Harry Potters Twin Book Four

The Rise of the Dark Lord

I felt my feet slam into the ground; my ankle, already throbbing from having weight on it, burst with pain. I dropped the Triwizard cup and clutched at Cedric. Cedric kept hold of me, not even wincing when my long nails ripped through his robes and scratched his skin.

Harry fell to his knees on the other side of Cedric, clutching his leg.

"Where are we?" Harry said.

Cedric and I shook our heads. Cedric pulled Harry to his feet and we all looked around. We had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; we had obviously traveled miles - perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. We were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to our right. A hill rose above us to our left. I could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

I became nervous and my the palms of my hands were moist with sweat. I became aware of all of my aches in my stomach, ankle, arms, legs, neck, and face. My mane of dark red hair was clinging to my cheeks and neck and hung over my shoulders, resting just above the small of my back.

Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then up at Harry.

"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" he asked.

"Nope," said Harry. I looked around the graveyard, which was silent and eerie."Is this supposed to be part of the task?"

"I dunno," said Cedric. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"

"Yeah," said Harry, he looked glad.

Cedric pulled out my wand and looked at me worriedly. I looked back up at him and felt alert. Not only did I have no chance of running from danger, but I would have to sit back and watch as my brother and boyfriend faught whatever was here. My heart dropped.

Cedric carried me over to a large rock and placed me behind it, so that the shadow covered me completely. "Blend in, Nix." he whispered. "And stay out of trouble."

"I will." I whispered back. "But only if you promise to not get hurt."

"I promise."

"I'll hold you to that."

I didn't know why, but I felt as though something terrible was going to happen. I didn't care that Harry was watching us suspiciously, I grabbed the collor of Cedric's robes and pulled him towards me. I kissed him softly, but quickly, knowing that I couldn't distract him much.

Cedric grinned at me and straightened up, going back to stand beside Harry. I suddenly felt as though they were being watched.

"Someone's coming," Harry said suddenly.

Blend in. Cedric's words rang in my ears. I squinted my eyes, almost as though I were in great pain, and I seen the fringe of my dark red hair turn dark grey - almost black - the same color as the shadow the rock cast over me.

"Miscretius," I said as a spell popped in my mind. I watched as my Gryffindore red robes turned the same color as my hair, dark grey.

I morphed my skin to become the same color as my hair and robes and I knew that my eyes were dark grey also. Everything about me was Dark grey. I suddenly felt like a camileon.

I peeked over the rock towards the direction Harry and Cedric were looking and seen a short figure making its way over to them. I couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, I could tell that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between it and Harry and Cedric closing all the time - I saw that the thing in the persons arms looked like a baby… or was it merely a bundle of robes?