A Hop Skip And A Jump Away

mission statement

The entire audience including the judges were shocked into silence by the arrival of the group with two of the four champions clearly incapacitated alongside of two unrecognized wizards. A moment later everyone who had attended or worked at Hogwarts for the last 13 years recognized Professor Snape and no one could mistake the limp bundle he carried dress in the champion robes red and black. Almost no one noticed Cedric, lying on the ground at their feet until his father gave a cry and tried to get to him, being held back by his wife and distant cousin. The judges were seen to be very obviously shocked yet quickly drawing their wands and standing to approach the small group.

"Who are you? And what have you done to my student?" Dumbledore demanded, quickly standing up from behind the table and approaching the small group. He didn't see Cedric's body until he was practically on top of them. When he did see the body his eyes quickly grew cold as he eyed them with suspicion, wand clenched tightly in his hand.

"Why, Headmaster, don't you recognize me? I admit that I've had a bit of a make over since we last saw each other but its still me," Voldemort said calmly, almost tauntingly all the while ignoring the wands pointed in their direction. He could feel Nagini loosening from where she had wrapped around his leg under his robes for the trip and sliding to a more comfortable location at his feet, yet still hidden from view by the cloth.

"Why couldn't they have sent us back before the ritual? Then Cedric wouldn't have had to die again." Harry muttered loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, still hanging a bit limply in Snape's arms.

"Because then I would be without a body, or are you forgetting that one of the key ingredients in that ritual was blood of the enemy, forcibly taken? We still had to be enemies for that to work. We're lucky they agreed to the deal at all, much less sent us back to a point where we can do some good." Voldemort retorted, eyes never leaving Dumbledore's face as the man tried to work out who he was.

"~Look just put on a glamour of your original face and be done with it. I'm tired and I want some food before I go to bed. You know he's going to be a git about everything any way,~" Harry hissed at the ruby-eyed serpentine Dark Lord standing next to them. Idly the sable haired youth noticed that his fellow memory traveler didn't have any shoes on, and wondered why he hadn't at least conjured some to wear.

"~That's hardly the point,~" Voldemort hissed back chidingly, earning wide eyed looks for the pair of them. Upon hearing Parseltongue being spoken, Dumbledore's features took on a grim cast as he shifted into a dueling stance. The Dark Lord noticed and gave an evil little chuckle as he turned back to face his old teacher with an off-hand comment designed to rile the man. "So, how's my little curse on the defense position turning out? Managed to keep anyone yet?"

"You utter bastard! We always suspected, but really Tom? That damn curse caused a hell of a lot of problems, and linking it to the wards was just plain nasty," Harry complained, giving a harsh laugh that turned into a coughing fit that brought up spots of blood.

Snape swore, kneeling down and dropping Harry's legs in favor of frantically scrambling about in his robes for his emergency potions kit. Upon finding it he poured a blood replenisher down the brat's throat, followed quickly by a few that Harry couldn't identify at a glance even with his new memories. Voldemort had turned his back on the group of judges upon hearing Snape swearing to watch in concern even as he helped hold Harry steady for him to drink the new potions. Nagini quickly slithered out from under her master's robes and coiled herself very obviously between the three wizards and everyone else, hissing at the approaching figures menacingly. She protected them from being mobbed by the shear dint of her size and obviously dangerous hostility, snapping her jaws at one man who got just a bit too close.

"Must have done some damage when I fought the Acromantula and it dropped me," Harry scowled thoughtfully, secretly pleased that both wizards cared enough to try and heal him first rather than waste time playing head games with Dumbledore. A dark expression briefly flitted across his face as he remembered Dumbledore time and again delaying, interrupting, or even stopping any medical treatment he needed in order to get information out of Harry just that bit faster. As a result he wasn't really surprised when the man tried to do just that a moment later.