Elysian Potter: The Forgotten Queen

Chapter Forty-Five: Flesh, Blood, Bone and Love

Hearing the clang of the portkey, Elysian schooled her expression to become one of fear – forcing tears to the surface as she stared at the candle nearby – and stepped out of the church. Internally, she was shocked upon spotted Cedric but that shock soon wore off and she felt sorry for him.

"Kill the spare!"

Wormtail quickly did as he was told and Elysian watched Cedric's lifeless body fall to the ground. Harry was crying out but could do nothing as he was suddenly lifted by Wormtail and placed against a massive marble gravestone. He then did the same to Elysian, though opposite to Harry's.

"Elysian!" cried Harry, seeing his sister sobbing her heart out as she struggled against the bindings.

"H-Harry, help!"

The twins were so focused on each other that it took Wormtail speaking before either of them noticed he had moved closer.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you shall renew your son!"

The surface of the grave at Harry's feet creaked as a bone came floating out and into the massive cauldron that had been placed nearby.

"Flesh – of a servant – w-willingly given – you will – revive – your master!"

Wormtail moved closer to Harry, the dagger gleaming in the darkness. With one quick movement, Wormtail had sliced a large chunk out of Harry's arm and returned to the cauldron.

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

He turned to Elysian and Harry's face turned furious. He was kicking and screaming as Wormtail approached Elysian, lifting the dagger towards her eyes. Wormtail had already cast a silencing spell on Harry so that he wouldn't hear the next part of the spell. Gently, Wormtail pressed the dagger next to Elysian's eye, captured a few tears before turning to the cauldron to add the final ingredient.

"Tears of a love ... captured forever ... you shall combat the darkness."

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, cradeling 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...

Let him live, Elysian thought, let it have succeeded.

And then, suddenly, the spark emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of the twins, so they couldn't see Wormtail or Cedric or anything but vapour hanging in the air ... it had succeeded, she thought ... he's survived ... please ... please let him have lived. ...

But then, through the mist in front of them, they saw, with an icy surge of terror and relief, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.

"Robe me," said a 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 that would be haunting his nightmares for years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes, and a nose that was as flat as a snake's, with slits for the nostrils ...

Lord Voldemort had risen again.

Elysian was having trouble hiding her joy and excitement as Voldemort examined himself. Harry was too busy glaring at the man who had almost killed him several times. Wormtail was whimpering on the ground, though quietly as to not draw the attention of his master.

Voldemort glanced at her from the corner of his eye and she could see the corner of his mouth turn up in a smirk that he made sure Harry could not see.

"My Lord ..." Wormtail chocked, "my Lord ... you promised ... you did promise ..."

"Hold out your arm," said Voldemort lazily.

"Oh, master ... thank you, master ..."

He extended his bleeding stump, but Voldemort laughed again.

"The other arm, Wormtail."

"Master... please ... please..."

Voldemort forced Wormtail to expose his dark mark and grinned maliciously as he sent out the summons many had been waiting for. Elysian could practically feel the elation Lucius must be feeling upon seeing the dark mark become full once more.

"It is back," said Voldemort softly, "they will all have noticed it ... and now, we shall see ... now we shall know ..."

"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" he whispered, staring at Elysian with a fake evil grin. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"

Elysian watched as Voldemort stalked towards her brother and felt nothing at the obvious threat to her kin. Of course, she kept up the personal of fearful little girl, not willing to risk every plan she had made crumbling down around her.

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 forwards ... slowly, cautiously, as though they could hardly believe their eyes. Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for them.

"Welcome, Death Eaters," said Voldemort quietly. "Thirteen years ... thirteen years since the last time we met. Yet you answer my call as though it was yesterday ... we are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"

Elysian saw some of them swallow in fear.

"I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench of guilt upon the air."

One after another, the Death Eaters begged their Lord for forgiveness as Elysian and Harry watched from their restraints. With ever Death Eater named, Elysian had already planned three hundred ways to make sure they remained out of Azkaban. She knew the moment Harry got out of here – and he would, her plans depended on that – he would attempt to unmask the Death Eaters. She also knew he would fail.

Suddenly, Elysian felt herself being lifted up and soon she was placed in the space between Lucius and another person. Lucius quickly grabbed Elysian's restraints, making it seem as if he was holding her aggressively.

Voldemort then turned towards Harry with a cruel smirk.

"Crucio!"

Elysian gasped as Harry cried out in pain and writhed within his restraints. Suddenly the same snake from before, Nagini she had learned, appeared and began circling her legs. Nagini meant no harm, that much she was aware of but that didn't mean she was comfortable with a man eating snake near her when she was tied up and unable to speak with it.

"Untie them, Wormtail, and give them back their wands."

It just occurred to her that her wand was still within her pocket.