Author: Black Knight

Author email: JonathonCottrell@aol.com
Category: action/adventure/romance

Rating: R, Harry and the gang are all teenagers now, and will be acting accordingly
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Spoilers: first 4 books of Canon.

Chapter 2- Shared dreams

It is better to die free, than to live as a slave

In her room in the Burrow, Ginny Weasley wakes up in a cold sweat, her nightshirt clinging clammily to her skin, the cold night air causing her arms to goose-pimple as she breaths deeply, recovering from the nightmare that woke her

'Just a nightmare, just a nightmare, nothing more'

She wasn't surprised to find that she was dreaming of Harry, she dreamt of him a lot, although she would never willingly admit it to anyone, not even Bill (her oldest brother, and the only one that doesn't treat her like a little girl anymore)

She starts to think about the nightmare, and decides that she'll ask Harry about it when he comes, looking at the clock, that reads 4 a.m., lies back down, entering a pleasant sleep filled with dreams of a young emerald eyed boy with ebony hair.

*

The sounds of birdsong filter through the open window weren't loud enough to wake her up, but the bright sunlight shining on her face aswell was, whilst not altogether irritating, enough to wake her from her pleasant dream about a Yule ball where she said no to Neville and went with Harry.

He would be arriving on the 3rd, Thursday, just afew days after his birthday, for almost one whole month at the Burrow, and they'd be throwing him a belated birthday party on Friday.

Walking over to her cupboard, she opens the door and looks at the small package in it, it would be the first birthday present she ever given him, and she hopes he likes it.

Pulling some clean cloths out, she quickly gets dressed and heads down for breakfast.

*

When she gets downstairs, the somewhat ordered chaos that is the Weasley Family are unusually silent, Fred and George whispering to each other over their bacon and eggs, Charlie, who's moved home from Romania so he's closer to the family, and so he can take the temporary position as care of professor at Hogwarts, reading Wings of fire, the dragon keepers magazine, whilst Percy and Mr. Weasley argue about the comings and goings of the ministry.

Bill - who had transferred to Gringotts of London, must still be asleep, since is place at the table still has his breakfast (he'll be sorry he left it if Fred and George do something to it), and Ron's reading a letter, with a slightly dreamy expression on his face.

"Morning Ron" says Ginny with a grin, knowing why he got the dreamy expression on his face.

He completely ignores her.

"Ron, don't ignore your sister" says Mrs. Weasley

"Hmm, what?" asks Ron, coming out of his stupor

"I said don't ignore your sister" repeats Mrs. Weasley

"Oh, right, morning Gin" says Ron absentmindedly

"Another letter from Hermione?" asks Ginny, knowing that Hermione had finally got it into her head to show Ron how she felt for him, she'd seen them kiss on platform 93/4 after Hermione had pecked Harry on the cheek, under the pretence of making sue he didn't get jealous when she tried to inhale Ron.

"Ye, she's doing fine, enjoying France, writing afew feet more than is needed for her homework, the usual, she says I'm to say hi to you, by the way"

They eat the rest of their breakfast in a stressful silence, Ron challenging Ginny to a game of chess (she was the only person to ever beat him) when they're done to pass the time, as the twins run upstairs to finish the plans for their joke shop.

After a grueling day of Beating Ron at chess (four times), trying to stay awake when Percy describes his new job, and ducking whenever the twins enter the room, Ginny's exhausted, and heads up to her room as soon as supper finishes, and falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.

*

"Harry!" Cedric Diggory was shouting, "You all right? Did it fall on you?"

"No." Harry replied. He was in bad shape, his leg was bleeding, his robes were covered in what looked like some sort of monster saliva, and he was leaning against a large hedge to support himself.

There was a pause in the conversation before Harry panted, "Take it, then. Go on, take it. You're there."

Cedric looked at the Tri-Wizard cup, glowing in all its glory. Ginny could tell he wanted to take it, but knew he wouldn't. He wrenched his gaze from it and looked back at Harry.

"You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck."

"That's not how it's supposed to work. The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you, I'm not going to win any races on this leg."

"No."

"Stop being noble. Just take it, then we can get out of here."

"Just take the cup!" Harry shouted.

"No." Cedric repeated firmly. He approached Harry and said, a bit more softly, "Go on."

"Both of us." Harry said suddenly.

"What?"

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."

"You - you sure?"

"Yeah. Yeah...we've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take

it together."

Cedric grinned. "You're on. Come here."

Ginny watched as Cedric helped Harry over to the cup. She wanted to scream at them, tell them not to touch it, but it was too late. They touched the cup and disappeared in a flash.

- - - - -

Where are we?" Harry asked as he and Cedric appeared in a graveyard of some sort. It gave Ginny an eerie sense of foreboding...

"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" Cedric asked.

"Nope." Harry paused. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"

"I dunno. Wands out d'you reckon?" Cedric sounded nervous, whilst Harry looks relived that he wasn't the one to suggest it.

Ginny wanted to scream at them to touch the Portkey again and go back to safety, but she was mute. It was as if she wasn't even there...

"Yeah." There was another heavy pause. "Someone's coming."

Suddenly, Harry dropped to his knees in pain, and as Cedric bent over to see if he was alright, a chilling voice said, "Kill the spare."

Ginny screamed at the top of her lungs, but it was no use, they couldn't hear her. The curse "Avada Kedavra!" sounded, and there was a flash of green light that went straight toward Cedric, through him, and stole his life away as it left again. He fell to the ground, dead.

***