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Blair felt her feet slam into the ground, her injured leg gave way, and she fell forward; her hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last. She raised her head. "Where are we?" she said. 

Harry shook his head. He got up, pulled Blair to her feet, and they looked around.

They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously traveled miles — perhaps hundreds of miles — for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Blair could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

Harry looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then up at Blair. "Did someone say that the Cup was a Portkey?" he asked. 

"Nope," said Blair. She was looking around the graveyard. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?" 

"I dunno," said Harry. He sounded slightly nervous. "Let's bring our wands out, Aika."

"Yeah," said Blair, smiling nervously. They pulled out their wands. Blair kept looking around her. She had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched. 

"Someone's coming," Harry said suddenly. Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves.

Blair couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, she 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 them closing all the time — Blair saw that the thing in the person's arms looked like a baby... or was it merely a bundle of robes?

Harry lowered his wand slightly and glanced sideways at Blair. Blair shot him a confused look. They both turned back to watch the approaching figure. It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. 

For a second, Harry and Blair and the short figure simply looked at one another. And then, Harry started screaming and fell to the ground. 

Blair crouched down beside him and unknowingly dropped her wand. "Harry! What's wrong?" 

"M-my scar." 

Then, Blair felt herself being pulled to her feet. "Hey!" 

The short man in the cloak had put down his bundle, lit his wand, and was dragging Harry and Blair toward the marble headstone. Blair saw the name upon it flickering in the wandlight before she was forced around and slammed against it. She glanced toward Harry with horror in her eyes, the same look on Harry's face as his face was contorted in pain.

TOM RIDDLE

Blair's breath hitched as the cloaked man was now conjuring tight cords around her and Harry, tying them from neck to ankles to the headstone. Blair could hear shallow, fast breathing from the depths of the hood; she struggled, and the man slapped her — slapped her with a hand that had a finger missing. And Blair realized who was under the hood. It was Wormtail.

"You!" she growled. But Wormtail, who had finished conjuring the ropes, did not reply; he was busy checking the tightness of the cords, his fingers trembling uncontrollably, fumbling over the knots. She saw Harry struggle against the ropes. 

Once sure that Harry and Blair were bound so tightly to the headstone that they couldn't move an inch, Wormtail drew a length of some black material from the inside of her cloak and stuffed it roughly into Harry's mouth before doing the same to Blair; then, without a word, he turned from them and hurried away.

Blair looked at Harry, not able to make a sound when she realized something. She understood why Harry was there, but why her? Why was she there? Blair tried moving her head to see where Wormtail had gone, but she could only see the Triwizard Cup and her wand and Harry's near it.

The bundle of robes that Blair had thought was a baby was close by, at the foot of the grave. It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Blair watched it, and glanced worriedly at Harry, who was squirming in pain. Then, her stomach dropped as she looked towards the bundle. She did not want to see it opened.

Blair could hear noises at her feet. She looked down and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where she and Harry tied. Wormtail's fast, wheezy breathing was growing louder again. It sounded as though he was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then he came back within Blair's range of vision, and Blair saw him pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave.

It was full of what seemed to be water — Blair could hear it slopping around — and it was larger than any cauldron Blair had ever used in Potions; a great stone belly large enough for a full grown man to sit in. The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself.

Now, Wormtail was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling flames beneath it. The large snake slithered away into the darkness. The liquid in the cauldron seemed to heat very fast. The surface began not only to bubble, but to send out fiery sparks, as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Wormtail tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated.

And Blair heard a high, cold voice. "Hurry!" 

The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It might have been encrusted with diamonds. "It is ready, Master." 

"Now..." said the cold voice. 

Wormtail pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside them, and Blair's head snapped to Harry, who let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of material blocking his mouth.

It was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind — but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Blair had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face — no child alive ever had a face like that — flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes.

The thing seemed almost helpless; it raised its thin arms, put them around Wormtail's neck, and Wormtail lifted it. As he did so, his hood fell back, and Blair saw the look of revulsion on Wormtail's weak, pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron. For one moment, Blair saw the evil, flat face illuminated in the sparks dancing on the surface of the potion.

And then Wormtail lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Blair heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud. She struggled against the ropes as they left cuts all over her skin. Her heart hurt when she saw Harry move around in pain. She hoped the child-shaped thing, whatever it was, would drown in the cauldron.

Wormtail was speaking. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night. "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" The surface of the grave at Harry and Blair's feet cracked.

Horrified, Blair watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Wormtail's command and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.

And now Wormtail was whimpering. He pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs. "Flesh — of the servant — w-willingly given — you will — revive — your master." 

He stretched his right hand out in front of him — the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward.

Blair realized what Wormtail was about to do a second before it happened — she closed her eyes as tightly as she could, but she could not block the scream that pierced the night, that went through Blair as though she had been stabbed with the dagger too. She heard something fall to the ground, heard Wormtail's anguished panting, then a sickening splash, as something was dropped into the cauldron.

Blair couldn't stand to look... but the potion had turned a burning red; the light of it shone through Blair's closed eyelids... Wormtail was gasping and moaning with agony. 

Blair looked at Harry, and her eyes widened as Wormtail stopped in front of him. She started struggling again, not caring if she got more cuts on her body, trying to help her friend.

"B-blood of the enemy... forcibly taken... you will... resurrect your foe." 

Blair could do nothing to prevent it, she was tied too tightly... Blair saw the shining silver dagger shaking in Wormtail's remaining hand. Then, she let a tear fall as it penetrated Harry's right arm and blood seeped down his robes.

Wormtail, still panting with pain, fumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it. He wiped the dagger with his robes as he turned to Blair. This time, it was Harry struggling against his ropes. 

Blair glared at Wormtail and managed to kick him on the arm with her uninjured leg. Wormtail glared back at her and grabbed her right arm forcibly.

"Ichor of the powerful..." Blair's eyes widened and her heart dropped. Is that why she was here? Was she the weapon all along? She looked at Harry, and he seemed to have the same realization as her because he struggled even more now. 

"Violently withdrawn... you will be one with the Dark Lord." 

He plunged the dagger into Blair's arm, but he did it more roughly than he did with Harry. Blair closed her eyes shut to keep the tears at bay. She won't let them have the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Wormtail staggered back to the cauldron with Harry's blood in the vial and Blair's blood on the dagger. He poured Harry's inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, a menacing green. Then, he poured in a drop of Blair's. It had then turned into a blinding white. Wormtail, his job done, dropped to his knees beside the cauldron, then slumped sideways and lay on the ground, cradling the bleeding stump of his arm, gasping and sobbing.

The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness. Nothing happened... Let it have drowned, Blair thought, let it have gone wrong... 

And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Blair, so that she couldn't see Wormtail or Harry or anything but vapor hanging in the air... It's gone wrong, she thought... it's drowned... please... please let it be dead... But then, through the mist in front of her, she saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron. 

"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master's head. The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry and Blair... 

And Blair stared back into the face that had haunted her friend's nightmares for three years, the face that had ruined countless of lives. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils... Lord Voldemort had risen again.

Voldemort looked away from Harry and Blair and began examining his own body. His hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness.  He held up his hands and flexed the fingers, his expression rapt and exultant. He took not the slightest notice of Wormtail, who lay twitching and bleeding on the ground, nor of the great snake, which had slithered back into sight and was circling Harry and Blair again, hissing.

Voldemort slipped one of those unnaturally long-fingered hands into a deep pocket and drew out a wand. He caressed it gently too; and then he raised it, and pointed it at Wormtail, who was lifted off the ground and thrown against the headstone where Harry and Blair were tied; he fell to the foot of it and lay there, crumpled up and crying. Voldemort turned his scarlet eyes upon Harry then at Blair, laughing a high, cold, mirthless laugh.

Wormtail's robes were shining with blood now; he had wrapped the stump of his arm in them. "My Lord..." he choked, "my Lord... you promised... you did promise..." 

"Hold out your arm," said Voldemort lazily. 

"Oh Master... thank you, Master..." He extended the bleeding stump, but Voldemort laughed again. 

"The other arm, Wormtail." 

"Master, please... please..."

Voldemort bent down and pulled out Wormtail's left arm; he forced the sleeve of Wormtail's robes up past his elbow, and Blair saw something upon the skin there, something like a vivid red tattoo — a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth — the image that had appeared in the sky at the Quidditch World Cup: the Dark Mark. 

Voldemort examined it carefully, ignoring Wormtail's uncontrollable weeping. "It is back," he said softly, "they will all have noticed it... and now, we shall see... now we shall know... and they should have brought our beloved guests." He pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on Wormtail's arm.

Wormtail let out a fresh howl; Voldemort removed his fingers from Wormtail's mark, and Blair saw that it had turned jet black. A look of cruel satisfaction on his face, Voldemort straightened up, threw back his head, and stared around at the dark graveyard. 

"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" he whispered, his gleaming red eyes fixed upon the stars. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?" He began to pace up and down before Harry, Blair and Wormtail, eyes sweeping the graveyard all the while. After a minute or so, he looked down at Harry and Blair, a cruel smile twisting his snakelike face. 

"You stand, Harry Potter and Blair Wood, upon the remains of my late father," he hissed softly. "A Muggle and a fool... very like your dear mothers, Potter, Wood. But they all had their uses, did they not? Your mother tried keeping in your powers, Wood. And yours, Potter, died to defend you as a child... and I killed my father, and see how useful he has proved himself, in death..."

Voldemort laughed again. Up and down he paced, looking all around him as he walked, and the snake continued to circle in the grass. Blair struggled and looked around, looking for a way to escape. If only she had her wand. "You see that house upon the hillside, Potter, Wood? My father lived there. My mother, a witch who lived here in this village, fell in love with him. But he abandoned her when she told him what she was... He didn't like magic, my father...

"He left her and returned to his Muggle parents before I was even born, and she died giving birth to me, leaving me to be raised in a Muggle orphanage... but I vowed to find him... I revenged myself upon him, that fool who gave me his name... Tom Riddle..." Still he paced, his red eyes darting from grave to grave.

"Listen to me, reliving family history..." he said quietly, "why, I am growing quite sentimental... But look, Harry, Blair! My true family returns..." The air was suddenly full of the swishing of cloaks. 

Between graves, behind the yew tree, in every shadowy space, wizards were Apparating. All of them were hooded and masked. And one by one they moved forward... slowly, cautiously, as though they could hardly believe their eyes. Two of them held two limp figures who looked familiar to Blair, but she couldn't see the hostages' faces because they were covered with bags. 

Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for them. Then one of the Death Eaters fell to his knees, crawled toward Voldemort, and kissed the hem of his black robes. "Master... Master..." he murmured. 

The Death Eaters behind him did the same; each of them approaching Voldemort on his knees and kissing his robes, before backing away and standing up, forming a silent circle, which enclosed Tom Riddle's grave, Harry, Blair, Voldemort, and the sobbing and twitching heap that was Wormtail. Yet they left gaps in the circle, as though waiting for more people.

Voldemort, however, did not seem to expect more. He looked around at the hooded faces, and though there was no wind, a rustling seemed to run around the circle, as though it had shivered. 

"Welcome, Death Eaters," said Voldemort quietly. "Thirteen years... thirteen years since last we met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday... We are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"

He put back his terrible face and sniffed, his slit-like nostrils widening. "I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench of guilt upon the air."

A second shiver ran around the circle, as though each member of it longed, but did not dare, to step back from him. "I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact — such prompt appearances! — and I ask myself... why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"

No one spoke. No one moved except Wormtail, who was upon the ground, still sobbing over his bleeding arm. "And I answer myself," whispered Voldemort, "they must have believed me broken, they thought I was gone. They slipped back among my enemies, and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment...

"And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death? They, who had seen proofs of the immensity of my power in the times when I was mightier than any wizard living?

"And I answer myself, perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort... perhaps they now pay allegiance to another... perhaps that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore?" 

At the mention of Dumbledore's name, the members of the circle stirred, and some muttered and shook their heads. Voldemort ignored them.

"It is a disappointment to me... I confess myself disappointed..." One of the men suddenly flung himself forward, breaking the circle. Trembling from head to foot, he collapsed at Voldemort's feet. "Master!" he shrieked, "Master, forgive me! Forgive us all!"

Voldemort began to laugh. He raised his wand. "Crucio!" The Death Eater on the ground writhed and shrieked; Blair felt her heart hurt as if feeling the pain the Death Eater was experiencing. She was sure the sound must carry to the houses around... Let the Muggle Aurors come, she thought desperately... anyone... anything...

Voldemort raised his wand. The tortured Death Eater lay flat upon the ground, gasping. 

"Get up, Avery," said Voldemort softly. "Stand up. You ask for forgiveness? I do not forgive. I do not forget. Thirteen long years... I want thirteen years' repayment before I forgive you. Wormtail here has paid some of his debt already, have you not, Wormtail?"

He looked down at Wormtail, who continued to sob. "You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but out of fear of your old friends. You deserve this pain, Wormtail. You know that, don't you?" 

"Yes, Master," moaned Wormtail, "please, Master... please..." 

"Yet you helped return me to my body," said Voldemort coolly, watching Wormtail sob on the ground. "Worthless and traitorous as you are, you helped me... and Lord Voldemort rewards his helpers..."

Voldemort raised his wand again and whirled it through the air. A streak of what looked like molten silver hung shining in the wand's wake. Momentarily shapeless, it writhed and then formed itself into a gleaming replica of a human hand, bright as moonlight, which soared downward and fixed itself upon Wormtail's bleeding wrist.

Wormtail's sobbing stopped abruptly. His breathing harsh and ragged, he raised his head and stared in disbelief at the silver hand, now attached seamlessly to his arm, as though he were wearing a dazzling glove. He flexed the shining fingers, then, trembling, picked up a small twig on the ground and crushed it into powder. 

"My Lord," he whispered. "Master... it is beautiful... thank you... thank you..." He scrambled forward on his knees and kissed the hem of Voldemort's robes. 

"May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail," said Voldemort. 

"No, my Lord... never, my Lord..." Wormtail stood up and took his place in the circle, staring at his powerful new hand, his face still shining with tears. Voldemort now approached the man on Wormtail's right.

"Lucius, my slippery friend," he whispered, halting before him. Blair's eyes widened. Malfoy's father? 

"I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though to the world you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? Yet you never tried to find me, Lucius... Your exploits at the Quidditch World Cup were fun, I daresay... but might not your energies have been better directed toward finding and aiding your master?"

"My Lord, I was constantly on the alert," came Lucius Malfoy's voice swiftly from beneath the hood. "Had there been any sign from you, any whisper of your whereabouts, I would have been at your side immediately, nothing could have prevented me —" 

"And yet you ran from my Mark, when a faithful Death Eater sent it into the sky last summer?" said Voldemort lazily, and Mr. Malfoy stopped talking abruptly. "Yes, I know all about that, Lucius... You have disappointed me... I expect more faithful service in the future." 

"Of course, my Lord, of course... You are merciful, thank you..."

Voldemort moved on, and stopped, staring at the space — large enough for two people — that separated Malfoy and the next man. 

"The Lestranges should stand here," said Voldemort quietly. "But they are entombed in Azkaban. They were faithful. They went to Azkaban rather than renounce me... When Azkaban is broken open, the Lestranges will be honored beyond their dreams. The dementors will join us... they are our natural allies... we will recall the banished giants... I shall have all my devoted servants returned to me, and an army of creatures whom all fear..."

He walked on. Some of the Death Eaters he passed in silence, but he paused before others and spoke to them. "Macnair... destroying dangerous beasts for the Ministry of Magic now, Wormtail tells me? You shall have better victims than that soon, Macnair. Lord Voldemort will provide..." Blair glared at the man. He was the one who tried to execute Buckbeak, and he was on Voldemort's side. 

"Thank you, Master... thank you," murmured Macnair.

"And here" — Voldemort moved on to the two largest hooded figures — "we have Crabbe... you will do better this time, will you not, Crabbe? And you, Goyle?" 

They bowed clumsily, muttering dully. "Yes, Master..." "We will, Master..." 

"The same goes for you, Nott," said Voldemort quietly as he walked past a stooped figure in Mr. Goyle's shadow. 

"My Lord, I prostrate myself before you, I am your most faithful —" 

"That will do," said Voldemort.

He had reached the largest gap of all, and he stood surveying it with his blank, red eyes, as though he could see people standing there. "And here we have six missing Death Eaters... three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return... he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever... he will be killed, of course... and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service."

The Death Eaters stirred, and Blair saw their eyes dart sideways at one another through their masks. "He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friends arrived here tonight... 

"Yes," said Voldemort, a grin curling his lipless mouth as the eyes of the circle flashed in Blair and Harry's direction. "Harry Potter and Blair Wood have kindly joined us for my rebirthing party. One might go so far as to call them my guests of honor."

There was a silence. Then the Death Eater to the right of Wormtail stepped forward, and Lucius Malfoy's voice spoke from under the mask. "Master, we crave to know... we beg you to tell us... how you have achieved this... this miracle... how you managed to return to us..." 

"Ah, what a story it is, Lucius," said Voldemort. "And it begins — and ends — with my young friends here." He walked lazily over to stand next to Harry and Blair, so that the eyes of the whole circle were upon the three of them. The snake continued to circle the grave.

"You know, of course, that they have called this boy my downfall?" Voldemort said softly, his red eyes upon Harry, who had to bite his lip to prevent his screams from getting out. "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."

Voldemort raised one of his long white fingers and put it very close to Harry's cheek. "His mother left upon him the traces of her sacrifice... This is old magic, I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook it... but no matter. I can touch him now." Blair saw the cold tip of the long white finger touch Harry and whimpered, trying to get out of her binds, but there was no use.

Voldemort laughed softly when he caught sight of Blair, then took the finger away and continued addressing the Death Eaters. "I miscalculated, my friends, I admit it. My curse was deflected by the woman's foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah... pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost... but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know... I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.

"You know my goal — to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked... for I had not been killed, though the curse should have done it. Nevertheless, I was as powerless as the weakest creature alive, and without the means to help myself... for I had no body, and every spell that might have helped me required the use of a wand...

"I remember only forcing myself, sleeplessly, endlessly, second by second, to exist... I settled in a faraway place, in a forest, and I waited... Surely, one of my faithful Death Eaters would try and find me... one of them would come and perform the magic I could not, to restore me to a body... but I waited in vain..."

The shiver ran once more around the circle of listening Death Eaters. Voldemort let the silence spiral horribly before continuing. "Only one power remained to me. I could possess the bodies of others. But I dared not go where other humans were plentiful, for I knew that the Aurors were still abroad and searching for me. 

"I sometimes inhabited animals — snakes, of course, being my preference — but I was little better off inside them than as pure spirit, for their bodies were ill adapted to perform magic... and my possession of them shortened their lives; none of them lasted long...

"Then... four years ago... the means for my return seemed assured. A wizard — young, foolish, and gullible — wandered across my path in the forest I had made my home. Oh, he seemed the very chance I had been dreaming of... for he was a teacher at Dumbledore's school... he was easy to bend to my will... he brought me back to this country, and after a while, I took possession of his body, to supervise him closely as he carried out my orders.

"But my plan failed. I did not manage to steal the Sorcerer's Stone. I was not to be assured immortal life. I was thwarted... thwarted, once again, by Harry Potter... and to my surprise, his friend, Blair Wood was there with him, but I was more astonished at the girl. The girl seemed to possess a large power inside her." Blair was confused. What was he going on about? She wasn't powerful. She was just Blair Wood.

Silence once more; nothing was stirring, not even the leaves on the yew tree. The Death Eaters were quite motionless, the glittering eyes in their masks fixed upon Voldemort, and upon Harry. "The servant died when I left his body, and I was left as weak as ever I had been," Voldemort continued. 

"I returned to my hiding place far away, and I will not pretend to you that I didn't then fear that I might never regain my powers... Yes, that was perhaps my darkest hour... I could not hope that I would be sent another wizard to possess... and I had given up hope, now, that any of my Death Eaters cared what had become of me..."

One or two of the masked wizards in the circle moved uncomfortably, but Voldemort took no notice. "And then, not even a year ago, when I had almost abandoned hope, it happened at last... a servant returned to me. Wormtail here, who had faked his own death to escape justice, was driven out of hiding by those he had once counted friends, and decided to return to his master. 

"He sought me in the country where it had long been rumored I was hiding... helped, of course, by the rats he met along the way. Wormtail has a curious affinity with rats, do you not, Wormtail? His filthy little friends told him there was a place, deep in an Albanian forest, that they avoided, where small animals like themselves had met their deaths by a dark shadow that possessed them...

"But his journey back to me was not smooth, was it, Wormtail? For, hungry one night, on the edge of the very forest where he had hoped to find me, he foolishly stopped at an inn for some food... and who should he meet there, but one Bertha Jorkins, a witch from the Ministry of Magic.

"Now see the way that fate favors Lord Voldemort. This might have been the end of Wormtail, and of my last hope for regeneration. But Wormtail — displaying a presence of mind I would never have expected from him — convinced Bertha Jorkins to accompany him on a nighttime stroll. He overpowered her... he brought her to me. And Bertha Jorkins, who might have ruined all, proved instead to be a gift beyond my wildest dreams... for — with a little persuasion — she became a veritable mine of information.

"She told me that the Triwizard Tournament would be played at Hogwarts this year. She told me that she knew of a faithful Death Eater who would be only too willing to help me, if I could only contact him. She told me many things... but the means I used to break the Memory Charm upon her were powerful, and when I had extracted all useful information from her, her mind and body were both damaged beyond repair. She had now served her purpose. I could not possess her. I disposed of her." Voldemort smiled his terrible smile, his red eyes blank and pitiless.

"Wormtail's body, of course, was ill adapted for possession, as all assumed him dead, and would attract far too much attention if noticed. However, he was the able-bodied servant I needed, and, poor wizard though he is, Wormtail was able to follow the instructions I gave him, which would return me to a rudimentary, weak body of my own, a body I would be able to inhabit while awaiting the essential ingredients for true rebirth... a spell or two of my own invention... a little help from my dear Nagini." 

Voldemort's red eyes fell upon the continually circling snake, "A potion concocted from unicorn blood, and the snake venom Nagini provided... I was soon returned to an almost human form, and strong enough to travel.

"There was no hope of stealing the Sorcerer's Stone anymore, for I knew that Dumbledore would have seen to it that it was destroyed. But I was willing to embrace mortal life again, before chasing immortality. I set my sights lower... I would settle for my old body back again, and my old strength.

"I knew that to achieve this — it is an old piece of Dark Magic, the potion that revived me tonight — I would need four powerful ingredients. Well, one of them was already at hand, was it not, Wormtail? Flesh given by a servant...

"My father's bone, naturally, meant that we would have to come here, where he was buried. But the blood of a foe... Wormtail would have had me use any wizard, would you not, Wormtail? Any wizard who had hated me... as so many of them still do. But I knew the one I must use, if I was to rise again, more powerful than I had been when I had fallen. I wanted Harry Potter's blood. I wanted the blood of the one who had stripped me of power thirteen years ago... for the lingering protection his mother once gave him would then reside in my veins too...

"And ichor of the powerful. I thought hard and hard about it, and I remembered... the little girl who had somehow cast a spell so strong, it blasted me away... I asked Wormtail about her, spent the whole of summer, learning everything I could about her... I wanted the blood, the power coursing through her veins... for it would make me invincible..." 

Blair's eyes widened in horror. Did she make Voldemort strong? She should've just taken Harry and went back to the cup when they had found that they were not in Hogwarts anymore. This was all her fault.

"But how to get at Harry Potter and Blair Wood? For the boy has been better protected than I think even he knows, protected in ways devised by Dumbledore long ago, when it fell to him to arrange the boy's future. Dumbledore invoked an ancient magic, to ensure the boy's protection as long as he is in his relations' care. Not even I can touch him there...

"Then, of course, there was the Quidditch World Cup... I thought his protection might be weaker there, away from his relations and Dumbledore, but I was not yet strong enough to attempt kidnap in the midst of a horde of Ministry wizards. And then, the boy and girl would return to Hogwarts, where they are under the crooked nose of that Muggle-loving fool from morning until night. So how could I take them?

"Why... by using Bertha Jorkins's information, of course. Use my one faithful Death Eater, stationed at Hogwarts, to ensure that their names were entered into the Goblet of Fire. Use my Death Eater to ensure that the boy and the girl won the tournament — that they touched the Triwizard Cup first — the cup which my Death Eater had turned into a Portkey, which would bring them here, beyond the reach of Dumbledore's help and protection, and into my waiting arms. And here they are... the boy you all believed had been my downfall... and the girl who will be my refuge."

Voldemort moved slowly forward and turned to face Harry. He raised his wand. "Crucio!" Blair screamed against the gag in her mouth as she saw Harry moving uncontrollably, twitching in pain. Then, it was gone. Blair glared at Voldemort, who grinned at her. The night was ringing with the sound of the Death Eaters' laughter.

"Oh, first. Let us deal with Blair Wood, the young and powerful witch. She will have the honor of being one with me. Wormtail, bring them forward."

"Rennervate."

The hostages were brought forward, and the bags on their faces were removed. Blair's mouth dropped open in horror. They were Blake and Olivia Wood, bloodied and tied with the same cords that were wrapped around Blair.

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Hey everyone! How did you like the surprise at the end? Did you expect Blake and Olivia to be the hostages? I hope you're enjoying so far, and thank you again for making Balter get to so much views and 1000 votes. I really appreciate it all uwu. Thank you all once more! Much love! <3

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