Chapter 188: Waking-Up, Recap, Reveal (2/2)
”It seems that Voldemort has deviated further from the norm,” sighed Dumbledore, ”anything else you can tell us, Harry.”
”.. .. there was a giant snake,” told Harry, ”it was really thick and long. It didn't hiss, so I wasn't able to hear anything.”
”That's good, Harry. Anything new information would help,” smiled Dumbledore before turning a bit serious, ”can you tell me about the golden phenomenon that you mentioned last night.”
”I-I don't know what it was,” started Harry, ”but when I shot a Reducto and Voldemort a Killing Curse.. .. I felt a vibration going through my wand as though an electric charge were surging through it; my hand seized up around it; I couldn't release my wand if I wanted to — and then a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither blue nor green, but bright, deep gold.”
”Voldemort didn't know what it was because he and I were both raised into the air — he was as shocked by it as I was — a thousand more beams arced high over us, crisscrossing all around us until we were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light,” Harry gulped, ”then I heard the song of a phoenix — it was telling me to not break the connection, and I didn't. The beams of light changed as large beads of light slid up and down the thread connecting our wands. Then a bead touched my wand, my wand grew hotter, and almost vibrated my hand, suddenly, I was somehow overpowering Voldemort before,” he sucked a deep breath, ”then I saw grandpa and grandma.”
James Potter's eyes widened as he leaned forward, ”W-What do you mean, Harry?”
”They came out of Voldemort's wand — they were like ghosts and helped me — they said to hold on. Slowly more and more ghosts appeared by my side, and the more ghosts appeared, the easier it got for me to fight Voldemort.. .. But they couldn't hold.. .. and said that I needed to run for the Cup when the connection ended.. .. when the connection stopped, they surrounded Voldemort — and I did as they asked.. .. then I was at Hogwarts.”
James Potter had his head in his hands with Ivy rubbing his back. Just hearing that his parents had once again helped his son had brought up too much emotion — he felt useless; he was supposed to protect his family and not his dead parents from beyond the grave.
”I'm not familiar with that magic,” said Dumbledore, ”but whatever it was made you able to stand against Voldemort — I'll try to find what the magic was.”
”And the Death Eaters? They returned?” asked Moody.
Harry shook his head, ”No, there was only Wormtail and no one else.” Harry glanced to his left to see a dark expression on his father's face at the mention of Peter Pettigrew.
Moody seemed to be dissatisfied with the answer.
”Did you find Karkaroff?” asked Harry. Karkaroff was the Death Eater that everyone suspected to be the one to put Harry's name into the goblet, but the man had been missing since last night.
”Karkaroff?” said Moody with an odd laugh. ”Karkaroff fled when he felt the Dark Mark burn upon his arm. He must've returned to the Dark Lord when his job was done, but we'll find him,” he stood up from his chair, ”I'll go to Little Hangleton to see if I can find anything at Tom Riddle Senior's grave.”
Harry momentarily nodded, but then a thought struck him. He looked up at Moody, ”.. .. I never told that Voldemort's father's name was Tom Riddle Senior.”
Dumbledore's eyes widened as he immediately picked up at the discrepancy, ”Alastor.. .. I as well never told you this information. How did you know about it?”
Moody's magical eye rotated in its socket as a disturbing smile appeared on his scarred face. Before anyone could do anything, Moody had whipped out his wand and pointed it at Ivy, who suddenly felt a force grab hold over her before she was lifted and flew into Moody's clutches with her back to him.
Moody wrapped his arm around Ivy's neck and pointed his wand at her, ”Anyone makes any sudden moves, and I blow the girl's head.”
Dumbledore slowly got up and asked in a sorrowful voice, ”Alastor, why are you doing this?”
Moody's magical eye was now fixed at the door. He uncharacteristically cackled, ”You old fool! I'm not Moody!”
”Then who're you?”
”Hmm.. .. I wonder if I should tell you,” said not-Moody, ”well, since Master is alive, so there's no harm.. .. my name is Barty. Crouch. Junior.”
”You're supposed to be dead,” said James Potter, his eyes fixed upon his daughter.
”Yeah, yeah, and I'm also supposed to be Madeye. Things aren't as they seem,” said now-revealed-Barty before glancing at Harry, ”tell me, Harry, did Master mention me? Did he talk about his most faithful servant — did he say that I, I alone remained faithful.. .. prepared to risk everything to deliver to him the one thing he wanted above all. .. you.”
”So, you're the one who entered Harry's name into the Cup,” said Dumbledore calmly.
”Yes, I put Harry's name into the Cup. I also nudged Hagrid into showing you the dragons. I was also the one who told Cedric to open the egg underwater; I trusted that he would pass the information on to you. Decent people are so easy to manipulate.. .. I even went ahead by planting the herbology books in various places in the Gryffindor dorms so that you could find everything in your dorm itself.. .. I also Imperius-ed Victor Krum to take out the Veela and Diggory first before knocking you out and bring you to the Cup. Still, you ended up defeating him.. .. nevertheless, everything turned out well.”
Barty(Moody) looked at them with a mocking grin, ”Now, I would love to tell you more about my work here, but I need to join my Master, so I would like to take my leave,” he shook Ivy, ”I want safe passage out of Hogwarts — if I see any obstruction, say goodbye to your lovely princess here.. .. I'm sure the Dark Lord would be happy to hear that the last thing I did was take out a Potter with me, but I'm sure you don't want that.”
”I will allow you to leave,” said Dumbledore, ”only keep the end of your bargain and tell me what you did with the real Alastor.”
Barty snickered, ”I'm in a good mood, so I'll tell you. He's locked in my office inside my suitcase. You'll find him there, relaxing.”
But then Barty saw everyone stop moving; it was as if they were even careful about breathing. When he looked closer, Barty noticed they were looking behind him.
'What?' he thought as his magical eye moved behind. His magic eye turned just in time to see a wand fly into a hand; his focus shifted to see black hair, one stone-grey eye, and one black triangle, and before his brain could process his vision, a blinding bright red overwhelmed his vision.
Ivy felt the arm around her neck loosen up, and before she knew it, there was a thump behind her. She carefully looked behind to see her captor's body crumpled on the floor. When Ivy looked up, her eyes widened.
”Sorry, but I sort of eavesdropped,” said the boy with the eyepatch, ”but you guys weren't really trying to be quiet.. .. you know this place being the hospital wing and all.”
Quinn West walked forward and kicked the fallen body once, twice, and then thrice, ”Alright, he's out cold, I have confirmed it,” he then looked up, ”are you alright, Ivy? Did he hurt you?”
Ivy shook her head with a stunned expression. Her green eyes remained fixed on his face, ”.. .. What happened to your eye?” She saw Quinn reach up to the cheek beneath the black eyepatch.
”It sort of melted away. Faulty magic, they saw, but the jury is still out on that.” Quinn noticed that Ivy was still staring at him. He waved his hand in front of her, ”Ivy, are you sure everything is alright?”
Ivy finally snapped out of her trance, bowed her head down away from Quinn's gaze, and lightly nodded. Quinn stared at her for a few more seconds before looking up at the others and said,
”So, can anyone catch me up with what happened? I sort of missed the main part.”
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Quinn West - MC - One-eyed with a cool eyepatch.
Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - Went through a duel of a lifetime.
James Potter - Senior Auror - Feeling useless.
Ivy Potter - Hostage once again - She kept staring.. . .
Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Politics is complicated.
Alastar Moody - Barty Crouch Junior - Stunned and then kicked.
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