Not the Boy-Who-Lives. The Chosen One
A/N Being the boy who lived doesn't make you the chosen one. Titles mean nothing Harry Potter was deemed "The Boy-Who-Lived, Savior, The Golden Boy, and the Chosen one." He was none of those things and he was not the one who brought about the end of Voldemort. Let's talk about the real chosen one.
Cedric was once again where he had been all year since his name came out of the Goblet in September, he was in the back corner of the east wing of the library at the table the same table he had claimed almost every night. The scene changed so rarely with him this year you would think it was scripted; he had books of every kind scattered nonsensically across his table as he would pick up one find the one thing he wanted from it then literally throw it to the side and proceed on to the next. He had two chairs one for his body and one to put his feet up on as the hours waned on. Then he had his two wax candles that he would light every night after Madame Prince kicked everyone else out for the night. Cedric was a champion and therefore had been given a pardon on curfew as long as he was working on the tournament. It was the night before the tournaments' final task, the maze. It was what had consumed most of his time for the last month and a half. In tandem with the third task he was also studying for his N.E.W.T.S and trying to not totally neglect his girlfriend Cho Chang who had been very patient with him and for that he was thankful. To everything and almost everyone else he had become a shadow of the Cedric everyone knew, that constant smile and happy go lucky attitude was gone, replaced with a perpetual frown and worry lines to match the puffy bags under his eyes. He was a far cry from social and had gotten into the bad habit of snapping at people when they interfered with his study and practice time.
So, as was stated at the beginning here he was again, in the library after curfew, alone, with his candles and his books, stressed about the maze that awaited him. As he was reading a book he had been gifted to him by four of his schoolmates. Four fourth years that had twice this year saved his bum. It was a week before the first challenge when Cedric hadn't yet devised a plan to incapacitate his dragon in order to do whatever the judges wanted him to do after that when they had appeared in front of him at the library to help him. After much convincing that they could help and that he should accept their help they walked him through a temporary paralysis on dragons and other large reptiles. When he asked them how they learned that spell they told him they had a run-in with a very large snake second year and they had to do some serious research before they went head up with it. Cedric of course used the spell after many nights with the quartet perfecting it. It saved him from being chased by his dragon and helped him come away alive and with that foolish egg in hand. He had also gained four new unexpected and unexplained allies, normally he would have really vetted them as to their motives with helping him but he figured with all the stress he was in that he better not look a gift horse in the mouth.
The next time they met was one night in the library when Cedric was on the verge of tears because he couldn't get the egg to stop screeching and he had no idea what the clue was. He was in the process of repeatedly banging his head on the table when the four showed up again. They sat down and made him think through it. Magic in its purest form is elemental and that clearly came into play during the first task dealing with an air and fire animal like a dragon. What he took from the dragon was something that didn't belong at all to said dragon so one could assume it would be the antithesis of the first task. Fire and air was the first task and the opposite to that is water so they advised him to submerge it in water and see what happened. Cedric did so in the prefects' bathroom and to his ultimate delight he was finally able to hear the clue, then to his dread he had to figure out what would be taken from him and how on earth he was going to manage staying under water for an hour. The next day when he arrived at his usual table in the library there was a bottle of bubbles sitting on it with his name written on the front, which of course led him to use the bubblehead charm in the second task to rescue his girlfriend.
But now it seemed he was on his own. This was the night before and his four friends, even through they had sent him a couple books, hadn't shown up in person to offer any advice. He sighed deeply into the air looked at all the books on the table. He had studied all he could, retained all he was capable of and now all he could do was hope for the best. He was determined to win this thing and prove that Hufflepuffs were not just "all the rest" in this school, that Helga's house could breed the best that this school had to offer. As he was about to start packing up he heard a girl giggle in front of him. It was a blonde haired grey-eyed girl whom he had gotten to know this year and beside her were the three other students he had gotten to know. With her was a blonde haired blue-eyed boy, a black haired brown-eyed boy, and a black haired green-eyed girl.
Cedric smirked and scoffed a little, "A little late aren't you guys? The task is in about 16 hours. I have to sleep and meet my dad later today."
The raven haired boy spoke up, "We knew you could handle this one on your own so we decided to leave you to it."
"Yeah, the less distractions you had the better." The blonde haired girl added.
"So then you came to me in the eleventh hour just to wish me luck?" Cedric laughed but he stopped when he saw all their faces turned to frowns.
"Not exactly" The black haired girls said dejectedly.
Cedric raised a very weary eyebrow at the gang. "What's with the long faces, I am the one who is going into a maze tomorrow and might not come out." He meant that joke to lighten the mood but instead he seemed to have darkened it.
"You guys are starting to worry me. What is going on?" Cedric said starting to get nervous. Was there some sort of bombshell about the maze they were about to tell him. Did something go wrong, did he have another problem on his hands?
The blonde haired boy looked him straight in the eye and his voice did not waver a bit from the seriousness in which he asked his question. "Cedric, how much does winning this competition really mean to you?"
What a ridiculous question Cedric thought, "It means a lot to me, it gives Hufflepuff the chance to come out from under the shadow of all the other houses that treat us like we are less than, it gives me the opportunity to make my mark in wizarding history. The reward money would really help with me paying for the auror academy, my father said he was willing to pay for me but at least it would take the burden off of him. Why are you guys asking?"
The blonde haired girl's frown seemed to dig even deeper into her face. "Cedric if I told you that I had a very good reason and what I'm asking you to do I am only asking because your life is in extreme danger would you listen to me?"
Cedric thought for a minute "This can't be good at all, I mean my life was in danger the other two tasks and they never acted like this." Cedric nodded his head slightly signifying that he would indeed listen.
"Cedric, you cannot win this task, if you do you will die." She was looking straight into his eyes, not even blinking as it might allow the slightest nugget of doubt into the words that she was speaking to him.
Cedric, however, did blink a few times trying to process the last statement. "But the threat of death has always been apart of this tournament that's part of the glory you get when you conquer it."
The black haired boy spoke, "Cedric you didn't hear us right. It is not a pretty good chance you would die, a high probability that you would die, or even a very good likelihood you would die, what we are telling you that if you win you will certainly die. You have no other path, death is the only option."
"Wait, wait, wait." Cedric said flopping back into his chair behind the table. He breathed in and out a few times before he spoke again. "What makes you so sure I am going to die if I win?"
They all spoke one word in unison that made the hair on the back of the young champions neck stand up. "Voldemort."
"What does h,h,he have to do anything?" Cedric stuttered, "He has been gone for years." He looked at them to confirm his statement with a nod or something but nothing came but the shaking of their heads.
"He is not dead, he is alive and he and his death eaters are planning something for the task." The black haired girl said.
"Why?" Was Cedric's only question and for that question he got an answer that wasn't to hard to believe. Harry Potter, of course it was Harry Potter. If what they were telling him was true there couldn't be anyone else more likely to be involved than the bloody Boy-Who-Lived.
The four kids went on to explain to him, in as much detail as they possibly could although there was some things they could not tell him, how Voldemort had been after Harry since he came back to the wizarding world and how he had planned to trick Harry into the tournament and trap him at the end.
"You see Cedric there was no other opportunity to do it in this tournament. But in a maze with no one monitoring anything and just the four of you this is his opportunity. There has been a lot of former death eater activity and we are sure it has something to do with the cup in the center." He was told.
"But how do you know I will die if I win?" Cedric said in a quiet voice.
"I've seen it." The blonde girl said. Cedric looked at her in disbelief. "I am not kidding Cedric, I like my mother before me have the gift of sight and I have seen it. If you grab that cup in the maze you are going to die."
"We are only doing this because we care about you Cedric. We would love to see you win but we don't want to see you lose your life to do so. With all the help we have tried to give you to put you in a position to win we would not try to take it all away if it wasn't imperative that it happen."
"Please consider it thoroughly Cedric. There are many things in your life that are much more important than winning this tournament."
As they turned to leave one more then was said to the stunned Champion. "We have tried many ways to change this from happening but some things about it were beyond our interference. This outcome will only change if you decide to change it. We are truly sorry that we had to do this to you Cedric but please believe that we have your best interest at heart." And with that the four kids turned to leave.
The Night of the Third Task
The four students sat in the stands getting ready to watch what they knew was going to be a train wreck. Their wands gripped tightly in their hands just in case anything should spill over into the crowd. They saw Cedric the one they had tried to help, they saw Fleur the one they had already convinced not to win, Krum whom they weren't allowed access to but figured he wasn't going to win anyway, and Harry whom they knew they couldn't help because to many people involved were working to make sure whatever happened tonight did indeed happen. They knew that tonight even it all went as they tried to arrange it, would still be a tragic night.
"Did we do enough to change his mind?" The raven haired boy asked the blonde.
"We changed a certainty into a choice that is the best we can do." She replied, "But no seer can see beyond a choice that hasn't been made yet, and since I cannot see anything past this moment it tells me he has not made his choice yet."
They other three sighed, there was nothing they could do about it now but sit, watch, and wait.
Then it started. Harry, Cedric, Fleur, and Krum all went in. About twenty minutes in red sparks flew up and out came Viktor Krum.
"Well that's one down." The black haired girl said.
"We knew there was no way Karkaroff was going to let him touch that cup." The blonde haired boy replied.
Another twenty minutes and out came Fleur. All four were glad to see she had stuck to the plan. Now all that was left was Cedric. It was verging on an hour and he still hadn't come out. The group of four was starting to prepare themselves for the worst case scenario. About and hour and a half into the race it happened. Harry Potter came out of the maze bloodied and bruised and lying beside him was Cedric Diggory.
The two girls in the crowed began to cry even before Harry could pronounce the return of Voldemort and the death of Cedric. The boys grabbed them up and led them out of the strands and quietly away. They would morn for the boy later but now that this had happened they had work to do. They had failed to save Cedric but now they had other lives to try and keep from ending.
AN: I didn't tell you how it happened because I didn't was to put cedric in one light or another but now he is gone. So either way now I have a base to start with.