The Wolf's Lion ~ Harry Potter (Editing)

Chapter Fifty | The Dark Lord Rises

Ariana collided with the ground beside Harry, who let out a yelp as his leg smacked off of the ground. At last, she released the Tri-Wizard cup, completely ignoring it as she and Cedric hauled Harry to his feet.

"You okay?" Cedric asked them.

"Yeah, you?" Harry replied, managing to stand independently by gripping a stone beside him.

"Yes, you?" Ariana asked, but Cedric was looking at their new surroundings.

"Where are we?"

That was a brilliant question; Ariana had no idea where they were. The mountains surrounding Hogwarts had disappeared and had been replaced by the outline of a small church; they were in an overgrown graveyard. A small hill rose to their left, and Ariana could just make out the shape of a fine house on aforementioned hill, set against the dark, starry sky.

Cedric looked down at the cup, then his eyes moved to Ariana and Harry. "Did anyone tell either of you the cup was a Portkey?"

"No," the two Gryffindors replied in unison, looking about the eerie graveyard. Ariana walked around, frowning as she laid eyes on a cauldron large enough to contain a fully grown man sitting inside. It was filled with a thick white liquid, bubbling and smoking.

"Is this supposed to be part of the task?" Harry asked, slowly moving to inspect their new surroundings.

"I dunno," said Cedric, sounding slightly nervous, not that anyone could blame him. "Wands out, do you reckon?"

"Yeah," Ariana agreed, ensuring her wand was securely in her hand.

"Do you think we have to brew some sort of potion?" Ariana enquired, moving closer to the large cauldron.

Cedric appeared beside her, eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know."

Behind them, Harry spoke quickly and urgently,  "I've been here before in a dream. Cedric, Ariana, we have to get back to the cup? Now!"

Ariana spun around and saw that Harry was standing beside a huge tombstone the shape of the Grim Reaper, holding a scythe in his skeletal hands. Her eyes landed upon the names on the tombstone, drawing a sharp breath.

"What are you talking about?" Cedric asked, growing more concerned by the second.

"Cedric, this is Tom Riddle's grave!" she said. Tom Marvollo Riddle, as he had been known for the first couple of decades of his life, was actually Lord Voldemort.

Cedric's face dropped, then he moved to grab Harry to haul him back to the cup, but the injured boy screamed and grabbed his head, falling to the ground. Ariana dropped beside him, and Cedric bent down, checking what if Harry was alright.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Ariana enquired.

"Get back to the cup!" Harry exclaimed through gritted teeth, but neither of his companions were about to leave him there alone.

At the other side of the graveyard a door opened and a stubby, shadowy figure emerged from it. The person seemed to be cradling something to his chest, Ariana couldn't quite make out what it was... A bundle of robes?

She and Cedric rose to their feet, wands aimed at the figure as the took a protective stance on front of Harry, who as still yelling and grunting in agony.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Cedric demanded, his voice remarkably firm and steady.

Ariana recognised the short man: Peter Pettigrew. His skin was as rat-like grey as it was the last time she had seen him, two buck teeth protruding over his bottom lip. "You!" she growled, then yelled, "Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Stupefy!"

Unfortunately Wormtail blocked the spells with his wand. With a swift flick of his wand, a black rope appeared in the air looking like a snake, and bound Ariana to large tombstone that looked like an obelisk. It held her there with such a tight, bruising grip that she could only just manage to breathe properly.

"Cedric, run!" she gasped, but the boy was throwing many spells at Wormtail, determined to keep himself and the others safe.

"Kill the spare," a high, cold voice rasped. It seemed to be coming from the robes in Wormtail's arms, which was very odd indeed.

"Avada Kedavra," Wormtail grunted. A jet of green light shot straight into Cedric's chest, sending him spiralling backwards. He landed in between Harry and Ariana, unmoving.

"Cedric!" the two Gryffindors bellowed.

Ariana panted, looking into Cedric's eyes. They were no longer kind and sparkling, but cold and completely void of light. His mouth was slightly open, as if surprised. Before Ariana could even begin to accept the terror she had just witnessed, Wormtail drew closer to Harry and used his wand to lift him off of his feet. Tom's headstone sprung to life and stiffly pinned Harry to its chest, holding him there with the handle of his scythe.

"Do it, now!" the emotionless voice demanded.

Ariana's wand lay at her feet, completely out of reach. Her eyes flickered to Cedric's body, then to the Tri-Wizard cup that lay in the grass, sparkling like the stars overhead. Bolts of fear shot through her body like lightning, driving her on to struggle against her bindings. Much to her anger, they were much too tight, leaving her bound to the stone with nowhere to go.

Wormtail stood over the cauldron, breathing wheezily as he dropped the contents of the robes into the cauldron. Ariana saw a flash of the  the thing that had ordered Cedric's death. It seemed to be a small, child-like figure with skin as pale as the witch's white hair. Although, she had never seen anything that looked less than a child; it was completely void of hair and had scaley looking skin, like something from a horror movie.

A few drops of the contents of the cauldron sloped over the edge, then Wormtail used his wand to pick up an old bone from beside Harry.

"Bones of the father, unwillingly given," he said, dropping the bone into the cauldron. "Flesh of the servent willingly sacrificed." Ariana screwed her eyes shut as Wormtail cut his right hand off, hearing nothing but his yells of agony, then a sickening splash as it fell into the cauldron. "Blood of the enemy forcibly taken."

The witch reopened her eyes to see the horrid man grab Harry's arm, holding a sharp knife to it. "No! Leave him alone! Don't touch him!" Ariana shouted, wriggling around against the ropes holding her to the obelisk.

The man paid no attention to her, then sliced a red line down the boy's right forearm. Harry let strangled shouts pour from his mouth as the knife pierced his skin, and Ariana continued to struggle to get free. She wasn't going to just sit and watch her friend be maimed.

"The Dark Lord shall rise again," Wormtail said in a sinister tone, flicking droplets of Harry's blood into the stew.

The cauldron burst into flames, making Wormtail run backwards and Harry yell even louder. Ariana ceased squirming in shock, watching as the flames and cauldron morphed into a skeletal figure floated in mid-air, curled in the foetal position. It stretched into a serpent-like man, flowing black robes encasing his deathly pale body. The witch's face was the picture of disgust as she saw his face; whiter than a skull, cold dark eyes and a nose as flame as a snake's, with nothing but slits to breathe through.

Lord Voldemort had risen once again.