The Face of Betrayal

Chapter 1: Resurrection

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters created by JK Rowling and am making no money off of this story.

The portkey dropped Harry and Cedric off in a dark graveyard. They looked around nervously. "Wands out you reckon?" The taller of the two asked his unwilling companion. Harry gave a short nod already pulling out his wand.

"Kill the spare," They heard a high hissing voice sound from nearby. They swung around to see a heavy balding man carrying what looked like a baby, just in time to see the red light strike Cedric in the chest and a second one coming towards Harry. Voldemort in his homunculus form snarled at the man. "I thought I told you to kill him."

"I'm s-sorry m-master. I thought we could have more fun with him later. A tortured and disfigured body sends a much better message." The man said fearful that his master would not accept the explanation.

"Very well. Just make sure you tie him up so that he cannot escape." Wormtail nodded and shot ropes at the boy before tying Harry Potter to the gravestone as instructed. Wormtail woke Harry up and looked into the boys big green eyes and flinched at the hatred he saw there. He was able to cover up this action with one of his characteristic trembles and turned his attention to the ritual that his master had ordered him to complete.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son," He chanted as he levitated a bone from the grave at Harry's feet. "Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master," He cut off his own hand into the cauldron. "Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe," He made a shallow cut on Harry's arm catching the blood on the knife and dripped it into the cauldron as it began to smoke and a tall snakelike man rose from the cauldron.

"Robe me Wormtail," He said in the same high pitched hissing voice he had in his homunculus form. Despite the horror of the situation and the fear he was feeling, in the back of his mind Harry was amused at the voice the madman was apparently stuck with. After his followers were called Voldemort untied Harry and gave him back his wand attempting a mockery of a duel.

When the wands linked and the priori incantatem was in effect Wormtail smiled as all of the dark lords followers clustered together just outside the bubble. He slowly inched back away from the crowd waiting for the right moment. Just as Lily and James erupted from Voldemorts wand he choked back the tears and carried out his plan. He cast his signature spell, bombarda on the crowd of death eaters and watched in satisfaction as they were all blown to bits. That was enough to distract Voldemort who howled in rage and lost his concentration on the battle of wills he was fighting. That lapse in concentration was enough to see the effect ended and his spell backfire on him leaving a lifeless body on the ground.

Harry stood still in shock looking at the scene and noticed Wormtail smiling in satisfaction. "Why…?" He croaked in disbelief at the errant marauder.

"My job is done…finally. There will be time enough for explanations later cub. Take your friend and Voldemorts body and take the cup. It will take you back to Hogwarts. You have many people worried about you right now." The ratlike man smiled at the boy he sacrificed everything for. As Harry was reaching for the cup he called out, "And Harry…" when the boy looked up, "congratulations. Your parents would be as proud of you as I am." Harry grabbed the cup along with a still stunned and tied up Cedric and the body of the would be dark lord and disappeared with a look of complete confusion on his face.

Meanwhile at Hogwarts

Snape was standing with Dumbledore trying to figure out where Potter could have gone when he felt a burning in his arm. He pulled up the sleeve and gasped in horror at what he saw. When he saw the headmaster looking at him he said only two words. "He's back" In that moment it seemed like the headmaster aged a few decades.

"Is he calling?" The headmaster asked sorrowfully.

"No, not yet."

"Then Harry may still be alive. We have to redouble our efforts to find him. After a few more minutes of casting spells attempting to trace the portkey Snape felt a tingling in the same arm and looked down in shock. He pulled the headmaster out of the long incantation he was casting and pointed.

"He's gone. Completely. For good." The taciturn man said with disbelief and quite a bit of hope. He looked back up to his mentor to see the twinkle completely returned to the man's eye.

"Then Harry has done it. Fulfilled his destiny." The old man closed his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh of relief. "Now we just need to bring him home." He said just as the whoosh of a portkey deposited two young boys, on unconscious and tied up, and the body of a snakelike figure. As Snape dispelled the ropes and enervated the Diggory boy, Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and said trying to fight back the tears, "You've done it, my boy. You've saved us all. I knew you could do it."

Harry, surprised by the hug the old headmaster had him trapped in, had had one too many surprises for one day and passed out. Dumbledore, concerned, ran his wand over the boy and then chuckled, picked up the boy, and took him to the hospital wing. Snape came over at that point. "How did he do it? What happened?"

"I suspect that he will have many questions when he wakes up, as will we for him. For now he needs to rest."

"Is he alright?" The potions master asked surprising himself with the fact that he was concerned. He shrugged it off as gratitude that the boy had saved him from having to prostrate himself before a maniac once again.

Dumbledore again chuckled. "He has fainted. It seems the excitement got to be too much for the poor child." Snape couldn't help the snort that escaped.

They reached the hospital wing to find a frantic werewolf barely holding onto his equally frantic dog. Dumbledore laid Harry on the nearest bed and stepped back to let Madam Pomfrey examine him. She quickly healed the cut on his arm and the bruises and rubbed some healing salve onto his knee after fixing the dislocation. She told the other occupants that he would be fine and to let him wake up on his own.

Cedric Diggory walked into the infirmary to see Harry after extricating himself from the crowds on what used to be the quidditch pitch, including his hysterical parents, and found the boy still unconscious. "Professor Lupin. What are you doing here?" He asked spotting the werewolf sitting at the bedside of the boy-who-(it seemed) lived-again ignoring the snort of the dog at the title of the former professor.

"Mr. Diggory. I am relieved to see that you are well. What happened after you took the cup?" He asked avoiding the boy's question altogether.

"I think that is a question that we would all like an answer to." The headmaster said stepping out of the medi-witches office with her right behind him.

"I'm not really sure. We landed in this really creepy graveyard and I heard a voice say "Kill the spare" and the next thing I knew I woke up on the pitch." Cedric said in confusion. They all frowned as they realized that Cedric was unconscious the whole time and would offer no further information. It seemed they really would have to wait for Harry to wake up.

At that thought they heard a moan from the bed that Harry was occupying and they all turned their heads to him as the medi-witch rushed over and ran her wand over him once more to make sure that he was alright. Harry turned and squinted at the crowd of people by his bedside just as his glasses were pushed onto his nose. He was suddenly startled by a large black dog jumping on his bed and licking his face. "Eww Snuffles that's gross," He exclaimed pushing the dog back a bit only to then hug the dog laughing.

"So Harry, my boy, care to tell us what happened tonight?" The headmaster asked chuckling.

At that point the doors to the hospital wing opened once more and the Minister of Magic came in. "I would dearly like to know that too. I have a dead body down there that registers as he-who-must-not-be-named, but that isn't possible since he has been dead for 13 years."

Harry sighed and began his story. At the entrance of Wormtail into the story the dog growled, the werewolf started cursing under his breath and making death threats, and the minister gasped. "You mean he really is alive? That wasn't just a fabrication to get Sirius Black released?"

"If I may Minister…" Dumbledore pulled out his pensive from his pockets and asked Harry to think hard about the night last year in the shrieking shack. After extracting the memory the headmaster set it to play for the room.

The minister sighed. "Many things disturb me about that memory not least of which is that you had three unregistered illegal animagi running around this campus for however many years, but given the evidence…"He paused and pulled a parchment out of his pocket, wrote something down, and applied the ministerial stamp that he always carried around and held it out to the black dog sitting on Harry's bed. Unwilling to change back and doom himself he looked at Harry pleadingly who took the paper and read it aloud.

"This parchment hereby declares Sirius Black pardoned from all crimes proscribed to him including escape from Azkaban prison, but not including being an illegal animagus of which the sentence is 5 years in Azkaban already served." Harry read aloud not really believing his eyes. Padfoot barked happily and jumped off the bed transforming back into himself.

"We do still have to settle the matter of harboring a wanted fugitive by Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and Remus Lupin." The minister said sternly. He enjoyed the look of fear on all the faces except of course Albus Dumbledore who only looked disappointed. They had him chasing down the wrong man for a year while they knew where he was and all it would have taken was that memory last year and it all could have been avoided. Granted, he wasn't too keen to listen, and if he were honest with himself he would realize that they only hid the man to save him from an unjust kiss from the dementors, but while Fudge had made great strides tonight he was still somewhat blind to his own failures. He was just enjoying their discomfort for a moment before he continued. "You will all be fined 100 galleons to be paid by the end of the week, and you Mr. Black have 48 hours to register your form at the ministry." He said with satisfaction and smirked as they all let out a sigh of relief. "But now back to the story. You left off where you were both stunned."

Harry continued on with his story, this time with his now human godfather sitting next to him on his bed for support. When he got to the point where Wormtail had destroyed all of the death eaters everyone listed to the rest of the story in awe. "Why would he do that? This makes no sense. Maybe he felt guilty. But he had obviously been planning it. How did he know?" Were just some of the exclamations made throughout the room.

After some more discussion the minister cleared his throat. Now that we have that out of the way, I believe there is a prize to be awarded. He took out two sacks of gold and handed one each to Harry and Cedric who all had forgotten was in the room, but they likely would not have removed him anyway feeling that as someone who was there and almost sacrificed as a result he had the right to know what happened. "There are 500 galleons each. Since you both won, the prize money will be split between the both of you." Both boys nodded and Harry counted out 300 of the galleons and handed them back to the minister to pay the fines for himself, the headmaster, and his other unofficial godfather.

The other two men protested Harry paying their fines but Harry was resolute. "I was the one who rescued him from the tower. I was the one who, inadvertently or not, allowed Wormtail the chance to escape so his innocence couldn't be proven, and last but not least he is my godfather. You headmaster wanted him protected because he was an innocent man, you Remus wanted him protected as your last friend and a link to your past, but I need him in my life for so many reasons. He is all I have. That night he asked me to come live with him I actually had hope for a family for the first time in my life. He is far more to me than any of you and I thank you profusely for helping to protect him. This is my way to show my thanks. Please accept it." Harry finished in a small voice looking down at the bed. There wasn't a dry eye in the room and all resistance stopped. Even the minister cleared his throat before accepting the galleons, suddenly sorry that he requested them at all.

Next time: Wormtail's story