I am not J.K. Rowling, and I do not own Harry Potter (although I do own a copy of all the books and movies), and am certainly not making any money off of this. I'm writing this purely because I enjoy it, and I hope you do too.
A Sirius Matter
Chapter 27 - Voldemort's Return
Harry and Hermione landed roughly after that unexpected trip by portkey. Harry was still under the blanket when he heard the voice that filled his nightmares hiss, "Kill the spare."
Knowing instinctively who the `spare' must be, he blindly pushed Hermione away just as Wormtail shouted, "Avada Kadavra!"
Harry threw off the blanket and got up, quickly glancing to see that Hermione was still alive. He got his wand, pointed it at Pettigrew, who was carrying something hideous that was about the size of a baby, and shouted, "Stupefy!"
Peter managed to move out of the way and dropped the `infant' into a large cauldron while Harry quickly looked around to see he was in a graveyard.
"Expelliarmus!" came the sound of Hermione's voice from behind Harry.
Pettigrew smiled as he said, "Protego! Crucio!"
Soon Harry was listening in horror as his girlfriend was screaming in agony. In rage he shouted, "Expelliarmus," causing Pettigrew to not only drop his wand, but throwing him against a headstone that had `Tom Riddle' engraved on it.
As Harry rushed toward Pettigrew in anger, the pathetic man grabbed a bone that was lying nearby and threw it at the cauldron. He smiled as it landed inside it, just before Harry punched him in the face.
Wormtail quickly said, "Bone of the father, unknowingly taken," before turning into a rat and running toward the cauldron.
Harry shot a few spells at the terrified rat, but just hit the tail, separating it from the still running rat. Harry then shot a `Reducto' curse at the cauldron, only for the blast to bounce off an invisible shield that was apparently protecting it. Harry had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit.
This gave Pettigrew the time to transform back. He appeared to be in pain, and had some trouble standing, but grabbed the tail off the ground and placed it in the cauldron saying, "Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed," before he transformed back into a rat and ran toward Hermione.
Harry then followed the rat to see that Hermione was just sitting up. The right side of her face was bleeding as though she'd hit her head at some point, and she seemed groggy. Before Harry got to her, Wormtail transformed and picked her up, holding the dazed girl in front of him like a shield. His right hand was around her throat. Harry glared at his parents' betrayer with more contempt than ever before.
"Drop your wand, Harry," said Wormtail as he slowly moved closer to the cauldron, obviously in pain.
"Don…don't do it, Harry," she managed to say.
Harry slowly began to lower his wand as the rat got next to the cauldron. "You should do nicely, my pretty mudblood," Pettigrew hissed in Hermione's ear as he collected some of the blood that had flowed onto her face with his left hand and then flicked it into the cauldron saying, "Blood of the enemy, unwilling given. You will resurrect your foe."
"What?" said Hermione as she came to herself enough to elbow him in the stomach.
When he momentarily lost his grip on her she dove down, having faith in Harry to point his wand at the rat, shouting, "Stupefy!" Peter flew backward ten feet unconscious. Harry ran toward Hermione, helping her up, and then they both went back to Peter's unconscious form.
Harry picked him up quickly, as Hermione said, "We need to get back to the portkey, NOW!"
As they ran to the blanket, Voldemort's new body, which included a tail and a rat-like muzzle (with no hair anywhere on the body) appeared next to the cauldron. They grabbed the blanket as Voldemort turned toward them. Hermione shouted, "Activate!" and the blanket, along with Harry, Hermione, and Peter, disappeared.
-
They reappeared on Hogwarts grounds, and Hermione said, "Let's get to Hagrid's hut. It's the closest place," as together they got up from the ground. Harry was still dragging Pettigrew along.
As Hagrid's home came into view, Harry dropped Peter, put both hands over his scar, and fell to his knees. In his exhaustion, he hadn't thought to reinforce his Occlumency shields.
-
He angrily put on the robe that had been carelessly dropped on the ground during the fight, wondering how two young teenagers had overpowered Pettigrew, and yet the ceremony was still completed. He realized that he was wrong to trust that rat with such an important task. At that moment a bat flew quickly toward him, landed, and transformed into Lucius Malfoy and dropped to his knees. For a moment, he stared at his master's face in horror, but then reported.
"Master, I got here as quickly as I could after watching Karkaroff transport Potter and the mudblood! I flew out of Hogwarts' wards as quickly as my wings would take me. Then I apparated to the edge of your own wards. I then flew here as fast as I could. Although I could not see in my bat form, from what I heard from the other side of the cemetery, I believe the rat used the mudblood's blood instead of Potter's in the ceremony. I hope I am mistaken, my lord. I…"
"Crucio!"
-
"Harry!" said Hermione, bringing him out of his trance. He shook his head and brought back his shields. He'd honestly been too interested in what was going on to try breaking the connection. He looked around to see he was in Hagrid's bed, with both the half-giant and Professor Dumbledore standing next to Hermione, looking at him in concern. He noticed Pettigrew was not in the room.
Hermione was crying and holding his hand. "I'm so sorry I couldn't…"
"It wasn't your fault, Hermione," he said quickly.
"Mr. Potter is quite correct, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore. "It was neither of your faults. It was mine for allowing Professor Karkaroff on Hogwarts grounds. He never regretted his crimes as a Death Eater, but merely betrayed some of his friends to reduce his sentence. He should never have been freed from Azkaban no matter what names he provided the ministry with. Now he has helped bring back Voldemort."
Harry looked from Albus to Hermione, who nodded and said, "I told him briefly what happened."
"Yes, but I would appreciate detailed testimony from the both of you once Minister Vehosia arrives. I sent word for him to come right after I had Fawkes deliver Pettigrew into a holding cell at the ministry. My message included a suggestion to force Peter to take a potion that will make it impossible to ever become a rat again."
Harry grinned. "It might be better to just let Peter go. I doubt very much that he'll survive ten steps out of the ministry building."
"I'd imagine Voldemort is quite angry with him for not following instructions," agreed Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eyes. "From what Miss Granger said, Voldemort not only has a few rat-like features because of Wormtail's use of a transformed body-part, but he also has a muggleborn girl's blood instead of Mr. Potter's, which undoubtedly was his plan."
It was at this moment that Harry realized that Hermione was wearing a small bandage on her head. "She should get to the hospital wing," said Harry.
"I quite agree that you both should see Madam Pomfrey."
"I don't need…" protested Harry.
"Just let her check you out. If you're right then it won't take very long, will it?" said Hermione.
"Fine."
-
After the four of them walked to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey healed Hermione's head, saying that she had a mild concussion and should spend the night there. She agreed that Harry was just fine. They were still there when Minister Vehosia arrived with two aurors.
"Hello, Professor Dumbledore," he said amiably, reaching out and shaking his hand. "Thank you for capturing Peter Pettigrew for us. Is that what you wished to speak to me about?"
"Actually Minister, it was Harry Potter and Hermione Granger who captured Pettigrew," he said as he indicated the teenagers. "I believe you will find their story most interesting."
"Mr. Potter," the politician said with a smile as he rushed to shake his hand enthusiastically, "it is a pleasure to meet you! I'll bet you got some satisfaction in capturing the man who betrayed your parents to You-Know-Who."
"His name is Tom Riddle, and he calls himself Voldemort," said the raven-haired youth impatiently, "and he's back!"
"WHAT?!" asked the wide-eyed minister with a look of fear.
"It might be better if he and Miss Granger start their story from the beginning," suggested Dumbledore.
When Vehosia nodded and sat down, Hermione began. "You see Minister, Harry and I were walking to Hagrid's hut when someone shot a `Stupefy' spell at us…"
A half-hour later, after he'd heard the full story from both of them, the Minister got up and began pacing. Dumbledore said, "You may wish to administer veritaserum to Mr. Pettigrew to obtain his perspective of those events."
"I, I will. It's just, y'know, hard to believe after all these years. I don't want to scare everybody and cause a panic, but I can't ignore this either. Dumbledore, do you have any suggestions?"
With a twinkle in his eyes, Albus said, "I'd suggest that we put Voldemort at ease by pretending that we don't know he's back. He'll be wondering why he isn't hearing anything in the news. In the meantime, you can quietly build up the auror division among other things. I'd also suggest preparing to replace the Dementors of Azkaban for when they defect to Voldemort's side. Perhaps secretly stationing aurors or unspeakables near the prison to respond to any attempt at breaking prisoners out."
"Perhaps the ministry can offer classes in defense for the general public, saying that it's because Lucius Malfoy is on the loose," said Hermione.
"Excellent suggestion, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, "Ten points to Gryffindor."
"Make sure to teach the Patronus Charm at those classes," said Harry, "So that people can defend themselves against Dementors."
The minister smiled. "I think I'll do that. I believe the people would like those programs, and the Minister who started them."
"I also suggest you send envoys to the giants, in hopes that they won't join Voldemort."
He shook his head. "No. I don't believe the giants would listen. One of my first assignments as an ambassador was to try to make peace with the giants. I'd given two expensive gifts to their leader and thought I was making progress only for him to be killed by a more aggressive giant." He wiped his forehead with his hand. "I was lucky to get out of there alive, and I won't be sending any of my people into that kind of situation for nothing."
"That is of course, your decision," replied Dumbledore.
-
A few minutes later, the Minister left and Dumbledore had McGonagall, Snape and Hagrid meet him in his office. Once all three were there, the aged Headmaster said, "Voldemort's back, and so we're reforming the Order of the Phoenix. Minerva, call back all the old friends for a meeting. Severus, you know what to do." Snape nodded grimly. "Hagrid, I have a very special assignment for you."
-
Please review. Thank you to everyone who has. I'm sorry I took so long to update, especially with that cliffhanger, but it couldn't be helped. I'm going to try to update each of my stories every two weeks, sooner if I can.
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