Year Four, Chapter Thirty Six
"Hello, Holly. I have heard so many things about you, heard of your power. I must admit, at first I thought them the words of fools and desperate old men... but I have seen more, this year. You have performed admirably, though not even your power could prevent my return," Voldemort said, walking closer and closer to Holly. Nobody else stood yet - they were all still on their knees.
Holly couldn't speak - the stone hand was still covering her mouth - but she could move her feet a little. She could focus her mind, and sense the magic around her. This graveyard, this town - they were a nexus of leylines, a place where natural magic converged. There was power in the air, in the earth, in the wind here. All Holly had to do was harness it. For that, she needed a little time.
"How foolish of me, you can't reply. There, isn't that better?" Voldemort asked as the statue moved its skeletal hand away from Holly's mouth.
"S-screw you," Holly said, her voice hoarse.
"Now that's not very nice. You've been so helpful to me, after all - delivering exactly the thing I needed here right on schedule," Voldemort said, leaning in closer and closer to Holly. She felt her scar burn, and then the faintest trickle of blood burst from it.
"You could have used anybody who hated you for that ritual. Why me? Why go through all that with fixing the tournament instead of having Dupont curse me in the back?" Holly asked, drawing in the grave dirt at her feet slowly and subtly.
"Because there is power in your blood, girl. Your mother's sacrifice was powerful enough to kill me, once, and powerful enough to drive me from the Stone. Now that same blood that shielded you all these years runs in my veins. Now... now I can touch you," Voldemort said, and pressed a finger to her scar. Holly screamed as the pain ripped through her, and Voldemort's finger was covered in blood as he took it away.
"I didn't need the protection to kill the you in your diary, or your stupid snake," Holly said, looking Voldemort straight in the eyes. She sent her memory of Riddle's final, fearful scream towards his mind again and again.
"Lucius has informed me of your victory over my past self. After that... only a fool could doubt your power. Poor Barty did, and look where that got him. He was such a good boy - so loyal, so charming. But you... you have power. We could do great things together," Voldemort said, and still, the others had not risen. It seemed like in his mind, the only people in the graveyard were him and Holly.
"What makes you think I'd ever help you?" Holly said, and she felt the power grow within her. She felt the storm above with her mind, felt the earth below - and the statue holding her. She just needed time.
"There is darkness in you, girl, and do not deny it. I saw the spell you used to kill Barty, the hate in your eyes. What can Dumbledore and his school offer you compared to me? I can teach you the secrets of Salazar Slytherin and Herpo the Foul, the ancient magics lost to the dark places of history. I can give you power," Voldemort said, and one of the Death Eaters shifted a little.
Voldemort whirled around, and he lifted Lucius Malfoy into the air with a mere gesture. Malfoy's hands went to his neck, but something slipped through them. A heavy silver locket seemed to almost drag Lucius through the air towards Voldemort. He held out a hand, and a long yew wand rose from Barty's body into it.
He took the locket in his hands and opened it. Holly could see that there was a note inside. Something about the locket seemed familiar to her. She had seen it somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where.
"Where did you get this?" Voldemort asked, his voice almost shaking from anger. Malfoy looked utterly terrified.
"An elf, once belonging to the Blacks-"
"Ah, of course. Probably the same creature... no, that is unimportant. This is his amulet, and yet I cannot feel - who else has worn this, Lucius?" Voldemort asked, his voice cold. Holly's eyes narrowed.
"The elf said we should all try it, my lord. He said that was your instruc-" Malfoy began, but Voldemort cut him off with a cruciatus curse. He then let Malfoy fall to the ground and ripped the locket from its thin silver chain.
"Gone. All gone - how did he..." Voldemort said. Holly didn't know what was going, what had so alarmed Voldemort - but she wanted to find out. She delved into Lucius's mind, the pain of the curse allowing her easy access, and she saw flashes. A house-elf, handing a locket to his new master. Slytherin's locket, kept safe all these years.
She heard the locket whisper, suggest things. How all three of the Malfoys should wear it, but Draco most of all. How it wanted to know her strength, how it had instructed Kreacher to put her name in the Goblet. How it had slowly turned each of the Malfoys against one another, twisted them until they all desired it to belong to them alone.
How Draco had stolen it, thinking to destroy it - to stop it from twisting his family any further. How he had held it above the cursed flame, and how it had overcome him. How his face had melted as the memory inside the locket had overtaken him, and how nothing of him remained.
Just a disguise so flawless it could fool even Albus Dumbledore and the Marauder's Map.
Holly's eyes went wide as she realised what had happened. Whatever the diary had been, Voldemort hadn't simply made one in his school days - he'd made more. One of them had been the locket Lucius Malfoy was currently wearing, but it no longer held any memory of Voldemort, any of his power.
Because it had done what the diary could not, and returned. It had bided its time and stolen a body for good, utterly annihilating whatever might have remained of Draco. Holly felt sick. Draco might have been her enemy at school, but he hadn't deserved that. She'd heard his screams as his face melted.
She saw the note, then. It was written in familiar handwriting, and lay and just the right angle so that she could read it in the little moonlight that made its way through the clouds.
To the victor the spoils. By the time you read this, I shall be long gone - along with every Galleon dear Lucius had. I will return and take what should have been mine. There is, after all, only room for one Dark Lord.
Lord Voldemort had not only returned, he had returned twice. Somewhere out there was a second Voldemort, running around with Draco Malfoy's body... and he had been ever since the last Hogsmeade weekend. Malfoy had gone to visit his parents in the village, Holly remembered. She hadn't seen him act unusual ever since - no more crying or fearful looks.
She needed to escape, to tell Dumbledore what had happened. She channelled more power through the leylines, working magic without word or gesture - only will. Such put magic into the storm above, the ground below, and the many statues of the graveyard. She could never use magic like that in a fight, but she was lucky that Voldemort loved to hear himself talk - and that he'd gotten distracted by Malfoy.
"Oh Lucius, did you not listen when I entrusted the diary to you? You were not to allow anyone to fall under its spell. We must move quickly, then... avada kedvra," Voldemort said, almost casually turning the killing curse on Lucius.
"My lord?" Dupont asked.
"Dear Lucius has been most foolish with one of my things, my dear. But our plans can continue - ah, Holly. I had almost forgotten. Have you considered my offer?" Voldemort asked her, as the others started to rise.
Holly had to close her eyes because the sheer power she was channelling through her body had caused them to glow. She could feel the magic burning in her veins, now. It was power unlike any she had experienced before like she was tapping into some cosmic power socket with a fork.
"Not even you will join you, Tom. I'm not going to join your stupid collection of sycophants and losers," Holly said. She needed just another moment.
"A pity. I had planned to duel you, to show how weak the so-called Girl Who Lived Was. Fantasied about it, as I felt the pain of my homunculus's body. But foolish and young you may be, I cannot call you weak. Such a bout would be an... unacceptable risk, I do hope you understand. And you ready to die, then, Holly Potter?" Voldemort asked her, and Holly felt the magic click into place.
"No. Are you?" Holly asked, and she opened her eyes. They were glowing bright green, and as she released the magic she had been ever so slowly building, there was the audible noise of phoenix song.
The statue of Death released her, and its stone scythe smashed into Voldemort's chest before he could react. He was thrown backwards - not cut by the dull blade, but winded - and landed in a heap some distance away. All around the graveyard stone angels, babies, and animals came to life. The stone figures had the strength of a troll and hides of thick marble, and they had all of Holly's rage.
Lightning struck a half dozen of the dark wizards in the clearing as the storm clouds above burst to life, a torrential downpour transforming the smooth dirt and grass of the graveyard into mud. It tried to swallow the Death Eaters, becoming almost a living thing that snatched at them and tried to drag them down into the graves.
One foreign dark wizard was gored to death by a stone unicorn, and another trampled. Many of them tried to destroy the statues, and some succeeded. Stone was only so much of a defence against magic, even stone imbued with power like that Holly had given the statues. More were lying injured or dead from the lightning strikes and several had been taken beneath the earth.
A Death Eater - perhaps Goyle, she thought - tried to stop her. Holly cut him down with an arc of crackling black lightning as she strode forward. The mud was as solid as stone for her, and the lightning would not touch her.
Voldemort rose, and Holly saw as he simply floated above the ground - flight, without broomstick or carpet. His face was contorted with a look of pure anger, blood seeping into his robes where the Reaper had smashed in his ribs.
"Dumbledore has taught you well," Voldemort said, his injuries seemingly no distraction.
"Better than you could have," Holly said, and she raised her wand.
"Do you mean to fight me, girl? Your tricks might have let you turn this place against me, but you know you can not defeat me in open combat," Voldemort said, floating slowly towards her.
Dupont was holding off a half dozen statues, including the reaper that had held Holly captive. It swung at her shield charm, stone sparking on the field of magical energy. She blasted apart a child-sized angel and conjured vines to hold down a rampaging unicorn. Lightning struck from the sky at her, but her shield charms were strong.
"Maybe... but what did you call it? An 'unacceptable risk'? I think I'll take my chances," Holly said. She extended her magic into the pools of water that had gathered in the numerous craters that now dotted the graveyard, remembering Dumbledore's words.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort shouted, and Holly called the rainwater to her defence. The killing curse exploded against it, turning it into a cloud of sizzling steam. Again Voldemort cast, and again Holly blocked it with the rainwater.
Holly slashed her wand at Voldemort, sending a crackling whip of lightning towards him just as he cast another killing curse. For a moment Holly thought she'd been too slow, but the two spells seemed to veer into one another in mid-air. They exploded in a shower of sparks, and Holly felt something in her wand, heard a distant strain of phoenix song.
She cast again, this time a disarming charm - the fastest spell she could cast. Voldemort nearly matched her in speed with the usually vastly slower killing curse, and Holly knew that without whatever magic caused their spells to collide, she would have been dead. She simply wasn't good enough to fight Voldemort head-on - and they both knew it.
Then one of her disarming charms met another of his killing curses in mid-air, but this time they did not explode. Holly felt something touch her wand, a thin beam of golden light extending out from it - as it did from Voldemort's wand. It felt like her wand was on fire, but Holly held on for dear life.
The storm raged around them, stone warriors and living mud fighting against dozens of dark wizards. All the while, Holly and Voldemort were connected by the strange thread of golden light.
