After Krum and Fleur sent red sparks into the air, the Ministry of Magic's Aurors rushed over and took them away.
At the same time, Harry had already found Cedric, and by the time Harry saw him, Cedric had already touched the Triwizard Cup.
The instant his fingertips brushed the Cup's gilded surface, its body suddenly burst with blinding blue light, like liquid lightning catching fire. Then Cedric felt as if a tremendous force had hooked him by the navel and was dragging him toward some distant place.
Cedric was not unfamiliar with the sensation. It was a Portkey!
The Triwizard Cup was actually a Portkey. What was going on? Why hadn't any of the professors mentioned it?
Seeing that Cedric was about to vanish right in front of him, Harry frowned slightly. He drew his wand and tapped lightly forward.
In the next instant, his entire body suddenly slipped into the spatial force tearing at Cedric, and he was carried away with him by the Portkey toward some unknown destination.
When Cedric came back to his senses, he felt his feet slam into the ground. His legs went weak and he collapsed, the Triwizard Cup tumbling from his hand.
"Where am I?" Cedric murmured, clutching his head.
He got to his feet and quickly looked around, only to find himself in a dim, eerie graveyard.
The graveyard looked as if it had been under a permanent gloom charm. Moonlight struggled through lead-gray clouds, casting crooked shadows between the headstones like countless twisted hands. The soil was damp and sticky, like blood that had not yet dried. Every step made the rotting earth crack softly, mixed with the rustle of some slick creature sliding through the grass. Tombstones leaned crookedly from the ground all around him, their letters gnawed away by time until they were almost unreadable.
Beside the graves, the earth had been disturbed. Fresh dirt and old black mud formed ugly patches, and at the bottom of the pit lay an open stone coffin. Serpentine carvings along the coffin walls seemed to writhe in the faint light, as if they had come alive.
What truly terrified Cedric was the center of the graveyard, where many black-robed wizards stood gathered together. Unless Cedric was mistaken, these people were none other than the terrorist organization that had been active in the wizarding world more than a decade ago, the Death Eaters!
Their black robes drifted among the headstones. The faces beneath their hoods were hidden in shadow, and only when they raised their wands could Cedric glimpse the cruel gleam reflected in their eyes, joining with the ghostly phosphorescence seeping from the graves. The air was thick with a mixture of rot and sulfur, cloying enough to choke on. It felt as if that stench were soaking into Cedric's body, dragging him down into an endless mire.
In that instant, Cedric realized that something had gone wrong inside Hogwarts. The Triwizard Cup had been enchanted and turned into a Portkey!
This entire Triwizard Tournament had been a conspiracy from the beginning. Their target was not him, but Harry Potter.
They wanted to kill Harry Potter here, to avenge Voldemort, or perhaps to carry out some even more evil ritual!
But it seemed something had gone wrong with their plan. They had not dragged Harry here. They had dragged him here instead.
Cedric shook his head with a bitter smile. There was good news and bad news.
The good news was that the Death Eaters' evil plan would fail after all. The bad news was that he was dead meat!
Just as Cedric fell into despair and desperately tried to think of a way to escape, a vortex appeared beside him.
A familiar figure stepped out of it, and the moment Cedric saw him, his whole face scrunched up.
It was over. It was really over.
Now there was no good news left. Only bad news.
Cedric hurried to Harry's side and warned him anxiously, "Harry, we have to get back to the Triwizard Cup. This is a trap."
A black-robed Death Eater answered Cedric in Harry's place.
"Hahaha, run? Where do you think you can run?"
The Death Eater cast a spell at the Triwizard Cup, blasting it far away so Harry and Cedric could no longer reach it.
Another Death Eater laughed just as viciously. "We planned for so long to resurrect our master. Did you really think we would let you escape?"
Cedric was certainly an outstanding young wizard, but when had he ever experienced a crisis copied straight from a nightmare like this?
Even so, in this moment, the young wizard still showed astonishing courage.
He stepped forward, putting himself in front of Harry, and whispered, "Harry, since they set this ambush for you, they must have made preparations. With all sorts of treacherous magic lying in wait, even you probably won't be able to defeat them."
He swallowed, trying to relax as much as possible, though his legs still trembled uncontrollably.
"You need to run. I'll hold them off here. Their target is you. No matter what they're trying to do, we can't let them succeed, or the wizarding world will fall back into the catastrophe from decades ago."
Harry shook his head, patted Cedric on the shoulder, and smiled.
"Don't worry, Cedric. It's fine. Unlike you, I saw through their plot a long time ago. I came here on purpose. Go touch the Triwizard Cup and return to Hogwarts. Leave these Death Eaters to me."
Cedric stared at Harry distrustfully. "Can you really do it? There are so many of them."
"Relax."
The Death Eaters were very dissatisfied with their exchange. One Death Eater with considerable status ordered the person beside him, "Goyle, deal with them!"
Goyle nodded, took a few steps forward, and drove his wand into the ground.
The earth suddenly split open with spiderweb-like cracks. Silver-blue magical runes seeped out from within them, winding across the soil like a nest of awakened snakes. They crawled over Harry's and Cedric's boots, then continued climbing upward. Every inch they advanced brought a powerful pressure down on the two of them, and they also discovered that they could no longer use magic.
When the runes covered their bodies, they could no longer move. They could only speak.
Sensing their current situation, Cedric shouted in terror, "I knew they were prepared! This is some kind of ancient magic array. It can bind our movements and stop us from casting spells.
"It's over. This time it's really all over. Harry, I never thought we'd die here."
Goyle looked at Cedric in surprise. He had not expected this young wizard to know so much. But a moment later, he smiled ferociously.
"So what if you know what the array does? We told you, you can't escape. Now become nourishment for our master's resurrection.
"But before that, there's one thing we need to take care of. We only need Harry Potter. You're an eyesore, so you can die first.
"Avada Gnaw-a-Melon!"
An ominous green light pierced through the hazy black mist and shot straight toward Cedric.
Cedric was indeed strong among students, but before a Dark wizard who had survived countless battles, he was far too weak. Faced with the fatal Killing Curse, he did not even have time to react before it was about to strike him.
But at that moment, a wand different from an ordinary wand blocked in front of him and forcibly deflected the Killing Curse aside, where it struck the ground and left a shallow crater.
Harry had made his move.
Goyle froze. He stared at Harry in disbelief and shrieked, "How is that possible? Why can you still move? You clearly shouldn't be able to move at all!"
Harry lowered his head and examined the runes on his body. This was indeed a powerful sealing array, and it should also belong to ancient magic. An array like this required a large amount of rare materials to set up, and because of its high cost, even Dumbledore would be greatly affected if he were caught in it.
Of course, Harry was already suppressed in the wizarding world. Now, with this ancient array added on top, less than ten percent of his strength remained.
But even ten percent was enough to deal with Goyle, enough to handle the vast majority of wizards, and enough to break this array.
Over the past few years, he had often gone to the Slytherin Chamber to help his senior stabilize the violent ancient magic within her body.
During those years, he had learned many forms of ancient magic from her. Using that knowledge to destroy a sealing array was almost effortless.
At the same time, thanks to his efforts, his senior should be able to break free from the seal at the start of the next school year and fully master the ancient magic within her body.
By then, a new and powerful witch would join the faction seeking to reform the wizarding world.
Seeing Harry begin to unravel the array beneath them, the other Death Eaters finally stopped standing by and launched attacks at Harry and Cedric as well.
The Killing Curse, the Imperius Curse, and the Cruciatus Curse, three Unforgivable Curses rushed toward Harry like a storm.
But as those evil curses approached Harry, they were all blocked by a barrier.
The barrier looked thin, but it possessed extraordinary resilience and powerful defensive ability.
Inside the barrier, Harry could dismantle the sealing array below him without restraint.
A few minutes later, the sealing array abruptly dimmed.
Once the sealing array was broken, the runes covering Harry and Cedric rapidly retreated, and Harry felt the magic within his body become active again.
In truth, he could have used the magic inside him to forcefully shatter the sealing array from the beginning, but he had been rather interested in it. This was a form of ancient magic he had never seen before, and perhaps even his senior had not mastered it.
But that was only normal. This world had developed for thousands of years, and no one knew how much ancient magic lay hidden in obscure corners. No one could understand all of it.
For the moment, Harry ignored the Death Eaters facing him in full battle formation and considered what kind of magic this sealing array could be improved into.
Should he collect more sealing arrays? Perhaps he could use them to stabilize portals connecting different worlds?
After thinking it over briefly, Harry turned his gaze to the Death Eaters in front of him.
He had no intention of talking to them. He only needed to knock them all down, and then they would obediently listen while he lectured them.
Just as they once had when Voldemort dealt with them.
Harry activated his chaos magic, which was three times less active in the wizarding world. A dazzling magic array spread rapidly outward with him at its center, instantly covering everything within a hundred meters.
In the blink of an eye, aside from the area where Harry and Cedric stood, gravity everywhere else multiplied several times over.
All the Death Eaters had been about to attack, but their bodies suddenly stiffened, as if hundreds of kilograms of weight had been pressed down on them, crushing them to the ground.
Only a scattered few managed to fall to their knees. The rest sprawled on the ground in humiliating fashion.
Harry rubbed his chin and looked thoughtfully at the many Death Eaters before him.
"Let me think. What should I do with you?"
The Death Eaters before him were all Voldemort's old guard, and their strength ranked near the top of the entire wizarding world.
Harry could simply kill them all, but that would be far too wasteful. Or he could enslave them and use them to handle certain matters he could not deal with openly.
Just like Root in Konoha, the Hokage's black-ops arm.
One of Voldemort's fanatics roared loudly, "Damn you! You're only this arrogant because my master isn't here. If the great Lord Voldemort were resurrected, you would die without a grave!"
In their hearts, Voldemort was powerful, mysterious, and invincible.
Harry's eyes flickered, and he temporarily formed an idea. He glanced at the Death Eater at the very front and used the Lending System to transmit a few words to him. Then he revealed a mocking expression and sneered.
"Fine. Interesting. Since you put it that way, I'd like to try it for myself and see just what level the Dark Lord reaches after his resurrection."
At first, several Death Eaters looked at one another in confusion, unable to understand what Harry meant. But soon, one Death Eater shouted in wild delight, "Then Lord Voldemort must be resurrected first! Otherwise, you won't even have the chance to fight Lord Voldemort!"
Harry remained unmoved. "Sure."
Cedric, standing at the side, was completely baffled. At first, he had already fallen into despair, only for the clouds to part unexpectedly.
But just as he was rejoicing that he and Harry had won, he suddenly discovered that Harry actually wanted to resurrect Voldemort together with these Death Eaters.
And his reason was simply that he wanted to fight the resurrected Voldemort.
Cedric quickly grabbed Harry and tried to stop him.
"Harry, you can't do this. You absolutely cannot resurrect Voldemort."
Only then did Harry remember that there was still a Triwizard champion beside him. He shook his head, lightly tapped Cedric with his wand, and teleported him back to Hogwarts.
"Cedric, don't worry. This has nothing to do with you anymore. Go find Professor Dumbledore and tell him everything that happened here from beginning to end."
Amid Cedric's loud shouting, he was teleported back to Hogwarts.
Then Harry turned to the Death Eaters and said, "Come on. Let us resurrect Voldemort together."
Immediately afterward, under the confused gazes of the Death Eaters, Harry walked to the cauldron at the center of the graveyard.
He snapped his fingers softly, and green soul-fire instantly began burning beneath the cauldron.
Then, with a familiarity greater than that of the Death Eaters who had rehearsed this countless times, he began Voldemort's resurrection process.
First, he used the Levitation Charm to take a curled, infant-like lump of flesh from the chest of one Death Eater and toss it into the cauldron.
Then he continued, "Let me think. First, the bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son."
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