stardust ⋮ george weasley

forty-four :

F O R T Y - F O U R

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[warning: this chapter is going to contain some very heavy violence and torture, and there will be mentions of blood as well. please read with caution when going ahead if you are sensitive or are triggered by these]

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Harry and Adeline came crashing down hard to the ground, the Triwizard Cup flying out of their hands and across the grass. It took the two a few seconds to come to their senses, but as Adeline helped Harry off the ground, both of them quickly realized that there was

Instead of being faced with the cheering crowd of students like they expected, Adeline and Harry found themselves standing in a dark and eerie graveyard that neither of them recognized.

"They didn't say anything about us having to do more after we grabbed the cup," Adeline whispered nervously, staring around the graveyard with that same uneasy feeling she had when facing Viktor Krum. "Why are we here?"

Harry shook his head, just as confused as Adeline was. Suddenly, he found himself hit with a wave of deja vu, and he muttered, "I...I've been here before. In a dream."

Adeline whipped around to face him. "What do you mean?"

Kneeling down to look at a gravestone, Harry read the name etched in it and the realization of why they might be there smacked him in the face. "Adeline, we need to get out of here! Now!"

Before Adeline could even react and ask why, Harry let out a cry of pain and doubled over as he clutched his forehead. "You need to go! Take the cup and go!"

"I'm not leaving you here, Harry!" Adeline yelled as she tried to help Harry off the ground.

In the midst of all of his pain, Harry caught sight of Pettigrew in the distance, and the fear inside of him seemed to explode. "Then hide!" Harry pleaded, pushing Adeline off of him. "Get away from me and hide! Don't let them know you're here!"

There were a lot of questions running through Adeline's mind as she ran and hid behind one of the tall gravestones standing near the glowing Triwizard Cup. She wanted to know why the Cup had transported them to a strange graveyard kilometers away from Hogwarts. She wanted to know why Harry seemed to recognize this place. She wanted to know why Harry seemed to recognize the strange man in the tunnel carrying a cloth bundle in his arms.

The biggest question running through Adeline's mind – and one she hoped not to be true – was whether the man that seemed to terrify Harry so much had seen her in the graveyard.

Carefully, Adeline barely peeked her head out to see what was going on. She found Harry trapped against a tall angel statue and the man from before standing over a dark cauldron. She could barely make out what was happening. All Adeline could see was this man performing some sort of dark ritual that would make even the Professors at Hogwarts shake with fear.

Suddenly, the man backed away from the cauldron as it burst into flames. A white form suddenly took a human-like form and was covered in long, billowing dark robes. His head was smooth and bald, and even from the distance away, Adeline could see this man had two small slits instead of a nose. To her horror, Adeline recognized him from the descriptions from the darkest sections of her wizarding history textbooks.

Lord Voldemort had risen again.

Adeline could barely move. A part of her wanted to run to Harry and summon the cup so they could go back to Hogwarts. But she was so stricken with fear that she didn't even want to try.