A/N: Hello people and thank you so much for your support!
A big thanks to my Betas and Discord Staff - Alec, Fox, Metzger, BaptismByFire and Zevoros!
Special thanks to Discord users: 5Firehawk, Guiding Moonlights, Kovacs, Dr Maou-Senpai, Post Mortem, Denduck, Wumjumba, Ac, R3, Shirokama, TrustTube, Zachary, JDH, Avatar, CJ07, Echoh, Elizabeth Wilbrooke, Jacks_, Kappe, Kryn_Womble, Mr. E, Pat, Plut0, Presno, Shawnjohn120 and Trop C'est Trop for supporting my writing and commissioning works!
Feel free to join my Discord for updates, giveaways (for those who actively chat), early access and information, link on my profile. Without any more rambling from me, I hope you enjoy the story!
(Sorry if you don't like the work!)
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE KIND REVIEWS. We now get so many that it's impossible to respond to all of them, but each and every one of you taking the time to speak your support mean the world to me. Please, by all means, speak with me in Discord!
June 24, 1995
Harry still had the eyes of Fleur and Cedric on him as he advanced towards the fallen shape of the man. What went through his mind as he grew closer and closer to the unmoving body of his attacker was impossible to put into words, the sheer weight of killing a person overwhelming his still juvenile mind. It was incredibly likely that his two older friends were equally as shocked at his usage of the killing curse, but to him, it was justified. The man had batted away every spell they had launched at him, there had almost been a hint of joyfulness in his actions whilst he did as much, and that was something that Daphne had drilled into him since first they practised with one another; if a person won't take you seriously, make them pay.
He did. The man was dead and gone, all of his knowledge, all of his darkness, it was just as dead as he now was. Perhaps the man hadn't thought Harry was capable of using a spell that required murderous intent, or maybe he truly hadn't been as good as Harry had thought he was… whatever the reason that his curse had broken through didn't matter any longer.
"Alright?"
It was Cedric's voice, the boy was right at Harry's left shoulder now and together, the two were simply staring at the man's body. Harry nor Cedric had the frame of mind to summon the felled man's wand, however, that would ultimately fall to Fleur as she came to stand at Harry's left, one of her arms snaking its way around his shoulders as the aforementioned item fell into one of her pockets.
"Do we call for the staff? This man was not a part of the task, no?" Fleur asked, her eyes on the corpse for a few seconds, at least until she transfigured dirt over it and placed herself between the newly risen mound and Harry.
"We can see the Goblet, it's only right ahead… we could grab it, finish the task and tell Professor Dumbledore about the man we fought. If it was truly a part of this final task, well, that'll be something I tell my dad about — we shouldn't have had to deal with something so serious," Cedric shook his head and raised an arm in the direction of the Goblet, alight as it was. "We'll all grab it together, the three of us, and then this will finally be over with for good. It's about that that happened, I don't fancy ever competing in something like this ever again."
Harry nodded and cleared his throat, his eyes staring at Fleur's torso, where the view of the body had previously been. "Yeah. I hope there's nothing else like this that I'll have to do for the rest of my life, it's insanity… let's grab the Goblet and be done with it all. Thank you, both of you, by the way. I don't think we could have gotten past that man unless we were together, the three of us."
"I can't let some old man with ideals no longer relevant take out the only good Seeker at Hogwarts aside from me, now can I?" Cedric asked with a grin and elbow to Harry's side in the hopes of raising the younger boy's mood, but even then, the three of them were off-kilter. All it took was the teenagers witnessing death and even if that person hadn't been good, the viewing of a life being blown out as if it were a candle changed them in some irrecoverable manner.
"It feels too easy, no?" Fleur asked, her arm around Harry's shoulders stopping him from advancing and her other pulling on the back of Cedric's shirt before he could get away from her. "We were so cautious before when the traps were detected and the creatures present, but now we are ready to move without checking for anything? This man was smart and strong, do neither of you think he would have—"
"Contingencies," Harry finished, nodding as he looked around with a new sense of alertness driving him. Fleur was right, her mind worked in a similar fashion to that of Daphne's. The man was a Death Eater, plain and simple, so it would only make sense that he had some modicum of intelligence in addition to the power he had formerly possessed.
"Maybe calling the staff was a good idea, after all, I mean, would we really be able to find everything he laid out for us? We found out the hard way that we couldn't overcome him short of Harry's surprise," Cedric paused and brought a hand up to his chin seemingly in thought, he snapped his fingers a few seconds later. "We could transfigure and animate stuff, what do you two reckon?"
Harry furrowed his brows. He couldn't see why that wouldn't work, but his animation wasn't perfect, not nearly as much as his transfiguration was. "You mean transfigure and animate rabbits or some other small critter, right? We could have them run ahead and see what happens to them, but I don't think that would help us all that much if there's something intelligent or if there're traps further up, you know, like at our heights."
Cedric shrugged and made to transfigure a few small creatures, Harry did some too all the while Fleur kept watch ahead of them — her eyes never seemed to leave the dirt mound that she'd put over the man's body either.
"Better than nothing, I think. It'd at least tell us if there are any traps on the ground or the like," Cedric responded before a sheepish look fell on his face. "Say, are either of you any good when it comes to animating these shells? It's not exactly my strength."
That makes two of us, but I should be able to manage something this small… I hope.
"I can do it while Fleur keeps watching ahead of us, the last thing we need is that bloke's friends coming, if he had any," Harry said as he moved a step closer to the half-dozen or so transfigured rabbits and rats; it was a subconscious decision from both boys not to use more familiar animals in the event that they were destroyed via the traps that may or may not exist.
Harry waved his wand around and softly muttered the incantations necessary. It took a bit of time, effort and the occasional second effort, but eventually, the many transfigured animals were animated ready to do the bidding of their creators. All of them could move quite fast too, it was far better than Harry had thought he could do, but he supposed it was due to the quality of the transfiguration magic in addition to the smallness of the animals they had chosen.
"Go," Fleur said to him over her shoulder as she motioned forward with her head. "Let us see if the way ahead is trapped. If it is not, the final part of the task is finally within our grasp."
He couldn't argue with those words, and as such, he sent the small horde ahead one animal at a time. Each one took a different path to ensure nearly the entirety of the dirt floor before them was safe and after the final one crossed over with none of them having been destroyed, Harry huffed. He didn't like that every creature was fine, in fact, he had hoped at least one trap would have activated to justify the nervousness that was clear to see on all three Champions.
"Well? What're we thinking? Do we just want to go on and find out the hard way or should we look for a second path?" Cedric asked as he took a look over their shoulder as he'd been doing every ten seconds or thereabouts. "There's definitely some sort of trap that we're not seeing or picking up. I can feel it."
"If you can feel it, please, take care of it. I will wait with the cute one who saved my sister," Fleur said with a smile and gesture ahead of herself as she pulled Harry closer, into her arms. She had been protective of him throughout the entirety of this final task, but after the fight, she hadn't stopped touching him. It was curious, he reckoned that Daphne wouldn't care all that much either, Fleur's touches weren't flirtatious.
Well. He thought they weren't, but from what he had heard, he wasn't the best at reading witches.
"I should be the cute one," Cedric huffed back at the older girl, but nonetheless, he took a few steps ahead of them, his wand at the ready and a shield already in front of him. "You're both lucky I don't like the thought of my friends being in danger, that's the only reason I'm going first — Merlin knows it should be the Gryffindor, what with all of their boldness an- Shite!"
Right after what had to be the tenth step, something burst from the hedges and out at Cedric. The thing was small, had a large, busy tail and an adorable face; it was a squirrel. Harry wasn't sure what it was doing here any more than the others did, but as soon as it saw Cedric, it tore off in the opposite direction — the one whence it came — and didn't return. Cedric, for his part, was staring at where the creature had previously been with an expression of horror on his face in addition to shock. That lasted for half a minute or more before he broke free of the stupor.
"Not a word from the pair of you. I'm the one in the front of the group while you two are cuddling in the back," Cedric said with a huff as he advanced another dozen or so steps, finally putting him halfway to the Goblet. "Come on, don't get too far, I might need you."
Harry made to start forward, but Fleur refused to let him out of her grasp and instead, advanced slowly with a shield raised; he did the same, but for their rear, and it was at a snail's pace the two advanced towards Cedric. Some small portion of him wanted to tell Fleur to let him go so that he could act independently, that he didn't need a guardian or the like, but he had to admit the embrace was sorely needed. It was the first time he had taken a life, truly, and the action now that peace had come was replaying itself in the forefront of his mind over and over again.
"The end is so close," Harry observed.
"It is. We will be home soon, and Daphne will be with you the same as I and your friends," Fleur said to him in a tone of voice that was far softer and without the typical flirtatious undertones he had come to appreciate… after he understood it was playfulness and not actual attraction… he assumed.
Cedric nodded a few times. "I could do with some cuddles too after all of this. This has to be the craziest day of my life, probably you two too, and here I was thinking that the Quidditch match had been rough," the older boy shook his head and started forward again, urging the other two to follow after him and closely. "Once we make it to the entrance of where the Goblet is kept, we'll stop. We don't know if there's some sort of final task or something waiting for us and I'd like the chance to take a pause, yeah?"
"That's a good idea. We don't want anything jumping out at us, not if we're this far along," Harry said with a slow series of nods and one last glance over his shoulder, his shoulders sagging in a weird mixture of relief and disbelief when he saw that the transfigured mass of dirt was where they had left it; finally, it dawned on him that the man was dead.
There would be no true sense of loss in the magical community, not with the man having served Voldemort, but shite… it was hard to think he'd killed his first person. If he hadn't though, had he not killed the person, that mound of dirt would be doubled and below the surface — no, those thoughts were best kept away. Daphne was somebody that he could always speak with, so he would reserve those discussions for her.
Those few steps went by slowly and cautiously, with all three teens ensuring that everything was done safely on account of how far they had come. It was no surprise that after they made it to the end of the path and were now only a dozen feet, or less, away from the Goblet, that earlier urge to stop was no longer nearly as strong as it had previously been. Still, all three of them halted and didn't enter into the larger, more wide open part of the Goblet's area.
"Do you see anything, Cedric?" Harry asked on account of the older boy being the closest to the Goblet and, by extension, the closest to being within the square-shaped cut-out of hedges.
"No," Cedric answered with a shrug and huff. "I don't see anything. It looks safe, I think. I feel like this would be a whole lot more difficult if that man hadn't jumped in… do you both think he dealt with a lot of the other traps or creatures that had been in here? I mean, he wanted to take you, Harry, maybe he cleared the way?"
Fleur answered before Harry could. "There is no need to theorise about the monster. He is gone and the way before us seems clear. Together and on a countdown, we will rush the goblet and touch it. We will win together and be free of this maze, ouais?"
"Ways," Harry imitated poorly, earning himself a snort and flick of the nose from Fleur.
Cedric gave her a thumbs up and hid his laughter in a cough lest the girl smacked him upside the back of the head. With his agreeance given too, the three had their plan, and so with their breather over and the group ready, Fleur began to count them down.
"We will go on three," she said as she helped Harry up and over to Cedric. "One… two… three!"
All three of them sprang forward, they made it to the Goblet around the same time and after a split-second of hesitation, all of their eyes flickering between one another, they reached out, ensuring all of their hands connected at the same time. There was a great flash of light, Harry felt himself being pulled along by the Goblet and when he opened his eyes once more, he saw the crowd… no.
There was no Professor Dumbledore. There was no large crowd of fans from a multitude of countries cheering for the display of unity that the three Champions had shown. All there was that lay before the three were a large cauldron and a series of tombstones, some of which had statues; a graveyard. This Goblet had taken them to a graveyard.
"Fleur? Cedric?" Harry whispered, a sense of foreboding and darkness weighing down on him with an oppressiveness he couldn't even begin to describe.
"Here, mate," Cedric said from a few steps behind him.
"I am here," Fleur said, the girl on the opposite side of a particularly large headstone.
Harry made to speak again, but he stopped as he saw a light come from a building. He watched it curiously, the shape of a man appearing when a door opened, but then he was pulled down. Fleur and Cedric were on either side of him, and both had their wands drawn. He did the same. If this wasn't supposed to have happened, it could only mean they were where the man had wanted to take Harr-
Suddenly and without any warning, Harry's scar began to hurt as he heard the man speaking. Whoever he was, he didn't try and keep his voice low, and the next words out of his mouth sent nought but a chill down Harry's spine.
It was Wormtail. "H-Harry! Come out, please," the rat of a man called, his tone weak-sounding even as that feeling of oppressive hatred made to push Harry's willpower down. "I k-know you're behind the stone, Harry. Come out and greet me. Your f-father would have!"
That was all it took for Harry to rise from behind cover, his wand in hand and raised at the traitorous abomination. "You don't have the right to speak about my parents. You never have, not since you betrayed them, since you murdered them."
Wormtail grinned at Harry, and then he shook his head, gesturing to the bundle in his arms. "No, no! Never me, not me! It was the master, he hurt me, he made me sing and sing I did!"
Again, there was a whisper and as that whisper came from the small bundle in Wormtail's arms, so too did the pain in Harry's head increase. The correlation was nearly immediate as Harry's eyes adjusted to the darkness, and there, in Wormtail's arms, was a bundle of a beast; Voldemort. Something had happened to the 'man', something he deserved to make him appear in a weak, frail body.
"All I need is your blood for the master. You won't be killed. Be a g-good lad," Wormtail moved closer, making Harry step back, and that was the critical moment in which a mistake was made by the former of the two.
One of the large stone statues came down and bound him. He struggled and thrashed around as strong as any boy of his age could, but it was useless. There was nothing that he could do against the likes of a stone-carved humanoid, and as such, he was stuck stock still. Even if he had wanted to curse the man, he couldn't. Not with his arms stuck and his neck held in a lock.
Wormtail moved closer, the man now brandishing a dagger. It looked ornate, cruel and viciously sharp. The latter two traits didn't inspire confidence in Harry. There were more hushed words from the form of Voldemort in Wormtail's left arm, more pain as the abominations grew closer and more anger in Harry as the two responsible for the death of Harry's parents neared him.
"Only a drop," Wormtail repeated almost giddily now as he came to a stop beside the cauldron.
"Nah, mate," Came the sound of Cedric's voice, and then, there was a spell that struck Wormtail in the centre of his chest.
Fleur's voice registered too, and more of Cedric's joined her. Spell after spell after spell struck the prone form of Wormtail and a dozen or more even sought after the small shape of Voldemort as he tried — and failed — to crawl away from the onslaught of spells. It was a beautiful sight, especially when the pool of blood below Wormtail began to make itself visible; he had fallen on his own dagger on account of Cedric's stunner.
Harry's view was interrupted when Fleur filled it, and a few seconds later, the statue let go of him, returning to its natural form as she held him upright. "You are safe. We must go, if others come — even if they don't, this is beyond us."
"The creature is right… Harry Potter… this fight is beyond… any of you," Voldemort's voice was weak and rattling, but even with those qualities, it made Harry's friends go stock still as the small figure of him rolled over, onto its back. "This is only… the beginning. I have returned… my servants… are here."
One popping noise after the next began to fill the air and only then did Harry see Wormtail, his form no longer moving, had his wand pointed at his arm where a tattoo was moving. It was the very same tattoo the man at the Quidditch match had on his arm, the very same that those appearing on the outskirts likely had.
"The Goblet!" Harry shouted to Cedric, the boy being the closest of the three of them to it. "Summon it!"
Fleur and Harry ran towards the older boy as he made to summon the goblet, one of his arms outstretched for them as he did so. Everything from that point on happened so fast. There were bursts of light, no, spellfire. Heat the likes of which he had never felt before ripped at him, mental pain the same severity as the heat was next, soft, cold contact on his right arm acted as a form of relief and finally, there was that familiar feeling of being pulled by something indescribable.
They were gone. All three of them. When next he opened his eyes, he saw the familiar ceiling of a room he wished never to see again, year after year, and always that wish would fail to come true.
He was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts.
Harry blinked his eyes a fair few times and after doing so, he rubbed at the crust that had formed. There was a good bit of it, enough that it took a few rubs back and forth before he could open his eyes completely and without any blurriness, but eventually, his eyes focused on his surroundings. He had been right, this was the hospital wing of Hogwarts and the curtains to the section he was in, were closed.
He looked down, at his body, and what he saw on the right portion, where the heat had been most extreme, wasn't surprising; his skin was bright and pink as if it had been regrown. Whatever had happened to him had angered that side of his body.
There was a sudden crushing weight from his opposite side, it was heavy and belonged to a person on account of the two arms that grabbed onto his face. He felt wetness dripping down after a few seconds, and then a pair of lips on his own despite the continued… tears?
When the person finally pulled back, he could hear a bit of sniffling and then a cloth dabbed at his mouth, where the tears had been left behind by her. By Daphne. When he saw her, it was as if his body relaxed as he sagged back and into the bed; she was here, with him. That meant everything was better, that he could rest since she was safe. He wasn't sure what had happened in the time he had been out, all he knew was the pain that he had felt and the men that he had seen.
Voldemort was still around. His mind screamed to him. Dumbledore has to be told. I have to tell him. Fleur, Cedric, I need to know if they're alright. If everybody's alright.
"I missed you," Daphne said simply, her voice threatening to break as she looked at him through narrowed eyes and with a red face, another bout of sniffling following after those words.
He didn't know what to say. "I'm right here," is what he settled on.
There was a half-sob, half-laugh that came from her. "If you weren't hurt, you'd be cursed for that," she said as she leaned forward to rest her head against his, her eyes reddened and tear tracks easily visible on her face. "I… I don't believe there's anything I can say that would describe how life's been without your presence. Don't leave me again. I'm not allowing it."
"I'd hug you if I could, but I'm a bit…" Harry looked at where his limbs were. All of them were suspended and tied to ensure that he didn't move.
"You were badly burnt when you came back, Cedric was too," Daphne smiled sadly at him and shook her head. "You'll be here for a while longer, you'll have another visitor or two soon too, but I was selfish. I wanted to be here with you until you recovered."
Harry didn't know how bad a shape he was in at the present time or earlier, most of his body was covered with blankets and what wasn't only showed pink, fresh skin. "How long has it been? I feel really well-rested, but I'm guessing that's because it's been a fair bit of time, hasn't it?"
Daphne's expression didn't give anything away. "It's only been two days, that's what most everybody will say, but those two days were extensive and incredibly lengthy for some," she grabbed his closer hand, the one that wasn't angry-looking. "You'll have to speak with Professor Dumbledore and a few officials from the Ministry now that you're awake. It could wait another day or two, should you want it to."
"Do they know about what happened?" Harry couldn't help but ask, his eyes settling firmly on Daphne's face as the sadness began to finally dissipate the longer they spoke with one another; he wasn't sure for the life of him what he did to deserve such a kind-hearted, caring friend.
I don't think I've ever seen her cry before. I don't like it… I guess that's how she felt when I was in this bed, unconscious.
"Fleur told them everything that she could, but they'll want you to confirm it," was her answer before she finally stood up completely from her seat, moved it away and pulled out her wand. "Since you're awake and in good health, I can do what I've wanted to since your initial treatment was over."
She didn't clarify, but her actions did shortly thereafter. Daphne transfigured the bed, lengthening it so that it could comfortably fit two people and in the process, it gave him complete mobility of his uninjured side. As soon as that was finished and the blankets were equally extended, she gingerly climbed up to join him. Daphne often moved with a great degree of fluidity, but this time, it was even more pronounced than usual. He wished she could teach him how she moved as perfectly as she did.
"When was the last time you got any sleep?" Harry asked as she laid down beside him so that she could look at him, one hand even coming to a rest on the left side of his torso.
He didn't mean for his question to insinuate anything, but truth be told, Daphne looked incredibly tired. Her eyes nearly had rings around them and the closer he looked, the redness hadn't gone away since the tears had stopped. Obviously, she didn't have any smell about her or remnants of makeup that hadn't been washed off, she would always look beautiful. Always.
"I've slept intermittently since you were brought here," Daphne answered, purposefully avoiding any exact number. "As you can imagine, I was intent on keeping watch over you should your typical luck continue. Thankfully, this was the only punishment this year at Hogwarts has decided you deserved, and so here we are, cuddled up in bed — I can't help but feel partly responsible. Had I been with you or spent more time tutoring you, then perhaps you wouldn't have been so badly burned."
"I don't remember being burned, I don't remember you knowing any spells that would stop fire either, not unless you've failed to mention them in the years we've known each other," Harry shook his head at the thought, there was nothing that made its way past her and something as simple as a spell to stop fire… well, it would most assuredly be something that was too basic for her to spend any great amount of time on.
Daphne focused on spells the likes of which the great bulk of the student body would never come into contact with. Hermione Granger, maybe the Lovegood girl a year under them and one or two other people, they would be the only ones in the same boat as Daphne when it came to knowledge far beyond that of their peers and all of them seemed to lack common sense or expertise in the simpler spells.
"I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, and I know that it would be impossible, but I still wish I could have been at your side. That's how we've gotten through every year since we first met and the first time we weren't together didn't seem to go all that well for you," Daphne shook her head and made to speak again, but she must have noticed how Harry's eyes began to flutter shut, for no further words came from her.
In their place, he felt the hand that had been on his chest move to his hair, where it began to stroke the top and left side of his head soothingly — the right got some attention too, and while that may not seem like much to the average person, the fact that he hadn't been burnt up top was comforting in an incredibly superficial way. As there always was, some portion of him said that Daphne would abandon him should he be disfigured or overly weak, yet everything about the girl's current actions screamed otherwise.
Harry's eyes were completely closed now, his mind began to stop its self-doubt and insecurities. That soothing, soft and cool touch from Daphne made him feel at ease and more comfortable than he had any right to be after failing in that Muggle graveyard.
"Asleep?" He heard Daphne ask in a tone so light that he half thought it had been the wind until she moved ever so slightly closer to him, the bed shifting and the sheets just barely pulling at his chest.
He didn't answer, he was too tired and the beckoning of sleep was too strong.
Daphne seemed to take his silence to mean that he was, in fact, asleep. No further words came from her even as he felt her move slightly closer again, and then, out of the blue, he felt her lips make contact with the left side of his face, right in the middle of his cheek. There was no salty wetness from her tears or the sniffling sound as there had been earlier. Her kiss was light and lingered for five, maybe ten seconds, before she pulled back.
"I love you," she said in a voice that was impossibly lighter than her previous question, and with those three words that contained a different sort of magic to them said, he was asleep; the dreams he had were the best he'd ever be able to recall for quite some time.
When Harry woke up again, it was in the morning, he could tell as much by the amount of light that was pouring in from the large windows within the Hospital wing. Daphne was still beside him, she was breathing quietly and her head was resting right on his left shoulder. She had shifted closer to him again in the night or shortly after he had fallen asleep, it was impossible to tell, but he couldn't help but look at her whilst she was sleeping.
It felt strange seeing the girl he'd known since his first year asleep beside him. He never would have expected that he would see her asleep beside him on a bed, but there she was, as content and angelic-looking as ever. The longer he looked, the more well-rested and at peace Daphne became; the previous stress and worries were erased, the redness of her eyes was, obviously, hidden away and the makeup she had worn the night before, was vanished.
"You two are cute as always," Greeted a friend he'd been looking forward to seeing since he had woken up the first time yesterday at the same time the curtains were pulled back for her and her companion to enter. "I want you to know that I came as many times as I could while you were being taken care of, she will tell you the same. Gabrielle, she came with me."
Fleur motioned to her little sister at that point, who at that point chose to duck behind her rather than move closer to Harry, making the pair of them laugh quietly. "I'm glad you're alright and thank you, really. I don't know if I would have made it away without you getting me off of that statue, well, I know I wouldn't have. I was lucky to have you and Cedric with me… is he alright too? Daphne didn't really say all that much about either of you."
"She was worried about you more than you would think. It was as adorable as it was sad to witness, I think of you two as swans, one would be lost beyond belief without the other," Fleur moved closer to Harry, her voice slightly quieter so as to avoid waking up Daphne, but her face conveyed sadness with a depth the likes of which he wasn't fond of in the slightest. "Thank you too, Harry. You are kind to worry about me, but fire — it is hard to put into words, but put easily, fire will not hurt Gabrielle or me. We are creatures, some will say, but that is an advantage more than a weakness at times."
"You're more than most people ever will be. Some of them are bigots, others are people who think their family makes them who they are and the rest are just idiots. I'm glad to know you and gladder still to have helped Gabby," Harry said with a smile on his face and a small wave when the aforementioned girl peaked out to look at him; she squeaked, said something in rapid French the likes of which he had no chance at understanding and then dove completely behind her big sister.
Again, the pair laughed, but he noticed how Fleur's laughter wasn't half as hearty or full as his. Finally, by way of Daphne's attitude yesterday and Fleur's today, he began to piece something together; Cedric was seldom mentioned, faces were made when he was and the older boy had yet to visit Harry.
"Cedric, Fleur?" Harry asked after he swallowed nought but his own spit, his body still partially restrained and as such, preventing him from rising up further in the hospital bed.
"I am sorry, Harry. Cedric is gone, a spell while we were going… my Madame told me it was very quick," Fleur moved close enough to rest a hand on the top of his head in an act of comfort. "You have Daphne and the other friends she spoke about. Me and my family too. There is no way we can go through so much together to simply part, no?"
Harry didn't trust himself enough to speak, so instead, he nodded a few times with as brave a smile as he could put on his face. Internally, on the other hand, he was berating himself worse than he had ever done before. Cedric was his friend, his competition and his fellow Hogwarts Champion. They had done so much together, they had watched one another's back and fought through two of the three tasks together.
And now, because of Voldemort, that friendship was gone, as was the older boy's life. If they hadn't gone in with him for the sake of a joint victory, Fleur and Cedric both, both would still be alive instead of one; Fleur shouldn't have survived either, he got that feeling from her, but that ancestry she had that aided her in fighting off fire magic had prevailed.
"I don't want to ask you this, it's not fair, not remotely… but what happened, Fleur? I can't remember any of it. The last thing I can recall is a lot of heat and a bit of a cooling sensation on my other side, and that's it," Harry looked into Fleur's eyes when he asked, and instantly, he saw a flash of recognition and a split-second later, of guilt.
"May I?" She asked, motioning towards the side of the bed nearer to him, and by extension, the side that was still tied to the bed on account of the skin that had needed some sort of care; it looked better than it had earlier, but it was still pink and had a tingling sort of sensation.
Harry nodded. "Please," he said in response.
Fleur flashed him a smile that didn't strike him as true, and then she sat partially on his extended bed. "You remember that we called for Cedric to summon the Goblet, yes? The others were close, the man that was killed by his own blade had done a sort of magic unfamiliar to me to bring them there and the little one, he was letting out this laughter even as he struggled to breathe."
"I remember that Cedric was meant to summon the Goblet, but I can't recall the laughter. You pulled me with you to Cedric, there were screams and shouts and spells flying all around," Harry answered, blinking rapidly as those memories flashed at the forefront of his mind before he was able to repress them. They didn't feel too good to remember, no, not in the slightest.
"We were attacked, there was a fire used by one of them that struck the ground where Cedric was standing as the Goblet activated. It was bad. I have not seen so much fire since my mama was angry at my father and she took it out in the garden," Fleur shook her head. "It was bad. Cedric, he was burnt badly and you were too, but I was able to help you. It was instinctive, I do not think I could have acted faster than I did, but it was not perfect. You were still hurt, but he was gone."
That doesn't sound like it was very painless, Harry thought, remembering Fleur's earlier words about how Cedric had gone almost immediately. It must have been torture for the older boy, and it was most certainly a fate that he didn't deserve. Few people would ever be deserving of a fate that left them horribly burnt.
"I see. It… I don't know — thank you, Fleur. Thank you for telling me what happened, thank you for helping me and thank you for coming to visit as often as you did while I was out. It doesn't feel real, sort of like the man we fought. You know what I mean, don't you?" He hoped she did.
Truly, the past few hours — or what felt like the past few hours to him — didn't feel as if they had actually happened. He had killed a man that had attacked the three of them, they had then grabbed the Goblet only for the thing to thank them to some graveyard out in the country, he had been attacked by a statue and Wormtail with an infant-sized Voldemort in his arms, Cedric had killed Wormtail with his own dagger, Wormtail had brought the rest of Voldemort's horde of failures to the scene and finally, they had attacked the party of three as they fled; one of them hadn't made it. Cedric was gone.
There would be no last words. The boy wouldn't be given the chance to say goodbye and his final thoughts and actions wouldn't be known until the afterlife came for them all. Cedric was simply gone and no actions now would stop that from ringing true.
"Rest. I can not say more to you, but together, we will work through this. We are friends, more than that after so much to go through together. If you need to speak, I will be ready to listen and Daphne, the girl is good for you and will do the same," Fleur leaned forward to press a kiss on Harry's forehead, and when she pulled back, her expression was deeply affectionate and lacking anything beyond.
Harry watched her as she moved away, thinking that she was done, but she simply sat in the chair that Daphne had been seated in when he woke up. Fleur withdrew a book from her bag at that point, and without looking at him again, she began to silently read to herself, content with his presence.
When Harry witnessed that, he fell back into bed and closed his eyes once more. Daphne was still sleeping soundly next to him, Fleur was watching over the pair of them in the Hospital Wing and his other friends, Tracey and Millicent, would more than likely come along whenever they were given permission. Combined, all of those thoughts chased away the horrible ones in regard to his fallen friend… they did little to quench his thirst for revenge.
July 2, 1995
Harry was in Diagon Alley, away from the Dursleys and in one of the many inns that littered the aforementioned setting. His thoughts were on the copy of the Prophet that he had only just read, one that made a mockery of him, Fleur and Professor Dumbledore. It would likely be redacted on account of the French girl's family and Greengrass pressure, but the fact of the matter was, it had come too late.
The Minister publicly voiced his opinion that 'Voldemort could not return' and as such, everybody that said otherwise, was a liar steering the country towards unneeded panic. It didn't matter if those that said the monster of a man was back were famous and light-sided, not when politics were at play. Ah, right, there was no mention of the impostor Moody either, even Harry hadn't heard about the man until he had spoken with Dumbledore post-interrogation by the Ministry.
Cedric, Fleur and he had killed a wanted man, the son of Bartemius Crouch. He had impersonated Mad-Eye Moody after he had captured the man who would later be found at Hogwarts and in a deep, locked box. The sheer incompetence of the Ministry and a majority of the staff for not recognising the man as an impostor was absurd.
"There you are."
Daphne had found him, she always did.
Harry looked up and over to the girl. She was wearing a set of robes that were far too ornate for the pub-inn hybrid he had picked, and as a result of that, she was completely out of place. It was almost as if her presence alone had raised the overall quality of the building, such was the finery of her apparel and beauty of her.
"Here I am," he responded with a weak smile. "You've always been good at finding me, haven't you?"
"It's not very difficult. You're rather poor at hiding your presence when one would figure that'd be the type of magic you'd want to learn above all else," Daphne slid into a seat beside him and daintily plucked a chip from his plate, her nails painted a deep red that matched the colour of her lips. "Won't you find yourself in a spot of trouble for leaving your relatives without the approval of the Headmaster?"
"Professor Dumbledore's decided my life for one too many summers. I'd like to decide where I go, who I spend time with and what I do, so here I am. If it were up to me, I'd buy a home with all of that gold my family left me and stay there. You could visit or stay with me, either option's fine, I just can't be with the Dursleys any longer. Not after last year," when he finished with a shake of his head, he went for a drink of the pub 'special'. It didn't feel as if it had much alcohol, but enough of it would do the trick — he didn't plan on drinking all that much either, and the barkeep, he wouldn't deny the 'saviour' of the wizarding world despite the shite the Prophet said about him.
Truth be told, Harry just wanted to stop seeing Cedric's face every time he closed his eyes. Sleep was the hardest thing to achieve, it felt as if it were an impossible feat after that day. Fleur said something similar, she also said that she would be back in the country before too much longer too since she wanted to work and move here. He would be happy to have her in addition to Daphne; it was like he had his best friend and girlfriend from the latter and a sister from the former.
"Stay with me," Daphne said simply, her second hand prying his away from the alcohol with a disdainful look at the drink. "No amount of pressure would stop my current guardians from taking you in should I give the word and you'd be able to study with me throughout the entirety of summer. That'd be enjoyable, wouldn't it?"
Harry looked over to her expecting to see a victorious sort of look on her face, but that wasn't at all what he saw. Instead on her face was a look of nervousness as she refused to make eye contact, her vision pointedly on her painted nails without the chance for him to look her in the eyes. It was strangely unlike her.
She's probably offering just to be nice. I wouldn't want to impose on her and the people she's staying with, not after everything she's already done for me.
"I wouldn't want to impose," Harry started. "You—"
Daphne's head snapped up to look at him, her eyes looking into his for all of a second before they moved away — that action repeated itself nearly a dozen times as she responded. "You wouldn't be imposing, I'm offering you the chance to spend your summer with me… dork. We wouldn't just have to study either, you understand, I imagine. I'm not going to spell it out for you."
He blinked a few times at her words before realisation dawned on him, and Merlin, he was thick. She had told them that before and he often disagreed with her, but he supposed he should have recognised her nervousness easily enough considering it was a sensation he was oftentimes struck with… well, not anymore, not since the two of them were dating now.
"Oh. Are you sure? You seriously won't mind and it won't cause you any problems?" Harry asked after he swallowed some spit that had begun to pool in his mouth.
Daphne tilted her head at him, her eyes staring daggers into his soul as she ran her tongue under the upper portion of her lips, portraying a very annoyed look at him. "If I have to give you permission one more time for you to stay with me, I'm simply going to stun you and bring you home with me. Is your mind made up or should I withdraw my wand?"
"Point made," Harry said with a grin before he eyed the mug she had taken from him; when she sent it back to the bar, he reckoned that was over with. "So, back to yours then, yeah?"
"If you're finished here, yes. I don't believe I've ever been to a place with a smell as… unique, shall we say, as this one. You do realise you have the ability to stay wherever you'd like with the usage of your name alone, don't you?" Daphne asked as she stood up with her typical fluidity at the same time one of her sands sought out his, all but dragging him from the table.
"I suppose, but this is more of what I like. We both know I don't enjoy the 'higher' people," Harry answered before he got a cheeky smile on his face. "You're the only Pureblood for me."
She snorted and pointed at the floo. "Greengrass Manor, dork. We're going to be studying every day this summer, it'll be very beneficial to the both of us — don't think I've forgotten about our deal either, you'll be teaching me healing magic this evening."
"I haven't forgotten a thing… right!" Harry took a hand full of Floo powder and turned to smile one last time at Daphne before he used the network, this one genuine and packed with as much affection as he could give. "Love you too, Daph."
And then he was gone.