Chapter 32: End of a Tournament; Beginning of a Nightmare

The four Champions lined up at the opening to the labyrinth. The huge maze was floating a few feet above the ground of the Quidditch pitch and shaped like a giant egg. The walls appeared transparent from the outside and Harry could see what looked like three or four different levels inside it. There was a bright shining trophy in the center of it that blazed like a beacon. He squinted trying to take note of a possible route to get past some of the shimmering mists and roaming creatures that he spotted through the walls.

"Ah and we have reached the final part of our Triwizard Tournament," Bagman said in an almost sorrowful voice as he approached from the side. Harry mostly tuned the announcer out as his eyes caught on a large set of rune engravings etched onto the side of the giant egg arena. "This last Task is quite simple really. All you have to do is get to the center and touch the trophy! Once you do, you will be whisked to the winner's platform while the floor of the rest of the labyrinth will turn insubstantial and drop the other participants to the pitch. There's a mild sleep charm at that point so that we can separate out the magical creatures that will also fall through."

Harry frowned up at the etchings. Something was…off about the configuration. "Of course, inside the labyrinth there will be several different types of obstacles. The creatures I just mentioned are stationed throughout as are different assortments of traps and enchantments."

The enlargement cluster was fine as was the insubstantial charm segment and sleep compulsion that Bagman had mentioned. What was off? "If you feel overwhelmed for any reason, simply retreat back to the entrance. The path you've taken will be marked off by a colored line. Blue for Miss Delacour, Red for Mr. Potter, Gold for Mr. Weasley and Green for Mr. Krum."

The visibility and marking clusters were fine. The levitation set didn't seem to have any issues. "As with many of the other Tasks, the time limit will be one hour! Your start will be delayed by one minute for every five points you are behind the leader. Mr. Krum has 165 points so he will be first. Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter both have 157 points and will enter 2 minutes later. Miss Delacour has 146 points and will enter 4 minutes into the Task. Good luck one and all! May the best Champion win!"

Bagman jauntily walked off to the judging box while Harry's frown deepened. He started to go back over the entire cluster again as the hairs on the back of his neck rose. "Mate, you alright?" Fred asked softly. Harry waved him quiet as Bagman started to talk to the crowd in the background.

" 'arry? What is wrong?" Fleur asked softly as she reached over to grasp his arm.

Viktor pointed up at the egg. "He has seen something. Something they missed. Of course it vould not be this easy."

Harry drew in a hissing breath and clenched his fists his eyes going wide as he stared in shock at the rune array. Turning to Dumbledore's spot in the stands he snarled. "That bloody bastard…guys, no matter what happens one of us has to hit that trophy before an hour is up."

"Well, yeah…that's kinda the point, mate…" Fred said frowning.

"No, I don't mean to win. I mean to live." He raised his hand and pointed out a cluster as Bagman started to wind down his speech. "The expansion cluster is linked to the timer. After an hour is up, that whole thing is going to collapse to its original size crushing whoever and whatever is still inside. Everything else looks fine so as long as one of us hits the trophy before time's up, everyone else drops through and the creatures will be safe as well."

"Someone else surely would've caught something like that…" Fred said staring up at the labyrinth with wide eyes.

Harry's scowl deepened. "Yeah, Dumbledore should've. Shiva's the only other one at Hogwarts who works with runes and wards enough to recognize it."

"We have to stop zis from starting zen!" Fleur exclaimed as feathers started to sprout on her arms and she turned to the judges box. Bagman had just started counting down to the start of the Task.

Viktor scowled and shook his head along with Harry. "Ve can't. Ve vould lose our magic if ve tried to stop it as it starts." He turned to glare at the judges. "The Toad and her helper played this vell."

"And…start!" Bagman screamed as a cannon blast sounded. Krum turned to the others and others and nodded quickly before jumping into the gap in the walls and bounding down the corridor.

"Fleur," Harry said squeezing her hand and but not tearing his gaze from the runes. "Get to the trophy. Just get to the trophy. Don't worry about anything else. Just touch the bloody thing. Accio utility belt!" Hesitating for a moment, he shook his head and shouted, "Accio prototype belt!" He stepped away from Fleur and grabbed his two rune stone harnesses strapping the main one on and cinching the lashes up. Harry had just finished doing up his secondary, prototype harness as Bagman yelled out for Fred and him to start. "Be careful and touch that trophy!" Harry yelled as he leapt into the corridor ahead of him Fred right behind.

Tonks didn't know exactly what was going wrong but she knew things had already begun to spiral out of control. Shiva had disappeared off into the forest chasing the Umbitch, Harry had frozen and gotten that same look he had when fighting the Dementors just before the Task started and Fleur was half harpy with her wings fully formed. She had even lobbed a single fireball past Dumbledore's head before the girl had jumped into the labyrinth after the others. The shite was already flying towards the fan and Tonks felt horribly out of the loop. She couldn't even afford to watch her boyfriend's or girlfriend's progress through the Task thanks to keeping an eye on Moody.

At least Scrimgeour wasn't being an arse for a change. He had actually listened to her when she laid out why they were watching her old mentor and Proudfoot was a good guy from what little she remembered of him. They'd be decent backup if…

Nope. When something happened. "Look alive people," she said just loud enough for her Comm Stone to pick it up and transmit it to the Aurors. "Moody's casting something Krum's way."

"I have the listening charm on his sleeve active. Standby for incantation," Proudfoot replied. Tonks held her breath. A moment later her ex-colleague cursed loudly. "Imperio!"

Scrimgeour grunted. "Merlin be damned, what are you doing Alastor?! Move, move, move! Take him down!"

Tonks hadn't even waited for Scrimgeour to finish his sentence. She leapt over the barrier separating the audience from the safety observers and shot a spell towards Mad-Eye. Two more converged on the man from his sides. Surprisingly agile for an old man, Moody managed to dodge the first volley. He leapt to the side and cackled madly. "Nice try, girl! You've been a worthy opponent this year! Far better than the Master ever assumed you would be! Avada KedavraI!" Tonks' eyes widened and she twisted to the side, lengthening her torso and shifting mass away from her stomach as the jet of green light passed a few centimeters over her belly. It slammed into the wall of the stands causing a small explosion of debris and screams rang out from the crowd.

Tonks' immediate follow-up shots joined a second volley sent by the two Aurors and several spells tossed from the stands as well. Moody managed to dance out of the way of several but one or two hit him and slowed him down. It looked like someone had hit him with a jelly-legs hex – considering he only had one good leg that was actually a good idea – and something that made his bogeys fly out and start beating him on the head. Tonks shot off an incarcerous and a body bind that shattered his shield and sent Moody careening into the egg and falling to the ground dazed. A jet of red from Scrimgeour and another incarcerous from Proudfoot had the threat contained for the moment.

Scowling Tonks jogged the rest of the distance to the other two as they pulled up beside the old man. "Imperius and the Killing Curse? What the bloody fucking hell is going on?" Proudfoot asked wiping some sweat off his brow.

"He said something about a Master," Tonks said grabbing Moody's wand. "I'd bet my kidney this isn't Moody. Mad-Eye would never call someone Master. Hell, that'd probably be enough to break him out of an Imperius by itself. I don't know how, but whoever this is has been impersonating him. Scrimgeour, I caught him sneaking out to the Shrieking Shack last night, but couldn't investigate since the tunnel was too small to follow through in case he had doubled back. Can you send someone over there to check it out? Maybe that's where the real Moody is stashed."

The Head Auror scowled, but nodded and at a barked command, Proudfoot was sent running off towards Hogsmeade. Tonks stared down at 'Moody' wondering just how it was possible for someone to have swapped names on the Hogwarts internal ward scheme…and if maybe Barty Crouch wasn't so sick and isolated after all.

Of all the precautions they'd taken over the past four years, putting anti-summoning charms onto the Comm Stones had always, always seemed like a bloody brilliant idea. Now however, when she desperately needed one and it was lost in the stupid undergrowth…Shiva tore out of the forest grounds dropping her invisibility and sprinting back towards the Quidditch pitch breathing hard. She glanced up at the floating labyrinth as she got closer and had to fight back a pained cry. She had already known she wouldn't have made it back by the time it started but…her chest still clenched in panic seeing Harry and the other three running around inside that thing. She skidded to a stop as she stared wide eyed at Tonks kneeling over a bound and stunned Moody. "Mother freaking…Moody was a saboteur?"

Tonks looked up and her hair flashed to pink briefly before settling back to a dark blue. "Shiva! You're back. You find Umbridge?" The relief in the other woman's voice was blazingly obvious and caused Shiva to grimace slightly. Maybe she shouldn't have gone running off after the bitch…

"She's not going to be a problem anymore. Ran into some acromantulas. We have a much bigger problem!"

"Good riddance," Tonks murmured. She turned to glare down at Moody. "We don't know who this guy is, but he just tried to put Krum under Imperius and then shot a Killing Curse around when we tried to arrest him."

Shiva rocked back on her heels and sucked in a breath momentarily jarred out her worry over the sabotage. "He what?!"

"Tonks! Shiva!" Hermione called as she ran up to the barrier to the crowd. People had slowly started to file back to their seats from wherever they had scurried off to when Tonks was apparently fighting the man. The vultures weren't even being subtle about listening in.

Head Auror Scrimgeour stalked forward towards Hermione trying to shoo her away. "Girl, this is an active crime scene. Return to your seat!"

Hermione scowled and ignored him holding out the parchment in her hands. "He's still showing as Alastor Moody! But look; here on the edge of the grounds! This dot with Proudfoot is showing as Barty Crouch Jr.!"

"Crouch has a son?" Tonks asked incredulously.

Shiva shook her head in confusion as well. That was news to her too, but it could wait. Getting those students out was the priority. "We can deal with that in a minute! Tonks, Scrimgeour, we have to stop this Task. Umbridge ranted about the egg arena collapsing before she died. We have to get them out before that timer expires!"

Harry ran around the corner and barreled headfirst into a third patch of yellow mist. This obstacle was becoming horribly annoying. The shifting gravity wasn't a huge problem especially after the second time through it. That it made his stomach flip-flop was the issue. He didn't have time to be queasy. 40 minutes had already passed and he was running out of time. It was possible that the Lava Bomb or the Yamato Cannon could break through the layers and drop him on the ground outside but that wouldn't help the others. And the Yamato Cannon wasn't fully tested yet.

Getting past the mist he turned another corner and let out a soft curse as this route took him up a level. At least it was still going in the right direction. The walls weren't quite as transparent from inside as they had been from outside the egg, but it was enough to let the beacon around the trophy show the general direction he needed to go in. If he could at least get over the bloody thing then he could always use Plan L.

He ran further down the corridor until a dark shape burst out ahead of him. Snarling Harry started to let out a curse at whatever had waylaid him before realized that the shape had morphed into a dead body. Looking down, Harry recoiled and started breathing heavily as he saw Shiva's corpse in front of him. A moment later, the body popped and Hermione was there. Then it was Tonks. Then Fleur. Growling, Harry took aim at the boggart and yelled a blasting hex as loud as he could. There was a shriek of pain and the corpse twisted and jumped down the hall, vanishing around a corner. "Stupid bloody boggarts!" Harry cursed as he started running again. He hit an intersection and stopped for a moment to regain his bearings.

A large chicken covered in scales instead of feathers suddenly hopped up from the corridor ahead of him. "Squawk!"

"What the hell are you?" Harry asked momentarily stunned.

"Tracey, it's a Jabberwocky! It's a Jabberwocky!" Luna screamed jumping up and down and holding onto Tracey with one arm while desperately pointing at Harry with the other. Coco peered curiously down her arm from the snorkack's perch on Luna's shoulder.

"Uh, Luna, I think that's a cockatrice. Not a Jabberwocky," Neville said narrowing his eyes. "Good thing he still has those glasses. A cockatrice is a lot less powerful than a basilisk; he may be able to actually petrify it instead of just stunning it. At the very least he can just ignore it and won't lose any time. Every second counts right now..."

Luna's face fell and she sat back down hard. Coco nuzzled her neck in silent support while she looked dejectedly towards Neville. "Are you sure it's not a Jabberwocky?"

"Pretty sure, Luna," Neville said nodding.

"Awww..."

Tracey shook her head. "I really hope it gets petrified. Apparently the last time they used a cockatrice in one of these Tasks it got loose and killed three spectators before someone blew the thing up. Might be small and not as good as a basilisk, but it's still stupid fast."

The green, scaly chicken squawked again and stared into Harry's eyes. He felt the frames of his glasses heat up and then the chicken-thing dropped to the side, stiff as a board and slightly gray. "Oh. Petrified. Cockatrice then. Huh, thought you'd be bigger…oh for crying out loud! What am I doing wasting time with a bloody cockatrice?!" Harry jumped over the frozen body of the creature and kept running towards the shining beacon at the center.

A giant blast-ended skrewt lumbered out of a side corridor a few feet in front of him and Harry shifted to Midnight. The skrewt had barely even started to turn towards him before he jumped into its shadow and leapt out on the other side continuing onwards on all four legs.

He was getting closer.

Fleur turned a corner of the maze and nearly ran headfirst into a large sphinx blocking the corridor. She blinked up at the hybrid creature and gaped in astonishment for a moment. "You are close to your objective; it lies shortly beyond me. Should you wish to make the attempt, I will give you a riddle. Succeed and I move aside. Fail and I attack. Walk away and I remain."

Fleur scowled and tried to resist forming a new fireball. That had been her answer for most of the creatures in this maze. The acromantula in particular seemed quite vulnerable to the fire and she was relatively certain she'd killed a lethifold with one. Whatever hybrid monstrosity Hagrid had created by breeding manticores and fire crabs was somewhat immune to her passionfyre but thankfully it couldn't fly – so she'd simply soared over it and kept going.

She wasn't about to roast a sentient creature though. At least not one that wasn't actively trying to kill her.

"We have five minutes to touch ze trophy or everyzing in zis labyrinth dies," Fleur stated.

The sphinx stopped moving and peered down at her sniffing the air. "I will not fall for tricks. My people were assured this would be safe."

"No trick," Fleur said shaking her head and trying to force some of her panic down. "One of the contestants has been targeted for assassination. Every Task so far has been sabotaged in some form. If one of us does not touch ze trophy before ze time limit ze expansion collapses."

The sphinx's mouth twitched. "You speak truth. I can smell you are not lying." The being uttered a low growl and twisted her large body to face the opposite direction. "Follow me."

Fleur stared at the sphinx's backside as it started to lope down the corridor. She shook herself and started running after it a moment later. "I can't believe diplomacy worked…"

"Stop this Task right now and get them and everything else out," Amelia snarled. Dumbledore simply sat in front of her with his hands folded into his lap and sad frown plastered over his features.

"I cannot," he said softly. "Once the Task was started the only way out is through the floor or out the door. If the labyrinth is to collapse shortly, as you say, I cannot justify sending in a retrieval team with so little time left and so little chance to succeed."

Amelia felt her wand vibrate in her hands and she saw red. The old man wasn't going to walk away from this one. She would see him behind bars or in the ground by daybreak. First though she needed to get the students and innocent magical creatures out. Shiva, Hermione and Daphne were floating on brooms by the rune etchings with several other upper year students trying to figure out a way to delink the expansion and timer clusters. The prospects didn't appear promising.

Amelia herself was physically blocking a murderous Sirius and Maxime from approaching Dumbledore. Karkaroff stood to the side leaning against the wall with a slightly stunned and lost look on his face. Bagman had just fallen quiet and could only stare between the judges and the labyrinth.

"Dumbledore, allow me to make myself perfectly clear. If you don't stop this thing – " Amelia cut off as a shout of triumph rang out behind her. Twisting, Amelia saw Susan, Tracey and Neville pumping their fists in the air. A moment later a small avalanche of magical creatures fell out of the bottom of the labyrinth and bounced on the cushioned ground beneath. She saw at least two human forms drop out near the center as well as she let out a loud sigh of relief.

It wasn't a moment too soon either. Barely twenty seconds after they hit the ground the labyrinth imploded with a loud bang. Instead of an arena nearly 50 meters in radius, there floated instead a small egg only 2 meters in diameter.

"Where are they?!" Amelia heard Tonks' panicked shout from the ground floor. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, Amelia turned to the winner's platform.

It was empty.

The sphinx knocked a charging acromantula out of the way and started battling the giant spider as Fleur scampered past her hind legs. Coming out the other side of the two creatures, Fleur found herself in a round room with several open doorways leading in. She saw Fred and Viktor charging down one of the long corridors across the way, but they were too far. She turned to the trophy and smiled. There was very little time left, but she had made it.

Before Fleur had taken more than a single step, the ceiling to her side fell to the ground with a loud hissing crash amidst a shower of heat, melting stone and glass. She could only stare as Snowball jumped through the hole and landed just outside the still smoking pile of debris. The panther changed back to Harry and her brain slotted into gear again. All four Champions took off running towards the trophy in the center of the room. She and Harry were the closest though and Fred and Viktor didn't really have a chance.

She reached out and grasped the handle of the trophy at the same time as Harry grabbed the side closest to him with a triumphant shout.

A hook grabbed her by the navel and jerked. She felt the wind whip past her as the portkey took hold. The journey should have only been a moment but it took several seconds. As she jerked to a stop, she stumbled and fell to one knee, dropping the trophy. A pained grunt had her twisting with her wand half raised before she sighed in relief at seeing Harry levering himself up from the ground.

"Bloody brilliant. Ow. I hate portkeys," her boyfriend muttered dusting himself off.

" 'arry!" she lunged forward and wrapped him into a hug and pulled back to quickly kiss him. "I am so glad you are alright."

"Same to you, Fleur," Harry replied with a soft grin. "But I think we still have some problems. Like where the hell are we?"

She glanced around seeing several gravestones nearby and a large shadowed manor house in the distance. "Agreed. Zis does not seem to bode well."

"Kill the spare." Fleur's eyes widened at the menacing wheeze. She turned to find the source only to see a jet of green light speeding towards her. With no time to react Fleur could only wish she had had more time with those she loved as the green light filled her vision.

Then she was pushed aside and a jerk around her stomach had her whisked away into the night again.

Shiva was frantic as they levitated Fred and Viktor to the side waking them up. The two students had barely had time to blurrily blink their eyes before she had grabbed Fred by the shoulders. "Where are Harry and Fleur? One of them had to have grabbed the trophy! Did you see which one? Did you see what happened?!"

"Professor?" Fred asked shaking his head. "Err, they both grabbed it at the same time I think. Viktor and I met up in the middle somewhere and hit the last straight-away as Harry fell from the ceiling in his animagus form and Fleur came out from behind a sphinx."

"They vere both closer than us. They hit the trophy together. They should be at…" Viktor trailed off as he looked over at the empty winner's platform. Cursing in Bulgarian, the Champion turned back to the small crowd surrounding him and scowled. "Ve must find our friends."

Shiva had opened her mouth to reply as a pop drew everyone's attention back to the platform. Fleur – covered completely in feathers – materialized in midair on the platform falling to the center with the Triwizard Trophy crushed underneath her chest. Tonks and Hermione were already jumping onto the stand as Shiva started to move towards it as well.

"Non! NON!" Fleur pushed herself up and desperately dropped and picked up the trophy. "Ramenez-moi! Ramenez-moi!" When nothing happened she screamed and threw it into the floor before grabbing hold of it again. Fire formed in her hand and her wings tore the back of her shirt as she lifted the trophy again.

Hermione crashed into Fleur from behind and wrapped her arms around the older girl. "Fleur, stop! Stop! It's not helping! Where is he? What happened?!"

"Ils vont le tuer! Arrêtez, laissez-moi!" Fleur screamed again clutching the trophy as tears fell from her eyes.

Harry slowly clawed his way back to consciousness. His scar was throbbing in pain and his back and wrists were sore. Keeping his eyes squeezed shut he tried to piece together the last few minutes. He remembered landing in a graveyard. He remembered Fleur kissing him. He remembered someone on a hill shouting out the Killing Curse. He'd moved without thinking – his left hand had been up enough that he'd been able to hit Fleur with a low powered Knockback. She had fallen forwards onto the Triwizard Trophy with the curse sailing by close enough thread through her hair. Fleur had vanished. The figure had launched a stunner and Harry hadn't moved fast enough. That was when everything went dark.

Fleur was safe.

So were Fred and Krum and the creatures from the labyrinth. They'd gotten to trophy in time.

A trapped trophy that dropped him straight into an ambush and his only way out was now gone. Brilliant. Absolutely bloody brilliant. He had no idea how to apparate, couldn't make a portkey, a graveyard was not a likely place to find a Floo and lord only knew how close the nearest street was to try and summon the Knight Bus assuming the thing wasn't too far away. That last option wasn't even possible unless he could find a wand. And escape from whatever was holding him down.

There was definitely something holding him down. Harry could hear quiet murmurs nearby so he didn't risk opening his eyes. Instead he concentrated on the feeling in his body and with a slight twitch realized it was ropes. He was tied to a rather large headstone with his arms spread to the sides and palms turned backwards, hanging slightly off from the headstone. He grudgingly admitted that whoever had done that was intelligent. This way he couldn't use his Knockback tattoo to try and destroy the marker like he could have if it had been under his hand. The Boomstone had potential usage still but that wouldn't help him break free of the ropes. And Harry knew the Lava Bomb was a lost cause with his arms spread so far.

The light in the graveyard was bright even with his eyes closed so he assumed whoever had him knew about his animagus' abilities and had taken some precautions. It didn't matter at the moment anyway with the way he was bound. Shifting into Midnight would just end up suffocating him.

He briefly considered one option to get away, but almost immediately discarded it. There was already only a small chance that whoever had kidnapped him hadn't destroyed his runes. Even if they hadn't…Harry'd much rather wander around the woods for hours trying to find a road rather than risk using the tracekey. It was not remotely ready for a large scale test. Not with a living body at least. Especially not through Hogwarts wards.

"It is ready, Master," the muttering voice suddenly said at a normal volume. Harry couldn't help the flinch he gave as he recognized that voice. Peter Pettigrew. Brilliant.

"Start the ritual…Wormtail…" a rasping wheeze spoke. Harry's eyes flew open at that. That was the same wheeze that had said to kill Fleur. And it was horribly familiar too. Something he hadn't heard since he was 11.

As Harry's eyes adjusted to the light, he saw Pettigrew pick up a grotesque bundle only slightly larger than a baby. The head was too large, the limbs too small and the entire thing was black with skin that almost appeared charred. The eyes though were blazing red and as Pettigrew turned those eyes locked onto Harry's and a grin split across its features. "Awake at last, Harry? Just in time…to witness my rebirth."

Harry felt a spike of fear and dread settle into his spine and his scar throbbed painfully. He tried to ignore all of that though and forced a veneer of calm as he stared at Voldemort. "So you go from Quirrellmort to Diarymort to Babymort? You're getting more pathetic every time we run across each other, Riddle," Harry snorted.

Babymort chuckled confidently. "We shall see…just how 'pathetic' I am. Wormtail! Begin!"

"Yes, Master," Pettigrew said. He cast one final spell at the cauldron sitting inside a large, intricate ritual circle. The liquid started to bubble and churn. Pettigrew stepped carefully over the lines and dropped Babymort into the cauldron. Harry uttered a short prayer that the evil little homunculus would drown even if he knew the odds of that happening were probably close to zero.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son," Pettigrew said imperiously as he waved his wand and the grave under Harry's feet shifted slightly. A moment later, a small pale bone soared out of the grave and into the cauldron which turned the boiling liquid into a poisonous blue color.

Harry glared at Pettigrew. "Why are you doing this? Just let him die for good! He murdered your best friend! He's killed and tortured hundreds if not thousands of people. He's destroyed countless lives. Why are you doing this?!"

Pettigrew had grabbed a silver knife and stepped up to the cauldron. He paused and looked over at Harry with a weary expression on his gaunt face. "I chose my lot when I told him where to find James. No matter who I serve now, I'm going to die in pain and begging for it to end. At least with him, I will likely have some sort of mercifully quick death at your side's hands. If I stopped helping now he would…it would be worse than anything I could imagine. I am sorry, Harry Potter. Flesh…flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed, you will revive your master." Pettigrew turned his head away and his chest heaved. A quick downward stroke with the large knife lopped off the man's hand and a scream of pain and anguish rang out through the graveyard.

Harry twisted his head to the side fighting down the urge to vomit. Pettigrew kept sobbing with his stump clutched to his chest for several seconds before eventually pulling a rag from the side and tying it off around his forearm using his remaining hand and his teeth. Still nauseous, Harry cautiously glanced in the man's direction and saw that the boiling potion had turned a burning red and was letting off light sparks. Pettigrew finally finished with his hand and tottered unsteadily to his feet.

As his captor started to stumble towards him, Harry tried to twist his hand enough to get his Knockback rune angled correctly. Even if he couldn't hit Pettigrew he might be able to nudge the edge of the ritual circle which would be hopefully enough to throw a wrench into things. Unfortunately the rat had been very thorough in his application of ropes. His hand was firmly wedged well away from the circle.

Briefly Harry tried to summon Pettigrew himself using his accio tattoo in his other palm thinking that maybe he'd get lucky and the flying body would disturb something in the circle. Again he was hit with failure as absolutely nothing happened. One of them had obviously gotten smart and spelled themselves against that charm. Pettigrew started to step over the last lines when Harry tried his last gamble. He channeled power into the Boomstone tattoo.

That was a mistake. A cry of pain almost as bad as Pettigrew's had been rang out over the graveyard and Harry sagged in his bonds against the stone. His right hand felt like it'd been dipped in fire and he could barely think through the pain. Panting in short, ragged gasps, Harry squinted through tear filled eyes down towards his right hand and saw faint lines cut into the back of it right across the runic tattoo. It wasn't much but it was enough to disrupt the magical channels.

Pettigrew shrugged as he pulled up and jerked his head towards Harry's hand. "Barty sent us word…about that one in particular. No noise attacks…from you tonight."

Scowling up at the man, Harry snarled as Pettigrew loomed over him and reached out with the knife. "Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe." Pettigrew drew the knife down as Harry's eyes widened. Take it! Take my blood! Go ahead and use it you bloody arse! He thought defiantly as the knife pierced his upper arm and drew a bloody gash down several centimeters before Pettigrew pulled back and teetered over to the cauldron again. The knife flicked out and the potion turned a steaming, blinding white.

Harry's heart plummeted. It had been a long shot anyway. He'd done more research after his own run-in with rituals and things like this were entirely intent based. Just thinking that he wanted the traitor and the murderer to use his blood wouldn't be enough. He'd have actually had to have wanted them to use him – not just tried to convince himself it was okay…

A loud bang crashed out and the cauldron exploded sending pieces of metal bouncing away in several directions. Spots danced in front of Harry's eyes and as his vision cleared, he saw a tall, pale figure with an angular skull and leering visage peering down on him with crimson eyes. "Robe me, Wormtail." Voldemort's voice was deeper now and it practically resonated throughout the graveyard. Harry managed to keep his shudder from manifesting. It helped that his hand was still burning and he could use the pain to distract himself.

Pettigrew whimpered and picked himself up from the ground he had fallen to grabbing a nearby black robe and draping it over Voldemort's outstretched hands. A large snake nearly three meters long slithered through the grass and twined around Voldemort's feet. Rearing back slightly, it extended a wand from its jaws which Voldemort happily accepted. ~Thank you, Nagini. I can always trust you to keep my treasures safe.~

~Of course you can, Speaker. Nagini will always follow and always obey and always protect,~ the snake hissed.

Harry grunted. A snake familiar. How very typical. He briefly entertaining a fantasy of Hedwig battling the giant snake and plucking out its eyes before he was dragged back to the present as Voldemort stepped in front of him. The man held out his hand and caressed Harry's forehead above his scar sending a shock of pain and more burning through his head. Letting out a cry, Harry hissed and tried to draw his head away.

Voldemort laughed and pulled back. "Ah, excellent. I wasn't certain if that would truly work, but it seems I have definitely broken that veneer of protection that surrounds you, Harry. Such a shame for you it does not seem to go both ways, hmm?" Chuckling softly the snake-faced resurrected Dark Lord grinned down at Harry. "We are quite alike you and I. Far more so than either of us would prefer I believe. Both raised by Muggles, both hating that world, both with few friends, both powerful, both geniuses, both orphaned – "

"I was orphaned because of you, you bastard!" Harry snarled his eyes narrowed to slits and his lips curled.

Voldemort nodded and started back towards Pettigrew who had collapsed to the ground clutching his stump. "Indeed. It need not have turned out that way though. Your father stood his ground as a warrior and gave me pause for a few moments. Had he had more room, he might have even managed to injure me before I killed him. Your mother though…she was promised to one of my more promising servants. I would have let her live had she stepped aside. I doubt I will ever understand why so many always refuse to step aside…" he mused. Harry's insides twisted. He'd had a long time to think about the memory the Dementors brought up and had long since come to worry that Voldemort had actually come for him that night. To have it so bluntly stated though…

"My own mother was just as foolishly stubborn and idiotic," Voldemort said with an offhand wave. "She was a poor witch who lived near here with her pathetic little family. Her eye turned to the spoiled Muggle upon whom you are standing. When he rejected her, she potioned him into loving her and managed to convince herself that it was real," Voldemort scoffed. He appeared to be in the middle ground between disdain and amusement. Harry was just stunned into complete silence that Voldemort was monologuing about his family history to his mortal enemy with a whimpering servant in the background.

"Shortly before I was born my mother stopped the potion regimen and my father abandoned her. She died in childbirth. Dead of 'broken heart'," Voldemort paused and laughed. He shook his head with and shrugged before smiling at Harry. "A broken heart. As if such things exist. At least your mother died of a killing curse. I killed my father myself before I graduated Hogwarts. Ironic isn't it? Two sides of a coin. Your parents died to save you. I killed both of my own parents. The end result is same; we both grew up never knowing family or love…" Voldemort turned to smile at Harry and he could feel his skin crawl. "Ah look at how sentimental and nostalgic I have been getting. Let's just call it a side effect of being able to talk without necessary pauses for the first time in years shall we? Now, I think I shall introduce you to my true family. Your arm, Wormtail."

Harry's blood ran cold as Voldemort turned to the rat. Pettigrew sobbed gratefully and held out his stump which only caused the Dark Lord to laugh. "No, Wormtail, the other arm." Still laughing Voldemort reached out and pressed his wand to the Dark Mark on Pettigrew's left shoulder. Screams rang out yet again. By this point Harry had been convinced they were either very secluded or under very strong wards. Surely the amount and volume of the screams so far this night would've drawn someone by now otherwise? "I wonder who will have the courage to show?"

The three present didn't have to wait long. After less than a minute, pops started sounding from the surrounding air near Voldemort and Pettigrew. Figures resolved in the darkness in various states of dress. Harry only recognized Lucius Malfoy, though he certainly wasn't surprised to see the man there groveling at Voldemort's feet.

"Ah, my friends!" Voldemort said extending his arms wide. The false cheer in his voice did absolutely nothing to hide the rage and disgust in his tone. "You come before me again! Malfoy, Avery, Nott, Crabbe, Yaxley, Mcnair" he said as he turned from face to face still smiling. "Karkaroff is too much of a coward to show I see. We will make him remember why you don't resign your post at my side…Snape…hmm, should he prove useful still I might allow him to continue breathing. We shall see."

Harry's eyes narrowed as Voldemort started to monologue again to the assembled Death Eaters. Snape being a Death Eater really shouldn't surprise him at all considering the man's hatred of him. It wasn't something to deal with right now though. Harry cast about for something – anything – he could do to get out of this. Apparition was looking better. He still had no idea exactly what to do but obviously they could get in that way. Shiva had said something about Destination, Deliberation and…and…what even was 'deliberation' anyway? Well, Destination and Desperation would probably work. Unless this was just a ward scheme that had Dark Mark bearers keyed into it. Which was likely. So not only would he end up splinched, he'd be right where he started except minus a few bits. Brilliant.

Sucking in a breath Harry resisted the urge to slam his head into the tombstone as a thought smashed into his mind. "Dobby!" he whispered as Voldemort sent off a few crucios at one of his followers who had arrived in a night robe. The air near Harry stayed defiantly empty and quiet. "Dobby!" he said louder. Still nothing happened. Cursing inwardly he was forced to revise his opinion of Voldemort upwards. Purebloods in general ignored House Elves. Granted, Voldemort had just admitted that he wasn't as pure as his followers liked to believe, but Harry had been hoping the man still subscribed to many of the established prejudices…obviously he was a bit smarter than that unfortunately. Another potential avenue of escape closed off.

"You see how generous I am to those who serve me faithfully?" Voldemort's voice cut back into Harry's thoughts. He turned his head and caught sight of Pettigrew with a shiny new metallic hand and Voldemort smiling broadly. "Wormtail may be quite pathetic and a true coward above all else…but this coward searched me out. And between him and Barty…we have claimed Harry Potter."

As Voldemort smiled over to him gesturing, Harry did his best to roll his eyes and ignore the hammering of his heart or the pain in his hand, arm and head. "Careful, Tommy, keep talking about claiming me and all and people are going to think you have a crush on me and are keeping me as a love slave."

Voldemort's slitted nostrils flared and his eyes seemed to almost flash. For a moment Harry was worried he might have pushed it a bit far, but then the Dark Lord started to laugh. "Oh, it takes true courage or amazing stupidity to speak such words to one's executioner. Shall we see which it is you possess, Harry?" He raised his wand and before Harry could do more than grimace, flicked the glasses to the ground and exclaimed, "Legilimens!"

Harry snorted in amusement as he landed lightly on his feet on the walls of his castle in his mindscape. Thankfully, his injuries didn't carry over into here so all he felt was a dull throbbing instead of true pain. Harry looked out over the boiling moat below him and laughed. Voldemort obviously hadn't expected there to be a fight in this setting.

Enough arrows to blot out the artificial sun had been launched as soon as Voldemort popped into his mind. A shield had blocked some but not all and the Dark Lord was sporting several wooden shafts sticking out of his arms and legs when Harry's catapults and trebuchets launched their volleys. These included everything from large rocks, to flaming balls of greek fire, to giant cows and pissed off alligators and monkeys. The second volley had barely left their launchers before the air was split by a deafening crack as hundreds of cannons shot their ammunition at the intruder.

Voldemort had managed to get a more substantial shield up by now and was looking at Harry with a mixture of hatred and respect. Harry raised a hand in a mock salute and as he dropped it, nearly a thousand soldiers came charging out of the castle over the moat's drawbridges. Many stopped and took aim with rifles, pistols and ray guns while just as many kept charging towards Voldemort with swords swinging and spears held forward.

A scream of frustration ripped from Voldemort and Harry's mind lurched in dull pain as many of his defenses were sundered and ripped. The Dark Lord launched spells and magic and was shortly able to clear a path through the battlefield. He managed to get over the moat by commandeering a horse and leaping the gap dropping into Harry's next layer. Harry scowled, but followed after him. This first level was never really intended to do more than delay, annoy and tire people out anyway.

Popping into incorporeal existence next to Voldemort, he started to laugh at the man. The Dark Lord was floating freely in the middle of space looking left and right and obviously trying to figure out just how he was supposed to move from his current position across the vast emptiness spanning between him and the small form of a planet.

"That's Jupiter if you're curious," Harry mentioned offhandedly. "You just left Mars. Seemed appropriate for an initial mind battle, you know?"

Voldemort scowled. "I did not expect a child to have such well developed shielding. You prove yet again that I chose correctly when seeking to destroy you, boy." He started to fly forward angling towards Jupiter.

"I had a great teacher."

"Babbling I assume. Or Black. I doubt either will submit to me once I kill you. Shame. It is so hard to find decent minions," Voldemort mused.

Harry growled. "You won't touch them, Riddle. I wonder if I can kill your mind while you're mucking about in here."

"Such anger," Voldemort laughed. "You should follow me. I know you won't. But you should. We'd be unstoppable and we could – " He froze and a large grin split his face. "Well, well. This is unexpected. How…ironic." An instant later Voldemort had vanished.

Harry frowned. That wasn't supposed to be possible. Especially not in the space layer of his defenses. Voldemort should – Harry let out a scream of rage and frustration as his mindscape finally caught up to where Voldemort had penetrated to.

Harry blinked and he was next to Voldemort again as the man waltzed through the replica of Number 4 Privet Drive. Somehow Voldemort had managed to bypass 90% of Harry's defenses without a fight and had appeared in his deepest layer. Harry started to raise his hand to bring his last line up when he froze. Behind where Voldemort had walked through, there was a door open with a roiling black mass behind it. Harry hadn't put that there. It was next to the door to his old cupboard and as he watched the door slammed shut and melted into the wall.

"This is a bit problematic to be truthful," Voldemort said waving at the door. "I'd hate to have to kill you now after seeing this. Are you truly sure I can't convince you to join me? You are clearly powerful and accomplished despite your age. I'd be perfectly willing to let you keep your women and pets. If I was willing to let your mother go to a young man who's only claim to fame was bad hair, a surly attitude and brilliance with potions…there's no reason why I wouldn't let you have a mudblood, a half-breed and a whore. I'll even guarantee the safety of Babbling and Black if you can convince them not to attack me or my followers."

For a horrifying moment Harry actually stopped to consider the offer. The man had destroyed his family. He had killed his parents and countless others. But…he was going to force a change on the stagnant wizarding world. And if Harry could guarantee the safety of those he cared about most…

Harry snarled and wrenched his eyes away from the wall where the door concealing the black ball of corruption had vanished. Turning back to Voldemort he uttered a simple, "Go to hell." Jerking his head Harry summoned the final line of defense. A facehugger dropped from the ceiling onto Voldemort's back while an Alien Queen tore through the front door of the house. Far above the little dwelling, a Super Star Destroyer fired its engines navigating onto a ramming course.

And in orbit around the little asteroid sheltering the replica Number 4, the Death Star centered directly on the house, fired.

Harry's head snapped back and cracked against the tombstone with a dull thud while Voldemort stumbled back. Harry grit his teeth as his head felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to it. Voldemort for his part held a hand to his own head and just started cackling.

"Well done, child, well done! Such potential!" Voldemort shook his head and stepped back with a slightly manic grin. "Such a shame that I have to cut you down. You should have taken my offer, Harry. But let's make this fair at least, shall we?" A quick gesture with his wand and the ropes binding Harry to the tombstone vanished, letting Harry drop to his knees over the grave of Tom Riddle. He hurriedly scrambled to put his glasses back on.

"Fair?" Harry asked scowling up at Voldemort. "I'm exhausted, bleeding out, have no wand and you have my main tools. If this is what you consider fair, no wonder people despise you!"

Voldemort nodded clasping his hands. "Ah, very good points. I see your exhaustion and bleeding and raise you a recent resurrection." Grinning, Voldemort chuckled, his Death Eaters following along and laughing with their master. "I will grant you however, Harry, your wand and runes should be returned."

Another wand flick and three shapes flew through the lighted graveyard towards Harry. With his Seeker reflexes Harry surged forward and grabbed all three items. He stared with wonder at his main rune harness and his prototype versions. He'd actually somewhat expected Voldemort to give him back his wand. But to return the rune stones too…Harry scowled. He was likely not going to win this fight, but he'd make damn sure Voldemort regretting underestimating him.

And…he had a chance. He had a legitimate chance to escape. To get back to Hermione, Nym, Fleur, Shiva and Daphne. He had a chance to survive. He was sure as hell going to take that chance!

"You've been taught official dueling, Harry? Flitwick has been busy from what Barty tells me." Voldemort moved back slightly and smiled. "No one will interfere with this. First, we bow."

Harry scowled, slipped his two harnesses on and stood. He palmed a Chain Reactor Beam and channeled a small burst through his tattoos checking over any other potential problems before ramping up to full fighting capacity. Breathing a short sigh of relief, Harry found that the only tattoo they had sabotaged was the Boomstone and he at least had an extra in the original etched form.

Turning to Voldemort, he didn't even have time to react when the Dark Lord sent an Imperius curse at him. The blank feeling washed over him momentarily with a single command to BOW. Throwing it off without much effort Harry cocked his head at Voldemort. "Queen Fleur was a hell of a lot worse than that, Tom."

Voldemort scowled and jerked his wand sending out a stream of red and purple spells towards Harry. Harry lifted the Chain Reactor Beam in response and threw as much magic into it as he could. The energy beam that flew from the stone was twice the size of the one from his battle against the evil overlord doppelganger and two of the Death Eaters arrayed behind Voldemort had to leap out of the way to avoid being consumed in the burst of power. Screaming in rage, Harry kept up the assault until the rune stone crumbled to dust and the beam died. There was a large gash in the ground of the hill in the path of the beam and a section of the manor in the distance appeared to be in flames.

Voldemort though was simply standing there with a glimmering shield in front of him. The shield was glowing a deep red and pulsing slightly as energy seemed to bleed off it and the small cracks in the center healed themselves. Voldemort's eyes flashed and his features set into a frown. "Impressive. Not impressive enough however."

Harry jumped to the side as Voldemort dropped the shield and started tossing spell after spell at him. The ground behind, beside and in front of Harry exploded as he leaped and dodged barely staying ahead of the surge of spells. This far surpassed anything that Flitwick or McGonagall had been teaching him about spell chains and silent casting. Voldemort had apparently gained his reputation through actual skill instead of subterfuge. Diving behind a tombstone, Harry pulled out the Yamato Cannon from his prototype harness and stood powering it up.

The ball of roiling destruction surged out from the rune stone working just as well as he'd hoped. It let loose a 3 meter wide torrent of energy that left a trail of devastation and ozone as it flew towards Voldemort and his Death Eaters. 'Well, that gets upgraded to the main harness now,' Harry thought as he dropped the crumbling dust of the stone and pulled out a Freezer. The ball of energy exploded into the midst of the Death Eaters and Harry saw at least one body go flying through the graveyard.

A pop behind him had Harry turning and desperately starting his own weak spell chain with a torrent of freezing water from the Freezer joining it. Voldemort had managed to apparate behind him, completely unharmed. The man swatted away all of Harry's spells and shattered the ice that formed over his legs from the Freezer while Harry dived to the side again. He grabbed the Boomstone rune and activated it as he hurriedly tried to etch a Reflector into a blank stone. If he could finish that he might have –

The tombstone he was hiding behind vanished into a pile of debris and Voldemort smiled down on him. Harry dropped back and brought his arms together letting, the Lava Bomb complete itself. He noted with satisfaction that Voldemort hadn't expected that as the man fell back with shock in his eyes as lava poured out at him. As Voldemort blinked out again, Harry dropped his arms and grabbed for a Ninja. If he could hide then maybe he could – "Crucio!" Harry fell to the ground screaming in pain as every nerve in his body started firing at once.

The spell wasn't kept on him for long thankfully and after a few seconds Harry felt it drop off and he could breathe again. His body twitched and his hand again felt like it had been dipped in fire but he could think. Looking up, he saw Voldemort with a badly burned left hand stepping forward. "You really should have joined me boy," Voldemort said tonelessly. He lifted his wand and Harry's eyes widened. No! It was not going to end like this!

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort yelled.

"Sanguinem Ulcus!" Harry shouted at the same time.

The two spells met in the center and instead of ricocheting, each turned golden and merged into a line between the two combatants. The single thick line sprouted a large golden cage of lines a few meters wide around them and both were lifted a half meter into the air clutching their wands with looks of shock and confusion mirrored on both faces. A song burst into existence and Harry dimly realized it was a phoenix sound and appeared to be vibrating out from his wand and the lines of light.

"No one interfere!" Voldemort screamed as the Death Eaters started to circle the sphere of light. Large beads of energy appeared in the center of the main beam linking Harry's wand to Voldemort's and began to edge towards him. His wand began to shake and Harry snarled. He focused everything he had on those beads and the tide shifted.

The light beads flowed towards Voldemort. Sweat ran down Harry's brow as he forced the energy back into his enemy's wand. Finally, with a roar of triumph, the light bead touch Voldemort's side and the wand shook violently. Several phantom spells and rays of light shot from Voldemort's wand and faded into the air. Harry could only watch in awe as the man's wand seemed to regurgitate the last battle in reverse. Suddenly, a torso appeared from the end of the wand dropping to ground. The spectral form of an old man scowled up at Voldemort spitting at him before walking towards Harry.

"Doing well, sonny boy. Keep it up and kill the monster for me," the pseudo-ghost said. Voldemort's eyes had gone wide and Harry just gaped as another ghost fell from the wand. This one was a frumpy looking woman with a large beehive hair bun who just looked around confused before sitting down where she fell. A third ghost fell from the wand and Harry's breath caught in his throat.

"Dad?" Harry whispered as the final specter came close and smiled at Harry.

His father's apparition nodded. "Keep it up, son. When the connection breaks make your escape. Me the geezer will be able to linger long enough to distract the bastard."

"Right you are," the old man spoke up.

"Wait!" Harry cried out. Something wasn't right. It wasn't right at all. His father had died before his mother. "Where's – "

"No time, Harry. Your wand can't take much more of this. Get ready. One, two, THREE!"

Harry reacted on instinct and jerked his wand up breaking the beam connecting him to Voldemort. The phoenix song died and the cage of golden light disappeared. The two male ghosts rushed to mob Voldemort who screamed in rage. Before Voldemort could cast another spell Harry shot a huge burst from his Knockback tattoo at the man and grabbed for his prototype harness.

He lifted the tracekey from its slot and uttered a prayer to whoever was watching that this would work. His last view of the graveyard as he activated the rune cluster was Voldemort screaming out a final Killing Curse. Then a hook grabbed his navel and Harry was jerked away into the night.