The Boy that Died

Lost

Hermione watched from the stands. He and Cedric started first and both lit up their wands a short way in. She supposed it must be dark in there. Then Harry and Cedric reached a fork. Harry took the left one and Cedric took the right one. Hermione could see Cedric wandering off but it was Harry she was worried about, so she returned her eyes back to the small figure running inside the maze.

A whistle blew and Hermione saw Krum enter the maze. A few seconds later the whistle blew and Fleur ran in.

Harry’s chosen path was seemingly deserted. Hermione, Ron, Mrs Weasley and the rest of the group watched with quick eyes. Then Hermione let her eyes wander to the path ahead of Harry. Her eyes stopped at something just around the corner from Harry. She couldn’t exactly see it but she knew it was there.

“Ron, Ron,” said Hermione, nudging Ron as she did so.

“Huh? What?” Ron tore his eyes away from Harry and turned to face Hermione.

“Look there,” Hermione, pointed to the space in front of Harry.

“Where…? Oh!” Ron gasped.

Hermione looked down and saw that the ‘thing’ had changed into a Dementor. She hoped Harry had the sense to keep his head, if he fainted now he wouldn’t have a chance of winning the Tournament. Plus it didn’t bear to think about what the Dementor would do to him. Harry stopped for a second and Hermione thought he might have frozen with fear, but then he gathered his wits and sent out a silvery patronus at the Dementor. The Dementor tripped and Hermione heard Ron snort next to her.

“That’s not a Dementor!” he laughed. “It’s a Boggart!”

Harry seemed to be thinking upon the same lines as Ron for he raised his wand and the Dementor disappeared. Hermione sank back with a sigh of relief.

The rest of the tournament passed uneventfully until Hermione saw Harry stop suddenly. She could just see an statement of horror on his tiny face. What he was so horrified about she could only guess. They couldn’t hear a thing from the maze; Dumbledore must have put some sort of spell on it.

Mrs Weasley suddenly gasped. Hermione turned and stared.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Look! Look next to Harry!” Mrs Weasley gasped, pointing a finger at the maze.

Hermione looked down at the pitch and her heart gave a lurch. On the hedge next to Harry was Krum. He was standing over Cedric who was twitching and jerking on the ground. Horrified, Hermione looked at Harry who was running along the hedge trying to find some way in. He could obviously hear something they couldn’t. Eventually Harry blasted a hole through the hedge and scrambled in. Next second Krum fell flat on the ground.

Ron turned to Hermione. “What he doing? You can’t attack the other champions!”

“Did you even look at Krum!” Hermione exclaimed. “He was using the Crucio curse, you can get a life sentence for that! Harry didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I didn’t say Harry,” muttered Ron.

Hermione shook her head disbelievingly and turned her eyes back to the maze. Cedric had sent up red sparks but teachers were already rushing in. Harry and Cedric disappeared once again into the maze. From then on Hermione couldn’t see very well. Harry was getting so far into the maze that the huge hedges blocked him almost entirely from view. Now and again she saw a glimpse of Harry’s head that allowed her to see where he was going but that was all.

Then Hermione saw Harry come into view. A small area around the Triwizard cup had been raised, most probably for the purpose of seeing who was about to win. The Triwizard cup was only a few feet away from Harry. He was running now. Hermione gave a little eeek and clenched her hands.

“Come on Harry, run!” she muttered.

But then Hermione saw another figure come running out in front of Harry, he heart sunk. It was Cedric. Cedric was going to get there, and after all that hard work they had done. Ron was on the edge of his seat.

It was Ginny who spotted it first. She gasped and pointed towards a passage just adjacent to Harry. A huge spider was running along it just in front of Cedric, about to intercept him in front of the Cup. The spider flew out of the passage and just missed Cedric but knocked his wand out of his hand. Harry yelled a spell but all it did was make the spider run after him. Terrified, Hermione could only watch as the spider grabbed hold of Harry. Cedric was up now and shooting as many spells as he could towards the spider, but it was no use. Then the spider suddenly dropped Harry and then, (for they couldn’t see much of what was going on) it fell down on top of him. At least, that was what it looked like. But seconds later Cedric ran towards the spider and Harry stood up. Ginny gave a sigh of relief.

“You don’t think that was one of Hagrid’s spiders do you?” asked Ron.

“Hagrid’s what…?” said Ginny, looking over at Hermione and Ron curiously.

“Never mind,” said Ron. “What are Cedric and Harry going to do now? Who’ll take the Cup?”

“Look!” said Hermione and she pointing at the tiny Harry and Cedric.

Harry was leaning heavily against the hedge and his leg was bleeding. Cedric was standing in front of Harry. Harry said something and Cedric turned to face the Cup. Cedric said something and walked towards Harry who shook his head. He looked angry.

“What are they doing?” whispered Ron.

“I think they can’t decide on who should take the Cup” Hermione whispered back.

Ron looked at Hermione like she was mad. “But-but what’s he doing? He could just take the Cup now!”

“Harry’s not like that. He’s a … noble sort of guy.”

Ron just shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it and turned back to face the maze.

Harry and Cedric seemed to have decided something and were standing either side of the Cup with their hands just over the handles.

“They’re going to tie for it!” muttered Hermione out of the corner of her mouth. She couldn’t dare take her eyes of Harry and Cedric.

Harry and Cedric stood there and then suddenly both of them gripped the Cup…and promptly vanished.

There were two of three seconds of shocked silence, and then the whole crowd seemed to explode. People were yelling and shouting, stamping their feet and struggling to get down to the maze. Mrs Weasley and Ginny were in shock and both were sitting rigid. Hermione and Ron however, gathered their senses quickly.

“Come on Hermione,” said Ron urgently and grabbed hold of her.

Together they managed to squeeze their way through the packed stands and ran down towards the maze. Dumbledore was there and he was leading the way, blasting the hedges apart to get to the centre. Ron and Hermione hurried along and tagged along Dumbledore. Both of them were too shocked to speak. Thoughts kept on running through Hermione’s head. Where’s Harry? It can’t be Voldemort…could it? Oh I hope, I hope he’s all right. He has to be. I mean; he’s Harry Potter.

Dumbledore stopped suddenly and Ron and Hermione crashed into him. He held out a warning arm and approached the place where the Triwizard Cup had been. Professor McGonagall hurried forward and then stopped when she saw the empty space. She clasped a hand to her mouth. Hermione was shocked to see she had tears in her eyes.

“A Portkey,” said Dumbledore, sighing heavily. “I should have known.”

Hermione and Ron stared at him, as did everyone else.

“What-what can we do?” gasped Professor McGonagall.

“Nothing,” said Dumbledore. “We can only sit and wait and hope that they come back alive.”

A shocked silence followed this. Dumbledore sighed again and conjured up a chair, which he sat on and preceded to watch the empty space.

*

And Harry ran as he had never run in his life, knocking two stunned Death Eaters aside as he passed; he zig-zagged behind headstones, feeling their curses following him, hearing them hit the headstones – he was dodging curses and graves, pelting towards Cedric’s body, no longer aware of the pain in his leg, his whole being concentrated on what he had to do –

“Stun him” he heard Voldemort scream.

Ten feet from Cedric, Harry dived behind a marble angel to avoid the jets of red light and saw the tip of its wing shatter as the spells hit it. Gripping his wand more tightly, he dashed out from behind the angel –

“Impedimenta!” he bellowed, pointing his wand wildly over his shoulder at the Death Eaters running at him.

From the muffled yell he thought he had stopped at least one of them, but there was no time to turn and look; he jumped over the Cup and dived as he heard more wand blasts behind him; more jets of light flew over his head as he fell, stretching out his hand to grab Cedric’s arm –

“Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!” shrieked Voldemort.

Harry’s hand had closed on Cedric’s wrist; one tombstone stood between him and Voldemort, but Cedric was too heavy to carry, and the Cup was out of reach –

Voldemort’s red eyes flamed in the darkness. Harry saw his mouth curl into a smile, saw him raise his wand.

“Avada Kedavra!” shouted Voldemort.

“Accio!” Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup.

It flew into the air and soared towards him – Harry caught it by the handle. But he knew it was too late. The curse touched him as his feet left the ground. Harry felt a coldness spread across his body and his mind went numb … but despite it all … they were going back …

*

Hermione shrieked as the two figures appeared out of nowhere. Harry landed flat on his face on the ground. He was strangely still. Hermione ran towards them and grabbed hold of Harry’s shoulders and pulled him up.

“Harry! Harry! Harry, are you alright!”

Harry was hanging limp in her hands, his eyes shut. He was holding Cedric tightly in one hand, the Cup in the other. Neither was moving. Hermione shook him more vigorously.

“Harry! Harry! Harry…” she broke down sobbing.

Dumbledore leaned forwards and prised Hermione’s hands off Harry.

“It’s okay. We’ll handle it from here.”

Then Cornelius Fudge elbowed Hermione out of the way and rushed forwards.

“What’s going on? What’s happened?” he said.

He leaned forwards and looked more closely at Harry and Cedric. His face went white.

“My God – Diggory…and Harry!” he whispered. “Dumbledore – they’re dead!”

Hermione screamed. A wave of emotion exploded out of her. She reached out for Harry and shook him again and again. Dumbledore stood back and let Hermione carry on. Eventually she let go and fell to the floor, wailing and sobbing hysterically. Ron was rigid and his eyes were wide.

“N-no. He-he can’t be dead, he just can’t be,” he whispered.

The crowd pressed forward and echoed Fudge’s words – “They’re dead!” – “They’re dead!” – “Harry Potter! Cedric Diggory! Dead!”

Dumbledore leant over the two motionless bodies and whispered a few words. Stretchers were conjured out of nowhere and Dumbledore placed Harry and Cedric gently on them. Then he stood up and walked up to the castle with the two stretchers floating alongside him. The crowd stayed put but Hermione and Ron ran up alongside him. Hermione grabbed hold of Harry’s hand and Ron walked alongside her, his face shocked.

*

Harry landed heavily on the floor. Looking around he saw he was in the Gryffindor common room. Cedric was sitting opposite him with his hand on his chin, looking bored. He looked up when Harry fell.

“Harry! Thank goodness you’re here. What happened? All I remember is us landing in the graveyard and there was that person with a baby in its hands…” he trailed off. “Harry?”

Harry stood up and looked around him. There was something funny about this common room but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“We’re dead Cedric.” He said flatly, trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.

Cedric’s face fell. “I know…but what about everyone else? What about Dumbledore and my parents? What about Cho?”

“Well I don’t bloody know, do I!” Harry felt suddenly angry. “All I know is that we’re stuck in this stupid common room when Voldemort is probably wreaking havoc as we speak!”

Cedric looked down at his feet. Harry felt guilty.

“I don’t know Cedric. We haven’t got much choice though do we? We’ll just have to stay here as ghosts for the rest of our miserable ghost lives, won’t we?” Harry couldn’t stop a feeling of resentment coming into his voice.

Cedric nodded and then he looked up. His face went pale.

“Harry! Harry, your-your feet! You’re disappearing! What’s happening?”

Harry looked down and saw in shock that his feet had disappeared. His legs were slowly vanishing and his arms had totally disappeared. Cedric gave a cry of shock and lunged towards Harry. His hands tried to grab onto Harry’s robes but only for a second before they just fell through. Through a misty fog Harry saw Cedric trying to grab onto his robes again before they disappeared. But then Harry couldn’t see at all and the common room floor disappeared beneath his feet. The world was turning and Harry felt slightly dizzy, his vision was still grey but he could feel invisible things brushing against him and trying to cling on.

*

“No, no I’m sorry Headmaster. I’ve checked for all sleep potions known. He definitely is dead”

Dumbledore sighed. He patted Snape on the arm and said “Okay Snape. You can leave.”

Snape walked across the room but before he was even halfway he turned around and looked at Harry with an statement of … pity? Sorrow? Dumbledore couldn’t tell, but it seemed as though Snape was trying to say sorry to Harry, after all these years.

*

Suddenly Harry felt a jolt and landed on his back on something soft. Wailing filled the air and Harry could hear a squeak of shoes running along the floor. He scrunched up his eyes and hoped for the best.

*

“…only him who could be capable of such a thing … Hermione?”

Hermione looked up with a start. Dumbledore was staring at her with a mixture of pity and concern.

“I’m sorry Dumbledore, I just can’t…” she swallowed.

“It’s alright, after all, it will be hardest on those who were his friends.”

Hermione was silent. Ron was looking down at his feet but then he looked up.

“But-but what happened? How did they both come back if they were both…?”

“We may never know, we may never know” said Dumbledore heavily.

Hermione and Ron turned to look at Harry. His eyes were closed and his face bore a frown, as though he was angry with himself for not being able to do anymore.

*

That was the last both friends ever saw of the famous Harry Potter for a long time. The very next day Madam Pomfrey was woken by a shriek from Hermione.

“He’s gone! He’s gone!”

“What in the world…?” Madam Pomfrey lifted her head and looked up in time to see Hermione come racing into her office.

“He’s gone! Madam Pomfrey, come quick! He’s gone!” Hermione sounded hysterical.

“Who’s gone?”

“Harry! Oh Harry!” cried Hermione.

Alarmed, Madame Pomfrey ran out into the hospital wing, to be greeted by the sight of an empty bed. Harry’s glasses were lying broken on the floor and his duvet was scrunched up nearby.

“Cedric’s still there but Harry’s gone! I just woke up and he wasn’t there!” Hermione wailed.

“Calm yourself girl,” said Madam Pomfrey sternly, “go fetch Professor Dumbledore and tell him to come immediately. The culprit may still be on the grounds.”

Hermione rushed out of the door without a glance back, leaving Madame Pomfrey to try and sort out everything else.

*

They didn’t find anything. Every teacher and every pupil searched the grounds but they didn’t find anything at all. No trace of an attacker or Harry. Ron and Hermione stayed long after the search had been given up. Quite frankly most of the students thought it was just a whole waste of time, searching for a dead body, even if it was Harry. Even the Slytherins didn’t find it in their hearts to help, most of them stayed inside on the pretence that they were going to mourn Cedric.

“Come on Hermione. Lets just go, yeah?” Ron tapped Hermione on the shoulder. “We’ve been here about an hour now.”

“What would you care!” burst out Hermione. Then she realised what she had just said and clamped a hand to her mouth in shock. Ron stared at her looking injured.

“Hermione! I wouldn’t ever … you know I don’t think about all this like-like that!”

Hermione looked like she was about to cry and flung her arms around his neck. “Oh I’m sorry Ron. I’m just really worked up about all this … you know … about him … you know,” she couldn’t even say his name anymore.

Ron nodded knowledgably. “Lets just go back.”

Hermione nodded also and allowed herself to be steered up to castle by Ron’s guiding arm on her shoulder.

*

“May his soul be … drone drone drone, blah blah blah”

Ron stared ahead blankly at the wall. The priest was reading an awful lot but Ron didn’t hear nor care. He was trying with all of his might not to think about him.

He was dead. He was not worth thinking about anymore.

Is there an afterlife? Ron wondered. If there is, is he there, along with his parents? Is he happy?

Somehow Ron didn’t really feel grief, like Hermione did. It was as though Harry had just gone on holiday, not died. The part of his heart where Harry normally was was still there, Ron didn’t feel the hole or emptiness that he had heard many people say they felt when a loved one was gone.

No. I don’t think I do believe Harry is dead. Ron thought decisively. Hermione obviously thought he was though. She had been sobbing continuously through the service. Ron was feeling vaguely annoyed by now, but he was careful not to show it. After all he was meant to be mourning his dead best friend.

I wonder where he is now? Ron mused. But if he’s not dead … where can he be?

*

The sound of feet stopped abruptly (and Harry’s stomach lurched at this) right in front of him. Harry didn’t have his glasses on (although he had them on in the common room) and when he opened his eyes he saw a brown-haired woman, probably a nurse, walking quickly towards the bed he was sitting on. Harry had just time to register the shock and surprise on her face before the world exploded in a bright, white light.