DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER HARRY POTTER NOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ed felt his feet slam into the ground; he let go of the Triwizard Cup at last. He raised his head. He groaned as Cedric helped him and Harry up off the ground.
"Are you all right, Ed?" Cedric asked.
Ed didn't answer as he went to a tree and emptied his dinner from his stomach. Harry and Cedric looked at each other.
"It's a good thing he can't Apparate then," Cedric said. "Where do you think we are?"
"I don't know," Harry answered.
They looked around. They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely, they had obviously traveled miles - perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Ed finished his business and rejoined Harry and Cedric.
"Feeling better?" Cedric asked.
"I hate traveling by Portkey," Ed said, looking down at the Triwizard Cup. "Did anyone tell you about the Cup being a Portkey?"
"No," Cedric and Harry answered.
"Do you think this is supposed to be part of the task?" Harry asked.
"I don't think so," Ed replied. "We better have our wands out."
"Good idea," Cedric said.
Then they all took out their wands. Harry and Ed looked around, both having the feeling of being watched.
"Someone's coming," Ed said.
Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. A face couldn't be made out, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, it could be told that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - the thing in the arms looked like a baby…or was it merely a bundle of robes? Harry, Ed, and Cedric looked at each other in a confused way.
"Let's go now," Ed mouthed to Harry and Cedric.
"Wait," Cedric mouthed back.
Ed rolled his eyes as he, Harry, and Cedric looked back at the approaching figure. It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second, Harry and Cedric and Ed and the short figure simply looked at one another. It was then that Harry's scar suddenly exploded with pain. His wand slipped out from his hand as he fell to his knees, clutching his forehead. It felt as if his forehead was going to split open.
"Harry!" Ed said. "Harry, what's wrong?"
But Harry couldn't answer. He could only scream.
"Cedric, we need to get back to the - !" Ed started, not hearing the voice telling the short figure to kill the spares.
"Ed, move!" Cedric said, pushing Ed out of the way.
A moment later, as Ed fell to the ground, Cedric was hit by a green light. Ed's eyes went wide as he watched Cedric fall lifeless to the ground. Then Ed glared at the short figure and stood up.
"You bastard!" Ed yelled.
Ed started to charge at the figure, but the figure muttered, "Expelliarmus!" and sent Ed flying. Ed hit a tree, his head banging hard against the trunk, and slid down to the ground unconscious. For a second that seemed like an eternity, Harry stared into Cedric's face, at his open gray eyes, blank and expressionless as the windows of a deserted house, at his half-open mouth, which looked slightly surprised. Then Harry looked at Ed, the back of whose head was bleeding and staining his golden blond hair with blood.
And then, before Harry's mind had accepted what he was seeing, before he could feel anything but numb disbelief, he felt himself being pulled up to his feet. The short man in the cloak had put down his bundle, lit his wand, and was dragging Harry toward the marble headstone. Harry saw the name upon it flickering in the wand light before he was forced around and slammed against it.
TOM RIDDLE
The cloaked man was now conjuring tight cords around Harry, tying him from neck to ankles to the headstone. As Harry struggled, the man hit him with a hand that was missing a finger.
"You!" Harry gasped.
Wormtail didn't respond as he had finished tying Harry to the headstone and making sure that the cords were tight enough so Harry couldn't move. Then Wormtail stuffed a black cloth into Harry's mouth so Harry wouldn't say anything. Wormtail turned away from Harry and hurried away. Harry looked at Cedric's body in front of him twenty feet away, and beyond him lay the glinting Triwizard Cup. Harry's wand was at Cedric's feet. Harry tried to watch as Wormtail went to go to try to finish Ed off as a gigantic snake came slithering by.
Harry tried to yell, but he couldn't through the cloth.
"Leave him!" the high, cold voice said from the bundling.
"Master - !" started Wormtail.
"Leave him for later!" the voice said again.
Wormtail sighed and went out of Harry's sight. When Wormtail returned, he was lugging a heavy cauldron and placed it at the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water - Harry could hear it slopping around - and it was larger than any cauldron Harry had ever used; a great stone belly large enough for a fully grown man to sit in. The thing inside the robes stirred more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. Wormtail started a fire underneath the cauldron as the snake slithered around Ed and the tree he was still against.
The liquid in the cauldron heated very fast, and the surface bubbled and sent out fiery sparks as if it were on fire. As Wormtail focused on starting a ritual and Harry focused on what Wormtail was doing, Ed was starting to regain consciousness. He groaned and touched the back of his head, swearing as he did so. Harry heard and tried to look at Ed. Ed then noticed the snake slithering around him.
"OH, SHIT!" Ed yelled.
Harry closed his eyes in annoyance as Wormtail turned to see Ed trying to get away from the snake. But it was no use, the snake coiled around Ed, holding him to the tree. So, unfortunately, Ed could do nothing but watch as Wormtail went back to the ritual. Wormtail took a bone from the grave of Tom Riddle's grave, then chopped his own hand off, and then took blood from Harry. Ed made a sound of disgust. A few minutes later, a dark outline of a man, tall, and skeletally then, rose slowly from inside the cauldron. The man ordered Wormtail to robe him.
The thin man stepped out of the cauldron after he was robed and stared at Harry. Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes, and a nose that was flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils…
Voldemort had come back. Voldemort examined his body. He got his wand out of his robe pocket a moment later, caressed it, and ordered Wormtail to hold out his left arm. Ed could not see what was on the forearm, but he didn't want to know.
"It is back," Voldemort said softly, "they will all have noticed it…and now, we shall see…now we shall know…"
He pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on Wormtail's arm. Harry's scar seared with pain, and Wormtail howled in pain.
"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" Voldemort whispered, his gleaming red eyes fixed upon the stars. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"
"Talking to yourself, Bodel-butt?" Ed asked.
Voldemort looked at Ed.
"Ah, such a brave boy for talking to Lord Voldemort that way," Voldemort said going to Ed. "You should be glad that I did not let Wormtail kill you, boy."
"Yeah, I'm jumpin' for joy," Ed dryly remarked.
"Do you know that I can easily kill you right here and now?" Voldemort said, starting to touch Ed's cheek.
"GET AWAY, YOU BASTARD!" Ed yelled.
"My, such a temper," Voldemort calmly commented. "Why don't I show you what happens to people who dare to defy me."
"Go ahead," Ed snarled.
"Crucio," Voldemort said.
It was pain as Ed never felt before. It felt as if a current of electricity was going through his entire body. His heart felt like it was being squeezed since his auto-mail was conducting more electricity. When it was lifted, Ed was panting. Voldemort chuckled as he turned to see Death Eaters appearing under the Dark Mark in the sky.
"My family," Voldemort said.
When the Death Eaters approached, they groveled to Voldemort.
"Oh, please," Ed said, earning him another Cruciatus Curse.
Ed screamed out in pain until the curse was lifted again. Voldemort started his speech to the Death Eaters. (A/N:We all know the speech and 'explanations', there's no need to write all down.)
"But, my lord," Lucius Malfoy said, "what of the Elric brat? Why have you let him live?"
"Oh, Lucius, he is only alive to see his dear friend to be killed," Voldemort answered Lucius. "After such, he will be disposed of. His body will be sent as a warning to his government to not interfere."
"But he's a State Alchemist, my lord," Lucius said.
"I know that," Voldemort said. "But I know things you do not."
"You don't know anything about Amestris, you sick son-of-a-bitch!" Ed yelled. "I'm the best they have! They won't stand by and let you get away with it! I won't let you - !"
"Silence," Voldemort said. "Unless you want more torture?"
"Let me, my lord," Lucius said. "I will -."
"He has assaulted your son, has he not?" Voldemort said. "Very well. Nagini, let him go. It will be better for Lucius to hit him."
Nagini, the giant snake, let Ed go. Ed stumbled forward and fell to his knees as Lucius came over to torture him.
"No one can save you now, boy," Lucius told Ed. "You are going to regret ever coming here."
"I already do," Ed said as he stood back up. "But I'm not going to go down without a fight, coward."
"Me?" Lucius asked. "A coward?"
"Yeah," Ed answered. "A coward."
"Very big mistake, boy," Lucius threatened.
Then as Lucius was going to attack, Ed dodged and clapped his hands and threw up a stone wall. Ed vaulted it and started to attack Lucius. Just then, though, a flash of light blinded everyone. Ed blacked out and as soon as the light faded, Ed was gone.
At the gates of Hogwarts, a man was holding an unconscious Ed. The man said incantations and pushed the gates open. He walked up the drive and onto the grounds. The man by-passed the Quidditch field and took Ed right into the castle and up to the Hospital Wing. He laid Ed on a bed as Madam Pomfrey came.
"Oh, my word!" Pomfrey said. "What happened to him down there?!"
"Don't worry, Poppy," the man said. "All will be explained. Just make sure that my son gets the treatment he deserves. I will be leaving now."
The man then turned and went to the door.
"Van Hohenheim, don't you want to stay around for him?" Pomfrey asked the man, Van Hohenheim.
Hohenheim stopped in his tracks.
"His brother is here and so are the other people who care about him," Hohenheim answered. "He does not need me."
Then Hohenheim left. Pomfrey then went to attend to Ed's injuries. A few moments later, Al came running into the room.
"My brother!" Al said. "Is my brother in here?"
Pomfrey pulled a curtain around Ed's bed.
"Answer me!" Al said.
Pomfrey looked at Al. She could tell by Al's eyes and hair that he was Ed's brother.
"Mr. Elric will be fine," Pomfrey said. "Just calm down. Where is everyone else?"
"Still at the Kwid-itch field," Al answered.
"Then you should return there," Pomfrey said. "Your brother needs his rest."
"I'm staying here," Al refused. "I don't want to leave him."
Pomfrey sighed.
"All right, but stay quiet," Pomfrey relented.
Then Pomfrey left to her office. Al pulled the curtain back and sat in a chair by Ed's bed.
"Don't worry, Brother, you'll be okay," Al said quietly.
Down at the Quidditch field, Harry had just came back with the Triwizard Cup and Cedric's body.