The ominous pyramid towered over Cedric. The large shadow of it being cast over him in the moonlight. It was impossible to make out any real features of it in such low light, so Cedric ventured inside. The entrance was wide and low, no more than four feet high. Causing him to crouch as he almost crawled in.
"Lumos." Cedric said with little confidence. He had heard stories of curse breakers having whole tombs explode from a single mistimed spell. But there was no response from this one.
The tunnel stayed low, making the already tall Cedric feel very claustrophobic. It's width stayed, so it must have been easier to build this way, Cedric thought.
The sandy bricks spilled dust as he put his weight on each one, his knees leaving an unintentional trail of breadcrumbs to the entrance. The sand on the floor got thinner as he creeped deeper into the inky tunnel, less and less, until there were none at all and he could crawl on all fours with ease. Holding his still alit wand in his mouth the ceiling seemed to get slightly lower as he ventured further.
Each tiny distance he covered felt like dragging his limp body through fire. His arms and thighs ached terribly only after what must have been a quarter of an hour. The lactic acid burning through his joints and muscles, his hands shaking as he kept pulling himself forward.
His head hit the roof for the ninth time, as he bumped his elbow off the wall for the third time. Keeping count helped Cedric to ignore the pain of shuffling his grazed knees over the bricks. His trousers had began to rip through the knees, and his skin was bleeding slightly. Taking a small rest Cedric turned over to his back, shoulders hitting off the roof and floor simultaneously.
It had got smaller. At the entrance all he had to do was crouch down. At this point he had to be on all fours constantly or fear bashing his head. Cedric began the worry the tunnel would squeeze him more and more until he could not escape. Going further and further would be suicide, like falling into an ever decreasing funnel.
If he shot a spell to clear space, he would definitely be in the impact zone.
"Revelio" This whisper of desperation was all he could do. Just a hint was all he needed, just something to help him move.
The floor under him started to sparkle, gradually brighter until it was blinding to look at. The whole pyramid rumbled and shook Cedric side to side. Falling dust fell into his eyes and mouth. Gagging and unable to see, he fumbled around for his dropped wand. Suddenly the floor opened beneath him. Falling through it instantly, Cedric tumbled down the slope into the unknown.
Where he found himself, gave him the title of the luckiest S.O.B who had ever lived. Standing up and looking around Cedric was in a study. Sheets of parchment were stacked high in every bit of spare space, as well as covering the floor. On the desk was a leather bound journal, opening it Cedric tried to read the entries but to no avail. It was all written in Latin. Cedric's knowledge of the ancient tongue only extended to spell work, not being able to decipher full paragraphs.
He picked up the book, and his vision blurred. Trying frantically to hold onto something to stop himself from fainting, Cedric fell into unconsciousness.
The unnatural white light of a muggle fluorescent bulb awoke Cedric. Stirring, he looked at each of his sides and found other patients in this hospital.
"Good morning Sir, I'm sorry to have woken you." A doctor said entering the room.
"You were passed out in the desert, some camel traders found you. Your belongings are safe, don't worry. You were holding onto a book as you slept, it's with your other things at reception." She finished.
"I need to leave." Cedric said as intimidating as he could muster.
"Not before we get you checked out fully. Now sit tight and you'll be out by the end of the day."
One day later, after finally being released from the hospital's care. Cedric was enthusiastic to discover what the book contained. He knew the deep knowledge of Latin required to fully understand the contents was beyond not just him, but most people. Italy was a good first bet, Vatican City especially as they still studied Latin heavily.
Gathering his things quickly from the hotel room, Cedric rushed to the airport to try and arrange a flight to Italy, before heading home.
"The next flight is this evening, but it's almost fully booked. The only seat available is in first class and I'm not sure if…" the check in desk worker trailed off.
"Whatever it is I can afford it, just hurry up it has to be today." Cedric said rudely, trying to speed them up.
"Okay then, we'll add the seat then. Anything else you'll need will be provided on the plane itself, please make your way to security."
Rome was beautiful. Cedric thought it was definitely somewhere he could live once he graduated and got a muddle of Roman and Christian architecture made it a sight seeing joy. Inwardly he wished he came here instead of Egypt, which didn't live up to his expectations.
This was not a sight seeing trip though, and Cedric was here to find someone to translate the text he found. Latin not only originated in Italy, but The Vatican Church held some of the world's top experts in the field. The Vatican City was the smallest recognised country in the world, or so the tourist signs said as he made his way in. The whole place was even smaller than Diagon Alley, it would only take half an hour to walk the entire perimeter.
Cedric, after asking a security guard in the main plaza, had arranged a meeting with an expert in the Latin language. Marc Schweitzer was studying in the Vatican for his research course at university. From what Cedric could tell he was not a wizard.
"What is this?" The Swiss man asked, brandishing the manuscript in his hands. "It's nonsense, Latin doesn't work like that. It doesn't make any sense grammatically."
"Well what does it mean though?" Cedric asked.
"It says something about Aevum, which is the mode of existence experienced by angels and by the saints in heaven. In some ways, it is a state that logically lies between the timelessness of God and the temporal experience of mortal beings. But then is says Lux which just means light. Do you see what I mean? It would be like saying 'Heaven Light', it doesn't make sense." The shorter, older man said grumpily.
"Does it say anything else?" Cedric asked once again, hopefully.
"Well it seems it is a diary. Most of this is just describing their travels in Egypt and Greece. Whatever Aevum Lux is supposed to mean, it must be important."
"How so?"
"Look here," Marc said pointing to a section as Cedric leaned closer. "Here it says 'I've found it, I've finally found it Heaven Light'. So I'm guessing that's what they were searching for. If you want to look more into what that means, I'd suggest looking in the public library of Rome. I'm no expert on Catholicism like some of the others here, but even I know this is simple enough to not require anyone else's help."
"Yeah sure, I'll do that next thanks."
"What is this for anyway? Some school project?"
"Something like that…"
Searching the large public library of Rome took Cedric quite a long time. Although Hogwarts proudly held the title of largest magic library in Europe. It didn't hold a candle to this one, or any muggle one it seemed.
After a while of looking through Latin textbooks, language books, and even religious texts. Cedric made his way over to the historical section. On instinct he approached the thickest, tallest book he saw. 'Summa Theologica' by Thomas Aquinas. Some muggle expert on lots of different things. This, Cedric observed, was a bit of a trend for scientists and historians from that time period. They all seemed to be mathematicians – come – philosophers – come – biologists, and so on.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, for instance, was a monk, philosopher, historian, and doctor. Flicking through a companion guide, Cedric found that he was apparently the premier Laziali historical figure. Having a hand in everything has its benefits. The book itself, was mainly a slightly weird rant trying to prove the existence of God.
As Cedric was skimming through the thick book he thought about religion. The Wizarding World, and all non-muggles, didn't really believe in God the same way Christians, Muslims, or Jews did. Centaurs for instance preferring to rely solely on the stars, and witches and wizards were largely pagans. At least that would be what muggles would call them. Worshiping many gods, not just one. For something to be a god, it just needed worshippers. So in a sense, anything could be one if you managed to convince people to worship it. In general, people believed that the more worshippers a god has, the more powerful and important it is.
From the people Cedric knew at least, there were only a few gods and goddesses who had any major following among witches and wizards. Woden, was the most popular god to worship in the Diggory's home county. Representing death mainly, and personified as a Grim. Cedric's father was largely reticent to believe in gods, but was still wary to anger Woden. Thenor and Tiw were two more gods that had larger followings, representing storms and war respectively. In terms of goddesses there were fewer, owing to the sexist nature of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Frig and Seaxneat were the two more prominent figures. Beings of love, and nature.
Aquinas detested these pagan gods, calling it barbaric and beastly. Which offended Cedric slightly, but he continued until he finally found something useful.
Aquinas identifies the Aevum as the measure of the existence of beings that "recede less from permanence of being, forasmuch as their being neither consists in change, nor is the subject of change; nevertheless they have change annexed to them either actually, or potentially". Later stating these beings to be heavenly or celestial bodies. Which Cedric deduced to mean planets.
"Why would some old Roman wizard be so keen on planets?" Cedric whispered aloud to himself, careful to not be too loud in the library. He then heard a quiet gasp from the bookshelves behind him. He spun round quickly, but by the time he did. They were gone.
After his eventful summer holiday. Cedric was glad to be back on home soil. It was almost time to leave for school, only a couple of days. All of his recent pondering on religion inspired him to visit the barrow near his home. Avoiding his father would be easy. It was a weekday and midday at that too, so he would definitely be at work. Bursdon Moor was only a short walk from Ottery St Catchpole. The moor had been the burial mound for his family in ancient times, the Weasleys too.
The approach to the entrance was flanked by tall, thick, stone pillars, unremarkable they seemed. But each one was embed with wards to keep out enemies, and preserve the spirits in the afterlife. The round door leading down was metallic and carved with images of forgotten heroes battling some unimaginable evil. The detail was incredible, Cedric could make out the faces of each warrior. The mighty battle maiden holding some war-axe and throwing a spear simultaneously was particularly intricate. Each strand of her hair was clear, and the little ridges as Cedric ran his fingers over it gave him goosebumps.
As he entered the damp, dark burial mound. The thought of seeing Harry's ghost spooked him slightly. Cedric thought it might be a good idea to visit a barrow or cairn near where the Potters live. If Harry was buried there.
"Who's there?" A hollow childish voice said, it's high pitch sending chills down Cedric's spine.
"It's Cedric Diggory." He said with resolution. "I'm here to visit the Diggory family."
"Oh," the same childish voice said, "you won't be visiting me then. If you ever see a Weasley tell them to come round soon, okay?"
"Yeah sure." He replied, unsure if he would really live up to that.
He walked further, crouching slightly to avoiding having his hair touch the dirty ceiling. Cedric thought that Egyptian burial methods weren't so different now. Monuments to remember the dead must have been all over the world. That showed his ignorance, he wondered if there were any unknown tombs in Britain like there were in Egypt. Maybe not, Wizards still used them pretty regularly.
The old Diggory burial plot was next to the Lovegood's. It seems Xenophilius and his daughter were much more attentive gravekeepers than Cedric and his father. It saddened him how similar their situations were, they both lost their mothers, and wives, at such a young age. Xenophilius' wife was in the department of mysteries, according to his father. That was how she passed, doing some sort of experimentation. That Lovegood girl was there when she died too, apparently. It must have been very traumatic for her.
Compared to the fresh flowers and idols all over the Lovegood plot, the Diggory one only had a few dandelions springing out. It wasn't so bad though, he knew his mother preferred Dandelions to other flowers anyway. Maybe the other weeds needed to go though.
"Diffindo." He said softy, aiming at an offending weed. Cedric repeated this several times till only flowers remained.
"I love you Mum"
AN: thank you for reading, and for those following thank you for your patience. Next chapter will be the start of Cedric's final school year. So I hope you're all looking forward to it. Please favourite or review. :)