Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Lost Innocence
By: ChoCedric
When Elly was a little girl, she used to believe in happy ever afters, knights on shining white horses, and magic wands producing delightful results. When she got her Hogwarts letter, a feeling of amazement and rapture overpowered her, for she was simply unable to believe that all her fairy tales were coming true. When she started at Hogwarts, all she'd ever dreamed of became a reality.
She met Cedric Diggory on her first day at Hogwarts. She was a little homesick and a little scared, even though amazement was the most potent emotion she could feel. Cedric made her feel better; he was her light at the end of the tunnel. He was a leader, a beacon of strength, and he even gave her a tour around the castle. He even embraced her as she cried softly into his shoulder, expressing her fears and worries.
But now, she knows that her innocence has been forever lost as she looks into her mentor's face. People say that many look peaceful when they die, but Cedric doesn't look peaceful at all. He looks shocked and horrified and scared and afraid and broken and alone and vulnerable. Her body is racked with sobs as she thinks of the handsome boy who hugged her and gave her just that little bit of comfort she needed to get through the first night of Hogwarts. It is the most horrific sight she has ever seen, to see his vibrant gray eyes now empty and lifeless, wide, wide open and staring, staring, staring up at the twinkling stars in the night sky. It's so surreal; it's such a beautiful night, but the look adorning Cedric's face makes it sickeningly nauseating.
She touches his limp hand as his father screams out his name, and it breaks her to touch it. She feels his arm, the loving arm which wound around her as he smiled down at her that first day, and it's so terribly cold and stiff now. He used to ooze confidence, but now he gives off nothing but fear. The expression upon his face ... oh ... she can't bear to look at him anymore.
"My son!" Mr. Diggory screams again, and Elly's heart is torn open as Cedric's mother lovingly strokes his distraught and terrified face. The young twelve-year-old Hufflepuff never thought she'd see death in such a disastrous fashion. Whatever took brave and strong Cedric Diggory from the world must be as horrifying as a grim reaper, the girl thinks to herself as she is led away from the body of the kindest young man she has ever known, still sobbing.
For months afterwards, she has nightmares of his empty, lifeless gray eyes. His face was crying out, "Someone help me! Please, help!" She sobs in despair to think that in those final moments, no one reached out to help him like he himself reached out to help her in her time of need. Guilt overwhelms her at the fact that she couldn't return the favor.
She used to believe in happy ever afters, knights on shining white horses, and magic wands producing delightful results, but she knows the truth now. Magic is heartache and death and pain and sorrow and suffering and weeping parents and sobbing staff and students. She never thought she'd witness such a tragedy in her very school, but it has forever changed her. Elly Beckitt will never be the same again.