Premature Exit
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I never will.
A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. I'm writing this as I go along so I can't update until I've finished writing the chapter. Unfortunately, this fic has to fight for my time of the day. Admittedly, I have far too much spare time, but I do have a presentation coming this Thursday in English, and also three maths exams that will decide my maths set at school next year. I cannot afford to go down a set, as my parents would probably react in the same way anyone normal's parents would react to their child getting expelled. To them, being thrown out of the top set in maths is the most terrible thing that could ever happen. So I am under a little bit of stress…however! Thank you my loyal reviewers Serrebi and Lady Padfoot716, it was great to read your thoughts. Thanks Maria, too. So now, after much rambling, I give you…the next chapter.
Chapter 3
There was a very solid looking figure of someone he had known standing behind him. Harry's eyes widened and he gawped; the handsome looking boy now before him's expression remained neutral. Harry knew that he couldn't be standing there, he couldn't possibly. Because he was dead.
"Harry Potter," he stated. Harry continued to watch him and not speak, this had to be an illusion. Or he was dreaming…a very bad dream…everything was a very bad dream. He tried to bend his knees to pick up his wands but he was oddly immobile, how strange. "It's all right, Harry, I'm not going to attack you," the boy said, sounding a little amused at Harry's reaction. The corners of his mouth were twitching.
He had only been eighteen when he died. He had not even completed his final year at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. This was all because of Harry.
"Cedric?" Harry asked, feeling stupid, because clearly it was Cedric but what wasn't so clear was what he was doing here.
Harry had never wanted to face Cedric again. He still felt responsible for Cedric's death, if he had never insisted the two boys take the triwizard cup together then Cedric would still be alive today. He would probably still be making out with Cho Chang every Hogsmeade weekend at Madam Puddifoots, Cho would not have spent a year doing nothing but crying. He would probably have had a good job by now; he had been destined for a good life.
Harry had taken this away from him.
He could not bring himself to look into Cedric's eyes, so he looked at Cedric's feet instead. There was not much to see, they were within the translucent mist that surrounded the ground. The mist that now seemed to be intoxicating Harry.
There was a swift movement and Cedric's face was looking at him from where his feet should have been. Harry jumped back in surprise, but Cedric was laughing. Harry felt slightly embarrassed; his feelings of anger had been forgotten as quickly as they had come.
"It's Ok, I'm not mad at you," said Cedric, Harry could not find a way to stop looking at him, the body that had stood so solid had disappeared. "Well, I didn't think I was mad, but I must be if I really believe I'm seeing you here. Harry, what are you doing here? And…SIRIUS BLACK!" Cedric's body rose out of the mist and made Harry feel extremely uncomfortable. Cedric looked shocked, he didn't seem to realise that Harry knew Sirius was there and he was pointing, beckoning Harry to turn and look.
"That's me," Sirius replied casually, a grin lighting up his face. Cedric, however, did not understand why Sirius was so calm, he looked as if he expected Sirius to reach for his wand and blow him up. Although, this was probably what most people would expect from someone who had been thought a mass murderer.
"I know what you did, Black, it was awful, you killing those muggles! And I know that whatever dark magic you used to get Harry and yourself here-" Cedric was just saying aloud something Sirius had heard many times before.
"Cedric, it's all right," Harry tried to explain, "Sirius didn't really kill all those muggles - he was framed."
Cedric gave Harry a very strange look.
"How could he have been-" Harry was certainly not interested in telling him everything that he had found out two years ago in the shrieking shack, he doubted whether Sirius was either.
"It doesn't matter," Harry cut him off quickly, "Cedric, where are we?"
Cedric raised his eyebrows very, very high and they did not come down. He had his arms folded and was much taller than Harry; it felt to Harry, as though Cedric held some kind of superiority still over him.
"You must be kidding, you don't know? How did you get here if you don't know?" Harry did not like this answer. How would he know where he was? And, how was Cedric, a dead schoolboy, alive in front of him? How did Cedric look as real as he was? This was surely a trick, some trick or illusion, maybe sent by Voldemort.
"Harry wouldn't ask if he didn't know," Sirius answered for him, he had been watching in the background, something Sirius rarely did.
"Oh, well, I wouldn't know how to begin…if I could ask, how did you get here? Then I might be able to clear things up," Cedric asked, he didn't sound mad, just curious.
"Er, we were in the department of mysteries at the ministry, and there was this veil, and I…followed Sirius through it when he fell," said Harry, he waited for Cedric to say how stupid that was, but instead he just looked thoughtful.
"A veil?" he said, not really to anyone but himself, "really? You mean you didn't die?"
"No!" Harry said, raising his voice, he could not have died, could he? But then Cedric was dead, and he was here, so it was the only possible solution.
"Sorry," Cedric muttered, he didn't say anything else.
"Diggory, is it?" Sirius said after a few seconds of silence, "where are we? Is this the spiritual plane?"
Cedric's grey eyes looked past Harry to where Sirius must have been standing. Harry shivered; he got the impression that Cedric could see straight through him. The he shook his head. He cleared his throat, perhaps nervous at giving Sirius an answer.
"This is…I don't know, the place where all the surreal things in life come from," Cedric said, "we don't usually come here, so it's peaceful, I came here to think."
Sirius said, "do you know a way to leave here?" at the same time Harry asked loudly, "who's we?"
Cedric looked extremely confused and unsure of which question to answer.
"Answer Harry's, it's better," Sirius said strangely, Harry could tell he was smiling.
"We? Um, people like me, people unlike me, but people in general all the same…dead people…"
Harry stared. He stared for a long time until he realised how rude it must look so he turned to see what Sirius had thought. Sirius was clearly thinking along the same lines as Harry, did Harry really share the shocked expression on his face?
Cedric had to be lying. It was the only plausible explanation; he was some image Voldemort had found a way to project into this plane and lead Harry into a trap. Though, to get out of this place alive, he needed to spring the trap, and then what? He would suffer by the dark lord the same as his parents…
But what if this crazy world was as real as Cedric stood before him? What if Cedric was telling the truth, and they had stumbled across somewhere they could visit the dead? This opened almost frightening new possibilities. Could Cedric lead Harry too…his parents? The people he'd longed to meet his entire life, but now, thought rather uncomfortable with the whole idea. He was not finished exploring these possibilities when Cedric spoke again.
"Of course," he said softly, so that Harry had to strain his ears to help, "your parents are here, Harry. They made me tell them all about you when I arrived, they were nice people. I haven't got the foggiest idea how you could escape here, but Lily and James might." Harry's heart was pounding faster and faster with every single word. "I can get them, you'll have to stay here though, only spirits can travel freely throughout the planes."
"Are you sure we can't follow?" Sirius asked rather eagerly, he had become much more energetic since his best friend's name had been said.
"No," Cedric answered simply, "I'll go then, shall I?"
"Wait!" Harry cried before Cedric could disappear the way he had come.
"Sorry?" he was confused.
"No, I'm just sorry…about everything." Harry meant it, he was sorry about partaking in the triwizard tournament, he was sorry that because of him the cup had been transformed into a portkey to take him to Voldemort. He was sorry that Cedric had been forced to come with him as the portkey drew them somewhere else. He was sorry that because of him, Cedric had died.
But Cedric was smiling.
"It doesn't matter," he said, then he turned to go but turned back once more, "but thank you for bringing my body back."
Before Harry could say anything else he and Sirius were alone again, the form of Cedric's body had slowly disintegrated. He felt something sweep past him, he felt Cedric's presence until it was no more.
Sorry for the delay, and I'm sorry I couldn't make this chapter any longer, I didn't want to write too much with Cedric though, because there's only so much that he can explain. I want to say here and now this fic is going to be a lot more talking than action/adventure, so if you're interested, keep reading. I might not be able to update again until midweek, or, at the worst, next Friday when my exams are over. Thanks, and please review to tell me what you thought.
