Edited by the mighty pazed!
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Chapter 73
Peter Pettigrew had never been a brave man; cowardly, petty and jealous would have been much more apt descriptions. However one thing could motivate him into something that was much akin to bravery and that was self preservation.
That particular trait was creating war within him at the moment.
On one hand he had the raging inferno that was before him, sweeping its way across the graveyard…
And on the other was the fear of what his Master would do if he failed…
As he backed another step away from the heat, his mind raced trying to come to grips with what he had seen the son of his one time friends do.
He had been firing towards the large mausoleum, keeping the brat pinned behind a particularly ugly weeping angel, when a spout of fire leapt from behind the statue, streaming like water from a hose.
At first he had thought Albus Dumbledore had somehow found them and was using his famed fire whip spell, one he had seen on a few occasions during the last rise of his Master and Lord, Voldemort. However it had quickly become apparent that was not the case as the stream didn't cut through the stones it hit, but rather flowed over them, again like water.
Every place the stream touched was instantly set ablaze, smoke soon filling the air.
The stream suddenly stopped only to appear again spouting in the opposite direction, once more setting fire to everything it found.
He was now gasping for breath, as he choked on the smoke rolling off the burning brush, his eyes widening despite the burning and watering they were doing, as the boy stood from behind the statue and walked into the deepest flames.
He was wearing some odd form of close fitting clothing, deep red in color, with small multicolored patches; even his hands were covered by the same material. Then he did something that unnerved the man even more.
He smiled.
Tonks had thought she understood magic. Her mother had been born into one of the oldest of Wizarding lines, the Blacks, a lineage that had gifted her with the extraordinary gift of being a Metamorphmagus, with the ability to shift her appearance at will. She had attended Hogwarts, for seven years honing her skill with both her body and magic, gotten good grades as well (even from that bloody ASS of a potions instructor, Snape!), then gone on to become a trained Auror. She had seen all kinds of strange things, ghosts, monsters, spells…
But this… this was well beyond anything she had ever seen before.
She and her partner, Kingsley Shacklebolt, had both run off the champions' dais hot on the heels of the visiting Headmaster from the United States, Chinthliss. He had surprised them by not hurrying towards the castle or the gates to the grounds, but into the Forbidden Forest.
When she had asked where they were going, he had just waved his hand and said, "No time, this is the shortest distance out of the wards!"
In a way that had made sense, but it was the Forbidden Forest, filled with who knew what, including Centaurs and all forms of magical beasts!
They were suddenly in a large clearing, and Chinthliss turned back to them. "Are either of you afraid of heights?" he asked.
The pair of Aurors glanced at one another. The elder, a large dark skinned man shook his head. "We both can fly brooms…"
The headmaster nodded quickly, and cut the man off before he could continue. "We will be traveling by a different means, however. Please stand back…" He paused momentarily, from his path towards the center of the clearing. "Don't be afraid. I've been told this can be… unnerving if you're not expecting it and I'm afraid I do not have time for explanations."
The partners nodded as they stopped walking at the edge of the clearing.
What she saw next she would remember in vivid detail till her dying breath, and while she had seen something like it before, it had in no way prepared her for what she saw in those few moments.
Headmaster Chinthliss stopped again once he reached the center, then his outline began to blur and expand. She wasn't quite sure if it had been her that said it out loud. "He's an Animagus!"
They both had stared in wonder, as the Headmaster shifted into his new form.
This time she was sure she said it. "He's a bloody dragon!"
He was unlike any dragon she had ever seen, at least half again as large as the Horntail, or the others from the tournament and he had four full limbs, with wings sprouting from his back rather than being a part of his forelimbs.
The bronze dragon's head swiveled to easily see them, as he placed his front paw next to the pair. "Climb into my claw," rumbled the great beast. "We must be quick; use your magic to hold yourselves in place, we will be moving fast from here on!"
Tonks glanced at Kingsley. "You first boss."
Hermione and the others had made their way to the champions' pedestal and joined Fleur and her family.
"Did you hear anything?" she asked the older French girl.
"Just that your Minister for Magic is a fool!" she said angrily. "He used his authority as Minister to have the Tri-Wizard Cup made into an emergency portkey! One that could go through the Hogwarts wards!"
Hermione face palmed. "What a moron…" she said into her hand. "Anything else?" she asked looking up.
"No…" the blond beauty said. "Not about Harry at any rate… but it seems as if Headmaster Chinthliss and his father had been expecting something to happen. They are..."
Before she could continue, a deafening roar filled the night drawing their eyes to the sky. Where they spotted a bronze colored dragon wheeling in the air, each beat of its wings lifting it higher.
Once it was higher than the mountains surrounding Hogwarts, a gout of flame burst from its mouth, the flames forming a ring in the sky in front of it. As it passed through the ring the behemoth disappeared from view.
"What in the…" asked Fleur in shock.
"Oh!" exclaimed the young blond headed girl standing next to Hermione. "That was just our Headmaster… He must have been in quite a hurry."
Several heads in the crowd slowly turned towards the girl, their mouths wide.
Tannim pulled the reins of his Elvensteed, bringing it to a halt, and glanced toward Al.
"There!" the man pointed, looking up from the device in his hands. "Towards that glow!"
A moment later the hill was empty once again.
Harry watched as the transformed FX, now looking like Harry, stood in the midst of the flames and tried to keep from laughing. While it was quite the visual, the flames posed no threat to FX, especially in his phased state as he was more akin to a ghost in that form, visible if he wished but not much else. It had originally been a hindrance to him before he earned his fifth tail, but now it, along with his shape shifting, was among his greatest assets.
Harry jut hoped it kept the man distracted for a moment.
Peeking around the far edge of the tombstone, Harry chanced a quick look.
Peter finally reached a decision, after glancing down at the bundle in his arm. Raising his wand he attacked! "Stupefy!"
He could only stare in amazement as the bolt of red energy passed through the young man. "What? How?" he cried as he tried again. "Stupefy!"
When it failed again, the faux Harry began to stalk forward, his smile widening. "I-It's not possible!" the man yelled, as he then tried more destructive spells. "Defodio! Diffindo! Expulso!"
Harry smirked as the spells passed through his friend without effect; only another kitsune could even attempt to cause him harm in this state.
Once he was sure that Peter's attention was solidly on FX, Harry began casting. A glowing plane formed above the man and once he was satisfied with its size, Harry dropped it.
Right on the rat-man's head.
Tannim shook his head as they brought the steeds to a stop. "Harry!" he growled, as they looked down on the scene just in time to watch Harry take care of Pettigrew.
Al was laughing at that point. "What is it with that boy and setting things on fire?"
Tannim sighed. "Let's get down there and get it contained before it gets too large."
Harry stood up and trotted toward his friend, who waved him back. "No! Harry! Something else is under there with him! Just keep it pressing down!"
Harry stopped moving and nodded, as a flash of green came from under the sheet of force.
His father's voice startled him. "Harry! Get back! Go to Al, he'll get you out of here!"
Harry spun to see the three men close by, one still sitting astride his steed. "But I…"
"TANNIM! Get up here!" yelled FX as another flash of green appeared and the force plane shattered.
"AL, get him out of here!" Tannim screamed, as he hobble-skipped his way towards FX. "Keighvin! That thing looks like the diary!"
Before Harry could turn to get a good look, Al's hand grabbed him by the arm and hoisted him onto the elvensteed behind him and set it into motion.
Harry twisted to watch, as whatever was going on receded into the distance behind them.
FX stared in horror at the creature struggling its way loose of the now limp form of Peter Pettigrew. It was a disgusting deformed babylike form, its head too large and lacking a nose and ears, with dark blood red eyes and pale white skin. Its aura was dark, black with streaks of red and green.
Another blast of green erupted from the wand held in the creature's hand, missing him by mere inches.
"FX! Get away from it!" yelled Tannim as he rushed forward, Keighvin at his side.
The thing turned its wand their way. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" it yelled.
Both elf and man dodged away from the powerful blast.
Keighvin became a blur of movement as he shot forward, recovering and covering the intervening distance in the blink of an eye, slashing with his sword as he did.
The thing screamed in frustration as its tiny arm was separated from its body along with its wand. Kicking the wand away he looked down in disgust. "The mighty Lord Voldemort, I take it."
"Elf!" The creature snarled back. "I had scarcely believed my servant when he told me of you! How dare-"
"Oh do shut up!" Keighvin said. "Tannim! If you please."
Tannim nodded, and raised his crowbar above his head preparing to drive the chisel point down, just as he had when he destroyed the diary.
"You will not be done with me this easily elf!" screamed Voldemort. "I am immortal, it may take time but I shall have my revenge! On you as well as Potter."
Keighvin just chuckled. "You think your little trinkets are going to save you?" he asked. Voldemort's eyes widened. "Oh yes we know about your little horrorcruxes, the problem is you don't know everything we do about them."
At that point Tannim smashed the crowbar down driving the tip deep into the ground through the thing's body.
They watched as the iron bar disrupted the magic that held the shade form of Voldemort inside the body of what had once been an infant. Both of them felt saddened by the waste of such a young life just so a monster could hold on to its supposed life. As the magic broke the tiny body shriveled into an unidentifiable husk that then crumbled away, leaving only the wraith still pinned in place by the cold iron bar.
Keighvin knelt beside Peter. "He's dead. I suspect Riddle was using the killing curse."
Tannim nodded. "I wish there was a way to find out who the parents were… or if they are still alive," he said softly. "Someone should at least remember the child's name."
"Perhaps the man inside Hogwarts knows…" the elf said as he stood, turning to address his long time friend. "Go with FX and help him put out these fires. I wish to speak to the spirit."
Tannim nodded and went to join FX. "Tom Riddle," the elf said as he knelt again. "I know you can understand me shade."
The inky thing pinned to the ground by the crowbar slithered along the ground slowly, almost as if it were in pain.
"You were a monster in life, by your own decision and actions," he said, "And now, because of those same types of decisions, in death you will face the darkness of oblivion."
The elf shook his head. "Death comes to all things that live, no matter who or what they are, and by using your magic for something so foul you have only doomed yourself all the more."
He stood again looking down at the now shivering blob. "I hope that you enjoy your new home Tom, this is where you will spend the rest of your miserable existence. Once Tannim is finished and Chinthliss has arrived that very rod will be driven deep into the ground here and be covered over."
He took a deep breath and continued. "Over the next one hundred years, give or take, your soul will slowly dissipate till you are no more. With your wraith held here by cold iron your other pieces, if you have more, will be rendered inert, useless."
The elf chuckled. "Poetic justice I guess. You who took a name that meant 'flight from death', and reveled in the death of others, have found a fate far worse than any death and will pass through that threshold as your remaining years tick by surrounded by the dead."
He then turned and walked away, leaving the inky blob tugging with all its might against the hunk of cold iron.