Things Better Left Unsaid
Author's Note: This was written in response to Red Bess Rackham's challenge. It had to include: angst, fluff, Cedric & Hermione remaining in character, the line, "well, some things are better left unsaid", an appearance by Luna lovegood, and something original. My friend Nikki, another really good writer, helped me brainstorm ideas for it, since when I read the challenge, I drew a blank. So, thanks Nikki, and I hope that you enjoy the story! Also, one last thing, Harry has had visions before, and they always come true. Just so you don't get confused. And, it's based off of the Movie, where they don't know what the 3rd task is until that day.
Summary: Written in response to Red Bess Rackham's challenge. Cedric/Hermione!
Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue. Got it?
On with the story!
Harry woke up sweating. He had just had the worst dream ever. He had dreamt that he and Cedric Diggory, Hermione's boyfriend, were in a graveyard, and Cedric died. Someone cast the killing curse on him, but he couldn't tell who. All he had managed to hear were the words, "kill the spare!" and then he woke up. He would have thought that it was just a bad dream, except for the fact that he had had it for the past 5 nights. He knew that he was somehow seeing the future, and that he had to talk to someone!
He walked down to the common room and thought about who he was going to tell. The first person that popped into his head was Dumbledore, but then, he realized that Dumbledore would probably try to get Cedric out of the tournament. If he succeeded, the Hufflepuffs would hate him forever. Then he realized that he could tell Ron! He went back upstairs to get dressed.
Later that day…
Harry and Ron were walking down to Defense Against the Dark Arts, when Harry said, "Ron, I have to talk to you…alone." Then he turned to Hermione. "Go on ahead, Hermione. We'll meet you there." She shrugged and walked on.
Ron turned to Harry and said, "Okay, Harry, what's up?"
Harry told him what he had dreamt about, and Ron looked at him, shocked. "Are…are you sure that's what you dreamt about? Cedric dying?" he said the last part in a whisper.
Harry nodded. "The only thing is, do we want to tell Hermione or not?"
They thought about it for a second, and Ron said, "You know, we shouldn't. Let them be happy with the little time they have left between now and the third task. Because, well, some things are better left unsaid."
Harry nodded again and said, "Hey, we'd better get to class before we're late."
Ron laughed, and they walked to class.
That afternoon…
Hermione sat with Cedric at the lake's edge, smiling and laughing. He told a joke, and she laughed and kissed him. The kissed was tender, and would have turned passionate if Hermione hadn't pulled away and said, "You know, Cedric, we are still on school grounds."
Cedric pretended to pout. "Oh fine, spoil my fun." Hermione leaned back and rested her head on Cedric's legs, smiling.
"You know, I could lie here all day. Your legs are really comfy." Hermione said. (Really corny, I know!) Cedric laughed.
"Not that I wouldn't mind, but…we have to go inside some time, and my legs would probably get really tired from it eventually." He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the lips, and she made the kiss deeper, using her tongue. They lay down on the grass and continued to kiss.
After a little bit, they came up for air, and Cedric said, "Hermione, wait. We should stop. I don't want to go too far, too fast for you." Hermione kissed him.
"It'll be fine for now. Do you wanna go inside?" she asked.
"Nah. I like it right here, with you by my side." Cedric said, and Hermione kissed him, and they just sat like that for about 5 more minutes, until Hermione realized something.
"Crap!" At Cedric's confused look, she said, "I'm going to be late for Transfiguration! I've got to go!" She gave him a quick kiss and said, "See you later, Cedric." Then she hurried off to Transfiguration, praying that she wouldn't be late.
That night…
Harry woke up sweating again, but slightly happy, because he had seen what had caused Cedric to end up where he was when he died. He made a vow not to let that happen.
When he walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, he walked over to Ginny and said, "Ginny, listen…" he lowered his voice to a whisper. "Do you know anyone I could talk to about astronomy?"
Ginny suppressed a giggle and said, "Well, there is one, but I'm not sure if you'd want to talk to her."
"As long as it's not Trelawney, I think I can handle it." He said, hoping that it wasn't her.
Ginny laughed. "Oh, don't worry, it's not Trelawney. Tell you what, I'll tell her to meet you in the Astronomy tower at 8:00 tonight, ok?"
Harry nodded happily. "That'd be fine with me." Then he walked back over to sit by Ron and Hermione.
"So, what are your plans for today, guys?" Ron asked casually.
"Well, I'm going to go to the library and look up what kinds of things the 3rd task of the Triwizard Tournament have been in the past. I want to know what sort of things I should be worried about, since both my boyfriend and one of my best friends are in the tournament." Hermione said.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, and Harry said, "Well, don't worry; I'm sure we'll be fine."
Hermione smiled and sighed. "I certainly hope so. The loss of either one of you would be horrible."
Then, she finished eating, and started walking to her next class.
That night…
Harry stood in the Astronomy tower, just looking out the window at the stars, when he heard a voice behind him say, "Um, excuse me? Are you Harry Potter?"
He turned around to see a girl who looked like she was a 3rd year staring at him with a dreamy look on her face. She had curly hazel hair, and brown glasses.
"Um, I don't mean to be rude, but…who are you?" Harry asked the girl, confused.
"Oh! Um, I'm Luna Lovegood, 3rd year Ravenclaw. Ginny Weasley said that you had some questions about Astronomy?" The girl said dreamily.
"Oh, um, yes. But you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you." Harry said seriously.
"Oh, who would I tell? I don't really have any friends…so you can tell me anything, I won't tell anyone." Luna said kindly.
"Okay, well, um…I've been having this dream for the past week or so, where Cedric Diggory dies in the 3rd task. And I know how it happens, too. And how he gets there. And I was just wondering if there was anything in the stars that could help me. You know, like an omen or something. Just something, so that I know why I keep on having these dreams!" Harry said, trying to stay calm, but not succeeding. He ended up sounding kind of angry instead.
"Um, well…" Luna looked in the telescope. "There is an odd arrangement of the stars of Yerpers," she obviously didn't realize how confused Harry was, since she kept going. "And there's the weird stars that mean that someone will rise again…I can't tell who it is, but, unless I'm mistaken, it's a person named Mrs. Doubtfire!" She opened her mouth to keep going, but stopped when Harry started laughing. "What? Why are you laughing?" she asked him.
"Mrs. Doubtfire is a Muggle movie, Luna. She's not real." Harry said, laughing. "I was hoping that there would be something…real, you know?"
"Well, fine then, if you don't think it's real, then fine. Why don't you tell me what you dream of." She said, sitting down in front of him.
He took a deep breath and said, "Well, you see, Cedric and I take off in the maze, and then he and I get to the Triwizard cup at the same time, and then we end up in a graveyard, and I tell Cedric to get back to the cup, but he doesn't, and then…" Harry started to cry now. "A voice says, 'kill the spare', and then someone casts the killing curse, and Cedric is…is…dead!"
Luna moved next to him to comfort him by taping him on his head. "It's going to be okay."
Harry moved away and started yelling. "No it's not! Because I told him to take the cup with me! It's my fault he dies! Do you have any idea how bad that makes a person feel?"
Luna just looked at him with her dreamy look and said, "Well, you know what to do, then, don't you?"
"NO!" Harry said, frustrated.
"Just don't let him take the cup." She said serenely, and walked out.
The day of the 3rd task…
Harry looked at Cedric and said, "Hey, good luck."
"Thanks. You, too." Cedric said.
Just then, Hermione walked over and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck, Harry." She said.
Cedric pretended to be upset. "Hey, don't I get a good luck kiss, too?" Hermione just rolled her eyes and laughed as she gave him a nice, long kiss on the lips.
"Good luck in there, Cedric." Hermione said. "I'll be rooting for the both of you." Then she walked up to the stands. As soon as she sat down, she got an intense feeling of foreboding. She didn't understand why she got it, so she just brushed it off.
When Dumbledore said that they could both go, they started running. As Harry ran, he noticed that his path was curiously creature free. Shouldn't there be creatures in here that I have to battle? He thought. He turned a corner and ran into a sphinx sitting in the middle of the path. He was about to say something when she opened her mouth and started talking.
"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."
"So…so will you move, please?" Harry asked, even though he knew what the answer was.
"No. Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess—I let you pass. Answer wrongly—I attack. Remain silent—I will let you walk away from me unscathed."
"Okay, can I hear the riddle?" Harry asked, hoping that it would be an easy one.
The sphinx opened her mouth and recited:
First think of the person who lives in disguise,
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,
The middle of middle and end of the end?
And finally give me the sound often heard
During the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together, and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?
After having her repeat it a couple of times, and thinking about it a little, he said, "Spider! It's a spider!"
The sphinx smiled at him and moved out of the path. Harry nodded at her and walked past and started running again.
After a while, he turned a corner and saw the Triwizard cup gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. He started running again, and a dark figure hurtled out onto the path in front of him.
Cedric was going to get there first. Cedric was sprinting as fast as he could toward the cup, and Harry knew that he would never catch up. Cedric was much taller, had much longer legs…but he had to try.
Then Harry saw something immense over as hedge to his left, moving quickly along a path that intersected with his own; it was moving so fast Cedric was about to run into it, and Cedric, his eyes on the cup, had not seen it…
Harry knew that he had to do something, so he yelled, "Cedric! On your left!"
Cedric looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it but in his haste, he tripped. Harry saw Cedric's wand fly out of his hand as a gigantic spider stepped into the path and began to bear down upon Cedric.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled; the spell hit the spider's gigantic, hairy black body, but for all the good it did, he might as well have thrown a stone at it; the spider jerked, scuttled around, and ran at Harry instead.
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!"
But it was no use—the spider was either so large, or so magical, that the spells were doing no more than aggravating it. Harry had one horrifying glimpse of eight shining black eyes and razor-sharp pincers before it was on him.
He was lifted into the air in its front legs; struggling madly, he tried to kick it; his leg connected with the pincers and next moment he was in excruciating pain. He could hear Cedric yelling "Stupefy!", too, but his spell had no more effect than Harry's—Harry raised his wand as the spider opened its pincers once more and shouted "Expelliarmus!"
It worked—the disarming Spell made the spider drop him, but that meant that Harry fell twelve feet onto his already injured leg, which crumpled beneath him. Without pausing to think, he aimed high at the spider's underbelly, and shouted "Stupefy!" just as Cedric yelled the same thing.
The two spells combined did what one alone had not: The spider keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs.
"Harry!" he heard Cedric shouting. "You all right? Did it fall on you?"
"No," Harry called back, panting. He looked down at his leg. It was bleeding freely. He could see some sort of thick, gluey secretion from the spider's pincers on his torn robes. He tried to get up, but his leg was shaking badly and did not want tot support his weight. He leaned against the hedge, gasping for breath, and looked around.
Cedric was standing feet from the Triwizard Cup, which was gleaming behind him.
"Take it, then," Harry panted to Cedric. "Go on, take it. You're there."
But Cedric didn't move. He merely stood there, looking at Harry. Then he turned to stare at the cup. Harry saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at Harry again, who was now holding onto the hedge to support himself. Cedric took a deep breath.
"You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck in here. First from Krum, and now from this." He said.
Harry took a deep breath. "Fine." He said, "I'll take it. But would you mind helping me over there?" Cedric nodded and walked over to Harry and put Harry's arm around his shoulders and helped him over to the cup. Right before Harry grabbed it, he turned to Cedric.
"I know that you really want to take the cup, but…it's for your own good. I don't want you to die." Harry said, mumbling the last part. "Just…if I don't come back, tell Hermione that I'm sorry, okay?"
Confused, Cedric said, "Harry, what are you talking about?" Harry didn't say anything; he just grabbed the cup and disappeared.
Cedric sighed and shot off red sparks from his wand. When they came to get him, he said, "Harry got to the cup first. I really didn't know my way back, so I shot off sparks." They nodded and led him out of there.
When they got out of the maze, Dumbledore turned to Cedric. "Incidentally, where is Harry?"
Cedric shrugged. "I don't know. He grabbed the cup and disappeared into thin air."
Dumbledore and the rest of the staff exchanged glances. "Thank you for telling us this, Cedric. We should wait for Harry."
About an hour later, Harry appeared in front of the maze, holding the cup. Everyone cheered, but Harry walked straight to Dumbledore. Hermione joined them quickly, saying, "Congratulations, Harry! I knew you could do it!
"Professor, its Voldemort. He's back." With those 5 words, they all knew that life as they knew it would never be the same again.
FIN
Well? Was it good? Bad? Sucky? Let me know! I know I have some passages from the book in here, but I had to have them in order for the story to make sense in parts. So, anyway, please R&R! I hope you enjoyed it! Special thanks to Red Tess Rackham for the challenge!
johnthreesixteen