Stand

Flight of Death

** "On three, Right?" Harry said. "One-Two-Three-"He and Cedric both grasped the handle. Instantly, Harry felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel. His feet had left the ground. He could not unclench the hand holding the Tri-wizard cup; it was pulling him forwards, in a howl of wind and swirling colour Cedric at his side.

Harry felt his feet slam into the ground; his injured leg gave way and he fell forward; his hand let go of the Tri-wizard cup at last. He raised his head.

"Where are we?" He said

Cedric looked around and shook his head "No clue." He panted

Harry began to look at his surroundings and it appeared that he was in an old rundown graveyard. It was quite small and most of the gravestones were crumbling; He started to look around at some of the hazy names leaving a dazed and confused Cedric behind.

"Did you know the cup was a port-key?" Cedric asked.

"No clue." Harry shouted back.

All of a sudden his confused expression turned into one of a great horror, the name on the gravestone in front of him read Tom Marvolo Riddle and a few feet away sat a large cauldron filled with a murky substance.

His scar began to burn and he fell to his battered knees once again. "CEDRIC GET BACK TO THE CUP!" Cedric looked towards the doubled over figure of Harry trying to process what was going on; a wheezy voice pierced the air before Cedric could process what was happening, "KILL THE SPARE!" Harry looked up in enough time to see Wormtail fire a killing curse towards his fellow champion who promptly fell to the ground lifeless.

Shock rippled through Harry as he saw his fellow competitor and friend die by the hand of Wormtail. Pettigrew however didn't seem to give a rat's ass for killing an innocent man and dumped a disfigured looking baby into the nearby cauldron. Suddenly Harry found himself rising off the ground and unable to move as Pettigrew began chanting.

"Bone of the father…..Unknowingly given, you will renew your Son."

Wormtail looked quite frightened and hesitant but he still summoned a bone from under Harry's feet and dropped it into the cauldron as well. He then pulled out a shiny silver knife and gazed at in horror as he put just above his right hand.

"Flesh of the servant… Willingly given... You will revive your master." He trembled.

Pettigrew then brought his left hand down on his right wrist clutching the knife and sliced through his right hand as it dropped into the cauldron below.

He then turned to a struggling Harry knife at the ready. "Please don't do this!" But it was too late and Pettigrew dug his knife into Harry's right arm; Harry gave out a blood curling scream that rang out through the night as Pettigrew cut through his skin and then yanked the knife out covered in his blood.

He walked back over to the cauldron and dabbed the bloody knife into the water and turned the substance a murky blood red. The cauldron began to bubble as Wormtail said the last phrase of his chant.

"Blood of the enemy…. Forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe!"

With his chant over Wormtail stepped back from the cauldron and cradled the stub of his right arm while gleefully watching the scene in front of him. The cauldron began to simmer and sparks started to emanate on the surface.

Harry began to realize what was going on and hoped that the horrendous monster inside the cauldron would drown and die, but it was all for naught as a dark skeletal figure rose from the cauldron.

Lord Voldemort had returned.

~oOo~

The students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang watched in confusion as the big magical screen showing the champion's progress in the maze showed the Hogwarts champions grip the cup only to have it act as a portkey and whisk them somewhere far away.

The ministry officials, Dumbledore, Maxim and Karkoroff all looked extremely confused and were discussing amongst themselves what had happened and where the champions were. The cup was supposed to melt away the maze revealing the victor to only be a few feet from where he or she started.

Obviously the question on everyone's minds was where in the world were Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter.

~oOo~

"Harry, my how you've grown."

Harry spat on Voldemort and turned his neck to try and identify the followers he had summoned who had not been named. Voldemort had not been pleased with his Death Eaters who had not come to his aid and he had just finished punishing them.

"Now, Now Harry surely those filthy muggle relatives of yours taught you some manners."

"I do not need to dignify you with a response." Harry huffed in all his Gryffindor bravery.

"Well if you think you're so high and mighty Harry Potter then duel me! Wormtail give Potter his wand and no one try to help me."

Harry was finally released from his body bind and was lamely tossed his wand. Harry accepted it and got to his feet clutching his still bleeding wand arm. He faced Voldemort and gave him a glare that rivaled Hermione's.

"Surely Hogwarts has taught you to duel Harry, first we bow."

Harry stood his ground and kept his glare and his wand trained on Tom Riddle Jr. The said Tom Riddle Jr. became visibly angered at Harry's defiance and pointed his wand at him and silently cast the imperious curse on Harry.

Harry felt the joyous feeling wash over him and the voice in the back of his head telling him to bow. Of course Harry had realized he was impervious to the imperious after Moody's class, though Harry wasn't just about to let his one advantage slip away so he bowed.

"Good, then we-."

Voldemort was cut off by Harry rapidly raising his wand and releasing several curses in rapid succession catching his foe by surprise. Voldemort looked quite surprised for a moment and was hit by the first three curses, but deflected the others off as if they were non-existent, but he still had been knocked to the ground and had cuts all over his body along with a broken leg.

He then gave a volley of his own to Harry who matched his spells. Harry's disarming charm collided with Voldemort's entrails expelling curse causing a magical shockwave to knock the death eaters to the ground as the spells locked. A silvery dome encased Harry and Voldemort and the spells turned into a narrow bright gold light that connected the two wands, Harry's wand began to vibrate and he could feel a tremendous amount of power being surged through it.

Voldemort looked just as confused as Harry but quickly became angry and tried to push more power into his spell but realizing he wasn't gaining ground he broke off the spell, collapsing the shield encasing them and the gold beam. The disruption of the beam caused both combatants to fall to the ground; the death eaters rushed over to aid their master but he quickly brushed them off.

Meanwhile Harry collected himself and realized that he was out numbered and at an extreme disadvantage. He ran over to the cup in the Death Eaters distraction. However Voldemort wasn't about to let Harry get away and dashed over to his opponent. As Harry's fingers touched the cup Voldemort hand grasped his leg and both were whisked away from the graveyard leaving a stunned group of Death Eaters behind in the Graveyard.

~oOo~

Amelia Sian Bones, Director of the DMLE, Acting Minister for Magic, found herself being escorted by a contingent of ten Aurors to a press conference in the Ministry Atrium. Voldemort had risen from the dead and within five hours had killed the muggle Prime Minister, decimated the Royal family and had killed the Bulgarian and French Ministers and her boss Fudge leaving her in charge.

Within Hours the Muggle England would mostly likely fall to Voldemort. The Muggles would think the Assassination of the Royal Family would be caused by terrorists and the next prime minister would most likely be a pawn on Voldemort.

Seven of her department heads had already been killed in their homes along with a significant portion of the light allied Wizengamot members. She had personally informed all Wizengamot members to go into hiding and to protect their families.

Her niece Susan was safe at Hogwarts like many of the other magical children of Eastern Europe. The delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had decided to stay at Hogwarts indefinitely afraid of leaving the safety of the world renowned wards of Hogwarts.

The Auror force for the first time since the first fall of Voldemort in '81 had an actual threat. She had ordered all capable aurors to return to active duty and was trying to expand the force by having French and Bulgarian aurors sent to aid in the war.

She had called off the Black search for the time being determining him to be not as big a threat as Voldemort (She hadn't believed he was guilty in the first place but the evidence against him was insurmountable).

The Wizengamot was being called into an emergency meeting the next morning and they were to elect an Interim minister for magic to serve the last two years of Fudge's term; she was the leading candidate at the current time so it was likely that she would be in the highest office for a while.

Her Head Auror Rufus Scrimdgeur ran up beside her at a swift pace with an unnaturally grim face. He looked like he had been to hell and back and needed some shut eye.

"Amelia, I need to discuss some things with you."

"Could this wait? I am on my way to a press conference as you can see."

"The Wizengamot has convened already and are demanding you're presence."

"Why was I not notified? That meeting was supposed to be held tomorrow morning! Only I or the Chief Warlock may call an emergency meeting."

"Exactly, Dumbledore has called a meeting."

"Shouldn't he be dealing with the ICW at the moment? I realize Fudge relied on him heavily but I cannot have him giving me suggestions all the time."

"Well he is currently sitting in the Wizengamot chambers waiting for you."

Amelia let her eyes roll. She didn't have time for this at the moment; she could see Dumbledore becoming a thorn in her side in the future.

"Very well, Scrimdgeor you go do the press conference and I will deal with the Wizengamot."

Rufus gave her a sharp nod and Amelia set off in the direction of the Wizengamot Chambers at a brisk pace hoping to end the meeting fast, Though she did need to push a few bills through the Wizengamot such as officially declaring war and increasing the DMLE's budget.

She rapidly approached courtroom one, unlike the other courtrooms this one was quite extravagant; Two hundred booths were set up in a full circle around the walls of the room and were stacked up to the ceiling and there were around 50 booths per level. Each booth held two seats, one for the Seated Member and the other for his heir or wife.

The booths were organized with the newer members at the bottom and the older ones at the top, 90% of the seats were hereditary and the other 10 percent were reserved for the Minister and Department Heads. One seat represented one vote; however with the amount of pureblood families dying and the interbreeding between old families, many held more than one vote on the quorum, she herself as head of the House of Bones held 3 seats. As she recalled the Blacks held the most votes with a total of 12, back in the 1700's Copius Black the then head of family would marry his sons and daughters into families with votes on the council, he would then obliterate the families and as the closest relative family he would take the vote into his growing collection. Malfoy had installed himself as the Black Proxy in the last 10 years and had a supreme voting force of 18 votes as the current Head of House was incarcerated.

The Monarchy still held absolute power over the wizarding government as per the Statue of Secrecy; however they rarely exercised their authority. Directly across from the entrance to the chambers was the largest booth, which was situated on the 2nd level and was reserved for the Chief Warlock who was elected by the Wizengamot every 7 years at the winter solstice, Dumbledore had been the Chief Warlock since 1947 and had never faced any serious opposition since his original election.

As she strode into the almost full chamber to take her new seat at the Chief Warlocks left. Until now she had sat on the third level in the Bones Booth, However in this situation she needed to be recognized as Minister so as to push these bills through.

"Acting Minister Bones thank you for joining us."

She recognized the drawl of Lucius Malfoy anywhere, He wore a malicious grin and she presumed that a few hours ago he had been present witnessing his master's rebirth and was sent to stir up the cauldron of politics.

"Now that you're here we can finally begin, we have the pressing issue of electing an official interim minister, and I call for a vote."

Dammnit, she swore under her breath. She didn't have time for roadblocks at this time, but since Dumbledore had been kind enough to push the Wizengamot meeting up she needed to deal with the issue of interim minister now. From Dumbledore's facial expression he and Lucius had agreed on the fact that they needed their own pawns in the office of minister that was the only reason for Dumbledore to push the meeting up.

"All in favour of this motion?" Dumbledore asked

The majority of the Wizengamot raised their wands with a white glow.

"Motion Passed, this body will now accept nominations for an interim Minister."

"I nominate Madam Umbridge for the position." Called out Lucius Malfoy, his selection was quickly seconded. Amelia was nominated immediately after and her nomination was quickly followed by many others and soon the nomating round was done and the candidates had dwindled down to her, Lord Ogden and Senior Undersecretary Umbitch were left.

The three of them made their speeches and the Wizengamot voted once more to eliminate another candidate, the vote was Ogden-66, Bones- 79 and Umbridge-105.

A quick recess was called before Ogden would drop out of the running, however at this rate the election would go to Umbridge (who was undoubtly, imperioused or a pawn of Voldemort.

It was apparent that whoever Ogden chose to be Minister would be the decision maker, which meant she needed his support.

"Lord Ogden, Is it presumptuous of me to assume that you will be dropping out of the running?"

"No my dear Amelia, I will be leaving this debacle. I would never have accepted the position anyway, I am getting quite old. I assume you are here to win me over and get my voting bloc?"

"That would be the quick summary."

"Well you will have as you wish; over my soon to be likely dead body will that bigot Umbridge become Minister, Back in my day people got into the government on their own merits!"

"I appreciate your vote of confidence very much Lord Ogden."

She and Ogden walked back in to the chamber side by side when the recess came to a close. Malfoy's scowl was priceless as he realized what was going on. Umbridge's normally composed toad like features melted into one of bitter anger as she realized that she would most likely not be taking the job.

As soon as everyone had taken their seats; Lord Ogden rose to deliver his parting speech and was gathering the entirety of the Wizengamot on the edge of their seats to see if he would actually support Bones

"It is with a heavy heart that I depart this election, I hope that we can inflict many changes in a new administration, I believe that Acting Minister Bones is the best choice and should continue in her current position and with her efforts as Minister I am sure that we will see a change for the better."

By the end of his concession speech Lucius Malfoy's frown had turned into a look of bitter contempt that symbolized that Ogden would be dead within the next few days. Many people stood up and began to clap for Ogden as well and people began demanding for a final vote between Bones and Umbridge

The Final tally ended in a landslide victory for Minister for Magic Amelia Bones, 160 to 90. It seemed that that Umbridge had actually lost 15 votes during the last round.

With her becoming the official interim Minister for Magic she was able to push a proclamation of war through the Wizengamot. The Proclamation of War had been given and she was finally able to give aurors free reign in their attacks and the Aurors were now able to go on the offensive.

The War had just begun.

~OoO~

Emerald green eyes suddenly flashed open in the Hogwarts hospital as Harry Potter emerged from his slumber. Memories flooded into his mind of what had happened the night before; Voldemort had returned, Cedric and Fudge were dead and then everything went black from there on out, he assumed that he had collapsed from magical exhaustion.

He quickly realized that the Hospital wing was much fuller than usual. Many people were coming in and out and there were much more healers running about. He recalled Voldemort and Moody setting fire to the stands perhaps these were the victims?

And Moody what was up with him? He must have been a death eater but that wouldn't explain why he had lost much of himself fighting them and supporting the cause of the light. Perhaps he was imperioused? No he would have seen signs of it, what about the flask he had been drinking from all year, Could it have been polyjuice? That seemed to be the most likely and the DADA teachers that Dumbledore hired seemed to have the wool pulled over his seemingly all-seeing eyes. But who would be under the polyjuice? Defiantly a Death Eater, most likely a high ranking one, Dumbledore or Sirius might have some ideas.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by an enraged Madam Pomfrey inspecting him muttering about stupid trouble seeking boys raising the dead and whatnot.

"Well your magical core looks to have stabled out so you are free to go, However the Headmaster and Minister Bones have been requesting you're presence along with dozens of reporters. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused? Over the last 18 hours three minsters have been killed, the Royal family has been forced to flee the country and there are 300 people dead and much more injured, thankfully only 17 students were killed in that horrid fire but that was still a tragedy that should never have happened. Do you know how large the magical population of Great Britain is? People estimate it at a little less than a fifth of the muggle population, we have a little more than 310,000 magicals in the U.K and 300 were massacred last night!"

She went off into a rant about the upcoming apocalypse as she discharged him. Harry hadn't realized that the population was that small and how easily Voldemort could kill them.

He had no idea who Minister Bones was but assumed that since Fudge was dead that she was his replacement and probably was of relation to that Hufflepuff girl Susan Bones. He set a brisk pace towards the Headmaster's office and was too busy drowning in his thoughts that he didn't notice himself bump into someone.

"Oh sorry, I should really watch where I am going."

He recognized the girl as a Slytherin in his year, Daphne Greengrass if he could remember correctly. She had long wavy dirty blonde Hair and gorgeous blue eyes. She was becoming quite busty and had great curves. He hadn't realized how well she was blooming and how attractive she looked until now. She hardly talked to anyone besides Tracey Davis and held the reputation of being the Ice Queen.

"S'okay Potter, out of all of us you've probably had the worst last couple of hours. By the way what happened? We all saw the Dark Lord last night and Dumbledore has left the castle for some ICW and Wizengamot business so the castle is relatively in the dark on what's happening outside, well unless you count the front page of the prophet announcing You-Know-Who's return and a landslide victory for Susan Bones aunt."

"I just woke up from magical exhaustion a few minutes ago, all I know is that I'm being hounded by reporters and that I was forced to participate in some demonic ritual to bring Voldemort back to life."

"That's pretty disgusting, Well I must be going, my sister is in a panic wondering if our parents are okay are not, Next time watch where you're going."

"I will, see you around Daphne."

~oOo~

Daphne could not believe what had just happened, for a moment in time she had let her internal crush on the boy-who-lived take over and she let him see her with her guard down. She had a reputation to maintain and the second a pretty boy comes along she cannot just melt.

No she was not falling in love with the Clueless Harry Potter. He was such an enigma, He had a relatively small friends circle and acted completely ignorant of his heritage, Despite being a half-blood he came from one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Great Britain, yet he dressed like a pauper and ignored his family heritage.

Now that she had thought about she wasn't even sure where he had grown up or any of his background besides the fact that he was perhaps the most famous wizard besides Dumbledore and You-Know-Who. Had he even been raised in a magical family? She knew that he had many relatives on his father's side, in fact she was his third cousin twice removed and Draco Malfoy was his second cousin once removed, they shared the same great-grandparents.

What she also didn't understand why he clung to Granger and Weasel; His grandfather Charlus had been one of the elite members of the Wizengamot and was set up to replace Bagnold as Minister before his untimely death she was told.

The Weasleys held no political power in the wizarding world and Granger, well Granger was the epitome of everything wizarding culture stood against. So it begged the question of why those three were friends in the first place, she could understand him being friends with Neville Longbottom or Pavarti Patil but definitely not the Weasleys or Granger.

She had nothing against the Muggleborns. No she was even friends with a few of them in Ravenclaw, she just hated the way Hermione Granger carried herself acting like she knew everything about the wizarding world and shoved her opinion down everyone's throats with a lack of respect for tradition or understanding of it.

Take S.P.E.W for example, She bet that Granger knew nothing about why House Elves were enslaved to a Family. She would go around trying to free the Hogwarts house elves and shoving her ideals down peoples throats; She couldn't take a hint that they didn't want to be freed.

The reality of the situation was that House Elves and their Masters served a symbiotic relationship. A House elf needed to be bonded to keep their innate magic working or they would die within a few years and slowly go insane. They depended on a Master for survival, the house elves lived to serve and without their cause they lost the will to live. So by freeing house Elves Granger was basically sentencing them to death.

Ronald Weasley was another enigma, surely as a pureblood he had been taught about house Elves as a child so why let Hermione continue the pursuit of S.P.E.W. The more she thought about it made sense that Harry Potter had not grown up with wizards as he should have or else he would have stopped Hermione and it would also explain his lack of knowledge of the Wizarding World and it's customs.

So then that must have meant that he would be living with his mum's relatives for some strange reason. Her parents would have gone to school at the same time as Lily and James Potter, perhaps they had some insight. She would have to ask them later.

She spotted Astoria moping around the Slytherin table in the great hall picking at some food with her fork. Her usually bright and cheery face looked like she had been crying.

"Hullo Daph, any word from Mom or Dad?"

"No, have you?"

"You don't suppose that they'll join the Dark Lord? I mean uncle Isosceles was one back during the first war."

Her Parents had always been more of a neutral pureblood family who saw substance in what the Dark Lord said but never agreed with his methods. During Voldemort's first rise to power they had never been marked but her father was known to have been part of the Death Eater voting block and her uncle Isosceles Greengrass was in You-Know-Who's Innercircle. She hoped that they wouldn't join the Death Eater ranks and get themselves killed like her uncle but it was always hard to tell with Cyrus and Jasmine.

"I sure hope not but you never know…. I mean they did sell you and me off to Draco and Theodore."

Her sister's face paled at the mention of her betrothed. When the last war had ended their Father knew he would rise again and to strengthen his position he betrothed Astoria to the Malfoy's and Daphne to the youngest Nott. Neither Sister liked their fiancé's much and could see their selves becoming trophy wives like Narcissa Malfoy.

She had hoped that her father wouldn't go through with it and asked her father not too sign the contract but he had. Her only conciliation was that he had left one loophole to get out of the contract, it said should a wizard of higher status take interest in Daphne or Astoria then the contract would be voided.

However the Nott's and Malfoy's were the upper crust of wizarding society and she knew there were stuck with their respective fiancé's.

Astoria was likely to end up a sister wife as per the Malfoy contract which said that Draco may take multiple wives should he chose and Daphne was pretty sure that that Parkinson bitch was betrothed to him as well.

She could only hope that someone like Harry Potter of an Ancient and Noble family take interest in her and be her knight and shining armour and take her away from Theodore Nott. That was partly why she had a huge crush on the boy-who-lived as he was one of the only potential suitors who could void the contract between her and Nott.

She realized that Harry Potter would never take interest in her and that was really the first time they had ever talked before. But a girl could dream.

1) I own nothing that you recognize.

2)The reason Umbridge wasn't Acting Minister was because the line of succession in my verse here goes Head of the DMLE then Senior Undersecretary, plus her being in that position wasn't helpful to the plot

3) Concerning the Potter family; In my opinion the Potter family must have been very wealthy and a long line of purebloods from hints in canon, for instance he was obviously directly related to Ignatius Peverall and the vault he visits in the first book was called Harry Potter's trust vault meaning there must have been a much bigger Potter vault somewhere in the bank.

4)I have not yet determined if I will make this a Manipulative!Dumbles or just an I'msorryI'verealizedmymistakesandwilld omybestfromnowon!Dumbledore. I hope to find a happy medium

5)Concerning Ron and Hermione; I have not yet decided about the Mione but Ron will defiantly be bashed, To the extent of the bashing I do not know.

6) Big thanks to my beta Anka7995!