Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own the Harry Potter world or any of the characters. That pleasure belongs to the great JK
Katie Bell was hiding. Specifically, she was hiding in the girls' bathroom on the second floor, staring out of the window as a heavy June rain drenched the grounds.
Why was she hiding though? It was the last day of the year, her fifth year, and her OWLs were over. Surely a cause for celebration? She should be with her friends, celebrating.
But Katie was hiding from everyone. No one was going to see her tears. You see, this year had been different. The Triwizard Tournament had taken place at Hogwarts, with two Hogwarts Champions. One; her a fellow Gryffindor. The other; a friend. She supposed that's what Cedric Diggory had been to her.
But while two Hogwarts Champions had entered the Third Task, full of life and fire, only one had returned alive.
It was funny. She had never been able to get rid of him, always bemoaning his constant presence, and now she missed him completely. A heart-rending, stomach-clenching, irrepressible feeling of emptiness had followed her round constantly in the weeks following his death. The pain was lessening now, but it still hurt when she thought about him, like someone had stuck a knife into her chest and twisted it brutally.
Cedric Diggory, seventeen years old, with so much potential, was gone. Gone, dead, deceased, never to walk the halls of Hogwarts. Never again would he imitate her 'Quidditch face', or charm things to follow her around for hours. Never again would she have to endure his terrible jokes or listen to him whinge about Cho Chang fancying Potter...
She couldn't quite believe or comprehend it. People didn't die at seventeen, it was so stupid. And now she would have to spend a whole summer alone, with just her parents for company. Leanne was off to France for the whole summer and there was no Cedric to keep her entertained.
Cedric. It was cruel really. She'd only just started to realise how she felt about him. Just long enough to hope that he might feel the same way, and then he was gone. It was such a waste, how could -
"Hey, Katie," said a male voice behind her.
Katie turned, about to yell at whichever idiot was in the girls' bathroom, and screamed.
Cedric Diggory was standing in front of her, looking very much alive.
"W-wh... what?" she stammered. "H-how are you... there?"
"I came to see you," he replied, showing no sign of being a figment of her imagination or anything rational.
Katie tried to speak, but all that came out was a kind of squeaking noise. Spinning away from what was surely a hallucination, she paced across the floor. She turned back. He was still there. She closed her eyes tightly and opened them again. Still there.
"Okay," she sighed, pushing her hair back distractedly, "this might be a stupid question, but aren't you supposed to be... y'know, dead?"
He regarded her for a second before replying;
"I am."
Okay, she needed to sit down. She was definitely imagining this... her hands found the windowsill behind her, and she sat on it gratefully, feeling her head spinning.
"You're not really here," she said finally, sounding more confident that she felt. "I mean, I won't be able to touch you, you're just a weird apparation-thing."
Cedric didn't answer, instead moving towards her, stopping within reaching distance of her. She stretched her hand out, expecting to meet nothing, and actually touching the chest of someone who was a lot more solid than should be possible.
"I'm going mad," she muttered.
"You're not," he said kindly. "I'm kind of a ghost, but only you can see, hear or touch me."
Katie raised her eyebrows, wondering if she was literally insane.
"Okay, so let's keep with the 'you're really there' thing. Why are you here?"
"I've got a couple of things I need to do."
"Like what?"
"Like helping you, for starters."
"I don't need help!"
She'd leapt to her feet, fists clenched angrily. Cedric just smiled at her, fiercely independent Katie Bell.
"You need to move on," he told her, "I can read thoughts, you know."
Katie gaped. Oh dear...
"Yes, I know about that," Cedric answered her unspoken question. "When I... reappeared, the only thoughts I could hear were yours. Others are coming through now, but yours were the first so I followed them here."
"I, um, whatever you heard, it's not true," Katie said hurriedly. "I'm fine."
"Katie, I know you liked me. But I'm not much use to you now. So, I'm here to sort you out, and to stop you hiding in bathrooms."
She glared at him.
"What makes you think I need sorting out?" she snapped.
Cedric looked sympathetically at her.
"Come on Katie, you're hiding in a bathroom instead of talking to your friends. You've not spoken to anyone for days, have you?"
Katie stared at her feet.
"So?"
"So let's get you back downstairs and on the train home. Then you don't need to talk to anyone all summer."
There was a pause, in which Katie looked up at the ceiling and back at the floor. Then she nodded.
"Okay."
