The Story of Harry and Cedric

by Hermione Granger

a sample

What if you were to lose the person you love more than anyone else in the whole world? Think about it. If you don't, it might happen that you realise only too late how much you loved that someone. Feelings are such funny things. If everything is fine and you don't pay attention, you might not even realise they exist. The feelings grow slowly and silently, they cling tightly to the heart and grow twisted and entangled. And suddenly you notice they have conquered your whole heart like a vine overcomes a house, and you can't even think about life without them. That's how infatuation and passion turn into deeper, truer love. Stealthily, if at all.

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THE BOY WHO LOVED

Chapter 11

Heights and Depths

The darkness of the staircase gave way to the light of Cedric's wand. The stairs were spiralling up and up above them, and they followed. It was a bare and rather claustrophobic space, in places not even wide enough to allow them to climb side by side. After several minutes, Harry couldn't contain his curiosity.

"Where exactly are we going?", he asked.

"Our new secret love nest, where else would you think I'd be bothered to take you in the middle of the night?" Cedric teased, with laughter in his voice. "It's not much longer," he added then. "I'd rather not spoil the surprise."

"Okay," Harry said, and went on climbing. A bit after his feet had started to protest, the staircase ended on the edge of a round room, with beautiful ornate columns supporting a deep blue cupola above. In between each of the columns there were double doors made mostly of colourful stained glass. They all led to a balcony a few yards wide, surrounding the whole room.

When Harry looked up, he noticed that in the dome there were thousands of stars, apparently painted with gold. Each had a name tag beside it, and all the constellations were connected with silver lines. The ecliptic and the other important planes of the celestial sphere were all represented, too.

"Wow," Harry breathed. "What a beautiful place."

"Let's go to the loft," Cedric said. "It's even better from there." He started for the spiral staircase in the middle of the room, made of gracefully decorated wrought iron, black as the night. It led to a narrow circular walkway between the top of the stairs and a huge round divan or sofa surrounding it in all directions, with plenty of silk cushions everywhere.

"And I thought you were just kidding! If this isn't a love nest, I don't know what is," Harry said. "It's a tad on the grand side, though; looks like it was made for full-blown orgies!"

"What a dirty imagination you have," Cedric said, feigning dignity. "That's not what it was built for at all. This is the Old Observatory."

"How come I have never even heard about this? And how can it be an observatory, when all the windows are down there?"

"You haven't heard about this, because it was lost somewhere in the eighteenth century, according to..."

"Don't tell me," Harry interrupted. "I know. It must have been 'Hogwarts: A History'."

"Spot on. But if you haven't read it," Cedric asked, "how did you know?"

"Hermione keeps babbling about it and demanding us to read it, me and Ron. She's been at it for four years, and no end in sight."

"She's right, you know. It's a very interesting book. Anyway, since this one was lost, they started to call this Old Observatory or Lost Observatory, and built a new top onto what was left of the Astronomy Tower."

"But how could they lose this?" Harry asked. "It's a building! And how come it's still here, if it was lost?"

"Okay, to answer that, we have to go to the balcony. Come on." Cedric went down the stairs and opened a set of doors. When they reached the balustrade, Harry gasped. They were very high up in the mountains, and Hogwarts was nowhere to be seen. The stairs had been long, sure, but nothing compared to the height of a mountain.

"But..." Harry started.

"...where is the school?" Cedric continued. "We're on the wrong side. Follow me." They walked around the balcony. On the other side there was a breathtaking vista opening to a valley between the mountains. The air was clear as crystal and somewhere so far down it made his head spin, Harry could see Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry glimmering like a jewel in the night. It was a viewpoint of an eagle, and the school looked like a tiny but perfect toy model of itself. Harry was speechless, and could only stare in wonder.

"Someone actually stole this from the top of the Astronomy Tower, overnight, and never told anybody," Cedric told Harry. "Or at least it never became public knowledge what had happened to the Observatory. The prime suspect was and still is Samuel Stargazer. He was the headmaster at the time, and really keen on astronomy. He made several official complaints about the clouds disturbing his observations, before he was made the headmaster himself. And apparently he was quite an eccentric person to boot; the kind that actually might do a thing like stealing an observatory."

"And how did you find the way here?" Harry wanted to know.

"I was really interested in the story," Cedric said, "and did a lot of research and a bit of spying. After I had found enough clues in musty old documents in the archive section of the library to be sure the observatory still existed, and to pinpoint the entrance to the gargoyle statue, I arranged an alarm system. After several months of lookout I finally saw Dumbledore entering the place. That's how I got to know the password poem."

"Nice," Harry said appreciatively. "This is a wonderful place. But let's go back in, it's freezing out here."

"I can warm you up..." Cedric suggested with a grin.

"Did I see some nice warm blankets up there in the orgy loft?" Harry asked.

"You might have. At least there are some." The boys climbed back up and made a comfortable nest for themselves with the pillows and a couple of blankets. Harry snuggled under Cedric's arm and sighed happily. They were gazing at the roof; there was something funny about it, but Harry couldn't really put a finger on it. Then he noticed something.

"Hey, is that star moving?"

"Look closer... It's not a star; it's the planet Venus, the evening star and the goddess of love. It's rising."

"But..." Harry looked around, and realised that everything that he had supposed were painted on the dome seemed to move with his head, like they were infinitely far, and not attached to the ceiling at all.

"Remember, this is an observatory. And not just any observatory. It is one of the Nine Wonders of the Wizarding World," Cedric said. "Sadly, I don't know its secrets. But I have figured out a couple of tricks the dome can do. First of all, it always shows everything in their correct position, no matter where in the hall you are. And secondly," Cedric clapped his hands twice, sharply. The dome disappeared, leaving only the markings overlaid on the real sky. Everything matched perfectly. There was the crescent moon rising over the mountains, and its path drawn with a precise silver arc on the sky. Same with the planets. All the stars had their names hanging beside them, and constellations were still connected with glimmering lines. All and all, it was an astronomer's dream come true.

"Wow!" Harry said again, and they both fell silent for a long while, just studying the incredible sky. Finally Harry nudged his boyfriend. "Thank you for showing me this," he said. "It's beautiful. Almost as good as you."

"I love you, Harry Potter," Cedric said seriously. "And I'm afraid of tomorrow. I don't want to lose you. I wanted to bring you here before the task. You know, just in case."

"I love you, too, and we're going to be fine." Harry said. "Don't be so pessimistic. It can't possibly be worse than the dragons."

"You don't know that. Promise me you're going to be careful."

"I promise, silly. I'll be as careful as I possibly can."

"No you won't. I know you that well already, wonderboy," Cedric said, but smiled. "I've seen how you play Quidditch. You're reckless. But maybe that's just why I love you so much."

"You're no wimp yourself. Now shut up, and make love to me, okay?"

Cedric shut up, and did. Their love that night was marked with urgency and passion borne out of uncertainty of what the following day might bring. The moon and stars were tracking the pass of time above their entangled bodies, unheeded, and it was very nearly morning before the lovers finally left for their respective beds back in Hogwarts.

Later that morning, Harry overslept. Ron wasn't there to wake him up, and he was badly in the need of sleep. He was dreaming of flying with Cedric, and suddenly his broom started to jolt and buckle in the dream, shaking him. Harry woke up.

Dobby was staring at his face from the distance of only a couple of inches. He was shaking Harry by the shoulder.

"Harry Potter must wake up!" Dobby shouted, agitated. "Harry Potter is late, he must not sleep. They have taken his Wheezy and Harry Potter must get him back."

"What?" Harry croaked, his throat dry.

"Your Wheezy, sir. Harry Potter must wake up. Harry Potter must run. Second task is in ten minutes. Harry Potter must not be late."

When the reality of the words penetrated Harry's foggy mind, his sleepiness evaporated in an instant. He grabbed his clothes, got dressed as quickly as he possibly could, stuffed the jar of gillyweed in his pocket, and ran.

"Good luck, Harry Potter, sir! Good luck!" Dobby shouted after him.

Harry made it, but it was as close as it gets. Before he could worry about it, though, he was standing knee-deep in extremely cold water, reluctantly eating gillyweed. The crowd was laughing at him, since he didn't show any signs of doing magic. Harry slowly waded deeper, trembling, until the water reached his mid-thigh. While looking around, he noticed Fred and George grinning and waving at him with some other Gryffindors. It cheered him up, and he continued munching the gillyweed. It looked somewhat like greyish rat-tails and was both slimy and chewy. But to Harry's relief, it worked. Breathing air suddenly became hard and the water, instead of cold, started to feel refreshing. Harry dived, his mouth open, and his newly formed gills started to filter oxygen from the water straight into his blood-stream. His toes and fingers elongated and became webbed, propelling him fast in his new element. Harry had become aquatic.

Quite a while later, the Weasley twins were still sitting on a bench amongst all of the other students, except for the four champions. Unlike before, they had unusually dull expressions on their identical faces.

"A real spectator sport, this one, eh?" said Fred, leaning on his hands.

"I can't believe they actually dropped Quidditch for this. I mean, the dragons were all right..." said George.

"The dragons were brilliant!"

"That they were. But this is stupid."

"Moronic. We've been here what, almost an hour."

"Fiftyfive minutes or so, I reckon..." said George.

"...after this thing actually started, and at least half an hour before that. And we've seen what?" asked Fred.

"Two bubbleheads, one half-arse transfiguration..."

"...and a pair of gills, just barely."

"And then they all dived."

"And that's it, folks. Show's over. All we've seen after that..."

"...is the damn water."

"Stupid age line. We could have been in there, instead of cooling our arses here."

"The water's even colder."

"Yeah, you're right. It's bloody freezing, I tried."

"That's a consolation, at least."

"I'm so much happier now."

"Yeah, but bored."

"So bored... I think I'm gonna fall asleep."

"Don't blame you. This is idiotic."

"Good night, George."

"Night, Fred."

In the meantime, at the bottom of the lake, Harry was in trouble. While the audience up on the shore had been waiting, Harry had been busy. He had fought off a couple of grindylows, found the hostages and freed Ron. But the merpeople hadn't allowed him to free the other hostages. The three sleeping beauties, Cho, Hermione and a girl that could be no other than Fleur Delacour's sister had remained in their ropes until the other champions had started to arrive. The strange environment and somewhat menacing band of merpeople had made up Harry's mind; he had decided to wait and make sure that all the hostages were freed before returning to the surface.

The first one to arrive had been Cedric, with a huge bubble around his head. It had distorted his features a bit, but Harry had still been able to see the encouraging smile Cedric had offered him. They hadn't been able to speak. Cedric had waved his hands and pointed upwards and Harry had somehow tried to explain that everything was fine, and he'd be coming soon. Cedric had obviously wanted Harry to ascend with him. Harry had shaken his head vigorously. For a demonstration, he had shown Cedric how fast he could swim with his webbed feet. Finally Cedric had given up, shaken his head with something that looked like a rueful smile, and started to tow Cho up to the surface.

The next visitor had been Viktor Krum, half-transformed into a shark. He had been fast and efficient in freeing his hostage and leaving. Just when he had disappeared into the watery distance with Hermione, Fleur had arrived, looking uncharacteristically messy. She had had several cuts on her feet and hands and she had been able to swim using one hand only; it was quite obvious she had had rough time with grindylows. She had also had an air-bubble around her head. Harry had helped her to release her sister, and they had started their trip up to the surface together. After leaving the mervillage behind, Harry had taken both sleepers in tow, because Fleur had been unbearably slow. Both her injuries and the burden of her little sister were taking their toll.

Then they had seen a huge mass of seaweed floating above their heads. It had looked menacing, and for a good reason. It turned out to be a sort of floating fortress; the seaweed acted as a mother ship for a horde of grindylows.

So, at the time when the Weasley twins were dying of boredom, Harry was fighting for his life, and for the lives of Ron and a little girl he didn't even know. The very first attack had forced Fleur and Harry to separate. When Harry realised he had to somehow both fight and save the hostages, he did the only possible thing: tactical retreat. He towed Ron and little Miss Delacour away from the grindylows as fast as he possibly could. Then, having reached a spot with clear waters above, Harry put the Banishing Charm into good use and sent Fleur's sister and Ron zooming up towards the surface, one after the other. Then he turned back towards the horde of grindylows approaching him at an alarming rate. But now Harry's hands were free, and he could fully concentrate on staying alive and helping Fleur, who was facing the other half of the greedy water demons, hell-bent on tasting some fresh human.

At the same time elsewhere, the audience had witnessed first Cedric and later Krum returning safely with their loved ones (or in Cedric's case, best friend).

"What a spectacle!" said Fred sarcastically.

"Yeah, they've gotten dames from the waves. Hurrah!" replied George.

"Too bad we missed all the good bits..."

"I'm not so sure anymore," said George. "The wet clothes did cling to the said dames quite interestingly..."

"Hear, hear!" said Fred.

After he had dried himself with a spell, Cedric went to look for Neville. He had, of course, heard from Harry about Neville's expertise on Herbology and involvement in the gillyweed business. And now he was worried, again, and for a good reason. He found Neville sitting with Ginny and other Gryffindors nearby.

"You're Neville Longbottom, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes..." Neville replied, sounding quite befuddled and a bit nervous.

"Can I have a word, please?"

"Yes, of course," Neville replied and followed Cedric a bit further from the other Gryffindors. "What is it?" he then asked, even more nervously.

"About Harry and his gillyweed. How long does the effect last?" Cedric asked, cutting straight into the heart of the matter. "He's been under over an hour already. What happens if the gillyweed stops working while he's still at the bottom of the lake?"

Neville paled a little, but he had an answer ready. "It might wear off any minute now, but he has some extra with him in a jar. He can eat that and get back up safely," Neville said. "I hope," he then added, with a slightly trembling voice.

"Me too," Cedric agreed. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Neville replied. "But how did you know to ask me about the gillyweed?"

"Harry told me." Cedric said, regarding the plump boy. "He thinks highly of you, you know."

"I..." Neville started, looking bashful, but he never managed to finish. There was a commotion spreading through the crowd, and Cedric bolted in the middle of Neville's sentence. Something was happening on the lake, and he needed a better view. He ran back to the champion's box, which was on a high platform reaching over the water, and thus commanded a perfect view over the water. The judges as well as Cho, Krum and Hermione were staring at the lake and pointing.

Harry had managed to reach Fleur. They were now back to back, defending against the grindylows coming from all directions except up. That was lucky, because it allowed them to swim slowly upwards while fighting. With Fleur's injuries it would have been too risky to try a fast escape. The water demons were devilishly fast, and the champions were exhausted already. But it wasn't as dark as before, they were obviously not very deep any more. Suddenly Harry started to feel short of breath. The effect of the gillyweed was fading, fast. He took the jar out of his pocket, but couldn't open it with just one hand.

Harry stopped his defensive spell work for a moment to open the jar, and one brave-hearted grindylow instantly made a mad dash at him, sinking its sharp teeth into Harry's hand. With horrible sluggishness the jar slipped from Harry's grip, flipped first one way, then the other, and sunk all the time. Harry desperately tried to catch it, but the trashing grindylow tearing at his hand was making his movements erratic. Harry only managed to touch the jar with his fingertips, twice, and then it was beyond his reach, glimmering tantalizingly as it sunk.

There was only one thought in Harry's head. "Air!" He stunned the water demon and managed to get rid of it. Then he looked at Fleur who stared at him, terrified, she had obviously noticed that Harry didn't have the gills anymore. She pointed to the surface and Harry started to swim upwards as fast as he could. Fleur followed, but so did the remaining grindylows. After just a couple of meters Harry felt the first creatures gripping his feet. He was out of air already, and the surface seemed hopelessly far, even if it was less than ten meters away.

The excitement in the audience was caused by the two remaining hostages, who had suddenly popped up to the surface. They instantly woke up, looked around and started to swim ashore. But there was no sign of either Harry or Fleur. When Cedric saw that, he felt a terrible foreboding. He didn't stop to decide what would be the wisest thing to do. Instead, he ran to the railing of the platform and threw himself over. Someone shrieked. In fact, quite a few someones. But only a moment later the shouts of terror were replaced by a collective sigh of admiration.

The hostages were some way off from the shore, and Cedric didn't want to waste any time on swimming. Instead, in the middle of his fall, he transfigured himself into a beautiful white seagull. He spread his wings and soared high above the place where the hostages had first come up. He could see movement down below the surface, and not very deep either, maybe ten meters or so. Cedric the seagull adjusted his wings and plunged into an exhilarating vertical dive.

He did what many seabirds do when they come by a nice school of fish swimming near the surface. He dived very fast with the wings close to his body and pierced the water like an arrow. What usually surprises the fish, had a similar effect on grindylows. When Cedric suddenly dove amongst the water demons like a blindingly white, hissing thunderbolt, they scattered. What was left was Fleur looking rather pale, and Harry looking rather blue and glass-eyed. Cedric transfigured himself back into his human form, swam to Harry, and pressed his lips firmly to Harry's mouth. Then he exhaled a lungful of sweet, fresh air into Harry's mouth. Once he saw Harry's eyes looking at him, awake once more, he broke the kiss carefully and started to tow Harry up to the surface, hastily. After all, he had just shared all the air he had. The grindylows had had enough of the excitement and disappeared into the depths. After what seemed like a much longer and slower rise than it actually was, the two boys broke the surface of the lake. Harry's hands were wrapped around Cedric like he never wanted to let go again.

A few seconds later, Fleur joined them, and the audience went wild. If nothing else, at least they knew that the second task, probably the most boring task to watch in the whole history of Tri-Wizard tournament, was finally over.

TO BE CONTINUED