Harry, Hermione and Rodolphus landed in a area that was cloaked with black and gray colors. The sky above was stormy and dark, as if rain was moments away, and the ground was covered in dark gray stones, showing no trace of the dirt below. Two graves were stuck in the ground, and Rodolphus grins wickedly at the sight of them.
"This place has a wonderful air to it, don't you think?" He waves another spell at them, ensuring that they can't run away, and releases their arms, leaning them up against the headstones. There was names carved into the stones- names that had long since crumbled up too much for the eye to see clearly.
"Lots of rain here." Rodolphus says casually, starting to kick away at the grass until there was a small circle of freshly earthen dirt. He pulls a vial from his pocket. "I mean, it used to be a cemetery, so it makes since that the weather here was always gloomy I suppose."
He strides over to Harry, placing the vial up to his lips. "Spit in this please."
Harry attempts to speak, and Rodolphus rolls his eyes.
"Here let me help you." He takes the spell of of Harry's head only, allowing him to blink and begin to speak. However, his arms were still locked to his sides, his legs clamped together.
"I said, I'm not giving you my spit." Harry says shortly. "That's bloody gross."
Rodolphus shrugs. "True. But the spell calls for a DNA sample of the killer. I didn't want to make the worse but if you don't want spit in the vial..." he takes out a knife and slits a clean cut into Harry's forearm, collecting the blood in the vial. Harry grimaces as his blood begins to drip onto the ground after the vial is removed, his eyes glaring daggers at the back of Rodolphus's head.
"Do me a favor, Miss Granger." Rodolphus says, and he removes part of the spell on her as well, allowing her to speak. "There is DNA in blood, correct?"
Hermione rolls her eyes. "How stupid are you? DNA is found in white blood cells, but not red blood cells, because the red blood cells lose their nuclei as they mature, and DNA is located in the nuclei. It's basic science."
Rodolphus grunts. "Yes well that's all muggle stuff, ain't it? I haven't got any use learning muggle science."
"Yes, of course." Hermione says, sarcasm lacing her voice heavily. "Why learn any muggle information when you can just as easily bumble through life like a moron. How stupid of me to forgot your logic."
Rodolphus glares at her, before frowning at the vial. "Is this red blood cells or white blood cells? It must be red, because that's what color it is, right?" He glances at Hermione. "Right?"
"You know, you aren't exactly scary when you sound as stupid as you do right now." She responds coolly, and he throws the vial onto the ground, and it smashes into pieces, Harry's blood splattering into the dirt and leaving dark black stains in the dust.
He pulls his wand roughly from his pocket. "Accio Reviving the Dead!"
A thick book flies into his hand, and the words he had said, Reviving the Dead, were written in gold along the spine. He flicks through the pages, and Harry can't help but notice that they looked old and battered. Harry glances at Hermione, and a crease had formed between her brows.
"Yes, yes... right here... a DNA sample of the killer is required." Rodolphus read aloud, and there was strain in his voice like no other. "A sacrafice must be made, as it is switching a life for a life." He points a shaking finger at Hermione. "That's you. And the DNA... I needed the headstones of the dead person, which I have. I just need a good DNA sample."
Hermione's frown has grown. "Rodolphus, are you trying to bring back the dead?" Before he can answer, she rushes on. "Because all possibilities of bringing the dead back have been disproved- it isn't possible whatsoever. The world needs a balance, therefor magic can't solve everything. Magic can't bring anyone true love, just a temporary faux love impression. It can't bring back the dead either. I've read that book myself- it was disproved a year after it was written, in 1984."
Rodolphus snaps the book shut. "I refuse to believe that there isn't anyway for me to bring back Bellatrix. I'm going to try, and if this doesn't succeed, that's fine by me- I'll have killed two of the people that I despise the most."
Hermione frowns. "Rodolphus, Harry didn't kill Bellatrix."
He smiles an insane smile, his eyes glittering with manic. "Yes my dear, I know that, Molly Weasley killed Bellatrix. However, as stated on page twenty-three, if I revive the Dark Lord, all collateral damage to his death will be undone. Meaning Bellatrix will be back."
"You're insane." Hermione says, and he advances on her, the tip of his knife meeting her throat.
"I'd love to kill you right now." He whispers. "But I need to sacrafice you during my ceremony. So here," He moves the knife down and with one swift movement, sticks it into her right arm, inviting her scream. "stay quiet now, your voice is giving me a migraine."
He turns back to his book, striding a good few yards away from them and muttering things to himself. Harry glances at Hermione, but she shakes her head. The headstone that Hermione was leaned up against was quite tall, as it had a large statue upon it. Harry attempts to figure out what it was a statue of, but he can't quite place it- parts of it had been smashed and trashed, as if people had despised whoever it was.
And then, out of the mass of broken chunks, a pair of snake like stone pupils meet Harry's, and he freezes. "Hermione."
She groans, and looks over at him. "Yes, Harry?"
"That's Voldemort's grave."
Her eyes move up to the statue. "Oh my- I should have figured. He gave us that big speech about bringing back Voldemort, we should have known instantly that it was his." Hermione closes her eyes, tipping her head back against the stone Voldemort's forearm. "Harry, I'm sorry I slept through our last few hours together. I should've been talking to you about what I truly felt, and what you needed to hear, but instead I took a nap while the centaurs took us here."
He gives her a smile. "It's alright Hermione."
"No. I need to tell you how I feel, because you deserve to hear it. Harry, I've loved you as a brother ever since you and Ron saved me from that troll in the girl's bathroom. And loving you that way, and having you as a best friend in my life, as a brother in my life, has been one of the best things that's ever happened to me. But after our time here, I've started to feel something different, and I think-"
"So!" Rodolphus interrupts suddenly, and Harry mentally curses. "I do not have the technology to extract the cells from the blood on hand, so I've done some more reading and it turns out just your blood will do." His eyes flash over to the vial of Harry's blood that he had smashed. "Bummer, I'm going to have to collect some more."
He jogs lightly over to Hermione, fastens his fingers around the hilt of the knife in her arm, and wrenches it out. Her screams fill the air once more, and Harry presses his eyes shut. Rodolphus hums, walking over to his book for a second. Harry takes this as an opportunity to try to comfort her. "It's okay Hermione, everything will be okay." He whispers. "I promise, this sorry excuse of a human being isn't going to kill you, okay?"
"Sh." She hushes him quickly. "I love you, Harry. I loved everything that you told me earlier, about how you feel. And even though I have my love for Ron on the back burner of my heart, it doesn't feel as vital to me as my love for you." She says, her eyes desperately searching his. "This is coming really rushed for me, and it's hadly the time, but Harry I'm going to be dead in a matter of minutes. I want to know what being in love with you feels like." She says, her voice soft and quiet, as if every word was delicate and mattered to her.
He feels a smile begin to form on his lips. "Hermione- ow bloody hell!"
Rodolphus had slit into his arm once more, drawing his blood and collecting it in the vial. He makes a noise of satisfaction, and takes the vial away. "So it says here we need to have the artifacts close to the deceased person surrounded by the area that I have to place the blood." He gestures towards a random sum of objects that Harry and Hermione couldn't make out- they were covered by the dead and brown blades of grass. "And in the center..." He walks into the center, holding out the vial and letting the blood fall, seeping into the dirt circle he'd made with his foot previously. "And now the sacrifice."
Hermione's eyes widen as he strides towards her, coming to a stop directly in front of her, his face inches from hers. His yellow teeth sneered at her, his eyes glittering with more manic than Hermione had ever seen in even Bellatrix's eyes.
"Are you ready to die, girly?"
As Hermione could move her head, she swiftly headbutts him as an answer, hitting him square between the eyes. He's swears loudly, stumbling backwards and clutching his face. Hermione's eyes unfocus for a split second, before she sets her head back against the grave she was propped up against.
"That hurt." She whispers to Harry quietly, a joking smile on her face.
Rodolphus grunts, walks back over, and grabs her firmly by the arm and drags her into the center of the circle of objects, lying her onto the ground roughly.
"You bloody, cowardous bastard!" Harry screams at him. "You can't even take on two people who aren't even half your age at their full strength- you orded us to be delivered to you, and you request for us to be weak, because you know you can't fight us. And now, your pathetic, low life self is trying in vain to bring back someone who brought only darkness, in order to get back your insane wife, because you can't properly function without you. I bet you were so blind in your relationship that you didn't even notice that she didn't love you. Everyone knew it, Rodolphus- she loved Voldemort. She worshipped him, and would've killed you in an instant if he requested so. She was insane, and she didn't love you. And now you're going to great lengths to go through a ritual to bring back the dead, when in fact it's been disproved already. You're so desperate, so pathetic, that you dare to kill the smartest witch of our age. If the rest of the world doesn't kill you for this, I will, because we love Hermione Granger, and everything that she's done for us. You've gone insane without you're wife, so insane that you're chasing a dream that will never happen."
Rodolphus lets out a short laugh. "That's all you got? The Boy Who Lived can't even think of a better speech to stop me from killing your best friend? Pathetic. You aren't even trying. You aren't struggling against your spell. Granger at least had the guts to hit me in the face, which bloody hurt by the way." He gives Hermione a swift kick to her side, but she stays quiet. "My wife loved me- you're all the insane ones! I'm right in the head, but you lot aren't. I'm bringing back the man who was trying to restore this world to it's former glory, and in the process bring back my wife, who loved me more than either of you know!" He spits at Harry's feet, and turns to his book, opening it to the right page.
"I would hardly call Voldemort a man." Harry says, his voice as deadly as the venom of a snake. "But I'd call him a coward. A man too afraid to die that he went to great lengths, lengths to even split his soul into seven pieces, and place one part into a child. No, not a child- a baby. Me. He was insane, and he was a coward-"
"SILENCIO!" Rodolphus screams, and a jet of light hits Harry in the face, forcing him to fall silent. He watches in silent desperation as Rodolphus begins to read from his book. "The sacrifice must die at the precise center of the circle, while the words 'sed animam pro anima' are chanted until they are gone."
He sets the book in the dust, and then paces around Hermione, twirling his wand.
"Now I was going to kill you quickly, but you both have angered me, calling me insane and saying that my wife never loved me. So I think I'm going to let you die painfully." He smirks at her. "Sectumsempra!"