So yeah, I'm back with another chapter and a happy new year to everyone who had one!

Chapter 21 – The Malevolence

Throughout the time between the beginning of the school year and the present, the trio of champions had all agreed on one thing: the negligible threat that presented itself as Voldemort.

He hadn't made a move either in the shadows nor out in the public view yet after what had occurred that night during the third task, so he became irrelevant in the minds of the chaos worshippers. With how easily Harry beat him aside, they were confident that they could once again swat him aside like an insect.

Yet despite all the confidence that was flowing from the champions assessment, something inexplicable was felt, a sense of nagging tingling in the back of Harry's mind, as if his unnatural senses were telling him that for all his positive fortunes in the past, his luck would run out soon, as it had done so for past champions of the dark gods.

"You dwell too long on these thoughts my champion. Time that could be better utilised on reinforcing your power base, coordinating the beasts and your followers." The familiar whisper of Tzeentch gave him little comfort as the nagging at the back of his mind kept coming to the foreground.

"What could it be? I searched and read through each chapter of the great book and nothing has come close to be the answer. Could it be the beginning of the Great Game taking place?" None of the ideas that came to him held any plausibility to it except for the game theory.

"Place the thoughts of the game in secondary, lest you meet fates such as the lion, the blood count and the angel. They and many more fell to brothers who were thought to be loyal, but they still fell."But despite the constant thoughts and theories in his head, Harry acquiesced to the greater judgement of the chaos god of knowledge.

As he began to weave his way through the shelves of the Hogwarts library, his thoughts began to take a different turn but was distracted by Luna trying to signal his attention from across the room with what seemed like a certain amount of urgency within her stance. Harry hadn't seen Luna behave this way for the entire time he had known her but for her to act this way, it must've been urgent.

After Harry had walked over to her, Luna suddenly grabbed his hand and began to lead him out of the library and down the hallway for several metres before entering an abandoned classroom. Not knowing that Harry had stopped and began to stare at her with impatience, Luna turned suddenly and began to pace back and forth, going from one of the room, stopping, turning around and going back the other way before repeating several times over.

As Luna took another step around to begin another pacing, the room began to turn cold and dark, the shadows creeping up on and around her, whispers started to pour forth from the shadows repeating words from dead languages or gibberish in cackling manners.

"Explain."

The words the reached her ears shook her body as they seemingly vibrated through her core and more importantly, her soul. She slowly looked up and saw before her was what could've once been called her friend but at the current time, he had some likeness to him but not only just.

The space of reality had shifted to show writhing faces around him, each face contorting in fear or terror before spouting foreign words, repeating repeatedly without end. Behind him were two serpents like appendages behind his back, shifting ever so slightly as to be seen but unseen at the same time.

Luna's eyes darted to the left and right of them, several times as if she was looking for someone or making sure that they were alone and looked up at him. "Not like this." She quickly turned around and with a small cut on her finger with her wand, she drew a small rune on the wall behind them and a slight mind-numbing shimmer appeared around them.

"I'm sorry for dragging you away from the others Harry but I could not wait any longer. Listen, I'm scared." At her words, Harry only stared at her, confused as to why this was the supposed reason she was worried.

"Why? You have nothing to fear an-"

"That's the thing! During our time away from school, I cast my mind into the warp and began to look for a glimpse of the futures to come but I was stopped, no grabbed, by something and it terrified me. More so than failing in the service of Tzeentch or even failing and turned into chaos spawn. There is something coming, and that thing is rage and hate in one, all pointed in one direction: us." The urgency in her voice made him stop for a moment and ponder on her words.

'It couldn't be an Anathema, could it? No, it could not be that because we have not sensed a single sign of any hint of its essence at all. She said something is coming, so now we shall have to fight on two fronts.' As the two of them began to brainstorm on ideas on what the thing that was supposedly coming was, a sudden thought about it popped into Harry's head.

"You said it was hate and rage in one, was there anything else you felt during the encounter? A hint or small sign of anything that could be useful to us?" But no matter how hard she thought back, Luna couldn't grasp another hint or sign that could be beneficial.

"I did not foresee this my champion, there are those that have the ability to hide from the powers of the warp both natural and gifted. For something to feel this supposed hate, it must be a powerful being." Neither could shake the feeling of the dark god's words from their minds, something was out there in the warp and it was powerful.

Scene breaks

As the chaotic students had settled for the complacency of school life in the interim of anything needing their attention on the Voldemort or warp fronts, in another part of England, shadows began to grow ever so steadily around a single hamlet.

Dark powers and dark magic began to stir with all manner of dark creatures of the evil powers feeling the shadows at bay, every one of them following their instinct and either running or hiding securely away, hiding from whatever was giving off the terrible feeling.

In the small village of Little Hangleton, the dark wizard known to the British wizarding community as Lord Voldemort stood in the middle of his family graveyard, at the site of what he now called his greatest defeat, as it was done in the sight of numerous other wizards and not by himself at the very beginning of his downfall.

"As I stand here at my greatest defeat, I am reminded of some words that were spoken that I think are quite appropriate here my dear friends; We shall deny them their pleasures, we shall deny them their destinies, we shall deny them their flesh and we shall deny them their blood. After this night we shall let them all burn." The soft whispers of the dark lord rang out throughout the graveyard, weaving around those few who still stood with him, despite some witnessing and surviving the brutal slaughter of their brethren, they firmly believed in their lord.

"Lucius my dear friend, you and your brothers and sisters have stood by me despite the luck of Mr Potter and you shall indeed be rewarded for such loyalty, as you all shall in the coming days! After tonight, after this one ritual, my powers will have grown further beyond those of Potter and those with him, and I shall share my power with you, those I consider to be my children of darkness."

With a few flicks of his wand, the outer edges of the graveyard it up with bright flames, the grave stones of his past family disappeared without a flash and a book had appeared in front of him, all the while giving off a truly malevolent aura from it.

As their lord began to prepare himself, the death eaters that stood loyal started their own part of the unholy ritual, each one of them portkeying away and bringing in other people, sacrifices to be made for the dark ritual.

Sacrifice after sacrifice was made in service for the ritual, so much blood had stained the ground that it has seeped up from the ground and spread out towards the edge of the area. But as the blood crept closer to the bright flames, the fire slowly lost its colour, darkening until black in places and becoming white in other places.

As each group of sacrifices were made, the skulls of the unfortunate people fused together until they become one, each one floating above Voldemort and hovering there, eye sockets lit up with black fire.

Soon came the time that every sacrifice had been made and the time had come for the ritual to reach its climax. Every living soul in the rituals area felt the power in the air as it gathered and converged upon the head of their dark lord, the one who had promised to rid the filth from their world and burn their world clean of the impure.

One by one, each of the death eaters bowed down on their knees in submission at the sight of their most glorious dark lord, eyes alight with black fire, eleven pure white skulls hovering above but slowly and surely floating down into his head.

With a final cry of unholy power, Voldemort's arms were stretched out to their utmost limit, head wrenched back as if he were looking towards the heavens above with a look of intense pain on his pale face. The screams of the lost souls for the ritual permeated throughout the graveyard, each one piercing the eardrums of the faithful dark wizards until it all went silent, as if everything became deaf all of a sudden, not even a whisper of sound could be heard by either man nor insect to those who strained their ears, despite the pain they were in, they could hear a whisper of a man's words, barely hearable in the silence around them.

"I...am…reborn!"

Scene break

As the lives of the students continued to be lived in their usual fashion, it was during the dinner time that the champions and their respective followers were enjoying the little bit of down time they had.

Harry and his group were debating various ways of implementing different ways runes could be used in various scenarios and ways that could hold a daemon possession better and strengthen the container of the daemon.

Neville and his patch were discussing different herbologenic plants and its uses in different poisons that could rot and fester a body quicker than a normal poison could or even just spreading joy by telling different jokes to make people jolly.

Hermione and her sect were doing their usual actions and subtly influencing different emotions of different students, either by making them jealous of each other or by slowly making the lust after each other, it didn't matter to them because to them, it was all fun and games.

During the climax of the dinner, tremendous cries of pain and anguish washed over the great hall as students from different tables collapsed in great pain, screaming all the way down with blood coming out of their noses and eyes.

The teachers at the head table raced down to their respective houses and gave the students a quick look over and checked they were still alive. Breathing a sigh of relief, they gathered the affected students up and took them to the hospital wing with as much haste as possible, lest something again.

As the teachers took the affected students away, only one thought ran through the minds of the other students in the great hall; What in merlins name had just happened?

Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome, and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)