Chapter 3 – In The Hospital Wing
"If you would please wait a moment, Cedric," said Dumbledore once the other champions and their families. "I have something I wish to say to you."
Cedric turned around and nodded.
"Your parents and Ms. Chang may go wait for you in the hospital wing. We shan't be long."
"They can stay," countered Cedric. "We tell each other everything."
At this, Cho felt her heart swell with affection for her boyfriend. She'd yet to meet a more kind-hearted and honorable person, ever. But she could also tell by the shaking of Cedric's hand that he was anxious, and she promised herself that she'd stay with him for as long as he needed her there.
"It is because of you, Cedric, that Harry Potter did not touch the Triwizard Cup tonight, and that he was not forced into aiding and abetting the resurrection of Lord Voldemort. Harry, the entire school of Hogwarts, and the entire Wizarding Community at large owe you an enormous debt of gratitude."
"Thank you, Headmaster," said Cedric, "But it's not thanks to me that the task was stopped. I never would've thought to stop it if my wonderful girlfriend Cho hadn't warned me to stop and ask for help if anything went amiss. That's why I asked Krum why he was Imperiused, and it's why I asked for help from the teachers. Otherwise, I would've tried to finish the task before I asked for answers. So, I owe Cho for saving my life, and Harry owes it to her that he didn't have to meet You-Know-Who."
"Well, at the end of the day, it was your decision," said Cho.
"You're too modest, my boy," added Amos Diggory.
"I'm just glad Cho reminded me what my priorities were," said Cedric.
"I'm glad you are all so close to one another," said Dumbledore. "You will need that more than ever in the days ahead."
"Will you be trying to fight You-Know-Who now that you know he's gathering his followers, Professor Dumbledore?" asked Cedric.
"I will," said Dumbledore. "But we will discuss that more in the coming days. In the meantime, I need to go rescue the real Alastor Moody from wherever Barty Crouch has been holding him hostage. Would you care to help me, Cedric?"
"Yeah, absolutely," said Cedric.
They walked in silence to Professor Moody's office. When they entered, Dumbledore instructed them to search everything in the office, while being careful to avoid jinxes and hexes.
They didn't find anything jinxed against them, but after a few minutes, Natalie Diggory produced a set of keys. "Aha! We should open his trunk!" she exclaimed.
"Thank you, Mrs. Diggory," said Dumbledore. He raised the keys to the lock on the trunk and all seven locks disengaged…
At the bottom of seven open layers of trunks lay an unconscious, badly beaten Mad-Eye Moody. He looked thin and tired and he was missing his magical eye and wooden leg, along with significant chunks of his hair. But it was definitely the real Mad-Eye Moody.
Dumbledore levitated Moody out of the trunk and Cho rushed to his side.
"He's alive," said Cho. She felt his neck for a pulse and uttered a couple of diagnostic spells. "I think he might be all right. I hope."
"Why, Miss Chang, are you considering becoming a Healer?" asked Professor Dumbledore.
"Maybe?" said Cho.
"Well, I do believe Alastor Moody will be all right. You see, the impostor would have needed to keep the real Mad-Eye Moody alive in order to continue to impersonate him. Although he is ill and rather weak, I do not believe our friend is in any danger at the moment. Madam Pomfrey will need to see him, though."
Cho nodded fervently. "I can take him to the Hospital Wing, Professor. Along with Cedric, of course."
"Thank you, Miss Chang," said Professor Dumbledore.
Cho nodded, and levitated the real Professor Moody so she could take him to the Hospital Wing. Cedric and his parents accompanied her.
It was well after midnight when Cedric, his parents, Cho, and Alastor Moody entered the hospital wing. The other champions were already in beds. Harry was being watched over by Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ron, and Hermione; Fleur was with her parents and little sister; and Krum was with his parents. Everyone seemed to be bidding everyone good night.
A large, shaggy black dog made its way into the hospital wing, following at a bit of a distance from the Diggorys, so it wouldn't bother them. It made its way to a bed at the very end of the wing to a skinny boy with round glasses, bright green eyes, and messy black hair.
Even though Sirius the Dog recognized Harry Potter on sight, he could've known Harry by smell, too, or by the soft timbre of his voice as he bade good night to Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, and Bill Weasley.
The dog gave Ron and Hermione an affectionate nudge as they approached, and they gave him an affectionate scratch on the ears, for they knew who he was and why he'd come.
Alone at last with his godson, Sirius nuzzled and licked his hand and let Harry pet him between the ears. "Hey, Sirius," whispered Harry.
Sirius the Dog gave an affectionate little grunt, before he found room at the end of Harry's hospital bed and curled up there to keep him company.
Madam Pomfrey was efficient, but thorough, in running diagnostic spells on Alastor Moody and then on Cedric. She concluded that Moody was all right but needed warmth and sleep before he woke up. And she concluded that Cedric was fine. In spite of how scared she was from tonight's events, Cho found the whole diagnostic process to be quite intriguing.
"Cedric seems really shaken up by tonight's events," said Cho. "Could you figure out if he has any lingering effects from the Cruciatus Curse?"
"The Cruciatus Curse?" asked Madam Pomfrey, agog. "Mr. Diggory, are you feeling quite sane?"
"Yes?" replied Cedric.
"Well, if it doesn't drive you insane, then the Cruciatus Curse merely leaves a lingering pain in one's bones. I have some potions to take away the pain, and to give you a peaceful, dreamless night of sleep. Would you like them? In the meantime, I believe I should-" Madam Pomfrey cast some healing charms on Cedric's arm to heal him of the burns that Hagrid's blast-ended screwts had inflicted on him in the maze.
"Thanks for healing my burns. I'll let you know in a bit about the potions, okay?" said Cedric. Then, he turned to Cho. "Are you all right, sweetheart? You haven't stopped shaking all evening."
Leave it to her Ced to have a near brush with death and still be thinking of her, even before he thought of himself.
Cho simply nodded as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. "I'm terrified."
Cedric embraced her, surrounding her in his strength, warmth, comfort, and love. "I'm scared too, sweetheart. But it's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. You-Know-Who hasn't come back to power."
"B-but he's out there," she said in a small, tremulous voice. To think, how close she'd come to losing her Cedric forever…
"I'm just so glad I could come back to you. Thank you so much for your advice, Cho. You probably saved all of us. I'm so proud of you."
"I'm so proud of you, too, Ced."
He waved his wand at his hospital bed, making it wider, before he laid down. "Can you please stay with me tonight, Cho?."
"Of course, I will," replied Cho as she laid down, pulled up the blankets, and snuggled up to him. "I'm just so glad you came back to me. I love you so much."
"I love you too, sweetheart," he said, and kissed her as he pulled her closer. As they snuggled together, their bodies fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.
As Cedric and Cho prepared to get some rest, Mr. and Mrs. Diggory approached them.
"Sleep well," said Mrs. Diggory. "We hope you'll feel better in the morning, Ced. We love you."
"We know this isn't the ending to the Triwizard Tournament that anyone imagined, Ced," said Mr. Diggory, "but we're so proud of you for standing up for yourself and the other champions. You saved everyone tonight. We're so glad you're all right, and that you saved the others. We love you so much."
"Thanks, Mum. Thanks, Dad. I love you, too."
After Viktor Krum bade goodnight to his parents, he let his thoughts wander.
He'd liked Cedric Diggory – Cedric Diggory was always good to him, even though he was from Durmstrang, with Karkaroff.
But as non-judgmental as Cedric Diggory was, Krum could also see he was perceptive. It was for that reason that Cedric had awoken him from a stunning spell – and from the Imperius Curse – and had bothered to ask what was going on. Viktor was relieved to know what had been done to him, rather than being left to wonder about this night for the rest of his life. Cedric was a good person, to uncover the truth like that.
Krum couldn't even imagine what might've happened if Harry and/or Cedric had touched the Triwizard Cup and had been transported to meet You-Know-Who in the flesh. It would've been horrific.
So Viktor Krum vowed to fight for Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory, whenever and wherever he could. Maybe he could even use his fame as a professional Quidditch player to rally support for the fight against You-Know-Who.
And in the meantime, he promised himself that he'd take special lessons to resist the effects of the Imperius Curse.
Of all four champions, Fleur Delacour was the only one unable to sleep. Her conversation with her family kept playing over and over in her head.
Well, specifically the sentence: "Jean-Pierre Duval has been asking about you."
The information was sending her into an existential quandary.
Ever since she was a little girl, Fleur Delacour had been the most beautiful woman in any room she entered. She knew that other women thought male attention was a heady thing, but for Fleur, it was just another fact of life as someone who was part-Veela. Idiotically besotted men were always staring agog at her, failing to listen to a word she said.
Well, not all men were besotted with her. Some of them, after all, were gay.
And then there was Cedric Diggory, who was straight, and friendly, but decidedly uninterested. Fleur propped herself on her elbow. Earlier this year, she'd rather hoped he would ask her to the Yule Ball, so she made full use of her Veela charms. But Cedric had asked out Cho Chang instead. Fleur supposed that Cho was pretty, but no human could hold a candle to a Veela. So why would Cedric pick Cho?
There was something intriguing about the way Cho and Cedric interacted with one another. It was something in the way they held eye contact, the way they spoke almost reverently to each other, the way they instinctively wrapped their arms around one another as they slept. Cedric and Cho knew one another on a soul-deep level, and Fleur could tell their love would last a lifetime. Would she ever have that?
Fleur took a moment to imagine her life with Jean-Pierre Duval, the only son of one of the richest, most prominent Pureblood families in France. She'd could marry him with a mere nod of her head – and then she'd be living in his family's beautiful countryside Chateau, drinking champagne with breakfast every morning, attending elaborate galas whenever the family cared to host one, and generally being otherwise free to spend her time as she chose. It should seem a blissful existence.
But she didn't want it. In fact, when Jean-Pierre proposed to her last summer, Fleur had decided on the spot that didn't just want to finish the last year of her magical education at Beauxbatons Academy, she also wanted to travel to the Triwizard Tournament in England. She wasn't ready to marry anyone, and the Triwizard Tournament seemed like such a grand adventure.
As Fleur turned her head away from Cedric and Cho, she noticed Bill Weasley entering the hospital wing. Not for the first time today, Fleur let her eyes wander over his dragon-fang earrings, flaming red hair, and tall, strong physique. Someone ought to put his picture in the dictionary next to the term eye candy. Wait, what was wrong with her? Men were the ones who stared at her, not the other way around!
He stopped and stood next to her bed. "How are you, Fleur?"
"I'm alright," she sighed.
"What a thing tonight, eh? I can't believe You-Know-Who was going to actually try to come back to power by kidnapping Harry. I'm so glad Cedric Diggory put a stop to the Third Task, and all the danger that came with it."
"I am also glad for zat," said Fleur.
"How was it, being a champion from Beauxbatons?" asked Bill. "My brother Charley Weasley brought dragons over for the First Task, so he got to watch. He said you were absolutely brilliant at getting past the Welsh Green."
"It was very frightening. When Madam Maxime told me the First Task was to be dragons, I could not believe it! But she helped me with the sorcery to get past the dragon, and I was quite relieved when the task was over."
"Bloody brilliant," said Bill, grinning ear to ear.
"Thank you," replied Fleur shyly. Compliments from men normally slid off her like water off a duck's back, but she'd never received a compliment about anything other than her appearance. It was new to hear such earnest praise for her performance and abilities, and it touched her deeply.
"Do you live in England?" Fleur asked, mainly because she couldn't think of anything else to say.
"My family live here, but I work for Gringotts in Egypt as a curse-breaker."
Small wonder – he had adventure written all over him. He was tanned from being out in the sun a lot, and Fleur overheard him telling Mrs. Weasley about one of his adventures when they met in the side room off the Great Hal this morning. "What does a curse breaker do?"
"Oh, all kinds of things. We recover ancient treasures for archaeological purposes, we safeguard existing vaults… You get a lot of stories."
"So tell me a story," said Fleur.
So he told her about how he'd gotten attacked last week by a 4,000-year-old cursed mummy. "So, there I am, being half-choked to death and fighting for my life, when it finally drags me into the light. And that's when I realize it's wearing goggles – the kind that World War I fighter pilots would wear, you know? Which is weird because I swore nobody'd been in that tomb for about two centuries. Then, the mummy finally drops me and I realize my supervisor Chester has been moving it about like a puppet the whole time. It's how they initiate newcomers."
Fleur couldn't help laughing – however dangerous Bill's job really was, the whole mummy story was simply ridiculous!
"Okay, I see how it is! She laughs her head off at the idea of me, afraid!"
Fleur simply laughed harder. "Bill, I am terribly sorry, but I fear I will fall asleep at any moment. Will you tell me another story tomorrow?"
His hand had been sitting beside hers on the bed, but now, he brushed his fingers over the back of her hand and then gave her hand a little squeeze. Fleur had never been so aware of another person's touch before. "Definitely," said Bill. "Maybe you can even tell me a story, too."
"I would like zat. Good night, Bill."
Fleur laid down her head, glad and happy that the adventuresome, rugged, and intriguing Bill Weasley wanted to get to know her. He'd fascinated her more in the past 10 minutes than Jean-Pierre had over the 10 years she'd known him. Maybe she wouldn't go back to France, or Jean-Pierre after the Beauxbatons students left Hogwarts.
Maybe she could go have a few adventures in Egypt and see a certain red-headed curse-breaker, if he cared to show her around. At the very least, he could help her improve her English…