Chapter Seventy-Nine

ARIA, HARRY, AND Cedric huddled together in the new, unfamiliar place that had the hairs on Aria's arms standing up. "Where the bloody hell are we?"

"The cup was a portkey," Cedric mumbled. The three all turned to stare at the cup that now lay, no longer glowing, on the ground.

"And what's all these terrible stone things? Graves?" Aria whispered as she took them in, one by one. She was scared, terrified of where they might be and who they might be with.

"I've been here before!" Harry exclaimed suddenly. "We have to get back to the cup."

"What are you talking about?" Cedric asked, concerned.

"Get back to the cup!"

Before Aria could even process running to the cup, a cold feeling made its way up her spine. The feeling of absolute and complete evil. She shivered and slowly turned around.

A figure approached them.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Cedric yelled out.

"Kill the spare!" A voice hissed and no sooner than it did, green light erupted from the figures wand and hit Cedric square in the chest.

The boy fell lifeless to the ground.

Aria screamed his name as she fell to her knees beside him, tears streaming down her face as her body quivered. Aria released a sob as her hands trailed over Cedric's face. A few of her tears spilled onto it. His dead eyes were enough to make her scream. "Harry." She called softly, eyes not leaving Cedric. The light had vanished from his eyes that rested, still wide open even in his death. She leaned towards him and rested her forehead on his, taking in a deep breath before she found the courage to pull away. She didn't love him, she hadn't felt anything for him for years, but seeing him die like that... It was all so quick, so close to her.

She grabbed her wand between her fingers and stood to her feet.

She was going to kill whoever had killed him. She didn't care who it was. They deserved nothing but death for killing her first love!

A hand wrapped itself around her and she found herself pinned against one of the statues, unable to remove herself from its grasp. She recognized the face. She had met him the previous year. "What the bloody hell are you doing, Wormtail?" She spat his name as she squirmed, but he ignored her and turned to Harry was also being held captive against another statue.

She wanted to call his name, but couldn't bring herself to talk. And no matter how hard she fought against the statue, she remained stuck.

"Do it now!" That voice hissed again.

Wormtail turned to the cauldron at his side and emptied his cloak into it. A figure had fallen in, one that Aria hadn't seen before. Pale and small, dead almost.

"Bones of the father, unwillingly given." A bone from a nearby tomb levitated and was dumped into the cauldron.

"Flesh of the servant, willing sacrificed." He lifted a knife to his hand, slicing it off into the cauldron.

Aria gulped and closed her eyes, struggling to breathe. The insufferable gut feeling like she might die was overwhelming. All she wanted was to see her father one last time. To see Draco one last time.

Wormtail turned towards Harry, revealing a knife as he approached him and stuck it into Harry's wrist. "Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken." Harry released a scream.

"Harry!" Aria yelled out. He looked at her, the same fear in his eyes that she felt mirrored her own.

"Silence." Wormtail snapped as he turned towards the cauldron once more. "The dark lord shall rise again!"

The cauldron began to bubble, burning bright red and allowing a figure to emerge from it. The same paleness as before, only bigger now, but no less lifeless.

Only when he opened his eyes and stared at her did she realize exactly who she was witnessing being brought back to life.

Voldemort.

Right before her eyes.

She squirmed under his intense stare, his lifeless eyes shrunk slightly due to his smile. "My wand, Wormtail."

Wormtail bowed, holding out his arm as the dark lord instructed him to.

Aria stole a glance at Harry, then looked away. She couldn't bear to see someone who she usually knew to be cheerful in so much pain. No matter how little she liked him, seeing him like that was torture.

Smoke engulfed the graveyard and several cloaked figures appeared.

His followers. Death Eaters. Aria froze.

"Welcome my friends," Voldemort spoke. "Thirty years it's been and yet you stand before me as though it were only yesterday. I confess myself... disappointed. Not one of you tried to find me."

He moved around to each one, slashing the hooded figures. Aria begged her eyes to look away and focus on something else, but they wouldn't. She watched in horror as one Death Eater, in particular, fell to his knees, his cloak falling from his head and revealing a blond head of hair that she knew all too well.

Of course, Aria had heard the rumors, but she had always considered them more to be speculations than anything else. Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater. She couldn't say she was surprised.

His eyes flickered to her for a moment before he looked away.

Voldemort spoke cruelly to Lucius and turned to Wormtail, awarding him a new hand in exchange for his previous sacrifice.

He then turned to Aria and smiled the same as before. She felt another wave of fear wash over her.

"Aria, such a pleasure." He half bowed. "I remember you. Yes, very well." His words were like venom as he moved closer to her. "Two years ago, in the Chamber. You were so eager to help me." At his words, the statue's tight hold on her faded away and she fell to the ground, spluttering and heaving. He grinned. "I insisted you be here tonight. Get up."

She stood on her wobbling legs, trying to maintain her composure under his stare.

"I'm not going to kill you, dear child. No, you could be far too valuable to me." His eyes washed over her as he turned away and stared down at Cedric.

"Oh, such a handsome boy."

"Don't touch him!" Harry screamed out for the first time. Aria had half forgotten that he was there. She was far too concerned with leaving and getting herself to safety.

She remembered what Harry had said about the cup. For her to get back she would have to grab onto it. She could do it immediately.

Aria stared at Harry as Voldemort spoke to him. She couldn't leave him.

"When dear sweet Lily Potter gave her life for her only son, she provided the ultimate protection." Aria listened, frozen in place. "I could not touch you. It was old magic, something I should have foreseen, but no matter." He pressed his finger to Harry's head. "I can touch you now." Harry let out another scream as Voldemort pressed against his scar.

Aria shuddered. She looked towards Lucius for a moment who had not taken his eyes off of the Dark Lord. She wondered if he would let her die out here? Surely after years of knowing each other, he felt some sort of kinship towards her? Evidently not.

Harry fell to the ground, Voldemort ordered him to stand up. "Pick up your wand Potter." He snapped.

Aria couldn't stand back and watch this. She wasn't made to deal with such gruesome scenes. She already had to endure watching Cedric fall dead at her feet, she couldn't let the same happen to anyone, even Harry.

In an act of defiance and bravery - mixed with adrenaline and fueled by anger over Cedric's death - she raced to his side in solidarity.

Voldemort laughed and shook his head. "You are making a mistake. Join me, Aria. Join me and live."

"Never!" She screamed back, her wand ready to fire whatever spell need be.

"Watch out!" Harry shoved her behind a hedge just as Voldemort had fired at the two of them.

"Stay here, Aria," Harry spoke barely above a whisper. The dark lord called for them.

"No."

"You'll die."

"So will you. Let me come with you out there."

Harry sighed in defeat and slowly revealed himself to Voldemort, Aria followed behind him.

He shook his head slowly. "Such a waste."

"Have it your way!" Harry raised his wand.

Aria, Voldemort, and Harry fired from their wands at the same time, the streams of magic blending together in the middle.

Even the two of them were not strong enough against him.

Shapes in the form of wisps appeared around them. "It's a trick, Harry! He's only trying to distract us!" Aria snapped as she put her all into the spell she had cast.

She had used an Unforgivable Curse.

"Harry when the connection is broken you two must get to the portkey!" One of the shapes spoke. "We can delay for a moment to give you time, but only for a moment."

A wispy shape appeared next to his, she smiled kindly down at Aria and Harry.

"Aria, my child." She looked sad. "I love you. I always loved you. Ask your father to give you my letter."

She didn't know who this woman was, although when Harry mindlessly muttered the word "mom" she immediately realized.

Lily Potter.

"Take my body back, will you?" Cedric's voice rang through her ears. "Take my body back to my father."

"Let go. Sweetheart, you're ready." Lily's voice sounded sweetly through her ears. Amidst all the madness, Aria felt calm. "Let go."

She broke the spell off at the same time Harry did, racing to the portkey and grabbing onto it.

She found herself back at Hogwarts and the crowd that she had been so desperate to hear sounded loudly from around her. Only, she wasn't feeling very cheerful.

No, she felt like death, and with Harry's crying and the crowd's sudden realization that not everything was as it should be, she felt herself fall to the ground, the surrounding noises fading out as everything went black.