It was the first week of April, and after so long of them isolating themselves Sirius had finally deactivated the war wards on the Black estate. The people involved in the second task were supposedly arrested. McGonagall had been under suspicion, but since she was under a magical contract to comply she didn’t receive any blame for the incident.

Harry really didn’t like magical contracts. Especially when someone had just forced one on him without his knowledge. Sirius, Alice, and Frank had let the kids practice their magic to keep up with their schoolwork. Well, Neville and Ron needed to keep up and Hermione and Harry helped them. The adults all chipped in and gave some basic advice when they saw one of them struggling with something. Sirius especially was rather good at giving advice for the practical bits even if he didn’t remember much of the theory behind it.

Despite everything that had happened, it was time for the third task of the triwizarding tournament. The last dregs of the departments of Magical Games and Sports and involved members of the department of International Cooperation had refused to make another unwinnable task for the finale. Something about all the lost income from the spectators. Harry didn’t like it, but the magical contract in the Goblet of Fire forced him to go and participate no matter what he thought about it.

The final task would be a hedge maze with the triwizarding cup in the center. Whoever reached the center first would receive enough points to win the tournament outright. Everyone in the audience would be there watching on as they went through the maze and the unspecified obstacles that would slow them down. The Ministry had installed expensive magnification spells that would allow the audience to see what the competitors were doing from a distance.

Now it was the final moment. Harry stood alongside Viktor and Fluer, with Cedric standing a little apart. Fleur had been grateful and thanked him and Krum profusely for saving Gabrielle from the lake as they waited for the event to start. She had received the news the day before the rescue of Gabrielle's disappearance and had been worried sick about what had happened.

The ministry official kept giving a long winded speech about how everything was just fine and praising the champions for moving past the unpleasantness relating to the second task. It was very clear he was trying to act like the chaos still sweeping through his department was nothing more than a small misunderstanding. Harry briefly considered hexing the man as he spoke before shrugging off the urge. He had been through worse than the irritating man’s speech before.

“...And so let the third triwizarding task begin!” The man finished, “The champion with the most points will enter first, which is Cedric Diggory. Next will be Harry Potter with a delay in minutes equaling the difference between their scores. So three minutes for him. Then after an additional two minutes for Fleur Delacour, then one more minute before Viktor Krum will enter. But these obstacles in the maze are not easy, this is still anyone’s race despite the difference! We’ve all sorts of clever magical traps and magical beasts ready to test the mettle of our champions! Cedric Diggory, you can enter when the cannon fires.”

There was a small delay as Cedric positioned himself in front of the hedge. The cannons boomed behind the champions and Cedric dashed inside the maze as the crowd cheered wildly. Above Cedric’s position in the maze Harry could see a massive panel showing a blown up view showing Cedric. The boy was jogging through empty rows of hedges as his window receded into the distance. But even while he sped away the window was large enough to see the general sense of what he was doing.

Harry watched while he waited for his turn. The cannons boomed behind Harry and he stepped inside the hedge maze. The branches weaved shut behind Harry and he drew his wand and started jogging forward. He just wanted to complete this task as soon as he could and get out of here. As he ran he created a mental map of the space and the best way to the center.

Harry was confused as he ran through. He hadn’t encountered a single obstacle yet, but he was steadily approaching what he knew must be the maze’s center. The only thing that could be considered an obstacle was a manticore in a large clearing. But it had simply backed away from Harry and after eyeing him warily stepped aside to let him bypass it. Maybe the designers of the maze just hadn’t known about magical beasts' aversion to Harry when building this thing?

As he drew closer to the center more and more obstacles blocked his way. But there was not a single spell or puzzle, they all were encounters with magical beasts of some kind. Those that did not outright flee him in some way often let him pass by peacefully without picking a fight. He only had to fight once and even then a barrage of three quick stunners had managed to break the creature's resolve and sent it retreating.

He was sure that he was close to the center and was slightly confused. Why was everything so easy? He didn’t even make that many turns in his path inwards, and it was almost like the maze itself was guiding him to the end.

Harry saw the glowing cup on a pedestal at the end. He ran forward and reached its platform before glancing around in confusion. The place was abandoned, none of the other champions were even close to him through all of the other pathways branching away from the center. Shrugging, Harry reached out and grabbed the cup… and felt a sharp tug in his gut. The cup was a portkey!

Harry stumbled as the weight of the cup suddenly dragged him to the ground by the hand he had been gripping it by. He was standing somewhere else in a gloomy graveyard filled with tombstones and damp soil, having been teleported somewhere else by the enchanted object. A man stood in front of Harry next to a cauldron filled with boiling black fluid. He was pointing his wand at Harry as soon as he appeared.

Before Harry knew what was happening, a bolt of red light shot forward and hit Harry’s chest. He slumped to the ground unconscious as the stunner hit him before he could mount a defense.

— — —

Jack Retlow watched as the hated Boy who Lived slumped to the ground without even being able to defend himself. A perfect ambush. His Lord demanded it to be perfect. Just two short years ago, Retlow had thought that the lord was lost forever to him. He had never been important politically or in the inner circle of Lord Voldemort during the last Great Purge. But he had been loyal and done whatever he could to display his unwavering loyalty to the man who had only just begun to bring purity back to Britain before he had been struck down on the cusp of victory.

He had been elated when his lord had come to him and announced his return. That he had simply been recovering his strength after such a heavy setback. A setback, nothing more. And he needed Retlow’s help. Retlow! To bring Voldemort his body back. His lord had instructed him in the construction of the temporary body his spirit now inhabited. But it was weak and would die in a few more months before the lord would need Retlow to find and construct a new one. Retlow wheeled out his lord who remained silent and with only a moment's hesitation dumped him into the boiling black fluid in the cauldron. The time had come.

Retlow stepped forward and using the ritual knife to cut the Boy who Lived’s arm until his blood coated the end of it. He walked over to the cauldron and flicked some blood into the fluid which took a redder tinge.

“Blood of an enemy, forcibly taken,” Retlow intoned as he used his wand to levitate a leg bone from a nearby grave that his lord had instructed him to use.

“Bone of the father, unwillingly given…” Retlow said before releasing his charm and letting the bone fall into the black fluid. It began to buck wildly and moved strangely side to side as Retlow stuck his arm over it. He took a deep breath and placed the ritual knife against his wrist.

“F-Flesh of the servant. W-Willingly given.”

He brought the knife around and his severed hand fell into the fluid. He grunted in pain but with a quick spell stopped the bleeding from the stump. He backed up as the cauldron started to shake as the potion and ritual both did their work to rebuild Lord Voldemort's body in full. The shaking stopped and the Lord’s naked form arose from the cauldron, quickly being clad in a black cloak in a burst of wandless magic.

“Wand, Retlow,” Lord Voldemort hissed and he hurried to comply, bowing as he offered it up.

Lord Voldemort's long fingered hands wrapped around the wood and he inspected it for a moment.

“Goooood,” he drawled, “Just as I remembered.”

He refocused on Retlow, “Give me your arm.”

Retlow held out his uninjured arm, realizing what his lord meant to do. Voldemort pressed his wand against the dark mark on Retlow’s arm and the almost invisible tattoo instantly turned inky black. All the others who had received the mark would hear the lord's message and know to greet him upon his return.

They stood there for a minute before the first of the other death eaters arrived apparating in a circle around them. They stood there in silence in their black robes and skull masks as they stood there.

“You have done well, Retlow,” Lord Voldemort said as it became clear that no more were coming, “And I reward those that assist me…”

He waved his wand and a silvery metal fluid streamed out of his wand and coalesced around Retlow’s stump. It perfectly integrated and formed a silvery hand made of metal that even had a dull sensation of touch to it! Retlow bowed deeply,

“Thank you, Lord!” he said gratefully, “I am your ever faithful servant! I would do it a thousand times more to repay your generosity!”

His lord chuckled, a thin and humorless thing, but Retlow knew what was going to happen next. Discipline of the unbelievers, “Indeed, Retlow. You are an excellent servant and truly dedicated to the cause. Unlike. Some others.”

He turned to the other death eaters with a soft tone loaded with threat, “Cowards. Unfaithful. Ready to disavow me as soon as I was gone. Those that prove themselves useful in the coming days may be found forgiven for these sins. But those who are not… pray that you are not one of them.”

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The assembled death eaters trembled in fear and bowed their heads and Lord Voldemort made sure to make them wallow in the future consequences of their mistakes.

His tone turned lighter as he turned back to the unconscious Boy who Lived and grinned, this time more genuinely.

“Now, let's wake our sleeping guest why don’t we?” Lord Voldemort said, “It is time to really test out my new body and put any more doubts to my power to rest.”

Lord Voldemort pointed his wand at the senseless boy, “Renervate!” he shouted imperiously and the boy spasmed and opened his eyes…

— — —

Harry opened his eyes and in an instant his Mental Harry blasted him with the full analysis of what had happened before the stunner hit him. Before he was able to look for where his wand had gone or move, a force wrapped around him and lifted him into the air. He rotated in a standing position to face an unfamiliar man. He had a very flat nose with two holes where his nostrils should be. His whole face was snakelike and he looked malevolent. A crowd of death eaters stood around him along with the man who had stunned Harry before. He was wearing some kind of silvery glove as he stared at Harry with what seemed to be a gloating expression.

“Awake at last, Harry Potter?” the snakelike man hissed at him, “I…”

Harry twisted around to inspect the area. Were there any witnesses? No? Should he transform now or wait? His lips watered slightly as he imagined what their souls would taste like… No! He was doing this out of self defense, and it was fine. They were evil people either way, like that Tom Riddle from before.

“Oh, there’s no one here to save you,” the snakelike man said with some amusement, “No one from the ministry or Hogwarts will ever know what happens here.”

“Over ten years ago when I came to kill you,” he said, “Your mother placed a powerful protective charm on you. Something so powerful that it saved you even from my killing curse. Even while possessing my servant, I couldn’t lay a finger on you.”

The man rushed forward and Harry readied his soul as he was lowered to the eye level of the wizard. Voldemort, if what the man said was true. Voldemort, reborn from the dead somehow.

“But with your blood now running in my veins…” Voldemort said. Harry glanced down at his bleeding upper arm, only moving his eyes. Oh.

“...I can. Touch you. Now.”

The man theatrically lifted one arm and started reaching out to place the tip of one of his long fingers on Harry’s forehead. Harry tensed as the finger drew closer and closer. Voldemort’s eyes glittered with malice as his finger approached.

Harry began his transformation.

He watched as Voldemort and the death eater’s eyes widened in shock as Harry’s body began to grow until he towered over the other wizard. Voldemort started gliding back under his wandless magic after an instant of surprise. But Harry’s still transforming arms snaked out and clamped down around Voldemort's torso before he could glide far enough away. The spell holding Harry in the air shattered on his gray magically resistant skin and he fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

As soon as Harry’s hands wrapped around Voldemort, his wandless gliding spell broke and he started struggling to lift his wand towards Harry's larger form.

Harry finished his transformation and opened his jaws wide and before Voldemort could manage to cast a spell, bit him in half with a sharp snap of closing jaws and sharp jerk of his head to the side. Harry lifted the rest of the man’s body upwards and shoved it in his mouth a second later. Voldemort's big juicy soul slid down his throat and settled down into his stomach.

He stood there and savored the feeling of the soul in his stomach as blood dripped from his jaws. The death eaters in their dark robes stood there stunned at the sudden turn of events.

Harry saw one of them look like he was about to apparate away. The first man and two others managed to disappear in swift cracks of air just after Harry unhinged his jaws and unleashed a massive sustained roar. He roared and forced his soul to ripple faster and faster the longer he did so. The souls of the wizards around him vibrated in response and they all stumbled to the ground and started spasming. Harry closed his jaws as he lifted his foot and stomped hard onto the man with the silver hand who lay on the ground in front of him, splattering his foot red as the man died.

The other death eaters groaned and breathed heavily as their souls started slowly settling back into place in their bodies.

Harry hesitated for a single moment before continuing what he was planning to do. This was the group that had tortured a muggle family and laughed. Terrorized the country and did all sorts of horrible things from what Harry had read. Tortured Alice and Frank to insanity. That was the one that decided it for him.

They all had to die.

So, Harry roared again and began the slaughter.

— — —

When he was done he took the time to eat all the bodies and snap all the wands left scattered around. Their souls cluttered his stomach so much that Harry felt like an overfilled balloon. His soul had stopped integrating them after a certain point, so they just sat there floating around in there. His soul would have to ‘digest’ more before continuing to eat them. It hadn’t even touched Voldemort's soul yet, it seemed resistant to consumption and Harry’s soul was snacking on the smaller weaker ones first and gradually working its way up. Harry waddled over to where his wand might be and searched the ground in his soul eater form. To his relief, he found it and picked it up.

He transformed back into his human form and cast a quick spell to summon a pair of new robes out of thin air. After his previous accidents, he had made it a priority to learn this spell. They would disappear again after a few hours but they were enough to keep him decent.

Harry waddled over back to where the triwizarding cup feeling like he was about to vomit or explode all at once. With the smaller space in his human forms stomach the souls were really packed together tight. Harry felt his belly with his hands and it was physically bulging outward a little as they bounced around in there. Despite the souls being nonphysical entities, whatever it was about Harry’s body that allowed him to digest and hold them seemed to make them able to affect his body too.

Harry took a deep breath to settle his stomach before leaning over to pick up the cup. He groaned as he did so. Once he had it, maybe he could find somewhere to call for help…

As soon as Harry touched the cup there was a tug in his core and he immediately felt bile in his throat as he collapsed onto the grass of a brightly lit lawn filled with a loudly cheering crowd.

“And from Hogwarts,” the announcer from the Ministry said, “The winner of the triwizarding tournament, Harry Potter!”

Harry vomited on the grass in front of the thousands of people and the reporters. He just couldn’t hold it in. There was some muttering in the crowd and a bunch of healers rushed up and tried to lift him into a stretcher.

“I’m fine,” Harry said after wiping his mouth and making his way unsteadily back to his feet despite their protests, “Just had a bad reaction to the portkey,” he finished holding up the cup.

“Portkey?” the healer said, “Cheap bast- people who are running this tournament. For that reaction from you it must be the cheapest version possible, they must have had some amateur cast it. The lot of them are getting the can anyway, no reason to try I guess…”

The other healer nudged the first one, shutting him up before turning to Harry, “Just the stomach? Nothing else?”

Harry shook his head, “Nope,” he said.

The announcer cleared his throat after the healers left and told him the situation, “Just a reaction to the Portkey everyone," the man loudly announced, "Nothing to worry about. Apparently someone in the department was rather cheap in finding someone to cast the charm haha,” he chuckled nervously as several angry glares in the crowd focused on him.

“Ah, but never mind that!” he said, bravely forging onwards, “Next we have an interview with our four champions! We can get their perspectives on everything. On their incredible journey so far!”

Nope. Harry felt the magical contract on him lift as the announcer proclaimed him as triwizarding champion. He was getting out of here. He stumbled a bit as he tried to walk somewhat normally and keep his constipated look off of his face. He reached his family and Sirius in the stands. His friends had been left behind for safety in case something happened during the third task and the adults had to make a quick escape with Harry in tow.

“Let’s go home, I’m tired and still a bit sick from the portkey,” Harry said as he came within earshot.

“Not doing the interviews?” Sirius asked as everyone started leaving. They could apparate from the stands but it was rude to do so before leaving the venue first. The cracks of displaced air disrupted everyone else. It was technically on Hogwarts grounds, but McGongall had created a temporary exception for apparition in this area for the event.

Everyone in the crowd wanted to come up to congratulate Harry, and it was rather chaotic as he waved at them and thanked them politely as they crowded in.

Alice and Frank kept them from getting too close as Sirius pushed forward and led the way as they went towards the exit.

“No,” Harry replied to Sirius' question, “I doubt the others are either. Only Cedric Diggory didn’t seem so upset at the ministry after the second task. He might go if they get to him quickly. Maybe Krum too if his headmaster tells him to do it.”

They were almost out into a distance where it was considered ‘polite’ to apparate away when a running woman in blue came towards them, pushing roughly through the crowd.

She came to a stop before them huffing and puffing as everyone else drew back a bit to see what the ministry official would say.

“Oh, thank Merlin! I caught you before you left,” she said as she caught her breath before standing, “You still have interviews with reporters and to the crowd coming up. You’re the grand champion, why don’t you savor it a bit!”

“No thanks, I’d rather leave,” Harry answered her, “I’m still not feeling well and want to rest.”

She started sweating a little and brushed some hair out of her face. “Don’t worry! It won’t be any hard questions. Just a final little event to wrap things up.”

“No. I want to go home,” Harry said firmly as the adults stood around him watching the confrontation.

The ministry official’s face twisted into an awkward expression after an long moment of the crowd muttering in the background...

“I’m sorry to say, but it is a requirement to receive your winnings,” she said, “The interviews are essential to the event, we can’t do them without the grand champion himself.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Sirius exclaimed, “The boy is tired and sick from your faulty port key! If he doesn’t want to be paraded in front of the crowd then he shouldn’t have to! He won fair in square.”

Harry looked at his Godfather and saw that he was growing rather upset as he stared at the woman. The crowd was also sending her hostile expressions as they heard her threat to withhold the money.

“Sirius, it is fine,” Harry said before turning to the woman.

“I would rather lose the money than deal with this stupid tournament any longer. I was forced into this if you remember. The magical contract keeping me here is gone, so I’m going. Go give the money to the other three champions if your department is petty enough to disqualify me for this.”

Plus, he had already gotten his biggest winnings in that graveyard already. The souls filling his stomach were a way better prize than gold.

Harry turned to his Godfather.

“Sirius, can we go now? We can argue about the money later.”

He nodded and grabbed Harry’s shoulder and apparated away, ignoring that they weren’t quite in the proper place yet.

Harry managed to not vomit as he arrived at the Longbottom’s stoop with supreme effort. Alice and Frank apparated in behind them a few seconds later.

Harry stumbled inside and went straight into his room. He collapsed into his bed fully clothed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.