Of Apples and Oranges

III: xii: Sister of a Death Eater

The maze was the turning point.

Aurum couldn't hope to ever fully understand what happened that night, but with Harry and Argentum trying to explain it, it seemed it would be quite the page turner if ever it was a book.

Their stories lined up, and Aurum had no choice but to believe it was true. That wasn't to say anything for the other students and staff of the schools. There was one thing among the rest that truly stood out.

According to her brother and her crush, Voldemort had returned.

It all started to go downhill when the two entered the maze. Though everybody went in, somehow the other two champions were downed and had no way to win. Neither knew why or how it happened.

Harry and Argentum started at different points, but ended up in the same place eventually.

Harry ran into the clearing of the cup, having just solved a sphinx's riddle and defeating it. Argentum walked into the clearing with confidence and a dark look about him.

Before Harry could even near the cup, Argentum screamed, "Crucio!" whipping out his wand.

Harry ducked and rolled away from the red glowing spirals created, replying with, "Stupefy!"

With waves of his wand, Argentum deflected the spells Harry sent his way after realizing the first didn't work. Despite having this flurry sent his way, Argentum was able to walk to the cup with his free hand out. Harry realized this and reached for it as well. The two ended up touching it at the same time, and were instantly transported to a strange graveyard.

Argentum struggled to rise up and pulled Harry towards him from the ground. They both looked at the cauldron and the large grave with a gargoyle over it behind them.

"What's going on?" Argentum shouted at Harry. "You're the boy wonder, explain."

"I don't know! I know just as much as you!" Harry growled, looking around, trying to identify his surroundings.

A cloaked figure began walking towards them, holding something. It held out a wand in the other hand. Argentum prepared for this and pointed his.

"Kill the spare," a whispering voice said over and over. Argentum knew what this meant.

Assuming they were going to do the same, he shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" and so did the cloaked figure in a hoarse voice. The blast knocked them both back and Argentum ran to the back of a large grave.

He peeked out from behind it to see the cloaked figure remove his hood to reveal a very ratty-looking man. The man was familiar to Argentum, but only like someone he saw in pictures, not really talked about. He was holding a very skeletal baby which he dropped into the cauldron. The ratty man withdrew a knife and cut into Harry's cheek, throwing the blood into the cauldron.

Argentum wished to stay hidden, not wanting to get into a duel with this man, but felt a burning hatred for anyone daring to hurt a child the age of his sister, and especially one so close to her. However, he realized the kind of dark arts he was doing, and the cutting off of his hand proved his strength. He wasn't about to step in.

After gathering bone dust to throw in and muttering some sort of Latin over the cauldron, multiple bouts of green smoke began billowing out, a skeletal and gauntly shadow emerging. When everything cleared, it opened its snake-like eyes, and turned to the ratty man who offered up his cloak admiringly.

The skeleton man threw Harry into the gravestone with just one hand. He walked towards him with the same footing as Argentum, and the boy almost felt himself throw up as he saw himself in the snake-like man.