Pheonix

Friends till the end

Asura felt her feet slam into the ground though recovered gracefully. The same could not be said for Harry as he fell forward. His hand let go of the Triwizard Cup.

"Where are we?" he said.

Asura shook her head, "you'll find out Harry, trust me"

This made Harry feel suspicious of his close friend, noting how she was completely at ease with this chain of events.

She pulled Harry to his feet, and 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. Asura could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" harry asked.

"Well I gathered as much. You'll come to learn that things aren't always as you think they are Harry. Everything has layers."

Harry was stunned by the seriousness of her voice and spun to look at her. Her eyes swam with emotions he could never read. All Asura did was smile at him. A small, sad smile.

Someone's coming," harry said suddenly, breaking Asura out of her trance.

Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Asura couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, she could tell that it was carrying something.

"Ahh Wormtail! Tom! It's wonderful to see you," asura burst out.

Now Harry was utterly baffled. What had just happened?

There was only a nod in greeting, Tom too eager to return to his full form.

"I'm going to need you to trust me harry, everything is going to be confusing but please remember nothing is as it seems," Asura whispered while wormtail put tom down

She knew Harry trusted her, even if he didn't know why. She never showed a single sign of dishonesty.

Asura watched the whole process, burying all her emotions deep inside. She was aware of Harry's torture as she watched him constantly flicker his eyes towards her.

This had to be done. There's no other way.

The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness. Nothing happened....

And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Asura.

But then, through the mist in front of her, she saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.

Tom

"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master's head.