Chapter 2
Note: I'm skipping from an incident in Cedric's third year (HP Book 1) to the end of Cedric's 6th year and the end of the Triwizard Tournament (HP Book 4). This chapter will tell the story of the Third Task from Cedric's perspective. I have inserted some of the dialogue from Book 4.
On the morning of the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, 17-year-old Hogwarts Champion Cedric Diggory woke with an odd sense of foreboding.
It was odd, honestly, that he was feeling this way. Even if he crashed and burned in the first few minutes of the Third Task, Cedric knew that his parents would still be proud of him for doing as well as he'd done in the past two tasks, that all his friends and the whole house of Hufflepuff would still be proud and supportive of him, and that he'd get to celebrate with his lovely girlfriend Cho Chang that the Triwizard Tournament was over. And if something terribly injurious happened to him in the maze, then a teacher would be there to rescue him.
In short, he was going to be fine. It wasn't like Saturday June 24, 1995 was going to be his last day on Earth or anything.
He headed down to breakfast, putting on a brave face for all the Hogwarts students who were rooting for him. The room buzzed with energy and excitement over the Third Task. Fred and George Weasley and their friend Lee Jordan were even taking bets for who would win the tournament.
Professor McGonagall tapped Cedric on the shoulder and let him know he should go to the room where the champions had gathered the night they'd been chosen. Fleur and Krum were already on their way over there – was there something else the champions needed to be told before the task tonight?
But it was nothing task-related: Fleur was greeting her parents and her little sister Gabrielle, Krum was conversing with his own parents in rapid Bulgarian, and Mrs. Weasley and her son Bill were waiting – presumably for Harry, who was Ron Weasley's friend.
And then his own parents, Amos and Natalie Diggory, were hugging him from both sides and proclaiming, "Surprise!" Cedric greeted them by happily returning their hugs. It would be good to show them around the grounds today and relax a little before the Third Task.
As the happy trio left the room and made their way out through the Great Hall, they passed Harry, who was leaving with Mrs. Weasley and her eldest son Bill.
"There you are, are you?" sneered Amos Diggory, looking Harry up and down. "Bet you're not feeling quite as full of yourself now Cedric's caught up on points, are you?"
"What?" said a confused Harry.
"Ignore him," Cedric said to Harry in a low voice, frowning at his father. "He's been angry ever since Rita Skeeter's article about the Triwizard Tournament – you know, when she made out you were the only Hogwarts Champion."
"Didn't bother to correct her though, did he?" said Amos, loudly enough for Harry to hear as he started to walk out the door with Mrs. Weasley and Bill. "Still… you'll show him, Ced. Beaten him once before, haven't you?"
"Rita Skeeter goes out of her way to cause trouble, Amos," shouted an angry Mrs. Weasley. "I would've thought you'd know that, working at the Ministry!"
Mr. Diggory looked as though he was going to say something angry, but his wife laid a hand on his arm, and he merely shrugged and turned away.
The Diggorys and the Weasleys walked out in opposite directions.
"Dad, you don't need to antagonize Harry," Cedric moaned once they were out of earshot of the Weasleys. "It's not like he wanted to get entered into this tournament against his own will."
"Well, I'm not sure I believe it," huffed Amos. "The Boy Who Lived steals the spotlight constantly and the one time you have so much as an opportunity to show the Wizarding World what you're capable of, he does this… it makes me sick."
"Well, there's nothing we can really do about that now… so Cedric, do you want to show us around the grounds? I can't wait to see this place for the first time!"
Cedric's dad had gone to Hogwarts (he'd been a Gryffindor) but his mom was a muggle therapist/professor of psychology who hadn't even heard of the Wizarding World until she'd met his dad.
"Yeah, totally," replied Ced. "Wait until you see the Astronomy Tower! And the Quidditch Pitch!"
"If they're anything like the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall…" Natalie marveled.
"It's bloody amazing," said Ced. "Trust me."
Despite the sense of foreboding in the back of his mind, Cedric had a wonderful day showing his parents around the Hogwarts grounds. They'd met his girlfriend Cho Chang over lunch in the Great Hall and had taken a shine to her instantly. (Cho was worried about meeting them, but Ced knew they'd love her.) His dad had enjoyed re-visiting Hogwarts, and his mom was delighted to get to see it for the first time.
At dinner, Cedric felt his nerves mounting. The food at Hogwarts was always so good, but he couldn't seem to choke down more than a few bites. If he held out his hands in front of him, he could see them shaking. They shouldn't be.
At the end of the evening feast, Dumbledore rose to his feet at the staff table and silence fell. "Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now."
Cedric got up, to a standing ovation from every Hufflepuff at the table. His parents and Cho joined in, too, before he headed out of the great Hall with Harry, Fleur, and Viktor.
They arrived at the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A fwenty-foot-high hedge ran around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.
The stands began to fill with spectators five minutes later, and Cho Chang and his parents approached him.
The second Cho was within reach, she threw his arms around him. "I love you, Ced. Please be safe in there."
"I will, sweetheart," he said, hugging her back. "And hey… people change in that maze, but no matter what happens, I will never stop loving you in this or any other lifetime. You got me?"
"I got you," said Cho, her eyes gone glassy with emotion.
Then they kissed, sweet and slow. They were oblivious to whoever might be watching them – and a lot of people were probably watching them.
"I'll see you after the task, okay?" asked Cedric when they broke apart.
"No matter what happens, we're celebrating," said Cho, before she stole one last quick kiss for luck and then scampered off to join her friend Marietta in the stands.
Then, his parents approached him. His mother hugged him first. "We love you so much! Amos and I are so proud of you! Good luck in there, okay?"
"Thanks, Mom," he said, kissing her cheek.
His dad was next to approach him. They had limited time, because Mr. Bagman was sure to start announcing the start of the Third Task any minute now – and Cedric was feeling a mounting sense of urgency.
"You've got this, son," Amos said, patting him on the shoulder.
"Dad?" asked Cedric all at once in a voice that sounded small and half-strangled. "I, uh, know you were hoping for a son that'd follow you into Gryffindor rather than going into Hufflepuff. And, uh, would you be disappointed in me if I, ah, lost to Harry Potter?"
"Don'g worry, Ced. You're going to win this tournament – I feel it in my bones."
"Thanks, Dad." Cedric hugged his father, hoping for some reassurance in his embrace that his words didn't quite provide. "I love you."
"Time for everyone to go to the stands!" Mr. Bagman interrupted.
With that, Cedric's parents waved a begrudging goodbye and left.
The introduction of the Third Task was simple: Ludo Bagman introduced the professors who would patrol the maze – they wore luminous stars on their hats (or, in Hagrid's case, on the back of his moleskin vest).
"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," said Professor McGonagall to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"
The champions nodded.
"Off you go then!" said Bagman brightly to the patrollers.
All too soon, Bagman had finished announcing the champions and their point totals, before blowing the whistle for Harry and Cedric – who were tied for points – to enter the maze. It was so dark that both Harry and Cedric had to light their wands. After fifty yards or so, they reached a fork.
"See you," Harry said as he took the left one, while Cedric took the right.
Cedric had barely been walking a couple of moments when he encountered one of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Screwts.
"Stupefy!' he yelled at the thing, but the spell didn't seem to penetrate its armor. The hideous creature advanced toward him, and another one joined it.
They both raised their stingers to shoot an explosion at Cedric, who shouted, "Protego!"
But the spell didn't quite protect Cedric in time, and his sleeve caught on fire. It was mostly burned away before Cedric managed to extinguish it.
"Impedimenta!" he said, pointing his wand back at the Screwts.
This time, both of them were blasted to smithereens, allowing Cedric to make his way farther into the maze ahead.
He came to a junction where he found Harry Potter, who eyed his smoldering sleeve questioningly.
"It's Hagrid's Blast-Ended Screwts!" he warned Harry. "They're enormous – I only just got away!" Then, he ran off into the maze, away from Harry and any more creatures.
Cedric reached a few more dead-ends in the maze and he had to use the Four-Point spell to guide himself toward the center of the maze. All in all, this was going pretty smoothly.
As he ran onward, Cedric heard a scream shatter the silence of the maze.
He knew that scream. "Fleur?"
No one responded, and there was no sign of Fleur in sight. Should he go looking for her? Where would he even begin? Why wasn't Cedric seeing red sparks shot up somewhere? Could she not reach her wand before she went down? He could only hope that the professors patrolling the maze would find her and help her out.
Regardless of whether he wanted to help Fleur or just finish this tournament, Cedric knew that he had to go onward, so onward he went.
He made his way past another challenge – some silvery mist that distorted his vision – before he crossed paths with none other than Viktor Krum.
Cedric supposed it was possible that champions might cross paths while in the maze, but something about the way Krum turned to him, wand raised, made him scared.
"What are you doing?" yelled Cedric, hoping to jar the other champion to his senses.
What the hell d' you think you're doing?"
And then, out of the blue, Krum yelled, "Crucio!"
All at once, Cedric felt as if a thousand hot knives were piercing his body. The pain was too intense to move, to think, to do anything but scream. Cedric only had the headspace to wonder why his kind, gentle friend Viktor Krum was doing this.
The pain was interminable. Cedric would die of it here, maybe go insand like the poor tortured Longbottoms-"
"Stupefy!"
All at once, the pain ended when Harry Potter had stunned Viktor Krum, who then fell motionless, facedown in the grass.
The next thing Cedric knew, Harry was helping him up. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yeah," he panted. "Yeah… I don't believe it… he crept up behind me… I heard him, I turned around, and he had his wand on me…"
Cedric got up, still shaking. He and Harry then looked down at the motionless Krum.
"I can't believe this… I thought he was all right," Harry said, staring at Krum.
"So did I," said Cedric.
"Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?" said Harry.
"Yeah," said Cedric. "You don't think Krum got her too?"
"I don't know," said Harry slowly.
"Should we leave him here?" Cedric muttered.
"No," said Harry. "I reckon we should send up red sparks. So,eone'll come and collect him… otherwise he'll probably be eaten by a skrewt."
"He'd deserve it," Cedric muttered, but all the same, he raised his wand and shot a shower of red sparks into the air, which happened high above Krum, marking the spot where he lay.
Harry and Cedric stood there in the darkness for a moment, looking around them. Then, Ceric said, "Well… I s'pose we'd better go on…"
"What?" said Harry. "Oh… yeah… right…"
It was an odd moment. He and Harry had been briefly united against Krum – now the fact that they were opponents had been uncomfortably brought up by Cedric. He wished, momentarily, that he hadn't mentioned it.
The two of them proceeded up the dark path without speaking, then Harry turned left while Cedric turned right. Harry's footsteps soon died away.
Cedric moved on, continuing to use the Four-Point Spell, making sure he was moving in the right direction. It was between him and Harry now. Wait, what if he actually managed to win this tournament? The idea had him speeding up.
The rest of the maze was pretty uneventful, unless you counted an encounter with a Boggart (which Cedric easily disarmed with a Ridikulus charm) and a Banshee (which Cedric silenced before she could even release the power of her voice on him). Then, the maze re-grew in a whole bunch of different directions that had him messed up and confused – but the Four-Point Spell guided him in the right direction and the Diffindo charm helped him get through the overgrowth.
He had to be close now, he knew it. His wand was telling him he was bang on course, and since nothing horrible seemed to stand in his way, he might have a chance… Cedric broke into a run.
All at once, he saw the Triwizard Cup gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. He could actually win this tournament! He sprinted for it, not looking at anything else.
"Cedric!" he heard Harry's voice bellowing. "On your left!"
He looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it, but in his haste, he tripped. Cedric felt this wand fly out of his hand as he saw the gigantic spider step into the path and begin to bear down upon him.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled, but the spell only caused the spider to scuttle toward Harry instead.
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!" Harry shouted as Cedric scrambled for his wand. But the spells did not deter or prevent the spider from picking him up in its front legs, biting him as he tried to kick it.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, causing the spider to drop him. He fell onto his injured leg, which crumpled beneath him.
Cedric, finally ready to aim at the spider, pointed his wand at its underbelly and yelled, "Stupefy!" at the same moment that Harry did.
The two spells combined did what one alone had not: the spider keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of harry legs.
"Harry!" Cedric shouted, "You all right? Did it fall on you?"
"No," he could hear Harry call back. Then, he saw Harry, standing on one wounded leg.
"Take it then," Harry panted to Cedric. "Go one, take the Triwizard Cup. You're there."
But Cedric didn't move. He took a longing look at the Triwizard Cup and all the glory it represented. He could walk just a few feet and take it, and fame and fortune would be his… but his conscience held him back.
Cedric took a deep breath. "You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck in here."
"That's not how it's supposed to work," Harry said, "The one who reaches the cup first gets the points and wins the tournament. I' telling you, I'm not going to win any races on this leg.
Cedric walked away from the cup and toward Harry, shaking his head. "No."
"Stop being noble," complained Harry. "Just take it, then we can get out of here."
Cedric watched Harry steadying himself, holding tight to the hedge. "You told me about the dragons. I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."
"I had help on that too," Harry snapped, trying to mop up his bloody leg with his robes. "You helped me with the egg – we're square."
"I had help on the egg in the first place," said Cedric.
"We're still square," said Harry.
"You should've got more points on the second task," Cedric reflected. "You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that."
"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously! Just take the cup!"
"No," protested Cedric as he walked toward Harry. He knew he was walking away from the sort of glory Hufflepuff House hadn't had in centuries, the kind of glory that would last a lifetime. It hurt like crazy to give up his chance, but he couldn't just ignore Harry. "Go on," he added.
Harry's face took on a far-away look for a few moments, and then he turned back to Cedric.
"Both of us," Harry said.
"What?" asked Cedric, unable to believe his ears.
"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."
Cedric stared at Harry incredulously. "You – you sure?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah… we've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take it together."
Cedric could hardly believe his ears. What a simple, beautiful solution! Harry was right – they had helped each other, and if that wasn't what Hogwarts was about, then what even was?! Hufflepuff was about to see the kind of glory it hadn't seen in centuries and Cedric would be the cause! "You're on," he replied, grinning. "Come here."
Cedric helped Harry walk to the cup, for Harry's leg had been badly injured by the giant spider. When they reached the plinth where the cup stood, they both held a hand out over one of its gleaming handles. "On three, right?" said Harry.
"One – two – three – "
They each grasped a handle.
Instantly, Cedric felt the telltale jerk of a portkey, pulling him forward, with Harry by his side.
All at once, Cedric felt himself slam to the ground, Harry by his side. He got up and then pulled Harry to his feet so they could look around.
"Where are we?" Harry asked.
It was a good question – because it seemed they had left the Hogwarts grounds completely and they might be hundreds or thousands of miles away from the castle. They were a dark and overgrown graveyard.
Cedric looked back at the portkey, nonplussed. "Did anyone tell you the cup was a portkey?" he asked.
"Nope," said Harry. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"
"I dunno," said Cedric. "Wands out, d' you reckon?"
"Yeah," said Harry.
Suddenly, Cedric sensed something coming. A dark figure in a cloak that appeared to be carrying a baby-like parcel in its arms. Cedric couldn't see the face of the person, or the baby-like bundle.
Suddenly, Harry collapsed on the spot, clutching the scar on his forehead. Cedric didn't know what to do – what was causing this?
Suddenly, he heard a high, shrill voice proclaim, "Kill the spare!"
Kill the spare? What did that even mean?
But he found out all too soon, because a second voice shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" and then the flash of green light hit Cedric squarely in the chest.