Link of Hogwarts

Fifty-Five

Link's glad he forced Cedric to stay with Krum. The moment he touched the trophy, he was transported to a graveyard. Then he had to run and try to keep out of Pettigrew's sight as the wizard hunt him down. Unfortunately he didn't expect the gargantuan snake to strike him from behind.

When he woke up next, he found himself tied to a statue of an angel. Pettigrew slaved over a large tub sized cauldron as he chanted ominous words. Link watched in silence as he upturned the earth under Link to reveal an old coffin. The lid opened to reveal a decayed skeleton dressed in rotten clothes.

A waved of his wand and Pettigrew chanted, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"

A decayed humerus, all but turning to dust, flew out and into the ominous potion bubbling in the cauldron. The fiery sparks of the potion turned to poisonous blue.

Pettigrew then sobbed as he stooped over the cauldron, and Link watched as the man who betrayed his parents cut off his own hand with a silver dagger, "Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed, you will revive your master,"

As his hand fall into the solution, it turned the potion burning red. Link then breathed heavily as he braced himself as Pettigrew, who wrapped his stump in clothes, approached him with the dagger. Growling as the wretched man cut his forearm, Link glared at him as he collected Link's blood.

Approaching the cauldron, Pettigrew poured the blood into the potion, "Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe!" The potion burning red burst into blinding white as Link's blood was added. Pettigrew gleefully turned, happy that the potion comes out correctly, "Master!"

Link stared in disgust at the creature that Pettigrew took out from the basket nearby. The thing Pettigrew had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that it was hairless and scaly-looking, dark, raw and reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face was flat and snake-like, with gleaming red eyes. If Link had not known what Pettigrew meant when he called it master, he could have mistaken it for a very malnourished child with how helpless it looked.

Pettigrew reverently placed the thing, that can only be Voldemort, into the blinding white potion and Link turned his head away from the resulting explosion of power. When he next looked in the direction of the cauldron, mist obscured most of his view but he could see an unfamiliar silhouette.

Tall and skeletal, Voldemort stood up from where he was formed and Pettigrew quickly dressed him in black robes upon his order. The man took up his offered wand and vanish the cauldron, turning to look at Link with venomous red eyes set in a thin face with skin whiter than skull with flat slits where the nostril should be, adding further resemblance to snake.

Link stared back defiantly with his cold blue.

Voldemort called on Pettigrew who happily step forward, offering his stump but the man hissed for his other hand. Sobbing in fear, the traitor offered his Dark Mark and hissed in great pain as Voldemort stabbed his wand against the Mark. Link watched as the once empty graveyard slowly become crowded with people.

The madman greeted his follower before turning on them, furiously calling on their lack of faith in him for abandoning him, tearing their masks off and revealing their name. Link ignored his pain and listened, eyes taking in the people that will be his enemies; Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Macnair to name a few. He then granted Pettigrew, whom he praised for finding him and providing for him, with a silver hand to replace the one he sacrificed. He tortured the one who tried to lie his way out of his punishment with the Cruciatus. He also praised the missing Lestrange still trapped being the walls of Azkaban and cursing those who rejected his summon.

Voldemort then turned his venomous attention on Link, "You know of course, that they have called this boy my downfall? You all know that on the night I lost my powers and my body, I tried to kill him. His mother died in the attempt to save him...and unwittingly provided him with a protection I admit I had not foreseen; I could not touch the boy. His mother left upon him the traces of her sacrifice..." He hissed in distaste with his high and cold voice, "This is old magic, I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook it...but no matter," He pressed his hand on Link's temple with gleeful sneer, "I can touch him now,"

Link hissed as the skin that was touched burned like acid.

Suddenly the ropes holding Link against the angle sculpture disappeared, dropping him to the ground. Instead of crumbling, Link folded his body and rolled into a standing position. Annoyed by the show of competence, Voldemort cast the Cruciatus on Link.

The pain was instantaneous. Link felt like all the wounds and pain he had suffered returned on him and amplified. He recalled, in that moment, the pain of being burned by intense light. How he continue to move despite of it. But above all that, he knows that it can never compare to the pain of watching Her crumple in despair.

So instead of writhing and screaming on the ground, Link gritted his jaw and stand up against the curse. Voldemort's eyes widened at the sight and he sneered, "How admirable. Truly, a worthy opponent," With that, he threw Link his confiscated wand, "Well, then, to applause your remarkable will I shall allow you a chance to die a fighter's death,"

The curse stopped and Link wordlessly willed his wands to come to him. They obeyed and soon he has both wands in both hands; holly and aspen ready for battle. There're murmurs about his magical talent and Voldemort told them to silence themselves before turning to Link, "You know the rules of duel, don't you Potter? First, we bow,"

When Link refused, Voldemort cast the Imperious to force him but was surprised when instead of being forced, Link simply bared his teeth and said, "I do not bend my waist and knees easily, especially not to one so undeserving,"

Furious, Voldemort cast the first spell and Link moved like a hurricane. Training with Sirius paid off as he dodged the darker spells and deflect the jinxes thrown his way. Voldemort furiously ordered his minions to stand down as Link deflected some of the spells thrown from the Death Eaters. As Link danced around the tombstones, he used his surroundings and ripped objects off the grounds to slow Voldemort's momentum.

Some of the object almost hit the Death Eaters but Link didn't care, for he only has one mission in this place and that's to survive and return to Hogwarts. He needed to warn his friends and allies. So when Voldemort cast the Killing Curse directly at Link when he almost reached the Portkey turned trophy, Link could only answer with the first offensive spell he learned, "Expelliarmus!"

The spells collided and since Link uses his holly wand as opposed to his aspen, Voldemort's wand resonated with the core of Link's wand. It created a chain and Link watched voices and forms of people killed by the wand of Voldemort slip out of the golden chain. Voldemort furiously ordered his restless followers to do nothing as the force of magic lifted them off the ground.

Link saw faces that he had only ever seen in voiceless photos slip out and looked at him in wonder and sorrowful fondness; James and Lily Potter.

James speaks first, "Harry?"

His voice echoed and Link shook his head, "Please call me Link...Father..."

James laughed out, voice echoing and formless but then grew somber when Lily reached forward. But her ghostly fingers could barely touch him as pearly tears traced her cheeks, "My baby..."

Both parents and child could only share a look before Link smiled and turned away, raising his aspen wand. Voldemort shouted at the sight, "Stop him!"