It seemed that the boredom of looking at a still lake for an hour during the second task led to many relationship developments, at least around Harry.
Ron got together with Zainab, Dean's ex-girlfriend, to Dean's grumbling. But with some time having passed, even he admitted that the break-up had really been his own fault, and Ron and her had apparently bonded over complaining about the stupidity of the Second Task and then management of the Tournament in general. It seemed like a strange reason to get together with someone to Harry, but what did he know? Anyway, it seemed that Zainab shared Ron's penchant for strategic thinking – though chess seemed to bore her – and they'd found their fun in trying to come up with ways they'd have arranged to competition to make it as engaging for the whole school as possible.
On the other hand, it apparently indirectly led to Daphne and Theo breaking up.
"When we realized that we were just supposed to stare at the lake," Draco was explaining, "most Slytherins headed back to out common room – we can see the lake from there, too, so we figured we'd at least be warm when staring at water and trying to see something. But it wasn't much less boring that way, really, and so Daphne dragged Theo to our dormitory to amuse themselves." Harry flushed at that, a little, but Draco went on: "When they came back out, they were broken up, and neither would talk about what happened."
Harry grimaced. "Is it weird now?" He wondered. He certainly couldn't imagine having to share a friend group with Cho after she broke up with him – and that idea made him dread his eventual break-up with Parvati, come to think of it.
Draco, however, shook his head. "They seem fine, really. Daph is a little sad sometimes, maybe, but don't don't have any problem talking to each other or anything. Anyway, it's a relief, because now I can break up with Pansy."
Harry blinked at him. "What?"
"Yeah. I wasn't gonna be the loser who can't keep a relationship going, but we've been at it over a year and we won't be the first to break up now, so I think it's fine."
For a moment, Harry could only stare. "Draco..." he muttered.
"What? It was you who told me not to date her in the first place!"
"Yes, but oyu have! For over a year!"
"Did you think I was about to marry her?"
"Well, I didn't think you were sticking it out with her only because of some stupid competitiveness! Not even Pansy deserves that."
Draco rolled his eyes at him. "What, you thought she was with me out of some pure, noble love? I'm the best catch she can get and she knows it. It was mutually advantageous. Plus, you know, it was nice to have someone to..."
Draco trailed off, but made a movement with his hand that made Harry flush brightly again. "You slept with her?" He whispered, even though they were alone in the classroom they'd met up in to talk.
Draco flushed a little, too, at the question. "Not, you know, all the way," he replied. "But she's kinda, uh, helped me out."
Harry bit his lip, wanting to ask more but feeling awkward about it at the same time. "And you you, you know, helped her too?" He dared to mutter in the end.
"Um, kinda? A little? I- she said it was nice, anyway. Did you...did you help Parvati?"
"No!" Harry exclaimed. He wasn't sure he wanted to either – or that he wanted Parvati to 'help' him. He liked the idea of it well enough, but he'd learned with Cho that he didn't always want to do the things he liked the idea of in practice, and it just seemed like it would leave him very vulnerable and uncomfortable. Maybe once he was with her longer? For now, he was quite extatic that she let him touch her breasts, and felt no need to ask for more.
"Oh," Draco said, sounding disappointed. "I hoped I could ask you for tips. Theo is useless, won't talk about this at all."
"Well," Harry pointed out, "you mean to break up with Pansy anyway, so I don't see what you'd need those tips for."
"Best be ready for the next one!" Draco declared, and Harry could only shake his head.
-hp-hp-hp-
Harry kept thinking about his conversation with Draco in the week that followed, and about things he wanted and didn't want. It was especially on his mind that Saturday, as Hogwarts had provided another Hogsmeade weekend not long after the Second Task, perhaps to compensate for how boring that had been, and Harry was spending most of it with Parvati. They spent some time in Madame Puddifoot's, but the weather was decent enough – though cold and windy – that they could go for a walk around the village to be alone, and as they found themselves kissing against a tree, Harry's mind slipped to what Draco had said and he imagined, for a moment, sneaking hs hand further down…
And then what?
Even beyond not beign sure he actually wanted that, he had no idea what he would even do! Maybe Draco had the right of it – it was best to get ready in advance.
Anyway, Parvati didn't seem to have any complaints in the area by the time it got too cold for them even with keeping each other warm and they headed back to the village. In fact, she kept sneaking little looks and smiles at him on the way, something he quite enjoyed, and so was caught completely off guard when he suddenly tripped over nothing, let go of her hand to avoid pulling her down with him, fell down and in the next moment, disappeared.
He recognized the feeling of travelling by portkey, but he was so disoriented he fell to his ass when he arrived, at a grim, abandoned graveyard he had never seen in his life. Dread began to curl in his stomach, combined in shock – Parvati had been smiling at him in Hogsmeade just a moment ago – and he froze for a moment before he shook himself and pushed all thoughts of Parvati to the back of his mind, taking out his wand with one hand and his two-way mirror with the other. This stank like a week dead fish, and he pulled on all his training in focus Snape had given him, because he was pretty sure any distraction right now would be fatal.
"Alduin," he said as soon as his cousin appeared in the mirror, "I've been taken, I don't know where. It was a Portkey they made me trip over in Hogsmeade."
He saw alarm suffuse his cousin's face, and could see in the flashes of the background behind him that Alduin was running, but he only said: "Any clues to where you are?"
"It's a graveyard..."
"Try reading names on the graves!"
Harry obediently approached the nearest one, and immediately his horror grew. "It says Tom Riddle..." He muttered, but before he could say anything else, he was Stunned and the mirror fell out of his hand and broke.
When he woke, he was tied to the Riddle gravestone with a gag in his mouth and his scar hurt like never before.
Before him was a large cauldron bubbling with something, and a voice that seemed to come from a bundle of rags in a man's arms said: "Now..."
Harry froze. He knew that voice.
It might have been three years since he'd heard it coming from the back of Quirrell's head, but he would never forget it.
The man – who seemed to be Peter Pettigrew if Harry recognized him well from the pictures in the Prophet – unwrapped the bundle, and Harry saw something so terrible and disgusting he couldn't help a yell that escaped him.
It was a slimy, scaly thing with a snake-like face with red eyes, and long legs it put around Pettigrew's neck as he carried it to the cauldron.
Harry supposed it was too much to hope the creature would simply drown. Instead, Pettigrew started to recite in a solemn voice. "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" He said, and a bone was summoned from the grave under Harry's feet and cast into the cauldron.
Pettigrew began to whimper as he pulled out a dagger from his robes. "Flesh – of the servant – w-willingly given – you will – revive – your master," he said, voice trembling, and...actually cut off his own right hand.
He screamed and Harry screamed with him, and for a moment felt he would vomit behind the gag and choke on it. But it got worse. Wormtail approached him and muttered, panting, "B-blood of the enemy… forcibly taken… you will… resurrect your foe" as he cut Harry's arm and put the blood in a vial that he poured into the cauldron.
For a moment Harry hoped nothing would happen, but then there was a show of sparks, a billow of steam, and...Riddle – no, Voldemort, because this thing deserved no human name – stepped out of the cauldron with a body of his own.
It looked mostly like a human body, but it was just far enough from it – with the strange eyes and slits in place of a nose, and with its pallor – that it made goosebumps errupt on Harry's skin even without contemplating the implications of what had just happened.
He firmly forbid himself from doing that – if there was ever a time to focus on what was happening in the moment, it was now. He needed to survive, and remember every detail to tell Alduin later.
Voldemort spent some time admiring this new vessel, but then turned to Pettigrew, who was still groaning in pain.
"Hold out your arm."
"Thank you, Master..." Pettigrew said, snivelling, and extended his bloody stump.
"The other arm, Wormtail," Riddle said mockingly.
"Master, please… please…"
Riddle ignored him and took his arm himself, pulling the sleeve back and examining what Harry realized had to be – from what Alexandra had explained to him – the Dark Mark.
"It is back," Riddle said softly, "they will all have noticed it… and now, we shall see… now we shall know…"
He extended his long finger towards Wormtail, but before he could touch him, a curse suddenly flew in from nowhere at all. Riddle deflected it, but he cast one angry glance around himself, took Pettigrew's arm and disapparated among more spells.
The moment he was gone, people on brooms started to appear around Harry. He recognized only Kingsley – and, not long after, Alduin, who was flying towards him at full sped and almost fell off the broom in front of him.
"Are you all right, Harry?" He asked frantically, looking him over and taking the gag out of his mouth.
"Yes...but...he's back, Alduin...Riddle is back."
"We saw," Alduin assured him. "We'll deal with that later, but for now we have to make sure you're fine. Did he do anything to you?"
"Just tied me up and took some of my blood for that vile potion that gave him back his body..."
"Potion?" Kingsley, who stood nearby, asked wit interest.
"Yeah...he put in his father's bone and Pettigrew cut off his own hand...and then he needed my blood to make it complete, apparently..."
By now Alduin had completely untied him, stopped his bleeding and pulled him to his feet, cleaning his robes.
"Anything else crucial before I take you home?" He asked.
Harry shook his head, still in shock. "I don't think so...it was all so quick..."
Alduin simply nodded. "If you remember anything later, you can always add it. Now if you have no objections…?" He turned to Kingsley, who nodded, and Alduin side-Apparated him to Travers Manor, where he led him to one of the drawing rooms.
"I'll let you absorb the shock – I have a lot of things to arrange – but first, is there anything you need from me that I could do? I'm so sorry I couldn't prevent this, Harry. It never occurred to me..." he shook his head.
"There was nothing you could have done," Harry replied. "I just...could you let Parvati know I'm fine? She's probably wondering what happened to me."
Alduin nodded. "It'll be done."
"And...are Alexandra and the boys here?"
Alduin shook his head. "No, Harry. As soon as I heard from you – well, after I called Kingsley – I told her to take them and go to a safe house we have. We had agreed beforehand to do this the moment Riddle comes back. I want to fight in this war, but this time, I am only willing to do this if I know they are completely safe." He sighed. "I wish I could do the same for you, but..."
Harry nodded. After today, he had no illusions Riddle would ever stop looking for him, if he ever had any before. He had seen it in the monster's eyes.
He left Alduin to his work and slowly walked to his room.
Riddle was back.
It was, somehow, impossible to believe, in spite of having been getting ready for it for over half a year now.
And there was, also, the question of who had tripped Harry and slipped him the portkey.
Harry would bet all of his money – two full vaults – it was the same person who had put his name in the Goblet. And he really, really wanted to know who it was.