The train to school was quiet, purposely so. Cedric was hiding in a compartment adjacent to the prefect carriage waiting to be called up. Before he got on the train he snuck home whilst his father was at work, taking school supplies and his uniform. As well as leaving a note telling him that Cedric would see him at winter break.

There was a loud beep, followed by speech over the tannoy.

"Prefects please report to the front carriage." Played through the whole train.

Making his way up there slowly, Cedric made purpose to lock his compartment. Keeping all his belongings safe. The new prefects he recognised were both from his house. Some boy who Cedric remembered sitting in the common room most days studying, and a chatty popular girl who was currently bugging him.

Head Girl was occupied by Charlotte Crawley. A Slytherin who's family owned shares in The Wireless, as well as print media. A prim and proper 'landed from the gentry' sort.

"You're late Cedric. I don't know how, I know you were only one cart over. The conductor let me look at a map that showed where everyone is. Apparently that Werewolf designed it after the Dementors attacked." She said once everyone arrived.

"Well I was just making sure no one was left behind." He lied, as she rolled her eyes at his excuse.

"New prefects, your roles today will be to patrol up and down the train. Make extra care that all the first years are alright. They'll probably be getting nervous or homesick." Charlotte ordered, as several of the youngest prefects marched out and down the train.

"Marvin, please lead a meeting to discuss the upcoming events of this school year, and how each prefect will be assigned to each task." She said towards the direction of a gangly Ravenclaw.

"Cedric, you and I will be meeting with Professor McGonagall. I don't know why, follow me" She finished whilst beginning to leave the carriage. As soon as they left Charlotte turned to Cedric crossly.

"And where have you been all summer?"

"At home, keeping my head down."

"After winning the first Triwizard Tournament is goodness knows how many years? Do you know how many interviews you should have had? How many appearances you should have made in Witch Weekly, and The Prophet? Do you know how much my family's shares have gone down since you decided to 'keep your head down' all bloody summer long?" She ranted. Clearly Cedric had underestimated how much of a hot topic he would be this summer.

"Look I'm sorry Charlotte but you know why I had to. People think I'm a killer!" He argued halfheartedly. Mainly feeling sorry for depriving her family indirectly, and failing to live up to his Champion image.

"No they don't, stop acting ridiculous. I'm guessing you haven't been reading the papers either because every other week it was 'Where has Cedric Diggory disappeared to?'. Not wondering how you murdered someone."

"Keep you voice down," Cedric interrupted, shushing her with his finger. "I don't want people to start thinking it then. My father told me about how he had to try and convince everyone at work that I didn't kill Potter."

"Well that's The Ministry for you. Did you really assume that the couple hundred people working there would represent the tens of thousands of people all over the country?"

"Well I –" Cedric began.

"I was being rhetorical." Charlotte snapped back.

"We should really be getting to that meeting with McGonagall now." He said trying to shut off the conversation.

"I made that up. She would never ride on the train with the children, she's suppose to meet the first years outside the Great Hall, remember? Now run along to your little isolated carriage, that will really convince people you're innocent." She said sarcastically, shooing him away as she went into a compartment with her friends.

Cedric was sitting glumly at far end of his house's table as the sorting was coming to a close. Clapping whenever people around him did the welcome new members to his house. Dumbledore walked towards the golden lecture at the front of the head table, and the hall quieted.

"Greetings everyone, old faces and new." He began, scanning the room as he spoke. "The end of last year was marked by a tragic, tragic loss. Harry Potter lost his life at the end of The Triwizard Tournament. Understandably, the tournament will be cancelled until further notice. Now the most I'll ask of you all is to maintain decorum in this sad time, lend your thoughts to his loved ones, and hold your friends close to you. For you will never know when they'll be gone."

Dumbledore's speech made most of the room feel awkward, Cedric observed. Most people were hanging their heads in front of themselves solemnly.

"On a happier note," the Headmaster continued, "it is my pleasure to welcome back Professor Moody. Who will be continuing his role as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. As well as all of the staff, who have been here a tad longer." He joked, assumedly about himself.

"Did you hear that?" Someone near Cedric whispered. "Moody broke the curse!"

"Well if it was going to be someone, it would be him huh?" Another replied.

"And finally, and most importantly.. tuck in" Dumbledore finished, and as he did all the food popped onto the tables in an instant. The hall exploded in noise as the entire body ate ravenously, chatting away with their mouth filled with food. Spitting chunks of residue to each other in conversation.

"We haven't seen much of you, or your father recently Cedric." Said Byron, Cedric's closest pure blood friend. "I'd imagine the Champion of Hogwarts, no, of Europe should be going to many banquets."

"I was just trying to lay low Byron," Cedric said trying to keep his voice and presence down. "My father said people at work are calling me a murderer."

"Maybe some, my dad said so too. He works in the department of finance, remember? He said that your dad has stopped talking about you as much now."

"So people do think I'm a killer?" Cedric suddenly asked, grasping Byron's shoulder to grab his attention.

"Maybe some, but there's as many people defending you. Your dad was always the one leading the defence. Recently he's been quieter, hardly even denying it. Have you two had a falling out?"

"Stop being nosey Byron." Hissed his girlfriend, Melissa. "You're pressing things too hard, don't you think?"

"Look, I'm sorry Cedric. But you have a right to know what people are saying behind you back, right Melissa?" Byron said, turning to her as he finished.

"Don't listen to him, don't you want to go see your girlfriend soon anyway?" Melissa asked, ignoring Byron.

"I don't know. She's hasn't sent me a letter all summer, or gone to my house to see me. Although I think her mother would have told her not to visit. She seems the sort to believe this rubbish about me." Cedric said grumpily as he stood, "I'm going to bed early tonight, I'll leave the honour of accompanying the first years to the dorms to you two!" He said, raising his voice at the end to announce his departure to the other prefects a ways down the table.

Lessons were uneventful for Cedric. They weren't eventful usually, but it was especially uneventful for him at the start of his last year. Everyone of his classmates were much more focussed on their studies. When each lesson ended, almost everyone of them walked to the library immediately after in a crowd of drowsy, irritable near adults.

Defence against the Dark Arts was the one thing Cedric looked forward too. Since he was champion last year, he missed a lot of his lessons to prepare for each task. The dragon and the lake especially. Over the winter he didn't attend a single class at all, he spent every minute sitting in his dorm room flicking through Aquatic Biology books, and learning spells he could use underwater.

Entering the room last, he waited for his housemates to enter before him. As usual the Gryffindors were all sat down first, rushing into the classroom before it was even due to start to get the best seats. This left the Hufflepuffs with sitting at the very front of class, although they were only ten or so people in the room in total.

Mad-Eye Moody, named so for his magical creepy eye, booted the door open from his office. Most people in the room jumped as he did.

"Boo! Haha, did I scare you? Afraid of every… bump in the night?" He shouted, as he rushed towards the front desk.

"This is your final year, a lot of you want to be Hit-Wizards, Aurors, or whatever. That means you'll have to work a hell of a lot harder than any of your other classes, clear?"

The whole room nodded their heads slightly, some mumbling sounds of agreement.

"Diggory, in the maze, when the boy died," Moody began again, as many people gasped at his bluntness, "What could you have done to save him? He was 14, you're 17. Bit of a gap in experience, no?"

Cedric was shocked and couldn't think of what to say, "Erm, I don't really know Sir. Everything happened so fast, it seemed like they were ready for us."

"Oh," Moody replied faux sympathetically. "They were ready for you? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know." His sarcastic tone made Cedric's cheeks go rosey in embarrassment.

"You heard him everyone! If the enemy are ambushing you, you just die. Is that right Cedric?"

"No." Cedric said sharply. "It wasn't anything like that. They hit him with a killing curse before the Portkey even landed. I got us both out of there immediately after. You probably know this Sir, your former colleagues have no doubt told you."

Moody's face warped into a snarl, "Don't take that tone with me boy." He spat out. All the sweetness in his voice disappeared. Taking a hit from his hip flask, he prowled closer to Cedric's desk.

"You might have heard that last year, I got permission to practice the Imperius on OWL students. You will no doubt be pleased that this year I have managed to convince Dumbledore to allow me to give you an experience of the Cruciatus. It was going to be planned in December, but thanks to boy-wonder's back talking. I think I'll move it up to the end of this month."

The class groaned with annoyance, as some of the more skittish of them whispered to one another in fear.

"Now," Moody said, his face no longer dark with anger. "Silent casting…"

The first few days of school were highlighted with the occasional verbal assault. Slytherins and Gryffindors alike were calling him a murderer. Cedric's worries were real at least, although it didn't bring him much joy to be correct in this particular assumption. Little first years were even telling him he should be in Azkaban. Slytherins, who definitely were not friends with Harry, were telling Cedric he murdered their friend.

This was why, at around midnight. Cedric was walking in The Forbidden Forest to clear his head. There at least there were no naysayers around every corner. From his early years at school, Cedric always enjoyed walking around the forest at night. His interests in Care of Magical Creatures, both from his father, and the enthusiasm of Professor Grubbly-Plank, and Hagrid. He knew that there wasn't much danger to be found in the dark woods, save the Acromantulas. Which could be dealt with by a lot of fire. Only the larger nesting mothers posed a risk to his life.

The Centaurs who lived in the forest were even more difficult to find than the giant spiders. They kept to themselves so much, Cedric didn't doubt that even compared to other clans of centaurs they were peculiar.

The smaller forest creatures, little critters like Zapflies and Sunpigs, were buzzing over head. Zapflies being a particularly docile breed of Firefly. Although when provoked they gave a sharp electric shock. Sunpigs were, despite the name, beetles. Named so because they basked lazily in the sun for so many hours during the day, that they had no choice but to hunt at night.

"Who are you?" A croaky sounding voice said to him from just beyond his sight, in the undergrowth before him. Approaching slowly, Cedric drew his hand and held it firmly in front of him, his off hand clasping the others wrist. Cautiously going closer to the source of the sound, Cedric gripped his wand tightly in his hand. While the forest was pretty safe usually, he wasn't naïve enough to assume this wouldn't be a danger.

"Reveal yourself." Cedric said sternly.

"Did you get lost too?" The voice said, as the speaker revealed themselves. It was a short elderly woman, covered in grime. Her face was gaunt, and her skin stuck to her bones like tight leather armour.

"Do you need help to get out?" Cedric asked, more friendly this time. He hoped inwardly that this was a resident of Hogsmeade who got lost this evening. If they were here for a while it may complicate things. Cedric's father told him of how he found feral children in an abandoned house, whilst working for magical animal control. The neighbours thought there were wild animals in there as they heard howls and yelps in the night.

"Please help me, I've been in here for weeks. Big scary animals chased me into here when I was hiking with my husband." She said shakily.

"Is he close?"

"Son.. he's dead."

The consequences of her statement made Cedric feel uncomfortable. He wondered whether the same animals that chased them into the forest killed the husband. Or maybe this woman did, to eat him or something.

"I can bring you to the edge of the forest, from there our gamekeeper will be able to contact the headmaster and we can get you home."

"What gamekeeper? What headmaster? Where are we?" As she questioned him, he noticed how the more she spoke the more frightened she looked.

"It's okay, calm down." Cedric said, rubbing her back with his palm. "We're at Hogwarts, you must have got lost on the other side of the forest. I didn't realise it was so big."

"What's Hogwarts?" She asked.

Shocked, Cedric let go of her and turned suddenly. If she didn't know what Hogwarts was, how could she have lost in the forest. If she was from Hogsmeade she must know what the school is. If she wasn't a Hogsmeade resident then he had no idea how she managed to get here, there was no civilisation for miles and miles.

"Do you know what magic is?" Cedric asked slowly, realisation dawning slowly on him.

"Of course, it's like crystals and astrology and that kind of thing. Why would you ask such a silly question?" She said, confused as to where he was going with it.

"Okay just follow me and I'll lead you out." Cedric said trying to coax her away from the spot she'd been hiding from since he noticed her.

"Hold on, my friends need to come with me." She said whilst turning and heading deeper into the darkness.

Cedric followed, keeping himself a few steps behind her, as she led him to meet her friends. He didn't really understand who it could be as she said she was on her own. Centaurs would probably ignore her and he was sure there were no other creatures that could talk to a muggle woman. Unless her friends were animals, hopefully not dangerous ones.

"They are usually here, in the trees." She said mournfully, as she looked around above her head slowly. As disappointed look painted on her face. "My little friends, they always warn me when the creatures are near. Up in the trees keeping watch for me. There're like the children I never had."

"And have these children ever got done from the trees?" Cedric asked sympathetically.

"No they're always up there flying in the trees."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention Mr Diggory," Professor Dumbledore said to Cedric once the elderly woman managed to head home with the help of some Obliviators. "You will receive a much deserved special award from the school for this."

"I would prefer for this to just be kept quiet, I don't really think all that is necessary." Cedric said gratefully.

"Nonsense. As both Head Boy, and as a Champion of the Triwizard Tournament, there are certain things expected of you by the other students. You have a responsibility to be a role-model to younger housemates and everyone in the school. Things like this will help that." Dumbledore retorted in a serious tone.

"Okay I guess that makes sense, I'd just prefer to kind of keep my head down for a while. You know, since what happened this summer."

"Mr Diggory… Cedric. You are no less of a deserving winner even if Harry sadly passed. You are respected, and intelligent. That's why in my mind there was no other better suited candidate for Head Boy."

AN: Thank you for reading. Please leave a review or a favourite and a follow. Cheers :)