As disorienting as a portkey was to Harry, the heightened dexterity afforded to him as a werewolf allowed him to land properly. He didn't know where he was, but an eerie glow over the ridge was the only sign of life, and that was the direction Harry headed in. He could see a person standing over a large cauldron, brewing a potion that smelled absolutely foul even from this distance.
His ears twitched when he heard a hissing voice. "He's here Wormtail."
Harry's lips pulled back into a vicious snarl seeing the squat man who betrayed everyone who cared for him. Skulking forward, his body ready to pounce and rip Peter into pieces for everything he's done, the man turned and flicked his wand in Harry's direction.
Leaping out of the way of whatever possible spell it could have been, Harry had a moment to see Peter turn back into a rat when the sound of skittering started to overwhelm his ears, the spell hadn't been aimed at him, instead it had turned a headstone behind him into a swarm of vermin, which were racing in every direction to get away from the massive predator.
Now the rodent scent was everywhere, and there were dozens of small shapes skittering in the dark. "Now!" a voice shouted and Harry whirled around expecting Peter to have snuck behind him, but that was the distraction, no one was there. As the real Peter had scurried behind the cauldron as soon as Harry was trying to find him in the mass of furry critters.
Harry felt an explosion of pain against the back of his head. "Sire the stone, it didn't knock him unconscious?" Peter said in fear as the werewolf was already beginning to recover from the blow.
"It wasn't meant to, now bury him," the voice ordered.
The ground quickly lost its consistency and Harry found he was sinking fast, clawing to gain purchase; it was rapidly hardened, holding him in place. "It worked, haha it worked sire," Wormtail happily cheered for having bested the werewolf.
"Now the blood, hurry," the bundle commanded.
Growling when Wormtail approached and even if he couldn't move his head, he still tried to snap at the man's ankles, but he let out a howl of pain as a blade sliced into his arm, and Harry knew it was silver for how it burned and made steam rise from the cut. "I have it, the silver dagger worked."
"Throw it into the potion," the voice said and Wormtail complied with dropping the bubbling blood into the cauldron
Harry watched as Wormtail performed some type of ceremony, where bones from a grave were added along with Peter's own hand, Harry then saw the bundled body thrown into the boiling concoction. For a few moments nothing seemed to happen. If he could snark he would be deriding Peter for botching the potion, when suddenly the cauldron cracked in half, gaseous clouds wafting over the graveyard. Slowly Voldemort stepped out from the metal, his slime coated skin glistening in the moonlight.
The Dark Lord had returned.
"Wormtail, my wand," Voldemort held out his hand, even naked he wanted his wand before anything else. To feel the connection to magic he hadn't in over a decade of waiting.
With it in hand it was but a meager show of effort to clothes himself in the finest conjured silk. One might consider it a waste of power while it was him simply acclimating to his new body. "You arm Wormtail," Voldemort said and looked at the bloody stump presented. "Your other arm."
Whimpering Peter held out the arm that held the dark mark and fell to his knees when the tip of the dark lord's wand was pressed forcefully into his flesh. Multiple snaps echoed in the night as dark shapes formed around the grave markers. "My loyal, friends," Voldemort dragged out as he twirled on to the death eaters who had arrived.
Harry was snarling and snapping angrily while struggling to free himself. But a spell impacting the ground in front of him, spraying him with dirt, made him stop. "Now now, Mr. Potter there is no need for that," Voldemort tutted as he stalked closer to Harry.
"I had heard you were afflicted from the papers but it is a different story to see it with my own eyes," Voldemort said flatly as he circled the trapped werewolf. "Oh how things have changed, or rather how they have not."
"Kill him," a death eater shouted, which turned into a scream of agony as the dark lord whipped his wand to lash out at the man who spoke out of turn.
Turning back as if nothing happened, Voldemort looked down at the furious werewolf. "Poor Harry Potter, gives his all for everyone else, and this is what he is rewarded with, a public who fears him, a government that hates him and all alone."
"It is a shame," Voldemort said and for a moment Harry believed that this was said honestly. "You, who have suffered more than most, will never be free, always one slip up from a grisly public execution."
Harry just growled. "Yes, I can see how that upsets you."
Smirking, Voldemort stepped back from the werewolf. "Did they ever tell you why the werewolves and other dark creatures sided with me in the last war?"
"Ah right, you can't speak," Voldemort laughed haughtily, enough for the death eaters to chuckle nervously. "We'll call this a holdover from when I was possessing Quirinus. But I feel a lesson would do you some justice. You see, werewolves, vampires, giants and more have no rights in the magical world, always pushed down by the government. I offered them something no one else did, respect and freedom. A life where they were free to live without the ever present fear of the aurors striking them down, where they did not have to worry about being discriminated against for jobs."
Harry was quiet as he listened to the dark lord explain how he offered the non-wizards what they had always wanted. His talks with Sirius about his time at Hogwarts had touched upon Remus and how he had no independent prospects after graduating, even with his grades many businesses would not dare hire a werewolf. It was considered too much of a risk, trust was simply at an all time low and with werewolves like Greyback roaming around, no one wanted to risk that they hired a werewolf who was looking for easy access to victims. The wolfsbane potion hadn't been invented yet so there was no option for a lycanthrope other than running away from civilization for a few days and hoping for the best.
Sirius had said to Harry that James' parents, his grandparents, were willing to hire Remus on the word of their son but their deaths during the war meant that never came to fruition. And after the war, the public still lacked trust and in some circles outright hated werewolves even more because for every werewolf that sided against the Dark Lord or maintained neutrality there were many more who were using the opportunity to attack, turn or kill indiscriminately.
It was what Harry expected to happen to him after graduation, if he even made it that far. And he realized that this was all the dark lord had to offer the various creatures to get them on his side. As horrible as Harry knew the man was, what he sold them on was better than what they were getting.
Snapping back to the conversation, Voldemort had made his way to the cauldron. "So Harry, I offer you a one time deal, join me, you need not die today."
Slowly the ground gave way enough that Harry could pull himself free. He stood in front of the dark lord and was huffing his shoulders, he wanted to attack, to rip out the throat of the true monster in front of him, but all the extra death eaters around meant he'd never get the chance, they were ready for him to attack let alone whatever spells Voldemort knew, he couldn't win this fight, not this night.
But the Dark Lord saw the hesitance, "I see you need time to respond to my offer, you can't exactly talk like this can you?" tilting his head with a sick grin.
"Run along little wolf, run back to Hogwarts and think about it," Voldemort waved off Harry who was tense but letting out a snarl.
Spinning on his haunches Harry barreled out of the graveyard and to where the chalice was waiting in the grass. Grabbing it firmly he felt it tug on him and pull him out of where he was.
Slamming into the ground the crowd that had been waiting for his return let out a cheer, but Harry was panting from the mental exhaustion of the day, looking up he could see that those who knew where he had been were worried, but he didn't want to see anyone else, sprinting out of the quidditch pitch, even as others in the crowd shouted in surprise Harry was racing across the lawn, he needed to get away. He couldn't be around other people, not right now.
The gate of Hogwarts wasn't an obstacle for him as he crashed through it, and ran down the path that led to Hogsmeade. Pedestrians let out screams as he passed them by. But he kept going, into the Forbidden Forest, where no one would ever be able to find him.
He knew that if he stopped he'd have to think so he kept running and running. The wind pushing past his face he didn't even care where he ended up.
The light of day woke him up, bird's chirping pleasantly in his ear. Sitting up he felt sore, his body having been run ragged just to pass out in the dirt.
He found himself in a field, but it wasn't in the forest, he was near a town. With a sign that pointed him in the direction of York of all places. "Wow, I ran far," Harry said to himself before realizing that he was naked, since he wasn't allowed to properly change last night, his clothes had shredded and he had nothing to put on afterwards. He also remembered that he had given his wand to Sirius for safekeeping, not trusting the aurors to treat it properly. "Just great," sagging his shoulders as he scurried to get closer because he needed something to wear.
Thankfully it wasn't a nun or a bus full of children he found first, it had been an old man throwing out his garbage behind his home for Harry to hiss and draw attention to himself. "Sir, I've uhh been mugged, do you happen to have a spare set of clothes I could borrow?"
The old man blinked for a few moments before laughing uproariously. "Boy ain't the first time I seen some youngin be stripped in a cornfield, hehehe," the old man wheezed as he went inside and came back out with a pair of pants and a shirt that were improperly sized for Harry but it was objectively better than nothing.
"Thank you," Harry said as he tried to figure out his next plan. He wasn't going to go back to Hogwarts, not now at least. But he needed to get somewhere to get his head on straight. "Do you know where the nearest police station is?"
The old man just smiled and pointed Harry down the road.
After making up a lie to the officer about having been mugged and left in a field far from his home asked to just use a phone to call someone to come pick him up. He was just hoping that it wasn't Vernon who answered.
"Dudley?" Harry asked when his cousin picked up.
"Harry, what are you doing calling? Don't phones not work up there?" Dudley asked because he hadn't expected his cousin to call but he was getting up to go for his early morning jog, the exercise he did with Harry had been paying off in every regard, he was slimmer, more athletic and the girls were all over him. It took up a lot of time and he found that the boys in the neighborhood who'd rather spend their time just roughing up little kids for pocket change didn't interest him anymore, he could spend that time at the gym, especially if he wanted to get into a good college on scholarship.
"No, I'm in York," Harry sighed. "It'll probably be in the paper today, well at least what lies they print, but I need someone to come get me, I'm in an old man's clothes, I don't have my you know what and I'm not going back for now."
"But won't they come for you?" Dudley inquired because he doubted that Sirius or Tonks would just not find him.
"Yeah they will, but I can't be up at the school right now," Harry pleaded.
"Did you attack someone?" Dudley remarked because Harry seemed like he had it under control and the letter he sent them after the Yule Ball to explain what really happened had ticked off his mum.
Harry leaned against the wall. "No I didn't, I should have, but I can explain that later, I just need someone to come get me."
"Mum and dad aren't going to be happy to make the trip," Dudley commented while sighing, this was going to take up the whole morning as it was a nearly four hour drive to York.
"Yeah and when I tell them who managed to come back from the dead they are going to be less happy," Harry whispered into the receiver. "Can you do it?"
Harry heard a heavy sigh on the other end. "Yeah, yeah we'll come get you. Just stay where you are."
"Thank you," Harry said before hanging up. Now he just had to wait it out.
It was nearly five hours later that his relatives made it to the police station, but he wasn't going to complain, they probably had to fill up the car and get food along the way. But he was grateful to just slide into the back. And at least they gave him a few minutes before they asked just how he got himself into that situation.
"Voldemort is back," Harry sagged as he answered. "This fucking tournament was just a ploy to get me to him so he could get a body."
"So what all happened then?" Dudley questioned because coming back from the dead was not normal and never would be in his eyes even if he was seeing magic as a less weird thing.
Harry decided to start from the beginning of the previous day, how he spent his time with the Weasleys, Hermione, Sirius and the Tonks'. He went over how the ministry wanted to put on a show and brought Macnair out.
"That nasty man with the ax?" Petunia asked for clarification, she'd only met the man once when he was first at their home and even she was skeeved out by him.
"The very same, seems like the ministry was expecting me to be a problem, completely unbiased surely," Harry snarked in the back of the car. "I hate the shackles they used, they dig into me."
"Shackles?" Dudley questioned because he was pretty sure Harry was just in a bigger cage than at home.
"Yeah after those scumbags attacked Tonks, the ministry made some new rules and sent a different auror in, so I've been chained to a wall every full moon for the past few months, and they are sized for me now, not as a werewolf," Harry griped.
"Then some jerk, probably Malfoy, threw his butterbeer at me," folding his arms. He muttered under his breath about retribution. "Everyone else thought it was funny and joined in. Dumbledore was mad, he kicked out the minister and the aurors."
"Can he do that?" Vernon questioned because ministers, even made up ones for magic people, still meant some type of power.
"Probably not, but you've never seen Dumbledore get mad, even with a half-dozen men and the minister himself, my money is still on Dumbledore," Harry chuckled. "There's a reason he's called the most powerful sorcerer in the world."
"But they left with their tails between their legs, Tonks took me to the showers and we… uh just anyway," Harry stammered because he was not going to bring up that with his relatives. "But once the task started, someone used the imperius on Cedric so he'd attack Fleur, and I hit him to knock him out. And Viktor found us, and I couldn't explain to him what was going on, then I started hearing parseltongue."
"What's that?" Dudley wondered.
"I can talk to snakes," Harry answered while Dudley sat quietly for a moment before turning and slugging Harry in the shoulder. "What was that for?"
"You sent that snake at me on my birthday, you jerk," Dudley shouted because now he knew Harry was being a twat years ago.
"No I didn't, I just talked to him and vanished the glass, and I didn't even know about magic then remember," Harry protested and slugged Dudley back, the two devolving into slapping at each other.
"BOYS!" Petunia shouted. "Not in the car. And Harry, how is this guy alive?" wanting to get to the root of the story.
"Right," Harry resituated himself while kicking at Dudley who kicked back. "So the prize in the maze was the chalice. The first champion to touch it wins the whole tournament."
"That sounds stupid, what was the point of the other tasks if only the last one mattered?" Vernon muttered as he found everything the magicals did stupid.
"That… is a really good point Uncle Vernon, however I didn't make the rules, I was just punished by them."
"But I followed the voice, and found it, I grabbed it and it was a portkey. That's basically an object that was enchanted to act as a magical means of travel, you can move a lot of people really far almost instantaneously with it, but it took me to a graveyard. And Wormtail was there," Harry snarled angrily.
"That's that Peter fellow who betrayed your parents right?" Dudley asked.
"Yeah, he's working with Voldemort, used some bones out of a grave, cut off his own hand and took my blood with a silver knife. All that to come back to life," Harry continued his tale.
"He… he didn't kill me," Harry admitted. "He had a chance, I didn't have a wand to defend myself with, not that it would have mattered since the man knows more about magic than me, and he had his death eaters too. But he let me go, he talked about why the werewolves and other creatures sided with him last time, and… it makes sense."
"I'm a werewolf, and sure I'm famous and have Sirius and Tonks in my life, other werewolves don't, they can't get jobs, the public fears or hates them, it's not hard to see them joining the side that tells them they won't be treated like trash."
"But he's lying right?" Petunia asked unsuredly because she wondered what decisions Harry was making in his head right now.
"Yeah, he's lying, if he got his way everyone would still be under his heel, but they'd be allowed to hurt as many people as they wanted, but I don't and I bet most werewolves don't want that either but when you only have two bad options," Harry trailed off.
"That's a shite situation," Dudley surmised. "So you ran away from school, must have made some great time to get to York."
"Oh yeah definitely, I've never been allowed out and for the first time I could really test my body," Harry smirked. "It was great. Starving though. Haven't eaten since the feast yesterday."
"AH bloody hell," Vernon shouted as his car swerved to avoid the white object flying at their windshield. "That blasted bird!"
"Hedwig?" Harry questioned as he rolled down the window for his owl to dive bomb through. "How did you find me?"
The white owl only prekked in response and held out her leg with a letter attached. Unfurling it and getting bitten in the process from the irate bird. "It's from Tonks," Harry gulped.
"She wants to know where I am?"
"Well tell her," Petunia urged, because she knew why Harry stumbled over his words after saying she took him to the showers. "We'll be home in a couple of hours."
"Right, that should give Hedwig time to get back to Hogwarts," Harry nodded as he scribbled that onto the back of the envelope and sent Hedwig off with it. That was how after running through a drive-thru for Harry to devour twenty-three burgers on his own, which Vernon was not happy to fork over the money for, but Harry promised that he'd pay him back after he got his winnings, that it wasn't just Tonks waiting at Number Four Privet Drive for him, but Sirius and Professor Dumbledore as well.
He barely got out a hello before Tonks had grabbed onto him and pulled him into a tight hug. "Oh Merlin, Harry are you alright?" Tonks asked as she pushed back to inspect Harry for any injuries. "You just ran off last night, what happened?"
"I…" Harry sighed and took Tonks' hand in his, for all that she meant to him he couldn't lie to her. "Voldemort is back and I ran, I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Harry I don't care about that," Tonks sniffled as she pressed Harry against her. "I just needed to know you were okay."
"I think so," Harry nodded against Tonks' chest, he was feeling better already to be honest. "What happened when I left?"
"It was a bit of a chaotic situation, we found the real Mad-Eye and he is pissed about having been kept in a trunk the entire year. When we brought this up to the Ministry that one of their top officials had been hiding a death eater for years after breaking him out of Azkaban, Fudge accused Dumbledore of trying to steal his job. And I'm out of a job," Tonks said but was cut off.
"What?!" Harry exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah, Yaxley went above Madam Bones, I'm out of the aurors on Fudge's orders, he said if I tried to fight to keep my job he'd have me tried for treason, fuck him though. Shack and Bones were the only people I still liked after everything the Ministry did to you, so I'm not upset at all that I'm not going to be enforcing their bullshite anymore," Tonks shrugged because it was all she could do after losing her dream job that she had worked so hard for. "So what's this about Voldemort being alive?"
"We should probably go inside and I'll explain everything that happened after I went into the maze," Harry offered to those who had come all the way down just to see him.
Sitting at a table, Harry was scarfing down any food put in front of him, the Durlsey's had run out surprisingly and Sirius called for his house elf Kreacher to provide more things for Harry to eat. "And then he let me go," Harry finished after telling the same story that he told the Dursleys, with a bit more emphasis on the magic since he figured they'd know more.
"Shouldn't he be a werewolf if he used werewolf blood?" Tonks questioned about that incredibly risky decision to still use Harry's blood while he was transformed.
Sirius shook his head in response. "No, that was likely the purpose of the knife being made out of silver, it purified the blood and kept him from becoming afflicted, hell if anything it's possible that he's immune now."
"Even as a young boy Tom had his foot planted firmly in the dark, but this level of necromancy is far too much," Dumbledore said sadly. He did not recognize the ritual, nor expected anyone else to, which he was at least grateful that it meant it was unlikely that other people would attempt such a vile magic.
"So what do we do?" Harry asked after washing down his chicken with a cup of juice.
"I'll have to gather what members of the old Order are still around, Tom has not made his presence known so he is likely to build up his followers before making a big reveal," Dumbledore thought.
"As much as I hate to suggest it, should we go to the ministry with this?" Sirius inquired because he was not a fan at all of his own government right now but fighting a war with Voldemort had taken their government openly resisting him last time, and they were still losing, going against him alone might be their doom.
"If there were cooler heads then I would not hesitate to bring what we had forward," Albus shook his head sadly. "But as it stands it is unlikely that they believe us and would only try to discredit our actions, for the time being we are playing a dangerous game."
Taking out the day's issue of the Prophet, the headliner was about the confrontation between the minister and himself, it read about a challenge of power from the headmaster in an attempt to usurp the ministry. "It would seem that for now politics is the name of the game."
"On a lighter note, Harry I am also here to present to you, your winnings from the tournament," Albus smiled and unshrunk the chalice he had taken and filled with the sack of galleons, it was only rightful that Harry be given it after everything he had been put through.
"Great, I'll just put it with my other trophies," Harry said sarcastically as he looked at the chalice with a glare.
"Come on pup, you earned this," Sirius patted Harry on the shoulder. "You were put in a bad situation but you came out the other end. And hey, you managed to get the girl in the end."
Harry blushed at his godfather's ribbing but Tonks put a stop to that. "Only I get to tease my Hairy Harry," reaching over to nestle Harry's face in her bosom. Refusing to let him away from her, she just stroked the back of his head.
"But what about the summer, if your ministry is so dead set on railroading Harry and you aren't an officer anymore, then what will happen when the full moon comes?" Petunia questioned while giving her nephew a sidelong glance, clearing her throat Harry responded by pulling himself out of the young lady's chest. It was not an appropriate thing to do in the company of others. Turning back to Sirius and the headmaster she pursed her lips angrily. "Because if that man with the ax comes by again I will not be letting him into my home."
"Probably for the best, he was at the graveyard," Harry commented about MacNair being present for Voldemort's resurrection. Even with the masks on, he could still recognize MacNair's scent among the others.
"We'll be setting up a safe house to operate out of, for the time being though, you will remain here," Albus instructed even though he wanted to simply tell Harry he would be coming with them now, preparations had to be made and he couldn't just go at the fastest pace possible as it would be too noticeable. "It will take time to properly hide the location and with the attention the ministry has on you, moving you will have to be done carefully or they may try something even without Tom's urging."
"That sucks," Harry grumbled before Tonks wrapped her arm around him.
"Not all bad, I'm out of a job, so that means I have the entire summer to spend it with you," Tonks grinned at her boyfriend, she hadn't asked but their time together was very much something she would only do with someone like Harry.
"That actually sounds wonderful Tonks," Harry happily said, because now he was going to be able to spend more time with the person he felt closest to.
"Plus there's no way Hermione and the Weasley's don't come bother you all the time now," Tonks ruffled Harry's hair. "So you're going to be too busy to mope about."
"Oh great, more people," Vernon grumbled because he already disliked how many magicals were constantly in his home over the last summer, now it just seemed like it would be far more chaotic.
Harry managed to get a good laugh out of that and the worries he had about Voldemort were pushed out of his mind for a time.
