A/N: Written for the Hogwarts Fair 2014, Game: Giant Apple Bobbing.

Champ for Danger

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He'd been ready for danger, but not like that. Not the sort of danger that would cost him his life. Because he'd been ready for safety as well. The safety that would be a net protecting him from that final, terrible, horror of mortality.

And even the part of him that did have nightmares about his death didn't see a green light and a whisper flying towards him.

But that was how he died.

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When he'd signed up for the Triwizard Cup, he'd been thinking about a lot of things. Part of it was the inevitability of another war: the inevitability both his parents believed. Because they believed Albus Dumbledmore. They believed Voldermort was not truly gone – that he'd come back.

They believed they'd be fighting against that monster again when he did.

He thought the Triwizard Cup was a good opportunity to prepare for that. It would be dangerous, but it would also be a learning experience unlike anything he'd been exposed to before. And he needed the danger. He needed that to continue growing, continue learning. Otherwise he'd just be another Hogwarts Graduate going out into the workforce and being surprised by the sudden ferocity of the war.

He wouldn't be able to protect anything.

And then there was the matter of his house. Hufflepuff that had stood for too long in the shadows. As a member he often came away with bites against his house – and he didn't see why. Hufflepuff was a great house. And yet people saw it as, somehow, inferior. That changed a little when their Quidditch team managed to beat Gryffindor last year – that one match that took the snitch away from the legendary Harry Potter…

But that wasn't a fair victory. It had been him and Harry Potter and the Dementors, and how could anyone expect Harry Potter of all people, the boy who'd witnessed his parents' murder, to be able to keep their head in that first encounter.

But it wasn't against the rules. It was just nobility on his part, everyone said. And so Hufflepuff got the won. And so Hufflepuff got a little glory.

If he won the Triwizard Cup, it would be rightly deserved glory for Hufflepuff house – and nobody would be able to deny them that.

And then there was just the part of him that wanted to prove to himself he was growing up.

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When he'd found out he'd been selected as a Champion, he was ecstatic. He finally had his chance, to do all those things he wanted to do with the tournament. He had some steep competition. He could tell. He didn't know much about the Fleur girl, but Viktor Krum was a legendary menace. It wouldn't be easy to beat him. But that was what he'd sought when entering the cup. A challenge.

And then Harry Potter's name came out of the cup, and he was shocked. Harry Potter…who wasn't of age to compete, who was of the same school –

The school was in an uproar. The Hufflepuffs were angrier than he'd ever seen them, angry at Harry Potter. But he wasn't sure he was. He saw a lot of people try to jump over Dumbledore's age line. He saw the consequences. He knew for a fact that Harry didn't have any legendary magic – he'd have used it against the dementors in that first match if he did. Instead, he'd studied for a long time to master the spell that would protect him. He'd studied hard for those results; Professor Lupin's word was enough of a testament to that.

So no way did Harry use some magic to trick Dumbledore's age line. Cedric wouldn't be surprised if Moody was right. If there was some attempt to sabotage it. But it's well left alone, he thought. Harry wouldn't be in any danger if he wasn't perceived as a threat, if he got knocked out of the tournament early…

But maybe he'd underestimated Harry. Harry came away with top marks in the first task, using a clever little twist none of them more experienced contestants had considered. The summoning spell, taught to fourth years. And he didn't know about Fleur, but he was a quidditch player as well. So was Krum. The three of them were seekers to boot. So how had only Harry thought of that simple, safe approach.

So Harry won. But perhaps the thing that stuck out more was how he'd told Cedric about the task. How he'd sacrificed his own advantage to make sure everyone had a fair shot going into the fight.

Cedric did think that was so naïve, so childish, of Harry…but Harry Potter was still a child. That was to be expected. He hadn't even wanted to be in the tournament. Not like Cedric who was seeking his passage to adulthood in it.

The second round came and again, Harry's performance was a surprise to him. This time it was his refusal to leave anyone behind, enough so that his own reasoning was affected. Had he really thought Dumbledore would let them down? Students of his own school? Innocent children? None of the others had been so panicked.

But Harry's friends were important to him, and Cedric couldn't help but feel guilty as swam away from Harry's form trying to untie Hermione Granger.

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The third task was the fateful one. At first, Cedric and Harry went their separate ways and vanished into the maze. And that was that. Cedric vowed to get to the cup first, whatever of the many reasons in his head were the right, the main, one. But someone was interfering. He saw signs of that everywhere. How easily he'd lose his way despite his care. How he'd heard that scream, and then nothing. How Viktor suddenly sprung out from behind him and attacked.

Cedric had no chance to do anything except fight back until Harry's unexpected help came. And Cedric knew at that moment, when Viktor's unconscious body was lined with sparks and Harry was saying how he'd talked to Viktor before, how that wasn't like him…

Someone was interfering with the tournament. Someone wanted one of them to win. Harry, probably, because he couldn't think of anyone who would go so far for him. Or against him, he thought, looking at Harry's terrified face.

But that changed nothing. He still had to win.

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They took the cup together. He was reluctant to allow it for all the reasons he'd entered in the first place, for all the reasons he'd felt conflicted about Harry's participation. But he'd agreed. Harry was a stubborn one, and both of them wanted to be out of the maze as soon as possible.

Harry had offered him the cup. He'd refused that for the same stubbornness. But either way, he was fated to take the cup.

Either way, he was fated to die as soon as he let go of it, a sudden, unexpected and peaceful death that somehow slipped out of the safety net of Hogwarts he thought he was safe in.