𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒-ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪 ℙ𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣❥

𝐆𝐎𝐅 𝟐𝟗

Emily felt her feet slam into the ground; her injured leg gave way, and she fell forward; her hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last. She raised her head.

"Where are we?" Emily said.

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

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

Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then up at Harry and Emily "Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" he asked.

"Nope," said Harry. He was looking around the graveyard. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"
"I dunno," said Cedric. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?" "Yeah," said Emily, glad that Cedric had made the suggestion rather than her.

They pulled out their wands. Emily kept looking around her. She had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.

"Someone's coming," Harry said suddenly.

Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Emily couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, she could tell that it was carrying something.

Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Emily saw that the thing in the persons arms looked like a baby ... or was it merely a bundle of robes?

Emily lowered her wand slightly and glanced sideways at Cedric. Cedric shot her and Harry a quizzical look. They all turned back to watch the approaching figure.

It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second. Emily, Harry and Cedric and the short figure simply looked at one another.

And then, without warning, Harry's scar exploded with pain. It was agony such as he had never felt in all his life; his wand slipped from his fingers as he put his hands over his face; his knees buckled; he was on the ground and he could see nothing at all; his head was about to split open. Emily dropped her wand and fell next to him holding him.

From far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."

A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"

A blast of green light blazed through Harry's eyelids, and he heard something heavy fall to the ground beside him; the pain in his scar reached such a pitch that he retched, and then it diminished; terrified of what he was about to see, he opened his stinging eyes. He heard Emily screaming, it wasn't just a scared scream, it was like a traumatised scream.

Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside him. He was dead.
For a second that contained an eternity, Harry stared into Cedric's face, at his open gray eyes, blank and expressionless as the windows of a deserted house, at his half-open mouth, which looked slightly surprised. And then, before Harry's mind had accepted what he was seeing, before he could feel anything but numb disbelief, he felt himself being pulled to his feet.

"Put him down! Get off him!" He heard Emily shouting before she squealed and he heard another thud.

The short man in the cloak had put down his bundle, through Emily away and was dragging Harry toward the marble headstone. Harry saw the name upon it flickering in the wandlight before he was forced around and slammed against it.
TOM RIDDLE
The cloaked man was now conjuring tight cords around Harry, tying him from neck to ankles to the headstone.