Celestial Legions – Harry Potter.
"We are not playing hide-and-seek, Harry" said Voldemort's soft, cold voice, drawing near, as the Death Eaters laughed.
"You cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish now, Harry? Come out, Harry... come out and play, then... it will be quick... it might even be painless... I would not know... I have never died..."
Harry crouched behind the headstone, and knew the end had come. There was no hope... no help to be had. And as he heard Voldemort draw nearer still, he knew one thing only, and it was beyond fear or reason – he was not going to die crouching here like a child playing hide-and-seek; he was not going to die kneeling at Voldemort's feet... he was going to die upright like his father, and he was going to die trying to defend himself, even if no defence was possible...
Before Voldemort could stick his snake-like face around the headstone, Harry had stood up... he gripped his wand tightly in his hand, thrust it out in front of him, and threw himself around the headstone, facing Voldemort.
Voldemort was ready. As Harry shouted 'Expelliarmus!', Voldemort cried, 'Avada Kedavra!'
A jet of green light issued from Voldemort's wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry's – they met in mid-air – and Harry watched in horror as the acid-green light of the Killing Curse swallowed the red of his Disarming Charm and continued on its path like nothing had even happened.
Realising that he hadn't exactly put up as much of a fight as he had wished to Harry merely closed his eyes and waited, feeling the spell hitting his chest and cold washing over him like he had been dunked in ice water. In the instant the spell hit him and the cold engulfed him Harry felt something latch around the very core of his being, onto something he had only felt when Dementors were trying to Kiss him. As he felt the Killing Curse tugging at his soul Harry felt something strange happen.
His soul tugged back.
Power exploded from his body as a scream was torn from his lips, a dangerous whip of AK-green energy lashing out from his body. Through the near-blinding light, Harry watched as Voldemort threw himself to the side ungracefully, barely avoiding the blast that continued on to send a Death Eater flying.
As a drained Harry collapsed to his hands and knees, he lifted his head to meet the confused blood-red eyes of Voldemort. Feeling a strange energy bubbling up in his chest, Harry looked down at his hands in time for the energy to reach them, his skin taking on a healthy tanned glow as a joyful singing started to radiate through his veins. Harry's eyes drifted up to his still bleeding arm, the cut from the ritual beginning to glow until Harry had to squint to see through the light shining out from the wound even as the same thing happened all over his body, the light radiating from every scar and mark he had on his skin. When the shine finally faded Harry was blinking down at clear skin, a screamed yell barely passing through his daze, causing him to look up in time to take a Killing Curse to the face.
Another scream of pain escaped Harry as the energy permeating throughout his body reacted to the dark magic, engulfing it and sending it back towards Voldemort who exploded into black smoke to 'whirlwind' out of the way of the energy. Forcing himself to his feet as he felt energy surging up to replace the power lost, Harry raised his hands to stare at them as a bright light began to radiate from his palms. As the energy inside him leapt at the slightest thought and begged him to fight back, Harry followed the instincts rising up inside him and turned his palms to face Voldemort, the light flaring once before dying suddenly.
As Voldemort barked out a laugh the energy inside him surged up and twin beams of golden light exploded from Harry's palms, pushing the startled boy back a step as the beams missed the Dark Lord and instead struck the Death Eater behind him. Harry faltered as the Death Eater let out a scream, almost lowering his hands as he watched the man thrashing under the golden light, a sense of disgust filling him through the beams as he found himself touching the other man's soul. Before he knew what he was doing Harry stepped forward and pushed his hands forward, the twin beams pulsing as they thickened, the Death Eater letting out one final scream of pain before bursting into flames and vanishing.
Harry stared at Voldemort as the beams automatically died off, his arms falling to his sides as he panted. Meeting the shocked and slightly fearful eyes of the Dark Lord, Harry slowly began edging backwards, hoping that the Triwizard Cup still had the original enchantment on it and would return him to Hogwarts should he touch it again.
Diving to the side as Voldemort's wand thrust forward, Harry rolled out the way of the sickly yellow spell and instinctively backhanded the air, a cracking sound filling the air as the tombstone closest to Harry was torn from the ground and flew at Voldemort. Shooting his hands, a shocked look, Harry glanced up in time to see Voldemort's wand flick again, shattering the tombstone into sharp shards of stone that spun around and shot towards Harry.
Automatically crossing his forearms in front of himself Harry watched in awe as the stone shards struck a dome around him, the shield manifesting as flashes of golden light as it deflected the stones and knocked them from the air. Forcing his hands apart Harry 'pushed' the energy towards his palms once more and sent twin beams of light-energy at Voldemort again, the Dark Lord being forced to slash his wand through the air while chanting an unfamiliar language, summoning up a shield of his own that seemed to be formed of living shadows that shrieked at the contact with Harry's light.
Forcing more power into the beams Harry heard a cracking noise filling the air, watching as his light was somehow deflected away from the falling shield and into a tombstone that promptly exploded. Cutting off the power from the beams Harry had a split second to see the mirror that Voldemort had conjured before it vanished and the Dark Lord was waving his wand, muttering something as he thrust it at Harry with a wicked smirk on his face, a rumble in the sky being Harry's only warning before a bolt of lightning shot down at him.
His forearms had barely crossed before the lightning struck his shield, a loud shattering sound echoing through the clearing as Harry was knocked off his feet by the shockwave that erupted from his collapsing shield. Slamming into a tombstone Harry groaned as he rolled onto his stomach, wincing in pain as he glared up at the still smirking Voldemort.
"Come Harry Potter" the snake-like man called out mockingly, "Stand up boy. Let us finish this duel. I am pleasantly surprised" the Dark Lord continued as Harry snarled and stumbled to his feet, "I thought you'd put up no more a fight than your mudblood mother, it seems I was wrong. I'm rarely wrong" he drawled.
Instead of replying Harry pulled his hands back and thrust them forward, two loud cracks filling the air as two tombstones were ripped out of the ground, being hurled at Voldemort by Harry's new power. While Voldemort shattered and banished the tombstones Harry snapped his fingers as he called on his new energy, watching as golden light danced around his fist for a moment before he pushed forward and heaved the energy at the Dark Lord in the form of a rippling wave.
"Harry"
He froze at the voice echoing in his mind, realising his mistake seconds later as he barely dodged the putrid-yellow looking spell, sending a single beam of light back at Voldemort to distract him.
"Harry, listen to me. You need to get back to the Cup. It's still a portkey, it'll still take you back to Hogwarts" the strangely familiar voice instructed as Harry raised his other hand and shot a second beam towards Voldemort, missing and almost hitting a Death Eater instead.
"NO!" Voldemort's voice roared as Harry threw himself under a grey spell that the Death Eater sent back in retaliation, "HE IS MINE!"
Realising that despite his new abilities he was still sorely unmatched, Harry started backing towards the Triwizard Cup as he focused twin beams of light on Voldemort. Sending a surge of energy down the beams Harry spun around and broke into a sprint, diving under a black ball of fire and landed on Cedric's body, waving a hand at the Cup that flew towards him. As the portkey slapped into his empty palm, the familiar hook-navel-yank feeling rushed through his body as the graveyard vanished around him, a rainbow of lights shining around him.
Tears filled his eyes as he felt himself slamming into the ground, his face pressed into Cedric's rapidly cooling chest, the lack of a heartbeat and the limpness of the older student's body forcing a soft whimper from the back of his throat. His arm tightened around Cedric's waist as a roaring cheer filled the air around him, Harry flinching instinctively as his fist clenched with the urge to summon up that shield of his.
"HARRY! HARRY!"
He felt himself being manhandled off Cedric's body, his fingers wrapping around the other boy's wrist as he was rolled over to meet Dumbledore's baby blue eyes. "What happened?" the Headmaster demanded as Harry felt something pushing against his consciousness. As Dumbledore's eyes widened and he whispered "He's back", Harry made a startling realisation and his body reacted before he could stop himself, his fist smashing into the side of the old man's face and knocking him backwards onto his ass.
"-obviously in shock Albus" Harry heard Fudge exclaiming, "He just saw Diggory, that poor boy, getting murdered in front of him. I don't believe it, Cedric Diggory, dead! Oh Merlin Amos is on his way here; quick someone cover the boy's body he doesn't deserve to see that".
"CEDRIC!"
"Too late" Fudge dead-panned with a sad sigh.
"Come on Harry" Dumbledore ordered, grabbing Harry's injured arm and pulling him to his feet roughly, "What happened? What did you see?"
Making sure to keep his eyes away from Dumbledore's Harry instead looked at Fudge who was watching him expectantly as people surged around him. "They killed him" he blurted, "Those people from the Quidditch Cup, they cast the Killing Curse on him. I couldn't stop it" he added as he felt himself beginning to babble, "It was a trap, they wanted revenge for You-Know-Who. Cedric wasn't supposed to be there so they killed him, they were going to kill me too but I ran" he exclaimed, something telling him to keep quiet about Voldemort's return.
"Merlin" Fudge exhaled as his face went pale.
"We need to prepare Cornelius; Lord Voldemort has returned. The Aurors must be gathered and the original Death Eaters rounded up before they re-join him" Dumbledore ordered quickly.
"Bal-balderdash" Fudge whimpered, "He's not back, he can't be back! He's dead!"
"Boy, let's go" Moody muttered as he suddenly appeared at Harry's side, grasping him the arm and tugging him towards the school, "We need to get you to the Hospital wing for that leg".
Harry stumbled along after the rough ex-Auror as he glanced over his shoulder looking for either Hermione or Ron, unable to find them as Moody muttered under his breath and continued half-pulling, half-carrying him through the crowd surrounding the cup. They were inside the castle before Harry knew what was happening, his vision blurring as a bone-deep exhaustion began to settle into his body. "Woah there boy" Moody blurted as Harry almost tripped, "You need to lie down, get some potions in you before you pass out".
Energy tingling at the edge of his senses made Harry falter and look up, blinking at the pillar of white light that appeared in the middle of the hallway. A red beam of light shot out of the pillar and struck Moody in the chest, throwing the man down the hallway as the light faded to reveal a more than familiar red-haired woman, white light dancing around her hands as she glared at Moody.
"That's not Moody" the woman declared as she waved her hand, a flash of white light shining around Moody who bubbled and shimmered, turning into a familiar lanky brown-haired man, the fake eye and peg leg popping off to roll away. As Harry stared at the woman in shock she murmured something and a stream of white ropes exploded from her palm to wrap around the man, a flick of her wrist summoning three wands from the fake Moody.
"Hello Harry" the woman exhaled as she snapped the wands and chucked them to the side lazily, turning to face him with a nervous but loving smile.
Staring at the woman dumbly, Harry said the only thing his mind could manage at the time.
"Mum?"
CELESTIAL LEGION
Based on BaraktheSlayer's 'Angels and Devils' challenge.
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