Chapter 58: The Third Task

With the power modules delivered and the students returned to the castle, everything settled into a normal routine as the day of the third task approached. On the morning of the third task Professor Dumbledore walks up to the Lectern and raises himself up a few inches. Everyone turns to him in anticipation.

"As you know," he starts out," today is the day of the third task. As the points stand Mr. Diggory is in first place."

This draws a loud cheer from the Hogwarts students.

"Yes, yes, congratulations to Mr. Diggory," Albus says," In second place is Mr. Krum from Durmstrang."

The Durmstrang students cheer for their champion.

"In third place is Miss. Delacour from Beauxbatons."

Fleur's fans cheer for her as well to show their support.

"Since Mr. Potter is just participating he asked to go last in the maze," Albus says," The maze will be filled with obstacles for the champions to overcome in addition to just finding their way through the maze itself. The Triwizard cup will sit in the middle and whoever gets to it first will be the winner."

Everyone cheers at that announcement, knowing that every champion stand an equal chance of getting to the cup. After all, it is easy to get lost in a maze. Especially when the maze itself changes every five minutes.

"One last announcement," Albus says," there will be a mandatory assembly right after classes at five PM tonight. All staff and students are required to attend. That is all."

Albus lowers himself to the floor and returns to his table to eat his breakfast. Whispers start making way around the hall as students speculate what the assembly is going to be about.

"What's the meeting about Albus?" Minerva asks.

"It's a surprise," Albus says aloud, he leans over and whispers in her ear," The Goblet of Fire has its magic back and is burning fiercely. We will find out why this evening."

"I look forward to the assembly then," she says under her breath for only his ears to hear.

The day seemed to crawl for all of the students but five O'clock finally arrives and the hall is filled to capacity as everyone is in attendance. The doors to the Great Hall open and Harry walks in followed by Hermione who is carrying the Goblet of Fire. Everyone notices the fierce red flame burning in the cup. No one understands what is going on. The flame was blue before. Hermione sets the cup on the head table so everyone can see it. Harry and Hermione walk over to the Lectern and raise themselves so they can be seen by all.

"Good evening everyone," Harry starts out," We called you here to give you a lesson on how the Goblet of Fire works and how it goes about picking the names of the champions. As you were told at the beginning of the year, the Goblet of Fire is supposed to be an unbiased neutral arbitrator. That means it will pick a name based on what it reads from the person that puts the name in the goblet."

"When Harry's name came out of the goblet last October," Hermione takes over," Harry and I did a lot of research and we are here to tell you our findings. The goblet was designed back in King Arthur's day to pick the best competitors for tournaments without the bias of who paid the most money to whom to get the best positions in the tournament. The goblet has to be programmed so to speak as to the rules of the particular tournament it is to judge. This means that before the goblet is used it has to be told what to look for in the contestants. In the case of the Triwizard tournament it had to be told to read the qualities of each person that put their name in the cup. If it didn't have this ability, we could have just put names in a hat and had some first year student come up and draw three names from the hat and we would have our champions. What this ability does is look at the characteristics of each person that put their name in and then verifies which school that student is from. So that means each champion was truly picked for their abilities and character, meaning that each one of you were the only ones that could have been picked for your school. The three contestants are the true champions for each school."

The students all cheer for their champions as they finally understand that the people picked are the best their school has to offer.

Harry takes over," This ability also means that an age line wasn't really needed as the cup would have known if a student didn't match the guidelines and would have spit their parchment back out right away. Another function of this ability means that you couldn't put someone else's name in the cup either. If you could, someone could have put Mrs. Norris's name in the cup as a prank. Mrs. Norris is Mr. Filch's cat and that would have been a serious mistake, but not because Mrs. Norris is a cat."

Professor Moody sits up and leans in to make sure he doesn't miss what they are saying.

Hermione's turn," Whoever put my Harry's name in the cup did make a serious mistake by trying to confound the cup into believing there is a forth school competing. They were successful in making the cup believe there are four schools competing, but either didn't understand how the cup works or didn't know about the next part or they wouldn't have done it. The cup could have spit out Mrs. Norris's name as the forth champion if the person putting the name in met the qualifications. You see, the cup doesn't read names, it reads magical signatures. The person that put Mrs. Norris's name in would have been the Champion for the fourth school and it might have happened if the person that put her name in was more qualified than the person that put my Harry's name in. The magical signature of the person putting the name in is who the contract is tied to when the goblet selects the champion for that school. So whoever put my Harry's name in the cup will lose his or her magic when the winner reaches the Triwizard cup at the center of the maze this evening. That is why the fire is red. The cup is getting ready to take the magic of the person that put my Harry's name in because they haven't fulfilled the obligations of the contract. That is why Harry said it would have been a serious mistake to try and prank the cup by putting in a name other than your own without knowing the consequences. I truly feel sorry for the person that did this as they don't have much time left before their magic will be ripped from them. I hope they at least survive the process so they can live out the rest of their life as a mundane. The true champions of each school are in no danger of losing their magic since they have competed in each task as required by the contract. All they have to do is enter the maze and the contract is fulfilled for them whether they win or not. The fourth person is not so lucky since they didn't participate in the first two tasks."

"Okay everyone," Harry says," Might as well stick around as dinner will start any minute.

The students all start talking about the lesson and the twins are glad now their prank didn't work. Professor Moody slumps back in his chair as the reality of his situation sinks in. The Potters are watching Moody and see him slump in his chair.

"Maybe we can make this work in our favor," Harry sends to Hermione.

"What do you? Oh I see, it can't hurt to try," Hermione sends back.

The pair walks up the staff table.

"Professor Moody," Hermione asks," can we talk to you for a moment?"

"What do you want?" he asks belligerently.

"Not here," Harry says," too many eyes and ears."

"To my office then," he says.

The young looking couple follows Moody as he stumps his way out of the Great Hall back to his office.

"Okay, we're here," he says," now what do you want?"

"First off," Hermione says," we know you are really Barty Crouch Jr."

This startles Moody and he attempts to rise until he finds he can't move.

"We've known since last summer," Harry says," we were looking through Nagini's eyes when you were making your plans with Voldemort. Did you know he is a half-blood with a muggle father?"

"What? That not true." Moody says indignantly.

"It is," Hermione says," His full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. His father was the muggle squires son that used to live in the run down mansion he is using for his base right now."

"I knew his father's name was Riddle, but I didn't know he was a muggle," Moody says," I just thought it was a family that died out and my master was the last heir. He claims to be the heir of Salazar Slytherin. That's why I follow him."

"He is a minor heir through the Gaunt family," Hermione says, then shows the now Barty Jr. her ring," I am the true heir of Salazar Slytherin through my father's side of the family. Magic skipped two generations for some reason. My mother is a witch and she is descended from Rowena Ravenclaw. Harry is descended from the other two founders and we own this school."

"We wanted to ask you some questions to find out where you stand now you know the truth," Harry says," first, did Voldemort know about how the cup works and is just sacrificing you the way he does all of his followers or two, do you think he truly did not know?"

"He claimed to have done extensive research on the cup and that is how he came up with the spells I used to make the cup think there were four schools competing," Barty says," Now I'm not so sure he is not just using me."

"We're sure," Hermione says," the information is not that hard to find. After all, the cup has to be set up for each type of competition it is used for and they are all different. The one thing they all have in common though is the magical contract aspect of it, so whoever uses the cup in this manor should do their homework before utilizing the cup or the consequences could be bad, as you found out today. My inclination is that he knew and used you anyway. Voldemort cares for no one but himself and wouldn't think twice about sacrificing one of his servants as a means to an end."

"I'm going to release you," Harry says," I want you to do something that's going to sound funny to you coming from me, but I have a reason for asking."

Harry releases Barty and he sits there waiting for the request.

Harry holds out his arm and says," I want you to take your knife and try to take the blood of an enemy. Yes I know the ritual he plans to use."

Barty looks at him funny, but complies by taking a knife from his boot. With a quick slash he slices the knife across Harry's arm. He looks at his knife and then Harry's arm. He then tries to plunge the knife into Harry's chest. The blade snaps off and falls to the floor.

"That was a little extreme but I think you get my point," Harry says," The ritual will not work on me or Hermione. We are the Elders of the Universe and are truly immortal. Voldemort should know we can't be hurt after we defeated him first year. We don't understand why he keeps trying. He seems to be obsessed with me for some reason. By the way, that mark on your arm is a leach and is connected directly to his soul. If he dies you die. He uses his marks to keep himself stronger than all of his followers by leaching their magic and through his mark he can control you. What are your feelings now?"

"I feel like I have been played by a master of the art," Barty says," I feel used as if I were cannon fodder.'

"That's basically all any of his followers are to him," Hermione says," Otherwise he wouldn't torture so readily with the cruciatus curse. A good leader cares for his troupes and tries to keep them healthy and happy so they will follow him where ever he leads them. Fear will never keep troupes loyal to a leader."

"Would you say you are now an enemy of Voldemort?" Harry asks.

"Yea," Barty says bitterly," I feel betrayed by someone I worshiped."

"Good," Hermione says as Harry whips out a knife and slashes Barty's arm, collecting the blood in a vial.

"What the," Barty screams," What'd you do that for?"

Hermione takes Barty's arm and heals the cut.

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken." She quotes from the ritual.

"You played me as well," Barty shouts at her when he finds he can't move again.

"Yes we did," Hermione says," We needed the blood of the enemy for the ritual and Harry sure isn't going to give him some of his blood. You see Barty, we are going to let him complete the ritual as we need him to have a body for what we plan for him. We also have a way for you to keep your magic if you are willing."

"What would that be?" he asks with hope in his eyes for the first time since the assembly.

"We can exile you to another planet that is out of range of the cup," Harry says.

"Can't I just stay here on this planet?" he says," I promise to stay out of trouble."

"No for two reasons," Hermione says," One, the cup uses the magic of planet Earth to operate, so nowhere on Earth would be safe for you and Two as long as you have that mark you are in danger of losing your magic to Voldemort if he gets wind of this conversation before we get to him. Where we are sending you is already populated with some of your fellow death eaters. You will still have your magic but the magic of the dark mark will be out of range of Voldemort and will just be a tattoo. If you were to return to Earth somehow your magic would be forfeit the instant you stepped foot on the planet."

"Okay if you can do this then send me there," he says.

"Gather your things in a truck while I open a portal," Harry says.

Barty packs all of his belongings into his truck and shrinks it down to pocket size. He watches as Harry opens the portal and sees what looks like the start of a small village on the other side.

"Good they have already started building," Hermione says," Tell them to get ready for a few more companions this evening."

"I will," Barty says," Thank you for this second chance."

"You're welcome," Hermione says," We will tell your father that you are safe and happy. I think that might ease his conscience a bit."

"Thanks for that," Barty says as he steps through and the portal closes with a slight pop.

Harry and Hermione phase into their room and ask Winky for something to eat before they get ready for the final task.

Harry opens his watch face and calls Dumbledore.

"Hunter to Papa Phoenix," he says into the mirror.

Dumbledore's face appears on the mirror face as he answers," did you get the issue solved with Barty? The flame in the cup just turned blue again."

"Yes we did grandpa," Harry says," We sent him off planet out of range of the cup's magic. He can never return to Earth, but I don't think that will matter to him now."

"Good," Albus says," I like that you can find alternate solutions to problems like these."

"We try our best," Hermione says looking over Harry's shoulder," We will not kill a sentient being if we can avoid it. Could you tell Barty's father that we freed him from Voldemort and sent hem to the colony planet? We can arrange a visit sometime in the future if he wants."

"I will do that," Albus says," Thank you for saving his son."

"No problem grandpa," Harry says,"I guess it's time to head down to the pitch for the final task. We'll see you there. Hunter and Huntress out."

Harry and Hermione get dressed in their full Consular robes complete with hoods, blaster pistols and light sabers in case they are needed. Harry puts the vial of blood in his pocket and the couple then leaves their quarters to walk down to the pitch.

ooOOoo

When the Potter's arrive at the pitch they beacon the other champions over to them.

"The Triwizard cup is a portkey designed to bring the winner back to the viewing stands as soon as you touch it. Someone had programmed it to take me to a graveyard in Little Hanglton to participate in a ritual to revive Voldemort. That cup is hidden behind the stand. The cup on the stand is safe and will work like it is supposed to. You three do your thing with the maze and may the best champion win. The duplicate cup hidden behind the stand will be used to by me to go to the graveyard, so it will be gone long before you get there. Once I am in the maze where the crowd can't see me I will take the other cup and let it take me there. Hermione will follow once I am there. We will talk more after this is over. Good luck you three."

They all disperse to their respective headmasters to get ready.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Witches and Wizards," Mr. Bagman calls out," The third task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to get under way. The four champions will enter the maze at five minute intervals based on the order in which they have placed so far. The first to enter will be Mr. Cedric Diggory, the second will be Mr. Victor Krum, the third, the lovely Miss Fluer Delecour and last but not least our own Mr. Harry Potter, who is only participating and not actually competing."

He said the last part disheartened because he had money bet on Harry. Oh well such are the risks of gambling. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

The first gun goes off and Cedric enters the maze, Five minutes later Victor, etc. When Harry's turn comes he enters the maze and immediately phases to the center where the cup is.

"Ready Huntress?" Harry sends.

"Ready Hunter," she sends back," Let's get this over with so we can come back and celebrate with whoever wins this thing."

Hermione makes her way below the stands so she won't be seen and disillusions herself to wait for Harry's signal. Harry takes the cup and allows the port key to throw him to the ground upon arrival.

"I'm here Hermione," Harry sends," Follow our bond and find Nagini to extract the soul shard from her."

"On my way," she sends back.

Meanwhile Harry fakes being disoriented from the port key trip and hears someone coming up behind him.

"Stun him, quickly Wormtail," a high squeaky voice hisses.

"Stupefy" He hears.

A red light washes over him, so he slumps to the ground as if he is stunned. He allows himself to be tied to the gravestone behind him and hears a large caldron being dragged into position, watching through lidded eyes as the man called Wormtail lights a fire under it.

"Hurry Wormtail," the squeaky voice hisses again.

Harry watches as Wormtail drops a baby like thing into the cauldron with a splash. He then waves his wand and some dust arises from the grave at Harry's feet.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will revive your son."

He puts the dust into the cauldron causing the fluid to bubble and boil vigorously, turning a dark brown color.

"Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master."

He then takes a knife out and holding his hand over the cauldron slashes upward quickly causing his arm to be severed at the wrist with his hand falling into the boiling potion turning it a dark red. Wormtail falls to the ground in pain, wrapping his stump tightly to stem the bleeding. He gets back up slowly and shuffles over to Harry with the knife and slashes at Harry's arm only to see no cut or even a mark on his skin from the knife.

"What's this?" Wormtail whimpers.

"Take the vial from my pocket Wormtail," Harry whispers," It has blood forcibly taken from one of his enemies. He doesn't need to know which one. Cooperate and you will get out of this alive and well. I will heal your stump for you when we are finished. You cannot hurt me Wormtail I am one of the Elders of the Universe."

Wormtail knows the legend of the Elders like all other purebloods and follows his orders. He finds the vial and uncorks it.

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."

(An: All ritual words © JK Rowling)

He pours the vile of blood into the cauldron and the potion turns a sickly yellow color before a flash of light erupts and when the light fades a human shaped form is standing there where the cauldron used to be.

"Robe me Wormtail," It commands.

Meanwhile while the ritual is going on Hermione materializes in the graveyard and seeks out Nagini. When she finds her she hisses:

"Are you ready to get rid of the dark object inssside of you?"

"Yesss, Elder," Nagini hisses to her," I grow weary of carrying it around."

"Very well hold ssstill," Hermione hisses.

She waves her hand over the spot the shard container is embedded and wills the container to phase into her hand. When she is done she phases them to a large rock near the manor, out of the way, where she places her hand on the rock causing it to heat up to a comfortable temperature for a snake to sleep under.

"You are free now Nagini," she hisses at the snake," ssstay away from humansss and you ssshould be okay."

"Thank you Elder," The snake hisses sleepily.

Hermione pets the snake on the head and then disillusions herself once more before phasing over to where Harry is, in time to hear.

"Robe me Wormtail,"

After getting the robe put on, the resurrected dark lord steps out of what's left of the cauldron.

"My wand?" He asks.

Wormtail hands over Voldemort's wand to him.

"What's wrong master?" Wormtail asks fearfully when he sees his master's anger.

"I will make whoever ruined my original wand pay," he says," now that I have a body and my full power back I can find out what happened to it. Hold out your arm Wormtail."

Wormtail holds out his left arm so his master can call for his servants. Voldemort places the tip of the wand onto the mark on Wormtail's arm and pushes a summoning call through it. After a few minutes only five people show up. All are the high level controllers that had been in hiding. Voldemort is getting angrier by the minute as no more of his death eaters are arriving.

"Remove your masks," he commands.

"Why are you the only ones to show up?" he demands to the leader.

The leader of the five kneels at Voldemort's feet," We don't know, master. We went into hiding when the others started disappearing. There are no death eaters left in Azkaban either."

Harry decides to speak up," Oh there is still one there, but he will never see the light of day."

Voldemort spins around," I see you are finally awake Harry."

With a flex of his arms the ropes break and the statue behind him shatters. Voldemort's eye go wide as he watches Harry shrug off the ropes and shatter the statue.

"Sorry Mr. Riddle," Harry mutters," didn't mean to desecrate your grave."

With a wave of his hand the statue is repaired and then he turns to Voldemort and his men who are now frozen in place.

"I've been awake since about four thirty this morning and I haven't missed a thing," Harry says," Oh, and the only one left in Azkaban is Lucius Malfoy. He is sealed away in cell number one for the rest of his days. He tried to kill off all the children in Hogwarts with a basilisk that was living in the Chamber of Secrets, which is a nice room by the way. You can come out now Hermione everyone is waiting and willing to listen to us. I guess these five are the last ones left."

She materializes right next to Harry and takes his arm in hers.

"I've been right here all along Harry," She says as he kisses his cheek." Nagini is taken care of and I have all of the items that are left. Let's take care of the followers first and then deal with Riddle."

Harry conjures a portal behind Riddle where he can't see it and floats the five men, plus Wormtail after healing his stump, through it without talking to them. The portal closes with a pop.

"That should be all of them," Harry says," unless there are some in other countries that couldn't come because of the distance involved. I'm sure they will know their master is back but will have to live in fear until they die of old age."

Harry turns away from his wife and looks at Riddle. With a wave of his hand Riddle's wand turns to ash, which slowly drifts to the ground.

Harry releases Riddle from his freezing spell and he stands there looking murderously at the Potters.

"What have you done to me?" he asks.

"We have taken your magic from you to the point you will be too weak to draw on any death eaters that we may have missed but just enough to maintain your homunculus body. Oh, and we want to give something back to you."

Hermione holds up Riddles diary and the bauble that was inside of Nagini.

"This is the artifact Malfoy used to do his dirty work," she says," I'm sure you know what it is. As you can see we have the other one as well. Did you really think this would give you immortality? Splitting your soul like this only leads to insanity. You might have lived a little longer but you would have descended into insanity to the point you would end up as a drooling idiot. You will get back most of your sanity when we return these to you, but the bit lost when you tried to kill my Harry is gone forever."

The potters each hold up one of the soul containers and with glowing hands and eyes chant together," By the powers that are ours as the Elders of the Universe and the power given us by the Creator of all Things we return these soul shards to their rightful owner. So we say, so mote it be."

The containers take on a glow and the shards lift out and rush back into Riddles body where he falls over in agony as his souls is knitted back together except for the tiny piece that had dissipated back on October thirty first nineteen eighty one. When Riddle sits up he has more of a calm demeanor, but is still angry at the Potters.

"Still a sore loser huh," Harry says," Too bad, we could have used a wizard of your caliber in the new world that is starting to arise. Such a waste."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Riddle asks.

"Look behind you and up at the sky and you will see what I mean." Harry says.

Tom looks where he was told and gasps in surprise at the bright object floating serenely across the sky.

"What is that?" he asks.

"That is the new space station," Hermione says," It's being built by a combination of labor from our world and the Vulcans, who are an alien race from a planet about fifteen light years from here. By the way, all of your death eaters are on another planet in the opposite direction from Vulcan, building themselves a little community without having to worry if you are going to try and torture them to death before they turn forty. The only reason we aren't going to send you there is because of your connection with them through that mark of yours."

"Nope," Harry continues," We are just going to fulfill the prophesy that brought us here one day at a time until we are called home to the Creator. We will start by putting you on ice for three hundred years to give all of any remaining death eaters the chance to die of old age. The stasis shell we will encase you in will decay slowly over that period until you die of old age. The good thing for you is you won't know it. You are just going to go to sleep like Rip-Van-Winkle and never wake up. Good bye Riddle."

"Wait," Riddle says," About the Prophesy, can I hear the whole thing?"

"The one to vanquish the dark lord approaches. Born as the seventh month dies. Born to those that have thrice defied him. With his soul mate by his side, they will have powers the dark lord knows not. Powers from Heaven and Earth not understood by mortal man. Together they will bring the world into peace and harmony. The power to vanquish the dark lord approaches…"

"Damn," Riddle says," If I had let well enough alone…"

"If you had left well enough alone, my parents would still be alive," Harry yells at him," you stupid wanker."

Harry and Hermione stand apart and release their wands which turn into staffs. Their eyes take on a glow as they rise up a meter off the ground where they chant.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle. For crimes of leading a war against the innocents of humanity and the Creator of all things by splitting your soul you are condemned to stasis for not less than three hundred years. Your stasis cube will slowly decay until you wither away and die of old age at which time you will be sent to the creator to be judged for the afterlife. May the Creator have mercy on your soul, or what's left of it. So we say, so mote it be."

Beams from the staffs hit Riddle and lay him out flat, where he is encased in an obsidian shell and banished to the bottom of deepest part of the sea.

"Come on Hermione," Harry says, taking her by the hand," Let's get back to Hogwarts and party with the other champions."

The Potters reappear in front of the stands to find the students cheering Fleur DeLacour for her victory over the maze and making it to the cup first despite being the last true champion to enter the maze. The couple walks over to her and takes her into a hug.

"Well done Fluer," Harry says," Well done indeed."

"How'd you manage it?" Hermione asks.

"I think it was my sense of direction," she says," I had the same issues with the obstacles as the boys, but they kept getting lost. It might be my avian side's instincts for finding its way home."

"I kept getting turned around every time the maze changed," Cedric says," I was only half way through when the hedges dropped and there she was standing by the cup. Amazing."

"Ja," Victor agreed," I had da same problem wit direction. Fleur is one amazing girl."

"Victor," Harry says to get his attention," When you go back to Bulgaria take your saber with you. Keep meditating and working out with it and when the time is right, the force will guide you through the process of creating a full powered saber like ours."

"When you get finished with Qudditch come and see us," Hermione interjects," we will have a job waiting for you."

"Thank you Elders," Victor says," that gives me a bit of peace of mind. Quidditch careers have a tendency to come to an abrupt end."

"Just try not to injure yourself too much if you can help it," Harry says," We want our friend intact."

Dumbledore walks up to the group and asks," How'd it go Harry?"

"Riddle's in stasis at the bottom of the sea for the next three hundred years," Hermione says," and all of his followers are on the colony planet. Only five showed up when he called them."

"That is a large burden off my chest," Albus says in relief.

"Ours too grandpa," Harry says," now we can concentrate on the rest of the world."