summoning his followers.

"Where is he?" Amelia Bones asked loudly before Dumbledore could even open his mouth. Even Snape himself was taken aback by the DMLE director's assertiveness. Once he recomposed himself, the Hogwarts' Potions master replied:

"While I indeed do know where he is, I'm unable to disclose it to anyone not bearing Dark Lord's mark." He explained smoothly. "Furthermore, I'm positive that the location is also covered with the wards that would deny the entry to anyone but his followers: taking you there side-along would not work as well."

"Damn it all!" Madam Bones swore. As if the abduction of two children practically from under her nose was not enough, the Dark Lord apparently was once again alive.

"What should I do, headmaster?" Snape asked as he turned to converse with Dumbledore.

"It would be better if you stayed at Hogwarts for another hour or two, Severus." The aged warlock replied. "You can always tell that you couldn't escape from the castle without me noticing it." The Potions master nodded.

"Very well." He said, before turning around and walking away, to his personal quarters, apparently.

"Alright. Jefferson, McConnell,.." The director of the DMLE said to the two aurors that were accompanying her. "Let's bag this bastard. I doubt he'll tell us anything anymore. Also, contact the headquarters, we will need more men to conduct the search for Alastor Moody, who should be somewhere in this castle." As the aurors began working on the now-most-definitely-dead Crouch Jr., the rest of the group left the room so that they wouldn't be in their way.

"I shall be on my way too." Madam Pomfrey said. "I'm quite sure that Alastor would need medical help, so I better prepare a bed for him." Dumbledore nodded.

"Of course. And, Minerva, can I ask you to help keeping the students in check while we deal with the situation" The deputy headmistress nodded, before disappearing towards the Grand staircase. Dumbledore then turned to madam Bones. "Shall we retire to my office?" He asked.

"I'm coming with you." Draconica insisted, her eyes telling the adults that she wouldn't take 'no' for the answer. With a sigh, the aged warlock agreed.

"Very well..."

~/ *** \~

As the now-soulless husk of Voldemort's homunculus body collapsed onto the ground like a marionette with its strings cut, Harry immediately stopped channeling his magical power into Worochi no Aramasa, better known as Totsuki no Tsurugi, making the spectral blade disappear. The blessing of power that was previously supporting him disappeared as well, and the wave of fatigue that immediately washed over the green-eyed teen made him fall onto his knee.

But it was not the time for rest yet... He might have dealt with the Dark Lord himself, but his followers were still there. And with their boss gone, they were no longer bound by their promise not to interfere with the fight... Even worse, given how tired he felt right now, Harry wasn't sure he could survive even against one opponent, much less against over twenty Death Eaters who, without any doubts, would try to kill him the moment they were over the shock of their Master's defeat.

For a moment, it felt like there was nothing that he could do that would save him. Then, a thought entered the young lord Slytherin's mind: while Voldemort himself had been a parselmouth and, thus, immune to the effects of the basilisk eye, his minions most definitely weren't. In other words...

Forcing himself back onto his feet, Harry turned around to face the mass of Death Eaters, while simultaneously pushing whatever magical power he still in him had towards the lens in his right eye. Thankfully, he could muster just enough to deactivate the sealing arrays and let the powers of his implanted eye loose.

A moment later Harry collapsed onto the ground, completely spent and suffering from the worst headache he could remember. It was so bad that it made him want to kill himself just to make it disappear. But, he achieved the result he had been aiming for: the Death Eaters, who had just began reaching for their wands, all were now petrified and unable to do anything at all... As as afterthought, it occurred to Harry that he could have stopped the ritual that led to Voldemort's revival altogether, had he thought about using his eye on Wormtail... Oh well, one shouldn't cry over the spilled potion...

While wishing for the unconsciousness to release him from this torment he had brought upon himself, the green-eyed teen still forced himself to remain awake: he still needed to do something about Cedric. Hopefully, the false-death-state curse hadn't killed the Hogwarts true champion yet... If only he had strength to reach the Hufflepuff teen and cast the damn counter-curse...

~/ *** \~

It was maybe half an hour of uneasy waiting in the headmaster's office later, when Madam Hopkirk of the Improper Use of Magic Office had contacted them via the floo network. Apparently, they had just detected a very powerful burst of magic near Little Hangleton.

"Little Hagleton you say?" Dumbledore asked the witch, seemingly growing a whole decade older when she had confirmed that it was indeed the name of the town near which they had detected that unexplained magic.

"Something about it, headmaster?" Draconica asked, curious how a simple toponym could have such an effect on the man.

"Yes. Voldemort's parents both lived there. And his father was buried at the local cemetery." The aged Warlock answered after a few seconds, as if carefully weighting which bits of information were safe for disclosure and which he should keep secret for the time being. Then, he continued: "Anyway, now that we have a possible location, we should go investigate. I'll have Filius come with us..." There was a short pause, before he added: "And, Amelia, you should bring a couple of your aurors along as well." The director of the DMLE nodded.

"Of course." She said as she summoned of the Hogwarts' house elves. "Please tell aurors Dawlish and Shacklebolt that I need them both here and battle-ready posthaste."

"And I want you to inform Filius that I wish for him to accompany us as well." Dumbledore added. The elf nodded, before popping away, presumably to inform the two men about their boss' wishes.

"I'll be going with you as well." Draconica said firmly, making it clear that she will not take a 'no' for the answer this time as well.

"I have to disagree." The aged wizard replied. "It will be too dangerous for you to be there, lady Slytherin, you should stay there, at Hogwarts." The blond girl shook her head in response.

"I'm coming with you." She insisted, intentionally letting her magical powers loose. To someone with magic sight like Dumbledore, it made her look like she was surrounded by cold blue flames. "And I can defend myself." The two of them glared at each other, and who knows how the things would have progressed, had the Amelia's requested aurors not enter the room.

"We are here, boss! What did you need us for?" Senior auror Dawlish asked as he and Shacklebolt stood in front of madam Bones.

"A possible lead to the location of the kidnapped Hogwarts champions has been discovered. We are going to check it." Amelia said. "Professor Dumbledore and professor Flitwick – he should be joining us in a moment – will be going with us as well." Behind her, Draconica and Albus continued their glaring match as neither was willing to agree with the others' stance on the matter. Shaking her head, the director of the DMLE continued: "Since the presence of the Dark Wizards there is all but a given, be all ready for a fight. Use of deadly force, should the situation call for it, is permitted."

"Yes, ma'am!" Both aurors replied simultaneously while Dumbledore tried to protest that decision: for whatever reason, the aged warlock had a strong aversion to anything connected with killing. If he could have his way, the wars would be fought with stunners...

"I'm here." Professor Flitwick announced as he entered the room, looking more like a fearsome dueling champion that he used to be in his youth than like a cheerful Charms teacher he was now. And, man, he was well-prepared. Instead of usual robes, he was wearing dragon-hide armor that covered pretty much everything but his face. And one who got a chance to look closely at him, would notice that Filius was carrying at least two spare wands on his person. "Shall we get going, Albus?"

"Yes, just let me create the portkey to the location." The Hogwarts headmaster answered.

"I'll be coming with you as well." Draconica insisted once again, getting quite annoyed at the adults for not letting her to come with them. She wanted to be there, next to Harry, when they recover him, dammit! Unfortunately for her, Dumbledore was unyielding.

"No." He said firmly, doing a nice job at hiding his own annoyance. "It's far too dangerous for you to be out there."

"But!.." The lady Slytherin tried again. "But I-..."

"Fawkes, be a friend and help me out?" Dumbledore asked. His fiery familiar nodded, before flashing from his perch onto the blond girl's shoulder. A moment later he flashed away again, this time bring Draconica along with him. "Alright." The Hogwarts headmaster continued as he picked up an ordinary quill from his table. "Since there are just five of us here, this one should be enough." Pointing his wand at the quill, Ablus turned it into a portkey. Once he was sure that he had made no mistakes, everyone else touched the quill. "Activate!" Dumbledore said and the group of five disappeared from his office.

A few moments of rather uncomfortable travel via a portkey, the group reappeared near the edge of Little Hangleton, maybe three hundred yards away from the hill where the abandoned Riddle manor stood. After looking around for a few moments, Dumbledore pointed in a direction of an old cemetery that lay behind that manor.

"We should head there." He said. "And have your wands out. I have no idea what we will find there." As everyone nodded and did as the old warlock said, the group started walking towards the cemetery. Since they were moving quite slowly, ready to defend themselves, should anything attack them, it took them awhile to finally get there. And once they did, Albus announced that some ward that some rather powerful wards were covering the place.

After a minute of studying these wards, the Hogwarts headmaster announced that these wards were meant to limit who could enter the area via common magical means of transportation, and completely blocked all outgoing. Thankfully, it seemed that one could just walk through the wards without much problem... There were the signs of another ward over the area – this one would make it impossible for one to walk out – but it looked like this ward was down for a few minutes already...

"Shall we go in?" Amelia asked, for whatever reason feeling a bit uneasy.

"Yes." Dumbledore replied. "If I had any doubts before, now I'm completely sure that Mr. Diggory and lord Slytherin were brought here. There is too much fresh dark magic lingering around the place for it to not be the site where Voldemort was revived... Though I am a bit surprised than neither he himself, nor any of his Death Eaters are here to 'greet' us."

"So, an ambush?" Filius Flitwick asked. "Or do you think they had left already?"

"Both possibilities exist." The aged wizard agreed. "We should go in regardless. Just be ready for any surprises."

"Alright. Let's move." Amelia said as she her two aurors stepped through the wards. They waited for a few seconds in case their action would spring some trap, but as nothing happened, they continued inching deeper into the cemetery, professors Dumbledore and Flitwick bringing up the rear. Honorless attacks from behind were not below Voldemort after all...

The group inched deeper into the cemetery for a minute, before Dawlish noticed something.

"Hey, is that?.." He asked, pointing towards the body on the ground. Indeed, they had come across Cedric, who was still lying right outside of the area where the 'Warlock's fall' runic trap used to be, though only Dumbledore, thanks to his mage sight, could see that.

"...Yes." Filius confirmed, as he waved his wand in the direction of the 'dead' teen.

"How's he?" Shacklebolt asked. The Hogwarts Charms professor shook his head.

"He's dead, I'm afraid." The diminutive man said. Albus nodded in agreement, as he came to the same conclusion. Though, he was rather curious as to what had done that to Cedric: his mage sight told the old warlock that the Killing curse wasn't what had taken the Hufflepuff teen's life, yet the boy was still dead, without any apparent 'biological' reasons for his death...

"Amos would be most very sad to hear the news." Dumbledore said solemnly. Everybody silently agreed with him. But they still needed to find Harry, so they continued advancing deeper into the cemetery.

They quickly reached the devastated area, where the fight between the young Potter and resurrected Voldemort had happened. And once they entered this area, they could easily see the mass of petrified Death Eaters, turned into statues as they were drawing their wands to curse something.

"What in the Merlin's name could have caused that?" Amelia wondered out aloud. Seeing how many of the Dark wizards had been turned into human statues, the director of the DMLE concluded that there was no need to be this cautious anymore – there was no one left to ambush or openly attack them. Nodding to her subordinates to tell them that they no longer needed to be this much on guard, she, still ready for any surprises, started approaching the petrified Death Eaters.

"Y-you came..." A weak and very tired voice of Harry Potter came as madam Bones got closer to the turned into stone Dark Lord's minions. Looking in the direction the voice came from, Amelia saw the young lord Slytherin, dirty and pale, lying powerlessly on the ground next to a bald and noseless homunculus body, which, apparently, Voldemort had been revived into.

"Lord Slytherin?" Director Bones asked. "Are you alright?"

"Tired to death... But I will live..." Harry replied with a groan as he tried to sit up and failed. "What about... about Cedric? Have you... found him?" Dumbledore, who was now standing next to Amelia, nodded.

"Yes, we have found his body, Harry." Here, the old warlock lowered his head. "I'm afraid, though, he is dead." With another groan, the green-eyed Potter finally succeeded in sitting up. Then, he turned to look at the Hogwarts' headmaster.

"It might still... not be too late..." The young lord Slytherin said in response. But before he could continue, Albus interjected:

"Harry, I know it's hard to accept one's death, but it is true. Cedric is gone and there is nothing that can bring him back." The aged warlock said. The way he had said that, though, caused a spike on anger within the young Potter, and it gave the teen enough strength to actually raise his voice at Dumbledore for writing the Hufflepuff off as dead so easily. Even if the man didn't know the truth about the Hogwarts' true champion's condition...

"Cedric might still be brought back to life!" The green-eyed teen retorted. He tried to stand up, but, apparently, his outburst wasn't powerful enough to give his strength to do that. Thus, Harry ended up falling back onto his knees. "I've put him into the false-death state." He continued, his voice getting weaker again as his strength was leaving him. "That was the only way I've... saved him from the... runic trap..." A little pause to catch some of his breath later, he continued: "If his body... is still intact, it might be... not to late to cast the counter... counter-curse,.. But you will need... to do that yourselves... I doubt... I can cast even lumos... right now."

"W-What is that counter-curse?" Professor Flitwick, being the first to properly process what the young lord Slytherin had just said, asked. Well, he wanted to ask where in seven hells did Mr. Potter learn a curse that could put someone into a death-like state, but right now was not the right time to ask that question. Saving a possibly still-not-passed-on-yet Cedric was far more important.

"Demetero... vitalae... restorato." Harry replied. "Wand movement... is counter-clockwise... circle from the top point." The Hogwarts Charms professor nodded, before turning around and heading to where he had last seen Cedric's body as fast as his ...short legs would carry him.

Professor Flitwick returned maybe seven minutes later, levitating unmoving body of Cedric Diggory in front of himself.

"It appears that I was right on time to save him. He is alive!" The Charms master said, causing Harry let out a sigh of relief while everyone else was happy that Cedric didn't die tonight. "However I can say that the counter-curse had more or less pulled him out of Death's grabby hands... Let madam Pomfrey be the judge of his condition, but I myself know that an event like this will leave a mark on him." Both headmaster Dumbledore and director Bones silently nodded in agreement: such a close encounter with Death would indeed affect the Hufflepuff teen in some way. And, almost definitely, not in the best way either... It was possible that Cedric now will never recover completely and will never become the wizard he was meant to be.

"It's nice to hear that I've made a mistake and our Mr. Diggory is actually alive." Albus said, before turning to the head of the DMLE. "Now that both abducted students have been recovered, I believe it is time for us to return back to Hogwarts." After a short pause the aged warlock continued: "Shall tell your aurors that currently in the castle that you need them here, Amelia?"

"Yes, that would quite helpful." She agreed. "I will need a lot of extra hands to help us deal with them." She said as she nodded towards the petrified Death Eaters. "And if you can, contact the Unspeakables as well – tell them that I want them to run a few tests on this thing." Director Bones added as she glanced at the homunculus body Voldemort had been reborn into earlier this night.

"Of course." Dumbledore agreed. "Now then..." Right on cue, his familiar appeared in a flash of fire. "...we shall be going. Madam Pomfrey will have my head if I don't place these two under her care right away." Fawkes allowed everyone to touch him – though in Cedric's case, professor Fliwick had to move his hand with magic – and upon some mental signal from Albus, the phoenix flashed the four wizards away from the gloomy and half-destroyed cemetery of Little Hangleton.

That's all, folks!
Leave me a review.