The Grave Graveyard
Harry hit the ground with a hard thud. Cedric landed beside him with a yell of shock as they arrived anywhere but the arena they had started in. The now monochrome cup jerked out of their hands, rolling across the uneven ground.
The raven haired boy raised himself up on his elbows to catch a glimpse of a disconcerting sight. Tombs rose from unnatural mounds in the ground; some weathered and impossible to read, others recently planted in the crumbling soil. Wisps of ominous grey fog wrapped thin tendrils of gloom around the base of the crooked graves.
A large black cauldron, large enough to fit a large child, stood on gnarled pewter legs beside a large tombstone baring a ghostly Grim Reaper. Noxious smoke billowed over the edge of the tarnished rim, spilling onto the ground before mixing in with the gathering fog.
Suddenly, just as Harry's eyes adjusted to the darkness, a small figure scurried out of the hazy darkness. He withheld a gasp as Wormtail walked hesitantly over to the large smoking cauldron. In his arms he held a small dirty bundle of rags carefully, with all the fear of a new father holding a baby.
A familiar raspy voice hissed into the darkness causing the hairs on the back of Harry's neck to stand up and a frisson of unease ran through him. "Kill the spare." Wormtail grimaced but obeyed the seemingly disembodied, raising his wand with one trembling hand. He hesitated just a moment but it was enough for Harry to remember where he had heard that voice before. His eyes widened and he yelled incomprehensibly as the bright green streak of light hit a puzzled Cedric.
Harry watched in horror as Cedric's body collapsed to the ground and stayed there, the irreversible sleep of death shrouding him morbidly. Before he could even register his fellow champion's demise, Harry's body jerked uncontrollably and his back hit the hard stone of the Grim Reaper, who's scythe moved with a high grating sound to trap him. He struggled against the statue but in vain. He was trapped.
Now utterly helpless to the Dark Lord's whim, he could only watch on as Wormtail started the ritual. He dropped the baby-like Voldemort into the bubbling smokey cauldron with thinly veiled relief. As the inhuman thing hit the bottom of the cauldron with a dull thud Harry couldn't help but desperately wish for it to drown. But to no avail.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" At his wave of a wand, a thin trickle of bone dust emerged from the dirt beneath Harry and dumped itself into the cauldron.
With jerky movements, Wormtail lifted a knife that glinted dangerously in the low light.
"Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master ." He whimpered. The knife flashed and with a sawing noise, his severed arm fell harshly to the dirty ground. Peter held back his screams and clutched his stump trying in vain to hold back the steady stream of blood. Still biting his lip fiercely, he hobbled over to the cauldron.
His face was green with the sick action of dropping his twitching arm into the overflowing cauldron. Harry felt bile rise in the back of his throat. The surface of the water, now clear of smoke, glittered red as if faceted with millions upon millions of blood red rubies. A horrendous stench pervaded the air; a smell of something rotting, and death.
Hunched over in agonising pain, Wormtail approached Harry slowly, who screwed his eyes shut as if that would stop him. Now that his master was in the process of being revived, he could take at least a little time in finishing it. "Blood of the….enemy….f-forcibly taken…you will, you will resurrect your foe."
His tremulous breath puffed across Harry's cheek. A sharp stinging pain made him cry out loud. Wormtail fumbled in his pockets and held a glass phial up to the streaming cut. As soon as a drop of his blood hit the red water in the cauldron, the liquid turned a blinding white.
Wormtail slumped to the ground and Harry resumed his frantic attempts to escape from his bonds as a pillar of white smoke bloomed from the cauldron, clouding his view of every thing. Please have drowned. Please let something have gone wrong.
But through the smoke a cold voice cut him like ice; "Robe me."
The smoke dissipated, melting into the hazy fog and revealing the terrifying figure of a robed skeleton with burning red eyes and a snake like face.
His nose was mere slits in his face and his red eyes glowed malevolently, barely any pupil in the reptilian eyes. The reptilian skeleton breathed deeply and ran bone fingers over his hairless head.
With a feral and steel grin, the man reopened his terrifying eyes and took the gnarled stick of a wand handed to him by a quivering Wormtail.
Harry gulped.
Lord Voldemort was back.
[Everyone in the stands were getting bored. Narcissa's eye was beginning to twitch after having to stop Draco from physically eating his fingers after chewing all his nails]
Harry fell face first into the ground, the smell of freshly cut grass invading his senses, hyperventilating madly. He clutched Cedric to him like a lifeline. It took a moment for the crowd to realise what was happening but when they did understand, they fell into hysterics.
Teachers, parents and students alike flew down the stands to the gathering crowd. But Harry was oblivious to it all, keeping Cedric in his arms, refusing to let him go and protesting loudly. Flashes of his ordeal in the graveyard kept hitting him harshly.
Death Eaters appearing randomly around their resurrected Dark Lord, forming an obedient circle around him.
Amos Diggory ran out of the stands, screaming at the top of his lungs, desperate to reach his only son.
Lucius kneeling at Voldemort's feet, victim of his disdain, with Crabbe, Goyle and Bellatrix all desperate to touch their revered leader.
Cedric was wrenched out of his arms and Dumbledore stared sternly at him over the top of his half moon glasses as he babbled about Voldemort's return, wanting him, needing him to understand.
Voldemort wrenching him from his bonds with an easy declaration of battle. His wand flying towards him. Bright flashes of lights as the Cruciatus curse send sudden waves of bone shattering pain through his body.
Moody led him away from the crying crowed just as Draco fought his way through the throng, his pointy elbows finally useful for something other than poking Harry awake.
The two beams of light connecting with a boom of power. Harry's Expelliarmus and Voldemort's Killing Curse meeting in the middle of the dueling pair, creating a secluded circle of magic that none of the Death Eaters could break through.
Mad Eye forced him into the chair roughly before clunking around his office, rifling for something.
Golden bolts of magic spearing from the connected spells and the ghosts of people long dead spilling from the Dark Lord's wand, encouraging him. His father. His mother.
Moody tried to speak to him but Harry was still out of it. The grizzled Auror jerked strangely as he spoke.
"When the connection is broken…..we will give you time but you have to run okay? Get to the Portkey." His father, telling him what to do, there to help him. Him, jerking away and breaking the never-ending chain, diving for the Portkey, barely grasping Cedric by his fingertips before he disappeared to the sound of an infuriated howl echoing.
"What?" Harry slammed back into the presence, blinking heavily. Mad Eye twitched and his tongue flicked out of the side of his mouth. "He forgave them, then?" He asked calmly.
"Those treacherous cowards who wouldn't even brave Azkaban for him. The faithless, worthless bits of filth who were brave enough to cavort in masks at the Quidditch World Cup, but fled at the sight of the Dark Mark when I fired it into the sky."
Harry was confused until Moody began to twitch and shift. He came to the horrific realisation when Mad Eye shifted into the gaunt like Barty Crouch Junior. Alastor Moody was the Death Eater at Hogwarts. It wasn't soon after that Albus burst through the door and captured Barty, subjecting him to a harrowing investigation under Veritaserum.
The next thing Harry knew, he was waking up in the unfortunately familiar setting of the hospital wing to the indignant shouts of Draco. "You will let me through! That is my boyfriend lying in that bed and I will be let through. My father will hear about this!"
Harry groaned. "You are so loud." He grumbled. Draco gasped and skirted around an irate Madam Pomfrey, rushing to Harry's beside before halting suddenly and hovering anxiously near him.
"Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt? Are you broken? Do I have to fix you?! Oh my god are you going to die?!" Draco reached what Harry liked to dub 'shrieking point'. His hands fluttered uselessly in the air above Harry's body. The boy laughed at his flustered boyfriend, flinching at the twinge in his side.
"Dray, I'm perfectly fine. Just a bit sore." He assured. Draco sighed in relief. Then he hit Harry multiply times in various places. Harry tried to evade his angsty boyfriend but to no avail. "What are you doing?!" He demanded. "That's - for - making - me - worry - about - you!" Draco exclaimed in between each hit.
Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed his wrists. "I'm sorry, okay? It's not like a planned it." He chided gently. Draco slumped in his hold. "I know. What happened?" He asked after a beat. Harry shivered at the memories. "Voldemort's back." He announced grimly.
Draco stared at him in horror. "He's back?" His voice was a ghost of a whisper. Harry nodded. Draco's expression hardened determinedly. "We'll work it out." He promised. "Together. Somehow." He added.
Draco climbed onto the bed and settled in beside his boyfriend, burrowing his head into the crook of his shoulder. Harry nodded, rubbing his hand up and down Draco's arm comfortingly. "Yeah. Somehow."