"Hermione! Look over there!” she subtly pointed.
Cedric slipped into the hall with a small slip of parchment. He was acting very inconspicuous, as though he did not want to attract the attention of other people. He looked in Hermione’s direction as she turned her head. She waved.
“Here I go,” he hollered across the hall and held the parchment up. He smiled and to an onlooker they might have seen the hint of complacency in his grey eyes as they danced from Hermione to the Goblet.
“Good luck!” she replied, because it was all she could think to say.
Cedric crossed the age line, and fearlessly approached the Goblet. The parchment was absorbed into the sea of blue fire and as though on cue, the school filled into the hall.
Cedric took his seat at the Hufflepuff table and the ceremony began.
Cedric’s life had become hectic over night. Girls followed him for autographs, why in fact Fleur Delacour even seemed to have taken an interest in him. Although many Hufflepuffs were angry. They said that Harry being chosen as champion had taken the spotlight away from their own champion. On the contrary Cedric thought it had only increased his popularity. Although he was a soft spoken young man, he would have been lying through his teeth if he had said he didn’t enjoy the fame.
He awoke from a fantastic dream Sunday morning to discover he couldn’t move and could barely breath. The mahogany canopy over his bed had collapsed on him. It seemed all of his dorm mates were still fast asleep and had not heard the crash. He struggled to free himself and managed to remove his left foot from the rubble, he struggled to kick the side of the bed hoping to wake someone. He was running out of air, he breathed and inhaled mouthfuls of dusk, but he couldn’t cough because of the weight of the board on his chest. As though it would be the last thing he ever did he kicked the bed frantically, with urgency as adrenaline was released into his bloodstream. His heart raced and his pupils dilated but he was focused and calm. He thought of how silly it would be to die trapped under the canopy of a bed and was slipping into unconsciousness when Ben Woodeson heard a quiet banging noise.
The next time Cedric opened his eyes he was in the hospital wing. He felt pleased to see that his kicking efforts had gone to good use and was even more pleased to see some sweets left at the bottom of his bed. To his right there were cards and more sweets from well wishers and to the left there was a single black note. He looked curiously at the note, he had never seen black parchment and nor did he know anyone morbid enough to write on it. He lifted his arm very slowly as it was stiff. Carefully he unfolded it unveiling harsh cursive written in white ink.
Cedric read the note again and laughed. It was by far the most ridiculous piece of literature he had ever read. He crumpled up the paper and picked up his wand that was sitting on the table next to him.
“Reducto!” he commanded and the paper blew into a number of pieces.
“I bet a Gryffindor wrote this, those slimy sod’s.”
He turned onto his right shoulder and spotted a lovely green card with a large thermometer on the front. It was from Cho Chang, a pleasantly good looking girl in Ravenclaw. His cheeks flushed a slight pink and he gave his neck a small rub. It was very beautiful and her artistic talents were obvious.
“Your up! Delightful!” strutted in Madame Pomfrey, “you’ve been asleep now for nearly a day. Its 10:00 because that’s what your going to ask next. I’m going to keep you here over night but you’ll be free to go to class tomorrow morning.”
“Wonderful,” he remarked.
“Open up,” she said as she gave him a small spoonful of a green liquid to swallow. He did so and instantly felt remarkably tired. His body forced him to roll over and he fell asleep instantly. That night he dreamed of the pretty little card and thermometers.
After he had awoken from a productive sleep, Cedric made his way down to the Great Hall. The post arrived as usual and he helped himself to some porridge. He swallowed some down, and had just put another mouthful in when he saw a small little article on the third page of the Daily Prophet. His draw dropped and porridge slopped down his chin and back into the bowl from whence it came.
Amos Diggory who works in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures woke up, or indeed didn’t wake up at all when his wife came out from her morning bath to find the canopy of their bed on top of her husband.
Cedric stopped reading and cleaned up the runny porridge on his face.
"What are the odds of that?" he thought as tears inched their way to his eyes.
Hermione watched him as he brushed back his hair nervously, he rubbed his cheeks a number of times and took a few deep breaths. Hermione shot him a look of confusion from behind her copy of the daily prophet. He sent back a look that read “Dunno” and got up and left for the owlery, still running his hands through his hair and wiping away stray tears. He was breathing heavily and his face was growing pale.
Must be a nervous habit, Hermione said to herself. She followed him with her eyes until his shaking frame had turned behind the curve of the stairwell and she could no longer see him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one other person doing exactly the same thing she was.
“We should probably head to class,” Harry said to the group as he stood up. It was very out of character for Harry to want to go to class but they had Defense Against the Dark Arts after lunch and he wanted to get the morning classes over with. Their first class with Professor Moody was horrifying but all agreed that it was the most fascinating class they had ever experienced. The group left the hall and walked by a passage to the stairwells when there was a loud clang, followed by a thud, followed by a scream, followed by a loud “SHIT”. Finally followed by silence.
Ron looked at Harry, Hermione looked at Neville, Neville was also looking at Harry and Harry was looking at the leg that could be seen from the inside the passage.
“I don’t think that was Peeves,” he said. Hermione ran to the leg, and was pleased to see it was indeed attached to a human being but was horrified to see who it was attached to.
"CEDRIC!” she screamed and flung herself in swoon over his unconscious body.
“Calm down there Hermione,” said a voice coming down the stairs.
“PROFESSOR MOODY! DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED?” Hermione screamed at him.
“NO I DIDN’T I WAS PASSING BY AND HEARD A CLANG, FOLLOWED BY A THUD, FOLLOWED BY A SCREAM, FOLLOWED BY A LOUD CURSE WORD. AND THEN HEARD YOUR SCREAMING VOICE,” he hollared back at her in mockery.
“Oh! Sorry about that Professor but we need to get him to the hospital wing,” she calmly said. Moody made his way down the stairs. She looked down at his face, and saw something in the breast (not that she was looking) pocket of his shirt. She pulled out a small black piece of parchment. She removed it and put it in her robes as Moody was advancing down the stairs
“Potter you grab his feet, Weasley you get the head. Carry him up to the hospital wing. I’ll meet you there,” ordered Moody.
“But Professor it would be easier just to levitate him,” Hermione explained to Mad-Eye.
“You’ll do as I tell yea’. Now go!” he commanded.
So Harry put the unconscious Diggory’s legs over his shoulders and a very angry Ron took his head and they began towards the hospital wing. It was a very slow trek as Cedric was a very tall and built young man and Harry and Ron were not. They were nearly half way to the hospital wing when Hermione who was attempting to lift the middle part of his body stepped back, pulled out her wand and levitated the body directing it to the hospital wing.
“I don’t know what Moody was playing at when he suggested this but it was irresponsible of him!” she declared before she headed off after Cedric’s floating body. In the end, Moody really didn’t meet them there at all and instead went to his office.
Cedric opened his eyes to see Hermione. She was knitting a tiny little hat and was adding a frilly puff ball to the end of it. It was the most hideous thing he had ever seen. Then the fact he was in the hospital wing for the second time within 24 hours hit him. He struggled to remember what happened and it slowly came back to him. A suit of armor fell from the staircase above and hit him square on the back, he fell and hit his head on the marble railing, he remembered hearing a screaming, or was it a cackle? He couldn’t tell over the clang of the armor. Then he remembered distinctly cursing very loudly and then falling down the stairs where he had obviously fallen unconscious.
“I hope your not knitting that for me,” he mumbled to Hermione.
She chuckled and put away her knitting.
“Do you remember what happened?” she asked, and he painfully recounted the story to her.
“That’s strange, I didn’t see any armor when I found you, someone would have had to remove it…” but she dismissed the notion quickly, “oh and this was on you, after you fell,” and she took the note which she had carried like a brick in her pocket all day, waiting to give it back. Cedric looked horrified when he saw it.
“These are…” he started only to be cut off by Hermione.
“THESE? There have been more? Cedric you should go to the Headmaster!”
“Its just some jealous sod who is mad I got selected as champion. I can’t be bothered.”
“You’ve had two near death accidents in 2 days! You can’t just risk your life, you’ve already risked it putting it in the Goblet! Your being thick if you think your going to waltz out of this!” Hermione barked at him.
“I think you’re over reacting! And even if I’m in danger.”
“If? You mean are” she corrected.
“I can’t be a coward!” he finished, looking at her with amazement and comfort at her worrisome face.
Hermione sighed. He and Harry did have a lot in common, but Cedric appeared to be more open about what he thought then Harry was. Hermione turned and looked out into the grey sky that ominously hung over the Hogwarts grounds, as though showing premonition to things coming. To herself she hoped these terrible accidents wouldn’t start happening to Harry.