A/N: New character time, woop woop! The whole graveyard bit will be split between two chapters (sorryyyy!)
Cedric was extremely confused.
He had just been in the maze with Harry, then the cup took them to that graveyard, and then...then what? He vaguely remembered a flash of green light and a high, cold voice, but where had it come from? And where was he now?
He looked around. He appeared to be standing on some sort of cloud or something, and he was surrounded by a sky with no sun, moon, or clouds. It was above him and below him, a color somewhere between night and day, and he was wearing clean, soft white robes.
What the heck is going on?
Then, in the distance, Cedric saw two figures coming towards him. As they got closer, he saw that they were a man and a woman, both dressed in the same soft white robes he was wearing. At first he thought the man was Harry; he had the same tall, lean build, messy black hair, and glasses. However, as he got closer, Cedric realized that he was too old to be Harry; he looked somewhere between nineteen and twenty-one. His eyes were also hazel instead of green. The woman behind him was very pretty; she had long, dark red hair and brilliant green eyes like Harry's.
"Who are you?" all three asked at the same time.
The woman smiled. She looked very young, but she had a kind, motherly smile. "I'm Lily, and this is James. I can't believe there's finally someone else here!"
Shock hit Cedric like a Knockback Jinx and rooted him to the cloudlike ground. "Lily and James...Potter?"
The man grinned. He had a careless, confident smile. "The very same."
"But, wait...that means I'm..." No, this was too strange. If these were Harry's parents, then Cedric was...dead. How was he dead?
"I-is that what the spell did?" he managed to stammer. "It was one of those curses Moody taught us about?"
The woman—Lily—nodded. "We know how it feels."
That was the same spell that had killed them. No, this was just too much. Cedric shook his head in denial. "But I don't...I can't be! I have a tournament to finish, a life to finish—"
"Do you think we didn't feel that way?" James asked. "We had a son to raise. We're only four years older than you."
The shock of this realization was almost as bad as being told he was dead. It shook Cedric to realize that Harry's parents were and would now forever be almost his age.
"Harry...he misses you, but I think you'd be proud of him," Cedric told them.
Lily nodded. "Oh, we are. We've been watching him. I will say that he's been tackling this tournament the way his father would—"
"The most awesome way possible?" James asked with a wink.
"Waiting until the last minute and letting dumb luck take over," Lily finished.
Cedric laughed. "Well, if you've been watching Harry, I guess you know who I am, but I'm Cedric Diggory, anyway."
James nodded. "The Hufflepuff hero whose beauty rivals my own."
Cedric glanced at Lily. "Uh..."
Lily shook her head. "Don't listen to him," she told Cedric. "I know you'll probably miss the people you left, but you can watch them if you like. You just can't interact."
"Like Cho?" Cedric asked a little too quickly. "Um, I mean..."
"You mean the girl you stole from Ha-" Lily clapped a hand over her husband's mouth. "I love you, James, but will you stop being so childish? I'm trying to explain how things work here!"
James sighed. "Fine. You are absolutely no fun. Actually," he corrected, "You can be a lot of fun." He raised his eyebrows with a smirk.
"Um, I don't need to hear about-" Cedric began.
"However, you are currently being no fun," James finished.
Lily rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
"We should see how Harry's doing," Cedric suggested. "I'm not sure what he's facing down there, but if it could...you know..."
Lily nodded. "I agree," she said. "Harry Potter," she commanded to the sky below. It turned as clear as glass, letting them see Harry. He was standing in front of some kind of statue, facing a cauldron, and in front of the cauldron stood a black-robed figure that...
Lily gasped.
"That's him," James said hoarsely.
Cedric looked at the figure and drew back. It was hideously snakelike and inhuman.
"That's...him?" Cedric asked, his throat suddenly dry.
Lily nodded. "Voldemort," she whispered.