Tom cursed as they were pulled to Merlin-knew-where by the portkey. Worse he did not have a good grip on Harry. He clutched at the edge of Harry’s sleeve as best he could, and could see the end of the portkey trail arriving when he finally lost his grip. He caught a glimpse of a graveyard as he fell, coming out of the portkey spell early. He saw the ground coming up and groaned even before he struck the ground – and the back of his head hit a headstone making everything go dark … even before he fell unconscious.

Cedric and Harry landed with ungraceful thuds in front of a mausoleum with the name ‘Riddle’ on the front. There was a huge cauldron, almost as tall as Harry bubbling menacingly nearby. Harry groaned in trepidation, knowing what the name meant and that the cauldron could mean nothing good, even before he saw Pettigrew approaching.

Peter was followed by a cloaked and hooded figure who snarled, "Kill the spare …"

Peter smirked maliciously and pointed his wand at Cedric, shouting "Avada Kedavra …"

Harry yelled at Cedric and shoved him away from the emerald green that haunted his nightmares. Cedric stumbled away, the light brushing across his back as he fell on the cup and disappeared.

Harry sighed in relief until the snarling voice spoke again. "Well, well, well … at last you are here …" there was satisfaction oozing from the small hooded figure. Harry’s scar exploded in pain, making him double over in agony.

Pettigrew waved his wand at Harry, who flew backwards and found himself tied to a tall flat headstone. To his horror, his arms were tied far too tight to reach his wand – tucked safely in his wand holster under his left sleeve.

The pair cackled madly, as if this had all been a brilliant joke.

The cloaked figure went to the cauldron and fussed over it a bit while Peter gloated. "You’ll be a great help with this, my dear Harry … this ritual will revive my master completely and rob you of your protections …" The stooped over animagus cackled a bit more before being called over by the other wizard.

The cloaked figure that Harry assumed was Voldemort started to disrobe, revealing the pale, slightly greenish skin and Harry closed his eyes in horror. He could hear the wizard get in the cauldron, the splashing telling him that he had entered the bubbling concoction.

Harry heard Peter start chanting and opened his eyes when he heard another splash as Peter said, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given you will renew your son!"

The wizard looked less cocky, now … he was pale and whimpering as he drew out a silver dagger. "Flesh of the servant --- w-w-illingly given … you will revive your master …"

Peter, with clenched jaw and wild eyes, cut off his right hand – letting if fall into the cauldron. Harry had realized what the wizard was about to do and clenched his eyes tight shut just before the dagger fell. He opened them in terror as he heard Peter’s stumbling steps approach him with the silver dagger clutched in his left hand.

"No no no no …." Harry shouted desperately, but Peter just grimaced at him and sliced at Harry’s right arm, cutting at the crook of his elbow. Peter fumbled for a vial and caught some blood. Harry watched in revulsion as his blood was added to the cauldron.

The surface of the liquid looked like it was covered in diamonds – light glinting off it and sparks were thrown from the liquid it as it hissed and started boiling wildly.

‘Let it have drowned … let it have gone wrong …’ Harry repeated over and over in a whisper, desperate for whatever Pettigrew was doing to not work. Steam suddenly billowed out of the cauldron – thick as a really bad London fog, obscuring what was happening, to Harry’s relief. Harry could just see the cauldron evaporate and a naked figure appear amid the steam.

"Robe me." An arrogant and rather imperious voice said. Harry watched as the cringing Pettigrew somehow assisted the thin figure with some black robes, by some means succeeding - even one-handed.

Harry’s mind froze … Voldemort had seemed more pitiable than frightening in his visions - when he’d been short and slightly greenish. Now the form was tall, lean but muscled and while he was pale – he was not disturbingly so. Harry hoped desperately he didn’t look just like Tom – it would be horrible to have to battle a twin of his brother. The figure turned slightly and Harry could just see through the dissipating fog that the man’s hair was darker than Tom’s mahogany locks and much longer than Tom wore it – taking the waviness out of it. The face was much older and had a slightly melted look about it – obscuring the cheekbones and features. Harry sagged in relief – no one would expect he was related to Tom … especially with the ruby red eyes that were filled with madness and hate.

The wizard was once again robed, hood pulled up and putting the face in shadow. Harry could now feel the power encircling the wizard – power that had not been there when Harry had first arrived with the much shorter wizard there.

Voldemort had now risen to full power again.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Albus, Hugo and Rufus arrived to the scene along with several Aurors, trainees and students. The entrance to the maze had become a point of interest for students, as they knew that it was a part of the third task. They spent hours at a time trying to figure out what beasts or traps were in the maze.

Trainees and Aurors patrolled the entrance a lot – making sure no one entered it or even tried to enter as the wards protecting it were painful when disturbed. Apparition was possible there since rescuers needed to be able to retrieve any of the competitors asking for help – and it was just beyond the Hogwarts warding.

Several trainees had witnessed the students and Tom disappearing and then Malfoy and Snape arguing with Moody and apparating away. They set off the alarm that alerted Albus. Rufus and Hugo had come along – curious as to what had happened at the maze.

They found Moody yelling and waving his arms, insisting that someone had set the portkey to go off early … "Likely Snape and Malfoy – since they set off straight away after the three wizards disappeared with the cup …"

Rufus closed in on Moody, intending to grill him hard … Moody never acted this way - ranting and raving. Sure, he’d start a tirade about ‘constant vigilance’ over the slightest slip-ups, but they were never incoherent rages like this.

‘Moody’, though, thought a tantrum was what was called for – not realizing he was overdoing things. He had done a pretty fair job on imitating Moody, but he did make an occasional mistake. Luckily none of the mistakes had caused any real suspicion … until now.

Luckily for ‘Moody’ Cedric and the cup reappeared at that moment, causing screaming from students and anxiety from the teachers and Aurors.

Cedric was in bad shape. Even being caught in the wash of a killing curse was damaging. He lay there, breathing with a harsh rattle. He was unresponsive with his eyes fixed on nothing. Albus and Hugo hurriedly conjured a stretcher and took him to the infirmary, followed by most of the students and several of the trainees.

Rufus turned back to ‘Moody’ who started to twitch a bit. Rufus thought he was just nervous, but Tonks moved forward and grabbed the flask he had in his hand. She brought it to her nose and then waved it under Rufus’ nose as well.

"Polyjuice." Rufus snapped and turned the Aurors. "Secure him." They didn’t have very long to wait until the twitching got worse. ‘Moody’s eye was dislodged and his fake leg fell off to make room for the wizard’s real ones. The Aurors kept their wands trained on his as he finally morphed into himself. Most were too young to remember the Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr, but Rufus did recall him, though he was appalled to find that there must have been a second escape from Azkaban that had gone unnoticed.

Dora backed out of the crowd of Aurors and raced to the infirmary to inform Albus that once again his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was a bit of a hazard, themselves.

Rufus was about to give orders about Barty when Lucius and Severus returned, looking angry. They had followed the portkey trail to Upper Flagly in Yorkshire and had lost it there. They’d tried to cast more tracking charms but either Harry, Tom and Cedric were too far away or there were wards blocking them.

Lucius and Severus returned to Hogwarts at the maze entrance, hoping to gather a search party only to find Rufus had a not – as – dead – as – they –thought Barty Crouch Jr in custody and a large number of wands trained on the two of them.

Rufus took no chances this time. Lucius and Severus were disarmed and immobilized, making reaching for one of Lucius’ portkeys impossible.

"You are under arrest for suspicion of aiding and abetting the kidnapping of two students and a Dragon Reserve employee as well as attempted murder … the Diggory boy came back more dead than alive. We’ll be questioning you to find out exactly what plans you have put into motion."

Lucius and Severus struggled to protest, to argue, to tell Rufus he was acting like the village idiot - beyond anything that Cornelius Fudge had ever managed. Unfortunately the restraints also silenced them. Rufus smiled in satisfaction as the three Death Eaters were taken away. At last he had them where he wanted them.

Igor Karkaroff, who had been hiding behind a hedge, raced to the ship. This could not be good … and he had no intention of being around for the Ministry to round up as a Death Eater and possible collaborator in whatever had happened.

Rufus looked around, trying to decide how much effort to put in to trying to track the missing students and Dragon Keeper Tom Riddle. He directed one of his personally loyal Aurors to organize a search and use the other Aurors and trainees still at Hogwarts.

With the search underway he portkeyed back to the ministry holding cells and looked the three Death Eaters over with a smile.

"Take Crouch to interrogation." Rufus sighed with happiness and continued. "We’ll hold the other two in the intake cells at Azkaban … as is our option, since we will want to question them one at a time, and we may be questioning Crouch for days – or even weeks …"

Rufus’ Aurors smirked a little and dragged the two over to the floo system. Lucius’ face had expressed some suppressed anger, but Severus’ was curiously blank. He’d know this was coming the very moment of their arrest. Rufus hated any Slytherin that was dark, and especially those that bore the dark mark. Severus had difficulty blaming him for that … but he did expect Scrimgeour to understand that fellow Slytherins could change their minds when presented with good reasons for doing so … and both Lucius and Severus did have good reasons. The mindset of ‘leopards don’t change their spots’ belonged with other Houses … not Slytherins.

So, Severus refused to give Rufus even a smidgen of satisfaction and forced himself to keep a stoic face in place while he was flooed to the small hut across the narrow sea from Azkaban. They were shoved into boats and crossed to the desolate island, already shivering. Severus well remembered the short time he’d spent in the intake cells after the first war, while awaiting rescue from Albus. It had sensitized him to the dementors, and having them close by was going to be torture – just as Rufus intended, no doubt.

This time, Severus thought with misery, he couldn’t depend on a rescue from Albus … he might just let him rot.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Pettigrew whimpered and held his left arm up to Voldemort, as demanded, clutching his right arm – now missing a hand – closely to his chest. Voldemort sent his summons with a smile.

"Let’s see who is foolish enough to answer my summons, expecting praise from me … and who is too cowardly to answer …" Voldemort looked down at the cringing animagus and grimaced. Such a let—down only having him here – though he hoped Barty could slip away from Hogwarts and join him. He waved his wand and a silver hand formed on Pettigrew’s right arm, healing the injury. It was best to have the ranks seeing him as a master who rewarded loyalty.

One by one Death Eaters apparated in, wearing their cloaks and masks. Harry kept silent, hoping for a chance at escape. Where was Tom? He knew his brother had grabbed his shirt, but had not made the entire journey with them. Was he hurt? … or dead?

Voldemort watched with slowly mounting anger as one by one the Death Eaters arrived. They had made no effort to find him … he knew they hadn’t. When he’d first been disembodied by the Potter brat he’d drifted place to place he’d heard the talk, the Dark Lord who’s name they still feared to speak was considered gone – forever, they hoped. Even most of his followers hoped that.

He’d drifted, slowly regaining a bit of his power and had found Quirrell. He’d made a move – but found little in the way of help. He’d expected that after the rumors of his involvement he’d be sought out. Well, if any had tried, they had not been very good at searching.

Now here they stood, uneasily shifting from foot to foot and awaited a crucio or two.

Tom slowly swam to the surface, mentally. Regaining consciousness with reluctance – he had a raging headache straight from the hotter circles of hell. He could hear someone berating a group of people and there seemed to be liberal use of the word crucio.

He blinked his eyes repeatedly and cursed, why was there no light? With all these people around there should be some light. A ball of ice formed in his stomach as it slowly it dawned on him that it was not that there was no light – but that he could not see. The blow to the back of his head had cause blindness – whether it was permanent or not would likely depend on how quickly he got treated.

In the meantime, though, how could he be of any help to his brother?

"I can guide you … a little." Yvane offered with a touch of anxiety. This was not a situation he was enjoying either. "Dragons depend on more than their sense of sight … but I don’t think I can help you aim spells – we need a different plan …"

"Well, we need one quick …" Tom whispered. A moment later Yvane whispered one back to him – a desperate plan, but hopefully it would work. Tom struggled to stand, he would need to intervene soon.

Voldemort turned his attention to Harry, now that his remaining followers were properly cowed. That stupid Zabini witch seemed to think he should be pleased with her and her son. He’d sneered at their pitiful efforts and let her know they would need to do better.

"Well – our celebrated guest … Harry Potter, who I know really needed no introduction …" Voldemort smiled at the boy. The Death Eaters snickered nervously, eager to please their master by laughing at any and all jokes.

A wave of Voldemort’s wand and Harry was free. Harry scrambled to his feet and faced the Dark Lord. He looked around, desperate for an escape. He almost ran, but stopped as he saw his brother stagger from behind a tall monument. The Death Eaters saw him as well and hurried to surround him.

Harry could hear pieces of their conversation. "… head injury … blind … isn’t he Potter’s ‘brother’ … dragon reserve …"

Voldemort narrowed his eyes. His ‘son’ was here, and injured … blind. Not as clever or as powerful as he had supposed if he was so easily downed. He frowned unhappily. He waved the Death Eaters to drag Tom over to Harry and he was dumped at Harry’s feet.

Harry helped Tom get to one knee, while Tom whispered the plan and pressed his wand into Harry’s right hand. The brother wand, Harry remembered what that meant … and it might buy the time they needed. Harry’s own wand was transferred to his left hand. He’d never cast with two, it might not work … but he’d try.

Harry stood to face Voldemort, Tom keeping a hand on his jacket – he felt disoriented without that contact. Voldemort was almost done with his speech about being merciful Lord and that he would kill Harry ‘quickly’ as soon as Harry begged him to do so. Voldemort ignored Tom, still not sure if he should just dispose of him without bothering to try to turn him … he would be of no use if he was blind.

Harry raised Tom’s wand a bit shakily. Their lives depended on him doing this right. Voldemort, furious that Harry not already pleading for his life or begging for a quick death, shouted "Avada Kedavra."

Harry yelled "Expelliarmus!" at the same time and the spells collided, locking them into a battle of pushing the ball of energy back and forth.

Yvane was desperately gathering power and whispering instructions and encouragement. He’d not tried to have Tom gain his animagus form before this. Tom had not really been interested … and now it would have to just be pressed on him whether he was ready or not.

Harry strained and pushed everything into the spell while Voldemort howled in rage and screamed at the Death Eaters to not interfere. He knew if he couldn’t defeat Harry Potter on his own that he might as well tear up his Dark Lord Club Membership papers and disappear for good.

Yvane finally felt he was as ready as he could be and hissed at Harry. Harry pulled out his own wand and cast a Patronus charm. Dividing his focus was hard and the spell ball headed back toward him, but the dragon patronus soon evened things up, charging the startled Death Eaters and causing Voldemort to falter. The spell was broken by Voldemort, making Harry’s Expelliarmus hit him hard. Voldemort’s wand hit the ground.

Yvane flooded Tom with power and helped him transform. The large black dragon that emerged caused further panic in the ranks, especially when it took a deep breath … obviously preparing to flame the lot of them. Voldemort scrambled for his wand and threw up a shield for them to cower behind.

Harry scrambled up onto the dragons back and yelled for Tom to fly. A few wingbeats and they were away with the patronus harrying the Death Eaters and covering their escape for a time.

To Tom’s relief he was able to fly fairly well as a dragon, using his other senses. Harry guided him and he managed to head in the right direction. They soon gained enough height to catch an airstream and race toward Hogwarts.

As they flew Yvane whispered to the boys.

"I’m afraid my time here is done …" He said with regret. "This last effort with the dragon transformation has taken the last of my strength …"

"No … please, I still need you." Tom pleaded. He could be without his dragon mentor … he would be alone, again.

"No, you have many who love you now … you’ll never be alone again, that I can promise." Yvane chided.

"I will miss you." Tom’s mental voice still managed to be clogged with tears.

"We will all miss you." Harry said softly. He was glad he got to say goodbye as well.

Tom could feel Yvane’s presence fade and disappear, making him feel so very alone. He roared in pain and anguish - his first true friend and mentor gone. There was an answering roar next to him and he felt, more than saw the patronus Yvane fly next to him and he drew some comfort from that – that there was a final remnant of Yvane there to help him.

The flight seemed to take forever, but at last they were circling the Black Lake and Harry guided him as best he could. Hazelette entered the conversation and to give advice on landing. Tom stumbled on landing and huddled unhappily on the ground while several teachers and Aurors hurried toward them.

Harry hopped off and watched as Tom transformed back into himself. The crowd was speechless – a dragon animagus? Nearly unheard of. Harry wasted no time yelling at them that Tom was hurt – he had been blinded …

They were taken to the infirmary, though the Aurors still fired questions at them which Harry ignored and Tom was too grief-stricken to answer.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

The guard assigned to the intake cells usually wasn’t very busy. Prisoners sent to Azkaban these days were always already tried and convicted. Time spent in holding only lasted hours. These two though … the Aurors had said would be here days … maybe even weeks, and then would be sent back to the ministry for trial.

Ben was quite aware of who they were, as well. The Aurors had made it clear he could make them as miserable as he liked … they were likely counting on it.

That was rather stupid of them; he wasn’t as dense as many of the Azkaban guards and not nearly as ruthless. Guards came and went here. Most were wizards or witches that were deeply in debt and needed to make a lot of money in very little time. Ben wasn’t in debt, but he wanted to open a business with his brother and he intended to cash in on the large paycheck he would get at the end of the six-month stint he’d signed up for.

Ben was also not unaware of who these wizards were. Malfoy was a power in the wizarding world … a wizard stupid enough to abuse him would likely pay for it in the future. Snape … well, one look in the glinting obsidian eye told him that if Snape got loose that he wouldn’t survive long enough to have to worry about Malfoy’s revenge.

Ben took a deep breath and walked toward the two cells. They were small and had only a set of bars separating them. There were small toilets in the back with ratty curtains covering them. Lucius was already looking disgusted. Well, that would be the least of his worries soon.

"Well, the Aurors said you will be here for a bit … there’s little any of us can do about that." Ben said with regret – he really didn’t want them here, blaming him for anything that happened. "I’ll make sure you get meals – skimpy though they’ll likely be. I’ve a couple of blankets – it’s cold here, even this time of year." He took a deep breath. "They’ll send a dementor or two down once, or twice a day depending on how bloody-minded the warden is feeling that day."

Malfoy and Snape looked unhappy about that … and who could blame them. Ben glanced at the pile of belongings on the table. Mostly cloaks and belts – don’t want prisoners having anything to hang themselves with and all.

Lucius and Severus backed away and sat on the stools that each of the cells had as Ben went into his small office. The intake cells were slightly better than the ones in the prison itself. The dementors would be no better, though.

Severus was already shivering and started whispering a warning to Lucius. "Dementors may make you relive your worst memories … but that is not the worst they do. They steal the joy from your best memories, that is what they truly want from you. Worse, you may forget your good memories because they no longer hold any joy for you. Like the memory of an event – say your first broomstick ride. You remember that because it held so much joy … if the joy is gone it will fade from your mind and try as you might, you will forget it." Severus shivered again and Lucius almost did as well. "The first time I was here I had a choice – the only good memories I had were of my mother and Lily. I couldn’t protect all my memories. One by one I had to give them up. I protect my memories of Lily and one at a time I had to give up memories of my mother. I barely recalled her at all by the time Albus got me out of here."

Lucius was speechless with horror. He pulled himself together as best he could. "You’re even better at Occlumency, now, can you protect your memories, now?"

Severus shrugged, "Maybe – I can likely hold old a bit longer." He shook his head. "You had best turn into your fox form the moment they appear; you will be safe as the fox."

Lucius hunched down. It seemed cowardly to pop into a fox while Severus suffered alone. Still, staying as a human wouldn’t necessarily help Severus. There seemed no way out of this.

"Did you ever try for an animagus form?" Lucius asked unhappily.

"I looked at the books a few times … but like Dudley I really had little interest in it. I had so many other things to do…" Severus sighed, and it was much too late to try it, now.

A wave of chill air announced that the warden was wasting no time in introducing his newest residents to the dementors.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z