Hi everybody. Happy Easter!
I hope you are all well and can enjoy the holiday with friends and family. Many eggs (chocolate or normal) for you.
This little story is a two shot, where I decided to go about the graveyard incident at the end of fourth year a bit different. For more, you have to read the story ;)
As always, the one to own all rights to the Harry Potter verse is the amazing JK Rowling, who gave us this world to enjoy. I only play in her sandbox.
The Power He Knows Not
Harry honestly had trouble containing his laughter. He had heard that Voldemort was a smart guy. That his plans and tricks had been what had driven the Ministry of Magic and with it all of Wizarding Britain to its knees back in the seventies and early eighties. But his new plan, well, after seeing and experiencing it being acted out, Harry wanted to laugh out loud. He knew why this was a very, very bad idea, and Voldemort definitely should know better. But he wouldn't say anything, this was too good a chance for him. He should be afraid right now; he was after all tied to a statue of an angel on a graveyard. He was far away from Hogwarts, and it was pure chance that he had touched the Triwizard Cup before Cedric. They had argued who should take it, both believing that the other was worthier of the honour.
When gesturing why Cedric should take it, Harry had accidentally brushed against the Cup and the portkey had activated. That hadn't been part of the plan. His injured foot had given out under him during the landing and the stupid scar had to act up again. But his initial fear had been replaced by difficultly suppressed amusement. Voldemort had said he wanted Harry's blood. Harry knew that this would spell Voldemort's downfall. Wormtail was performing a ritual. Bone of the father, unknowingly given. Well, a dead man could hardly know anything. Even if Harry seriously wondered if using the bones of a muggle, which he knew Tom Riddle senior was, would weaken a magical ritual. Then flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed. It was no real problem in his opinion if Wormtail, the traitor, decided to mutilate his body even further.
He wasn't in any way important in Harry's mind and could rot for eternity. If he had any faith that the Wizengamot would do its job properly, he would insist on Wormtail snuffing it after being presented to the Wizengamot, so that the biased bastards on it didn't have any other choice but clearing Sirius of all the charges against him. But Fudge's actions made it more than clear that Sirius would need outside influence to ever have his name cleared. Perhaps the ICW could help. He would suggest it to his godfather, once he was away from here and safe again that was.
The third component was blood of the enemy, meaning Harry himself, forcefully taken. Well, he wasn't keen on Wormtail cutting him with that knife. Who knew where he had been with that thing? It certainly wasn't sterile. He had heard from Sirius that Wormtail was next to hopeless with potions. Why Voldemort wanted him to perform a ritual that included a potion, Harry couldn't understand, but then again, Voldemort didn't have much selection of able followers that could do any kind of ritual. His snake didn't have hands after all. Even if he would probably be right to suspect that she was smarter and more capable than Wormtail.
When Harry's blood was dropped into the cauldron from the vial in which Wormtail had collected it, Harry waited with bated breath. He knew something Voldemort didn't know. Something that Madam Pomfrey had warned him about at the end of his second year at Hogwarts. The figure of Voldemort rising from the cauldron was ugly to see, honestly, that body was barely looking close enough to be called human, and Harry looked closely for the signs he knew would appear very soon.
Voldemort inspected his body happily, demanding that Wormtail robed him and took his wand back. Harry counted the seconds inside his head. Any time that Voldemort wasted was his gain. Then Voldemort tapped Wormtail's Dark Mark on his arm, then started to tell Harry about his life story, his great plans and how he awaited his followers. Harry spotted the first signs while Voldemort monologued. When his first followers arrived, Voldemort was seemingly too distracted to notice that something was very wrong with his body. The Death Eaters obviously didn't dare mentioning anything being amiss with their master, not when he was curse happy and threw crucios at those he deemed deserved it.
Harry couldn't believe his luck when Voldemort instructed Wormtail to cut him free, so he could duel him, to prove once and for all that Harry wasn't a threat to his power and had only survived through luck when he was a baby. Bastard of course couldn't stop himself from using the cruciatus curse on Harry before the ropes were cut. Coward. But Harry didn't think that being handicapped in the duel would mean too much. The signs were all there. Just a little bit longer. Harry took his wand and quickly thought over the spells he had studied to survive the Triwizard Tournament. There was one spell that would work perfectly for his needs. One of the little obscure spells that Hermione had thought would be useful in the maze. Merlin bless her love for 'Light Reading'.
Harry, after Voldemort forced some stupid bow with a spell, after being miffed that Harry wouldn't obey his imperius curse command to bow to him, used the opportunity when he dodged from a curse that Voldemort threw at him to hit Wormtail, undoubtedly the weakest Death Eater there that he could be sure of, even if he suspected that Crabbe and Goyle senior wouldn't be much more competent than their sons in his year. Meaning, they were idiots. But his spell connected to Wormtail, who wasn't on guard for Harry targeting him.
The spell was neat. It connected certain things for chain reaction spells that followed. And, in this case, Harry had set up the spell to use the Dark Mark as the connection. The mark and its magic. Which meant, all Death Eaters and Voldemort would be hit by anything that influenced one part of the chain. No matter how close or how far away said bearers of the mark or the magic were. Hermione had told him that it would be a great way to deal with swarms of magical creatures, like the poisonous doxies, which could easily be hidden in the hedges of the maze to attack when he wasn't looking out for them. Then he could connect them all with the spell and knock out the whole swarm while just hitting one of them.
Then it happened. Harry had suspected it to happen much earlier, but the effect was great. Voldemort started shaking uncontrollably, which was soon transferred to the Death Eaters, some of them began moaning in pain. Voldemort soon determined Harry as the culprit.
"Potter, what did you do?" Demanded Voldemort to know.
"Me, nothing? You did this yourself, or more precisely, you ordered Wormtail to do it," answered Harry smugly, still staying hidden behind a gravestone.
"Liar!" shouted Voldemort.
"It's not my fault that you didn't do your homework, or that Wormtail wasn't smart enough to connect the dots. Honestly, Voldemort, don't you know the effects of basilisk venom?" asked Harry.
"What do you mean, Potter?" asked Voldemort, now holding his torso in pain and breathing with difficulty.
"My blood is the problem. I was bitten by the basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets at the end of my second year at Hogwarts. I should have died, but Fawkes the phoenix saved my life by crying into the bite wound, and phoenix tears are the only antidote to basilisk venom. Still, Madam Pomfrey ordered me to never let anybody get my blood into their bloodstreams, as it would kill them, if not immediately treated by phoenix tears themselves. My blood is highly toxic. The dose I got was too high to fully counter. Stupid beast bit through my arm; I still have that scar. Fawkes' tears achieved one thing, for me, and me alone, the lethal effect of the venom was cancelled.
"Madam Pomfrey explained it as the tears having gone into the walls of my veins and preventing that my blood allowed the venom to be transferred outside of them. Basically, the venom is only in my veins, but can't reach my organs. Only things that my organs need, like minerals, sugar, proteins and so on, can pass the walls. My blood is just the carrier. I can't take normal potions either, the leading Potions master of St. Mungo's has to specifically brew them to Madam Pomfrey's instructions, to account for the effect of the venom in my blood, which weakens or neutralises every other potion," explained Harry.
"Then," realised Voldemort with horror on his face.
"You, by insisting on using me for your ritual as the blood donor, got yourself poisoned, as you don't have the protection I have from the phoenix tears. I don't know why Wormtail didn't tell you about this, as I told Ron about being bitten, and he should have heard it, but perhaps he was asleep at that time. He slept most of his time as a rat. Oh, I might have done one thing, I have used a chain reaction spell to connect all those with the magic of the dark mark together, which is why your Death Eaters are suffering from the same problems you do, as basilisk venom is horrible, and doesn't just target the body, but the magic as well. When I got informed about its effects by Madam Pomfrey, she told me that one reason why nobody breeds basilisks for profit is that their venom can destroy all kinds of materials thoroughly. It disintegrates them, and they could escape any type of security measures," commented Harry.
Voldemort didn't have any control over his body anymore. Harry didn't know this, but thanks to Harry connecting all the magic of the dark mark, meaning Voldemort's magic, the effect of the basilisk venom also included his horcruxes. And, contrary to what Dumbledore might believe, Harry wasn't a horcrux. Not that Harry knew anything about horcruxes and their effect. But having the basilisk venom in his bloodstream for two years now, had quietly killed off the small soul piece that had been stuck behind the scar. The sliver was so small that the aura of the magic of the venom was enough to destroy it over time. Only a faint echo, which only acted up when Voldemort was feeling particularly upset or angry, mainly when Harry's mind was open while sleeping, he got some images transferred.
Harry only had to wait for fifteen minutes, until all the Death Eaters had succumbed to the transferred death sentence from Voldemort. A wizard without magic couldn't survive for long. Now Harry only had one problem. He didn't want to be blamed for the deaths of countless 'upstanding citizens'. After all, these guys had bribed their way out of Azkaban with a lot of gold. Hm, perhaps he could spin a story that the idiots would believe. But he would need help to manage. Well, there was one being that would always help Harry. He called Dobby to him and after calming the little guy down, he explained his plan.
Harry returned to Hogwarts via Dobby Express, the Triwizard Cup in his hand. Dobby delivered him to the hospital wing, as Harry had decided that nobody could blame him for wanting to get the nasty cut and other injuries healed immediately. Thus, with Madam Pomfrey being her usual self, and immediately urged into action, thanks to him actually telling her what had happened this time, and he had enough injuries and problems to deserve a stay at the hospital wing, he wouldn't be bothered by the ones waiting for his return at the maze. Not that they were currently thinking a lot about Harry being missing. Of course, Cedric had reported it when Harry suddenly vanished during their argument about who should take the Cup, but with several people around suddenly experiencing pain and then dying without any discernible reason, well, that definitely distracted everybody a lot.
Hence, Harry's return was only found out the next morning. A sad result, but Fudge had panicked and overreacted when Moody, Snape and Karkaroff died one after the other in front of him. He had called everything from aurors to dementors and Dumbledore was hard pressed to talk some sense into him. Harry meanwhile had been healed of the things Madam Pomfrey could heal, even if the cruciatus curse spasms would last for a few more days. Harry was lucky that he had avoided a second dose of that curse. Once was bad enough.
His friends got told, after a sleepless night of not knowing where he was, as Madam Pomfrey didn't see any reason to inform anybody outside of his head of house, which she did via a paper plane memo, and the headmaster, but both were too busy to read the missive before the morning. When they did, the headmaster directly went to the hospital wing to find out what Harry could tell him about the events. McGonagall for once did her duty as Harry's head of house and informed his friends that he had been at the hospital wing all night, but that she didn't know more than that he wasn't in any mortal danger.
It relieved the Weasleys, Hermione and Harry's other Gryffindor friends a lot to know that he had just, for once, done the sensible thing and gone to Madam Pomfrey with his injuries. They went to the hospital wing as soon as they could.
Harry listened to Dumbledore admonish him for not talking to him immediately after he had returned to Hogwarts. Harry wouldn't have any of that.
"Headmaster, are you an idiot?" he asked bluntly, making Dumbledore splutter in indignation and surprise that any student would talk to him like that, but Harry just continued, "I was severely injured by Voldemort in that graveyard. I had already got cuts, bruises, a painfully sprained ankle and exhaustion from the maze, then Wormtail cut my arm deeply with a knife that quite possibly was tainted with something, and I was put under the cruciatus curse. Even I know that with that list, the first place I should go to was the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey could put me back together. You should know from my file, that she has placed orders to always be consulted about any medical issue I have, because my blood isn't normal anymore. So, why would I want to put your supposed need to get information about my own health? Especially as I know that Madam Pomfrey sent you a message where I was as soon as I was treated for the moment?"
Dumbledore couldn't really refute Harry's argument, even if he clearly didn't like it.
"We were busy with the events. I need to know if you know anything about something that Voldemort did that could have caused several people to die," stated Dumbledore, not commenting on Harry's declaration.
"Well, he died because of his own and Wormtail's either stupidity or lack of information. I mean, I was ordered to always make very sure that nobody ever got even a drop of my blood into their bloodstream, because it would kill them. My blood is highly toxic from the basilisk venom. I'm the only one protected from its effect, thanks to Fawkes' tears. I realised that as soon as Voldemort said that my blood would help him realise his rebirth. It's not my fault that he didn't do his homework and I might add, I was gagged. I noticed that Wormtail died when Voldemort did. I guess that the Dark Mark was some sort of connection between Voldemort and his followers, as he was monologuing about calling them to him, and how he wanted to know how many would dare to come and how many would be stupid enough to not do so.
"Well, the more time passed, I didn't really count the minutes, as I was a bit distracted, the weaker Voldemort's new body became. Wormtail also moaned in pain and in the end succumbed to the effects of whatever happened. When both were dead, or at least I assumed they were, as I was still tied up, even if they had taken out the gag of my mouth, as Voldemort wanted to hear me scream when he put me under the cruciatus, he said as punishment for the trouble I had caused him, I called for Dobby and he cut me free with Wormtail's knife. I then let him take me back to the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey took over," most of Harry's story was the truth, and thanks to Dobby, anybody going to the graveyard would find it exactly as Harry had described things to be.
"I see. I will have to see how I can add this information to the whole picture of what happened last night," sighed Dumbledore.
"Who died here?" asked Harry, already knowing, but he had to ask to keep his cover.
"How do you know?"
"Well, I overheard Madam Pomfrey talking about it, but she didn't mention any names. Only that it would cause some trouble and that Professor Moody was somehow involved, but I couldn't hear more then, as she handed me a sleeping potion and made sure I drank it, which then knocked me out for the night," Harry could honestly answer.
"I guess you will hear soon enough anyway. Professor Snape, Professor Karkaroff and the man we thought was Professor Moody died a bit after you vanished. Cedric Diggory informed us about you accidentally touching the portkey while you argued about winning and being transported away. We were trying to find out how to find you, as we only got to him after a while. But then the three men started being in pain and Professor Moody transformed into a person we believed to be dead for years, he had taken polyjuice potion to impersonate Professor Moody all year. That's why you heard that Professor Moody was involved," explained Dumbledore sadly.
"I have no idea how that happened," stated Harry, using his ability that he had perfected with the Dursleys to convincingly lie to any adult.
"I see. Well, I have to go and meet with the Minister again. I hope you get well soon, Harry," said Dumbledore and left the hospital wing.
Harry didn't really care. It seemed that everything had for once worked out perfectly. He wondered how long it would take until the full extent of the mess would be revealed. Many people had died after all and many were well-known members of society.
Dobby was a life saver. He had taken the dead bodies back to their homes, he knew where they lived from having gone there in company of his old master Lucius Malfoy before, and he left them there, seemingly preparing to leave for some other place. Harry didn't tell Dobby to change their robes. They should be revealed as the scum they were. But this way, nobody could insinuate that Harry had anything to do with their deaths. He was the victim here, and he had taken care to overwrite the connection spell on his wand with other spells that could be mistaken as being cast inside the maze. After all, priori incantatem only told the last spells of the wand, not when they were performed exactly.
The Ministry wouldn't reveal the truth, Fudge would lose his job, should it come out that his biggest financial supporter, Lucius Malfoy, was caught in Death Eater garb in his home, while seemingly being on the way to Voldemort's rebirth site. Harry had decided to send the location of Voldemort's and Pettigrew's corpses to Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, with a short letter that told the basic outline of what had happened in the graveyard. He knew she would come to question him about what he had seen, but that wasn't a problem. But, perhaps, it might now have an actual chance, as many Death Eaters had also held Wizengamot seats, the corpse of Wormtail would serve to get Sirius cleared of the charges against him.
He would have to carefully investigate that matter. But at least Wormtail's Dark Mark on his forearm, which was very visible right now, would start doubts about Sirius actually being the traitor that led Voldemort to his parents' house, leading to their murders by Voldemort. Fudge might be a problem, not wanting to admit anything. He would have to observe how much pressure Amelia Bones could create by asking questions.
The great thing was, nobody could question the dead, thus there would be a lot of speculation about what had actually happened. From what he had told Dumbledore, nobody would be able to blame him for anything, even if he wouldn't count on it. He knew that there was some slight risk left over. But that was why he had ensured that the important information and irrefutable proof of Wormtail's and Voldemort's corpses was delivered to the one person that could, under certain circumstances, block the Minister and the Chief Warlock. Harry had already got a lot of what he wanted, now he just needed to take care of the last details, then his life would be much better than before.
And chapter one done, chapter two will follow tomorrow :)