Thank you to all supporters with an extra special thank you to Jimmy Adams, Rafał Badera, Jo Daviz, LegendaryWasabi, SvenGTX, Optimum Prime and Jack Schriner. I really love you all and you really motivate me to keep going with my writing

Remember all chapters will be posted here for free but as a thank you to people who support me they get to read the next two chapters of all of my stories over at pat re on early. artwork and links are also available there for free.

Chapter 44

Peter Pettigrew refused to look down as he climbed up the outside of the glass tower about half an hour before the start of the third task. His master had come up with a spell that would allow his rodent feet to stick to the smooth surface as long as he kept his focus. That and the invisibility cloak that Crouch Jr had lent him on their masters orders was all he had needed for this particular mission. Wormtail sighed in relief as he climbed over the ledge of the tower. He wasn't particularly afraid of heights, but he doubted anyone would be happy to be ten floors up with nothing to stop you from falling to your death. He was happy to finally have a floor underneath him again. He shifted back to his human form, making sure that the invisibility cloak remained tight around him. It was a pity he didn't have James's old cloak, that thing had been much better than this one. He had searched the Potters' house after his master had killed James and Lily, but the cloak hadn't been there.

The Triwizard cup was in the middle of a platform that was floating between the four towers, each tower having a bridge that spanned the twenty foot gap. Wormtail walked over the bridge that went from the tower he was currently standing on up to the Triwizard cup. The information they had from Crouch Sr was that the cup was going to be a portkey, but Hogwarts wards didn't allow people to portkey in or out unless that portkey was made by the headmaster. It was how the wards were designed before the creation of the Floo network, in case they needed to get a student medical help that the school was under-equipped to deal with. The flaw was that once a portkey was made, anyone could layer a secondary location on top and the wards wouldn't interfere with the portkey. He just simply had to add a location to the portkey and use it to kidnap Potter. The portkey was the easy part, all that took was the Portus charm, which was actually the first spell they made sure you could cast once you took the Dark Mark. A lot of recruits were surprised by that, expecting to learn the killing curse or some bit of dark magic. However, no one needs dark magic to kill, one can do that with a first year severing charm. What was needed was a way to escape that would work even while injured.

The cup glowed blue. Wormtail smiled to himself and then pulled out two blue ribbons that he tied to the handles, careful not to touch the cup and activate the portkey. Once he was done with the cup, he settled in to watch the start of the task from atop the tower while hidden by his invisibility cloak. He needed to see what tower Potter and his team were going to use, and once he knew he could sabotage the final trial in the other three towers. Then, only Potter and his group would make it to the cup. He smiled to himself again. This was going to be easy and he would be rewarded well for his loyalty.

-ϟϟϟ-

The second trial had been easy but time consuming for the inter school team. it had been a three dimensional maze where the patches had been about three feet wide by three feet tall. It was more spacious than crawling through air vents (as Harry thought about the movie he and the Grangers had watched recently), but it was still a tight fit and difficult not to get lost. However, when Hermione had started marking the dead ends with a Colourvera spell so that they didn't keep trying the same routes when they got turned around, they made good progress.

The third trial was more like the first, in that it was a puzzle you needed to solve to get access to the teleportation ring. This time, though, the ring was behind an opaque wall. To get past this one you had to give the answer to the riddle, but if you got it wrong you had to wait ten minutes before you could try again, and during this time you couldn't even use a key to bypass the room. There was no reason not to look at the riddle; if they couldn't do it, they could just not answer and use one of their keys. Hermione read the riddle out to them all.

"There are 5 houses in 5 different colours. In each house lives a wizard. The 5 owners have a certain potion, a certain wand wood and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same potion, wand wood, or pet. The question is: Who owns the owl?"

"Clues:

- wizard 1 lives in the Red house.

- wizard 2 keeps a Dragon as a pet.

- wizard 3 has Felix Felicis.

- The Green house is directly on the left of the White house.

- The Green homeowner has Amortentia.

- The wizard who has a wand of Yew owns a Phoenix.

- The owner of the Yellow house has a wand of Hazel.

- The wizard living in the centre house has Veritaserum.

- wizard 4 lives in the first house.

- The wizard who has a wand of Black Walnut lives next to the wizard who owns a Cat.

- The wizard who owns a Unicorn lives next to the wizard who has a wand of Hazel.

- The wizard who has a wand of Cypress has a Hiccoughing Solution.

- Wizard 5 has a wand of Elm.

- Wizard 4 lives next to the Blue house.

- The wizard who has a wand of Black Walnut has a neighbour who has Polyjuice Potion."

Once Hermione finished reading it out, she had a wide grin on her face. Fleur, however, looked worried. "I think we should use a key. I have heard of riddles like this, they are almost impossible."

"I have seen Hermione answer a riddle like this when she was twelve. If she says she can do it, then I say we let her." Harry had every confidence in Hermione.

"Actually I have done this riddle before. It's a rewrite of the classic Einstein riddle. They have changed enough that I need to work through it again but it should be relatively easy. Fleur, can you conjure me some parchment and something to write with, please?" Hermione sounded confident enough that Fleur agreed and conjured up a parchment, quill and ink.

Harry watched as Hermione made a table and started to fill it in bit by bit as she went over the clues, checking them off and adding something to the table. After about 5 minutes, she finished filling out the table, and after one last check gave a jubilant yell of "I got it!" and shouted out the answer to the room. The wall that kept them from proceeding faded from existence, only this time it wasn't a single teleportation ring but three distinctly separate smaller ones.

"Well, that's not encouraging," Harry snarked as he saw the three separate rings.

"Looks like one ring each. I guess that means that we are split up on the next floor." Hermione sounded worried about that.

Harry, who was holding all the keys, handed one to each of the girls. "If you need to, don't hesitate to use it." Nodding their understanding, both girls stepped up to a circle each, leaving one for Harry. They stepped into their circles at the same time.

Their supposition that they would be split up was right on the money. The room they arrived in must have been magically expanded, because the big round room they were in was at least three times as wide as the tower. The room was divided into three sections by shimmering walls of magic, and each of them was in their own section…and sharing their section with one of Hagrid's fully grown Blast-Ended Skrewts. The three champions suddenly had their hands full, but luckily they had plans to deal with these abominations of magic and nature. It had been suspicious enough that the Ministry had granted Hagrid a waiver on the ban on experimental breeding, but when you combine that with the Triwizard Tournament it became obvious that the Skrewts were meant to be used as an obstacle for the champions to face.

As Harry and Hermione had access to the monstrosities for the Care of Magical Creatures class, something Hagrid hadn't changed after two of the students had been selected to compete, they had studied the Skrewts intently. With the help of Fleur, they had developed a plan on how to fight them. Their armour was incredibly effective at reflecting direct spells, and it was a pity that the shell lost its spell-reflective quality so quickly after the Skrewt died, because otherwise it would make a great material to use for duelling/law enforcement robes. If you wanted to kill them with spells, you had to attack the soft unarmoured underside. Of course, the Skrewts didn't tend to go around with their vulnerable side out in the open, so they had each developed a plan of their own.

Hermione's method relied on timing a spell she had learned for the first task. When she saw the Skrewt beating towards her, she waited for just the right moment and cast the Transfiguration spell that created a wall out of the floor. The wall sprung up from the ground slamming into the underside of the front third of the Skrewt, knocking it backwards but most importantly flipping the dangerous monster onto its back. With its underside exposed, Hermione stepped around her new wall and fired a stunning charm at its soft underside. The Skrewt went limp, and Hermione hit it twice more to be sure. Fleur took a very different approach; instead of trying to expose its underside to use a direct spell, she chose to use a non direct spell. She pointed her wand at the Skrewt, and with a muttered spell she cooked it in its shell like a lobster in a barbecue, the magic reflection useless against the raw heat of the spell invoked.

Harry's plan melded the two approaches of his two girlfriends. It was Transfiguration of the floor just like Hermione, but instead of flipping it and stunning it like she did he took a more ruthless approach like Fleur. He transfigured the floor beneath the Skrewt into sharp spikes of stone that impaled the monstrosity. At least that was Harry's plan, but the Skrewt blasted off just as Harry was casting and instead of the quick victory of the rest of his team Harry found himself having to dive out of the way of the heavily armoured projectile.

He jarred his shoulder as he rolled away from the attack with his left arm awkwardly bent underneath him. It hurt a little, but as it wasn't his wand arm so he ignored it. He was just able to get back to his feet when the Skrewt blasted off again aiming for Harry's legs. In a move that Hermione and Fleur would call reckless, Harry jumped. Not to the side this time, but straight up. His adrenaline-filled jump propelled him high enough that the Skrewt (that had to be about three and a half feet or one metre tall) passed right underneath him. Harry had just enough time to turn and try the spell again once he landed. This time he was successful and the spikes drove into the soft underside, killing the Skrewt instantly.

Once all the Skrewts were dealt with, the barriers separating the three champions were dispelled and both Fleur and Hermione rushed over to Harry and started fussing over him. He raised his hand in a placating gesture, "It's okay. I'm fine." The two girls glared at their boyfriend, and Harry knew they weren't going to drop it without more information. "Honestly, I rolled my shoulder a bit, it's nothing to worry about. It will be fine in a day or two and I can still use it if I need to." He gave the two girls a reassuring smile, but they still fussed over him for a minute before they moved on.

They were glad that they saved the keys rather than using them at the start, as the trials got progressively harder as they ascended the tower. When they found that one of the trials was to get around a dragon, Hermione activated the key before anyone said anything. She turned to apologise to them when they were teleported to the next floor, only to find that both Harry and Fleur had drawn a key to bypass the task and Hermione had just been the quickest one to do it. When they were about to start the eighth trial, Fleur realised that they had two keys left and that they could just skip the last two trials. If Harry hated wizard travel before, he found that using these keys directly after one another was even worse. His stomach rebelled and Harry tried not to think that a couple of thousand people were staring at him as he puked. He felt a hand on his back and looked up to see Fleur there offering what little comfort she could as she cleaned him up with a flick of her wand. "It's okay, we are the first up here and Hermione is going for the cup. I really hope you master your Apparition technique soon. I hate seeing you like this."

Harry turned to give her a weak smile but there was suddenly a voice behind him. "Potter!" Three heads all turned to look at the voice, and their eyes widened at the balding overweight man that was helping LeStrange almost exactly a year ago. Harry went for his wand, but the man that he now knew to be Pettigrew, the man who had betrayed the hiding place of his parents, already had his own wand in hand and shot a nonverbal spell at Harry. Harry was still too uneasy on his feet from the teleporting keys and couldn't avoid the spell, and so he thought, I am about to die.

Suddenly, his vision was filled with the colour blue; not some spell effect, but the back of Fleur robes. The French witch had blocked the spell with her own body. There was a flash as the spell hit Fleur and she collapsed to the ground. The air was suddenly filled with a mixed cry of fury, pain, and despair. Harry didn't even realise that his voice was only one among thousands, as the spectators watching to see who would win the Triwizard Tournament all saw what happened to the beautiful teenager. Harry dove for Fleur, desperate to see if she was still alive, but suddenly his arms snapped to his side and his legs snapped together like a soldier at attention. He couldn't move at all, so he couldn't stop himself falling forward and landing on Fleur.

Harry realised four things at that moment. One, that his head had landed face first in Fleur's breasts. Second, that he had been hit with the full body bind jinx. Third, he could feel Fleur breathing so she was definitely alive. Fourth, he was in trouble. That last was made clear when Pettigrew put one hand on Harry's shoulder and called out "Accio ribbons."

Harry couldn't see anything facing down, but he suddenly felt the hook in his midsection that was the telltale sign of a portkey. If he thought portkeys were bad before, this one was the worst he had ever experienced. It may have been due to the fact that he couldn't move, or maybe his magic was pushing against the portkey more then normal as he didn't want to go anywhere, but whatever the cause the winds in the portkey set him spinning and it was only the body bind that kept Harry from throwing up mid teleport. He slammed hard into the floor, knocking his head as he was unable to do anything to control his fall.

Harry felt a chill go down his spine as he heard the aggravatingly sweet voice say, "Wormtail. I see you have actually returned with Potter. Can I have him now please, master?"

The voice that replied was even more chilling, "Now now my dear Bella, you know I have need of the boy first. I'm sure once I have finished with him there will be plenty left for you to amuse yourself with."

Harry tried to move, but the binding held him tight. The only thing he had any control over was his eyes, but all he could see was the starry sky directly over his head. Then there was a flash of red light and he blacked out.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry woke up with a jolt, finding a grinning Bellatrix LeStrange right in his face. He was standing somehow, at first he thought that they had used a sticking charm to stick him to something hard and cold, but he soon felt the ropes and understood that he had been tied to something. Probably a gravestone, given the view Harry had around them. "Wake up Potter, you wouldn't want to miss the return of the Dark Lord now, would you?"

Bellatrix obviously hadn't been able to see a healer after her previous encounters with Harry. Burn scars were still visible on her face, along with a scar from the cutting hex Hermione had hit her with during their first encounter. "Bella, how lovely to see you again. I love your look. Tell me, how do you get your skin so red and shiny?" Harry snarked, unable to help himself.

He saw the look of pain on the woman's face and felt a little spike of victory, only for it to come crashing down moments later when she pointed her wand at him, the same wand Neville had carried for almost three years. "Crucio!"

Pain. That was all there was for Harry and he screamed for relief. This wasn't the same as the first time this woman had hit him with the spell when she was using a stolen wand that barely worked for her. This wasn't even as merciful as the night she outside the castle where the Dementors were hindering her concentration. This was a full on Cruciatus from Bellatrix LeStrange, Voldemort's most terrifying supporter and one of the only Death Eaters who never bothered to try and hide her identity.

Harry screamed. The pain was so bad he wished for death, and only being in too much pain prevented him from being able to form the words to beg for the release of death. Unlike previous times he had been under this spell, the pain didn't stop once she lifted her wand. Instead, it just started to slowly fade, and while every second he felt a little better the pain never completely went away. Harry's legs had given up supporting him and the only thing that was keeping him upright at the moment was the rope that tied him to the large gravestone behind him.

Harry looked up at LeStrange, and there must have been something in his look she didn't like because she raised her wand again and the Cruciatus Curse was half out of her mouth when the broken and raspy voice of Voldemort said, "Stop! Do not torture the boy yet, my dear Bella. I already told you, you can have him for your fun after I am finished with him. Not before. Crucio!" Harry then got to watch as LeStrange screamed in agony as she collapsed on the floor in a twitching mess.

After what Harry would guess was about ten seconds, Voldemort released LeStrange from the curse and ignored the twitching and whimpering women. Harry got his first good look at Voldemort in the flesh, and it was definitely flesh even if it looked like it had the texture of old dry leather that had been stretched too tight over the bones of a small child with little to no muscle evident at all. Voldemort was sitting in what looked like a cross between a throne and a toddler's car seat, and with a few taps of his wand Voldemort turned the seat so he was facing Harry directly. "Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived. My, how our world loves its ridiculous tiles. I wonder what they will call you once my dear Bella has finished with you? Knowing her, you'll still be alive so the title would still fit. Though, I just wouldn't exactly call lying in a hospital bed all day while some bored healer wipes the drool off your chin living," He chuckled in amusement. "Still, I will admit some of the public's fascination with you has proven to be well placed. You certainly managed to put a stop to my plans in your first year. I admit it slowed my return to power, a feat few could have accomplished. And Wormtail and Bella have told me about your exploits in your second and third year. I'm tempted to offer you a spot in my ranks. A wizard who can cast true magic like the patronus at age thirteen is impressive. Even more so, given the number of Dementors that Bella said were there. What say you, Potter? Join me, and I'll even grant immunity to your mudblood and your half breed."

Harry had been ready to tell Voldemort to go fuck himself once he started talking about joining him, but the last part gave him pause. Guaranteeing the safety of Fleur and Hermione was a big thing, and he could possibly get their families included if they didn't get in the way. The idea of working for Voldemort made him sick to his stomach, but if it kept those he loved safe, wouldn't it be worth it? However, it only took him a few seconds to realise it would never work. Voldemort wouldn't stick to his deal, Hermione would never sit back and not fight, and while he was sure Fleur would understand why he had done it, she would never support it. She would return to France, call off the betrothal, and never speak with him again. As tempting as the offer sounded, it was nothing but a heavily disguised route to hopelessness and despair. It was with that in mind that Harry went with his original idea. "Go fuck yourself!"

Voldemort just laughed at Harry and with a swish and flick of his wand the overly ornate child seat picked itself up and flew over to a bubbling cauldron that was bigger than most baths that Harry had seen, which was being tended to to by a man who looked to be about five years younger that Sirius.

"Barty, is the potion prepared? " Voldemort asked the man, whom Harry was sure had some relation to the late Bartemius Crouch judging by the family resemblance

"Yes my lord." The dark-haired man replied as he stirred the cauldron.

"Excellent let's begin." At Voldemort's command, the two men came advancing towards Harry. Wormtail pulled a potions knife from his belt, and after a few slashes to Harry's left sleeve he made another slash into Harry's skin and placed an empty potions vial against the wound, collecting the blood. Harry tried to struggle and fight, but he was bound too tightly to do anything. Compared to the after effects of the Cruciatus, however, he could barely even feel the small cut.

While the rat faced bastard who sold out his parents collected Harry's blood, the one called Barty was pointing his wand at Harry's feet. He was a little worried about what Barty was about to do, but he just summoned a bone from the grave Harry was standing on. Both of them gripped what they had come for in their left hands and returned to the cauldron. While they were doing that, LeStrange had picked herself up and was standing next to the cauldron, a horrible looking, crescent moon-shaped knife gleaming from the fire light in her right hand. As Pettigrew walked away from Harry he noticed something, something that gave Harry what he desperately needed right now: hope. Tucked into the belt of the rat's robes was Harry's wand. He was also still wearing his ring.

Voldemort stood up in his chair that was still floating next to the huge cauldron and stepped off, falling into the cauldron. The three Death Eaters were splashed a little by the potion, and Harry took the opportunity of the distraction to summon his wand. The three Death Eaters began chanting as one. "Our master, he who has conquered death, shall be restored." Then the one called Barty continued on his own. "I bring you the bone of your father, unknowingly taken. His sacrifice shall rebuild his son." He drew his wand, and with a quick curse the bone shattered and fell into the cauldron in hundreds of places. Harry wasn't tall enough to see the potion, but it now had a white glow that illuminated the Death Eaters. He had a little trouble turning his wand around so that he could point it at the ropes holding down his arms, all the while hoping that he could get away before they finished restoring Voldemort.

The three Death Eaters again chanted as one. "Our master, he who has conquered death, shall be restored." This time it was LeStrange who spoke alone. "I bring you the offering of my own flesh. Flesh of the loyalist, I will strengthen my master." Then with a flash of what Harry suspected was goblin forged steel, LeStrange's left hand and half of her forearm splashed into the cauldron. The glow from the magical liquid instantly turned crimson red. Harry was able to get off a cutting charm and sever the ropes holding down his arms, and with his arms free he made short work of the rest of the ropes.

Once more, the three Death Eaters again chanted as one, though this time LeStrange's voice was strained "Our master, he who has conquered death, shall be restored."

The rat was the last to speak. "I bring for you the blood of your enemy. May his loss be the key to your rebirth." He poured Harry's blood into the cauldron and the glow instantly turned silvery. And despite every hope Harry had otherwise, a fully grown and naked Voldemort started to rise out of the cauldron.

A/N

As has become a thing for me, I won't give out the answers to riddles in my fics. If you want the answer, just pm me here or on Discord. You can either give me your solution and I will tell you if you're right or wrong, or you can just ask for the solution. Good luck to any of you who try it.

So Voldemort is back, and it was Bella who gave up her hand in this one. Ever since I decided to have Bella break free from Azkaban in this fic I planned to have her be the one to sacrifice a limb. The ritual calls for the flesh of a servant, and of all of the Dark Lord's people I think she fits the most. She is fanatically loyal and willing to do anything for him. Next chapter will of course involve a fight between Harry and the noseless wonder, but I wonder how you'll like what I have planned for the scene.

Also, this book of the best laid plans series is now officially 46 chapters long. the final chapter for opening moves is already written no need to worry though the updates for the third book will come in our next regularly scheduled update. the next book will be called 'Drawing the Lines' and I plan to have some amazing things happen.