Cedric knelt at the edge of a cloud, staring down in horror at the...the...the thing below him. It could hardly be called human, even if it walked, talked, casted spells, and sort of looked like one. The figure beneath the black robes was not a man, but a monster. Its face was disturbing, greenish-white and snakelike; Cedric didn't want to look at it. However, he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. He knew it was unreasonable to be afraid, since (and this was difficult to wrap his mind around) he was already dead, and yet...how could one look at the face of Voldemort and not feel any fear?

He was scared for Harry, who had been to him something of a friend, and at the very least an ally; but as for Lily and James...he was their son. He couldn't imagine how they felt, especially since none of them had the power to intervene.

"We can't do anything, can we?" he asked.

Lily shook her head frustratedly. "We can't...James, can you think of anything?"

James shook his head, and Cedric saw real fear, fear for his son, flicker across his face. "Something's gonna happen. It has to. It has to!"

Cedric swallowed, his throat dry. Voldemort was walking around, speaking to Harry and his followers now. Cedric wasn't sure what he was saying; he wasn't sure he wanted to know. His hands curled into fists on his knees. He was amazed that Harry looked relatively calm. There was an object on the ground some distance away from the group...was that a person?
Cedric looked closer and went cold. His stomach felt like a rock; he thought he might be sick. That was his body, his hair blown back and his eyes staring blankly at the sky. Cedric swallowed and shuddered, tearing his eyes away. I'm only seventeen. I shouldn't have to see my own corpse.

Cedric, Lily, and James watched as Voldemort finished his speech and said something to Harry. When he forced Harry to bow, James looked like he was about to hit something. Cedric watched in shock as their spells connected in a half-red, half-green beam of light, like a deadly Christmas decoration. Suddenly, a golden cage-like structure of light appeared around them. Cedric watched in shock as Voldemort's wand emitted a silvery shadow of a hand- what was going on?

Then he felt a tugging sensation at his feet. It was almost like a Portkey (Cedric never wanted to see one of those again). He was pulled through the cloud he was standing on, down into the scene, except for a moment he felt tiny, compressed, smaller than a quill. Then he was standing in front of Harry, and from the shock on the other boy's face, Cedric knew Harry could see him.
"Hold on," he said, the only thing he could think of to say.

Then, remembering what he had seen through the sky earlier, he had one last request. "Take my body back," he told Harry. "Take my body back to my parents."

After several people he didn't know, Cedric then saw Lily emerge from Voldemort's wand, as he knew he must have done. The shock and amazement on Harry's face when he had seen Cedric were nothing to his expression at the sight of his mother.

"Your father's coming..." she said. "He wants to see you...it will be all right...hold on..."

Cedric saw the sadness pooling in her eyes; he knew that she wanted to say so much more.

She was followed by James, and his eyes held not only sadness but pride, pride at the strength and courage of his son against unimaginable odds. Cedric wished for his and Lily's sake that they would have more time, that they could say more, but he knew that the duel would soon be over, and they would fade.

The strength in Harry's face when he broke the connection and they disappeared would be cemented in all three of their memories.