Chapter 784 - Ch: 13-15 (Endish)

Chapter 13: Christmas with the Potters 

Sunday, December 20, Milham 

It was the second day of the Christmas holidays and Harry was standing in front of his home observing how his daughter was using her grandpa Siri to build a snowman or rather a snowdog. She somehow had managed to convince him to transform and now she was burying him under a layer of snow. Then again Sirius absolutely adored the little girl so Harry doubted it had taken much effort on her part to convince him.

Harry for his part had already taken several photos of the scene. Not only were they photos of irreplaceable memories, they were also excellent blackmail material.

While he watched the two his thought turned to what had happened since the talk in Dumbledore's office.

Of course there had been the decision of Arthur. To be frankly that had been a disappointment. The man had caved under the pressure. Apparently the look of his wife had been enough and he decided not to dissolve the contract. While he was not happy about it, Harry wasn't to bothered by it. This only meant he had to go back to his original plan to sue the family for attempted line theft.

Unfortunately they are under the protection of Dumbledore and as things are right now they are relatively untouchable, that is at least until Dumbledore goes down. For that part Harry had received good news from Skeeter. She had finally managed to get permission to publish a book Harry had taken with him from the future and had given to her on their first meeting, titled The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.

The book contained chapters describing Dumbledore's friendship with the future dark lord Grindelwald, the death of his sister and the imprisonment of his father. There was also a portion dedicated to how Dumbledore had dumped the saviour of the magical world at the doorsteps of a Muggle home in the middle of a November night with only a blanket to keep him warm. She then went on to describe how the Muggles were he was placed had a extreme case of Xenophobia (A/N 1), followed by a description of the first ten year of Harry's life. Finally there was a section dedicated to his time as headmaster; twice the chamber of secrets was opened, keeping a Cerberus in the school, sending students to the forbidden forest for detentions.

The outrage had been great when everyone in Hogwarts had received a free copy the next morning during breakfast, courtesy of Harry and started to read it. The outrage grew only larger when Hermione, thinking the books were mostly lies and half-truths asked Harry what he thought about it. Harry for his part responded with that he had already read the entire book and it doesn't contain any lies as far as he could tell.

From what he heard from others, people outside hadn't reacted well either. Madam Bones had used this book as a excuse to begin a investigation into Hogwarts.

Other than that not much had happened. Harry and Daphne had invited Hermione, Emma, Astoria and Tracey to spend some time with them at their home. All of them had agreed and would come over at different days during the holiday. Yesterday Harry had showed Emma and Hermione the Potter library. They hadn't been very pleased when Harry suggested they go home to sleep twelve hours later.

There also had been another round of the duelling tournament. This time team Athena faced off against a team called Zwaderich that consisted of three fifth year Slytherin. Harry's round hadn't been to interesting, but both Emma's and Hermione's were a interesting watch. Hermione dominated her match even though she was a year younger. Emma lost her match, but showed that she made remarkable progress under Harry's tutelage as she lasted eight minutes against the older students.

Daphne's team also advanced another round, but unlike Harry's match hers was rather interesting. She faced off against one of the teachers competing. She faced off against the Runes teacher, Professor Babbling. While the professor definitely didn't belong in the upper tier of powerful people currently residing at Hogwarts, she definitely was several levels above the average student and managed to make Daphne take the fight semi-serious for a moment.

Another interesting thing was that Krum again had invited Hermione to the ball. She had initially declined stating that she was going home for the holidays, but when Daphne had heard it she had immediately offered to side-along Apparate her on Christmas night. Daphne honestly could care less about Krum, but she knew from past talks with the brunette that the ball had been important to her social development.

Harry's musings were interrupted when he heard his wife call for him and the children as dinner was ready.

Harry looked at the two aforementioned 'children' playing in the snow. Or rather a child and a dog who is a man and acts like a child and called them to come in.

Monday, December 21, Granger's home 

Today the Potters had been invited by the Grangers for dinner. They had just finished dinner and Harry commented. ''Thank you for inviting us, that tasted wonderful.''

Jane smiled at the man and replied. ''No problem, we are glad to have you here and you allowed us to finally see the place our daughters go to, this is the least we could do.''

''Don't mention it ,'' Harry said. ''Now you just mentioned you wanted to see more of your daughter's life at Hogwarts and I have a way to show you that.'' After he said that he pulled out a stone basin from the bag had laid next to his chair and placed it on the table. ''Does any of you know what this is?''

He had directed the question mostly to the younger girls as he knew that Daphne knew what it was and he highly doubted that the Granger parents would recognise a rare magical artefact.

When he received negative replies from all the Grangers he started to explain. ''This is what is known as a Pensive. It allows people to see copies of a memory as if they were there themselves, however they can't interfere in any way. I thought you might like it to watch the memories of your daughters at Hogwarts.''

Dan Granger looked a bit dubious at the small bowl. ''That allows us to watch memories?''

Harry nodded, ''Yes, and don't worry it's perfectly safe.''

''Then we would love to see them.'' Jane said.

''Do you have a request for any specific memory you want to see?''

''Not really right now, maybe you could show us when to show how it works then we can come up with which one we want to see.''

Harry nodded and thought for a moment what memory to use before he got a grin on his face and pulled the memory string out of his head with the help of his wand and placed it in the Pensive.

''To enter the memory you just have to touch any part of liquid looking substance, like this.'' Daphne said before touching the substance with a finger and disappeared into the bowl.

''You sure it is safe?'' Dan said after he saw the witch disappear in a bowl that was drastically smaller than her.

''Don't worry dad, If Harry says it is safe then it's safe.'' Hermione said before she too disappeared into the bowl, closely followed by her sister.

''Well we can't stay behind then.'' Jane Granger said before going into the bowl. Her husband decided to follow his wife example and followed her into the bowl.

Harry then picked up Lucy to help her enter. ''Come on, lets go watch some good old fashioned comedy.'' Harry said before they too disappeared into the bowl.

Harry landed next to Daphne and the Grangers and spotted the look of awe at the Grangers face although some apprehension was mixed in with Hermione's.

''Where are we?'' Dan asked as he spotted three boys hiding behind some large rock and the blond boy in the front was holding a binocular and was looking in the direction of a hut in the distance.

''A better question would be when are we.'' Daphne commented. ''As for your question we are at Hogwarts ground and this is a memory that happened in Harry's, mine and Hermione's third year.''

''And there we are,'' Harry said motioning to the arrival of three familiar teens.

Jane turned away from looking at the three boy and looked at where Harry was pointing and saw a younger version of her daughter, a considerable younger version of the man that had been pointing, and a redhead approach the scene.

Hermione meanwhile had paled considerably. She had recognised the scene the moment she had spotted Malfoy. While she definitely didn't regret it this would not have been her first choice if she could show any memory to her parents.

Emma watched in fascination as she watched the memory of a boy she had been warned about by her sister to be cautious around say. ''Ah come to enjoy the show?''

She watched in awe how the memory of her sister marched at the boy and venomously exclaim. '' You foul loathsome evil little cockroach!'' and place her wand under the chin of the boy, making the boy look up, looking scared.

She then heard the redhead boy, Ron if she remembered correctly say. ''Hermione, no, he is not worth it.''

Her sister held her wand under the boys chin for several more seconds and she could actually hear the blond whimper. She then saw that her sister lowered her wand with a look of 'he is so not worth it' and turned around, it was then that the boy started to laugh and her sister swirled and SLAM, hit him full on the nose, making him fall back against the stone he had been hiding behind earlier and he and his friends immediately ran away. She then heard her memory-sister say. ''That felt good.''

She turned around and looked at her real older sister with a look of disbelief and awe. She noticed her parents were also watching their eldest daughter.

Said girl had turned a interested shade of red and said, ''I can explain?''

And so she did once they were out of the pensive. She explained the situation about the stress she had that year and how Malfoy had milked out a injury to get a innocent creature executed and that she just snapped.

Her parents weren't happy that she resorted to violence, but they definitely could sympathise with her and secretly admitted to themselves they probably would have done the same if they were in the same situation.

''Still this was amazing,'' Dan said in reference to the memory trip. ''Maybe we should buy one of those pensive for ourselves.''

''I am afraid that isn't possible, sir.'' Harry said. ''The knowledge on how to make them has been lost for generation, one of those are literally priceless. I was lucky one was in the family vault.''

''Oh,'' Dan said somewhat subdued. ''Do you perhaps have more interesting memories about Hermione?''

Harry grinned and Hermione was glaring at him, ''Well...''

Wednesday, December 23, Milham 

Harry was staring at his empty glass. He had just said goodbye to one of his father closest friends. This had been the first conversation he had with the man since coming back.

He knew he probably shouldn't have postponed the meeting for so long, but unlike Sirius, he didn't trust Remus right now. In the last couple of years of Remus life Harry had trusted him completely. But, right now the man still trusted Dumbledore blindly because he had allowed him to study at his school even though he was a werewolf.

So he had requested a meeting with Remus. Nothing serious was discussed yet, even though Remus asked a couple of questions Harry was sure he was instructed to ask.

They talked about a couple of non-important things, mostly about his parents and a bit about Harry's own experiences as parent. Harry also asked the man a couple of questions to make him start thinking about his decisions. Such as where he was the first couple of years of Harry life. Harry also mentioned that he knew that Remus knew where he was 'raised' and had heard from Sirius that Harry's mother occasionally mentioned her sister and her hate for all this she didn't consider normal.

So at the end of the meeting Harry said goodbye to the man without having given him any useful information and with several things to think about. Harry hoped they could become friends again in the future and maybe if he was lucky little Teddy would be born again, but he didn't hold to much hope for that. Things were changing already and there was a decent that Remus and Tonks wouldn't even meet let alone get together without the pressure of the war.

Friday, December 25, Greengrass manor 

Today was Christmas day and the Granger, Davis and Potter family had accepted their invitation to celebrate Christmas day at Greengrass manor.

Lucy hadn't been happy that she wasn't allowed to unpack her gifts when she woke up, especially when her father already received a gift from a very familiar house elf. She was currently sitting in front of the Christmas three, or more specifically the presents under the three, trying to figure out what every packet was.

Eventually they started opening the gifts and Lucy literally started to tear her gifts open.

Lucy had received mostly toys, because not many people knew what exactly Harry and Daphne wanted they were mostly gifted books. Strangely enough both Harry and Lucy also received a Weasley sweater.

Both Hermione and Emma received several books and sweets from the adults. Harry and Daphne had gifted them with a set of two-way mirrors each, so that they could keep contact with their parents more easily.

Tracey and Astoria had received a more assorted assortment of gifts.

The rest of the day was spend peacefully with friends and family. A couple of hours before it was time for Hermione to go to Hogwarts, Jane Granger, Arianna Greengrass, the lady Davis and Daphne took her out of the room for nearly two hours. The end result was a Hermione that looked pretty much like she had done when Harry had first seen her during the Yule ball.

Tuesday, December 29, Milham

Harry and Daphne were sitting on one of the couches at their home. Sirius was currently watching over Lucy at his new bought house. Sitting at the other couches were Daphne's parents, Hermione and Tracey.

Both Tracey and Hermione had agreed to both take a oath of silence and to have a guardian installed in their mind in exchange of hearing the full story of why they were back and that is why they were here. The lord and lady Greengrasss while knowing part of the story still didn't know everything and would be informed to today.

Harry began the explanation in a similar manor as he had done when he explained it to Madam Bones and to the Greengrass parents.

First of course was that Voldemort would come back at the end of the year, which caused shocked looks from the two youngest people in the house.

He then talked a bit about the different fractions of the war, the highlights of the war, and what they had been doing until now to prevent the war from even beginning.

When Harry was finished, Hermione spoke up. ''Uh Harry can I ask you some questions?''

After seeing Harry nod, she asked. ''You said there were four fractions fighting in the war. Who did I support?''

''Who do you think?'' Harry questioned.

Hermione thought for a moment. ''Don't take this personal Harry, but while you are my closest friend I am not sure I would support you to lead the war when you were only sixteen. I probably would have supported the headmaster, especially if I didn't have the information about headmaster I have now.''

''Actually you joined the gray fraction.'' Harry responded. ''This was because you realised the incompetence of Dumbledore in our sixth year.''

''What happened?''

Harry closed his eyes for a moment, after he opened them he made direct eye contact with the girl. ''Hermione, are you sure you want to hear this? It's not pretty to hear and there is absolutely nothing you can do about something that will never happen.''

She looked thoughtful for a moment and then somewhat hesitantly said. ''Yes,''

Harry collected his thought for a moment, honesty there was no way how he could sugar-coat what he was going to tell her. ''In our sixth year, Emma was found naked, with the word MUDBLOOD carved onto her chest. There was no investigation because according to Dumbledore due to the war no recourses, like truth serum could be spared. As you can imagine that left you pretty much disillusioned with the old man.''

Hermione looked badly shaken when she heard the fate of her younger sister and only with the assurance that it won't happen again did she manage to control herself.

''Do you know who did it?''

Harry nodded, ''The same person who is responsible for Tori's death.

This got both Greengrass parents attention as they only had been told that their youngest daughter had died early in the war.

''What happened to her?'' Samuel Greengrass growled out and now he understood why his eldest didn't want her sister here. He was sure it was hard enough for Daphne to talk about Astoria's death without her being there let alone if she was there.

''She was put under the Imperius curse and was tasked to assassinate the minister.'' Daphne explained, her tone sober. ''She was caught and was sentenced to the Dementor kiss without a trial.''

Silence followed her explanation, while you are technically not dead after a Dementor kiss, some say it is a fate worse than dead.

Finally Samuel venomously uttered a single word, ''Who?''

''Draco Malfoy,''

Samuel cursed loudly and was about to stand up before his wife yanked him down. ''You. Calm. Down.'' She said emphasizing, each word.

She then turned to the Potters and asked. ''I am sure you are already doing things to prevent him from doing the same thing again?''

Daphne nodded and removed her hand away from her wand holster. She knew her father would react badly and she would have stunned him if her mother hadn't calmed him down otherwise he probably would have stormed down to Malfoy manor and killed the little bastard himself to protect one of his daughters.

''The Malfoy line is already dead; When Malfoy Sr. was convicted, Sirius nullified the marriage between Narcissa and Lucius. After that he gave Draco a choice; legally completely renounce the Malfoy name or the Black name. He chose the Black name, thus now he is Draco Black.''

''But how is that a good thing?'' Hermione asked. ''From what you told me, the Blacks are a most Ancient and Noble family, wouldn't this increase his status?''

''Not really,'' Harry answered. ''If he was named heir, like I assume he thought he would, then yes, but as a mere member not as much. Also important to remember is that a head of house can cast out a member and you can't regain a name you have renounced thus if he pisses Sirius off he will make himself a NoName, which is considered even lower than Muggleborns in the pureblood circles.''

''Before that we were already destroying his reputation at Hogwarts.'' Daphne continued. ''And don't forget the duelling tournament. That was the perfect excuse to train our friends, both Emma and Tori are definitely better duellists then they were over two year the last time around.''

Hermione and Tracey had to agree with that, while they too had greatly improved Harry and Daphne had seemed more focused on training the youngest of the team, now they understood why.''

''So how did you find out it was Malfoy?'' Samuel asked, still angry, but impressed how toothless they made the boy now.

Daphne shrugged. ''When Emma died we decided it was no longer safe in the castle especially after what happened to Tori, so everyone in the castle, loyal to our cause left the castle that night. Unfortunately for Malfoy, he tried to stop me and a couple of others from leaving the Slytherin common room. That didn't turn out to well for him and we took him with us to see if he had any useful information.''

Harry took over from her. ''When we reached a safe house we managed to 'convince' him to talk. It took awhile, but he admitted to have been the one to place Tori under the Imperius curse, and to be part of the group who was responsible for Emma's death.'' Harry took a deep steadying breath. ''After he admitted to be part of the group he admitted to have been the one to carve the word in her chest, he was nearly gloating at that point.''

''So what did you do to him?'' Samuel asked. He had heard the tone of utter loathing in the man's voice and he doubted that the Malfoy brat got off easy.

''Are you familiar with the cruor ut limus(A/N 3) curse?'' Harry asked.

The Greengrass parents eyes went wide, apparently both recognised the curse name. Then Samuel let out a bark of laughter. ''Well isn't that appropriate. The little pureblood prince literally becomes a mudblood.''

''So what happened to me?'' Tracey asked. ''I assume I dint survive otherwise I would have come back with you.''

Daphne sighted, 'Seriously who would want to know how they died?' she thought, but they had promised to answer all questions truthfully so that is what she would do, ''You fought and died in the last battle with Voldemort before we came back.''

If Tracey was fazed by the news she died by the hand of Voldemort himself she didn't show it, instead she asked. ''And Hermione?''

Daphne turned to said person and asked. ''Do you want to hear this or do you want me to remain silent?''

Hermione thought for a moment, ''No, I want to know.''

''You're death was a bit more complicated."Daphne said "What do you know about blood magic.''

''Not much, I know it is illegal and is classified as dark, but I don't know exactly what it is. I always assume it has something to do with blood considering the name.''

Daphne shook her head. ''No, actually it doesn't have anything to do with blood. Not sure why it was named that way in the first place, actually. With normal magic you tap magic from your core as power source. With blood magic however you use life force which is much more potent as a source of power. Blood magic is usually seen as dark because most wouldn't use their own life force as a power source.''

''But if life force is so much powerful then why don't people always use that for their spells.''

''Because you're magical core will recharge itself over time, but life fore is lost forever once used.''

''But what has that to do with me?''

''When you're parents safe house was comprised, you kind of lost it.'' Daphne said as gently as possible. ''You completely focused on research and locked yourself in the library for a month. When you finally came out, you said you were going to make them pay. Before anyone could stop you, you already had apparited away. You had left your notes behind so we quikly found out what you were planning, but we didn't know where.''

''What did I do?''

''You used a old spell that capitalizes blood magic. The result of the spell was that you turned your own body into a bomb. The damage was devastating, not only did you take out the nearby Death Eater stronghold the residue magic caused by the explosion also caused the entire nearby area to become completely lifeless, nothing could live there for the next couple of hundred years.

Chapter 14: The second task.

Tuesday February twenty-four, chamber of secrets

Fleur Delacour could still hardly believe where she was. She was laying on a float mattress, floating in the middle of a heated pool.

She had done much thinking since she had received the information about the second task from Harry Potter. Shortly after that Madame Maxime, like with the first task had informed her about the task, but the information she gave about the task was severely lacking in comparison to what Harry had told her.

Madame Maxime hadn't told her how to solve the egg, instead she only told her that she had to retrieve 'something that wasn't determined yet' from the bottom of the local lake.

She knew that her headmistress wasn't a bad woman, but she also knew that she was fiercely competitive and she would put it past her to extra motivate her by only telling her that it was her sister that was taken moments before the tasks start.

So seeing that the coach wasn't the safest place for her sister and she had no way to send her sister home without having to answer some unwanted questions, she swallowed her pride and approached the Potters.

It turned out they already had something planned to keep those they didn't want in the task safe and she was invited to join them.

So the day before the task, after the lessons for the day had ended she, along with her little sister had followed Harry who had lead her to a girls bathroom. She had been highly suspicious when he had lead them there and she had nearly drawn her wand on him. The only thing that saved him from a hexing was the fact that he upon entering he immediately informed her that a hidden passageway was in here. Okay, it might have helped him that she saw how easily he dispatched his opponents during the duelling tournament and she would rather not enter a magical fight with him, especially not with her sister there.

''So where does this hidden passageway lead to?'' She asked.

''Does the chamber of secrets ring a bell?'' Harry responded.

Fleur gave Harry a shocked look, she may live in France, but Salazar Slytherin still is a very (in)famous wizard and he was covered extensively during some of her history lessons.

''The chamber build by Slytherin himself?'' She asked in confirmation.

Harry shrugged, ''That's what the legend says.'' He then turned to the sink that held the entrance and hissed. "§Open§"

Harry turned around to look at the two shocked witches. ''We thought it was a good place to stay here considering the only two capable of opening the room are staying the night in there.''

Fleur couldn't refute that logic and watched as the man jumped into the newly opened hole, disappearing from view. She made eye contact with her little sister, who merely shrugged and both decided to just jump in after him.

After several minutes of sliding down the two Delacours landed rather undignified at the feet of a smirking Potter lord.

''Nice landing.'' Harry commented.

''Shut up.'' Fleur elegantly replied.

Harry gave them a moment to stand up and get their bearing, he then lead them trough the lighted corridor and into the main room. When Fleur entered the main room she had been highly surprised, when she imagined the hidden room of one of the darkest wizard of all time she had expecting a setting similar to this castle's dungeons only worse instead it looked more like the tropical swim paradises she used to enjoy before her maturation and her allure had activated

Harry smiled when he saw the gobsmacked reaction of the two French witches. Daphne's suggestion back when they first entered the hidden chamber to turn this place in a pool was only meant as a joke, but when Harry and Daphne thought about it for a while they thought 'Why not?' and with a bit of help of both the Potter and Greengrass elves they completely renovated the room.

Alongside one of the walls several bedrooms were build, not overly big, but still comfortable enough to sleep in. Since the renovation two have been permanently occupied, due to the superior security compared to their previous room.

There was also a decent sized pool in the room, filled with water that was kept both warm and clean with the use of runes. There was also a decent sized slide which ended in the pool

Finally there was a duelling ring which both Harry and Daphne used to train their teams and to duel with each other to remain in shape.

Harry observed the people already in the room, or more specifically those who are here for the first time.

Luna Lovegood was sitting on one of the beach chairs that were standing by the pool. She was currently talking to Hermione who was sitting on the chair next to her and looking at Hermione's expression Harry had a pretty decent idea what Luna was talking about. Harry honestly doubted that Dumbledore would chose her as his hostage, but he was rather safe than sorry, especially after he started to interact a bit more with the young girl after the first round.

Harry's and Daphne's only other guests beside the obvious Hermione, Astoria and Tracey were Harry's former team mates. All five of them had been a bit apprehensive when Harry told them they might be chosen for the second task and for their safety it was best if they stayed the night at the chamber of secrets.

Looking back Harry realised that it might have been better if he had formulated that a bit differently. So Harry quickly explained what the chamber looked like now. It hadn't been a hard choice after that. To either spend the night at a heated pool or risk the chance of having to spend several hours underwater in the freezing lake.

Moving his gaze away from his former teammates Harry noticed that Luna had vacated her chair to swim. After moving to and sitting down on the empty chair, Harry turned to the witch next to him. '' Had a interesting talk?''

''She uh definitely has some unique views on things.'' Hermione said diplomatically. ''Anyway are you sure we won't get in trouble for being out of curfew like this?''

Harry shrugged, ''Fleur and Gabrielle maybe, but all those here in the room who are students at Hogwarts are under the protection of the Potter family, and it is law that I may do whatever I deem necessary to protect those under my care as long as I don't break any other ministry laws while doing it and ministry law supersede any school rule. So even if we are breaking school rules, the staff cant punish any of us for it.''

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment and then said. ''If you say so, Harry, then I believe you, I trust you.'' She was silent for a moment and then asked. ''Are you and Daphne ready for tomorrow?''

''Sort off.'' Harry replied. ''It would have immensely helped if we know who are hostage are going to be. We could have just placed tracking charms on that person, but we didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt, just to make it a bit more easier for us.''

''Is it really that dangerous down there?'' Hermione asked, worry evident in her tone.

''For a fully trained witch or wizard? Not so much, but for the hostages who aren't even conscious and are only guarded by mere people? What do you think will happen if the giant squid gets too close to the village? Do you really think mere people only wielding spears could you protect against anything like that?''

''But isn't the squid supposed to be peaceful?'' Hermione questioned.

''Anything will defend themselves when they feel threatened and you will never know how it will react when five people get down there and start casting spells in his vicinity.''

Hermione nodded, you would never know how a animal would react when it felt threatened. ''So who do you think they will us as your hostages?''

''I can take a couple of guesses.'' Harry responded. ''The last time around they chose Ron, there is a chance Dumbledore will select him again.''

''Why?'' Hermione asked perplexed. ''You have barely talked to him since coming back, surely no one would believe he would be what you would sorely miss?''

''Maybe at Hogwarts they don't, but what about the press coverage? Believe me the task will be covered extensively and when it is mentioned that I have to retrieve something I will sorely miss and that something turns out to be a member of the Weasley family, one of the most loyal supporters of Dumbledore, ninety-five of the people reading it will automatically assume I am still Dumbledore's golden boy, which would greatly improve the old man declining reputation.''

''So what are you going to do if it turns out he is your hostage?''

Harry grinned, ''You will just have to wait and see.''

The next morning after having eaten a breakfast served by Potter elves, the people in the hidden room waited until there were only twenty minutes left before the second task would start to leave the room.

Once it was time to go, the large group left the room as one and headed toward the lake. Once they reached the front doors of the castle they spotted a angry looking McGonagall.

''Good morning professor,'' Harry greeted the woman , sounding like he hadn't a care in the world.

The professor didn't return the greeting instead she turned to the other Hogwarts students. ''Where where you?'' She asked sternly. ''The prefects reported that none of you had spend the night in your room and you haven't been seen since the end of yesterday's lessons.''

''Professor,'' Daphne said, making the angry witch turn her attention to her. '' I recommend you look at the crest that is on their robes.''

McGonagall did as asked and spotted something she had missed when she had looked at the group the first time. All the Hogwarts students in front of her now bore the same crest on their robes as she had seen appear on Miss Davis robes when the Potters took her under their protection.

''As you can see, professor, they are under our protection and we did what was necessary to protect them.''

''Protect them from what?'' McGonagall demanded to know. ''Hogwarts is a safe place there was no need to take them away from their dorms.''

''Then due tell, professor.'' Harry drawled. ''How it is that you know that they weren't in there dorms since I know for a fact that prefects don't normally check if anyone is still in their dorms.

''Not that it is any of your business, but I needed to speak with Miss Granger and when no one could find her I the prefects take a headcount.''

''Well she is here,'' Harry motioned to the brunette. ''Talk.''

''I am afraid that will no longer be necessary, I needed to talk to her yesterday, now it is too late.''

Harry nodded , ''I see,'' He then gestured for the group to follow and just as they walked past her, Harry left the parting words. ''Then it is a good thing she wasn't in her dorm otherwise she would now be at the bottom of the lake, good day professor.''

When they reached the stands everyone sans the three champions went to sit in the stands that were erected around the lake.

Harry, Fleur and Daphne made their way over to the judges table, that was standing right next to the lake. Already there were the five judges and the two other champions.

''Where have you been.'' A voice with a distinct French accent said. ''The task is about to start!''

'Wow that was weird,' Harry thought when he heard the French headmistress. Did they rehearse that or something because she sounded almost like Percy.'

Ludo Bagmann, merely smiled at the newly arrived group and started to guide the champions to the bank of the lake with ten foot intervals in-between.

"All right, Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

''No idea,'' Harry replied nonchalantly.

In Harry's opinion it was rather amusing to see the man's shocked look when he heard that. The man looked conflicted for a moment and then said. ''Just remain calm and give a good effort, you will still get points even if you don't reach your objective.''

Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges' table, he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup and said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely one hour to recover something dear to them that was taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!" The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air, the stands erupted with cheers and applause.

Upon hearing the whistle Harry transfigured his clothes into a wetsuit and cast a bubblehead charm on himself before diving into the lake. Just before he jumped in he saw that Daphne had done the same as him, Fleur and Cedric also casted bubblehead charms on themselves and Krum was doing his Jaws imitation again.

Once the Potters were underwater they began their plan. Harry may have told Hermione that it would have been easier if he knew who that hostage was so that he could place a tracking charm on him of her, but that didn't mean he and Daphne didn't have a plan at al.

Harry waited a moment until Daphne had swum over to him and had her left arm firmly around his waist and her wand was clenched filmy in her right hand. Harry then put its wand in his left hand and encircled Daphne's waist with his right. He then clearly envisioned the statue where the hostage were tied up to and thought. 'Ostendo sum voco mermaid statue.'

The moment he thought that his wand almost shot out of his hand, but he managed to hold on to it although, barely. The wand however didn't stop moving and literally dragged Harry, and by extension Daphne along.

The spell Harry had used was commonly referred to as the reverse summoning charm. Instead of bringing something to you, the charm does the opposite, it makes your wand go to it. Of course the charm had some serious drawbacks. The most important one is that the wand will go to the designated position with or without the caster, so you could definitely say it would have been a great annoyance if he had lost grip of his wand. Another problem was that the wand would take the most direct route to the designation, so on land this spell was rather dangerous to use, as you most likely would hit something before you reach your goal. Finally, and probably the largest drawback to this spell was that once cast it couldn't be cancelled. And since you can't channel another spell trough a wand that is already casting he was pretty much defenceless as regardless of how talented he was he couldn't dual cast with two wands.

Luckily Daphne was there with him to defend them both. That turned out to be a good thing as several water creatures with less than noble intentions appeared in their way along the way. Those creature quickly learned that even under water Daphne Potter was not someone to be trifled with as she dispatched the creatures with ease.

After several minutes of going through the water at high speed and killing the occasional pest the two Potters heard the mere people singing. Several moments later they reached the village and the wand started moving slower until it eventually completely stopped centimetres before touching the statue.

Harry quickly took the situation in when they stopped moving. The gray skinned mere people were looking at him and Daphne in shock, but that was probably because their sudden arrival. Tied to the statue were; his future ex, and one of Dumbledore's loyal supporters, Cho Chang, there was a girl wearing the Beauxbatons uniform, that he didn't recognise, but he assumed she now was Fleur's hostage. Next to her were two redheads Ginny and Ron Weasley and finally there was the hostage at the far right who wore a Dumstrang uniform.

Harry shook his head when he saw the two redheads. Maybe some will believe that what he will miss dearly is a Weasley, but one for Daphne too? The old man must be really getting desperate.

Luckily they had made plans if this would happen and so they knew what to do. First Harry summoned the two Weasleys wands, snapped them and dropped it to the ground. Then both Harry and Daphne started firing transfiguration spells on the two. When the two were done, the Weasley duo could now be mistaken for house elves. They were significantly shorter, sported tennis ball sized eyes and to Finnish it off they both wore a towel with the Hogwarts crest on it.

Harry knew that human transfiguration like this was very dangerous for what was transfigured, but he honestly couldn't care. The family had made there choices and now they had to live with it.

The mere people had watched the scene in fascination and some confusion, there only instructions had been to make sure that each human only took one human and that none of the creatures in the lake harmed the people in their care. So when humans came and started to change the other humans appearance they weren't sure what to do.

While the mere people were wondering what to do, Daphne was busy casting several curses on the two and Harry was busy cutting the two loss. When Daphne was satisfied she started casting spells that would hide who it was who had cast the spells on the two now house elf looking Weasleys.

When they were both done, they grabbed a Weasley each and started swimming upwards.

Altogether the two Potters were only five minutes down at the village and the only witnesses who saw the whole thing were mere people and their words, as a mere magical creatures, would never be believed by the general public over that of a lord and lady of a most Ancient and Noble house.

The only thing they encountered on their trip back was Cedric Diggory who gave a confused glance toward the Potter's hostages.

They surfaced near the judges table and when the two stepped on shore the crowd gave out in a loud applause. The two of them walked up to the judges table and Harry spoke loudly. ''Were these house elves our hostage's?'' he asked while holding up the elf in his hand. ''They were tied up down there along with Hogwarts champion's girlfriend, a Beauxbatons student and a Dumstrang student. I assumed when I saw them, that as you couldn't find someone for me and Daphne to retrieve, you used one of your employees?''

Dumbledore looked genuinely shocked. He had placed the two youngest Weasleys down there. If the Potters retrieved them then the world could see that the Potters were still a light family and therefore loyal to him, but instead of two Weasleys the Potters retrieved what by going by their uniform were Hogwarts elves. ''You're hostages are Mr. Weasleys and Miss Weasleys.''

Harry looked generously confused upon hearing it and looked down to the elf he was holding before speaking "I know you consider that family to be servants to you, but naming house elves after them is going a bit far isn't it?''

Just then the elf looking thing Daphne had been holding seemed to have woken up and spoke in a high and squeaky voice. ''Ronny is confused.''

DELETED SCENE:

This is what I had in my head the first time I envisioned the second task for this story, but it doesn't really fit anymore so I replaced it, but I still wanted to share it with you guys so here you go (in this version Daphne wasn't a champion).

After having said goodbye to his wife and daughter Harry made his way over to the judges table.

''You're la..''

Harry interrupted the redhead before he could finish. '' Not to be rude or something.'' Harry said totally ignoring the fact he interrupted someone midsentence, ''But before we begging I have a question for the judges.''

''Of course my boy, ask away.'' Dumbledore said.

''According to the egg someone I will sorely miss will be taken from me.'' Harry said and the judges nodded as it was pointless to deny it at this point. ''Then who was taken from me? As the only few people I give a damn about are all sitting there.'' Harry said while gesturing in the general direction of where Daphne and Lucy were sitting.

''Why it is Mr. Weasley of course.'' Dumbledore said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

''You are going to be more specific.'' Harry said before adding. ''You know with the way that family is breeding a small army, there a quite a number of Mr. Weasleys.''

Dumbledore looked annoyed for a moment before his grandfatherly smile returned. ''I am talking about young Ronal of course.''

''You expect me to go in the freezing cold lake and retrieve Ron Weasley?'' Harry asked in a tone of disbelief.

''Of course,''

''Screw that,'' Harry said before turning around and walking back to the stands.

The crowd watched in silence as the fourth champion retrieved his friends and family and left the area.

Chapter 15: This time we did it right. 

June twenty-four

Harry couldn't believe it, today was finally going to be the day it would all end, the day of the third task and the day he would finally end it.

Much had happened since the second task, some of them good while others not so.

The fallout of the second task hadn't been good for Dumbledore nor for the two Weasleys who were in the task.

When Dumbledore came to his senses he said he would revert them back to prove who they were and immediately tried to transfigured the two Weasleys back. Keyword was tried, because when he tried to undo it, absolutely nothing happened. This confirmed in many of the public's minds that they were, like Harry claimed mere house elves, after all a transfiguration master like Dumbledore shouldn't have any trouble undoing a transfiguration of any kind.

Of course what no one knew was that one of the curses Daphne had cast on the two was a near undetectable one that would ensure the transfiguration would stay in effect, courtesy of the Black library.

Eventually Dumbledore decided to try something else and use a revealing spell. The spell was commonly used by healers to identify patients if the patient was conscious so that they could contact the family.

When Dumbledore use the spell on the two immediately golden letters formed above the two forming the two names. 'Ronald Bilius Weasley and Ginevra Molly Weasley.' Upon seeing the names, Harry immediately put on a look of extreme outrage and exclaimed. '' I may have a low opinion of you Dumbledore, but even I hadn't expected you to transfigure one of your minions to look like a house elf just so that I would rescue it.''

As expected to people reacted in complete outrage at the accusation. Had Harry accused him of this at the beginning of the year then almost everyone would have laughed at him for sprouting such ridiculous accusations, but Rita's work managed to sway the public considerably.

Before Dumbledore could say anything to defend himself, a irate plump redhead witch had stomped up to Dumbledore and started to rip him a new one. Her blind loyalty to the man temporary forgotten in the anger she felt as she saw what two of her babies had turned into.

Things turned even more interesting as two people came down out of the stands and joined the group. The duo had indentified themselves as employees of the ministry, or more specifically the department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

As it turned out the two suspected that Dumbledore or someone else had somehow turned the two Weasleys in actual elves, as even Dumbledore failed to undo any transfiguration. So the two decided to investigate as elves fell under their responsibility.

Unfortunately for the two Weasleys, in typical Ministry fashion, the investigation that could be done in minutes would take several weeks to months because of all the paperwork that needed to be filed. The only thing the ministry employees did at that time was give them the temporary status of House elf as according them. ''It is better to be safe than sorry, and look at them, they look more elf than human.'' The other thing they did was ask for their wand as elves weren't allowed to carry wands.

It was at that time that Harry admitted that when he saw that 'elves' were carrying wands down in the lake, he did his civilian duty and took them away from the creatures, unfortunately somewhere along the way of getting back up to the surface he had lost both wands.

The ministry employees didn't seem to be to bothered by the loss of the wands and thanked him and said that it was nice that still some people did their civilians duty's.

All with all Dumbledore's image took another hit that day which was only amplified as Skeeter's article covering the task came out the next day. As for the Weasley siblings? Public humiliation in front of a school full of teenagers ... yeah that didn't end well for them. Especially considering the fact that they still have to attend the lessons; without a wand while looking and sounding like a house elf.

The whole elf business had one advantage that neither Harry nor Daphne had foreseen when they had originally thought up the plan to humiliate the Weasleys if they were the hostages. As it turned out magical marriage contract are only legal between two humans. So the moment Ginny was classed as a house elf even though it was only a temporary status, magic destroyed the contract itself as one of the clauses were violated. It was unexpected but neither Harry nor Daphne were going to look a gift hippogriff in the mouth.

With all the commotion going on everyone had almost forgotten that the task was still going on. Fleur had surfaced briefly before the two Potters, but she hadn't her hostage with her. Not that she looked to bothered by it as she just accepted the warm towel given to her by Madam Pomfrey and went to sit with her sister. Everyone's attention was refocused on the task when Cedric resurfaced one minute after the allotted time. Ten minutes later Krum arrived, but unlike last time his hostage was badly injured. Of course, last time around Harry had stayed down and had given Krum the jagged stone he had found on the bottom of the lake when he saw that Krum was trying to cut the ropes holding Hermione with his teethes. It seems that Krum had tried to do the same again and now Harry wasn't there to stop him.

In the end Fleur had received twenty-five points, Krum got thirty which was considerably less then what he received last time, but if you took a moment to look at his hostage then you couldn't really blame the judges. Since Cedric, like Fleur had pretty much done the task the same way as last time, he again received fort-seven points.

How many points to give to the Potters took a bit more discussion between the judges; neither Dumbledore nor Karkaroff wanted to give them full points, but no matter how you looked at it, they had retrieved the hostages well within the allotted time and thus there was no way to not give them full points without looking even more biased than they already are viewed, so the Potters each received fifty points.

Since the task several things had happened.

One of them was that Fleur and Gabriele had started to spend more time with the group and they could often be found relaxing in the chamber of secrets.

Another thing that had happened was the end of the duelling tournament. Harry's and Daphne's team had faced several more team, but unfortunately neither made it to the finals. While neither Daphne nor Harry had many opponents they couldn't beat, the fact remained that they had a fourth and a first year and a third and fourth year respectively as teammates.

And no matter how well trained they were there are certain limits that can only be bridged by age. Still the Potters where very proud of their teammates improvement since the beginning of the year and the original goal of making them stronger so that they could defend themselves in the need ever arises certainly was accomplished.

Then there was another thing Harry had needed to take care off. On the twenty-seventh of May there had been the briefing of the third task. Daphne had attended the meeting, but Harry had something else to do. While Daphne told everyone Harry wasn't feeling well and had stayed in their room to go to bed early and that she would rely everything they would tell her to him.

The truth was that Harry, under the cover of his invisibility cloak had headed toward the forbidden forest to intercept Crouch Sr., after all it wouldn't be a good idea if he managed to reach Dumbledore this time around. Who know how bad the old man could manage to interfere in the plans for the third task if he gains any useful information from Crouch.

After that Harry and Daphne started to have several meetings with Madam Bones, to hammer out the plans for the night of the third task. During one of those meetings Bones mentioned that Fudges was finally kicked out of his office and was replaced by Tiberius Odgen.

And finally there was today, the day of the third task. The day had definitely started out well enough, knowing there was a permanent privacy ward around the room, a advanced locking charm on the door and considering who they would be facing before the day was over led them to activities that didn't end for several hours.

Unfortunately when a very satisfied Harry and Daphne and a curious Lucy, who wondered why her parents were up so late and smiling so brightly, exited the chamber of secrets they were almost immediately accosted by Tracey and Hermione. It turned out that the family of the champions had show up again and some people got rather worried because Harry and Daphne weren't seen at breakfast because they were otherwise 'preoccupied'.

One of them being McGonagall as she was assigned to inform them, when they came in the hall that the guests had arrived. Another one was none other than Molly Weasley who had come to clear the whole 'misunderstanding' about the dissolved marriage contract up and to offer the support the poor baby needed from his real family.

The ones who weren't really worried were the visiting Greengrass parents and Sirius, both knew that Harry and Daphne could take care of themselves and more importantly each other.

When a hour had past and the Potters still hadn't showed themselves some of the staff and the Potter's 'guests' started to look for them.

The first place the 'search party' had looked was the Potter's old room. Unfortunately while the Potters may have moved to the chamber of secrets the never removed the protections they had placed on the room.

So saying only the password failed epically. Molly Weasley wasn't happy when the portrait informed the group that while the password was correct she couldn't open for them. The resulting shouting could be heard trough a large portion of the castle.

Eventually after several hours and with the help of several professors McGonagall managed to dismantle the protections and entered the room, only to found it empty. This led to a large scale search trough the castle by the group and several other professors.

Of course their friends were eventually enlisted to help search for them as most of the lessons were cancelled because of the growing number of teachers searching for the Potters.

That is why Tracey and Hermione were waiting at the entrance of the hidden chamber. They were pretty sure that the Potters were still in there, but they had no way in.

So the two were rather relieved when they saw the Potters exited trough the hidden entrance after two hours of waiting in a toilet with moaning Myrtle.

They quickly explained the situation to the Potters. Neither of the Potter adults was in the mood for a inquiry about where they were and they were especially not in the mood to meet with Molly Weasley. So Harry pulled his wand and said the incantation for a charm he learned in his third year four time and four silvery coloured stags came out of his wand and disappeared moments later with their respective messages.

One he had send to McGonagall to inform her he become aware that she was looking for him, but that he and Daphne just want to spend their day in calm with friend and family and the people they want with them will be informed.

To Sirius, Samuel and Arianna he each send one which informed them were they were. As it turned out the three of them were together when they received the message and it only took them a couple of minutes to reach the bathroom.

The rest of the day was spend in the hidden room relaxing, they didn't even bother to go to the Great Hall for lunch and dinner instead they ate it there. When it was almost time to go, Harry and Daphne extracted a promise from the other three 'adults' in the room to make sure Lucy would be safe when they weren't there at any cost. They were pretty sure everything would end well tonight, but considering the task they were planning to do, you never know.

The adults promised, albeit reluctantly as they understood 'when they aren't there,' might refer to a considerably longer time period than tonight's task if things go wrong.

After receiving the promises Harry and Daphne took their time to say goodbye to each of the adults and took even longer with Lucy. After they had done that they exited the chamber and made their way onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.

Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill, the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest. "We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," Professor McGonagall said to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"

The champions nodded.

"Off you go, then!" said Bagman brightly to the three patrollers.

"Good luck. Harry, Daphne," Hagrid whispered, and the three of them walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the maze.

Bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered, "Sonorus," and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands. "Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with ninety-five points each - Mr. Harry Potter and Mrs. Daphne Potter, both of Hogwarts School!" The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky. "In second place, with seventy-two points - Mr. Cedric Diggory also of Hogwarts School!'' More applause. "And in third place – with sixty-eight points - Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute! And with only a three points difference in the fourth place is Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

"So ... on my whistle, Harry and Daphne!" Bagman exclaimed . "Three - two - one -"

He gave a short blast on his whistle, and Harry and Daphne hurried forward into the maze.

The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path, and, Harry still didn't know of it was because the hedges were so tall and thick or because they had been enchanted, the sound of the surrounding crowd was silenced the moment they entered the maze.

''Come on,'' Harry muttered after he and Daphne had lit their wand and they started sprinting forward. After about fifty yards they reached a fork and went right and stopped at a seemingly empty space, just around the corner.

''Show yourself Crouch,'' Harry ordered.

For a moment nothing happened and then a undisguised Crouch Jr. suddenly appeared in front of them, thanks to him dropping his disillusionment charm. The man had a vacant look in his eyes and was looking blankly in front of him.

''Lead us to the cup.'' Harry commended. ''And do whatever it takes to keep us safe.''

Crouch said nothing and just turned around and started walking briskly away, closely followed by the Potters.

Having the one who knows the way showing the way made things considerably easier. The various nasty beasts and enchantment they encountered along the way didn't prove too much of a problem either. While they would definitely be challenging if they had been alone, they didn't prove much as a threat when Harry and Daphne fought together and Crouch provided support.

Eventually they reached the middle of the maze, luckily avoiding the sphinx as Harry really didn't feel like answering three riddles to get them all past and he wasn't stupid enough to attack a sphinx in such a restricted space.

Harry took a moment to gaze at the shining cup, his gaze then move to his wife who looked healthy and ready to end it all. Finally his gaze settled on the last man of the group.

Barty Crouch Jr. had done his tasks well since the Imperius curse had been cast upon the man. The misinformation that the man had send to Voldemort would hopefully make tonight a bit easier.

Harry took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, ''Okay, let's begin, remember the plan.''

Daphne nodded and gave Harry one last passionate and lingering kiss before using magic to hide her presence, closely followed by Crouch who did the same to hide himself.

''One – two – three.'' Harry said before touching the cup.

Instantly, Harry felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel. His feet had left the ground. He could not unclench the hand holding the Tri-wizard Cup, it was pulling him onward in a howl of wind and swirling colours.

After what felt like he had travelled for several minutes he suddenly dropped down. He was greatly relieved when he heard two more sounds of someone dropping down on the ground, shortly followed by two sets of footsteps moving away.

Harry quickly sheathed his primary wand in its holster and drew his secondary one. After several moments of waiting Harry saw a short man holding something that looked like a baby and Harry thought. 'And there we have the rat and the dark baby.'

Feeling highly annoyed he had to do this, but seeing no other way, Harry dropped his wand and clutched his head while looking like he was in agonizing pain and dropping down to the ground, moments later he saw the red light of a stunning spell hit him.

When Harry awoke several moments later by a spell he was tied up to a gravestone. In front of him was a stone cauldron that was far larger than normal, a great stone belly large enough for a full-grown man to sit in.

Harry's attention was momentarily diverted to the thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground who was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself.

Now the rat was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling flames beneath it.

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 Harry heard the high, cold voice again, after not having heard the voice for real for several months. "Hurry!"

Oh how much Harry wanted to kill that thing, right here right now, but without a real body that thing is still only between the land of the living and the dead and therefore can't be killed.

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 Harry watched in disgust at what the self-proclaimed strongest wizard of all time had been reduced to.

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 Harry 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 Harry 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, Harry 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; Harry heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud.

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's feet cracked. And, Harry 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.

'Coward,' Harry thought as he saw the shivering form of one of his father best friends. He may not like her, but Harry knew that someone like Bellatrix Lestrange would have cut of her own wand-arm for the sake of her dark lord without flinching, instead of this pathetic excuse of a wizard. 'To think he is indirectly responsible for the dead thousands.' Harry thought bitterly.

Unlike last time Harry didn't avert his gaze and watched without the tiniest piece of pity as the traitor cut of his own hand and it fell in the cauldron. He heard the scream of utter agony, but still he felt no pity for him. 'He made his choices and now he has to live with them.' The potion had turned a burning red.

Wormtail was gasping and moaning with agony and started stumbling towards Harry. Harry stared at the man with hatred in his eyes.

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

Harry didn't even flinch when the point of the rat's knife penetrate the crook of his right arm and blood started seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Wormtail, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it.

He staggered back to the cauldron with Harrys blood. He poured it inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, 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 for a moment. . . .And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron.

And then, through the mist in front of him, he saw, 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 Harry stared back into the face of the man he hated more than anyone else in his life. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snakes with slits for nostrils . . . Voldemort had risen again.

Voldemort looked away from Harry 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 cats, 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.

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 was tied; he fell to the foot of it and lay there, crumpled up and crying. Voldemort turned his scarlet eyes upon Harry, 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," Voldemort said 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 Harry could see the vivid red tattoo - a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth - 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 ..."

He pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on Wormtail's arm and Wormtail let out a fresh howl. Voldemort removed his fingers from Wormtail's mark, and Harry 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 and Wormtail, eyes sweeping the graveyard all the while. After a minute or so, he looked down at Harry again, a cruel smile twisting his snakelike face.

''To think - I actually was worried, when I heard you managed to do something even I have not managed to do yet and travel back in time.'' He hissed softly. ''But then I received word from my loyal servant.''

He paused a moment for the dramatics and continued in the same tone, ''Does you feeble mind even realises that you memories have been altered, Potter?

Harry said nothing and just glared defiantly at the dark lord. ''Image my surprise, Potter, when my servant contacts me and informs you have no memory of me ever rising again, fortunately it didn't take long for my servant to find out what happened, can you remember Potter? How you read a article in the Daily Prophet about how Walden Macnair managed to capture and kill the supposed war hero, Peter Pettigrew and the dark abomination that was with it? Don't you find it strange that that didn't happen again?''

Harry forced a look of growing comprehension and fear on his face. ''You seem to comprehend what I am telling you.'' Voldemort hissed, a cruel smirk on his face. ''By travelling back in time to stop this Dark lord Palpatine, you have allowed me to be reborn, me the greatest wizard of all time. Thanks to you I could stop the blood traitor and as a thank you I will dispose of that dark lord for you if he is ever stupid enough to rise up against me.''

Harry kept the same look on his face, but inwardly he wondered how long the man would keep gloating. He was also sure if he ever recounted this story to any muggleborn or half-blood that they wouldn't believe it that Voldemort would actually believe such a oblivious fake name, but then again the man hates everything Muggle.

"You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father," he hissed softly. "A Muggle and a fool. . . very like your dear mother. But they both had their uses, did they not? Your mother 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. "You see that house upon the hillside, Potter? My father lived there. My mother, 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. Potter, 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! 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 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.

This was the last thing he said as suddenly a wave of magic was washed over the graveyard.

''What!'' Voldemort shouted enraged when suddenly all his servants fell down seemingly stunned.

Harry smiled at seeing it, it seems that Madam Bones had come through on her part. The original plan had been to capture the Death Eaters before tonight, but unfortunately the unspeakable that researched the device he had given Bones to study took longer than expected, so it was propounded to tonight.

''Well that didn't go as planned now did it?'' Harry mocked from his position as he felt the bindings being cut.

The dark lord swirled around and looked absolute murderous. ''You!'' he spat. ''You're responsible for this, CRUCIO!''

Harry saw the red light of the unforgivable head toward him for a moment and then his visage of it was blocked as a block of stone materialises in front of it.

Harry quickly rolled from his position to the side to avoid the derby of the rock that had exploded on impact. Standing back up, Harry pulled his primary wand from its holster and fired several reducto's in quick succession toward the dark lord.

Daphne meanwhile had dropped her disillusionment charm so that she could better coordinate in the fight with Harry and had fired the killing curse at the Voldemort.

Unfortunately even with his new body, Riddle was still a very powerful wizzerd. With one sweep of his wand he had put up a powerful magical shield around himself on which the Reducto's impacted harmlessly. He then conjure a wall in front of the killing curse.

The curse impacted and the wall exploded in several pieces. Without wasting any movements Voldemort transfigured the pieces into snakes and hissed ''§Kill the blood traitor§."

While Voldemort's attention was on Daphne Harry moved to his blind side and fired a spell that formed a earth wall halfway around Voldemort.

Seeing that the wall was in place Daphne fired a large steam of Fiendfyre toward him, incarnated the snakes along with several death eaters who were lying in the way along the way. Voldemort spun around ... and nothing happened.

A brief look of surprise appeared on the dark lord's face when he couldn't apparate away, but he quickly recovered and made a human sized hole in the wall surrounding him and jumped through it before the fire could reach him.

Unfortunately for him Harry was on the other side and immediately had fired several killing curses, when he saw the hole being made.

He dodged one, but wasn't fast enough to dodge the next one and the killing curse impacted in his stomach.

''I ... am ... immortal.'' The dark lord managed to say before getting hit and falling down.

Harry cautiously walked over to his most hated enemy, he was sure that the killing curse had impacted, but he was the living proof that that curse isn't always as effective as it should be.

When he reached the body, Harry kicked him hard on the head. Nothing happened to indicate he was still alive.

Daphne meanwhile had managed to extinguish her flames and had moved to her husband side. ''Is it finally over?''

Harry nodded and hugged her tightly to his side, still slightly in disbelief that after all those years of fighting, it was finally over.

''We did it, this time we did it right.''

They stayed like that for a couple of moments and Daphne eventually said, ''There are still some things that need to be done.''

Harry nodded, he thought he had done enough for today, but if he ever wanted to live a life this needed to be done,

''Let's leave the cleanup to Madam Bones and those unspeakable she recruited for the mission.'' Having said that he used the summoning charm to retrieve the cup and left the graveyard.

Moments later they reappeared at the edge of the maze at the Hogwarts grounds. The dark shadows of a crowd of people pressed in around them, pushing nearer, Harry felt the ground beneath his head reverberating with their footsteps.

Harry and Daphne each took a ear of the cup and raised it in the air with big grins on their faces. The caused another loud round of applause for the two Potters.

Suddenly the festivities were interrupted when the loud shout of ''Albus!'' sounded over the ground.

Everyone turned to who had shouted and to their shock they saw a dishevelled and slightly deranged looking Severus Snape stumble over to the headmaster.

''Severus, my boy, what happened to you?'' Dumbledore asked worriedly as he just managed to catch his spy before he collapsed on the ground.''

''Albus,'' Snape rasped before grasping his arm around Dumbledore, steadying himself and looking the headmaster intensely in the eye. ''He – he – is.''

Dumbledore looked at his spy expectedly, if he was going to say what he thought he was going to say than he could restore his entire reputation in one go as the world would turn to him for guidance.

Then suddenly Snape entire visage changed and a knife shot out of its sleeve and he caught it and used it to stab Dumbledore in the neck before he could even react.

''You are a fool Dumbledore,'' Snape said before picking up the wand, Dumbledore had dropped.

Everyone watched transfixed as a one of the most disliked teacher in history and one who have been missing for months stab one of the most powerful wizards in the world. That is why they missed the brief looks of satisfaction that crossed the Potters faces as they watched the man who they considered just as bad as Voldemort slowly bleed out.

Unfortunately for Snape he had served his purpose and now it was time for him to end.

'' Expelliarmus'' Harry said.

'' Stupefy.'' Daphne followed up.

The disarming spell hit and the wand flew out of the potion masters hand. For a very brief moment anyone who would have looked closely could have seen the cloudy look that was in the potion masters eyes disappear before he was hit by the follow up stunning spell.

Harry caught Dumbledore's old wand and felt a strange sense of power course trough him the moment he touched the wand.

Harry took a brief glance to the fallen potion master. If it wasn't for the public he would probably had use something far more lethal, but he had no intention to go to prison just after he had finished off his worst enemy. Still with all the man had done he would never see the light of day again.

Of the five people who are responsible for him ending up at that hellhole that was the Dursleys; Dumbledore's reputation was destroyed and he was down on the ground, bleeding out, stabbed by one of his most trusted people, Voldemort had died by Harry's hand and all his supporters were either dead or captured, Snape was most likely going to spend the rest of his time in the prison, he will never know who was responsible him doing his actions, the traitor was burned alive by the Fiendfyre, he died while he was still unconscious, his death was kinder that Harry had envisioned, and finally the woman with who it all had started; Sybill Trelawney; with Dumbledore gone it was unlikely she would remain at Hogwarts, most likely the only place that would hire her.

Harry then hugged his wife to his side while he watched his family approach him, all of them looked very happy to see them unharmed.

All was well.

A/N: well this is it, my very first fanfic completed. I hope you enjoyed it. I learned some things what and what not to do when writing and I hope that with the experience gained from writing this story that I will write a better story next time.

A/N 2: I am sorry for all those who were hopping for more duels in the duelling tournament, but the tournament was mostly meant for a way to show that Harry and Daphne want to prevent that what happened to Emma and Astoria will happen again. 

A/N 3: I didn't mean as anything serious, but did anyone notice that the prophecy could have referred to Lucy (except the 'he' part)? 

A/N 4: I know the fight was a bit short, but let's face it Harry and Daphne have fought several times against a superior Voldemort and have been sparring daily for the last year, while Voldemort just had gotten a new body.

A/N 5: Harry doesn't know about the deathly hallows. The only reason he disarmed him was because of the audience. 

Will there be a sequel? Maybe, I left some things open that I can use if I ever want to write a sequel to this, but I am not sure. Maybe I write a prequel instead; covering the summer after fifth year to the point where they travel back. Something else I am considering is writing a story where the ritual to travel back in time went terribly wrong and only Lucy is transported back in time (either to Cannon Harry's fourth or fifth year). 

Finally I want to thank all who took their time to write a review, some of them really helped me.