"You made the front page." Draco informed Harry when he and Daphne sat down for breakfast, Jet was resting on Daphne's shoulder like he belonged there while Thor was enjoying being perched on top of Harry's shoulder. For a few girls their hopes of bagging Harry Potter was shot down when then saw just how familiar Harry's familiar was with Daphne, and how natural she looked not just with Harry's familiar but with Harry himself.
"Oh?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Here you go." Theo said, handing Harry his copy of the Daily Prophet. "I've finished reading it."
"Thank you, Theo." Harry said before he took a look at the front page, on the front was a picture of the kiss that Daphne and Harry had shared during the second task, with it came the headline 'Harry Potter saves the girl!'.
"Why am I just 'the girl'?" Daphne frowned before she and Harry started reading, the newspaper basically went onto describe what had happened during the second task before it went onto theorise about Harry's relationship with Daphne, apparently the saviour of the wizarding world being the boyfriend of the Greengrass heiress was big news. The article, while mildly annoying, did not really have anything in it that was worth getting angry or suing over.
"Hey Daph," Harry said as he pointed at the picture of the two of them. "look at us, we look fucking gorgeous. Don't you think so?"
"I suppose I can't disagree," Daphne said after fighting off an amused snort. "still, this is quite surprising. When I woke up today I didn't expect to be on the front page of the most famous newspaper in wizarding Britain."
"Did you not? I expect so every day." Harry said in a voice full of fake surprise before he continued talking in his normal voice. "Still, if I was you then I would just be appreciative that this is all there is, it could be a lot worse."
"Actually..." Tracey spoke up. "that's not all there is. Harry's also made it on the cover of witch weekly."
"I beg your pardon?" Harry blinked. "Your pardon...I beg of it, what?"
"They've got a picture of you shirtless," Blaise said, laughing slightly. "it went on and on about how your good looking and your scars add character and how rich and smart you are. If you didn't have an ego before then you would after reading it."
"I..." Harry's response was cut off as a young Hufflepuff girl walked up to the table, she looked to be a third year.
"Excuse me, will you sign this for me? Please?" She asked Harry with a hopeful expression while holding up an article from witch weekly, which did indeed show a picture of a shirtless Harry.
"I think that...hold on..." Harry paused as he looked at the page. "I won 'Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award'?" Harry asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
"Finally, an achievement worth boasting about." Jet commented in a dry tone of voice.
"Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall said as she approached Harry at breakfast on the day of the third task. "your family is waiting for you in the entrance hall." She said. Harry frowned for a moment before he remembered that his family was allowed to visit and watch the third and final task.
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall." Harry said with a polite nod, barely supressing a massive grin.
"You are very welcome, Mr Potter. Before I go I would like to congratulate you on your performance so far, you have shown yourself to be not just a credit to your family houses but also Slytherin house and Hogwarts, I do hope that Mr Diggory or yourself will be able to bring the victory to Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall said, she gave him a small nod and a rare smile before walking off.
"Everyone is really excited." Blaise said as he looked around.
The entire hall was buzzing with anticipation, a lot of students from all three schools were making bets on who they though would win. Roughly about ninety-five percent of the school was betting on Harry to win, with the other five percent expecting the possibility of an upset victory by the others. Really, it said something about Harry's skill and power that he ended up making the older students become the underdogs.
Harry found himself standing, ready to start the third task with the other three champions, all of them were wearing the uniform that was provided for them, apparently it was to make sure that everyone was on the same playing field. Everyone pretty much wore the same thing, black shoes and trousers and then their own signature top with the logos of the schools they were representing. For Fleur, she was dressed in blue again while Krum was dressed in red. Cedric had once again managed to get a dark yellow mixed with black with his last name on the back, Harry on the other hand was able to get green and black with 'Potter' written in silver on his back.
The third task was set in the quidditch pitch which had been transformed into a giant maze, the sole objective for all four of the champions was to reach the centre of the maze and grab the trophy before anyone else could. Behind the champions was a table for the judges, all of the seats in the stadium were packed full and the two-way mirrors flew all around. Harry glanced over to where the Tonks family was sitting along with Sirius and Remus who had both showed up with them for the event, he gave them all a nod before turning and winking at Daphne who was sat with Angela and the other Slytherin's.
Harry had set Angela and Jet to look after Thor and Daphne since he figured if he person who put his name into the goblet was going to make their move then it would be in the final task.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Dumbledore's magically amplified voice boomed all around, silencing everyone as nobody wanted to miss anything. "it has been a long and gruelling road for our champions, each and every single one of them has had to face tasks that even grown wizards would struggle with, despite that they are still here! Their final task is a simple one, reach the centre of the maze and grab the Triwizard trophy. The first one to do so will be named Triwizard champion and winner of this year's tournament. Each champion will go in to the maze in an order that is dependent on their scores. After the champion with the most points enters the next champion must wait five minutes before entering and so on and so forth.
Allow me to introduce our champions, in fourth place is the fierce yet beautiful, Miss Delacour!" Dumbledore said, he paused to allow the Beauxbaton students to cheer for their champion. "In third place is Hogwarts's very own pride of Hufflepuff house, Cedric Diggory!" The majority of the Hogwarts students cheered for Cedric who waved back at them all.
"That's my son!" The proud voice of Amos Diggory, Cedric's father, was heard over the roaring crowds.
"In second place is Durmstrang's very own flying champion, Victor Krum!" Dumbledore continued, the Durmstrang students all cheered for Victor, Krum nodded his thanks to them. "And now, last but in no way least, we have the young man that is representing not a school but his own houses, house Potter-Black, please give a warm round of applause for Harry Potter!"
The stadium erupted with cheering and clapping, Harry looked around and allowed himself a small smile as he saw people clapping for him and cheering his name.
"Now champions," Professor Dumbledore spoke after a few minutes to let the cheering from the crowd die down. "if at any point, for any reason, you feel like you can no longer compete or require assistance then please send up some red sparks into the air and one of the professors will come and escort you out. Stay ready champions, the task will begin at the sound of the cannon." The cannon, as if speaking up when its name was called, fired a second later.
Harry shrugged before he rushed into the maze, once he was inside he slowed down to a calmer pace, the last thing he needed to do was run head first into a trap. Harry used a point me spell to guide himself to the centre, he walked forwards before he eventually turned left and walked several steps forwards before stopping when he heard a sound, all of a sudden a bunch of vines shot out and tried to grab at him. Harry quickly waved his wand and a shield blocked the vines from grabbing Harry, Harry realised he could destroy them or leave them for the other champions, the second one would be better for his chances at winning the tournament.
Harry moved forwards, keeping the shield up and only dropping it once he was out of the vines reach, he used the point me spell again and continued moving forwards. After a couple of minutes of walking Harry came across a boggart which had taken the place of Harry's Uncle Vernon who was holding a belt in his hands. Harry sighed before he aimed his wand at the boggart.
"Riddikulus." Harry said, the spell shot out of his wand and hit the boggart, turning it into Ludo Bagman. Both the boggart and the actual Bagman looked confused. "Because you're ridiculous." Harry said, speaking in the general direction of the two way mirror, though it was clear to everyone that he was speaking to Bagman whose face had turned quite red at this point, a fact that was not helped by the other students laughing. Harry paused when he heard Dumbledore announce that Krum had entered. Harry frowned and quickly continued moving.
Harry kept his wand ready for anymore surprises that could pop up, he kept his knees slightly bent and walked how Tonks had told him that Moody had told her to walk while aiming her weapon, which in her and Harry's case would be their wand.
"Tonks," A rough voice grunted as Mad-Eye Moody sat down next to the Tonks family group. "I suppose that's your doing?" He said, gesturing to the way Harry was moving on the mirrors.
"I may have had something to do with it." Tonks said with a grin, looking quite proud, though Moody couldn't tell if it the pride came from herself or if it was for the boy.
"The boy's a good one." Moody said as Harry began dealing with a bunch of golden mist that caused him to turn upside down.
"Yeah, well I suppose it helps that you contributed as well." Ted replied.
"Aye, it might." Moody said with a low chuckle, he wasn't anywhere near as involved in Harry's training as the others, though he had taught Harry a few spells and gave him plenty of advice the very few times he had met the boy. "I like the boy, he'd make a heck of an auror. A great auror."
Harry had just dealt with another obstacle and continued walking down the maze, by this point he knew that Delacour and Diggory were also in the maze. Harry turned right and found himself facing an acromantula, the acromantula threateningly pinched its pincers together when it saw Harry.
"Hey, you haven't seen a trophy around here? Have you?" Harry asked in a casual voice as he stopped a small distance away. The horse sized spider snapped its pincers together before charging towards Harry. "Arania Exumai!" Harry yelled, a blue spell shot out of his wand and sent the spider flying backwards, Harry didn't wait to see if it would get back up and quickly started wrapping it up in ropes and shot a couple of stunners at it, not really wanting to risk the chance of it breaking free from the ropes or being able to shrug off a single stunner.
"Ha!" Moody barked loudly, surprising many nearby. "Atta boy! Constant vigilance!" He said in an approving manner. "Made sure the eight legged bastard didn't get back up. You taught him well." He added in a lower voice as he nudged Tonks who beamed at the comment.
After another ten minutes or so of obstacles, Harry eventually found himself in the centre of the maze and had thankfully been able to avoid the other champions. He saw the Triwizard trophy, shining in the dark as it stood atop a pedestal. Harry didn't immediately run for it, he first began casting a couple of detection spells and once he was done he saw that there was no spells around the environment he cast detection spells at the trophy.
All he was able to find on the trophy was a portkey spell which wasn't that surprising given that he knew that the portkey on the trophy would have taken him back to the judges, and Lord Black had told him how the trophy had been checked repeatedly before being placed in the maze.
Harry calmly moved forwards and placed his hand on the cup, not even a second later he felt himself be pulled away by the pull of the portkey. Harry landed on the soft grass and before he could even look up he felt something impact his chest, his body fell as his vision went black.
Harry groaned softly as his eyes slowly opened, he blinked several times to clear his vision. He looked around and saw that he was in a graveyard and tied to a massive headstone. As well as having normal graves, the graveyard also had above ground mausoleums and a series of below ground vaults and catacombs. While most of those buried had simple head stones to mark their graves, there were several other monuments that were grander. Several were marked by stone obelisks and angels.
Harry looked around and saw a tall and muscular man with a thin, black moustache, behind him was a giant cauldron and next to the cauldron was a house elf, a female one, magically holding up something that was covered up in a blanket. The man took it from the elf, he opened up the blankets and allowed a small human shaped figure the size of the elf to drop into the cauldron with a splash.
"Bone of the father, unwillingly given." The man said as he levitated a bone into the cauldron.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked, only to be ignored as the man continued.
"Flesh of the servant, willingly given." The man hesitated for a couple of seconds before he cut off his hand, dropping it into the cauldron. He screamed out in pain and the elf quickly healed him up as best she could, the man grunted as he took a knife out and walked towards Harry. "Blood...of the enemy...forcibly taken...you will resurrect your foe!" He said as he brought the knife towards Harry.
Harry's mind was working far more faster than it normally would - apparently being kidnapped, tied to a gravestone and having a man come at you with a knife would do that to you - and he was quickly able to realise that he was about to be an unwilling volunteer in a ritual. Harry didn't consider himself an expert on rituals, but he knew that they could easily go wrong. His mind had replayed the man's words and had focused in on the 'forcibly taken' part.
Harry didn't struggle and simply let the man take his blood, the man appeared to have not noticed, most likely due to the pain from the stump on his arm. Harry didn't know how much this would affect the ritual, perhaps it would have a major effect, maybe even a minor one or it might not even be big enough to matter, that still didn't mean that Harry could hope for the best.
"Why are you doing this?" Harry asked the house elf as the man slowly walked back to the cauldron.
"You...you've cost Winky...you've cost Winky her family!" The elf, apparently named 'Winky', spoke. "You, bad boy, you sent both of Winky's masters to the bad wizard prison!"
"You mean Azkaban? Wait...you're the Crouch family elf!" Harry realised, the elf didn't respond as a moment later the cauldron tipped over. Harry watched as a bone white figure rose up, standing in front of Harry, looming over him.
Harry looked at the new figure in front of him, a skeletally thin body, and dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils. He had a chalk-white face that resembled a skull, snake-like slits for nostrils, and large hands with unnaturally long fingers like spider's legs. He had no hair and looked to be far from human. The other man quickly moved forward to robe the new figure, covering him in black robes that before he dropped down to his knees and held out a wand.
For everyone in the graveyard it seemed like time had stopped, nobody moved, nobody said anything. That was until the figure reached out and took the wand, he shivered slightly before his red eyes locked onto Harry's green ones. In that moment any doubts Harry may have had about who this person was had vanished, he had guessed when he first saw him but now he knew for sure. The silence of the graveyard was broken by a high and cold voice.
"I'm back." Lord Voldemort said.
A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter. I should also let you know that the date of the poll for my next story is being moved up to tommorow due to my life timetable, so if you want to vote then quickly put in a vote today on my pat-reon account which is JB21Q. I'll be back soon with the results, though for those who are interested I should tell you that the HP/Avatar crossover is winning so far.