Angelus Candidus

Chapter One

The graveyard was overgrown and dark, old cracked tombstones projecting from the earth like broken teeth. The air was cold and dank and smelled of mold and death, and all around was darkness. Harry could barely see through it.... Then, from far off, a figure carrying a bundle became clearer and clearer as it drew near.

Harry's scar suddenly exploded in pain and agony such as he had never felt before in his life. Then, from far away, came the dreaded voice...

"Kill the spare."

And then, cold gray expressionless eyes stared back at him.

"Wands out do you reckon?"

"Yeah."

"Avada Kedavra!"

Cedric. Dead.

Suddenly a great blast of cold air met him with such force that Harry gasped. Rain pelted down from the sky, drenching him. It was all his fault. He fell to his knees on the soggy ground, the wind blowing the damp strings of his hair about in every direction.

"Bone of the father... Flesh of the servant... Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, resurrect your foe."

Hands like pale spiders, red eyes, cold laughter. Voldemort.

Laughter. Evil laughter...

And then everything exploded.

~*~

Harry sat up suddenly in bed, gasping for breath and shivering from head to toe. His scar was burning with pain and he shakily brought a hand up to touch it. His face was wet with tears and he swiped at them angrily. A chill wind blew across the room and he looked up abruptly. Somehow, the window near his bed had been blasted open by the storm raging outside and the wind was driving rain inside. Thunder rumbled in the distance and as he got up to close the window, lightning flashed, blue against the black/gray sky.

Now that Harry was awake, he couldn't fall asleep again, not after that dream. It was amazing how he could still function with the minimal amount of sleep he was getting. The dream haunted him non-stop, every night. Harry fought with himself each night to stay awake, but he was so exhausted that he gave in. He would have asked for a Dreamless Sleep Potion from Madame Pomfrey, but it was very hard to prepare and there was only a limited amount in the hospital wing.

Harry sat down on his bed and lowered his face into his hands, taking deep, steadying breaths. He could hear the sounds of the four other boys in his dormitory fast asleep, from Neville's light snores to Seamus' deep and even breathing. If only it were so easy for him, but how could he sleep after everything that had happened? How could he continue living when others were dead because he hadn't done enough?

Everyone told him it wasn't his fault. That he should stop blaming himself. He'd like to see them try. Harry knew the truth. He heard the whispers behind his back, he saw the strange looks other students sent his way when he passed through the corridors, the sudden silences when he walked into a room. And no matter what his friends said, they didn't really understand.

Harry sighed and stood up, putting on his robe. If he was going to brood, he might as well do it down in the common room where there was a fire and he didn't have to worry about waking anyone up...

He made his way silently downstairs, his feet freezing on the stone floors. He cursed himself inwardly for having forgot his slippers, but he was fine when he stepped onto the plush scarlet carpet on the common room floor.

Harry sat down on the sofa in front of the fire, which had already been reduced to dying embers, the faint light casting its glow over the small area around him and leaving everything else in blackness.

~*~

"What the-? Crookshanks!" Ginny hissed at the great orange fur-ball that had startled her out of sleep. She didn't know when the cat had taken to sitting on people's faces while they slept, but she was going to have a stern talk with Hermione in the morning.

Ginny sat up and rubbed her eyes before looking at the clock beside her bed. It read, quite simply, "Are you mad?! Go back to sleep!" But Ginny suddenly found she was wide awake and feeling a bit restless. Her stomach grumbled.

"Hmmm... I wonder if the house elves are up at this hour down in the kitchens..." she murmured half to herself and half to Crookshanks, who, having finished bothering her, had now settled on her lap and was purring contentedly as Ginny absent-mindedly stroked his fur. Ginny's stomach rumbled again.

"Well, I suppose there's only one way to find out." Ginny stood up, knocking Crookshanks off her lap. The cat gave her an angry hiss and stormed out of the room with as much pride as he could muster.

"Serves you right, you demonic cat."

Ginny pulled on her dressing gown and slippers, the floor was cold, after all, and made her way down to the common room.

The fire had died down to a faint glow that cast most of the room in shadow, so Ginny didn't see the low table as she headed to the portrait hole.

"Ow! What the bloody hell?!" she said as softly as she could, hopping up and down, clutching her toe and grimacing in pain. Who'd moved the table?

Her thoughts were interrupted when a voice carried softly across the room from next to the fire.

"Ginny?"

Ginny immediately let go of her foot and stood up straight feeling an accursed blush creeping across her cheeks. Why did she always have to do that?

It wouldn't have mattered if it had been anyone else, but she recognized that voice. It was His voice, and no matter how much she tried, Ginny didn't think she'd ever be able to stop her heart from pounding every time she heard it.

"H-Harry?" she asked timidly.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" Ginny could see Harry's silhouette get up from where he'd been sitting and make his way towards her. Ginny's heart beat faster.

"I-I, uh, well, it's actually a very funny story... I, er," Ginny stammered. She hated herself at that moment. She really did. Why did she have to be such a- such a baby?

She was about to try to gallantly save herself when she caught her first glimpse of Harry in the dim light.

He looked terrible.

There were dark circles under his eyes and his face looked haggard and thin. His shoulders were slumped forward as though he were carrying something very heavy. But it was his eyes that hit Ginny hardest. Instead of the bright green she knew them to be, they were dark and faded, void of emotion. He looked so tired, and not just physically.

He looked like one of the shadows cast by the dying fire.

Ginny mentally shook herself. Harry was waiting for her, she'd been about to say something...

"I- er, well, Crookshanks woke me up and I was just going to head down to the kitchens to grab a bite to eat." The shock of seeing Harry as he was had granted Ginny the ability to string full sentences together in his presence. "What about you?"

Harry glanced at the fire for a moment. "I couldn't sleep."

Ginny felt a wrench inside her chest at the lost look on Harry's face and maybe it was the fact that he looked so alone, but Ginny suddenly felt a surge of courage that Gryffindors were supposed to be famous for in the first place.

"Do you want to come with me, maybe? It- well, it's a long way to walk by myself and I wouldn't mind some company. If you don't mind, that is," Ginny added quickly.

Harry frowned slightly. He didn't look all too certain. "Ginny, you do know I'm a prefect, right?"

Ginny bit her lip uneasily. "Yes..."

Harry furrowed his brow. "You know you're not supposed to be out of bounds at this hour."

Ginny nodded.

"And you're still asking me to walk around the castle with you in the middle of the night, even though I'm supposed to take points off for that kind of thing?"

Ginny sighed. "All right, it's stupid, I know, but you just look like..." Ginny blushed and trailed off, too embarrassed to finish.

There was a moment of silence before Harry asked quietly, "Look like what?"

Ginny stared at the floor, wishing her face wasn't burning so and hoping the darkness of the common room was covering it up.

"Like- like you need someone to talk to. And I just thought, since I'm awake, you can, well, not that you have to tell me anything, but if I'm here anyway, and you look so tired, I'll listen, so you don't have to-"

"Okay, let's go."

Ginny abruptly stopped her blabbing and looked up from the spot on the rug she'd been concentrating on.

"Just wait a minute and let me get my slippers."

Ginny simply stood there, in a state of semi-shock, as Harry turned around and climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

She had expected him to politely turn her down, or worse, completely ignore her after the display she'd just made. But he... he...

"Okay, come on." Harry looked a little better now, though Ginny wasn't sure why. Maybe he really didn't want to be alone, though Harry had always seemed to her the type that kept to himself. She wished he would tell her what he was going through, but she wasn't going to disillusion herself. However, the thought of just the two of them walking around the castle during the middle of the night set her heart pounding.

Harry carefully opened the portrait hole (it often creaked) and stepped lightly down, holding the portrait open for Ginny to follow.

Ginny hopped down, but she must have misjudged the distance in the dark, because she tripped when she landed and fell forward, straight into Harry's outstretched arms.

And he caught her.

As his arms encircled her, making sure she didn't fall, Ginny felt she would die, literally, as her heart stopped for a moment and she couldn't breathe.

"Er, Ginny, are you all right?" Harry's embarrassed voice came from somewhere above her head. Ginny slowly raised her wide eyes to Harry's face, only to find she was inches away from his mouth. She uttered a small squeal (much to her everlasting and undying embarrassment) and backed away quickly blushing furiously and straightening her dressing gown.

"Sorry," she said, her voice raspy. Ginny cleared her throat. "It wasn't that high last time I jumped..."

Harry gave her an odd look, but then shrugged. "Come on," he said. "If we're heading down to the kitchens, then you're going to have to meet Dobby and I definitely want to get that over with as fast as I can..."

~*~

Cedric sighed as he watched Harry and Ginny walk away down the corridor. This might prove to be harder than he thought. He'd given them the perfect opportunities. Everyone knew that late night meetings in the common room by chance always led to something. Anything. But Ginny was so shy and Harry so reserved. Of course, Cedric didn't expect all that much to happen straight off. Harry wouldn't let himself fall so easily, and besides, he needed to trust her first and she needed to know about everything. Cedric was going to have to wait until Harry felt comfortable enough around Ginny to let go of his burden. And then Ginny, well, Cedric trusted that she'd be able to finally knock some sense into the boy. She was a Weasley after all.

Cedric wandered down the different corridors, not really heading anywhere. It felt so odd to be back at Hogwarts, everything was so familiar yet so strange. He'd found, upon entry, that he could now feel the magic thrumming through every fiber of the great castle, and he could sense the hundreds of lives comfortable within its walls. It was rather intoxicating and Cedric reveled in the feeling of the sudden awareness of everything. The stones themselves told stories that had taken place thousands of years before, even before they had been brought together to form Hogwarts. The trees in the Forbidden Forest were alive, there was no other way to describe it, and the old Whomping Willow had told him some of the most shocking tales in connection to Harry's third year.

It was a Hogwarts such as he had never known it and he felt like a little first year all over again.

As Cedric rounded a final corner, he suddenly realized that his subconscious had led him to the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. The great engraved bronze plate portraying the epic battle between Billgin the Blunt and Grox the Guzzler shone bright in the moonlight from the nearby windows and there was a flash as Billgin swung his unsharpened ax at Grox's head. He hit him with the flat of the ax and Grox crumpled in an unconscious heap as Billgin ran around, victorious before he accidentally hit himself as well.

Cedric chuckled. That scene had always made him laugh when he'd been alive. He remembered the first time Cho had brought him here... Her eyes had glittered mischievously as she'd led him to the entrance. She'd taken his hand, and placed it on the bottom left corner of the engraving.

"Hey! You're no Ravenclaw!" Grox had yelled at him the second before he was knocked out.

"Yeah! Take your bloody arse and leave before I show you what I'm made of!" Billgin shouted, waving his ax in the air. He'd lost his balance and fallen down a moment later, the ax landing unceremoniously on his head.

Cedric shook his head as he gazed longingly at picture, not quite seeing it, but looking beyond, as though he could see the girl he knew was inside.

"Hello Cedric," came a voice from behind him. He turned around in surprise. No one was supposed to be able to see him.

It was the Gray Lady, the resident ghost of Ravenclaw, gliding towards him, her long dress trailing in whispy clouds behind her.

Cedric gave a small sigh of relief. "Hello, ma'am," he answered politely. "How are you?"

The Gray Lady stopped before him and tilted her head, observing Cedric for a long moment. Her eyes had always made him shiver, though not in a bad way. She seemed to be able to look deep inside you, but the way she did it, you knew that whatever she found never reached another's ears.

"I thought I sensed a White in the castle. There hasn't been one here for quite a while." She gave Cedric a small smile. "Your wings are beautiful."

Cedric ducked his head, blushing slightly. "Thank you Lady. You're gracious as always."

The Gray Lady chuckled quietly. "Ah, Cedric, you always were a polite young man. So proper! But gallant all the same..." She trailed off, looking at the bronze engraving.

"She misses you, Cedric."

Cedric lowered his head and stared at the floor, not quite sure what to say.

"She cries when she's alone, you know."

"Yes, I know." Cedric sighed. "I hear her sometimes." His heart gave a painful wrench and he looked up, his features etched with sorrow.

The Gray Lady tilted her head again and stared at him in her strange way. "She wouldn't cry if she knew how much it hurt you up above. I know her, Cedric; she used to talk to me before you left. She'd rather do anything than hurt you, but she hurts so much right now... She doesn't realize that the pain will pass, or that-"

"Or that she'll see me again," Cedric finished for her. "It'll just take a while, is all."

"Yes..." she nodded. "Patience is a virtue, I have always believed. You need to have patience as well. Cries of guilt are not easy to Answer and it will take time. Do not be discouraged. All events take place in their due time." The Gray Lady began to drift away, apparently finished with the conversation, but Cedric still had one thing to ask her.

"Lady?"

The beautiful ghost turned around and gazed at him inquiringly.

"Would you... Could you just keep an eye on her for me, please?"

The Gray Lady bowed slightly and smiled. "Of course I will Cedric." She then turned and left through the corridor wall.

Cedric gazed longingly at where he knew Cho was one last time before continuing his wanderings for the night.

"I love you, Cho," he whispered. He'd never known White Angels could feel so alone.