Chapter Forty Eight

Harry's injured leg gave way again as they slammed into the ground. Cedric fell to his side, and the Cup flew away from them both.

He breathed deeply, trying to catch his breath, and look around in the darkness.

"Cedric?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm here. I'm OK." Cedric said, pulling himself to his feet and helping Harry up, "Do you think this is part of the challenge?"

Harry shook his head, "No. No I know this place..."

"Really?" Cedric asked, "Where are we?"

"I…I don't know." Harry said, "I saw it in a dream, I've not been here before. We should get out of here."

"Are you sure?" Cedric said, "It looks like some sort of grave yard. Maybe we should look around, see if there's a name we recognise or something."

Harry could feel every hair on the back of his neck standing on end, almost painfully. Harry pulled out his wand and told Cedric to do the same.

"There's no one here Harry." Cedric said.

As soon as he'd said the words Harry could hear the breaking of a twig as someone walked towards them.

"Think you're wrong there." Harry whispered, as they turned to face whoever was coming.

They watched as a figure came towards them through the darkness, two figures actually. One was of a slim adult. Clutching to their hand was a smaller figure, only child sized, three or four. A little toddler almost, clutching to their parents.

As they moved closer they could see it was a woman with the child, she was also clutching a bundle of rags in her free arm.

It was a strange sight, making both Harry and Cedric pause for a moment. Then Harry felt the pain in his scar explode. It was so intense he clapped both hands over his head, dropping his wand as a scream tried to escape his throat.

"Kill the spare." a cold, high voice ordered.

"Avada Kerdavra!" a second voice sounded, Harry recognised it as Bellatrix Lestrange's.

There was a swishing noise and a blast of green light that blinded Harry with its brightness. Cedric fell down, dead beside him.

Harry gasped for breath as the pain slowly left his head, "Cedric! Cedric!" he knew it was of no use, Cedric couldn't hear him now. He needed to get out of here.

Harry had only just made the decision to move when he felt a hand grab the back of his robes and pull him towards a large marble headstone. Harry could just see the name TOM RIDDLE before he was thrown against it and tied, magical cords sprung into place, holding him there. Harry could see clearly now that it was Bellatrix, looking pale and serious. She was wearing a long grey cloak, even now she was wearing something more expensive than most families could ever afford, that fact alone made Harry angry.

It seemed a silly, insignificant of detail really but Harry's mind focused on it. He would later look back and know it was because he was in shock, he'd just seen his companion killed, but at the time it just made Harry more angry with himself.

"What are you doing here?" Harry spat, "What's going on?"

Bellatrix didn't answer, she simply pulled out a long length of cloth from under her cloak and shoved it, roughly into Harry's mouth so he couldn't speak.

Bellatrix left him, he couldn't see where she had gone, he couldn't move his head around. Cedric was lying only twenty feet from him, his eyes staring into the sky. Harry could hear a noise at his feet and looked down. There was the giant snake from his dream, brushing gently against his leg on it's way past.

Bellatrix returned, floating a large cauldron in front of her that she set to rest in front of Harry. It was big enough for a grown man to sit in, Harry had never seen a cauldron so big. Bellatrix flicked her wand and a large fire started below it.

Harry could see his wand from the light of the fire, it was close, only a few feet from where he was, it must have rolled when he dropped it.

Whatever the liquid in the cauldron was, it heated very quickly and was soon bubbling and sending out fiery sparks. Harry didn't think this was a good sign. He could hear movement nearby but still couldn't see where the strange toddler had gone.

"Hurry!" The cold voice hissed from behind him.

The surface of the water was spitting more and more, it looked like the surface was covered in diamonds, it would have been beautiful if it wasn't so terrifying.

Harry watched as the tiny, deformed toddler hobbled towards the cauldron, clinging to the nearby headstones. It was completely bald, with grey skin that looked like it was melting.

"My lord! I would have helped you." Bellatrix said.

Harry felt sick, she said it so kindly, with more affection than he'd ever seen her show, even to her own children. She carefully took it's hand, leading it towards the cauldron. Harry could see it's flat, snake like face, scanning around, like it was looking for something.

"It's ready my lord." Bellatrix said.

"You… you have been good to me." the toddler said, quietly.

Bellatrix wiped a tear away from her eyes, "Thank you my lord, everything I have ever done has been for you."

The toddler shaped laughed, it was cruel, mocking but Bellatrix didn't seem to notice. She reached down and picked up the creature, balancing it on her hip for a moment, before lowering, slowly into the hissing and spitting cauldron.

"Let it drown." Harry thought, "Just let it drown." he wanted to scream, but the cloth in his mouth stopped him from making even the slightest of noises, his scar was burning with pain but he was to afraid to even feel it fully.

Bellatrix straightened up, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"

Harry tried not to panic as the ground a his feet split open. A fine trickle of dust floated up from the ground, towards Bellatrix's wand where she directed it into the cauldron.

The diamond water shattered, turning an evil looking blue and bubbling wildly. Bellatrix had grown possibly even more pale, but there was a firm determinedness in her eyes.

"Flesh of the servant, willing given. You will revive your master." Bellatrix said.

Harry watched as she took a deep breath and picked up the bundle of rags she'd been carrying earlier. Harry just saw a flash of a tiny, pink foot before it hit the surface of the water. It was only then, as she swept back her cloak, Harry saw she was no longer pregnant.

The potion in the cauldron turned a burning red, Harry closed his eyes, he didn't want to see it but the red was so bright, he could see it though his eyelids. He opened his eyes when he heard movement, Bellatrix was moving towards him.

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken. You will resurrect your foe!" She pushed the tip of her wand into Harry's arm. Harry felt it cut into his skin. She suspended a small trickle of blood just in front of Harry and directed it into the potion.

The liquid turned instantly white, and even brighter than before. Bellatrix let out a sound of joy and dropped to her knees, gazing up at the bright surface.

Then it went dark, the light from the cauldron went out; and there was nothing.

"It's gone wrong" Harry thought, "It's drowned, it's dead and it's gone wrong."

He wasn't so lucky though. A thick white fog, drifted from the cauldron, covering everything. Harry couldn't see Bellatrix, or Cedric; just the thick white fog.

Harry felt his heart stop. There, in the middle of it all, was the outline of a tall, skeletal man.

"Robe me." said the high, cold voice that had once belonged to the small toddler thing.

Bellatrix jumped to her feet and covered the man with long, black robes. She smoothed them down, making sure they hung perfectly. The skeletal man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry.

Harry felt a tear fall from his eyes, he knew that face. For three years that face had haunted his dreams at night, turning them one by one into nightmares. It was paper white, it's bight red eyes stretched wide across his face. He had no nose, just two flat slits, like a snake's.

Lord Voldemort was truly alive once more.

Voldemort looked away from Harry, as though he was of no consequence. He started looking over his new body, looking over his thin, long fingers and smoothing the length of his skin. He slipped his hand into one of his robe pockets.

"Bellatrix, where is my wand?" Voldemort asked.

"It is here my Lord." she said. She pulled out a carved ebony box and opened it. Inside was Voldemort's wand, carefully set upon a bed of black velvet.

Voldemort reached in and took it, rubbing a finger along the wood for a moment. He pointed it at the cauldron and shattered it. Harry felt the little bits of stone and dust shower down on him, turning his shoes white.

Voldemort laughed, clearly pleased with this achievement. He turned to Bellatrix.

"My Bella," He said, "Hold out your arm."

Bellatrix stepped forward, throwing off the heavy cloak she had been wearing and giving Voldemort her left arm.

He took it, pulling her closer and touched the tip of his finger to the faint, red, dark mark that was branded there. It glowed, black ink filling it again from the end of his finger. Bellatrix let out a slight moan of pain.

Harry felt his scar begin to burn once again. He couldn't move, he couldn't escape; he had to just feel the pain, racing through his head.

"It's been back for months my Lord." Bellatrix told him, "I've been watching it grow on mine, and my… my husband's flesh for weeks now."

"Yes." Voldemort purred to her, "They all will have seen it. I wonder, how many will be brave enough to return when they feel it? And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"

Voldemort didn't seem to want an answer to these questions and started pacing back and forth before Harry.

"You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father." Voldemort said, pointing with his wand to the grave, "A fool and worse, a muggle, he has had his uses though, has he not?" he let out a cruel laugh.

Harry wanted to ask why Voldemort was telling him all this, but he gag in his mouth stopped him from making a sound.

"You see that house upon the hillside, Potter? My father lived there. My mother, she was a witch, who lived here, in this village, in a mean little house so very far away from that one. She fell in love with him, but he left her. He abandoned her because she was a witch and he didn't like magic. He returned to his filthy muggle parents before I was even born, and then my mother died giving birth to me."

Harry felt a flutter of sympathy for Voldemort. It couldn't have been easy, abandoned by one parent and orphaned by the other.

"I was raised where she died, in a muggle orphanage… but I vowed to find him, to revenge myself on him, the idiot who cursed me with his name, Tom Riddle." Voldemort spat, still pacing, "Listen to me, reliving family history… I fear I have grown quite sentimental. But look Harry! My true family returns to me!"

Harry watched as the air was suddenly filled with the swishing of cloaks. Behind the graves and the large yew tree; they seemed to fill every shadowy space. Wizards apparating in, each hooded and masked. They moved slowly forward, as though they weren't quite sure they were really seeing this.