Chapter 8, Old Friends Come Back

The last few days of summer vacation for Harry and his friends actually proved to be rather nice. There was no more talk of the destruction he had felt and Harry actually began to feel secure again. For Harry he was home now, Hogwarts proved to be the right answer to an already crazy summer. Bill and Charlie even had decided to return to work after they made sure the perimeter charms were firmly set into place around the Burrow. Sirius, Remus, Molly and Authur decided to make the most out of the vacation and stay with the children all the way up until the school year. For Harry his days turned to laughter and just being a typical teenage wizard with his family right by his side.

Ron and Hermione started to notice they weren't as compatible as they had thought. Harry had noticed the young couple was constantly in argument after argument. Harry felt he should step in and sort things out between his two best friends but he decided given his current situation he could not. He cared so very deeply for Hermione and if he said anything to them, Ginny would hate Hermione forever. Harry couldn't bear the thought of losing Ginny, Hermione, or Ron's friendship so the right reaction was to sit and wait.

It was the last day before the students arrived back at Hogwarts and Ron was beating Harry at Wizards Chess. Harry was about to give up hope on the game when he noticed a different type of ghost floating across the great hall. The ghost was young, tall and full of confidence. Harry got up from the table and ran up behind the ghost and asked the ghost to turn around. It was none other than Cedric Diggory.

Cedric turned to Harry and said, "Hello Harry. How are you?"

Harry was so shocked that he almost fell back onto the floor. "How did you… I mean you are,.."

"Quite dead I can assure you." Cedric politely replied. "I think I became a ghost not because of you and I owe a huge thank you to you for bringing me back to my family. Unfortunately, now I have work I need to finish here on this plane of existence and I need to finish here before I can move on."

Harry was still quite startled as Ron came running over to Harry and saw Cederic. "Whoa! Bloody hell!"

"Cederic, this is Ron, my best mate." Harry introduced.

"I know Ron already Harry. But, I do need to speak with you in private, but first I need to see Professor Dumbledore." Cederic stated.

"Oh." Harry replied still startled, "All right then, follow me."

Harry led Cedric up to Professor Dumbledore's office the stone Phoenix was staring Harry in the face as he said, "Pixie Stick." And the phoenix turned to reveal a spiral staircase ascending to Dumbledore's office.

The office shimmered in the odd nick- knacks that were crammed into the main chamber. The portraits of Headmasters and professors of past and present filled seemingly never-ending walls to the roof. Fawkes squawked as Harry walked over and gave the red and yellow phoenix a treat. Cedric stared at the walls with awe, as they appeared to move and shift.

"T-t-he walls. Its like they are breathing." Cedric stammered.

Harry looked at Cederic and walked forward towards the walls. He began to lift his hand towards the wall to touch it.

"Mr. Potter. Can I help you with something?" Harry was startled backwards when Professor Dumbledore spoke.

Harry's attention was turned away from the wall and back towards Cederic and Professor Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore sir. Sorry about the interruption."

"It is quite alright Harry. I assure you. Now what brings you and Mr…?"

"Oh sorry sir. This is Cederic Diggory. He became a ghost."

Professor Dumbledore settled down in his char as he looked at Cederic and the normally blue light seemed to diminish slightly. "Oh my." he mumbled.

"Please sit down both of you." He motioned the both of them to sit down.

"Professor Dumbledore, I feel that I need to speak to you about something, but I'm not sure what." Cederic said.

Dumbledore turned to his side opened his desk drawer and pulled out a pensive with a golden phoenix and a ring just like Harry's encrusted in the belly of the phoenix. "I had a feeling we were going to need this." Dumbledore said.

Cederic still looked confused as Harry spoke up "Sir is that what I think it is?"

"Yes Harry it is a pensive, but it is more thank a pensive. It is your pensive." Dumbledore answered. Harry looked confused.

"Why does Harry need a pensive?" Cederic questioned. "I mean no disrespect sir but my business is with you."

"Actually Harry is the one you need to speak with and this will aide you in your story you need to talk about."

"Professor what am I going to talk about?" Harry spoke up.

"Why Harry haven't you figured that out yet? The Triwizard Tournament of course."

The cold shock of terror struck Harry as he closed his eyes and sat back in the chair. He could still remember the look in Cederic's eyes as he told Harry that they were going to be champions together.

Cederic looked down at his body as he to closed his eyes and remembered the pain he felt as Voldermort said Avada Kedavra.

"Okay Professor What do you want to know?" Cedric Said.

"I want you to start by telling me everything you remember the moment you died physically."

A shaky Cedric cleared his mind and stared at a distant spot somewhere far away as he parted his mouth, "Well, I remember everything up to the moment of my death." The words rang thru Harry's head as he looked at the detail on Dumbledore's desk. "I remember Harry looking at me terrified as he began to realize what had happened. I remember looking into Harry's eyes as my executioner took a stance and pointed his wand at my chest. Before I could react, Harry…" Cederic's voice trailed off as Cedric began to get upset along with Harry. "I'm so sorry Harry. If only I had taken the cup alone or if I had enough common sense to kill that evil man who pointed his wand at me, you would have been spared the torture of his evil hands." Cedric's voice began to climb with coldness and anger as he began to speak again, "I remember the look of my killer as I was killed and my body felt like the life was sucked out of me. I also know what its like to see my own dead body as my soul was sent screaming towards that wand. But then something happened, my soul split and only part of my soul was sent into that wand, because I saw my body float up and become what I am today, a ghost."

"Cedric, you are very brave for telling me this and I am filling the pensive with everything we discuss here today. You are, ½ the man you need to be. You see, Harry the ghost we see here today is here for a purpose." Harry wiped his eyes as he looked square at Dumbledore with a glaring inquisitively. "Cedric needs his the other part of his soul back and the only way we can do that is if you destroy Voldermort."

Harry stared at the old man in front of him as if he had just hit him with a ton of bricks. How was he supposed to do that? If only it was as easy as just saying his name Harry thought. "And just how am I going to do that?" Harry asked out loud.

"Harry it is time you started to understand everything you are, and everything you are going to become. It is time I told you everything." A distant glow came from Albus Dumbledore's eyes as he shifted in his seat and looked squarely at Harry and Cedric. He began, "Harry, your parents are not ghosts for a reason. They completed their life tasks before they died. They saved you with an ancient magical incantation that allowed them to be sacrificed for you. Harry, you need to understand how powerful of a wizard you are. The skills you posses can only be explained one way. Harry, could you please call your pet phoenix."

"Flame? What does Flame have to do with this?" Harry asked inquisitively/

"Everything." Dumbledore answered.

Cedric looked around totally confused as Harry called his pet phoenix. Flame flew into the office with his tail burning a streak of fire from it. The pet phoenix squawked loudly as it saw Fawkes from across the room. The two phoenixes exchanged knowing glances from each other as they settled down on the perch together. Then without warning Flame took off for the Sorting hat and grabbed the hat and flew over to Harry. The hat landed in Harry's lap and a shiny silver hilt shone thru the hat.

"Well Harry. Go ahead reach inside of the hat. But I must warn you, once the bond between you and your phoenix is complete, your destiny is sealed forever." Dumbledore stated.

Harry's gaze never left the hat, as he asked, "What if I don't want to? What if I can't fulfill my destiny sir?"

"Well there is only one way to find out isn't there?" Dumbledore replied.

The silver hilt shone thru the hat as Harry looked at the hat with wanting and longing. He couldn't help but to realize that the bejeweled handle seemed to beckon his hand towards the hat. The handle was missing one stone. It was as if the stone from Harry's ring seemed to belong into that handle. Harry started to drift off into a subconscious state as the castle from Harry's dreams started to come into view, he pushed away the hat and was pulled into reality as he looked at Dumbledore and stood up.

"Professor I think I would like to leave now." Harry looked disturbed as he watched the glow in Dumbledore's eyes dim.

"Okay Harry. Whatever you need to do is fine."

"Thank you sir." Harry turned to leave as Cedric began to chat again with Dumbledore.

Harry left the headmasters office and began to wander the hallways aimlessly into the night. Soon after the castle went dark he ran into Hermione.

"Harry are you okay?" were the only words she asked.

Harry had the appearance of having seen a ghost. He was distant and non-responsive as he looked into Hermione's eyes and smiled. He saw warmth there inside of her eyes he had never noticed until she was dating Ron. Hermione drew dangerously close to Harry as his gaze swept her up his body. They said nothing as they drew dangerously close to each other's lips. Harry could feel the hair on the back of his neck rise with anticipation as he stared into the pools of reflection of Moine's gaze. Hermione lifted her neck up to meet his rise. Their lips touched each other like a cool wave of anticipation falling over them like a waterfall.